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Leader (1850-1860), 30th July 1859, Edition 1 of 2, Page 894, Untitled Article

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      not be identified -with tlie principle of Love Shelley ' s God , in a word , was Love ; and every other notion of God was -with him idolatrous and superstitious , and he ¦ warred against it -with all the zeal of an iconoclast . But this frame of mind is the furthest -imaginable from Atheism , and belongs , indeed , to the mystical spiritualist- ^ -a character ¦ which Shelley , as a poet , eminently supported . Besides , Shelley firmly believed in the immortality of the soul . There is an early essay of his , contained in the volume before us , on Christianity . It is unfinished and unrevised , as most of his attempts

      at speculative writing are . Here Shelley always felt himself mastered ;¦ his wing wearied of mere logic , and he soon found , indeed , that he wanted the requisite terminology . There is , assuredly , much yet to be done in that field . So far as Shelley had carried the subject , he shows a desire to penetrate beneath the letter to the spirit , of the New Testament ; and everywhere to prefer the most reasonable interpretation of doubtful passages . Certainly , he evinces no bibliolatry whatever , and maintains a philosophical independence of authority . But who would have expected or desired other from him ?

      " We welcome the present biography . It presents Shelley to us as he was understood by those who knew him best;—as his wife had proved him" a superior being among men—a bright planetary spirit enshrined in an earthly temple . " All Shelley ' s relations with his second wife are especially lovely . Never were two minds more suitably mated—never were two such blameless livers . Facts like these are worth - volumes of 2 ) rejudice , and carnal misrepresentations of the Divine in the Poet , misunderstood and consequently maligned . Imperfect as Shelley was , both as a philosopher and theologian , yet , in many respects , he was before his age , and is the Father of a New Poetic Era .

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      POEMS . THE CITY OF THE BEAD , and other roeiris . By John Collett . —Robert Hardwicke . GILBERT MARLOWE , and other Poems . By William Whitmore . —Macmillan and Co ; Both of these candidates for poetic fame have gained a certain command over the medium wherein they have to work . They can put words into metre and rhyme , and select from the store of phrases those that best suit the poetic style and diction . Mr . Collett is , indeed , an easy -versifier , and has tried his talents in several forms of metre

      and divers kinds of subject . Here we have the descriptive , the lyrical , the humourous and the sacred . As might have been - expected , - the third has tried the stripling minstrel the hardest . It is an Ulyssean bow in which he is yet not strong enough to shoot . But the tendency is favourable to development , and will hereafter facilitate his success , if his mind should so strengthen as to give substance to his verses . His religious poetry seldom soars beyond common-place ; its topics , are

      rather devotional than theological , and have not called forth any originality of thought or feeling . His lyrical vein is better , but there is no depth , and little variety of colouring . The leading effusion of the volume is fancifully descriptive ; but the fancy treads with tolerable safety m the paths of memory , and the description is derived at second hand from the Bible and other sources . The " City of the Dead" is , in fact , Egypt ; and the utmost that can be said of the production is , that the blank verse moves with a steady solemnity , and contains some' such promise as a tolerably good prize poem might suggest .

      Mr . Whitmore boasts of an intellect of a sturdier kind , evidently with fewer educational advantages , but with more original power . He puts forth his claims , not as a poet born or made , but as a house-painter b y trade , with a soul above his craft . These claims ftre introduced to notice in a preface by the author of " Tom Brown ' s Schooldays , " who says what ho can in the author ' s favour He thinks it but reasonable , that wo should somotimes regard it as " well worth our while to buy , and read carefully , and think about , a book by a working man , while we might only hire from Mudie ' s , and glance at , a more perfect book on the same subject by a Master of Arts . " We think so , too , and are therefore well disposed to Mr .

      Whitmore and his poems ., His introductory effort concerns Lady Jane Grey , "the ten days' Queen , " and treats the theme with satisfactory thoughtfulness and fooling . Terrible images arc . next conjux * ed up by the legend of St . Anthony . The third is a muoh longer poem in two parts , and entitled " Martin , " in which the condition of the labourer is considered and , the means of his redemption proposed . An insurrection against mabninery ia described with wonderful vigour . Martin proaob . es to tho insurgents of a " good time coining , " in eloquent versos ; to the more favoured classes also lie preaches , against much opposition . 44 Still pfiUBOd Uo not . The faltU of brotUorUood luooryorato

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      her death should be imputed to her faith rather than to her faults . She wrote letters toall her relatives and friends in France and Scotland . "' My good cousin , ' she wrote to the Duke of Guise , ' who art-the . most dear to me in the world , I bid you farewell , being ready by unjust judgment to be put to death—iwhat . no one of our race , thanks to God , has ever suffered , much less One of my quality . But praise God , my good cousin , for I was useless

      in the world to the cause of God and of liis church , being in the state in which I was ; and I hope that my death vdll testify niy constancy in the faith , and my readiness to die for the maintenance And restoration of the Catholic Church in this unhappy island ; and though never executioner dipped , his hands in our blood , t > e not ashamed , my friend ; for the j udgment of heretics and the enemies of the Church , who have no jurisdiction over me , a free queen , is profitable before God to the children of bis church . If I

      had yielded to them I would not have suffered this stroke . All of our house have been persecuted by this sect ; witness your good father , with whom I hope to be received by the mercy of the just Judge . " ¦ Mary had self-constituted herself a martyr , and thus become her own ideal ; never once looked upon her actual self , and was transfigured in her own esteem , and that of others ; among these latter , her present enthusiastic biographer . " Blessed , " she could confidently , however strangely , exclaim , "be the moment that will end my sad pilgrimage : a soul so cowardly as not to accept this last combat oh earth would be unworthy of heaven . "

      Protestanism has no such loophole as this for the criminal . It belongs entirely to the church , of Pio ] STodo and AmxmellL How thoroughly M . Lamartine concurs in the saiiie A"iew may be understood from these words . " The Queen , guilty till then , became transformed into a martyr by the approach of death . When the soul is truly great , it grows with its destiny ; her destiny was subliine , for it was at once an accepted expiation and a rehabilitation through blood . " Mary seized hold of

      every circumstance to corroborate this idea . "Did you hear , " she asked of an attendant , " the Earl of Kent ? It would have taken another kind of doctor to convict me . He has acknowledged besides , that the warrant for my execution is the triumph of heresy in this country . It is true they ¦ put me to death not as an accomplice of conspiracy , but as a queen devoted to the church . Before their tiibunal my faith is niy crime , and the same shall be my justification before my sovereign Judge . " It is fearful when conscience is found hoodwinking itself ; and more fearful when such " flattering unctions " are niade parts of a system . that names itself authority and order . Crime and pious sentiment are , down to this day , reconcilable at Rome ; and elevated minds are yet to be found that concur in the wretched union . Let M . Lamartine ' s book be read in this light , and it may affprd a most instructive example .

      MARLE ! STUART . By Alphonse de Lamartine . —Adam and Charles Black . The style ofM . Lamartine was always florid in the extreme ; but in this work he has found a peculiar source of excitement , and prints the Scottish Queen in colours that outshine the rainbow in vividness and variety of tint . He sees the saint jn the sinner , the heroine in the criminal ; and glorifies evil itself that has once been associated with her beauty . Loveliness of soul , as "well as of person , can be abstractedly , according to his creed , connected with guilt of darkest dye ; nay , its darkness shall serve but as a background to make the

      thing of beauty still brighter . Writing , probably , with some such theory as this , M . Lamartine "has given wings to his fancy , and luxuriates in the apparent inconsistencies of character and conduct , leaving controversy , in some regions beneath him , panting in vain after him , like Time after Shakespeare , or looking upward , wondering at his bold and daring flight . Much of what is anomalous and contradictory is , of course , referable to the conflicting policy and rival religiosities of ner age ; and M . Lamartine , it may oe imagined , makes the most of these , He looks , one can see at a glance , on the stern' Knox with little

      affection ; and seems to think it , very unjust of destiny that the combatants should have been so unfairly matched . The Queen was transplanted from a polished into a semi-barbarous country , into , which , however , the luxuries of more favoured regions Jhad begun to penetrate , and it was hard that for the introduction of such ameliorations , she should be rebuked by the too rigid theologian . Then , too , she fwas surrounded with tyrannical territorial lords , to whom life was little saored . But

      to the Catholic Queen crime was a small thing , compared to her supposed sufferings as a martyr . We thifak that M . ) Lamartine has done good service in exposing ^ b . is self-delusion , even while , as we think , he shares in it . Here was the balm to her hurt mind . Not for her crimes , but as a Roman Catholio , Mary was executed—she " who was a queen from the cradle ; and the first day that saw her a woman saw her a queen . " Of such a personage the life was thrice sacred ; she was consecrated and sot apart . No sin could unsaint her .

      " Mary asked , as a single favour , not to bo executed in secret , but before her servants and the peoplo , so that no one might attribute to her a cowardice unworthy of her rank , and that all might bear testimony to hev constancy In suffering martyrdom . Thus ehj already spoke of her punishment , a consolatory Idea most natural In a queen who desired that

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      Maria ; but it has always fallen back upon . th < roriginal Indian name of Cuba . And the only compensation to the hyperbolical taste of the race is that they decorate it , on state and . ceremonious occasions , with tlie musical prefix of " La siemprc Jidelisima Isla de Cuba . " This is at least curious , and touched off * in a lively vein . Minute and pleasing detail makes the charm of the work ; and there are a thousand traits of character or scenery , iiOt at all transferable from the author ' s pages to our columns . . The aspect of the city , which he is most solicitous to

      describe , is strange and picturesque ; and he lef t it with much regret ; or would have done so , but that the "weather in Havana was growing excessively hot . Beautiful to him were his nights on ^ the equinoctial seas , on board a passenger-ship , with a company so mixed and heterogeneous that few knew of a death that occurred in it , and fewer remembered it . On his return to New York , old associations return , and blend with the latest news —" The Thirty Millions Bill withdrawn by ' Mr . Slidell , Congress adjourned , the Five Cent . Postage Bill defeated , and the Sickles and Key tragedy . ' This last allusion assures xis that the work is written to the latest date , and imparts a freshness to it that remains on tlie mind when the book , is closed .

      tO CUBA AND BACK ; A VACATION VOYAGE . By Richard Henry Dana , Jun . —Smith , Elder , and Co . Tina reputation of 3 MQ \ Dana as the . author of " Two xears Before the Mast " will procure a hearing for this work . His light and airy style takes the readex * pleasantly enough from New Yox'k to the coast of Cuba . We enter with him Havana at sunrise , visit the harbour , admire the world of shipping , drive through the streetSj and eat and . drink at the restaurants . The following is a noticeable passage : « - * - " Tho Cubans have a taste for prodigality in grandiloquent or protty- names . Every shop , tlio most humble , has its name . They name the shops after the eun and moon and stars | after gods and goddesses , demi-gods and heroes ; after fruits and flowers , gems and precious stones j after favourite names of women , with pretty , fanciful additions ; and after all alluring qualities , all delights of tlie senses , and all pleasing affections of tho mind . The walls of jails and hospitals are each known

      bysome religious or patriotic designation ; and twelve guns in the Morro are named for the Apostles . Every town has the name of an wpostle or saint , or of some sacred subjeot . The full name of Havana , in honour of Columbus , 4 s San Cristobal do la Ilftbana j and that of Matanzas is San Carlos Alcazar do Matanzas . It is etrango that tho island Itself lias defied all the Spanish attempts to name it . * It has been solemnly named Juana , after the daughter of Ferdinand ana Isabella j then Ferdinand , after Ferdinand himself ? then Santiago i and lastly , Are

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      894 THE LEADER ; { No . 488 , July 30 , 1859 .

  • Citation
    • Leader (1850-1860), July 30, 1859, page 894, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2305/page/18/