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iff o . 412 , ffEra » PA 3 CY 13 , 1858 . ] THE I / EABEB . 159
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It is assuredly an honour to our country to be able to record that the most remarkable Biographies , in the whole range of European literature , that have appeared of late years , have been written by Englishmen . In more than one instance , tie subject of the biography lias belonged to a foreign literature , and to the literary history of a nation surpassed by no other in intellectual activity .
Take Germany , for instance : the Life of GoefTie has been welcomed with enthusiasm , and permanently accepted as a classic and a text-book , not only by the intellectual aristocracy , but by the whole reading public of Germany . Three editions of a German translation , admirably executed , have been rapidly produced , and the third , a cheap popular edition , is eagerly taken up . In the midst of their honest and grateful admiration , liberally expressed by the eminent German critics , a sentiment almost of pique , certainly of dissatisfaction and regret , pierces through the warm words of welcome to the foreigner , who , for the first time , lias made Goethe , the man , familiar to his countrymen . There had been for years a library of Goethe literature , in other words , of building materials for the construction of a Biography ; but out of England the architect was to
come . If ever there was a nation constitutionally jealous and exclusive in its claims * that nation is France ; and French men of letters are quite as self-asserting as French . Colonels . Yet , what do we find in the last number of the Imperialist Revzte Contemporaine ? A notice of the recently published ' Biography of Montaigne , ' from which we copy the introductory sentence : — It is from London that we receive this Biography . England has stolen a march upon us once more . This work , which might have seemed to belong to us of right , which we had prepared for by so many researches , which , perhaps , we were actually intending to accomplish , has been executed by a foreign writer , and , let us frankly confess , ezxecnted so happily and with so much care , so completely and so -well done , that the hope of doing it better , by doing it otherwise , is , I think , forbidden us henceforth .
This is high praise ; but the French critic goes on to justify it by evidence from the work itself of that fine composition , as painters would say , which , by a judicious grouping and a true perspective , makes the hero of the Biography , as it were , a central figure of his ^ epoch , without prejudice to the rest of the picture .
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M . X \ ntr-ey , author of L'Ef / lis . e et les JPhilosophes ax XVIII Siecle , which we noticed sonic time back , has just brought out another work , not less remarkable , entitled , Essai sur la Revolution Frangaise . We shall make a point of noticing it in a more detailed manner at a future period , being content now to indicate the original criticism of the Mountain , anc ] especially of Robespeekre ; and the brilliant manner iu which a new theory of progress , without the sacrifice of liberty to imperial or democratic violence , is sketched by implication . The chapter on ' The Principles of ' 89 '— ' a phrase the sense of which in half a century has been forgotten , and which is made subservient equally to liberty and servitude '—is admirable , both for its boldness and its philosophical truth .
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Marine Zoology has recently become popular and fashionable , numbers who formerly went to the sea-side simply for change of air and physical recreation , being quite as anxious to go there now for tiie mental enjoyment which the pursuit of a new and fascinating study affords . The volume of nature is certainly a decided improvement on the only other volume known at the sea-side—the third-rate circulating library novel , which , by a mysterious ordinanco , overy unhappy visitor was compelled to peruse , and whioh proved as deadening to the 3 pirit as the sea-air was reviving to the body . Tho new study enables the mind to sharo in the reviving influences that invigorate the wearied frame , nntl to derive from them not only present enjoyment but lasting profit . The studies commenced on the shore arc continued at the fireside by the help
of books and specimens such as tho aquarium conveniently supplies . A really sorvicciiblo and interesting manual is the great dosidoraluin of such students , and , as a natural result , many short but excellent treatises designed to meet tho popular want havo recently appeared . We know of none , however , at onco so charming and so practically useful as Mr . Liswes's papers on tho subject , originally published in Blaclcwood , and just collcotcd into a volume under 1 , 110 title of Sm-aido Studies at Ilfracombo , Taibg , the Soil Iff Islands , and Jersey . Tho articles having excited a good deal of attention at tho time of their appearance , we have little more to do than chronicle Uio fact of their ropublicutiou . A * somo students in natural history , however , may not
havo hiwl an opportunity of socing the papers on their first publication , wo shall bo -doing them u scrvioo by directing attention to tho volume , ima ^ eicTil ) in ^ irr 7 iiranTcl ^ r ~ Tf"fro * SScs" £ fosrfl ) C "" qualitics-so—diffloult to meet with in happy com hi nation , yet at tho same Lime so important in ft handbook of sea-aide studios ; it is at once popular and scientiflo , ohanning ns a ooiupiiuion , and instructive as a guide . Tho ehiinu lies in tho stylo and manner of treatment . Ou tho tslylo of an aulhor ho well known wo need scarcely dwell ; it hus tho easo and vigour , tho' transparent clearness ami vivuoity , wliiuh mark Mr . Lkwics ' s writings . Thcro is something almost dramatic , too , in Mr . Lkwkh ' s treatment of tho subject which irresistibly
awakens'the atterttion of the reader , leading him to watch the experiment ^ and listen to the disouBsions they excite , with unabated interest "to the end . While the matter is thoroughly scientific the : form is purely literary , the papers abounding -with touches of a pleasant personality , with vivid descriptions of scenery and sketches of adventure , 'with quaint and lively fancies , grave ironical reflections and light shafts of social satire , with learned reference and apt literary illustrations , interspersed here and there with glimpses of
noble moral truths springing from the depths of a rich and wide experience . It seems to us , that for general students no way of dealing with the subject could be more truthful or more happy than Mr . Lewes ' s . Natural History in his pages takes its true position as a part of general culture , being unconsciously wrought into the larger whole of literature and life . With regard to the matter of the volume , the new experiments , the critical discussions and higher generalisations it contains , it will be enough to say that the great anatomist to whom it is dedicated has himself recognized both the value and originality of Mr . Lewes ' s contributions to his science .
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The current number of the North British Eevieto is a decided improvement on its immediate predecessors , several of the articles being both good and seasonable . Among ; the former , is one entitled ' Mill ' s Logic of Induction / a temperate , but at the same time searching , and , at least partially , successful * criticism of the fundamental defects in that masterly writer ' s philosophy . Another paper on Arnold and his School' is well worth reading as a contribution , by one who evidently knew him well , towards a just and truthful estimate of the Rugby master and his work . The view given by the writer of the character , position , and probable fate , of the school Arnold founded is sagacious and instructive . Take the following passage as an . illustration : — Arnold was a man of passion , as are all who have exercised immediate influence an the world , and he held his idea of work in immediate connexion -with Ins deep Onnatian feeling . His school to us defective in this grand point of motive
forceappear what was passion with him is conviction only with them , or rather , it would be truer to say , what was passionate conviction in his mind represents itself as calm , almost dry , conviction in theirs . And this connects itself very closely with the second feature which we have pointed out as distinctive of this school—their decided preterence for the objective . Arnold ' s mind took this character , because the understanding was in him much more strongly developed than the' higher intellectual powers . lie admired Aristotle , we have heard him say , more than Plato , because it seemed to him grander to confine himself to the truth , which could be defined and proved , * . * ° launch out upon the sublimest speculations . This adherence to the positive led him into what men called his crotchets . His crotchets were rigorous deductions of the understanding from tbe facts which he took as premises . It made his strength , because it gave a reality to all his views , right or wrong . But passion with him supplied the deficienc } ' of Imagination , and gave a greatness even to his inferior conceptions . His school took after him in their adherence to the positive ; but , while they are
equally as defective on the side of imagination , they have not like him the compensating force of passion to vivify their opinions . Hence a certain hardness and coldness of tone is apt to disfigure their views , and to rob them of the attraction which would naturally attach to their unselfishness and substantial 'justice . How is it that among so many men of undoubtedly superior talent , who have sprung from Rugby during and since Arnold ' s time , not one , so far as we know , has been able to take hold of the popular mind ? There are many who aTe highly respected , and more than respected , admired eyen , within the limit of their own larger or smaller circle . Ihey are excellent administrators , cleaT and enlightened and earnest writers , sensible preachers , accomplished poets , &c , but no one takes hold of the " world . And this we do not believe to be from want of genius , men of certaiuly less genius contrive to make more impression . How is this ? We attribute it in part , perhaps , to a moral discipline , which has rendered them averse from the arts by which popularity is often caught , but more to a really refrigerative effect produced by a training m which the objective was made so predominant . We get excellent utterances from them , but their truth is flattisli , and smacks of the reservoir 5 we do not find them offering us the sparkling element which comes fresh from tho well-spring , and even if it be scant in quantityspeaks yet to the great underling deep .
, It seems ungracious , perhaps , while admitting so fully , as wo trust we have been felt to admit , how valuable , or we might almost say how invaluable , an element Arnold ' s school forms in the society of our day , to express anything but gratitude to them , and a sense of tho social benefit which they confer . It is not incompatible , however , we hope , with a full sense of this benefit , to appreciate its shortcomings . 16 is impossible for any earnest man , examining , with a senso of its meaning , tho social condition of his own time , to confine his reflections entirely to the actual passing moment . Wo cannot contemplate the force of tho stream without thinking of what this vast body of waters is hurrying on to do . To-day unavoidably carries the suggestion of to-morrow , and wo are compelled to ask ourselves what tho present portends of apprehension or promise for tho future . And hero it is that tho character of All
a school , deficient in imagination and sentiment , becomes" unsatisfactory . wo can say for tho "Rugby school is , that it does its best to impress right notions and sound principles upon its own generation ; but will these hold ? "Wo havo our doubts on tho point . Tho course , of tho world at large is governed , not by principles , but by sentiments and ideas , and it % » only so far as tho former can bo volatilized , so to speak , into tho latter shape , that they dominate society- It waa Arnolds faith , as opposed to his doctrine- —tho spirit of the man , not th . o tenets ho inculcated- —vlucU created his school , and if wo aro correct in belioving that his followers hold tho doctrino without , or , at lwiot , with but a faint measure of tho faith , wo nro juatineu 111 apprehending that it has lost its vital element , and may bo expected to become ore long extinct , or rather lot us say , again dormant , till another shall anso to break its slumbers .
TJ 10 two articlos— < Naples , X 818-1 S 58 , ' and ' Capital and Currency—aro seasonable as well as good . Wo may add that the liooiew contains—in an arliolo 6 n ~ ' -ScmirmimrSoieTTc ^ ' = ^^^^ mino's life and labours .
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Tho announcement of now works by tho authors of Fnmch tu Comotl , iho SaiutJ Trar / odff , and Ilio Noiimia of Faith , would at any Umo , bo welcome to us , but in tho present dearth of litornry mtdliffcnoo it is peculiarly ™ cop > ublo . Mqssrfl . J . W . Parkkh nnd Son arc about lo publish 11 tragedy by Mr . Hutrs . the title of which , Ou / ita , Ma &' * rf , sccma . to inuiviiao revolutions of
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antics-ars juotthe-legislators , but the judges ana police of literature . They do not aixac maielaws—they interpret and try to enforce th . em . —Edxnburgh Review . ¦ » ¦
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), Feb. 13, 1858, page 159, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2230/page/15/
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