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F£B;2S,1862J ; : .; : ^;H:e ^ ; LE;Af) :...
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rvities are not the legislators, but the...
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Our readers will be pleased to hear that...
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Another correspondent, whom we regard wi...
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SHELLEY'S LETTJERS. Letters of Percy Bys...
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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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F£B;2s,1862j ; : .; : ^;H:E ^ ; Le;Af) :...
F £ B ; 2 S , 1862 J ; : . ; : ^; H : e ^ ; LE ; Af ) : E ; 3 ft . _ > . ¦ .. ,, ... .. / ¦ W .
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Rvities Are Not The Legislators, But The...
rvities are not the legislators , but the judges and police of literature . They do not make laws—they interpret and try to enforce them . —Edinburgh Review .
Our Readers Will Be Pleased To Hear That...
Our readers will be pleased to hear that Gablyle is at present engaged on a new historical work , though the precise shape it will take—whether as a biography or as a , history—we are not in a condition to announce . The lovers of criminal history will also be glad to learn , that J . Hill Burton is about to publish a selection of Narratives from the Scotch Causes Cilibres And the lovers of Comic History will not be displeased to read the following letter , addressed to us by Gilbert a'Beckett , in reply to our criticism on his Comic History of Rome : — Sib , — -Permit me to say a few words in reference to your brief criticism on my recently-comp leted History of the Common / wealth of Rome : reallmuch obli to for
For your remarks , though unfavourable , I am y ged you ; they proceed from one who has taken the trouble to think about the subject he writes upon . Criticism in the present day is so generally influenced by personal considerations , especially as far as newspaper notices of books are concerned , that there are very few journals for whose opinion either writer or reader entertains much respect . Of the few « criticisms" I have chanced to see , some have in the old stereotyped conventional phrases alluded to my work as " rich , " " racy , " or « rampant , " while other « gentlemen" of the press have summarily disposed of itsometimes confessedly , without reading it—as so much " grinning through a horsecollar " Praise or censure of this sort is of course equally indifferent to one who sees that there is as mucb stupidity or as little sense in the laudation as in the vituperation—the former proceeding from good-natured , and the latter from illnatured fools . You are the sort of person to whom my preface is addressed , and been alle to convince
you are one of those whom I should have been glad to have > of the utility Of history written in the style I have applied to it . I confess that I have long felt an objection to the title of " Comic , " and I only adopted it in reference to the History of Rome , t & the request of the publishers , who advised that the work should form one of a serie 3 , to which the Comic History of England and the Comic JBlaoJcstone belonged . My purpose has been to write a history in which humourand satire , in conjunction with clearness and truth , should _ be the preliminary elements . I cannot agree with you in your comparison of the History of Rome with the History tf Christianity / and though I share your revulsion of feeling ^ at the notion you suggest of " putting before one , by pen and pencil , the early Christian gent , " Ido not see why the « Koman gent" should not be placed in a ludicrous light , or why it is wrong to divest him , as well as every other Roman pretender , of the « lofty associations" which you truly say " young minds" would
otherwise attach to him . i > ., T u 1 You have put to ihe a home question in asking me whether I would place my book in the hands of my own children , from nine to nineteen years of age . I will answ ** **« question in a homely manner , by saying , that I have done so , and wtmia do so again . I have found , taoreovei " , tbat tltey , and others of their age , have acquired a knowledge of the principal facts of history from the Comic version , when the many very excellent serious versions have failed to attract their attention ,
or to make an impression on their memories . I have had n 6 fear of " vulgarizing " in their " young minds" subjects that would otherwise have " lofty associations . " Nor do I concur in your view , that all Roman History , with its crowd of knaves , dupes , tyrants , and impostors , pseudo-patriots , suicidal philosophers , and all its absurd traditions , should be the subjects of " lofty associations" in the " young mind . " I have , I hope , never spoken contemptuously of that which is really good or great , and I do not think I have done any harm in ridiculing what is bad or little—particularly when " lof ty associations" have been hitherto attached to it in
mature , as well as in juvenile minds . If I could be convinced that the objections you urge to comic histories are valid , I think I should be candid enough , to admit their force ; but at present I feel persuaded that in writing them , I am using such talent as I possess , to the advantage of my readers , * who , while seeking amusement , obtain instruction which they might not otherwise derive from a more recondite source . This letter will , I fear , occupy more of your time than you think the subject worth ; but as your paper is addressed to readers of more than ordinary intelligence , I should be glad to have an opportunity of placing these views before them . Very truly yours , Gilbert Abbott a'Beokett . Hydo Park Gate South , Kensington Gore .
We have no wish to press our objection against Mr . a'Beckett , but , while freely allowing him to state his own defence , in the columns that accused him , we cannot suffer it to pass without protest . The defence does not seem to us valid . It does not even fairly seize our objection . It rests upon the assumption , that we claim for all the details of Roman history the privilege of raising "lofty associations , " which it is imprudent to " vulgarize . " Not so . The Roman is not sacred to us because he wears a toga , and is ignorant of railways ; his tyranny , brutality , sensuality are not
to be admired , because they belong to the classic period , and are recorded i » a poor nasal language . Hut Roman history is sacred to us as the records of one section of Humanity . Wo would not have it vulgarized , because the memories of our forefathers deserve better of us . Regarding the whole human race as one majestic existence , one vast chain , encompassing us and all men , past , present , and to come , in a vital unity of brotherhood ,- — a Life which moveth slowly , but surely onwards to grand predestined aims , eac h century handing to its successor the light which it has gained , —
, Kt quasi ^ ursores vita'i loinpodti tnulunt , wo cannot patiently see the sanctity oi ! this great existence profaned , as * t is profaned , in turniflig the Ayholo history of a people into burlesque . What are the Romans to usY ' . They are men . They arc of that Humanity which wo reverence Js it not foolish , as well as irreligious , to desqerato the Past , at the very time / when our most strenuous efforts are directed towards the Future ? Slmjl we , who labour for our successors , treat with
disrespect those who laboured for us ? Why do we care for the coming generations , if we can treat with levity the bygone ? If the human race is one—if Humanity has an existence , which calls forth our greatest faculties , and inspires our noblest endeavours , that man is blameable who places the grand phases of it in a ludicrous light ; Roman history is a grand phase . Individual Romans may call forth detestation , or pity ; , but the whole story of the life of Ronie is wo ? the subject of a jest .. Mr . a'Beckett , cbnscious of his own aims and oblivious of his work , repeats , that he has not thrown ridicule on what is in itself good or great . What , then , is calling the priests flamines—supporters of falsehoods , or " flams V what is his picture of Brutus ?——what Marius seated on the ruins ?—what the tone of the story of Viroinia ? We might fill a column with such instances , wherein what is poetic , touching , noble in the legend ,
becomes ludicrous in this history ; and to us it is not less profane thus to vulgarize the history of . one epoch in the life of Humanity , than it would be to write a Comic History of Religion . It is said , indeed , that the Comic treatment has this advantage , that it makes the young better acquainted with the principal facts of history than many serious versions can make them . It may be so ; but then we ask , Wherefore is this knowledge desirable ? Why care about the " facts" of a life which has no sacredness for you ? What was Rome , that you should burden your memory with its history ? Time sleeps over the ruins of worlds" Sur les mondes detruits , le Temps dort immobile . " And why should we awaken curiosity about the silent and the dead ?
Another Correspondent, Whom We Regard Wi...
Another correspondent , whom we regard with very different feelings from those which move us with regard to Mr . a'Begkett , a gentleman whose talents and character command our sincere respect—one Mr . Samuel Langley , irritated at our not inserting a letter he sent on the Alexander Smith controversy , has this week sought refuge in the Globe , a journal which was in no way implicated in the controversy . Our readers know perfectly well that we shrink from no opinions- ^ that we allow correspondents to dispute , to ridicule , and even vehemently to stigmatize our opinions in our own columns . We never shirk discussion . But we cannot
print every letter , nor every twentieth letter , sent us . Mr . Langley ' s letter was excluded for-three excellent reasons : it was very long , it was very foolish , and it was indecent . Writing to complain of our defence of sensuous imagery ^ he used language which no journal could ^ print . Instead of appreciating our kindness in not exposing him , he writes to the Globe a letter , in which , among misrepresentations and ineptitudes , he makes this suspicious confession : —" With regard to that description of poetry which presents glowing pictures to the propensities , and ignores the higher sentiments , / can testify from my own experience to its ruinous effects . " Oh , Mr . Langley J
Shelley's Lettjers. Letters Of Percy Bys...
SHELLEY'S LETTJERS . Letters of Percy Bysshe Shelley . With an Introductory Essay by Robert Browning . Moxon . The letters we announced some weeks ago are now on our table , prefaced by some remarks by Bobert Browning , which , as the utterances of one distinguished poet on a Great Immortal , are of very special interest . After drawing a distinction between the objective and the subjective kinds of poetry , Browning shows how necessary to the proper enjoyment of the subjective poet is a satisfactory knowledge of his life and being ; and argues , very justly , that Letters are peculiarly serviceable in opening to us glimpses of the real nature of the writer ' s mind : — -
" Letters and poems may be used indifferently as the basement of our opinion upon the writer ' s character ; the finished expression of a sentiment in the poems , giving light and significance to the rudiments of the same in the letters , and these , again , in their incipiency and unripeness , authenticating the exalted mood and reattaching it to the personality of the writer . The musician speaks on the noto he sings with ; there is no change in the scale , as he diminishes the volume into familiar intercourse . There is nothing of that jarring between the man and the author , which has been found so amusing or so melancholy ; no dropping of the tragic mask , as the crowd melts away ; no mean discovery of the real motives of a life ' s achievement , often , in other lives , laid bare as pitifully as when , at the close of abolidav . we catch sight of the internal lead-pipes and wood-valves , to oi tlio fountain
which , and not to the ostensiblo conch and dominant Triton , we have owed our admired waterwork . No breaking out , in household privacy , of hatred , anger , and scorn , incongruous with the higher mood , and suppressed artistically in the book : no brutal return to self-delighting , when the audience of philanthropic schemes is out of hearing : no indecent stripping off the grander feolinc : and rule of life as too costly and cumbrous for evory-day wear . " Whatever Shelley was , he was with an admirable sincerity . It was not always truth that ho thought and spoke ; but in the purity of truth he spoko and thought always Everywhere is apparent Iuh belief in tlio existence of ( Jood , to which Evil in an accident : his faithful holding by what he assumed to bo the former , tenderest for those
coins everywhere in company with tlio pity acting or Buffering on the oimoHite hypothesis . For ho waa tender , though tewdornosa is nob alwaya the characteristic of very sincere nature *; ho was eminently both tonclor and oiiicoro And not only do tlio nameaftyction and yearning after the woll-boing of his kind fti ) i ) O . 1 r in tho , lottorn an in tho . poomH , but they oxpreBS thoniHolves by tlio same theories and plans , however crude and unsound . There iB no . reservation of a subtler loss costly , more serviceable remedy for his own ill , than ho haa proposed for the general one ; not dooH ho over contemplate an object on his own account ; from a less elovation than ho uses in exhibiting it to thp world . How aliall we holn bolioving Shelley to have boen , in his ultimate attainment , tlio splendid spirit of his own boot pootry , whon wo find even bis carnal speech to agree faithfully , at fitintest « b at strongest , with the tono and rhythm of his moat oracular
" For the rest , thoso now lottery aro not offered as presenting any new foaturo of the poet ' s character . Regarded in themHolvoH , and m the aubHtantivo productions of a man tjioir importance would bo eliglit . But thoy potass interest beyond
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), Feb. 28, 1852, page 17, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_28021852/page/17/
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