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but the very liberal and the naturally kind , who confessedly form the exception , not the rule , in general society . Yet in actors , authors , and artists who possess great self-esteem , this error is the rock upon which the bark of hope invariably splits . " The effect of circumstance , ; as moulding ; mental tendencies into certain shapes , is ingeniously indicated in the following sketch of PROVINCIAL LIFE IN ITALY . ; t , " Provincial life in Italy can scarcely be realized by an American except through observation . However remote from cities , or sequest ered in location , may be a town in this country , if not connected with the great world by railroad and telegraph , the newspaper , the political representative , and an identity of feeling and action in some remote enterprise or interest , keep alive mutual sympathy and intelligence . But a moral and social as well as physical -isolation belongs , to the minor towns of the Italian peninsula . The quaint old stone houses enclose beings whose existence is essentially monastic , whose knowledge is far behind the times , and whose feelings are rigidly confined' within the limits of family and neighbourhood . A more complete picture of still life iir the nineteenth century it is difficult to imagine , than many of these secluded towns present . The dilapidated air of
the palaces , the sudden gloom of the narrow streets , as one turns into them from the square , where a group of idlers in tattered cloaks are ever engaged in a game or a gossip , the electrical cfFeet of a travelling-carriage , or a troop of soldiers invading the quiet scene , at once inform even the casual visitor of the distance he is at from the spirit of the age . With the decayed air of the private houses , their worn brick floors and primitive furniture , contrast impressively the extensive and beautiful view usually obtainable from the highest windows , and the architectural magnificence of the church . We arc constantly reminded that modern amelioration has not yet invaded the region ; while the petty objects to which even the better class are devoted , the importance attached to the most frivolous details of life , the confined views and microscopic jealousies , or dilettante tastes that prevail , * assure us that liberal curiosity and enlarged sympathy find but little scope in these haunts of a nation devoid of civil life , and thrust upon the past for mental
nourishment . " It is , however , comparatively easy to imagine the influence of such an environment upon a superior intelligence . Recoiling from the attempt to find satisfaction in the external , thus repressed and deadened , the scholar would there naturally turn to written lore with a singular intensity of purpose ; the aspirant would find little to tempt him from long and sustained flights into the ideal world ; and the thinker would cling to abstract truth with an energy more fond and concentrated from the very absence of all motive and scope for action and utterance . It is thus that we account , in parf-, for the remarkable individuality and lonely career of Giacomo Leopardi , one of the greatest scholars and men of genius modern Italy has produced . " a
This essay on Leopardi , like all the others , is pleasantly written , but scarcely dips beneath the surface of the subject , and never once touches the great questions it involves . Indeed the whole volume is somewhat too purely of a literary cast for permanent effect . We have no space to touch on details , but there is one correction we will make room for , on account of its passing interest . At p . 141 Mr . Tuckerman , amid his rapture on Jenny Lind , reports that " Consuelo" is said to have been founded on her character and history . Unfortunately " Consuelo" was written before Jenny Lind was heai'd of ; moreover the artist who did furnish George Sand with that exquisite type was Viardot , one of George Sand's dear friends . And the reader who follows " Consuelo" Avith this clue , will soon detect the original suggestions of Corilla and Azoleto , in Grisi and Mario ; but we warn him that in all three instances , they are but suggestions , not portraits .
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&mr awb m ? tf *> m&wm& ® YtyRE § in . the buibon pa&aqe . [ second article . ] Coleridge defined painting as the intermediate somewhat between a thought and a thing . The life of German art may not be judged by this imaginary rule . It is a comprehensive ideal , combining with its high gift of intellectual force a thorough material representation , worked out in its minutest portions with a conscientious integrity , which is not found in even the most careful productions of other schools . It is impossible to forget one of their good paintings . Life and imagination have been made such firm allies in the schools of Belgium and Prussia , that the
ideal gains by admixture with the real . The imbecile beauty that Carlo Dolei painted appears a style from which the refined sturdiness and strength of their minds , and commanding mastery attained over noble forms and grand heads , will ever keep aloof . There are spurious artists whose imaginations are as dim and mi&ty as the legend of the Black Forest , and they paint works replete with horrors dark as the Blocksburg . These their committees of selection excluded from the coveted honour of receiving a place in the galleries of art in the Industrial Palace , but the precaution has not availed , licsolved to prove their existence and unworthy rejection , they have taken refuge in tho Berlin department , and . the Hibernian Academy Exhibition .
Wot telling a story—tho great faculty of English painters—but describing a scene , is the peculiarity of German art . It gives powerful delineations of lofty things , but is altogether deficient in the happy incidents and momentary illustrations , the sympathy with evanescent varied , beauty , wherein much of the perfection of our own school lies : the unity , not the possible occurrence of the instant , is tho chief aim . MiUais adds a . charm to tho " Proscribed loyalist" by making a butterfly ahgl « on the gnarled tree . The German ' remorselessly put « such trivial adornments asideas detracting from tho intellectual influence of hisi work
, ho would despise tho commonplace aid of fancy . Ho holds in Ins yana the aerial atmosphere , vanishing light and shade , and g leam ^ ot colou , and ho can dispense with quick sympathy . Perhaps , too , his fancy slow , his organization imperfect in catching at p icturesque prettine . His accessories belong to " teacup times , " and the kitchen utensils im bo loft to Holland and her " Interiors . " They rarely make ml ! fy ^ either in tho choice of subjects , or their treatment ; no occasional ia with British artists , who produce historical compositions with a p
ploxing multitude of figures , generally accompanied by a ^ joubt which industrious people may enlighten themselves—and no c ^ diligence has its reward — - the while , perhaps , indolence ' j £ ft altogether discontented with ignorance , and probably dares to om pieturo is not to be studied with a dictionary lil ™ ml ur tongue . Yet the sublime religious element bo universal in their com P ° " j 8 1 ttn j proven that art knowledge in more sedulously cultivated in f" ' J * woUid Berlinthan London and Paris : wore it otherwise these pa iuter , .. ];„
, „„ not depend so confidently on its impreHsivoncRS . S ymbolism a . fc c , xhil > ition are a , dead thing with the ordinary throng of visitors to our ai ^^ tiona , primary as their position is in sacred representations , a tu , n 0 . artiHtH too frequently overlook the essential of conventional efcty Under tho title of 11 " Hol y . family , " an English artist has sent » ^ dijlff idiotic nursery maid in pink wrappor and Scotch p laid Jceroiuor ,
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We should do our utmost to cncoui-. i ;^ : I . Bnauliful , for Lhc Useful encourages llseli ' . ' —GOKTIIK .
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HEDtBiL t ^ E ¥ &W IFUMJ ^ On is of my Fair Readers recently expressed 11 wish that I should go into the country , because when in the country I am usually grave with sentiment , and she likes me best when 1 am sentimental , it is pleasant to bo liked by such readers in any mood , but not even that reward can induce the mood ; and although I have been away , amid autumnal scenes , I have not been in the least sentimental . Languid , if yon will , luxurious , and indolent , but not tender . I do not find that Sentiment will travel with a disaffected liver ; Theology is far more congenial to the bilious mind ; and hence it is that I , who have never opened a hook of Theology ( don't quote the Fathers against me , —I read them for their playfulness !) , have found myself vexing the most intricate problems with my doubts , and spending day after day in amicable polemics under the yew trees .
Let me " sketch in" the coni |>« ny of combatant ?! . There is , first , our portly and . sonorous host , known all over his county as one of the buttresses of High Church ; beside him sits that gay and dashing Irish officer , conqueror of hearts , carrying off licauty from under my very eyes ! Note him : for under the guv and careless exterior you will find a ri ^ id and devout ; Catholic . . Next to him sits a dishevelled philosopher , whom : talk is of " tissues , " and who worships in the cathedral of Immensity ( which 1 have
my private reason * for believing to be a magnificent description of the Nowhere !) . IJe . side him there is a mild Baronet , whoKC views are not very " pronounced , " but ; we may call him a (/ amp Churchman . Finally , there is my own patristic self . Imagine these various Churches and Credos thus variously represented , and you may form some idea of the tone ami arguments of our disputes ; or , let me not call them disputes , but communing , ? and commingling of spirits .
Reflecting thereon , and observing how Religion appeals in various w to various minds , so that one can say , without suspicion of sareasnr * This man has an historical Religion , that man an artistic Reli gion , a thi d a speculative Religion , a fourth a " respectable" Religion ( hoping , ' on ac count of " his connexions , " that he will be " visited" in the next world by . th " first circles of archangels ) , while a fifth has simply a practical Religion un vexed by speculative doubts ; reflecting on this , I was tempted to ask i " it not a necessary consequence of our various natures ? Religion is th solemn sanction each man gives to his Ideal , and thus the variation in Ideals necessarily issues in varied religious forms . How vain to demand uniformity where natures are so multiform ! How vain to seek agreement in opinion , when minds are so diverse and errant » Let us rather look for unity there only where it can be found—in feelines of reverence and love . Sitting under those trees , canopied by the everwondrous , ever-saddening sky , which stretched in mystic lengths away from us , we—men by nature different , by training antagonistic , but fashioned by common humanity for sympathetic union- —did there daily illustrate the simple moral : for underlying a , ll the delicate differences and wide discordances of opinion , there was but one feeling , rising up from the reco » nition of the great Mystery—a feeling of amity , linking together in kindliness the various threads of human diversity , and making each dear to each by reason of our common enjoyments , common infirmities , common aspirations . This man believed that God has planned each detail of the Eternal Life of which we note the passing moments ; this other believed that God lives the Life , —but , like children linking hands as they look out on the awful ocean sweeping in from distances inscrutable , both agreed in feeling the greatness inexpressible , and the mystery inaccessible , of that eternal Life in whose presence they stood ; and feeling this , the one man did not hate , did not vex , did not malign the other ! And this was the moral I wrought out from under the noble Yew Trees . Vivian .
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932 THE LEADER . [ Sa ^ wsbay ,
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Leader (1850-1860), Sept. 24, 1853, page 932, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2005/page/20/
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