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I jpt ' ¦ ¦ - . . - ' ; ' ¦ : ¦ ¦ ' ¦ .....
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A JSEW PQEM. Within and Without. A Drama...
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BOOKS OX OUR TABLE. Correspondence of Jo...
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. . , . • - **f r f?l t* > fcf AlbijE ^clUS*
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• THE FRENCH EXHIBITION. The best of the...
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.
Additionally, when viewing full transcripts, extracted text may not be in the same order as the original document.
Miablbjfage To El-Medinah And Mbccah. ^S...
Ijfcgea portion of the ^ arth , he thus notices the different streams of emigra tion that flowed from that'" nursery of the human race : " - — - It must be r « m « nit ) Ored that tho theatre of all earliest civilisation has been * fertile vgtfey with' navigable : stream , like Siadh , Egypt , and Mesopotamia . The existence oCstecb espotia-Arabia would have altered every page of her history ; she would then b « vb become «> centra ; not a source of civilisation . As it'is , her Immense population _* 8 ^ ill thick , : even in the deserts—has * from the earliest ages , been impelled by drought , famine , or dosire of conquest , to emigrate into happier regions . All history mentions twOxinain streams which took their rise in the wilds of the great peninsula : —the first s « t-to tlie north-east , through Persia , Itfekran , Beloochistan , Sindh , the
Afghan Mountains as far as Siraaarcand , Bokhara , and Tibet ; the other , flowing towards the north-west , passed through Egypt-and Barbary into Etraria , Spain , the Isles of the Mediterranean , and southern France . There are two minor imtnigrations chronicled in History , and written in the indelible characters of physiognomy and philology . One of these set in an exiguous but perennial stream towards India , especially Malabar , where , mixing-with the people of the country , the Arab merchants became the progenitors of the Moplau race . The other was a partial immigration , also for commercial purposes , to the coast of Berbera , in Eastern Africa , where , mixing with the GaLLi tribes , the people of Hazramuut became the sires of the extensive Somali Jiationfl . Thus we have from Arabia four different lines of immigration , te & ding . N . E . and S . E ., N . W . and S . W .
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A Jsew Pqem. Within And Without. A Drama...
A JSEW PQEM . Within and Without . A Dramatic Poem . By George Macdonald . Longmans In one of Byron ' s letters there is a curiously prophetic passage on the future of English poetry . Speaking of the rising generation of poets , he expresses a conviction that his own success and the success of his illustriuus contemporaries will mislead the men who have yet reputations to make . He owns to dreading , the effect of such daring originality as his and Shelley's on the young poets— prophesies the advent of new writers , who will def ^ all rales ,-without however possessing any genuine superiority to established verse-precedents—and declares that the next really great poetical reputation which will be made after his time will be achieved by a man who holds fast to intelligibility and reality , who despises eccentricities of language and metre , and who is willing to learn all that part of his art which can be usefully and creditably acquired from others , at the feet of Dryden and Pope . U is certainly remarkable , thus far , to observe bow correctly Byron could estimate beforehand the probable errors of his successors . We have in " ¦ ocuooi wnai wriaaiv—Buuvuuwui */»»
tile present opasmoaic uc u *•«> « v o direction . Our present race of poets ( genuine poets many of them as to natural capability ) seem to be getting farther and farther away from symmetry , intelligibility . tnd repose ; and the consequence is , that in these specially reading days a popular poetical reputation still remains to be made . Even in the case of Mr . Tennyson , do we hear now of fourteen thousand copies of a poem being sold in a day , as in the case of the Corsair ? Do we hear o € that , though the reading public has increased tenfold since Byron ' s time ? Has any living writer of poetry £ ot that hold of the public which Mr . Dickens has got afi a writer of fiction , or Mr . Macaulay as a writer of histbi ' y ? We know tbat it is not so . And , as it seems to us , the reason is not ftr to seek . While the tendency of our prose literature is towards healthy realitv , the tendency of our poetical literature is towards sickly ideabsm . For our parts , we firmly believe that the whole of what Byron has foretold will Vet como to pass , and that the next great poet ' s reputation in England will be made by a man who , with perfect originality of subject and thought , will school himself to emulate the uncompromising directness of Dryden , and
the elegant completeness of l ' ope . These remarks have been suggested' to us by the poem at the head ot tlie present notice—a poem written by a man who possesses , as it seems to us , a vocation for his art , but who , at present , shuts himself out from public re-<* Jfrnition behind the extravagancies ^ eccentricities , and obscurities ot the new school . The metaphysical purpose of the work is sutlieiently suggested by ita title—the execution of that purpose will appear to nine readers out ot ten simply ludicrous . There are scenes , expressions , and stage-directions , scattered all about the book , which if road aloud to any general audience would provoke roars of laughter . And yet , beneath all tins absurdity there runs a current of genuine poetical tooling . Here and there exquisite thoughts , exquisitely expressed , flash brightly through the dense bathos ot the general writing . We will say nothing of the story of the poem because to ridicule the poetami
we could not possibly refer to it without seeming — our object now is to make all due allowances for the first eccentricities and errors of a man of ability . Let it be enough then if we particularise as the besf part of the poem the scenes in which a futhcr , believing himself to be deserted by a faithless wife , is lea alone in poverty , in a London lodging , with his child-daughter . The efforts made by tlie lonely parent to keep the shame of his sorrow secret from his child , and the manner m which the innocent child constantly wounds him by unconscious'references to it , arc expressed with wonderful delicacy , passion , and foelmg lor dramatics i-ttoct Of the painful kind . We have no space to quote those scenes at suflieu . nt length to do thorn justice ; but we will give instead a specimen ot one ot the many lyrical pieces « catleml through the volume . It is , the readei must remember , only a child ' s song , supposed to be sung by the lather to lull In * little lonely wakeful daughter " Lily" to sleep . HON « i . Little wliito l . Lly tfat by « Montr , I hooping anil -waiting Till tin : sun rtinmo . Littlo white Lily . Sunshine has f *< l ; Uttl <> \ Vh \ to Lily I . m lifting hor hoad . Little white Lily Said , "It is good : LHtlo wKHolniyV Clothing ami f «>*>« -l !
Little white lily Drest like a bride ! Shining with whiteness , And crowned beside !** tittle white lily Droopeth in pain , Waiting and waiting For the wet Tain . » Little white Lily Holdeth her cup ; Sain is fast falling , And filling it up . Iattle white Lily Said , " Good again , When I am thirsty To have nice rain ! Now X am stronger , Now I am cool ; Heat cannot burn me , My veins are so full !" Little white Lily Smells very sweet : On her head sunshine , Rain at her feet . " Thanks to the sunshine ! Thanks to the rain . ! Little white Lily Ie happy again , !" There is surely a quaint simplicity and melody in these verses beyond the reach of an ordinary man . If Mr . Macdonald is young—if he will learn his Art from the best models instead of the worst—and if he will remember that all the quoted and remembered poetry in this world is essentially intelligible poetry with a strong foundation of common sense as well as of feeling at the bottom of it , we believe * that he may one of these days appeal successfully to a wide audience . At present , he has only produced a poem which will make one class of readers laugh and another class feel weary—a poem which it is easier to ridicule than to appreciate—and yet , for all that , a poem which , under the conditions that we have specified , gives us hope of the man who has written it .
Books Ox Our Table. Correspondence Of Jo...
BOOKS OX OUR TABLE . Correspondence of Johu Howard , the Philanthropist , not before published . With a Brief Memoir and Illustrative Anecdotes . By the Bev . J . Field , 1 T . ALongman , Brown , Green , and Longmans . ' Uhe Dead Sea , a Neto Route to India : with other Fragments and Gleanings in tie East By Captain William Allen , K . X ., F . B . S ., & c . ( 2 rols . ) Longman , Brown , Green , and Longmans . A Historical and Critical Commentary an . the Old Testament . With a neir Translation . By M . Kaiireh r Ph . Dr . A . M . ( English Edition . ) Longman , Brown , Green , and Longmans .
Compendium of Chronology : containing ike most Important Dates of General"History , Political , Ecclesiastical , and Literary , from the Creation of the World to Me End of the Tear 1854 . By F . H . Jaquemet . Edited by the Rev . John Alcom * AM .. Longman , Brown , Green , and Lctagmaua ; The Communicant ' s Companion , Comprising an Historical Essay on the Lord '' sSupper : Meditations and Prayers for the use of Communicants ; and the . Order of the Administration of the Lord's Slipper , or Holy Communion . By Thomas Hartwell Home , B . D . Longman , Brown , Green , and Longmans . J / iy Brother ' s IVife : a Life History . By Amelia B . Edwards . Routledge and Co . Lives of the Queens of England , of the House of Hanover . By Dr . Doran . ( 2 Vols . ) Richard Bentley .
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• The French Exhibition. The Best Of The...
• THE FRENCH EXHIBITION . The best of the French pictures this year , in colour , drawing , and execution , is bv a lady . Mdlle . Kosa Bonhpub ^ s "Horse Fair" deserves all the hearty admiration tlmt it has excited in the world of Art . A string of cart-horses led and ridden in procession to a fair is not a subject to produce , in ordinary hands , anything like an interesting picture . But Mdlle . Rosa Bokheuk is in the strictest and most complimentary sense of the word , an extraordinary artist . The variety , vigour , and wonderful animation of her picture—the consummate nicety and truth of observation shown , in the actions of the restive horses and of the men who are struggling to quiet them—the Drodi"ious power and exquisite naturalness of the whole composition—combine to make this work one of the most remarkable triumphs of genuinely
fine Art of its class tbat we remember to have seen produced by any oneman or woman—for years and years past . The execution of the picture is a ' study throughout . It is daring and free , without over degenerating into carelessness , or ever failing to represent the various surfaces depicted , with « fidelity to nature which . it is no exaggeration to say is absolutely startling . If the sky and the background trees were only a little more in . harmony with the sunny brilliancy of the figures , this " Horse lair might * with perfect propriety . be described as a faultless work .. ^ V e arc g lad to hear that a small repetition of the subject has been produced by the artist , o bo cngravod from . Properly treated , the picture will mako an admirable
Mdlle . It « s . v BoMiKUJt exhibits another work of cabinet size , The ' Charconl Burners , " which rivals the « Horse Fair' in vigour , £ W £ & land imturnlnow of treatment , and ' which is only tho rS ? al } S ? SrtlIS ! picture of the two because its subject presents fewer difficulties tot the axtist to overcoomo . . i ; , i , . l ^ mni / Jq inven-, . Amcgtho pointer , of that higher ^ % ^ 'i ^ j \ £ ' t S '" Si ^ | tion and aims at tolling a story , M . 15 iAni > ™ kos »<» unsatis-• ttia-picture of " Pirate * alluring a Merchantman , ' though » . cx , t unsatts *
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), July 28, 1855, page 19, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_28071855/page/19/
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