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Ste^A, *65gA ,.y : T-H-iB i»i D E R. " U...
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THE LIFE AND TRAVELS OF HEB0DOTUS. The L...
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LECTURES TO LADIES. Lectures to .Ladies ...
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Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
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Life Of Goethe. Life And Works Of Goethe...
^^ Sy ' thTsis only true of them relatively to each other . To speak of Goethe as a BeaTiBt , pure and simple , is erroneous ; and to speak of-Schiller as an Idealist , pare and si & ple , is not less so . Geryinus strikingly remarks that , compared with . Nicolai or tichtenberg . Goethe appears aa an Idealist ; compared with Kant and his followers , Schiller appears as a Realist . If Schiller , in comparison with Goethe , must be called a self-conscious poet , in comparison with the Romanticists , he is -naive and instinctive . Indeed I may repeat here what was said in a former chapter , that all such classifications are necessarily imperfect , and must only be used as artifices of language , by which certain general and predominant characteristics may be briefly indicated . been funda
Goethe and Schiller were certainly different natures ; but had they so - mentally opposed , as it is the fashion to consider them , they could never have become so intimately united . They were opposite and allied , with somewhat of the same differences and resemblances as are traceable in the Greek and Roman Mars , In the Greek Mythology the God of War had not the prominent place he attained m the Roman ; and the Greek sculptors , when they represented him , represented him as the victor returning after conflict to repose : holding in his hand the olive branch , while at his feet sits Eros . The Roman sculptors , or those who worked for Rome , represented Mars as the God of War in all his terrors , in the very act of leading on to victory . But , different as these two conceptions were , they were both conceptions of the God of War ; Goethe may be likened to the one , and Schiller to the other : both were kindred spirits united by a common purpose .
Ste^A, *65ga ,.Y : T-H-Ib I»I D E R. " U...
Ste ^ A , * 65 gA ,. y : T-H-iB i » i D E R . " US *
The Life And Travels Of Heb0dotus. The L...
THE LIFE AND TRAVELS OF HEB 0 DOTUS . The Life and Travels of Herodotus in the fifth century before Christ . An Imaginary 'Biography , founded on fact . By J . Talboys Wheeler , F . R . G . S . 2 vols . - Longman and Co . The qualities remarked in Mr . Wheeler's treatise on the geography of Herodotus were those ' of a ripe scholar and a liberal critic . The work , with its apparatus of indices , maps , and diagrams—its analysis of historical evidence , its minute references and studied generalizations , was less unpopular in style than most classical manuals . Mr . Wlieeler was neither so dull as Rennell , nor so pretentious as Niebuhr , and lie obtained and deserved the thanks of all students for the integrity of his purpose , no less than for the zeal of Iris investigations . His new work is of more questionable value . Mr . Wheeler , we assume , had an object . He eays , indeed ,
that his object was " to give , in a popular form , a complete survey of the principal nations of the ancient world , as they were in the days of Pericles and Nehemiah . " For " complete " we should here like to read " correct . " But , by the use of tliis word , the candour of the book would have been sacrificed . As it is , the preface is frank enough , for it directs us , at once , to some of the weak points in Mr . Wheeler ' s plan . For the sake of " completeness , " he is unwilling to pass by certain topics of large _ interest , but for the sake of" popularity , " desires to avoid criticism , and , without caution or reserve , " states boldly results which have not as yet received the approval of every scholar . " If , however , he aimed only at the production of a popular romance of ancient manners , there were abundance of materials for constructing a more entertaining narrative than this . By omitting some of the long historical digressions , and filling up his canvass with the
details of social life , he would have attained , at once , greater completeness and a lighter tone . The purpose of such a work as this Imaginary Biograph y must be that of laying open the young world , with its ripening arts , its philosophical systems , its institutions , and its social history , to the gaze of a generation indisposed to critical inquiries ; and if the end proposed be to inform as well as to amuse , something is surely lost by Mr . Wheeler ' s facile and evasive method . He is dealing with the manners , the beliefs , the character , the politics of the Greeks , Egyptians , Persians , Babylonians , Hebrews , Scythians , and other ancient races ; he is passing in review topics that have been and are still debated in all learned circles ; but he glides over the surface whenever the waters are troubled , and , instead of recognising a doubt , makes a flank march , and covers a gap with a conjecture .
By this defect in its plan , the book is token out of the category of authorities . To indicate an example : Did the Greeks colour their marble statuary or architectural monuments ? Mr . Wheeler says they did not , for " the native beauty of the pure white marble" would have been utterly spoiled . Here is the very salient of the discussion . A surface of pure white marble is pronounced b y the colourists " horrible , " and Mr . Wheeler's veneration of its brilliance and delicacy ia placed among the vulgarities of tradition . We may concur with Mr . Wheeler on this point ; we may decline the barbaric theories of Mr . Owen Jones , and accept the conclusions of Landerer and Hettner ; but the student learns nothing from the Biography of Herodotus . The writer ' s determination to veil one side of ancient life by concealing its vices , was perhaps neces 3 ary , though not to the degree supposed by Mr . Wheeler . We allude to his suppression of
the Hetanso . The general subject is , in other respects , freely treated . Tims : Herodotus is supposed lo visit Persepolis and Jerusalem , and to converse with Nehetniah . To all this there can be no objection . A more equivocal licence is exhibited in the retrospective summaries by which the relation is continually broken . Herodotus arrives at Corinth—there is an outline of the Corinthian annals . He comes to Sparta—the story of Sparta is told ¦—he lands in Egypt . 'The dubious records of Egypt aro summarised with as much neatness as daring . In his Assyrian and Median travels , he unravels the chronicles of centuries ; and thus at every turn , the personal narrative is lost in the profundities of ancient history . Instead of painting a broad picture of the ancient world at a particular era , Mr . Wheeler begins at the beginning in a dozcu separate chapters , aiul loads the biography with the materials of an encyclopedia 111 the effort to make his romantic Herodotus the hero of an universal epic .
Mr . Wheeler ' s scenery is , in general , good . His costumes and accessories , also , are dlcctive—perhaps , us representations , accurate . lie '' restores " a Greek or Babylonian city with a careful reference to authorities . Ho serves up a foast in due Atlit-nirm order ; and wo aro not sorry that ho leaves Potter to discuss alone , -with his opaque and erudite loquacity , the question of precedence at table . But the life of the story is faint ; the dialogue is never lively , and often falls into disquisition . There is seldom any realization of manners . The book is panoramic , not dramatic . Tlie women introduced are statuesque figures , delicately clad and disposed in
lovely attitudes ; but the spirit of a drama ia wanting ; and since this deficiency is not redeemed by systematic accuracy , is not the performance a mistake ? It is obviously impossible that in a drama of the ancient world the P 3 FC sonages should not speak in a modern idiom . If an English author could write in the Doric or Ionian style , English readers would not understand ^ him . But there is a clear difference between affecting classical forms . of speech ^ and finding in every institution or habit of the Greeks an analogy with one of our own times , which may be set forth in a popular modem phrase . There were { i parties " in Greece no doubt , even in our sense of the term , but why classify these mechanically as " Reformers' ^ and the term , but why classify these mechanically as " Reformers' ^ and
" Conservatives ? " Why speak of " Young Athens , " as though history re-produced itself , and as though our ideas were mirrors of the ideas of Greece ? There was monarchy in the Hellenic period , butjaot the monarchy of a feudal or constitutional epoch . Not by time only , bufc by circumstances , by manners , by all the influences of religion and ot society , was the Hellenic monarchist distinguished from the monarchist ot the present day . Again , by styling the dikastries "jury-courts , the essential differences between those tribunals and English juries are overlooked . Mr . Wheeler , seduced by the example of Mr . Grote , suggests incessant parallels and analogies . He does not theorise upon them , it is true ; they are dropped into the narrative as coolly as the most
muisput-Mr Wheeler ' s remarks on marriage may be pointed out as illustrating his loose and confident style . With an apparent preference for the institutions of Sparta , he represents the Greek women in nearly all other cities as in most respects degraded . If his survey had been as complete as it pretends to befit would have included an account of their education , and of the relations existing between them and their husbands , m Athens especially it would not have been confined to a vague statement of their woolspinning predilections . Mr . Wheeler is as positive on this topic as he is on the subfect of the Homeric poems , and in both cases presents results which " have not been as yet approved by every scholar . , If is unnecessary to dissect Mr . Wheeler ' s view—an interesting , and m controverted topics
many respects , a very able view ; but his opiuions on must not be allowed to rank with statements past criticism . It is ox particular importance to remark these qualities of Ins work , because * in all its sections , it is based on special and personal opiuions . Ihe summary of Athenian politics is liable , in some details , to contradiction . The early annals of other states exhibit a confusion of myth with history . Those of Egypt rest on conjectural interpretations of symbols which arestill mysteries . Those of the Medo-Persian Empire - ore vague legends illustrating the state of historical science in the age of Herodotus , but not clearing up the discrepancies between sacred and profane tradition . Thus ! Mr . Wheeler ' s biography is too imaginary . Neither is his schemeleteas from the prefatory announcement we bad anticipated , lie
so comp , deals with the externals of the antique society , to the comparative exclusion of that interior existence , which would leave many popular elements , to the book . At Athens , too large a space is devoted to the architectural survey of the city , to its political factions , and to the aspects of its public life From the street-scenes , and the outlines of Euphorione s baoquetroora , we should have liked to pass into theinner chambers , to see the trreefc in their familiar hours , to look at their furniture , their wardrobes , at the materials of their feasts , at their marriage ceremonies , in their nurseries , at their villa life , their farms , gardens , and schools Mr . VV hewers . rese arches in this department seem to have been limited . Since he desired to brighten his narrative with amusing details , why not « state boldly ' that Herodotus was invited to the marriage of Caranos , and entertained him alter tno
manner of Macedonia P „„„«* . The book , it follows , -whatever merit it may possess as an attempt , cannot have the praise of an entire success . It is elaborate , pleasantly written , carefully finished , and has not more than the inevitable pedantry of the subject ^ but it does not lay open a full or accurate view of the condiUon of the ancient world . Entertaining in parts it is , but rendered dull at times by the amplitude of Mr . Wheeler ' s digressions . ^ ftf *^ " ?™ 5 moreover , exclude the realizations we had expected of social life m each ot the regions traversed—at Corinth , Athens , or in theauthor s favourite bparta .. Happily , Mr . Whee . er has not devoted his investigations in classical ana Clmitinn literature to this work alone . " The Geography of Herodotus is a book of substantial and enduring value , winch would earn for himt the multitude of many generations of students , even wore tins ' Imaginary Biography " less excellent than it is . Whatever its faults are , its merit is to refresh and invigorate the mind , and incline it to sorioua and profitable , tudies .
Lectures To Ladies. Lectures To .Ladies ...
LECTURES TO LADIES . Lectures to . Ladies on Practical Subjects . Macmillan . These lectures were delivered by Mr . Maurice , and those who take pnrt wittt , him in Hb good work , at the Working Men's College . They are indeed » racli ' cailecturcs , the work of practical philanthropists , men of real knowledge and experience in their mission , with sound understanding and warm hearts . Wo earnestly commend them to our readers , aa full of interest and inatrnction . The papers of Mr . Kingsley on the Country Pariah , of Dr . Johnson on the causes of Bodily and Mental Disease among the Poor , of Mr . Davies on District , Visiting , and of Dr . Chambers on tho Influence of Occnpation on Health , strike us as peculiarly excellent . Mr . Stephen ' s general acoonnt of " hixw , as it affects tlio poor , " is also very clear and masterly , ana may be road with advantage by anybody , whether engaged in vi * ituyr u > e pooi or not . Wo quote a few words of advice to visiting ludius lrom « u .
Kingaley ' s paper : — tieA * I entreat you to boar in mind ( for without thlaoll **»*«»« ot \\ ° ^ r ™™ j £ ™ Z n £ void nnduaolesa ) that you must regulate your conduct l !\ "' ' ^" '" oivwnfl of your own the most minute particulars , by the very same rule * which "PPV fj £ « „ , -j fl || ono dnm . Never lot any woman Hay of you ( though fi . « . to « U co I Me » ^ ^ ^ —• 'Yea , it ia all very kind : but » ho floea not behave to men «» her own quality . " Plotv , oarnertnci . * , aflbctlonatcuoiw , olo < iUO » ce ,- * U may W » »«
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), Nov. 3, 1855, page 17, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_03111855/page/17/
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