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BOOKS ON OUR TABLE. Essays, Ecclesiastic...
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THE ROYAL ACADEMY EXHIBITION. Before the...
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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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Westward Ho! Westward Ho T Or, The Voyag...
A burly , grizzled elder , in greasy , sea-stained garments , contrasting oddly -with , , the huge gold chain about hia neck , waddles up , as if he had been born , and had lived ever since , in a gale of wind at sea . The upper half of his broad visage seems of brick-red leather , the lower of badger ' s fur ; and , as he claps Drake on the back , and , with a broad Devon twang , shouts , " Be you a coining to drink your wine , Francis Drake , or be you not ?—saving your presence , my lord , " Lord High Admiral only laughs , " and bids Drake go and drink his wine ; for John Hawkins , admiral of the port , is the patriarch of Plymouth seamen , if Drake be their hero , an d says and does pretty much what he likes in any company on earth . So they push through the crowd , wherein is niany another man whom one would gladly have spoken with face to face on earth . Martin Frobisher and John Davis are sitting on that bench , smoking tobacco from long silver pipes ; and by them are Fenton and Withrington , who have both tried to follow Drake ' s path round the
world , and failed , though by no faiilt of their own . The man who pledges them better luck next time , is George Fenner , known to " the seven Portugals , " Leicester ' s pet , and captain of the galleon which Elizabeth bought of him . That short prim man in the huge yellow ruff , with sharp chin , minute imperial , and self-satisfied smile , is Richard Hawkins , the complete seaman , Admiral John ' s hereafter famous and hapless son . The elder who is talking with him is his good uncle William , whose monument still stands , or should stand , in Deptford Church ; for Admiral John set it up there but one year after this time ; and on it record how he was " A worshipper of the true religion , an especial benefactor of poor sailors , a most just arbiter in most difficult causes , and of a singular faith , piety , and prudence . " That , and the fact that he got creditably through some sharp work at Porto Rico , is all I know of William Hawkins : but if you or I , reader , can have as much or half as much said of us when we have to follow him , we shall have no reason to complain .
Mr . Kingsley's is a vehement , daring manner of painting . He dashes his colour on . ° The art of the book suffers a little from his zeal about the subject . But of this presently . Meanwhile , what say our constituted authorities to this account of
HOW THE ELIZABETHAN AGE EXCELLED OUR OWN . Well it was for England , then , that her Tudor sovereigns had compelled every man ( though they kept up no standing army ) to be a trained soldier . Well it was that Elizabeth , even in those dangerous days of intrigue and rebellion , had trusted her people enough , not only to leave them their weapons , but ( what we , forsooth , in these more " free " and " liberal" days dare not do ) to teach them how to use them . Well it was that , by careful legislation for the comfort and employment of " the masses " ( term then , thank God , unknown ) , she had both won their hearts , and kept their bodies in fighting order . Well it was , that , acting as fully as Napoleon did on " la carri & re ouverte aux talens , " she had raised to the highest posts in her councils , her army , and her navy , men of business , who had not been ashamed to . buy and sell as merchants and adventurers . Well for England , in a word , that Elizabeth had pursued for thirty years a very different course to that which we have been pursuing for the last thirty , with one exception , namely , the leaving as much as possible to private enterprise .
_ . . . ., .. There we have copied her : would to Heaven that we had in some other matters It is the fashion now to call her a despot ; but unless every monarch is to be branded with that epithet whose power is not as circumscribed as Queen Victoria ' s is now , we ought rather to call her the most popular sovereign , obeyed of their own free will by the freest subjects which England has ever seen ; confess the Armada fight to have been as great a moral triumph as it was a political one ; and ( now that our late boasting is a little silenced by Crimean disasters ) inquire whether we have not something to learn from those old Tudor times , as to how to choose officials , how to train a people , and how to defend a country . When we say that the " art of the book suffers , " we mean that the preacher -overcomes the painter often , Avhich , though creditable to the writer ' s earnestness and honesty , injures his -work as a mere work of art . It is as if a painter in colour were to write "Oh , you villain ! " under his Jesuits or murderers ; or to have a strip flowing from a hero ' s mouth , with " Imitate
me , ray man 1 " on it . No doubt the villain is to be hated , and the hero loved ; but we ought to see that sufficiently in the figures of them . We don ' t want a man with a wand , going about the gallery and haranguing us . Art is art , and tells its own story . We do not think Westward Ho I equal , for instance , to Thackeray ' s J 2 * mond , where the illusion of living in a past Age is ao delightfully kept up . This is our only literary objection to the book ; it by no means prevents our most fully recognising the manly earnestness , the glowing vivacity , the hearty humanity , the glorious bits of vivid painting . Mr . Kingsley ' s faculty as a novelist seems to us very dra--matic , and the strength of the book is in " scenes . " There is one scene especially where old Sulterne , the merchant , whose daughter has run away ¦ takes Leih h of helov ) into
w ith Don Guzman , Amyas g ( wo was one r ers her deserted bedroom , which we defy any woman to read without tearsnay , over which the adamantine reviewer confesse s to have felt what Frederick Bayham calls " manly emotion . " Mr . Kingslcy ' s eye for natural scenery is oxcellent likewise ; and in the latter part of the talc—the chase of the Spanish ship by Amyas—ho rises to a force of picturesque sea and storm description which it would not be easy to match in proso out of that best of all sea novels , Tom Cringle's Log . Mr . Kingslcy proved himself a man of genius long ngo ; but if he had not done so , Westward Ho ! would have proved it for him now . In purpose and execution it is a worthy and very brilliant book , and we hereby commend it to all who think with Burke and Macintosh , as well as with less literary individuals , that " a good novel is a good thing . "
Books On Our Table. Essays, Ecclesiastic...
BOOKS ON OUR TABLE . Essays , Ecclesiastical and / Social , Reprinted , with Additions , from the Ed' mhunjh Review . By W . J . Conybcuro , M . A . Longman , Jlrown , Green , und Longmans . A Vacation Tour in the United Mates and Canada . By Cuarlua Kichard Wold . Longman , Drown , Gireen , and Longmans . Tha Poetical Worktt of Thomas Moore , complete in One Volume . Longman , Urown , Green , and Longmans . Tho Calendar of Victory : being a Record tf British Valour and Conquest , by Sea and Land , on every Day in the Year . Projected and commenced by tho lato Major Johns , li . M . Coutiuuod and completed by Lieut . P . U . Nk-holua , Ji . M . Longman , . Brown , Groon , and Longmans . The Fall of Poland in 1791 : an Historical Traffic Drama , in Four Acts , liy a Putriot . Longman , Brown , Groon , and Longmans . The Hour and the Man : an Historical Jiowancv . liy Harriot Martinouu . New Edition . G- Koutlodgo and Co . The Annals of England : an Epitome of En li » h History , from Cotemporary Writers , tlio Rolls <> f Parliament , and other Public Record * . Yol . 1 . J . U . and J . Parker .
Selections from the best Italian Writers , for the Use of Students of the Italian Language By James Philip Lacaita , LL . D . Longman , Brown , Green , and Longmans Lecture on the Method of Teaching Grammar , delivered before the United Association q Schoolmasters , at the Jirst Annual Meeting . By James Filleard , F . R . G . S . Longman , Brown , Green , and Longmans Beatrice ; or , the Unknown Relatives . By Catherine Sinclair . Simpkin , Marshall , and Co To Love , and to be Loved . By the Author of " I ' ve been Thinking . " Simpkin , Marshall , and Co Rational Godliness , after the Mind of Christ , and the Written Voices of his Church . Bj
Rowland Williams , B . D . Bell and Daldy The Leading Statutes , and 19 Victoria , 1854-5 ; being a Companion to the Commor Law and Equity Reports in all the Courts : together with full Abstracts of those not Required in General Practice ; Tables of tlie Titles of all the Acts of Parliament , Public , General , Local , and Personal , and Private—Michaelmas Term , 1854 , to Michaelmas Term , 1855 ; and a copious Index to each Class . ( Part 1 . ) Edited by Alexander Edward Miller , Barrister-at-Law . George Edward Eyre and William Spottiswoode New Method of Reading French without Spelling , or complete Pronunciation of tfie French Tongue Explained in Five Lessons . By M . Maximilien Lardeur . Dulau and Co .
Brittany and La Vendee : Tales and Sketches ; with a Notice of the Life and Literary Character of Emile Souvestre . ( Constable ' s Miscellany of Foreign Literature y j 7 \ Thomas Constable and Co .
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The Royal Academy Exhibition. Before The...
THE ROYAL ACADEMY EXHIBITION . Before the Exhibition was opened for a Private View , rumours were circulated through the world of Art of a new picture , which represented " Gimabue s Madonna carried in Procession through the Streets of Florence , " and which was said to be one of the most wonderful first works ever produced . It was whispered that the name of this new genius was Leighton ; and the Academicians composing the Council and Hanging Committee were described as having fallen into ecstasies of admiration the moment they saw his picture—some of the more morbidly modest among them even turning their backs on their own canvases , and exclaiming , dolefully , " Oh that we could pamt like this gifted young man ! " The next report was that the Queen had bought the newwork ; and , after that circumstance had occurred , its triumph was considered to be complete . Visitors to the Academy on the Private View day , being mostly " persons of quality , " followed the lead of Hee Majesty and the Hanging Committee . The new picture was an immense success , until the Exhibition opened to the public . It had been confidently prophesied that Mr . Leighton would draw the crowd before his work ; but he has done nothing of the kind . Considering the great size of his picture , he gets astonishingly few people to stop any length of time to look at it . The plain fact is that the " general mob have . an ugly habit of peering close into a picture—and Mr . Leighton s large composition will not bear being looked into . It is a successful scenic trick—not a picture at all . Seen from a distance , the procession sweeps along magnificently enough ; and the colouring is brilliant in a garish way . Looked at close , not a figure in the composition will bear inspection . The drawing is mannered and feeble ; the lighting of the figures false ; the painting of the draperies triefcy and careless in the extreme . Hardly any one of the faces shows an attempt at illustrating character , and none of them look as if they had been studied , either in regard to drawing or colour , from the living model . As to incident , there is a man suddenly stopping the procession to tune his fiddle ; and as to expression ,
there is a woman by his side ( much admired by the Hanging Committee ) who gazes down at the obstructive musician with the serenest satisfaction , as it lie had the rest of the afternoon before him to tighten the strings of his instrument . Some of the faces show the most unartist-Hke carelessness , and some loot scarcely human . The face of the boy with the wreathed cross , and the face ( ana ficure ") of the child in blue who walks by the side of the men carrying the Madonna , may serve as examples . We have heard that Mr . Leighton is a very young man , and he may , therefore , greatly improve in his art ; but we candidly confess that we have little hope of him , for tho one plain reason that he has started by shirking his work . When a young man begins by doing this , in any intellectual Art-and in Painting more especially—he begins badly . The progress of all great painters has been from good detail gradually onward to fine effect . Mr . Leighton has begun at the wrong end ; and on ttxat account , artist
younp as he is , we feel some distrust of his future as an . We have devoted extra space to this picture , because its merits have been absurdly exaggerated , and because its size and prominent place m the West Room of the Exhibition render it accidentally remarkable among surrounding works . Proceeding into tho Middle Room , we arc reluctantly obliged to say of Mr . H . O'Neii . ' s picture ( No . 393 ) what we have already said of Mr . Solomon ' s—it is hung so badly that we cannot venture to criticise it . It seems , so far as wo can tell , to bo the painter ' s best work—a sud story of error and repentance most tenderly and interestingly told—a picture which for its gooa purpose nlone deserved ( as Mr . Solomon ' s work also deserved ) to bo treated with decent justice and consideration . Mr . Dobson's " Almsdceds . ot Dorcas , though too glaring in effect , shows refined study of expression , especially m me two most prominent female faces . Mr . Goodall ' s « Arrestol a Peasant WoyiUwt in Brittany" is successful in the observation and rendering ot f roncli ' t . \ wam . wt , particularly in the excellently-painted heads of the two JtopuUicon sold * . a but particularly in mo exccHfuuy-iJituHuu »«» uo " *¦ - " ~ u" — - « , „ ,,,, „« ; n < il ; n is too pretty and conventional in
,, Ihe picture is not satisfactory as a whole-it the general treatment . Mr . Pool ' s " Decameron' is tho oa bo ™ £ nmtj ko , fa clevSr man . The ladies , the valley , and tho << beautiful lake ** " ^ ° ™ , £ Z bathed in a yellow London fog ; and tho attitudes ot tho l »»«» iung « giires ire almost ludicrously unnatural . Mr . Poolk is unquostion . ibly a pamfcer ot high ability ; but hi tuning alter oritfnrtUy ^ self great injustice of late years . Mr . he s ^' ft ,, oxeollcat WOrks in tho wo have already alluded to , as one ol tlio iow ic »»/ « ,. looked at present Exhibition . This noble picture gains by being ^ 'J ^ iX ^ c ± The compartment in which the deserted court-fttvourito »^ J d ^ ° " " £ C ^ ° of his taSterod bed ( as if he ^ i ^^^ l & tlw ^^™ ^" of the most impressive pieces o ti ajedy u J " ^ ^ doaeribe ( 1 _ it ia to bo at for many a long year past . 1 Ina pelturo k of Art < Tho studied , as a masterly and tli »» ° ' K V Vho room where Buckingham has thought of placing the dead but terfly » tj ™« , ; 0 n £ or to | mvo Boon ox-SSir ^ ssriss sru wfi ; ^^ » b * *™ *** «*
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), May 19, 1855, page 19, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_19051855/page/19/
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