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There is a wonderful strength exhibited in the sketch of Seraphael from first to last: not to mention the happiness of the name, of which this is by no means a single instance, and the fact of his having no pramomen, both of which so insignificant atoms in themselves lift him at once a line above the level in the reader's sympathy, it was a most difficult thing to present such delicacy and lightness, and yet to preserve "the awful greatness of his lonely genius," as somewhere else she calls it; but all must confess that it is done, and perfectly.
But a far stronger point is the power of portraiture. Seraphael having been identified, people turned their attention to the other cipher.
It is not alone in Seraphael that this strength is shown; a new mould of character in fiction is given us, masculine characters which, though light and airy, are yet brilliant and strong, most sweet, and surcharged with loveliness. It is this perfect sweetness that constitutes half the charm of her books, for in the only one where it is deficient, "Beatrice Reynolds," the whole fails.
A passionate impulse to labor was the law of his life. Many will recollect the brilliant novel "Charles Auchester," in which, under the names of Seraphael, Aronach, Charles Auchester, Julia Bennett, and Starwood Burney, are painted the characters of Mendelssohn, Zelter his teacher, Joachim the violinist, Jenny Lind, and Sterndale Bennett the English composer.
I have always fancied that some mystic trine was chorded by three beings who, with all their separate gifts, possessed an equal power and sweetness, Raphael, Shelley, and Mendelssohn. And perhaps the same occurred more emphatically to Miss Sheppard, for after Seraphael she drew Bernard, Bernard, who is exceeded by none in the whole range of romance.
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