On this page
-
Text (3)
-
better his than either of the former ano...
-
EDMUND BURKE. History of the Life and Ti...
-
TENERIFFE. Teneriffe: an Astronomer's Ex...
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.
-
-
Transcript
-
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.
Additionally, when viewing full transcripts, extracted text may not be in the same order as the original document.
Tho Announcement Of Now Works By Tho Aut...
humbler Russian life . If so , it will appear curiously enough just as the condition of life represented is passing away . The same publishers have m the press a new volume of poems by Mr , Ketgsust , whether dramatic , narrative , or lyrical , Andromeda , and other Poems does not determine . Mr . Kingsley has already proved that he possesses both dramatic and lyrical powers of a high order , and the new volume will excite both interest and curiosity in a large eircle of readers . Messrs . Pakkeb and Son also announce as nearly ready for publication the third and fourth volumes of Mr . Froude ' s History of England .
Better His Than Either Of The Former Ano...
better his than either of the former anonymousl THE LEADER . [ No . 412 , Tebrtjary 13 , 1858 . ^ L' ^ J ^^ _ ^ ^ ———— ^——i ^ i— ^^^^ mm m i ' ^ " ^ ^ " ^ " ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ W ^ M ^ MBM ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ ^^ *« » * — XL « h *^ a * XI « ^^ w & ^* . ^ P Kv m i ¦¦ ¦ i ¦ ah <*^ m ««^_ a »_ , m ^ _^ . . —
Edmund Burke. History Of The Life And Ti...
EDMUND BURKE . History of the Life and Times of Edmund Bnrlce . By Thomas Macknight . J ™^ and II . F A new life of Edmund Burke was called for . The work of ^ pr ia in many respects unsatisfactory . It is incomplete and uncritical . * V wt « fwn Thackeray ' s life of Chatham , and than any life of Fox that has yet been produced ; but it partakes of the faults common to most biog rapbies of the statesmen and orators of that period , Moore ' s biography of Sheridan not excepted . Mr . Macknight ' s book , so far as he has developed it , is an advance upon those publications . Elaborate and careful , written with great energy , d abunding in well-silted anecdotesportrait-sketches , and passages of
an o , picturesque description , it includes a full view of the times in which Burke moved , from his youth to his entrance upon official life The long Indian episode has yet to come , the impeachment of H astings , the wild and virulent crusade against the principles of the French Revolution , the quarrel with early friends , the partial eclipse , we must say , of a luminous and powerful mind . We are not sure , however , that Mr . Macknight has not traced his plan upon too large a scale . Four solid volumes—two thousand broad and dense pages—exceed , we think , the necessities of almost any biography . But Mr . Macknight ' s design has been to bring forward the great Irish orator as only the central fieure of a wide scene , representing an era of English and orld
European history , and even the history of India and the JNew W . J . o succeed in such an aim is in one sense impossible . If a life of Burke is to comprehend a chronicle of every event which engaged his public efforts * it must also comprehend a clear if not laborious account of the personages with whom he acted , whether in concert or opposition , and the picture must be crowded with full-lengths of Fox , Pitt , Sheridan , Washington , and Warren Hastings . This difficulty * however , is to some extent inevitable , although Mr . Macknight has perhaps succumbed to it in more than an unavoidable degree . At the same time—and now we are pointing to his principal defect as a biographer—he has too studiously dwarfed the contemporaries of Edmund Burke , so as to dilate the proportions of his own favourite statesman . The orator is to him a hexo , the cynosure of an epoch , is that
bright particular star of a galaxy , a sun among the spheres . It plain he exalts Burke above Chatham , Fox , Pitt , and Sheridan—justly m the last instance , perhaps , since the eloquence of Sheridan was weak and tawdry as compared with that of him who pleaded for American independence and French degradation , for the rights of Tippoo and the Bourbons , for the cause of Washington and the cause of Louis XVI . But it does not follow that because the oratory of Fox was different from that of Burke it was inferior to it . We have fewer examples remaining of the former than of the latter ; it was not constructed , prepared , arranged , and moulded with similar precaution and foresight ; it was an ebullition ; it flashed from the intellect , and passing through the mind of the audience , was lost in their memories , instead of being formalized in volumes , as were the speeches of Edmund Burke . But we believe Fox to have been a far more effective debater than his older rival ; his argument was more teen , his language more simple and direct . Burke , whatever may be said , is frequently monotonous and always his extant
will serve reputation essays , y published , to which his name is now attached . The work is one in which politicians of all ages and classes , of all shades and positions , will be interested . It appeals , also , to the ordinary students of hfstory , presenting as it does a large view of a most interesting period , crowded with vicissitudes , conflicts , changes , and the growth of personal reputations . Mr . Macknight has treated his subject ably , and has written , indeed , the first book which can fairly be called a biogra phy of Edmund Burke . Faults it has , but they are faults we are not likely to miss in any writer who attempts to supersede these volumes , while the merits of the author are numerous and remarkable . Mr . Macknight has emphatically studied his subject before attempting to deal with it ; he has compiled from none of his predecessors , but has used them as contributors to a large mass of information never before collected , veiv fi ed , and arranged . Me has rejected , upon satisfactory grounds , several DODular anecdotes : he has collated a large number of state papers , and has ^ ^^ ^^ . ^
also introduced the testimony of Emin the Armenian , who tells more of Burke , in his private capacity , than any other writer , but whose autobiography seems to have been unknown to most historians of the lime . Burke ' s own writi ngs have of course been read with diligence by Mr , Macknight , who singularly exaggerates their value , we think , when he describ es them as only second in genius and worth to Shakspeare ' s plays . Taken for all in all , however , this is a most welcome and interesting biography .
heavy ; we do not think we have missed a passage in writings , yet we have never found , even in the correspondence , a trace of that light , sparkling effervescence attributed by Mr . Macknight to some of the speeches in Parliament . In another respect we differ from Mr . Macknight . Burke ' s was not , we think , an attractive character ; it was estimable rather than amiable . A better moral man he undoubtedly was than Fox ; and yet Fox—generous and noble beyond all bounds—was born to be loved , while Burke was born to be honoured . The biographer is not of this opinion ; he even finds sweetness and tenderness among the characteristics of Edmund Burke j but amid the frigid pomp and measured formality of his demonstrations , we have never been able to detect this golden ore of the warmest human sympathy . Not that Burke was insensible ; on the contrary , he was as kind and benevolent as he was just and pure ; but there was an asceticism in his charity , a hardness in his friendship , a species of indefinite ceremonial reserve in his affection . There was not a wild-flower in his nature ; all was cultivated ,
decorous , and stately ; even when at home , ruralizing and sporting , he appears to have been a man who would say " Sir" to his dearest friend . __ If we add that Mr , Macknight exhausts eulogy upon the oratory and patriotism of Edmund Burke , expatiates without limit upon the moral influence of his public exertions , and marks him as the greatest man of his age , we have recounted all the objections except one which we have to suggest with regard to this important biography . To take a last exception—the manner of the book is slightly theatrical , a fault -which may more easily be pardoned than understood in so competent a writer . It is most conspicuous in the
chapter-headinKs ;—* The Beginning , ' An the k orlorn Hope of Politicians , ' Keppel ' s Agony of Glory , ' ' Storm and Victory . ' A similar defect has been noticed in Mr . Motley ' s brilliant history of the war of independence in Holland . Therefore , Mr . Macknight may quote a valuable precedent , but his work is , nevertheless , defaced by excrescences of this kind . Let us add that , as the author of' The Right Hon . B . Disraeli , M . P . ; a Literary and Political Biography , and Thirty Years of Foreign Policy : a History of the Secretaryships of the Earl of Aberdeen and Viscount Palmerston , ho might have been expected to deal jn irony nnd invective ; but the spirit of this book , in a general sense , is particularly calm ; it does credit to Mr . Mnoknight , and
Teneriffe. Teneriffe: An Astronomer's Ex...
TENERIFFE . Teneriffe : an Astronomer ' s Experiment ; or , Specialities of a Residence above the Clouds . By C . Piazzi Smyth , F . R . S ., F . R . A . S . Illustrated with Photostereographs . Reeve . In May , 1856 , Mr . Piazzi Smyth was entrusted with a scientific mission to the Peak of Teneriffe , and a number of valuable instruments and a yacht were placed at his disposal by private individuals . His main object was to ascertain how far astronomical observation can be improved by eliminating the lower third part of the atmosphere ; an equatorial telescope , therefore , formed part of his equipment . Arriving at the island in July , he conveyed this apparatus up the volcanic flanks of the mountain , to stations at the series of
height of 8900 and 10 , 700 feet , and carried on a experiments during two months . His narrative , produced in an elegant form , and illustrated upon a novel plan with photo-stereographs ( a book stereoscope , folded in a case like a map , being attached ) , is in many respects remarkable . The scientific results of the mission were of no inconsiderable importance , from the special point of view selected by Mr . Smyth ; but he has added a variety of interesting remarks upon a body of natural p henomena concerning which our positive knowledge is to this day restricted within very narrow limits , Mr . Smyth distributes his relation under four heads : the first including the voyage out and the ascent of Teneriffe , the second describing the experiences of the astronomical party on the crater of elevation , the third re ^ ferring to the crater of eruption and the peak , and the fou rth to the insular
lowlands . ' The iron yacht Titania carried Mr . Smyth to within a few miles ot his lodg ing upon the mountain , flying before the trade winds , and through a wondrous shoal of medusse , estimated to be upwards of two hundred millions in number . Among these huge whales were sporting , the leviathans feeding upon the formless floats of living gelatine . Then , swimming crabs were caught , with paddle-shaped claws ; next , approaching the Canaries , the water was observed to be o a deep Prussian blue ; and , finally , the horizon was riven by the headlands of Teneriffe . On the 10 th of July the astronomer and his wife rode into Orotava , near the Peak , which was , nevertheless , concealed by the clouds that hung like a tent around the lower bulk of the mountain ; four days after , they began the ascent with mules and horses , across the bare bones of Teneriffe , exposed by a rush of fi re
from the volcano that tore away the vineyards ; from red mounds with gaping apertures streams of a thick , vivid material were flowing perpetually ; at an elevation of nineteen hundred feet the yellow bloom and pink leaves of the hypericum brightened the slopes ; a thousand feet higher and they were above the clouds , which seldom { pass upwards above that boundary ; beyond it the hot blue sky sent down its brightness upon vast expanses of mist ; here milch goats were feeding ; at 4700 feet they found a singular leguminous plant ; at 5280 a solitary pine , the last " of a forest ; at 7127 they entered ' a most moonlike region ; ' at 9000 they bivouacked at Guiyara , within ten paces of a precipice fifteen hundred feet deep . It was with diflioulty that a station was secured , since a powerful wind roams about the mountain , overturning everything except solid stone walls . The sunrise , watched from this elevation , was variegated , though not brilliant , but the
splendour of the day was all but insufferable . Here they passed some time , the astronomer rambling about the heights and picking up bits of obsidian , with a single violet , and dead butterflies of a beautiful purple ; but a dusty haze in the atmosphere at first interfered with the employment of the telescopes . However , this effect was only partially produced , for in the evening Mr . Smyth was delighted with the marvellously fine definition of the stars , the discs and rings of which were perfectly displayed . Every result , however , pointed to the probable advantage of ooserving from a still greater altitude . But , before removing , Mr . Smyth explored the great crater , streaked with streams of yellow , rich red , and blue-black lava . His chapter on Solar Radiation will have an interest for all scientific readers . The spectacle of a whirlwind above the clouds , blowing the dust from Toneriffo , was one which no man can rensonaBly expct ~ to witno ^ Tn - oT ^ thl ^ the vapours below and tossed them to heaven with fantastic fury . It was now determined to scale the Peak itself , and a party was sent off in advance . On th « night after they left , a firo wna seen upon the mountain pinnacle ; through the telescope , tongues of flame wore discerned leaping up iimong black rocks , casting a momentary light upon the figures of several mon . imu ?
This mysterious apparition excited , intense curiosity , and JMLr . bmytn , » brief delay , pushed on to ascend and examine the central cono ; boyonu Alba Yista , ton thousand seven hundred feet above the aea , no beast oi burden could go , consequently the scientific apparatus was planted in this
-
-
Citation
-
Leader (1850-1860), Feb. 13, 1858, page 16, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_13021858/page/16/
-