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Ufc*. 420; Asm IQ^ lggg.] % HKB LEABEB. ...
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1f v t+i>1*rr+1trT> 3LUSUIUU** . "
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««frttios'are not the legislators', but ...
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jfjR. Buckle's lecture at the Royal Inst...
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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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Ufc * . 420 ; Asm IQ ^ lggg . ] % HKB LEABEB . 351
1f V T+I≫1*Rr+1trt≫ 3lusuiuu** . "
literates . ——
««Frttios'are Not The Legislators', But ...
««frttios ' are not the legislators ' , but the judges and police of literature They dd' not Gritl i £ akelaws--tta . ey interpret and try to enforce them . — Edmbv , rOh Review . ——• ¦
Jfjr. Buckle's Lecture At The Royal Inst...
jfjR . Buckle ' s lecture at the Royal Institution on * The Influence of Women ' forms the first article in the current number of Fraser . The perusal of this ' discourse / as it is styled by its author , has disappointed us . After reading it one is surprised to hear that it was the lecturer ' s first attempt , the style being the regular lecture style , fluent , but feeble , colourless , and slip-shod , fiill of high-sounding generalities , but destitute of force , vividness , or precision . [ Bhe lecturer ' s art of description is a very simple one , consisting mainly in the repetition of trite and pointless epithets . " The greatest discovery of the greatest natural philosopher the world has yet seen" is the account of Newton
and the law of gravitation ; Hau y " one of the most remarkable men of a remarkable age ; " Goethe " the greatest poet Germany has produced , and one of the greatest the world has ever seen ; " the grave-diggers' scene in Hamlet is " one of the most beautiful" episodes in the greatest production of the greatest man the world has ever possessed . " But the substance is as poor as the style . The discourse abounds with assumptions , eonfusions , and contradictions . A specimen or two will abundantly suffice . The lecturer maintains-- that " women naturally prefer the deductive method to the inductive , " the abstract to the concrete , because they have more imagination , are more poetical , than men . Again , he attempts to stipport his thesis that women are naturally deductive—that they delight
in the purely intellectual to the neglect of the sensuous side of science , by the assertion- —true in itself but suicidal to the theory—that their perceptions are sharper , that , for instance , they can describe symptoms better , and understand signs more quickly than men . What follows is still more confused and contradictory . The whole doctrine is indeed little better than a blunder , which Scarcely calls for serious criticism , and certainly does not require any formal refutation . The next article , * My Winter-Garden , by a Minute Philosopher , ' is a delightful one , full of breezy freshness , hearty enjoyment of nature , and vigorous life . It contains in a curious setting of semi-scientific semi-philosophic reflections , a magnificent description of a fox-hunt , obviously rfriwn bv the same firm but sure and delicate hand that sketched that
inimitable hunting scene in the opening pages of Teas / . Here is a description of the most beautiful object in the world , the Greek statues alone except ed : — The hounds , moreover , have obligingly waited for us two fields on . For the cold ¦ wet pastures which -we are entering do not carry the scent as the heather did , in which Keinecke , as he galloped , brushed off his perspiration against every twig ; and the hounds are now flemishing up and down by the side of the brown alder-fringed brook Which parts the counties . I can hear the flap and snort of the dogs' nostrils as they canter round me ; and I like it . It is exciting ; but why—who can tell ? What beautiful creatures they are , too ! JS ' ext to a Greek statue ( I mean a real old Greek one ; for I am a thoroughly anti-prcraphaelitc benighted pagan heathen in taste , and intend some day to get up a Cinque-Cento Club , for the total abolition of Gothic art)—next to a Greek statue , 1 say , 1 know few such combinations of grace
and strength , as in a line foxhound . It is the beauty of the Theseus—light mid yet massive ; ami light not in spite of its masses , but on account of the perfect disposition of them . I do not care for grace in man , woman , or animal , which is obtained ( as in the old German painters ) at the expense of honest ik'sh and blood . It maybe all very pure , and unearthly , and saintly , and what not : but it is not healthy ; and therefore it is not really High Art , let it call itself such as much as it likos . The highest art must be that in which the outward is the most perfect symbol of the inward ; and therefore a healthy soul . eau bo only exprest by n healthy body ; and Starved limbs and a hydrocephalous forehead must be cither taken as incorrect symbols of spiritual excellence , or ns ( what they were really mount for ) symbols of certain spiritual disease's which were in the Middle Age considered as ecclesiastical griicesand Titian and
virtues . Wherefore I like pagan and naturalist art ; consider Correggio ns unappreciated geniuses , whoso excellences the world will in some saner mood rediscover ; hold in direct opposition to liio , that l . ' adidle improved steadily all hits life through , and that his noblest works arc not those somewhat simpering Madonnas and somowhat impish Bambinos ( very lovely though they arc \ but thoso great , coarse , naturalist , Protestant cartoons , which ( with Andrea Mantegna ' .-i Heathen Triumph ) Cromwell saved for the British nation . I expect no one to agree with all this for the next quarter of ii century : but alter that I hiivo hopes . Tlio world will grow tired of pretending to odmiro Mnnicluuiin pictures in nn age of natural science , and of building churches on tho Popish model , to be used for Protestant worship ; and art will let the dead bury their dead , nnil beginning ( igain where Michael Angelo and Kafaello loft off , work forward into a nobler , truer , I ' reer , and more divine school than
tho world has yet aeon—at least , so I hope . And all thla has grown out of those fox-hounds . Why not ? Theirs is n sort of form which expresses to mo .-what 1 want art to express—Nature not limited , but developed , by high civili / . aUon . Tho old savago iiloal oi' beauty was the lion , typo of more massive force . That was succeeded by an over-civilized kloul , say the fawn , typo of delicato grace . By cunning breeding and choosing , through long centuries , man has combined both , and has created tho fox-hound , lion and fn \ vn in one . Look at that old liomui , who stands doubtful , looking up nt liirf master for advice Look at tho severity , delicacy , lightness of every curve . Ilia hend is finer than a deer ' s ; tho
hia hind-logs tense as atucl npringHj his lore-logs straight as arrows ; and yet see dei > th-Qi-oh « Bt ,-tho- « w . uop , or-lMiw , aJ » a-brott ^^ und . if you havo an cyo for form , look at tho nbsoluto majesty of hin attitude ftt this moment . Majesty is tho only word for it . If hi .- wore nix fret high , instead of twenty-three inches , with wlutt animal on enrth could you compnro him ? In it not a 3 oj' to see such « thing alive ? It is to me , at leant . I would like to have one in my Study all day long , as I would have a statue or n picture ; and when Mr . Morroll gave ( ao they say ) two hundred guineas for Hercules nlono , 1 beliovo tho dog was well worth the- money , only to look at . Hut 1 am a minute philosopher .
Xn this month's Jilachcaod , tho nulhor of ' YTliut will ho do wilji It' curiously intcrrupta tlio progress of tlio story to address an explanation | . o t : ho rentier- — to offoi-. iiv tho form of nu apology a defenco and eulogy of his tale . Nob beinft
altogether satisfied with the criticisms of the press on the part that has already / appeared , he undertakes to review the whole by anticipation himself , and his opinion is , on the whole , a very favourable one . He pronounces the author to be aperfeot artist , the story a faultless work , and implicitly laments-the want of . a higher aesthetic feeling on the part of the reading public , and especially the critics' . Had there been any doubt at all about the authorship of the story , this interjected preface would have at once removed it . At the outset of ' What will he do with It , " we . remarked that the new story was a return to BuiiWEK LiYTTcmf ' s old style—a statement which its progress has fully justified , and which tlie preface to the last part curiously confirms . In his early days , Bulwhb , was fond of introducing each new story by an elaborate statement , in form usually a preface , in substance an eloge on the work , pointing out that the marvellous skill of the construction was scarcely likely to be fully appreciated by the critics and the public , and calling on sesthetic readers and on posterity to admire it as a wonderful picture of nature and a perfect work of art . Here is an extract from the present preface quite in the old style : —
The reader may thus have the complaisance to look at each instalment as the component portion of a completed whole ;—comprehending that it cannot be within the scope of the author ' s design to aim at a separate effect for each separate number ; but rather to carry on through each number the effect which he deems most appropriate to his composition when regarded as a whole . And here may it be permitted to dispel an erroneous idea which , to judge by current criticism , appears to be sufficiently prevalent to justify the egotism of comment . It seems to be supposed that , because this work is published from month to month in successive instalments , therefore it is written from month to month as a newspaper article may be dashed off from day to day . Such a supposition is adverse to all the principles by which works that necessitate integrity of plan , and a certain harmony of proportion , are constructed : more especially those -works which aim at artistic representations of human is left to chanceand chance
life : For , in human life , we must presume that nothing , must be no less rigidly banished from the art by which human life is depicted . That art admits no . hap-hazard chapters , no uncertainty as to the consequence * that must ensue from the incidents it decides on selecting . Would the artist , on after thought , alter a consequence , he must reconsider the whole chainwork of incident which led to one inevitable result , and which would be wholly defective if it couldibe made to lead to another . Hence , a work of this kind cannot be writtten currente calamo , from month to month ; the entire design must be broadly set forth before the first page goes to press ; and large sections of the whole must be always completed in advance , in order to allow time for deliberate forethought , and fair opportunity for such revisions , as an architect , having prepared all his plans , must still admit to his building , should difficulties , not foreseen , sharpen the invention to render each variation in detail an improvement consistent to the original design .
Again , to assure the excited public that i £ he accepts office it will not interfere with the interest and excellence of the story : — Since this survey of our modern world requires a large and a crowded canvas and would be incomplete did it not intimate those points of contact in which the private touches the public life of Social Man , so it is well that the reader should fully understand that all reference to such grand events as political ' crises' and changes of government were written many months ago , and have no reference whatever to the actual occurrences of the passing daj % Holding it , indeed , a golden maxim that practical politics and ideal art should be kept wholly distinct from each other , and seeking in this narrative to write that which may be read with unembittered and
impartial pleasure by all classes and all parties—nay , perchance , 111 years to come , by the children of those whom he now addresses—the author deems it indispensable to such ambition to preserve the neutral ground of imaginative creation , not only free from those personal portraitures which are fatal to comprehensive and typical delineations of character , but from all intentional appeals to an interest which can be but momentary , if given to subjects that best befit the leading articles of political journals . His realm , if it hope to endure , is in the conditions , the humours , the passions by which one general phase of society stands forth in the broad light of our common human nature , never to be cast aside , as obsolete and out of fashion , " into the portion of weeds and worn-out laces . "
We must correct the quotation in the last extract , which should be , not " weeds and worn-out faces , " but " weeds and outworn faces . " A prose poet like Jkkkmv Taylor ought to be quoted correctly . Looking to this singular address to the reader ns a whole , we arc far from saying that it was not called for . No doubt it was quite natural that the few readers of Blackwood , who still managed to read the story , should begin to wonder whether anything would come of it or not ; but it was scarcely politic in the author to recognize Lhc propriety of such a speculation by formally assuring them that something would come of it in the end . ' Food and Drink—Part II . ' is a continuation of Lhc papers on the physiology of common life . Wo extract the following warnr t « g to tho lovers of shape und symmetry at all hazards : — received with food
Phosphorus and / Sulphur are nlso indispensable , but they are our . Acids arc received with vegetable food ; but they are also taken separately , especially tho acetic acid , or vinegar , which , according to Trout , has either by accident or design boon employed by mankind in all nges—that is to say , substances naturally containing it have been employed as aliinontu , or it has boon formed artificially . It is owiiv to their acids that fruits and vegetables ) aro noceasury to inan > "though not necessary to tho enrnivora , Dr . budd juntly point * to tho prolonged abstinence from suooulont vegetables and fruits ns tho cauau of tho scurvy among sailors . Lemon-juice is now always given to sailors with their fooilj it pro too t « thorn from scurvy , which no amount of vinegar , however , is sufficient to Direct . We make cooling drinks with vegetable acids ; and our snlada and greenn demand vinegar , as our cold moat demands pickles . Taken in moderation , there is no doubt that vinegar is beneficial , but in excess it impairs the digestive organs j and , as wo remarked a little while ago , exporlincnts - on artificial digestion show that if tho quantity of acid bo dlmlniahed , dlge » .
lionTa ~ roTa 7 dS ^ reason , therefore , in the vulgar notion , unhappily too fondly robed on , that vinegar helps to keep down an alarming adiposity , ami tliut ladies who dread tho disappearanou of their graceful outline in curve * of plumpno * s expanding into fat , may arrest so dreadful a result by hbural potation- of vinegar , but u » ° y wn only bo arrest it nt tho far more dreadful expense of ilicir health . ' 1 lie amount of acid which will keep thorn thin , will destroy their dhjostlvo power ,.. Portal glvea a case which should bo a warning : " A few years ago , a youn lady i . » easy circumstances ° "J <> yed S ™* health } she was very plump , had a good appetite , and a corap exion blooming with roaos and llllos . She began to look upon nor plumpness with »»» Pwl ° n j j [ or Iwr mother who very fat , and- eho waa afraid of becoming liko her . Accordingly , eu ©
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), April 10, 1858, page 15, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_10041858/page/15/
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