On this page
-
Text (2)
-
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
tribuunt , felicitatem Deus . " About the whole there is art heroic tread and grandeur . Loyalty to the ruler and lealness to the land are equally expressed . And all through the sentences are pervaded by a national-anti-Armada and anti-Papal fervour . The great deeds recordedarenear enough to the writer still to have left the inspiriting excitement of personal recollection ; and they are sufficiently mellowed by a distance which gives repose and gracefulness of outline to their recital . The theme of her unbroken felicity is never lost sight of ; and with a most anti-Baconian but pardonable blindness , he will hot have it that the fate of her mother , the vicissitudes of her youth , t
or her childlessness , mar the picture . Only hree sentences , but they are worthy ones , specify , as one item of her felicity , the greatness of her galaxy of ministers . " Addo et iliud in fehcitatis ejus cumulum insignem : quod non tantum nomine proprio , sed in ministrorum virtute , felieissima fuit . Tales enim viros nacta est , quales fortasse hac insula antehae ( for which we might safely substitute posthae ) non peperit . Deus nutem , regibus favens , etiam spiritus ministrorum excitat et ornat . " Four or five pages contain a statesmanlike and most Machiavellian ¦ " Imago Civilis Julii Csesaris . " Certain additions and corrections by Bacon m a copy of Camden ' s Annales are given and explained . And so we are carried to the Essa ys , or Counsels ,
ther the quotations from writers since this author who have taken severally every line of the poem . Every time you open Thucydides , you say , How like , after all , are the new times to the old . Mere I find t he same questions of government , economy and policy , as I read about in the Times this morning . And the arguments and illustrations are nearly as similar as the themes In the reperusal of the Essays , to which welcome pleasure the cutting open of this volume has called us , at every page we have said to ourselves " Here is a mine , blocks from which every
, dav we have been admiring in iabrics built by others . Yesterday that same happy turn gleamed upon us from Addisou ; that well-balanced antithesis of Macaulay ' s was culled from the garden in which he loitered so long , and from which he carried away many of its treasures and its choice perfume ; and that striking , rugged , sudden response fired from the mouth of Professor leufelsdrockh or Herr Sauerteig was forged at
Gorham-SYLVAN HOLT'S DAUGHTER . Sylvan IIoWs Daughter . 3 vols . By Holme Lee . Smith , Elder , and Co Margaret Holt is Sylvan Holt ' s daughter , " a fine , well-grown girl of seventeen , strong and hardy from her free out-door life , but naturally graceful in person , and with a face whose pure , soft , healthy blush was beauty proof against the harsh mountain winds . She was never loud-voiced or boisterous indeed , unless there was something remarkable to ' excite animation , her manners were rather indolently calm than otherwise . " Brought , up ' somewhat in hoydenish fashion , with a fine natural intelligence h she kn all
rather in thoroug , " ows the nooks of Wild wood , the seat of her father ; can read , and loves reading when the volume suits her ; can write and spell tolerably ; can sing in a sweet untaught fashion ; can back any horse in her father's stables , and make flies for fishing . " This is the catalogue raisoiineoi the young lady and her accomplishments , as inventoried by the author . Margaret ' s father is represented as mean , sarcastic , and even brutal in manner to people in general , but always loving and tender to his daughter . He had , however , sustained " one terrible cruel wrong in life , " which forms the key to his brusque and repulsive behaviour . Martin Carew , a young neighbour—nephew to Mrs . Joan
Clervaux , who is in possession of Sylvan Holt ' s secret —falls in love with Margaret , with the approbation of his aunt , but without the consent of the young lady herself . Affairs go on with tolerable smoothness for about half a volume , and then one Colonel Fielding , a Scotchman ,-of wealthy aiul proud family , anxious to preserve the family lineage untainted , comes on the stage , and though double the age of Sylvan Holt ' s daughter , succeeds in winning her heart . Margaret Holt sees her mental deficiencies , determines to remedy them by hard study , and finally to give him her hand , after she has been informed by her father that she was a " AV . ell-locher'd" bride , with one little drawback , < hat her mother Jiad
abandoned her in her infancy to elope with another man , and , after her father had killed the seducer , had lost her reason and died unforgiven . The story of Margaret becomes , known to her proud Scotch relations ; by some it is-considered to be no reproach , by others a different view is taken of the matter . This contradictory feeling irritates the proud and sensitive spirit of . Margaret , who , however , is repaid and consoled by the affection and sympathy of-her husband . Years before t he had been
Colonel Fielding met with Margare affianced to Frances Sinclair , a beautiful creature , who returned his love , but who , from prudential considerations , gave up her chance of happiness to wed a richer suitor . These circumstances become known to Margaret , but cause little or no jealousy , and Margaret , now Colonel Fielding s wile , and Frances , now Mrs . Hamilton , meet , and soon fall into firm friendship . Mrs . Hamilton ' s infirm and wealthy husband dies , leaving her a wcH-jointureu widow , with the seeds of incipient consumption Colonel Fielding having heard that Mrs Hamilton is sm-inuslv ill "" at . Nice , suddenly abandons homo
and wife in a fit of renewed love for 1 ranees , joins her at Nice , and remains Ihcrc till she dies . Alaignrot , amazed and disgusted at this conduct , though still deeply attached to her husband , m a transmnt of wifely indignation sends a message to linn that she never " desires to sco his face again . inw oflcuds tho high-spirited colonel , and us lie had not " sold out , " he prepares to yield obedience to ft mandate from the War Oflieo to join his rc / 5 » f" } India . After a suitable period passed in imituiu sulks , husband and wife being throughout attneuett
lovora at heart , Colonel Fielding writes a repen * letter , Margaret relents , and joins her husband ui India , whoro she goes about campaigning with nm throughout all tho horrors of the present InUum mutiny . Aftor marrying oil'and otherwise disposing of tho subordinate characters , tho novel comes toft ° It will bo scon there is very little that is now or extraordinary cither in characters or incidentsi iu this novel , nnd yot thoro is sufficient vaiioty , sufficient novelty of situation , su foment cloyomoss in tho conduot of tho plot ; and tho conclusion , to interest warmly , and to tako it out ol tho list oi com inonplaoo productions .
bury . " The Be Sapientid Veterum completes the volume . It takes the fables of Greek mythology as means of philosophical and moral instruction . The intent of the work is at once apparent when you read the table of contents . Some of the titles , for example , are : __« p an , siveNatura ; " "Cyclopes , sive Mmistri Terroris ; " " Actseoli et Pentheus , sive Cunosus ;" " Proteus , sive Materia ; " ^ Dionysus , sive Cupiditas ; " " Sirenes , sive " Voluptas . " In some cases the obvious and accepted significance of the fnhle is extracted and explained : but in most , with
allowable arbitrariness , the truth to be taught has first occupied the mind of the teacher , and then chosen for itself a fable applicable and appropriate as its channel and clothing . ' The design and its working out are curious , as the precursor of the modern theory of mvths , to which so much research aiid scholarship have been dedicated . There is no disparagement implied in the statement that , as a mere theory , ipacon ' s details and specialties will not stand the test of the the results of the thought and study brought to bear upon the
conelusions of such late writers as Niebuhr and Max 'Mullen As a specimen of Bacon ' s plan , we may epitomise his last parable , " Sirenes , sive Voluptas . " The Sirens , daughters of Terpsichore , originally had wings , but lost them in a contest with the Muses , who bound them to their heads as trophies of their victory ^—all except Terpsichore , the mother of the rebels . They dwelt in certain pleasant islands . Thither they lured mariners by their songs , and then killed them . To each captive they sang in the strain that best suited his taste . So destructive
were they , that their shores were white with the bones of their victims .. When Ulysses passed with his crew , he caused his sailors' cars to ue stopped with wax . He had himself bound to the mast , forbidding any one to loose him at his peril , even if he requested it . Orpheus drowned their strains , by raising his own voice , and singing the praises of the gods . Of this story Bacon , in an exact and most Accurate parallelism , makes tho following . Pleasures spring from abundance and exultation of mind . They carry away men at once , as if with wings . But doctrine and instruction strip pleasure of its . gossamer pinions . This redounds to the honour of philosophy , and it carries the trophy of its gaiu . Only the mother of the Sirens , the lighter kinds of cannot
learning , still goes on . fpofc , and soar . Pleasure lives retired from the throngs of men . The borios on tho shores do not deter fresh victims . Examples of other men ' s calamities do not restrain men from the corruptions of pleasure . For this mischief and seduction there are three remediestwo from philosophy , one from religion . Tho first method is that proper to the vulgar , and to them tho safest—to avoid all occasions whioh may tempt the mind . Minds of a loftier order fortify themselves with the constancy of resolution , and oan vouture , olad with this harness , into the midst of pleasures ; but this only , if , like TJlyssoa , they remove the ovil influence and counsels of associates . But tho best remedy is religion . Meditations on things divine excel tho pleasures of aouao , not only in power , but also in sweetness .
Wo believe tho criticism on this book moat honest to our readers is tho wish most favourable to its editors , that the portion of tho task yet remaining may be exorcised with the samo warm and conscientious fidelity as has animated them in tho preparation of tho volumes wo have already successively noticed .
Civill and' Morall . Here we have the fullest amplitude and nicety of editorial care and commentatory vigilance . Of the Essays there were three or four English editions published in the author ' s lifetime ; aiid a Latin one , prepared with the care arising from the impression that Latin would continue to be in ages subsequent to Bacon the special lingua franca of philosophy . In the first English edition there were only twelve essays , increased in the second , of 16 ] 2 , to thirtyeighfc , and in that of 1025 , to iifty-cight ; . of these twenty were new , and most of the rest altered and
enlarged . Mr . Spedding has printed , as appendices to the last ample edition , which he gives first , the two prior editions entire . In these the original spelling is preserved , as a matter of philological interest . More than that : from a manuscript in the British Museum evidence is given of another stage in the growth of the volume , intermediate between the editions of 1597 and 1 G 12 . From , an Italian translation , too , published in London in 1618 , with a dedicatory letter to Cosmo
de Medici , cross lights of commentary are thrown . Anything more full and satisfactory than this , editor could not have achieved . If we dwell upon these merits of painstaking editorial accuracy , it arises from the fact that in these days of impromptu and hasty book-weaving , the excellences are so rare as to be worthy of special remark , and of being held up to the world as exemplars , the more necessary or enforcement as the motives against imitation are so cogent and ever present .
To comment upon so old and popular a book as Bacon ' s Essays in a journal , ono function of which is to record the progress of literature in our own days , from week to week , may seem , and is , for the most part , foreign to our scope j but if the admixture of this retrospective element be but moderate and judioious , we do devoutly believe that a higher dignity is lent to our labours by an , occasional departure from the chronicling of the new , and reference to the old and established . But , after all , it would be difficult to say anything of the Essays that has not been said before . And this the more especially , that the hook stands , 1
! . it . 1 . --l-L-f^— Xl _ T \* t T * with such classics as tho Pilgrims Progress , as one of the few good old works which , with a certain capricious wantonness of choice , if you have regard to the similar merits of other old English books forgotten and unread , still retain a place in the shelves of the multitude . Nor is this to be wondered at . Bacon had his Essays done into Latin that their form might make them livo through futurity in the libraries of tho learned . Perhaps he had not tho same conviction as the real
perpetuity of their popularity has proved ho might fiave had , of the merits of their matter , their universal applicability , and the ripeness of the English soil for suoh soed . Tho Latin edition lias , doubtlessj spread his famo wider . Tho English edition has sunk deep into tho mind of the English nation . How often , whou ro-reading Young ' s Night Thoughts or Pope ' s Essay on Man , arc you constrained to say , " Even if I had nover aponed this book , I should have known it all . I jould almost re-form tho book , by gathering toge-
Untitled Article
Cunoaities of Science , Punt and Present . John 1 Imbj F . S . A . ( Kent and Oo . ) -A book a "'" ™ Li « very for a present . Wo nro not , upon tho whj jj frloiully to short outa to knowledge , but tho wor < l > oloro us appoara so well soloctod , and aflorie w raw . * instruction , blondod with ontortuin . no . it , tlint * o ao heslUto to givo it our cordial recommendation .
Untitled Article
THE LEASE K > . [ No . 451 , November 13 , 1858 . 1220 , ¦ . - ¦ ¦ : ^ ==== - i - ¦ = —
-
-
Citation
-
Leader (1850-1860), Nov. 13, 1858, page 1220, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2268/page/12/
-