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    November 26, 1853.] T HE L E A DEB. 1149

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    €h %x\&.

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    A BACHELOR OF ARTS, One of tho pleaaanto...

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    LOVE'S ALARMS. But how about the new one...

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    WEDNESDAY EVENING CONCERTS. As we were p...

• Transcript

  • 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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    Yet how many must one try on before lie gets suited ? There never appeared a religion , but there were souls to receive it . Yet how many must a soul entertain before it is satisfied P If one is earnest and wise , I can tell him of a religion that will not give him satisfaction ; if he is stupid and vain , I know one will just suit him . It is not a church yet , but has its soul's guides and liturgies , and will soon get its priests and Larger and Shorter Catechisms . It will guide him to the appearance of wisdom , which will serve him instead of the reality . It will tell him of infinities and eternals within and beyond his soul , by pointing to which he shall achieve a greater reputation for thought

    and expression than if he were to clothe endless finites and temporals with beautiful word-dresses from the wardrobes of Apollo . That to him will be satisfaction . If he is a'blatherer , I can strongly recommend it to his attention . " Wisdom is always calm . ; its words lead trippingly to truth as the dove led JEneas to the golden branch . Stupidity blathers ; but blathering is justified by inspiration ! This , O Blatherer , is the religion for thee I Go thunder round thy subject under a press of inspirations , like a cooper round a cask . Obscurity waits for thy enthusiasm ; be metaphor and analogy , thy TJrim and Thummimthe bump of Imagination thy Holy of Holies !

    "I cannot well tell you what their esoteric teaching is . The use of language is to convey intelligible thoughts . The thoughts I am going to convey to you are unintelligible ; the language purely metaphorical ; the reasoning wholly from analogy . A painful necessity of language compels us to speak of spiritual things as if they were material : we are going to labour m an unknown world with tools of earth . Man is both a poetic and religious animal . . With the poetic side of his nature he touches a world of Imagination ; with the religious , a world of Spirit . As the world of ether of physical philosophers is one ether , so the world of spirit is one spirit . Of that spirit we are parts , living in it , in a state of separation , encased in bodies . We are as if we were in "bottles in an ocean . Some of us inhabit quart bottles , some pint bottles , some infinitesimally small

    vesicules . Our geniuses are in gallon measures ; some have occupied hogsheads . None of us are hermetically sealed in : we are subject to intermixture with the ocean , by OOzings , as it were , through our corks and bung-holes . Some of us , in stone jugs , can see nothing of the ocean ; some in blue bottles , others in green , see it after a fashion . A few , in thin transparent crystals , corked with sponae , are men of enlarged views ! We are all of us incarnated lessons , what Windrush calls modes of divine teaching ! When our cases crack , or our corks fly out , we become absorbed in the ocean . Whilejin our cases : —here I submit to the highest spiritual authority .

    " There is but one ocean contained in all individual bottles . Every bottle has an inlet to the same , and to all of the same . He that is once admitted to the right of residing in a transparent bottle is made free of the whole ocean . Wliat was in Plato ' hogshead , he may get into his bottle ; what a sponge head has felt , he may feel ; what at any time has befallen any bottle , lie can perceive through his own . Who hath the whole ocean in his bottle , is a party to all that is or can be done ; for this is the only and sovereign agent . ' .

    " Everything in nature is in motion . It is either going to a centre , or from a centre , or round a centre . Where it was once , it will be again . You differ from your fellow man , and leave his company . The whole diameter of the circle of opinion separates you from him . Do you think you will never meet P Fool , you have but gone the round more rapidly than he has . See , you already approach him from behind ! Mistyinind is unconsciously treading on Chatband ' s heels . When he taps him on the shoulder , neither will be astonished . Mistymind has a grand project for the suppression of priests . He is the originator of the Anti-priestoppression Association . When he has suppressed the priests , he thinks will

    men follow IS ature . And so they will . Naturo is a manifold writer . With greater or less clearness , she has written hor laws on every man ' s mind . But all do not know her cipher ! Nature , says Mistymind , abhors priests , but lovea interpreters . ' Homo nature minister et interpres' is the only portion of Bacon ' s celebrated maxim over quoted b y Mistymind . Well , let him have his interpreters , and bind them to his own interpretation . Surely the road will now bo straight and pleasant . -Nay , for a priest is of the party ! He lias dropped his cassock , and reappears with black silk gloves and an umbrella ; not from an extramundane court , but as hin own ambassador . Verily , the old was the better company !"

    November 26, 1853.] T He L E A Deb. 1149

    November 26 , 1853 . ] T HE L E A DEB . 1149

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    A Bachelor Of Arts, One Of Tho Pleaaanto...

    A BACHELOR OF ARTS , One of tho pleaaantoflt , happiest piocoB which has boon produced for some time , was produced in tho fog of Wednesday hist , at tho Lyckum . Its ° rigiu is On demande un Gouverneur , a two-act comedy which had great Hu ! , raco ° * ikH original colouring . Tlio adapter is announced as JVIr . 1 olhiiTn Hardwioko ; but a play-going public will have little difficulty in "Meeting the hand of Charles Mathcwa in many parts of tho dialogue . < ho idea is one more humorous than probable , but probability is not a 'Irunmtie virtue . Younc . Tasnor has run thromrli ]» io fnV / , in ^« imd wan ts

    ajj oxmtonionfc . Tho advertisement of " Wanted a Tutor for h boy of 18 " JilluroB him . That surely must have emanatedfront an old fogy , one of 'it '" old school "—a guy in pigtail and nilvor Imcskles . Can't one " got »¦ viho" out of Mint respectable " party P" . Jasper fliinkfi " rather ! " Me c ° mes , ho Heos , and is conquered . friBtoud of an old logy , ho sees a kind *>}<* ¦ gentleman , whom it would bo a shame to ( iuiz . To get ; out of the iMMitiou without delay , ho announces kin qualifications ah tutor to bexeollonco at billiards , pro-ominoneo in questions of -wine and horse-flesh , weulcnofls for gaming , u frailty for the stronger sex , a gonoral contempt r wiidoBjnon ' s bills , nnd a healthy iguoranco of JLatin and Gfroek : in

    short , a Vivian ' on a small scale , plus the ignorance , and minus the Christian Fathers ! An ideal tutor ! A man to be cherished in the bosom of families ! A blessing to parents , and a delight to sons ! You fancy , perhaps , that this programme leads to his being bowed politely out of the house ? He fancied it would be so . "But parents and guardians are such queer people ! Old Thornton , instead of bowing him out , accepts him on . the spot ; places him in command not only of his son , but of his entire establishment during . a temporary absence ! The secret of this conduct is ( dramatically ) very simple . He recognises in Jasper the scapegrace son of an old friend , who has begged him to reclaim , if possible , at all events to befriend , that son .

    Jasper , seated on the domestic throne , finds work enough to hand . The " boy" has a love affair with an Arabella Mountstuart , who without ostensible fortune keeps a very ostensible Brougham . She is the loveliest and fairest , of her sex . One ' s " flame" always is , you know ; were it not so , love and marriage would be impossible , for we should be always pursuing that eluding and deluding Ideal , and never settling down into comfortable credulity respecting our Janes and Julias , Carolines and Mary Annes . Jasper , not being in love , has other theories respecting Arabella ; his task is therefore to win the confidence of his pupil , and wean him from Arabella and her Brougham . He has other tasks ; one , a very delicate task for any man to undertake , namely , the unmasking of a libertine who

    makes love to old Thornton ' s pretty wife ; the second , a very difficult one , namely , the outwitting of a wily old scoundrel who has in his possession a document which affects the honour of the family . In these tasks he succeeds , and wins the heart of the ingenuous Emma ; but Jiow he does these things must not here be told . The intrigue is both ingenious and clear , the incidents amusing , and the interest unflagging . The whole tone of the piece is that of direct healthy comedy , and emphatically I say , go and judge for yourself ! The acting is excellent . Charles Mathews plays the part of Jasper with that natural ease in which he is unrivalled ( an ease often degenerating into carelessness , and passing out of the sphere of acting , for in its

    avoidance of " points , it has often the effect of mere slovenliness , and is not painting , but the " scumbling in" of haste or indifference ) with that charm of manner the secret of which belongs to him alone , —with that gaiety which never runs into coarseness , —and with that nice perception of characteristic detail , never obtrusive , always effective ; and'finally with that well-bred air which distinguishes all he does . Moreover , I would specially call attention to the very effective reading of his father ' s letter , which closes the first act—its natural unstrained pathos produced what the Italians call a " knot in the throat" of us all , a choking sensation , which only fine acting will produce . Frank Mathews is also unusually truthful and effective in the part of Andrew Wilie , one of the best bits of character in his repertoire .

    Love's Alarms. But How About The New One...

    LOVE'S ALARMS . But how about the new one act opera ? I promised to see it ; and oh ! the value of promises ! I haven ' t . Who could see anything through this week ' s fogsr ( I didn't go on Wednesday through the fog to the X / YCETJM , but through the slops of Thursday . ) Instead of Loves Alarms it was Fog ' s Alarms to me . But although I haven't seen it , I can tell you in a brief pregnant sentence all about it . No man who has looked at life as a philosopher can have any doubt on tho nature of Love ' s Alarms—namely , wedlock and eight children ; if that is not alarming , what is P Vivian .

    Wednesday Evening Concerts. As We Were P...

    WEDNESDAY EVENING CONCERTS . As we were prevented by " circumstances over which we had no control ; " in other words , by the fog , from reaching Exeter Hall before nine o ' clock on Wednesday night , just as the last bars of Mendelssohn ' s " Italian" Symphony were being played , we can only , in o \ ir character of honest , rather than ubiquitous , reporters , assure our readers how great a loss we , in common with many hundreds , sustained . The programme of this concert was particularly rich , the first part being devoted entirely to Mendelssohn . Iho second of his concert-overtures , known in England as A calm sea and a prosperous voyage , was executed under Mr . Benedict ' s direction in a manner that left littlo to be desired . According

    to a recent suggestion of the Times , it was played at the end of the first part of tho programme , to the evident advantage of the executants and the audience . The eoneevto was the first of the two Piano-forte Concertos , that in Or minor , nndwan played to suoh perfection by Mademoiselle ClauBS as ( says the Times ) " to have contented the most devoted admirer of Mendelssohn ' s genius . The slow movement , especially , was given with exquisite feeling , and was loudly re-demanded by the audience , who listened , to tho concerto with unmistakable interest from first to . last , and at the conclusion honoured Mademoiselle Claims with , a recall . " There was a selection of vocal chamber music , accompanied on the piauo-forto by Mr . Benedict in masterly style .

    The second miscellaneous part of tho programme was made somewhat noticeable by the first appearance of a new contralto , Madame Amedie , of whom tho Times says : — , " Of tho Lilly ' s pretension )! an n vocalist wo would rather defer speaking ; but of her voice , it may be Haul , without , hesitation ; that ,, ninc « / Ylhoiiioame out nt the ltoya . 1 Italian Opera , a purer , nmro HatiKfacl , ory and l > o ; iii | , iiul voice of U , h clans lias not boon , hosigtl . Ii » tho * . lirlntliHi , * IVoiu J / nnrzia Itorr / w , whidi ( injudicioiiwly , wo thought ) wnn introduced later in tho ovoniii ^ , iliin opinion wan furllior Hla-englJienod . With Mich a . trouHiiro at command , wIioho limit will il . be if Madame . Ainedie , evidently y # » ng , « 1 ooh notbeooino a wintforV She product ;*! a marked . iinproHHion . "

    On tho whole , il . was an excellent concert . It is the more to bo regretted that the audience hIkmKIhavo been inevitably thin , liven thoHO who wore present appeared rather to have taken refuge from the ihg wtthout than to be drawn together by tho concord of sweet sounds within the Hall . Such a programme denerves repetition : and if the Directors would but givo us one elmneo more of hearing Mademoisello ClauHS , before she exchanges London , fogs for Kusniau snows , we shullVo ready to certify , that they have " deserved well of their country . "

• Citation
  • Leader (1850-1860), Nov. 26, 1853, page 21, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_26111853/page/21/