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of 1036 THE iLE A DEB, _ [yo. 396, Octob...
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BRAZIL AND THE BRAZILIANS. . ^^ Brazil a...
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De Quincey's Sketches. S/Cetches Critica...
criticism " Wordsworth . The preface warns us to regard it as a slight impromptu written under the disadvantage , but therefore under the privilege , of unpremeditated composition . It contains subtle and deep critical glances ,, expressed ma diction such as no one but hsinself can equal . He denies that the Excursion' is the great work to which posterity must look ; and maintains that the earlier poems , which are generally short , scintillate with gems of far profounder truth : — I speak of that truth which , strengthens into solemnity an impression very feebly acknowledged previously , or truth which suddenly unveils a connexion between objects Intherto regarded as irrelate and independent . In astronomy , to gain the xauk of discoverer it is not required that you should reveal a star absolutely new ; find out with respect to au old star some nevv affection—as , for instancethat it has ^
, an ascertainable parallax—and immediately you bring it within the verge of a human interest ; or with , respect to some old familiar planet , that its satellites suffer periodical eclipses , and immediately you bring it -within the verge of terrestrial uses . Gleams -of steadier vision that brighten into certainty appearances else doubtful , or that unsold relations else unsuspected , are not less discoveries of truth than the downright -revelations of the telescope , or the absolute conquests of the diving-bell . It ia astonishing bow large a harvest of new truths would be re aped , simply through the accident of a man's feeling , or being made to feel , more deeply than other men . He rsees the same objects , neither more nor fewer , but he sees them engraved in lines far stronger and more determinate : and the difference in the strength makes the -whole -difference between consciousness and sub-consciousness . And in questions of the mere understanding-, -we see the same fact Illustrated : the anchor > vh . o wins notice tlio
most , is not he that perplexes men by truths drawn from fountains of absolute novelty —truths as yet unsunned , and from that cause obscure ; but he that awakens into illuminated consciousness ancient lineaments of truth long slumbering- in the mind , although , too faint to have extorted attention . Wordsworth has brought many a truth into life both for the eye and for the understanding , -which previously had -slumbeTed indistinctly for all men . For instance , as respects the eye , who does not acknowledge instantaneously the magical strength of truth in his saying of a cataract seen from a station two miles off , that it was 'frozen by distance ? ' In all nature , there is not an object so essentially at war with the stiffening of frost as the headlong and desperate life of a cataract ; and yet notoriously the effect of distance is to lock up this frenzy of motion into the most petrific column of stillness . This effect is perceived at once when . pointed out ; but how few are the eyes that ever -would have perceived it foT themselves * Twilight , again—who before Wordsworth ever distinctly noticed its abstract-¦ ing power ? - —that power of removing , softening , harmonizing , by-which a mode of ¦ obscurity executes for the eye the same mysterious office which the mind so often , within its own shadowy realms , executes for itselfl
He notices as another peculiarity in Wordsworth the painting of skyscenery as noae had painted it before : — Another great field there is amongst the pomps of nature , which , if "Wordsworth did not first notice , he certainly has noticed most circumstantially . I speak of cloudscenery , or tb . ose pageants of sky-built architecture , which sometimes in summer , at -noonday , and ia all seasons about sunset , arrest or appal the meditative ; ' perplexing monarchs' with the spectacle of armies manoeuvring , or deepening the solemnity of evening by towering edifices , that mimic- —but which , also iu mimicking mock—the transitory grandeurs of man . It is singular that these gorgeous phenomena , not less than those of the Aurora Borealis , have been so little noticed by poets . The Aurora nvas naturally neglected by the southern poets of Greece and Rome , as not much seen in their latitudes . But the cloud-architecture of the daylight belongs alike to north and south . Accordingly , I remember one notice of it iu Hesiod , a case where the -clouds exhibited
' The beauteous semblance of a flock at rest . ' Another there is , a thousand years later , in Lucan : amongst the portents which that poet notices as prefiguring the dreadful convulsions destined to shake the earth at Pharsalia , I remember some fiery coruscation of arms in the heavens ; but , so far aa I recollect , the appearances might have belonged equally to the workmanship of the clouds or the Aurora . Up and down the next eight hundred years , are scattered evanescent allusions to these vapoury appearances ; in ' Hamlet' and elsewhere occur gleams of such allusions ; but I remember no distinct sketch of such an appearance t > efore that in the ' Antony and Cleopatra' of Shakspere , beginning ,
' Sometimes we see a cloud that's dragonish . Subsequently to Shakspere , these notices , as of all phenomena whatsoever that demanded a familiarity with nature in the spirit of love , became rarer and rarer . At length , as the eighteenth century was winding up its accounts , forth stepped William Wordsworth , of whom , as a reader of all pages in nature , it may be said that , if wo -except Dampier , the admirable buccaneer , the gentle jlibustier , and some few professional naturalists , he first and he last looked at natural objects with the eye that neither will be dazzled from without nor cheated by preconceptions from within . Most men look at nature in the hurry of a confusion that distinguishes nothing ; their- error is from without . Pope , again , and many who live in towns , make such blunders as that of supposing the moon to tip with silver the hills behind which she is rising , not by erroneous use of their eyes ( for they use them not at all ) , but by inveterate preconceptions . Scarcely ha 3 there been a poet with what could bo called a learned eye , or an eye extensively learned , before Wordsworth . Much affectation
ther-o has been , of that sort since his rise , and at all times much counterfeit enthusiasm ; but tlie sum of the matter ia this , that Wordsworth had his passion for nature fixed in his blood ; it was a necessity , like that of the mulberry-louf to the silk-worm ; and through his commerce with , nature did he live and breathe . Hence it -viras—viz ., from the truth of his love—that his knowledge grew ; whilst moat others , being merely hypocrites in their love , have turned out merely sciolists in their knowledge . This chapter , therefore , of afcy-scenery may bo said to havo been revivified amongst the resources of poetry by Wordsworth— rekindled , if not absolutely kindled . The sublime scene indorsed upon the draperies of the storm in the fourth book of the « Excursion '—that scene again witnessed upon the passage of tho Hamilton Hills in Yorkshire—the solemn . sky prospect * from tho fields of France , are unrivalled in that order of composition ; and in one of theso records Wordsworth baa g iven first of all the true key-note of the sentiment belonging to these grand pageants . Th « y arc , & ays the poet , speaking in a case whore tho appearance had occurred towards night ,
' Meek nature ' s evening comment on tho allows And all tho fuming vanities of earth . ' Yea , that La tho secret moral whinpered to tho mind . These mimicries express tho laughter which ia in heaven at earthly pomps . Trail and vapoury are tho glories of man , even as the visional parodies of those glories are frail , even as tho accnical copies of those gloriea are frail , which , nature weaves in clouds . We have intimated our objections to tho more elaborate papers in this vo » lume , but we must add in conclusion that we shall be only too happy to receive numerous volumes of fresh digressions from the same desultory writer .
Of 1036 The Ile A Deb, _ [Yo. 396, Octob...
of 1036 THE iLE A DEB , _ [ yo . 396 , October 24 , 1357 . — — A . b ^ W ^ T ^^ ' . m — . — - - . ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ f ^^^ M ^^^^ M ^ MMMM ^ i ^^^^^^ fc ^^^^—fc ^ l ^ B ^ I ^ ¦ ' ^ - ^^^ - ^^^^^ ^^—^^—^^^—^^^ mmm | | m , __ ___ ^^^^
Brazil And The Brazilians. . ^^ Brazil A...
BRAZIL AND THE BRAZILIANS . . ^^ Brazil and the Brazilians , portrayed in Historical and Descriptive Sketches Bv P ., D . P . Kidder and Rev . J . C . Fletcher . London : Triibner a Jd Co ' How little is really known of the Empire of Brazil . There are uonulir notions , it is true , afloat respecting it . The history of-its conquest and colonization , of its revolution and constitutionalism , its monarchy and in dependence , has been penned by more than , one able Land ; transitory tra * vellers have vouchsafed a volume or two containing their experiences at Bahia , Espiritu Santo , or the white city of Rio Janeiro , and . we- have a vague remembrance of rivers and virgin forests , palm-trees and ja g uars anacondas and alligators , monkeys and parrots , diamond mining ami earthquakes , which go to make up our general impression of the Brazilian Empire . _ But , with one or two exceptions , we have no elaborate '• work on the internal condition of this colossal empirewhere races meet
, and mix in strange confusion , where the descendants of the Portuguese seem destined to emulate in South America the greatness of the An trio-Saxons in the North , where priestcraft and superstition revel- stilF in mediaeval blindness and profligacy , where even the slave finds a terrestrial paradise , and where all classes enjoy in a balmy atmosphere and soft climate the luxury of living . England has political and commercial relations with Brazil . She is our faithful ally in the suppression of the slave-trade ; and her readiness to assist in the destruction of this monstrous traffic has earned her parliamentary honours . But few , whilst speaking of this glorious country imagine they are referring to a region occupying in the southern hemisphere a territory of greater area than the United States . What are her boundaries ? How far do her limits extend ? Have they ever been explored ? On . the map it has been easy enough to trace a line and say thus and thus far shall her confines reach . It may well be doubted if other than an Indian
foot has ever trod the vast savannahs that extend in the interior , or penetrated the pathless forests which constitute her wild boundaries to the west . Who has ever descended the eastern slopes of the Andes , -and , standing beneath their sublime shadows at evening , said , " We stand on Brazilian soil ?" If a traveller or expedition would set out from the capital , and proceed northward , it would be many months of painful journeys up mountains and hills , through dense forests and jungles , over wide campos and broad rivers , before either would reach the Serra Pacaran . ua which divides Brazil and Venezuela . Several illustrious names . might be mentioned of those who have ventured far up the Amazon , whilst Lieutenant Paye has had the honour of being the first scientific investigator of La Plata and some of its tributaries . " It is difficult for us , " say the authors of the present work , "to comprehend even the dry tables of distances , how much more inconceivable the toil and almost insurmountable obstacles to be endured and overcome in
a vast country with a spare population , and hi certain portions no roads save the paths of cattle and the tracks of the tapir . " Yet we may arrive at some definite idea of the vast extent of this empire by forming comparisons . If , for example , a straight line were drawn from the head waters of the river Parima , on thft north , to the southern shores of the Lagon Morim in Hio Grande do Sul , it would more than reach from Liverpool to Boston . It is farther from Fernambueo to the western boundary which separates Peru and Brazil , than by a direct route from London across the Continent to Alexandria in Egypt . The empire is thus supposed to contain within its borders 3 , 004 , 460 square miles ; and is , therefore , 68 / 294 square miles larger than the whole territory of the United States , and only-82 . 3 , ( 370 square miles less than the entire area of Europe .
The combined labours and experience of Messrs . Ividdcr and Fletcher have served to produce a work of considerable interest and'general accuracy . A residence of twenty years amongst the scenes which they ittempfc to describe , and a careful study of the people amongst whom they dwell , must have fitted them for the task of faithfully portraying the manners and customs of the Brazilians . It has been the mistake of" not a few travellers , glancing at * life in Brazil' from a short visit to the country , to be struck by the preponderance of priests and ceremonies , and devote their chapters to an account of altars , vestments , processions , rites , fasts , feasts , ' and the zodiac of Catholic ceremonies , and this , too , to the exclusion of other valuable information , thereby distorting the real features of the picture . Messrs . Kidder and Fletcher do not overlook the prevalence of priestly ideas
in almost every act of South American life , whether political or social , —in fact , they cannot but admit that the tint of the liomish scarlet pervades every institution , and colours the thoughts and actions of nearly every man ; still , they possess that discriminating power which enables them to separate things spiritual and temporal though so closely allied : iinI as it were interwoven , and to look at the general lite in this colossal region apart from this powerful influence . They look at a Brazilian , also , under the influence of commerce , of polities , ok' scientific pursuits , of trade and agriculture ; examine into the resources of the country , the workings ut the present systems which control the mercantile sand manufacturing community of Brazil ; depict the spirit which animates the various political parties ot the empire , and assist tho naturalist in arriving at an accurate knowledge of the iloral beauties , and zoological and mineral wealth of this colossal
kingdom . One of the greatest social evils complained of id gambling , which , legislated against but practised in a private form , is nevertheless enuoiu'a ^ il by the Government in the shapo of lotteries : — There is another species of gambling moat deleterious in its effects , Avlii ^ h is countenanced ami su pported by the Government . I refer to lotteries . They are not ' ^ concerns , but prizes arc put up , ami , if drawn , paid . Jl" it is a church , a theatre , or some other public building to be erected , tho Government , grunts a lottery . There are always six thousand tickets at iiOtfOOO ( twenty milreis ) each ; the highest prize ia 20 , 0 () 0 $ 000 ( or about ten thousand dollars ) , and the second prize is half that sum : there are tlicn two thousand more tickets , which drnw prizes of 20 $ 000 ( ten dollars ) and upward . Everywhere in tho city are offices for selling the tickets , and in the country there are equestrian ticket-vendors , who go from house to house with the risking billets . There is no fraud in awarding tho prizes , and there ia sue " a rage for this kind of gambliug that the tickets are sold in a lew
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), Oct. 24, 1857, page 18, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_24101857/page/18/
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