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20 THE IiEAPEB. [SAtPbpay,
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MATTHEW ARNOLD'S POEMS. Poems. By Matthe...
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VARIETIES. A Botfa Adventures in the Wil...
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-.Among the children's literature of the...
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ILLUSTRATED BOOKS. Jerusalem Revisited. ...
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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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A Batch Of Fictions. Wearyfoot Common. B...
began as follows : — In the north-western part of the state of North Carolina , upon the head-waters of theriver Y ^ nlTstream somewhat noted in our revolutionary annals for scenes of S ^ nwaS ? andn 7 ar the little town of HUlsborough , a place of no ^ great note at S ^ mSSS ^ hSrSSg the last quarter of the eighteenth centoiry , f ^ . ^ S'S Silences , rendered quite famous ( at least in the estimation of its inhabitants ) as SS ? SiSS-qnarters of General Cornwallis for a short period , just after the « eUh » ted retreat of General Greene across the Dan into Virginia , was a small
unpretending farm-house—— " . . Here , unhinged in mind and body by Pippins and Pies , we fainted over The ScZufs Revenge before we had got to the end of the first sentence . The experienced and careful medical attendant of ourself ( and family ) , happening to call in at the time , brought us to life again , but took away our book , assuring us that any attempt to finish the sentence just at present would be attended with the direst results . Under these distressing circumstances we can only make our best apologies to the author ; and regret our physical inability to offer an opinion on bis book .
20 The Iieapeb. [Satpbpay,
20 THE IiEAPEB . [ SAtPbpay ,
Matthew Arnold's Poems. Poems. By Matthe...
MATTHEW ARNOLD'S POEMS . Poems . By Matthew Arnold . ( Second Series . ) Longman and Co . We regard this volume as a promise of something to come more than as a notable achievement in itself . It will satisfy the readers whom Mr . Arnold has already gained , but it will not win for him that wider audience which , we hope and believe , he is one day destined to address . The first and longest in this second series of Poems— " Balder Dead " -4 s the least to our taste of any in the collection . Standing towards Mr . Arnold , as critics , in the position of members of the public who are able to g ive reasons for what they like or dislike in literature , we may as well candidly confess that the -vr __* u «_« ^«* v . ^ i ^> mr fwnm ¦ aa ^ Vi ' irih * hamtttArisd o € " Balder Dead has been Northern mythologyfrom which the material of " Balder . Dead has Deen
, taken , is rather too remote a subject to awaken our sympathies . The interests of Odin and Balder—of mythical sea-kings and monstrous gods and goddesses—are not the interests that touch our hearts . As readers of poetry , we belong to the mob—in other words , we must feel what we read , or we can never enjoy it . We take no exception to Mr . Arnold ' treatment of " Balder Dead "—we admire the high finish and sweet melody of his versification , and the pure English of his style , as much as anybody can—but his subject repels us . We know that it is grimly sublime ; and , penetrated with that knowledge , pass on with all decent rapidity to some other poem . " The Sick King inJJokhara" strikes us as being much pleasanter reading than " Balder , " because there is some human interest in it . The manly simplicity and vigour of Mr . " Arnold as a writer impress us verv favourably in this second poem of his new collection . THe two next subjects treated . ^ j * itl * 1- ««! A * 1 U !«/ l XlAwIvkrv "nr \ vaona / if ftvw ot ^ v ^ . TfciTirr ^ 4-i » oa 1 t f \ X * K . fiimil . n uv i vo ^ v ^ ****^ * ' ***** f ^ -w »»** w *» «¦»
tuw Ul wile UiclDcfMJZM jviiiu * AJiaviu ^ u * wa — , wv— - — --ii English poetry , feeling a positive conviction that the chief faults of our greatest poets are to be traced to their veneration for classical models and to their distrust of themselves , we passed by the " Harp player on Etna" the Fragment of an Antigone , " and fastened eagerly , on Mr . Arnold ' s minor poems . These , for the most part , delighted us . We knew that they were genuine utterances of feeling while we read them . Some of them still linger on our memory , just as sweet simple music ( not of the classical kind ) lingers on the ear . After the confession we have made , and the utterly uncritical sentiments which we have expressed , Mr . Arnold will probably have no respect for our opinion , and no anxiety to see even a solitary specimen of our taste in the shape . of a selection from one of his minor poems . Nevertheless , for the-sakeofour readers , we mustmake one . quotar tion . The idea and the expression strike us as being alike pure , delicate , and beautiful in these four verses , called " Longing : "Come to me in my dreams , and then By day I Bhall be well again . For then the night will more tluutfpay The hopeless longing of the day . Come , as thou cam ' st a thousand times , A messenger from radiant climes , And smile on thy new world , and be As kind to others as to me . Or , as thou never cam ' st in sooth , Come now , and let me dream it truth ; And part my hair , and kiss my brow , And B & y—Mt / love I why sufferest thou f Come to me in my dreams , and then By day I shall be well again . * For then the night will more than pay The hopeless longing of the day . All " Balder Dead ' did not give us half the pleasure which this exquisite little poem produced . There are other passages in the minor poems which equal it , but which we have not room to quote . So long as Mr . Arnold writes from his own heart , and forgets all " the illustrious models of antiquity , " he does what he pleases with our sympathies , and suggests to us the brightest hopes of his poetical future . All really great poets have made their own styles , fixed their own rules , chosen their own subjects . If Mr . Arnold will only l ook forward instead of looking back—if he will trust as much as possible to himself , and as little as possible to anyone else—he may rest assured , not only of taking a high place in his art , but of getting a largo audience to listen to him into the bargain .
Varieties. A Botfa Adventures In The Wil...
VARIETIES . A Botfa Adventures in the Wilds of Australia . By Wm . Howitt . Arthur Hall , Virtue , and Co . Children ! * Trials ; or the Ziffle Rope Dancers . By Linden . TrUbnor and Co , The Forest Exiles . By Captain Mayne Roid . , , , D . Bogue . Tit for Tat . By Julia . Clarke and Beoton . Too much Alilpa ; or the Three Calendars . By John Lang . Ward and Lock . Children reign just now in the Kingdom of Literature , as in that of the Commissariat , and many fair fruits are hung , temptingly to their little
hands , upon the Christmas-tree of Knowledge . Mr . Howitt promotes a rfATS ^ iff ^^ s ^ MjSrpSS hi ^^ iSX ^^ SS ^^ ffSSii ss 8 i ^ trjr ^ sx ^^ e ^^^ s ^ derive information disguised in amusement . . w *«* ii * r f it * Children ' s Trials , translated from the German of Linden , is worthy of its brethrenTthere is ' tL same simple pathos and truthfulness ^ chjiavemade MTVwrmi . wnrh so dear to the tiny , tender hearts they _ are meant to
address ? Here is the child who was lost and is found , and the mother wno refused to be comforted ; and the joy and the grief are quite real . , There is much of the earnest simplicity of Andersen ' s famous children 8 stories in The Little Hope Dancers , without his fantastic grace and luxuriant ^ The ^ orest Exiles is a story of furious adventures in the Gordon Cumming line , delightful to the credulous age . " The biggest wood in the world is the scene of the biggest stories . Not that it would not be very pleasant to " camp" there , always provided all the '" possums" were up all the gU format may suit Yankee taste and " convene" for a Yankee publisher , but we fear it is likely to "fix" its author in anything but a satisfactory " standing" in the estimation of the English public , who do not believe in such wholesale aristocratic atrocities , and who " happen to know that London chimney-sweeps , even under the old regime , did not kidnag the sons and heirs of noblemen . The book professes to be " a settler for English sympathy with Uncle Tom , but it only settles the point of the to
writer ' s capabilities , and the " Tit" is by no means equal xne --xw . Too much Alike ; or , the Three Calendars . —Here is a little story which contains some amusing elements . Three gentlemen are so much alike , that they cannot be distinguished apart . They are friends ; they dress alike , and cultivate similar manners and habits . Unfortunately ; they over-work toe amazing similitude , and fall in love with the same young lady . The difficulties which might arise from this somewhat impossible combination are cleverly worked up , and the reader may depend upon being made to laugh violently—not , however , that a more serious chord is not touched with a certain power . A third edition which is before us testifies to the public appreciation of a former story by Mr . Lang , Too Clever by Half .
-.Among The Children's Literature Of The...
-. Among the children ' s literature of the season , we must not , because of its petty proportions , overlook the Fairy Library of George Cruikshank ( D . Bogue ) , " Cinderella and the Glass Slipper" being the present presentation , illustrated with an elaborate fancifuiness suggesting the rejuvenescence ( thanks , perhaps , to the water cure ) of ~ one of the greatest of draughtsmen—though he never could draw . All his characteristic qualities as an artist are brought out in his design , in this little volume , of " The Marriage "—perhaps as good a thing as he has ever done . But Mr . Cruikshank is not merely the artist , he is also the editor , and he edits on a new
plan . He objects to the aecepted versions of the fairy stories that they inculcate bad morals—as in " Jack the Giant Killer , " whose history , says conscientious , temperate , and Peace-Society Mr . Cruikshank , is little more than a succession of slaughterings and bloodshed ; and , as in the story of " Hop-o ' -my-Thumb , " where parents are represented as acting in a manner onl y to be explained by the supposition that " they were under the influence of intoxicating liquor "—and he has set about refashioning all these things in his " Library , " bringing fairy literature into harmony with " Christian ' Precepts , " by which , To ? course , "Mr " . Cruikihankcahnot meanT theMosaic records . Mr . Dickens , in Household Words , has uttered his protest against this method of dealing with the child ' s classics ; and against Mr . Dickens Mr . Cruikshank now fulminates verv shakv thunder . -His best defence is
in the question he puts , " What harm can I do ? " It may be allowed that he will do none whatever : Mr . Dickens may sleep in peace—" Jack the Giant Killer , " the slaughterer and blood shedder , will be a hero long after the Temperance Movement has moved itself out . But that consideration , while Mr . Cruikshank ' s best defence , is not a perfect exoneration . He ia entitled to try fairy literature of his own—making Mother Hubbard as logical as Mrs . Fry , and the Ogre ( speaking generally of that frequent character ) as apostolical as Mr . Lawrence Heyworth . Our privilege of unlicensed printing guarantees unlimited idiotcy in a free country . But he has no proper business perverting , for his own highlv but not exhiliratingly moral purpose , a text dear to believers who are at feast numerous enough to deserve respect . When Joe Smith resolved to found a religion , he wrote his own Bible ; and the analogous class of humbugs bent on the indiscriminate amelioration of everybody's condition should take to the scrupulosity of their prototype .
Illustrated Books. Jerusalem Revisited. ...
ILLUSTRATED BOOKS . Jerusalem Revisited . By W . H . Bartlett . Hall , Virtue , and Co . The Deserted Village . By Oliver Goldsmith . Illustrated by the Etching Club . Sampson Low and Son . Both these volumes are , in different ways , attractive gift-books for Christmastime . A melancholy interest is attached to the first , from the fact that the wellknown author and artist by whom the book has been produced is now no more . " Cut off in the flower of his age , and in the full vigour of intellect , after a few hours illness , he has found a sepulchre in the waters of the Mediterranean , whose shores he had so often and so successfully illustrated . " It must be some consolation to Mr . Bartlett ' s family and friends to know that his last Pictorial Work is well worthy of his reputation , and does tho fullest justice to bis powers both as author and artist . The letter-press of Jerusalem Revisited is full of interesting information—and the Illustrations show all the delicacy of treatment and excellent choice of subject which made tho late Mr . Bartlett so deservedly successful in his labours with the pencil . . The promise of the Frontispiece and Vignette is kept up . throughout the volume . It is an interesting book to look through , and a Useful book to read . ¦ The excellent original illustrations to The Deserted Village , by the Etching Club , are well and widely known . They have been copied by the wood engraver
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), Jan. 6, 1855, page 20, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_06011855/page/20/
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