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MARGARET FUXXER AND MARY VVOLLSTONECRAFT...
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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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d « Ucs are not the legislators , but tlie judges aud police of literature J ^ i % , not '' make laws—they interpret and try to enforce them .-rJSdtnburgih Review .
Bbfobe Us Lie The British Quarterly, Lon...
Bbfobe us lie the British Quarterly , London Quarterly , and Irish Quarterly Jtem ' , and the batch of Magazines . To give in reasonable space an account of so much Literature is out of the question ; we shall , therefore , dot about from subject to subject , selecting an article here , a passage there , and so try to " dp our spiriting gently . " One thing is noticeable in these periodicals , and that is the gradual increase of attention bestowed on science . In the British Quartejty , Newton furnishes a good article , and in the London Quarterly , Copernicus , the story of whose life is less familiar to that wondrous personage the General Reader ( who Is popularly supposed to delight in all the bad books and shallow philosophy written for his especial benefit , and who must have a it is for
very peculiar organisation if that supposition be true ) ; indeed , G . R . that reviews are mainly wr itten , to supply his leisure with the fruits of many men ' s labour . G . R . is even more fond of the portable erudition tlian of science . He especially delights in those retrospective glances at tlie past , which tell him something , not too much and not too elaborately , of the men of old . Reviewers are the bees gathering honey from the heather of dreary commons . They tell him , for example , the whole story of Spensek ' s life ( as in the British Quarterly ) y with remarks on Spenser ' s poetry , which save the trouble ( G . R . is fond of opinions ready-made ) of a lengthened cultivation of that much-neglected poet ; and which perhaps , in a lucky mood , may even urge him to take down the Faery Qtteene , and so do him a benefit . That Spenseji is little read is a fact no one disputes ; but
the reason why he is neglected , and neglected in spite of exquisite and obvious beauties , in spite also of the enthusiasm of certain admirers , surely lies in the simple fact that be is tedious ? There will always be a class of purely poetical readers who will delight in Spenser , and always the vast public which declines his acquaintance . We remember Monckton Mii ^ nes once humorously answering the question put to him whether he really admired Spenseb , with : — " Is that a public or a private question ? " Publicly , all poets are bound to admire him ; privately , they leave his volumes to the undisturbed researches of dilettante spiders .
S & AKSPEABE ' S Minor Poems also , in spite Of the Shakspearian idolatry , arc less read than their admirers patiently acknowledge . Bem / s edition , recently issued , and the article on that edition in Fraser , will give many the desire to read , or re-read , these poems . By the way , when Robebx Belt . and his Critic announce as a novelty the fact that Sha ^ spearb ' s reputation us a poet was , for his contemporaries , mainly founded on the poctns , and not upon the plays , do they not both overlook the striking but indisputable fact that plays were not then regarded as literature , in the sense we now regard them * but simply as theatrical pieces , very much as the plays of our day are regarded by us ? Ben Jonson was laughed at by the wits for calling his plays " works . " And this we take it is the reason why Venus and Adonis went , through sixeditions , while the most popular of the plays , Romeo and Juliet , was printed only twice .
Really novel , and very interesting , is the fact ( if fact it be } Avlnch Bell has advanced respecting Shakspeabe writing for the stage long after he had quitted London , and settled down into a country life . Novel also is the notion advanced by the Critic in Fraser respecting the revival of learning , which we quote : - ~ The revival of classical learning in the sixteenth century is generally - spoken of as ii the classics had been till then unknown . The great revolution of opinion which marks that period is supposed to be mainly attributable to the new light which the literatnre of ancient Greece and Rome ehed upon the world . Never was there a more flagrant example of the confounding of cause and effect . The darkness , or whatever it may be called , of the middle ages , was a thing 1 deliberately chosen in preference to
the light of the classics . Clemens Alexandrinus , and Gregory Nazianzen , knew Plato much better than Picus Mirandola , Leo the Tenth , or Erasmus ; but they preferred St . Paul . Ambrose and Augustine were familiar with Virgil , Horace , and even Martial ; but they thought David and Isaiah on the whole greater poets . Later , and $ 4 £ he very , grosfnc « 8 of . medieval darkness , Thomas Aquinas was perfectly acquainted Kith jttie classic ^ authors , and might have written as learned commentaries on tho vices whicU <^ Mt ?^ u ^ d , their jnspimtion , as Scaliger or Brunck ; but h « thought he waii doing better for the , ifltereflts of mankind by commenting on tho Biblel It was not , then , that the long-neglecfea classics were , in the sixteenth century , / suddenly discovered in the recesses of Home library , arid that , when laid open , they J diffUBod a flood of light over'benighted Europe . The true statement of the case Is this : the minds of thinking men bad then become assimilated to thd classical modes of thought , and were therefore prepared to appreciate the classics . Petrarch , Dante , and Boccaccio
in Italy ; and * in England , Chaucer ,. Gower , and Lydgate , had , upwards of a century before the revival of learning ,, as it is called , adopted as much of tho classical feeling ai found acceptance in tnefc age . . While we aro . drawing on Fraser for extract , we must not pass over the striking description'of anight in the forest given in the " Excursion to Point Manabique . " The writer , ' overtaken by a storm , creeps into a hut . How 'ijn , e is the mysterious terror of the foil owing : — 'JTbe thunder , howqver , gradually ceased ^ but ' tho rain fell heavily for aomo time longer . Then , for a short while , nothing was heard but the dripping of water from the leaves of tho forest-trees , and the hoarse voice of the billows . One by one , the stars peeped out from behind the receding curtain which had veiled thorn " . X also ventured Ottt of my retreat , and lay myself on the sandy beach to eat my supper , for I dared not sleep , through fear of being picked up by some roving jaguar or alligator . I was absorbed , in reflection , when suddenly I perceived out at sea , within about ha \ f a mile oj }
the coast , a large black mass advancing towards me . I strained my eyes to pierce the darkness which separated me from it , and clearly discerned a small light , or lantern , moping regularly np and down . I knew by this that it must be some ship jailing fast to destruction . Without losing a minute , I set fire to the rancho , and in a few seconds a column of flame was towering high up in the air , and casting a ray of light through the surrounding wilderness . My signal was perceived , and the vessel soon tacked out of sight . Having thus saved the ship , he proceeds : — I heaped up some wood on the fire , and determining on taking a few hours of repose , I cocked my pistols , rolled myself up in my blanket , and lay down . I had reckoned without the saud-flies and nocturnal sounds . Everything at first waa Htill . The beautiful red , green , and yelloV fire-flies were flitting by thousands through the air . Gradually a sort of humming sound reached my ear , proceeding from the depths of
the forest . It swelled and waxed londer and louder as it seemed to approach me . Ten minutes more and I was in the midst of the most infernal concert that ever fell on human ears . The din and uproar were astounding . Thousands of tree-frogs occupied every tree in my vicinity , and probably for a hundred miles around rue numbers of enormous toads of various species were crawling everywhere ; geckos ( a species of lizard ) glided invisibly over my face and body ; innumerable swarms of crickets , grasshoppers , and cicadas covered every plant in the Manabique territory . All these creatures seemed striving to outdo tho others in the production of unearthly sounds . It was one immense accumulation of singular and inharmonious noises—of croakings , jiipings , bellowing ^ , stridulations , saw-sharpenin ^ s , chirpings , squeaking , chatterings . Imagine to yourself a million of voices raised simultaneously , with every variety of intonation and
with unceasing perseverance , and you still have but a weak idea of the discord which that night drove sleep from my couch . From time to time the shrill cry of some night-bird startled me as it silently hovered over me , and several times I distinctly heard tho roar of a jaguar , roaming along the beach in search of the large turtles which at this season come to spawn in the dry sand . Hosts of sand-flies and mosquitoes assaulted me all night , and irritated me by tho hopelessness of getting rid of them ; scratching and slapping were of no avail , as those I thus destroyed with a sort of savage satisfaction were immediately replaced by new myriads . At last the long wished-for dawn appeared , and the sun rose rapidly above the horizon . The howling monkeys saluted its presence by a terrific chcrus , which echoed far and wide through the solitary -woods , and crowned the wonderful vocal performances of this memorable night .
In the way of retrospective reviews , we have more than once directed attention to * the series on the " Pi * ainatic Writers of Ireland" in the Dulliu University Magazine . Tlie present number contains a very interest !!;^ sketch of Matckis , whose Melmoth made us shuddor in our " pallet day .- - , " and whose Bertram gave him a momentary fame . The writer notices of him :- — He was eccentric in his habits , nlmost to insanity , and compounded of opposites ; an insatiable reader of novels ; an elegant preacher ; an incessant dancer , which propensity he carried to such an extent , that he darkened hia drawing-room window * , and indulged during the daytime ; ft coxcomb in dresj and manner ; an extensive reader ; vain of his person and reputation ; well versed iu theology ; and withal , a warm and kind-hearted man . Amongst other peculiarities , he was accustomed to paste a wafer on his forehead , whenever he felt tlie estro of composition coming on him , as a warning to the members of his family , thnt if they entered bin study th < y were not to interrupt his ideas by questions or conversation .
Margaret Fuxxer And Mary Vvollstonecraft...
MARGARET FUXXER AND MARY VVOLLSTONECRAFT . Woman in the Nineteenth Century , and Kindred Papers relating to the Sphere , Condi / tun , and Duties of Woman . Uy Margaret Fuller Ossoli . Trtibiier and Co . The dearth of new books just now gives us time to recur to less recent ones which we have hitherto noticed but slightly ; and nmong ^ these we choose the late edition of Margaret Fuller ' s Woman in the Nineteenth Century , because we think it has been unduly thrust into the background by hss comprehensive and candid productions on the same subject . Notwithand
standing certain defects of t . iste and a sort of vague spiritualism grandiloquence whioh belong to all but the \ cry best American writers , the book is a valuable one : it has tlie enthusiasm of n , noble and sympathetic nature , with the moderation niul breadth and largo nllowanco of a vigorous nml cultivated understanding . There is no exaggeration of woman ' s moral excellence or intellectual capabilities ; no injudicious insistnncc on her fitness for this or that function liitherto engrossed b y men ; but a calm pica for tin : removal of iinjust laws and artificial restrictions , so that the possibilities of her nature may have room for full development , a widely stated demand to disencumber her of tho
Parasitic forms That neeivi to koop her up , but drag her down—And lca-ve her field to burgeon and to bloom From nil within hor , make hcraolf her own To givi' or kcop , to live and learn and be All thnt not harms distinctive womanhood-It is interesting to compare this essay of Margaret . Fuller ' s published in its enrlk'ftt form in 1643 , with a work on the position of woman , written between sixty and seventy years ago—we menu Mary Wollstonceraft'a Riijhti of Woman . The Jnttor work was not continued beyond the first volume ; but ho far as this carries tbo subject , the comparison , at least in relation to strong eenac and loftiness ot moral tone , is not at nil disadvantageous to the woman of the lust century . There ia in some quarters a vitguo prejudice against the Jiif / hts of Woman us in some way or other a rcprehensiolo book , it
but renders who go to it with thi « impression will bo surprised to find eminently serious , severely moral , and withal rather henvy—tlio true reason , perhaps , that no edition liaa been published since 179 G , and that it is now rather scarce . There uro several points of resemblance , as well fi 3 of striking difference , between thu two hooka . A strong understanding is present . J » both ; but Margaret Fuller ' s mind wns like some regions of her o \ in American continent , where you are constantly stepping from tho sunny " clearing " into the mysterious twilight of the tunglcd forest )—she often pasHOs in one brqath from forcible reasoning to dreamy vagueness ; moreo-vor , hor unusually varied culture gives her grout command of illu . stmtion . M »« 7 Wollstonecruft , on tho other hand , ia nothing if not rntiomd ; she has " erudition , and her grave pages i » ro lit up by no ray of fancy . In both writer * we diaoorn , under the bravo bearing of a atrong and truthful nntiire , tho benting of a loving woman ' s heart , which teaches them not to undervalue tho
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), Oct. 13, 1855, page 16, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_13101855/page/16/
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