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BOOKS RECEIVED THIS WEEK. The Writings q...
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HOPES ANJ> DREAMS. 1. Behold ! my hopes ...
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_„ A>p( HOPES AND DRIvAMS
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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.
Additionally, when viewing full transcripts, extracted text may not be in the same order as the original document.
Stan/Bra's Paris Guide, With Three Maps,...
Tegg ' s First Book of Geography for Children has the merit of great simplicity and cheapness . As it is intended as a Companion to Tegg ' s First and Second Boohs for Children , -we recommend parents and teachers to provide themselves with these elementary works , which they will find admirably contrived to interest and at the same time to impart information to very young minds . The Originofthe Scottish Language . ByJamesPaterson . ( Edinburgh : Nimmo . ) If the writer fail to convert those who hold opposite theories to the one lie advocates , lie ¦ will not fail to satisfy the general Scottish reader that lie has exerted much industry and research in getting together the materials for his clever little volume . The author has produced a very readable affair that will certainly be warmly appreciated on the other side of the Tweed .
English Grammar , by L . Direy and A .. Foggo ( Chapman and Hall ) , contains all tliat is valuable in lindley Murray , without Lindley Murray's obscurities and imperfections . The rules of grammar are not only laid down in simple language , tut they are explained , so as to be intelligible to the slowest intellect . The Christian Sabbath ; or , Rest in Jesus , by Kobert JTacnair ( Trubner and Co . ) , is out of our pale of criticism . The work , which is of pamphlet size , is written on the Sunday question , and its arguments are worthy of being studied by all who desire to come to an impartial decision on its merits .
The Privateer- ; a Tale of the Nineteenth Century . By Cecil Percival Stone , 77 th Regiment . ( J . F . Hope . )—This is a curious and a clever book , but sadly misnamed . "We shall find no perils by sea , no ocean fights , nothing , in fact , to bear out the promise . which tlie title holds out ; but , in exchange , we shall come upon a series of sketches , linked together , it is true , to form something : like coherence and connexion in the story , each of winch contains the material for a separate romance . We will not venture to give even an outline of the plot , but will copy from the table of contents a few of the heads of chapters , to show there is no want o-f variety to render the work pleasant reading ' — " The Household—The Kescue—The Schoolgirl —The Hunt—The Gipsy Queen —The Trance—The Murder—A Mother ' s Revenge-Love — Politics —The Squatter—The Slave—Kevenge —The Death of Guzrnar . "
The Little Philosopher ¦ ; or , the Science of Familiar Things . By Thomas Tate , F . R . A . S . Longman and Co . —An outline of Natural History , in which the facts are stated with a brevity and clearness that belongs only to the highly informed scientific mind . Such simplicity ia not that of ignorance but of knowledge . It is a manual which , young and old scholars in Nature's book may study with advantage . The woodcuts are characteristic and numerona .
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Books Received This Week. The Writings Q...
BOOKS RECEIVED THIS WEEK . The Writings qf William Paterson , with Biographical Notices of the Author . By S- Bannister , M . A . 2 vol 8 . 8 vo . Effingbam "Wilson . Every Man His Own Trumpeter . By George W . Thornbury . 3 vols . poBt 8 vo . Hurst and Blackett . Beatrice Cenci : An Historical Novel of the Sixteenth Century . By F . J > . Guerazzi . Translated by C , A . Scott . Post 8 vo- Bosworth and Harrison . Leaves from TA . heln . nd . By James Payn . Post 8 vo . Hamilton , Adams , and Co . Le The & tre Moral des Ecoles . Trote Comedies . ParC . A . De G . Liancourt . Post 8 vo . Newby . Constable ' s Educational Series—Household Economy 16 mo . Constable and Co .
Hopes Anj> Dreams. 1. Behold ! My Hopes ...
HOPES ANJ > DREAMS . 1 . Behold ! my hopes drift down the stream , Down to the silent Past , Sear'd by the bitter breath of Time , Time the Iconoclast . 2 . And nevermore shall those sweet hopes , Return to me , I -ween , As distant as two distant lands With all the sea between . 8 . Out on the bleak bare beach I stand , And watch the ghostly sight—Youth and its halcyon golden dreams Glide out into the night . 4 . Poor heart ! why feel the bitter blight ? Gold dreams are only air , But ah I how oft doth Wisdom teach The lesson of Despair . 5 . Farewell ! I walk Life ' s -weary way , Componionloss , but not alone ; Thy memory still shall follow me , And sing her aad sweet antiphono .
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_„ A≫P( Hopes And Drivams
A MURILLO ? Befojie the last hundred years comparatively little was known of Spanish pictures , . and still less of Spanish painters . The ' Catholic abjectness andex .-clusivcness of Spain tended to retard and prevent any spirit of research from developing the intellectual force which pervaded that kingdom during the sixteenth aud seventeenth centuries . So great was her retentiveness , that even Charles I ., the most tasteful collector that England has ever known , was unable to
name one Spanish picture in his catalogue ; and as we mean to prove the rule by an exception , Evelyn says that , at a sale of Lord Melford ' effects in 1693 , " Lord Godolnhin bought the picture of ' The Boys , ' by Murillo , the Spaniard , for eighty guineas , " remarking also , with a curt sneer , " deare enough . " And Cumberland ( an astute dealer ) , a century later , very much doubts the fact of any historical group or composition of his ( Murillo ) being in English hands . But the Napoleonic eagles—kites ratherwith bloody beak and talons , lore and rent aside this " blanket o * the dark . " Soult at Seville , and
Sebastiani at Grenada , with murderous enthusiasm and avaricious rapacity , rifled those cities , and grasped with vraerring violence all their finest samples of intellectual and material wealth . King Joseph , too , ere his flight , laid in a goodly store of Madrid ' s coveted pictures . Out of evil comcth forth good . By Napoleon ' s ambition , Spain became an , open book , where all who run may read . We know no-w that Spain ' s intellectual advancement rose with Ferdinand and Isabella ; culminated during the life of the fourth Philip ; declined during the evil days of Charles II ., and has remained at the nadir down to the present hour .
In the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries rose the three greatest luminaries that adorn Spain ' s sphere of art—Ribera , Velasquez , and Murillo—all three of whom may be generically described as eminent examples of the naturalistic , in contradistinction to the idealistic school . The second of these in status ( Velasquez being indisputably the first ) was Bartholome Est 6 ban Murillo , who was born in 1617 and died in 1682 . From his boyliood he was a painter , " arid upto the age of twenty-four gained his livelihood by painting anything ranging from melons to " Immaculate Conceptions" for the Wardour-strect merchants of Seville , -who sent them to Mexico aud South
America . Having . saved a little money , in 1642 he went to Madrid , and spent some time in copying the works of Ribera , Vaudyck , and Velasquez , and mastered their styles so thoroughly as to be able to imitate them so as almost to defy detection . Trom this period is dated his first manner , which tjic Spaniards called frio , cold ; in 1648 , he generated another , -which they called calido , warm ; and about 3656 , commenced his third , vaporaso , or vapory style , so called from the light and dark portions gliding one into the other , not light against dark , and vice versa . This lie continued to practise
to the last : fortunately so , for its elementary basis contains more truth and beauty . From the first period he never retrograded in artistic perception or power , but steadily and surely advanced . This truth , one of Ins last pictures , in the National Gallery ( No . 13—the Holy Family ) , proves beyond dispute ; and other pictures of his are to be found in that Gallery and the Duhvich which suffice to prove his changes of st y le and progression—besides very many others distributed throughout the land ; one thc"Rcturn of the Prodigal Son" ) iu Stafford House , especially to be rcmeinbcrcd for two circumstancesfirst , being one of his finest works ; and next , that that murderous scoundrel and
Plunder-mastergeneral Soult , got 11 , 000 / . for it . The- Spaniards ' favourite and most religious dogma was the miracle of the Immaculate Conception ; and so fond was the Sevillian painter of portraying this subject , that he was called , par excellency " The painter of the Conception . " Wo have three reasons for this exordium : because it gives a brief history of Murillo ; because it will give to our readers the sources whence wo have gained , and whence they may gain , the requisite necessary basis on which to form ajudgmenton that paintor ' s pictures ; and lastly , that it may induce them to go to Messrs . Williams and Norgatc , 14 , Henrietta-street , Covent-gardcu , and sec a picture . which , by a circular , ana somo of our contemporaries , is stated to be by Murillo . Let us state our conviction , at starting , that Messrs . Williams and Norgate are merely the
consignees , and have nothing to do with the extraordinary circular issued about the picture . The very first line in the circular is a mistake ; it begins , "The Assumption of the Virgin . " In the seventeenth century a bull of the Pope , Paul V ., expressly , settled the distinction tliat should exist between the two dogmas ; viz . that the Assumption of the Virgin should apply to the Virgin Mary , and the Conception to her mother , St . Ann ; and Pacheco expressly defined the symbols that were to indicate the Conception—namely , the lily , the palm and olive branches , and a mirror ; she was also to stand upon the crescent moon , all which si ns are hp . ™ .
We mention these circumstances because in our estimation it throws considerable doubt \ ipon the history of the picture , which states , " This picture originally formed part of the collection in the monastery of the Carmelites , who were stern up holders of the Conceptive Theory in Mexico , m the seventeenth century / ' and remained there until the beginning of 180 O , when Lord Gochrane and the Viceroy of Mexico induced them to part with it ; it was then taken to Vera Cruz and lodged there in a Carmelite monastery . In 1812 , Archbishop Don Antonio Joaquim Perez Martinez
obtained possession of it , —how is not stated . After his death , Don Francisco Pablo Vasquez , Archbishop of Mexico and Plenipotentiary of the Pope , purchased it . By him it was sold to Don Jose Lang , who sent it to his friend , Mr . J . Henry Dick , from whose hands it came to tlie present possessor . A . mongst all this startling circumstantiality they managed to lose the obvious title of the subject of . tlie picture ! The next two lines are an " assumption" indeed , for they say , " An original and important work by Murillo . * ' Here we join , issue at once , by a distinct , sincere , and forcible denial .
Let us be understood . We mean by " an original " picture 0 ° quote an example , No . 13 in the National Gallery ) , a work designed , begun , and finished by one . head and hand , all bearing an outward visible sign of the inward spiritual grace of none but Murillo . Now torn we to the Henrietta-street ; picture , and what find we here ? Unquestionably Murillo ' s design , not Murillo ' s drawing , not Murillo ' s colour , and , to our serious conviction , not one touch of the hand of the great Sevillian , but most clearly and distinctly
two heads and two hands ; it might , indeed , be three , or more , because the picture has been scrubbed down to the laying in , being originally a clever copy from a very fine picture . One does not know which , to be most shocked at , the rutlilessness of the savage scourer or the impudence of the impotent restorer . Two circumstances , we are sure , will make our readers smile : the first , the price asked for this effete production— " Four Thousand Pounds ! " -tlie other is the perusal of the following three letters by men notorious in art-lustory , and which are thus set forth :-
—Opinions of Professor Waagcn , Professor Magnus , and Mr . Otto Mvndler . ( Translation . ) Professor Waogen says : " The picture is decidedly a Murillo , and even one of the finest Murillos which I have seen ; and -whoever expresses a doubt upon this point can only intend to injure the possessor !" ¦ It is impossible that the Professor Waagen could have given utterance to such assertions as tlie above . Though he does sometimes speak a leelle ex cathedra , we have failed to discover in his works any such evidence of insolent arrogance as the few lines attributed to him express . Some wag of a Maria must have dropped this before some Malvolio dealer . The next is Professor Magnus , who says : —
This picture , like others in Spain painted by Murillo , is less imposing and effective than that in the Paris Museum , but according to my opinion it has not the less the stamp of originality , and is even in a better state of preservation . So far as my knowledge and experience Borve , I can assure you , without the . least interest , and according to truth , that I consider it a genuine picture of Murillo . As we know not who the Professor is , or what he has done , we can have no objection to his expressing his opinion as far as his knowledge an & experience mat / serve . Now last , though not least , comes a gentleman of whom we have had sonio experience . He says —but we will put it as printed in the circular : —
Mr . Otto Mundler ( formerly Export in the Louvre , at present attached to the National Gallery ) , anys : " I hereby certify of my own accord , and from thorough conviction , that the picture of Murillo , the « Assumption of the Virgin , surrounded by cherubs , ' is not only with
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), Aug. 21, 1858, page 21, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_21081858/page/21/
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