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weaker than ail , and worse than all , are the controversialists who smite one another in a battle about things that are to be when myriads of centuries have come and gone . The Rev . Mr . Godfrey indites a work called The Conflict and the Triumph . ( Partridge and Oakey . ) It is written with fury , and not corrected with phlegm . The . writer is like . James I ., com-Spsini * a " counterblast against tobacco" when lie should have regulated the isonlers of the realm . He thinks this is a time to explain the Book of Daniel . He has a right to think so , and his inquiries lead him to some profound conclusions . He has been convinced that the Turkish Empire is not
the 1 / Uver Euphrates , in which we think Wild ' s Map and Guy ' s Geography concur with him . Further , Louis Napoleon is not the Man of Sin—intelligence which will , probably , be agreeable to Louis Napoleon . We ourselves are Maddened to find that so luminous a critic as Mr . Godfrey abandons to its fate Dr . Cuniming ' s theory of tails , —not that of Lord Monboddo or of Dr . Kuhn , but a special theory of his own . In the " Revelations" occurs a passage descriptive of an army of horsemen , " whose power is in their mouth and in their tails . " Whereupon the Scotch Presbyter , who does a great stroke of business in the Apocalyptic line , sees a connexion between this ver . se and the horse-tail standards of the Ottoman
cavalry . With all gravity does I \ Ir . Godfrey disprove this hypothesis ; " the power of the Turks is nut in ihzir dead horse tails . " Here is logic , which encourages us to proceed . There is next a vigorous refutation of the arginiicnt that because Arbc in Hebrew means an Arab , and . Irha means a locust , therefore , every locust is an Arab . The locusts eaten by John in the desert could not have been Arabs , says Mr . Godfrey . Certainly not , though Dr . Cuniming may suppose that the Baptist was a cannibal . If we were not shocked , we should be amused by this frivolity ; but we are forced to remember that two religious ministers are playing parts in the burlescjue . Once more , Mr . Godfrev denies that Nicholas I . of Russia
was a hailstone . Dr . Cuniming says he was , but Mr . Godfrey has a fixed belief on that point . Indeed , it acts as yeast to his wrath , for he foams up until he is tempted to write , " Were 1 an infidel , and had the points of Dr . Cuniming's book conceded to me , I would overthroW j Jthe whole system of Christianity . " Is there a fit audience for Mr . Godfrey ? Is this incoherent nonsense consumed by any class of readers ? Undeniably ; but a synopsis of English minds would classify them into many different orders . Then . ' were some who admired Goldsmith when he " wrote like an angel , " and others who adored him when he "talked like poor Poll . "
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PICTUliES OF PALESTINE . Pictures ofPalestine , Asia Minor , Sicily and Spain ; or , the Lands of the Sat-acen By liayard Taylor . Sampson Low . Mr . Bayard ' Taylob has caught the spirit of the East , with which he gives life and truth to his pictures of travel . He is neither a philosopher nor an antiquarian ; but essentially an artist , who depicts the varieties of form , light , and colour , in the groups , the landscapes , or the city scenes of Southern Europe , or Western Asia . And his book therefore is pictorial . A sea of sapphire waters—a field of crimson poppies—a tract of red sanda bla . ze of flowers—a blue or purple sky—a range of Saracen pillars , and arches beaming with gold—or a dome of cedar foliage , is richly described
by him , in that peculiar stylo , half fanciful , half serious , which he seems to have acquired from the study of Oriental poets , or from long familiarity with the social atmosphere of the East . He has b < ien an untiring : wanderer . We formerly traced with him the route ; from Alexandria to the White Nile ; the title-page of his new volumes describes a large nrea of observation ; and wo are promised a further account of his experiences in China , India , the Loo-CUoo Isles , and Japan . Writing in good humour , and in elegant , original , suggestive language , he pleases us far more than the common illustrated routine tourists , whose journals are uuule up , partly of curses , and partly of quotations . Even ' quarantine is not disagreeable to Mr . Bayard Taylor . His first letter , indited , from the waterless hungry rock of detention at Bey rout , contains wot a single murmur , and none but lighthearted maledictions . In fact , with soup , lamb cutlets , and Syrian larks ,
imported from a neighbouring hotel , lie wiled the hours away m content , though , noise and inconvenience surrounded him . His journey thence to . Jerusalem was a feast for the eye ; it lay through a Country enriched by the aspects of a Syrian spring , and enlivened by the motions and incidents of a half-patriarobal life . Reaching the central towns Of Palestine , he visited tho spots beloved by imagination , the Jordan , Jericho , Jehosaphut , the Mount of Olives , the Y ' ule of Uiiimou , ami " that proud brook , the brook of lvedron . ? In the luxury of its vegetation , the Holy Land reminded him of California , —with its picturesque groves , its harvests of wild-growing grain , its plains fragrant with aromatic herbs , its ekies without clouds , and its nig hts without dew . A similar exuberance Clothed the slopes of the Anti-Lebanon , and tho . level country round JJamnsdiis , —so enchanting in a distant view , . says JMr . Bayard lay lor , that nothing loss than a city of palaces , with marble walls , and gules ol ivory ami pearl , could satisfy tlie traveler's mind , still full of beautiful illusion . Here , However , costumed as hi : was afler the fashion of the East , ho tasted the
real ! flavour of Oriental lifi-. .. ,. 'Too often , wherever you may waiulor , the hotels of Europe hociu to follow yotii « o that among the cupolas of Kl-lrfln . n , yon appear to reoogm . se . the Chambers and corridors you lately quitted at Turin , liut , in Mahomed « favourite city , an hotel i « truly a thing of the * East . You are ushered into a spacious court paved with miirblo ; » stone bnsiu full oi water ami surrounded by vases of llowurs cools ami perfume * it , from the con Ire ? lemontbGOB shade tho entrance and rtlinke thoir Hwoetm-. SH into the air ; » vine tilhnba about tho ho two , which in coloured in bars of orange , blue and white . Oiloae Bide is a lofty apartment , open in front , and brilliant with eiioaustu paint . A tessellated floor looks cod and pure , and a divan of henied cushions invites th « lazy fmmo to loll on it , hh good Mussulmeu do . In this luxurious place , Mr . Bayard Taylor was tempted , by " ove of « xP 0 rl 0 n * ; « j ioinlialotliofumoHof ha « hecHh , and to surrender lnmselt to . tho drouiu-Lulen reposo it produces . A line , nervous , burning thrill shot through him , ma
pulse throbbed ; a sense of strange freedom succeeded ; he felt his nature altered , and imagined that sparkles of light were passing from him into an immeasurable depth of darkness around . Then a crowd of visions , like an heraldic pageant , came before him ; he was in Egypt ; he was in Elysium ; he was in Queen Mab's car of translucent pearl ; he listened to wondrous music ; sweet odours fed his sense ; a curious land opened to his view ; comic transformations forced him to laugh ; pains and nervous trepidations , like those of madness , came after these sensations of mirth and pleasure ; lie seemed to take the altitude of human joys and sufferings ; and finally , recovered from his delirium with a worn frame and a wandering consciousness enough to convince him that the Eastern sensualist , who steeps himself in the unreal raptures of hasheesh , must gradually decay , and become the slave of this horrible artifice .
A more pleasant chapter is supplied by Mr . Bayard Taylor on Bathing and Bodies . He affirms , what is true , that Europeans in general know not how to bathe . They only wash themselves , and scrub their skin to inflammation with barbarous towels . In the East , though stiff-jointed travellers complain o / steam , heat , and dislocation , bathing is luxury . Our present tourist knew this when he went to the baths of Damascus , for he prepared himself , as for a festival of ceremonious pleasure . He duly kicked off his red slippers before mounting the divan , and submitted to the stripper ' s h ; md with uninquiring docility . All the processes were undergone with equal patience and appreciation , and he emerged from the bath , a lighter and a happier man . A propos , there is a discussion introduced on the subject of human beauty , and Mr . Taylor tells us what he has observed . We must quote this passage , premising that we might dispute his notions of the old Greek sculptors and their inspirations : —
So far as female beauty is concerned , the Circassian women have no supenors-Thev have preserved in their mountain home the purity of the Grecian models , and still " display the perfect physical loveliness , -whose type has descended to us in the Venus de Medici . The Frank who is addicted to wandering about the streets of Oriental cities can hardly fail to be favoured with a sight of the faces of these beauties . More than once it has happened to me , in meeting a veiled lady , sailing along in her balloon-like feridjee , that she Las allowed the veil to drop by a skilful accident , as she passed , and has startled me with the vision of her beauty , recalling the line of the Persian poet : " Astonishment ! is this the da > vn of the glorious sun , or is it the full moon ? " The Circassian face is a pure oval ; the forehead is low and fair , " an excellent thing in woman , " and the skin of an ivory whiteness , except the faint pink of the cheeks and the ripe , roseate stain of the lips . The hair is dark , glossy , and luxuriant , exquisitely outlined on the temples ; the eyebrows slightly arched , and drawn with a delicate pencil ; while lashes like " rays of darkness" shade the large , dark , humid orbs below them . The alabaster of the face , so pure as scarcely to show the blue branching of the veins on the temples , is lighted by those superb
eyes—• ' Shining eyes , like antique jewels set in Parian statue-stone , " —whose wells are so dark and deep , that you are cheated into the belief that a glorious soul looks out of them . „ Once bv an unforeseen chanc « , I beheld the Circassian form , m its most perfect development . J was on board an Austrian steadier in the harbour of Smyrna , when the harem of a Turkish pasha came out in a boat to embark for Alexandria . The sea Vas rather rough , and nearly all the officers of the steamer were ashore . There were six veiled and swaddled women , with a black eunuch as guard , in the boat , whicnlay tossing for some time at the foot of the gangway ladder , before the frightened
passengers could summon courage to step out . At last the youngest of them—a Circassian girl of not more than fifteen or sixteen years of age—ventured upon tne ladder , clasping the hand-rail with one hand , while with the other she held together the folds of her cumbrous feridjee . I was standing in the gangway , -watching her , when a slight lurch of the steamer caused her to loose her hold of the garment , whicb , fastened at the neck , was blown back from hef shoulders , leaving her body screened but by a single robe of light , gauzy silk . Through this , the marble whiteness of her skin , the roundness , the glorious symmetry of her form , flashed upon me , as a vision
of Aphrodite , seen " Through leagues of shimmering water , like a star . " It was but a momentary glimpse ; yet that moment convinced me that form * of Phidian perfection are still nurtured in the vales of Caucasus . The temples of Baalboc , the cedars of Lebanon , and the culture of the Syrian plains need not detain us from JVIr . Taylor ' s dissertation on pipes and coffee Ho one , he asserts , can understand the East without smoking as Easterns do ; for the hookah is a new emblem added to the apes , ivory , known tobacco the traveller
and peacocks of Asia . Had the Greeks , says , in the spirit •! ' a devotee , they would have personified it in the shape of a "od-nmore Kpicureim Apollo , a more indolent Bacchus ;; but , to people * ' who never smoke , " ami to women , he addresses some lines of reasonable expostulat ion . They are not to conjure un the idea of pigtail , bird s-eye , or cavendish ; but to think of cakes of dried leaves and blossoms , exhaling an odour of erusl . ol flowers , for those are the tender buds of Jebelee , which , for use , are moistened with rose-water . ' 1 he smoke , drawn through a long ehcrrv-tuiek pipeful amber mouthpiece , is pure , coo 1 , and sweet , with , an aromatic flavour . "It excite , " ( we quote emphatically ) " no s ^ vatum is
ml lovea l . ehmd it no unp leasant stale odour " What more nccessaig to bo said lor any tobacco } As to coffee , it is the favourite of every . Arabic Anni-reon , who extols it as « the beverage of the people oi God , givoi of youth and beziuty , and exhprtsto -drink it with conhdoace , and to iegard iiot the r . rattlo of fouls , wlio condemn it without foundation . We \ L » iVoiu the valley of ilio Orontos with the travellers to Alep . pc , to tho plums of Anliocli , to the fields of l « us , to Tarsus , through the lain us , will its pastoral valleys , and through tho heart of Asia Minor , by morn routes , to l . ailik , or JLaculicea . Thence wo proceed to ^> "st'ul \"' Xj across ' n territory ' rarely illustrated by narratives of travel and Jj c ^ to readers in search of vivid and picturesque description Ah- ^^ reininiscenco * of the Turkish capital At present we v , 11 un P ^ vwu chanter * , ami pick up , on a bridle path in Andalusia , a feP «'» f » ™ £° , Z _ liuniliar story . * It will serve to exhibit the varied dionictor oUhe boo A . we were trotting along t . uough the palmetto «»^^^^^ t not like to hear an Andnliwinn story . " Nothmjf would j kaa ™ o J oi , k « Hide eloHolesiuo mo , then , " Halrthc , . " that ^ "V ^ Sffi wi ! once a I complied , and he gave me the following , J »« « * » J £ J , ftnd hundrcda of very rich man , who had thoiwund * of cattle in U » o oicij-h ,
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JtjLY 14 , 1856 . J ' THE LEADER . 67 ? , — - —v .- . alt ^* * ' — '' - *^* - - ^ : ¦ : —— i— ii - ¦ . ¦ _ . ,..,-. - ¦¦ . - — : . ,. . — ^ _ . .. _ . ... .. SmK ¦ .
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Leader (1850-1860), July 14, 1855, page 677, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2099/page/17/
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