Current:

Leader (1850-1860), 24th December 1859, Edition 2 of 2, Page 17, a . . i LIT B_R ATUR E .

Page 17
Page 17
17 of 24

On this page

  • Text (5)
  • 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.

      Letters From I T A L Y. (Special.) Liomb...

      irith . the pleasures of hope , with the expectations of heat and sun . The attempt , however , is not very successful . Meanwhile , one evil effect of the cold has been to shake one of the few remaining articles of faith , which I still cherish . If , in the days of Rome , the cold was what it is now , it is utterly impossible to believe that the Ancient Romans wore togas , and reclined upon marble couches . JNot all the historical and antiquarian evidence in the world will stand this deductio ad frig idum . The thing is impossible ; and we all know that -what is impossible can never be . If , however ,, you once destroy my belief in the toga and the couch , I really must give up the whole concern . A clergyman of my acquaintance once propounded a simple solution of all the theological difficulties connected with astronomy , by stating that the stars were placed in heaven to try our faith . According to the same scientific system , can only suggest that all the history of Rome is fiction invented to try our patience . But , indeed , if one lived lonjr . in Rome , I think one would get to doubt the reality of everything lean hardly . believe , now , that in the last six months there has been war in Italy , within two hundred miles of Rome ; that the fate of Italy still hangs trembling in the balance , and that the chief province of the Papal States is still , in open revolt against its rulers . There is no sign , no trace , no symptom even of what has passed , or is passing , to the world without . We seem spellbound in a dull , dead , dreary circle ; . There are no advertisements in the streets , except of devotional books for the coming season of Lent ; no pamphlets or books p laced in the booksellers ' windows , which , by their titles even , imply the existence of the war or the revolution ; no prints for sale of the Scenes of the campaign . In one shop alone I saw a portrait of the Emperor Napoleon and Victor Emmanuel . The Roman Gazette , the only political newspaper allowed to be published here , would be almost unintelligible if taken by itself . Of domestic news there is absolutely none , except a long and pompous narrative of the opening of" an American college for the priesthood , inaugurated at Rome , under the ' especial auspices of the Pontiff . The foreign news consists of long extracts from the Spanish papers about the war with Morocco , which , of course , meets with the special ' approbation of the Ponti- fical Government , a few garbled paragraphs about the movements of the crowned heads of Europe , and an indistinct allusion to the approaching Congress . Rome itself is more dreary and desolote than ever . There are more priests and more beggars , if that is possible . I hear , too , a fact possible enough , that there is great want amongst the poor , Rome lias no commerce , and no manufactures , and one half the town lives either directly or ^ in- directly upon the strangers who come here . This year the number of strangers generally , and English especially , is extremely suiall . House-rents are barely half what they were last season . House- hunting , at best a dismal task , just now is really melancholy work . Every other house is empty , and the owners are pitiabl y anxious to secure one as a tenant . However hard one's heart may be , it is not pleasant to be told , in the impassioned accents of Italian supplication , that unless your excellency condescends Ho take the apartment the speaker will have to go to prison tor debt , Servants out of place stop one in the streets to solicit em ployment , anil long stands of empty carnages seem waiting hopelessly for the fares that never come . ' It is the custom now , in taking lodgings at Rome , to insert a clause in the contract , that the tenant is af ; liberty to throw up his agreement if the French troops leave Rome . The proviso is , I believe , u perfectly unnecessary one , na there is not the remotest probability of tho' French doing more than threaten to louvu for many a long day to come and oven if the event occurred , the chances of one ' s rent being return is extremely small ; but the fact that such a proviso is required , and given , is a strange comment on the state of Koine , and one , which I shpuld . like to sec oxp lainod by the Hibernian sympathisers , and Lord Fielding at their head . I was present the other night at the Philharmonic Concerts , where Rousmi ' s " Moses was porfox'mod . The society is rather an aneto- Gratia one , » the admission entirely by private tickets , and yet in so select a company it was deemed advisable to omit passages winch referred '

      to the liberation of the Children of Israel , and could by any means be twisted into an allusion to the position of Italy . 1 forgot to mention at Florence a fact which I think may be interesting to the readers of the Leader . Our fair countrywoman , who is now the petted prim a donna of the Florentine public , Miss Anna Whitty , is the sister of Mr . T . H . Whitty , so well known as a contributor to your columns . I hear that Miss Whitty is thinking of appearing shortly in France , and will then , I trust , come on to England where she is sure of success .

      Ko. 509. Dec. 24, 1859.] The Leader. 139...

      Ko . 509 . Dec . 24 , 1859 . ] THE LEADER . 1397 ¦ i ¦ 11 i ¦ ¦ j

      A . . I Lit B_R Atur E .

      a . . i LIT B _ R ATUR E .

      Ceylon: Ax Account Of The Island, Physic...

      CEYLON : AX ACCOUNT OF THE ISLAND , PHYSICAL , HISTORICAL , AND TOPOGRAPHICAL ; VTITH NOTICES OF ITS NATURAL HISTORY , ANTIQUITIES , AND PRODUCTIONS . By Sir James Emerson Tennent , K . C . S ., LL . D ., & c . 2 vols . ¦ —Longman , Green , Roberts and Longman . This is the third edition , thoroughly revised , of an elaborated work , and illustrated by numerous maps , plans , and drawings . Of a production already so celebrated , it is needless now to attempt an analysis ; but , as a British possession , Ceylon . is too important a place , and this book upon it too important a work , to be summarily dismissed . The first volume of this great publication is occupied with descriptions of the physical and historical condition of Ceylon , and Sir J . E . Tennent has taken the utmost advantage of his official position to accumulate a large amount of material , exceedingly various in character and valuable in kind . Of the physical descriptions , rich as they are , we cannot venture to give any detail ; the abundance of nature defies selection . Palm trees , and strangely picturesque plants , and stranger insects , products highly vitalised or inanimate , perplex the traveller ; while customs , ways of life , : and modes of pursuit , excite surprise , it may be dislike , and sometimes envy . There are , however , _ some peculiarities pertaining to this . third edition of an excellent work , some alterations and additions , which demand notice . Among these , the author mentions having inserted a chapter on the doctrines of Buddhism as developes itself in Cey lon . His sketch , however , is confined to the principal features of what has been denominated Southern-Buddhism amongst the Singhalese ; as distinguished from Northern Buddhism in Nepal , Thibet , and China . In making this sketch , immense difficulties had to be surmounted from the various forms in "which Buddhism appears in various localities , and the different interpretations of which it is capable . Brahmanism , probably , more arrcient than Buddhism ; but the point is yet far from settled . The latter , however , dates many centuries before Christianity . Its present influence extends over three hundred and fifty millions of human beings , more than onethird of the human race . The Buddhists were expelled from Hindustan some centuries after the Christian era by the Brahmins , and being thus dispersed over Eastern and Central Asia , Buddhism became an active agent of civilisation , furnishing to some of the far Asiatic nations both an alphabet and a literature . Buddhism inculcates self-reliance , intellectual elevation , and the perfection of virtue and wisdom , as within the reach of every created being . Nevertheless , schisms and heresies have been introduced into ita doctrines , Those , as cherished among the Jainas Guzonit and llnipootano , differ widely from its mysteries , as administered by the Lamaot Ihibet ; and both are equally distinct from the metaphysical abstractions propounded by the monks of Nopal . The worship of Buddha regards him as fruide and example to teach mankind how , by elf-reliance and self-effort , they may secure perfoct virtue hero and supremo happiness hereafter . common with Brahmanism , it teaches the doctrine of metempsychosis ; tho result of tho transmigration leading tho purillod spirit to Nirwana that is , " the exhaustion , but not the destruction existence , tho close but not the extinction ot bein g" It recognises , also , the full eligibility of every individual for the attainment of the highest ecrees of intellectual perfection ana ultimate bliss . It denies the Brahmaniual superiority oj " twice-born , " and repudiates tho sacerdotal premacy of race , and also the supremaoy of caste . The Buddhists , therefore , readily admit that the teaching of virtue » b not necessarily confined . . ¦ |

      I J: Literary Notes Of The Week.

      I LITERARY NOTES OF THE WEEK .

      A , , : 1 : 1 3 * * ^ G J J 7 J - C »- |...

      a , , : 1 : 1 3 * * ^ g j 7 j - c » - |> t 0 li r , d « 0 ^ „ a t ) 0 t < t | P ' ° ^ , j r fc ni li Q a * e e \ I j . I * I ? ; it is of a s In — of d tho su THE Commercial Travellers' School , for some reason , appears to excite peculiar interest in the breasts of our literary magnates , and Mr . Thackeray * and other celebrated writers having already offi' ciated as chairman at its annual dinners , that post was this week filled by Mr . Charle 3 Dickens , who made several of those admirably witty and eloquent !• speeches for which he has such an especial talent . In the course of the " speech of the evening" he said : — " He wished to God that the members of his own order would follow the example of the commercial travellers j and , united , to an e < jual amount of good . : Mr Dickens has Avritten an article in the last number of All the Year Round , earnestly repudiating the imputation that in the portrait of Harold Skimpole , in his novel of " Bleak House , " he had intended to pourtray the character of his deceased friend , Leigh Hunt . He was aware , lie says , that such a belief existed , but as that opinion was only i publicly expressed in American journals , he thought i it expedient to let the rep ' ort" go by , " giving due s consideration to the astonishing character of the j information about European celebrities so frequently « to be found in the Transatlantic press . Mr . Dickens , ( nevertheless , confesses that some of the more amiable weaknesses of the deceased poet were pre- * sent to his mind ' s-eye during the delineation of the ridiculous rtnd swindling Skimpoie . We here merely ' allude to this painful subject as a part of the current gossip of the day , but shall return to . it , as the « truly generous and noble character of Heigh Hunt i should be cleared of any possible imputation of c being akin to such a contemptible wretch a 3 Mr . L Dickens has chosen to delineate in his almost impos- £ sible Skimpole . Mr . Hunt might as well be sup- j posed to be delineated in Pecksniff . t ] Mr . Hotten , of Piccadilly , lias in the press a volume of Political Sketches , by Mr . J . Hollhig- , shead , author of " Under Bow Bells , " and which , " like that work , is a collection of papers from J Household Word * . « Messrs . / Brudbury and Evans will publish , on the ti 7 th of January , the first number of a new military h paper , entitled The Army and Nuvy Gazette , and I Journal of Militia and Volunteer Forces , under the a editorship of Mr . W . Howard Russell , " late the tl Special Correspondent of tho Times . " It will bo e devoted exclusively to discussions on questions re- ft lating to military service find national defences . Two now books , L'Exmnen Critique des Doc- trines de la Religion Cluoliennt ' , " and "La 116 novation Religiuuso , " by M . Larroequc ,- formerly rector » of the Lyons Academy , have just been seized at u M . Bohno ' a foreign library , Hue Uivoli . These works , c like the " Question Ronialne " of M . About , were t published in Brussels . r Gorman literature has sustained a loss by tlio s death of William Grimm , the younger of tho cole- j brnted brothers , llo was in his seventy-fourth year . o The St . Petersburg correspondent of tho Tele- n graph has this week given a . most interesting n account of the literary treasures discovered by s j Professor Tiselientlorf , who has been searching for j , manuscripts in various Greek , Syrian , Abyssinian , and other monasteries . The greatest treasure is tho very oldest Greek manuscript of the Bible extant . Bysklos the Old Testament , of the atuno ' * text as that used by tho Apostles in their quotations , *' tho manuscript contains tho whole of tho Now U Testament . Tho various Europoim libraries all m posseaa many MS . copies of tho Bible , but not n - siimte ono of the few written before the tenth con- o turv that contains nil the Now Toutamont . llio o < two hitherto regarded as the oldest mid most com- Qy plote . and held In the highest estimation , are those d ( in the libraries at Rome and London . But the bJ former wants four entiro Epistles of St . Paul , ana tJ nearly tho half of another , as alao the Book of Revolutions j while in the latter the whole of the f " Gosnel of St . Matthew is missing , as well a mSSm parts of St . John and tho Pauline to

      —¦ — - " j ^ rr ^ ^^ i Epistles . The manuscript discovered at Mount Sinai , and now brought to St . Petersburg , is not defective , even in the smallest degree ; on the-contrary , it contains two works even in addition ; one complete , the other- but partially so . In the second ' and'third centuries these latter were included in the canon of Holy Writ , ' and always received the deepest reverence as precious heirlooms of the earliest inspiration of the Church of Christ . Of one of them , the Epistle of Barnabas , nearly the whole of the first half has been wanting until now , in the original Greek text ; while of the other , only one very imperfect copy was known to exist up to three years ago . No other copy of the Bible is of higher antiquity than this—indeed , the far famed Codex "Vaticanus is the only one that can at all put in any claims of competition .

  • Citation
    • Leader (1850-1860), Dec. 24, 1859, page 17, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_24121859/page/17/