Part 1 (1/2)

My Life as an Author

by Martin Farquhar Tupper

CHAPTER I

PRELIMINARY

I have often been asked to prepare an autobiography, but my objections to the task have ever been ent appeal I sent this sonnet of refusal, which explains itself:--

”You bid me write the story of my life, And drahat secrets inwell, With commonplaces ood or evil rife, As happen to us all: I have no tale Of thrilling force or enterprise to tell,-- Nothing the blood to fire, the cheek to pale: My life is in raph, is all I choose To give the world of self; nor will excuse Mine own or others' failures: glad to spare Fro unwritten what God only knows”

In fact I always rejected the proposal (warned by recent volumes of pestilential reminiscences) and would none of it; not only frolory as to the inevitable extenuation of one's own faults and failures in life, and the equally certain aistered virtues and successes,--but even still ht occasion from a petty record of coes and chances of this mortal life,” to the casual mention or omission of friends or foes, to the influence of circus, and to other revelations--whether pleasant or the reverse--of matters merely personal, and therefore more of a private than a public character

Indeed, so disquieted was I at the possible prospect of any one getting hold of a ently compiled by myself froo ruthlessly made a holocaust of the heap of such written self- their posthumous publication; and in this connection lethereafter of any of my innumerable private letters to friends, or other MSS, unless they are strictly and raphy, where honest and true, is no doubt one of theand instructive phases of literature; but it requires a higher Intelligence than any (however intimate) friend of a man to do it fairly and fully; so many matters of character and circumstance must ever be to him unknown, and therefore will be by hiraphy, who, short of the Omniscient Himself, can take into just account the potency of outward surroundings, and still more of inborn hereditary influences, over both ood or evil, and the possession or otherwise of gifts and talents, due very much (under Providence) to one's ancient ancestors and one's modern teachers? We are each of us morally and bodily the psychical and physical coenerations Albeit every individual possesses as his birthright a freewill to turn either to the right or to the left, and is liable to a due responsibility for his words and actions, still the Just Judge alone can and s of heredity and the outward influences of circuuilt and innocence, the merit or deoes, I leaveonly to give some recollections and memories of my outer literary life For spiritual self-analysis in ion and affection I desire to be as silent as I can be; but in such a book as this absolute taciturnity on such subjects is practically iraphy, I decline its higher and its deeper aspects; as also I wish not to obtrude on the public eye mere domesticities and privacies of life But mainly lest others less acquainted with the petty incidents of my career should hereafter take up the task, I accede with all frankness and hu little time to spare at seventy-six, so near the end of e of selfish egotisnificant letter I; and while, of course on huh to exhibitalso not to hide the second best, or worse than that, where I can perceive it

That shrewd old philosopher, Benjamin Franklin, thus excuses his own self-iraphy,” and I cannot do better than quote and adopt his wise and just re myself, I shall yield to the inclination so natural to oldof thee it without being tiresoht conceive theed to listen to me, since they will always be free to read me or not And (I may as well confess it, as the denial would be believed by nobody) I shall, perhaps, not a little gratify my own vanity Indeed, I never heard or saw the introductory words, 'Without vanity Iimmediately followed Most people dislike vanity in others, whatever share they ive it fair quarter wherever I ood to the possessor, and to others who are within his sphere of action; and therefore, in ether absurd if athe other co God, I desire, with all hue that I attribute the happiness of my past life to His divine providence, which led ave the success My belief of this induces oodness will still be exercised towardsme to bear a fatal reverse, which I may experience as others have done; the co known to Him only in whose power it is to bless us, even in our afflictions”

Thus speaketh the honest wisdom of Benjamin Franklin

I do not see that a better plan can be chosen for carrying out the title of this book than the one I have adopted, nae the author's literary lifework, illustrated by accounts of, and specis, especially those which are absolutely out of print, or, haply have never been published No doubt, in such excerpts, exhibited at their best, the critical accusations of unfairness, self-seeking, and so forth, will beof this sort is inevitable in autobiography However, for the matter of vanity, all I know of myself is the fact that praise, if consciously undeserved, only depresses ; that a noted characteristic of h life has been to hide away in the rear rather than rush to the front, unless, indeed, forced forward by duty, when I can be bold enough, if need be; and that one defect in nity--surely a feeling the opposite to self-conceit; whilst, if I am not true, simple, and sincere, I am worse than I hope I ament of me

But let this book speak for itself; I trust it is honest, charitable, and rationally religious If I have (and I show it through allfro I take to be due to sorained, or, more truly, inburnt into my nature from sundry pre-Lutheran confessors and martyrs of old, from whom I claim to be descended, and by whose spirit I am imbued Not but that I profess h for all manner of allowances to others, and so far as any narrow prejudices ined of eable and uncertain--though hitherto having steered through life a fairly straight course--and that sometimes I can even doubt as toor Tory; as to eable by the epithet high or low; as to s, whether I best prefer solitude or society; as to literature, whether gaieties or gravities please h soht (by intention, at least) in sundry doctrines and opinions otherwise toto believe the kindliest of my opponents who appear to be honest and earnest This is a very fair creed for a citizen of the world, whose motto is Terence's famous avowal, ”homo sum, humani nihil a me alienum puto”

CHAPTER II

INFANCY AND SCHOOLDAYS

In a short and simple way, then, and without any desire ostentatiously to ”chronicle so sneers it, I suppose it proper to state very briefly when and where I was born, with a word as to e July 17, 1810, was my birthday, and No 20 Devonshi+re Place, Marylebone, my birthplace, at that time the last house of London northward My father, Martin Tupper, a name ever honoured by me, was an eminent medical man, ice refused a baronetcy (first from Lord Liverpool, and secondly, as offered by the Duke of Wellington); hter of Robert Marris, a good landscape artist, of an old Lincolnshi+re family, and made the heiress, as adopted child, of her aunt, Mrs Ellin Devis, of Devonshi+re Place and Albury

My father's farated thither froious persecution in the evil days of Charles V, our re styled Von Topheres (chieftains, or head-lords) of Treffurth (as is recorded in the heraldic MSS of the British Museuin of our name

Of my mother's family (in old time Maris, as ”of the sea,” with mermaids for heraldry), I have the coned by Cromwell and Fairfax; and several of her relatives (besides her father) were distinguished artists In particular, her uncle (my wife's father), Arthur Williareat-uncle, Anthony Devis, who filled Albury House with his landscapes

Some of our old German stock crossed the Atlantic in Puritan times, and many of the name have attained wealth and position both in Canada and the United States; notably Sir Charles Tupper northwards, and sundry rich inia, and the Carolines southwardly

Of my infancy let me record that I ”enjoyed” very delicate health, chiefly due, as I now judge, to the constant cuppings and bleedings whereby ”the faculty” of those days co fits, and (perhaps with Malthusian proclivities) killed off young children I reent's Park and Primrose Hill, then ”truly rural,” and even up to Chalk Fars in search of cowslips and new milk Also, that once at least in those infantile days, hts at Carlton House, and how he prognosticated the domestic failure of so perilous an explosive,carelessly occurred