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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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Men are tenacious of Error . There is an obstinate vitality in all clear definite mistakes ; they grow with rapidity , propagate with profusion , like all noxious things , and are destroyed in one place only to spring up in another . To the philosopher there is something exasperating in this , to the satirist there is an object for his shafts . Once fling forth a bold and definite absurdity , it will make the hollows ring with echoes , and these echoes will reverberate for centuries . Say that a scientific hypothesis " leads to Atheism , " and atheistic it will be , beyond power of rectification . Say that Locke admits no other source of knowledge than the senses , and all over Europe men with Locke in their hands will echo the absurdity . How incessantly do we hear attributed to Bacon the aphorism " Knowledge is power . " No such phrase ever escaped him ; but Buiaver , who first called attention to the fact , has Written in vain to rectify the general error . In like manner we hear attributed to Cokeridge sayings which that arch plagiarist appropriated from the Germans , and attributed , too , by men who have read them in the original . As long as History is written , men will believe that Wellington exclaimed , "Up , guards , and at them , " and that the imperial Guard declared la garde meurtet ne se rend pas . Among the current quotations there is one both in England and in France which is constantly attributed to Buffon—namely , le style c ' esl Vliomme-—the style is the man . He said nothing of the kind ; it would have been an absurdity had he said it . What he really said was this : le style est de Thomme—a very different thing , indicating that style is all which can be considered as personal property in literature . The phrase occurs in his Discoursdereception a VAcademic . In that Discourse , speaking of style as alone capable of giving a work a chance of duration , he distinguishes it from the contents of a work which must get pushed aside by fresh discoveries , he adds , ces choses sont Jiors de I'homme ; le style est de Vhomme memethese things are independent of the writer , but style is his own peculiar contribution . Will this rectification be of any use ? Of none . Multiply it thousandfold , destroy the weed in every spot you meet with it , and before you have gone three yards it will reappear . Magna est Stupiditas et prevalebit !
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MOORE AND JOURNAL WRITING . Memoirs , Journal , and Correspondence , of Thomas Moore . Edited by the Right Honourr able Lord John Russell . Vols . 5 and 6 . Price 21 s . Longman and Go . It seems to us that the critics who are so savage upon poor Moore , and take these } journals of his as trustworthy evidence , commit a very great , yet not unnatural , mistake . That the publication will permanently obscure the pleasant image of the gay and social poet there seems no doubt ; but unless we are wholly mistaken , it will substitute an image completely false . If some lesson be gathered from this experience , it will not have been unworthy the purchase—the twofold lesson , namely , of not writing journals and of not allowing them to be published . It is generally taken for granted , that in a man ' s Journals you get the real man , in a Biography only the dressed-up figure of the man . We believe this to be a profound mistake . We believe that , supposing the
Biography to be creditably done , it will be as much more faithful a representation , as a good portrait is a more faithful representation than a daguerreotype . Why is it that the daguerreotype likeness is so constantly unlike , untrue , sometimes even unrecognisable V Because few transient aspects are typical—few momentary expressions convey the general exoression . ^ Look suddenly at the face you know best and love best , and you will perceive how very unlike it is to the person you know . So it is with Journals . The writer is in an attitude , and that attitude not natural . He sets down the feelings and impressions of the momentand sets them down with a view , more or less conscious , of their being subsequently read by others . Now no mtin is fairly represented by any ^ such process . Even if he were perfectly truthful , he is only selecting his details , and selecting them not with the purpose of conveying the whole of any transaction , but simply of some personal feeling he may have about it . Journals have their value to a biographer , as materials ; but they can only be used with success by one who knows how to use them biographically .
To show how false the impression journals give , we may take this case ot Thomas Moore . Every one knew that " Tommy dearly loved a lord , " every one knew that he was a gay , vain , sunny , careless creature ; no one ever suspected him of having the thews and sinews of greatness or magnanimity ; no one anticipated finding in his life more than the picture of an affectionate , generous , quick , facile , gay , Irish nature . This life has shown him in colours so contemptible that his old admirers turn against him in wrath . That he was a very affectionate husband all who knew him know ; yet critics , taking the evidence of these journals , find out that he neglected his wife ! They compare the number of times he dined out with the times he dined in her company ; and show that while he was " enjoying himself , " she was at home
neglected . The critics arc probably men who dine much at homo , the happiness of their families not being greatly enhanced thereby . Still we say , talcing the evidence of these journals , it is undoubtedly true thatMooro " neglected " his home ; and , nevertheless , a Biographer who would have depicted him as an affectionate husband , and his wife as a happy woman , would have presented the real man . The Biogi'apher would have informed himself of all the facts , he avouUI not have confined himself to dinings out ; but the journalwriter i . s only concerned with the details of each day in as far as they arc unlike the ordinary routine ; that is to say , supposing him to be accustomed to work in her company , to stroll with her round the garden , to pass several hours in household chat , he will not enter these things in his Journal , but he will enter nil the unaccustomed events , and these are all we read ; thus
are wo presented with si pudding made only of plums . Then , again , as to the inordinate vanity these journals display . Moore was vain ! Who doubts it ? Who is not vain ? But vanity—as here presented— plays a quite disproportionate part in hia life , as it must necessarily do in a journal where it is served up cold . To make our inclining intelligible , let us ask you to consider this case : You have written a poem , a play , a novel , or painted a picture ; it naturally occupies much of your thoughts ; you go into Hociety and hear your work applauded ; bright eyes look admiration , pretty lips lavish it ; if a coronet bo on the admirer's brow , the flattery in of course more caressing to your self-love . It is absurd to
suppose you will not be gratified at thin : on reaching , homo , you will tell your winters , or wife , how Lady Harriet said this charming thing , and the judicious Mr . Jones said that . If you keep a journal , down the compliment goes . It is then warm with new delight , and no one thinks you vain for () cing delighted . But now suppose twenty yenr . s are gone , and your journal is read ; how different the effect ! Lady Harriet now is old and foolish ( she was foolish then , but young and pretty ) , she twaddles greatly , sits under the odious Dr . Cuinming , or reads the Itecord , ami the idea ot her praise of a poem or picture giving any one delight in preposterous . And what do we care if the judicious . Jones did think your work u masterpiece i * The life is
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Among the new books of solid worth sent us by Germany of late , we will name , for the benefit of scientific readers , the System der Thierischen MorpJwlogie by "Victor Carus , nephew to the great Carus , and one whose German tendencies towards abstract speculation are controlled by careful study of concrete realities . He is a bad writer of course ; is he not a German ? But , although he has the vicious cumbrousness of verbose obscurity , he has not the vicious metaphysical tendencies which spoil so many good Naturalists in his country . His work is a philosophic survey of the Animal Kingdom—a Comparative Anatomy which would well deserve translation if a skilful translator could be found , who should make his sentences readable . Readers of the same class may like to know that Aristotle ' s very remarkable treatise De Partibus Animaliutn has also been translated , for the first time we believe , into German by Dr . A . von Frankius , with the Greek text on the opposite pages . This plan , common in Germany , of giving the original with the translation , is much to be commended . We do it with our Latin versions , but it is seldom thought of with the English .
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For making Virtue odious , commend us to Eugene Sue . When he is revelling in congenial brutalities and infamies , there is a certain lurid power about the man which ensures success with novel readers , who read even while they dislike him ; but when he tries to be moral , when he would depict human goodness , there is such an unwholesome canting , maudlin tone about his writing , that patience is impossible . We have no great regard for Eugknh Sine at any time ; but when he is virtuous we positively detest him . Jt was for some time his " dodge" to be democratic and social . Latterly he has taken to virtue . We believe in the one about as much as in the other . Those who believe in and applaud him may read Fernand Dnplcssh ; on Memoires ( Fun Mart ., the second and third parts of which are just out . We have tried , and failed . The mixture- of Cynicism and Maudlin was too much for us . Lest , howover , wo should be accused of falling in with the stupid cant about " French novels "—a cant which extends to all the reprobation , deserved only by " a few—we wijll cite with emphatic recommendation Gkohgk Ma no ' s last novel , which Mr . Jkfto sends us : Les A fnitres Sonnenrs . It i . s one of her peasant-stories , told in naive Berrichon , full of poetry , fine feeling , and touching trnita of humanity . Her admirers regret , indeed , that nhe should exchange the magic of her own Htyle for an attempt to reproduce the language of peasants ; but her late works have , in our opinion , only been successful when she has adopted thin stylo .
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The attraction of a new edition of the British Poets must obviously lie in
three capital points : good editing , elegance , and cheapness . The first volume of the annotated edition undertaken by Robert Beix is before us , inviting closest criticism . We have only had time to turn over the leaved and to assure ourselves that as regards elegance and cheapness it deserves every encouragement ; ' what we may have to say on the editor ' s notes on Dryden , and on the Life which precedes the poems , cannot alter our opinion on the beauty of the volume , equally adapted to the pocket or the library shelves . It is a long while since we have had our Poets edited , and there are few men living whom we could fancy so competent as Robert Beix .
A hasty glance is all we have been able to give to the Foreign Tour of Brown , Jones , and Robinson , by the incomparable Richard Doyxe ; we shall , be severely scrutinising hereafter ; meanwhile , as now is the season when this book for all seasons will be most eagerly sought , we bid you not wait for our verdict in detail . Get the book and judge yourself of its keen yet kindly satire , its humorous perception of national characteristics , and its prodigal invention . It will be invaluable in dull parties—priceless oti evenings when you have somebody to entertain and don ' t in the least know how to do it .
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Critics are not the'legislators , but the judges and police of literature . They do not make laws -they interpret and try to enforce them . —Edinburgh Review . .
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December 31 , 1853 , ] THE LEADER . 1265
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Leader (1850-1860), Dec. 31, 1853, page 1265, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2019/page/17/
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