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612 The Leader and Saturday Analyst. [ J...
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HOLIDAY LITERATURE.* HOW to enjoy a holi...
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* Evenings on tho Thames ; or, Sorono Ho...
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KUSKTN'S MODERN PAINTERS.* XT QT WITHSTA...
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, * Modern Painters. Vol. V., completing...
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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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Parochial Dissensions. Sphere Is Nothing...
dissented from the Established Church and founded a Free Church of their own . The self-sacrifice of the non-intrusionist clergy on that occasion was very remarkable . Some hundreds of them , merely ; because they disapproved the system of landlord patronage , gave up their salaries and comfortabl y manses to live in squalid lodgings upon the scanty offerings of their flocks , and to preach in barns . Now the confliction in the Church of England arises , in reality , out of this question of patronage . If the parishioners of Sfc . George's-in-the-Eust were not compelled to accept any pastor whom the patron chooses to appoint , they would not be outraged by doctrines which they do not approve . If they were free to choose their own pastor they would also choose their own doctrine . At this period of time , when the Established Church is rent by so many dissensions , and when church-rates have been condemned- by the voice of the nation , the momjent would seem to have arrived for something ; iike combined action on the part of told that
those who are pining : for religious freedom . We are there are many clergymen in the Church who have strong conscientious objections not only -to the ritual , but to the doctrines to which they have subscribed . Why should not these orthodox men and such militant Protestants as the parishioners of St . George ' s come together . If they dislike the name of dissenters let them " form a free church . Let a convocation of free clergy meet at Westminster , or Exeter Hall if they prefur it , and draw up a new prayer-book , and a-new set of articles . Let the people on their part settle how they are to build and maintain their churches , and pay their , pastors . If the clergy are conscientious they will" gladly make this sacrifice , and if the people love peace and trite religion they 1 - will prefer this peaceful solution of the great difficulty to a prolonged and hopelessly embittered quarrel , tending only to destroy respect for holy thiugs , and bring the most sacred doctrine of religion into contempt .
612 The Leader And Saturday Analyst. [ J...
612 The Leader and Saturday Analyst . [ June SO , I 860 ,
Holiday Literature.* How To Enjoy A Holi...
HOLIDAY LITERATURE . * HOW to enjoy a holiday , and what the conditions are of enjoyment , are questions of more importance than they are generally considered .- The author of " Evenings on the Thames " proposes to answer them . He sets about bis work in right earnest vein , arid with aa ostentation of learning which at first sigkfr is in these days sufficiently alarming . His penchant is , indeed , to treat all things in the manner of the ancients , btit , for the things to be so treated , to select the most modern and popular , _ The title of the volunie is pleasantly suggestive , and is , irideecL made to stand for many things — -fVjr anything or for everything The whole book , in the author's estimation , resembles " the Diapason orHomer ^ embracingwith its sweep . thihsrs small and things great , things sub lime and things homely—all objects that experience has suggested , and all thoughts that the soul of main has imagined or received . " review
The reader will now perceive that we have under an ambitious work , one in which learning contends with humour for the mastery . The writer has read extensively , and quotes ostenta-. tiqiisly ; he takes the round of the classics , and omits not the romancers . The Greek and Roman authors ai-e his delight , and the early poets of England and Prance are his familiars . Sages , ancient inTnrnTjfternT *^^ and preachers . Horace and Moiitaigne are his favourites , but not less so Augustin and Balzac , Withal , like J Vlalyolio , he " thinks nobly of the soul , " and would " preserve the intelligence of those great ideas of which the traces begin to be effaced amongst the literary classes . " In a word , this is a . work for advanced readers whether they peruse it on an excursion or in the study . It . will exercise and strengthen the mental faculties , and stimulate the development of the moral powers . ¦
. , , Our anonymous author is boith an ingenious and loquacious ( not to s : iy eloquent ) advocate in favour of holidays and " serene hours . " He fills his first two chapters with reasons and citations , and traditions , and illustrations , poetic , musical , pictorial , and prosaic , for festival relaxations and anniversary visits to favourite spots , for the frequenting of tea-gardens and watering-places , for the temporary sojourn in retired nooks , alone or in company , where you may show yourself to be happy , and see that other people are so , for occasional boat-rowing on the Thames , and whatsoever other
pleasure may be proper to an interval of leisure . But for the duo enjoyment of these opportunities , appropriate states of mind are desirable . " The mind , " affer all , " is its own place , " and the place miist be in harmony with the mind , and the mind in harmony with the p lace , before perfect pleasure hi possible . Tho places visited by this suburban tourist are : —Bushy Park and Hampton Court , Kew Gardens , Kingston , Battorsea Reach , the Lock at Teddington ; Kew Green , Eel-pie Island , Eton Meadows , Ouzeley , Windsor , Strawberry Hill , Fulham , Putney , Petersham Meadows , Twickenham , and Ditton . We have besides some Reminiscences of a Foreign Expedition , and a Voyage from London Bridge to Weatrninster .... . But it is not so much with a description of these
places as with the disposition and mood of mind with which they ought to be visited , that our intellectual tourist deals . Thus he requires , before we visit Bushy Park and Hampton Court , that we should possess a sense of beauty , without which all would be barren from Dan to Beershebn . And it qomes to thin at last , that-only the beautiful mind can appreciate the beauty of nature . Similar disquisitions illustrate other chapters . Thus , to enjoy Kew Gardens we must be youthfully disposed ; to enjoy Kingston , our
character must be natural , and we must love nature ; at Battersea Reach we must have a taste for pleasure in the open air , and in all places we must have a good conscience and a loving heart in order to be supremely happy . They who can enjoy a book written m this spirit will find this one of the most enjoyable of books ; and with this commendation we dismiss it to the sympathetic reader .
* Evenings On Tho Thames ; Or, Sorono Ho...
* Evenings on tho Thames ; or , Sorono Hours , and What they Require . Two vols . ' Jkongman ; Green , Longman and Roberta .
Kusktn's Modern Painters.* Xt Qt Withsta...
KUSKTN'S MODERN PAINTERS . * XT QT WITHSTAND ING all the confessed errors and short-com-1 N ings of Mr . Ruskin ' s books , such is the brilliancy of his style and the extent of his observation , that they must always command attention and admiration . The present volume has been , suspended in the writer ' s mind ever since 1855 , owing to interruptions from other studies , and other labours , public and private , which he details in his preface . The chief interruption arose from , his task of arranging the Turner drawings for the National GraUery , consisting of some nineteen thousand pieces of paper . Xhe task both excited and exhausted him . Never , indeed , be tells us , had he felt so exhausted as when he " locked the last box , and gave the keys to Mr . Wornum , in May ^ 1858 . " A worthy task , mid worthily performed . Afterwards he found solace and instruction , in travelling in Italy , and during a residence in Turin . He then visited Berlin , Dresden , and Munich , but at last got home to his book . The result lies before us , in the shape of this handsome book , with its exquisite ingravings . M Leaves and clouds furnish the subjects of the two first parts . What things—nay creatures , these are to Ruskin ! How they live and love , and will ! How wonderful are their most familiar traits 1 How they grow , and he grows with them—grows with their growth , and strengthens with their strength . The race of plants demands , and has his boundless admiration ! ¦ " For their sakes , he loves all that belongs to the country . With him a rustic shall not signity a rude and untaught person . He will
not yield to the vulgar usage of words . He will not quietly concede that country people are necessarily rude ,, and town people gentle . His belief is , " that the result of each mode of life may , in sonie stages of the world ' s progress , be the exact reverse , and that another use of words may be forced upon us by a new aspect of , facts , so that we may find ourselves saying such and such a person is very gentle and kind- ^ -he is quite rustic ; and sueh ami suck another person is very rude and ilPlaught—he is quite urbane . " So be it , with all pur hearts . ¦" . .
Mr . Ruskin disposes plants in categories of his own -naming , ¦ though of ' nature ' s making . Two great classes—the tented and the building—broadjy include _ all .: the former , such as lilies , lichens , and mosses ; the * latter , trees in general : The latter class are again divisible into two : — " Builders with the Shield , " and "Builders with the Sword . " This , nomenclature is fanciful , but it is expressive ; and what is even better , rememberable . We have then chapters upon " The bud , " " The leaf , " " The aspects of the leaf , " " The branch / ' " The stem , " " The leaf monuments , " " The leaf shadows , " and " Leaves motionless . " On each arid all of these topics Mr . Ruskin writes with a loving reverence for nature , arid .. with a minuteness of observation that seems iti- ^ tiiitivft . The true artist has , of course , made similar remarks for himself , and does , as it were instinctively what here he is instructed *" to do by rule . Nevertheless , it is well to have these things systematised- —arranged and labelled for use . Genius does not reject such aids . The poet and orator complain not of the existence of grammars , and scorn not all reference ti > syntax and prosody . Nor will the rightly earnest student of , art neglect to profit by Mr . Buskin ' s diagrams and directions . As we read , we feel more and more grateful for the wise and loving , though occasion ally erring 1 , spirit who has undertaken the responsibility of writing- such a book as this before us—a book valuable for'its . ' technical qualities , but still more for the soul in it , animating and making interesting the driest details . The laws here wrung from the secrecy of nature are the condition of true art-working ; and to have them set in order , sind made plainly intelligible , is a service which must lay tho younpf artist under obligation all his life long . Take the following living picture : — " The leaves are tho feeders of tho plants . Their only orderly habits of succession must not interfere with their main business of finding food . Where the sim and air are the leaf must go , whether it be out of order or not . So therefore in any group , the first consideration with tho youngleaves is much like that of young bees—how to keep out of each other ' s way , that everyone may at once leave its neighbours as much freeair pasture as possible , and obtain a relative freedom for itself . This would be quite a simple matter , and produce other simplybalanced forms , if each . branch , with open air all round it , had nothing 1 to think of but reconcilement of interests among its own leaves . But every branch has others to meet or to cross , sharing with , them , in various advantage , what shade , or sun , or rain is to be had . Hence every single leaf-cluster presents the general aspect of a little family , entirely at unity among themselves , but obliged to gret their living 1 by various shifts , concessions , and infringement of tho family rules , in order not to invade the privileges of other people in their neighbourhood . " And in the arrangement , of these concessions there is na exquisite sensibility among the leaves . They do not grow each to
, * Modern Painters. Vol. V., Completing...
, * Modern Painters . Vol . V ., completing tho work , and containing Parts VI . Of Leaf JJeauty . VII . Of Cloud Beauty . VIII . Of Ideas of Relation ; 1—of Invention Formal . IX . Of Ideas of Rotation ; 2—of Inrontion Spiritual . By John Ruskin , M . A . Smith , Elder , and . Co ., 05 > Cornhill .
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), June 30, 1860, page 12, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_30061860/page/12/
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