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996 THE LEADER. [Saturday ,
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Critics are not the legislators, but the...
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Although the approaching season does not...
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It may be remembered that some weeks pas...
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PALISSY THE POTTEE. The Life ef Bernard ...
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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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996 The Leader. [Saturday ,
996 THE LEADER . [ Saturday ,
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Critics Are Not The Legislators, But The...
Critics are not the legislators , but the judges and police of literature . They do not make laws—they interpret and try to enforcethem . —Edinburgh Eeview .
Although The Approaching Season Does Not...
Although the approaching season does not promise to be unusually active , the notes of preparation" are not without interest . Macaulay ' s single volume , and Thackeray ' s novel , and Mary Barton ' s novel , and Wilkie Collins ' s domestic story , among other books , suggest pleasant anticipations to critics , if only as calling attention away from Uncle Tom ' s Cabin , which absorbs " conversation just now . There is something fabulous in the success of that Uncle Tom . Twenty-one separate reprints have been made , the sale of all of them immense . Mh . W . H . Smith , at his railway stations sells some 300 copies daily . It will soon become a distinction not to have read the book ! In America , the " sensation" is varied episodically by accusations , quarrels , defamations , and law-suits . From two American papers before us , we see that Dr . Joel Parker has commenced an action against the authoress , for defamation , damages laid at 20 , 000 dollars . It appears that Dr . Parker , on hearing of the mention Mrs . Stqwe had made of his name as the author of an atrocious sentiment , wrote to her , offering proof that she had been misinformed , and that he was not the author of that sentiment . Mrs . Stowe made no reply . She did not reply until a third letter elicited from her the assertion that she had documentary evidence of the truth of her statement . Hereupon , Dr . Parker commenced his action . In the American papers this affair has an ugly aspect , owing to the interference of Mrs . Stowe ' s brother , the Reverend Henry Beecher , who , according to the statements before us , published a correspondence between his sister and Dr . Parker , not one word of which did Dr . Parker write or authorize . But as a trial is to take place , it will be wise to suspend belief till ampler evidence is produced . From an American paper , N . P . Willis ' s Home Journal , we may extract a passage relative to our great humorist : — " Thackeray is about taking the bold step of coming over bodily to displace his ideal—an experiment which Dickens and Kossuth found so disastrous , and upon which few authors or Leroes that ever lived could safely venture . The soul and the body seldom look alike . Once demigod-ed a man had best stay in his cloud . What sort of descriptions do you suppose the ' correspondents of the country papers' would give of Milton , if he were to re-appear and walk Broadway for a month ? America is , to English authors , an optional posterity—the broad Atlantic being a well-adjusted magnifying glass , whicli produces the same effect as the transenvy-and competition of the Styx . I used to know Thackeray in London . He was our correspondent , you recollect , six or seven years ago—then in the chrysalis of his present renown . He is more likely to be personally popular , I think , than any other contemporary English author would be , on this side the water . He is a tall man , of large frame , ami features roughly cast—the expression of his face rather ' no-you-don't' and Great-Britain-ous , but withal very fearless and very honest . He baa ( or had ) no symptom of the dandy about him . Above twaddle , by the lift of his genius , and not having had either prosperity or personal beauty enough , in early life , to contract any permanent illusions , lie is ( or was ) more blunt and peremptory in address and conversation than will he expected of a fashionable author . He is satirical on the surface , genial at heart . " To conclude our American budget , we may mention that Nathaniel Hawthorne is writing a biography for boys ; the subject is Washington . From the Scarlet Letter to si book for youth what an interval !
It May Be Remembered That Some Weeks Pas...
It may be remembered that some weeks past , after quoting an exquisite passage from one of Alexander Smith ' s poems , we expressed our surpriso at no publisher having thought of collecting such remarkable poems into a volume . We arc glad to learn that two publishers offered their friendly services , and in consequence we arc to sec a volume early in next year . Our readers have seen enough of this young |> oefc to feel an eager curiosity about him ; and we arc frequently asked ; i variety of questions , on the supposition that we have the pleasure ol' his personal acquaintance , whereas we must assure our correspondents that , all we know of him is limited to the facts of his youth and residence in Cilasgow , and his unquestionable genius—which is that of a born singer . Ukuliok , in one of bis playful tributes to Ai . honi ' h incomparable voice , expressed si wish that he were young and handsome , " I would make Aluoni love me . I would maltreat her , and after six months of wretchedness , she would be the greatest ; singer in the world . " Is there no cruel Fair in ( ilasgow that am do this for Alexander Smith—ploughing with sorrow the depths of his nature , distending the diapason of his lyre with more impassioned life , filling bis verse with Tears from the depths of Home divine despair , and teaching him the steeents that will hereafter be the" solace of the wretched ; for , as our finest essayist says , " Perhaps the greatest charm of books js that we see in them that other men have Hullered what we have . Some souls we ever find who would have responded to all our agony , be it what it nmy . This at least robs misery of its loneliness . ' " This then is what some woman nmy do for him , if be be iniNfortunntely fortunate enough . How to look at Nature and see new meanings in her evanescent forms , be can already teach us ; how to look nt Life and wee deep symbols in its vanishing perplexities and inevitable heartaches , can only be taught by one who , like Ulysses , has gained experience through suffering .
Palissy The Pottee. The Life Ef Bernard ...
PALISSY THE POTTEE . The Life ef Bernard Palissy , of Saintes , his Labours and Discoveries in Art and Science ; -with an Outline of his Philosophical Doctrines , and a Translation of Illustrative Selections from his Works . By Henry Morley . 2 vols . J Chapman and Hall . This is a very interesting book , and one which , with , a little more of art and less of artifice , might have been made an enduring monument . There has of late arisen a false conception of Biography , to which critics are bound po call the attention of writers . Instead of the story of a life the Biographer now aspires to make his narrative an historical romance ' . To ' give a picture of the times" is a seductive ambition ; but it is lite Tmintinff a statue—the encroachmeniipf one art on the province of another
Mr . Morley has an admirable story to tell , and he has the power of telling it admirably , but he foregoes the real advantage for the sake of historical amplification . The tragedy , the deep moral import , and lasting poetic influence of this story of struggling genius finally victorious , he has very materially endangered by not putting forth , his strength , in that direction , and by a mistaken preference for historical painting . The two volumes here given should have been one , and that one a jewel . What historical demon tempted him from the straight path of biography into such idle surplussage as those chapters upon Montluc , Calvin , the Reformed Church , the Alchemists , & c . ? _ Was lie ambitious of ranking beside that scientific Frenchman , who in his essay on Glaciers , began with Chaosand proceeded with an ample cosmogony , because as tout se
, tient , as one thing is indissolubly connected with every other thing in this universe of ours , bo , said he , it was necessary to understand the whole before the part could be understood . We touch here upon a vital defect in the artistic structure of this work . We may add , and willingly , that in his historical digressions , Mr . Morley pleasantly conveys the results of his reading ; but he has no idea how seriously they damage the effect of his book , by withdrawing the eve from the central figure , and by throwing over the whole picture
an air of unreality—of " makeup . Curiously enough , the very week that brought us Mr . Morley s volumes , brought us also a volume of Lamartine , wherein the story of Bernard Palissy is told , and graphically told , in sixty duodecimo pages . In spite of several of Lamartine ' s incurable affectations in the matter of style , we prefer his rapid memoir to Mr . Morley's more elaborate volumes . Indeed , we must repeat our regret that he should so far have misconceived the purpose of Biography as to have diminished the real beauty of this story of a life . _ . .., ..., in the sixteenth date and lace
Bernard Palissy was born century— p uncertain . He is regarded by Lamartine as a true " son of the people , " which makes his history more romantic perhaps , than if we accept Mr . Morley ' s inference that he was a poor nobleman—an inference founded on the fact , that in those days glass-working was a " gentlemanly occupation , " not beneath the dignity of poor nobles , who made a monopoly of it . " Poor nobles , labouring for food as glass-workers , taught the trade to thei r sons ; and as few who laboured would be willing to communicate their secrets t « strangers , in whom they had not the interest of near relationship , it will be more of most trades ior
especially true of glass-workers , as it was true very generally - merly , and is true rather generally now , that the occupation of the father comes to be the occupation of the son . Bernard Pali . ssy we know to have been born poor , and to have received in his childhood no more than a peasant ' s education , except that lie learned to draw and paint on glass . We cannot err much in inferring , therefore , that his father was a glass-worker . Additional testimony is , however , furnished by the fact that Palissy , himself bred to Verrerie , apparently believes the art to be confined to nobles . He speaks at all times , not from books , but irom experience . We may with certainty , perhaps , infer that he himself belonged to one of the innumerable families of petty nobles ; and in that case , undoubtedly , the trade to which be was educated he acquired from the instructions of his lather .
Writing in later life , Palissy says" ' I beg you to consider awhile our glasses , which , through having been too common among men , have fallen to ho vile a price , that the greater part ot thoso who make them live more sordidly than Paris porters . The occupation is noble , and the men who work at it are nobles ; but several who exercises that art as gentlemen , would gladly bo plebeians , and possess wherewith to pay the taxes . Noble or plebeian , he had to labour for existence a . s an artisan ; and ixoijjci or jinn ** , litu , jii" huu uu inuuui «> ' . ^^ -. i . »/ v ... v ,., — — _ * ¦{]/» Naturalist bcwnu"
tin ; energetic self-taught glass painter became a , a <> Thinker , a Discoverer , and a Martyr . The history of his patient ana indomitable s ( niggles with poverty , with failure , with the mute roproauiu of starving children , and the loud reproacheH of indignant vilo auu friends , m ho sought the ball ! ing secret of enamel making- —the- *\ o \ dawning of success—the rise of his fortunes till kings mid mi tf lity IlOl ) V became liia patrons—and finally , his dignified uncompromising itf-iiui ^ when Jluliirioua Fanaticism threw him into the Bastille to end his clays .-, , i ¦ _ i ! : <¦ ...... .,..,. 1 . ..., ,,,, uil -nuil / ei ji ( lUiaulw these isodes in heroic life such us must make n ul < \
great ep an are ' impression . The story bo hiniHcif relates , in the dialogue Mr . jVlon-j lias trannlnto ( i in his appendix , is one that cannot bo forgotten . f How truo it is that wo human beings are anVcted by the amount human emotion displayed , rather than by the grandeur ol tho ° "i' /' which rails it forth , may bo read in Bernard . Pnlissy ' s struggle" lo cover the secret of enamel . Accustomed as we are to enamelled J "' £ in nil shapes , the enamel itself becomes an object of very lltLlo . I lh ( lX mice ; but in I lie splendid struggles of unassisted genius < hHCO Y , ' { i vin ( r enamel , we are spectatora of tho greatest faculties of humanity ) " »> ' £ a , lnajeslin drama for our admiration . Had I ' ulissy been Hcolf " fc ' elixir vita : wo could not have read with more palpitating interest
narrativo of his efforts : — " lIciHJeforUi bin work was to bo private , and ho w » h to produce ) very soon , »« believed , illmtnouH i-wmltH . A furmico like that of tho ^ lass-workers huIIhm " . ^ wiib proved , for tho mulling of bin enamel . Jlo must have such a iuriiiu ; " i ^ house , or rather in a h 1 ic < 1 appended to bi « house , which at that tune certain y ^ situated in tho miburbs of the town- Hut they were miserably poor . ^^ having found means to obtain bricka , perhaps upon tho credit of bi » tulur
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), Oct. 16, 1852, page 16, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_16101852/page/16/
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