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No. 385, August 8, 1857.]
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'New Sea.sideStudies.~No. III. Jersey/ w...
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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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No. 385, August 8, 1857.]
No . 385 , August 8 , 1857 . ]
THE LEADEB . 761
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'New Sea.Sidestudies.~No. Iii. Jersey/ W...
' New Sea . sideStudies . ~ No . III . Jersey / will be to many the most interesting , as it is decidedly the most seasonable , article in the last number-of Blacktcood At the ' beginning of August who does not long for the sea-side , whether he cares for the studies or not ? It is the one all-absorbing subject discussed at family breakfasts , bachelor lounges , friendly dinners , . esthetic teas . ' < When do you leave ? " " Where are you going ? " " H ow long do you stay ? are the questions asked on all sides . Nobody inquires whether you go at all > it is assumed you cannot possibly remain in town much longer m such weather melanchol timent
as we have had this week . Nevertheless , a certain , y presen suggests to us that , whether possible or not , this may in some cases be necessary . If you can't leave for the sea-side , what are you to do ? You might perhaps take a pull on the river , were it not in such a horrible state that a row on the Styx , with the hoarse ferryman as your only companion , and the gloomy shore , thick-strowa with the weeds of mortality , your only prospect , would be refreshing in comparison . The next best thing to enjoying the seaside in reality is to enjoy it in imagination . You rise from the perusal of fresh and breezy sketches of sea-side life sensibly invigorated . Read these ' New Sea-side Studies' xxyBlackwood , and you will understand what we mean . The writer combines scenery and science , descriptive sketches and anatomical details , poetry and philosophy , in the most delightful way . Take , as a specimen , the following introduction to the pleasant island of Jersey : —
Nothing could be more charming than the welcome smiled by the rich meadowlands and orchards here . After the bold picturesque solitudes of Scilly , it seemed like once more entering civilized nature . Every inch of ground was cultivated . Cornfields and orchards resplendent with blossoms , sloped down to the very edge of the shore , and by the prodigality of soil , defied the withering influence of seabreezes . It was not amazing to me to learn afterwards that the land in the interior yields double the crop , per acre , which can be raised in most parts of England ; and that , although the rent is 10 / . an acre , such rent can be paid by potatoes alone . Elsewhere it is difficult to get even grass to grow close on the shore , and trees have always a look of stunted old-maidenish misery ; but here the high tide almost washes the edge which limits orchards that no right-minded boy could resist robbing . Jersey , indeed , is the very paradise of farmers . The Americans say that England loolcs like a large garden . What England is to America , that is Jersey to England . Even
the high-roads have the aspect of drives through a gentleman ' s grounds rather than of noisy thoroughfares ; and the by-roads and lanes are perfect pictures of embowered quiet and green seclusion . There never was a more delightful place to ramble in . Every turn opens on some exquisite valley , or some wooded hill , through the cool shades and glinting lights of which the wanderer is tempted to stray , or to recline in the long grass , and languorously listen to the multitudinous music of the birds and insects above and around . Observe I say nothing of the sea , and the succession of bays on the coast ; for what can be said at all commensurate vrithjtftat subject ? Even the poets , who not only contrive to say the finest things about nature , but also teach us how to feel the finest tremors of delight when brought face to face with her , have very imperfectly spoken of the sea . Homer is lauded for having called it *
winefaced . ' He probably meant some ivy-green potation , since ' wine-faced is the epithet by which Sophocles characterizes the ivy . In any case his epithet is only an epithet , and the sea is of all colours , as it is of all forms and moods . Doubts also may be raised respecting the ' giggling' which jEschylus , in a terribly-thumbed passage , attributes to the sea . The * innumerable laughter of the waves of the sea , ' one ia apt to interpret as a giggle ; an expression not only unbefitting the sea , bat unworthy of the occasion . Neptune was not mocking the agony of Prometheus with a school-girl's incontinence . Ho was too grand and fluent for such weakness . In moments of sorenest summer-calm he may be said to smile ; in moments of more leaping mirth he may be said to laugh ; but to imagine him distorting his countenance by innumerable giggles , would be at all times intolerable , and at such a time perfectly indefensible .
The scientific part of the article is mainly occupied with a curious and elaborate proof that growth and reproduction are , iu the animal economy , radically the same process . The accomplished Edinburgh Reviewer who praises the ' solid acquirements / displayed in the classical quotations which abound in Buhver Liytton ' s novels , and gravely condemns Mr . Dickens because his stones are not garnished in the saino obsoletcly orthodox way , will bo delighted with the third part of " What will ho do with it ? " The new chapters bristle with classical quotations , three or four from Horace being found within as many pages . So numerous arc they , indeed , that the chapters cannot contain them , —they arc forced into headings . Here is an instance from the title of Chapter iii .:
—In our happy country every man ' s house is his castlo . But however stoutly he fortify it , Care enters , as surely as she did , in Horace's time , through the porticos of a Roman's villa . Nor , whether ceilings be fretted with gold , and ivory , or whether only coloured with whitewash , does it matter to Care any more than it does to a house-ny . But every tree , bo it cedar or blackthorn , can harbour its singing-bird ; and few are tho homes in which , from nooka least suspected , there starts not a , music . Is it quite true that ' non aviuin citharaequo cantus aomnum reducont ? ' Would not oven Damocles himself have forgotten tho sword if tho lute-player had chanced on the notes that lull ?
Surely that is tho very pattern of a livoly , simple , and doscriptivo heading . Tho story goes on as it began . " Afoot . —Part III ., " contains a good deal of plonsant , meditativo discourse , with touches of quaint observation and travelled gossip . Tlio following passage contrasts- tho Saxon pilgrim with his stay-ufc-homo brcthron on tho Continent sliut it must be allowed that there are nations to whom the pilgrim spirit is more congouial than to others ,, and who more fully comprehend and fulfil thy purposoa and destiny of travel . Tlio mon of the Eaafc say , that wo of tbo Saxon blood inherit tho wandoring foot aa a ourso ; that wo cannot rest , and must wander over on and on by
the will of fate . The Spaniard says we come into his country to see the sun . It is certain , that whatever be the motive , we travel more than any other people or species . The old migratory habit is still strong with us . And though there be some of our kin gobemouches , charlatans , inanities , ' purblind , opaque f lunkeys , and solemn shams , ' who disgrace the staff and scallop-shell , " and make the name a by word and a scorn , still from our ranks have sprung the truest and most congenial of the pilgrim brotherhood . Our cognates of the German family travel much and Well ; but they are ponderous in research and learning , deep in statics and analogies , and care little for the lighter touches which brighten and shadow the life of man . They are ever digging for ore , and cannot stop to gather flowers or fruit . The Spaniard seldom moves abroad except in his own land . The Pyrenees , the Atlantic , and the Mediterranean , bound all that he considers worth seeing or knowing . Why should he go beyond this supreme spot ? Is it not « el Paradiso ? ' If strangers . come to him , well- he will receive them courteously . They are welcome to his hills and plains , his huertas and prados , and also , if he like them , to his homes and his tertuhas . It d but he ! whshould he
is quite right that they should travel al cielo 'Espana ; y wander ? The Russ travels luxuriously and diplomatically . He seeks fine climes and pleasant cities . Luxury is his recreation , politics , his study . The world ^ his rouge-ei-noir table , on which he speculates and stakes . His thoughts stray not beyond coteries , cabinets , bureaus , e ' earte , and salons . It is seldom he cares to climb the'hillside to stand beside the herdsman in the plain , the artisan at his work , the peasant in his cot . How could these help him in his battle of life ? With his language spoken bis customs and manners adopted , by one-third of the civilized world , the Frenchman is perhaps least of all men a cosmopolitan—is the least at home among foreigners—has the least aptitude for adapting himself to their nationalities—the least comprehends or understands the characters or characteristics of another people . With a knowledge of the fine arts , of the elegances and refinements of life , with a love of open air , trees , and gardens , with a fine wit and a ready speech , we have rarely found in him a true perception of the picturesque in nature , the grotesque in life , or the trreat in art . His mind is subjective rather than objective . He is ever thinking of
himself , his country , his capital , his tastes , his style of life , his cookery , ana ms fflory He has not the wide vision to perceive the universality of nature , or the wide heart to comprehend the citizenship of mankind . He is great as a soldier , a statesman , a writer , an artiste ; but a poor traveller , and a worse colonist . We must make one exception in favour of his love of nature . We never saw it abiding more beautifully than in the heart and soul of an old man in Martinique . He was a settler and planter , had been busied for years with canes and trees , yet had not lost the air of the old noblesse . Age had thinned and silvered his locks , but had not bowed his form , dimmed his eye , or wrinkled his face . His frame was erect as ever , his brow smooth as a child ' s . After entertaining us hospitably , he said , " Now you must sec my pictures ; " and then he led us forth to his grounds , where he had cut paths in the slopes and openings in the woods , which commanded long , glorious vistas of tropic scenery . " Here is my morning , here my noontide , here my evening seat , he said . " These are my pictures . In the contemplation of them , and in the -worship of my God , I find the pleasures and studies of my old age . "
From a rambling , hearty letter to Irenceus , entitled 'North on Homer , ' extract a sketc h of Professor Wilson , partly for its own sake , and partly to correct an error into which the writer has naturally enough fallen : — A cast from a bust of the late Professor is to be seen in the Crystal Palace at Sydenham ; I would request of you to observe it , and say whether it be possible to conceive a more thoroughly heroic head ? the head tells the story of the whole man . It is the head of an athlete , but an athlete possessing a soul , the grace of Apollo sitting on the the thews of Hercules . Such a man , you would say at once , was none of vour sedentary literati , who appear to have the cramp in their limbs whenever they move abroad , but one who could , like the Greeks of old , ride , run , wrestle , box , dive , or throw the discus at need , or put the stone like Ulysses himself , or one who could do the same things , and in addition to them , steer , pull an oar , shoot , fish , follow hounds , or make a good score at cricket , like a true Briton of modern times , in spite of all our physical and intellectual degeneracy , about which , indeed , we have a right to be scepticalwhen we know that such an unmistakable man as Wilson was living in the
, reign of Queen Victoria . It is an honour to Scotland that she produced such a critic on Homer , only second to that which is hers in having produced that poet who , of all the moderns , has composed poetry the most Homeric—even Walter Scott . Your humble and obedient friend and servant will never forget his one interview with Professor Wilson in a lecture-room at Edinburgh . He lectured on that occasion on the philosophy of Hobbes , for whose daring eccentricities in opinion he appeared to entertain a certain respect , not without a lurking sympathy . He spoke of the sage of Malmesbury with great gusto as a demolisher of quacks and shams , and compared the superstitions which he encountered with so much effect to the reign of the fairies . As he spoke ho warmed ; his eyes flashed ; his whole form and manner became lionlike . He was sometimes satirical , and then' his countenance wore an expression of grim yet genial humour , seldom facetious , yet retaining his dignity through his jokes , and on one occasion making his juvenile class very quickly draw in their horns when they had become somewhat obstreperous in their manner of enjoying some witticism , and were rebuked in a voice like that of a Greek god , " Gentlemen , I do not stand
in need of your applause , " The mistake is in supposing that Wilson compared the superstitions Hobbes destroyed to tlio reign of the fairies . There is no gi * ound for any such comparir son , and tho Professor never made it . We have heard the identical lecture more than once . The subject was a favourite one with the lecturer , and tho passage in question was dimply an eloquent account of Hobijes ' s Grand Comparison of tho Ilomish Hierarchy to the Kingdom of tho dairies—one of the striking passages in tho Leviathan which show what an imagination that severe and incisive thinker possessed . Tho comparison , which is a long and elaborate one , extending to more than a dozen details of life and polity , opens thus : " JFor from the timo that tho Bishops of ltoino had gotten to be
uoknowlcdged for Bishops universal , by protcuco of succession to St . j ^ ofcor , their whole hierarchy , or Kingdom of Darkness , may bo compared , not unfitly , to tho Kingdom of the Fairies ; that is , to tho old wives' fables in England concerning ghosts and spirits , and tho foats thoy play at night . And if a man considor tho orig inal of this groat ecclesiastical dominion , he will easily porcoivo that tho Papacy is no other than the ghost of the deceased Roman Umpire , sitting crowned upon the grave thereof . For so did the Pupaoy start up of a suddou out of tho ruins of that heathen power . " Note tho imag-iiiativc power of tho olauso in itulics . Tho paporst iu Fraser this month are too numerous and loo alight , scarcely one having the pith , grasp , and sustained interest that a good magazine artiolo
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), Aug. 8, 1857, page 17, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_08081857/page/17/
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