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MA y8,18^] riji LEADER ¦ ' . M&
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rVitics are not-the legislators; but the...
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J^o sooner does one herd die, than the s...
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Foreign Literature is unusually dull. Ge...
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OWEN JONES OK DECOBATIVE AET. ¦An Attemp...
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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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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Ma Y8,18^] Riji Leader ¦ ' . M&
MA y 8 , 18 ^] riji LEADER ¦ ' . M &
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Wiitxmnxt
Rvitics Are Not-The Legislators; But The...
rVitics are not-the legislators ; but the judges and police pf literature . They do not ¦ -make laWs--tEey interpret and try to enforce them . —Edinburgh Review .
J^O Sooner Does One Herd Die, Than The S...
J ^ o sooner does one herd die , than the swift-scented crows swoop upon , bis carcase , and turn his death into the nourishment of their life . "We ** gentlemen of the Press' * have something instinctively corvine , it would seem , in the hungry haste with which we pounce upon the dead to convert thein into " articles . " This is not said sarcastically . Does not JSature everywhere manifest this same subjection of death to life —r- of what is past to the continuance , under new forms , of what is present ? J > o we not all pass from hand to hand the lamps of life , and so keep the circle for ever luminous and active . Moore dies ; England feels a gentle
elegiac sadness in thinking of this bright happy spirit passing away ; and England ' s active writers wish to record something of that fugitive feeling in review articles and magazine memoirs . Foremost among those we have seen is that in the British Quarterly , which is not only a deep and genial glance into Moore ' s poetry , but is , at the same time , a suggestive article ; the paper in Blackwood takes up wholly different ground j while the memoir in the Biographical Magazine has the advantage of being a biographical sketch , copious in its details , and well put together .
Recurring to the British Quarterly to glance at its contents , we notice that it is less amusing and less striking than usual . The heavy articles predominate ; and although none of them are unworthy of their place , they have not left any durable impression on us . The North British Review , with four articles less , has greater attractions . There is an elaborate essay on British Statesmanship '— -a discussion of Binocular Vision and the Stereoscope—and a discursive , yet suggestive paper on Life and Chemistry , to which we would call attention . But the most attractive paper to be
found in thi ^ i month ' s periodicals is , in our opinion , that on Sharks and their Cariilaginoiis Cousins , in Fraser j it is not only an instructive chapter of natural history , but also an entertaining piece of writing . Fraser is very varied this month . Besides Uypatiadxudi . Digby Grand , it has a lively paper on the reign of George III ., a review of Taurotnachia , and a protest against ultra peace doctrines in a defence of Nursery Rhymes . Blackwood opens with an elaborate paper on Gold—a subject which California and Australia have brought into sudden prominence ; a delightful paper on Niebuhr , which contains a truth set forth in so beautiful an image , that we must pause in this our rapid indication , to present it to the reader ; - —" Once for all , let no man parade his love of poetry , with the least hope of being
respected for it , who has not a still greater love of truth . Nay , if we reflect patiently and calmly upon this matter , we shall find that there is but one way to keep this flower of poesy in perennial bloom—it is to see that the waters of truth are jflowing free and clear around it . We may be quite sure , that to whatever level this stream by its own vital force shall rise or sink , the same fair lily will be seen floating just on the surface of it . Just where these waters lie open to the light of heaven do we find this beautiful creation looking up from them into the sky . " Bulwer ' s endless My Novel , continues to evolve its lengthy life , and Our London Commissioner concludes his commission . The idea of this paper was good ; the writing , though pleasant , has not been up to the . idea ; and the judgments delivered have a most unmistakeably provincial accent .
Foreign Literature Is Unusually Dull. Ge...
Foreign Literature is unusually dull . Germany is silent . France waits till she may speak . Meanwhile , Brussels sends us two new volumes by Alexandre Dumas , and one by Leon Gozlan . The last named writer deserves peculiar mention : he has written a novel called George III . et Caroline de Brunswick , without any of those magnificent mistakes which may be called the birthright of Frenchmen speaking of things English ! Having said so much , we cannot greatly praise this novel for its interest . Dumas is better worth reading—Is he not always worth reading ? especially his prefaces ? Dumas is the most French of Frenchmen , and a Frenchman
is never more naif than when speaking of himself : a preface is always his arena for display . Do take up La Comtesse de Charny , if only for its preface : the novel you will find to be a continuation of Ange Pitou , which was itself a continuation of Les Memoires d ' un Medecin ; but the preface is unadulterated Dumas . In it , among other delicious sentences , there is one where his religious indignation stigmatizes the insolence of newspaper proprietors who proposed to him to write the History of papal crimesproposed it to him , Dumah , the man kut' rtoxnv religious , the man who , whatever else he may be , is confessedly and pre-eminently religious—he snys ho , " On vient me proposer , a mot , Vhomme religieux par excellence /" Nut , to add to the list of indignities contained in their proposals to him , * t last came the proposal that he should not write any more I However , hero we have tho first volume of La , Comtesse de Charny , and the first volume also of a , new novel , Conscience Vlnnpcent , " which ia amusing .
Owen Jones Ok Decobative Aet. ¦An Attemp...
OWEN JONES OK DECOBATIVE AET . ¦ An Attempt to dqflna the Principles tohioh should regulate the Employment of Colour in the l ) ucorative Arts ¦; with a , few words on tho Tresont Noaesaitij of an Architectural jMuantion an tho Tart of tho . Public . Head before tho Society of Arts , f April 28 th , 1862 . By Owqn Jonou . " anarchy which , rokns in Art at tho present day is like that which . J gna in philosophy andSoQiety , tho substitution pf tin undirected caprice tor tho a , o ( 4 on . of twportninod law . Hero , as olsowJbtoro , wo see tho absolute
need of a Faith—of some common Belief in , fixed principles--of some rule of life , comprehensive enough to embrace all details , powerful enou | jn to coerce all divergent tendencies , "No sooner is Art separated from Beligion , or what comes to the same thing , no sooner is there antagonism , dissent in Religion , than Art falls into individual caprice . In this strikingly suggestive Lecture , Owen Jones , emphatically recognises the want of intellectual unity as the cause of the anarchy : — ""In all ages" but our own , the same ornaments , the same system of colouring :, which prevailed upon their buildings , pervaded all they did , even to their humblest utensils : the ornaments on a niummy-case are analogous with those of the Egyptian temple ; the painted vases of the Greeks are but the reflex of the paintings of their temples ; the beautiful cushions and slippers of Morocco of the present day are adorned with similar ornaments , having the same colours as are to be found on the walls of the Alhambra .
" It is far different with ourselves . We have no principles , no unity ; the architect , the upholsterer , the paper-stainer , the weaver , the calico-printer , and the potter , run each their independent course ; each struggles fruitlessly , each produces in art novelty without beauty , or beauty without intelligence . " The architect , the natural head and chief of all who minister to the comforts and adornments of our homes , has abdicated his high office ; he has been content to form the skeleton which it should also have been his task to clothe , and has relinquished to inferior and urigmded hands the delicate modelling of the tissues and the varied colouring of the surface : who can wonder at the discordance and incongruity of the result ?" And again , —
" It would be very desirable that we should be made acquainted with the manner in which , in the education of the Eastern artists , the management of colour is made so perfect . It is most probable that they work only from tradition and a highly-endowed natural instinct , for which all Eastern nations have ever been remarkable ; they have the further advantage of working out the style which grew up with their religion , with which every thought and action of their daily life is interwoven . " Since the Keformation , which with us separated the tie which should exist between Eeligion and Art , we have been deprived of this advantage : the want _ unity in feeling has caused a want of unity in expression ; there is the same disorder in the art , as scepticism in the mind . This acting , generation on generation , each descends lower and lower . "
The purport of his lecture is to introduce something like unity , by calling attention to certain fixed principles , by him named Propositions , which lie at the very basis of Decorative Art , and which ., if carried in the mind will serve as rules to guide against the many discordancies of individual caprice . "We have already spoken highly of this lecture , and refer our readers to the printed copy of it , published by the Society of Arts . There are points in it from which , we withhold assent ; notably that socalled Law of Simultaneous Contrast of Colours , attributed to the French chemist Chevreuil , which , as an explanation of a well known fact , that two colours in contrast are both heightened in force , the dark darker and the light lighter , we take to be an attempt to explain objectively what is a purely subjective phenomenon . But we have no space for discussion , and must limit ourselves to such extracts from Owen Jones ' s lecture as may bo of interest and service to the general reader : —
" Proposition I . " Colour is used to assist in the development of form , and to distinguis 7 i objects or parts of objects one from anothev . " The most cursory glance at the works of nature will establish tho truth of our first proposition . We see everywhere in nature colour assisting form , in producing distinctness : tb . ua , flowers are separated by colour from their leaves and stalks , and these again from the earth in which they are planted ; and , not to fatigue you with examples , it is at once evident how much in nature would bo meaningless , but for tho many charms of colour spread over the earth so lavishly . " Had nature applied but one colour to all objects , they would have been indistinct ; but , by an over-changing variety , each has its proper tone and hue , from tho modest lily of the field to tho parent of all colour , tho glorious sun in tho heavens . .
" The ancients over obeyed this law ; thus tho capitals of their columns are separated by colour from tho shafts , and these , again , by colour from their bases or pedestals . " Proposition II . " Colour is used to assist UgU awl shade , helping the undulations of form by the proper distribution of the several colours . " But for light and alnulo we should Imvo been unable to . recognise tho distinctive forms of objects ; without it n globe would bo but a circle , tho light on the exposed surface " and the shade on t ] io retiring surftico alono convince us of its rotundity . . . .. ,, _ , _ ,., colour liht and shade bita
« Wo find , therefore , in nature ' s works assisting g ; y help tho modulations of form uro rendered more apparent : were it otherwise , it would bo to little purpoHo that tho flowor should bo distinguished by colour from tho leaf , if tho individual form of tho flowor and tho loaf had boon extinguished iu tho process . " Proposition III . " These objects are best attained ( i . e . objects or parts of objects avo ( U & tmguislicd ono ii-oin another , and tho undulations of form aro assisted ) by the use of the primary colours on small surfaces , and in small quantities , balanced and supported by the secondary and tertiary colours on the larger masses .
" Tliin proposition will not ho readily bo accepted as tho two preceding . Thero nro lnnny who will object that tho primary colours aro tho delight only of tho naviiRO and tho uncultivated , but I answer that tho primary colours ! aro novor vulgar or dincordant vvhon proporly applied ; tho defect will lie , diot with tho colours , but with tho want of skill of tho hand that applies thoin . Tlioy must bo uhocI iih in nature , with a sparing hand , on small mirfucpH , and in small qnantitios j tho secondaries and torti » irit <« in larger masses , and on larger surlheoH , atoning 1 for thoir k-HHor brilliancy by . their greater volume . " Wo ilnd in tho works of tho Egyptians , Greeks , Arabs , and Moors , during tho best periods of thoir art , this beautiful law invariably followed : but , on tho contrary , whon the art of each civilization declined , the priinnrion uro no longer the
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Leader (1850-1860), May 8, 1852, page 17, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_08051852/page/17/
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