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These italicised phrases fully bear out the critic ' s proposition , that " Bacon had all the natural faculties which a poet yrants : a fine ear for metre , a fine feeling for imaginative effect in words , and a vein of poetic passion . " In furtler illustration , the following is quoted : — ¦'¦ ' * Thou carriest man away as with a tide ; ,, 2 % e » down swim all his thoughts that Mounted high ; Much like a mocking dream , that will riot bide , But flies before the sight of waking eye ; Or as the grass , that cannot term obtain To see the summer come about again .
"The thought , " says the able editor , " in the second line could not well be fitted with imagery , words and rhythm more apt and imaginative ; and there is a tenderness of expression in the concluding couplet which comes manifestly out of a heart in sensitive sympathy with nature , and fully capable of the poet ' s faith—That every flower ¦ Enjoys the air it breathes . In the opening of the 104 th Psalm he quotes also some heroic couplets which he thinks quite equal d les of
to Dryden . They are , indeed , gransamp finished versification . Still finery however , is Bacon ' s 7 T « fW ?/ a of a Greek epigram , attributed to Poseidippus , ' Plato the comic poet , and : to Crato the cynic . On the basis of the epigram the parodist has , in fact , raised another and a better poem , and treated it in a very different manner . Herein may be found both " special felicity in the expression , " and " music in the metre , " with " a tone of plaintive melody , which is chiefly due to the metrical arrangement . " Here , too , we may add , are some Shaksperian lines ; e . g . — -
" Who then to frail mortality shall trust , '• But limns the water , or but writes in cf itstf . " " What is it then to have or have no iyife , But single thraldom , or a double strife ?" In others of these versions , similar beauties may be detected , such as"lliefore the-hills : did intercept the eye , Or that the frame was up of earthly stag-e , One God thou wert , and art , and still shall bo ; The line of Time , it doth not measure thec . " " Or as a watch by night , that course doth keep . And goes , and comes , unwares to them that sleep . ' '' ' M As a tale told , which sometimes men attend , And sometimes not , our life steals to an cad . "
This will suffice at least , to reinstate Lord Bacon ' s character as a poet ; if it do no more . The contributions to this volume are both numerous and important . The reader will expect somethin" - of a list . It includes the " Advertisement touching a Holy War , " " The True Greatness of Britain , " " Colours of Good and Evil , " " Letter and Discourse to Sir Henry Savill , touching Helps for the Intellectual Powers , " " Short Notes for
Civil Conversation , " "Apophthegms , " " Promus of Formulai-iesand Elegancies , " " Religious Writings , Prayers , Meditations , " &c , " Christian Paradoxes , " and of course the versions of the Psalms on which ¦ we have commented . The remainder of the volume consists of professional works , which are accompanied with a general preface , which is most ably written . A complote index concludes the volume—the merit of which , whether as regards the matter or the manner , is not easily to be paralleled .
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All tho Year Round ; a Weekly Journql . Conducted by Charles Dickens . Vol . I . Offices 11 , Wellington-street north . " Axv this YijAit mound " is too well known to require any recommendation from us , and criticism would be out of place in our pages . The work is , wo think , moro varied in its character , than its predecessor , though managed on the saine plan , the articles written in tho same style—l > ut often 0 / a more public kind—such as the article , pn tjie
" JYanklin Expedition" and " The Great" Eastern Steamship ; " while tho form is exactly the same as that of Household Words . Besides many—tho very many exquisite sketches and stories—nearly three hundred in all—by the light infantry of our literature , the present volume contains " The Tale of the Two Cities , " a work of a different kind from any of Mr . Dickens' previous works , and of which wo shall reserve our remarks till it is completed , wliioh wo see will bo next month . Health , long life , and prosperity to our contemporary I
My Note-book ; or Sayinqn and Doings of a Physician . —Sampson Low and Co . Tun writer of "My Noto-book" unites tli « clergyman with tho physician . Finding that many of the Ills of his patients hud boon brought about by their intpmporanao or other ungodly habits , ho has undertaken to show thorn that to bo well In body is noarly nhvAvs to bo good in xnind . Tho looturoa la "My
Note-book" are principally derived from observations in the families where the writer has been the doctor : " of course the real names of persons are withheld . " If the authoc is not a ; bettor * ' man of medicine" than he is a writer he is certainly not veryclever ., The physician should bear in mind the Old saying , that " every cobbler should stick to his last . '
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BANK NOTES FOR INDIA . IT is not strange that currency questions will continually force themselves on public attention . The universal instrument of exchangethe measure of the chief services which man renders to man—must always have a great interest for all classes : and Governments continually find , af ter they have settled such questions for ever , that they surge up again and again for renewed discussion and additional legislation . Just now , we learn by the last arrivals from the East , that the authorities of Japan , in order to fleece the Europeansor buy cheaply , from them , have
re-, duced the quantity of silver in the dollar to onethird ; or , which is equivalent , have issued a new eoin which , being in exchange nominally a dollar , contains only one-third as much precious metal as a dollar . The government there , which seems like an old feudal one , has revived the practice of the barbarous ages of Europe , and cheats by law . Just now , apropos of new financial measures for India , we find the advantages of bank-notes over coins elaborately set forth , so far as the liability to falsification is concerned , in the weekly publication
which is still the organ of the Finance Minister for India ; arid the use of paper money in that country recommended . The ^ Economist , however , acquiesces in the prohibition to use small notes in England , because the public feeling is opposed to the use , while it says we need have no fear that a paper currency will be vitiated by fraud in India . On the one hand , then , we have brought distinctly under our notice the liability of a coinage under the control of a Government to be debased , and on the other the advantages of the
modern invention of paper currency as a very efficient guard against fraud . We have , at the same time , the wretched infirmity of our public men distinctly set before us , who continually acquiesce in what they avow to be wrong because the public , which they pretend to guide and govern , prefers , as they say , often cakunniously , the wrong to the ri g ht . We may do a little service to the public by now briefly reminding it of the difference betwixt coin and paper representing ^ coin as the instrument of exchange , and explaining why the proposed small notes are far less adapted to India , where they are probably to be introduced , than to
England , where they are prohibited . The precious metals are as universally recommended to man . by their intrinsic qualities , as the instruments of the barter which grows from the natural division of employments — as water for his drink . The chief qualities which recommend them are their comparative unchangeabluness , their homogeneity and uniformity , and their great value in small bulk . All these , and particularly the latter , depend on their weight or gravity- —that great principle ' which keeps the whole univcrso , as well as the exchanges of insect man in order , -All that is really necessary to be done in coining ^ them w ^ to divide the precious metals in distinct portions of sorao definite and wcll-lcnown weight , and mark that weight on thorn . Governments have
gradually usurped this especial business , and made it a crime for other people to coin money . Of this usurpation they took advantage , and everywhere most scandalously vitiated this groat instrument of mutual service , by falsely certifying tho weight and value of coins , and inflicted thereby on society , through many years , moro miseries than fumine or plague . They adopted false measures— " an abomination in the sight of tho Lord . " Their duty was perfectly simple and plain , it remains perfectly simple and plain 5 but , ns wo montionod a fortnight ago , our Govornniont « QW performs it in tho most inconvenient and disgraceful nmnnor , by making its unit of value of tho extraordinary weight of 113 , 001 grains of fine gold . In the wholp compass of , human , business wo kno > y no illustration
more striking of the _ iricompetency of Governments than the injurious manner m which ttey have dealt with coinage—a matter which , as long as they are honest , is one of simple arithmetic . To them arid their falsifications and complications of the currency were due all those evils of false coinage which , from the . days of William IH . almost to the reign of George IV ., sent troops of men and women to the gallows , and were , in the face of Europe , the scandal of England .
In process of time paper promises to pay money , founded on the natural confidence which man must have in man , came almost universally into use . They are known amongst the Mongols , and were known at a very early period in Europe , and are now in use all over Europe an c in America . The sum which they may promise to pay is of very little consequence , whether 113 , 001 grains of fine gold or 120 grains , when that amount is settled and known as a customary
coin to the peopl e- Thus the use , in modern times , of p aper money has lessened and obviated much of the prodigious inconveniences of having coins of such equivocal weight and relations as
ours . Another advantage of paper-money is , that it is much less difficult to issue false coin than _ forge bank notes . Accordingly it is a fact that while the prosecutions for forgery of iBank of England notes was only thirty-three in 1858 , the number of prosecutions for false . coining and uttering was 716 . A similar proportion is observable throughout the last ten years . But the reason assigned by our contemporary , and we think the just reason , for bank note 3 not being forged is , that they are continually sent back to the issuer , and are almost immediately detectedi All the bankers who issue notes have a strong interest in counteracting
forgery , and there is nothing which they " would go to a greater expense" to prevent . It is sure , therefore , to be unprofitable . But such a reason does not apply to any Government issue of bank notes or any forced circulation of notes , such as the Governments of tbe continent have established , but only to the issues of notes by private bankers . Accordingly , it is found—and this is very important , both as to our legislation prohibiting the use of small notes in England and proposing it for India—that since 1850 there , has not been one prosecution for forging notes la Scotland , where the bulk of the circulation is one-pound notes , issued by private banks ; while
between that period and the end of 1858 , there have been 190 prosecutions for forging Bank of England notes . The Bank of England is very cautious to cancel all notes that go back to it ; but being a privileged national organ , issuing leg « l tender which all are obliged to accept , it is not liable to have them sent back so rapidly as private and competing banks send their notes back to one another ; and , therefore , Bank of England notes are forged to a considerable extent , while bank notes in Scotland are now never forged . The new Minister Of Finance for India does not
nmnnsfl . we \ hfiliflvc . to allow all the baboos of propose , we believe , to allow all the baboos oi Calcutta and Bombay who chose to sot up a bank to issue super notes ; but while neither he nor any other person can doubt the utility of paper currency in India it seems inherent in the Ludian Government , that it should keep the issue of such notos in its own lands . A plan , therefore , for Government to issue or sanction the issue of notes by some one Bunk ofTndiii will want the one great safeguard against forgery which belongs to the issue of paper promises to pay by private bankers . They will not bo exactly what will in uic
they ought to bo , but they uo a step right'direction , leading to fuuther improvement . A moro philosophical and natural course would bo to allow gold to be used as money , and for the Government to take it and issue it at its market value in relation to silver . . Than to allow bunkers , if they pleased , to issue any notes they liked ; and as there would bo no Bank of England monopoly to stand in tho way of frcodom , and no legal when
tender notes declared to bo actual payments ( Uoy nro only promises to p ' ny , thore docs not Hooiu to bo nny objection to free . banking in India , and to tho freest issue of any notos the bonkers plcnae . A free trade in money— though this is . jipfc the doctrine of some eminent froe traders in oorn—iu tho great Instrument of all exchange—¦ will undoubtedly help forward the prosperity oi Indift , and make it patient undor the additional ; axat ( on now to bo imposed on it .
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No . 502 . Nov . 5 , 1859 } - THE LEADEB . 1233
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Leader (1850-1860), Nov. 5, 1859, page 1233, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2319/page/21/
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