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HISTORY'S TELESCOPE . Did you ever try to describe a colour to a blind man ? Of course not . Eloquently as Ebanges Bbown speaks of sublime aspects of nature , elaborately as Bilackxock rushes into the adjectives of picture , we attempt not to make the blind see , knowing how impossible it is . But to see is to understand ; to be blind is to be shut out from many traits which explain things otherwise unintelligible . How many a word is uttered in kindness that sounds like reproof if we see not the
countenance with which it is uttered ! How many phrases might be taken as flattering unction to the soul , if the glance of the eye did not point the sarcasm ! The blind man , it is true , may eke out the fault of one sense by the nicety of another , and may see meaning in the tones of the voice . Or he may draw the association connected even with the objects of sight through another channel , as the blind man said that the colour of red he took to be like the
sound of the trumpet , and green " like a pleasing friendship . " But those who are at a distance , whether of space or time , hear as little as they can see ; and who has not longed for the magic mirror of Cagliostbo to conjure up the great departed , or for Prince Aid ' s perspective glass , to bring the beloved Princess to sight , and tell us at the moment how she is . Now what Count Ca-Gi-iosTBO promised to do , and what fiction ascribed to the Peri Banou , has been
performed for us by JSTiepce and Daguebbe , Talbot and CiiAiTDET . Since the improvement of the process , the use of the highlysensitive collodion , and the adaptation of printing to photography , we have the means of possessing the impress of things which we desire to see , and of conveying the impress to distant places ; while engraving promises to perpetuate the photograph , and thus we hand down the fac-simile to posterity . Do you desire things as they are in the Crimea ?
Then by going to Pall Mall East , and paying your shilling , you may see the plateau of Sevastopol , the quay of Balaklava , ; you may see the officers , from Lord Baglan or General Simpson to the postmaster , from Pelissieb to the vwandiere ; you may see the mode in which the officers have lived , the huts in which they have " pigged , " and the easy manner in which they take their hardships ; and you may see—precious to the eyes of anxious affection—exactly how they looked . Nor is it only affection that has an interest in these elucidations . You can never
understand a man ' s conduct , or calculate his future actions half so well , unless you have that key to his character which is furnished in his countenance and aspect . Show me a man ' s face , and I understand hi < 3 letter more clearly . Let me see the expression of his countenance , and 1 have further evidence on which to trust him or to distrust him—to know whether he will be frank or finessing , firm or faultering . % e were severe upon Lord 3 Jag : lan ; let us see the features ot that amiable , placid old gentleman , with a white cloth over his broadbrimmed hat—as if it were a village clergyman pleasing his grandchildren by pretending to wear his wife ' s bonnet—and we understand
so many cares . There is no spectacle more affecting than the countenance of Lord Raglan , unchanged in its , goodness through all the changing scenes in . which" . we see it . It not only reconciles us to the man , but to our own past estimation ; teaching us that after all there was no mistake in the respect paid to the character of Raglan * Themistake lay in permitting a noble ambition to indulge itself , where a gentle force ought to have been used in making the aged man accept the repose whiehrhis patriotism spurned . We have not yet been astonished by James Simpson , excellent as the testimonials were when he received his appointment ; and here we have before us an historical elucidation of the unastonishing character of his command , in the shape of his own portrait . A most regular , conscientious , and meritorious officer has he been ; and here he is—a respectable middle-aged Englishman of features so near the average , that you can scarcely tell to what class in . life he belongs . A slender man , with somewhat compressed jaws and a compressed coat , lank equally in hair and flank , he looks as if he were the meritorious head of all the Chelsea pensioners ; fully deserving of that dignity , and something more . If you want to know why the " James Simpson" of the Gazette cannot write better grammar , or perform more dashing exploits , look at his portrait , and you understand it all . So with Peussieb—a bustling , dashing man , not unmindful of his friends , . but harsh and overbearing upon necessity ; and there he is , a thick - waisted Frenchman with something of the bull-headedness of the English sailor , and the inexorable expression of a British tax-collector . He is just the man to distrain a fortress , and has active mind enough to know how to do it . How much light could we throw on history if we had this real illustration ? Portrait painting we may doubt ; the mirror is faithful if we could but fix it ; and here it is , fixed . Holbein , that genius who was a photographic machine by anticipation , gave us in Bdwaed VI . the countenance of Henby VIII ., only tenderer with youth and sickness—an illustration refuting the amiable fancy portrait of Hume ; and then , some time after , out came the recent disclosures of his arbitrary character ; but all portrait-painters were not photographers like Holbein ; whereas all photography is Holbein—and something more . The illustrations which we desire of the past in vain , we can give posterity . There is not an eminent person in Europe who has not been photographed . The cheapening of printing processes multiplies the fac-similes ; and books themselves will convey the illustrations of history to future ages . As a relic indeed , or as a gift , photography has an interest far beyond the painted portrait . The original himself takes a part in the effigy made from the impress of his identity . "Sou can trace every lineament and every hair , but the picture has been produced by those lineaments and that hair . The art has to a certain extent been rendered independent of the painter ' s craft . Taste and tact can render it a family occupation , and we may hand down to posterity a family painted by themselves in these perpetuated mirrorings . We have an examp le hero in tho highest family in the land , whoso members are practised and skilful photographers . Prince Albebt executing photographs of his wife and children , tells posterity how the husband-father in that remarkable family was pleased to see them look ; and in the portrait of tho Prinoe , which the Queen , en revanche , executed with her own fair hands , posterity will seo whoro
how the once-dashing and soldierly . Fitzbox Someb&et had declined into the vale of years . We judge tho man , then , not by his failures , but by the firmness which still keeps him placid amidst so many troubles , and preserves the pure kindness of his countenance amidst
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willingness is said ta have been , expressed to concur ! in ; a project of that kind * the idea , we snspeetr , expires with the joke . It is quite as difficult to uompasa--any proper jrecogniiax > ii of mejotorioias . men as 0 r women ; and it would seem as if the country were itself not equal to the nvorfc of recognising merit when meiifrshows itself . AndAthere , we believe , is the substantial trathof the matterv The , grand standard in this country is " the higgling of the market . " It haaf taken ever * since Adam Smith ' s time to establish a Trm , xim which the Professor . of ! Moral : Philosophy certainly never intended to us © as it has been used since his day . Before that maxim , became our leading moral standard , the high truth was " possession is nine points of the law , " and the most substantial-form of possession lay with the landowners . To be wealthy was better than to be high' born . Cubtis , the great biscuit contractor , who was the butt of the populace for his narrowness , was , af ter all , regarded , as he passed , by / , with awe , for his success and his wealth .. Moreover , he became " Sir William Cubtis , * ' for the state can recognise the merit of wholesale biscuh > making . But to be the owner of land—that was the great thing , and if a man could obtain a real Lordship of that _ sort ,, no matter what his birth , the Heralds would always presume his birth , and could establish their presumption ex post facta . Wealth , wealth—that is the most we recognise . Birth - itself has " gone to the dogs ; " and although a man must be noble to be a GLC . B » ., any man can be noble who is rich enough . The nation has shown its capaeity for estimating wealth , and titles have thus become nothing more than quotations to test " the higgling of the market . " As to founding " a fourth class , " " a new Order , " of what use would it be ? Eill it with these who attain to Court favour , and you would only add another to the Orders which exist , different in nothing , except in its being inferior . If the nation had a real value for chivalry , the want would be supp lied ex facfa ) but-.- 'quite independently of titles , orders , or other formality . Do we not see that the want of the day is the existence of men animated by the qualities that constitute chivalrous men , and enable them to unite in chivalrous Orders ? The chivalrous communities were originally realities , not forms . To enter them , a man must be courafeous , true to his word , and ready to fulfil is vow of aiding i a brother knight ; that is , a man must be brave , loyal , independent , fit to be trusted bjr others , and capable of trusting Others ihimself . The last quality , we beliero ; is that which has most disappeared amongst us ; in great part , no doubt , because our dovotion to pure commercial tests has made even merchants sharp traders , and has withdrawn the very grounds of trust . The consequence is , that except through 1 recognised and instituted official connexions , men cannot . act together , either Bocially or politically . There is no bond of brotherhood ; no loyal determination to stand by each other ; no such influence as did exist in ruder times through the orders of chivalry . What i $ the good of calling a man a knight , when he is not a knight , nor anything at all like it ? Call a biscuit-baker , " , " as if he were a man of chivalry , and the title of chivalry is reduced to the level of a City biscuit-baker . So It happens ; and no statutes can call an Order into existence , if the people cannot supply the materials for it . Whereas , if they supplied an order of men Actuated by chivalrous ideas , like a 3 £ oebuok , a Godebioh , a Newcastle , a De Lagt Bvaks , and capable of acting together—a chivalrous order would exist in fact ,, a chivaj .- ! roue distinction would arise out of the fact ,
and the title would matter little . It is peoples that manufacture chivalrous orderskings only baptise them — and sometimes kill them , in the ceremony of throwing the cold water on them . "
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), Sept. 22, 1855, page 914, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2107/page/14/
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