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November 6, 1852.] THE LEADER, ' 1071
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The Magazines this month are duller than...
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We have had to record many deaths of men...
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TIL AC KK RAY'S NKW NOVML , History of H...
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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.
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"The Agerof Reviews Is Passed," We Are O...
this at leas * may be affirmed without fear of contradiction , that there never mind in the world from which , when it was pricked by any occasion whatwaS + ! , «*) noured forth on the instant such a stream of precious substance intelever , tnere f lectuaUy related to it . Of Goethe many true and excellent things are said , and the sort of things needful to be said , but they are not spoken from the same fulness of knowledge as those on Sha . kspeare . The contrasts and resemblances , however , are suggestively stated . Here is one : — " One thing these love-romances of Goethe ' s early life make clear—namely , that for a being of such extreme sensibility as he was , he had a very strong element of el f-control . When he gave up Lilli , it was with tears , and no end of sleepless niffbts and yet he gave her tip . Shakspeare , we believe ( and there is an instance
exactly in point in the story of his sonnets ) , had no such power of breaking clear from conn exions which his judgment disapproved of . Remorse and return , selfreproaches for his weakness at one moment , followed the next by weakness more abiect than before—such , by his own confession , was the conduct , in one such case , of our more passive and gentle-hearted poet . Where Shakspeare was ' past cure , ' and ' frantic-mad with evermore unrest , ' Goethe but fell into ' hypochondria , ' which reason and resolution enabled him to overcome . Goethe at twenty-five gave up a young and beautiful girl , from the conviction that it was better to do so . Shakspeare at thirty-five was the abject slave of a dark-complexioned woman , who was faithless to him , and whom he cursed in his heart . The sensibilities in the German poet moved from the first , as we have already said , over a firmer basis of permanent character . "
So far from the age of Reviews having expired , here is a new appearance , a Retrospective Review , published by the antiquarian bookseller , Mr . Russel Smith . Its selection of papers is sufficiently various . The opening essav , on the Dramatic Writings of Afra Behn , treats a curious subject , but treats it without skill . That on Bishop Berkeley ' s celebrated tract on Tar Water is very superior , and fulfils all the requisites of a Retrospective Review . French Pictures of the English in the Last Century is extremely curious and amusing ; curious also that paper on Population and Emigration in the Seventeenth Century . We perfectly agree with the conclusions of the paper on The First Edition of Shakspeare . In * a word , this new Review promises to be both entertaining and valuable ; we hope it will meet with sufficient support .
November 6, 1852.] The Leader, ' 1071
November 6 , 1852 . ] THE LEADER , ' 1071
The Magazines This Month Are Duller Than...
The Magazines this month are duller than usual , and we find little that calls for notice here , beyond the account of Mrs . Beecher Stowe and the Beecheb family in Fraser . Nine of these Beechers are authors , and all the members of the family present remarkable peculiarities : — " All of them have the energy of character , restless activity , strong convictions , tenacity of purpose , deep sympathies , and spirit of self-sacrifice , which are such invaluable qualities in the character of propagandists . It would be impossible for the theologians among them to be members of any other than the Church militant .
Father and sons , they have ever been in the thickest of the battles fought in the Church and by it ; ' and always have moved together in solid column . To them , questions of oolioiaatio ¦ f clioology are mummeries , dry and attraofcionlcss > they are practical , living in the real present . dealing w > th Questions which palpitate with vitality . Temperance , foreign and home missions , the influence of commerce on public morality , the conversion of young men , the establishment of theological seminaries , education , colonization , abolition , the political obligations of Christians ; on matters such as these do the Beechers expend their energies . "
The new Magazine called Public Companies Monthly Manual , an Industrial and Statistical Magazine , confesses that this , its first number , does not all carry out its intentions ; we will reserve our verdict , therefore , until next month , for the present simply announcing the existence of the work .
We Have Had To Record Many Deaths Of Men...
We have had to record many deaths of men endeared by their talents to a larger or a smaller public , men known to thousands and men known to few ; but we have not hitherto had the pain of recording the loss of one within the nearer circle of friendship . We must do so to-day . Vincent , the youngest son of Leigh Hunt , has passed away from us in his thirtieth year . Known to the public he was not , although his gentle mind had such sweetness and such delicate strength in it , which one might liken to the quiet smiles of genius , that a collection of his poems would assuredly have found a retired niche for him in the groat temple . But if unknown to the great public he was known to a large circle of friends , and loved wherever known for that generous nature of his , so loving , so faithful , so simple ,, so boyish ! Among those friends we presume there arc many of our readers , w l ><> will hear with sudden mournfiilncss that the delicate existence ; they
inust frequently have trembled for , has passed away from pain , its glimmcr-1 U K "park of life gone to shine in other forms of the Divine Life , leaving helund it that luminous trace which bright affectionate natures leave in "' "nan hearts , a trace more to be prized than all the dazzling talents which (> churned the admiration of u crowd .
Til Ac Kk Ray's Nkw Novml , History Of H...
TIL AC KK RAY'S NKW NOVML , History of Henri / JSsnitmU , Jdsi / ., a ( U ) lonol in the Service of Queen Anno . Written "Y HiniHoli . In three voIh . Smith , Kldcr , mid Co . llr' < opening paragraph of this history in not only characteristic of i < n au ( l ' or , but of the work : — '" ''ho itcloi H in t , ho old tragedies , HH we read , piped their iumbicn <<> n tune , « I >«! akmg iVoin under a musk , mid wenring hI ' iIIh mid a great heml-urenH . "Vw . w ' "xitfht tlin dignity of | , l , ( , T rngie Muse required lhe . se iippurtenunees , and that " ' <> wan not ! , <> move except to a . measure and eiulonee . So Queen Medea slew her . "ldre n to a slow nniHiek : and King Agiuneiiiiion perished in a dying fall ( to use r - Drydoii ' H words ) : Uui Chorus standing hy in a net attitude , and rhy thmically j . ( ( l ( 1 comunl y bewailing the fates of those great crowned persons . The Muse of mtory hath cneuinhercd herself with ceremony uh well hh her Winter of the
Theatre . She too wears the mask and the cothurnus and speaks to measure . She too , in our age , busies herself with the affairs only of kings ; waiting on them , obsequiously and stately , as if she were but a mistress of Court ceremonies , and had nothing to do with the registering of the affairs of the common people . I have seen in his very old age and decrepitude the old French King Lewis the Fourteenth , the type and model of king-hood—who never moved but to measure , who lived and died according to the laws of his Court-Marshal , persisting in enacting through life the part of Ilero ; and divested of poetry , this was but a little wrinkled old man , pock-marked , and with a great pei-iwig and red heels to make him look tall , —a hero for a book if you like , or for a brass statue or a paintedceiling , a god in a Roman shape , but what more than a man for Madame Maintenon , or the barber who shaved him , or Monsieur Fagon , his surgeon ? I wonder shall History ever pull off her periwig and cease to be court-ridden ? Shall we
see something of France and England besides Versailles and Windsor ? I saw Queen Anne at the latter place tearing down the Park slopes after her stag-hounds , and driving her one-horse chaise—a hot , red-faced woman , not in the least resembling that statue of her which turns its stone back upon Saint Paul ' s , and faces the coaches struggling up Ludgate Hill . She was neither better bred nor wiser than you and me , though we knelt to hand her a letter or a wash hand-basin . Why shall History go on kneeling to the end of time ? I am for having her rise up off her knees , and take a natural posture : not to be for ever performing cringes and congees like a Court-chamberlain , and shuffling backwards out of doors in the presence of the sovereign . In a word , I would have History familiar rather than heroick : and think that Mr . Hogarth and Mr . Fielding will give our children a much better idea of the manners of the present age in England , than the Court Gazette and the newspapers which we get thence . "
It is to show us some reflected image of the time that this book is written ; and therefore , unless duly warned , the reader may feel some disappointment when he finds that " Thackeray's new novel" is not a comic novel , scarcely a novel at all , and in no sense a satire . It is a beautiful book , not one sentence of which , may be skipped ; but it is as unlike Vanity Fair and Pendennis as a book written by Thackeray can be . To those who look beyond the passing hour , and see something more in literature than the occupation of a languid leisure , Esmond will have many sources of interest . One of these may be the purely biographical one of representing a new phase in Thackeray ' s growth . Tracing the
evolution of his genius from the wild and random sketches which , preceded Vanity Fair , we perceive an advancing growth , both as a moralist and as an artist . In Vanity Fair the mocking mephistophelic spirit was painfully obtrusive ; to laugh at the world—to tear away its many masks —to raise the crown even from Caesar ' s head , that we might note the baldness which the laurels covered—to make love and devotion themselves ridiculous , seemed his dominant purpose ; and had it not been for the unmistakeable kindliness , the love of generosity , and the sympathy with truth which brightened those mocking pages , all that has been ignorantly or maliciously said of Thackeray ' s " heartlessness" would have had its evidence .
In Pendennis there was a decided change . The serious and nobler element , before subordinate , there rose to supremacy ; the mockery withdrew into the second place . A kinder and a juster appreciation of life gave increased charm to the work . Although , perhaps , not on tlie wliole so amusing , because less novel , and , in some respects , a repetition of Vanity Fair , it was , nevertheless , an advance in art , was written with more care , and , as before hinted , was loss sarcastic and sceptical . That vein of seriousness which ran like a small silver thread through tho tapestry of Vanity Fair , has become the woof of Esmond ; the mocking spirit has fled ; such sarcasm as remains is of another sort—a kind of sad smile , that speaks of pity , not of scorn . Nor is this the only change . That careless disrespect , which on a former occasion we charged him with ( Vide No . 39 ) , is nowhere visible in ' Esmond . If' as a work of art Esmond has defects , they are not the delects of carelessness . What lie has set himself to do , he has done seriously , after due preparation .
Seeing , as we do , such evidences of growth , and of growth upwards , and remembering that he is only now in his forty-second year , may we not form the highest hopes of such a mind F Considered as a landmark on his career , Esmond is of peculiar significance . Hut we have here to consider it in another light ; the reader impatiently asks , " What am 1 to think of itP " Little Sir , you aro to think this of it : An autobiography , written in the nutumii light of a calm and noble lite , sets before ; you much of the private and domestic , no less than of the public , and historic activity of the reigns of William and Anne . The thread wliirli holds these together is a simple and a touching one- —tho history of two devotions . All who liavo lived will feel ' here the pulse of real Bud ' ering , so diU ' orent , from " romantic woo ; " all who have loved will trace a real aflecfion here , more
touching because it has a quiet reserve 111 its expression ; but we shall not ; he 111 the least surprised to hear even " highly intelligent persons " pronounce it " rather a falling <>(! ' / ' Hut , you , good sir , who follow your header , will honestly declare that , it touched and delighted you ; that from the first page to the last you loved the book and its author . Without pretending to that minute knowledge of the period which could alone justify an authoritative opinion , we may sav that Iliis hook has ho much the air and necenf of the lime , it would impose on iih if presented as a veritable History of Colonel Ksinond ; and this verisimilitude is nowhere obtruded ; the art lias concealed the art .
In . structure and purpose it reminds us of Leigh limit ' s Sir Ralph . ICshvr , to which justice has not been done , because it Iins been rend for a novel . The men of those ! days , no less Hum the events , move across the Hceno , and wo get hasty yet vivid glimpses of Addison , JSteele , Svvilt , Holingbroke , Marlborougn , Atterhuiy , Lord Mohiin , and the Pretender . True to Mini opening passage wo have quoted , these historic- persons have none of the " dignity of history "—ihey walk before us " in their liuhit as they lived . " The characters are numerous , but are rather " sketched in , " art one would find them in memoirs , Mian elaborately developed , as in a fiction Lady Castlewood and Ueatrix are , indeed , lull-length portraits ; both
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), Nov. 6, 1852, page 19, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_06111852/page/19/
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