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he did thoroughly ; his own work on the Mystics proves that he never based an assertion upon an authority at second hand ; he had read the works he quoted j if he appropriated a passage , it was not without examining its context- and he aimed at something more enduring than an exhibition or pages and chapters to astonish the illiterate . Thus all his writings bear the impress of original thought and solid learning , as well as of a refined , tastefulf sensitive mind , capable of the warmest sympathy , but wellrpoised , firm , and far-sighted . These two volumes , gracefully prepared for the press by Dr . Vaughan , will occupy a niche in our library of select criticism .
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ANASTASIA . Anastasia . Longman and Co . Soul . conflicts' and ' soul agonies' have formed the subject of so many poems during the last few years that the manifestation has grown into a disease , infecting not only our poetical literature , but in some measure the whole current of contemporary thought . A morbid melancholy , an ultra Self-consciousness , an unhealthy love of spiritual excitement , is spreading over the age , and finding expression , now in an overwrought poem , and now in a hankering atter mesmerism and table-turning . The development is bad in itself , and has become tiresome by mere repetition . Yet this is the < n-ound taken by the author of Anastasia ; and the result is a post octavo volume of 328 pages , with thirty lines in each page , in which there is no story , but , instead , a painfully elaborate analysis of certain spiritual conditions . What may be called the machinery of the poem , however , is original , and subtly conceived ; and the writing is of no common order . Alexis , the hero , has been passionately attached to Isaura , whom perhaps we must call the heroine ; but Isaura is dead before the commencement of the poem The first divison of the work represents Alexis on the grave of Isaura by night , lamenting , raving , and blaspheming ; flinging reproaches and defiance at Heaven , and expecting to be withered by some avenging lightning . The next division- introduces Isaura in Heaven wondering at her own happiness ; and so the poem proceeds , alternately divided between the soliloquies of Alexis on earth , and of Isaura in her state of beatification . The celestial name of Isaura is Anastasia—a word signifying Uprising , and therefore a type of the Resurrection ; and hence the title of the poem . For a time , Alexis remains in a doubting state of mind , unreconciled to his fate , moody , cynical , and self-analyzing—a combination of Hamlet and Timon . But Isaura is always stooping over him from the height and glory of her bliss , influencing his mind in a way not recognized by himself , and gradually bringing him to a reliance on the Christian faith : when , being perfected for death , he expires . It is this mystical scheme which gives originality to the conception of the 8 oem ; but , even had there been no such scheme , the -writing is so fine that ie poem would have commanded attention in spite of the objections which may fairly be urged against its general tendency . The writer is a person of unquestionable genius—a real poet , though not a healthy one—a subtle thinker , an acute and delicate perceiver , a master of passion and emotion , one who can strike instantaneous pictures on his page out of the heat and energy of his words . His power makes itself felt at the very commencement , and at once establishes a painful fascination over the reader . It is hot agreeable reading ; for the mind is rent with conflicting emotions , and is thrown into the same state of diseased excitement as that under which the author appears to have written . But , however much you may question the poet ' s principles of art or princip les of ethics—however much you may disagree with particular passages , or with . the prevailing complexion of the work—you can no more deny the power than you can dispute the force __ of a flood which carries you away . The passionate wrestlings of the soul with a grief to which it will not submit—the feverish staggering of the mind between defiance and supplication—the after-deadening of the heart into a calm which is not the repose of resignation , but the forced indifference of cynicism—the sudden spurts of the old fire , which burst out every now and then from the dead ashes—the listless , wayward moods of the intellect , making ghastly dalliance with human hopes and griefs , desires and passions —the unnaturally sharpened condition of the brain , perpetually gnawing into itself with endless doubts and questionings—the petulant hatred and contempt of the world—the gradual struggling into belief and reliance—and over all this tumbling chaos the glories of the beati 6 c home of Isaura , — these things are drawn forth with the strength and subtlety of genius . But the genius is as wayward as the moods it portrays . It is irregular- ^—the poetry sometimes stagnating into dull reaches of prosaic discussion upon points of faith , and at other times being overwrought and burdened with imagery . The writer lacks the power of selection , of self-denial ; and thinks it necessary to say every conceivable thing on every available subject . The result is obscurity , and a sense of fatigue to the reader . The metap hors are clogged and massed by their own excess ; you might dig themout like plums from a pudding . Indeed , the writing not unfrequently reminds U 3 of Mrs . Browning ; it possesses both her power and her weakness . lake her , the author of Anastasia has poetry , passion , rapturous enthusiasm , and keen , satirical perception of human character ; like her , he wants repose and simplicity . His blank verse for the most part is weig hty and organlike , but is deformed by many clumsy and limping passages , and is sometimes utterly destroyed by the use of such small words as 4 to' and ? of at the ends of lines—a strange aberration in one who can modulate so finely as this : <— A lime-kiln on the hill- — A burnt-out lime-kiln on the lonely hill , —• " ' A loliioly'linToilcHiis ^ Buch- 'becomes ^ ft-teinplo- ' " ~ -- ———•———r-For ouch bypwthral worshippers as me , Ac . The division headed Alexis in a Church' is strikingly dramatic , the whole action , and many of the characters , being admirably intimated in the words of the one speaker , as he sits , sharply observing all about him , yet flwayed and rocked by the intensity of his own emotions . We have done justice to the singular power of this book ; but we must again express our dissent from its spirit . It is unhealthy , feverish , hectic , hysterical . When are we to see the last of those indecent pryings into the hidden spasms and secret agonies of our nature ? When will the modern poet
consent to be something else than a . metaphysical anatomist , groping about in his horrible dissecting shop of the living passions , laying bare the ° quiver ing nerves and fibres of the heart and soul , and dividing them with his cruel scalpel ? We know that Anastasia is intended as a religious exercita tion ; but , while fully persuaded of the sincerity of the author , we deny that the end is effected . Heaven itself , from the writer ' s point of view , is as much a place of unrepose and painfully keen emotion as the earth itselfand nowhere do we find the placidity which we look for in connexion with an exalted form of belief . We submit , therefore , that Anastasia is a mistake : but it is the mistake of genius .
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THE EDUCATION OF THE PEOPLE . The Education of the People . By James Augustus St . John . Chapman and Hall The whole of the great range of questions debated of recent years in connexion with the national education , are treated in this volume by Mr . St . John . The work is at once historical , controversial , and didactic . It Jays the subject open from various points of view , and under all its aspects ; and , with a view to popularize the argument , Mr . St . John gathers from a mul . tiplicity of sources anecdotes and illustrations which throw a coloured li ght upon tne discussion . His starting-point is the general object of popular education , and this question is answered in detail : "Do we merely desire to convert the people into useful instruments of industry , or , eleyating our views to the level of morals , politics , and religion , to render them better in their social relations of parents , husbands , wives , children , better citizens and better Christians ^? " It may at once be inferred to which of these alternatives the writer inclines . Marshalling his preliminaries , Mr . St . John next investigates the extent and forms of ignorance in this country , its colonies and dependencies ; and this part of the essay contains a curious panoramic view of the British Emp ire and the populations included under the action of its laws—Fire worshippers , Pacific Islanders , Australian aborigines , perpetrators of human sacrifices—all British subjects , but not surpassing in barbarity of mind and life many who inhabit the precincts of our own capital . The social abominations that spring from ignorance occupy a large section of the picture , and , seen in this light , English civilization is scarcely a contrast to that of India , or the savage solitudes beyond the antipodal Plains of Promise . We have here , for example , a summary of the superstitions still rampant among us ; and it shows , from the history of recent years , that our towns and provinces contain believers in fairy rings , spectral coffins , the powers of witchcraft , the virtue of cauls and children ' s skulls , the water ordeal , the diabolical nature of bats and spiders , and the significance of visions during sleep . " Dryden , " says Mr . St . John , " used to eat raw pork for supper , in order to feast his imagination on hideous dreams . " To indicate precisely the plan and scope of Mr . St . John's volume would be difficult without quoting his index , since a topic of this character has seldom before been so variously treated ; but an outline ma y be sketched , so as to illustrate his general purpose . From the object of Education , as we have seen , he passes to the domains of existing ignorance , including the popular superstitions of the day . The subject is then traced historically , and in its relations to political , social , and relig ious institutions , as developed among us from the earliest times to our own . In proceeding to discuss the educational influence of literature , Mr . St . John recommends the studv of the poets , the dramatists , and the romancists , as well as of more serious works , upon the principle that while the richer classes cultivate their tastes , it is improper and irrational to insist that servants and cottagers shall absorb themselves in their theology . He advocates the teaching of the physical sciences , of geography , including ethnology , of elementary natural history , and particularly the history of extinct religions . One chapter is devoted to the influence of religion on education , and another to ' the affections ana domestic virtues ; ' upon the importance also of feminine culture , and ot distributing healthy literature among the people , separate portions ot tne work are based . Mr . St . John follows with an inquiry into the policy ot a national educational date : — When any great moral good is to be effected , an enlightened nation will not be deterred by considerations of expense from putting forth whatever power it P ° ases If " Tet it ia fortunate when economy and morality are found to go hand in hand , ad « repression and punishment of crime , at present , absorb in this country morei hhw the revenues of a small kingdom , falling very little short of four millions sterling . A largo portion of this enormous expenditure is to bo act down to the a . ccoum » our ignorance as a community . Our state physicians have hitherto proved w « dbuv « unequal either to cure or prevent the disease . We pay therefore four milUons kmto b as a tribute to the incapacity of our rulers ; arid it begins at length to be "" JP" * that , by expending less than a moiety of that sum in disciplining and Jn 8 t r . "" people , we may not only save Jthe remainder , together with much mat la now pended in poor rates , but place the industrious classes in a condition to provide am » t for themselves in future . .. »_» „ It is not therefore a mere question of economy . We must likewise taw account the pain , the sorrow , the Buffering , tho shame , the infamy , wlncli ino """ V among the humbler classes would bo spared . This view of the mftttor ™ , _ for pressed upon Parliament , which in the end will bo convinced that a general ™« i tho purpose of bringing education home to every child ' a door , will bo at once su »» / and economical , j We will allow Mr . Sr . John to state another view which he puts torww in favour of a Foundling Hospital system , as a check upon lnlanticutt .--To facilitate this , and prevent their desertion and death , there should bo »«¦ to all these schools an establishment for tho reception of infants , to wliomso « v « > - * might belong . As in other countries , they might be introduced through a » " » box r witU-tUo ^ tmost-sccrocy ,. at , nigfe (; , jft . !^ oJtUeing ^ tojwhe ^ to give notice ot w r proach of an inmate . Once In , the child should te ^ f ^ TiiTOlOTiwr-nWf floated accordingly . Indeed tho only way to render Foundling Hospitals uaeiu convert them into seminarioa of emigration ; and I feel convinced tliat , u u »*» done , tho colonies would in a short time consent tobenr all tho wtpeiMC , »»« ohi tion of tho valuable additions which might thus bo mndo to thoir « " ««*"" £ & for tion . The boys should bo brought up to trades , and the girls proporly insinwi ^ performing tho duties of domeatlo servants . At tho ago of fourteen , bot i «™ ro forwarded to tholr place of destination , and become a blessing to their now u ^ and to themselves . This plan , I repeat . If properly realized , would p « t , an o « ^ infanticide , and remove from our civilization , one of its worot stains , ewco « v
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328 THE LEADER , [ No . 419 , April 3 ^ 858 .
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), April 3, 1858, page 328, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2237/page/16/
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