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Harvey ' s book ; and explain , pethape , Whatweiaean « 4 iph we say that it scarcely belongs to the realm orSbie-Se ^ daylightof % , . The cr itic who should consider it as a prose fiction would make sad havoc with it , and a sad blunder . The illustrations by Mn Thomas are unequal . The landscapesrare poetical , but the figures have a too theatrical air .
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J » IUS THIS NINTH . i *» x- ni * tnra of ihe Pontificate * f J > iua *** NitUh . Including a ^ arrat ^ of the ISal Movements in Italy duringr the list vswTe&rs . By E . B . Nicolini , of Borne . live it ears . *> 3 ** . Edinburgh : Johnutone and Hunter . This work should be read by all who desire information regarding the causes and history of the late revolutions in Italy . Clearly and concisely written , it guides the reader through all the backward steps and windings of Pio Nono ' s faithless and unblessed career , from the day when he was hailed as the hope and pillar of Italian liberty , till the period when French cannon cleared his way back to Rome . Signor Nicolini writes boldly and
warmly , as an exiled patriot snouid , often attacking the advocates of absolutism and old abuses with the weapons of stubborn fact . Sometimes sketching the leading characters of his times and country like one familiar with their bearings j telling of all that was done , and hoped for » and suffered by his people ; but speaking of himself so rarely and so modestly , that the man appears entirely submerged in the cause . That cause the author served in
^ CTaterm ~ aipiomacy , and in Hard lighting ; ana , carrying the same patriotic zeal into literature , he now attempts , what to many a foreigner would seem a more difficult task , namely , to address the British public in their own language on behalf of Italy . That he has been singularly successful in this attempt will be acknowledged by all who peruse his volume ; and -he sets out with the following frank and brave declaration :-=-.
" I do not covet praise as an elegant writer , or even as an amusing storyteller . I place all myjflory in veracity . Of almost all the events which r relate I have been an eye-witness ; with the greater number of those who took a prominent part in the first agitation for reform , and in the subsequent more serious struggles , I am personally acquainted , so that I have not asserted anything of which I am not absolutely certain , or the truth of which I am not prepared to maintain against all impugners . " Among many curious particulars of the private life and character of Pius which are given in the course of the work , we are presented with what seems a solution of the Pope ' s incoherent policy : —
" Personall y he was averse to every kind of tyranny and . despotism , and inclined to grant some reforms ; but the more cunning among the Cardinals and Prelates , without openly opposing his wishes , insinuated into his timid and superstitious mind the idea that by allowing any layman to enter his councils , and by diveBting the Church of any of her privileges , he would be little better than an heretic ; hence his vacillation . Count Joseph , the Pope ' s own brother , who had been an exile , and was a patriot , conversing upon our hopes and fears with , the author of this work , said : — ' I am afraid they will work upon his feeble and timorous conscience ; if they can persuade him it is a sin to concede any reform , we are lost . ' "
To the courage , the honesty , and the enlighten * ment of the Italian patriots , Signor Nicolini bears ample and most unvarnished testimony ; as well as to the perfidy and injustice by which they were surrounded and eventually crushed . Both are now matter of history ; but his closing words , in a passage descriptive of the defence of Rome , has the power and promise of Italy ' s future in it : — " O glorious Rome ! O my noble country I When I remember thy heroic deeds , the joyful readiness with , which thou didst sacrifice thy children to achieve thy liberty , hope lends me patience to endure the longing and misery of exile . Such a people cannot long remain under the ignominious yoke of foreigners and priests . "
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The Life of Washington . Written by HinueV . Comprisimrhia Memoirs and Correspondence , including gereral ^ nginslfcetters now first printed . Edited by the Beverend W . C . Upham . Two vols . Office of the National Illustrated Library . The biography of Washington has been often written , never satisfactorily . Perhaps Guizot ' s essay remains the best sketch after all . The present work is one which to English readers will be . peculiarly valuable , as embodying the , most important of the passages from Washington ' s own journal and correspondencea plan which , has its merits , though it eludes the biographical difficulty . An appendix is added , with I b » " \
a copious index > and a glossary ol sucn words as may not easily be understood by the youngreader . When we mention that such , words as baUifF , cabinet , envoy , net profit , finesse , in statu quo , refugee , and surplus , are on the list , you can imagine it is meant for very young readers . The book is a handsome , creditable publication , and forms one of the works issued by theproprietors of the Xxmdon Illustrated News . The Book of Common Prayer of the Church of England , adapted for General Ute in other Protestant Churches . Pickering . The *« Book of Common Praver" was issued in the , r i '
reign of Edward VI ., 1549 . Arevisionof it appealed in 1552 . A third " improvement" was sanct ioned in 1559 . in the reign of Eliraheth . A fourth re viBJon r under James , was issued in 1604 . Charles I . commanded a fifth revision in 1637 . Charles H . a sixth , which he considered a " settled" one , in 1662 . During the succeeding period of nearly two hundred years no <« improvement ' * has been permitted . The experiment in this direction now before us—certainly wanted—appears to be executed considerately . We regret the attempt is anonymous .
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AQTTINAS . All day Aquinas sat alone * Comprest he sat and spake no word , As still as any man of stone , In streets where never voice was heard ; With maniac front and air antique He sat , did neither move nor speak , For thought like his seem'd words too weak The shadows brown about him lay ; From sunrise till the sun went out , Had sat alone that man of grey , That marble man , hard crampt by doubt , Some kingly problem had he found , Some new belief not wholly sound . Some hope that overleapt all bound . All day Aquinas sat alone , No answer to his question came , And now he rose with hollow groan , And eyes that seem'd half love , half flame . On the bare floor he flung him dowp Pale marble face , half smile , half frown , Brown shadow else 'mid shadows brown . * ' * O God , " he said , it cannot be , Thy morning star with endless moan Should lift his fading orbs to Thee , And Thou be happy on Thy throne . It were not kind , nay . Father , nay , It were not just , O God , I say ; Pray for the devil , Jesus , pray !
** How can thy kingdom ever come While the fair angels howl below ? All holy voices would be dumb , All loving eyes would fill with woe To think the lordliest Peer of Heaven , The starry leader of the seven , Would never , never , be forgiven . " " Pray for the devil , Jesus , pray , O word that made thine angel speak ! I , ord ! let thy pitying tears have way . Dear God ! not man alone is weak , What is created still must fall , And fairest still we frailest call , Will not Christ ' s blood avail for all r " «• Pray for the devil , Jesus , pray , O Father think upon thy child ; Turn from thy own bright world away And look upon that dungeon wild " , O God ! O Jesus ! see how dark That d « n of woe , O Saviour mark ## How angels weep , how groan , Hark , nark I « He will not , will not do it more : Restore him to his throne again , Oh open Wide that dismal door Which , presses on the souls in pain ; So men and angels all will say Our God is good . Oh day by day Pray for the devil , Jesus , pray . " All night Aquinas knelt alone , Alone with blaok and dreadful Night , Until before his pleading moan The darkness ebb'd away in light , Then rose the saint and " God , " eaid he , " If darkness change to light with thee . The devU may yot m ang « l he . " ***
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THE MARIONNETTES . According to promise , I went the other night to the Marionnette Theatre , and was not surprised to find acrowded and intellectual audience there . Jones will , of course , think such an entertainment * very frivolous i" Smith will sneer at the idea of grave men sitting out a performance of the kind ; Brown and Robinson will "wonder at me" for being amused . Frivolous ? That depends upon the mind which thinks it so ? /' There ' s nothing grave or gay but thinking makes it so . " I could show you , were my mood cynical , the nothingness of Life itself , and write a tremendous tirade on the Frivolity of the Universe ! I could prove , by arguments which would perplex Archbishop Whateley , that the ancient King , whose passion for Marionnettes , Piodorus Siculus tells us , made him neglect all state affairs , was , after all , not & greater ass than ]^^ i _ ja ^ e _ j ^ w ^ LJbSL ^ Ja&M- Puppets moved-b y— wires—are they not satires , and symbols ? Frivolous , indeed ! I assure you there is profound meaning in these Marionnettes , and I advise you to find it out , To begin . What are Puppets ? You will stare , perhaps , when I tell you that they are vulgarized gods . Yes > gods ; nothing less ! The symbolical instinct which we see active in childhood—and the childhood of nations—wrought for its satisfaction . — - rude images or symbols of the Powers which transcended sense . The Idol of the savage was at first a hideous caricature of the human form ; in time it lost somewhat of this hideousness ; until we see it , in Greek sculpture , surpassing humanity by its beauty . Before it reached this perfection of form there were rude attempts to give it the symbol of life and power—Motion . The History of Idolatry is crowded with curious illustrations of the use made by priests of moving Idols . But how , you will ask , do I connect these Idols with the playthings of children—how make the descent from Gods to Puppets ? To trace this descent would be a longer story than these columns can contain ; but I will take the shorter route of analogy . You know that the Drama was everywhere , in its origin , a solemn religious festival ; you know that it set forth the story of Christ's Passion or Temptation , as in early Greece it had set forth the episodes of Bacchus's career ; you know that it was originally performed by priests , in churches , as supplementary church service . Having recalled these facts , let me ask you whether there can be greater difficulty in tracing the Marionnettes from Idols than in tracing our modern farces and burlesques from Mysteries and Moralities ? In each case the process has been one of vulgarization—the religious element has been gradually replaced by the human element ; till not only has the interest become wholly human , but has descended from the heights of tragedy and comedy to " fast" farce 1 The passion for Marionnettes has been universal . The Greeks and Italians—our masters in all Artseem to have thrown themselves into this amusement with a deliberate energy which would amaze the sneering Jones . If we are to trust to a passage in Homer , several passages in Athenseus , and the descrip tion of the figure introduced at the famous ( and tiresome ) supper of Trimaleion , celebrated in the Satyr icon of that dissolute delight of bishop ' s and professors , Petronius Arbiter , they must have carried , these things in Greece and Rome to a perfection unapproached and unattempted by moderns . I could write a whole feuilleton about the ayoc . KfA . arcx . vf-vptKnraarct , or ' * thread-moved images , " but Jones would call me pedantic as well as frivolous , and would hate me for the Greek he doesn't understand ! I could tell him how Plato and Aristotle , generally considered as " perfectly respectable " authorities , did not disdain these puppets , and that Goethe was from infancy to old age their constant Eatron . I could tell him how the learned Jesuit iupi spent many years of his life in researches for his dissertation Sopra i burattini degli antichi ; and I could tell him how grave politicians , novelists of genius , statistical writers of terrific tabular force , critics of sceptical and blase" tempers , and children of all ages , have sat out these performances at the Adelaide Gallery with unfeigned and unshamed delight . These puppets are two feet and a half in height , well proportioned , splendidly dressed , and immensely absurd . They walk ( such walking !) , they dance , they sit , they sing , they gastulate { as a » o -
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BOOKS ON OUR TABLE . A J ! £$ * OT ^ , *** BocJc i Mountain * to Oregon and California ; •*** « Glance at some of the Tropical Island * . By the Honourable Henry J . Coke . Bentley . L % ftS' / rom *** Nota Botik ° f a HatHraUst . By W . J . Broderlp , Jr * K * « J . W . Parker . ' ¦? 5 Tif ° JfomM * J an Episode in ' the History of Ghapeltm . My tno Author of" Bos * Douglas . " 8 vol » . Smith and Elder . Life and Letters of Judge Story . Edited by hie Son , W . Story . » vow . ^ Joha Chapman .
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Michael Angelo considered as a Philosophic Poet . With Tr » n « - latlona by John Edward Taylor . John Murray . A necond edition of a lournedwnd elegant little book
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1 Jan . 24 , 1852 J ___________ - _^^ lLg- ^^ - ——— — ^
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Leader (1850-1860), Jan. 24, 1852, page 89, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1919/page/21/
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