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932 J'HE LEADER. CSArrogAY-
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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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An American Critic. Mental Portraits; Or...
but the very liberal and the naturally kind , who confessedly form the exception , not the rule , in general society . Yet in actors , authors , and artists who possess great self-esteem , this error is the rock upon which the bark of hope invariably splits . " The effect of circumstance , as moulding mental tendencies into certain shapes , is ingeniously indicated in the following sketch of . PROVINCIAL LIFE IN ITALY . ,. " Provincial life in Italy can scarcely be realized by an American except through observation . However remote from cities , or sequestered in location , may be a town in this country , if not connected with the great world by railroad and telegraphthe newspaperthe political representative , and an identity of feeling and
, , action in some remote enterprise or interest , keep alive mutual sympathy and intelligence . But a moral and social as well as physical isolation belongs to tho minor towns of the Italian peninsula . The quaint old stone houses enclose beings whose existence is essentially monastic , whose knowledge is far behind the times , and whose feelings are rigidly confined within the limits of family and neighbourhood . A more complete picture of still life in the nineteenth century it is difficult to imagine , than many of these secluded towns present . The dilapidated air of the palaces , the sudden gloom of the narrow streets , as one turns into them from the square , where a group of idlers in tattered cloaks are ever engaged in a game
or a gossip , the electrical effe « t of a travelling-carriage , or a troop of soldiers invading the quiet scene , at once inform even the casual visitor of the distance he is at from the spirit of the age . With the decayed air of the private houses , their worn brick floors and primitive furniture , contrast impressively the extensive and beautiful view usually obtainable from the hig hest windows , and the architectural magnificence of the church . We are constantly reminded that modern amelioration has nob yet invaded the region ; while the petty objects to which even the better class are devoted , the importance attached to the most frivolous details of life , the confined views and microscopic jealousies , or dilettante tastes that prevail , assure us that liberal curiosity and enlarged sympathy find but little scope in these haunts of a nation devoid of civil life , and thrust upon the past for mental
nourishment . " It is , however , comparatively easy to imagine the influence of such an environment upon a superior intelligence . Recoiling from the attempt to find satisfaction in the external , thus repressed and deadened , the scholar would there naturally turn to written lore with a singular intensity of purpose ; the aspirant would find little to tempt him from long and sustained flights into the ideal world ; and the thinker would cling to abstract truth with an energy more fond and concentrated from the very absence of all motive and scope for action and utterance . It is thus that we account , in part , for the remarkable individuality and lonely careerof Giacomo Leopardi , one of the greatest scholars and men of genius modern Italy has produced . "
This essay on Leopardi , like all the others , is pleasantly written , but scarcely dips beneath the surface of the subject , and never once touches the great questions it involves . Indeed the whole volume is somewhat too purely of a literary cast for permanent effect . We have no space to touch on details , but there is one correction we will make room for ,, on account of its passing interest . At p . 141 Mr . Tuckerman , amid his rapture on Jenny Lind , reports that " Consuelo" is said to have been founded on her character and history . Unfortunately " Consuelo" was written before Jenny Lind was heard of ; moreover the artist who did furnish George Sand with that exquisite type was Viardot , one of George Sand ' s dear friends . And the reader who follows " Consuelo" with this clue , will soon detect the original suggestions of Corilla and Azoleto , in Grisi and Mario ; but we warn him that in all three instances , they are but suggestions , not portraits .
932 J'He Leader. Csarrogay-
932 J'HE LEADER . CSArrogAY-
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iii @ EE ffias I 8 W ¥ 1 ^ 1 $ * One of my Fair Readers recently expressed a wish that I should go into the country , because when in the country I am usually grave with sentiment , and slie likes me best when I am sentimental . It is pleasant to bo liked by such readers in siny mood , but not even that reward can induce tho mood ; and although I have been away , amid autumnal scenes , I have not been in the least sentimental . Languid , if you will , luxurious , and indolent , but not tender . I do not find that Sentiment will travel with a disaffected liver ; Theology is far more congenial to the bilious mind ; and hence it is that I , who have never opened a book of Theology ( don't quote the Fathers against me , —I resul them for their playfulness !) , have found myself vexing the most intricate problems with my doubts , and spending day after day in amicable polemics under tho yew trees .
Let me " sketch in" the compnny of combatants . There is , first , our portly and sonorous host , known all over his county as one of the buttresses of High Church ; beside , him sits that gay and dashing Irish officer , conqueror of hearts , carrying off Beauty from under , my very eyes ! Note him : for under the guv and careless exterior you will find a rigid and devout Catholic . Next to him sits a dishevelled philosopher , whonc talk is of " tissues , " and who worships in the cathedral of Immensity ( which I have
my private reasons for believing to be a magnificent description of the Nowhere !) . Itcaidc him there is a mild Baronet , wIiohc views are not very " pronounced , " but we may call him a damp Churchman . Finally , there is my own patristic self . Imag ine these various Churches and Credos thus variously represented , mul you may form some idea of the tone and urguments of our disputes ; or , let mo not call them disputes , but communings and conmiiiiglings of spirits .
Reflecting thereon ,, and observing how Religion appeals in various ways to various minds , so that one can say , without suspicion of sarcasm - This man has an historical Religion , that man an artistic Religion , a third a speculative Religion , a fourth a " respectable" Religion ( hoping , on account of" his connexions , " that he will be " visited" in the next world by the first circles of archangels ) , while a fifth has simply a practical Religion , unvexed by speculative doubts ; reflecting on this , I was tempted to ask , Is it not a necessary consequence of our various natures ? Reli gion is the solemn sanction each man gives to his Ideal , and thus the variation in Ideals necessarily issues in varied religious forms .
How vain to demand uniformity where natures are so multiform ! How vain to seek agreement in opinion , when minds are so diverse and errant Let us rather look for unity there only where it can be found—in feelings of reverence and love . Sitting under those trees , canopied by the everwondrous , ever-saddening sky , which stretched in mystic lengths away from us , we—men by nature different , by training antagonistic , but fashioned by common humanity for sympathetic union—did there daily illustrate the simple moral : for underlying all the delicate differences and wide discordances of opinion , there was but one feeling , rising up from the recognition
of the great Mystery— -a feeling of amity , linking together in kindliness the various threads of human diversity , and making each dear to each by reason of our common enjoyments , common infirmities , common aspirations . This man believed that God has planned each detail of the Eternal Life of which we note the passing moments ; this other believed that God fees the Life , —but , like children linking hands as they look out on the awful ocean sweeping in from distances inscrutable , both agreed in feeling the greatness inexpressible , and the mystery inaccessible , of that eternal Ljfe in whose presence they stood ' , and feeling this , the one man did not hate , did not vex , did not malign the other ! - And this was the moral I wrought out from under the noble Yew Trees . Vivian .
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& Wt Mm AKT » Bfll ^ N ] y ) P ^ e £ © yiBLBNl PALAQS . [ second article . ] Coleridge defined painting as the intermediate somewhat between a thought and a thing . The life of German art may not be judged by this imaginary rule . It is a comprehensive ideal , combining with its high gift of intellectual force a thorough material representation , worked out in its minutest portions with a conscientious integrity , which is not found in even the most careful productions of other schools . It is impossible to forget one of their good paintings . Life and imagination have been made such firm allies in the schools of Belgium and Prussia , that the
ideal gains by admixture with the real . The imbecile beauty that Carlo Dolci painted appears a style from which the refined sturdiness and strength of their minds , and commanding mastery attained over noble forms and grand heads , will ever keep aloof . There are spurious artists whoso imaginations are as dim and misty as the legend of tho Black Forest , and they paint works replete with horrors dark as the Blocksburg . These their committees of selection excluded from the coveted honour ot receiving a place in the galleries of art in the Industrial Palace , but the precaution has not availed . Kesolved to prove their existence and unworthy rejection , they have taken refuge in tho Berlin department , ana
the Hibernian Academy Exhibition . Not tolling a story—the great faculty of English pain ters—but describing a scene , is tho peculiarity of German art . It gives poworm delineations of lofty things , but is altogether deficient in the happy incidents and momentary illustrations , the sympathy with evanescent vane beauty , whorein much of the perfection of our own school lies : Jj ,, i *[' not the possible occurrence of tho instant , is tho chief aim . Millais acia a charm to tho " Proscribed lloyalist" by making a butterfly aiigut on the gnarled tree . Tho German remorselessly puts such trivial u ( 1 ™ menta aside detracting from tho intellectual influence of his won ineutM ntu Jim ubiuuiii ironi uiu xiiLeuooLUUi uiuuuui / ^»
, aa uu , u . < . ig ^ — _ , ho would despise the common place aid of fancy . Ho liolds in his iw ^ tho aerial atmosphere , vanishing light and shade , and gleams of co 01 _^ and ho can dispense with quick sympathy . Perhaps , too , his " . ^ " slow , his organization imperfect in catching at p icturesque prcttm His accessories belong to " teacup times , " and tho kitchen litensm m bo left to Holland and her " Interiors . " They rarely make w *™* w cither in tho choice of subjects , or their treatment ; no occaflioiia ^ with British artists , who produce historical compositions with a i k
plexing multitude of figures , generally accompanied by a jvj ^^ which inclustriouB people may enlighten themselves—ari d no ^ diligence 1 mb M ; h reward — the while , perhaps , i ndolen co \ ^ ill together discontented with ignorance , and probably dai'ea io ^ n 0 YfJl picture is not to be studied with u dictionary like an ui tongue >} ns Yet tho sublime religious element ho universal in their c J | P g ( . ] g an < i proves that art knowledge is more sedulously cultivated in J > vub ^ Berlin , than London and Paris ; were it otherwise these I ? ftiur ' ^ trfldinofc depend so confidently on U , n impressivoneHS . Symbolism » ox j , ibition are a dead thing with tho ordinary throng of visitors to our i ^ - | 3 jtisH tions , primary as their position in in sacred representations , i cwtlxm 0 . artists too frequently overlook the essential of convert lion a vre tty Under the title of a " Holy Family , " an English artist has e « j « J ? yj ^ jfog idiotic nursery miiid in pink wrapper and Scotch plaid Jcercmo ,
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Leader (1850-1860), Sept. 24, 1853, page 20, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_24091853/page/20/
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