On this page
-
Text (1)
-
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
apply that term when the only mysteries in question are the mysteries of humanity . This is a book for those who , in an exhibition of paintings , turn away from the battle piece , or the thundering storm scene , around which the crowds gather , to gaze on some unobtrusive sketch , some head such as Guido loved to paint , fascinated by its truth and moral beauty , till they look themselves into acquaintanceship and sympathy
with the subject , as if its original were a friend of many years . Here are no records of marvellous adventure , no ' hairbreadth ' scapes i' th ' imminent deadly breach , ' no great doings to recount of political or scientific importance , no extraordinary personages ( save a brief glimpse at Goethe ) to dignify the scene : we have only a plain tale of the homely trials of a parish schoolmaster , the son of a crippled tailor , and grandson of a charcoal burner . He is a religionist also of a not very
attractive class ; his faith being not much different from that which , done into the vulgar tongue , is exhibited in the specimens of the sinner-saved Huntington . But the book is full of human truth ; that is to aay , it is rickiti poetry and philosophy ; it is a psychological narrative , and the subject a worthy one , though not the sort of character which most readil y \ vitis popularity ; however , * Wisdom is justified of all her children , ' and Beinricn Stilling belongs to her family . An indescribable interest
pervades the volume , of which we can give no better account than that it is the result of simplicity , fidelity , and minuteness of detail in describing the mental formation of a human being who is true'to his own nature . Every such description has its charm . Almost the only quality of style of which we are ever made conscious is a very quiet humour , or something vibrating between humour and naivete , whicn moves not the
lips to laughter , but produces a smile of the heart . The work is fortunate in a translator who , in the spirit of his original , has aimed only at truthfulness . It is all the better that he undertook the translation from a religious motive . The harmony is thus entire . In how many hands would the effect have been marred and the unity sacrificed ! 4
The first portion of the autobiography is entitled Heinrich Stilling * s Childhood . ' It opens with a dialogue between his grandfather and another peasant , who has some of those traits of character , independent of station and the same in all stations , that make their truth felt and enjoyed at once by a reader of any class of society , or of any country * There is in Westphalia a diocess , which lies in a yery mountainous district * whose summits overlook many little provinces and principalities . The village in which the church is situate is called Florenburg ; for the inhabitants have long had a disgust at the name of a village , and therefore , although
compelled to live by farming and grazing , have always sought to maintain a superiority over their neighbours , who are mere peasants ; and who say of thetti that they have gradually expelled the name of Florendorf , and introduced that of Florenburg in its stead . But , be that as it may , it certainly possesses a magistracy , the head of which , in my time , was Johannes Henricus Seultetus . Rude and ignorant people called him , out of the townhome , Maieter Hans ; but honest towns-people were also wont to say Mister Schulde .
* A league from this place , towards the south-west , lies the little village of Tferfenbachv so called from its situation between hills , at the feet of which the houses overhung the water an both sides , which , flowing ftotn the val ~ lefs 1 » th * south alia north , meets iust in the deep and narrow pa * W where it fonts * 'fivftr . Ifh * tastero bill Is called tb * Oilier ; towards the west , is
Untitled Article
364 * CritUctl Notices :
-
-
Citation
-
Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), May 2, 1835, page 354, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2645/page/62/
-