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We must not omit to express our hearty admiration of the drawings with which Mr . Testniel has illustrated and enriched the story . They are full of life and character , and as drawings alone possess a distinct and special value .
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MR . KWGSLEY'S POEMS . Andromeda and Other Poems . By Clailes Kingsley , Rector of Eversley . J . W . Parker and Son . Ten years ago , and for some few years later , Mr . Kingsley , inspired by the great hopes then dawning over Europe , wrote poems , essays , and novels , passionately and eloquently expressing the thoughts that were stirring in men ' s hearts and agitating their brains . Since then , he , in common with many others , has probably felt the disheartening influences of the reaction : at any rate , in the chief poem here put forth , Mr . Kingsley has set sail / o r the old Greek world of fable and idealized humanity , and has left behind him all those great questions of the claims of labour , the education pt the masses , and the representation of the people , which absorbed his mind in the days of Alton Locke . And he lias done rightly 5 for , however much we may desire to see the questions of the day occasionally set to the poet s music , matters of purely temporary interest should not form the prevailing subjects of poetical treatment . -At one time , this almost threatened to be the case ; but the brief , though * glorious , provocatives to that form of art have passed for the present . Europe is again asleep—nay , utterly lethargic ; 4 heOoldea Age is adjourned sine Me ; the enthusiasts of 1848 have become , we will not say despondent , but somewhat grey-hearted and doubting ; and poetry , deserting the thankless field of politics , returns to her native air of beauty and ideal truth . It will be recollected that , about two years ago , Mr . Kingsley published 3 , volume of Greek Fairy Tales for children—a work in which he gave the most indisputable evidence of his capacity to revivify those grand Hellenic fables which , more than the mythology of any other land , united the human and the divine in majestic and immortal shapes . Though written for the young , the stories which the rector of Eversley then put forth were treated in a spirit of the purest poetry and the most truly Greek feelingat once vigorous and beautiful . We were therefore not surprised at finding the same qualities in Andromeda . The noble story cf the maiden exposed to tfce fury of a sea monster to assuage the wrath of the ocean gods , and of the half-divine hero who rescues her , is here told m Homeric verse and with some of the Homeric elements—the sharp , clear-cut imagery , the statuesque repose of thought , the intensity of emotion , and that fine interfusion of the terrestrial and celestial -worlds , that alliance of earth and its inhabitants with the all-pervading sense of Deity , which the Greeks effected , not , as we now -do , by the suggestion of mystical affinities , but by the concrete imagery , the bodily presence , which belonged to their faith and found , expression in their sculptures . The feeling of the poem is perfect from first to last . The incidents move forward with processional and stately pace ; and the versification though we do not generally like hexameters in English—exactly suits the Hellenic treatment of the story . The reader shall judge for himself . Andromeda , bound to the rock , sees a procession of sea nymphs coming
-over the waters : — « .,., _ Far off , in the heart of the darkness , Bright white mists rose slowly ; beneath them the wandering ocean Glimmered and glowed to the deepest abyss ; and the knees of the maiden Trembled and sank in her fear , as afar , like a dawn in the midnight , Rose from their seaweed chamber the choir of the mystical eea-maids . Onward toward her they came , and her heart beat loud at their coming , Watching the bliss of the gods , as they wakened the cliffs with their laughter . Onward they came in their joy , and before them the roll of the surges Sank as the breeze sank dead , into smooth green foam-flecked marble , Awed and the crags of the cliff , and the pines of the mountain were silent . Onward they came in their joy , and around them the lamps of the sea nymphs , Myriad fiery globes , swam panting and heaving , ' -and rainbows Crimson and azure and emerald , were broken in star-showers , lighting Far through the wine-dark depths of the crystal , the gardens of Nereus , Coral and sea-fan and tangle , the blooms and the palma of the ocean . Onward they came in their joy , more white than the foam which they acattered , JLaughing and singing , and tossing and twining , while , eager , the Tritons Blinded with kisses their eyes , unreproved , and above them in worship Hovered the terns , and the seagulls swept past them on silvery pinions Echoing noftly their laughter ; around them the wantoning dolphins Sighed as they plunged , full of love ; and the great sea-horses which boro them Curved up their crests in their pride to the delicate arms of the maidens , Pawing the spray into gems , till a fiery rainfall , unbanning , Sparkled and gleamed on the limbs of the nymphs , and -the coils of the mermen . -Onward they w « nt in their joy , bathed round with the fiery coolness , Needing nor sun nor moon , self-lighted , immortal : but others , Pitiful , floated in alienee apart 5 in their bosoms the sea-boys , Slain by the wrath-of the seas , swept down by the anger of Nereus ; Hapless , whom never again on etrand or on quay shall their mothers Welcome with garlands and vows to the temple , but , wearily pining , Gaze over island and bay for the Bails of the sunken ; they heedless Sleep in soft bosoms for ever , and dream of the surge and the sea-maids . We heartily congratulate Mr . Kingsley on this production of his matured po-wers as a poet , and hope to meet him again in the ernne ideal regions but we should not be doing him justice if we omitted to mention his ballade , . several of which are here reprinted . Tuoy are for the most part admirable in spirit and rhythm—full of blood , energy , and impetus , and generally noble ^ n-their ^ mpathiQ 8 . ^ : J ^ e ^^^ kind equally removed from bigotry and indifference ; and holms a generous faith in the people and in the progress of the world . But we are inclined 4 o rebuke him for a too great sadness ; and surely ho carries his * muscular Clmetianity' a little too rar when he writes nn enthusiastic ode to tho north-• east wind , because it enables us to hunt foxes and skate on the rivers , blows our ships round the world , and makes us ' manly . ' At any rate , in this bleak March weather , with catarrh al oroakings all around , und neuralgia racHng eleven heads out of every dozen , we could g ladly welcome tho mild south-west , nnd , recollecting that Genoa and Yonico were once great
mercantile cities , though placed in a warm climate , and that ancient Greece was not wholly devoid of manliness , despite the influences of the sunny south , should feel no great fear of our trade declining or our race becoming epicene . It is painful , also , to find Mr . Kingsley calmly invoking the wintry wind to freeze the water , and thus " hunger into madness every plunging pike . " Such tilings must be , it is true ; but we are not on that account to contemplate them with pleasure . Else , we might as well beseech the north-east blast to hunger into madness every Alton Locke . Among the ballads which Mr . Kingsley has included in the present volume is one called ' The Three Fishers '—a tragical incident told with tragical intensity , and probably already known to many of our readers by the fine , passionate music to which it has been set by Mr . Hullah . Another ballad of the same kind has all the simple power of the old , traditional songs of England and Scotland , and is certain , we conceive , to work itself into the popular mind . Thus it runs : — THE SANDS OF DEE . " O Mary , go and call the cattle home And call the cattle home , And call the cattle home Across the sands of Dee : " The western wind was wild and dank with foam , And all alone went she . The western tide crept up along the sand , And o'er and o ' er the sand , And round and Tound the sand , , As far as eye could see . The rolling mist came down and hid the land : And never home came she . * ' Oh ! is it weed , or fish , or floating hair—A tress of golden hair , A drowned maiden ' s hair Above the nets at sea ? Was never salmon jet that shone so fair Among the stakes on Dee . " They rowed her in across the rolling foam , The cruel crawling foam , The cruel hungry foam , To her grave beside the sea : But still the boatmen hear her call the cattle home Across the sands of Dee . The moaning , billowy music of the versification of these stanzlas is as admirable as the delicate reserve with which the catastrophe is hinted at , rather than described . We must also allude to the dramatic truth and pathos of the blank verse poem ' Saint Maura '—a soliloquy after the manner of Tennyson ' s ' Saint Simeon Stylites . '
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THE LIFE OF MAHOMET . The Life of Mahomet , and History of Islam to the Era of the Jlegira . By William Muir . 2 vols . ' Smith and Elder . The impediments to be surmounted in the accomplishment of an . adequate biography of Mahomet are such as only a consummate degree of courage or temerity could confront . The sources of necessary investigation , though somewhat copious , are for the most part remote , frequently difficult of access , and even when attainable , prolific of the incongruous nnd irreconcilable materials emanating from the diverse elements which form the substance of ancient narrative . We have to search midst the bewildering myths of legend and the mazes of tradition , or to follow the tracks of contemporary or subsequent chroniclers , often little more reliable . To render testimony so heterogeneous subservient to a uniform and consistent p , requires , it is obvious , the directing energy of a clear , sound , and finely perceptive understanding , and a rare equipoise of mental faculties , aided by genuine resolve and diligence . Analysis of the sources of reference essential to the production of a biography of Mahomet enables us most effectually to estimate the value of Mr . Muir ' s researches , the importance of his work , and the probable justice of his views with respect to the great Moslem leader and lawgiver . . . The chief repositories for investigation in solving tho motives , aims , and characteristics of Mahomet are the Koran and tho traditions of the first two centuries . Accessory to these may be considered the information yielded by early biographers , and the national poetry and general literature of Arabia . To the inestimable worth of the Koran as illustrative of tho religious opinions and principles , and their influence on the public and social relations of Mahomet during his career , Von Hammer gives unqualified assent . In agreement with this conviction , Mr . Muir holds the Koran to bo the " genuine composition of Mahomet himself , " though ho dissents from tho belief current among Moslems that its arrangement is that proscribed by their Prophet , tho irregularity and confusion of various portions combating tho persuasion . Examining into tho medium through which the Koran has been preserved as a " genuine composition , " wo find by way of guarantee , that as u religious duty incumbent on believers , it was committed to memory , woro or less , by every adherent of Islam . The extent , indeod , to which it coulu be recited , was a distinguishing mark of honour ; and such was tlio tenacity of the Arab memory from constant exercise , that several of Malioinots Joilowcrs , it is authoritatively said , could repeat the entire revelation , It was not transmitted , however , solely through that channel . Transcripts were madoduring tho lifetime of tlio Prophet—the art of writing having been known t ^ tirar 23 ^ TMaTO ^ rWi&W hornet . These transcripts , colleotod and arranged by Zeid , undor Omar ana Abu JBaor , continued the authorized text . This edition , with but , some ww and insignificant variations , has remained unaltered to tho present diiy , in 1 ' « opinion of Mr . Muir , who , with Sprongor , regards the Koran as an ""'"""" I key to the character of Mahomet , in keeping with the saying current aino » g tho early Moslems themsolvoB , who , in spooking of their Prophet , ueclarod " his character is in tho Koran . " But tl » o sallont events 01 tho Prophet ' s career , to bo gathered from this authority , are msui-
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¦ 4 cm ** THE LEADED . [ No . 416 , March 13 , 1858 .
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), March 13, 1858, page 258, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2234/page/18/
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