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    ' New Sea-side Studies . —No . III . Jersey , ' will be to many the most interesting , as it is decidedly the most seasonable , article in the last number of Blackwood At the beginning of August who does not long for the sea-side , whether he cares for the studies or not ? It is the one all-absorbing subject discussed at family breakfasts , bachelor louuges , friendly dinners , and aesthetic teas . «• When do you leave ? " " Where are you going ? " " How long do you stay ?" are the questions asked on all sides . Nobody inquires whether you go at all , as it is assumed you cannot possibly remain in town much longer in such weather as we have had this week . Nevertheless , a certain melancholy presentiment suggests to us that , whether possible or not , this may in some cases be necesht

    sary . If you can't leave for the sea-side , what are you to do ? You mig perhaps take a pull on . the river , were it not in such a horrible state that a row on the Styx , with the hoarse ferryman as your only companion , and the gloomy shore , thick-strown with the weeds of mortality , your only prospect , would be refreshing in comparison . The next best thing to enjoying the seaside in reality is to enjoy it in imagination . You rise from the perusal of fresh and breezy sketches of sea-side life sensibly invigorated . Read these ' New Sea-side Studies' in Blackwood , and you will understand what we meau . The writer combines scenery and science , descriptive sketches and anatomical details , poetry and philosophy , in the most delightful way . Take , as a specimen , the following introduction to the pleasant island of Jersey : —

    Nothing could be more charming than the welcome smiled by the rich meadowlands and orchards here . After the bold picturesque solitudes of Scilly , it seemed like once more entering civilized nature . Every inch of ground was cultivated ; Cornfields and orchards resplendent with blossoms , sloped down to the very edge of the Bhore , and by the prodigality of soil , defied the withering influence of seabreezes . It was not amazing to me to learn afterwards that the land in the interior yields double the crop , per acre , which can be raised in most parts of England ; and that , although the rent is 10 / . an acre , such rent can be paid by potatoes alone . Elsewhere it is difficult to get even grass to grow close on the shore , and trees have always alook of stunted old-maidenish misery ; but here the high tide almost washes the edge which limits orchards that no right-minded boy could resist robbing . Jersey , indeed , is the very paradise of farmers . The Americans say that England looks like a large garden . What England is to America , that is Jersey to England . Even

    the high-roads have the aspect of drives through a gentleman s grounds rather than of noisy thoroughfares ; and the by-roads and lanes are perfect pictures of embowered quiet and green seclusion . There never was a more delightful place to ramble in . Every turn opens on some exquisite valley , or some wooded hill , through the cool shades and glinting lights of which the wanderer is tempted to stray , or to recline in the long grass , and languorously listen to the multitudinous music of the birds and insects above and around . Observe I say nothing of the sea , and the succession of bays on the coast ; for what can be said at all commensurate vrith % that subject ? Even the poets , who not only contrive to say the finest things about nature , but also teach us how to feel the finest tremors of delight when brought face to face with her , have very imperfectly spoken of the sea . Homer is lauded for having called it ' winewinefacedis the i

    faced . ' He probably meant some ivy-green potation , since ' - ' epthet by which Sophocles characterizes the ivy . In any case his epithet is only an epithet , and the sea is of all colours , as it is of all forms and moods . Doubts also may be raised respecting the ' giggling' which iEschylus , in a terribly-thumbed passage , attributes to the sea . The 'innumerable laughter of the waves of the sea , ' one is apt to interpret as a giggle ; an expression not only unbefitting the sea , but unworthy of the occasion . Neptune was not mocking the agony of Prometheus with a school-girl's incontinence . He was too grand and fluent for such weakness . In moments of serenest summer-calm he may be said to smile ; in moments of more leaping mirth he may be said to laugh ; but to imagine him distorting his countenance by innumerable giggles , would be at all times intolerable , and at * ueh a time perfectly indefensible .

    The scientific part of the article is mainly occupied with a curious and elaborate proof that growth aud reproduction are , in the animal economy , radically the same process . The accomplished Edinburgh Reviewer who praises tho ' solid acquirements / displayed in tho classical quotations which abound in Btjlwjsh Lyttos ' s novels , and gravely condemns Mr . Dickens because his stories are not { Tarnished in . the same obsolctely orthodox way , will be delighted with tho third part of " W " liat will ho do with it ? " Tho new chapters bristle with classical quotations , three or four from Horace being found within as many pages . So numerous arc they , indeed , that the chapters cannot contain them , —they arc forced into headings . Here is au instance from the title of Chapter iii .: —*

    In our happy country every man s house is his castle . But however stoutly he fortify it , Care outers , as surely as she did , in Horace's time , through tho porticos of a Roman ' s villa , Nor , whether ceilings bo fretted with gold and ivory , or whether only coloured with whitewash , docs it matter to Care any inoro than it doos to a house-fly . But every treo , ba it cedar or blackthorn , can harbour ita singing-bird ; and few arc tho homos in which , from nooks least suspected , tltoro starts not a music . Is it qulto truo that ' nviuni ci ^ hawquo camus aomuum rcducont ? ' Would not oven Damoolos himself have forgotten the sword if tho lute-pluyor had chancod on tl » o notes that lull ? Surely that is tho very pattern of a lively , simple , and desoriptivo heading . Tho story goos on us it bogan . "Afoot . —Part HI ., " contains a good deal of pleiisant , meditative discourse , with touches of quaint observation and travollod gossip . Tho following passage contrasts tho Saxon pilgrim with his stay-at-home brethren on tho Continent : —

    liut it must bo allowed that thoro aro nations to whom tho pilgrim spirit is moro congenial than to others , and who moro fully comprehend and fulul tho purpoaoa and doatluy of travol . Tho mon of tho ISaat say , that Wo of tho Saxon blood inherit tho wandering foot as a aurso j that wo cannot roat , and must wander over' on and on by

    the will of fate . The Spaniard says we come into his country to see the sun . It is certain , that whatever be the motive , we travel more than any other people or species . The old migratory habit is still strong with us . And though there be some of our kin gobemoucb . es , charlatans , inanities , ' purblind , opaque : flunkeys , and solemn shams , ' who disgrace the staff and scallop-shell , and make the name a byword and a scorn , still from our ranks have sprung the truest and most congenial of the pilgrim , brotherhood . Our cognates of the German family travel much and well ; bat they are ponderous in research and learning , deep in statics and analogies , and care little for the lighter touches which brighten and shadow the life of man . They are ever digging for ore , and cannot stop to gather flowers Or fruit . The Spaniard seldom moves abroad except iu his own land . The Pyrenees , the Atlantic , and the Mediterranean , bound all that he considers worth seeing or knowing . Why should he go beyond this supreme spot ? Is it not ' el Paradiso ? ' If strangers JJcome to him , welcome to his hills and plain

    well ; he will receive them courteously- They are s , his huertas and prados , and also , if he like them , to his homes and his tertulias . It is quite right that they should travel al cielo d'Bspana ; but he ! why should he wander ? The Kuss travels luxuriously and diplomatically . He seeks fine climes and pleasant cities . Luxury is his recreation , politics his study . The world is his rouge ^ el-noir table , on which . he speculates and stakes . His thoughts stray not beyond coteries , cabinets , bureaus , e ' earte ' , and salons . It is seldom he cares to climb the hillside to stand beside the herdsman in the plain , the artisan at his work , the peasant in his cot . How could these help him in his battle of life ? With his language spoken , his customs and m anners adopted , by one-third of the civilized world , the Frenchman is perhaps least of all men a cosmopolitan—is the least at home amongforeigners—has the least aptitude for adapting himself to their nationalities—the least comprehends or understands the characters or characteristics of another people . With a knowledge of the fine arts , of the elegances and refinements of life , with a love of open air , trees , and gardens , with a fine wit and a ready speech , we have rarely found in him a true perception of the picturesque in nature , the grotesque in life , or the

    great in art . His mind 13 subjective rather than objective . He is ever thinking of himsel f , his country , his capital , his tastes , his style of life , his cookery , and his glory " He has not the wide vision to perceive the universality of nature , or the wide heart to comprehend the citizenship of mankind . He is great as a soldier , a statesman , a writer , an artiste ; but a poor traveller , and a worse colonist . We must make one exception in favour of his love of nature . We never saw it abiding more beautifully than in the heart and soul of an old man in Martinique . He was a settler and planter , had been busied for years with canes and trees , yet had not lost the air of the old noblesse . Age had thinned and silvered his locks , but had not bowed his form , dimmed his eye , or wrinkled his face . His frame was erect as ever , his brow smooth as a child ' s . After entertaining us hospitably , he said , " Kow you must see my pictures ; " and then he led us forth to his grounds , where he had cut paths in the slopes and openings in the woods * which commanded long , glorious vistas of tropic scenery . " Here is my morning , here my noontide , here my evening seat , " he said . " These are my pictures . In the contemplation of them , and in the worship of my God , I find the pleasures and studies of my old age . "

    From a rambling , hearty letter to Irenaus , entitled ' North on Homer / we extract a sketch of Professor Wilson , partly for its own sake , and partly to correct an error into which the writer lias naturally enough fallen : — .. A cast from a bust of the late Professor is to be seen in the Crystal Palace at Sydcnham ; I would request of you to observe it , and say whether it be possible to conceive a more thoroughly heroic head ? The head tells the story of the whole man . It is the head of an athlete , but an athlete possessing a soul , the grace of Apollo sitting on the the thews of Hercules . Such a man , you would say at once , was none of vour sedentary literati , who appear to have the cramp in their limbs whenever they move abroad , but one who could , like the Greeks of old , ride , run , wrestle , box , dive , or throw the discus at need , or put the stone like Ulysses himsel f , or one who could do the same things , and in addition to them , steer , pull an oar , shoot , fish , follow hounds , or make a good score at cricket , like a true Briton of modern times , in spite of all our physical and intellectual degeneracy , about which , indeed , we have a right to be sceptical , when we know that such an unmistakable man as Wilson was living in tho

    reign of Queen Victoria . It is an honour to Scotland that she produced such a critic on Homer , only second to that which is hers in having produced that poet who , of all the moderns , has composed poetry the most Homeric—even Walter Scott . Your humble and obedient friend and servant will never forget his one interview with Professor Wilson in a lecture-ropni at Edinburgh . He lectpred on that occasion on the philosophy of Hobbes , for whose daring eccentricities in opinion he appeared to entertain a certain respect , not without a lurking sympathy . He spoke of the sage of Malmesbury with great gusto as a domolisher of quacks and shams , and compared the superstitions which he encountered with so much effect to the reign of the fairies . As he spoke he warmed ; his eyes flashed ; hia whole form and manner became lionlike . Ho was sometimes satirical , and then his countenance wore an expression of grim yet genial humour , seldom facetious , yet retaining his dignity through his jokes , and on one occasion making his juvenile class very quickly draw in their horns when they had become somewhat obstreperous in their manner of enjoying some witticism , and were rebuked in a voice like that of a Greek god , ? ' Gentlemen , I do not stand

    in peed of your applause . " The mistake is in supposing that Wilson compared the superstitions Hobbes destroyed to the reign of the fairies . There is no ground for any such comparison , and the Professor never made it . We have heard the identical lecture more than once . The subject was a favourite ono with the lecturer , and the passage in question was simply an eloquent account of Houuiss ' s Grand Comparison of the Romish Hierarchy to the Kingdom of tho Fairies—one of the striking passages in tho Leviathan which show what an imagination that severe and incisive thinker possessed . Tho comparison , which is a long aud

    elaborate one , extending to more than a , dozcn details of life and polity , opens thus : " For from the timo that tho Bishops of Homo had gotten to be acknowledged for Bishops universal , by pretence of succession to St . Fetor , their whole hierarchy , or Kingdom of l ) nrknoss , may bo compared , not unfitly , to tho Kingdom of the Fairies ; that is , to the old wives' fabloa in England concerning ghosts and spirits , and the fonts they play at night . And if a man consider tho original of tliis grout ooolosiusl ioal dominion , ho will easily porcoivo tliat tho Papacy is no other than , tho ghost of tho dacaasod Roman Jii / ijnre , sitting crowned upon the grave t ho roof . For so did tho Papacy start up of a suddon out of tho ruins of that hoathon power . " Note tho imaginative

    power of tho clause in italics . Tho papers in Fraser this month aro too numerous aud too slight , scarcely ono having tho pith , grasp , and sustained interest that a good magazine article

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    No . 886 , AugugT 8 , 1857 . 1 THE LEADER . 761 .

• Citation
  • Leader (1850-1860), Aug. 8, 1857, page 761, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2204/page/17/