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Leader (1850-1860), 26th February 1859, Edition 2 of 2, Page 14, THE WANDERER. Tho Wundarcr. By Owen Mere...

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      Russia. Russia. By A Recent Traveller: A...

      The state has now to grapple "with pauperism . This-will necessitate some sttange measures . The communal lands for the new villages , that . serf-^ xnancipation -will render needful , Tyill have to be cut out of the estates of the former proprietors . '** The noble is thus asked not only to resign his serfsybut to parcel out his landed property among them ; and the serfs have not only to buy their liberty , but to make provision for their future maintenance . " At the same time , whenever the Russian state shall relinquish the mediaeval theory , that a peasant must belong to some one , or to to

      some society , under penalty of being sent Siberia , emigration from the communes will take place freely , and labour will be established on the jbasis of voluntary service . . . The drama has still a political significance in Russia . Only lately a Russian comedy , entitled " There are some Good People in the World , " withdrawn from the stage , because of the excitement caused by its unsparing attacks on official corruption . But , notwithstanding , it sold freel y * and the sale is enormous . We are riot _ surprised to hear that the theatre is a much more important

      institution in Russia than in England . Poetry , too , is prevalent . Kreloff ; the Moore of Russia , is a literary potentiality . His fables attack priestcraf t and official peculation . They depend much on -their style for their success . Puschkin is a poet of a higher mark . — -he is the Ariosto and Byron of his country and age . His * Eugene Oniagin , " indeed , is an imitation of " Don Juan . " He had _ turn : an imitator himself in IjermontofF , an inferior minstrel , but a better novelist . " The Hero of Our Own Times" has much originality . Boul- , garine is likewise a novelist of merit . Gogol , also , has -written a story which has had great success . JBut the literature of the North in general is a reflexion of that of the West . ,

      Panslavism was lately a European danger , and it itas reappeared in the Slavonic provinces of Austria . " During the present year a conspiracy ¦ with this object has been discovered at Bemberg , in Galliciia , and the government has thought it accessary to suppress one of the chief Slavonic papers in Hungary . The slaves naturally feel that liberty and freedom of thought have a better chance at present from the Russian than from the Austrian Emperor ; and the . fellow-feeling of race has full play . Should Russia and France ever join ioo-ether in a European war against Austria , all

      these causes would assume a terrible importance . ' The one want of Russia at present is a want of imaginative originality . Her soldiers were never kindled by the watchwords of honour and chivalry , aor her priests by dreams of spiritual freedom . Russia , thrown exclusively upon Greece and Palestine , has borrowed from the former the worthless subtleties of its theology , and from the latter its literal and dogmatic intolerance . Neither the republic of Plato , nor the grand Hebrew conamoiwrealth which Calvin tried to realise in Geneva , have ever passed across the vision of the orthodox church . in all this our learned traveller sees the

      special weakness of Russia . On the other hand , the dependence of Russia on the West , in respect to her interim } progress , will "be beneficial , She will , more than any other power ,, need to be intersected by railways , and wrought into rapport with " the great forges and ai'scnals of thought , " On the whole , there is reason to hope . The civilisation of Russia , thoitgh , in fact , j > eculiar to itself , has more analogies with that of England than with either Continental or Asiatic institutions . Our rapid analysis of this volume , imperfect as it necessarily is , must yet prove that it is eminently wprtli perusal and attention .

      2?G The Leader. [K6.466, Febrtjary 26, 1...

      2 ? G THE LEADER . [ K 6 . 466 , FEBRtJARY 26 , 185 9

      The Wanderer. Tho Wundarcr. By Owen Mere...

      THE WANDERER . Tho Wundarcr . By Owen Meredith . Chapman and Hall . This volume , b y tho author of * ' Clytomnostxa , " presents tjio Hpu'ifc of poetry under unusually worldly aspects . In a series of lyrics and ballads we we treated with a succession of moral and . mental experiences on the part of a gentleman of fashion ana fortune , who is enabled to travel extensively , arid who hero , under the date of the places ho- has visited , confesses to the public his frailties and his follies , his sensuous tendencies , and his plutpnic agitations , in versos that are often exceedingly elegant , and sometimes very musical . Such ia tho character of tho Wanderer—such ; his ourflb of action—such tho moral ofhis story . Bxit

      the character is ,-we are informed , an histrionic assumption , and Owen Meredith but a literary part which is played in the lyr ical in preference to the dramatic form . In such an assumption , and in the adoption of such a form , the author has probably shown much judgment . We recognise the Wanderer , therefore , as a more modern Childe Harold , to whom the gif ts pf fortune have proved stimulants to certain experiences , and curious changes of the moral and sentimental states of the mind , the expression of which we find in this volume of songs , and ballads , and didactic rhapsodies . That hi effecting the development of the different emotions and their conditions , Owen Meredith has shown poetic genius of the highest promise , the following poem will evidence . It is called " Indian Love-Song . "

      x . My body sleeps ; my heart awakes ; - My lips to breathe , thy . name are moved In slumber ' s ear : then slumber breaks , And I am drawn to thee , beloved . Thou drawest me , thou drawest me , Thro' sleep , thro' night . I hear the rills , And hear the leopard in the hills , And down the dark I feel to thee . The vineyards and the villages : Were silent in the vales , the rocks , I followed past the myrrhy trees , , And by the footsteps of the flocks . Wild honey , dropt from stone to stone , Where bees have been , my path suggests . ¦ '¦' - The winds are in tlie eagles ' nests . The moon is hid . I walk alone . ' ¦ ¦¦¦ ¦ ¦ . iii . ' ¦ ¦ . •" ¦¦ ¦¦' Thou drawest me , thou drawest me , Across the glimmering wildernesses , ; And drawest me , my love , to thee , ' With dove ' s eyes hidden in thy tresses . The world is many : my love is one . I find no likeness for my love . The cinnamons grow in the grove ; The Golden Tree grows all alone . ' .. ¦ ¦ . ¦ ¦ . ; iv . . ' ' ¦ . ¦ - . ¦¦ O who hath seen her wondrous hair ? Or seen my dove ' s eyes in the woods ? Or found her voice upon the air ? Her steps along the . solitudes ? . Or where is beauty like to hers ? She drawethme , she draweth . me . I sought her by the incense tree , And in the aloes , and in the firs . "v . ¦ Where art thou , O my heart ' s delight , With dove ' s eyes hidden in thy locks ? My hair is wet with dews of night . My feet are torn upon the rocks . The cedarn scents , the spices , fail Aboutjome . Strange and stranger seems The path . There comes a sound of streams Above the darkness on the vale . VI ; ' ' ¦ No trees drop gums ; but poison flowers From , rifts and clefts all round . me fall . The perfumes of thy midnight bowers , The fragrance of thy chambers , all Is drawing me , is drawing me . Thy baths prepare j anoint thine hair ; Open the window : meet me there : , I come to thee , to thee , to thee ! vir . Thy lattices are dark , my own . Thy doors ' are , still . My love , look oxit . Arise , my dove witli tender tone . Thy camphor-clusters , all about Are whitening . Dawn breaks silently , And all my spirit with the dawn Expands ; and , slowly , slowly drawn , Thro' mist and darkness , moves towards thoo . The Cplcridgean delicacy of touch ancTtone in the abovo stanzas will be immediately recognised . Tho melody is very fine , and tho diction throughout natural ana expressive . There are sonic extraordinary lyrics in a mystic cal vein , which indicuto powers in Owen Meredith to . achieve success in subjects of tho highest worth . Wo present the reader with » few stanzas from one of those serious effusions . Behold this half-tamed universe of things ! . That cannot break , nor wholly bear , its chain . Its heart by fits grows wild : it leaps , it springs $ Then the chain gallp , and konnola it again . If man wore formed with all his faculties For sorrow , I should sorrow for him loss . Considering a lifo so brief , tho stroes ' Of its short passion I might well despise . But all man ' s faculties arc for delight j But all man ' s lifo is compass'd with what sooms Framed for enjoyment ; but from alji that flight And eonso reveal a magic murmur streams

      Into man ' s heart ,, winch says , or seems to say , " Be happy ! " . . and the heart of man . replies , " Iieave . happiness to brutes : I would be wise :. Give me , not peace , but science , glory , art . " The spirit of that wide and leafless wind , That wanders o ' er the uncompanioned sea , Searching for what it never seems to find , Stirred in my hair , and moved my heart in me ,, To follow it , far over land and main : And everywhere over this earth ' s scarred face > . The footsteps of a god I seemed to trace ; But everywhere steps of a god in pain . That is a grand image . Such evidences of genial power , and purpose , make us strongly wish that , in his next venture ,. Owen Meredith will determine to look at the world from another point of view , and , diving into his heart , produce for its benefits those profound truths which a life of fashion and enjoyment has a tendency to conceal from their possessor . As we slowly close his volume , this hope strengthens within us .

      Adam Bede. Adam Bede. By George Eliot. 3...

      ADAM BEDE . Adam Bede . By George Eliot . 3 vols . Edinburgh : Blackwood and Sons ,. The mere reader of fashionable novels will not very much like this work ; and the admirer ' of the " fast" school of literature will think it " slow ;" but the reader ^—and his name is " Legion "who can ¦ ' ; . appreciate quiet humour , real wit , pregnant wisdom , and natural character , from a pen of nO : common order , will read this work once through with thorough relish , and again with increased admiration and respect for the talent of the writer . Mr . Eliot has laid the scene of his novel in one of the northern rural districts of England . We fancy we could almost < point . but the very locality , and so , doubtless , will his intelligent readers . Mr . Eliot must have thoroughly studied the habits , inner life , and racy provincialisms of the district to Lave been enabled to draw such a masterly picture of rustic life , and to throw so much thorough originality into his style and matter . We think it would be difficult to parallel , certainly to surpass , the character of ' Farmer-Peyser ' s wife : her sayings and doings are treasures of rustic wit and world-knowledge . Alone , it . would serve to make the reputation of the work ! The novel has riot a weak point about it , nor a commonplace character . Although there is nothing extravagant , spasmodic , or of transcendental sublimity to take prisoner the judgment of the readei-, yet we can promise him a fine treat if the novel is read with that appreciation it undoubtedly deserves . We could quote from nearly every chapter ; but we prefer sending the reader at once to the novel , rather than to spoil his relish by a detail of either plot or characters . We think we may predict for this novel a high place in the standard literature of the country .

      Blight; Or The Novel Hater. By Rose Foot...

      Blight ; or the Novel Hater . By Rose Foot , author of " There is Good in Everything . " 3 vols . J . F . Hope . ' We might as well attempt to unloose tho Gordinn knot as try to unravel the tangled web of this ^ three volume story , or rather congeries of stories . There is incident enough , character enough , and cleverness enough , t 6 furnish materials for half-a-dozen modern romances ; and yet it is impossible to feel otherwise than amazed and annoyed at the obvious blemishes that meet us in almost every chapter . If this _ wore a first production we might be inclined to wiold tJio critical rod forbearingly ; but the lady-author has taken care . to toll us sho has already matie her bow to tho public , at tho same time giving us plainly to understand that sho fell , on lier first appearance , into what has proved to her a critical hornet ' s nest . Every now and again tho fair witor lots her story stand still to scold at the critics . Evidently a ruio has boon established by tho John lfitf , which oven tho saponaceous vulnerary of the yntio failed completely to hoal . Wo fear our own criticism will nob bo deemed exactly anodyne in characlur . With every word of praiso wo must , in all honest ) , couple onJ of dispraise "With incidents true to nature are linked incidents wild ami improbaDW ; with characters in harmony with tho oxporleneo or evory-day lifo , and sketched with ftjolliiK mul l » "J » aro associated other characters only found m tnt »« railway and oloctric-tologriinli days , »»» 0 » tf Bt 0 V « " stage" villains , and only claimed as tho loq itlmut © " properties" of manufacturers of JEiust-enil melodramas . With good and sensible writing tlioroia connected such a mass of incomprehensible mystification , that it isdlflloul ' t to believe both could bo tho pioductions of the samo mind . V « havo already bum

  • Citation
    • Leader (1850-1860), Feb. 26, 1859, page 14, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_26021859/page/14/