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No sooner does one of the herd die , than ihe swift-scented crows swoop upon his carcase , and turn his death into the nourishment of their life . We '' gentlemen of the Press" have something instinctively corvine , it would seem , in the hungry haste with which we pounce upon the dead to convert them into Particles . " This is not said sarcastically . Does not Nature everywhere manifest this same subjection of death to life— -of what is past to the continuance , under new forms * of what is present ? Do we not all pass from hand to hand the lamps of life , and so keep the circle for ever luminous and active . Moore dies ; England feels a gentle
elegiac sadness in thinking of this bright happy spirit passing awajpj and England ' s active writers wish to record something of that fugitive feeling in review articles and magazine memoirs . Foremost among those we have seen is that in th& British Quarterly , which is not only a deep and genial glance into Moore ' s poetry , but is > at the same time , a suggestive article ; the paper , in Blackwpod takes up wholly different ground ; while the memoir in the Biographical Magazine has the advantage of being a biographical sketch copious in its details , and well put together . lanat its contents noti
Recurring to the British Quarterly to gce , we ce that it is less amusing and less striking than usual . The heavy articles predominate ; and although none of them are unworthy of their place , they have not left any durable impression on us > The North British Review , with four articles lessij has greater attractions . There is an elaborate essay on British Statesmanship—&discussion of Binocular Vision and the Stereoscope—and a discursive , yet suggestive paper on Life and Chemistry , to which we would call attention . But the most attractive paper to be found in this month ' s periodicals is , in our opinion , that on Sharks and their CartilaginpHS Cousins , in Fraserj it is " not only an instructive chapter of natural history , but also an entertaining piece of writing . Fraser is very
varied this month . Besides Bypatid and Qigby Grand , it has a lively paper on the reign of George III ., a review of Taurbmachia , and a protest against ultra peace doctrines in a defence of Nursery Rhymes . Blackwood opens with an elaborate paper on Gold— -a subject which California and Australia have brought into sudden prominence ; a delightful paper on Niebuhr , which contains ' a truth set forth in so beautiful an image , that we must pause in this our rapid indication , to present it to the reader : — " Once for all , let no man parade his love of poetry , with the least hope of being respected for it , who has not a still greater love of truth . Nay , if we reflect patiently and calmly upon this matter , we shall find that there is
hut one way to keep this flower of poesy in perennial bloom—it is to see that the waters of truth are flowing free and clear around it . We may be quite sure , that to whatever level this stream by its own vital force shall rise or sink , the same fair lily will be seen floating just on the surface of it . Just where these waters lie open to the light of heaven do we find this beautiful creation looking up from them into the sky . " Bulwer ' s endless My Novel , continues to evolve its lengthy life , and Our London Commissioner concludes his commission . The idea of this paper was good ; the writing , though pleasant , has not been up to the idea ; and the judgments delivered have a most unmistakeably provincial accent .
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Foreign Literature is unusually dull . Germany is silent . France waits till she may speak . Meanwhile , Brussels sends us two new volumes by Alexandres Dumas , and one by Leon Gozlan . The last named writer deserves peculiar mention : he has written a novel called George III . et Caroline de Brunswick , without any of those magnificent mistakes which may be called , the birthright of Frenchmen speaking of things English ! Having said so much , we cannot greatly praise this novel for its interest . Dumas is better worth reading—Is he not always worth reading ? especially his prefaces ? Dumas is ^ the most French of Frenchmen , and a Frenchman is never more naif than when speaking of himself : a preface is always his arena for display . Do take up ha , Comtesse de Charny , if only for its preface : the novel you will find to be a . continuation of Ange Pitou , which was itself a continuation of Les Memoires d ' un Medecin ; but the preface
is unadulterated Dumas . In it , among other delicious sentences , there is one where his religious indignation stigmatizes the insolence of newspaper proprietors who proposed to him to write the history of papal crimesproposed it to him , Dumas , the man tear' eZoxiv religious , the man who , whatever else ho may be , is confessedly and pre-eminently religious—ho says so , " Ou vicnt me proposer , ft , moi , Vhomme religieux par excellence I " But , to add to . the list of indignities contained in their proposals to him , it last camo the . proposal that ho should not write any more ! However , We we have the first volume of La Comtesse de Charny , and the first volume also of a new novel , Conscience VInnocent , which is amusing .
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OWEN JONES ON DECORATIVE AHT . An Attonipt to define tho Principles tohich should regulate tho Employment of Colour in the fiecorativo Arts with a few worda on the Present Wecosaiti / of an Architectural Education on the Part of tho Public , lload boforo tho Society of Arts , April 28 th , 1852 . Jfy Owon Jones . The anarchy which , reigns in Art at tho present day is like that which rei gns in Philosophy and * Society , tho substitution of an undirected oaprioo for tho action , of . ascertained law . Here , ae else where , we see the absolute
need of a Paith- ^ -of some common Belief in fixed principles—of some * ule of life , comprehensive enough to embrace all details , powerful enough to coerce all divergent tendencies . No sooner is Art separated front Religion * or what comes to the same thing , no sooner is there antagonism , dissent in : Keligiori , than Art falls into individual caprice . In this strikingly suggestive Lecture , Owen Jones emphatically recognises the want of intellectual unity as the cause of the anarchy i— . . ' ¦ _ V /' In all ages but our own , the same ornaments , the same system of colouring , Which prevailed upon their buildings , pervaded all they did , even to their humblest utensils : the ornaments on a mummy-case are analogous with * those of the Egyptian temple ; the paiSted vases of the Greeks are but the reflex of the paintings of their temples j the beautiful cushions and slippers of Morocco of the present day are adorned with similar ornaments , having the same colours as are to be found on the Walls of the Alhambra .
" It is far different with ourselves . We have no principles , no unity ; tho architect , the upholsterer , the paper-stainer , the weaver , the calico-printer , and the potter , run each their independent course ; each struggles fruitlessly , each produces in art novelty without beauty , or beauty without intelligence . " The architect , the natural head and chief of all who minister to the comforts and adornments of our homes , has abdicated his high office ; he has been content to form the skeleton which it should also have been Ms task to clothe , and has relinquished to inferior and unguided hands the delicate modelling of the tissues and the varied colouring of the surface : who can wonder at the discordance and incongruity of the result ? " . And again ?—
" It would be very desirable that we should be made acquainted with the manner in which , in the education of the Eastern artists , the management of colour is made so perfect . It is most probable that they work only from tradition and a highly-endowed natural instinct , for which all Eastern nations have ever been remarkable ; they have the further advantage of working out the style which grew up with their religion , with which every thought and action of their daily life is interwoven . " Since the Reformation , which with us separated the tie which should exist between Religion and Art , we have been deprived of this advantage : the want of unity in feeling has caused a want of unity in expression ; there is the same disorder in the art , as scepticism in the inind . This acting , generation on generation , eafeh descends lower and lower . "
The purport of his lecture is to introduce something like unity , by Pflllnjgr attention to certain fixed principles , by him . named Propositions , wKich lie at the very basis of Decorative Art , and which , if carried in the mind will serve as rules to' guide against the many discordancies of individual caprice . " We have already spoken highly of this lecture , and refer our readers to the printed copy of it , published by the Society of Arts . There are points in it froln ^ yvhich we withh old assent ; notab ly that socalled Law of Simultaneous Contrast of Colours , attributed to the French chemist Chevreuil , which , as an explanation of a well known fact , that two colours in contrast are both heightened in force , the dark darker and the light lighter , we take to be an attempt to explain objectively what is a purely subjective phenomenon . But we have no space for discussion , and must limit ourselves to such extracts from Owen Jones's lecture as may bo of interest and service to the . general reader : —
" Proposition I . " Colour is used to assist in the development ofform y and to distinguis 7 i objects or parts' of objects one from anotliev . " The most cursory glance at the works of nature will establish the truth of our first proposition . We see everywhere in nature colour assisting form , in producing distinctness : thus , flowers are separated by colour from tljjp ir leaves and stalks , and these again from the earth in which they are planted ; fthd , not to fatigue you with examples , it is at once evident how much in nature -would bo meaningless , but for the many charms of colour spread over tho earth so lavishly . « Had nature applied but ono colour to all objects , they would have been indistinct ; but , by an ever-changing variety , each lms its proper tono and hue , from the modest lily of the field to the parent of all colour , the glorious sun in tlio heavens .
" The ancionts over obeyed this law ; thus tho capitals of their columns aro separated by colour from tho shafts , and these , again , by colour from their bases or pedestals . " Pboposition II . " Colour is used to assist light and shade , helping the undulations of form by the proper distribution of the several colours . " But for light and shade we should have been unable to recognise the distinctivo forms of objects ; without it a globe would bo but a circle , tho light on tho exposed surface and the ehado on the retiring surface alone convince us of ita rotundity VjL ! jL
. . __ , , , _ , _ " We find , therefore , in nature ' s works colour assisting liglit and shaclo ; by its help tho modulations of form aro rondored more apparent : were it otherwise , it would bo to little purpose that tho flower should bo distinguished by colour from tho leaf , if tho individual form of tho flowor and the leaf hud beon extinguished in tho process . ___ . " Pjiorogrwoisr III . " These ohjeels are best attained ( i . e . objects or parts of objects avo distinguished ono from another , and tho undulations of form aro assisted ) by the use of the primary colours on small surfaces , and , in small quantities , balanced and
supported by the secondary and tertiary colours on tho larger masses , " This proportion will not so readily bo accepted as tho two preceding . Thorn oro many Who will object that tho primary colours aro the delight only of tho savniro and tho uncultivated , but I uuBwer that the primary colours uro novor vulaiir or discordant when properly applied ; tho defect will lie , not with tho colours but with tho want of skill of tho hand that applies thorn , Thoy must ho used as ' in nature , with a sparing hand , on small surface , and in small quantities ; the secondaries and tortiarios in largor miwi ^ efl , and on larger suriacoH , atoning for ¦
thoir lessor brilliancy by thoir greater volume . « Wo find In tho works of tho Egyptians , Greoka , Arabs , and Moors , during tfte best lwriods of thoir art , this boautiM law invariably followed : but , on tbg contrary whon tho art of oacli civilization declined , tho priinavics aro uo longer Oho
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rv iHrs are not the legislators , but the Judges and police of literature . They do not make laws—they interpret and try to enforcetliem . —Edinburgh Beview .
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Leader (1850-1860), May 8, 1852, page 445, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1934/page/17/
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