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    No. 415, Maech 6, 1BBR.1 THE REAPER. 285

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    THREE DISCOURSES ON BEAUTY. On Beauty: T...

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    The Defence Of Lucknow. A Personal Narra...

    £ S ^ sfc ^ sf ^?^ r"iff 7 ir e Sua bTSri gadier Inglis . Of course , it enters into expanatmns which SKr ^ x taa ^ Bft ^»^ S Sfiaresaa ^^ t ^ M ? v Havelock . Early in May , the writer says , Sir Henry Lawrence , anti-XSau outbreak , busied himself with precautions , and when the revolt Surred it was scarcely a surprise ; but the gratuitous brutality of the % Z ^ W jJ £ iMA the Europeans , ' recently their companions , and from the themselves

    firlt houTof theiautinyit was - felt that the rebels had committed beyond the possibility of p ardon . Savage and pitiless , however , they were Sytog but barbarous in their method of warfare ; it may be said that iiicknow was as much besieged underground as above , for during eighty days the site of the Residency was perpetually approached by galleries from every point of the compass , the garrison being compelled to countermine day and night , to maintain incessant watch in their listening galleries , to explode one mine after another , and to block up subterranean lines of attack which had no sooner been interrupted on the north and south than they were pushed forward from the east and west . The engineering genius displayed during the defence reflected the highest credit upon every officer . and man employed . But the grand test of courage was the endurance with which the garrison sustained during an entire season the fire of a liostile army . It was as though one of the British squares at Waterloo , vrith its hollow crowded by women and children , had stood under arms from

    May to September ; for there was not a sheltered building in the fort ; ladies youn" girls , and infants , were struck down in their private rooms ; dyin < r ' sqldiers were shot in the hospital ; the garrison were totally without casemates , and were compe lled to erect solid buttresses of clay ag ainst the walls of their powder-magazine , and block over the roof with two feet of earth and a layer of heavy beams . This constituted , perhaps , the distinguishing characteristic of the defence . And yet nothing could surpass the courage and conduct of the garrison when summoned to repel an attack . Frequently with mines springing on all sides , enormous ladders planted against the walls , and ten thousand soldiers fighting and yelling to gain an entrance , a few clusters of Europeans , backed by loyal Indian detachments , drove them back , literally blowing off or hewing to pieces the heads of the assaulting columns ; every man doing tlie work of a battalion , every detachment signalizing itself as a Legion " of Honour . We might adduce th ese as the noblest episodes in the Indian Iliad but that human fortitude withstood

    even a more formidable trial . Struggling like demigods , the garrison were fed upon wors e than pauper rations ; a stench suc Dante would have appreciated filled the Residency to suffocation ; the hospital breathed forth a volume of disease ; children died almost daily , and for the dead there was but insufficient burial . We hear of no vain lamentations , no wild outbursts of grief to dis hearten the survivors , no suggestions of surrender ; even the children above ten years of age worked at the cornmills ; the women were among the most undaunted ; and even after the sound of friendly cannon had died away , and it was known that the rei nforcements had retreated , there was no repining ; every one returned to the work of war , and when the last hour appeared to have arrived , not a voice spoke of surrender . It is good for the English people to read and reflect upon this simple narrative . Two or three passages we quote ; but the story must be read without a pause—us it may easily be—in order that the light may shine full upon the defenders of Lucknow . The Sepoys imagined various devices of attack -.

    —The enemy threw in several shells , also a number of stink-pots , which were a verj ' carious composition of large pieces of our exploded iron shell sewn up in canvas , and suirounded by flax and resin , with dry powder in the centre : these , from the commencement of the Biege , had been thrown in doily from a howitzer ; they made a fearful hissing noise and great stench , and finally exploded . They were not very dangerous , unless they exploded very close to a person . We also had a few rockets thrown in , but not many ; and lately a number of shrapnel shells , fired apparently from a howitzer " with a very great elevation . The garrison retorted by inventing new means of annoyance : — A new loop-hole on the top of the brigade mess , which it was discovered commanded a distant and much-frequented lane in tho city , was made use of by Lieutenant Sewell , armed with his linfield rifle ; the distance being not above seven hundred and fifty yards , tho conical bullets most effectually cleared tho lanes of tho Sepoys as they lounged up it , and quickened the paces of the citizens as they crossed and recrossed . "When the gallant but too impetuous Lawrence died , his ' supplies' were sold by auction : — ^

    _ . ^ ___ The brandy realized from 140 to 160 rupees ( 1 GJ . ) per dozen ; beer averaged from CO to 70 rupees ( 7 / . ) j sherry 70 rupees ; hermetically sealed hams from 70 to 75 rupees ( 71 . 10 s . ) each ; a bottle of honey 45 rupees ( 4 / . 10 s . ); rifle gunpowder , 1 C rupees per lb . ( It 12 a . ); small cakes of chocolate , from 80 to 40 rupees ( 8 / . to 4 / . ) ; and other things in proportion . Sugar ( had there been any for sale ) would have commanded almost any price . An incident shortly afterwards happened which illustrates the peculiar difficulties of European warfare in InUin : — This morning some fresh boef was accidentally removed from the slaughter-yard in one of tho magazine carta . As these carta were used also for transporting grain , it excited remark amongst some Selkhs- Tho cart in question waa immediately marked in the presence of the commissariat establishment , and strict orders wore given that it should not bo used again . Lastly , relief was announced : —

    _ At &^ M .- Xonorj ^ w . as , «^^ oaps , a regiment of Europeans in bluo pantaloons and shirts , and a bullock battery wor © s « en near Mr . Martin ' s houao and tho Moteo ftluhnl , At 5 jp . m . volleys of musketry , rapidly growing louder , were heard In tho city . But soon the firing of a Mtnttf ball over our heads gave notice of the still nearer approuch of our friends , of whom as yet Mule or nothing bad been soon , tliough the enemy were to bo soon firing hoa \/ Uy o * them from many of the roofs of the houses . Vive minutes later , a » d ouv troops were soon fighting their way through ono of tho principal streets ; » ud , though mm fioll « A « JuM »» t every stop , yet nothing could withstand tho headlong gallantry of

    our reinforcements . Once fairly- seen , all our doubts and fears regarding them were ended : and then the garrison ' s long pent-up feelings of anxiety and suspense bwcat forth in a succession of deafening cheers ; from every pit , trench , and battery—from behind the sandbags piled on shattered houses—from every post still held by a few gallant spirits , rose cheer on cheer—even from the hospital ! Many of the wounded crawled forth to join in that glad shout of welcome to those who had so bravely come to our assistance . It was a moment never to be forgotten . That was a moment never to be forgotten ; and this is a narrative not to be laid down until the last line has been read . A Personal Journal of the Siege of Lucknow . By Capt . J . P . Anderson . Edited by J . Camegy Anderson . ( Thacker and Co . )—Captain Anderson was among the most distinguished offieers who defended Lucknow against the rebel army . He is mentioned with brilliant commendation in the despatch of Brigadier Inglis . This brief narrative is picturesque , and contains accounts of some remarkable incidents not elsewhere described . It may be read with interest as a supplement to the volumes of ' A Stafi Officer' and Mr . Bees .

    No. 415, Maech 6, 1bbr.1 The Reaper. 285

    No . 415 , Maech 6 , 1 BBR . 1 THE REAPER . 285

    Three Discourses On Beauty. On Beauty: T...

    THREE DISCOURSES ON BEAUTY . On Beauty : Three Discourses delivered in the University of Edinburgh . With an Exposition of the Doctrine of the Beautiful according to Plato . By John Stuart Blackie . Simpkin and Marshall . It is difficult to say whether Professor Blackie displays greater enthusiasm in the championship of Plato , or in flinging down the gauntlet to the entire school of Scottish philosophers . Thomas Brown , Reid Stewart , Jeffrey , and Alison find no favour in his sight , while of the views of Sir William Hamilton , for whom he p rofesses respect , he remained in ignorance until too late to allude to them , save in the Preface to his volume . Nor is he a whit the more gracious to other national authorities , English , French , or German . Though he declares that " to create for oneself a world of exclusive converse with what is old , as scholars are apt to do , to converse always with Cicero

    and Aristotle , while Hamilton and Hegel are not even glanced at , is altogether artificial , is an unnatural transplantation of your intellect out o-f the world to which it does belong , into a world to which it does not belong , " the Professor , repudiating this eclecticism , does not even ' glance at ' the discussions of some of the most enthusiastic of modern sesthetical writers , and is content altogether to ignore the inquiries of Burke on Beauty , confessing that he has not perused a single page of _ that author . The object of these Discourses , however , is neither merely to interpret nor refute , the Professor having a theory of his own to propound , the leading principles of which , though ' originally elaborated with perfect independence of all authority , ancient or modern , were found singularly enough , to be ' substantially the same as Plato ' s . ' But " all men are plagiarists since Plato / ' says Emerson ; and this advantage is derived from the affinity of the Scotch Professor ' s creed with that of the greatest master of antiquity , that its principles are necessarily sound ; and the merit of these Discourses

    is , that they are not merely stated and expounded by illustration , but argued lucidly and with power , in diction fervid , close , and masterly . Proessor Blaekie finds the essentials of iJeauty to consist in a variety of elements . Of these , the primary and indispensable are Order and Congruity —the first elucidated as symmetry in bodies occupying space , and as measure or rhj-tum in those which move , through space . Congruity or Harmony is explained as the innate analogy or unity of things apparently the most diverse . Accessory to these are actuality , expressiveness , moderation , smoothness , variety , novelty , and contrast , all which are discussed more or less successfully . Thus he is pot arbitrary in his solution of the Beautiful , nor does he imag ine it can be conveyed in an axiom of whatever compass , from the narrow dogma of Raphael Mengs to the ideal of Schiller , who contends that Beauty is the consummation of Humanity , regarding it with the vision of the sage , who saith that " Beauty is the virtue of the body , as virtue is the beauty of the soul . "

    One of the most admirable of Professor Blackie ' s tenets , and one of most healthful influence to receive , is his belief in the human prerogative based on Divine sanction to enjoy the Beautiful , the exquisite garniture of creation teaching men their obligations to follow out , as far as the feeble imitation of man can aspire , the plan of order and symmetry apparent in the universe . The normal type of Nature he finds to be fashioned in Beauty , after which model the artist should strive with something of apostolic zeal , as a ' fellowworker with God . ' In spite of this general comeliness , exceptional hideousness occurs , and ' disease is ugly , death is ugly , and the first of May in Scotland , full of east wind and drizzly mist , is not beautiful . ' In passages earnest and forcible , the Professor pays tribute to the Greeks , the yet unsurpassed worshippers of the Beautiful . He says : —• Amid the multifarious errors of their theology against which the lofty soul of Plato so indignantly protested , these ancients had at least this one good thing to set against tlio many good things in which our Christian superiority consists , that if their religion was lesa divine than ours , thoir painting and sculpture , and even the trivial garniture

    of their daily life , was more religious . If they had less morality in their temples , they had more devotion in their pictured porticos and in their statucd streets . To them , religion , whatever might be its faults , never wore a grim and forbidding aspect . ... To thorn , painting and sculpture wore not arts invented merely or mainly for tho purpose of enabling a rich huntsman to ornament the vestibule of his mountain-lodge with groups of wild beasts , or that his fair lady might look upon herself painted with her favourite parrot on her shoulder , but that our small experience of all that is gloriouB and beautiful in poor , shrivollod , and crippled humanity might , through tho genius of a Phidias or an Alcamones , bo opriohed and refreshed by tho daily contemplation of perfect Uurnaa joy in Apollo , perfect humau love in Aphrodite , and perfect practical wisdom in , Minerva . These reflections are iaade to the detriment of the modern Briton , more BBpSSisair ^ tfiSTOOT ^ leW" ^ compunction in censuring to the full . Indeed , his portraiture id almost ns repollunt as that sketched by Sidney Suiitli , who represented ' Sandy' with ono hand allaying hieoutuneoue irritation while with tho other ho grasped tUo Calvrai & tio eroeds- ^ - Wo we in many respocta , I fear , a very utttUwian , a vory vulgar , and a vexy Gotliio race . Nor indeed is this surprising , seeing that over and above tho materializing inUuencos of the love of money natural to a mercantile people , and tUfi harehnoaa of

• Citation
  • Leader (1850-1860), March 6, 1858, page 19, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_06031858/page/19/