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Leader (1850-1860), 16th October 1858, Edition 1 of 2, Page 1091, Untitled Article

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      Untitled Article

      Critics are not tlie legislators , but the judges anil polic . of literature . They do not make laws—they interpre and try to enforce them . —Edinburgh Review .

      Untitled Article

      GAELYLE'S FREDERICK THE GREAT . History of Friedrich the Second , called Frederick the Great . By Thomas Carlyle . Chapman and Hall .

      [ second notice . ] There has been of late in periodical literature and its current criticism a good deal of decrying popular and prominent literary men . To join , -without our own convictions being gained , in a deprecatory cry of this sort is as far from , and foreign to , our feelings , as to share in the pointless laudation with which this book has been greeted by the great majority of the daily and weekly press . But we believe that the contrast established , for example , in the several cases of Tennyson , Thackeray , and Dickens , between their most recent and their former works , really leads to the inevitable

      conclusion of a lalling off , if not in their powers , at least in the exercises of them . You can hardly conceive " the ' - ' Virginians " to have been written by the author of tlie " Snob Papers" and " Vanity Hair . " " Little Dorrit" repels , and leaves as thorough a feeling of dissatisfaction as " Nicholas Nickleby , " or " " Cricket on the Hearth , " warmed' arid cheered the heart of the reader . And the mouthing vapouring of "Maud " is the very antithesis of the sweet melody , of the " Priucessj" and the suggestive , musings of "In Memoriam . " We do not go so far as to say that this book of Mr .. Carlyle presents , with reference

      to his works , as prominent and striking a contrast ; but yet it is an infinitely inferior performance to those of its writer ' s . former works , which compare most naturally with it —" Oliver Cromwell" and the French" Revolution . " This openly avowed opinion we shall endeavour to justify in the sequel , but meanwhile , as a fair and forcible illustration , let those who have read Mr . Carlyle carefully , and recollect his s p lendid pictures of the death-beds of Louis XV ., and Mirabeau , contrast with these the following extract from his narration of tlie death of . Frederick William , the father of his hero : — lips and downs there still were ; sore fluctuating labour , as the poor King struggles to his final rest this

      morning . He was at the window again , when the Wacht-puradc ( Grenadiers on Guard ) turned out ; lie saw them make their evolutions for tho last time . After which new relapso , new fluctuation . It was about elpven o ' clock when Cochius was again sent for . The King lay speechless , seemingly still conscious , in bed ; Cochins prays with fervour , in a loud tone , that the dying king " mny hear and join . " Not so loud ! " says the King , rallying a little . He had remembered that it was tho season when his servants got their new liveries ; they had been ordered to appear this day in full now costume : " O vanity ! O vanity ! " said Friedrich

      Wilhelm , at sight of tbe ornamented plush . u Pray for mo , pray for me ; my trust is in the Saviour ! " ho often said . His pains , liis weakness are great ; tho cordage of a most tough heart rending itself piece by piece . At one time , ho culled for a mirror ; that is certain ;—rugged wild man , son of Nature to tho last . Tho mirror was brought ; what he said at sight of his face is variously reported : " Not bo worn out as I thought , " is POHnitz s account , and tho likeliest;— though porhnps lie said several things , " ugly face , " " as good as dead already ; " and continued tho inspection for some moments . A grim , strange thing .

      " Fool my pulse , Pitach , " suid he , noticing tho Surgeon of his Giants : ' * teU me how long this will laat . " — " Alas , not long , " answered Pitncli . — " Say not , alas ; but how do you ( Ho ) know ?"—" The pulso is gono !"— " Impossible , " said ho , lifting his arm : " how could I movo my fingers so , if the pulse were gono ?' Pitsoh looked mournfully steadfast . " Horr Jesu , to thco I livo ; Horr Josu , to thco I die ; in life and in do « th thou art my gain ( Du btet mein Gowhui ) . " Thoso woro tho last words , Friodrioh WHholin epoko in this world . Ho again foil into a faint , Eller gavo a signal to tho Crown-Prince to tako tho Queen away . Scarcely woro they out of tlio room , whan the faint had deenonod into death ; nn < l Friodrloh Wilh « lin , at'rest from all hta labours , slopt with tho primeval sons of Thor ,

      and other species of " Kings , " alone attainable for the sunk flunkey populations of an Era given up to Mammon and the worship of its own belly , what would not such a population give for a Friedrich Wilhelm , to guide it on the roa , d back from Orcus a little ? Would give , ' I have written ; but alas , it ought to have been ' should give . ' What they ' would' give is too mournfully plain to me , in spite of ballotboxes : a steady and tremendous truth from the days of Barabbas downwards and upwards!—Tuesday , 31 st May 1740 , between one and two o ' clock in the afternoon , Friedrich Wilhelm died ; age fiftj ' -two , coming loth August next . Same day , Friedrich his Son was proclaimed at Berlin ; quilted heralds , with sound of trumpet and the like , doing what is customary on such occasions .

      Literary gossip has carried to our ears rumours as to the spirit in which Mr . Carlyle approached , and is carrying on , this work . To the current statement we should attach an importance exactly proportionate to the absence of avowed authority for its source j . but we believe that the nature of the performance itself , and the strange spirit which is breathed all through it , would itself have suggested a conviction entirely corroborative of the rumour . We do not think-that the zeal which prompted the undertaking of tlie task has been increased , or even maintained , by the closer and . nearer discovery , by Mr . Carlyle , of his hero ' s character , which the

      progress of the book has brought to him . His motive in undertaking it is nearly obvious , and even if it were not so , is explicitly avowed by himself . The eighteenth , century , the era of ¦ his . special abhorrence , contains for him this one man not even by his . own showing altogether good , not eliciting from him credit . for anything lilce disinterestedness , and ' sacrifice , but yet a reality , rough and grim , stern and thorough . This allurement carried him to the task . He thought him a hero ; but he finds , as he goes on , some acts to be placed under any category but that of true heroism . He is loth'to allow * his . . mind to entertain the conviction that the estimate of the character of his

      subject must be lowered , and the whole book seems to bear the evidence of this reluctant and suppressed contest , waged in his own mind and conscience . The enthusiasm , therefore , as a necessary result , secnis got up , spasmodic , unreal ; and the nervous departure , at every conceivable opportunity and occasion , from the exact line of the story , leaves on the reader ' s mind the impression that the alternation of other pictures , and tho task of their representation , has been prompted by a desire to escape from what , if thp subject had proved really attractive , would have iisurped and occupied nil his energies . In the outset he tells us that

      Frederick \ v ;\ s no hypocrite . In the progress oi the book lie details to us certain of his hypocrisies . Too faithful to accurate and truthful histoi-ic delineation , lie docs not try to disguiso or dony the facts , even if they destroy his theory , IIo docs not try , for it would be futile , to explain away the hypocrisy , but . lie urges , in palliation , the force of circumstances which made , tlie hypocrisy the moro venial . Not upon this undeniable fact alone do we build the theory which we have honestly expressed . This is only typical and representative of other illustrations which might be adduced . As to the character of the literary , execution of

      the work , allowance being niado for ' that to which wo have been adverting , a sort of . half worship of his hero , it is enough to say that Mr . Curlylo has written the book . His pictures of battle-fields ami of scenes , the strong inl uitivc hold he takes of men ' s diameters , purposes , and objects , the allinily of his mind to whatever is . strong , and forcible in human nature , thq pathos into which he is led by any meditation upon tho mysteries of humanity , and the storn rigour of even his most pla \ ful moods—all are shown liorc , as ho has shown them before You

      with equal truthfulness , told . On such merits we might dwell continuously , and for many pages ; but we wish to record not so much those general characteristics of ISIr . Carlyle—which-he has shown in his every other book as well as in this—as what we believe to be the specific faults of the production . We may astonish by our audacity ; but if there be one impression which we have gathered from the study of these volumes stronger than another , it is that " their meaning , if not their intention , is a defence of iron despotism and irresponsible kingly power aarainst the doctrines of 'freedom and

      self-government . Mr . Carlyle has been gravitating , more or less determinately , this way for the last ten years . Starting as he did with his cardinal' doctrine of hero worship , and elevating then the talkerswhether prophets , priests , or poets—to as high a position as the workers , whether kings or religious fanatics , he has for some years past chosen to walk in only one of the two directions indicated by him . His only real hero , now , is the worker , and the working hero he likes most is the despot . This tendency has been manifest since the publication of the ' - ' Latter-Day Pamphlets , " and we think it would not be diilicult to show that to this cause is to be attributed the decline in his influence and popularity . A strange doctrine this for one wlio ip himself a talker , to preach !

      All through the book there is a great deal of prating about " Cosmos" as opposed to " Chaos "Cosmos representing the iron rule of his hero , Chaos signifying popular movements for popular rights , more or less turbulent and eager . We can translate the vague general antithesis into no other sense than this , " and we believe that the subject was chosen rather to elevate this doctrine than the doctrine eliminated because suggested by the subject . Frederick he looks upon as the last of the kings , the last picket thrown out by the receding army of rulers into the advancing modern tide of . " ballotboxes and Keforiu agitators . " .

      This doctrine of " Cosmos" versus " Chaos , " which he has been preaching recently , is intimately connected with , although it does not necessarily spring from , ihc doctrine lie has always preached of individualism ; but this last doctrine , like the other , good in itself , rind within due proportions , he has also , we think , ridden to death . He will have nothing to s : vy in favour , of the . eighteenth century , with" the sole exception of the acts oL' Frederick , tho last of the kings ; and of Ilobespierrc and his coadjutors , the first of tho tribunal orators and rulers . This , because he cannot find in any other nm . ( inn nf \\ ¦ < lii ^ tni-v rmvtliino 1 nf ( lvililltlifMlL illdioriionof its history anything of dynamical

      indip viduality . And he will approve no reform , if it takes more than half a down men at the most to win it . Small indeed would have been the progress of the world if it had received only those benefits , groat as they are , which isolated great minds have given . And were the theme within our proper scope , a good dual might bo said , as against Mr . Carlyle , in favour pi" a mechanical eighteenth century , " ns quietly building up social improvements' and ameliorations , even when compared with an era of the invasion of northern strength } nto the cll'cte south , or of the turmoil and bloodshed of

      a sixteenth century Thirty Years' War . Mr . Carlyle is now auold mini . A more pleasant duly it . would bu to record that each new public performance oi'his really added one moro laurel to his brow ; but . we believe that tho truth Is moro accurately norl rayed by the representation we havegiven . ' Tho " old mini eloquent" is playing the part of Polyphemus , ' idly cursing ( bound to his island of doctrines , good in . themselves , but . worthloss if they be alono preached as the . gospel of progress ) at the Ulysses of slow , but sure popular advancement , calmly and safelv sailing away on its course .

      actually sou the lines of Knrfursts , Ilohonaolhn'ns , Kaisers , Margraves , and . Electors , kneading with tlicir kingly power the Prussian slalo into oxistenco and solidity . You trace tho gradual fusion of the two elements of tho Prussian people , whoso traces and mark they still boar—tho I ' ugun , Wcndish savage ' dom \ Vuich is tho real basis of , their nature — and the colonising and ohristianising Gorman influence , which connected tho dreary sands of Brandenburg and Preussou with tho then system of JSuropoun policy , . under tho German lflumiro—all this is most pictorinlly , ami

      No Baresark of thorn , nor Odin ' s self , I think , was a hit of truor human stuff}—1 confess his value to me , in thoso end times , Is rare ami great . Considering tho usual Hlatrlonio , Tapta'a-Digester . Truouleut-Chnrlatmi

      Untitled Article

      WucJn and Wild Flowers . With Illustrations . By Lmly 'Wilkinson . ( Vim Voorst . )—A very huiulnam . i volumes nnil as full of instruction and aniuaomuiit ns it la handsome . Tho tillo of tho work uxproetaofl its "bjoof , namel y , to fiivo a history of tliu uses , ltjtfoii < l <* > ana literature oPwoods mul wlkl ' fl .. \ vora - | but it by no moans nuts in at onuo into iwbo ^ Ioii "I' tho fiiot U . > nt tlie uuthorosfl has produced ft n »«» it ivml / iblo book , '"" » ' »«' sho hna brouu'lu tn ^ thor u nwini of information , partly from lir own ob-em . H .. n nn . l pnrtly fro « n ° V . T £ 2 which will mnku tln » work not , only vftlun . lo na n book of imiuaomont , but of swlM induction and reference .

      Untitled Article

      LITERATURE , SCIENCE , ART , &c .

      Untitled Article

      ISTo . 447 , October 16 , 1858 . ] THE LEA ^ DEjt . 1091

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  • Citation
    • Leader (1850-1860), Oct. 16, 1858, page 1091, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2264/page/11/