And his passage on this earth was like that of
a horseman riding swiftly in the dawn of a day fated to be short and
without sunshine.
TALES OF THE SEA--1898
It is by his irresistible power to reach the adventurous side in the
character, not only of his own, but of all nations, that Marryat is
largely human. He is the enslaver of youth, not by the literary
artifices of presentation, but by the natural glamour of his own
temperament. To his young heroes the beginning of life is a splendid and
warlike lark, ending at last in inheritance and marriage. His novels are
not the outcome of his art, but of his character, like the deeds that
make up his record of naval service. To the artist his work is
interesting as a completely successful expression of an unartistic
nature. It is absolutely amazing to us, as the disclosure of the spirit
animating the stirring time when the nineteenth century was young. There
is an air of fable about it. Its loss would be irreparable, like the
curtailment of national story or the loss of an historical document. It
is the beginning and the embodiment of an inspiring tradition.
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