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    •Tpi^i26,Al855.] TMHiE JaMA-DrEM. 72?

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    A NEW POEM. Within and Without. A Dramat...

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    BOOKS OX OUB TABLE. Correspondence of Jo...

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    ~ ¦ ¦ ¦ ,, /Ttf ltl> ^li*lcf Aibljlr yCvUJuU

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    TOE TRENCH EXHIBITION. The best of the F...

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  • 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.

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    Pelgr1mage To El-Medinah And Meccah. Per...

    ] jrge a portion of ike earth , lie thus notices the different streams of emigre-| jon that flowed from that " nursery of the human race : "It jnnst be * ememberod that the theatre of all earliest civilisation has been a fertile ytgBey withf a navigable stream , like Sindh , Egypt , and Mesopotamia . The existence of « ach * aptft in Arabia would have altered every page of lier history ; she would then h « ve become a centre , not a source of civilisation . As it is , her immense population ..-atill th }/ "Vi even in the deserta—has , from the earliest ages , been impelled by draught , famine , or desire of conquest , to emigrate into happier regions . All history mentions two main atreama which took their rise in the wiids of the great peninsula : —the first set to the north-east , through Persia ' , Mekran , Beloochistan , Sindh , the

    Afghan . Mountains as far as Samarcand , Bokhara , and Tibet ; the other , flowing towards the north-vest , passed through Egypt and Barbaiy into Etruria , Spain , the Isles of the Mediterranean , and southern France . There are two minor immigrations chronicled in history , and written in the indelible characters of physiognomy and pbilology . One of these set in an exiguous but perennial stream towards India , Socially Malabar , where , mixing with the people of the country , the Arab merchants , became the progenitors of the ftloplah race . The other was a partial immigration , also for commercial purposes , to the coast of IJerbera , in Eastern Africa , where , mixing with the Cialla tribes , the people of Hazramaut became the sires of the extena | v « Somali nations . Thus we have from Arabia four different lines of immigration , tending N . E . and S . E ., N . W . and S . " \ V .

    •Tpi^I26,Al855.] Tmhie Jama-Drem. 72?

    • Tpi ^ i 26 , Al 855 . ] TMHiE JaMA-DrEM . 72 ?

    A New Poem. Within And Without. A Dramat...

    A NEW POEM . Within and Without . A Dramatic Poem . By George IVIacdonald . Longmans . ts one of Byron ' s letters there is a curiously prophetic passage on the future of English poetry . Speaking of the rising generation of poets , he expresses a conviction that his own success and the success of his illustrious contemporaries will mislead the men who have yet reputations to make . He owns to dreading the eflect of such daring originality as his and Shelley ' the young poets—prophesies the advent of new writers , who will defy ail rules , without however possessing any genuine superiority to established verse-precedents—and declares that the next really great poetical reputation which will be made after his time will be achieved by a man who holds fast to intelligibility and reality , who despises eccentricities of language and metre , and " who is willing to learn all that part of his art which can be usefully and creditably acquired from others , at the feet of Dryden and Pope . It is certainly remarkable , thus far , to observe how correctly Byron could estimate beforehand the probable errors of his successors . We have in advance in tue

    the present ** Spasmodic School what'he foresaw—an wron ° r direction . Our present race of poets ( genuine poets many of them as to natural fcapability ) seem to be getting farther and farther away from symmetry , inteui « nbinty and repose ; and the consequence is , that in these specially reading days a popular poetical reputation still remains to be made . Even in the cas ' e of Mr . Tennyson , do we hear now of fourteen thousand copies of a poem being sold in a day , as in the case of the Corsair ? Do we hear of that , though the read ' msr public has increased tenfold since Byron ' s time ?

    lias any living writer of poetry got that hold of the public which Mr . Dickens has got as a -writer of fiction , or Mr . Macaulay as a writer of history P We know that it is not so . And , as it seems to us , the reason is not far to seek . While the tendency of our prose literature is towards healthy reality , the tendency of our poetical literature is towards sickly idealism . For our parts , we firmly believe that the whole of what Byron has foretold will yet come to pass , and that the next great poet ' s reputation in England will be made by a man who , with perfect originality of subject and thought , will school himself to emulate the uncompromising directness of Dryden , . and

    the elegant completeness of Tope . " These remarks have been suggested to us by the poem at the head of the present notice—a poem written by a man who possesses , as it . seems to us , a vocation for his art , but who , at present , shuts himself out from public recognition behind the extravagancies , eccentricities , and obscurities of the new school . The metaphysical purpose of tho work is sufficiently suggested by its title—the execution of that purpose will appear to nine readers out ol ten simply ludicrous . TlR-r ^ are scenes , expressions , and stage-directions , scattered all about the book , which if rend aloud to any general audience would provoke roars of laughter . And vet , beneath all this absurdity there runs a current of genuine poetical feeling . Here and there exqimite h the dense bathos (

    thoughts , exquisitely expressed , Hash brightly throug o the general writin " . We will say nothing of the story of the poem because wo could not possibly refer to it without seeming to ridicule the poet —and our object now is to make all due allowances for the first eccentricities and -errors of a man of ability . Let it be enough then if we particularise as the best part of the poem tho scenes in which a father , believing Inmset to be deserted by a faithless wife , is left Mono iu poverty , in a London lodging , With his child-daughter . The efforts made by the lonely parent to keep the shame of his sorrow secret from his child , and the manner in which the innocent child constantly wounds him by unconscious references to it , are expressed with wonderful delicacy , passion , and fooling lor dramatic y lloct at suineient these ni muiriuh

    nf tk « ~ ..: nr .. i i ,:... i w ,, !> .. *• . « « n <™ ici > to iimilc these scenes of the painful kind . Wo , have no space to quote scenes length to do them justice ; but we will give instead n specimen ol one ol the many lyrical pieces scattered through tho volume . It is , the render must remember , ouly a child ' s . song , supposed to be sung by the lather to lull his little lonely wakeful daughter " Lily" 1 o * Kh" 1 k

    , S ( lN « .. l . ittlo white 1-ily . Sut l > y a Htono , Drooling » i > 'l waiting Till tho pirn clumo . r . Htlo whilo Lily Sun-shin" l >' f ° ^! l . ittlo whlto Lily l . i lifting her ho Ail . I / Utlo white Lily Said , " It ifl good : Little white Lily ' rt Clothing uiul iVnul !

    Now I am stronger , "Now I am cool ; Heat cannot barn me , My veins are so full 1 " Little white Lily Smells very . sweet : On her head sunshine , Eain at her feet . " Thanks to the sunshine ! Thanks to the rain ! Little white Lily Is happy again . !"

    There is surely a quaint simplicity and melody in these verses beyond the reach of an ordinary man . If Mr . Macdonald is young—if he will learn his Art from the best models instead of the worst—and if he will remember that all tlie quoted and remembered poetry in this world is essentiallv intelligible poetry with a strong foundation of common sense as well as of feeling at the bottom of it , we believe that he may one of these days appeal successfully to a wide audience . At present , he has only produced a poem which will make one class of readers laugh and another class feel weary—a poem which it is easier to ridicule than to appreciate ^ and yet , for all that , a poem which , under the conditions that we have specified ,, gives us hope of the man who has written it .

    little white Lily Drest like a bride ! Shining with whiteness , And crowned beside !" Little -white Lily Droopeth in pain , Waiting and waiting For the wet rain . Little white Lily Holdeth her cap , Bain is fast falling , And filling it tip . Little white Lily Said , " Good again , "When I am thirsty To have nice rain !

    Books Ox Oub Table. Correspondence Of Jo...

    BOOKS OX OUB TABLE . Correspondence of John Howard , the Philanthrop ist , not before published . WitJi a Brief Memoir and Illustrative Anecdotes . By the Rev . J ^ Field , M . A . Longman , Brown , Green , and Longmans . The Dead Sea , a New Route to India : with other Fragments and Gleanings in the East By Captain William Allen , H . X ., F . E . S ., & c . ( 2 vols . ) Longman , Brown , Green , and Longmans . A Historical and Critical Commentary on the Old Testament . "With a new Translation . By M . Kalisch , Ph . Dr . AM . ( English Edition . ) Longman , Brown , Green , and Longmans .

    Compendium of Chronology : containing the most Important Dates of General History , Political , Ecclesiastical , and Literary , from the Creation of the World to the End of the Year 1854 . By F . H . Jaquemet . Edited by the Rev . John Aloom , A . M . Longman , Brown , Green , and Longmans . The Communicant ' s Companion , Comprising an Historical Essay on the Lord ' s Supper t Meditations and Prayers for the use of Communicants ; and the Order of the Administration of the Lord's Suj > j > er , or Holy Communion . By Thomas Hartwell tlorne B . D . Longman , Brown , Green , and Longmans . 3 fi / Brother ' s Wife : a L ' fe History . By AmeliaB . Edwards . Rontledge and Co . Li ccs of the Queens of England , of the House of Hanover . By Dr . Doran . ( 2 Vols . ) Richard Bentley .

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    Toe Trench Exhibition. The Best Of The F...

    TOE TRENCH EXHIBITION . The best of the French pictures this year , in colour , drawing , and execution , is bv a lady . Mdlle . Uosa Boshecr ' s " Hox-se Fair" deserves all the hearty admiration that it has excited in tire world of Art . A string of cart-horses led and ridden in procession to a fair is not a subject to produce , in ordinary Lands * , anything like an interesting picture . But Mdlie . Rosa . Bonheue is , in the strictest and most complimentary sense of the word , An extraordinary artist . The variety , vigour , and wonderful animation of her picture the consummate nicety ami truth of observation shown in the actions of the restive horses and of the men who are struggling to quiet them—the tnvKli . rious power and exnuisite naturalness of tho whole

    composition—combine to make this work one of the "Most remarkable triumphs of genuinely fine Art of its class that we remember to have seen produced by any oneman or woman—for years and years past . The execution of the picture is a study throughout . It is daring and free , without ever degenerating into carelessness , or ever failing to represent the various surfaces depicted , with a fidelity to nature which it is no exaggeration to say is absolutely startling If the sky ami the background trees were ouly a little more m harmony with the sunny brilliancy of tho figures , this " Horse Fair might , with perfect propriety , be described as a faultless work . We are glad to hear that a small repetition of the subject has been produced by the artist , to be engraved from . Properly treated , the picture will make an admirable f

    print , .... .. , __!• .. „! . .,: ,,, ¦» " Tim Mdlle . Rosa Bonhkuii exhibits another work of cabinet size , "Th . < i Charcoal Burners , " which rivals tho « Ilorso . Fair" i » vigour , or ^ inaU ^ and naturalness of treatment , and which is only the kv * n - ^ ab £ picture of tho two because its subject presents lower diihcultics * oi tne artist to overccome . . . . , i , . i , invon-Among the painters of that higher class of subject which clci wnds mven tion amTaiuiB at telling a story , M . Bia «» take * tho kail this year . His picture of'iWos alluring a Merchantman , though mobt unsatib

• Citation
  • Leader (1850-1860), July 28, 1855, page 727, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/ldr_28071855/page/19/