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    March 8, 1S56.T THE ESAff^&i 2^3

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    SOUTHEY'S LETTERS, Selections from the L...

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    THE DUTCH REPUBLIC. . Tftc Rise of the D...

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    After Dark. • After Dark. By Wilklo Coll...

    thread , he lias so contrived it that we feel an independent mtetfet in it , and real it almost as eagerly as the stories themselves . A poor wandering portrait painter is afflicted with inflammation of the eyes which prevents bis workings his family is thus reduced to destitution ; and in the very depths of the-r helplessness the idea occurs to his wife that if he would only dictate to her ,. ' after dark / the various strange stories he ha # heard from some of bis ' sitters , ' an interesting work might he produced , which would bring them money enough to keep the wolf from the door until his eyesight is recovered . This is told in the pages of the wife ' s diary . The prologues to each story give us glimpses of the various sitters , and are the pretexts for some happy description and humorous sketching .

    The first story is quite perfect in its way . It is the . " Terribly Strange Bed , " which will be read with a breath-suspended interest , due as much to the direct and forcible telling as to the nature of the story itself . The second story , " The Stolen Letter , " is also one . which will not let you move till it is finished , but which labours under the disadvantage of being a reminiscence of Edgar Poe ' s " Purloined Letter , " with a slight reminiscence of the " Golden Beetle : ' * although the characters and incidents are different , the principle of construction is the same in both Poe ' s and Mr . Collins' stories . The third story , "Sister Rose , " reads as if it had originally been a drama , and subsequently turned into a narrative . If this be so , the author has not sufficiently attended to tie great distinction between dramatic and narrative exposition . He has crowded the story with incidents and * situations 'some of them very powerful , without attending to the necessary preparation and development of character and motives : The sudden change in the moral character of Lomaque is very like the conversions of the stage , and very unlike reality .

    The " Lady of Glemvith Grange" is so well told , and the interest so prepared , that we feel lamentably disappointed on coining to so feeble and commonplace an ending . " Gabriel ' s Marriage , " on the contrary , is masterly , in conception , in detail , and in working out . The scenery , the characters , the incidents , the language , all aid in the vivid presentation of an intensely interesting story . It is the best story in the work and the finest we have read for many a long day . The last story * " The Yellow Mask , " is also very thrilling , and up to the final chapters told with perfect art . But , towards the close , invention flags . The incident of Nanina overhearing Brigida and the Priest confess their crime is as stale as it is unreal ; and a much finer unravelling of the mystery had * already been indicated when the sculptor first perceives that a cast has been taken of his bust : had this clue been followed a more striking denouement might have been found .

    Mr . Collins possesses a rare faculty : Tart de conter . No man living better tells a story ; but there is one fault into which his very excellence leads hira * and which is worth his attention . He is so intent , so concentrated , that he is forgetful of the great art and charm of ' relief . ' Fixing his mind upon the construction of his story , and , in his intent eagerness , disregarding whatever does not help him to the thorough working out of his plan , he avoids the common error of story-tellers , namely , the superfluous descriptions , unnecessary dialogues ., and interrupting incidents . But while never superfluous , he is generally too uniform . A little more play of light and shade would make both , light and shade more effective . His stories remind us of Alfieri ' s . dramas . Shakspeare , though a more dangerous model , and often himself prodigally superfluous , is in his finest plays the true model of relief—as of every other art .

    March 8, 1s56.T The Esaff^&I 2^3

    March 8 , 1 S 56 . T THE ESAff ^& i 2 ^ 3

    Southey's Letters, Selections From The L...

    SOUTHEY'S LETTERS , Selections from the Letters of Robert Soutliey . Edited by his Son-in-law , John Wood ^ Warier , B . D . In 4 vols . Vols 1 and 2 . Longmans . Among the misfortunes of celebrated men must be reckoned the misfortune of haying sons , sons-in-law , brothers , or cousins , who have neither the talent which justifies their assuming the office of biographer , nor the sagacity to perceive that a modest relinquishment of tbeir claims in favour of some one who could do justice to the life of their illustrious relative , would be greatly Jor their own benefit and their relative ' s fame . Southey ' Life might have work of interest had skilful editor dertaken to

    peen a lasting some un arrange its materials , as Tom Taylor did for the Life of Haydon . Southey ' s Letters might have served to fi . ll a corner in our gossiping literary history , had they been en trusted to the judgment of some one who could form an opinion on what should and what should not appear . But entrusted to Mr . John Wood Warter , we feel constrained to say that they will form one of the most useless and unreadable works which ever tempted the patience of a public . Mr . John Wood Warter , as he appears in these volumes , is a singularly foolish and incompetent person . lie cannot write , and cannot even be dull and unassuming , but insists upon being assuming as well as dull . Read this sample of osten tatious and unnecessary information , from the preface : —

    For the few foot-notes I am responsible , and they are as few as possible , not being myself a convert to the custom of overlaying an author with unnecessary disquisitions , or bo-GemaaniBod Exouiwbob , albeit long ago not unread in German literature of nil sjjrts , especially theological ; and from my long residence in Copenhagen , hb Chaplain to the Embassy , not uuverBed in Danish and . Swedish lore , and in the exquisitely curious Icelandic Sagos . Now who on earth cares whether Mr . John Wood Warter is read or " unread in Gorman literature of all sorts , " or that he resided in Copenhagen , and there became " not unversed in Danish and Swedish lore V * Why does lie thrust

    this upon our notice ? Is it to justify his supremely foolish note on bouthey ' a desire for a " wishing , cap , " which induces him to inform the reader that the Tarn & appe is a mantle rendering the wearer invisible ( here iollows a citation from the Niebelungen ) i the reader not at all needing to have wishing-cap' explained , because every child is familiar with Fortunate , and if needing m \ explanation , not finding it in the Tarnkappe . We will give ono more specimen of the editor , and then leave him to the laughter oi Ins readers . Ho prints some letters written in French , and appends thia note : —

    " Ihjho , and other lofctera of tho same sort , are printed to show tho playfulness of Southoy ' H disposition . Tho Frenoli is like tho French ho used to talk on hie travels . Ho talked it boldly , and shrugged his shoulders d la inervcillc . I have not altered ono grammatical error , —tho Bpeounon is complete .

    The letters are poor enough in matter for any one but such an editor to have rejected them on that account ; and their Freneh is ludicrous enough in all respects , but we should be curious to see what would have been the " corrections " Mr . John Wood Warter would have made , because in the single phrase he has jauntily thrown into the note just quoted , the French is as queer as any in Southey ' s letters . Of Southey ' s letters here printed not a third deserve to see the light . A poorer letter writer we cannot name . He travelled , and his letters are as dull from Lisbon as from Bristol ; he saw strange and illustrious people ,- and his accounts of * . them are- not more graphic than a penny-a-liner would furnish . He is prodigal of dreary verse , meant to be humorous , and of

    feeble jokes ., which may have exhilarated his son-in-law , whose humour probably is supplied by Danish and Swedish lore , but which British readers will receive with stolid gravity . The only interest in the letters is the oceasiojmlglimpse into the literary life of the period ; nothing surpasses , in our estimate , the single line about Wordsworth going to the Marchioness of Stafford's rout ** in powder , and with a cocked hat under his arm . * Think of that , Spirits of Rydal and Windermere ! % Southey ' s critical opinions are amusing--e : < 7 ., "Kotzebue seems to me of unsurpassed and unsurpassable genius . " There ore also some pleasant passages about himself ; many betokening a solid and colossal opinion of his genius ; many , also , betokening the kind and simple nature of the man . Here is a quotable passage : —

    There are three classes of people in whose society I find , pleasure—those in whom I meet with similarity of opinion , those who from a similarity of feeling tolerate difference of opinion , and those , to whom long acquaintance has attached me , wlio neither think nor feel with , me , but who have the same recollections and can talk of other times and other scenes . Accustomed , to seclusion , or to the company of those wlio know me , and to whom lean , put with , every -thought as it rises , without the danger of being judged by a solitary expression , I am uncomfortable amongst strangers . A man loses many privileges wHen he is known to tho world . Go where I will , my name lias gone before me , and strangers either receive ine -with expectations that 1 cannot gratify , or with evil prepossessioaisoth . at I cannot remove . It is only in a stage-coach that I am on ah equal footing with , my companions , and it is there that I talkthe most and leave them in the best humour with me . What will mothers say to this ? .

    I had a daughter Edith hatched last niglit ; for she came into toe world with not much more preparation than a chicken , and no more beauty :, than a young dodo . Edith went to sleep at four after dinnerj * rose uneasy '' atroalf after five , retired , to her room at half after eight , ' and beforeten she andher child were two They are doing well , thank God , but the young one is very , very ugly j so ugly that , if I did not remember t & les of my own deformity , how both mother and grandmother eiied oat against me , notwithstanding my present pulchritude , I should verily think the Editilling would look better in a bottle than on a white sheet . She may mend , and in about three months I may begin to like her , and by-and-by I suppose shall love her ; but it shall "be with , a reasonable love , that will hang loosely upon ine , like all second loves . Make you no comment ujpon . this . One of the most curious character-sketches in the volumes is this of Hartley Coleridge as a child : —•

    I am perfectly astonished at him , ' and Ms father lias the same sentiment of wonder and the same forfeeling that it is a prodigious , and an unnatural intellect , —and that he will not live to be a man . There is more , Dangers , in the old woman ' s saying , " he is too clever to live , " than appears to a common observer . Diseases which ultimately destroy , in their early Btages quicken and kindle the intellect like opium . It seems as if death , looked out the most promising plants in this great nursery , to plant them in a better soil . The boy ' s great delight is to get his father to talk metaphysics to him , —few men understand him so perfectly;— -and then bis own incidental sayings are quite wonderful . " The pity is , "—said he one day to his father , who ^ was expressing some wonder that he was pot so pleased as he expected with riding in a wheelbarrow , — " the pity is that

    Fse always thinking of my thoughts . " The child ' s imagination is equally sur * prising ; he invents the wudest tales you ever heard , —a history of the Bangs of England , who are to be . " How do you know that this is to come to pass , Hartley ? " " Why you know it must be something , or it would not be in my head ; " and so , because it bad not been , did Moses conclude it must be , and . away he prophesies of his King Thomas the Third . Then he has a tale of a monstrous beast called the Rarbzeze Kallaton , whose skeleton is on the outside of his flesh ; and he goes on with the oddest and most original inventions , till he sometimes actually terrifies himself , and says , " se afraid of my own thoughts . " It may seem like superstition , but I have a feeling that sucli « , n intellect can never reach , maturity . The springs are of too exquisite workmanship to last long .

    Again : — -- > .... ...... It is not easy to conceive , what is perfectly true , that he is totally destitute of anything like modesty , yet without the slightest tinge of impudence in his nature . His religion makes one of the most humorous parts of his character . " I ' m a boy of a very religious turn , " he says ; for he always talks of himself , and examines his own character , just aa if he was speaking of another person , and as impartially . Every night lie makes an extempore prayer aloud ; but it is always in bed , and not till he is comfortable there and got Into tlio mood . When lie is ready he touoh . es Mrs . Wilson , who sleeps with him , and saids , "N * ow listen 1 " and off he sets like a preacher . If ho has been behaving amiss , awny he goes for the Bible , and looks out for something appropriate to his caao in tho Psalmo or the Book of Job . The other day , after ho had boon in a violent passion , he chose out a ohaptor against wrath . << Ah ! that suits me ! " Tho Bible also ia resorted to whenever ho ails anything , or else the Prayer-book .

    The Dutch Republic. . Tftc Rise Of The D...

    THE DUTCH REPUBLIC . . Tftc Rise of the Dutch Republic . A History . By John Lolhrop Motloj-. 8 toI » John Gnnpman Th k Dutch had not boon recognised as an independent nation before they undertook the conquest of insular Asia . While the Spanish Crown atift claimed them as subjects , the Spanish fleets were eclipsed , and while the empire of Spain was shaken in the West , that of Holland began to rise in the East . In the remote Archipelago of Asia , to which the courage and the genius of William the Silent pointed , aa the last refuge of the Hollanders vom the alternative of despair , Houtinmn and hia successors created a circle of rich colonies that Spain and England envied , and these adventurers pursued their enterprises in the Indian waters before the connie at homo hod

• Citation
  • Leader (1850-1860), March 8, 1856, page 17, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_08031856/page/17/