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    No. 422, Apira _ 24, _jj58J THE LE AJDJg...

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    ^¦¦^^^^^ ^^^~™" 4Prl"iM*rt+rtt* iv 2Lm.UUUH\

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    —?—Critics are not thelegislators, but t...

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    "Time," says the Grecian sage, "is the w...

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    One of the most j eno arkable of contemp...

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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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    No. 422, Apira _ 24, _Jj58j The Le Ajdjg...

    No . 422 , Apira _ , _ jj 58 J THE LE AJDJgJB ^ _ 4 9 Jl _

    ^¦¦^^^^^ ^^^~™" 4prl"Im*Rt+Rtt* Iv 2lm.Uuuh\

    literature .

    —?—Critics Are Not Thelegislators, But T...

    —?—Critics are not thelegislators , but the judges and police of literature . They do not makelaws—they interpret and try to enforce them . —Edinburgh Review . ~«

    "Time," Says The Grecian Sage, "Is The W...

    " Time , " says the Grecian sage , "is the wisest of all things , " and it is of the essence of wisdom to be just . We may fairly expect , therefore , that all wrongs will eventually be righted . The particular period , however , at which justice will in any case be done is fluctuating and uncertain , being usually expressed by that elastic phrase , " the long run . " There are many pauses , too , before the true ffoal is reached . For while time really does try all , the early

    judgments are not unfrequently reversed before the decision , even of time , can be accepted as final . The present age seems fast becoming a court of appeal against all the partial and erroneous decisions of the past ; many of our most distinguished writers and critics being mainly occupied in reversing the moral judgments of their predecessors . This deeper criticism of character we certainly owe in great measure to Cabxyle , who , both , by precept and example , is the greatest living apostle of historic truth . His influence has insensibly diffused itself through nearly the whole of our current literature , and traces of it may be found in quarters where we should least expect it to be felt . The first article of the new

    number of the Quarterly Review , on Bosweul and Johnson , supplies an illustration , though in relation to a comparatively humble hero . The first part of the paper , that devoted to Boswelx , is simply an expansion , point by point , of Cablyie ' s noble vindication of the wine-loving laird ' s good qualities both of head and heart . We have space to illustrate by quotation only a single point of the parallel . Carlyxe had well exposed the absurdity of the paradox repeated by successive critics , that the Life of Johnson was a clever book because its author was a fool . " Sometimes , " he says , " a strange enough hypothesis has been stated of him ; as if it were in virtue of the same bad qualities that he did his good work ; as if it were the very fact , of his being among the worst workmen in the world that had enabled him to write one of the

    best books therein ! Falser hypothesis , we may venture to say , never arose in liuman soul . Bad is by its nature negative , and can do notbing . Whatever enables us to do anyth ing is by its very nature good . " The writer in the Quarterly gives a detailed exposition of this . Of Boswell ' s rare faculty of strictly and minutely truthful portraiture the writer says : — The value of Boswell ' s graphic narrative is vastly increased by the minute fidelity of the representation . Sir Joshua Reynolds observed of the veracious Johnson , that , admirable as he was in sketching characters , he obtained distinctness at the expense of perfect accuracyand assigned to people more than they really had , whether of

    , good or bad ; but to Boswell ' s book the great painter gave the remarkable testimony , that every word of it might be depended upon as if delivered upon oath . Though manv persons , when it appeared , were displeased with the way in which they themselves were exhibited , no one accused him of serious misrepresentation , or of sacrificing truth to effect . He never heightened a scene , exaggerated a feature , improved a story or polished a conversation . His veneration for his hero could not entice him into smoothing down his asperities . Hannah More begged that he might be drawn less rudely than life . " I will not cut off his claws , " Bos well roughly replied , " nor make a tiger a cat , to please anybody . "

    The article , which is marked by good sense , good feeling , and minutely accurate information , is thoroughly interesting throughout . The second paper is a slight and sketchy account of a kind of literature and life better known at Paris than in this country—that of the Arabs of social life . Of the remaining articles , that on " Italian Tours and Tourists" is full of pleasant , instructive gossip , and one on " Public Speaking" of seasonable advice . The present number of the Edinburgh Review has also an article on the subject of public speaking , which seems just now to be exciting a good deal of atlike is extinct t

    tention The complaint is , that everything oratory amongsus , and even decent speaking rare ; yet the speaker that both the Edinburgh and the Quarterly justly rank as amongst the most distinguished of British orators still sits on the benches of the Upper House-Lord Bkougham . The article in the Edinburgh is a review of the edition of his collected speeches recentl y published The Edinburgh also reviews Mr . Buckle ' s History of Civilization in England favourably , so far as the ability displayed in the work is concerned , unfavourably , in relation to its plan and guiding principles . The author s defective sympathy with litcraturo and life , with popular influences and national-action , is no doubt a sorious disqualification for his work—one oi

    the results of which is pointed out in the following extract : — Thi 8 want of Hympathy for the elements of heroism and lofty diameter , when tlicy happen to be separated from high intellectual attainments , or to """" f 081 / 1 ' '" - ^? in an ngo of intellectual obscurity , render * Mr . Buckle entirely ineapnblo of appreciating tho spirit of tho Middle Ages . Because the cm of scepticism had nut begun , because letters wore still chicuy in tho hands of tho clergy , because ( aa ho assorts ) tho art of writing directly oncounigcs tho propagation of falsehood * , because men still believed In mi overruling Providence , —ho represent * tho annuls oi those ages as a twsuo of ohlldish absurdities ; and ho quotos in nupport of . this opinion a multitude of old ives' fublofiextracted from tho chronicles of tho time . Nor does ho introduce u

    w . sinKlorenw ^^ ditfon of the Middle Agon . Ilia learning , vast as it appears to be , does not embrace any of tho great lights of raccllmval philosophy , history , or urt ; ho has not ft word , save of acorn , tor tho stupendous labours of tho roat churchmen , for the dialectic * ol tho schools , or for tho genius which never shono more brightly than in tho immortal versos of Dante . Wo upuoal from this narrow and partial decision to tho energy of those groat minds , and to tho Middle Ages themselves . There ? , and nowhere olsu , is to bo found tho root and foundation of those great institutions from which the laws , tho liberties , and tho government of modem liutopo spring . Ihoro are atill to bo

    distinguished through t » gloom of ages those gigantic figures of Charlemagne , Alfred , and Norman William , whose strength and wisdom moulded the empires of their posterity ; and to convey an opinion of the Middle Ages solely by a loose statement of their ignorance aa & their credulity , ia to overlook the existence and extent of powers and truths of the utmost importance to tbe subsequent history of mankind . One might infer from . Mr- Buckle , that the records of our race begin with the seventeenth century of the Christian era , because he then first applies his method of interpreting them . The Edinburgh j s defective this quarter in purely literary articles , that on " Edgar Allan Poe" being slight and superficial .

    One Of The Most J Eno Arkable Of Contemp...

    One of the most j eno arkable of contemporary publicists , Iskander ( M . Alexand & e Hekzen ) , whose contributions to the Leader on the question , of Russian , Serfdom may be in . the remembrance of many of our readers , has written , in French , a striking an d significant pamphlet ( published by Mr . Tkubner ) , under the following title : —France or England ? Russian Variations on the Theme of the Attempt of the \ Uh of January . This strange and suggestive title smacks of the humour peculiar to Russian writers—a humour singularly wild and pungent in quality . But the pamphlet itself is eminently worth reading . Reviewing ia a few vivid and brilliant pages the characteristics of Russian policy , foreign and domestic , since Peter the Great , M . Herzen

    concludes on behalf of his country against the French , and in favour of the English alliance . « Russia / ' he says , " occupies an exceptional position . She belongs neither to Europe nor to Asia . A change of dynasty in China does not imply an intervention on her part . The fall of Bonaparte and the accession to the throne of France of Baroche or of Pelissier could neither weaken nor strengthen the po ^ er of the Czar . Russia , in a word , forms in herself a new part of the globe , developing herself in her own manner , assimilating the Western civilization to the upper strata of her society , but remaining perfectly national at the base . " At the death of Nicholas there were two policies open to his successor— -a policy of compression a outrance , and a policy of decisive amelioration . Alexander II . having chosen the latter , his alliance ia

    naturally with England . A great people -with a small army and vast conquests , she will disabuse us of uniforms , of parades , Of police , of arbitrary government . A country without centralization , without a bureaucracy , without prefects , without gendarmes , without restrictions of the press , without lim its to the right of public meeting , without revolutions , without reaction—just the reverse of Russia and France . And what a part she plays After the fall and decad ence of the Continent , alone , upright , with head erect , tranquil , full of security sbe contemplates from the midst of the waves the horrible . spectacle of despotic terrorism and espionage . M . Herzen , bein ° - entirely unconnected with any conspiracy , was in no way des libertes laises

    menaced by what he calls la loi sur le meurtre ang In the last resort he would have embarked with his printing-press for America . But on the first reading of the Conspiracy Bill , his shamed and indignant feelings told him that he loved England . But the rejection of the Bill reassured him , and lie rejoiced even when he was pursued and pelted by Londonstreet boys as a French spy , for " apeople that has the strength to hate a pollticulpolice is free for ever . " I » another chapter , M . Herzen turns to the condition of Trance , its hopeless oscillations from one extreme to another , its revolutionary jargon , & d its essential propensity to " strong government . " With a truthful severity which we commend to the attention of French .

    Liberals , he says ;—• " The Empire would not la 3 t two days if it did not find some sort of point d appui in the French character . It corresponds necessarily to certain elements perfectly national . Say what you will » the election of the 10 th of December , 1848 , was free and popular . " " Can a Bovmpartist England be imagined P" he asks . Again he acutely remarks : " The degrading regime of Imperialism is detested -. for France loves only the poetry of Jfottaparlis / n and not its prose . " France requires a process of thorough-searching self-examination ; unfortunately her deepest thinkers arc not sufficientl y imbued with " the revolutionary tradition" to be listened to by their country" 1011- The French need to be emancipated from " the France of JBt mngcr : "C ' eetpeu dene }) a 3 sympathiser avec la St . jBartMlemy , il fuut aussi ne pas syvipathiaer avec lea journ ^ s de aeptembrc . L " e « t pen de ne pas vouloir ae venger da Waterloo , ilfaut ne pin * « e cotnplaire dans le souvenir d' AusterlUz . How true is the following passage : —

    She has but sicken off with a vigorous hand the gotuic dust and the povydor of Versailles , she ha 8 not entered into a normal atate sinco ' 89 , and she > s still the prey of a convulsive aidtfltion , and of all the incoherence of a struggle which has twice already resulted if , tlio negation of every right . Loving riots and centralization , void of the instinct of liberty , und nnxiou * to emancipate tho other peoples , intolerant m tho name of Independence , France has not yet been ablo to fix the cardinal points of her social edifice . How profoundly observed is tho following , whioh wo transcribe m tho original : — SI on veut suiVro le fll roug « qiii paaso d trover * , les cord e n « m revolutlonnaircH , on trouvora un dli-ment constant duns toutoa 1 « b variation , memo d-niB los plus uontradicloiroB ; 0 > Mt 1 ° vioux pod" * ronmln-e ' obt o grand ennonu do la HUorttf—le , . joucemcnentali m * 1 * « J lWne » tntlo , i u ' en-uaut , I'lmpoBltion ioixco p « r lautpnt & acftiamartquca . ' " * T ~ 7 -t-t- ' - ~~

    -_ .... , , . , Is not this lruo of nil parties in Franco—LfgitimiutB , OrloanUtB , Republicans , red and moderate , und Socialist s ? Considering the profound disrespect for personal liberty , M . IIisrzen ceases to bo surprised that "Louis XIV ., having passed through tho Phrygian cap fashion , should , become Namwjsom . " But " Imperialism , with its persecution

• Citation
  • Leader (1850-1860), April 24, 1858, page 17, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_24041858/page/17/