On this page
-
Text (3)
-
" J H' M V ' but the following morning h...
-
LETTERS FPtOIM CA^IS TES AND NICE..Lette...
-
MEIST OF THE TIME. Men of the Time: Biog...
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
-
-
Transcript
-
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
Additionally, when viewing full transcripts, extracted text may not be in the same order as the original document.
I A Literary Biogeajphy. The Life Of Joh...
passed , home . Leaning upon the arm extended to him , he trailed his limbs along until he reached his father ' s house . With his "brother's help he ascended to his room , and though from the time when they had met upon the road no word had been spoken by either , yet when entering his apartnwnt he appeared to recognise it ; the feeling of consciousness was but momentary , and . he sank upon his bed powerless and senseless , prostrated in-mind and body . He was ill for twelve months : — The whole system seemed shattered . His head ached so violently that , in his paroxysms of pain , his body rooked-with an involuntary motion so violently that , as his-head reatetl upon his mother ' s breast , it required all the latter ' s strength to curb
tae violent awaying of the sufferer . "It seemed , " he * aid , "« s if the brain were surging through the akull from rear to front , and from front to rear , alternately . " He lost all . anxiety for his profession or for literature , no occupation could interest aim , he could xarely be induced to leave the house , and when he did go abroad he quickly became wearied ; he seldom spoke , ^ nd thus his first love Laid the seeds of that frightful suffering which , during the greater portion of his existence , rendered him one of the most miserable of men . The three nights of suffering and exposure to whuch at Anne D——' s decease he was subjected , broke down the stamina of life , and left him , at twenty years of age , a victim to spinal disease , which , but a few vears lat « r , reduced him to a crippled body , vhilst gifted with a mind active as ever genius possessed : bis fate indeed was harder than that of Tantalus .
Well might Ireland love n man who bore up so long and bravely under these terrible afflictions . His letters are manly , and generally evince a ripe . and noble intellect . It may be conceived with what a melancholy spirit he wrote , at the suggestion of his friends , the following sad , yet not abject letter , explaining thus the grounds of his appeal for public assistance : — " The circulation ^ of my books through the United Kingdom ; their reprinting in America ; their having been translated into French and German ; and their uniform political tendency , viz ., the formation of a good and aflfectionatefeelmg between England and Ireland . In my own name I add , that until the hand of Heaven visited me , I am conscious of having passed from early youth a life of industry , always -with a view to-independence . For instance ([ and I quote facts easily ascertainable ) , that
at seventeen I obtained the iirst pri 2 e as the first draughtsman in the Dublin Academy of Aits ; that at nineteen I wrote into . wide circulation a Whig journal the JLeinster Journal } in my native city . of . Kilkenny ; at twenty-one I received a vote of thanks from a general meeting of the artists of Ireland , for xny advocacy with the Irish Government of their demands for an incorporated academy , which , they now possess ; that at twenty-two I produced a successful tragedy , * Damon and Pythias , ' at Coveht Garden ; that at twenty-five I was known , at least as a national novelist , ¦ even though of an humble ordeiyto . European literature ; and that since that period I have-written twenty successful novels and five successful dramas . And I trust most lespectmlly that you-will not consider this-mere idle boast , but rather as a proof of my deep and conscientious anxiety to show that no habitual want of the pride of in-.-d « pen deuce forces me now before you .
"My ^ friends suggest to me to add , that they consider me called on to make known any position , in order to . afford to the affluent protectors of literature the opportunity . of saving me from deathinparerty . " To ' save him from death in poverty '—poor Banim ! This book is the memorial of agoo & and gifted man , and may serve ; to deepen the sympathies between the prosperous and the unfortunate who make together , as . contemporaries , the Pilgrim ' s Progress of art and literature .
" J H' M V ' But The Following Morning H...
" J H' M V ' but the following morning his brother met him about ten miles from .. **—_ : — _ ¦ g _ ll .. gJLJ __ . _ i [» o . 40 ft Bfowaana 21 , 185 ? .
Letters Fptoim Ca^Is Tes And Nice..Lette...
LETTERS FPtOIM CA ^ IS TES AND NICE . . Letters fromCannes and Nice . By Margaret Maria Brewster , Author of " -Work ; or , Plenty to Do and and How to I >» It . ' Illustrated by a Xady . Edinburgh ; Constable and Co . " These letters are "written with uncommon vivacity . Miss Brewster , having reojoyed a brilliant -winter away froni Scotland , brings liome a book of de ° scriptive gossip , with historical interludes and lithographs from sketches by jx lady companion ' s pencil . Possibly , the ordinary reader , who has not the honour of knowing the various . English residents at Cannes or JNice , may feel it an infliction to be told all about Mr . Woolfield ' s speculations and Mr . lEvans ' s villa , while he may object , with even more emphasis , to the writer ' s -everlasting and exclusive reference to Scotchmen ; but these habits are born an the north , and not even the perfume of orange Groves can exorcise the
"beloved evil . Miss Brewster , witli her two or three . frailties as an authoress , contrives to be interesting , and chats pleasantly all the way from Paris to -Auribeau and Aries , taking notes of memorable incidents , and unlocking 4 ; he cabinets of tradition in search of serviceable . illustrations . At the French capital she had the . good taste to start in horror at the sight of the barbaric -decorations applied to the roof of Notre-Dame , in pursuance of imperial ¦ orders , and atTTontainebleiui explored the beautiful forestiuider the guidance , we infer , of M . D'He ' ricourt , that sublime cicerone who styles himself the Creator of : so many fascinations from Franchard to . the Gorges oPApremont . £ . J . ect ° f ner journey , however , was Cannes , on the Mediterranean , within sight of the magnificent Estrelles , or last spurs of the Maritime Alps . Cannes is likely to becomes very famous locality ,-especially if tourists follow . Mass JSrewetetfe example and extol it with eo lavish commendation . It » a , she _ says , the loveliest af all . lovely places , the sea exquisitely blue , the * ky inimitably bright , the landscape a garden of olives , oranges . and flowers .
* hetown : a cluster of dream-like villas , tirrreted , balustraded , and nested ¦ among groves and hillocks rosy and purple with a matchless growth of flowers . This might easily bo mistaken , for fairyland , but it is in reality the ttbode of Henry Lord Brougham andVaux . That veteran and inexhaustible peer once representative of Yorkshire , then occupant of the woolsack , / thirdly , author of a plnbppic against the institutions of . 1848 , and now a general guide , philosopher , and friend to . the provinces , is also of opinion ¦ that Cannes is a sort of fragrant and . luminous paradise . Ho mudo calculations , there , and found that out of one hundred and eleven days there wore only three on which he could not . make experiments upon light , while at Brougham Hall the figures were reversed . Mies Brewster adds that inhaling the air is like quaffing champagne , a remark which may send a few bold travellers to that ; territory of unrivalled buttor und sweet odours . At Cannes , m fact , the highways resemble the warm paths in a conservatory the Hedges seonrnng-to breathe of India and Italy , the , jessamine growiii " in iields , with roacB , tuberoses , lavender , jonquils , and rosemary in vast plantations of
, white ami blue . Eimmel might fill many a crystal urn with the dlT t . llations of Cannes audits sister city ( Jrasse / Orange-flower water is ± " ducedherein cargoes , with cassia / jessamine flowed , rose-leaves V 1 XR " and . geraniums-all sold by weight . Then , the department of ' the S yields also lemons , qumoes , plums , pears , apples , apricots , peacW f , l pistachios , almonds , cherries , mulberries , and pomegranates The ™; ' the cypress the laurel , the bay-tree , the chesmit , th « plane , the ¦ ¦ walnut * 5 S palm , and the lilac ornament that soft and sunny caast , besides the aloe im , i caper , and numerous large forest trees . The quarries contain in-irblo jasper , and alabaster in abundance . But Miss JBrewstei , after hoverW like a bee among these blossoms , and glancing like 4 geologist at the rock ? enters * he prison of the Man with the Iron Mask , aiiddoef not emit it until the -whole array of theories and conjectures have denied before her To some readers the following may be ueV : — - Among-the many fables which cluster around the 'Iran . Mask , ' there is one con nected with the above supposition which I cannot resist giving you . If one onlv dared , one would certainly believe it ; but pleasant as it is to fly in the face of history oyeu X am obliged to say , " Hold , enough ! " In the early clay * of that ( henry captU vity— -those days m -which the prisoner ( whether from fancy or memory ) was thus
described— _ as of handsome face , middle height , brown skin , clear complexion , and beautiful voice , —there was a lovely young lady in the fortress of Ste . ¦ Mar g uerite - she was the daughter of one of the - officials , and her name w ' aa Julia < It- lioupart ' Ifte mysterious prisoner fell in love with this bright sunbesLiii , whom he had seen , froni his window , and what feminine heart could resist ji persecuted , royal , and masked prisoner ! The father gave his consent—they were married at an altar erected in the dungeon , and the de voted wife cheered the gloom of the weary lifetime ; " Two little lniuut eons could not , however , be retained near the . unfortunate parents , and were sent secretly to Corsica , under their maternal name of Bonpart . From them the
sprang Buonapartes , whoare therefore Uoiuboiis . In the course of a conversation at St . Helena , it was mentioned to Napoleon by a gentleman present , that a person had come to him to tell the above story , and to demonstrate ironi thence that -Napoleon was a lineal descendant of the Iron Mask , and thus the legitimate heir -of Louis XIII . The gentleman liad laughed at the whole story , which made the narrator very angry ; he maintained that the marriage could easily be veriiied , by the registers of a .. parish- of Marseilles , which he named . The emperor said that he had heard the same story ; ami thiit such was the love of the marvellous , that it would have been easy to have substantiated something of the kind for the credulous multitude .
W e have selected an example of Miss Brewster ' s feelin ^ for scenery The sketch is taken at Nice : — I must introduce you to my window , which is very different from the . Cham-am ' one ;—that lovely view of hill , and dale , and sea , flushed "b y the setting sun , is worth seeing . Look put , andto the left , quite close to us , youwfrl see a snow-covered Alp , —just under it runs the famous Genoa road . How "rosy the snow does look with its lilac shades and touches ! To-day there was a pure snowy cloud just resting on the real Snow , which built up a very high imaginary Alp , bat now it has vanished and left onl
y the real mountain ,, like many a fair day-dream in the midst of our life . Iirst comes a grey , green , lilac , red , bro-vvn , and gold-coloured hill ; then a lower range , on the slopes of which aro many white villas , willi thuir picturesque ml-tilea roois ; on the very top of one of those hills , jutting out between us ami the sky , is a . Sardinian fort . Then comes alow , wooded hill , sloping down till it reaches the town , a few of the houses of which-you see between the light , graceful branches and dark stems of'those large olives , and rising above them is the Grand Chateau of ivice , while beyond is tbe Mediterranean , -with a few merry , » van-Iike little sails upon its blue waters . Between our eyes and the opposite hills and villas there is a large glen , or ohlong basin , upon the verv brink of which is this JIaison Sautiron . It is one
immense vineyard and oliveyard , varied by almond-treos , and a few oaks with rich , brown , withered foliage , and those tall cypresses , which arc . very common here , n ' ml have a strange , weird effect : ' you have them'in ever } - possible way—there arc hedges of them—there are walls of them—there are isolated sentinels standing , kill ami gloomy . This rich little valley is close to the house , and is intersected wil ' h the most exquisite little patbs—under the olives , and beside the olives , and up there bet worn the cypresses , and down there among the vines ; everywhere there is a little path , ami it is the pleasautest spot in the whole world—out of Scotland . That last touch is one of nature . Miss Brewster could not help it . She wr ites an intelligent account of . Nisin . cs , with its many nntiquities , and ' altogether describes pleasantly the incidents and observations of a pleasant to
Meist Of The Time. Men Of The Time: Biog...
MEIST OF THE TIME . Men of the Time : Biographical Sketches if Eminent Living Chiirackrs . Ako Ilioyra-Xthical Sketches <> f Cdehvnte . ll Women of the Tune . Kent , and Co . No doubt this is a well-intentioned volume . It might be useful were it constructed upon any intelligible plan . At present , however , it is ; i ina = s of confused misinformation . We do not know how it has been got up , but it seems to have been the production of two or tliree gentlemen who have chosen to be critics as well . as compilers , and to measure and mark every person within their range of observation . Their whole design is a mistake . They have adopted a false standard by which to estimate the subjects ol their ' biographical sketches , ' and their selections seem to have been nmde altogether at random . Matters of fact are very doubtfully treated ; fur example , although we have to thank the editors for several . 'illusions to
ourselves , we have to assure thorn that , in every particular , then- informants have led them astray . But a few errors of dutuil might bu cxpocted and pardoned in a manual pretending- to be bo coniprclieittivc . The principal fault of the book is that it contains , not a sorios of neat and careful biographies , but a medley of personal estimates , often so coloured that the individual referred to is at once recognized as the author of his own glorilicatlon . Here is an example , from the notice of a living poet : — " lit ) onsscd the sweetest and most impressible periods of his life in one of the i
loveliest of our English valleys , a defile opening out of the rieh , vust vale « Gloucester , between undulating hills of wood , pusture , und orchard , where the "rent ocean of summer thut ( ilia the plains Tuns and ripples , curia and breaks into every exquisite spray of wealth and beauty . " Biography , uutobiography , or lljitterinp ; nonsense ? Of courso , a considerable numbiT ol tho e who are really Men of the Time aro altogether omitted , while crowds arc introduced merely , as wo infer * , because they wore known to the compilers . That which is principally obnoxious , however , is the attempt at the
-
-
Citation
-
Leader (1850-1860), Nov. 21, 1857, page 18, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_21111857/page/18/
-