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It will scarcely be denied that the Reviewer who in one week reads and notices seven or eight good octavo volumes of history , philosophy , criticism , politics and fiction , must he- a man of rapid reading , rapid writing , and dauntieW courage . BFor will it be denied that every number" of a quarterly review contains more matter , more thought and learning , than an ordinary octavo . And the same may he said , in a less degree , of each number of BlacTcwood , Fraser , the Dublin . University , &c . The articles are necessarily varied . They contain the learning and the thought of many writers on many subjects , packed close . Now if that mythical personage , the Courteous Reader , will be courteous enough to put these two facts together , he may form some estimate of the demands made on us once every three months ; for in less than the space of a week we are expected to read and review the Westminster , the National , the British Quarterly , the Irish
Quarterly , the London Quarterly , Blachwood , Fraser , Tait , and the Dublin University . The thing , obviously , is not to be done . We can only read some of the articles , glance at others , and utterly decline transactions with the rest . The unread authors will not understand this . However busy , we at least might read their articles . They cheerfully admit that we cannot be expected to be interested in all topics , but surely their topics are of too important a nature not to arrest every cultivated mind . They admit that we cannot be expected to combine a knowledge of Comparative Anatomy with Arrow-headed inscriptions , the history of Literature with insight into the finances of Russia , German Metaphysics with Exegetical Criticism , the English Constitution with the Geograp hical Distribution of Races : no one head—not even that of which Sydney Smith said that science was its forte and omniscience its foible—is expected to contain all these subjects , yet Brown thinks it "too bad" if you don't know something of the Tobolsk Mine ? , on which he has written , or on the Currency Question , on which he
has new views . This , therefore , is our complaint . We place it beside the one humorously set forth in Blackwood this month , wherein the writer narrates how reviewers are abused by unreviewed authors . It is certain that no man believes he is unreviewed because he is not worth reviewing . Who ever heard of a play refused by a manager because it was not good , or of a work which the world very willingly let die because it had small merit ? The thing does not exist . But we hereby make known to all whom it may concern , that we do not read every article in every periodical , nor do we intend to do so in future . Leisure , taste , an idea of our readers and what they will like , guide us to certain articles , and these we notice and chat about with no more elaborate purpose than that of indicating what we think will be found worth reading , and of touching here and there on a point ¦ worth considering .
Review-writing , it is well said by a brilliant writer in the National Review , exemplifies the casual character of modern literature . He has with equal wit and sagacity noticed the peculiarity of reviewers , and their adroit use of the fact that their space is circumscribed . " A real reviewer always spends his first and best pages on the parts of a subject on which he wishes to write , the easy comfortable parts which ho knows . The formidable difficulties which he owns , you foresee by a strange fatality he will only reach two pages before the end ; to his great grief there is no opportunity for discussing them . " Is not this excellently said ? Indeed , the
whole article—which is on the First Edinburgh Reviewers—is a rare example of felicitous writing , brilliant , thoughtful , picturesque and playful , yet presenting in its easy pages good matter for thinking . His sketch of Lord Ei-don , and of the state of the British mind acquiescent in Eldonism . is admirable . His portrait of the ideal Whig , and his exemplification of it in Hornkr ; the way in which he makes you feel the true relation of the Edinburgh Review and its whiggism to the state of opinion at the time , belong to the masterly stylo of historical painting . Very humorous , and cuttingly true , is tho indication of the scepticism which justifies the
adherents to the status quo—e . g . Lord Eldon novor road Ilumo or Montaigne , but occasionally , in tho interstices of cumbrous law , you may find sentences with their meaning , if not in their manner ; " Dumpor ' a case always struck mo us extraordinary , but if yon depart from Diunpor ' a case , what in there to prevent a departure in every direction V " We must extract this bit about Francis Horner : — Francis Homer ' s was a short nnd singular life . Ho was tho son of an Edinburgh shopkeeper . Ho diod at thlrty-niuc ; and when ho died , from all sides of tho usually cold House of Commons groat stwtcHmon and thorough gentlemen got up to deplore his loss . Tears aro rarely parliamentary : alt men are arid towards young Scotchman ;
yet it was one of that inclv . mcnt . nation whom statesmen of tho species Castlorongh , and statesmen of tho species Whitbrond—with all the many kinds and species that He between the two—rose in succession to lament . Tho fortunes and superficial features of the man make it more singular . Ho had no wealth , was a briefless barrister , never hold an ollico , was a conspicuous member of tho moat unpopular of all oppositionstho opposition to a glorious and successful war . Ho novor had tho moans of obliging any one . Ho was destitute of showy abilities : ho had not tho intense oloquonco or overwhelming ardour which enthral and captivate popular assemblies : hie powore of administration wore little tried , and may possibly bo slightly questioned . In his youthful reading ho was romarlcablo for laying down , for a few months of study ,
: enormous plans , such * as many years would : scarcely complete $ and i »> t especially remarkable for doing anything : wonderful toward * a ^ mplistiiflg'tfidsfrpJans ; ' Sir tVFal $ er : Sttott , who , though * by no means illiberal in his essential intellect ,, wWa'Jteen partissn > oa superficial matters-, and no leniefit crttio on aetttalEdinburgh WSigsi - used'to observe , " I cannot admire yourHomer ; he always : reminds me"of Obaidiah ' s boll , who , though he never certainly did produce a calf ; nevertheless Went Abottt his business with so much gravity , that he commanded the respect off th * whole-parish . " It is no explanation that he was a , considerable political economist : mo real English gentleman , in his secret sozd , was ever sorryforthedeathofa political economist : he is much more likely to be sorry for his life . There is an ideatliat he has something to do with statistics ; or , if that be exploded , that he is a person who writes upon " value ; " says that rentis—you cannot very well make out what ; talks excruciating currency ; who may be useful as drying machines are useful ; but the notion of crying about him is absurd . You might as well cry at the death of a cormorant ; Indeed , how he can die is very odd . You would think a man who could digest all that arid matter ; who really preferred " sawdust without butter ; " who liked the tough subsistence of rigid formula } , might def y ^ y intensity of internal constitution all stomachic or lesser diseases . However , they do die , and people say that the dryness of the Sahara-is caused by a deposit of similar bones . The explanation of Hobnek ' s influence is also admirable ; but it must be sought by our readers in the Review itself . We can only spare room for the following defence of the literature of our day : — There is , as yet , no Act of Parliament compelling a bond fide traveller to read . If you wish him to read , you must make reading pleasant . You must give him short views , and clear sentences . It will not answer to explain what all the things which you describe , are not . You must begin by saying what they are . There is exactly the difference between the books of this age , and those of a more laborious age , that we feel between the lecture of a professor and the talk of the man of the world—the former profound , systematic , suggesting all arguments , analysing all difficulties , discussing all dottbts , very admirable , a little tedious , slowly winding an elaborate way , the characteristic effort of one who has hived wisdom during many studious years , agreeable to such as he is , anything but agreeable to such as he is not —the latter , the talk of the manifold talker , glancing lightly from topic to topic , suggesting deep things in a jest , unfolding unanswerable arguments in an absurd illustration , expounding nothing , completing nothing , exhausting , nothing , yet really suggesting the lessons of a wider experience , embodying the results of a more finely tested philosophy , passing with a more Shakspearian transition , connecting topics with a more subtle link , refining on them with an acuter perception , and what is more to the purpose , pleasing all that hear him , charming high and low , in season and out of season , with a word of illustration for each and a touch of humour intelligible to all , fragmentary yet imparting what he says , allusive yet explaining what he intends , disconnected yet impressing what he maintains . This is the very model of our modern writing . The man of the modern world is uBed to speak what the modern world will hear ; the writer of the modern world must write what that world will indulgently and pleasantly peruse . Our extracts will have shown that this writer is one worth looking after ; indeed , the article is by many degrees the best of the many we have read this quarter . It is followed by one on Decimal Coinage , which we ought to have read , but somehow the " stern Idea of Duty " did not coerce us in that direction . The paper on Cobnewall Lewis and the Credibility of Roman History is seriously and thoughtfully written . The writer combats the decision of Sir G . C . Lewis , and establishes some ground for historical acceptance of the legends . Non nostrum est tantas componere lites . A slight but well-written paper on Hannay ' s Eustace Conyers , Mrs . Gaskelx / s North and South , and two other novels , is succeeded by an analysis of the Blue Book on the Civil Service . Tennyson's Maud is of course reviewed—no periodical can be without that subject—but the writer seizes the occasion to discourse on Tennyson generally , which he does both with novelty and acumen . "Statesmen of the Day is after-dinner talk , about some of our leading men . St . Paul is a very disappointing article ; interesting from its notice of the works of Stanley and Jowett — works which show the English Church to possess men of large and liberal minds , aided by learning , ample and minute ; interesting also in a lesser degree from certain ideas which the writer propounds ; but disappointing because a grand subject is obscurely and unsatisfactorily treated ; the ideas are so coiled up in tho wordy exposition , that they are seized with difficulty , and fail of the effect they might have had in u better exposition . Thus it is an article which will be caviare to the public , though theological readers will not pass it over . In striking contrast stands the article on Dr . Gumming and Evangelical Teaching , in the Westminster , which the public will read more eagerly than theologians , for its wit , its subtle analysis of tho popular preacher ' s mind , and its wise philosophy , gentle as it is wise . The writer does not attack Dr . Cumming ; but his article is terribly severe in its analysis ; and it exposes with an unsparing hand his shallowncss , his want of veracity , und tho utterly immoral tendency of his teaching . This it docs partly by grave argument , partly by wit in which argument is concentrated ; as , for example , on the subject of everlasting punishment , for which Dr . Cumminq is clamorous— "Do we object , ho uslcs , to everlasting happiness ? Then why object to everlasting misery ? Reasoning which is , perhaps , folt to be cogent by theologians who anticipate the everlasting happiness for themselves , and the everlasting misery fur their neighbours . ''' ' In tho following , both argument and wit arc employed : — This loads us to mention another connpicuouH characteristic of Dr . . " ' ' ^ 1 touching —tho absence of genuine charity . It is true that ho makes large proi < wwiw tolerance and liberality within a certain circle ; ho exhorts Cl « rl « ti « " « ^ T " , fU )' would have Churchmen fraternise with Dissenters , and exhorts tftiwo iw - ^ ^ God ' s family to dofor tho settlement of their ( lifflnronooH till tho miiwi "' ' , iQ tho lovo thus taught is the love of tho clan , which is % ™" £ Z ° rd » •«««• «» men , but rest of mankind . It is not sympathy and holjifulno s towavan minotit Dr > towards men as Christians , and as Christians in tho hoiiot or « ohftrtor to natrcd - Cumming ' s religion may demand a tribute of lovo ,, dik k benovo that God tells it may enjoin charity , but it fosters all f ™****™ ' ^" enemies and requires mo mo to love my enemies , but at the samo time hates « w ° w »
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Leader (1850-1860), Oct. 6, 1855, page 963, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2109/page/15/
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