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    30S Tgl IiSAPEE [Np. 314, Saturday.

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    " THE ANTIGONE AND ITS MORAL. Tfe j&nti ...

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    THREE NOVELS. Maurice Elvingto?i; or, On...

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    Life And Politics In Syria. Syria And Tl...

    boreal , vsrith—* he benevolent intentions of the government , ? if she has any , are £ niBtrarfc < 3 cl . The 3 > rases and Metwalies , who , though sectaries , are not te unbelieyers , " have always been eligible for military employment , a privilege which they seek , even at the cost of self-mutilation , to leave to the pure Manomedans . So far as to the politics of Syria , in -which the new " reforms are expected to operate with an influence equal to that of the soft climate , the convenient se & y the exuberant soil . Mr . Wortabet ' s report on Syrian manners is , as miht be anticipatedin a different vein . He loves his nation , respects the

    g , men > adores the women , revels in sumptuous recollections . How beautiful to Mm is the Syrian landscape , the valley full of golden corn , the hill enriched by masses of flowers , and the fruitage of Eastern trees , the waters penetrated-with light , the city with its gardens and terraces touched by the sun . How pleasant to him is the sight of a Syrian gentleman , clad with Eastern grace and Western polish . How " intensely thrilling , " more than pleasant , more than beautiful ,-is the lady of Damascus , with lustrous eyes , and black hair , and round white arras , who lounges amid Cashmere shawls and silken cushions , a vision of loveliness and jewellery . All these and many other graphic

    varieties are contained in Mr . wortabet ' s narrative , which has , besides , some dead ballast of scriptural speculation , pert and shallow , and to be religiously skipped by the judicious reader . But we have , certainly , in this book , an original picture of Syria—a picture from which we may discern the actual state of its political and social progress .

    30s Tgl Iisapee [Np. 314, Saturday.

    30 S Tgl IiSAPEE [ Np . 314 , Saturday .

    " The Antigone And Its Moral. Tfe J&Nti ...

    " THE ANTIGONE AND ITS MORAL . Tfe j & nti gone of Sophocles . Text , with short English Notes for the -use of Schools - > iCOxford Pocket Glassies . ) J . H . Parker < e rtlo t here a little volume but great Book "—a volume small enough to slip iiitoyour breast p 6 cket , but containing in fine print one of the finest tragedies oF the single dramatic poet who can toe said to stand on a level with Shakspeare . Sophocles is the erbwn and flower of the classic tragedy as Shakspeare is of the romantic : to borrow Schlegel ' s comparison , which cannot be improved upon , they-are related to eaeh other as the Parthenon to Stras-Imrg 'Cathedral , r ¦¦¦¦ ¦¦ ¦ ; . - . ¦ - . ¦ ¦¦• '¦ ¦ : ¦• ' - ¦ ' ; ; . . ; v . ¦ ¦¦¦'•¦ : ; ¦ : > ¦"' - ¦ ¦ . ¦ ¦ The opinioai which decries all enthusiasm for Greek literature as "humbug '

    , was put to an . excellent test some years ago by the production of the Antigone at Drury Lane . ¦ ¦ " ¦ The translation then adopted was among the feeblest by which a great poet has ever been misrepresented ; yet so completely did the poet triumph over the disadvantages of his medium and of a dramatic motive-foreign to modern sympathies , that the Pit was electrified , and Sophocles , over a chasm of two thousand years , once more swayed th e emotions of a popular audience . And no wonder . The Antigone has every quality-of a finejtragedy , aiid fine tragedies can never become mere mummies for Hermanns and Bockhs to dispute about : they must appeal to perennial humanriatme / and even the ingenious dulness of translators cannot exhaust themdf their passion and their poetry . ¦ '

    tyi . " EJ ' en in their ashes live ilaeir wonted fires . " ^ e said that ith e dramatic motive of the Antigone was f oreign to modern sympathies , but it is on ] y superficially so . It is true we no longer believe thst a ljrftther , if left unburied , is condemned to wander a hundred years without reppse bft the banks of the Styx ; we no longer believe that to neglect fu ^ ral'riies isto violate the claims of the infernal deities . But these beliefs are the accidents and not the substance of the poet ' s conception . The turning -point o ^^ tragedy is not , as it is stated to be in the argument prefixed to' tnia e ; dWionv " l-everenee for the dead and the importance of tlie sacred ritgs of burial ^ " but the conflict between these and obedience to tlie State . Here lies tfre dramatic collision ; the impulse of sisterly p iety which allies itself with reverence for the Gods , clashes with the duties or" citizenship ; two principles , both having their validity , are afc war with each . Let us glance for a moment a * the plot .

    JEteooles and Polynices , the brothers of Antigone , have slain eacli other in battle before the gates of Thebes , the one defending his country , the other invading it in conjunction with foreign allies . Hence Creon becoicn . es , by the death of theae two sons of CEdipus , the legitimate ruler of Thebes ,, grants funeral honours to Eteocles , but denies them to Polynices , whose body is cast out to be the prey of beasts and birds , a decree being issued that death will be the penalty of an attempt to bury him . In the second scene of the play Creon expounds the motive of his deciee to the Theban elders , insisting in weighty words on the . duty of making all personal affection subordinate to the Vell-. being of the State . The impulses of affection and religion which urge Antigone to disobey this proclamation are strengthened by the fact that m her' last interview with her brother he had besought her not to leave hia corpse unburied . She determines to byave the penalty , buries Polynices , is taken in the act and brought before Creon , to whom she does not attempt to deny that she knew of the proclamation , but declares that she deliberately disobeyed it > and is ready to accept death as its consequence . It was not Zeu ? j she tells him—it was not eternal Justice thai issued that decree . The

    proclamation of Creon is not so authoritative as the unwritten law of the Gods , which is neither of to-day nor of yesterday , but Jives eternally , and none km ^ vys its beginning , . ' ¦ £ , Oy y & p rt vvv ye KcL ^ Oes , dXV oet Trore Zfj ravra , nov 8 e \ s oi 8 ev e ^ orov ' fpdvrj . Creon , on hia side , insists on the necessity to the welfare of the State that he should be obeyed as legitimate ruler , and becomes exasperated by the calm defiance of Antigone . She is condemned to dcuth . Woemon , the son of vr FM 9 mAntigone is betrothed onstrates against this judgment in

    r "» ^ , , rem vam , ; . o , ; T » nb in which Antigone has been buried aliVe , that ho «; £ r Hg ^ S ? v' ? ' ia ' **& late > Antigone is already dead ; Hiomon « om-« n ;!^ ' ¦& j & W'WjW . W * osp ^ r , '« wd the doafcU of hie mother Eurydicc oa hearing the fatal tiding * , completes tho ruin of Creon ' s house .

    It is a very superficial criticism which interprets the character of Creon as that of a hypocritical tyrant , and regards Antigone as a blameless victim Coarse contrasts like this are not the materials handled by great dramatist ' The exquisite art of Sophocles is shown in the touches by which he makes us feel that Creon , as well as Antigone , is contending for what he believes to be the right , while both are also conscious that , in following out on * principle , they are laying themselves open to just blame for transgressing another ; and it is this consciousness which secretly heightens the exaspera tion of Creon and the defiant hardness of Antigone . The best critics have agreed with Bockh in recognising this balance of principles , this antagonis m between valid claims ; they generally regard it , however , as dependent entirelv on the Greek point of view , as springing simply from the polytheistic conception , according to which the requirements of the Gods often clashed with the duties of man to man .

    But , is it the fact that this antagonism of valid principles is peculiar to polytheism ? Is it not rather that the struggle between Antigone and Creon represents that struggle between elemental tendencies and established laws by which the outer life of man is gradually and painfully being brought into harmony with his inward needs . Until this harmony is perfected , we shall never be able to attain a great right without also doing a wrong . Reformers , martyrs , revolutionists , are never fi ghting-against evil only ; they are also placing themselves in opposition to a good—to a valid principle which cannot be infringed without harm . Resist the payment of ship-money , you bring on civil war ; preach against false doctrines , you disturb feeble minds and

    send them adrift on a sea of doubt ; make a new road , and you annihilate vested interests ; cultivate a new region of the earth , and you exterminate a race of men . " Wherever the strength of a man ' s intellect , or moral sense , or affection brings him into opposition with the rules which society has sanctioned , there is renewed the conflict between Antigone and Creon ; such a man must not only dare to be right , he must also dare to be wrong—to shake faith , to wound friendshi p * perhaps , to hem in his own powers . Like Antigone , he may fall a victim to the struggle , and yet he can never earn the name of a blameless martyr any more than the society—the Creon he has defied , can be branded as a hypocritical tyrant .

    Perhaps the best moral we can draw is that to which the Chorus pointsthat our protest for the right should be seasoned with moderation and reve rence , and that lofty words—fieyaXoi \ 6 yoi—are not becoming to mortals .

    Three Novels. Maurice Elvingto?I; Or, On...

    THREE NOVELS . Maurice Elvingto ? i ; or , One out of Suits with ^ Fortune . An Autobiography . Edited by Wilfred East . Three vols . Smith and Elder . In Maurice El y inpton we have a careful study of modern life and manners , written in a pointed , scholarly style , but wanting in interest . The action is slow , and there are scarcel y any events . Half of the first volume is occupied by the narrative of one incident , without dramatic variation : that of Mr , Maurice Elvington fancying himself a man of property , and being undeceived , In this slow , unpiogressive way the story is told , until its quiet interludes ; not graced by philosophical reflection , or seasoned with satire , reach a climax of monotony . Passing out of this phase of still life , Maurice Elvington degenerates in the third volume into a melodrama . The hero being married , and , after marriage becoming attached to his wife , resolves upon a

    voyage to foreign parts , and a slight engagement takes place between him and a negro , who is suppressed , however , by a blow from a broken spar . Then he sails into the purple tropics , under the Southern Cross with an Ayah on board , who has a rich s . ultry skin , and who listens to Mr . Maurice Elvington as he discourses sweet pedantry on India , Hemacuta and Meru , on the yellow rills , and golden lotus leaves of Sacontalas' paradise . But , after a burial at sea , this Ayah plunges into the sad ocean wave , and leaves the autobiographer to meditate on human passions and the Lady Venetia ' s beauty . A grave and a child rise in the retrospect of his career , and the tale ends mournfully . Yet it is only in the last volume that stage effects are introduced . The writer , who calls himself " Wilfred East , " seems to have exhausted in a first and second volume , his notes on town and country life , in chambers , abbeys , second-floors , cottages , and editors ' -rooms . Into these last he peers

    with an ignorant eye . Surely , it is a worn-out pleasantry to describe the representative editor as ] Vtr . Simply , who conducts the Jiritish Lion , and whose Paris correspondence is composed with exclusive Cabinet details , near Lincoln ' s Inn . We are dealing , we assume , with a young writer , who , in his first novel , baa drawn on college and chamber practice , and has thence looked curiously and intelligently at the world , who is at once a devotee of our modern satirists , and of those sentimentalists whose existence has been a feverish dream , who forgive , but never can forget . Maurice Elvington is certainly " not a good novel ; but it is a work of tnle ' nt , its allusions are keen ; the salient specialities of genteel and gentle society , am cleverly painted in What we have said is the spirit of criticism . We wish to deter no one from reading the story : still less -would , we discourage Wilfred East , if he means to write another , and a better book .

    Clara ; or , Slave Life in Europe . With a Preface by Sir Archibald Alison . 3 vols . Bontloy . CijAEA , as a p icture of society , need not have been , introduced by a preface of platitudes from the pen of Sir Archibald Alison . It is an original , varied , spirited story , boldly conceived , artfully constructed , pleasantly told , Then why submit Mr , Haklandcv to a quotation from The History of Europe , in which he ia compared , by n confusion of critical analogy , to Dickens and Bulwer ? Apparently , the four pages of soft and soppy advertisement arc designed to illustrate the eornmlcr , not the Movclist . for who but ono of Lord

    Derby ' s ! U e » 'a » 'y baronets would lay down as axioms , " that tho conventional chains of civilised life arc even more galling than tho rude fetters of tho African , nnd tluvt many a white slave woulu hayc something to envy in the lot , of Uncle Tom I ' Let no dog bark } for Sir Archibald Oracle , waxing mighty in the line of his wrath , affirms that " it ia to be fcarud that tlim ) is too much truth in thia view of the effects of civilisation , " which " view" is that ballet , girls arc overworked , under-paid , and capriciously patronised . Now , it is a question whether this ia an " effect" of Civilisation in any other souse than tho universal alftvery of women among the uncultured tribes is mi " effect " of barbarism , and whether dancers do not partake tho common conditions of

• Citation
  • Leader (1850-1860), March 29, 1856, page 18, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_29031856/page/18/