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    May 11, 1850.] ®t>£ 3LtVL*tX+ 159

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    PHILIP BAILEY'S ANGEL WOULD. Tho 4ngel W...

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    Merivalk's Roman Empire. A Uisiory Of Th...

    late Roman history , great as are their merits in some re-pects , are thoroughly vitiated by this resolute misappreciation of Caesar . In the t-vo volumes before us , which are offered as the commencement of an intended series that is to bring down the history of the Romans from the death of Sulla ( B . C . 78 ) to the era of Constantine the Great ( A . D . 334 ) , it appears to be Mr . Merivale ' s aim to counteract >; the impressions regarding Csesar that have been thrown abroad in . Dr . Arnold's sketch of his life , and to raise the English public to the level of Niebuhr ' s conception of him : —

    " If , " he says , in his preface , " Dr . Arnold had lived to continue his general History of Rome to the period before me , it is needless to say that my ambition would have been directed elsewhere ; and that , as his admirer and friend , I should have joined the public voice in hailing his extended work as worthy of himself and his subject . " The merits of Mr . Merivale's volumes are precisely such as this very modest announcement would lead us to expect . Except that there is throughout a higher and more affectionate appreciation of Caesar than Dr . Arnold ever attained to , one might read on and believe that Dr . Arnold was the writer . At the

    very least one must perceive that the writer has been " an admirer and friend " of Dr . Arnold . There is hardly the same stern vigour it is true ; the portrait of the author that is conjured up as one reads does not wear the same look of iron decision that one remembers in the face of Dr . Arnold ; but the tone , the manner , the method are the same . There is the same clear and manly , though somewhat cold and hard , style ; the same carefulness and accuracy ; the same academic slowness and dignity ; the same air of thorough and generous rectitude . Altogether the volumes deserve to be welcomed as a substantial

    addition to our historic literature ; and , believing as we do , that Mr . Merivale ' s style of treatment will become richer and deeper as he advances with his work , we have no hesitation in saying that he is to be regarded as a worthy successor of Dr . Arnold in the yet unexhausted field of Roman History . The following extracts will save us the trouble of any more elaborate description of Mr . Merivale ' s style , and will show those that are acquainted with the more brilliant ami vivacious manner of Michelet and the French historians generally , how English and academic a writer of history may be : —

    THE CROSSING OF THE KUBICON . " About ton miles from Arirninum , and twice that distance from Ravenna , the frontier of Italy and Gaul was traced by the stream of the Rubicon . This little river , red with the drainage of the peat mosses from which it descends , is formed by the union of three mountain torrents , and is nearly dry in the summer , like most of the watercourses on the eastern side of the Apennines . In the month of November the wintry flood might present a barrier more worthy of the important position which it once occupied ; but the northern frontier of Italy had long been secure from invasion , and the channel was spanned by a bridge of no great dimensions . Caesar sccMiis to have made his last arrangements in secret , and concealed his design till the moment he had

    fixed for its accomplishment . On the morning of the fifteenth he sent forward some cohorts to the river , while he . remained himself at Ravenna , and showed himself at apublic spectacle throughout the day . He invited company to his table , and entertained them with his usual ease and affability . It was not till sunset that he made an excuse for a brief absence , and then , mounting a car yoked with mules , hired from a mill in the vicinity , hastened with only a few attendants to overtake his soldiers at the appointed spot . In his anxiety to avoid the risk of being encountered and his movements divulged , he left the high road , und soon lost his way in the byepaths of the country . One after another the torches of his party became extinguished , and he was left in total darkness . It was only by taking a peasant , for a guide and alighting from his vehicle that he at last reached his destination .

    "The ancients amused themselves with picturing the guilty hesitation wiih which the founder of a line of despots stood , as they imagined , on the brink of the fatal river , and paused for an instant before he committed the irrevocable act , pregnant with the destinies of a long futiuity . Ca ) -ar , indeed , in his Commentaries , makes no allusion to the passage of the Rubicon , and , at the moment of stepping on the bridge , his mind was probably absorbed in the jirrangements he had made for the march of his legions , or for their reception by his friends in Ariniinuni . We nmy feel an interest , however , in remarking how the inci'lent was coloured by the imaginations of its first narrators : and the old tradition recorded

    by Suetonius is loo picturesque and too characteristic of the Italian cast , of legend to be passed by without notice . ' Kvcu now , ' Ca > ar had said , we may return ; if we cross the bridge , arms must decide the contest . ' At that moment of suspense tbere appeared suddenly the figure of ; t youth , remarkable for comeliness and stature , playing on a flute , the pastoral emblem of peace and security . The shepherds about the spot mingled with the soldiers , ami struggled towards him , captivated by his simple airs ; when , with a violrnt movement , he snatched a trumpet from one of the military band , rushed with it to the bunk of the river , and blowing a furious blast of martial music ,

    leapt into the water , and disappeared on the opposite side . 4 Let us advance , ' exclaimed Caesar , * where the gods direct , and our enemies invite us . Be the die cast . ' The soldiers dashed across the bridge or the ford , and , giving them not an instant for reflection , the bold invader led them straight to Ariminum , entering its undefended walls with the first break of dawn . " INFLUENCE OP CLEOPATRA ON CJES & R . " Caesar allowed himself to cast only one longing glance towards the frontiers of Parthia , and then resolutely turned his face westward . Perhaps he was even then revolving in his mind the gigantic schemes of Oriental conquest which he announced at a later period , but was destined never to undertake . From this period , however , we begin to trace a change for the worse in his character . The hero whose freedom from display had so long charmed the world became intoxicated by the fumes of Eastern incense and the disposal of forfeited crowns . He now affected to admire the good fortune of Pompeius , whose exalted reputation was built upon the defeat of

    the servile armies of Asia . The rapidity of his own conquest he signalized by the arrogant bulletin , which has passed into a familiar proverb , * Veni , vidi , vici . ' But his intercourse with Cleopatra had corrupted the proud simplicity of the Roman statesman . He already meditated to bring her to the capital , and there parade her in the face of his countrymen as the partner of the honours they lavished upon himself . The Romans regarded any avowed and permanent connection with a foreigner , and more especially an Oriental and an Egyptian , as something monstrous and incestuous ; and in violating their prejudices he chilled their applause , and converted their cordial greetings into the hollow flattery of fear . But

    the sorceress of the Nile had not only corrupted the Consul ' s patriotism , she had enchanted him with the poisoned cup of Canopic luxury . She had taught him to despise as mean and homely the splendour of the Circus and the Capitol . She had imbued him with the gorgeous and selfish principles of Oriental despotism , and debased him to the menial adulation of slaves , parasites , and eunuchs . It is with no wish to heap unmerited obloquy on a woman whose faults were those of her birth and position , that history brands with infamy her influence on the Roman hero . Regardless of her personal dignity , and indifferent to human life , she maintained herself on an Oriental throne by the arts of an

    Oriental potentate . The course of her chequered career will display to us hereafter a character in which good contended with evil , Macedonian magnanimity with Egyptian suppleness . But in this place it becomes us to remark the fatal effect of a connection of disparagement , by which Caesar felt himself degraded in the eyes of his own countrymen . If from henceforward we find his generosity tinged with ostentation , his courage with arrogance , his resolution with harshness ; if he becomes restless and fretful , and impatient of contradiction ; if his conduct is marked with contempt for mankind rather than with indulgence to their weaknesses , it is to this impure source that the melancholy change is to be traced . "

    SCEPTICISM OF CJESAB . " Caesar himself professed without reserve the principles of the unbelievers . The supreme pontiff of the commonwealth , the head of the college whence issued the decrees which declared the will of the gods , as inferred from the signs of the heavens , the flight of birds , and the entrails of victims , he made no scruple of asserting in the assembled Senate that the immortality of the soul , the recognized foundation of all religion , was a vain chimera . Nor did he hesitate to defy the omens which the priests were especially appointed to observe . He decided to give battle at Munda in despite of the most adverse auspices , when the sacrificers assured him

    that no heart was found in the victim . ' I will have better omens when I choose , ' was the scornful saying with which he reassured his veterans on another similar occasion . He was not deterred from engaging in his African campaign either by the fortunate name of his opponent Scipio , or by the unfavourable auspices which were studiously reported to him . Yet Caesar , free-thinker as he was , could not escape from the universal thraldom of superstition in which his contemporaries were held . We have seen him crawling on his knees up the steps of the Capitoline temple to appease the Nemesis which frowns upon human prosperity . When he stumbled at landing on the coast of Africa , he averted the evil omen with happy presence of mind , looking at the handful of

    soil he had grasped in his fall , and exclaiming , ' Africa , thou art mine ! ' In a man who was consistent in his incredulity this might be deemed a trick to impose on the soldiers' imagination ; but it assumes another meaning in the mouth of one who never mounted a carriage without muttering a private charm . Before the battle of Pharsalia , Caesar had addressed a prayer to the gods whom he denied in the Senate , and derided in the company of his literary friends He appealed to the divine omens when he was about to pass the Rubicon . He carried about with him in Africa a certain Cornelius Salutio , a man of no personal distinction , to neutralize , as he hoped , the good fortune of the Cornclii in the opposite ranks . "

    May 11, 1850.] ®T>£ 3ltvl*Tx+ 159

    May 11 , 1850 . ] ® t > £ 3 LtVL * tX + 159

    Philip Bailey's Angel Would. Tho 4ngel W...

    PHILIP BAILEY ' S ANGEL WOULD . Tho 4 ngel World , and other Poems . I 5 y Philip James Bailey , Author of " r ' estus . " W . 1 'ickcring . Poetry , in our days , is either a Regret or a Desire . It looks backward mournfully upon the Past , or it looks forward hopefully to the Future ; but it dare not or cannot sing the Present . There is wondrous activity in our age , but there is no united action : it is rather the fermentation than the resolute uction of a people . There is wondrous intelligence applying itself to tho purposes of life , but there is no

    convergence to one common centre , no emanation from one common faith . Consequently there is nothing epic in our life ; nothing broad , massy , or magnificent in compass and in unity . The Singer has nothing to sing . Poetry is not dead ; the age is not prosaic , except—as all ages are—to prosaic souls ; but that intellectual anarchy of creeds which displaces the ancient faith , and leaves us with strong religious impulses , yet destitute of a national Religion , —leaves us also with strong poetic impulses , yet destitute of a great Poem . There are poets nowa-days , as there are preachers ; but they are the ministers of sects : they do not speak to the nation .

    Singular it is to note how men of poetic genius try to escape from this condition . Philip Bailey sweeps boldly out of our age and our world , to soar into empyrean regions where the strongest wing must droop and tire , and where the eye aches to follow him for long . In Festus , —though the scenes were sometimes space , sometimes heaven , and sometimes hell , —yet the interest was human , and round a human centre all the thoughts , feelings , passions , acts revolved . It was not , indeed , " our wondrous mother age" that brightened itself upon the dark background ; it was not our nineteenth century that reflected itself in the mirror of poetry ; but , if abstract , the theme was human . In his new poem we have lost all footing upon earth . At once we plunge into the Angel World : — " Far round the infinite extremes of space Star unto star spake gladness , as they sped On their resplendent courses ; and a smiJe , Enkindling' on the countenances of the suns , Thrilled to the heart of nature , while there rose , Expressive of divine felicity , A clear bright strain of music , like a braid Of silver round a maiden ' s raiment , all Imbounding and adorning . There , in one Of those most pure and happy stars which claim Identity with Heaven , high raised in bliss , Each lofty spirit luminous with delight , Sat God ' s selectest angels . " Into this conclave there steps a young and shining angel from some distant orb , which he had ruled with supreme powers . "Aland It showed of fountains , flowers , and honeyed fruits , Of cool srreen umbrage , and incessant sun ;—The rainbow there in permanent splendour spanned The skies by ne ' er a cloud deformed , of hue Sterner than amber ; while on every hand The clear blue streams , sink ing- and sparkling-, ran The bloomy meads to fertilize ; while some With honey , nectar , manna , milk , and wine . Fit for angelic sustenance , slow flowed . Uere palaces and cities , midst ot groves , Ivike giant jewels set in emerald rings ; There , too , the bowery coverture of woods , Ancient and dense , laced with all-tinted flowers , Wherein were wont to sojourn in all peace , Lamb , lion , eagle , ox , dove , serpent , goat , And snow-white hart , each sacred animal Cleansed from all evil qu-ility , sin-instilled , Speaking one common tongue , and gathered oft In wisest parley , ' noalh tin ? sacred tree Centring 1 each mazy pleasanco intersect With an invisible bound ; so sweet the force Of nature , heavenly sanctioned . " In this happy spot were two angel sisters : — " Yet how unlike Their nature and their loveliness ; in one A soul of lofty clearness , like a night Of stars , wherein the memory of the day Serins trembling through the meditative air—In whose pri-ud eye , one fixed and arklikc thought Held only sway ; that thought a mystery;—In one a golden aspect like the dawn—Beaming perennial in the heavenly oast—Oi" paly light ; she ever brightening looked As with the boundless promise unfulfilled Of some supreme perfection ; in her heart That promise nye predestinate , always sure , Her breast with joy gufrusing-, and t-o wrought . Her sigh seemed happier tkan her sister ' s smile : Yet patient she and Jmioble . " To the elder he was affianced . But the tissue of the story is so delicate , we should be wrong to spoil it by an attempt to reproduce it . Enough if we indicate thsit into this happy isle , and into the bosom of this affianced bride , corrupting influences of doubt and rebellion steal , followed by anarchy , repentance , forgiveness , and purification ; but the whole treated in so abstract and superhuman a stylo , with so little precision of purpose or force of application , that it leaves behind it no more distinct impression than is left by some grund orchestral symphony , which , during performance , has lifted your soul to heights inaccessible by thought alone , and leaves you trembling with a vague delicious languor .

    Tho Ant / el World is so peculiar a poem that we should not be surprised nt any omount of disapprobation nor at any emphasis of praise . If it touches a responsive chord it will" discourse eloquent music . " If it be read by certain minds and in certain moods , it will be overpoweringly monotonous . The want of human interest is fatal to its popularity . It is not even a philosophic poem ; it is not a thuologic poem . It is rather a theologic symphony . Grand lines and

• Citation
  • Leader (1850-1860), May 11, 1850, page 15, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_11051850/page/15/