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March 28 , 1857 . ] THE LEADER , 305
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pencil-marks of his disapprobation . Under the head " Mannerisms" he disposes of characteristics generally . As an oration by Fox corrected by a modern elocutionist , so , -we think , might be an Essay by Carl vie corrected by the new grammarian . He would rearrange the words , he would harmonise the pauses , he would round off 1 h . e emphatic lines , and produce a very proper theme , precise , accurate , unreadable . Mr . Breen attributes a habit of correctness to the majority of French writers . The majority of English critics acquainted with French literature would differ from him ; a fault of style , he says , is at once detected by the commonest French reader . Then what is style , or rather what is a good style ? N " ot Sydney Smith ' s , because he sometimes repeats a proposition unnecessarily ; not Hallam's , because a wronoword has run from his pen ; not Carlyle ' s , because he has not anticipated Mr . Breen ' s objections ; not Macaulay ' s or Gibbon's . Mr . Breen , however , has fallen into one grievous mistake . Few of the writers he has attacked were ever supposed to have produced models of composition . Sir Archibald
Alison , it is agreed on all hands , is a vast , rapid , random compiler ; the elder Disraeli is quoted for his anecdotes and observations only . Dr . Latham is a useful philologist , but wh y drag him into court to criminate himself in an affair of literary art with which he has nothing to do ? Who is Harrison , who Walker ? What nonsense to talk of Blair ! We beg all the Breens to leave Mr . Jeidan out of the question . When Mr . Breen comes to acknowledged writers , he is less , successful in his demonstrations , though scarcely less triumphant in his tone . How would he improve Hallam ' s phrase " reli g ious and grammatical learning go hand in hand . " He will , perhaps , find it easier to sport with Gilfillan and others of that denomination . But he assails Ossian . " I strike the harp in praise of Bragela , she that I left In the Isle of Mist ; " "Let me awake the King of Morven , he that smiles in danger , he that is like the sun of heaven , rising in a storm . " We should not wonder were Mr . Breen to propose " Allow me to awaken the King of Morven 3 a persan who smiles in danger . "
We may note one or two passages to which Mr . Breen objects , as examples of the pedantry winch he would import into English literature : — "A . -working man is more-worthy of honour than a titled plunderer who lives in idleness . "—Cobbett : English Grammar . As if a man could not plunder and live , nevertheless in idleness . The mediaeval barons , who sent out their mercenaries to ravage the land round their castles ,-were they not plunderers and idle ? Mr . Breen then picks up som e Mr . Gatty , and pillories him for writing nonsense . But he revels chiefly in the works of Sir Archibald Alison , whose writings he may plough at pleasure . When he quotes Buffon , however , he should quote him correctly , and not attribute to him such a sentence as "Le style c ' est rhomme , " which JBuffbn never wrote . But the reader is waiting for specimens . This is Mr . 3 reen himself , pure and simple : —
Not only is the language , as -written and spoken , a different language from what it should be : each trade , each profession , each association , each quackery , has a language arid style of composition peculiar to itself . There is the mob-orator style invented , by O'Connell ; the knock-down style by Robins ; the washy style by Rowland ; the unctuous style by Holloway ; the glossy style by Day and Martin ; and the patchwork style by Moses and Sou . There is , moreover , the naval style , the military style , the theatrical style , the Cockney style , the snob style , and . the pennya-line style . The intelligent reader is sufficiently acquainted with the Protean forms in which our excellent mother-tongue delights to disguise herself , and it is unnecessary to quote examples .
Quite unnecessary . Mr . Breen is next severe upon his contemporaries : — Criticism has long ceased to be a separate province in the republic of letters . It is now parcelled out indiscriminately to every pretender , of whatever coterie or creed ; and there is scarcely a . newspaper in the kingdom that does not assert and exercise its right to review the literature of the day . The consequence is , that literary partisanship , which was confined at first to our great critical organs , pervades almost every branch of journalism at tlie present hour . One newspaper gives a favourable account of a book because it has received an advertisement from the author ; another , because it has received none , declines to notice it . A third will eulogize it because
it comes out under the patronage of a certain publishing firm ; a fourth , for the same reason , will cry it down . Where there is no particular motive of interest to form or guide the reviewer ' s judgment , lie contents himself with adopting the first notice that comes in his way . Some journal of weight originates an opinion respecting the new work ; and the minor reviewer ,, without giving himself the trouble to read the book , adopts that opinion with such alterations as maybe necessary to make it tally with the known principles of his journal . Should there bo any gross errors , any palpable blunders , in the original notice , they are copied without suspicion of their existence , and often go ' the round of the mess without detection .
Because a tenth-rate print passes one opinion on a certain book , and the Athenaeum _ passes another , criticism is worthless ! Mr . Breen ' anecdotes , in connexion with this subject , are singularly stale an < l scanty . Jeffrey described the lixcursion as a . hubbub of ravings and incongruities . Wilson thought , or said , that the music of the Pleasures of Hope was caught from heaven , and that Miss B&illie's tragedies surpassed those of JEsehylus . Hazlitt talked of Byron ' s dramas as gossamers , and of Moore ' s wild Irish harp as a musical snuff-box . Coleridge described the head of Mackintosh aa an empty warehouse to l « t ; and what then ? A more pretentious and a more commonplace book than this by Mr . Breen we have not often met with .
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were disposed to be severely critical , we might make some objections . We might stipulate for greater condensation and more power ; we might object to the frequent obscurities into which Miss Gostello ' s apparent facility of composition leads her ; and we might show how that excess of luscious languor which seems to be inseparable from the Hibernian Muse becomes fatiguing after a time . But we choose to regard the poem as a contribution to those idle hours of mental unbending during -which the poet Gray desired to lie upon a sofa , reading endless new novels of Marivaux and Crebillon ; and in such moments the reader will be well pleased -with Miss Costello ' s-drowsy pictures of the Rhine-land and the-warm , palm-shadowed East , and with her descriptions of the migrations of storks from , climate to climate . The story on -which , the authoress has built her poem , is very singular , and is thus narrated in her Introduction : —
A young German . lady of eighteen , had a fancy , a few years ago , to discover to what region the storks repaired on quitting a northern climate , and for that purpose attached to the neck of a tame one a letter , in which she begged for an answer from whoever found it , informing her of the place where the bird alighted , and any other particulars attending it . The bird was shot by an Arab , in Syria , and her letter , copied by him , without understanding its language or import , was sent to the Prussian Vice-consul , at Beyrout , who courteously addressed the desired communication to th « young lady . Into this slight fabric Miss Costello has wcaved a tale of the Russian war ,
introducing Miss Nightingale in the person of the young German lady , and giving her a martial lover , who is an Arab by birth and half by blood , but who on his father ' s side is heir to certain estates in Germany . The complexion of the story , however , is rather mediaeval than modern . Here is a passage descriptive of the flight of the storks , which is delicately and vividly touched : — " Hold , gondolier ! what streaks of white Mark the canal with waving lines ? Is it the rising sun , more bright , That o ' er awakening Venice shines ? It flashes , vanishes—too soon-r-That meteor on the blue lagoon . Ah ! now I know—I see them fly—The stOTks!—the storks are passing by . " Not even . Venice tempts to stay : St . Mark ' s gold domes fade fast away , Fade all the rose-hued palace towera Of - fairy fret-work , all the aisles , And left , amidst her roofs of flowers , Alone , fair Venice sits and smiles . Where a bright Asian city lies , As if by genii planted there , To dazzle Europe ' s wondering eyes : .
With all the East can boast of rare , Gleaming , two silver seas between , And guarding both , with lofty mien—There pause awhile the winged band , - —Their ranks , as if by chiefs , review'd , — ' In groups they form—await command , - —The word is given—the fight renew'd . Queen locta miH the Mistletoe : a Fairy Rfymcfor the Fireside . By George Halse . With Illustrations on Steel by the Author . ( Addey and Co ) . —This
is & Christmas trifle , written in a true Christmas holiday spirit , and treating of the mystic mistletoe and the fair ones under it ( the right women in the right place ) , and of certain gentle fays who haunted a genial fireside , and worked a charm , by which an orphan girl and a disappointed young student found solace in mutual love ; also of the origin of the delectable rites—or rights—attached to the Druidical plant . The style of this poem is sometimes a little too much like that of the good fairies in Christmas show-pieces ; but Mr . Halse has real fancy and feeling , as the following extract will show : — Those fairies were not such as sing and sleep Whole days in kingcups and the lily-bell;—That chase the labouring honey-bee , or keep Guard over dewdropa in the shady dell;— . That smooth the ruffled feathers in the breast Of their companion , Robin , gaily drest ; — ! Nor like those fays that watch by fountain-side j—Nor those that revel on a moonlight night , Dancing round mushrooms j—nor like those that rido On a bat ' s woolly back;—nor those that fright Bewildered butterflies from underneath Dock-leaves far-spreading , or tlie shadowy heath;—Nor such as gem the spider ' s w « b with dew ,
LATTER-BAY POETRY . The Lai / of the StorA ; By Miss Louisa Stuart Costello . ( W , and F . G . Cash . )—We owe our rentiers some apology for not ere now noticing this pleasant little tale in verse . AVhoever is fond of a romantic story , somewhat rosc-hued in the matter of sentiment , told in flowing verse , that murmurs through Its cadences like the voice of a lady singing to her guitar —whoever values poetry in . proportion us it is non-cxciLing , and appeals rather to the taste than to the intellect or the emotions—whoever is pleased to read of valorous youtliB and fascinating maidens in a stylo which varies between Thomas Moore and Sir Walter Scott—will be charmed with the elegantly printed and gracefully written volume before us . If , indeed , wo
And guide to fertile spots the feathered seeds ;—• Nor those whose task ' tis nightly to renow The faded verdure of the pasture meads , And build again the fungua , white or dun , Jletwccn the setting and the rising sun . These were the genial spirits of the Hearth , Wakeful and watchful , consecrate to home ; The harbingers of concord and of mirth ; Endowed with wings , and yet forbid to roam . —If they neglect their trust , and take to flight , Their wings muy on the instant fade outright ! The author ' s illustrations are very shadowy and elfish ; caught , as it were , out of a lund of vapoury moonshine .
Garlands of Verse . By Thomas Leigh . ( Smith , Elder , and Co ) . —There is a deficiency of vital force and warm colouring in this volume ; but the writer has a , genuine vein of quiet and rather sad meditation , softened by a tender religious feeling , yet not wanting in sympathy with humanity and its earthly home , and always generous and noble in its aspirations . We quote two poems on the world to come , with the feeling expressed in which we entirely agree : —
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), March 28, 1857, page 305, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2186/page/17/
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