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Leader (1850-1860), 23rd May 1857, Edition 2 of 2, Page 16

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    • •ry. ¦ ITlferilllir? jL/UHUUUl« »
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      |M 496 The Leader. [No. 374, Saturday,

      | M 496 THE LEADER . [ No . 374 , Saturday ,

      •Ry. ¦ Itlferilllir? Jl/Uhuuul« »

      ^—¦ ¦ ' ¦——— * ICiferatm ? - ^ .

      Critics Are Not The Legislators, But The...

      Critics are not the legislators , but the judges and police of literature , They do not make laws—they interpret and try to enforce them . — Edinburgh Review .

      The Germans Are Fond Of Discussing, In T...

      The Germans are fond of discussing , in their profoundly inconclusive way , the question whether life in spontaneous evolution is greater than its reflex , which is literature . Absolutely considered , perhaps it may not be , but relatively to us , and to such fine weather as we have had during the last week , it certainly is . Life in spontaneous evolution—that is , life on the road and the river , life in the gardens and the parks , in Rotten-row and at Richmond-hillis certainly far greater just now than life in the reading-rooms and libraries . Mr . Justice Halubitrton , in his speech this week at the Royal Literary Fund

      dinner , truly said that the two great objects of study for all men are nature and human nature ; and that the colonies had as yet no literature because in a new country the claims of nature are too importunate to admit of anything like learned leisure or meditative repose . What thus happens to the colonies during the first years of their existence , occurs in the mother-country for a few weeks every season , and with a similar result . Annually Nature throws her spell over court and city alike , claiming from both , at least , a transitory recognition . This year the claim is made with such strength and suddenness as i _ i _ _ ij ___ i . 1 . n : n 4- £ Ll < . T"V . a onoo / -vr > Vioa ariir'ivmprl n mniltll 111 leSS than a to be irresistible The has advanced a month in less than a

      altogether . season week . Ten days ago the trees were leafless , the grass still grey , and the wind bleak and cutting as December . Now you have the fresh flower-sprinkled turf underfoot , a green roof overhead , and the delicious spring air touched with the scent of hawthorn and bean-blossom between . Of course reading and study are out of the question . Even looking at p ictures is almost too great an exertion , and the crowds in the Exhibition instinctively cluster about the bits of landscape , especially those , and they are fortunately numerous , with cool shadows and refreshing streams , such as Mr . Anthony ' s ' Stream in the -Wood , ' and Mr . Starr ' s ' Quiet Nook . ' There are no new books , and even if there were it would make no difference . People don't care to read ,

      and politic publishers , aware of the indifference and its cause , defer their best new books till a fall in the barometer indicates a more convenient season for their successful issue . Under these circumstances what is the use of asking for a literary summary ? Such an exaction is worse than the tyranny of Egyptian task-masters . It is demanding cream , where there is not even milk to be had . . There is , however , one book advertised as just ready , to which the tine weather can scarcely prove a disadvantage , as its contents will thoroughly harmonise with the feelings that town life in the spring season naturally inspires . We refer to Mr . Alexander Smith ' s new poem , devoted , we believe , to this very subject of town and country life , but more especially to the poetic aspects of the former . There is here a fine vein of poetical material

      hitherto comparatively unworked . We are rich in the poetry of rural life , but the deeper and more intense poetic elements of modem city life have never as yet been turned to full account . He has thus chosen his subject well , and being perfectly familiar with it , the poem will , we have no doubt , be enriched wifh fresh and vigorous sketches from his own experience . Nevertheless , we sliould not be surprised if , three years hence , some acute , well-read , and largeminded letter of the alphabet—probably the crooked Z already in the fieldshould come forward with the startling discovery that some previous poets have written of town and country life . Pending this possible disclosure , however , we are quite disposed to enjoy Mr . Smith ' s new poem , which . —as we are told , and , from the extracts we have seen , arc disposed to believe—is superior in finished art to anything he has yet produced .

      A New Combatant Has Appeared To Take Par...

      A new combatant has appeared to take part in the controversy touching the Buddhist doctrine of a future state—one , too , in every way well entitled to speak on the subject . Colonel Sykes , in a long letter to the Times this week , combats the view of the Buddliist Nirvana maintained by the Times reviewer , and supports the opinion advocated in the Leader three weeks ago . In this new opponent the reviewer has found his match , Colonel Sykes being his equal in minute knowledge and his superior in critical insight , thoroughly accomplished in Buddhist literature , and able to interpret consistently its confused and often conflicting accounts . He shows clearly in his letter—what with a very limited knowledge of the subject seemed to us at the time sufficiently ol his

      apparent—that the writings to which the reviewer appeals in support nihilistic interpretation belong to a very late and degraded school of semi-Buddhist philosophy , in which the life of the founder was obscured by monstrous legends , and his doctrine practically destroyed by metaphysical refinements . For us to accept suclv documonta as a fair exposition of genuine Buddhism , is a mistake almost aa great as it would bo for a Hindu to receive the philosophical system of SriNozA or Hegei , as containing a faithful interpretation of the fundamental doctrines of Christianity . Colonel Sykes goes on to point out—what wo stated at tho time—that the best accounts of Buddha ' s life and teaching prove that ho hold no doctrine of annihilation . On this head lie speaks as follows :

      Xt Una boon Bought to throw upon IWidduista tho stigma of Atheism , Mntoriiilisnn , and a belief in tho annihilation of tho houI . Those accusations havo thoir origin in tho mystical transcendentalisms of a comparatively modern and corrupted otato of Buddhism , and which havo not any authority from tho preachings or discourses of Buddha himself . Buddha constantly rofora to a First Cuuao , another world , and a

      state of rewards and punishments after death . Buddha s own hymn on his becoming Buddha testifies to his belief in God . He speaks of the Builder and Architect who made him and controlled his transmigrations ; and the Rev . Mr . Gogerly , in hj 3 translation of the Damina Padari , written in Pali , makes Buddha repeatedly speak of the present and future world—viz ., " The sinner suffers in this world , and he will suffer in the next " world ; in both worlds he suffers , " & c . Again , " The virtuous man rejoices in this world , and he will rejoice in the next world . In both worlds he has joy , " & c . Here is the founder of the religion talking of the present and a future world , expressing his belief in a state of rewards and punishments , & c , necessarily therefore , expressing his belief in a power or being to dispense rewards and punishments . Surely there must be some distortion in reasoning to pronounce such a believer an Atheist !

      To this statement we may add the account given of Buddua ' s last moments . Feeling himself near his end , he is said to have gathered together a lar ^ e company of his disciples , and after having expounded to them his doctrine afresh , to have added as Ins last words , " Everything saddens me , and I desire to enter into the Nirvana , " 'that is , into existence free from any corporeal attribute , into the state of supreme , and eternal blessedness . " This is not the place to sketch the character of Buddha , so far as it may be gathered from the scanty records we possess of his life and teaching ; but all we know of him tends directly to contradict the supposition that he held by such doctrines as those imputed to him by the author of ' Buddhist Pilgrims . That such a man should have held such doctrines is simply a psychological impossibility .

      It Is Seldom That We Receive A Book With...

      It is seldom that we receive a book with more grateful pleasure than Mr . Moxon ' s long-expected edition de luxe of Tennyson ' s Poems . It is a volume of monumental beauty—the pages like thin but opaque plates of ivory , the typography faultless , the illustrations a cabinet collection of gems . The book is a casket of poetry and art , the poet and the artist arc in perfect harmony , and Mr . Moxon has been just to both . It would be difficult to overpraise the richness , the delicacy , or the grace of this edition , on which have been employed the pencils of Creswick , Stanfield , Millais , Hunt , Rossetti , and Mulbeady . We annoucc the publication ; but , next week , we shall glance critically at the ' pictures . ' It is pleasant , meanwhile , to learn that Tennyson has in the press a new poem , to keep his laurels green . The subject of the poem is , we hear , one of Tennyson ' s early favourites , King Arthur ; being , iu fact , a further contribution to his unfinished Epic , Morte d'Arthur .

      Carlyle's Cromwell. — Oliver Cromwell's ...

      CARLYLE'S CROMWELL . — Oliver Cromwell ' s Letters and Speeches , with Elucidations . By Thomas Carlyle . * 3 vols Chapman and Hall . This is the second work in the cheap reissue of Carlyle ' s writings , and might safely dispense with all notice from us , save the mere announcement of its issue , had we not « a well-grounded suspicion that some of our readers may even yet be ignorant of its contents , and did we not feel that few books published in these days better deserve a serious reading , not so much for historical as for moral instruction . Cromwell is a grand historical figure played n great part in great times , has been much misunderstood , and much reviled but although it is n ' refreshment , ' as he would have said , to find

      ; this heroic figure really that of a hero , and not in the least of a hypocrite and canting puritan—although this work banishes for evermore the stereotyped fin-ure from our historical works , and substitutes an altogether diiterent one—we do not conceive its chief value to lie therein . Cromwell the man , the <* reat man and the intrinsically good man , is here displayed before us : not through biographical artifice and well-adjusted draperies of effect , but through his own acts and unmistakable words . Mis letters and speeches ., clumsy enough as to expression , all bear the clearest marks of being sincere utterances . If the reader carefully compares the letters addressed to ins wife , children , and friends ( mere simple domestic scraps for the most pnrt , such as are passing by thousands through the post every day , never meant with those ofnciai ana

      to reach any eyes but those of the persons addressed ) semi-official letters addressed to Parliament and great personages , he will dc struck , we think , with six things : First , the singular uniformity in the sentiments expressed , and even in their tone of relig ious fervour-not wanner in public official documents , meant for all eyes , than in the private notes to his ' dearest wife . ' Secondly , the complete absence of cant , or ovenuo singsong incoherence which gives religious letters and writings the APP *» anco of cant , And is not all sincere . Thirdly , the very remarkable modes > which , even when he was transacting such great things never once pen . him to allude to any merit of his own ; nay , once , when tho ml y > ° repulse was entirely his own work , the fact is never mentioned )/ m This reticence with regard to his own services is the more reinni kaM rn duct

      man who is supposed to have been long conspiring to gain the pow Fourthly , the grand magnanimity of the man , not only to P ?™ " ^ public enemies , but shnvn ahio in the complete absence of ratlin // , ™ ¦ insinuation . Very unlike a religious reformer is his deep-felt chanty , smites his enemies with merciless rigour when in battle ; lie w n sicii and knows that sternness spares blood . But he indulges in no . u ol t abstract bitterness which the Puritans whom ho led , and the l autans have succeeded these , seem to consider tho true ilavour ot tfot "' l ^ j . f nij deep as his relig ious convictions are , does ho W ^ p }™ " * * S ™™ \™ ' of his nil its ' carnal enjoyments . ' Exeter Hall would have had but » " ^ M 9 . sympathy ; ho would have hated its cant , and its irreligious nan v Alhlvwo note in these letters a touching manly tenderness a I" *" " ik «

      . . wS ' in one so stern , and strong , and solely tried , ^/ ^ XS e Samson found in tho lion ' s mouth . Of all his letter * , the p i oly « g » n letters delig ht us most , and make our hearts yearn towards hi' ^ ^ ( j . we note what for want of a bettor phrase wo mu . it call the gontiui ness ' of tho letters . , « n » ion of h ' " * We think it impossible to read those Letters and not see tho i ot ° » , _ being a < hypocrite ' to bo one of tho wildest calumnies ovoryo encui ^ A truer , sincere .-, nobler nature we cannot name , l ( ' ;> t » 9 r ; V c romwoir * dent in . these volumes how slow , yet inevitable , was tho rise ol Kjioi

  • Citation
    • Leader (1850-1860), May 23, 1857, page 16, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_23051857/page/16/