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No, 275, J^ntTE 30,1855.J THE LEA DEB; B...
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Wli-^* +j -J.||.»i ^. ^L4i^iH4Ui V*
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Critics are not tlie legislators, but th...
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" Sir, no man but a blockhead ever wrote...
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DANBY SEYMOUR'S RUSSIA ON THE BLACK SEA....
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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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No, 275, J^Ntte 30,1855.J The Lea Deb; B...
No , 275 , J ^ ntTE 30 , 1855 . J THE LEA DEB ; B 21
Wli-^* +J -J.||.»I ^. ^L4i^Ih4ui V*
tmti & m . ..
Critics Are Not Tlie Legislators, But Th...
Critics are not tlie legislators , but the judges and police of literature . They do not make laws—they interpret and try to enforce them .: —Edinburgh Review *
" Sir, No Man But A Blockhead Ever Wrote...
" Sir , no man but a blockhead ever wrote except for money . " This vras Ihe emphatic assertion of dear old dogmatic , keen-sighted Johnson ; and the assertion contains that amount of truth usually found in his sayings ., emphasized into a generalisation which becomes not strictly true . For although , accurately speaking , there are many men , not blockheads , who write from quite other than pecuniary motives , write , indeed , in defiance of all such motives , yet it is certain that a numerous obtrusive class of blockheads do write irrespective of monetary considerations ; and it is always the articles and books offered gratuitously which editors and publishers avoid with the
keenest alacrity . Your genuine blockhead is ever so eager to assert himself —to manifest hia blockheadism in public—to render himself " a more definite object of contempt "—that the motive of money is altogether in abeyance . He writes " for fame , Sir . " Much foolish rhetoric has been let loose on the subject of writing for money . Money , indeed , has from time immemorial been the topic upon which foolish rhetoric has loved to discharge itself . But there is , among other advantages , this practical advantage in keeping the money motive steadily present , namely , that as money is a rough guage of utility , and will only be given for what is wanted by the public , the man . who writes with an eye to money will write with a view to public needs .
We were led into this train of reflection by an article in the Irish Quarterly Review ( always a good half-crown ' s worth of agreeable literature ) , in which the writer brings together some curiosities on the subject of " Odd Books . " Here is a specimen : — A shoemaker of Ainiens published , In 1615 , a tract in which , tracing the history of boots , he asserted that Adam was the first to make them from the skins of beasts , and that he learned the art from God himself . A Member of the Academy , in a laborious dissertation on the weights and measures of the ancients , favours us with the following chronological scale of the -various heights of men since the creation : —Adam 123 feet 9 inches , Eve 118 feet 9 it inches , Noah 103 , Abraham 27 , Moses 13 , Hercules 10 , Alexander 10 , Julius Caesar , 5 . He sagely adds , that if Provilence had not been pleased to suspend this progressive decrease , men would now be no bigger than the smallest insect . The writers of these " Odd Books , " if they had an eye to money , must have squinted somewhat . In the same article there is this curious passage : —
Surgery , through the prohibition of the church , was , like money-lending , through the prohibition of receiving interest , confined solely , in its higher branches , to the Jews . The Jews were pronounced impious , and medicines received through their prescriptions declared accursed , and hy a decree of the council of Lateran , the physicians were directed , under heavy penalties , to require that the patients should receive the sacraments of penance and the eucharist , before medicine could be prescribed for them—thus it was supposed that the Jewish physicians would be readily discovered , as through bigotry they would refuse to obey this direction . The prescriptions were curious , but amongst the most strange of all was that commonly known as the Doctrine of Signatures—that is , certain herbs and plants were presumed useful in curing those parts of the human body to which they bore , or were fancied to bear , a resemblance . Capillary herbs were good in diseases of the hair . Walnuts were presumed to be a sovereign cure in all diseases of the head , from the great resemblance between them and that portion of the human frame—the green covering of the outer husk represented the pericranium ; and salt made of the husk was good for injuries to the
outside of the head . The soft inner shell was like the skull , and the thin yellow skin was like the dura and pia mater . The kernel was so like the brain that it must of necessity be a perfect remedy for all diseases or injuries of that organ . William Coles , the herbalist , writes , that the Lily of the Valley is good to cure the apoplexy , for as that disease is caused by the dropping of humours into the principal ventricles of the brain , so the flowers of this lily hanging on the plants as if they were drops , are of wonderful use herein . " Kidney beans , from their perfect resemblance to the kidneys , were considered of great service in all urinary diseases . TJbe yellow and purple spots upon the flowers Eye-bright , resembling the marks upon diseased eyes , the Jlowers wore esteemed most efficacious in curing these disorders . Thistles and HoJly , from their stinging the hand which touched them , were believed to be useful in curing the pricking pains of pleurisy ; and the Saxifrage , from the manner of its growtli , was esteemed a moat powerful dissolvent of the stone . And because the cones of the pine-tree resembled the front teeth , a gargle of vinegar in which they had been boiled was classed aa n most efficacious remedy for tho toothache .
Lovers of thrilling and horrible stories may turn to the article in this Review on " The Romance of Life , " in which tho original stories , worked up into Monte Chrislo , are told by the writer , who for the present reserves his authorities . An article on the " Poots of America" will also bo read with pleasure , containing , as it docs , " elegant extracts" very delicately chosen . Arc you at all interested in the last Spanish revolution P We mean the revolution of 18 f > 4 ( in Spanish revolutions it is necessary to be precise ) . If so , the lleouc des Deux MondcswxW furnish you with an ample history written by M . Ciiakwcs pjb Mazadic Tho same review concludes Ampicur ' s papers on L'lTistolrc liomnbm a Rome , -with an interesting survey of the works of
Greek Art . Speaking of Myron ' s masterly representation of animals , M . Amimchk niakoH thin remark , which although not altogether new , is worth repeating . The truthful fidelity of representation in the forms of animals when these animals are presented away from man , is strikingly contrasted with the want of fidelity in tho representation in all statues w hich present animals accompanied by the human figure . Tin ; horses of the Monte Cavallo group ; the deer which Diana holds ; the lizard on the tree- against which the youiitf Apollo loans , arc treated with great negligence . M . Ampkiih thinks thin negligence intentional , the animal ^ being accessories sacrificed to tlio divino principal—and this subordination is tho law o ( ancient art . But when nnimiild were figured by themselves , when they
ceased fto ; be -accessories , they ( were ; depicted with , great fidelity ; . It is on reasons-of this nature that ¦ we--jaay suppose Dannecker to -have created the extremely mythological panther on which the exquisite Atradne reclines ; for in that animal there is assuredly no attempt at faithful representation of nature . And on this ground we may explain the horses of the Parthenon friezes , about which critics ^ pretend to fly off into raptures , but wfeich the most superficial knowledge of horseflesh suffices to condemn as unreal . Perhaps , however , the real reason is , after all , much simpler . In all times there have been artists who excelled in the representation of animals , and artists who failed in such representations ; and the school of Mthon , like our own Landseers , Ansdells , and Coopebs , may have been more faithful ,
because their love of animals had made them more diligent sfcudeitta of animals . It is dangerous sometimes to be ingenious in our suggestion of reasons ; ingenuity lures us far from the simpler track of fact , and overlooking what lies at our feet soars with daring flight into the clouds . An illustration of such ingenuity is offered by M . Bina . tjt in his excellent paper on La Comedie des Mceurs en Grece . He is puzzled by the fact that on the Grecian stage the gods and goddesses were solemnly introduced in the tragedies , and an hour afterwards as profanely ridiculed in the comedies . The Drama was a religious festival ; the subjects were religious ; and yet in the
comedies the gods were made gluttonous , obscene , ridiculous . In this M . Binaut sees more than " an inconsequence and a bizamrerie ; " and he taxes his ingenuity to discern the cause , which on reflection he discovers to be this : there was in the public mind an instinctive desire to separate what was moral in the ancient myths from what was immoral—a germ of that religious criticism which the poets manifested before the philosophers . This thesis M . Binatjt illustrates . H e points out both in Homee and the dramatists a double aspect of the myths , and argues that we never see the gods ridiculed in the exercise of their divine attributes , but only when they manifested human attributes , human follies and weaknesses .
Now , it is scarcely credible that M . Binatjt could have reduced his thesis to a proposition so simple without at once seeing it to be false . He did not clearly place the proposition before his mind , and then proceed to develop and to illustrate it ; but as we must suppose , wrought out his proposition during the process of composition , and thus was misled by his own ingenuity . Looked at in the light we have placed it , what does it amount to , more than saying that the Greeks did not ridicule what was grand and solemn , but only what was ridiculous . The god , considered under his
divine attributes , raised religious thoughts ; the god , considered under his human attributes , was as much , a topic for mirth as man himself . What is there in a Greek tragedy followed by a comedy more than is seen every evening on our stage , when the tragic aspects of life are succeeded byuproarious farce , when the jealousy of an Othello is followed by the jealousy of a bourgeois , personated by Aenal or Keeley ? Then , again , does not universal experience tell us how religious subjects , even in devout minds , are often provocative of mirth ? But we must not extend this remark to a dissertation . We mean it only as a hint to the reader of M . Binaut ' s very interesting paper .
Danby Seymour's Russia On The Black Sea....
DANBY SEYMOUR'S RUSSIA ON THE BLACK SEA . Russia on the Black Sea and Sea of Azof : being a Narrative of Travels in the Crimea and bordering Provinces ; with Notices of the Naval , Military , and Commercial Resources of those Countries . By H . D . Seymour , M . P . Murray . 1855 . Mk . Danby Seymour ' s book is one of the best of the many contributions to contemporary literature respecting Russia on the Black Sea . It is written with a scholarly ease , a vivid clearness , and a hearty feeling for the subject . It is at once succinct and comprehensive ; and it supplies in a compact shape much valuable information , which could only otherwise be acired by the diligent reading of many authors - m
qu The plan on which the book is composed is not tho least of its recommendations . Mr . Seymour lived many years in Russia , traversing the Caucasus , journeying across the desert steppes , or pitching his tent in the hospitable homes of the beautiful south coast of tlie Crimea . Thus he enjoyed great advantages over the traveller who speeds post-haste from city to city , making hurried notes as he flies along . Those advantages our traveller has turned to good account . But as no man can see everything , or seeing , know its relative value , and as the wise traveller makes a diaoreet use of the labours of those who have gone before him , so Mr . feeymour , * ar fmm disdaining the fruits of others' labours , has carefully studied them , and
testing them by his own experience , and am algamating them witn His own observations , lie has produced a most useful and entertaining volume . Nor has he been niggardly in acknowledgments to the many eminent travellers whose information he has interwoven with tho texture of his own acquisitions . It is in the highest degree to his credit , and speaks well for the pains he has taken with hit work , and ie pood evidence of ** soundness , that he mentions with such tokens of goodwill the names , ofHoxthausen logol 5 C Clark Duboisde Montpercux and
b ^™ S IIom ^ K do PJI . ^ . various other authorities to who . se researches ho is indebted . Oil the whTwe look upon this as one , of tho most satisfactory and uiloraung > vorks on Russia which has been published in these days . ,, , The maps also , iind p '""« " » illustrations arc executed in a careful and distinct I v ? e which nnkrs thorn p leasant to the eye , as well as instructive tot he n > m T he V " i of A * " *' , the . straits of Kertch . the mouths of the Son a 1 tho d ' of tho Kubnu , are dearly delineated ; the relative positions of Hu C Jmoa he mouths oV tho Danube , and the coast of "" Ban *" ml K era > ., a far ' us l ' erekop , and the connexion between tho Putrid Sea and the CriinJaon one side , aid Southern Russia ou the othor , arestowa * a glance .
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), June 30, 1855, page 15, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_30061855/page/15/
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