On this page
-
Text (3)
-
282 3? H E vL IE £A B E R. pfcn ai3, cSa...
-
,'BKITISH HISTORIANS. ., -,.-. :'The Inv...
-
A BATCH OF BOOKS. Crosst Purposes; or, t...
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.
-
-
Transcript
-
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.
The Londesbqrotjgh Collection. Miscellan...
' daggOT rsa serrated at the . edge that it would mangle the flesh as it entered ; ; orv ^ pqignavdsa small and fine that , ¦ Jbeotg pressed into the tody through a jpet & ratedplate , it wouldikuV butleavesonly an- invisible puncture .
282 3? H E Vl Ie £A B E R. Pfcn Ai3, Csa...
282 3 ? H E vL IE £ A B E R . pfcn ai 3 , cSato & imy ,
,'Bkitish Historians. ., -,.-. :'The Inv...
, 'BKITISH HISTORIANS . ., -,.-. : The Invar of the Btttish Historians . By Eugene Laurence , 2 vols . TNew rorb ^ .. Ihbke being no categorical work on the British historians , Mr . ' Lawrence has - uiidertakeii to compose their 4
English < yriters with a sceptical'eye . But he is unnecessarily generous ; our *' great ^ bistoriaiw , " we are told , have no rivals later than Tacitus . Gibbon rand ^ Hume are more -philosophical than Guiciardini , more profound than Voltaire , more learned than Schiller , more interesting than the " critical " ; Niebuhr— -whose criticisms on early Roman history , we must remind Mr . xLawrence , have beentriturated into impalpablelegendary . However , he who tp « rposes"toiexalt is likeh / tobe quite as accurate as he who writes to disparage , and we must be . . grateful for this , the only book devoted specially to sthe biographies of our historians . In this'nineteenth century , with LondontbridgeTnot yet in ^ delapidationj and no New ^ Zealatfd Marius sketching St . # * ai & v ) 3 , ; :- . . it 'is ; carious v-to ? remember that the first English history was entitled Wke ^ RmtisJqfJBidiam , In fliis work Gildas anirmed that the British nobility
fba & fallenrawajfrom- tbeir ancient virtues , trad that the clergy were no longer 5 V ^ hatcth « y rpnce were , but degenerate and immoral . This Jeremiad was iBOured'ibrthjby tne ^ M onk of Menai because he saw the Saxons shedding # loQd ^ an . d . pillaging the Native population . In the next century appeared if ^ ^ . eclesiastical History of Bede , ' arid after the Norman invasion the ^ Cbxomeles of > Croylind , 'by Ingulphus . l Mr . Lawrence , by a somewhat ' - ^ uenle ^ nalogy , deseribesvJeffrey of Monmoutb , as the Lady of the Monkish ipistorians . To him , tO ^ Mathew Paris , Fabian , Stow , Speed , and Baker , only -. paragraphs are devoted , and the plan- of the work admitted of no fourth detail , ^ ut it would hav e been ' as w ell to give some indication of the nature of the ^ histories" referred to . 'What , for example , does the reader learn from
3 fe : Lawrence concerning Sir ^ Richard Baker ? That he was " renowned , " ¦ learnedj and able , and wrote the Chronicles of England from the Roman conftijuest to the death ofJames the 'First . But how did he write it ? No account is given of the " Chrbnicles" which , with all their gross and credulous absurdities , are worth the student ' s attention . Some notice , also , was due to ^ enneth ' s collection . The sketches of the lives of Sir Walter Raleigh , iXJaindeBj and Clarendon , though incomplete and uncritical , are suggestive and mot uninforming . That on Burnethas obviously been compiled without ^ reference to the investigations tyhich have of late years thrown a new ¦ 'and clear light into the recessed departments of history , the personal character and acts of public men . AUthe allusions to Penn are strangely out of date .
fOf tie lives of Hume arid Gibbon the facts are well known . Mr . Law' rences sunmiaries are hardly needed in England . A more original sketch ; , which would have borne some amplification , is that on Catherine Macaulay , a very meritorious writer , very unjustly neglected . Horace Walpole fell into one of his characteristic impertinences when he placed her on a level with Robertson , and in advance of Hume . It was impertinent to imply that Hume was not superior to Robertson : but she was a woman of unusual talents , was a'dmired by Washington , and among her contemporaries gamed a distinguished reputation . The rector of Walbrobk , Br . Wilson , * Jatiiied her in effigy , by placing her statue in the chancel of his church . Xt * he < hasbeen forgotten , if her books are not to be found among reprints anarefetences , it is because 1 their political ¦ tendencies brought upon them the suppressing , power of theclergy , of " gentlemen" and of " ladies , " while tney were not sufficiently substantial br authentic to interest the liberal ' critics m restoring the freshness of 'Mrs . ' Macaulav ' s deciduous fame . Her
attack upon the Stuarts abounded in expletive exaggeration : her reply to ' Burke was hot , weak , and unequal . 'But she was , as Mr . Lawrence says , well -read ; laboriousj / and sincere , and her productions were not without a pertain , sort of power . At all events , writers of inferior importance have been less effectually-suppressed . ¦ i-In < his treatment of Mr . 'Fox , Mr . Lawrence is scarcely just . He says that ' 'hewds without any of the qualities necessary to an historian . But the History was a study , not a finished work ; it came rough from the writerhandsand
s , should b , e considered only as the summary of a'great design . In the same way Mr . Lawrence repeats a vulgarity when he describes MUton 3 prose style as unpolished , impure , and dissonant , without delicacy , -easfe , or grace . It is easy to see whence the idea has come . That meltingpot ^ cf prejudice , the mind of the General Reader , is familiar with certain < rutjiless . and temble quotations ¦ from Milton , and as G . R . seldorn or never road one of the prose works in extenso , the popular notion ia that the ^ autftor ot J ^ y & tdas coul d not write elegant prose . But ho could , and it wag rnoro than elegant- ^ it was rich and musical , full of dignified variations and
imposing n cures . But an . admirer of Lord ICames can hardly be expected to ^ appreciate the unpopular work s of Milton . 2 $ ¦• P ° % tive defect in -Mr . Lawrence ' s book , which aims at the utility of a ¦ SP ^ m * " * * ° lvel ] l " l £ nown " lives" nro written at length , while others , wnjcivtuaugh more obscure , might not bo less interesting , arc given with Watistactory succinctness . Thus , on Goldsmith , to whom one charming wography baa been dedicated by Forster , and another by Irving , we have an ES ? ? r * ?\ wel 1 as on Gibbon and Hume 5 but of old Mixcn Mr . •» JSS £ I ?* i ** ¦ llt i le to sa y ' ftTid of the curious Rapin still less . It may SSSS ^ JSffif ^ T { R ^ ' ^ "Sucdoc , among the " British sffiRrfn ^ W ? ^ aa been compiled without severity . If by " a nZrSonlvCL ^^ ?* ' ono wh ° fcw written British history , Rnpin ' a was not the only * ame to' be induced } if iftnean a British writer ot hiftory ,
Rapui . should have been excluded ; but , having given him a place , it should have been a fair place , and not * an ambiguous comer . The erudite chronicler was born at Castres , in Languedoc , in 1661 . -He studied first law , then military afiFairs ; he 'was a captain of dragoons , then a private , and lastly a recluse , devoting eighteen yearsto the composition of his eight Cyclopcean quartos . Mr . Lawrence says " he tlied of hard istudy , " adding : — He is said to have'been of a serious disposition , fond of music , and well skilled in many languages . He knew French , Italian , Latin , Greek , and Spanish , and had read much in the literature of every country . His mind was of a . speculative character , fond of reasoning and general inquiry . As an historian , he -was careful and laborious , pursuing his-great theme -with ardour , and omitting no researches that could serve to illustrate it .
The history begins with a clear exposition of the leading principles of the English constitution , of which Bapin seems to have been an ai'dent admirer . He then , describes the shape , size , and nature of the British Isle ; relates the fable of Brutus , the grandson of Eneas , and paints the early Britons , tall , well-formed , and savage , living in huts of turf , skins , or boughs , and hiding in the shades of impenetrable forests . It is impossible to read Rapin ' s clear and laborious narrative , without admiring the patience and ardour with whifchhehas studied the annals of a foreign country and became imbued with the spirit of its people and its institutions . A sincere *
lover of freedom and a reformer in religion , Bapin found here a congenial subject , and \ vrote with untiling interest of a people , who so perfectly represented bis own political and religious principles . His history , with , the exception of that o f Hume , is still the best account we have of England ; and , although Bapin was neither a philosopher nor a fine writer , he perfectly mastered his subject , and has given a clear and interesting account of England , under the Saxons , the Normans , and in later ages . Hume has borrowed liberally from him , particularly in Ms earlier volumes , and probably no-writer upon English , history will ever mate any progress without deriving considerable aid from Rapin .
Surely , old vRapin , ^ oldifer scholar , deserved ten pages of biography . Mr . Lawrence gives him three . But , other paTts of the book are on ab etter plan ., and the whole is light and readable *
A Batch Of Books. Crosst Purposes; Or, T...
A BATCH OF BOOKS . Crosst Purposes ; or , the Way of the World . By Margaret Casson . ( Ward and Lock . )—It is not long since an absurd and maundering novel with this very title , or the first half of it , came under our notice . We do not know which author was first in the field , nor is the question very important ; for the , points of resemblance are few , and those of divergence many , between Cross Purposes s or , the Way of the World , and Cross Purposes , or- —whatevermundane alternative may have constituted the secondary title of the story which we may speak of , retrospectively , as " the other . " Both novels , to be sure , fall within the same category- ^ the unreal ' and lifeless fiction of " real life . " In both we see and never lose sight of those stereotyped generalities under which bad novelists continually strive to hide their
ignorance of human motives , passion , character , and even the commonest customs of the society they attempt to depict . In both we see and never lose sight of that beautifully tine writing which endows a spade with nameless interest . In both novels happiness is indifferently mentioned as a " ray " and a < f cup ; * ' in the first case-it is apt to be " solitary , " and to " cheer a life of darkness and desolation ; " in the second case , it is always " quaffed to the dregs . " In both novels , again , we read about those " noble natures " whose nobility is assumed , and thenceforth taken for granted ; those " cold , proud beauties , " with the remarkable " brows , " which are generally of * ' chiselled marble , " and which always " bear an impress " either of birth or some mental or spiritual quality not otherwise manifest ; those people who talk vapidly in " trembling accents , " or in " low , deep undertones ; " and those other people who are first presented to us as tremendous fellows for * ' will , " and ' ? ' power , " and " energy , " , in short , for all that we usually express or understand by the phrase , " that sort of thing , " but who directly
lapse into very sketches of inanity , and drivelling , purposeless boredom . So far , there is mot a conventional pin to choose between the two novels . But we have reached the limit of the analogy ; and by way of indicating their vast difference in all respects beside , we need only observe tliat the story of Cross Purposes—this one—is unintentionally amusing ; whereas , the other Cross Purposes had some claim to be considered the dreariest nonsense that ever went forth in the guise of a three-volume novel . We may mention , bythe-bye , that the Cross Purposes now in hand appears in the more modern form of a single cheap volume . Sebastopol ; the Story of its Fall . By George R . Emerson . ( Routledge . )—In this book—one of the many cheap publications relating to the war—some attempt has been made to connect the scattered statements of the newspapers , from the declaration of war to the fall of Sebastopol . The whole narrative appears to have been re-written , with creditable care and a modest pretence of stylo j but tlie story is too evidently told in the heat of the national war-feeling to be worth much as an authority .
The Planter ' s Victim ; or , Incidents of American / Slavery . ( Trtibner . )—We speak of this book quite apart from its purpose ( which is the condemnation of the negro slave system ) when we say that it is one of the worst books that havo recently come to us from America . To criticise it in reference to the slavery question would be merely to establish one poor case in support of an admitted truth—that the most incapable advocates are generally found damaging the best cause . The Match Qirl ; or , L > ife Scenes as they are . ( Trilbnor . )—We havo no faith in such titles as this . They are too frequently a mere begging of the question . Writers who know no touch of their art make confession , in a tone of
boastful humility , that theirs is not the power to create or conceive ; but , say they , if we shall have only succeeded in presenting pictures of life as it is , then will our end bo accomplished , — If , truly ! Some little conception , some slight creative faculty is wanted , perhaps , for the poor work of depicting human nature . Not that the author of The Match Girl pretends to have written that touching story without the aid of genius . Although wo arc told that " the characters aro taken from real life , " and that , " no imaginary beings arc introduced to give effect , or to finish the picture /* wo are uIbo informed , in » n appended criticism of the kind which certain publishers nro in the habit of quoting from nowhere , that the book ia " written with a power ond directness
-
-
Citation
-
Leader (1850-1860), March 22, 1856, page 18, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_22031856/page/18/
-