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Leader (1850-1860), 11th December 1858, Edition 2 of 2, Page 13

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      Iron Trade Of The United States. Uistory...

      but she is driven to supply the wants of her magnificent chain of nations from this country by the prosperity of her own people . We take it that while the Heaven-implanted lust of man for the p ossession of the soil continues , and the wide territories of America are comparatively unpeopled , " production" will hold its proper place as the the worthiest and most charming of men ' s occupations , not as the refuge for beaten , starvedout mechanics . We are . usually loth , after much warning , to express opinions upon the peculiarities of our neighbours ; but if the natural order of men ' s desires in America is to become producers

      when they cannot find occupation as mechanics , we can only say we are Surprised . The best support of our position is , that while iron is cheap and breadstuffs almost a luxury in Great Britain , the former is far dearer , and the latter comparatively a drug , in our author ' s country . In his answer to the free trade argument , that other interests would be unjustly taxed by his proposed duty of 17 dols . per ton , Mr . French verges upon simplicity . His scheme to render a 30 per cent , duty acceptable to the community , and to neutralise its disastrous effects upon progress by demonstrating that the farmers in . the neighbourhood of new iron works will reap more than equivalent benefit from the money distributed there , is certainly not such a one member of the

      as we should have expected from a New York Statistical Society and of the Philadelphia Academy ; but , assuming it to have been unguardedly propounded , we will conclude our brief notice , as we began it , with the expression of our general satisfaction with the work . Looking at the subject from outside , and very dispassionately , we cannot regard the author ' s anti-free trade arguments as statesmanlike or soundly economical , and hardly imagine them to iiud much favour with the American -business men . But we have found much to pi-aise in his lucid and interesting collection of technical and statistical data , and to admire in the picture he presents to us of the . present and future extent and prosperity of the iron industry of his country .

      No 455, December 11, 1858.] The Leader. ...

      No 455 , December 11 , 1858 . ] THE LEADER . 1349

      The Odes Of Horace. The. Odes Of Horace....

      THE ODES OF HORACE . The . Odes of Horace . Translated by Lord Ravenswqrth . UpUam and Beet . What is the kind of object that should be aimed at in a metrical translation ? This is a question which has lately been much discussed . The free and the literal modes of rendering have each found their advocates , and authors have taken up their position between the two , inclining more nearly to the one or to the other , according to the degree in which they felt how necessary it was that a translation should represent the original , or how impossible it was to " dance in fetters . " In the midst , however , of all these varieties of opinion one

      thinghas been agreed on by all—that a translation of any real value is difficult and well-nigh impossible to accomplish . The author of the work before us lias undertaken his task with a full knowledge of its difficulty . He does hot profess or expect to be able to reproduce the poems of Horace in a modern clothing , or to offer an equivalent in English for " that elaborate and unrivalled folicit . y , " which leaves the imitator little prospect of success . His aim is more lowly and more attainable , but \ Vc must add that the ' substance of tlic work hns given us more than the preface undertakes . " Non fumuin ex fulgorc , scd ex . fumo dare lucem , " is an llorutian maxim of which the translator has apparently been

      not unmindful . It has been frequently disputed whether the critic who is to judge of the merit of a translation ought or ought not to bo well acquainted with ( ho original aut ' lior . He would certainly , in the one case , be a poor judge of the accuracy of tho work , or , indeod , hpw far it was a translation at all ; in the other ho might bo tempted to pardon iuelegnnoies of expression , and constructions barely grain . matioal , if such appeared necessary to attain the desired object—tho closest possible udhcveuco to

      tho original form and language . Lord'liavonsworlh has , wo believe , been fortunate enough to descrvo the praise of cither . Ho lias taken a happy middle courso between looseness nnd pedantic accuracy , so that whilo his lyrios may le read with pleasuro by tho student who is acquainted with tho Latin text , thoy muy bo road , too , for their own sakes in English , quite independently of tho fact of their being intended as a translation at all . The ohoico of a fitting and analogous metro must

      often have been a matter of considerable difficulty . It is a point in which . Lord Ravensworth has sometimes succeeded to admiration ; while in others lie has experienced , in our opinion , as decided a failure . To find faults is an unpleasant task at any time , and to suggest possible improvements a very easy one . But we would seek to bear out our view by reference particularly to the fourteenth ode of the second book , where we find a metre employed ( and not for the first or the last time ) which very inadequately represents the weight and fulness of the Latin Alcaic , and to the fourth ode of the first book " , where the same metre is used , and with as little

      success in the p lace of a curiously elaborate and expressive original . We may adduce , too , the 13 th Ode of the Second Book , where the ordinary heroic metre is substituted for the lyric , and a translation offered in consequence , which neither in letter nor spirit gives us any equivalent for the Latin . It would be most unfair , however , to form a judgment from such instances as these , though they occur more frequently than we should wish to find them , especially since the great success of other passages makes us feel every failure the more acutely by comparison with a standard which Lord ltavensworth has himself supplied .

      It will be seen that , although most of the book is from Lord Ravensworth ' s own pen , yet he has interspersed a few translations for which he is indebted to others . He has a strong claim upon our thanks and admiration for having done so : the more so as the manner in which they are given shows how free he is from the jealous dread of a literary rival . In particular we must express our gratitude for having been presented w . ith Lord Derby ' s contribution to the volume . The noble

      Earl ' s version of the 37 th Ode of the First Book is one of the finest imitations we have ever read , and though in point of accurate rendering it may suffer by comparison with Lord Iiavensworth ' s own , yet its ele g ance and grandeur of expression are such that , we can have no hesitation in pronouncing it the finest thing in the volume . The metre , too , which is , we believe , a new one , is very hap p ily chosen , and gives as full an equivalent as possible for the characteristics of the original ode . ^ Whatever mav be the success of future translations , it

      will indeed be a difficult task to rival its surpassing excellence . We are sorry to observe that in the Dedication Lord Ravensworth has thought fit to imitate the manner of Horace ' s own addresses to the " high ami mighty" in a point about which Pope , somewhat ostentatiously , has proclaimed his own innoceuce . To celebrate virtues in the great which were unknown to all but their discoverer was pardonable perhaps in an author who was dependent upon the favour of the court of Augustus , but the same excuse can scarcely hold good for an English nobleman . However , littera scripta manet—it is too late now to recal the objectionable passages .

      The M.\Iden Sisters. The Mahun Sisters. ...

      THE M . \ IDEN SISTERS . The MahUn Sisters . By . the Author of " Dorothy . " . J . TV " . Parker and Son . This novel -will create no violent sensation , but will have popularity , and will well deserve it . The chief charm ia in the distinctness of character nnd the pleasant delineations of domestic life . The characters will not sturtle by their force , but they will satisfy l > y their general truthfulness . The incidents « nd scenes will not excite breathless interest , but they will please by their consistency and charm by their truthfulness . The plot of the tale is this . Eivo maiden sisters , the youngest , Elleii j a paragon of charms , kept in sohoolgirl-liko subjection by her rigid sister Anne , occupy ltoso Cottage after the death of their father , Mr . Korr , a retired

      manufacturer . The wife of a brother located at the Capo ooniea to England , draws Ellort fro . n her rural retreat into tho world , whore sho captivates a brace of beiuix , a Colonel Oliphant , much older than herself , and Lord John Cnlton . The most amusing portion of the work is the adroit anil downright taslnon in which Norah Korr , the brother ' s wife , ovorcomea the strait-laced notions of Anno respecting her sister Ellen , and tho quips and cranks of her son Phil , a boy about' thirteen , and an . imp aa full of whims and oddities aa Puck himself . The aristocratic family of Lord John Culton favour tho attentions of Lord John to Ellen , but aftor Ellen has all but given him her affections sho discovers that lie is secretly attached to hi « cousin , Mary Mortimer , upon which dhe breaks with Lord John incontinently and yields her affections to Colonel Oliphant . Tho young imp , Phil , hero unintentionally becomes a lasting mischiefmaker : ho induces Colonel Oliphant to believe that

      Ellen is attached to a sailor cousin , several contretemps appear to favour this story , and Colonel Oliphant , although determining to know his fate , contrives to postpone the explanation until Ellen , becoming suddenly ill in consequence of her secret disquietude , is persuaded to go out to the Cape to join her brother . She is suffered to depart by Colonel Oliphan . t , who remains under the delusion created by Phil , and she reaches the Cape but to die brokenhearted . Colonel Oliphant becomes aware of the truth when it is too late ; he rushes off to the Cape to find that hope is over . After a suitable time given to * grief , he marries another lady , and lives happily all the rest of his life . The fault in this novel is that the ladies and gentlemen fall in love too lightly , and transfer their affections too rapidly , this , too , in direct defiance of the line in Tom Moore ' s well known song—The heart that once trulv loves never forgets .

      Vabium. Varium. I*. Booth. Under This Qu...

      VABIUM . Varium . I * . Booth . Under this quaint title a novel , with a certain amount of ability , will be found , but notof the highest class . We do not clearly comprehend the author ' s purpose if he have any higher one than that of producing a stated number of personages as actors on a certain number of scenes , the conclusion of which ia to bring about a marriage . We have Alan Percy , son of Lord Percy , and Esther Penrose , daughter of Lady Penrose , his cousin—a very suitable couple whom their parents desire to bring together in lawful wedlock , which desire is thwarted up to the last chapter by the young gentleman , a kind of juvenile Werther , who has a growing penchant for his beautiful

      cousin , but has that penchant for a season obliterated by the fascinations of a French Marchioness with whom he" becomes acquainted at Paris during the heyday of the French Kevolution , at the house of one of the old French female noblesse where he had been sent for the purpose of completing a somewhat neglected education and polishing a somewhat brusque exterior . He fancies the Marchioness reciprocates his-attach men t , and this estranges him from Lady Esther , who is pining in secret for the return of her lover , her dreamy cousin . But after the execution of the Marchioness in the Reign of Terror , he discovers , to the great mortification of hisawwwrj > rqpre , that the said Marchioness had previously- played off exactly the same sort of lures on a Lord Corrle , whom he despises for his inferior bodily and mental qualities , and had entered with , him into exactly the of

      same sort liaison . The film falls from the eyes of the youthful egotist , he turns again to his first love , and the cousins , with the full approbation of both families , which they had from , the outset , commit matrimony . There is a Mr . Gruffey , who plays the part of a kind of Mentor to the young Saxon Telemachus . There are conversations recorded between the pair in the style of the German school of metaphysics ; there are scenes in good society in England and in high society in France , the latter a little overcoloured , but tolerably close to the truth as it has been handed down to us by actors in that eventful period . The beat part appears to us the character of Lady Penrose , clever and worldly , who goes to work in admirable style to extort a declaration from Alan to Esther . "We have said the novel is clever ; many readers will perhaps be inclined to go a step in praise beyond this . .

      Poetry. Coiirils, King Of Athens, D Tray...

      POETRY . CoiIrilS , King of Athens , d Trayvdy y and Xftecellaneaua Poems . By Richard Noul . ( Sampson Low and Co . )—A century ago Codrus would have won o certain amount of fame for tho author : in tho present exacting age we fear tho subject will have small interest , and tho reapcctoblo blank vorsp in which it is enshrined will hardly redeem that cardinal defect . The Miscellaneous Poems show considerable power of versification , but a rather too strong predilection for compound words , not in alt cases in harmony with tho genius of tho English Iangunge . We have " word-dallying , " " sun-quaulng , " 41 storm-blockaded , " " posthume-praise , " and similar philological novelties . In tho poom " On tlie Eve of tho Dulugo , " wo find a specimen of the conversation of the Indies nnd gentlemen of the Noachiam period , and if it really was tho language of lovers in that interesting period , all wo can say is , wo give tho preference to more modern times .

      David and Samuel , and Other Poems . fly John Robertson . ( Sooloy , JaoUson , and Co . )— Tho piety ia botter thnri tho poetry ; in tho eyoa of a certain clasa of renders tho ono will atono for tho othor ; in tho oyes of * ho critic tho rovorso , wo fonr , will bo the case , The Adventures of Tehmachus . A Poctlcnl Translation . By E . V . Simcox . Second Edition . ( Longman ami Co . )— Tolomaohus , " liko " Bobliwon Crusoe , " will ftlwovo bo identified with boyhood recollections . Tho pooti ' oal voralon has already boon so well reUatad by tho p ublic as td necosoitato a socond edition , which is nowhftiidaomoly bound and prlated ^ presontod to thorn . We

  • Citation
    • Leader (1850-1860), Dec. 11, 1858, page 13, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_11121858/page/13/