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September 23, 1854.] THE LEADER. 909
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VIVIAN EN VOYAGE. I. KATS AJU> TRAVELLEB...
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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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fact was , there was not a kiss exchanged , or taken ! Not one . Only when Smith lifted the lady down from her seat—and she almost as much stepped down , with a light and graceful agility , and then Dutton saw that she was tall and slender , and graceful as a stag- —Smith respectfully raised her hand to his lips , unresisted , unreproved , even by the calm and lovely countenance shaded from the bright moon by its own waving hair , as it looked down upon him . And they "went into the cottage . Enough for that night ! Dutton had tracked the villain ; he had something to tell the injured Amy ; he was laden with spoil , justified in all he suspected , in all he intended . At peace with himself , he lay down to rest reflecting on the blessing of sleep that attends on exercise and uadisturbed conscience .
September 23, 1854.] The Leader. 909
September 23 , 1854 . ] THE LEADER . 909
Vivian En Voyage. I. Kats Aju> Travelleb...
VIVIAN EN VOYAGE . I . KATS AJU > TRAVELLEBS—ON THE SICK LIST—WOMEN : BE 1 GIAN AND GERMAN . Weimar , Sept . 16 . The Greeks and Romans knew but of one Rat , and that was a Mouse ; a fact , ami lecteur , which may interest you beyond the application here to be made of it . How the ancients managed without that amiable Rodent , I know not ; but as their Cat was a Weazel , they may very well have contented themselves with a Mouse for their sole Rat . If you want to puzzle a pundit , ask him what the Greek for Rat or for Cat is : he will look foolish , and you will chuckle .
These unhappy ancients must have been overrun with Mice ; and it is not till the Middle Ages that the empire of the Mice becomes threatened by the apparition of the Black Rat , whose birthplace is a mystery , tut whose ferocity and fecundity soon drives the Mouse into his long narrow : galleries , where alone he as safe . The European world was divided between the Mouse and the Black Rat until the beginning of the eighteenth century , when anew Rat , by Buflbn named Surmulot , was brought over from India , and instantly commenced internecine war against the Black Rat . This new warrior , being equally at home on land and water , gradually spread over Europe , the Black Rat disappearing before him , as the Red Man disappears
before the White . At the time when Buffon wrote , the new Rat was only found in the environs of Paris ; it had not appeared in the city where now it holds undisputed sway . In a few years the Black Rat will be but a name ! Now for the moral . Just as one species of Rat has given way before another arid a stronger species , one class of travellers , or travel-writers , has disappeared before another . When , it was distinction to have made the Grand Tour , when to speak French and not be mistaken for an Iroquois was a perilous amount of culture , of course the simplest recital of a journey was received as an . entertaining performance , and a trip to Paris furnished a quarto volume . That will no longer satisfy the cravings of a public :
" Zwar smd sie an das Beste nicht gewohnt : Allein sie haben achrecklich riel gelesen . " " They are not , at is true , accustomed to excellence , but they have read such a frightful quantity ! " They read now as many ascents of Mont Blanc as their forefathers read trips to Calais . The Pyramids have become commonplaces . Europe and the East have been thoroughly " used up . " The political traveller , the historical traveller , the statistical traveller , the geological traveller , the zoological traveller , the traveller with black whiskers and large shirt-collars , who produced a " delightful volume of truly Christian travel , "—have one by one poured down upon an unoffending public , and swept away the Sentimental Traveller , who as now becoming as rare as the Black Rat .
It may be that Europe itself is no longer sentimental . For my own part , I ( Solemnly declare , that , although I entered Belgium with the best dispositions for the accumulation of materials to furnish forth a series of Sentimental Papers , especially addressed to those female readers who have the weakness to be also the admirers of Vivian ( how charming are all feminine weaknesses !) , yet no such materials presented themselves . Not . a single dead Ass met my gaze . They were all living ! Then the women ! Belgium and Germany have shown me some hundreds of Mmana , who are , or are to be given in marriage ; but of ' women " an alarming scarcity . One cannot conceive oneself reduced to such a state of lUsceuvremcnt as to make love to these Dulcinens . " Belgian women " is a misprint—Nature wrote Bulgtan , as I perceive from the bulgy grace of their bathukolpic forms . It seemed to me as if Nature had endeavoured to compensate for the flatness of the country by the reverse of that characteristic in the women—taking out in breadth what is wanted in height—substituting prominences for eminences . And as for the German women , they are worse ! If no Anacreon would become
dithyrambic over the charms of his Kovpijt pa 6 vKo \ irov here , as in Belgium , no man with any finer sensibility than a Gorman could endure the voices . Shakspearo , who loved woman ' s voice " gentle and low , " would have boon driven away by the astounding discords of unlovely woman in those parts ; and a less fastidious lover of the sex may meekly protest against the too philosophic condition of the hair and nails of these uncharining charmers . Coarse skins and discrepant teeth may bo misfortunes , but a nailbrush is not a luxury only to be met with among pamporad aristocrats . _ The genius of a people is seen in the language . Idioms betray tendencies . Perhaps it is not without profound significance that the German idiom "to wash anybody ' s head" expresses a sevoro punishment . Wo , brutal Britons , when wo flagellate a stupid author , call it " cutting him up . " The cleaner Teuton " washes his head , " When a dingy professor , chuckling , tells you of an antagonist , Ich hub' ihm dm KnpJ yawaschan ! you may be sure that terriblo work has been going on among the notes and emendations . ° to
\ J lulo on this subject , 1 may note thatChry sostom , in his splendid " Exogouis ° i . i * . ° . . » calls our attention to the profound symbolical inclining of the Snints being arrayed in clean linen . Unwilling us 1 am to question any pnssago in a Christum Father , 1 cannot forbear suggesting that the strops
laid upon clean linen looks very like an habitual economy in washing bilk These Jews were certainly Germans ! German women , therefore , you may suppose have not captivated me . Perhaps , after all , the fault is less in them than , in the condition of their critic . A dilapidated Vivian , with his whiskers sadly out of curl , the " unobserved of all observers , " dragging his weary way through healthy , happy scenes , carrying within him the fatal consequences of too close a study of the Fathers , in the shape of a congested brain , which depressed and incapacitated him , at the same time that it surrounded him with no halo of interest , such as consumption or a broken limb would create—such a Vivian , I say , may well be suspected in any criticism passed upon the sex . I will believe
it is so ! I will think the Belgians are antelopes ( slightly adipose ) , and the Germans sweet-voiced , elegant , and spiritual . But you must expect no Sentimental Journey from me . Enough if I can write an occasional letter with some news about a celebrated man or woman , a new opera , a good picture , or any other topic -which possibly may interest you . Ah , dear reader ! when I think of the happy hours passed in writing gaieties for your amusement , and contrast them with my present forced idleness , a gloom steals over me , such as Dante indicates in the nessun maggior dolore , which once read is never forgotten . And it is to you that are offered the first feeble efforts of one who wrote not wisely , but too well . " Next week you shall hear about Franz Liszt .
II . FRANZ LISZT . ¦ . Weimar , 22 nd September . According to my promise , last week , I select from out the hasty pencil notes of vay diary the name of a man of genius , a name familiar . enough in England , although the man is little , known . ; Franz Lizst , who as " Master Lizst" played before George IY- and astounded " the woild , " and who as Lizst has made his noise in Europe , now playing as no one ever played before or since , now writing articles and criticisms , now undertaking a year of concerts , the whole proceeds of which were to be given to £ 11 up the deficit of subscriptions to the Beethoven monument . I knew him fifteen years ago in Vienna , in the height of his popularity ,
m the maddest of all mad enthusiasms , a Viennese furore , -when the women showed you with pride the bracelets made from the pianoforte strings he had broken ; when everybody had some new anecdote of his capriciousi \ ess , coxcombry , or generosity , when , as I was gravely informed , the very milk in the next room turned sour at the thunder of his pastorale ; -when , in short , he was in such an unhealthy condition , that everyone who could calmly look forward , must have foreseen he would be ruined by flattery—a prediction which the event has falsified—for here he is , in this quiet Weimar , leading the quietest of lives ; grave , serious , and happy , entering on a new phase of existence j strong in conviction , happy in affection , resolute in
ambition—Strong in will To strive , to seek , to find , and not to yield . As great a change has taken p lace in his personal appearance as in his way of life . A streak of silver in his lion ' s mane gently indicates the pressure of Time . He has passed into the forties . The turbulence of youth , with its eager activity , lust for excitement , and prodigal expenditure of life , has given place to a graver bearing , not without a touch of that sadness which mingles with the sunset , but also not without its ineffable charm . I think Lizst has now one of the grandest heads to be met with among artists ; formerly I did not think him handsome . He has acquired more force , and more refinement , too , with , age ; the build of his head , has acquired solidity ; the working of his mind has wrought the features into finer and more delicate expression ; for while the cut of his features is bold , their lines severe , sculpturesque in relief , they are no less remarkable for the tenderness and even feminine gentleness which may be seen in the face of almost every man of genius .
pie Gestalt des Menscheny says Goethe , ist der Text zu alles was Uber ihm empjinden und sat / en lOsst : Man ' s personal appearance is the text to all that can be felt or said of him . This is doubtless true in all cases ; but it is not in all cases that the moral of a man is thus cut in relief , so that we can read his character in such characteristics . In Lizst , however , there seems to me a complete accordance between the physical and moral . You cannot look at him for three minutes without being aware of the presence of a man of genius . You are are also aware of something capricious , coxcombical , wayward , dreamy ; something uneasy—as if the intellect was not commensurate with the feelings—as if his whole mind was burthened with t ! ic weight of more than it could express—as if his aspiration was greater than his inspiration , Lizst is Kapellmeister to the Grand Duko . It is true he is the great personage here at Weimar , after the Grand Duko : but still one may well
ask what attraction there can bo powerful enough to lure the spoiled child of a European public , from the arena of applause , from the centres of life and intelligence , to settle down in this grand ducal village . It cannot be money : Lizst would earn more in a month at Paris or London than I should suppose a year ' s income as Kapellmeister would amount to . It cannot be the society of Weimar , for he lives very retired . The mystery is explained when one gets to learn what his occupations are and have , been during the last six years . A new phase of existence succeeds the noisy popularity of his curlier years , ^ The great pianist has given up performing . Occasionally , " for love , " he will play , and play as ho seldom played in public ; but " / or money" ho plays no more . He has taken to composition—taken to it heart and soul , with the devotion of genius , and the passionate labour of intense
conviction . Not only in his own person has ho given his life- to composition , but all his sympathy , activity , and influence are devoted to tho furtherance of what he beliovos to be the true ideas of art . Thus , while writing symphonies for himself , ho has been scarcoly less active in trying to create a public for Wagner . It is a noble trait in him , thai ., unacquainted with Wingnor , ho became inspired with that fanaticism which haa nuulo Wiigncr ' u name ii watchword , and Weimar tho German town wh <; ro Warner ' s operas can be hoard . Not only does Lizst superintend » . ho production of Uiohu operas , forcing them through , in spite of the projmlico , < : nb » lw , and it nniat l > e confessed , not a little ennui , making tho public roajjoct these works wliothor it likos them or likes them not ; but Jio also , in tho Neue ZaCsc / iriJtJflr Muatlt ( which ia tho Monitcur of tho Konwntic School in Music ) , as well as in
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), Sept. 23, 1854, page 21, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_23091854/page/21/
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