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    Untitled Article

    ^^^^^ J ^^^ S ^ S ^ ' : Thb Sonnets on the War , by Alexander Smith and Sydney Yendys , are , as we anticipated they would be , real poetry . The quantity of verse that the war has called fbrth has been , as all know , enormous ; but , with one or at most two exceptions , we should decidedly say that these Sonnets are the only pieces we have yet seen in which the topics of the war are rendered into true poetry , as distinct from mere sounding and stirring stanzas . The treatment of the topics is , for the most part , not direct or merely descriptive . You are not merely presented with a picture of Alma or Inkerman done in verse and colour , but each incident or stage of the war begets , as it were , a little troop of phantasies and imaginations , and these phantasies and imaginations are put forth as representative of , and as , in fact , poetically interpreting , the incidents out of which they grow . This , we say , and this alone , is true poetry , as distinct from mere verse . A true poem on any incident is

    not tiie direct statement of that incident never so spiritedly ; it is the putting forthof those images that arise in the mind contemporaneously with the apprehension of the incident—these images , by this very fact , being the poetical equivalent of the incident , and the language in which it is to be expressed by the poet . Often the relation between the incident and the i mages which arise in the act of contemplating it may be very occult , and yet the poem may be most strictly and truly a poem on the incident . What we mean will be best seen by referring to these War Sonnets . Not that there is not abundance of fire and of the prevalent patriotic fervour of to be

    in them ^ even in this respect some them are more fitted popular than most of the War Poems we have seen—but that in almost every one ^ them some phantasy of a representative rather than a merely descriptive character is hung before the imagination . The Sonnets , which are thirtynine in all , are not equal in merit ; though not one of them is common-place . Nq _ marks are appended by whi ch to distinguish those contributed by Mr . Smith from those contributed by Mr . Dobeii . ; nor is it so easy \ as we thought it ; might bi to "distinguish the thirty-nine into two sets by ! internal evidence . On the whole , we should imagine Mr . Smith to have written the greater number . The foUojwing have struck us particularly , and we shall quote them without trying'io determine the authorship : —

    ¦ : - . ¦ : , ' ' . self . ¦ ,,. . -. ¦; . The War rolls on . Dark failure , brave . success - Deafen our ears . ~ But little powerto touch Our deeper human nature lies in such . Doth victory make an infant ' s smile the less ? Each man hath his own personal happiness , In which—as creep the cold-enfeebled flies In the late beam—he warm and basking lies . Each hath his separate rack of sore distress . No hand can give an alms , no power consoles ; We only have our true hearts and our souls . ... . : rIn _ leaguered _ fQr t& , __ waterj ^ _ „ . They draw from their own court or garden-plot ; So from the deep-sunk wells within . our hearts We draw refreshment when the fight is hot .

    THE CAVALBY CHARGE . Traveller on foreign ground , whoe ' er thou art , Tell the great tidings ! They went down that day A Legion , and came back from victory Two hundred men and Glory ! On the mart Is this " to lose f" Yet , Stranger , thou shalt say These were our common Britons . 'Tis our way In England . Ay , ye heavens ! I saw them part The Death-Sea as an English dog leaps o ' er The rocks into the ocean . He goes in Thick as a lion , and he comes out thin As a starved wolf ; but loL he brings to shore A life above his own , which when his heart Bursts with that final effort , from the stones Springs up and builds a temple o ' er his bones .

    A STATESMAN . Captain be he , my England , who doth know Not careful coasts , with inland welcomes warm ; But who , with heart infallible , . can go Straight to the gulfstreams of the World , where blow The inevitable Winds . Let cockles swarm The sounded shores . He helms Thee , England ! who , Faced by the very Spirit . of the Storm , Full at the phantom drives his dauntless prow ! And tho' the Vision rend in racks of blood , I And drip in thunder from his reeling spars , , I The compass in his hand beholds tho flood I Beneath , o ' erhead the everlasting stars Dim thro' the gory ghost ; and calm in these , Thro * that tremendous dream sails on to happier seas .

    THE COMMON GRAVE . I Last night beneath the foreign stars I stood < And saw the thoughts of those at homo go by ; . . . .... t ¦ . ¦ To the great grave- upon the hill of blood . ' • 1 , Upon the darkness they went visibly , ' Each in the vesture of its own distress . . ¦ t Among . th ? m ,, there came One , frail as a sigh , c And like a creature of the wilderness Dog with her bleeding hands . She neither cried ?

    Nor wept ; nor did she see the many stark And dead that lay unburied at her side . . All night she toiledj and at that time of dawn When Day and Night do change their More and Less , And Day is More , I saw the melting Dark .... Stir to the last , arid knew she labpured on . ' ' There are mest striking passages in some of the other Sonnets . -vr » i . « A . aia' ^ n ' ooo -flta Tnntiv fltarle

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    The January number of the British Quarterly Review supplies _ what many persons have long felt to be a desideratum—a complete and succinct exposition of " thePhilosophy of Kant . " The . article , if it is one which all will not read , is certainly one which very few could have written . Very rarely in a Keview do we find a paper so condensed , so thorough and so comprehensive . The writer has not attempted to " popularise" his subject ; and this is judicious—seeing that all who would care to see the subject treated at all , must be capable of relishing a philosophical treatment of it . At the same time the style is clear , terse , and simple , and there is no unnecessary se of technical terms . The writer also , like one long familiar with Kant s philosophy , criticises after expounding it , and points out in definite lanthis is

    guage those points in which he thinks it weakest . Altogether an article of the first quality in its kind . The rest of the number consists of articles on more popular subjects—including one on our " Foreign Policy , in which the Review sustains its character for liberal and decided opinions on that subject , and for ability in advocating them ; one on the orthodox side in the " Sabbath" Controversy ; and one on the " Present Aspects and Tendencies of Literature . " In this last the writer considers our " national Parnassus , " or the huge mountain of our present literature , as divided into three « Zones "—the Zone of " true or high literature , " forming the summit ; the middle Zone , of " wholesome popular literature ; " and the l owest Zone , of " trash or garbage . " He makes remarks on each , discusses Cardinal Wiseman ' s scheme for a change in the lowest " Zone , "

    pronounces on that scheme as follows : — It is curious , indeed , that an ultramontaniat Cardinal should have broached a proposal which would , in fact , if logically carried out , end in a subjection of the spiritual to the temporal authority in a community . We have heard a facetious scheme of church reform propounded , the purport of wMch was , that Government should Belect Bomerreally able man and splendid writer as Archbishop of Canterbury , employ Turn to produce a _ sermon or essay weekly , adapted to the passing phase of public ^ feeling , and then distribute printed or manuscriptcopies of this sermon among a clergy composed of the best elocutionists that could be got , each clergyman or elocutionist being bound to read it in his parish . Thus , all parts of the nation would have the same ideas simultaneously admmistered to them , and all would be kept in intellectual unison . We do not suppose that Cardinal Wiseman would agree to suet a proposal—unless , indeed , provisionally in a Protestant country , he might see a useful capability in it ; but , certainly , some might say . it was but a development of his own notion that Government should purvey intellectual pabulum for the people . As regards the notion that Government , besides instituting an inquiry into the state of our popular

    literature , and besides trying to remedy its evils by stimulating an authorship of counteractive tendency to what is bad in that literature , should alsohave recourse to the restrictive policy of a censorship , as in France— a notion ^ to which , though Cardinal Wiseman professes to abstain from recommending it , we cannot but think he is in his heart friendly—we have not words strong enough to express our dissent . Whatever , indeed , in literature as in anything else , transgresses the . policeJaws , toL . that letGovernmejnJtjipplyjLtsrestraining and punishing hand . Let Holywell-street be prevented from offending the public " eye by its characteristic wares . But above this line , even ' within the zone of garbage , let there be perfect freedom . Whatever ugly features there may be in the present aspect of our literature , we would express our final and complete opinion as to what is to be done in the matter , in the phrase of an American friend of ours- — " Let it develop . " Let there be the fullest and freest competition in literature—Government itself entering the lists or not , as may be determined . Nay more , in order that there may be such competition , let all present fiscal restrictions on literature , all taxes on knowledge , be repealed . Such a measure , though * purely negative in its character , would be the best service Government could render to literature .

    The London Quarterly Review , published by Messrs . Wai / ton and Mabeblt , is a most lightsome-looking Quarterly—printed neatly on good paper , and altogether pleasant to handle . Its distinctive character seems to be in its evangelical opinions in religious matters ; but the articles have a high literary finish , and arjp evidently prepared by superior writers . The present number opens with a paper on Luther , written with care and enthusiasm , though not containing much that is new . Among the other articles is an attack on Mr . Maurice as a new heresiarch , the substance of which is thus recapitulated by the writer : — We have shown the influence of Mr . Maurice ' s philosophy , or theosophy , upon his theology . Wo have traced his system to its first principles . We have proved that it is based upon true Platoniam ; but that some of its developments coincide rather with neo-Platonism . The idea of a personal Trinity is , no doubt , distinctively Christian ; but Mr . Maurice has followed the neo-Platonists in his method of adjusting this idea

    to Platoniam . The system which results from this interpretation of Christianity by Platonism , we cannot regard as a Christian system . The vital and characteristic doctrines of Christianity are metamorphosed and dislocated . They are bleached into the pale complexion of Platonism or neo-Platonism ; and their relations to each other , as well as to man and God , and the Bible , are essentially altered . The odour of grace is exhaled ; the blood of atonement is exhausted of all value or efficacy . According to Mr . Maurice , Moses teaches Platonism in the first chapters of Genesis , and implies tho truth of this philosophy throughout . All Hebrew theology was , in effect , grounded upon it ; Jesus of Nazareth and St . Paul , in their most wonderful aayinga , teach nothing which is not virtually included in it . Thus , Christianity is but the supplement to that " wisdom" by which tho Greek philosopher ' " searched , " " found out , " and " know God ; " and Plato becomes twin-Prophet with Moses , and author of a philosophy which sustains on its foundation the later and more complete developments which were effected by tho Prophet of Nazareth and His Apostles . Let the Christians of England be aware of this new , complex , and deadly heresy , which is little better than a modern Gnosticism of a refined character . At present ,

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    - ^ THE "LEIDW ; [ Sattopay ; 3 KSSSSSS 53 S 35 SS 5 S 55 "SI ^

• Citation
  • Leader (1850-1860), Jan. 6, 1855, page 16, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2072/page/16/