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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.
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These is a book which even Macahlat has not read ; or , if he has read it , ho has not been conscious of the fact : we mean the Book of Jashar , referred to by some writers in the Old Testament as a popular work of their day . There are many reasons why even large appetites are kept away from certain books : there is difficulty adding its weight to worthlessne ss ( as in the case of I < tcofhbon's Cassandra ) , there is insipidity ( as in Silics Italicus ) , and finally there is the fact of non-existence , which perhaps may rank as a chief impediment . In this class ranks the Book of Jashar : it is non-existent ; or was until lately , when Dr . Donaldson , in a Latin treatise published at Berlin , proved to his own satisfaction that the book was extant and not extant , that in fact it was wrought up into various parts of the Bible . He undertakes to reconstruct the book out of the fragments which have been
worked up in the canonical writings . He undertakes to fix the date of the work , as the age of Solomon . He undertakes to p oint out the influence of Milton in modifying our traditional theology . He undertakes many other things , among them to prove that the Serpent is to be understood as a PhaUic symbol ; with all of which we do not presume to meddle , leaving competent scholars to debate such intricate questions . We allude to the work because it has passed out of the circle of Biblical criticism into the
wider notoriety of scandal and theological acrimony . Dr . Donaldson has baen attacked for heresy and indelicacy : heresy , because he takes the truly bold step of attempting to criticise the canonical writings as he would the writings of Livy or Diodobus ; heresy , because he treats the third chapter of Genesis as an allegory ; and indelicacy , because he has spoken of things which the Bible speaks of with unhesitating plainness . In answer to one of his assailants , the Rev . John J . S . Pebowne , he publishes a pamphlet , hot in temper , indignant in orthodoxy , and peremptory in refutation .
Respecting the charge of indelicacy , he says : — Now I have not only employed a dead language , which removes the discussion from the cognizance of the English public , but I have expressed the great reluctance with which I felt myself obliged , as an honest interpreter , to enter into anatomical details , which , though revolting to us , were familiar to the ancient Jews . As Gesenius says of the metaphor in Numbers xxiv . 7 , these things are " ex nostro sensu obscoena , sed orientalibus familiaria ; " and theological learning , like medical science , looks with calm , cold gaze on all the operations of nature . Those who can really understand the Hebrew-words , which we render " male and female created He them , " ( Gen . i . 27 ) , will find nothing more shocking in all the mysteries of oriental allegory . Mr . Perowne ,
however , must allow me to remind him that " unto the pure all things are pure ( Tit . i . 15 ); that prudishness is too often the result of a prurient imagination ; and that perfect innocency knows not the blush of shame . A well-regulated mind is not affected by the grossness of a primitive people ; at any rate it would be the height of absurdity to maintain that a repugnance to modern ideas of delicacy detracts from the probability of an interpretation of this Hebrew text . The plain-spokenness of the Old Testament , in matters which we never mention , afforded Voltaire a ready plea for his scoffing depreciation , and it cannot be denied that , according to Mr . Perowne's view of the matter , the English Bible must be the most indecent book in the English language !
The Book of Jashar , by a natural transition , leads us to the Etudes sur VArt Judaique , by M . de Saulct , the tenth and last article on this subject appearing in the new number of La Revue Contemporaine . A treatise on Jewish Art will sound to most readers like a description of the hair of a bald man ; the Mosaic Arabs , whatever their excellences , not being celebrated in the department of Art . M . de Saulcy , well known for his learning and ingenuity , has ransacked the Bible for indications , and by dint of a liberal use of the term Art , has contrived to get materials ^ for a small book , curious enough to those curious in such matters . The same number of the Revue ( which , by the way , is decidedly superior to the preceding number ) contains a paper on the ' * Legend of Adam , " as treated in the middle ages , and
: m analysis of a recently-discovered miracle-play of the twelfth century , entitled Adam ; i \ paper well worth reading . Sainte Beuve contributes an article on " Werther" apropos of the correspondence between Goethe and Kestneji ; but the absence of any knowledge of the period and of Gorman literature prevents him from touching this subject with his accustomed felicity . One remark we are led to make , because the trait is characteristic of the nation , and is not a mere trait of the writer . It is this : In a note referring to the French translation of the work ho reviews , M . Sainte Beuvjb has the effrontery to say that this translation has " preserved the perfect exactitude and the character of the original . " Now we bog the reader to observe that Sainte Beuve is entirely and confessedly ignorant
of ., German ,, yet this ignorance is no impediment to his judgment , it never suggests to him a doubt of his capacity in discriminating between an exact translation and one inexact , it does not oven make him qualify his assertion by any modest disclaimer . Ho pronounces as if the evidence were before him . Had he known German , and had he road the original , ho would have seen ( as the extracts given in his article prove ) that the translation is by no irieans exact ; but had it boon literally accurate , how should Saintb Bkuvb know it ? This is French . In no Gorman or English work will you find anything so palpably , unblushingly , naively impudent . If a German or an Englishman is ignorant of mathematics , he never thinks of pronouncing on mathematical questions ; if ho confessedly knows nothing of Latin or
Italian , he never commits the imprudence of an opinion on a translation from these languages ; he may deceive himself as to the extent of his knowledge , he may try to deceive others as to its extent , but when he confesses ignorance he never assumes the right of passing judgments .. Amon » Frenchmen this prudence is rare . What they do not know , they divine ! They fly even in vacuo . The Revue Contemporaine has an article from which we learn more of the doctrines of the " new school" in poetry which M . Maxime » u Gamp hopes to found . As an energetic reaction against Imitation , especially imitation
of classic ideas , there is truth in the new programme , almost amounting to truism . But a great mistake is committed when in advocating the Poetry of the Present an attempt is made to idealise the uses and the usages of the Present . It is the thoughts and feelings which stir within our souls , the hopes and aspirations , not the machinery and inventions of our day , which can form poetic material . Locomotives and Cotton Mills are wondrous things , but so are the Differential Calculus , and the Aerometer : they are children of our day , but they will not furnish the poet with subjects for his art . The distinction between Use and Beauty is fundamental ; it is as wide as the distinction between Speech and Song .
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EUSTACE CONYERS . Eustace Conyers . A Novel . By James Hannay . Hurst and Blackett . The reason why Mr . Hannay—though essentially superior to all other naval novelists in the possession of genuine wit , subtle feeling , and delicate scholarship—always insists on taking to the sea when he wants to fit a story to a novel , is suggested in this pleasant passage from the present work : — Nights like these make a man meditative : and sailors are more serious than is generally supposed ; being serious just as they are gay because they give themselves up to natural impressions more readily than other people . At this moment , the least conventional men now living are probably afloat . If you would know how your ancestors looked and talked , before towns became Babylonish , or trade despotic , you must go and have a cruise on salt water . For the sea's business is to keep the earth fresh " ; and it preserves character as it preserves meat .
But we cannot declare that he altogether takes advantage of these opportunities of picking up character , for , while admitting that he is the only one of the naval writers who gives an accurate conception of the actual condition of the " service " of our day , his characters appear to us to be somewhat characterless , mere machines for the elucidation of Mr . Hannay ' s mots , and at any rate are characters that would seem more at home in May Fair than on the quarter-deck . We should be sorry if our literature were without Mr . Hannay ' s sea sketches ; they are true as to facts ; they give a noble aspect to sea-life that cannot but renew our national pride as a sailor-race , and so do a better sort of Dibden work in taking our young braves from the counting-house to the coast . But we rather think that , so far , this brilliant writer has not selected the best form for the development of his best faculties . Tins is a novel without a story ; and why should a man ,
having something to say , encumber himself with a machinery which he cannot or does not choose to manage ? We have said that Mr . Hannay's way is to fit his story to his moral , in which sense his novel lias as little of the dramatic effect as a relig ious novel ; and is it not evident that a didactic sea novel is as great a difficulty as Miss Martineau undertook to surmount when she decided on combining , in novelettes , the passions and political economy ? Mr . Disraeli , in Coninysby , Sybil , and Tancred , three books which have produced a profound impression in our day , has set a fashion which Mr . Hannay , with a fascinating aptitude for taking generalisations and an eager tendency to political satire , has been perhaps glad to avail himself of . But the fa t £ of Plumcr Ward ' s books , so imposing m thenday , ought to warn men of his class of mind that their chances of literary fame would be better in the biography and the essay . Novels are the proper domain of the story teller and the philosopher ought not to poach .
; Whatever may be said of the novel , there can be but one opinion that the book is full of first-class writing ; and greater praise we may otter in the opinion that the work is healthy , dealing with a rosy phase of existence , leading to enjoyable conclusions , and compelling urf , even when we laugh nt too much Conservative affectation of the feudal point of view , to laugh without sneering . That those who may come to the reading tins novel without a distinct conviction that the disorganisations of our civilised Me are to be set right by our falling back on the " old families " will laugh
consumedly at numberless insinuations in these pages in favour of our menu the oligarchy we guarantee them ; but we can also assure them that Mr . Hannay is a very pleasant sort of Tory , and that ho is partial to the aristocracy , not for tho snob ' s but for the herald ' s reasons , only because a lord is more likely than his lordship ' s tailor to bo of good blood . And , undoubtedly , the young Conservatives , — if they mig ht feul more intensely antagonistic to plutocracy , and on tho whole , fiercer Tories , after reading Eustace Conyers—are likely to come to the end of the book with the sensation ox a clearer and more serviceable consciousness of what a Conservative P '"" ^
ought to be at . In this respect the novel , which is perhup amore political than naval , does useful political work . ) f ,.,, Tho best character in tho book is that of a captain who " gets on . J- iit sketch is strained—but tho hand is very strong : — An essay has yot to bo written on tho " Huecosa of mediocrities . " Who" that ° ' * " ^ ia written , Captnin Moggloatonloiigh will occupy a corner in it . , , T ' of superiority of talent , and . ( what i . i atrangor ) without any very groat ndvantuffc connexion , ho wa » notorious for hia profesaionul good fortune , and when no g "' " Hildobrand , " people did not wonder , though many were tmgry enough— an som , indeed , are angry when anybody gets anything . What was tho secret of tlu Vh <« I tain's success ? Doubtloas , his star ( Saturn , though a lendon , is ft lucky Bt '" V ., ' something to do with it but tho truth ia , there waa a kind of bland and oily »» ""J about tho man , which had boon as serviceable to him in life ' a struggle , na oil waa the ancient wrpstlora . Ho had riaen , entirely , by availing himaolf of thw poraou
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Critics are not the legislators , but the judges and police of literature . They do not mate Iaw 3 —they interpret and try to enforce them . —Edinburgh Review .
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Leader (1850-1860), June 23, 1855, page 604, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2096/page/16/
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