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humour by Mr . Chasms Dickens , whose genuine and noble respect for his own calling is only one of his many titles to the esteem and affection of the literary craft . His description of the " Council , " which " never could meet , never did meet , had no place of meeting , and nothing to do , " was in his happiest manner ; and when he asked the public what they would say " of a board of directors , that did not direct , of a bench of judges who did not judge , of a jury that did not deliberate or find a verdict , of a physician appointed never to prescribe , of a surgeon directed never to set a bone , of a fireman enjoined never to go within fifty miles of a fire , or of picked officers of the Humane Society being tred up not to approach the water "—it was difficult to imagine a satisfactory reply . But as to limiting the new
Committee to literary men exclusively we have heard objections , which , with all respect , we take the liberty to state , without adopting them . Since literary men , it is alleged , are , upon the whole , the recipients , and moneyed men the patrons , it is not unnatural that the latter should expect some share in the management . It is apprehended , too , that the funds would fall off considerably . Another and perhaps more serious objection we will preface by the remark that it does not apply to the men on the present Committee , but to the principle upon which the Committee is composed . When literary men fall into difficulties , they would , it is said , in a great proportion of instances ,
prefer to have their cases judged by men of rank and standing , rather than by their more successful fellow-labourers . There are particular cases of men who might , in the turn of fortune , become applicants to the Society , whose enemies are almost certain to reside amongst their own class , whose friendships do not lie within their own class , and whose expectations of aid would be poor indeed if they depended upon the sympathy of their literary brethren . The proceedings of the present annual meeting are subject to the publicity which gives some guarantee that any erroneous measures will be corrected ; and these are points , we think , which may well be taken into consideration
during the present year . There is one case which appears to be an illustration against the obj ection we have heard expressed—the case of Angus Reach . Mr . Reach is known to the public for some very lively sketches of society ; he is known to his own profession for an extraordinary degree of versatility and activity ; he is known to his friends for possessing one of the kindest and most faithful hearts that have ever beat . He is a man who would have been the darling of the clan , hfthose Highlands from which he drew his birth ; but in the fever of London life , under the severe pressure of newspaper work , with great temptation to spur his own facility for executing it , his brain has been overtaxed . Hisr means of earning bread for himself and his family have
broken down ; his intellectual life-is snapped short while he survives with his affections and his responsibilities . Recovery can be hoped from no thing except repose . We are proud to notice that literary men are amongst the first to co-operate with men of leisure in procuring assistance for Mr-Reach , of a sufficient amount to be lasting in its utility . Amongst other means , a benefit performance is to take place at the Olympic Theatre , on Saturday , the 31 st instant , the performances ( including , we believe , a cantomime ) being sustained by amateurs well known in literature and in connexion with charitable efforts of this kind . Here , then , is a case where Mr . " Reach's ownrprofessioS ~ steps ~ forward to assist him ; but it is a peculiar case in the severity of the affliction , and in the fact that wherever he has gone Angus Reach has made many friends , and not a single enemy .
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Our readers probably know that the Art Journal commenced a new existence with the new year ; or , to speak more exactly—for there was no case of suspended circulation—that the existence of the journal entered an era , promising at the outset a general freshness sufficient to tempt Those to buy who never bought before , And those who always bought to buy the more . Three numbers of this new series are before us , containing matter enough to show that a real plan of extension and improvement was involved in the change . Papers on " Design as applied to Ladies' Work , " with incidental remarks on dress , carry Art into regions where novelty will not be its least recommendation . It may seem cruel to enforce the severe canons of Marlborough Mouse Tectonics against anything so ephemeral as embroidered flounces , figured silks , muslin prints , or " potichomanic ; " but when we find that the censor of petticoats is a censor in petticoats , liable to Potichomanio and all other affections of the gentler sex , our chivalrous impulse to defend the weak is instantly negatived . Wo can but admire the eloquent
earnestness with which Mrs . Mkrrifield applies the decorative principles advocated by Owen . Tonks , Diqby Wyatt , and other leading authorities ' , to oriental tinting , tatting , and tambouring ; knitting , netting , and crochet . If there bo embroidered slippers , waistcoats , or braces in store for us , we only hope thut " direct imitation of natural objects" will not enter into the designs . We shall never be able to reconcile our acceptance , and consequent cncourngcmcnt , of such art-manufactures with the sentiments awakened by Mrs . Mkhuiiiuew * . The pictorial attractions of tlic Art Journal include the prints from the " lloyal Gallery , " a series published in a separate form . Opportunities for the employment of design arc likewise afforded by a scries of papers on British nrlists ; by connected gatherings of antiquarian gossip on the subject of Ajuuikcut Durkr . and his times ; and by catalogues rautonnJs of the Marlborough House collection , us well as of the dill ' eront exhibitions as . they open to the public . Mr . Pynk continues his " Nomenclature of Pictorial Art , " and Professor Hunt begins a series of articles on British Industries "—a wide range of subject , but not too wide
for his experience to illustrate . Of the papers , complete in themselves , which have appeared in the new series , the most important by far is a summary of the trial of " Talbot versus Laroche , " involving the question of patent right in photography . The Art Journal is , with perfect justice , proud _ of having its former arguments confirmed by the decision of Chief Justice Jervis . A verbatim report of the charge to the jury is given at length , and forms a complete exposition of the state in which this trial found and left the p hotographic world . That the public may be fairly congratulated on the issue is , we think , sufficiently clear , from the grounds on which Mr . Fox Talbot claimed entire monopoly of all inventions and improvements in photography since his introduction of the paper process . To make this claim include the beautiful collodion process , it was contended that pyrogallic acid is gallic acid , and that the film spread over glass by . means of collodion ( gun _
cotton dissolved in ether ) is practically nothing more or less _ than paper . The manifest absurdity of this plea was confutation enough without much need of scientific evidence . As to the plea that the pyrogallic acid , used as the developing agent in the collodion process , is the same as gallic acid , but more rapid in action , the public , including lay-photographers , might entertain some doubts , did not the evidence of Mr . Talbot ' s principal witness decide the point against him . Dr . Hoffman admitted , on cross-examination by Mr . Serjeant Byi . es , that he had published an opinion to the effect that pyrogaliic acid was a new acid . Other chemical distinctions , of scarcely less importance , were brought under discussion , but it would be out of our province to notice such questions in detail . All who are interested to any extent in the process of photography should read the comments on this action in the Art Journal .
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THE ART OF THE ANCIENTS . Torso . Kunst , Kunstler , und Kunstwerke der Alten . Von Adolf Stahr . In Zwei Theilen . Erster Theil . [ Torso . The Art , Artists , and Art-Remains of the Ancients . In Two Parts . First Part . By Adolf Stahr . ~\ Brunswick : Vieweg and Son The books of which a reviewer can say that he has read every word , and has laid them down wishing for more , are far from being as plentiful as blackberries , especially in German literature . Professor Stahr ' s Torso , however , is one of these exceptional books : we have read it from beginning
to end with delight , and are eager for the second part , which is yet to appear . The name of Adolf Stahr is well known in Germany , and not unknown in England , as that of a writer who unites thorough scholarship with refined taste , and who has that rare mastery of the unwieldy German language which makes his works charm by their form as well as their matter . There is not a trace of pedantry-in Iris books ; you perceive his knowledge as you perceive the daylight , by the clearness with which objects are presented to you . He has written a work on Aristotle , to which scholars give a high rank ; but his Weimar und Jena maybe read with pleasure by the ^ idlest youn <* lady , and his Jahr in Italien is a favourite companion of artistic travellers . His ore-eminent talent lies in description both of natural
sceneryand _ works of-art _; he has not only an intense susceptibility to the beautifjjl , but he is in possession of the magic word which will convey his impression to the mind of the reader . These excellent qualities are remarkably exhibited in his latest and yet uncompleted work , the title of which we have given above . It is more historical and descriptive than disquisitional ; condensed enough to serve as an introductory manual for those who have the opportunity of immediately studying ancient sculpture , and yet so full and vivid in its descriptions , and so philosophic in its mode of considering the development of art , that it may be read with lively interest in a country town , far away from all casts and museums . To any one who is not already very wise on Greek art , and who is so happy as to have time and opportubestto to the Crystal
nity To study its ^ ^ brigihal remains , or , what is next r go Palace , we recommend Professor Stahr's book . It will not tell him everything , but it will do him the greater service of creating a thirst for more knowledge than it conveys . ., . i ? i v i The early chapters are occupied with the consideration of the physical geography of Greece and the characteristics of the Greek races , their reli-Mon and political institutions , as bearing on the development of art . A chapter on Daedalus , the mythic father of Greek art , whom tradition connects with Egypt , leads us naturally to the question how far Hellenic art is to be regarded as a purely indigenous , independent product of Greece , or simply as a higher development of oriental art . It is well known that Winckeliuiuw ^ > k »« ^ *— «
niann espouseu me lormer ujjimvn , * * uu . mo * > m »••••» . r > German critics in maintaining a view which is opposed to all analogy and to the direct evidence furnished by oriental and Greek remains , long after it had been given up by English , French , and Italian investigators of tne highest rank . It is a fact characteristic of our good friends the Germans ( who , something like those Fakirs that seek for the divine light by perpetually contemplating the end of their noses , generall y predetermine what things must be in their studies , and think it an idle business to inquire what things are ) , that when Ludwig Ross , a distinguished traveller and critic , after diligently investigating the remains of art in the countries round the Levant , enunciated the opinion that the social , religious , and artistic culture of Greece could not be understood apart from the supposition that the
Greeks had been influenced by the culture of earlier peoples , he was contemptuously decried as a " Tourist . " Of course , a man who had looked at the fact must be incapacitated for forming the reine Idee . But a truer spirit of investigation has arisen among the German critics of the last thirty years , and men such as Creuzer , Thiersch , Hcickh , Schorn , and Anselm Feucrbach have recognised the influence of oriental , and especially ot Egyptian , art on Greece . " The process of development m culture and at says Professor Stahr , "is the shine as that of natural products and then cultivation by man . Modern botanical research 1 ms proved that almost eye ything which is necessary , useful , and agreeable to us in the vegetable kingdom came in a gradual procession from Asia , unt . l . t was arrested at the wttetern coast of Europo : And now that after a short rest it has sprung across the Atlantic this propagation pursues its course through Ainouca towards the West . But the W £ t receives the gifts of the Last only to refine the rude , to develop the imperfect , to ennoble the common .
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March 17 , 1855 . ] IHE LBABEB , 267 . ^^^^¦¦¦^¦^^^¦^¦¦^^^^•^¦( BB ^^ B ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ ,- . , , _ —* . * . _ '_ ' taAA v ¦ < •> ^
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Leader (1850-1860), March 17, 1855, page 257, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2082/page/17/
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