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? Cities awe not the legislators , but the judges and police of literature . They do ' not } x make laws—they interpret and try to enforce them . —Edinburgh Review . a :
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We are a sad people , and , as Fkoissart long ago noticed of us , take even r pleasure with a dismal face—?? ioult tristement . A sad , serious people , tde sadder and more intolerable and intolerant by a puritanism which r es our saturnine qualities the pretence of something higher . How best make each other unhappy is the ' moral and religious' aim ' of one vast \ y of Englishmen ; how to make each other uncomfortable is the ' proper ' rpose of the rest . To think of our legislation and our conventional rules , witness our Sundays and our evening parties , must perplex and daunt a enchman or Italian in his gayest mood . " Restraint" is the magic word licli rules our life . AVe call mirth frivolous when we do not consider it irse ; we call dreariness dignity , and dullness wisdom . Blackwoocl and user both touch on this point this month . The former in a paper called
[ Tie Porch and the Garden , says well : — Celsus . But wisdom is generally supposed to have something to do with gravity , i good people are popularly called serious people , and gravity and seriousness are Bcxilt to reconcile with that festive and joyous view of life , and all its circumncea , which you advocate ; besides this , it is well known that the most intellectual n are often the saddest , and this because they see the farthest into the truth of ngs , and it is undoubtedly true that the stupidest people are often the merriest . Tlepolkmus . It was through the appearance , and not the reality of wisdom , that B owl , that gravest of birds , came to be the bird of Minerva . The gravity of the 1 , and the softness and silence of his general carriage , is easily accounted for . It ibles him to catch mice and small birds ; in fact , it pays . So does gravity pay longst men , and not least in all the learned professions . Ask any fashionable phyian , rising or risen barrister , popular preacher , or successful schoolmaster . The
jority of mankind not being over wise , he will always best , find butter to Ins bread o conforms , at least in externals , to their estimate . Neither need this be very pocritical , for there may be light within when the outside of the house is dark , and ny faces of Englishmen are like their London houseB , stiff and dismal without , ; within full of brightness and taste , and line arts . In these cases it is a purely eneive measure , and thus excusable . l $ ut it is more courageous to laugh when re is a reason for it . The man who calls laughter an idiot in Shakspearo is King in , when on the point of committing a murder . As for seriousness , I know no er language but ours in which the word has been inado synonymous with godlis . I take that word to be one of the greatest stumbling-blocks in the way of king people better . The religions of tho South , however false and imperfect , eertheir fasts with their festi
ily do take account of both sides of life , and balance . s . The keeping of Christmas is almost the only sot-ofT against tho preponderating om of ours . Hence comes it that human nature will nesort it « elf blindly , and bo rry and sad at wrong seasons . Wo turn Sunday into a Ramadan , and wo play ckct on Good Friday . I suppose tho difference may in part arise from tho original orepancieB of tho northorn and southern nature , and perhaps Hoathendoin may still luence Christendom . Tho mythology of Odin and his brethren is stark and cold 1 awful , while that of Jupiter is joyous and festivo . The very joys of tho heathen -thmon wore more grim than their sorrowe ; for it ia diilicult to conceive anything a cheerful than tho crowning pleasure of their paradiso , which was to drink beer t of the skulls of their enemies . It must have been a lingering recollection of this rage bliss which often induces thoir serious descendants to take delight in picking
Mr neighbours to pieces . And Fraser in a pleasant paper on tho " Art of Story-telling , " describes r atroutu thus : — You soe men hurrying through the streets , with an nir of alarm on their faces , as they woro going on errands of life and death , when in fact their entire anxiety is finish some , probably , very trivial affair , in order to get on with something else , o thoroughfares exhibit u dense population in a sort of agony of impatience , ork , care , precipitate haste , absorption of mind , are written in their eyes . I Iiylans , flying about to thoir patients , if they do not , lilto Sir Richard lllackmore , ite eploa "to * the rumbling of their coach wheels , " mny bo seen taking advantage the brief intervals from house to houso to keep up their professional reading , proro lectures , post diaries , and write letters . Kvcry iniiiuto hah its billet , lucre is t an unoccupied head or hand- alwava excopling , of course , the drones and buttcrm . There iu no rest ; and leisure , in its sunny senso , ia n luxury unknown . I ' . very
oher couny has periods of repose and indulgence . Toil is elsewhere mitigated bv relaxation . The sun never sets elsewhere upon a whole race of men who have been labouring without respite since the dawn . There are cymbahi and , trumpets , and tambourines to gladden the ears , and a thousand delassemente to fill aud lull the imagination . But in England , where we have plays , and concerts , and state pageantries , and anniversary dinners in abundance , the feeling of enjoyment is ever overcast by the heavy shadows of business . We are never entirel y released from our daily responsibilities , our perpetual cares . And all this moil and turmoil , all this anxiety and heartache , to " get a position "—which means , to live in a large house , and give dismal dinner parties , and respect all the proprieties , and be legitimately uncomfortable alt the days of your life . Leisure , the sunny repose of life , and amusement , its filip and its grace , are scarcely to be thought of . Amusement may perhaps be offensive to Heaven . It is certainly carnal . And if men once learn to be happy on this earth , to say to the passing moment , * Stay ! thou art fair , ' who can foresee the dreadful consequences .
One of the curious perversions of our noblest faculties is that " foreseeing of consequences" which disturbs mankind with puerile terrors . To look before and after with large discourse of reason is assuredly the grand characteristic which distinguishes man from the brute , and cultivated from uncultivated man . Yet how we abuse this faculty ! If a thinker arises among us we foresee that his doctrine will " lead to Atheism ; " if a reformatory measure be proposed , we foresee that it will "lead to anarchy ; " if the bands play in the parks on Sundays we foresee they will lead to irreligion , and all other sins ; if an organ be placed in a Scottish church there are thousands of logical Scotchmen who will foresee that it " leads to Popery . " See on this subject an excellent article in Fraser on the " Organ Question , " in which
the reviewer , too gently , yet conclusively , takes Dr . Cajtdmsh to task for his recent publication on the admission of organs into churches . It is an almost hopeless sign for a nation when men like Drs . Cumming and Candush are looked up to by large classes , -when bigotry so narrow can triumph by the aid of understandings so weak . Yet there is no denying the fact that the Cummisg and Candlish school of writers have immense influence . And this because , while a large class sympathize with , and look up to , their miserable teaching , the larger class , which in secret laughs at or despises it , is kept silent by timid respectability . Whatever nonsense is uttered in the name of religion gains tolerance , lest in opposing it men should incur the charge of opposing religion .
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FROUDE'S HISTORY OF ENGLAND . History of England from the Fall of WoUey to the Death of Elizabeth . By James Anthony Froude , M . A . 2 Vols . J- W . Parker and Son . If the history Mr . Froude intends to write is to be comp leted on the scale of this commencement , it will be a very valuable but somewhat alarmingly voluminous work ; but , as much of the bulk of the present volumes is entirely superfluous , there is some hope that Mr . Froude may reconsider his plan when warned of the voluminousness to which that plan must conduct him . He has , of course , adopted his plan after reflection ; the long citations of statutes , letters , and other documents usually th rown into notes , are obviously made on principle . So history should be written , so ions
history should be read , is the idea -which has determined these citat . However plausible in theory , we greatly doubt the desirableness of this method . It not only enlarges the bulk , it increases th © weight of the volumes ; and that in a quite disproportionate degree , for not only have we to suffer the heaviness of the old verbose law language , but we have to adjust ourselves to perpetual changes of style , from Mr . Froude ' s easy and equable sentences to the long involved , quaint , tautologous sentences ot nis authorities . This gives a patchy effect to the whole . As a matter ot artand history is an art—there cannot be two opinions on this point ; and it Mr . Froude thinks it necessary for the case he has to argue that the reader should have before him the exact language of tho documents relied on , he should , we think , adopt the ordinary method of telling his story in hiu own wordsand throwing into notes or appendix the documentary evidence
, We think , also , that Mr . Froude indulges too freely in comment and moral reflections The temptation is very great ; but unless the comment be striking m . elucidative , the story is hampered by it , and a certain heaviness results A history without comment would be unendurable ; but modern historians generally fall into tho opposite error ; and Mr- * ™ J ™ £ < improve his volumes by a severe excision of at least one half of the remarks into which he lias been tempted , many of them seeming to bo tho easy comment which a practised writer finds ready at a moment a notice , rather than tho concentrated results of long reflection on the matter . We have made this general criticism on Mr . fcroudo a volumes , because , if he detect any truth in it , and if it falls in with what ho hears from others , nr what his own subsenuont reflection may suggest , his future volumes may
be modified . To special criticism wo do not feel ourselves competent , xno work lies quite beyond the pale of our own studies . It has greatly instructed us , made much clear which before was obscure , and given a rough shake to many old historical prejudgincnts for which we can adduce no very precise evidence . But to pronounce on the case presented by Mr . Iroudc n favour of Henry and the English people generally , would require quite other knowledge than we can claim . He staggers us in our old traditional views - he maybe quite rig ht in hia new views ; but we must leave it to hisTrieal students to discus the evidence . It is absurd to » £ * * - " ^ J comes from long and intimate study of a subject , and on ^ no better g mi . d than our opinion , p repossession , or prejudice , to tell him that we d . e . from him , or that we tl . infc him wrong . All that we know it . 8 <****" £ *• Froude knew , long ago . and over and above that he know * what w , 3 nevei suspected , and has tlio advantage of long study with a special desire to get at ^ : X ^! ' ^ ^^ opening chapter on " the social condition oi
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^ hatbvbb may be the melancholy truth respecting the decline of the Irama in England , there is no symptom of a decline of interest in dramatic it , We need not at present dwell on the abundant evidences of this inteest afforded by Literature ; let us glance only at public amusements . Jesides our , own theatres , not in a brilliant condition , it must be confessed , jq have two Italian Operas , a French theatre , and , for two years , Mr .
Iitcheix gave us a German theatre . This season we have Kistobi , and n Italian troupe . Signors Arrivabene and Fusco are lecturing on kxFiEBi and the Italian drama . Mrs . Kemble , Miss Gi / tn , Mi * s . Chat-ERi-Ey , and others , give dramatic readings all over England , and now we ave to announce a new and daring effort in the same direction , A young l-erman authoress , Friiulein Ei , ise Schmidt , who comes here highty recom-Lended , proposes to deliver three Dramatic Readings of a peculiar characir . She is to read the Prometheus of JEschylus , as translated by Voss ; Le ( Edimis at Colonnos of Sophocles , as translated by Donner , and the
lectra of Euuipides , as translated by Donneh . These plays are all armged for the Reading by herself , and will be accompanied by Beethoven ' s , [ endelssohn ' s , and Vogel ' s music . When we remember what a deep and vid impi'ession the Antigone produced on our English pit , although cruelly angled in the representation , we cannot doubt that the grand old Greek ays will affect the hearts and imaginations of the most miscellaneous idience , if read with power . Fraulein Sciimidt is known in Germany as e authoress of a dramatic poem , Judas Ischariotli , and of three dramas , cently published under the title of Drel Dramen .
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t tr Jung- 7 , 1856 . ] THE LEADER . g 4 g
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Leader (1850-1860), June 7, 1856, page 543, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2144/page/15/
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