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No . 420 , Apb . tl 10 , 1858 ] THE LEADER . 351
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Mb . Buckle ' s lecture at the Royal Institution on The Influence of Women ' forms the first article in the current number of Fraser . The perusal of this discourse , ' as it is styled hy its author , has disappointed us . After reading it one is surprised to hear that it was the lecturer ' s first attempt , the style being the regular lecture style , fluent , but feeble , colourless , and slip-shod , full of high-sounding generalities , but destitute of force , vividness , or precision . The lecturer ' s art of description is a very simple one , consisting mainly in the repetition of trite and pointless epithets . " The greatest discovery of the greatest natural philosopher the world has yet seen" is the account of Newton and the law of gravitation ; HaD y was " one of the most remarkable men of a remarkable age ; " Goethe " the greatest poefc Germany has produced , and one of the greatest the world has ever seen ; " the grave-diggers' scene in ' Samlet is " one of the most beautiful episodes in the . greatest production of the greatest man the world has ever possessed . " But the suhstanoe is as poor as the style . The discourse abounds with assumptions , confusions , and contradictions . A specimen or two will abundantly suffice . The lecturer maintains that " women naturally prefer the deductive method to the inductive , " the abstract to the concrete , because they have more imagination , are more poetical , than men . Again , he attempts to support his thesis that women are naturally deductive—that they delight iu the purely intellectual to the neglect of the sensuous side of science , by the assertion—true in itself but suicidal to the theory—that their perceptions are sharper , that , for instance , they can describe symptoms better , and understand signs more quickly than men . What follows is still more confused and contradictory . The whole doctrine is indeed little better than a blunder , which scarcely calls for serious criticism , and certainly does not require any formal refutation . The next article , c My Winter-Garden , by a . Minute Philosopher / is a delightful one , full of breezy freshness , hearty enjoyment of nature , and vigorous life . It contains in a curious setting of semi-scientific , semi-philosophic reflections , a magnificent description of a fox-hunt , obviously drawn by the same firm but sure and delicate Laud that sketched that inimitable hunting scene in the opening pages of Yeast . Here is a description of the most beautiful object in the world , the Greek statues alone excepted : — The hounds , moreover , hare obligingly -waited for us two fields on . For the cold wet pastures which we are entering do not carry the scent as the heather did , in which Keinecke , as he galloped , brushed off his perspiration against every twig ; and the hounds are now flemishing up and down by the side of the brown alder-fringed brook which parts the counties . I can hear the flap and snort of the dogs' nostrils as they canter round me ; and I like it . It is exciting ; but why—who can tell ? What beautiful creatures they are , too ! Isext to a Greek statue ( I mean a real old Greek one ; for I am a thoroughly anti-preraphaelite benighted pagan heathen in taste , and intend some day to get up a Cinque-Cento Club , for the total abolition of Gothic art)—next to a Greek statue , I say , I know few such combinations of grace and strength , as in a line foxhound . It is the beauty of the Theseus—light ami yet massive ; and light not in spite of its masses , but on account of the perfect disposition of them . 1 do not care for grace in man , woman , or animal , which , is obtained ( as in the old German painters ) at the expense of honest flesh and blood . It maybe all very pure , and unearthly , and saintly , and what not : but it is not healthy ; and therefore it is not really High Art , let it call itself such as much as it likes . The highest art must be that in which the outward is the most perfect symbol of the inwnnl ; and therefore a healthy soul can be only cxprest by a healthy body ; and starved limbs and a hydroeephalous forehead must be either taken as incorrect symbols of spiritual excellence , or as ( what they were really meant for ) symbols of certain spiritual diseases which were in the Middle Ago considered as ecclesiastical graces and virtues . Wherefore I like pagan and naturulwt art ; consider Titian and Corrcggio as unappreciated geniuses , whose excellences tho work ! will iu sonie saner mood rediscover ; hold in direct opposition , to Kio , that Kafaello improved steadily all his life through , and that his noblest works are not those somewhat simpering Madonnas and somewhat impish Bambino ^ ( very lovely though they are ) , but those great , coarse , naturalist , Protestant cartoons , which ( with Andrea Mantegna ' s Heathen Triumph ) Cromwell saved for the British , nation . I expect no ono to agree with all this for tho next quarter of a century : but after tliat I have hopes . Tho world will grow tired of pretending to admire ManicUmnn pictures in an ago of natural science , and of building churched on tho Popish model , to bo used for Frotcstant worship ; and art will let tho dead bury their dead , and beginning ugain where Michael Augclo and Rafaello left oft " , work forward into a nobler , truer , Irocr , and more diviuo school thun tho world lias yet seen—at least , so I hope . And all thia has grown out of thoso fox-hounds . "Why not ? Theirs is a sort of form which expresses to mo what I want art to express—Nuturo not limited , but developed , by high civilization . Tho old savngo ideal of beauty waa tlio lion , type of mi ? . ru massive foroo . That was succoodod by an over-civilized ideal , say the i ' uvni , typo uf duliuato grace , l $ y cunning bieodlug and choosing , through long centuries , man Imuj combined both , and has created tho l'ux-liouiid , lion and I ' nwn in one . Look at that old hound , who stands doubtful , looking up at his muster for advice . Look at tho teverlty , delicacy , lightnoca of every curve . UU head is liner than a doer ' s ; Ills hind-logd icubo as steul uprings ; his foru-legs straight us arrown : and yet kuo tho depth of chost , the sweep of loin , tho breadth of paw , tliu musn or arm and tliigli ; and if you have an eyo i ' or form , look at tho absolute majesty of liia attitude at this 3 SHiSiJJlU- _ jyi \) . HSto' » £ __ tjiojimly word for it . If he were nix feet high , instead of twenty-thrue . Inches , wltlfwliut nnTiiuil oireTrrnnRmKITmt-coinpfiro-liliivi*—Is-it-jiufc-a joy to see such , a thing alive V It in to me , at leant . 1 would like to have one In my etiuly ull diiy long , us 1 would have a btutiio or a picture ; and when Mr . Morrcllgiwu ( as , tlioy aay ) two hundred guineas for Uumilon alone , 1 bollovo the dog was well worth tho money , only to look at . Hut 1 am a ^ niimito philosopher . In this month's Blaclcwdoil , tho author of ' What , will ho do with It' curiously interrupts the progreas of tlio story to address an explanation to tho render—to effor in the form of nn apology a dofenoo and eulogy of his lulc . Not being
altogether satisfied with the criticisms of the press on the part that has already appeared , he undertakes to review the whole by anticipation himself , and bis opinion is , on the whole , a very favourable one . He pronounces the author to be a perfect artist , the story a faultless work , and implicitly laments the want of a higher aesthetic feeling on the part of the reading public , and especially the critics . Had there been any doubt at all about the authorship of the story , this interjected preface would have at once removed it . At the outset of ' What will he do with It , " we remarked that the new story was a return to Bulweb . Lytton's old style—a statement which its progress has fully justified , and which the preface to the last part curiously confirms . In his early days , Bulweb . was fond of introducing each new story by an elaborate statement , in form usually a preface , in substance an eloge on the work , pointing out that the marvellous skill of the construction was scarcely likely to be fully appreciated by the critics and the public , and calling on aesthetic readers and on posterity to admire it as a wonderful picture of nature and a perfect work of art . Here is an extract from the present preface quite in the old style : —> - The reader may thus have the complaisance to look at each instalment as the component portion of a completed whole ;—comprehending that it cannot be within the scope of the author ' s design to aim at a separate effect for each separate number ; but rather to carry on through each number the effect which he deems most appropriate to his composition when regarded as a whole . And here may it be permitted to dispel an erroneous idea which , to judge by current criticism , appears to be sufficiently prevalent to justify the egotism of comment . It seems to be supposed that , because this work is published from month to month in successive instalments , therefore it is written from month to month as a newspaper article may be dashed off from day to day . Such a supposition is adverse to all the principles by which-works that necessitate integrity of plan , and a certain harmony of proportion , are constructed ; more especially those works which aim at artistic representations of human life : For , in human life , we must presume that nothing is left to chance , and chance must be no less rigidly banished from the art by which human life is depicted . That art admits noj hap-hazard chapters , no uncertainty as to the consequences that must ensue from the incidents it decides on selecting . Would the artist , on after thought , alter a consequence , he must reconsider the whole chainwork of incident which led to one inevitable result , and which would be wholly defective if it could be made to lead to another . Hence , a work of this kind cannot be writtten currents calamo , from month to month ; the entire design must be broadly set forth before the first page goes to press ; and large sections of the whole must be always completed in advance , in order to allow time for deliberate forethought , and fair opportunity for such revisions , as an architect , having prepared all his plans , must still admit to his building , should difficulties , not foreseen , sharpen the invention to render each variation in detail an improvement consistent to the original design . Again , to assure the excited public that if he accepts office it will not interfere with the interest and excellence of the story : — Since this survey of our modern world requires a large and a crowded canvas , and would be incomplete did it not intimate those points of contact in which the private touches the public life of Social Man , so it is well that the reader should fully understand that all reference to such grand events as political ' crises' and changes of government were written many months ago , and have no reference whatever to the actual occurrences of the passing day . Holding it , indeed , . a golden maxim that practical politics and ideal art should be kept wholly distinct from each other , and seeking in this narrative to write that which may be read with unembittered and impartial pleasure by all classes and all parties—nay , perchance , in years to come , b } ' the children of those whom he now addresses—the author deems it indispensable to such ambition to preserve the neutral ground of imaginative creation , not onlyfree from those personal portraitures which are fatal to comprehensive and typical delineations of character , but from all intentional appeals to an interest which can be but momentary , if given to subjects that best betit the leading articles of political journals . His realm , if it hope to endure , is in the conditions , the humours , the passions by which one geiu-ral phase of society stands forth in the broad light of our common human nature , never to be cast aside , as obsolete and out of fashion , " into the portion of weeds and worn-out faces . " TTe must correct the quotation iu the last extract , which should bo , not " weeds and worn-out laces , " but '' weeds and outworn faces . " A prose poet like JjiJttjiiiY Tayjlok ought to lie quoted correctly . Looking to this singular address to the reader as a whole , we are fur from saying that it was not called for . No doubt' it was quite natural that the icw readers of Blackicood , who still managed to read the story , should beg in to wonder whether anything would come of it or not ; but it wus scarcely politic in the autlior to recognize the propriety of such a speculation by formally assuring them that something would come of it iu the cud . ' Tood and Drink—Part II . ' is a continuation of the papers on the physiology of common life . Wo extract the following warning to the lovers ol' sliapc and symmetry at all hazards : — ° Phosi > horus and Sulphur arc also indispensable , but they arc received with our food . Acids are received with vegetable food ; but they are also taken separately , especially the acetic acid , or vinegar , which , according to Prout , has either by acciident or design boen employed by mankind in all ages—that is to say , ^ ubstancoa naturally containing it hove boen employed as nlimenifl , or it has boon formed artificially . It is owing to their acids Mint fruito and vegvtwbloH are necessary to man , although not necc'HStiry to the carnivorn . Dr . Mudd juatly points to the prolonged abstinence from succulent vegetables and fruits a * the ouuho of the scurvy among suilors . Lomon-juico is now always given to sailor * with their food ; it protects them from scurvy , which no amount of vinegar , howuver , is simieieut in olK-et . Wo make cooling drinks with vitfutnblo »«»««» 5 « lul «« r 8 IUluls lllltl fa' ™"" * ilui » nn « . l vinegar , as our cold . neat demands pickle * . Taken lit moderation , there is no doubt that vliiugur is buiiollciul , but in excess it impairs tlio digestive orgmiH ; ami , «* wo remarked a little whllo ago , experlmontH on nrlillclnl digestion » huw that if tliu « , uuuti « y of acid be diminished digestion is retarded ; if incToa . sod boyo . ui a tvrtalii H » t , diction m arrested . Ihoro is reason , therefore , in the vulgar notion , u .. l . upi > ily too fon . lly rolled on , that vinegar -l » , l H-l ' , > -lcaUp . dow . iufta . alannhm . aUuumity ., » ml that ladies who dread the ^ M > P ™ rnnuo of tliolr uracoful outline iu ourviw of | 1 lu ( npno ^ - oxFaMtllnff -lntff- '' fnt f' -mayarreat ho dreadful a roault by hb « , al potations of vinegar ; but they can only so arrest it at the far more dreadful « xj . « i . » o of H » ir Ii « - « lcti- ' 1 !•« amount ol acid which will keep them thin , will destroy tholr illative power * . 1 ' oN . jl give * a ease which should be a warning : "A few yc « V- ««« , a young l . i . ly in easy circumstances enjoyed gocri health i Bhe was very plum ,,, had » good apatite ami . a uuinp uxloii b oorning ^ with ro « es a id Ulios . She Logan to look upon her plump . ium . with auspiolo ; for her mother was very fat , and » ha was afraid of becoming like her . Accordingly , ehe
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? rviHcs are not the legislators , but the judges and police of literature . They do not tJnclc makelaws—they interpret . and try to enforce them . — Edinburgh Review .
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), April 10, 1858, page 351, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2238/page/15/
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