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tion xmd bitterness . " The noisy life of modern days , " he says , "is -wholly in compatible viih any conception of natural beauty ; " but whose « ry So -iwjisv as his own ? He admits bis liability to overrate works which he admires ; but "will lie admit his incapacity to discern the merits of others which he reviles . "The same man who advises the student repeatedly to . copy "the works of the quaint genius of caricature , George Crii . iJcsh . ank , advises that he who possesses finished prints of Kaphael and Correggio should burn them . _ <•* , * i ¦ We Get some key to the strange caprice and inconsistency of this teacher ,
• when we turn to the literary portion of Mr . Ruskm ' s lecture on ' Things to fee studied . ' The . stone man . who commends Huiaer , Shakspeare , Spenser , Scott , "Wordsworth , Longfellow , and Coventry Patmore , says , " Cast Colerid jje ' aside , as sickly and useless ; and Shelley , as shallow and verbose ; Byron , until your taste is fully formed , and you are able to discern the magnificent in him from the wrong . " It is evident here that we are dealing with a man whom Nature lias not endowed -with the usual complement of perceptions . He cannot understand Shelley , as the blind man cannot distinguish colour , the deaf man tune . JFor him the creation is one with the human being omitted , —or represented only by some shadowy mournful abstraction . Paa&on he ¦ seems to regard as synonymous with ' sin . ' WAy he
should admit Spenser we know not , unless it be as a colourist . He has long been discoursing on art , but has never gone to the pith and marrow of all art —the human form in its completeness , the human type in the full power of manliness , and the full beauty of "womanhood . Tf he permits a man or woman to enter the picture , it must be in the quaint , undeveloped form of the caricaturist's sketch , or in the mortified , lank-cheeked , lank-loined shape of the pre-Rapuaelite creation . His art is the play of ' Hamlet' with the partof J 2 # » wfetf left out . He can discourse to you on the scenery , the architecture , the costume , the church , the grave , but Hie human beings , their -anatomy , strength , beauty , passion , purpose , influence , he knows not ; and denied a thorough sympathy , his tone in speaking of them degenerates to -quernloxis antipathy , almost to hate . How can such a man be a guide to Art in its completeness ?
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THE UNKNOWN NOEMjLNDY . La ifoj-mantSe itsconnue . By Francois VietoT Hugo . Paris : Psgnerre . The Unknown "Normandy is Jersey . The son of Victor Hugo has published a volume of interesting researches into the social , antiquities and history of that Island , ia which he-. resided for some years with his father . An English work on the same subject-was lately published , but it was diyly written , and ^ " - ^ - ^ pli' JJ ln ^ caJed "with anecdotes than M . Francois Hugo ' s . This , indeed , is a moat fi&easing Volume , -which , we . should say , will reward any translator who takes it in htmd . The author tr&ats of Jersey as of a little feudal Atlantic only vaguely tnown to the world , -and in its Norman character not known at all . It is a discovery of the exiles , he says , with ^ poetical exaggeration . Its people are the kindred of Coraeille and Joan r of Arc . It fats no paved highways , no Frascati , no gendarmes , no -custom - liouse officers , no Court of Cassation . It has a tribunal called the Cohue , a first magistrate styled the Bailiff , Constables , Estates , and an Usher who is
thus : —¦ This day , the Gth of December , 1817 , at noon precisely , tbe prisoner shall be brought out of prison to the Court of the Cohue , and there , in one of . tbe lo-wer apartments , she shall be stripped and sliall ¦ clothe herself in a white chemise prepared for the occasion . She shall have her head uncovered and her feet naked . From the chamber in which she is strlp 2 > ed she shall "be taken to the door of the court , where she sliall receive from the Land of the executioner a lighted candle , -weighing two pounds , and two feet in length , made expressly for that purpose . Thus equipped , she has to present iierself at the bar of the court , and , going upon her knees , snail demand pardon for herself in the terms , " I ask pardon of God , of the king , and of justice . "
was exacted in Jersey according to a fashion peculiarly humiliating The condemned person , manor woman , prayed for pardon at the feet of justice ou tended knees , and was permitted to wear onl y a shirt or shift , leaving the shoulders -and feet bare . This barbarous ceremony , abolished in France by the Revolution , and suffered to die out by desuetude in Jersey , has been practised in Guernsey since the commencement of the present century . M . Hugo quotes the text of a decree pronounced in 1817 by the Hoyal Court of Guernsey against a young- girl named Margaret Mackenzies , of St . Peter ' s Port , who had been convicted of infanticide . The sentence concludes
A cold morning for Margai'et , in a Guernsey December . Among M Hugo ' s acts of * Unknown Normandy' justice is one relating to a more ancient period . In 1587 , a young girl named Suzanna Gavey , had been betrothed by her father and mother to a gentleman named Simon Bisson . At the moment when the marriage was about to be solemnized , whether from , having discovered circumstances before unknown to her , or from having set her heart upon another match , or from -whatever cause , Suzanna felfc for Simon an insurmountable aversion and refused to utter the eternal * Yes . " Prayers , menaces , even blows were employed by her parents to overcome her resistance , but in -vain . Suzanna was then taken before the Ecclesiastical Court , tind condemned to excommunication for perjury .
She continued obstinate . Spiritual justice next handed her over to secular justice , and sbe was brought before the Royal Cour ^ which sentenced her to go , on the Sunday folio-wing , to the church of St . Mary's , her palish , to kneel on the floor , to beg forgiveness from Simon Bisson for her past obstinacy , and to supplicate him humbly to accept her as his bride . The decree wound np with these words , " And if she do not perform , in every particular , what is now ordered , she shall be punished by a whipping , as a rebel and an incorrigible . " This method of dealing with Terraetory brides might have been borrowed by Jersey from Ivaffirland , where it is still a principle of native law . M . Hugo's volume is full of similarly curious details , and is -written with a grace and force announcing him distinctly as his f ather ' s son . ..
a Viscount . I"t contains a -elass of lords « . nd a class of vassals . The land as distributed into fiefs . "You would be ridiculed as a Utopian in Jersey were you to talk about abolishing feudalism , tithe , tributes , or forced labour . IBut , on the other hand , you need no passport there . The island is open to 4 ill comers . It has neither penal code nor written law . Custom is its code surd it has no Ordonnnnces of July . Whence came these ancient institutions sund this singular population ? Charlemagne , looking from a castle-window , saw some fierce men disembarking on the coast of the Narbonne , and
wept . They were Normans , and from them sprang Hollo , who afterwards came to an islet known then as Coesarasn , but which , when its inhabitants had been massacred , was called Jersey , and colonized by the pirates of the ItsTorth . Rollo divided tbe land , kept the lion ' s share to lumself , and distributed the remainder among his chieftains . Here was the ori gin of a society and a polity , the traces of which appeal" imperishable . Jersey was governed by castles and churches , for the lords shared their power with the priests , whostbsorbed tbe principal jurisdiction over offenders and csta'blished the right of asylum .
Renunciation , a purely JSormnn penalty retained to this day among- the hereditary customs of Jersey , vraa a moral punishment , having for its principle the love of country . The coiwtemned wae obliged to renounce Normandy , that is , to nwear ho would never TCtairn to his natal soil . It was with his hand upon the Gospel that he took this oath . Before departing he was compelled to declare what route he proposed "to select ; hews then -nlloAved a certain -number of hours in which to perform the journey . He was then forced to sfca-rt and to walk during the entire dny , never tc-¦ ceil-rng a step , -whether in rain , snow , ot burning lieat , and was only permitted lo pause at night to take repose in the nearest hnmlct . If , overwhelmed hy fatigue or retarded by the thousand unforeseen obstacles of a long journo }' , he was a minute too late , trad had not quitted Normandy nt the stipulated hour , the lay officers of justice "who * m& -watch . < d his flight along the road once more seized upon th « criminal , and -dragged him back to the executioner . The Church -no longer protected him .
__ TM . Hugo aTgues that trial by jury was a Norman before it was nn English practice , passing over to England from Normandy oi croupe with William die Conqueror . In a parenthetical though important chapter , he traces to Jersey the origin of French poetical literature , and then , reverting ( to the political history of the island , quotes the list of its governors . In the fourteenth « a < l fifteenth centuries it was administered by four brothers or « ons of kinoa—Edward , son of Henry III . ; Edward , son of Edward IK . ; atnd tlio Dukes of Bedford and Gloucester , brothers of Henry V . Warwick , the King-Mulcer , left his nume deeply printed in the a-nnalu of Jersey ,-which counts also upon its roll of governors , tho Duke of Somerset , favourite of Henry VTIL , Sir Amyas Pnulet , and Sir Walter Rakish . With infinite Changes of fortune , however , the island saw few changes in the customs of tts people . Thus the amends honorable of feudal times survived for centuries .
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WILD ADVENTURE . Virginia Illustrated : a Visit to the Virginian Canaan . Illustrated from Drawings by Porte-Crayon . ( Low and Co . }—In Randolf county , Virginia , ' there Is a tract of country containing from seven to nine hundred square miles , entirely uninhabited , and so inaccessible that at has rarel y been penetrated even by the boldest hunters . The settlers on its borders speak of it as a region of laurel brakes , dangerous abysses , and precipitous hills , swarming-with panthers and bears . Stories are told of trappers lost among its savage solitudes . In 1851 , however , certain trout-fishers explored it as far as the Falls of the Blackwater , and upon their return published a fascinating account of the scenery , the game , and the fislu Two years afterwards , a second , party set out from Maryland , leaped the infant Potomac , ' and found themselves in Virginia . Next , they crossed an 'aniber brook ,
and then plunged into tlie Virginian forests . Travelling in this region is conducted upon a primitive plan : your horse lies down to sleep -on the grass ; you make a bed of hemlock branches \ your fire flickers n . warning ngainst the approach of wild beasts ; the pine-trees form smooth columns , supporting aloft , at a distance of a hundred feet , a traceried roof of green . By day you c dodge' the hiurel brakes , which extend mile after mile , and are so dense that -even the deer cannot pass except by finding the thinnest places . When the experienced woodman is forced to cross he always seeks a deer path . But the bear makes his way more easily , tearing through the thickets and making his lair among the crushed leaves and broken wood . In the large , profusely illustrated volume under notice , we have a lively narrative of adventures in this wild country , purporting to describe how
Porte-Crayon , an artist , explored it with three young girls , hia cousins . Half the book is made up of trashy talk ; the rest is feebly written , and the engravings , though characteristic , are often execrable . But tho incidents of the journey were amusing , and altogether unlike the experiences of ladies who travel in the ordinary fashion . The vehicle was a solidly-built carriage , drawn by two horses ; the driver - \ vas a fat , powerful , jocular negro ; Porte-Crayon was ivn athletic fellow , wearing a hunting belt and leathern gaiter .- * , and carrying a short German rifle ; his companions were , so we find it recorded , plump , pretty girls , ready to make tents out of shawls , to dive into caverns of unknown depth , and to sleep -within earshot , of bruin ' s growl . Their first great enterprise was a visit to Weyer ' s cave on the Shcnandouh . Tbe cave is composed of several a / ast halls crowded with grotesque
stalagmites nnd sparkling stalactites , with a caturact leaping from nu aperture in the rock , and rushing away into subterranean darkness . In some the natural roofs and columns arc as white as alabaster , and gleam with bilvcr epecks and veins ; in others tho surfuce resonibles i \ contrast of jet and crystal . They have been distinguished by : i number of fanciful names—tho Hall of Statuary , Solomon's'JVunplc , the Cathedral , tiro Gnome King ' s Palace , tho l £ « ichantud JMoors , the liridal Chamber , and the Magic Tower . Pc « v . European travellers ure aware that the North American caves excel in ¦ extent and beauty even tho JLnJro di JVeAltuno of Sardinia . Tlio Ciiimneya -wore the next objects of interest in Porte-Crayon's route . They ibrin a remarkable group of seven natural lowers upon « . limestone head , are from seventy to eighty ivet high , . uud resemble xi great feudal xuiu . In this vicinity fourteen inches of snow may full within an hour or two—astrUdugUlusiration . of the
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It 2 $ o . 389 , September 5 , 1857 . ] THE LEADER . 839
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Leader (1850-1860), Sept. 5, 1857, page 859, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2208/page/19/
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