On this page
-
Text (2)
-
December 3, 1853] THE LEADER, 717T
-
MISS MARTINEAU'S TRANSLATION OE COMTE. T...
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.
Aknoiid'h I'Okmm. J'Oems. L\ Y Miil,L,Lu...
Together , as two eagles on one prey Come rushing down together from the clouds , One from the east , one from the west : their shields Dash'd with a clang together , and a din . Rose , such as that the sinewy woodcutters Make often in the forest ' s heart at morn , Of hewing axes , crashing trees : such blows . Rustum and Sohrab on each other hail'd . And you would say that sun and stars took part In that unnatural conflict ; for a cloud Grew suddenly in Heaven , and dark'd the sun Over the fighters'heads ; and a wind rose Under their feet , and moaning swept the plain , And in a sandy whirlwind wrapp'd the pair . In gloom they twain were wrapp'd , and they alone ; "For both the on-looking hosts on either hand Stood in broad daylight , and the sky was pure , And the sun sparkled on the Oxus stream . But in the gloom they fought , with bloodshot eyes And labouring breath ; first Eustum struck the shield Which Sohrab held stiff out : the steel-spik'd spear Bent the tough plate 3 , but fail'd to reach the skin , And Ru 8 tum pluck'd it back with angry groan . Then Sohrab with his sword smote Rustum ' s helm , Nor clove its steel quite through ; but all the crest He shore away , and that proud horsehair plume , Never till now defU'd , sunk to the dust ; And Rustum bow'd his head ; but then the gloom Grew blacker : thunder rumbled in the air , And lightnings rent the cloud ; and Ruksh , the horse , Who stood at hand , utter'da dreadful cry : No horse ' s cry was that , most like the roar Of some pain'd desert lion , who all day Has trail'd the hunter ' javelin in his side , " And comes at night to die upon the sand : The two hosts heard that cry , and quak'd for fear , And Oxus curdled as it cross' d his stream . But Sohrab heard , and quail ' d not , but rush'd on , And struck again and again Rustum bow'd His head ; but this time all the blade , like glass , Sprang in a thousand shivers on the helm , And in his hand the hilt remain'd alone . Then Rustum rais'd his head : his dreadful eyes Glar'd , and he shook on high his menacing spear , And shouted , Rustum ! Sohrab heard that shout , And shrank amaz'd : back he recoil'd one step , And scann'd with blinking eyes the advancing Form : And then he stood bewilder'd ; and he dropp'd His covering shield , and the spear pierc'd his side . He reel'd , and staggering back , sunk to the ground . And then the gloom dispers'd , and the wind fell , And the bright sun broke forth , and melted all The cloud ; and the two armies saw the pair ; Saw Rustum standing safe upon his feet , And Sohrab , wounded , on the bloody sand . " Then comes the dvayvcopiais , the terrible discovery of parentage , and the poem closes with the grandeur of a setting sun : — "So , on the bloody sand , Sohrab lay dead . And the great Rustum drew his horseman s cloak Down o ' er his face , and sate by his dead son . As those black granite pillars , once hi gh-reared By Jemsid in Persepolis , to bear His house , now , mid their broken flights of steps , Lie prone , enormous , down the mountain side—So in the sand lay Rustum by his son . "And night came down ovor the solemn waste , And the two gazing hosts , and that sole pair , And darken'd all ; and a cold fog , with night , Crept from the Oxus . Soon a hum arose , As of a great assembly looa'd , and fires Began to twinkle through the fog : for now Both armies mov'd to camp , and took their meal : The Persians took it on tho open sands Southward ; tho Tartars by the rivor marge : j And Rufitum and his son were left alone . "But tho inajentic River floated on , Out of tho mist and hum of that low land , I Into the froHty starlight , and there mov'd , I Jiejoici ?!// , through the hush'd ( Jhorasnuan waste , I Under the solitary moon : ho flowed I Right for the Polar Star , past Orgunjb , I lirimming , and bright , and large : then wands begin j To hem his watery march , and dam hit ) streams , j And split his cumsnta ; that for many a league I The shorn and parooll'd Oxuh strains along I Through beds of sand and matted rush }/ isles —¦ I Oxuh , forgetting tho bright Hpeed ho had I In bin high mountain cradle in Pamoro , j A foil'd cirouitouH wanderer : —till at laHt I Tho long'd-for dimh of wave * in hoard , and wide I // is luminous home of waters opens , bright I And tranquil , from whose . Jloor the new-bath'd stars I Jimerge , and shine upon the Aral tica . " I . J t will ho confessed that this is i ' nr from ordinary writing . Tho poem , J , « eod , ifl not an ordinary production ; but we . should havo an easy task I ° ' ow thnt its excellencies arc not derived from tho ( Jreok , although I nofjfc of ita defects are . More than this , its defects are often tho mere J j elects of rude art , which are copied from Homer ; such , for example , m I | P ^ ctico of conducting tho narrative through lengthy siinilios , elabo- afcel y circumstantial , positively retarding and encumbering what they are ftieaut to accelerate and lighten . ' It' Ifomer lived in our days he would iiot write liko Homer ' s imitators . In fact ; the mistake of all imitation is . " : naturally iiiBtens on the ileoting modes , and not on tho eternal " pint .
Criticism might also have something : to say in other directions if this poem were to be closely scrutinised . We point , in . passing to such prosaisms as " fate" treading something or other down , with an " iron heel , " and to such mistaken familiarities of illustration as those at p . 20 and p . 47 . But we need not dwell on them . Our purpose is gained if we have directed the reader ' s attention to an unequal but delightful volume of poems , and if we have , at the same time , indicated the real position which the poet is to hold ,, with respect to both Ancients and Moderns
December 3, 1853] The Leader, 717t
December 3 , 1853 ] THE LEADER , 717 T
Miss Martineau's Translation Oe Comte. T...
MISS MARTINEAU'S TRANSLATION OE COMTE . The Positive ' Philosophy of Auguste Comte . Freel y Trans ] ated and Condensed by Harriet Martineau . In 2 vols . Price 16 s . John Chapman . Chapman ' s " Quarterly Series" receives an unexpected and most welcome addition in this translation of the optis magnum of our century ; and the world at large has reason to be grateful to all concerned in this publication ; for , whatever the reputation of an author , there are not many students who could be induced to read with the requisite attention six volumes containing four thousand seven hundred and twenty pa ^ es of cumbrous French . Into two volumes , containing one thousand and forty pa ° -es these
six volumes are compressed , We make this comparison of bulk , ( fallacious though it really is , from the much more solid page of the English work ) to indicate one material point of attractiveness possessed by Miss Martin eau ' s publication : the student whom six volumes have warned off , will be eager to a , ttack two . I ^ or will he lose much in the omitted matter ; he will lose illustrations and details which make the ideas clearer , and repetitions which make them by emphasis more directly effective ; he will have to bring more knowledge and more labour of his own ; but these demands we regard as insignificant beside the fact that the two volumes will be read when the six would not .
Miss Martineau has confined herself rigorously to the task of translating freely and condensing the work , adding-nothing , of illustration or criticism ; so that the reader feels he has Comte ' s views , presented as Comte promulgated them . This was the wisest course : it gives the reader confidence , and it removes the very natural misgiving as to the competence of Miss Martineau to reproduce a philosophy of the physical sciences . We will confess that until we saw the method she had adopted , we shared the misgivings so generally expressed . Our misgivings are changed into
approbation . We cannot possibly tell , cannot even surmise , what the effect of her condensation will be upon the reader who approaches the work for the first time ; our own familiarity with the original renders it impossible for us to test this point of execution , but it enables us to say , that at any rate Comte ' s views are there , without suppression of important considerations , with only such omissions as the very feet of abridgment implies . Indeed , in the whole range of philosophy , we know of no such , successful abridgment .
The sections on Mathematics , Astronomy , and Physics , have been carefully revised by Professor Nichol , who adds a few brief notes . We regret that similar aid was not sought in the sections on Chemistry and Biology ; there are several passages which are obscure and even inaccurate , solely because the translator has not had the benefit of such indispensable revision . However delicate a task it may be for us to point out slight defects in this work , it is our duty , and we must not shrink from it , lest our very praise be suspected . In a second edition wo may hope these two sections will have the benefit of revision , and some notes from persons thoroughly acquainted with the sciences . A specimen or two of the passages which we noted in a cursory reading , will suflico to point to what we mean . At vol . i ., p . 375 , we read , "Thus the theory of analogous existences which lias been offered as a recent innovation , is only the necessary principles of the comparative method under a
now name . " Few would understand that this " theorv of smnWmna now name . ± ew would understand that tlun "theory of analogous existences" is the celebrated thtoric des analogues with Which Greoffroy St . Hilairo created an epoch in philosophic anatomy . The phrase points to the existence of analogous organs in different animals ; and as it is a phrase which , liko the "JNebular Hypothesis , " points to a specific conception , it should be retained , and a note of a line or ho added to inform the reader thereof . A lino or two of rectification ought also to be added in the shape of notes to various passages , —e . g ., where Comte , unacquainted with tho history of the vertebral theory of tho skull , attributes its discovery to de Blainville , who came after ' Goethe , Oken , Spix , and JJojanus without improving on them .
At p . 401 wo read , " It is apparently strange that after Bichat ' s discovery , comparative anatomists , withCuvier ; U their heart , . should have persisted in stud y ing organic apparatus in its complex state . " This is misleading . Cuvier did not ; study the " organic apparatus , " but tho apparatus of each function , i . e ., in tho group oi organs ( app ( trcii ) constituting the functional apparatus . Tho French word has no . single equivalent in our language . It is in such points as those that au experienced eyo would soe tho necessity for revision ; nfl also in matters ol' terminology . A reader ' s Cjruok would be puzzled by arlioztxtircx , nmlavozoaircs , ostcozoaives cntomozoaircs , unless he suspected that h ' s old friends zoa were hero undergoing tho transformation which TUc Live , i ' j / lhagore , Spensi p ^ jc , and others of the goodly company of classics , have undergone .
J < 1 i j Wo are dwelling upon ( rifles , but not without the hope that nueh microscopic criticism will ho of uho ; assuredly not with any desire to make the general excellence of the execution imputed because of mich details . r l . hero are probably only nonio half-dozen men in tho country who could have produced a condensation of these sections on science without being open to criticism of the kind . From the dignified preface wo extract two passage , in tho first aho adduces one of the reasons which made her undertake the task : —•
t i "Tho Huprmno diotul of ( 'vary one who caren for tho f ^ ood nation or raoo in that men Hhould bo adrift for want of an anchor : ^ for their convicttoiiK 1 boliovo that no ono questions that a vory lur # e proportion of our people arc now no
-
-
Citation
-
Leader (1850-1860), Dec. 3, 1853, page 19, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_03121853/page/19/
-