On this page
-
Text (4)
-
Untitled Article
-
Untitled Article
-
Untitled Article
-
Untitled Article
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
-
-
Transcript
-
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
Additionally, when viewing full transcripts, extracted text may not be in the same order as the original document.
Untitled Article
No . 420 , Apbii / 10 , 1858 . 3 T HE LEADEB . 353
Untitled Article
""" nrHnff among distant glades , and the far-reaching farms with heavy rentals nertainingTWiss from under his feet , and he becomes a wanderer without n inheritance . AH is not so trite in the novel as this beginning would ^ m > lv but when is the parental curse to be counted among the obsoletisms of nmance ? When is the circulating library subscriberto part with the hard man who will not hear mention of his ungrateful scion ' s name , although an nnbidden tear marks the inward struggle ? When will the tall , fair-haired , manly but gentle youth grow reasonable and leave off" sacrificing vast fortunes to an inconsiderate affection ? Should the fashion ever change , should no velists cease to work upon the antique pattern , the originator of a new scheme would deserve monumental honours ; but it is surprising that the human imagination with all its pinions should so seldom rise beyond conv entionalities which must have tired the last century , for it may be supposed that the sin entails its own punishment , and that readers become few because entertainment becomes rare . The Netlierwoods of Otterpool as a novel is one of an extremely large class , not worse than its contemporaries but not better , inasmuch as , though well-written and exhibiting some knowledge of human character , its fable is one of the most musty order . After the first volume ¦ we find some experiments at originality ; but the general conception is oldfashioned and feeble . The Old Palace . By Julia Tilt , Author of * May Hamilton' and Laura Talbot . 2 vols . ( Bentley . )—Miss Tilt takes us back to the old days when Hammersmith was distant and rural , when ladies wore polonaises , white beaver hats , feathers , and Flanders veils , when lute-string was in vogue , when ' St . James ' s-street was not disgraced by filthy cabs or disfigured by hired broughams . ' Then , in St . James ' s Palace , the King stood and kissed the little heroine of Miss Tilt ' s history , and he was a handsome fellow ' in a grand uniform' with * clusters of jewels upon his sword hilt . ' Then Queen Charlotte walked through the apartments in state in advance of her * magnificent train of sons and daughters , then in the very zenith of their youth and beauty ; ' and through these courtly scenes , and among these royal personages the romance unwinds , there being a mystery in the connexion of Theresa , the heroine , with his Majesty , one of the Georges . Miss Tilt has contrived her novel ingeniously , and leaves the beaten track in favour of a generation and of manners not very frequently illustrated in our days . What you Will ; an Irregular Romaqfe . ( J . W . Parker . )—This onevolume story is full of cleverness and character . The incidents are not numerous , and one , constituting a sort of turning point , is nothing more than a commonplace ; but the writing is natural and pointed , the illustrations of human nature are vivid , and there are some charming sketches of English home life . The clergyman of Acton Jiars is an admirable portrait , somewhat in Mr . Anthony Trollope ' s style ; but the best part of the narrative is described in the table of contents as " The winding-up of the thread ;" it is most tenderly conceived and most touehingly developed .
Untitled Article
JANSENISM IN HOLLAND . A History of the so-called Jansenist Church of Holland . With a Sketch of its Earlier Annals , and some Account pf the Brothers of the Common Life . By the Rev . J . M . Neale , M . A . Parker and Co . Thb Jansenists of France have not been wanting in historians to perpetuate the narrative of their faith and sufferings , self-inflicted , or otherwise . But that schismatic section which exists in Holland and has its chief seat at Utrecht has not been so well described ; in fact , little is really known of it . Accordingly , to enlighten the students of ecclesiastical history more fully on the subject , Mr . Nealo has been engaged since the year 1851 in hunting up old dusty chronicles and mouldering records , examining into their contents , holding personal and written communications with officials likely to be the guardians of hereditary traditions relating to it , and in producing a work which should elucidate the origin , development , and trials of the so-called Jansenist Church of Holland . He has also given an interesting account of the Brothers of the Common Life . In fact , to the founders of this ascetic community should be properly traced the formation of that independence which eventually made the Church of Holland so conspicuous , and brought on it the merciless hatred of the Jesuits . To the personal merits and influence of Jansenius has been ascribed the creation of a new schism ; and throughout France the number of persons who assumed his name and imbibed his doctrines was very great ; but the historian sees in the religious excitement created by the Bishop of Ypres only a revival of that religious ferment which was originully stimulated by Gcert Groote and Florio Radewijnzoon , whose lives and characters are well described in the present volume . Wo may regard these illustrious religionists , indeed , as the Luthers of the ante-reformation age , since they protested against the cruelty , the tyranny , and the wickedness of their contemporaries with unflinching zeal . Judging them , too , by their doctrines , we find them proclaiming the same dogmasas at a subsequent period influenced the lives and conduct of St . Cyrnn , bt . Vincent de Paul , and , to a certain extent , Blaise Pascal . St . Augustine was their great authority , and his ideas on free will and predestination were received by them with the deepest veneration . Whilst , however , they continued to maintain the purity of hfo and manners prescribed by the regulations ot their order , and as long as the members of the Church of Utrecht were equally impressed with the necessity of conforming themselves to a strict moral code , the danger of the Calvinism preached did not at first appear . Eventually , it led to the worst results of fatalism , and being gratted on superstition equalled in enormity the worship of Moloch . In France it operated in the most disgusting forms ; and the stories related of the Convulsionists are , perhaps , without a purnllol . The ftenzy which seized tho -TnindB ^ Hhe-ignorant-wroughUtUe ^ theatre of these scenes was the cemetery of St . Modard . To tins spot men and women resorted in large numbers . There they worked themselves up to the highest pitch of fanaticism ; they leaped wildly about , they foamud at the mouth , they tore their hair itml clothing , they sobbed , groaned , became hysterical , and threw themselves into the most frightful contortions and convulaions . Sometimes a hundred of these Western devotees would bo victjmatizing themselves at the same time . ; Tho spectacle was in every way
revolting ; and the King at length ordered the burial-ground to be closed . Hence the epigram : — De par le roi , defense & Dieu De faire miracles en ce lieu . This was , however , but the signal for these fanatics to disperse over the country , and to plunge still more deeply into the excesses of religious madness . Of these unhappy Convulsionists , almost always women , some caused themselves to be publicly scourged , some threw themselves into water and barked liked dogs , some took upon themselves to confess men , till at length , one poor girl was actually persuaded to be crucified . This was on the Good Friday , 1758—exactly a century ago ; and the spectacle was more than once repeated . Mr . Neale has collected a great deal of information on the history of this community , and has reduced it into chronological order ; and , on the whole , his work exhibits praiseworthy research and industry . He is also impartial , except occasionally , as where , for example , he alludes to the transactions of the States-General and the Prince of Orange , which he has highly coloured . However , the work will be valuable to the present student of ecclesiastical history and to any future Mosheim .
Untitled Article
LETTERS FROM SPAIN . Letters from Spain in 1856 and 1857 . By John Leycester Adolphus , M . A . Murray . The wanderings of Mr . Leycester Adolphus in Spain are pleasantly described in these letters , not originally intended for publication . They extended through the most romantic provinces and cities of the Peninsula , and brought the tourist among the shadows of Granada , the lemon-scented courts of ° the Alhambra , the laughing landscapes round Seville , and the time-tinted splendours that commemorate the Moorish ascendancy . Spanish travel is not altogether a luxury . It means eccentric roads , long intervals of famine , much cabbage , and infinite oil ; but it has abundant fascination for an Englishman in search of the new and the picturesque . If the towns are full of artificial exhalations , the country abounds in natural fragrance ; the men are stately and the women graceful ; and although there is somethin » more animal than human in the masculine black Spanish eye , the people generally have an orientalized aspect , harmonious with the elaborate arches and sun-bright roofs of the Saracen palaces . The houses , with their interior courts and decorated facades , are contrasts to the heavy uniformity of modem England , and it is a refreshment to tread on marble stairs , and over embroidered mats , and to see the sash , sombrero , and cloak , m their realities as parts of a popular costume . As the road winds horribly from Gibraltar to Ronda , white Moorish villages glitter on the height , with castles still bearing their proud Oriental names , Benarraba and Benadalid ; vine , olive , fig , and oleander paint the mountains green , and at Malaga the Andalusian bull rushes into his arena , exactly as in the olden times , amid lancers , red cloaks and streamers , fans , mantillas , and all the glories of Spanish fashion . Mr . Adolphus relished these varieties of scene and incident , and transfers them to his epistolary diary so as to produce a narrative at once suggestive and entertaining . Of the Alhambra his description is less enthusiastic than that of many tourists , who represent the palace as a world of fairy colour and radiance , but it is nevertheless warm , and opens up with effect the rich perspective—the vistas of marble columns " slender and white like ladies' arms , " the ranges of fretted canopies , the little enclosed paradise of myrtles and roses , with fountains flinging sparkles over them , and the story of Linderaxa haunting the entire place like a dream . At Cordova , Mr . Adolphus complains of Christian architectural innovation in the cathedral , loading the interior with a ponderously gorgeous choir , letting in the light through sacrilegious windows to destroy the cryptic gloom so perfectly in unison with the masses of Moorish pillars . Of Zehra , the superb folly of the last Abdalrahman , little remains ; the gold and pearl ornaments are gone , the quicksilver fountains have disappeared , the pavilions are sunk in the same dust with the eunuchs and concubines of the seraglio . Below that dust , however , as Don Pascoval de Gazangos—employed by the Spanish Government in antiquarian researches at Cordova—informed Mr . Adolphus , the walls and rooms of the palace are probably buried . Pieces of white marble , elaborately sculptured after the arabesque fashion , have been found . The frescoed galleries of history contain no pictures more superb than those of the Moorish rule in Spain , and it is incessantly interesting to follow the traveller who visits the sites and relics of their works , their cities , mosques , and voluptuous seclusion , shrouded within solemn , dull , and mighty walls . Mr , Adolphus , although affecting no poetical ecstasies , and though not addicted to quote Byron , enters thoroughly into the spirit of Spanish history , and tints his pages with the grace and freedom of an artist , without any excess of elaboration . His volume ia light , and sketchy , consisting of fragments , notes , and letters , rather than of a continuous narrative , but it is throughout written with elegance , and 13 altogether a very animated and amusing book for desultory reading .
Untitled Article
MB . HAY WARD'S ESSAYS , Biographical and Critical Essays . Reprinted from Reviews , with Additions and Corrections . By A . Hayward , Esq ., Q . C . 2 vola . Longman and Co . Many of Mr . Hayward ' s Essays are worth preserving . They contain original personal reminiscences of his distinguished frionda and contemporarics , anil thus add to the general stock of biographical materin . bomo , moreover , are all but biographies in themselves , while others , as lite Art o / Dining fprm little manuals , pleasant , popular , and appealing to deep human sympathies . Tho biographical papers are the most numerous , including ByanWSnrithTSairmrt-RoW field , Lord Melbourne , General von Kudowitz , the Countess llahnhabn , and Lord Eldon . That on Pierre Dupont has its peculiar interest . Uio personal subjecta are classified together in the first volume I he second contains , among others , Mr . Huyward ' s quarterly articles on Journalism in France , Parisian Morals and Manners , tho bcienco and Literature of Etiquette , and British Field Sports .
-
-
Citation
-
Leader (1850-1860), April 10, 1858, page 353, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2238/page/17/
-