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Tiny scorns of smiled reproringa That hare more of lore than loving * j Mischiefs done with such a winning Archness that we prize such sinning ; Breakings dire of plates and glasses ; Grasping * tmall at all that paste * / Pullings off of all that ' s able To be caught from tray or table ; Sile nces—small meditations Deep as thoughts of cafes for liations ' , Breaking into wisest speeches In a tongue that nothing teaches ; All the thoughts of whose possessing Must be wooed to light by guessing ; 8 lumbers—such Sweet aflgel-stjernlngs That we * d ever have such dreamings ; Till from sleep we see tbee breaking , And we ' d alway s have thee waking ; Wealth for which we know no measure ; pleasure high above all pleasure ; Gladness brimming over gladness ; Joy in care 5 delight in sadness ; Loveliness beyond completeness ; Sweetness distancing all sweetness : Beauty all that beatity tnay be ;—That ' s May Bennett ; that ' s my baby . " Now here , though there is much to be desired in the way of form , the sentiment is real , universal , vet particular , and the lines in italics are quite admirable . Had the volume been filled with thoughts and observations as direct from life , instead of coming from books and mere fancy , and had a little more care been bestowed in winnowing the expressions and images , it might have made a name . As it is , it can be reckoned only among the verses of the day—to be forgotten on the morrow * This may sound harsh to him , but we mean it in all kindness ; there is greater unkindness in flattery , and , as Sydney Smith well says , " Among the smaller duties of life I hardly know of one more important than that of not praising where praise is not due . " For the sake of the subject , and illustrating , at the same time , the mild mediocrity of the volume , we will quote this satire : — " THE ORY OF THE LAWFUL LANTERNS . DEDICATED TO CERTAIN OfPOKBNTS OF NATIONAL EDUCATION . " A people dwelt in darkness , In gloom and blinding night , Till some grew tired of candles , And dared to long for light , When straight the established lanterns Were stirred with hate of day , And loud the lawful rushlights In wr . ith were heard to say , ' Oh , have you not your lanterns , Your liltle shining lanterns 1 Why need have you of sunshine 7 What do you want with day 'I ' " Then loud the people murmured , And vowed it was n't right For men who could get daylight , To grope about in night ; Why should they lose the gladness , The pleasant sights of day ! Hut still the established lanterns Continued all to Bay , ' Oli , have you not your lanterns , Your nice old glimmering lanterns ! What need have you of sunshine ? What do you want with day ? * " Hut people loathed the darkness , And dured at last to nay , ' You old-established rushlights Arc g-ood timing in your way ; Hut are you , candles , sunlight , — You luntorns , —arc you day 'I ' Still loud the lawful lanterns Did answer make and say , * Oh , be content with lanterns , \ our good old fashioned lanterns I You really want too much light ; Don 't nek again for day . ' " At last the crowd ' s < l < : op murmur Gr » -w , gathering to a roar , And that they would lmv < : daylight , In l ;\ ii ( ci us , ' Bpito . they vivure ; And Aiir wan on all ruHhlij-litK , And trembling und diHinay ; Al . 18 , aids for luntcrtiB !' Tin ; people hemd them ray ; ' ( Hi , won—oh , woe for luntoniH ! What will lii'cnmc of Iniitornn I Aluck , they uill huve HUiiuhiiu : : Alan , there will hi ; day !' " Ami , aa the tempout thickened , Aloud they « liri ( tk , filial nothing- Ittt in duy ; Oh , don 't . ud in it tin ) mumliiri . i 1 Kuep out tliu iluyli ffht , pray I Oh , don 't put out your lantorna I Your own old little lant « rn » 1 Oh , do without tlm ¦ uiuhinet Oh , don't lot iu tho duy 1 '
•« The day came in ; but pf 6 phets Do say , 'tis certain , quite , That long , through coming : ages , Will lanterns hate the light , That to our children ' s children , In sorrow still they ' 11 say , * Oh , for the times of darkness , Ere lanterns passed away ! Why laid they by us lanterns , Their fine , their good old lanterns We ' re sure it ' s bad , this sunshine , This horrid glare of day . "
The spirit of this is good , the conception satirical , though not very striking ; but how facile and lax the execution ! how deficient in the vigour , vehemence , terseness , and eloquence of satire ! They are the sort of verses dashed off at a sitting ; and the whole volume seems little more elaborate .
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FRIENDS IN COUNCIL . Friends in Council ; a Series of Headings and discourses thereon . 2 vols . Pickering It would ill express our admiration of the author of " Friends in Council" to say , that he is incomparably the best of living essayists , or that few of the essayists who have gone before can take precedence of him ; he strikes us as being more of an essayist than any of his rivals— -they are humourists , egotists , or bow-wow bigwigs : he has many a touch of quiet humour ; but no egotism , no bow-wow .
He essays each topic with his meditative , subtle , independent-thinking mind , and in his grave , animated , suggestive style ; the result is a few pages full of well-thought matter , exquisitely expressed . He is decidedly an original thinker in the sense of thinking for himself the thoughts he publishes : and there is scarcely a subject , however old , but he will say something new and noteworthy on it when it comes before him . He has no affectations , plays with no paradoxes ; yet the page is incessantly bright and varied .
This new edition—whether the third or fourth is not stated ^—of a book known to most cultivated readers , calls for little remark from us beyond the fact of a new and welcome addition in the shape of an index . Yet , in turning over the well-known pages , we were again struck with the singular felicity of thought and expression which arrests the wandering attention . Not simply in pointed epigrams and weighty -yvwp . atf but also in the easy windings of dialogue , in which he is a master , we see examples of classic excellence . What can be finer than this , for instance : " Vague injurious reports are no men ' s lies , but all men ' s carelessness" ? It is an essay in an epigram . Again : " Perhaps the greatest charm of books is , that we see in them that other men have suffered what we have . Some
souls we ever find who would have responded to all our agony , be it what it may . This , at least , robs misery of its loneliness . " Vanity , one would think , had been so analysed , as to leave nothing new to be said ; yet note this : " It takes away much of the savour of life to live amongst those with whom one has not anything like one ' s fair value . It may not be mortified vanity , but unsatisfied sympathy which causes this discomfort . " There is a species of vanity which manifests itself in humility , by no means the least disagreeable of its manifestations , because , while prostrating itself upon the ground before you , it calls clamorously upon your goodnature for the admiration it deprecates ; and this vanity is thus sketched : —
" Thnre is a class of dreadfully humble people who make immense claims at the very time that tliey are explaining that tlieyhtkve no claims . They say they know they cannot be esteemed : they are well aware they are not wanted , and no 011 : all the while making it a sort of grievance und a claim that they are not what they know themselves not to he : wliei eaa , ii they did not fall back Upon their humility , < md keep themse . ves quiet about their demerits , they would he ntroiiK then , and in their place , and happy , and doing what they could . "
The peculiarity in construction of these volumes is a novel and happy one . KsssiyH are first read upon some topic or other , and then a sort of critical convernation follows between three men who Hiiggcst doubts , modifications , and amplifications ; not as men do in books , but very much as they do in real life—digrcHNiiiK , enlarging , jenting , disputing , and returning to the point with all tho vurioty and all the iluvour of good conversation .
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' 1 HOOKS ON OUU TABU- ; . ( , ' twral IHitory of tlw Christian IMiglon and Chinch . Tunislittutl from tin ; German ol Dr . AujfiiHtuu Noiindor . P » y Joh <>|> Ii Torriiy . New edition , carefully reviwid !> y tlm Reverend A . J . JMoiribon , H . A . Vol . 1 . ( HoIiu ' h Mtiuidard l , ilmuy . ) II . G . Holm . At all timed a most welcome hook , thin \ n peculiarly welcome just now when England ia diucussing with more
or less eagerness the position of the Christian Churches . Neander was a man renowned among Germans for his solid pains-taking qualities—a learning which disdained reliance on second-hand authorities , and a power of generalizing and grouping his materials , which forms the true historical compliment to learning . His style is not graphic , but it is intelligible—which is something . The present version seems to us both accurate and readable . In this , the first volume , Neander takes a survey of the religious condition of the world , Jewish , Greek , and Roman , on the advent of Christianity ; he then traces the history of the diffusion of Christianity , its sufferings , and struggles . This is followed by an instructive history of the constitution of the Church and its discipline , an account of the heresies and schisms , and a programme of Christian Life and Worship .
The book is an admirable book ; but it is written by a theologian , and is vitiated as a history by the one great fundamental assumption , that Christianity is not a power that has sprung up out of the hidden depths of man ' s nature , but has descended from above when heaven opened itself anew to man ' s long alienated race . This ice call a profound historical blunder ; but to the theologian it is a fundamental truth . Some Account of the Life and Adventures of Sir Reginald Mohun , Baronet . Done into verse . By George Cayley . Cantos II . and III . \ V . Pickering . Gay and easy verses , with more pleasantry than wit , done in a style which Beppo and Don Juan have tempted many to follow , as if on purpose to exemplify
" L ' art difficile d'gerire des vers faciles ;'' Precisely because this style admits of the greatest licence , it requires the greatest talent to elevate it into excellence .
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The Freethinker ' s Magazine , Jieriew of Theology , Politics , and Literature . No . 8 . ( Enlarged . ) J . Watson . Tracts on Christian Socialism . No . 7 . The Case of the Authors as regards the Paper Duty . By Charles Knight . Charles Knight . Hebrew llecords . An Historical Inquiry concerning- the Age , Authorship , and Authenticity of the Old Testament . By the Reverend Dr . Giles . John Chapman . Elementary Anatomy and Physiology , for Schools and Private Instruction ; with Lessons on Diet , Intoxicating Drinks , Tohacco , and Disease . By William Lovett . Illustrated with Ten Coloured Plates . Darton and Co . The Professor ' s Wife . From the German of Berthold Auerbach . J . W Paiker . A Christmas Offering . Original Poems . By Richard Friend . John Johnson .
Political Opinions on the Iloman Catholic Question , expressed in Parliament and in Public . By the ltight Honourable Lord John ltu > sell , M . P ., coin piled from the most authentic souicos . By a Barrister . llichardson and Son . Gleaning ) , from the Blue Book in favour of a better system than the present " Prolix , Expensive , and Vexations''' one oj the Laws , relating to Laud , Uy J . G . J . Greene , I so , , M . A . Charles Whitiingham . The British Journal of HomcvopaUiy . Part XXXV . Samuel llig-lilty . The English Republic . God and the People . Edited by W . J . Lintoii . . No . I . J- Watson . I ' EKioniCALS . Fraser ' s Magazine . The Rambler .
Tuit ' s Edinburgh Magazine . Leigh Hunt ' s Journal . Part I . The Journal oj Industry . So . C > . Household Words . Household A ' arratire . Mirror of the Time . No . 23 . S . G . W . ilUer Penny Maps . ( i ' aitYl . ) Chapman und Hull
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Mihkrahlk Sin in kks . — Ex prc ssions of the deepest contrition and remorse doubtless abound in Scripture , and assuredly they still meet but too often with a responsive groan in the bosom of mo . it of us ; but why should Evangelic Christians harp only upon one ntring of dismal note , when the theme of scriptural song so often swells into a glad anthem , awakening responsive melody in our own hearts ? It is easy to gather from the penitential psalms or the apostrophes of an indignant 1 ' rophet , burthens of lamentation , and mourning , a'nd woe ; but it is no less cany to find odes and lyiies of joy and pride in the honour and glory of Manhood . To quote , would be endless , but we all know' Unit the wine
/ sweet singer of Jsiael , whose spmt . sinks within him at the thought of wild crimes of passion and worse sins of treachery , rises again with elastic spring from the level of a crushed worm to the rank of a righteous and a royal num . liord , who shall abide in thy tabernacle ? he llmt woiketh righteouiMietiH and s ;> eaketh tho truth , he tliut neither injures nor slanders his neighbour , in whrse eyes viit ? things are despised , hut things honourable are honoured—he who thus lives shall never die . Such in the substance ( if one psalm among many similar , then why is it ignored in favour of such fearful eltusioiiri of remorse uh are poured forth by the Jewish Iving after the betrayal and murder of Uriiih the Hittite , a tragedy deep and dark . in a drama of the (« reekM : ' ' Let us but . exercise
judgment m the study of Scripture , rending it . in u free Hpirit of religion , noi a s < rvile idolatry of supei stition , and ivc shall fulfil tlic c million 011 which it presents itself as a providential Loon to Christendom ; we shall avoid among other peril * the gloomy exaggeration of evil which would muke man u liltle lower tliun the beasts rather than the angels — his lift ! a buiden . iiiclacui . se rather than an honour and a bltssinfj ; . The IJible urges us to try id npiiit by our own ; the written inspiration of the past by tho living inspiration of the presenttrying all things and holding fust to what iu good . Tiiei e neither is nor can be good in seeking to glorify ( UhI by professing to degrade ourselveH , the best of hia earthly creatures , and there in danger moreover in giving ournelvcH u bad name , lent w » : grow resigned to be the " grovelling woriint " we call ournclvea . — Wilson ' s Catholicity , Spiritual and Intellectual .
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jAN 4 , 1851 . ] ®»« auafrgr , 17
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Leader (1850-1860), Jan. 4, 1851, page 17, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1864/page/17/
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