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JtJLY U, 1865. J THE LEADER. 677
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PICTURES OF PALESTINE. Pictures of Pales...
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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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Varieties. Some Time Ago We Noticed The ...
veak « r than all , and worse than all , are the controversialists who smite one another in a battle about things that are to be when myriads of centuries have come and gone . The Rev . Mr . Godfrey indites a work called The Conflict and the Triumph , ( Partridge and Oakey . ) It is written with fury , and not corrected with phlegm . The writer is like James I ., composing a " counterblast against tobacco" when he should have regulated the disorders of the riialm . He thinks this is a time to explain the Book of Daniel . He has a right to think so , and his inquiries lead him to some profound conclusions . He has been convinced that the Turkish Empire is not the liiver Euphrates , in which we think Wild ' s Map and Guy ' s Geography concur with him . Further , J ^ mis Napoleon is not the Man of Sin—intelligence which will , probably , be agreeable to Louis Napoleon . We ourselves are "laddened . to find that so luminous a critic as Mr . Godfrey abandons to its
fate J > r . Cuinnnng ' s theory of tails , —not that of Lord AJonboddo or of Dr . Kahn , but a special theory of his own . In the " Revelations" occurs a pass . i ^ c descriptive of an army of horsemen , " whose power is in their mouth and in their tails . " Whereupon the Scotch Presbyter , who does a great stroke of business in the Apocalyptic line , sees a connexion between tliis verse and the horse-tail standards of the Ottoman cavalry . With all gravity does Mr . Godfrey disprove this hypothesis ; " the power of the Turks is uvl in l / uir dead Jiursc tails . " Here is logic , which encourages us to proceed . There is next a vigorous refutation of the argument that because AvLc in Ili-brew means an Arab , and Arha means a locust , therefore , every locust is : ui Arab . The locusts eaten by John in the desert could not . have been Arabs , sa \ s Mr . Godfrev . Certainly not , though
Dr . Cuiiiming may suppose that the Baptist was a cannibal . If we were not shocked , we should be amused by this frivolity ; but we are forced to remember that two religious ministers are playing paits in the burlesque . Once more , Mr . Godfrey denies that Nicholas 1 . of Russia was a hailstone . Dr . Cununing says he was , but Mr . Godfrey has a fixed b $ cf on that point . Indeed , it acts as yeast to his wrath , for he foams up until he is tempted to write , " ¦ V \ ere 1 an infidel , and had the points of Dr . Cumming ' s houk conceded to me , 1 would overthrow the whole system of Christianity . " Is there a fit audience for Mr . Godfrey ? Is this incoherent nonsense consumed by any class of renders ? Undeniably ; but a synopsis of English minds would classify them into many different orders . There- were some who admired Goldsmith when he ' wrote like an angel , " and others who adored him when he " talked like poor Poll . "
Jtjly U, 1865. J The Leader. 677
JtJLY U , 1865 . J THE LEADER . 677
Pictures Of Palestine. Pictures Of Pales...
PICTURES OF PALESTINE . Pictures of Palestine , Asia Minor , Hiciit / and . Spain ; or , tne Lands of the Saracen By liayard Taylor . Sampson Low . Mr . Bayard Taylor has caught the spirit of tlie East , with which he gives life and truth to bis p ictures of travel . He is neither a philosopher nor an antiquarian ; but essentially an artist , who depicts the varieties of form , light , and colour , in the groups , the landscapes , or the city scenes of Southern Europe , or Western Asia . And his book therefore is pictorial . A sea of sapphire waters—a field of crimson poppies—a tract of red sanda blaze of ( lowers—a blue or purple sky—a range of Saracen pillars , and arches beaming with gold—or u dome of cedar ioliage , is richly described by himin that peculiar style , half fanciful , half serious , whicli he seems * o
, have acquired from the study of Oriental poets , or from long familiarity with the social atmosphere of the East . He has been an untiring ^ wanderer . We formerly traced with him the route from Alexandria to the White Nile ; the title-page of his new volumes deseribes a large area of observation ; and we are promised a , further account of his experiences in China , India , the ioo-Ghoo Islea , and Japan . Writing in good humour , and in elegant , Original , suggestive language , be pleases us far more than the common illustrated routino tourists , whose journals arc made up , partly of curses , and partly of quotations . Even ' quarantine is not disagreeable to Mr . Bayard Taylor . His first letter , indited lVom the waterless hungry rock of detention at Biyrout , contains wot a single murmur , and none but lighthearted maledictions . In fact , with soup , lamb cutlets , and Syrian larks ,
imported from a neighbouring hotel , he wiled the hours away in content , though noise and inconvenience surrounded him . His journey theiu-u to . Jerusalem was a feast for the eye ; it lay through a Country enrichvd by the aspects of a Syrian spring , and enlivened by the motions and muduiils of a half-patriarchal life . Reaching the central towns Of Palestine , he visited the spots beloved bv imagination , the Jordan , Jericho , Jehosapluit , the Mount of Olives , the Vale of Uiiuuon , and '" that ttroud brook , the brook of Ki'dron . " In the luxury of its vegetation , the Holy Land reminded him of California , — -with its picturesque grove * , its harvests of wild-growing grain , its plains fragrant with iir . jiiiatie herbs , its ekies without clouds , and its nights without dew . A similar exuberance Clothed the slopes of the Ami-Lebanon , and the level country round Uainaacus , —bo enchanting in a distant view , says Mr . JJuyard I uylor , tliat nothing le » a than a city of palaver * , with marble walls , and g *\ v * " » . ivory anU poarl . could satiny the trawler ' s mind , still lull ofhvuutiiul illusion . Hero , hoAvevcr , costumed a . s lie wa « after the fashion of the bait , he tasteU tlie
real tlavour of Oriental life . .. ,, . Toooilcn , wherever you may wander , the hotuls of kuropo seem to follow yotl , so that among the cupolas of Kl-Islam , you appear to reeoginse the Chambers and corridors you lately quitted ut I ' aris . But in Mahomed „ favourite city , au hotel i * " truly u thing of the Knst . Vou arc ushered into a apacioua court wived with marble ; a atom- , bu . sm lull <> 1 water ami s > ui--rounded by vane * of ( lower * wools and perfumes it , from the centre ; lemontoeea ehade the uiitraneo and shako their sweetness into , tlie air ; a \ mc climbs nbout the house , which i * coloured in burs of orange , blue and wliitc . © none aide iu a lofty apartment , open in front , and brilliant with encaustic paint . A tessellated floor looks cool and pure , and a divan oi heaped « U 8 hion 8 invites the lazy frame to loll on it , aa good Mussulnu'ii do . An tm « Usurious place , Mr . Bayard Taylor was tempted , by a love , ot U -M iorlou ";» toihhalotliofumobof hashccaU , und to surrender hiinsell to the . drcain-l . idcn repose it produces . A lino , nervous , burning thrill shot throug h linn , nw
pulse throbbed ; a sense of strange freedom succeeded ; lie felt his nature altered , and imagined that sparkles of light were passing from him into an immeasurable depth of darkness around . Then a crowd of visions , like an heraldic pageant , came before him ; he was in Egypt ; he was in Elysium ; he was in Queen Mab ' s car of translucent pearl ; he listened to wondrous muszc ; sweet odours fed his sense ; a curious land opened- to his view ; comic transformations forced him to laugh ; pains and nervous trepidations , like those of madness , came after these sensations of mirth and pleasure ; he seemed to take the altitude of human joys and sufferings ; and finally , recovered from his delirium with a worn frame and a wandering consciousness enough to convince him that the Eastern sensualist , who steeps himself in the unreal raptures of hasheesh , must gradually decay , and become the slave of this horrible artifice .
A more pleasant chapter is supplied by Mr . Bayard Taylor on Bathing and Bodies . He affirms , what is true , that Europeans in general know not how to bathe . They only wash themselves , and scrub their skin to inflammation with barbarous towels . In the East , though stiff-jointed travellers complain of steam , heat , and dislocation , bathing is luxury . Our present tourist knew this when he went to the baths of Damascus , forh , e prepared himself , as for a festival of ceremonious pleasure . He duly kicked off his red slippers before mounting the divan , and submitted to the stripper ' s hand with uninquiring docility . All the processes were undergone with equal patience and appreciation , and he emerged from the bath , a lighter and a happier man . A propos , there is a discussion introduced on the subject of human beauty , and Mr . Taylor tells us what he has observed . We most quote this passage , premising that we might dispute his notions of the old Greek sculptors and their inspirations : —
So far as female beauty is concerned , the Circassian women have no superiors . Thev have preserved in their mountain home the purity of the Grecian models , and still * display the perfect physical loveliness , whose type has descended to us in the Tenus de Medici . The Frank who is addicted to wandering about the streets of Oriental cities can hardly fail to be favoured with a sight of the faces of these beauties . More than once it has happened to me , in meeting a veiled lady , sailing along in her balloon-like feridjee , that she has allowed the veil to drop by a skilful accident , as she passed , and has startled me with the vision of her beauty , recalling the line of the Persian poet : " Astonishment ! is this the dawn of the glorious sun , or is it the foil moon ? " The Circassian face is a pure oval ; the forehead is lov and fair , " an excellent thing in woman , " and the skin of au ivory whiteness , except the faint pink of the cheeks and the ripe , roseate stain of the lips . The hair is dark , glossy , and luxuriant , exquisitely outlined on the temples ; the eyebrows slightly arched , and drawn with a delicate pencil ; while lashes like " rays of darkness" shade the large , dark , humid orbs below them . The alabaster of the face , « o pure as scarcely to ahow the blue branch iiig of the veins on the temples , is lighted by those superb
eyes" Shining eyes , like antique jewels set in Parian statue-stone , whose wells axe so dark and deep , that you are cheated into the belief that a glorious soul looks out of them . Once by an unforeseen chance , I beheld the Circassian form , in its most perfect development . I was on board an Austrian steamer in the harbour of Smvrna , when the harem of a Turkish pasha came out in a boat to embark for Alexandria . The sea was rather rough , and nearly all the officers of the steamer were ashore . There were six veiled and swaddled women , with a black eunuch as guard , in the boat , which lay
tossing for some time at the foot of the gangway ladder , before the frightened passengers could summon courage to step out . At hist the youngest of them—a Circassian girl of not more than fifteen or sixteen years of age—ventured upon tie ladder , clasping the hand-rail with one hand , while with the other she held together the folds of her cumbrous feridjee . I was standing in the gangway , watching her , when a slicht lurch of the steamer caused her to loose her hold of the garment , which , fastened at the neck , was blown back from her shoulders , leaving her body screened but bv a single robo of light , gauzy silk . Through this , the marble whiteness of her skin , " the roundness , the glorious symmetry of her form , flashed upon me , as a vision of Aphrodite , seen "Through leagues of shimmering Avater , like a star . ' It was but a momentary glimpse ; yet that moment convinced me that forms of Phidian perfection are still nurtured in the vales of Caucasus . The temples of Bnalbec , the cedars of Lebanon , and the culture of the Syrian plains need not detain us from Mr . Taylor ' s dissertation on pipes and coffee . No one , he asserts , can understand the East without smoking as Easterns do ; for the hookah is a new emblem added to the apes ivory , and peacocks of Asia . Had the Greeks known tobacco says the traveller in the spirit of a devotee , they would have personified it in the shape . ofa iiod-amore Epicurean Apollo , a more indolent Bacchus J but , to people * ' who never Joke , " and to women , headdresses some lines oTreason , * bl j expostulation . They are not to conjure up the idea of pigtail , bud s-eye , or cavendish : but to think of cakes of dried leaves and blossoms exhaling an Xu oferusllliiowers , for these are the tender buds of Jebelee which , or use , are moistened with rose-water . The sihoke , drawn thwmg * aJong cherry-siick pipe , and amber mouthpiece , is pure , cool , and sweet , wHh an uronvitio flavour "It excites" ( we quote emphatically ) " no salivation , idZ vesbdund it no unpleasant stalt odour . '' What more is necessary 0 bi " aid ibr » , y tobacco * As to coffee , it is the favourite : of every . Arabic Vi .-in-eon who extols it as " the beverage ot the people of God , giver oi ; JutIi iud bVaulv * uud exhort * to " driufc . it with confidence , and to regard not the prattle of fools , who condemn it without ioundution . V L , the valley of the Oroi . tos with the travellers to Aleppo to ly ^^^ t ^ p ^^ sS chanter * , and p ick up , on a bridle path in Andalusia a 8 > imnu . 1 v ^ familiar ' story / It will servo to ^ " ^ ft ^^ I should Ah we were trolling along through the pa met o ^ tl . ukc j J ** j lio ( L not liko to hear an Aiululuaian Htory . " Jsotlung yu l » K « h rf i % ,, " KMu cloao beaide me , then , " mild he , " that you may nuK . nrtui ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ 1 complied , and liu guvo ino the following , u « t a « I £ 11 ^ ftnd tadnd 8 o ) very rich man , \\ ho hud thousands of cattJo in w »« - ^
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), July 14, 1855, page 17, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_14071855/page/17/
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