On this page
- Departments (1)
-
Text (9)
-
'jPUtvyirftirtV %/Stlm^Vl*
-
Untitled Article
-
Untitled Article
-
Untitled Article
-
Untitled Article
-
Untitled Article
-
Untitled Article
-
Untitled Article
-
Untitled Article
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.
-
-
Transcript
-
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.
Additionally, when viewing full transcripts, extracted text may not be in the same order as the original document.
'Jputvyirftirtv %/Stlm^Vl*
33 fetatort .
Untitled Article
OtiB readers must have bean somewhat amazed—as -we ourselves were—last week by the chaotic article on Modern Poets , wherein , among other incongruities , we were made to praise , with all the emphasis of italics , some of CrsaAiJ ) Massjby ' s lines emphasised for special disapprobation . We left our " proof" in a state fit to appear . But when men cast their proof upon the waters , they sometimes find it again after many days in a shipwrecked condition . By an accident at the printer ' s— " easier imagined th&a described ' —we had our proof " shorn , of its fair proportions ; " as the reader will understand when we tell him that , after quoting l iberal l y and approvingly speed " mens of the really good writing in GtEbaxd Massei ' s volume , we had , in all fairness , to point out some of the defects ; the passage in wliich this was done was dropped out bj accident , and we now restore it from a copy of our nroof . After several extracts , the article continued thus : —
u And to close these specimens here is a very characteristic passage : — * I lookt out en the sunny side of Life , And saw thee summering like a blooming Vine , That reacneth globes of wine in at the lattice By the ripe armful , with ambrosial smile . The flying Cares but touch thy Life ' s fair face , Lightly as swimming shadows dusk the Lake . ' u But we need only continue the passage to wander knee-deep into all the vices and affectations of his style : — * Come sit thee down , dear , by , my side , To-night ; The world shut out , our little world shut in t Where we are happy as the Bird whose nest Is heaven * d in . the heart of purple Hills , Or region'd in the palmy top of life , Where sleep is dark and lusty as leaves in June : ! N " ow shut thine eyes , aaid see a pageant bloom Upon the dark , —a Vision sweeping by . I was a dweller amid sladows grim : Till Freedom toucht my yearning eyes , and lo 1 Life in a shining circle , rounding rose , As heaven on heaven goes up the jetveTd Night . ITew floods of passionate life swirfd at my heart , Like Ocean-surges rolling round the world : And Freedom was my glittering Bride . ' " Such fantastic tricks played with the English language , and for what a purpose ! The bird ' s nest is heavened in the heart of a hill , and regioned in the palmy top of life—a peculiar region , where sleep is dark and lusty as leaves in June : peculiar sleep and peculiar leaves 1 Let him calmly translate ; the whole passage into prose , and then ask himself whether this apostrophe was at all necessary : — : * O Love ! sab-lime me uato loftier things ; Roll up my Orb from Passion ' s misting Deep , To climb the heights of Thought ' s eternal Vast . ' " What rolling up his Orb may be , and what region of Passion is known as the misting Deep , and why the poet wishes to climb the heights of tie eternal "Vast or Thought , we pretend not to understand : but for the poet ,
instead of sublimation to loftier things , he needs precipitation into tne humbler region of common sense ; he needs to curb and clip lis ambitious wings , and learn to be coutent with the English language and with imagery wliich is congruous , not merel y the tawdry splendour of fine phrases . This is not poetry : — * But -where was that infant-band , Wont in spring weather To wander fortli , hand-in-hand , Violets to gather—Whose hearts , like plumed powers , L » eapt up from the sod—Raining music in showers , As guesting a God V "
Untitled Article
The passage thus , restored may ex plain the verdict which on summing up we had to pronounce upon the writer , but which , must have seemed to the reader unjustified by the specimens given , the more so as we appeared to praise the affectations no less than the beauties . ( N . B . Since the foregoing was in type we have received a letter from Mr . Massey , which proves—if proof were needed—that the want of good sense aad taste wo noticed in his poems extends to his lettors . )
Untitled Article
When Gas was first introduced us a means of street-lighting , great was the uproar among candle-makers , and manifold were the prophecies of ruin . The printers of America seem to be us wroth with Justiee as the candlernakers were with Gas . If piracy of English works is to cease , they , the printers , -will be ruined . Unhappily in America , where printers have votes , legislators are awed by such clamours , and the long tulkcd of Copyright Treaty will be rendered a mockery in deference to the interests of printers . A letter from a correspondent well states what will be the effect of the clause to be introduced £ 11 the Treaty : —
Untitled Article
Cboklsb has not only replied to Lokd John : on the subject of his ?* safe malignity , " he has published the reply , together with several of Moore's letters , showing in the Poet a distressing amount of blarney , and an unple&r sant unscrupulousness . As far as damaging Moore goes , tliis pampnlet effects its object ; but we cannot in any way see how it improves CboSkeS ' s position . For let us remember tlie starting point of the quarrel . ~~ A £ oobb in one of the entries of his unlucky J ournal , declares hu willingness not to ridicule Choker . Tbe editor of the Times had . asked it , and Moobb adds that the request was unnecessary , ' * as Choicer and I are old allies . " Bearing in mind that CsoKERhad written one of the bitterest and most malicious
articles on Moore , " sneering at his domestic affections , and loading his memory with reproach . " —an article which so deeply wounded Mrs . Moobc , that she would not believe the autlior of it could , have been the friend of her husband—feeling as every honest mind must have felt , a burst of indignation against such needless malice—Lord Johx added to the passage in the diary this note : — - " To Moore it was unnecessary to addrcas a request to spare a friend . If the request had been addressed to tbe other party , Asking him to spare Moore . wWt would hare been the result ? Probably , while Moore was alive , and able to wield his pon , it might have been successful . Had Moore been dead , it would have served only to give additional zest to the pleasure of safe malignity . "
This note made the old critic . wrathe I He , who has spent his life in writing criticisms which are disgraces to Literature , is so sensitive to it himself that one is astonished such sensitiveness never suggested a gentler style . He replies , he quotes Moore ' l etters to prove that Moore did not spare his friend , but ridiculed Vim in the diary while professing great personal regard . This may be so ; this is so . But the biting part of Lord John ' s note was not that Moork spared his friend , but that Cbokkr , who vould have spared Moobk while the wit was alive to retaliate , wrote a disgraceful article on him wiien no such retaliation was to be dreaded . There lay the sting . That sting Ceokeb has not drawn out by his pamphlet ; nor will ho be able to draw it out .
Untitled Article
A new classical quarterly has just been established in Cambridge : The Journal of Classical and Sacred Philology which , although addressed to a special class , will find some readers among our own . It is what it pretends to be : a journal of philology . Tko opening article by "W . G . Cla . uk , the author of that delightful Gazpacho , is an elaborate refutation , point by point , © f Suvjkbn's celebrated " Essay on the Birds of Arittophanea ^ an
Untitled Article
" There has been a statement current far some weeks past , that it is proposed to exaak an American copyright to such works > only as shall bettpiinfeeltn America ? audit is ^ Es ?^ further proposed thatwh 0 * the tftfrf «* , imporSEtyoii bookVahalliHjJA dS& on those of old standing , it shall hettised to 2 f p « r cent . < m all ^ ntt ^ kiPft at ESl books which American repnnters wish , to" lay hands on . Passing over the ethics ' dNbr matter , allow me to point oat some of tfie erils which this measure , if earned will entail W only on English authors , but on the English public . . ? ¦ ™»» u , u » 6 " Whilst considerable benefit will be gathed by writers » f popular literature which « ver commands in America a sufficiently larjje publicto cover the cost of reprinting , and lck < ve something over for copyright ; and whilst * f « w writers of lOpg resUblished reputation though not caterers of amusement only ,, mm- reap some advantage , th » cUss ' of writers . ^ rho of alfothers labour under tlie greatestdifflc-uitieS j Snd most nefed encotrageraent-i-the wn&fs of philosophical and scientific works—^ will "be excluded from all benefit . IThe circulatiba of
treatises on Education , on Psychology , oa Ethics , on Political Economy , on Physiology ^ pu divers of the highest and most important topics more intimately connected with human weffiiift than any other , is sol small as ' not to cbv ^ r the < x » t of dne fr > nting , > mttchlessof two . 'Jwny a man of science—and I can mention Professor Owen ? as haying p ^ bUcly named himself ias an instance—has to consider when , wishing to publish a , new ^ book , whether he can a&nnt it . The question is not whether these laborious inquiries will lirmg an ^ ad&jtiate remxinerktioi ) ; it is not even whether the publication of tliem will pay its * xpense »; but it is whether $ Sb loss that is sure to be entailed will come wrthin moderate limits . Such is the obstaclqwbicb almost every author who deals with subjects of an abstract or profound nature has ttfitieet Clearly an equitable American copyright Ijy doubTinglh © extent of tie circulation would remedy this evil , and redound to . the public' benefit . Tile . Arrangement now proposed , lowever , will afftrd not the slightest ameDpratjwn . ,,,,, ; v v' s ,, f . ¦ - ¦ . v . H " Nor is this alL Not only does tb ^ limited circulation of the gr ^ y « r , order of lifa « a ( iure enta . il a . neennkrv -nenaltv en fha ntiblic&tlan r * f liriimv nf tliA most ' Vfefnshla , WwiiKi' Wat * if .
absolutely prevents many of the most valuable books Irom ^ l ^ nlii s ^ ^ n ^ iten * M ^ b ^ ui g ; fa . fortunatel y there are some writers on sci £ tt& ^ d ^ giving ' their investigations and discdveriestciiiankind ; th 6 r « are ' w tofar&Jtifo > pifa : ^ foti ! tiife who ' are obliged to leave Inoportant : works Unwritten , au * l- $ pti ^ S ^^ s >!^^ lb : . ^! i ^ K ^} Everyone who has had much ; intercourse with the scientific and Utewrt wj > rld knQ » fa 5 tiiat there are many men who , could they bflt gain a bare . UvelitioQd by d « ui £ fso , WQUldgl | i ^ I y spend tteir days over impottant investigateons in the s ^ entidt of thWcfi 65 cei brm devel 0 wg the great ihonghts known to tHem ; but iviio , kaoying fbe rum that w ^ d folloW ^^ procedure , are fain to continue a distastefal profession , or U > " f « U into tlie ^ nuserable' ^ iopition of a publisher's hack ; f Not only , therefore , does the public ^ £ ^ Ivoi ^ J ^ e ^ % ^ i |^ j « u « ji |^ tion and raided price of sticb . graver books as are issued , bat ; they Abaoi ^ tely lose fdtp £ eUier manyequally valuable ones . .. . . -. . .. ¦ ., ^ , ; . •' ,, - "' , " .. ' ,, ' -1 ~ . '" - " , ' t '" ; ' ^' " The point , however , to which I wish n . ow specially to jo * aw atWiwiSqa is \ that ttiiel ihe proposed change of imporfc dutiei , the ^ e evibioiU b&jiMllgte ^ Miol ^ ie less pop ^ tilar works are conterned , not onlr the authors , biitthe ^ pebple ^ of both EngUad- ^ iid the United : States will be hi aworsepositioa thanAow . At pi ^ sen ^ t ^ tiia . English ^ ditioaidi the philosophic and scieatific works which it does not pay New , York wafe *; tewi ^ i » of
obtain a tanutcd circulation m Americar ^ on the average probably J tenth the (" niiinber printed is thus disposed of . But lei the iiuport duty be rawd from 1 C to 25 per centTS . ] et the prices of such works to American pubBsters be raised by the addition of retadlers profits oh this per centage , to at least 20 per cent above 1 what ; tley notr ^ ar ^^ nd'the Yesalti ^ iQnst inevitably be a restriction of the already small circulation of such m&tl& *) sBfe jj ^ . ^^ i » nishing the total number sold , will necessitate a ^ higher pnM peTiCopr ^ u the whole edi ^^ the price to English purchasers will cdnseqaently be iai $ e ^ k , aad the EopjlSli circalatioc ^ 3 U thereby be still further limited . Thus the cruel difiicult&ViiSder wM ^ gt a *^ books already labour , will lie intensified ; the number of % cKbooki ' f aolbh ' ed wiUbe ' Btiil further limited ; and the important mental culture to wb ^ itb ^ miiu ^ ter willibe checked . " Whoever calls to mind the now gen ^ ertelly recognise ^ ^ t : $ uat tlie ; spr ^ i $ -a main element in national progression- —wh ^ e ^ stoik « s , noarks how much popular welfare depends npb ^ lj& 0 wf <^ g % of . & ^ see that tins is by no means an author ' s question only , lipt a public qaestion ) kn' 4 « r » fob of more moment than at first appears . " . - ' ¦'¦*' - " - . ' ' ~' - ' ' " - ' ** . > , - ^ « i . w .. ^ -: / . , -uj ; . ^ . All this is obvious enough ; but ivhat do printers car © for the interests of Literature , Philosophy and Science , when ( heir interests are threatened ?
Untitled Article
Critics are not the legislators , but the judges and police of literature . They do not maie laws—they interpret and try to enforce them .. —Edinburgh Review .
Untitled Article
March 11 , ; 1864 . ] THE LEADER . 2 ? 3
-
-
Citation
-
Leader (1850-1860), March 11, 1854, page 233, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2029/page/17/
-