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finished with the painstaking of a botanical student and a Titianesque masbery of colour , are all but identical with those of the " Entombment of Christ " in the Borghese Palace at Rome . The head and shoulders of the Apollo form a companion to the head of a young man , wearing a cap , in the " Adoration of the Magi" at Berlin . In type , in the moulding of the features , in the form and fall of the eyes , in the basis of the expression , the growth of the hair the set of the head , the depression of the right shoulder , and the
pose of the figure , the Apollo is the same with the St . John in the cartoon of the Gate Beautiful . " The chief differences naturally flowing from the subiect are , that in the cartoon the countenance of the St . John expresses a kind of passive tenderness instead of scorn ; that the set of the hair is simplified , and its growth lengthened ; the composition more filled out , and the figure draped . But the minute critic will trace the same hand in every detail , even in the high lights of each particular hair , and in the most delicate inflections of the soft and mobile cheeks .
The spirit of the whole design is the same that animated Raphael from first bo last—a perfect simplicity and directness in the purpose of the design , rhat perfect faith in the sufficiency of the simplest and directest impression which enables the painter to carry out the one idea ; the force , the mastery over modelling and composition , the complete development of the purpose , the beauty of the forms , the perfection of the finish , the amplitude of the ight , endow the picture with a fulness of design and an openness of effect hat cheat the sense . Instead of looking upon a cabinet miniature , you look through the narrow opening of the frame across the broad plain of Nysa , tvhere the Olympian godhead stands waiting to fulfil his doom upon the audacious mortal , the denizen of that reedy plain , who is vainly contending with divinity .
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CHAUNTS OF THE ANGELS . Living to-day "With God ' s Book before thee , "What book of yesterday Shall have rule o ' er thee ? Let the soul ' s voice be heard : This is the Ltving Word ; This is the Holy Ghost , whom men blaspheme ; This was the prophets' guide—Tried , tempted , crucified ; This was Christ ' s glory , his stay , and his theme . Seeing to-day Fresh advents of Beauty , What man of yesterday Knoweth thy duty ? Let the soul ' s voice be heard : This is the Living "Word ; This is the Holy Ghost , whom men blaspheme ; This was the prophets' guide—Tried , tempted , crucified ; This was Christ ' s glory , his stay , and his theme . "Waiting to-day A new Revelation , What creed of yesterday Brings thee salvation ? Let the soul ' s voice be heard : This is the Living Woiid ; This is the Holy Ghost , whom men blaspheme ; This was the prophets' guide—Tried , tempted , crucified ; This was Christ ' s glory , his stay , and his theme . K . B
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Part I . Note Preliminary by the Mditor of this MS ., narrating how it came into his Possession . TnuTii obliges me , though with infinite compunction , to confess that there is nothing romantic in the way I came possessed of the manuscript which I now hand over to the columns of the header . It was not—I pledge you my honour—discovered in an old chest . It was not found scarcely legible from tho damp and mildew , while I ransacked an old family vault . In no long neglected lumber-room did I alight upon it and greedily devour its contents . Two horsemen were not seen riding up the brow of a distant hill , the older of whom , &c . &c .
In fact , disheartening and prosaic to the last degree is the history of my discovery . No emotions in the least touching are connected with it . There are positively no traces of tears . There is no affluence of ¦ •* *• ** under cover of which one may pathetically write " here the manuscript becomes illegible . " The story is this : — Sunning myself in Kew-gardens this spring , I lounged up against Jasper Meek , whom 1 had occasionally encountered in crowded rooms . We soon began talking of literature , and he said" I ' ve been doing a little in that way myself lately ; I wish you would let me show it you—it ' s devilish good !"
I smiled a vague , unhappy smile . - " It ' s my confessions I" he added . " Just giving a sketch of my experience with women , and all that sort of thing , you know . Now your practised eye would be of service to me ; and I think the thing would amuse you . " Meek ' s offer was but indifferently flattering to me . I winced dreadfully .
My estimate of his talents was by no means lofty ; and although I had seen him at literary parties—boring Bulwer , questioning Disraeli , contradicting Carlyle , breakfasting with Milnes , or leaning against the mantelpiece at Lady Gorgon ' s—although he breathed , as it were , the atmosphere of literature , and was supposed to have had a hand in the Women of England , yet I was reasonably suspicious of his capacity for writing an amusing work . But it is difficult to refuse point blank , and he talked down my feeble objections with " I will send it you to-morrow , and you can glance over it in your leisure
moments . He was as bad as his word ! On the morrow his servant appeared , bearing a neat brown paper parcel . As he had given me carte blanche with respect to time , I laid it aside , hoping some wet afternoon to have an hour ' s leisure , during which I might run through it . But leisure ! who has leisure in these fast-living days of ours ? I never found the hour—or the inclination ; and so time slipped away . About three weeks ago , reading the deaths in the Times , my eye casually fell on this paragraph : — " On thel 6 th instant , at his residence in South Audley-street , Jasper Meek , Esq ., in his 39 th year . "
Philosophers will understand how it was that on reading this announcement my first thought was of Jasper ' s manuscript . What was to be done with it ? He had left no will . He had no relations . His heir-at-law was a mouldy old widow , living at Brompton . I called on her , and politely requested her instructions . So little interest had this benighted person in literature that she begged me to light fires with it ! It happened that I was just out of pipelights , and my faithful Slave who attends to that department had the day before asked me for some MS . —that being the service to which my burning thoughts are condemned after their passage through the compositor ' s hands . I opened the parcel to take a first and farewell glance at poor Meek ' s " imaginings . " As I read on , it so interested me that I could not set it down . It was obviously a genuine autobiography ; and believing
that all autobiography is interesting , I carried the MS . to that mysterious entity who presides over the destinies of the Leader . Ushered into his awful and majestic presence , I But thrilling as that interview was , and worthy of eloquent record , I must not forget myself so far as to record it . My task is done . The reader will now be introduced to Meek—I only beg to add that what follows is unadulterated—I have not " mounted" the sketches of niy friend .
Chap . I . —My First , Flutterings . I suppose I must do it ; but it is very difficult . To write about oneself is a trial to one ' s modesty . If I am candid , and tell you what I think of myself you will call me conceited . If I affect modestly to depreciate myself you will see through the affectation . I will be frank and truthful . Think of me as you please , I will speak of myself with noble impartiality . Frankly , then , I , Jasper Meek , am rather good-looking . As reflected in my own looking-glass I am decidedly handsome ; but glasses differ so ! You shall judge . I have raven black hair ; soft intelligent eyes ; a nose which , if not in perfect proportion ( it has been called a snub , but I knew the motive J ) is nevertheless distinguished ; mouth expressive , though with imperfect teeth j a smile not without its charm ; and a general something which has usually produced an effect , more especially on the gentler sex . In figure—a great deal depends on figure—though large I am beautifully proportioned .
The inner man is a still more delicate matter to touch upon . I will mention two peculiarities : one an ardent love for what Mrs . Slipslop calls the " frail sect : " an irresistible tendency to fall in love ; the other , a constitutional timidity , or shyness , or reserve—1 dont know what to call it—which always puts the curb-rein on my impetuosity . I know I must be shy , because I have been so frequently told of it ; but it must not be supposed that my shyness has anything at all ridiculous in it—there is nothing of that I am sure . I should perhaps more aptly style it an elegant reserve : an Englishman ' s quiet unobstrusiveness .
*** Of my talents it would ill become me to speak ; but I may add in passing that I can turn a pretty enough stanza , and I play delightfully on the German flute . " Mon iils va entrer dans le monde , " said Madame de Montmorin once to Chamfort , " comment le sauver de la premiere traversee ? " To this the wit replied , " Recommandez lui avec ferveur d ' etre amoureux de toutes les femvnes . " The advice might have been excellent in dissolute France , but I have not found it so in England , although my native sensibility has led me spontaneously to do that which Chamfort recommends as a matter of calculation . I have always been in love . Among my earliest recollections beam the sweet faces of women ; they smile upon me from out the distant years , they beckon to me , they lure me still . I have lived only by my affections ; yet how have those affections been treated ! how has this yearning heart been wasted ! Love has been the chronic malady of my life . Yet , why should I call it malady ? Why not health and strength , since to me it has been happiness and occupation ? I remember as a child of about six or seven years old being fiercely in
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Gli amori Le cortezia l'audace impresc io canto . —Ariosto .
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CONFESSIONS OF A TIMID LOVER .
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572 &t ) e Ite&fcet * [ Saturday ,
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), Sept. 7, 1850, page 572, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1852/page/20/
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