On this page
-
Text (1)
-
Untitled Article
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.
-
-
Transcript
-
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.
Additionally, when viewing full transcripts, extracted text may not be in the same order as the original document.
Untitled Article
Thus spake he : and the gods , givers of good , applauded , when they had heard his mnSh- ind their spirit was eager for battle still more than before , and they stirred S Siapp / sS Xrf En , females as well as male , on that day , both Titan gods , and as many as had sprung from Cronus , and they whom Jove sent up to light from Erebus , beneath the earth , terrible and strong , having overweening force . From the shoulders of these , a hundred hands outsprung to all alike , and to each fifty heads firrew from their shoulders over their sturdy limbs . They then were pitted against the Titans in deadly combat , holding huge rocks in their sturdy hands . But the Titans on the other side made strong their squadrons with alacrity , and both parties were showing work of hand and force at the same time , and the boundless sea re-echoed terribly , and earth resounded loudly , and broad heaven groaned , being shaken , and vast Olympus was convulsed from its base under the violence of the immortals , and a severe quaking came to murky Tartarus , namely , a hollow sound of countless chase of feet , and of strong battle-strokes : to such an extent , I ween , did they hurl groancausing weapons . And the voice of both parties reached to starry heaven , as they cheered : for they came together with a great war-cry .
Nor longer , in truth , did Jove restrain his fury , but then forthwith his heart was filled with fierceness , and he began also to exhibit all his force : then , I wot , from heaven and from Olympus together he went forth , lightening continually : and the bolts close together with thunder and lightning flew duly from his sturdy hand , whirling a sacred flash , in frequent succession , while all around life-giving Earth was crashing in conflagration , and the immense forests on all sides crackled loudly with fire . All land was boiling , and Ocean ' s streams , and the barren sea : warm vapour was circling the earth-born Titans , and the incessant blaze reachedthe divine denseatmosphere , whilst flashing radiance of thunderbolt and lightning was bereaving their eyes of sight , strong heroes though they were . Fearful heat likewise possessed Chaos : and it seemed to look at , face to face , with the eye , and to hear the sound with the ear , just as i f earth and broad heaven from above were threatening to meet ( for such an exceeding crash would have arisen from earth falling in ruins , and lh
heaven dashing it down from above ) . Such a din there rose when the gods cased in strife . The winds too at the same time were stirring up quaking and dust together , thunder and lightning and smoking bolt , shafts of the mighty Jove ; and they were bearing shout and battle-cry into the midst , one of another , then a terrible noise _ of dreadful strife was roused , strength of prowess was put forth , and the battle was inclined : but before that time assailing one another , they were fighting incessantly in stern conflict . Now the others , I wot , among the first ranks roused the keen fight , Cottus , Briareus , and Gyes insatiable in war , who truly were hurling from sturdy hands three hundred rocks close upon each other , and they had overshadowed the Titans with missiles , sent them ' neath the broad-wayed earth , and bound them in irksome bonds ( having conquered them with their hands , over-haughty though they were ) , as far beneath under earth as heaven is from the earth , for equal is the space from earth to murky Tartarus .
A great many foot-notes , containing the verbal criticisms of the most eminent scholars , are added to the text- Mr . Banks ' s English is nervous and picturesque ; but " the metrical translations of Elton , Tytler , and Frere , " are not so satisfactory . ^ A thin pamphlet , entitled Specimens of Greek Anthology , but without any publisher ' s name , Iie 3 before us . The author states that his object is " to offer some specimens of translations from the minor Greek poets , " including some trifles which have never before been rendered into English . These amount to nearly two-thirds of the collection , and " form but a small portion of the materials for a larger work . " Major Macgregor says he does not claim to be a Greek scholar , but that he has always been fond of Greek Anthology . His little book , therefore , must be regarded as the work of a lover of the minor Greek classics ; and , as such , it will be found pleasant and companionable .
Leaves brown as the skin of a Hindu beauty , and the peculiar odour of India paper , are two noticeable characteristics of Mowers andFlower-Gardens , a volume from Calcutta , which invites our attention by its subject . It is a pleasant , gossiping collection of facts and fancies about flowers , the original prose parts of which are largely interspersed with quotations ( good and bad ) from the writings of the poets touching the matter in hand . Mr . Richardson himself also does a little in the verse-writing line , and has favoured us with some specimens , in which there is a certain domestic sweetness and amiability . The author's prose style has too much of colonial difluseness and conventionality , and his thoughts arc sometimes the worse for previous wear ; but the book is an agreeable miscellany , nevertheless , written in the friendly spirit proper to such a subject . There is something , also , very touching in the exile ' s frequent regrets for his native country .
The third edition of Mr . Miller ' s historical work , History of the Anglo-Saxons , from the Earliest Period to the Norman Conquest , now forms one of Mr . Bonn ' s illustrated series of standard books , or books which he desires to make standard . The illustrations are by Mr . William Harvey , and are interesting as conveying a notion of Anglo-Saxon costume and architecture , but are deformed by the affectation and mannerism peculiar to the artist . Of Mr . Miller ' s history , we enn say no more than that it is an industrious compilation of facts , and condensation of unwieldy and scattered materials , touching our ancestors at a period of our history which is little studied , but which , on many accounts , is very interesting . His method of writing history , however , is , as we conceive , a mistake . He thinks that he is bound to make it pretty and ornamental , because other writers have made it dull . No doubt , the dry-as-dust school is a great mistake ; but it is also a mistnke to pen elaborate and sentimental descriptions after the fashion of fifth-rate historical romance-writers . For instance , this account of the gradual disappearance of Paganism from among the ancient Britons , and of the rise of Christianity : —
¦ Peir and far between , iu the dim groves , whose silent shadows remained undisturbed , ^ he taU gr& * s climbed and drooped about the neglected altar of the druids , and on the huge stone where the holy fire onco burned , the grey lichen and the green moss now grew . Even the Roman sentinel , as he paced to and fro behind the lofty battlement , sometimes halted in the midst of his meusured inarch , and leaned on his spear to listen to the low " Hallelujah" which came floating with faint sound upon the air , as i . tj ?^ of awakening the spirit of some angry idolater . In the stars which pave the blue floor of he&ven , men began to trace the form of the crosB , and to see the eplrlt of the dove In the white moonlight that threw ita silver upon the face of the waters , for Britain already numbered amonst her slaughtered eons those who had suffered martyrdom for the love they bore to their crucified Redeemer . Under the ( fUaaow of the Roman eagles had marched soldiers , proud that they bore on their hearts the image of the croas of Christ . In epito of the docrco of Diocletian , the
Gospel sound still spread , and around the bleeding head of the British martyr St . Alban there shone a glory which eclipsed all the ancient splendour of Rome . History may be made vivid , life-like , and attractive , without this filagreework . In Our National Sinews , Mr . Shirley has looked abroad over the painful field of working-class life—its struggles , its sufferings , its frequent poverty , its ignorance , and its mistakes—and now seeks to give the labourer and the artizan the benefit of his meditations and experience . He writes from an Exeter Hall point of view ; his style is weak and sloppy ; and we do not see that any additional light is thrown on the most important of social questions —the condition of the workman . In that surprising and ghastly spirit of jocularity which now and then breaks forth from those who , for the most part , are " seriously" inclined , Mr . Shirley writes this singular jest with re-Their little hearts
spect to the children of drunken artisans : — " , and often heads too , [ are ] nearly broken . " We cannot say that Mr . Shirley ' s volume contains anything of striking value ; but it is written in a spirit of benevolence , and may set working men thinking for themselves of their misfortunes and their faults , and of the best means of removing the one and amending the other . A wide extent of knowledge is embraced in Mr . Mann ' s little volume of Lessons in General Knowledge , and the mode of description is clear , concise , and intelligible—the very thing that an elementary book should be . The work is a small cyclopaedia made easy . Dr . Mann also appears as a literary critic . He has put forward a small pamphlet under the title of Tennyson ' s " Maud" Vindicated : An Explanatory Essay . Disgusted by what he conceives to be shallow and incompetent criticism , Dr . Mann—after administering a preliminary rap to the knuckles
of reviewers in general , for the " uncertainty" and " instability" of their views , and for their having failed to make a science of criticism—enters into a minute analysis of the story , moral purpose , imagery , style , and versification of Maud , leaving scarcely a line without close examination , and scarcely a thought or expiession ^ without elucidatory comment . The result is , that he thinks Maud perfect , and the critics blockheads . Dr . Mann has considerable acumen and perception of literary power , and his " Vindication " certainly exhibits the absurdity of the more violent attacks on the poem which were spluttered forth immediately upon its appearance ; but his enthusiasm sometimes carries him away . It was no doubt preposterous to allege , as some of our contemporaries alleged , that Tennyson ' s poem was the
mere raving of a disordered mind . A poet such as the Laureate would hardl y toss together a heap of showy words without any central meaning or principle of connexion ; and it argues little apprehension of poetry in any critic to deny that Maud contains passages of such consummate beauty , both of thought , sentiment , expression , and music , that gratitude , not admiration , is the fittest word to express their effect upon a mind capable of appre hending them . But Dr . Mann has failed in convincing us that there are not certain extravagances both of idea and manner in the poem ; and that the concluding division , denunciatory of " the long , long canker of peace , " is not a purblind mistake . This little book of " Vindication , " however , has shown the fine consistent web of the poem , and brought out its many
beauties ; and it is but fair to say that we have derived pleasure from its perusal . . . . The Two Lights . —From poetical criticism to spiritual criticism . This neat volume in green is a religious story , intended for tie consolation of all " good young men" and the reform of all those who have gone astray—and specially , as we take it , for our own exhortation and conversion . On first opening the book , and running over the pages , there tumbled out a little piece of bluish paper , of the size and general appearance of those small scraps which butchers are wont to skewer on purchased joints , and which , scribbled over with obscure characters , are supposed , b y a domestic fiction , to describe the weight &c , of the meat , for the information of the housewife or cook . This ticket bore the words— " See p . 84 . " We referred to p . 84 ,
and found that it contained the conclusion of an account , given by one of the characters , of a free-thinking lecture , " levelled against ' superstition , by which , of course , he ( the lecturer" ) meant Christianity "; and , a little further down , a rhapsody on Smithfield Market , delivered , right off-hand , by an enthusiastic gentleman in the pens , who , being asked by a stranger what place that is , replies that it is " a place memorable on earth , and not unheard of in heaven . " It will be observed , in the first of these passages , that the pious writer at once nssumes that a denunciation of " superstition" must necessarily be a denunciation of " Christianity , " as if , ior him , there were no distinction . But what has all this to do with us ? I « c alt
character alluded to proceeds to say that his conscience rebuked him , er hearing the lecture , because he was " cowaTd enough to keep quiet , when he could easily have silenced the raving infidel . " Does the author think that there is anything in this specially adapted to our wicked selves ? If so , it is lost upon us ; we cannot perceive it . But we can perceive that the book is foolish and shallow , and , while assuming to combat anti- Bibleolatrv , display ^ an astounding ignorance of the arguments upon which anti-Bibleolntry is based . The reader shall have a specimen of the kind of Christianity winch the author professcB . A " good young man" and a free-thinker arc arguing ; when the good young man tells the free-thinker to beware of " the dnngeis that are before him . " The latter retorts that u Christians" arc always tlic
attempting to frighten their adversaries with " future terrors" ; to which former rejoins : — If there be such Christiana as you speak of , and I fear there urc , I think them very unwise . But I did not ullude to "future terrors" when I spoke of dangers . We arc young men , James , having to make our way in the world , especially in my cano la t »> s true , for I have not , as you have , a father to bo my friend and counuellor ; « nd I < ° not think it wise on our part , even on ths low ground of selfish temporary interest * , to give up any doctrine or principle , xohether it he merely human , or whether it protend < j bo of Divine origin , which helps us in the path of morality , honour , integrity , nnu prosperity . , The book before us is one of those which we foar can have no effect l ' to create selfish bigots on the one hand , or , on the other , to drive the render into that dreary materialism and dcadncss to the Divino which is the legitimate- antithesis of a worldly-wise fanaticism .
Untitled Article
764 TH E LEADER . [ No . 333 , Saturdat ,
-
-
Citation
-
Leader (1850-1860), Aug. 9, 1856, page 764, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2153/page/20/
-