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O . u » readers will be pleased to hear that Caklyle is at present engaged on a new historical work , though the precise shape it -will take—whether as biography or as a history—we are not in a condition to announce . The lovers of criminal history will also be glad to learn , that J . Hill Burton is about to publish a selection of Narratiyes from the Scotch Causes Celkbres And the lovers of Comic History will not be displeased to read the following letter , addressed to us by Gilbert a'Beckbtt , in reply to our criticismon his Comic History of Rome . — Sib , — Permit me to say a few words in reference to your brief criticism on my rerently-comp leted History of ike Commonwealth of Home : obli to for
For your remarks , though unfavourable , I am really much ged you ; they proceed from one who has taken the trouble to think about the subject he writes upon . Criticism in the present day is so generally influenced by personal considerations , especially as far as newspape r notices of books are concerned , that there are very few journals for whose opinion either writer or reader entertains much respect . Of the few " criticisms" I have chanced to see , some have in the old stereotyped conventional p hrases alluded to my work as "rich , " " racy , " « rampant / ' while other « gentlemen" of the press have summarily disposed of itsometimes confessedly , without reading it—as so much " grinning through a horsecollar . " Praise or censure of this sort is of course equally indifferent to one who sees that there is as much stupidity or as little sense in the laudation as in the vituperation—the former proceeding from good-natured , and the latter from illnatured fools . You are the sort of person to whom my preface is addressed , and t
you are one of those whom I should have been glad to have been able o convince of the utility of history written in the style I have applied to it . I confess that I have long felt an objection to the title of " Comic , " and I only adopted it in reference to the History of Some , at tile request of the publishers , who advised that the work should form one of a series , to which the Comic History of England and the Comic Blackstone belonged . My purpose has been to write a history in which humour and satirej in conjunction with clearness and truth , should be the preliminary elements . I cannot agree with you in your comparison of the History of Rome with the History Of Christianity ¦; and though I share your revulsion of feeling at the notion you suggest of " putting before one , by pen and pencil , the early Christian gent , " I do not see why the " Roman gent" should not be placed in a ludicrous light , or why it is wrong to divest him , as well as every other Roman pretender , of the " lofty associations" Which you truly say « young minds ^ ' would otherwise attach to him .
You have put to me a home question in asking me whether I would place my book in the hands of my own children , from nine to nineteen years of age . I will answer the" question in a homely manner , by saying , that I have done so , and would do so again . I have found , moreover , that they , and others of their age , have acquired a knowledge of the principal facts of history from the Comic version , when the many very excellent serious Versions have failed to attract their attention , or to make an impression on their memories . I have had no fear of " vulgarizing " associations
in their " young minds" subjects that would otherwise have "lofty . Nor do I concur in your view , that all Boman History , with its crowd of knaves , dupes , tyrants , and impostors , pseudo-patriots , suicidal philosophers , and all its absurd traditions , should be the subjects of " lofty associations" in the " young mind . " I have , I hope , never spoken contemptuously of that which is really good or great , and I do not think I have done any harm in ridiculing what is bad or little—particularly when " lof ty associations" have been hitherto attached to it in mature , as well as in juvenile minds . histories valid
If I could be convinced that the objections you urge to comic are , I think I should be candid enough to admit their force ; but at present I feel persuaded that in writing them , I am using such talent as I possess , to the advantage of my readers , who , while seeking amusement , obtain instruction which they might not otherwise derive from a more recondite source . This letter will , I fear , occupy more of your time than you think the subject worth ; but as your paper is addressed to readers of more than ordinary intelligence , I should be glad to have an opportunity of placing these views before them . Very truly yours , GlLBEBT ABBOTT A'BeCKETT . Hyde Park Gate South . Kensington Gore .
We have no wish to press our objection against Mr . a'Beckett , but , while freely allowing him to state his own defence , in the columns that accused him , we cannot suffer it to pass without protest . The defence does not seem to us valid . It does not even fairly seize our objection . It rests upon the assumption , that we claim for all the details of Roman history the privilege of raising " lofty associations , " which it is imprudent to " vulgarize . " Not so . The Roman is not sacred to us because he wears a toga , and is ignorant of railways ; his tyranny , brutality , sensuality are not
to be admired , because they belong to the classic period , and are recorded in a poor nasal language . But Roman history is sacred to us as the recorda of one section of Humanity . We would not have it vulgarized , because the memories of our forefathers deserve better of us . Regarding the whole human race as one majestic existence , one vast chain , encompassing us and all nien , past , present , and to come , in a vital unity of brotherhood , —a Life which moveth slowly , but surely onwards to grand predestined aims , each century handing to its successor the light which it has gained ,- — -
Et quasi oursores vital lampadu tradunt , we cannot patiently see the sanctity of this great existence profaned , as it is profaned , in turning the whole history of a people into burlesque . What arc the Romans to us ? They nre men . They arc of that Humanity which we reverence . Is it not foolish , as well as irreligious , to desecrate the Past , at the very time when our most strenuous efforts are directed towards the Future ? Shall we , who labour for our successors , treat with
disrespect those who laboured for us ? Why do we care for the coming generations , if we can treat with levity the bygone ? If the human race is phe—if Humanity has an existence , which calls forth our greatest faculties , and inspires our noblest endeavours , that man is blameable who places the grand phases of it in a ludicrous light . Roman history is a grand phase . Individual Romans may call forth detestation , or pity ; but the whole story of the life of Rome is not the subject of a jest . Mr . a'Beckett , conscious of his own aims and oblivious of his work , repeats , that he has not thrown ridicule on what is in itself good or great . What , then , is calling the priests flamines—supporters of falsehoods , or " flams ? " what is his picture of Brutus?— -what Mabius seated on the ruins?—what the tone of the story of Virginia ? We might fill a column
with such instances , wherein what is poetic , touching , noble in the legend , becomes ludicrous in this history ; and to us it is not less profane thus to vulgarize the history of one epoch in the life of Humanity , than it would be to write a Comic History of Religion . It is said , indeed , that the Comic treatment has this advantage , that it makes the young better acquainted with the principal facts of history than many serious versions can make them . It may be so ; but then we -ask / * Wherefore is this knowledge desirable ? Why care about the " ' facts" of a life which has no sacredness for you ? What was Rome , that you should burden your memory with its history ? Time sleeps over the ruins of worlds" Sur les mondes detruits , le Temps dort immobile . " And why should we . awaken curiosity about the silent and the dead ?
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Another correspondent , whom we " regard with very different feelings from those which move us with regard to Mr . a'Beckett , a gentleman whose talents and character command our sincere respect— -one Mr . Samuel Langley , irritated at our not inserting a letter he sent on the Alexander Smith controversy , has this week sought refuge in the Globe , a journal which was in no way implicated in the controversy . Our readers know perfectly well that we shrink from no opinions—that we allow correspondents to dispute , to ridicule , and even vehemently to stigmatize our opinions in our own columns . We never shirk discussion . But we cannot print , every letter , nor every twentieth letter , sent us .- Mr . Langley ' s letter was excluded for three excellent reasons : it was very long , it was
very foolish , and it was indecent . Writing to complain of our defence of sensuous imagery , he used language which no journal could print . Instead of appreciating our kindness in not exposing him , he writes to the Globe a letter , in which , among misrepresentations and ineptitudes , he makes this suspicious confession : — " With regard to that description of poetry which presents glowing pictures to the propensities , and ignores the higher sentiments , J can testify from my own experience to its ruinous effects . " Oh , Mr . Langley !
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SHELLEY'S LETTERS . Letters of Percy Bysshe Shelley . With an Introductory Es ^ ay by Robert Browning . The letters we announced some weeks ago are now < W _ oV table , prefaced by some remarks by Robert Browning , which , as th&Tutterances of one distinguished poet on a Great Immortal , are of verj ? special interest . After ^ rawing a distinction between the objective and thto subjective kinds of poetry , Browning shows how necessary to the proper enjoyment ot the subiective poet is a satisfactory knowledge of his life and being ; and argues , very justly , that Letters are peculiarly serviceable in opening to us glimpses of the real nature of the writer ' s mind : — " Letters and poems may be used indifferentl y as the basement of our opinion upon the writer ' s character ; the finished expression of a sentiment in the poems , giving light and significance to the rudiments of the same in the letters , and these , again , in their incipiency and unripeness , authenticating the exalted mood and reattaching it to the personality of the writer . The musician speaks on the note he sings with : there is no change in the scale , as he diminishes the volume into familiar intercourse . There is nothing of that jarring between the man and the author , whioh has been found so amusing or so melancholy : no dropping ot the tragic mask , as the crowd melts away ; no mean discovery of the real motives of a life ' s achievement , often , in other lives , laid bare as pitifully as when at the close of a holiday , we catch sight of the internal lead-pipes and wood-valve ^ to which , and not to the ostensible conch and dominant Triton of the fountain , we have owed our admired waterwork . No breaking out , m household privacy , of i , » xL , t „„ . _ .. or ,, i «™™ Wnnrrrnoiis with the higher mood , and suppressed
a ^ BtT ^ y in th 7 book : no brutaT return to self-delighting , when the audience of philanthropic schemes is out of hearing : no indecent stripping off tho grander feeling and rule of life as too costly and cumbrous for oyery-day wear . " Whatever Shelloy was , he was with an admirable sincerity . It was not always truth that he thought and spoke ; but in tho purity of truth ho spoke and thought alwavB . Everywhere ia apparent his belief m the existence of Good , to winch Evil is an accident ; his faithful holding by what he assumed to be the former , ™ in « fivfirvwhero in company with tho tehderest pity for those acting or Buffering
on the oppoBito hypothesis . For ho was tondor , though tendornosa is not always tho characteristic of very sincere natures ; he was eminently both tender and sincero And not only < lo tho same affection and yearning aftor tho well-being of his kind appear in tho letters as in tho poonie , . but they oxprosH themselves by the same thoories and plans , however crude and unsound . There ia no reservation of a subtler loss costly , more serviceable remedy for his owntfl , than ho Imspropoaod for tho general one ; nor ( loop ) ho ovor contemplate an object on his own account , from a less olovation than ho uses in exhibiting it to tho world . How shall wo help believing Sholloy to havo boon , in his ultimate attainment , tho splendid spirit nf bin own best poetry , whon wo find even his carnal Bpeooh to agroo iaitniuiiy , at ftiintcst ^ s at strongest , with the tono and rhytV of hi * mont oracular
Wt Fortho rest , these now lotterB nr « not offered as presenting any new feature of tho ppet ' B character . Regarded in themselves , and as tho substantive productions of a man . their importance would be Blight . But they poMow interest beyond
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ratios are not the" legislators , but the radges and police of hteratare . They ao not make laws—tney interpret and try to en £ oxceth . em . ^ -i : dinbw < jh Review .
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Leader (1850-1860), Feb. 28, 1852, page 205, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1924/page/17/
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