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November 25, 1854.] THE LEADER. 1121
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MRS. JAMESON ON THINGS ZN GENERAL. A Com...
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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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Three Deaths Out Of Tho Military World H...
circle . Par wider and deeper is the sensation produced by the death of Professor Edwabd Forbes , a prince among the naturalists of Europe . Bom in 1815 , in the Isle of Man , of Scottish , parentage , Edwabb Forbes had a passion for natural science from his boyhood , the origin of which he could not himself trace to any stimulus from others . Before he was seven years of age he had collected a little museum of his own ; and "before Ms twelfth year lie had read largely in books of natural science , and had compiled for himself a manual of British natural history in all its departments . At sixteen he came to London , where , besides prosecuting his favourite studies , he acquired a skill in drawing so extraordinary , that oftea in later life , as he sketched illustrations of his lectures , " the interest of his
explanations was all but lost in the admiration of the beautifully graceful forma which seemed to arise , as if by magic , from heneath his long and delicate fingers . " Devoting himself to the medical profession , as that which promised most to favour his natural bent , he went to Edinburgh , where he studied under the veteran naturalist Jameson , and other professors . In the vacations he began to contribute to scientific journals , and one he devoted to a tour in Norway . It was about this time that he began his researches into the foims of submarine life—a department in-which he won , perhaps , his greatest triumphs . In 1837 he went to Paris , where he studied zoology under De Bxainviijjb and Geoffbot St . Hixaire . After a continental tour as far as the coasts of the Mediterranean , he returned to Edinburgh ,
where he delivered two courses of lectures , one popular and one scientific , on Zoology and Comparative Anatomy , and published a work on British star-fishes , still a standard work on that subject . He was then induced to go out , with a nominal appointment as naturalist , in a surveying expedition to the Greek Archipelago and the coasts of Asia Minor—the expedition to which we are indebtedfor the discovery of the sites of various ancient Greek cities in Asia Minor , and for thepossession of the Xanthian marbles . During his absence he was appointed Professor of Botany in King ' s College , London —in which post , and subsequently , as Professor in the Government School
of Mines , and as Curator , and afterwards President , of the Geological Society , he became one of the most distinguished men in the scientific world of the metropolis . A few months ago he attained the object of his highest ambition , by being nominated to succeed his old teacher , Professor Jameson , in the chair of Natural History in Edinburgh . He had just entered on his duties with characteristic ardour , and was full of plans for the promotion of natural science in Scotland , when a cold , aggravating a chronic illness that had affected him since his voyage to the East , cut him off in his fortieth year . Rarely has such a loss been sustained in the death of one man . His
contributions to natural science are of amazing extent , and are distinguished by extraordinary power of philosophical generalization , and , by a sprightly lightness and vividness of manner peculiarly his own . He was a man of overflowing geniality , and those who knew him remember brilliant evenings of scientific and literary reunion , where he was the life and soul of the company . In person he was tall and slender , with a peculiarly shaped face and head , well represented in his bust in the Crystal Palace .
November 25, 1854.] The Leader. 1121
November 25 , 1854 . ] THE LEADER . 1121
Mrs. Jameson On Things Zn General. A Com...
MRS . JAMESON ON THINGS ZN GENERAL . A Commonplace Book of Thottghts , Memories , and Fancies , Original and Selected . By Mrs . Jameson . Longmans . Tiru cont « nts of this very elegant volume are of the most varied kind . They comprise thoughts by Mrs . Jameson , and by Mrs . Jameson ' s friends , on all sorts of moral and literary subjects— -revelations of Mrs . Jameson ' s childhood—a translated apologue by Mrs . Jameson—Poetical Fragments , Theological Fragments , Notes from { Sermons , Notes from Books , Notes on Art , and Suggestions of New Subjects for Modem Sculptors , —all by Mrs . Jameson . Here is variety enough for the most desultory taste—here is a book which people may read with some sort of advantage for three minutes , or for throe hours together , just as they please , or just as they can . Before , however , we attempt to ofl ' or anything like a critical opinion on the volume ,
it is only fair to the writer to make known the circumstances under which the present publication is given to the reading world . Mrs . Jameson has been accuBtomcd , like most authors and authoresses , to keep a commonplace-book , for chance thoughts and extracts from the works of others . The collection thus made , has , in her case , proved to be the original storehouse of material from which she has produced most of her books—especially her books on Shakspeare ' s Women . , and on Sacred and Legendary Art . These and other of her works not having altogether exhausted her literary treasury of memoranda , she has collected her remaining fragments of material , and has published them disconnectedly in the volume now under notice . Her reasons for taking this course sho shall give in her own words- She says of her book , " It may , like conversation with a friend , open up sources of sympathy and reflection ; oxcito to argument , agreement , or disagreement ;
and , like every spontaneous utterance of thought out of an earnost mind , suggest far higher and better thoughts than any to be found hero , to higher and mor « productive minds . " Wo have no desire to judge too nicely of a work which ia introduced to the reader in these terms . Speaking of the volume generally , we may describe it as liaving impressed us with a conviction that Mra . Jameson haul taken tho b <; st thoughts out of her commonplace-book before she printed it . As tho public has , however , already enjoyed these abstracted good thingB in th « writer ' s former works , wo make no complaint ; but take what roinniniug fragments we can got , and are thankful for them . Tho moat valuable parts of tho book , in our estimation , aro those which contain the datnehud thoughts , and those which give hints to that inveterate conventionalist , the modern sculptor , about the choice of
very badl y indeed in the effort . —But we will not dwell on our difference of opinion with Mrs . Jameson on the vexed and unprofitable subject of what makes merit in a sermon , and what dees not . " We would infinitely rather quote some of her own Detached Thoughts—telling her candidly -where we doubt her , and where we admire her . We fear she will not ' take it as a compliment from us , after what we have just said about Father Taylor , if we assure her , with perfect frankness and sincerity , that we greatly prefer the least valuable of her own Thoughts , to the finest passages that she has quoted from her friends' sermons . Here is a good idea , very happily expressed , on the
^^^^^^^^^^^^•¦^^¦¦¦^¦^^¦^^ H ^^^^ B ^^ H ^^^ V ^^ M ^ B ^^^ M ^^^ B ^ W ^^^^^^ B ^^ V ^ W ^^ V ^^ V ^ H ^^ H ^^ H ^^ PI ^^ VH ^^ BflHBffi ^ HMMH ^^^ BBS ^^^^ B ^^^^^^^^^^^^ ta ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ E new subjects . The notes from other writers are very tastefully and feelingly made , but are not the most striking portions of the volume by any means ; and , as for the extracts from , sermons , it may be that we have looked at them too exclusively with the eye of Common Sense , but it struck us that they were , in plain words , neither worth remembering , nor worth printing . " Father Taylor of Boston , ' ' whom Mrs . Jameson especially yenerates , and of whose pulpit oratory she gives specimens , appears , in our irreverent eyes , as a species of sacred mountebank , who is always attempt * ing to turn the " torch of truth" into a firework , and always succeedinff
REASONABLENESS OP TOLERATION . All my experience of the world teaches me , that in ninety-nine cases out of a hundred , the safe side and the just side of a question is the generous side and the merciful side . This your mere worldly people do not seem to know , and therein , make the sorriest and the vulgarest of all mistakes . * * How often in this -world the actions that we condemn are the result of sentiments that we love and opinions that we admire ! In the above extract we have left out one weak sentence beginning with & French phrase , which damaged the effect of the passage . Our next quotation shall be entire . A subtle distinction is very delicately discerned , and very neatly put in these few words about
THE HIGHEST P 0 K 1 TT . Blessed is the memory of those who have kept themselves unspotted from the . world!—yet more blessed and more dear the memory of those who have kept themselves unspotted in the world ! Sometimes Mrs . Jameson puzzles us by axioms which certainly do not carry the appearance of wisdom and truth on the face of them . Surely she is wrong in this notion on the subject of
WRITING FOB POSTERITY . Those-writers who never go further into a subject than is compatible with making what they say indisputably clear to man , woman , and child , may be the lights of this age , but they will not be the lights of another . Why not ? Is not the author who can best make himself understood , the author who is most liked by men , women , and children , in all ages—of course , provided he has got something to say 1 Are we not better pleased with our reading at all times in proportion as we are better able to understand what we read ? Let us take an example from two writers now on their trial before a new generation- Sydney Smith wrote essays , and . Coleridge wrote essays . Sydney Smith made himself indisputably easy to understand , by following the plan which Mrs . Jameson disapproves , and Coleridge made himself indisputably hard to understand , by following the plan which Mrs . Jameson admires . Which is the living essayist now in the eyes of tie new generation ? Sydney Smith , because he was easy to understand , had his readers by thousands , and keeps his readers by thousands : Coleridge had his readers by hundreds , and keeps his readers by hundreds .
Though we consider Mrs . Jameson to be mistaken on this point , and on some others , even her least happy ideas are worthy of attention . We cannot say the same , however , of tue ideas of some of her friends , whose talk she quotes . We do not , for example , enyy her the acquaintance of a certain lady f " O . G . " ) who holds forth in this way on
A GOOD MAN "WITH A BAD FACE , Of an amiable man with a disagreeable expressionless face , she said : " His countenance always gives mo the idea of matter too strong , too hard for the soul to pierce through . It is as a plaster mask which I long to break ( jnaJdng the gesture with her hana" ) , that I may see the countenance of Ms heart , for that must be beautiful I " " O . G . " is still more rampant on the subject
of—BALZAC . While we were discussing Balzac ' s celebrity as a romance-writer , she said , toit / i a shudder : " His laurels are steeped in tho tears of women , —every truth he tells has been wrung in tortures from some woman ' s heart . " A pleasant way this of accounting for Balzac ' s celebrity ! Who is " O . Q . ? " In the absence of any information on this point , aud with great respect and terror , we figure to ourselves an osseous priestess officiating on a . Transcendental Tripod—and we say tremulously , " That must be ' O . G . ' " Let us , however , do justice to Mrs . Jameson ' s friends in general , by quoting from one of them who is well worth hearing . Hero is an admirable saying about
ROMANIST CONVERTS . A observed in reference to some of her friends who had gone over to tho Roman Catholic Church , " that the peace and comfort which they had sought and found in that mode of faith was like the drugged sleep in comparison -with tho natural sleep ; necessary , healing perhaps , where thuru in disease and unrest , not otherwise . " On another occasion "A ¦ " shows that she possesses tho best kindof " woman ' s wit . " Hearing a quotation from Mrs . Jameson , sho makes this HKADX ANSWJ 3 U . I quoted to A ¦ the saying of a sceptical philosopher : " Tho world is but one enormous will , constantly rushing into life . " — " la that , " sho responded quicMy , u another now name for God V " But wo must get back to Mrs . Jameson herself before wo close hor volume . This is truthfully and finely spoken : —
THB MKATJl Or I-OVIO . In tho same moment that we begin to speculate ou tho possibility of cessation or change in any strong affection that wo fool , even from that moment wo may dato its douth : —it haa becomo tixo Jetoh of tho living lovo . Wo must conclude with a translation of an exquisite proso-poem ; originally written in Persian , aud founded on one of tho traditions of Cwtusx which are preserved in tho East : —
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), Nov. 25, 1854, page 17, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_25111854/page/17/
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