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BOOKS ON OUR TABLE . The History of Ancient Art among the Greeks . Translated from the German of John Winckehnann , by G . Henry Lodge . John Chapman . "VVinckelmaim ' s position in the history of criticism is so elevated that any estimate of the absolute present worth of his writings must disappoint those who have been taught to revere his name . In truth , his great excellence can no longer be appreciated by us . He opened the path upon which we travel , and now the path is so smooth that we forget the rugged obstacles which once encumbered * it . Winckelmann—in conjunction with Lessing—opened our eyes to the glory of Greek art ; by tearing off the spectacles coloured by prejudice or blurred by pedantry through which art had been looked at . He used his eyes—his soul ; and bade us do likewise . " He gave , " says . Schelling , " by his theory the first foundation to the general knowledge and science of the ancients which later times have commenced to build . He first conceived the idea of looking upon the works of art as upon the works of nature . " He did not form his theories a priori in the study , but from the works themselves , taught by their plain , intelligible language .
The present volume is a misnomer . It is a translation simply of the fourth and sixth of Winckelmann ' s Geschichte ; and , although he says in the preface to that work that he uses the term History in its widest sense ( as expressive rather of a system of ancient art , than what is usually termed history ) , yet in that work he does also , in some degree , comply with historical exigences ; whereas in the volume here selected there is absolutely no history at all . It is an analytical examination of Beauty as treated by the Greeks . The first part contains an inquiry , brief but pregnant , of the causes of the progress and supremacy of Greek Art ; and an essay on the Essential of Art . The second part contains six chapters on the Conformation and Beauty of Male Deities and
Heroes—Female Deities and Heroines—the Expression of Beauty in Features and Action—Proportion and Composition—o . n the Beauty of Individual Features and parts of the Body , and on the Drawing of Animals . All these chapters are illustrated with specimens from the antique . To lovers of Art and to Students , the book has great value , from the precision of its principles divested of all metaphysical subtleties , and from the real gusto and knowledge of the author . Taken for what it really is , we can recommend it ; but as a history of Art among the Greeks it has not the slightest shadow of a claim ; and the translator has damaged his work by the misnomer , because purchasers desirous of a history will be irate at receiving only critical remarks . The volume is very handsomely got up ; and the illustrations have been engraved with care .
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Homeric Ballads , with translations and notes by the late William Maginn LL . D . J . W . Parker . These translations originally appeared in Fraser's Magazine , and have now been carefully edited and handsomely printed with the Greek text on the opposite pages . They form a pleasant readable volume , but have no permanent interest either as specimens of poetry or scholarship . Maginn was a greatly overrated man ; but he had qualities which , amidst the newspaper men of his day , threw his name into relief ; namely , animal spirits , strong feelings , fluent style , and erudition enough to make him a scholar among wits . Taken from the ephemeral columns of the day and gathered into the his ill bear examination
sedater form of a book , writings . His confident tone wants the support of solid learning , and becomes offensive . There is more parade than scholarship , and no great sagacity to compensate for the absence of " heavy artillery . " All that he writes in his introduction on the celebrated question of the unity of the Homeric poems appears to us , in his own language , " mere trash . " The side on which he combats has great force , and is captained by men " having authority" ; but the amazing shallowness of his knowledge of the question is betrayed at every step . The Wolfian theory may be incorrect ; but to answer it by asserting that the unity of the Iliad is so perfect and complete that it would be impossible to disturb the order of the several parts of the poem without marring the regular and connected sequence of the entire , is to display but a superficial is
acquaintance of the poem itself . The ninth book altogether an excrescence : it is in open contradiction with the tone and incidents of the rest . And to say one vein of thought runs through the whole is simply to assert that which is not . The twenty-second and twenty-fourth books are as unlike the earlier books in the mode of treatment and the mind displayed , as the Antigone is unlike the Choephorce . In reading Maginn ' s Introduction we were forcibly reminded of a remark once made to us by Bcickh , that those who maintained the unity of Homer were always driven to put forth rhetoric in place of argument . This is true of all ; but many of them do bring forward arguments of weight . Maginn has none . Of the translations we may apeak more favourably : they are spirited paraphrases done in the ballad style , with little poetical merit , but more Homeric in their homeliness than translations usually arc .
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Studies and Illustrations of the Writings uj Shakspeare and of his Lifu and Times . Jiy Charles Knight . Vol . 1 . C . Knight . The indefatigable Charles Knight has here commenced a nrw and still cheaper publication of those studies * of Shakspeare which have earned him so honourable a name . This is the first volume , and contains the " Biography , " published in 1813 . It has received entire revision ; ami readers will notice several alterations of arrangement nud modification of opinion ground .-d upon iiou inioiMia'iori . Nothing prevents this from being one of the most charming biographies in the language , but the perpetual tense which accompanies us of its being fiction . We cannot regard it us otherwise than as 4 William Shakspeare , an historical Romance . " If published as such , the reader ' s enjoyment would be uninterrupted by any critical reiiection . si . That there is
' * much virtue in an If" we know ; but we like no If as an historical basis . In the present volume there is a mass of antiquarian knowledge set forth , and profusely illustrated with woodcuts . It is a book for all shelves .
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Utopia ; or the Happy Republic : a Philosophical Romance , in two books . Written in Latin by Sir Thomas More . Translated into English by Gilbert Burnet , Bishop of Saium . C . Gilpin . Letters on Early Education , addressed to J . P . Greaves , Esq ., by Peslalozzi . Translated from the German Manuscript . With a memoir cf Pestalozzi . Originally printed in 1827 . G . Gilpin . - Two very neat reprints , forming part of the PhoGtiix Library , " a series of original and reprinted works bearing on the renovation and progress of society , in religion , morality , and science , " selected by J . M . Morgan . The Utopia has long passed the ordeal of criticism : all we need say is that the edition contains Bishop Burnet ' s Preface . Pestalozzi ' s beautiful letters need , too , no recommending , though we cannot refrain from quoting one brief extract , taken at random , for those who are not yet
familiar with them : — " Happy mother ! thou art delighting thyself in the first efforts of thy child , and they are delightful ; muse upon them , pass them not by , —they are the germs of future action , they are all important to thee and to him , and should furnish thee with many a long train of prolific thought . " It is recorded , thou knowest , that God opened the heavens to one of the patriarchs of old , and showed him a ladder leading to their azure heights . Well , this ladder is let down to every descendant of Adam ; it is tendered to thy child . But he must be taught to climb it . And let him take heed not to attempt it , nor think to scale it , by cold calculations of the head , —nor be compelled to adventure it by the mere impulse of the heart ; but let all these powers combine , and the noble enterprize will be crowned with success .
" All these powers are already bestowed on him ; but thine is the province to assist in calling them forth . Let the ladder leading to heaven be constantly before thine eyes , even the ladder of Faith , on which thou mayest behold ascending and descending the angels of Hope and Love . "
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The Port Royal Logic . Translated from the French , with an Introduction , by Thomas Spencer Baynes . Edinburgh Sutherland and Knox . The " Port Royal Logic " was an invaluable book ; it still remains one of the clearest and best adapted works for students , as , indeed , may be believed when we state that the present translation was the suggestion of Sir W . Hamilton—unquestionably the highest living authority on such matters . Mr . Baynes has executed his task with painstaking felicity . The introduction is so good that we regret the translator did not add notes and illustrations to the text , according to his original intention .
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Emigration Colonies ; being the most Recent Information respecting the several settlements of Australia , Van Diemen ' s Land , New Zealand , and Port Natal ; with a Map showing the position of each Colony ; also the cost of the several classes of passage to each of the respective Colonies . Compiled from official documents by Henry Capper . Charles Cox . An exceedingly useful collection of all the main facts relating to our antipodean settlements , at a merely nominal price . Mr . Capper ' s known zeal and industry , his long experience in connection with the early emigration to South Australia , and the means that have been placed at his disposal for insuring accuracy in the specific information which he now offers to the public , entitle the present compilation to the entire confidence of the emigrating classes .
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The People ' s Review of Literature and Politics . Edited by Friends of Order and Progress . C . Mitchell . This is in every sense the last number of a periodical unique among periodicals for the calm impartiality vyith which it was conducted ; but the tolerance it exhibited to others has not been exhibited to it . Accusations -of " infidelity "—( infidelity to what not specified by the accusers !) have placed the editors in a painful position with respect to their publisher , and it is consequently to be given up with the present , number . We are sorry for it . The people have lost one of their most earnest and truthful teachers . The ability displayed in the review has been remarkable ; but the spirit far more so .
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Compton Merivale ; Another Leaf from the Lesson of Life . By the Author of « ' Brarnpton Rectory , or the Lesson of Life . " Le Passe , Jo Present , el VAvenir de la lle ' publique . Par A . de Lamartine . W . Jeffs . Les Mysttres du Peuple . Par Eugene Sue . Tome II . W . J effs . Christmas-Eve and Easter-Day . A Poem . By Robert Browning . Chapman and Hall . War ; lioliaiouslyMorallyand Historically Considered .
, , By P . F . Aiken , Advocate . Hamilton , Adams , and Co . The Voice of the New Year . By Sidney O'Moore . Dublin : J . ' B . Oldham . Chapters in the Life of a Dundee Factory Boy . An Autobiography . Dundee : James Mylos . A Dream of Reform . By Henry J . Forrest . John Chapman . Hif / ht iMLcrr , U > I lie Vinmr / Ainu of the Working Classes . jj y Tlioii . « b Cho [ ht , Author ui " i'he Purgatory uf Suicides . " J . Watson .
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NOTES AND EXTRACTS . Temporal and Spiritual Powbbs .- " Religion and Politics are inseparable . Without Religion nothing but
Despotism or Anarchy can be produced by political science . We will have neither . For us life is but a problem of education , society but a means of developing and translating it into act . Religion is the supreme principle of education ; Politics is the application of this principle to the different manifestations of the human race . The ideal is in God . We must co-ordinate all societies in such a manner that they approach as nearly as possible to this ideal . The idea is the spirit ; the translation of that idea into act—into visible works—is the great social aim . Therefore , to pretend to separate entirely and for ever things of this world and things of heaventhe temporal and spiritual , is not moral , is not
, logical , is not possible . But when a power which represents a religious principle has no longer faith and no longer inspires it ; when , in consequence of secular aberrations and the progress of peoples , all communion of life has ceased between that power and humanity ; when it no longer retains any initiative force , but only a resisting force , then the first form which dissent assumes is that of protest and of scission . Society , before condemning for ever the power and the principle on which it rests , separates it from its own movement by isolating it within a sphere of inertia where opinion may judge it without passion and without fear . Then arises the cry
invoking the separation of temporal from spiritual . "Mazzini : de Pape ait X . IX .. Siecle . Ministerial Qualifications . —One thing is very plain : that whatever be the uses and duties , real or supposed , of a secretary in Parliament , his faculty to accomplish these \ $ a point entirely unconnected with his ability to get elected into Parliament , and has no relation or proportion to it , and no concern with it whatever . Lord Tommy and the Honourable John are not a whit better qualified for parliamentary duties , to say nothing of
secretary duties , then plain Torn and Jack ; they are merely better qualified , as matters stand , for getting admitted to try them . The hypothesis is very narrow , and the fact is very wide ; the hypothesis counts by units , the fact by mil lions . Consider how many Toms and Jacks there are to choose from , well or ill ! The aristocratic class from whom members of Parliament can be elected extends only to certain thousands ; from these you are to choose your secretary , if a seat in Parliament is the primary condition . But the general population is of twenty-seven millions ; from all sections of which you can choose , if the seat in Parliament is not to be primary . —Carlyle ' s Downing
Street . Memento . —Time was when an incompetent governor could not be permitted . He was , and had to be , by one method or the other , clutched up from his place at the helm of affairs , and hurled down into the hold , perhaps even overboard , if he could not really steer . And we call those ages barbarous because they shuddered to see a phantasm at the helm of their affairs ; an eyeless pilot , with constitutional spectacles , steering by the ear mainly ? And we have changed all that : no-government is now the best ; and a tailor ' s foreman who gives no trouble is preferable to any other for governing ? My friends , such truly is the current idea ; but you dreadfully mistake yourselves , and the fact is not such . The fact , now beginning to disclose itself again in distressed
needlewomen , famishing Connaughts , revolting colonies , and a general rapid advance towards social ruin , remains really what it always was , and will so remain ! Men have very much forgotten it at present ; and only here a man and there a man begins again to bethink himself of it ; but all men will gradually get reminded of it , perhaps terribly to their cost ; and the sooner they all lay it to heart again I think it will be the better . For , in spite of our pblivion of it , the thing remains for ever true ; nor is there any constitution or body of constitutions , were they clothed with never such venerabilities and general acceptabilities , that avails to deliver a nation from the consequences of forgetting it . Nature , I assure you , does for evermore remember it ; and a hundred British constitutions are but as a hundred cobwebs between her and the penalty she levies for forgetting it . —
Carlyle ' s Downing Street . Considekations on A Biiid . —The following composition was * the English exercise of a pupil in a Parisian school for young ladies . It was inserted years back in the Monthly Repository , but deserves to be printed every ten years . We mark the dainty bits with Italic type , but not a word is omitted or altered . *• I considered lately from my garden ' s pavilion a little bird which , extremely gay , came to fall on the edge of a flower-pot under a blossomed orange tree . Unacquainted that lie was spied in that solitude , he abandoned himself to all the sentiments
which the innocence , the safety , and the influence of the fine nature animate all the sensible beings . Ho spreaded his wings to the vierfical beams of sun of the morning , seizing a little small worm which came to pass , jumping of joy of an edge of the pot to the other , nud complaisant himself in another bird of it sort , which pecked in a quicksand , and which could be , or his friend , or his child , or her woman . About five minutes after he flics away of that compass of a garden too strait in distance without limits of the nature for to fill up the true destination for to live among innumerable joys of an innocent
life . " An Inconsihtknt Tiikologian . — The late Dr . Hamilton , of Leeds , wrote a book to prove that , beycnl the little circle of choice believers , the universe is a vast torture chamber ; and yet a merrier laugh , a more exuberant wit , a greatt r geniality , was rarely to be found . The professional hniirR of his life were spent , like those of some old painters , in colouring lurid pictures of his neighbours clutched by devils , and tho world in general swallowing hot pitch ; and fur the rest of histiruc he was free to dine with the reprobates , and crack Ins jokes with the damned . No one , who seriously consider !* the iu tense inconsistency involved in such a life , can suppose that the theologian really held a faith which the grasp of a friendly hand and the welcome on a familiar face sufficed to dissipate . — Westminster Beviow .
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April 6 , 1850 . ] © ft * & * && *? + 41
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Leader (1850-1860), April 6, 1850, page 41, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1839/page/17/
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