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    A STUDENT'S LIFE. The Poetical Remains o...

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    BOOKS ON HUNGARY. Hungary in 1851; with ...

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    The North British Review, Just Issued, I...

    London after a flying visit , will , by the aid of Belgium , tell us , in a few days , " a bit of his mind" on Napoleon le Petit—a diatribe of three hundred pages , in which , as we hear , the French language has been exhausted of its epithets of scorn and indignation ! What it is to have that " fine command of language ! " most men seem to think it equivalent to wealth of ideas , when really and truly your " command of language , " in nine cases out of ten , means that the language commands you— -carries you away in the torrent—stuns you with the many mingling sounds 1

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    A Student's Life. The Poetical Remains O...

    A STUDENT'S LIFE . The Poetical Remains of William Sidney Walker . Edited , with a Memoir of the Author , by the Itev . J . Moultrie , M . A ., Rector of Rugby . J . W . Parker and Son . Judged according to any standard you please this is but an unnecessary publication ; not particularly well done , not worth the doing . Still , as it is here , and calls for some remark , we may point to it as containing one more illustration of perverted life and collegiate training . Sidney Walker had not the talents or strength of character to achieve brilliant success in

    life , but he was gifted with an amount of ability which , otherwise directed , might have been useful and honourable : he placed his _ambition in writing Greek and Latin verses , became a moth feeding on " the classics , " and wasted health , hope , life , in the dreary struggle . As a picture of a college student ' s career this Memoir is not without its mournful interest , though feebly painted . Mr . Moultrie , the reverend biographer , speaks affectionately of his friend ' s short comings , and it is to this affectionateness , we presume , that the following passage is due . After recording Sidney Walker ' s scepticism , he adds : —

    " Meanwhile whatever may have been the state of his religious belief , it produced no external change of conduct . He continued to conform to all the stated observances of his college , and his morals remained in all respects as pure and blameless as they had ever been . Never _toas scepticism more involuntary , less attributable to moral causes than in his case : never by any man would an entire and overwhelming conviction of the truth of Christianity have been more gladly and thankfully welcomed than by him . " Mr . Moultrie , like most orthodox people , evidently thinks it a praise "

    worthy trait that Sidney Walker ' s scepticism did not alter his outward conduct . " I ' m afraid Campbell has not much religion , " said Dr . Johnson , " but he never passes a church without taking off his hat . That shows he has principles . " Believe if you can ; but if you can ' t , at any rate say nothing about it ; do not openl y withdraw from the church—that is orthodox morality ! Notice further , in the foregoing passage , the quiet assumption that disbelief springs from immorality . Sidney Walker was a sceptic , and , nevertheless , "' pure and blameless ; " with him " moral causes " had little or nothing to do with it . But he was an exception !

    Sidney Walker was one of the band of clever young men who wrote in Knight ' s Quarterly , all of whom subsequently made some noise in the world ; but whatever his scholarship may have been—and as yet no adequate means of judging have been set before us—to estimate him by the poetical remains here published we should say that his mind was one of those many buds that never become flowers—a prospectus , not a book . What he 'might have been had his fate been different it is idle to inquire . The world can only deal with actualities , not with promises ; and the actual achievements of Walker were feeble enough . The biographer may note how important an element was absent from his life—woman ' s influence ; an element to all of us of incalculable importance for good and for evil , for joy and for sorrow , for success and for failure , but made more so to him by the helplessness of his nature : —

    " If it was in Walker ' s nature to devote himself to the steady and continuous prosecution of any branch of study , —to persevering and laborious exertion in any sphere of intellectual activity , —most assuredly it was neit in his nature to do so under the conditions of permanent Academical preferment . Incapable as he was of forming or of executing any distinct and judicious plans for supporting himself in any other state of life , he was still more incapable of confining his wishes within tbe limits of a _ceillcge . The thought of life-long celibacy was to him as intolerable as , from his personal peculiarities and other considerations , the thing itself appeared inevitable . For female sympathy—for female attachment—for the married life in all its fulness—his yearnings were intense and soul-consuming . From the constitution of his mind inele : e : el it was scarcely possible that this should have been

    otherwise . Of female excellence his appreciation was most profound anel reverential . Tho tenderness anel purity of his affections , —the richness of his imagination , —the delicacy anil _exquisiteness of his taste , —the instinctive subtlety and truth of his moral sense , —all combined to elevate Woman iu his eyes to a rank which she can fully occupy only in minds as nobly constituted as his was . Yet few men were ever less quulilicd by nature to win the love of woman . His eliminutive stature , —bis very perceptible _efe'f ' e : e : ts eif visiem , —his awkward gait , —his uncouth address , —his eccentric manners , conveying , to those _whei knew him not , the impression eif insanity or _idieie-y , —bis slovenly dress , —hia negleeted persem , —presented tei the female eye a tout ensemble , tei overcome the effect of which required an appreciation of moral and intellectual excellence } rarely found , except in the highest order of female' minds .

    And Walker ' s intellectual gifts were not such as to e : oinme _: nel themselves easily to female perceptions . _Convornatieui he : hael absolutely nemo . Tht ; slow , _eliffulont , inconclusive working of his minel , —the elilliculty ( arising perhaps from fastidiousness ) with whie-h his thoughts clothed themselves in articulate language , —tht ; emba . rra . ssed , uncomfortable ; gestures by which he relieved antl expressed his hesitation , disqualified him in a lamentable : _efe : gre ; e : feir making himself acceptable in female society , ami still more for offering such attentions as those by which tho female heart is usually won . That he was in reality endued with many of those

    qualities which , could he ever have succeeded in winning the affections of an amiable woman , anil have uttaiiicel to the ; means of _suppeirting her as his wife , Wfinltl have conduced to the happiness of wedlock , may well be believed . J Jut unhappily the fulfilment ; of cither of these conditions seemed to be in his case impracticable ; and though it was long before his mind realized the fact , —though it may _Imi douhttid whether , ut any period of bis life , be ; became fully sensible : of his _dinquuliik-atiems te > enact Huce : e _: ssfully the : part of a lover , antl to win the : desired name of _husbuhd , —still a vague sense : of _hojielesHncsH tt ) obtain tbe first wish of his semi , <—* k bitter _couaciouuuess of tho iucomputibility of his most cherished daydreams with

    A Student's Life. The Poetical Remains O...

    what seemed to be his allotted path in life , sufficed to paralyze his intellectual energies , and to unnerve him for resolute and practical exertion towards the attainment of any definite end . To some such cause at least it seems reasonable to attribute the utter aimlessness and waste of his early manhood . From the day on which he took his bachelor ' s degree , or at least from that on which he was elected a fellow of Trinity , he appears to have had no distinct object or occupation in life Incapable of choosing a profession , or of engaging in any regular and systematic course of study , he frittered away and exhausted his noble powers , for years together , in employments altogether unworthy of them ;—in minute verbal criticism for obscure periodicals- ;—in occasional essays , for the most part on trifling subjects —in burlesque imitations of and parodies upon Greek , Latin , and English authors * It seemed as if he were seeking , in petty and trivial intellectual occupations , diversion and relief from the deep heart-searchings and mental disquietudes to which he was in secret becoming daily more and more a prey . "

    And the end was insanity , helpless poverty , a miserable wasted life . Last week we spoke of the danger that lay in " peace of mind" as contradistinguished from the healthy conflict of activity—the danger lest the mind become like a stagnant pool , mantling over with fertile inferiorit y of life , as we see it in the " peace" of villages , of colleges , of solitude , and all our energetic faculties frittered away in petty details and superficial strivings , by some named gossip , by others business ; and here in Walker ' s career we read an illustration of it ; he wasted his life in writing aimless bad verses and in verbal criticisms .

    Books On Hungary. Hungary In 1851; With ...

    BOOKS ON HUNGARY . Hungary in 1851 ; with an Experience of the Austrian Police . By Charles Loring Brace . _leondon : Bentley . The Past and Future of Hungarg : being Facts , Figures , and Dates Illustrative of its Past Struggle and Future Prospects . By C . JF . Henningsen , Esq . T . C . Newhy . An American in Hungary was not the least significant fact of 1851 . The _Austrians had the stupidity to arrest him , however ; the simple fact became an historical event , and , it is probable that , by the imprisonment of Mr . Brace , converting American sympathy for ifungary into American alliance with Hungary , Austria did more in one little month to subvert her rule in Hungary , than all the armies of the Russian intervention accomplished to sustain it in a six months' campaign . Mr . Brace not only

    saw Hungary face to face , but he also saw and f elt the Austrian police , and became acquainted with the interior and the inmates of an Austrian prison . And thus he has been enabled to spread far and wide , wherever the Anglo-Saxon tongue is understood , the strong testimony of an Anglo-Saxon , not only to the facts that Hungary had liberties which she has lost , and a constitution which has been overturned , but to what an Anglo-Saxon holds in still stronger detestation , to the hypocrisy , blood-thirstiness , and , as it were , personal baseness of the Austrian system of government . The arrest of Mr . Brace must produce the same effect upon the American mind as the arrest of Mr . Paget would have produced upon the British mind ; and , what is of far more moment to Austria , we say it to our national dishonour , the Stars and Stripes are far more likely to avenge

    an insult of this kind , than the Union Jack of England . Having , with some difficulty , obtained a passport at Vienna , —the English and Americans bearing , with the Austrian officials , the character of interfering too much in matters which did not concern them , Mr . Brace set out for Hungary , down the Danube , staying a short time in Pesth , going thence to Szolnok , and so up the Theiss _, to the plains of central Hungary . At what point he landed is not indicated , as he was anxious not to expose his hospitable Hungarian friends to the unpleasant attentions of the Austrian police ! Hoes not that fact stand in the place of volumes for _impressing the reader with the actual state of Hungary P But , when he had landed , we find him scampering over the " Pusztas , " vast prairies

    covered with crops and cattle , and dotted with farmsteads and villages , inhabited by the frank , free , generous , hospitable Hungarian Bauer or peasantry . In this charming journey over the Hungarian prairies , Mr . Brace contrived to sketch many a picturesque scene of life in those regions , and to gather a great deal of information on the state of opinion among the sturdy dwellers therein . Everywhere ho found the Austrians detested , and Kossuth beloved , In all parts , especially among the farmers , clergymen , and peasantry , freed from forced labour by the Diet in 1848 , ho found that the spirit of resistance was anything but crushed , that America was looked to as tho land of promise , and that the people have tho greatest veneration for the leaders of the war of independence , as they cherish hopes of its renewal .

    Over the Pusztas to Dcbroczin , of which he has given us a capital account , delighted everywhere with the free mariners and high bearing of tho peasants , and what wo should call , perhaps , tho yeomanry of Hungary . Debreczin is the university and tho _swinc-market of Hungary . Thc population have never been subjected to feudal service , and aro among the freest in all tho land . From Debreczin Mr . Brace went to _Grosswardein ; but hero some spy heard him , in a public room , pronounoe tho name of IJjhazy , ono of the most able and respectable of tno revolu tionary leaders , _llihazy is now at the head of a colony of exiles in

    Western America ; but the police spy concluded that some _ceinspinicy was on foot . Mr . Brace had not delivered in his papers ; ho was warned on the day after his arrival that he was " suspect , ' although he ; had be'en visiting all over tho city , calling upon the governor , among others , . lie went instantly to the office of tho Place Commandant , whei took the ; passe , saying there would be no difficulties . But , in a few hours after , while at dinner , a gendarme entered , " with a warrant for his arrest , and tho examination of h ' m papers , on the charge of his having proclamntionH . " In jpoint of fact , tho warrant had been issued not six hours after he entered

    _GrosBwardein . lie was marched off , and lodged in the old castle , in company with a Honved and a tailor , both implicated in revolutionary " crimes / — that is , on the first a false pass was found , and on the second a . concealed weapon . Mr . Brace was afterwards examined , when tho paltriest facts were adduced against him , to prove that lie was a plotter of revolutions , in tho guise of un inquiring traveller . The " court , " that is , the head soldiers in the fortress , would not believe that Hungarian country life _tvaa different from couutry Hfo iu other countries ; and as for tho Puszta , that

• Citation
  • Leader (1850-1860), Aug. 7, 1852, page 20, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_07081852/page/20/