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    Sept. 21, 1850.] ©!> * Q,t&tlt t* 017

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    allston's literaky remains. Lectures on ...

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    Prize Essay On The Working Classes. The ...

    as his share of the profits of labour , and stand unmoved amid distress of thousands , justifying himself by the barren sophisms of " Supply and demand , " and " Market wage-rate ; " when we see all this we are compelled to conclude that it is not by charity , nor by alms-giving , nor by Eethel building , that all this is to be reformed , but by a radical and a total reformation of our industrial system . It is Mr . Green ' s boast that he neither sees nor acknowledges this .

    Did space permit we should have liked to have followed Mr . Green more into detail ; to have objected to the flippant and offensive manner with which he at times introduces the old political economical nostrums ; to have eulogized the sound advice he gives his evangelical brethren , lay and cleric , on church matters in general ; and to have discussed the arch-impracticability of his chapter on Education . As it is , we can only sum up our remarks by

    saying that , while this essay , viewed as the production of an evangelical minister and a rigid political economist , manifests great liberality and freedom of thought and utterance , viewed as a literary contribution in aid of the Social amelioration of the working classes at large , it is of very meagre value , owing to its general incoherency , and to the narrow aspects under which the mighty question of the condition of the people has been regarded and discussed .

    Sept. 21, 1850.] ©!> * Q,T&Tlt T* 017

    Sept . 21 , 1850 . ] ©!> * Q , t & tlt t * 017

    Allston's Literaky Remains. Lectures On ...

    allston ' s literaky remains . Lectures on Art , and Poems . By Washington Allston . Edited by llicliard Henry Dana , Jim . New York : Baker and Scribncr . Washington- Allston has a high reputation in America , and , though not widely known in England , his name is generally spoken , where it is known , with that respect due to one distinguished in Art . Friendly critics , in their raptures about his paintings , usually added a word upon his poetical and philosophical capacity ; and Coleridge had inserted one of Allston's poems in the first edition of " Sibylline

    ^ Leaves" as the communication of a dear and valued friend ; so that the appearance of a volume of Literary Ilemains , containing lectures on art and miscellaneous poems , was welcomed by us with , the Avelcome of eager and respectful curiosity . The volume of an Artistanda Thinker could not be unacceptable . Upon his own Art wo thought Allston certainly would be worth hearing . lie was said to be a fine painter and subtle critic . He numbered Coleridge , West , Sir George Beaumont , Reynolds , Fuseli , Southey , Lamb , and Wordsworth among his friends ; and what with his metaphysical studies and poetical taste there was every reason to expect a valuable work from him . We have been disappointed . The volume consists of four lectures on art ; some aphorisms ; a tale ; and miscellaneous poems . The lectures are the most interesting ; but they will not rank high . Instead of thoroughly penetrating to the heart of his subject he philosophizes , or rather metaphysicizes about and about it . Commonplaces are clothed in the paraphernalia of philosophy and made to do the duty of torch-bearers in the obscurities of the subject ; a duty they are not very well fitted for . The general effect of the lectures is wearisome . Mr . Allston never seems so clearly to have mastered the subject that he can lead you with a firm unfaltering step ; but is always seeking the light which is to guide you when found . Although want of clearness and precision in his own views , and want of lucid exposition , will prevent these lectures producing any memorable impression on the reader , yet there are some apcrqus which arrest attention , and some agreeable criticisms . Hero is one on THfi DEATH OF AXANJA . S . " We turn now to a work of the great Italian , —the Death of Ananias . The scene is laid in a plain apartment , which is wholly devoid of ornament , as became the hall of audience "f the primitive Christians . The Apostles ( then eleven in number ) have assembled to transact the temporal business of the Church , and are standing together on a slightly elevated platform , about which , in various attitudes , some standing , others kneeling , is gathered a promiscuous assemblage of their new converts , male and female . This quiet assembly ( for we still feel its quietness in the midst of the awful judgment ) is . suddenly roused by the sudden fall of one of their brethren ; some of them turn and see him struggling ^ the agonies oi' death . A moment before he was in the vigour of life , —us his muscular limbs still hoar evidence ; hut lie had uttrrod a falsehood , and an instant after his frame is convulsed from head to foot . Nor do we doubt for a moment as to the awful cause : it is almost expressed in voice by those nearest to him , and , though varied by their different temperaments , by terror ,

    astonishment , and submissive faith , this voice has yet but one meaning , — ' Ananias has lied to the Holy Ghost . ' The terrible words , as if audible to the mind , now direct us to him who pronounced his doom , and the singlyraised finger of the Apostle marks him the judge ; yet not of himself , —for neither his attitude , air , nor expression has anything in unison with the impetuous Peter , — he is now the simple , passive , yet awful instrument of the Almighty : while another on the right , -with equal calmness , though with more severity , by his elevated arm , as beckoning to judgment , anticipates the fate of the entering Sapphira . " Yet all is not done ; lest a question remain , the Apostle on the left confirms the judgment . No one can mistake what passes within him ; like one transfixed in adoration , his uplifted eyes seem to ray out his soul , as if in recognition of the divine tribunal . But the overpowering thought of Omnipotence is now tempered by the human sympathy of his companion , whose open hands , connecting the past with the present , seem almost to articulate , ' Alas , my brother ! ' By this exquisite turn , we are next brought to John , the gentle almoner of the Church , who is dealing oiit their portions to the needy brethren . And here , as most remote from the judged Ananias , whose suffering seems not yet to have reached it , we find a spot of repose , —not to pass by , but to linger upon , till we feel its quiet influence diffusing itself over the whole mind ; nay , till , connecting it with the beloved Disciple , we find it leading us back through the exciting scene , modifying even our deepest emotions with a kindred tranquillity . " This is Invention ; we have not moved a step through the picture but at the will of the artist . He invented the chain which we have followed , link by link , through every emotion , assimilating many into one ; and this is the secret by which he prepared us , without exciting horror , to contemplate the struggle of mortal agony . " Here is another charming analysis of clause ' s method op composition " . " Our first impression from Claude is that of perfect unity , and this we have even before we are conscious of a single image ; as if , circumscribing his scenes by a magic circle , he had imposed his own mood on all who entered it . The spell then opens ere it seems to have begun , acting upon us with a vague sense of limitless expanse , yet so continuous , sogentie , so imperceptible in its remotest gradations , as scarcely to be felt , till , combining with unity , we find the feeling embodied in thecomplete image ofintellectualrcposc—fulness and rest . The mind thus disposed , the charmed eye glides into the scene ; a soft , undulating light leads it on , from bank to bank , from shrub to shrub ; now leaping and sparkling over pebbly brooks and sunny sands ; now fainter and fainter , dying away down shady slopes , then seemingly quenched in some secluded dell ; yet only for a moment—for a dimmer ray again carries it onward , gently winding among the boles of trees and rambling vines , that , skirting the ascent , seem to hem in the twilight ; then , emerging into day , it flashes in sheets over towers and towns , and woods and streams , when it finally dips into an ocean , so far off , so twin-like with the sky , that the doubtful horizon , unmarked by a line , leaves no point of rest : and now , as in a flickering arch , the fascinated eye seems to sail upward like a bird , wheeling its flight through a mottled labyrinth of clouds , on to the zenith ; whence , gently inflected by some shadowy mass , it slants again downward to a mass still deeper , and still to another , and another , until it falls into the darkness of some massive tree—focusscd like midnight in the brightest noon : there stops the eye , instinctively closing , and giving place to the Soul , there to repose and to dream her dreams of romance and love . " In the following passage we think Mr . Allston has happily expressed the power , but has in his particular example altogether misconceived THE SPIRIT OF ltAFFAELLE . " If any man maybe said to have reigned over the hearts of his fellows , it was Raffaelle Sanzio . Not that he knew better what was in the hearts and minds of men than many others , but that he better understood their relations to the external . In this the greatest names in Art fall before him—in this he has no rival ; and , however derived , or in whatever degree improved by study , in him it seems to have arisen to intuition . "We know not how he touches and enthralls us ; as if he had wrought with the simplicity of Nature , we see no effort ; and we yield as to a living influence , sure , yet inscrutable . * * * * Perhaps no one , however , had fewer lapses of this nature [ the substitution of diagrams for life ] than Ilaffaclle ; ami yet they are to be found in some of his best works . We shall notice now only one instance—the figure of St . Catherine in the admirable picture of the Madonna di Sisto ; in which we sec an evident rescript from the antique , with all the received lines of beauty , as laid down by the analyst—apparently faultless , yet without a single inflection which the mind can recognize as allied to our sympathies ; and we turn from it coldly , as from the work of an artificer , not of an artist . 13 ut not so can we turn from the intense life that seems almost to breathe upon us from the celestial group of the Virgin and her Child , and from the Angels below : iu these wo have the evidence of the divino afliatus—of inspired Art . " Now , wo beg to state that for more than ten years the Madonna di San Sisto has been hanging before our reverent eyes , and that never , since the first moment when it flashed upon us at Dresden , lias the feeling spoken of by Mr . Allston occurred to us . " Turn from her coldly as from the work of an artificer !"—the only thing that keeps us from a perfect appreciation , of her beauty and humanity is the intenser life and grandeur , the large simplicity and godliko quiet of the Virgin-mother ! It appears to

    us that the exquisite art of Raffaelle is shown in this very choice : he has to represent the mother Of a God in the human shape ; to make her a mere -woman would not do—to make her more than woman would be worse ; the only choice left , therefore , is to ihake her a typical woman—such a figure as may stand forth the representative of humanity . Is not the Virgin such a type ? But is not also our appreciation of her heightened by the contrast of that pretty , simple , ladylike St . Catherine by her side ? St . Catherine could not have had the same majestic presence ; but she has a very sweet and semiconscious look of beauty which insensibly contrasts her in the

    mind of the spectator with the serene , unconscious , godlike look of the Virgin-mother ; That this interpretation is no idle ingenuity of ours , but a legitimate reading of Raffaelle's method , we will prove by another reference to the same picture . Any one conversant with Raffaelle ' s principles of composition will at once recal the tendency there is in him to repeat the idea in the same picture tinder variations . This repetition we may trace in the Madonna di San Sisto . Assuming for a moment bur intrepfetation of the contrast between the Virgin arid St . Catherine to be correct , let us see if it be not repeated with the same purpose and same means in the contrast between the infant Christ and the cherubs

    looking out from the bottom of the picture . Christ is a baby , yet a God ; the cherubs are ' curled darlings , " such as are at this moment dandled ori hundreds of knees ; they are as much to be regarded as inflections from the Type-Infant as St . Catheririe is from the Type-Woman . With Raffaelle , as with Shakspeare , it is always peiilous to find fault about any thing lying much beneath the surface . Talking of Shakspeare reminds us of a good extractable passage from , these Lectures on

    CALIBAN AS A TRUTH . " How otherwise could such a being as Caliban ever be true to us ? We have never seen his race ; hay , we knew not that such a creature could exist , until he started upon us from the mind of Shakspeare . Yet who ever stopped to ask if he were a real being ? His existence to the mind is instantly felt ;— : hot as a matter of faith , but of fact , and a fact , too , which the imagination cannot get rid of if it would , but which must ever remain there , verifying itself , from the first to the last moment of consciousness . Prom whatever point we view this

    singular creature , his reality is felt . His very language , his habits , his feelings , whenever they recur to us , are all issues from a living thing , acting upon us , nay forcing the mind , in some instances , even to speculate on his nature , till it finds itself classing him in the chain of being as the intermediate link between man atid the brute . And this we do , not by an ingenious effort , but almost by involuntary induction ; for we perceive speech , and intellect , and yet without a soul . What but an intellectual brute could have uttered the imprecations of Caliban ? They would not be natural In man , whether savage or civilized . Hear him , in his wrath , against Prospero and Miranda : —

    • A wicked dew as e ' er my mother brushed With raven ' s feather from unwholesome fen , Light on you both !' The wild malignity of this curse , fierce as it is , yet wants the moral venom , the devilish leaven , of a consenting spirit : it is all but human . " To this we may add a similar example , from our own art , in the Puck , or Robin Goodfellow , of Sir Joshua lteynolds . Who can look at this exquisite little creature , seated on its toadstool cushion , and not acknowledge its prerogative of life , —that mysterious influence which in spite of the stubborn understanding masters the mind , — sending it back to days long past , when care was but a dream , and its most serious business a childish frolic ?

    But we no longer think of childhood as the past , still less as an abstraetion ; we sec it embodied before us , in all its mirth , and fun , and glee ; and the grave man becomes again a child , to feel as a child , and to follow the little enchanter through all his wiles and never-ending labyrinth of pranks . What can be real , if that is not which , so takes us out of our present selves , that the weight of years falls from us as a garment , —that the freshness of life seems to begin anew , and the heart and the fancy , resuming their first joyous consciousness to launch agaiu into this moving world , as on a sunny sea whoso pliant waves yield to the touch , yet , sparkling and buoyant , carry them onward in their merry gambols ? Where all the purposes of reality arc answered , if there be no philosophy in admitting , we sec no wisdom in disputing it . "

    Of the Aphorisms one may eay that , for the most part , they are just such as oracular young gentlemen write when they first apo Do la Rochefoucauld . Hero is a sample of the best : — " The most common disguise of Envy is In the prais of what is subordinate . " Selfishness in Art , as in other things , is sensibility kept at home . ' ? The most intangible , and therefore the worst , kind of lie , is a half truth . This is the peculiar device of a conncicnlious detractor . 41 It is a hard matter for a man to lie all over , Nature having provided king ' s evidence iu almost every member . The hand will sometimes act as a vane to show which

• Citation
  • Leader (1850-1860), Sept. 21, 1850, page 17, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_21091850/page/17/