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« OHNE HAST , OHNE BAST . " « ' Never hasting , never resting , " With a firm and joyous heart , Ever , on ward slowly tending , Acting , aye , a brave man ' s part . With a high and holv purpose , Doing all thou findst to do : Seeking ever man ' s upraising , With his highest end in view . ¦ Undepressed by seeming failure ; Undated by success ; Heights attained revealing higher , Onward , upward , ever press .
Slowly moves the march of ages ; Slowly grows the forest-king ; Slowly to peifedion ccmeth . Every great and gloiious thing . Broadest stream from narrowest sources ; Noblest trees from meanest seeds ; Mighty end * from small beginnings , From lowly promise , lofty deeds . Acorns which the winds have scattered , Future navies mav piovide . Thoughts at midnight whispered lowly Prove a people's iuture guide . Such the law enforced by nature
Since the Earth her ourse » egan ; Su « h to thee shesearcheth daily , Eager , aident , re-tle .-s man . " Never hasting , never resting , " Glad in peace , and calm in strife ; Quietly th > s < If piep 'ring , To pei form thy part in life . Earnest , hopeful , and unswerving , Weaiy though ihou a > t and faint ; Ne ' er despair , there's Gcd above thee , Listing ever to thy plaint . Stumb ' eth he who runneth fast ; Dieth he who standeth still :
Nor by haste , nor rest can ever Man his dtstiny fulfil . " Never hasting , never resting , " Legtnd line , and quaint , and olden , In our thinking , in our acting , Should be writ in letters golden . Birmingbarx .. John Alfred Landlord
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IMAGINARY CONVERSATION . By Walter Savage Landok . Nicholas , Frederick- William , Nesselrode . Nicholas . Welcome to Warsaw , my dear brother . ( Presents Nesselrode . ) Count Nesselrode is already known to your Majesty . He admires your military prowess , your political and theological knowledge ; and appreciates the latter qualities so the
highly , that he declares you are greatest professor in Germany . Nesselrode ( aside ) . These emperors see no point in anything but the sword 1 Nick , ( aside ) He bows and murmurs his assent . Frederick * William . I feel infinitely bound by the favorable opinion of your Imperial Majesty , and can never be indifferent to the approbation of 80 wise a gentleman as Count Nesselrode .
Nessel . ( aside ) . If either of them should discover that I intended a witticism , I am a lost man . Siberia freezes mercury . Nich . Approach us , Count ! you never were intended for a corner . Let small pr inces stand behind our chairs : let every man take his due position . Grooms may keep their distance ; but the supports of a throne must be at hand . My
brother , you have acted well and wisely in following my advice and indications : bo long as the German princes played at constitutions with their People , no durable quiet was to be expected for us . We permitted you to call out an army , ostensibly to resiwt the menaces of Austria , and you very dutifull y disbanded it ut our signal . We thank Vou .
Fred- Will . The thanks of your Imperial Majesty we greatly more than a sufficient compensation for * hat the turbulent call a loss of dignity and independence . Nich . Independence I I am surprised that a crowned head should echo that hateful word . Independence ! we are all dependent ; but emperors * nd kinpru are dependent on God alone . We ard ttie high and pointed rods that carry down tha % htning into the earth , rendering it innoxious .
Fred-Will . I am confident I may rely on your Majesty , in case of any insurrection or
disturbance . Nich . The confidence is not misplaced . At present there is no such danger . We invited the President of France to suppress the insurgents at Rome , the Socialists and Republicans in France . This has rendered him hateful in his own country and in Italy , where the priesthood , ever selfish and ungrateful , calls aloud for the Austrian to supplant him . This insures to you the Rhenine provinces for several years . Fred-Will . Surely your Majesty would establish my family in the perpetual possession of them ?
Nich . Alas ! my brother ! what on earth is perpetual ? Nesselrode ! you who see further and more clearly than any other man on earth , tell us what is your opinion . Nessel . Sire , in this matter there are clouds above us which obstruct the clearest sight . Providence , no less in its beneficence than in its wisdom , hides from us the far future . Conjecture can help us but a little way onward , and we often
slip back when we believe we are near the summit . Fred-Wilt , ( to himself ) . I like this man ; he talks piously and wisely . ( To Nesselrode . ) Be pleased , Sir Count , to give us your frank opinion upon a subject very interesting to me personally . Do you foresee the time when what was apportioned to my family by the Holy Alliance , will be taken away from us ? Nessel . Sire ! I do not foresee the time .
Fred-Will , ( to himself ) . He will speak diplomaticall y and ambiguously . ( To Nesselrode . ) Do you believe I shall ever be deserted by my august allies ? Nessel . Sire ! there is only one policy in Europe which never wavers . Weak men have succeeded to strong , and yet it has it stood the same . Russia and the polar star are alike immovable . Nich . We owe this to our institutions . We are one : I am we .
Nessel . True , Sire ! perfectly true . Your senate is merely a woolpack to shield che battlement : it is neither worse nor better than a reformed House of Parliament in England . With your Majesty ' s permission , I shall now attempt to answer the question proposed to me by his Majesty the King of Prussia . The members of the Holy Alliance , compact and active in 1815 , are now dissolved by death . New dynasties have arisen in France and Belgium . At one time there was danger that Belgium would be reunited to France . Perhaps it may be found that she is
too weak to stand alone ; perhaps in the convulsions which are about to agitate France , the element always the most quiescent may lean towards its parent stock , and separate from the Power to which it was united by violence Alsace , Lorraine , Franche Comte " , and whatever was eeized from the ancient dukes of Burgundy , may coalesce into an united kingdom . Your Majesty ' s successors , or ( if it should soon occur ) your Majesty , would be well indemnified for your losses on the Rhine by
security in future against French aggression . Germany might then disband her costly armies ; until then never . The French themselves , after their civil war , would have slaked their thirst for blood , and would retire from a table where they have often lost their last franc . The next war will be a general war ; it will be more destructive than any that has ever preceded it , and will be almost equally disastrous to all the parties engaged in it . Nich . One excepted , Nesselrode .
Nessel . Many feathers must inevitably drop , even from the eagle ' s wings ; and possibly its extremities may be amputated . Nich . No croaking , no croaking , my good Nesselrode ! iiii Nessel . Let us rather pat others on the back , and hold their clothes , and bring them water , and encourage the fighters , than fight . We may always keep a few hundred thousands in activity , or at least in readiness . Fred-Will . Such forces are tremendous . Nich . To the disobedient . In sixty days I could throw a million of soldiers on the shores of the Baltic . ™ , j * Fred-Will . Might not England interpose ?
Nich . Not in sixty days . My naval force is greater than hers ; for my ships are manned , hers are not . She is onl y the third naval power at the present day . America can man more ships with good English sailors in ten days , than England can in forty . Franco has in the Channel a greater force than England has , and every man aboard is
well disciplined . All I want at present it to keep England from intermeddling in my affairs . This I have done , and this I will do . When she stirs , she wakes up others first ; I shall come in at the proper time to put down the disturbance and to conciliate all parties . They will be so tired they will be glad to go to sleep . I take but little time for repose , and I grant them the precedency .
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*«¦ should do our utmost to encourage the Beautiful , for the Us eful encourages itself . —Gobthe .
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Jvvra 2 $ , 1851 . ] w § t tUs&et * 613
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ART OR AMUSEMENT ? There was something of a mournful feeling rising in my mind as I sat out Andromaijue the Other night , and began to see that my admiration for the French Classic Drama was , to a certain extent , an anachronism . Yes , I freely admit that this is a form of art which has passed away ; and those who scornfully condemn it are not so deplorably wrong as I used to fancy I It is I who have been wrong . I am not of my time ; they are . This confession
may be accepted as the amend * honorable , but must not be interpreted as a retraction of opinion . That which I have for many years studied with delight , and always thought exquisite as Art , is not dashed from its pedestal because I now perceive the " time is out of joint . " The secret of the whole quarrel between the Classic and Romantic schools—between High A t and the Fast Critics—became suddenly revealed to me as 1 sat , warm and wearied , witnessing the performance of Andromaque . 1 could not but confess that the audience was anything but amused . I myself was not amused . Yet at the theatre one seeks amusement above all things . Whereupon it
flashed across my mind ( hat , from the time w » -en the Drama ceased to claim for itself the exalted aims of Art , and chose the lower aim of Amusement , the real greatness of the stage began to decline . I do not believe that JEschylus , when he transfixed Prometheus to the Caucasus , or brought the EumenideR upon the shuddering scene , thought much of Amusem * nt ; nor did Sophocles , when he told the terrible Labdacidan legend , or depicted the madness of Ajax and the sufferings of Philoctetes . 'J heirs was a solemn office ; poetry to them was something deeper than the ca-ual flatten- of an indolent soul . They worked through Amusement up to Art ; they did not work to Amusement as to a worthy aim and end .
To a less extent this may be said also of Racine , Corneille , Moliere , Shakspeare , Johnson , Goethe , and Schiller . By them the Drama was regarded as an Art . The sources of Amusement were employed only as means to elevate the spectator's soul up to the poet ' s region—to arrest the wandering attention and fix it on great ideas . Gradually what was Secondary has risen to be Primary , the means have displaced the end , Amusement has
usurped the throne of Art—all the attractions of decoration , scenic pomp , and stiiring events , are sought , because they are " amusing , " and the material stifles the spiritual . Instead of asking , " Does the new drama brighten majestic truths in the steady light of noble poetry P does it exhibit character and elemental passions ? " People ask , " Is it splendidly * got up ' P are its ' situations ' striking P "
This is not a criticism ; but a statement . I do not here inquire whether such a condition be or be not defensible ; I simply state what the condition is . Right understanding of what is expected may save writers and managers from confusion and ruin . If the public demands Amusement ( as unquestionably it does ) , let the means of amusement be studied . If the public demands Artwhich may be questioned—let Art be given . But to hamper Amusement with the necessary conditions of Art , or to degrade Art by making it secondary to Amusement , is not wi « e .
In the days of Racine , the audiences were delighted with beautiful verses , and cared more for the rigorous fulfilment of certain critical conditions ihan for " getting up , " or exciting " situations . " The audiences were-composed of critics . They demanded an artistic enjoyment . The glitter of procession ^ the clash of swords , the tujnult of orchestras , the spleodour of dresses , the
movement , noise , scream * , and " grand eflects" which dazzle and < jon ( u «« us , w « re unknown to them i m the silence of admiration they listened to the cadence of a verse , tauted the delicacy of an expression , « nd pondered on the subtlety of a thought . They left the theatre , not as we do with aching heads » nd confused judgments , but with expanding minds , touched to fine issues by the magic of
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Leader (1850-1860), June 28, 1851, page 613, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1889/page/17/
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