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    to Sonnets on the War, by Alexandbb Smit...

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    The January numbar of the British Quarte...

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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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    To Sonnets On The War, By Alexandbb Smit...

    to Sonnets on the War , by Alexandbb Smith and Sydney Yendys , are , as we anticipated they would be , real poetry . The quantity of verse that 1 fce war has caUed forth has been , as all know , enormous ; but , with one or at most two exceptions , we should decidedly say that these Sonnets are the only pieces we have yet seen in which the topics of the war are rendered into true poetry , as distinct from mere sounding and stirring stanzas . The treatment of the topics is , for the most part , not direct or merely descriptive . You are not merely presented with a picture of Alma or Inkerman done in Terse and colour , but each incident or stage of the war begets , as it were , a little troop of phantasies and imaginations , and these phantasies and imaginations are put forth as representative of , and as , in fact , poetically interpretingthe incidents 6 ut of which they grow . This , we say , and this alone ,

    , is true poetry , as distinct from mere verse . A true poem on any incident is not the direct statement of that incident never so spiritedly ; it is the putting forth of those images that arise in the mind contemporaneously with the apprehension of the incident—these images , by this very fact , being the poetical equivalent of the incident , and the language in which it is to be expressed by the poet . Often the relation between the incident and the images which arise in the act of contemplating it may be very occult , and yet the poem may be most strictly and truly a poem on the incident . What we mean will be best seen by referring to these War Sonnets . Not that there is not abundance of fire and of the prevalent patriotic fervour in them—even in this respect some of them are more fitted to be popular than most of the War Poems we have seen—but that in almost every one of

    them some phantasy of a representative rather than a merely descriptive character is hung before the imagination . The Sonnets , which arejihirtynine in all , are not equal in merit , though not one of them is common-place . No marks are appended by which to distinguish those contributed by Mr . Smith from those contributed by Mr . Dobbxo . ; nor is it so easy as we thought it might be to distinguish the thirty-nine into two sets by internal evidence . On the whole , we should imagine Mr . Smith to have written the greater number . The following have struck us particularly , and we shall quote them without trying to determine the authorship : — '—¦•¦~ . ¦ ¦ _ ; - _ . - ¦ ¦ SELF . ' The War rolls on . Dark failure , brave success Deafen our ears . But little power to touch Our deeper human nature lies in such . Doth victory make an infant ' s smile the less ? Each man hath his own personal happiness , In which—as creep the cold-enfeebled flies In the late beam—he warm and basking lies . Each hath his separate rack of sore distress . No hand can give an alms , no power consoles ; % ~ WelralyThave ourtrue" heartsand our soulsr ™ - In leaguered forts , water with patient arts , They draw from their own court or garden-plot ; So from the deep-sunk wells within our hearts "We draw refreshment when the fight is hot . THE CAVALRT CHARGE . Traveller on foreign ground , whoe ' er thou art , Tell the great tidings ! Tfiey went down that day A Legion , and came back from victory Two hundred men and Glory ! On the mart Is this " to lose f" Yet , Stranger , thou shalt say These were our common Britons . 'Tis our way In England . Ay , ye heavens ! I saw them part The Death-Sea as an English dog leaps o ' er The rocks into the ocean . He goes in Thick as a lion , and he comes out thin As a starved wolf ; but lo ! ' he brings to shore A life above his own , which when his heart Bursts with that final effort , from the stones Springs up and builds a temple o ' er his bones . A STATESMAN . Captain be he , my England , who doth know Not careful coasts , with inland welcomes warm ; But who , with heart infallible , can go Straight to the gulfstreams of the World , where blow The inevitable Winds . Let cockles swarm The sounded shores . He helms Thee , England ! who , Faced by the very Spirit of the Storm , Full at the phantom drives his dauntless prow I And tho' the Vision rend in racks of blood , And drip in thunder from his reeling spars , The compass in his hand beholds the flood Beneath , o'erhead the everlasting stars Dim thro' the gory ghost ; and calm in these , Thro' that tremendous dream Bails on to happier seas . THE COMMON GRAVE . Last night beneath the foreign stars I stood And aaw the thoughts of those at home go by To the great grave upon the hill of blood . ¦ Upon the darkness they went visibly , Each in the vesture of its own distress . Among'them there came One , frail as a sigh , And like a creature of the wilderness I Dug with her blooding hands . She neither cried I

    Nor wept ; nor did she see the many stark And dead that lay unburied at her side . All night she toUed , and at that time of dawn When Day and Night do change their More and Less , And Day ia More , J saw the melting Dark Stir to the last , and knew she laboured on . ; There are most striking passages in some of the other Sonnets .

    The January Numbar Of The British Quarte...

    The January numbar of the British Quarterly Review supplies what many persons have long felt to be a desideratum-a complete and succinct exposition of « the Philosophy of Kant . " The article , if it is one which all will not read , is certainly one which very few could have written . Very rarely in a Review do we find a paper so condensed , so thorough and ^ . conaP ^ - hensive . The writer has not attempted to " popularise' his subject , and this is judicious-seeing that all who would care to see the subject treated at all , must be capable of relishing a philosophical treatment of it . At the same time the style 5 s clear , terse , and simple , and there is no unnecessary se of technical terms . The writer also , like one long familiar with Kakt s philosophy , criticises after expounding it , ^ J ^^ J ^^ thinks it weakestAltogether this is an

    gua-e those points in which he . article of the first quality in its kind . The rest of the number consists of articles on more popular subjects-including one on our " Foreign Policy , in which the Review sustains its character for liberal and decided opinions on that subject , and for ability in advocating them ; one on the orthodox side in the " Sabbath ' Controversy ; and one on the " Present Aspects and Tendencies of Literature . " In this last the writer considers our " national Parnassus , " or the huge mountain of our present literature , as divided into three " Zones "—the Zone of " true or high literature , " forming the summit ; the middle Zone , of " wholesome popular literature ; " and the lowest Zone , of " trash or garbage . " He makes remarks on each , discusses Cardinal ' Wiseman ' s scheme for a change in the lowest " Zone , " and

    pronounces on that scheme as follows : — It is curious , indeed , that an ultramontanist Cardinal should have broached a proposal which would , in fact , if logically carried out , end in a subjection of the spiritual to the temporal authority in a community . We have heard a facetious scheme of church reform propounded , the purport of which was , that Government should select some really able man and splendid writer ar Archbishop of Canterbury , employ him to produce a sermon or essay weekly , adapted to the passing phase of public feeling , and then distribute printed or manuscript copies of this sermon among a clergy composed of the best elocutionists that could be got , each clergyman or elocutionist being bound to read it in his parish . Thus , all parts of the nation would have the same ideas simultaneously administered to them , and all would be kept in intellectual unison . We do not suppose that Cardinal Wiseman would agree to such a proposal—unless ,

    indeed , provisionally in a Protestant country , he might see a useful capability in it ; but , certainly , some might say it was but a development of his own notion that Government should purvey intellectual pabulum for the people . As regards the notion that Government , besides instituting an inquiry into the state of our popular literature , and besides trying to remedy its evils by stimulating an authorship of counteractive tendency to what is bad in that literature , should also ^ have recourse to the restrictive policy of a censorship , as in France — a notion _ to which , though Cardinal Wiseman professes to abstain from recommending it , we cannot but think he is in his heart friendly—we have not words strong enough to express our-dissent . —Whatever ^ indeed ,-in Jiterature ^ asJn anything ^ else , lits and

    transgresses the police laws , to that let Government appy restraining punishing hand . Let Holywell-street be prevented from offending the public eye by its characteristic wares . But above this line , even within the zone of garbage , let there be perfect freedom . Whatever ugly features there may be in the present aspect of our literature , we would express our final and complete opinion as to what is to be done in the matter , in the phrase of an American friend of ours—" Let it develop . " Let there be the fullest and freest competition in literature—Government itself entering the lists or not , as may be determined . Nay more , in order that there may be such competition , let all present fiscal restrictions on literature , all taxes on knowledge , be repealed . Such a measure , though purely negative in its character , would be the best service Government could render to literature .

    The London Quarterly Review , published by Messrs . Walton and Mabkhlt , is a most lightsome-looking Quarterly—printed neatly on good paper , and altogether pleasant to handle . Its distinctive character seems to be in its evangelical opinions in religious matters ; but the articles have a high literary finish , ' and are evidently prepared by superior writers . The present number opens with a paper on Lutheb , written with care and enthusiasm , though not containing much that is new . Among the other articles is an attack on Mr . Maurice as a new heresiarch , the substance of which is thus recapitulated by the writer : —

    We have shown the influence of Mr . Maurice's philosophy , or theosophy , upon his theology . We have traced his system to its first principles . We have proved that it is based upon true Platonism ; but that some of its developments coincide rather with neo-Platonism . The idea of a personal Trinity is , no doubt ,, distinctively Christian ; but Mr . Maurice has followed the neo-Platonists in his method of adjusting this idea to Platonism . The system which results from this interpretation of Christianity by Platonism , we cannot regard as a Christian system . The vital and characteristic doctrines of Christianity are metamorphosed and dislocated . They are bleached into the pale complexion of Platonism or neo-Platoniam ; and their relations to each

    other , as well as to man and God , and tho Bible , are essentially altered . The odour of grace is exhaled ; the blood of atonement is exhausted of all value , or efficacy . According to Mr . Maurice , Moses teaches Platonism in tho first chapters of Genesis , and implies the truth of this philosophy throughout . All Hebrew theology was , in effect , grounded upon it ; Jesus of Nazareth and St . Paul , in their most wonderful sayings , teach nothing which is not virtually included in it . Thus , Christianity is but the supplement to that " wisdom" by which tho Greek philosopher " searched , " " found out , " and " know God ; " and Plato becomes twin-Prophet with Moses , and author of a philosophy which sustains on its foundation the later and moro complete developments which were effected by tho Prophet of Nazareth and His Apostles . Let the Christians of England be aware of this new , complex , and deadly heresy , which is little better than a modern Gnosticism of a refined character . At present ,

• Citation
  • Leader (1850-1860), Jan. 6, 1855, page 16, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_06011855/page/16/