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^ December 20, 1856.] THE LEA D E K,. 12...
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ENGLAND'S GREATNESS. England' s Greatnes...
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THE CAMBRIDGE ESSAYS. Camb ridge Essays,...
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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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Gonfjessions Of An Opium Eater. Confessi...
halcyon calms , have an unfair effect in lowering the appreciation of this malady considered as a trial of fortitude and patience . No stronger expression of its intensity and scorching fierceness can be imagined than this fact—that within my private knowledge , two persons who had suffered alike under toothache and cancer , have pronounced the former to be , on the scale of torture , by many degrees the -worse . In both , there are at tirnes what surgeons call " lancinating" pangs—keen , glancing , arrowy-radiations ofaiufuisli ;{ wdtipon these the basis of comparison was rested—paroxysm against paroxysm—with the result that I have stated . TLe rack could not be more thrillinnrly described ; yet note how eloquent the passage really is , and how felicitous the language , if we abstract the toothache ( painful enough , in all conscience ) and consider some more formidable pain . Hearken also to the roll of this : — What was it that did in reality make me an opium-eater ? That affection which , finally drove me in to . the habitiuil use « f opium , what was it ? Pain was it ? No ! but misery . Casual overcasting of sunshine was it ? No , but blank desolation ' Gloom was it that might have departed ? No , but settled and abiding
darkness" Total eclipse , . "Without all hope of day I " Yet whence derived ?' . Caused by what" ? Caused , as I might truly plead , by vouthful distresses in London ; were it not that these distresses were due , in their ultimate origin , to my own unpardonable folly j and to that folly I trace many ruins . Oh , spirit of merciful interpretation , angi' L of forgiveness to youth and its aberrations , that hearkenest for ever as if to some sweet choir of far-off female intercessions ! will ye , choir that intercede —wilt thou , anyel that forgivest—join together and charm away that mighty phantom , bom amidst the gat 7 iering viists of remorse , which strides after me in jmrsuit from-forgotten days— towering for ever into proportions more and more colossal , overhanging and ovevshadotcing viy head ' as if clone behind , yet dating its tmtiviiy from hours that are fled , ly more than half a century ? Oh heavens ! that it should be possible for a child not seventeen years old , by a momentary blindness , by listening to a false , false whisper from his own bewildered heart , bv one erring step , by a motion this way or that , to change the currents of his destiny , to poison the fountains of his peace , and in the twinkling of an eye to lay the foundations of a lifelong repentance !
. What a-, passage is that depicting the dying parent " when the faces of his children are disappearing amongst the vapours . of death 1 * - ' or the wellknownapostrophe to Oxford-street , " the stony-hearted stepmother ; or this description of the ball-room of the Inn where he sat waiting the coach which was to convey him to London : — . ° The unusual dimensions of the rooms , especially their towering height , brought up continually and obstinately , through natural links of associated feelings or images , the mighty vision of London waiting ; for me afar [ - ' off . An altitude of nineteen or twenty feet showed itself unavoidably upon au exaggerated scale in some of the smaller side-rooms—meant probably for cards or for refreshments . This single feature of * he rooms—their unusual . ' altitude , ' and the echoing hollowriess Avhich had become the exponent of that . altitude—this oue terrific feature ( for terrific it was in the effect ) , together with crowding and eva nescent images of the flying feet that so often had spread gladness through these halls oh the . wings of youth and hope at seasons when every room rang with music—all this , rising in tumultuous vision , whilst the dead
hours of night were stealing along , all around me—household and town—sleeping , and whilst against the windows more and more the storm outside was raving , aud to all appearance endlessly growing , threw me Into the deadliest condition of nervous emotion under contradictory ibices , high over which predominated horror recoiling from that uiifathomed abyss in Londoai into which I was now so wilfully precipitating myself . Often I looked out and examined the night . Wild it was beyond all description , and dark as " the inside of a wolf ' s throat . " But at intervals , -when the wind , shifting continually , swept in such a direction as to clear away the vast curtain of vapour , the stars shone out , though with a light unusually dim and distant . Still , as I turned Jmvnrds to the echoing chambers , or outwards to the wild , wild night , I saw London expanding her visionary gates to receive me , like some dreadful mouth of Acheron ' (_ Acherontisavari ) . Thou also , Whispering Gallery ! once again in those moments of conscious and wilful desolation , didst to my ear utter monitorial sighs . For once again 1 was preparing to utter an irrevocable word , to enter upon one of those fatally tortuous paths ot * which the -windings can never be unlinked .
Jiiven when lie has ^ to translate a Latin quotation he cannot do so simply , but seems forced by the necessities of his intensely active intellect to embellish the oriuintil , as in the well-known
Ciuicquid ngwnt homines , votum , timor , ira , voluptas Ciuiulin , disctiTsus , wliich he renders , "AH that is done by men—movements of prayer , panic , wrath , revels of tlie voluptuous , festivals of triumph , or gladiatorship of the intellect . " Among the many passages we had marked for extract we can only find room for this one more and we quote it for the justness of the remark , and the caution it suggests against too closely interpreting the expressions ot uncultivated people ; it is in explanation of the harsh and uncivil phrases often coming from uneducated . persons , because their want of education Juts prevented their having an adequate command of language : —
They use phrases much stronger than naturally belong to their thoughts and meaning , simply because the narrowness of their vocabulary oftentimes suggests to their embarrassed choke no variation of expression wearing a character less ofleuaive .
^ December 20, 1856.] The Lea D E K,. 12...
^ December 20 , 1856 . ] THE LEA D E K ,. 1217
England's Greatness. England' S Greatnes...
ENGLAND'S GREATNESS . England ' s Greatness : its Hue and Progress in Government , Laws , Jieligion , and Social Life ; Agriculture , Commerce , and Manufactures , Science , Literature , and , the Arts , from the EarlUst Feriotl to the I ' eacc of Paris , Hy John Wade . Longman and Co . This title-page of this volume , studded with heavy words , rolls back like the door of a prison . And within is discovered Mr . Wade and four hundred leaves of paper , thickly printed on both sides with Mr . Wade ' s ideas . " From the earliest period to the Peace of Paris !"—from original savagery to the Gorlschnkoff juggle—tram tho Druids ( o Mr , ltuskin . The result is n melon-like rotundity of talk , which , if drained of its platitudes , would shrivel into a spectral lig . Chapter alter chapter opens with a herald ' s Nourish of philosophy—so that , whereus ivc are intent upon the study oi England ' s greatness , the conviction is pressed upon us by slow degrees , that ¦ we are engaged in a general valuation of Mr . " Wade ' s intellectual fixtures : — 1 . Tho Science of Civilisation is varied and extensive . 2 . The origin «( most communities is necessarily obscure .
3 . The character of the laws of a community forms an important element in tho progress of civilization . .
4 . It is with the beginning of communities as with the beginning of organic life . 5 . Our national greatness is more the result of production than of inheritance . 6 . The emotions arising from the external objects perceptible by the senses are mutable and fleeting impressions . ' We have selected six specimens , and might select a thousand , similarly limpid ; but these form one class of Mr . Wade ' s materials , and fill an ample space . The rest is indolently taken down from the lower shelves of the library— Hallam , Macaulay , Lingard , the transactions of two or three societies , a few recent memoirs , and some other works , accessible to every reader . Among the most frequently consulted are , The Pictorial History of England ; and sundry books compiled by the author himself . Not a "limpse of original research , of far-extending studies , of rare or curious reading 1 he substance is as stale as the treatment is commonplace . And yet thts dense volume is thrust upon us as an analytical history of British civilization , the writer professing " to supply a deficiency in English literature , " and "in sufficient breadth of facts and philosophy to exemplify to the historical
student or more elaborate inquirer the mystery of England ' s power , diversified interests , and resplendent name . " Why , the historical student will have read every book which Mr . Wade has quoted , and the elaborate inquirer -will certainly be able to sound the shallows of his philosophy . The truth is , that he has produced an irregular abstract of history which he has called HiiglancVs Greatness , but which he might as well Lave called & pot au feu . He undertakes to instruct every one on every topic , from religion to literature , and from revolutions to gable ends and abutments . tc Our love of the picturesque must not , however , transport us into the mistake or extravagance of a popular lecturer whose idolatry extends to the adoration of the gable ends , narrow streets , and Cyclopean abutments of the middle a < res . Ihe picturesque is not the beautiful ; there is utility in one , veneration or association only in the other . The aged are often picturesque . " Observe
that the " popular lecturer" tL us withered in three lines by Mr . John Wade , is Mr . John Ruskin . We are glad that Mr . Wade does not attempt to solve the education question , being saved by his reticence from the dull ed ^ e of a rust-eaten platitude ; but what is the use of writing as follows , and not explaining it ?—'> The imperial spirit abroad has extended even to the great national universities ; they comprised hoarded sweets , and long and deeplycherished reminiscences . ' What sweets did the universities comprise ? Mr . Wade is gentle in periphrasis . Thieving and cheating , he says " indicate less of depravity than of a culpable mode of acquiring those objects which are in general request . " " The direct tendency of affluence is to give additional force and scope to the human passions , not only in a more rapid evolution of saints and philosophers , but of thieves and swindlers . " When did he learn that a rapid evolution of saints and philosophers was equivalent
to an enlarged development of the passions ? And where are the " saints " who are now being so rapidly evolved ? Mr . Wade affirms that Pope could not now find materials for a Dunciad . We think he could . It is a pleasure to esciipe from the sybilline to the commonplace chapters of this stupendous pamplilet . Here , however ; Mr . Wade is again ; at sea . He tells us , while we are waiting for a second Conference to interpret the Treaty of Paris , that "its purport is clearly and distinctly brought out . " He remarks on the " hopes of rest" bestowed on France by the Empire , and glides over the coujj d ' etat by saying , " Louis Napoleon bore away the prize . " What has this to do with England ' s greatness ? Nothing ; but it is a p ' . t of Mr . Wade ' s book , which contains , also , a deplorably foolish section on the great revolution in France . Here he rabidly declaims about Juggernaut , venomous plants , demons of terror , Mdlochs , bloody proscriptionists .
and tlie exhausted parallel of liberty and licence . There was a Yorkshire gentleman , as Mr . Wade well knows , who kept a diary-of occurrences that interested him during the civil wars in England , and never once alluded to Royalists , Roundheads , Cromwell , the King , or the Parliament , but talked of foxes , without ever mentioning a battle that happened on his own manor . There was also Charles Mathews , who never referred in his journal to the Reign of Terror , Marat , llobespievre , or Napoleon Bonaparte . How merciful if some people would now leave the revolutions in England and Prance alone ! And Junius , too ! Junius would have been a small to pic in this Cyclopean book had he not supplied Mr . Wade with an opportunity of glorifying himself . Accordingly , the glorification rattles on through pages , and the modest author quotes " the fifth edition of my work , " & c . & c . & c .
This is the volume which Mr . Wade announces as a , " national picture , " " a panoramic exhibition , " constructed upon carefully considered principles , in fulfilment of a mission to which he lays claim , consistently with the practices of the day . We cannot imagine to what class of readers Mr . Wade ' s work will be useful . Ifc is a compilation , distended , dull , and loaded with truisms disfigured into absurdities .
The Cambridge Essays. Camb Ridge Essays,...
THE CAMBRIDGE ESSAYS . Camb ridge Essays , contributed ly Members of the . University . 1856 . ' J . W . Parker and Son . The success of this scheme of annual publication on the part of Oxford and Cambridge men has been greater than we had anticipated ; and as , to use Jules Janin ' s witticism , rieit tie rciissit comnie le succes , we may expect better and bettor essays from members of the Universities . The present volume is various and interesting . It opens with a paper on " Roman Law and Legal Education" which we leave to legists and educators , not understanding mora of that abstruse subject , the Law , than is requisite to keep us at as remote a
distance from it as may be . The second essay is by Dr . Donaldson , and is on English Ethnography , ' an erudite and very curious examination of the influence of various races on the English language . Tho very old and much debated question of classical instruction is taken up by Mr . John Groto in " Old Studies and New , " an essay which not only exhibits independent thought , but contains a really wise and calm exposition of the pros and cons most worth attending to in the debate . The most interesting essay , to our tastes , is that of Mr . Cope on the love of the " Picturesque among the Greeks , "in which
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), Dec. 20, 1856, page 17, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_20121856/page/17/
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