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    Prophecy in-general is little respectcd....

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    We oh servo that Mr. Tiiacickkay has sei...

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    MRS. GASKELL'S..LIFE OF:..CHARLOTTE BROX...

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    The Prevailing Political Distraction, Wh...

    The British Quarterly Review opens with a sketch , biographical and critical ,, of Ben Josson arid-his ' works , pleasantly '' written , and giving , in the main , a lair estimate'of his genius . The critic , however , scarcely does the poet justice as a dramatist . In some of his plays the plot . may be meagre and the incidents few , but of many , of the majority even , this is by no means true , and in all the situations are admirably chosen for the 'development of character—the great point J ok son always had in view . " Middle-age 'Mysticism" . is a genial and discriminating account of Dr . John Tauleb , the most large-hearted , humane , and eloquent of the ¦ mediaeval , mystics . He laboured , by his impassioned addresses , to diffuse in a practical form among- the people

    ihe speculative mysticism of IEckhaut—a sort of KiNGSi , EY : to the Maukice of that era ; and -while belonging to the quietist society of the Friends of God , proved himself ; by his unwearied and -self-denying exertions amongst the diseased and poor , a true friend of the people- We had marked passages for extract , but must pass onto the article on "Oratory and Orators " - —a philosophical' analysis of the genus orator , showing a careful study-of the whole subject , and a profound , almost poetic , insight into the peculiar temperament of tlie naturally eloquent speaker . He is a man of strong passion , an excitable man , not only mentallv , but physically and phybiologically : .

    Standing before Ins audience , the orator is not merely a voice littering words and ideas ; lie is a mass of intensely excited nerve acting , lilce a charged lattery , on the aggregate vitality of his audience while they are individually . receiving his words and ideas- The very law of human nature on which oratory depends is , that ideas dropped into the mind when it is in a state of excitement , ' take a firmer hold of that mind , and are more-instantaneously and permanently diffused through it , for better or "worse , as the ease may be , than when it is in its natural and ordinary mood . Now , though there are various ways in which the mind may be excited , so as thus to increase its tenderness and permeability to ideas , one of the most effective is simple collocation with other minds in an assembly or audience . It is all nonsense to speak of an audience as being simply a collection of individuals ; meaning by that , that the audience can have nothing more in it than pre-existed in the individuals separately . Let a thousand individuals meet in the same ball , and , more particularlv , let them

    ineet genially and for the purpose of seeing some spectacle , or listening to some harangue , arid , after a little while , electric circuits are established amongst them , and they are formed into a collective organism having a certain commoa consciousness , and exhibiting phenomena not belonging to the individual . Of course in the case of the presence of individuals hostile to the spirit of the assembly and contemptuous of its proceedings , and also in the ease of the division of a meeting into opposed factions , there are corresponding variations in the phenomena presented ; but still , essentially , the fact of congregation brings with it a set of conditions alien to the experience of the individuals when isolated . Hence part of-that force which attends on exhibitions of oratory is actually supplied , not by the speaker , but by the audience itself ; and , the larger the audience , and the more exciting the circumstances in which they have met , the more there is of this already accumulated fund of power waiting for the orator ' s use , and , though independent of him . in its origin , yet , in tlie effect , to go to

    his credit . But for the power to become apparent , nay also partly for its generation , the orator must be there ; and it is the very definition of the man who professes to be an orator that lie shall be in his own nature a man meeting the enthusiasm of the waiting crowd with a like enthusiasm of his own which shall receive it , evoke it , mingle with it , madden it , reverberate it , overmaster it . Such men there are ; and it is a grand sight to sec them as they command a crowd . It is clear that , corporeally as well as mentally , or mentally because corporeally , they are in pxe-cstablishcd har-1110113 ' with the conditions presented by an assemblage of their fellow-beings . Gradually , as they speak , they glow , they wax fen-id ; the audience acts upon them , and they react upon the audience ; and they stand at last a visibly agitated lr . ass of nervous force swaying the sea of lieads beneath them , not by their voice and words alone , but by a positive physiological eilluence or attraction . " "What , however , is the special characteristic of the excitement ?

    Popularly speaking , the orator is a man who does not lose himself as he becomes excited , but who , the more phrenzied he waxes , grows in the same degree the more shrewd , the more perfect in his command of all his faculties . Speaking ; more scientifically , the orator is a man who can never cogitate better tlum when he is agitated . That there are such men , no one can doubt . Placed before an . audience , the majority of men , as we liave already said , become helpless and foolish : what sense or wit they liave forsakes them , often carrying memory , and grammar , and ( he very power of coherent articulation , along with it . But there are others who positively outdo themselves when they are placed in tho sumc circumstances ; who seem as if they had found their clement , and who move in it in a way to surprise themselves and others ; In whom the excitement of speaking , so far from numbing tlicir various faculties , seems to evoke some for the first time , and to make all more nimble and alert—memory , wit , fancy , imagination , speculative intellect , and even judgment and critical ( aste , simultaneously . They positively become more cool , more shrewd and subtle , and

    more self-possessed , less apt to blunder , as they become more fervid . There arc many common proverbs and observations respecting orators which in reality embody this theory . When sonic one jocosely defined an orator as " a man who can speak nonsense till sense comes , " the definition , though satirical , was scientifically accurate . When another—an American orator , we believe— 'declared tlmt he " never could make a speech without first making a few remarks , " lie said ( substantially the same thing . But porhnps the finest recognition of the notion , as we have been expounding it , is that contained in a very happy phrase , used by some ancient writer on rhetoric —we think by CJuintilian . Cltirescit urcnilo , "lie grows clear by burning , " is the phrase in question ; used , too , if we remember aright , precisely in reference to the orator . Whether it was originally so used or not , it suits him well . The orator is emphatically the man who , clarescit urcndo , is clearest when he is most fervid ; shrewdest , when he is most excited ; universully most capable , when ho is in the highest state of oratorical paroxysm . The remaining Quarterlies we must leave till ncxl week .

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    Prophecy In-General Is Little Respectcd....

    Prophecy in-general is little respectcd ., because , if the event he reasonably distant , no one remembers that a false prophecy was uttered , so many false ones being uttered cluily , and if by chance the event happen to justify it , a close examination reveals ' . that ' , the . words were either so vague as to cover almost any event , or Avcrc grounded upon information so imperfect as to he mere guesswork .. .--Wery different is it when from a deliberate survey of all present-circumstances ' a penetrative glance reaches far into the future , and sees these circumstances issuing in consequences unsuspected by others . In such cases we . applaud tie sagacity of the prophetic eye- Such a case is presented

    by the followingextract from a -work called Considerations sm ' VAlgeria , published in 1 S 15 , and written by 11 . Bodichon , a resident physician . After detailing the lawlessness of the 'Trench troops at . Algiers , lie says : — "Men of the independent press , advanced sentinels of our public liberty , keep your attention fixed on some of the African generals . By means of Africa , the . Restoration tried to coerce the nation , an attempt which was crushed by the paving-stones of 1830 . Another Government will perhaps succeed in the attempt . "You will one day , if you do not take care , sec an African governor , African generals , and African regiments descend upon fortified Paris ; once the re , they will reply to your protestations by musketry and grape . "

    Whoever thinks of the coup cfitat , and sees the Zouaves insolently donai ncering over Paris—" a Zouave can do no wrong "—wilL admit that M Bodichon saw clearly into the future when he printed those words .

    We Oh Servo That Mr. Tiiacickkay Has Sei...

    We oh servo that Mr . Tiiacickkay has seized the opportunity of a friendly complimentary dinner ( to which reporters were udniiU . cd ) to mitigate the sacred wrath of . some exalted personages , who arc presumed to have taken offence at the tone of his lectures on the " Four Georges . " With all our unfeigned respect for Mr . Tiiack . kju . y , we cannot , escape- a feeling of regret that he should have deemed it necessary to descend even to the semblance of an apology for having respected the truth of history mid the siuccril v of his own convictions . As we read the report of his Edinburgh convivial sjiceehea

    ( pleasant reading as they arc for their neat and happy turns , and their finished negligence of manner ) , we cannot resist the impression that so elaborate and artificial an extenuation was not indispensable to the lecturers dignity before the public , and must be fatally inadequate to his justification in that selectest circle whoso suffrages the public lecturer has not been supposed to court . Qni s ' excuse £ accuse seems to us true in this instance as in mauy others . No reasonable being in Her Majesty ' s dominions suspects Mr . Thackeray of disloyalty because he has described Geoege IV . as he lived , or of a want of due deference to what is calLed in France '" the social hierarchy , " because lie has becu betrayed into a laugh at the hereditary antics of the lord Chamberlain .

    Mrs. Gaskell's..Life Of:..Charlotte Brox...

    MRS . GASKELL'S .. LIFE OF :.. CHARLOTTE BROXTE . The Life of Charlotte Bronte , In Two Volumes . By Mrs . Gaskell . Smith , Elder , and Co ( first kotice . ) The publication of Jane Eyre , in 1847 , was an event in tlie history of English fiction / No book had been stamped by a more perfect originality , few by more "vigour . Who was the author ? "Currer Bell . " Curiosity was not satisfied by learning that the name was one of three , "Ellis , Currer and Acton Bell , " -which had been ' prefixed to a volume of poems . Were the writers men or women ? Tbe masculine vigour of June Ei / re thwarted

    those who believed that they can always detect the female hand in authorship ; but the work was far too remarkable for its author to remain in obscurity , unless there had been a settled purpose of secrecy , which there was not . Silently , and . by degrees , Charlotte ' Bronte , appeared ¦ in literary society ; and the aspect of that strange being , with her intense eyes , her self-possessed , almost commanding countenance , and extravagant slightness of person , piqued rather than satisfied curiosity . In that remarkable character , with intensity of power in the head and imp-like slightness of stature , Charlotte Bronte resembled Charles Lamb , though there was no other obvious trait of resemblance between them . Who was Charlotte Bronte ?

    whence come ? To learn that she was tlie daughter of a country clergyman Oid not explain the . singular aspect of the being thus suddenly introduced to fame , and her life , for the time , continued to perplex and tantalize curiosity . Ellis and Acton proved to be Emily and Anne Bronte , also authors of volumes marked by much of the vigour and graphic power that distinguished Jane Eyre , though far less firm in the outline or delicate in the colouring . But in less than two years after Jane Eyre was known , in little more than a year after Currer Bell became a personal reality to society , the two other sisters had been carried off by death . A brother , of whose wasted and profligate life there have been whispers , also ceased to exist . It

    was not many years after that the fragile life of Currer Hull herself gave way , and now , for Llie first time , the living problem is explained . We have the life of Currer Hell , written by a congenial hand , a fellow artist , and a friend —Mrs . Gaskell—whose powers of portrait-painting have already been established by her own novels . However imperfect the materials may have been—and in some respects they are far more abundant than is usual in such cases—Mrs . Gaskell was of living writers the one best fitted to describe to us the original exactl y as it was ; and any kind of heightened colouring or trimming of outline in such a portrait would have been as misplaced us any foppishness in Lcly's portrait of Cromwell .

    It is difficult to say how fiir Currer Bell was made what she-was by birth ; how far the circumstances of her early life contributed to form her character , or to alter it by contracting it . Had she been of a weaker nature , the circumstances mi « ht have extinguished it . As it is , perhaps , they at once contracted and strengthened it . Charlotte Bronte was bred in the rectory of llsiworth , one of the wildest places in the wildest parts of Yorkshire , and tbe early chapters of Mrs . Gaskell ' s book are devoted to describing the dreary scenes , the wayward , ignorant , and violent people , amongst whom the child was reared . She lived among the inhabitants of a parish in which the curate would leave the church during divine service and go round with a horsewhip to flog the loiterers from the public-houses into tlie temple ; and Haworth has not yet lost its character . " Even now , a stranger can hardly ask a question without receiving some crusty reply , if indeed lie . receive any at all . Sometimes the sour rudeness passes to positive insult . " Again— " They are keen and shrewd , faithful and persevering in

• Citation
  • Leader (1850-1860), April 11, 1857, page 17, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_11041857/page/17/