On this page

• Text (2)

  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.

  • 

    ^—« _, .»Mn THE LEADER Ss>

  • 

    KItfGSLEY'S HEEOES. The Heroes; or, Gree...

• 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.

    A Pilgrimage To Meccah. Rersotutl Narrat...

    ^ SSSSSSSS ^ ES ? hat Aev mm ? begta by imparting positive ideas . It is useless to preach re-Kusdoc ? rines , fr even moralit * to a people who view not a smgle thmg m tfesSne light with ourselves . They must be treated as children with the mmds ^ f mln ; that is , as if they possessed the quick apprehension of tl . e fomer , wSh the retentive and collative faculty of the latter ^ ha Pilv , our missionaries themselves are usually mere children as to . £ now 3 e ^ e o . the world , and old women as to obstinacy and perverseness : the result of their labours being consequently nihil .

    ^—« _, .»Mn The Leader Ss>

    ^—« _ , . » Mn THE LEADER Ss >

    Kitfgsley's Heeoes. The Heroes; Or, Gree...

    KItfGSLEY'S HEEOES . The Heroes ; or , Greek Fairy Tales for My Mildren . By the Rev . ^ mgsky . ^ th Eight Illustrations , by the Author . Jttacmiu . m ana ^ o . What Niebuhr charmingly did for his son Marcus , Kingsley has done like a poet , for his children , Rose , Maurice , and Mary : taken the Greek myths anVdivesting them of all scholastic apparatus , told them as fairy tales . But although Kingsley ' s genius is so immeasurably greater than that of Niebuhr . and hif versions show in every page the traces of that superiority , there is one point in which his inferiority is manifest . Niebuhr forgot that he was an historian , a scholar , and a sceptic , when telling his boy the stories ¦ of Grecian mythology ; Kingsley will not forget , nor suffer us to forget , that he is a parson . All his writings have a sermonising tendency . The very gods of Z , " , i . i . / v : _ Tii . « :.. ~ u \ o nni / o < lniic < 3 hut . must have a surplice ieii uiv — »

    feU fast Sp ' wire SeSS ^ f ^ up cashed them Si away Aadnow they float up and down like icebergs for ever , weeping whenever Sy meS the sunshine , and the fruitful summer , and the warm south W P ^ rCe d awl ^^^ hehind uast the isle of the Hyperboreans , and the tin isles , and the long Iberian swt ' wnSe ' Sie sun rose higher day by day upon a bright blue «^ And tne terns and the seagulls swept laughing round his head : ^ called ^ ojhun r z ss & s * ^ iT ^^ y ^ r ^ SrM ^ lI ^^ d k ^ c ^^^^ BSS ¦ . . - x ~ n * A i >; o limk wAvfi never wearv . till ne saw tar away

    srtill the tide came and __ the eye into it , fancying that it was the hand of her sister . Then he sprang back , and laughed , and cried— . " Cruel and proud old women , I have your eye ; and I will throw it into the sea , unless you tell me the path to the Gorgon , and swear to me that you tell me rig Th 6 n they wept , and chattered , and scolded ; but in vain They were forced to tell the tVutb ; though , when tley told it , Perseus could hardly make out the r You must go , " they said , " foolish boy , to the southward , into the ugly glare of the stu 7 till you come to Atlas the Giant , holds the heaven and the earth apar t Tnd you must ask his daughters , the Hebrides , who are young and South like yourself . And now give us back our eye ; for we have forgotten all the rest . " _ : + fia ( i of usiner it . they nodded and

    ureece cannot ue < m men mw u » .. v » - —~ , - flun- over them . His manuscripts are always thrust into the black leather case , which we could so willingly see on the pulpit desk only . ma - In the preface to this child ' s book the w rd God is flung about with amazing recklessness , meant to be impressive , but impressing us onlywith a feehng of the writer ' s extraordinary want of taste . In the space of forty-four lines God is mentioned eleven times . Jesus Christ thrice , and St Paul once-all purporting that , if the Greeks were a wonderful people , it was God who made them so ( Which one did not require to be told ) , and that they ceased to worship God , giving themselves to idols of wood and stone-which will make scholars and philosophers stare . , „ v * Mr . Kingsley loves the old Greeks , and says so ; but he cannot say so without dmgging in the Bible : he cannot teach his children to love the > -. . i : -. i oc \ _ i _ ^ i . _ : ;~ 4 .: _ i , « „; .,: <» * . fVam a ««» i » mr » n - It tie could oniv shiuc k —— —

    , SSii ^^^^ ^ ie ^ rrass ETwas nolmoke rising from any glen , nor ^ ouse ^ ° ^ f afh ma ^ come to At last he heard sweet voices singing ; and he guessed that be was come to mamwmm ^ TJ ^ l ^ t-ul ^ + L ™ -fnr ft ver . listening to the song of the maidens , « —¦— ' — —i w ¦

    UreeKS WltnOUi a . b llie umc g >*»« i , " ^ " * « ~ -- — u hear what people say of his preface , and warm admirers among them , be would at once issue his charming book without that blot ; and as his friends are not likely to tell him what they hear , it is for us to do so . Onee having got over the preface , the render will meet with nothing but what he can admire in this volume . The surplice is cast aside on qu . ttmg the ves'ry , and the poet only a , . pears . The stories chosen are Perseus , the Argonauts , and Theseus . Let us hope the other legendsi are to' fo ' toffc Better than all criticism will be an extract of sufficient length to exhibit the toia iur mis ^ « . ^^«

    SXocLM . eI 3 E > oix . <* B * X'f wuu * j-v « v ** v * - - # bU ? tou 8 Slr »^ pS no 7 be ^ . R-d the dragon but because he was b JhfS beS ^ thlse I feir maids ; but wheu they saw him , they too stopped « and " ^ o 2 ?^ 2 S 3 ^ t HSs the mighty , *^ - * * our 3 SsgSiSaS £ iw 3 SB « w " - " . and slay her . " ... ., - ^ „„ n ^ -nA ' the tree , in the

    manner in which the stones are , aua pmpua « = »» a , , HOW PERSEUS SLEW THE QOBGON . . So Perseus started on his journey . . g 6 ing dry-shod over land and sea ; and his heart was high and joyful , for the winged sandals bore him each day a seven da ° hrwent by Cythnus , and by Ceos , and the pleasant Cyclades to Attica ; and past Athens , and Thebes , and the Copaic lake , and up the vale of Ceph issus , and past the peaks of ( Eta and Piudus , and over the rich ThessaUan plains , till the sunny Mils of Greece wore behind him , and before him were the wilds of the north . Theu he passed the Thracian mountains , and many a barbarous tribe , PsaonB and Bardans and Triballi , till he came to the later stream , and the dreary ScytaiaA plains . And he walked across the Ister dry-shod , and away through SiLnoora and fens , day and night towards the bleak north-west , turning neither to the right hand nor the left , till he came to the Unshapen Land , and the place which has no name . , ¦ . , And seven days he walked through it , on a path which few can tell ; for those Who have trodden it like least to speak of it , and those who go there again in dreams are clad enough when they awake ; till he came to the edge of the everiiara wicn ice

    ,, mmmmmm Immortals . So , tell me the way to the Gorgon , lest I wander and peiiah in the waves . " , Then they sighed and wept ; and answered , — :: ? t £ SX to t ^ SCn ^ ir uie „ « in , . * IL „ B » ^ movtala have lent me weapons , and they will give me wit to usx ' «^ _ £ SSS ; SHi = S ; £ SSHE , ?! , ii Evening Star . He sits aloft and sees across the ocean , and far away into the with

    lasting night , where the air waa full of feathers , and the sou was ; and there at last be found the three Grey Sisters , by the shore of the freesuug sea , noddinc upon a white log of drift-wood , beneath the cold white winter moon ; and they chaunted a low song together , " Why , the old timeB were better than the new . " „ ., , There was no living thiug around them , not a fly , not a moss upon the rocks . Neither seal nor aea-gull dare come near , lost the ice should clutch them m its claws . The Burge broke up in foam , but it fell again in flakes of snow ; and it frosted the hair of the three Grey Sistera , and the bones in the ice-chff above theu * heads . They passed the eye from one to < tho other , but for all that they could not seo ; and they pixssed the toothjfrorn one to the other , but for all that they could not oat ; and they s . it in tho full glare of the moan , but they were none the wanner for her beams . And Peraeus pitied tho three --Grey Sisters ;; but tlioy did not pity themselves . n * ** ¦» re V"X 1 11 -1 . 1 . „ .. « » . 2 nJl A . WA ¦¦ n +-1 "V A *\<\ lirrliArAl * t \ X C \\ t \ H Cff \ vi w »«

    P 5 ney asked him , and he answered mildly , pointing to the ^ oard to « ^ 'ie ^ me " LTSn ^ S ^{ SSSS SS ^^^ & SE wears cannot be seen . ah-v " Then cried Perseus , " Where is that hat , that I may find it ? ssssssss ^ Sfassss me to hold the heavens and the earth apart _ vmpha went clpwn , and into TiiAn Pei-seus promised , aud . the eld « st ot the nympns * ew v ,

    MO tie SaiU V ^ U VOIlGraoitJ iiHJi . « icr » , ivinvjuiui an «>«» UOUJJX-. V . . .. . ^ c , — " You therefore whould know many things . Toll me , if you can , the path to the Gorgon Y' " .,,, -,, » 4 j Ai Then one cri « d , " Who ia this who roproaohos us with old age ? And another , " This ia tho voice of one of tho children of ineu . " And ho ,-- " I do not reproach , but honour your old age , and I am 0110 ot the sons of men and of tho horoes . Tlio rulora of Olympus have sent me to you to aek tho way to tlio Qorgon . " * . , „ Then one— " There are now rulor » in Olympus , and all now things are bad . And another— " We hate your rulora , and tho heroes , and all tho children ot mon . Wo are tho kindred of tho Titans , and the Giants , and the Gorgous , and tho anoiont mounters of the deep . " And another— " Who is this rash and insolent man , who pushes unbidden into our world V And tho first , —' lhere never was sudh a world aa ours , nor will bo ; if wo lot him boo it , ho will spoil it all . Thou ono cried , " Give mo tho oyo , that I may aoo him ; and another , — "( Jive mo tho tooth , that I may l > ito him . " . But Peraoue , vliou ho saw that they -were foolish and proud , and did not love the children of mon , loft off" pitying thorn , and euid to hiuiNolf , " Hungry uion must nooda b-o hasty ; if Htay making many Tvordn hero , I hIuiII bo ntiunrocl . " Thou ho Btopped oU ) ho to thorn , and -watched till they puHsod tho oyo from hand to hand . And us they groped aWt between . thomBolvew , ho hold out hia own hand goutly , till ono of them put

    a dark cavern among the cliffs , out of which came smoKO ana w «» w ., ^ ono of tho mouths of Hell . ,,. + 1 -ii AndP , r SeuSand the nymphs sat dovm « ovon days ^ wai ted tijn ^^ Wmg tiU the nymph oamo up aga in ; and hor face was p ale ^ , j * A her eyes ^ J » JJJ ^ light 'for Blio had been long in tho dreary darkness , but in nor nan 3 S ^^ r ^^ = ^^ itfMWffiiM of tho Uushapen Laud , beyond the at "«»•? » ' <^^ V ™ \ fB r % ht plooo , and 333 s » % r ? iat ! 6 ''

• Citation
  • Leader (1850-1860), Jan. 26, 1856, page 17, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_26011856/page/17/