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306 TffB iBAD E R . [ No . 314 , Satctr ^ t ,
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to deal with—the benevolent intentions of the government , ! if she has any , are frustrated . - ¦ , The Druses and Metwalies , who , though sectaries , are not ** unbelievers , *' have always been eligible for military employment , a privilege which they seek , even at the cost of self-mutilation , to leave to the pure Mahomedans . So far as to the politics of Syria , in which the new " reforms are expected toi operate with an influence equal to that of the soft climate , the convenient sea > the exuberant soil . Mr . Wortabet ' s report on Syrian manners is , as might be anticipated , in a different vein . He loves his nation , rrespects the menadores the womenrevels in sumptuous recollections . How beautiful to
, , him is the Syrian landscape , the valley full of golden corn , the hill enriched byi ' masses of flowers , and the fruitage of Eastern trees , the waters penetrated with light , the city with its gardens srui terraces touched by the sun . How pleasant to him is the sight of a Syrian gentleman , clad with Eastern grace and Western polish . How intensely thrilling , " more than pleasant , more than beautiful , is the lady of Damascus , with lustrous eyes , and black hair , and round white arms , who lounges amid Cashmere shawls and silken cushions , a-vision of loveliness and jewellery . All these and many other graphic varieties are contained in Mr . Wortabet ' s narrative ,-which has , besides , some
dead ; ballast of scriptural speculation , pert and shallow , and to be religiously skipped by the judicious reader . But we have , eertainly , in this book , an original picture of Syria/—a picture from which we may discern the actual state of its political and social progress .
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THE ANTIOONE AND ITS MOBAL . The . Jtniigtnie of Sopkocle $ < Text , zvith eKort English Notes for the use of Schools . ' - ( Oxford ' . Pocket'Classics . ) , J . H . Parker ; " -Lo 1 'here ' . ' a little volume but great Book "—a volume small enough to slip into your "breast pocket , but containing in fine nrint one of the finest tragedies of-the single dramatic poet who can be said to stand on a level with Shaikspeare . Sophocles is the- crown and flower of the classic tragedy as Sfcakspeajfe is of the romantic : toborrow Scblegel ' s comparison , which cannot be improved upon , tb . ey are related to each other as the Parthenon to Strasbittg Cathedral . The opinion which decries all enthusiasm for Greek literature as * humbug ' , *'
wag put to an . excellent test some years ago : by the production of the Antigone at Drury Lane . The translation then adopted was among the feeblest by which a great poefc has ever been misrepresentea j yet so completely did the poet triumph over the disadvantages of his medium and of a dramaticmotive foreign--to modern sympathies , that the Pit was electrified , arid 'Sophocles , over a chasni of two thousand years , once more swayed the emotions of a popular audience . "And no wonder . The Antigone has every quality of a fine trag < 3 dy , and fine tragedies can never become mere mummies rori Hermanns and Bockhs to dispute about : they must appeal to perennial human nature / and even the ingenious dulness of translators cannot exhaust iliem of their passion and their poetry .
It is a very superficial criticism which interprets the character of Creoa as that of a hypocritical tyrant , and regards Antigone as a blameless victim Coarse contrasts like this are not the materials handled by great dra matists ' The exquisite art of Sophocles is shown in the touches by which he makes us feel that Creon , as well as Antigone , is contending for what he believes to be the light , while both are also conscious that , in following out one principle , they _ are laying themselves open to just blame for transgressing another ; and it is this consciousness which secretly heightens the exaspera ^ tion of Creon and the defiant hardness of Antigone . The best critics have agreed with Bockh in recognising this balance of principles , this antagonism between valid claims ; they generally regard it , however , as dependent entirely on the Greek point of view , as springing simply from the polytheistic conception , according to which , the requirements of the Gods often clashed with the duties of man to man .
But , is it the fact that this antagonism of valid principles is peculiar to polytheism ? Is it not rather that the struggle between Antigone and Creon represents that struggle between elemental tendencies and established laws by which the outer life of man is gradually and painfully being brought into harmony with his inward needs . Until this harmony is perfected , we shall never be able to attain a great right without also doing a wrong . Reformers , martyrs , revolutionists , are never fighting against evil only ; they are also placing themselves in opposition to a good—to a valid principle which cannot be infringed without harm . Resist the payment of ship-money , you bring on civil war ; preach against false doctrines , you disturb " feeble minds and send them adrift on a sea of doubt j make a n « w road , and you annihilate vested interests ; cultivate a new region of the earth , and you exterminate a race of men . Wherever the strength of a man's intellect , or mor al sense , or affection brings him into opposition with the rules which society has sanctioned , there is renewed the * conflict between Antigone and Creon ; such a
man must not only dare to be right , he must also dare to be wrong—to shake faith , to wound , friendship , perhaps , to hem in bis own powers . Like Antigone , he may fall a victim to the struggle , and yet he can never earn the name of a blameless martyr any more than the society—the Creon he has defied , can be branded as a hypocritical tyrant . Perhaps the best moral we can draw is that to which the Chorus pointsthat our protest for the right should be seasoned with moderation and reverence , and that lofty words . —fieyaXai \ 6 yoi—are not becoming to mortals .
, " E ' en in their ashes live their tvonted flresi " We said that the dramatic motive of the Antigone was forei gn to modern sytopathiesy but it is only superficially so . Itis true we no longer believe that a brother ,, if left unburied , is condemned to wander a hundred years without repose oU the banks of the Styx 3 we no longer believe that to neglect funeral rites is to violate the claims of the infernal deities . But these beliefs are the accidents and not the substance of the poet ' s conception . The tum-^ S : |> p int of the tragedy is not , as it is stated to be in the argument prefixed to this edition , * ' reverence for the dead and the importance of the sacred rites of burial , " but the conflict between these and obedience to the State . Here lies the dramatic collision : the impulse of sisterly piety which allies itself with reverence for the Gods , clashes wi , th the duties of citizenship ; two principles , both having their validity , are at war with each . Let us glance for a moment at the plot . ¦
Eteoeles and Polyjnces , the brothers of Antigone , have slain each other in battle before the gates of Thebes , the one defending his country , the other invading it in . conjunction with foreign allies . - Hence Creon becomes , by the death of these two sons of eBdipus , the legitimate ruler of Thebes , grants funeral honours to Eteoeles , but denies them to Polynices , whose body is cast out . to be the prey of beasts and birds , a decree bein g issued that death will be thepenalty ofs an attempt to bury him . In the second scene of the play Creon expounds the motive of his decree to the Theban elders , insisting in weighty-words on the duty , of making all personal ( affection subordinate to the well-being of the State . The impulses of affection and religion which urge
Antigone to disobey this proclamation are strengthened by the fact that in her last interview with her brother he had besought her not to leave his corpse unburied . She determines to brave the penalty , buries Polynices , is taken in the act and brought before Creon , to whom she does not attempt to deny that she know of the proclamation , but declares that she deliberately disobeyed it , and is ready to accept death as its consequence . It was not Zeus , she tells him—it was not eternal Justice ; that issued that decree . The proclamation of Creon is not so authoritative as the unwritten law of the Gods , which is neither of to-day not * of yesterday , but lives eternally , and none knows its beginning , , »
Ov y&p rt vvv y < r mx ^ es , d \ X * det ttotg Zf ) raOra , Kovdels old < v egorov ^> dpr ) . Creon , on his side , insists on the necessity to the welfare of the State that he should be obeyed as legitimate ruler , and becomes exasperated by the calm ^ fftftn ^ o of Antigone . ( She is , condemned to death . Htcinon , the son of Creptt , to , whom Antigone is betrothed , remonstrates against this judgment in vau *» „ Tejresja ^ also , the . blind old soothsayer , alarmed by unfavourable omett ^ conies to warn Creon against persistence in a courso displeasing to tho Uods . It ia ? nbt until he has departed , leaving behind him the denunciation ^ - 8 SW ' woe 8 > tl ) nt Oreon ' s confidence begins to falter , and at length , |> er-PnSr ^' . T ® 'Miebftn elders , ho reverses his decree , and proceeds with his « 3 ££ r $ vS ? 'WY tomb " » wMqh Antigone has been buried alive , that ho S ^ Wv'S , ^ J ft 1 ; e ' Antigone is already dead ; Hremon com-^ ^ W ^^^ T ^^^ f Aesr mir , and the death of his mother Eurydice on hearing the fatal tiamga , completes the ruin of Creon ' s house .
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THREE NOVELS . Maurice Elvingiony or , One out of Suits witliFortune . An Autobiography . Edited , by Wilfred East . Three vols . Smith and Elder . In Maurice Elvington we have a careful study of modern life and manners , written in a pointed , scholarly style , but wanting in interest . The action is slow , and there are scarcely any events . Half of the first volume is occupied by the narrative of one incident , without dramatic variation : that of Mr , Maurice Elvington fancying himself a man of property , and being undeceived . In this slow , unprogressive way the story is told , xintil its quiet interludes , not graced by philosophical rcuGGticii , Or SCasG ^ Su With satire , reach a climas ; of monotony . Passing out of this phase of still life , Maurice Elvington degenerates in the thind volume into a melodrama . The hero being married , and , after marriage becoming attached to his wife , resolves upon a
voyage to foreign parts , and a slight engagement takes place between him and a negro , who is suppressed , however , by a blow from a broken spar . Then he sails into the purple tropics , under the Southern Cross with an Ayah on board , who has a . rich sultry skin , and who listens to * Mr . Maurice Elvington as he discourses sweet pedantry on India , Hemacuta and Mem , on the yellow rills , and golden lotus leaves of Sacont alas ' paradise . But , after a burial at sea , this Ayah plunges into the sad ocean , wave , and leaves the autobiographer to meditate on human passions and the Lady Venetia ' s beauty . A grave and a child rise in the retrospect of his career , and the tale ends mournfully . Yet it is only in the last volume that stage effects are introduced . The writer , who calls himself " Wilfred East , " seems to have exhausted in a first and second volume , his notes on town and country life , in chambers , abbeys , second-floors , cottages , and editors ' -rooms , Into these last he peers
with an ignorant eye . Surely , it is a worn-out pleasantry to describe the representative editor as Mr . Simply , who conducts the British Lion , and whose Paris correspondence is composed with exclusive Cabinet details , near Lincoln ' s Inn . We are dealing , we assume , with a young writer , who , in his first novel ,, las drawn on college and chamber practice , and has thence looked curiously and intelligently at the world , who is at once a devotee of our modern satirists , and of those sentimentalists whose existence has been a feverish dream , who forgive , but never can forget . Maurice Elvington is certainly not a good novel ; but itis a work of talent , its allusions are keen j the salient specialities of genteel and gentle society , arc cleverly painted in What we have said is the spirit of criticism . We wish to deter no one from reading the story : still less would we discourage Wilfred East , if iic means to write another , and a better book .
C 7 ar «; or , iSdavQ Life in Europe . With a Preface by Sir Archibald Alison . 8 vola , , Rentier Cl-mia , as a p icture of society , need not have been introduced by a preface of platitudes from the pen of Sir Archibald Alison . It is an original , varied , spirited story , boldly conceived , artfully constructed , pleasantly told . Then why submit Mr . Haklandcr to n quotation from The History of Europe , in which ho is compared , by a confusion of critical analogy , to Dickens and Bulwcr T Apparently , the four pages of soft and soppy advertisement arc designed to illustrate tho compiler , not tho novelist , for who but one of Lord
Derby ' s literary baronets would lay down ns axioms , " tlmt tho conventional chains of civilised life arc even more galling than tho nulo fetters of tho African , ami that many a white slave woujid liaye something to envy in tho lot of Uncle Tom ! " Let no dog bark ; for Sir Archibald Omcle , waxing mighty in the line of his wrath , affirms that " it is to bo foured that there is too mudb truth in this view of the effects of civilisation , " which " viuw" is that ballet girls , are overworked , under-paid , and capriciously patronised . Now , it is a question whether this is an " effect" of Civilisation in any other sense than the universal slavery of women among tho uncultured tribes is am " effect " of barbarism , and whether dancers do not partake tho common conditions of
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), March 29, 1856, page 306, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2134/page/18/
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