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November 24, 1855.] THE LEADER. 1133
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CritdCB arc not the legislators, but tli...
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It was an excellent conception which gav...
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The criticism of foreigners is always va...
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LONGFELLOW'S NEW POEM. The Song of Hiawa...
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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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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November 24, 1855.] The Leader. 1133
November 24 , 1855 . ] THE LEADER . 1133
^ Ttbrflttir^»
Itternttttt .
Critdcb Arc Not The Legislators, But Tli...
CritdCB arc not the legislators , but tlie judges and police of literature . They-do not unu make laws—they interpret and £ ry to enforce them . — Edinburgh Review .
It Was An Excellent Conception Which Gav...
It was an excellent conception which gave birth to the Oxford Essays , published last year , and to the Cambridge Essays , published the other day . The annual issue of a collection of Essays having unity of tone and culture , with independence and variety of opinion , was certain to interest tlie University class , and many readers of the larger circle . We think , however , that the plan would have gained in purpose , even if it lost something in variety , had only resident members been selected as contributors . Upon the present principle , although each contributor is an University man , one sees
not why other University men were not called upon to honour Alma Mater , by showing of what " stuff" her sons are made . Cambridge Essays ought to mean Essays produced at Cambridge . Otherwise , the Essays of Macaulay , or Thackeray , or Helps , or Bulwer , being the productions of Cambridge men , may equally claim that title . Had resident members been the sole contributors , we should have had some gauge of the University , and its point of view ; but , in the present scheme , we are at a loss to decide whether it is the University point of view or that of the general
world in which the writers move . Apart from this , perhaps hypercritical , objection , we have only applause to give the undertaking . The volume is one of solid excellence , like the cream of the year ' s Reviews , with the politics omitted . The contents are various , the subjects well chosen , the execution always scholarly , sometimes very remarkable . The opening article is on the Life and Genius ofMoliere , written by Christopher Knight Watson , a descendant , we understand , of Bishop Watson , whose Chemical Essays , Apology for Christianity , and Autobiography , are doubtless known to the reader . This Essay is really a valuable contribution to Literature , and will be best appreciated by those
who have given any labour to the difficult task of ascertaining what were the facts of Mo here ' s life , amid the confusions and contradictions of biographers . Having ourselves twice made that attempt , we can with some confidence point to this Essay as the best account of Moliere ' s life which has yet been written . The criticism , besides labouring under the disadvantage of not being written by a dramatist , or one who is keenly alive to the peculiarities of dramatic literature as distinguished from all other forms , is more in the style of moral dissertation , than of critical discrimination : the peculiarities of Mo lie re , as wit , as humorist , as stylist , and as poet , are supposed to be understood . Let Mr . Watson , on some future occasion , give us an Essay on Moliere ' s genius , in which that marvellous intellect may be characterised in detail , and he will find welcome from all readers .
The second article is by Mr . Bristed , and is on the English Language t » America ; full of curious detail , but coming to no more serious conclusion than that America speaks , and will continue to speak English . Mr . Galton's article , Notes on Modern Geography , and Mr . Buxton ' s Limitations to Severity in War , we have not read . Mr . G . D . Liveing has a good subject in the Transmutation of Matter , which he treats in a style , colourless , indeed , but grave and dignified , with ample knowledge . Instead of believing , with some sanguine chemists , in the possibility of one metal being transformed into another , and the still more seductive hypothesis of all the elements being ultimately reduced to one , Mr . Liveing regards both as mere modifications of the old chimsera , which seduced men to search for
the Philosopher's Stone- The Relation of Novels to Life was a felicitous idea ; but Mr . Fitzjambs Stephen has written little more than notes towards such an essay—good notes too , for the most part , but leaving no permanent impression . The Future Prosp ects of the British Navy , by Mr . R . II . Hughes , we leave to nautical authorities ; but Mr . George Brimley ' s masterly commentary on Tennyson will , after all that has been written on that subject these fifteen years , be as welcome and as suggestive as if no one had ever preceded him . We confess that the mere sight of an essay on Tennyson , extending over some fifty pages , raised anything but pleasurable expectations in our minds , in spite of Mr . Brim ley ' s university reputation ; and , if any reader feels the same misgiving , let him at once exchange it for eagerness , and begin this essay with the determination h
to read every word . It is a commentary , not a criticism , althougvery fine criticism is inwoven with the commentary . Each group of poems is taken up in turn , and the sceptics arc shown what it is which the admirers find in the poet to justify their deep admiration . In this commentary there are , of course , many points on which the reader will differ from the commentator , nor can it be otherwise in the exposition of individual sentiments and taste ; hut in no page will he find idle writing , insincere rhetoric , or the attempt to be ' ? original , " which makes ordinary criticism so capricious and so futile . The last article is by W . G . Clark , whose bright intellect and varied culture have no subject worthy of them in the defence of classical studies , which he treats effectively enough in his criticism of opponents , but not with any novelty in his defence of the university system . On this point , however , the opinions of the Leader have been repeatedly expressed . „
The Criticism Of Foreigners Is Always Va...
The criticism of foreigners is always valued . Their recognition is a complimcnt , and the natural difference of their standing-point makes their praise
seem doubly laudatory . Recognition in Germany or France is something like that of a contemporaneous posterity — distance in space : being the equivalent of distance in time . The foreigner may err , no doubt ; but it is difficult to persuade the admired author of his critic ' s fallibility . At any rate the compliment is always gratefully accepted , and we are sure WiutiK Collins will feel that his generous but discerning critic in La Revue des Deux Mondesis an admirable critic and a remarkable writer , which indeed be is , as all who know the articles signed E . D . Forcues will at once admit . M . Forgues analyzes the three novels , Antonina , Basil , Hide and Seek , giving the preference to Basil , and , while dwelling with evident sympathy on their merits , touches lightly yet firmly the faults he espies . Madame De Sevigne , after dancing with the King , exclaimed to all who would hear her , " C ' est le plus grand rot du monde I" "Wilkik Collins will be ungrateful if he says less of Emile Forgues .
In the same number of the Revue , M . Ernest Renan introduce Ewald ' s History of the People of Israel to [ the French readers , in an article at once weighty and brilliant . Too many writers on grave subjects confound dulness with gravity ; but , as Chesterfield happily says , " weight without lustre is lead . "
Longfellow's New Poem. The Song Of Hiawa...
LONGFELLOW'S NEW POEM . The Song of Hiawatha . By Henry Wadsworth . Longfellow . ' Bogue . Since Goethe wrote his Hermann and Dorothea there has been no poem so thoroughly Homeric and so perfectly ori g inal as this Song of Hiawatha ; and by Homeric we do not mean " imitative of Homer , " anymore than by original we mean " new , unheard-of , unlike all other poems . " Mr . Longfellow does for the Indian myths and Indian life what Homer did for the old Hellenic myths and life . The clear objective delineation , the breezy outof-doorness , the picture of what is elemental in nature and humanity , untroubled by introspective reflection , undisturbed by the somewhat morbidly sensitive egoism of the subjective poets—in a word , the complete suppression of the singer ' s individuality , and the entire devotion of the singer to bis son ° " , make this poem Homeric , in the true sense of the word , although no vestige of imitation can be detected . It has Homer ' s picturesqueness , his garrulous repetition and wondrous brief painting ; it has his absence of reflectiveness , and his daring freedom in painting the things as they are , without any regard to " dignity . " There is also a playful humour lighting up some parts of it ; not loud 3 not tending to caricature , and still less aiming at wit : the simple laugh of a simple nature , such as befits the simplicity of the whole . The pathos is equally simple . . „ .-, » , .. The originality of the poem , and its marvellous art , will be felt by all readers . It is a new world opened to us . We live as in fairy-land , where all is strange , yet all is congruous . The prairie , the interminable forests , and the great lakes , are ever before us ; not once are we recalled to drawingrooms of the nineteenth century . We hear the winds singing among the fir-cones , the canoe grating on the beach , the wild goose screaming in the air , the squirrels chattering on the branches ; we are living among Indian warriors , magicians , and talking-beasts , and never , for one instant , does the flagging fancy droop to earth , never once " the fever and the stir unprofitable " of our smoky cities , our Crimean perplexities , or our increased taxation , come to remind us of reality . * ,, * i-No approximate idea will be formed of this Indian Edda from extracts ; but we must give some to render our remarks intelligible . The first shall be from Hiawatha ' s fishing : — Forth , upon tlie Gitcne Gumee , On the shining Big-Sea-Water , With his fiBhing-line of cedar , Of the twisted bark of cedar , Forth to catch , the sturgeon Nahma , Mishne Nahma , King of Fishes , In his birch-canoe exulting All alone went Hiawatha . Through tlie clear , transparent water He could see the fishes swimming ; Far down in the depths below him ; See the yellow percb , the Sahwa , Like a sunbeam in the water ; See the Shawgashee , the crawfish , Like a spidor on the bottom , On the white and sandy bottom . At the atom sat Hiawatha , With his fishing-line of cedar ; In his plumes the breeze of morning Played as in the hemlock branches ; On the bows with tail erected , Sat tho squirrel , Adjidaumo ; In his fur the breeze of morning Played as in tho prairie grasses . On the "white sand of the bottom Lay tho monefcer Mishne-Nahma , Lay tho sturgeon , King of Fwhee ; Through his gills he breathed the water , With his fina he fanned and winnowed . With his tail he swept tho wind-floor . There he lay in all his armour ; On each Bido a shield to guard him , Plates of bone upon his forehead , Down his sidoa and back and shoulder * Plates of bono with spine projecting ' Painted was lie with his war-paints , Stripes of yellow , red , and azure , Spots of brown and spots of naDje , And ho lay there on the bottom , Fanning with his fins of purple , Ho tho terror of tho fishes , Tho doatroyor of the salmon , Tho devourcr of tho herring ; .
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), Nov. 24, 1855, page 17, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_24111855/page/17/
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