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The power of style is marvellously exhibited in De Qoincex ' ss contribution to Blackioood this month , " The recent Confession of an Opium Eater . " In itself the thing is nothing , a mere figment , a dream-combination ; "but in its manner of presentation there is a peculiar charm , the style arrests you like the eye of the Ancient Mariner arresting the impatient wedding guest , and compelling him to listen to the tale ; paragraph after paragraph of strange grave humour and powerful writing keeps your attention on the stretch . In another style , but also by mere force of style , another contributor to the same number fixes your attention in an article " On the Food of London , " reminding one occasionally of Wilson ' s nairth and fancy , as , for example , in speaking of the Vegetarians : —
Some few years ago the vegetarians , nrho hold all flesh , in abhorrence , contrived to bring themselves rather prominently forward under the auspices of the Peace Society . It was believed that , by abstinence from beefsteaks and suchlike , and by a universal substitution of brocoli , cucumber , beans , and Jerusalem artichokes , all pugnacity would disappear , and the spirit of the nation "be tamed down to such a point that war could occur no more . These lads , whose addiction to onions rendered them exceedingly unpleasant in conversation , held soire * es in various towns , and publicly munched their forage . "We have heard nothing of them foi a long time ; / but prefer believing that they have relapsed into the meat heresy , to the awful supposition that they have perished of bowel-complaints . And this rhapsody : —
The grandest waking aspirations of Apicius or Lucullus , habituated as they were to stewed lampreys , barbels' beards , nightingales' tongues , and other approved convfitures of the Koman kitchen , must have been feeble , dull , and indistinct compared with the visions which nightly haunt the sleep of the supperless con-vict . Why pity him for the scantiness of his fare , -ivnen ire know that this forced abstinence has opened to him the vast realms of the world of imagination ? Hears he not in his sleep the gurgling of perennial porter from pevrter fountains as capacious as the springs of the Ganges , and cool as the lymph of the glacier ? Fancy-driven by the gentle spiriting of thirst , he wanders by the margin of the brown aromatic stream , until , collecting itself for a gigantic effort , it thunders down , a glorious Niagara of stout , into a whirlpool , compared with which , the biggest vat of Barclay and Peikina is as an infant ' s poringer . Ah , celestial froth— -product of a million dream-pots—how
He was habited in a modern tunic or surtout of claret-coloured cloth , trimmed with fiir , tight pantaloons , and bessian boots . On his head was a round , black velvet cap , with an indistinct border of what appeared to be meant for tartan , and a single ostrich feather dangling from one side . He presented the appearance of a middle-sized , stoutish man , with a bull-neck , features of no particularly denned outline or expression in repoae , and action of no extraordinary grace- He had not spoken a . dozen lines before it was evident that we saw before us a mighty master of elocution , and a reflector of the passions , deeply studied and bountifully endowed .
feeling or we could never command and carry with us the sympathy of a mixed aud ' ence in a crowded theatre ; but we must at the same time control our own sensations on the stage , for their indulgence would enfeeble execution . The skilful actor calculates his effects beforehand . He never improvises a burst of passion or an explosion of grief . Everything that lie does is the result of prearraugement and forethouriii The agony which appears instantaneous , the joy that seems to gush forth in volun tarily , the tone of the voice , the gesture , the look , which pass for sudden inspiration " have been rehearsed a hundred times . On the other hand , a dull , comp osed ' phlegmatic nature can never make a great actor . He who loves his profession and expects to excel in it , must study from himself , and compare his own proved sensations under grief , happiness , disappointment , loss , acquisition , anger , pain , pleasure "
and all the ordinary variations of human events and feelings , with the imaginary emotions of the characters he is supposed to represent . Not long ago , " he added , "I tvas playing in ' Misanthropy and Repentance , ' with an admirable actress . Her natural and affecting manner , deeply studied nevertheless , completely overpo wered me . She perceived , and rejoiced in her triumph , but whispered to me , ' Recover yourself , Talma ; you are excited . ' Had I not listened to the caution nay -voice would have failed , the words would have escaped niy memory , my gesticulations would have become unmeaning , and the whole effect would have dwindled into insignificance . No , believe me , we are not nature , but art ; aud iu . the excellence of our imitation lies the consummation of skill . "
Here is an anecdote Talma , used to tell of Napoleon when that younw artillery officer had j ust returned from Toulon with reputation but without employment : — Napoleon had successively pledged whatever trinkets he possessed , rings , brooches , and watches , and his resources were entirely exhausted . The man of destiny was reduced to despair , and resolved to end all by a plunge in the Seine . On his way to the Pont Neuf , he ran against some one in . his abstraction , and raising his head , recognized an old . schoolfellow of Brienne . The latter had j ust received from his notary the sum of twenty thousand francs ; the former was intent on suicide , because he bad no longer the price of a dinner . They divided the money between them , and Najoleon returned to his lodging . If that warm-hearted comrade of the college had accidentally passed down another street , the history of the next twenty years would hare been written without the names of Lodi , Marcngo , Austerlitz , Jena , Friedlaud , Moscow , Leipsig , and Waterloo . The writer then describes Talma's appearance in Macbeth .-
—pleasant seem thy whirlings in that barmy abyss to the parched palate ' of the sleeper But a new phase intervenes . Hunger reasserts her prerogative , and the convict , led by Pluck , not Puck , marches along a road paved with periwinklss instead of pebbles , through an infinity of'baked-Totato stalls—a streaming avenue , where the savoury tripe , and the glutinous cowheel , and the bullock's liver , fit offering to the gods , mingle their meaty incense ; and , in his distorted dream , he moans over the infinity of his choice . Pity him , indeed ! Wh y ^ the proudest alderman of London—nay , the Lord Mayor himself—would gladly surrender his dignity on condition that he should he Visited by visions such as these . Tancy a City magnate retiring to rest- —or what he supposes to be rest—after one of those civic banquets of which the newspapers give us such abundant detail . After two , or it may be three , helpings of turtle , with its concomitant punch—after a huge portion of turbot after entremets , which , like wafers , are absorbed by the enormous gullet —after capon and venison and game , not
to mention pies and tarts , and custards , and marrow-pudding , and whipped cream , and blanc-mange , and jellies—the whole heterogeneous mass being washed down with sherry , champagne , madeira , hock , port , and claret—how can his slumbers be light , or his visions blissful and Elysian ? Haunted is ho by apparitions more horrible than ever rose before the view of geologist wh « n contemplating the ruins of an earlier world . The turtle , swallowed so late , reappears in the form of a cawana or snapping tortoise , resting its unwieldy weight upon the aldermanic chest , and epileptically struggling upwards . Saurians surround his bed : pterodactyles rattle through the curtains . Bleeding turkeys and half-executed geese gobble and hiss in his ear . Visionary pies open of their own accord , and disclose a nest of serpents . Fear transforms him into an effigy of "blanc-mange , and he dreams that he is smothered , in custard . Thus does nature avenge the rapine of the remorseless and unconscious gormandizer .
Style is a far more important element of literary success than is generally believed , and the reason why its importance is little recognized lies in the vulgar error of style consisting in mere manner or mere diction , whereas style ia the expression of the writer ' s mind , bright , various , pliant , and full of images or suggestions when the mind is bright , capacious , and keen ; heavy , monotonous , flaccid , and commonplace when the mind is all these . If men think commonplaces their style is commonplace , if they think for themselves their style becomes by that very fact instinct with life . Most minds are echoes , and almost all literature is consequently little more than words . Thus when the writer of the amusing biography of Talma in the Dublin University Magazine says that Talma was inferior to Gabbick in
executive versatility , but he far surpassed him in classical acquirement and profound study of the ancient models" he is senselessly echoing a very foolish phrase often uttered by men who attach no definite ideas to what they say . Had Talma been the editor of a Greek play , or the historian of ancient literature , his supposed classicul acquirement and profound study of ancient modela would have been just claims to our respect ; but inasmuch as he was an actor , a French actor , an actor never called upon to perform the ancient models , and unable to make any use of his profound study in his attempts to portray the pastrions , the critic ' s praiaeis singularly misplaced . To make it more so , after echoing the platitude , ho hastens to add that Talma " took nature for hie excluiiive guide I "
The article ib mwpin + imirtnr , «~ ,.. ~ : _ ~ . 1 -u _ _«__ i ¦ . »„ ~ r *«—i ? -..-. The article is neverthelesu amusing , and may be road oven after Rkgnibb ' s admirable memoir in the Biographic Vniverselle . The following answer fiiven by Talma , to one who asked kirn if he were not deeply affected by the emotions he represented , is worth citing : "Acting , " aaid he , »<| s » complete pwadox ; we must possess tho power of strong
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HISTORY OE THE ERENCII PEASANTRY . BUtory of the Peasantry ( Jlistoire des Paysans , fyc ') from the Close of the Middle Aget . to-our own Time ' s , liy Eugene Bonnemere . 2 vote . Paris : Chamerot . A PAKORAMic suininary prefixed to JI . Borinenibre ' s . history represents the French peasantry as they existed during the first twelve centuries of the Christian era . The original liberty of the Gauls , the Roman invasion , the early preaching of the Cross , the monstrous insurrection of the Bagaudes , the subjugation of the Franks , the establishment of serfdom and feudality , and the enfranchisement of the communes , are described in this elaborate chapter , introductory to the more formal narrative . The peasant is here exhibited , as he lived , the slave of the citadel and the convent , before the concession of privileges to the civic
ranks created for him a third class of oppressors . M . Bonnemere then , keeping ' in view the triple line by which the serf wns separated from his fellow-creatures , traces the progress of -manners and laws to his own times . Up to-the period of the Revolution the history is that 01 serfs and barbarians , for the French peasantry , in the gross , were nothing better . By political writers in France of both parties this is now generally admitted . The Breton and the Franc-Cointois , the Fleming and the Provencal had worn for hundreds of years the eudal stigma , and , unassimilated and unrefined , had scarcely anything to show why they should congratulate the human race on any discovery made since the days of Charlemagne . As late as 1789 , the stains of savage centuries were visible in several provinces of France—traces of Phallic rites in the Limousin , and customs still more
repulsive at Poitiers . Even to this hour Drnidical fires arc burned near Pnris on St . John ' s-day , and the peasants of Brittany , the best authorities say , are disgracefully barbarous . The ruling orders , indeeu—the nobles and the clergy , aided in later times by the bourgeoisie—accomp lished all that was in their power to destroy tho intellect and to deprave the morals of tne peasantry . The peasant was to be made a brute , that the treatment , ot a brute might safely be inflicted upon him , and M . Bonnemere amply proves that , wherever he rose above the level of imbecility , he marked the eartu with blood , and provoked a social war . The picture dravn of such a peasant by the annalists of the monarchy has usually been that ot an assassin ; history , before the Revolution , was but little used to deal jusuy
with the serf . Nor has it yet atoned for the -ungrateful ' and ungenerous omission . At Versailles , as says M . Taxilo Delord , an ingenious critic 01 M . Bonnemere ' s work , royalty , cl « rgy , nobility , magistracy , and uoiirgeosic are represented , but there is no illustration of the peasantry . * *" peasantry , from Vercingetorix to 1814 , have borne the burden ot ever ) national conflict—have repulsed Roman , Englishman , Prussian ; they uav never had a statue ; and , until [ M . Bonncmcro wrote , they had no «• torian . M . Bonnornero himself complains of tho systematic neglect w «* which the rural classes have been treated . They have been worshipped 7 the poets and abandoned by tho chroniclers . They have had lyrists 01 ages and races , from Hesiod to Roueellai , from Virgil to Vnmere , to ctw brato their idyllic labours , and create marvellously beautiful and MW , ideas of their felicity ; but tho historian has wandered in other way s , » followed the sword-benrcr in preforenco to tho ploughman . And why n . Tho ploughman has dono little , hitherto , for the progress of the world ,, wu tho results of the soldier ' s activity have at least boon important . Jlow . . j n ( , M . Bonnemere , while ho partly belies his accusations of neglect by o » b from page to page a dense array cf authoritios , has found the annuls o
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: . ... ¦ ¦ ¦ ¦ ; ¦ . ¦ ? ¦ ¦ ¦ . .. . - ; . . Critics are not the legislators , but the judges an . d police of literature . They do not makelaw 3—they interpret and try- to enforce them . —Edinburgh Review *
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1168 THE LEADER . [ No . 350 , Saturday ,
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Leader (1850-1860), Dec. 6, 1856, page 1168, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2170/page/16/
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