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Leader (1850-1860), 23rd August 1851, Edition Town of 2, Page 803, Untitled Article

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      Untitled Article

      England since 1848 has held a position similar to that held by Holland in the 17 th and 18 th centuries—all the stifled ) voices of freedom gain free utterance here . German literature may be termed en route for England . Our free press is an irresistible attraction to men upon whom the Pressgezetze weigh like an inc / ubus ; they do not relish " ' s large discourse df reason " as edited by the police ; the shadows ^ faHing from the gloomy walls of Spandau , Spielberg , Stettin , chill the current

      of free thought ; within those shadows only noxious weeds will grow , such as we see in the literature of reaction . Publicists were wont to rail against the censorship . It is abolished . Press laws have taken its place . But when King Stork was substituted for King Log the " social arrangements " were not found to be highly satisfactory to the Frogs . The Pressgesetze are incalculably more tyrannical than ever the censorship was ; and thinking men are silent . They crowd to England as much to breathe the air of freedom as to see the World's Show .

      But Paternal vigilance follows them even here . A police force has been organized , not , as it was ludicrously reported , to look after "the foreign thieves , " but after the foreign literati who are here from all parts of Germany . Their passport is delivered at the Embassy , their arrival is known , their steps watched , —if they have had any communication with Ruge Kinkel or any other name of terror , it is reported—nay , even the lectures of Kinkel were visited by German detectives for the purpose , it is supposed , of reconnoitring the audience !

      After all , one sympathizes with Paternal Governments pestered by children who will think for themselves ! As Paul , Louis Courier sarcastically says , "Printing is the origin of evil ; murder there finds its source , and Cain was a newspaper reader in Paradise ; we cannot doubt it , for the ' ministers say so , and ministers never lie , above all at the tribune ! [ C'est l'imprimerie qui met le monde a mal . C ' est la lettre moulce qui fait qu ' on assassine depuis la creation ; et Cain lisait les journaux dans le paradis terrestre . II n ' en faut point douter les ministres le disent ; les ministres nc mentent pas , Ala tribune surtout . " !

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      Hie contest for the vacant fauteuil in the Acadomie furnishes gossip to Paris . Alpiird djk Musset and Kmile Augiku are candidates ; the former has too good a claim to have much chance , for in academies it is bad to have genius on your side , you are sure to have the blockheads against you , and they are the preponderating influences . Alkxanhue J ) umas was reported to have become a candidate ; but Dumas , with an European reputation , can have no chance . He feels it to be ho , and therefore desires his son to write a contradiction to the report , " he not having time to attend to such matters . " Meanwhile we observe that he has time to write a letter of emphatic putt ' respecting the new scheme of pleasure hy contract , wherein for fifteen franca thirt y days' amusements ' of every description are ottered ! We presume that all those of our readers who 0 (>< ' « py themselves with German literature are 'iware of the change which has come over the spirit ° "i < : Countess IIahn Uaiin , whom sorrow , the ino . si . profound and inconsolable , has driven into _ Ul « bosom of the Holy Catholic ( Jhiirch . She han J j- WHued a little ' work called Jus Jerusalem , Wll ' < -1 » , though fervent enough , and immensel y ljinyerlul in interjections , leaves something to he « •• mred on | , he ncoro of Hense mid coherence . As ( ' < - production of one who gained celebrity by senvi , !"'" " - f !'(!(; ihillk »» K and aristocratic " advanced is IM- " < : ilrioiIH an < 1 P »<' ol ; but as a work it . WitfioM m hysterics more than anything cIhc . »»« 1 ms no , eat reason to bo proud of her

      convert . Proud , perhaps , of the Countess ' s name ; proud of the eclat attendant on the conversion of one so opposed to the Church ; but scarcely proud of the rhapsodies in which she gives utterance to her newly-found consolation .

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      ruskin ' s pre-raphaelitism . Pre-Rapltaelitism . By the Author of " Modern Painters . " Smith , Elder , and Co . We have already intimated that the thesis maintained by Mr . Ruskin in this pamphlet is the ancient truism that success in Art can onl y be achieved by an earnest , self-forgetting study of Nature—that the Painter must intensely observe facts , and allow reverence for mere tradition to sit

      lightly on him . He must follow Nature , not the Royal Academy ; fact , not the critic in the Times j truth , not convention . This , though it be a truism , needs frequent emphasis . Mr . Ruskin , as every other critic , does well to keep it prominent . But we looked for something more from him . He should have more distinctly specified its application to the new school . Instead of doing so he treats of almost everything except the Pre-Raphaelites . His evasion of one point is too remarkable to be overlooked . Not only does it leave a capital question , as regards the P . R . B . ' s , unnoticed , but it

      also betrays a reticence or misgiving in Mr . Ruskin ' s own mind on the subject of Human Form . We need few sentences to show that the Human Form , as the ilower and consummation of creative energy , must also he the crowning difficulty in Art . It is known that the P . It . B . ' s have peculiar views on this subject ; indeed , this we should call the capital point of their system . Mr . Ruskin is silent on it . Nay , this silence us to be regretted in all his writings . The Human Form was to have been treated in the third volume of Ins Modern Painters ; but that volume has never appeared , other works have taken precedence , and his silence on the

      allnnportant subject is unbroken . Is this reticence or misgiving ? Has he not made up Iuh mind ? There are excellent pages , however , in his pamphlet . lie begins hy very properly demanding that the Painter he / it for his work ; that he choose a brunch of the Art because it suits him , and not because it is in the abstract fine . The advice is not restricted to Artists . We all need it , for we have all a passion for inequality : — "The very removal of the massy imi'H which once separated one class of nociety from another , ha « rendered it tenfold more shameful in foolish people ' s , »" . c . in most people ' s eyes , to remain in the lower grades of it , than ever it wiih before . When a mail born of an artizan was looked upon jih an entirely different upeeicH of animal from a man born of a noble , it made him no more uncomfortable or ashamed to i cumin that different species of animal than it innken n horwe ashamed to remain a horse ' and not to become a giraffe . Hut now that a man m ' av make money , and rine in the world , and associate uinsell , unreproached , with people once far above bun , not only is tin , natural uiaoontentedneHH of humanity developed to an unheard-of extent , whatever a man „ pomfon , but it Incomes a veritable « lmmoo him to romam in tho etate ho was born in , and

      everybody thinks it his duty to try to be a ' gentleman . Persons who have any influence in the management of public institution s for charitable education know how common this feeling has become . Hardly a day passes but they receive letters from mothers who want all theit six or eight sons to go to college , and make the grand tour in the long vacation and who think there is something wrong in the foundations of society , because this is not possible . Out of every ten letters of this kind , nine will allege , as the reason of the writers' importunity , their desire to

      keep their families in such and euch a « station of life / There is no real desire for the safety , the discipline , or the moral good of the children , only a panic horror of the inexpressibly pitiable calamity of their living a ledge or two lower on the molehill of the world—a calamity to be averted at any cost whatever , of struggle , anxiety , and shortening of life itself . I do not believe that any greater good could be achieved for the country , than , the change in public feeling on this head , which might be brought about by a few benevolent men , undeniably in the

      class of ' g entlemen , ' who would , on principle , enter into some ^ our commonest trades , and make them honourable ; showing that it was possible for a man to retain his dignity , and remain , in the best sense , a gentleman , though , part of his time was every day occupied in manual labour , or even in serving customers over a counter . I do not in the least see why courtesy , and gravity , and sympathy with the feelings of others , and courage , and truth , and piety , and what else goes to make up a gentleman ' s character , should not be found , behind a counter as well as elsewhere , if they were demanded , or even hoped for , there . "

      The special application of this to Painters is obvious . A man gifted with a talent for drawingcows should draw cows , and not splash with vague ambition at historical subjects because they are grander . Poetry has spoiled many excellent clerks ; the drama has robbed commerce of many excellent shopmen ; historical painting has likewise wasted the mediocrity of many clever men . Connected with this ambition to achieve greatness in the highest departments , is the false notion that Will can do the work of Intellect , that Effort

      can supply Genius , and that mere intensity of desire can give intensity of power . As we often .. say , it is a fatal mistake that of Aspiration for Inspirationthe desire to be great for the consciousness of greatness ! Mr . Ruskin touches on a point of very great importance , to our thinking , when he says boldly that No great intellectual thing was ever done by great effort . A great thing can only he done by a great man . He does it without effort . A paradox , but a truth ! This is no encouragement to idleness , for Genius is essentially active , creative ; nor does it flatter the conceit of Heaven-descended

      Genius m turned down collars that work may be dispensed with . It simply and sternly says that the Crow is not an Eagle , and no amount of sunstarings will make it one : —

      "Therefore , literally , it is no man ' s business whether he has genius or not : work he must , whatever lie is , but quietly and steadily ; and the ; natural and unforced results of such woik will be always the things that God meant him to do , and will be his best . No agonies nor hcart-vemlings will enable him to do any better . If he be ; i great man , they will bo great things ; if a small man , small things ; but always , if thus peacefully done , good and right ; always , if restlessly and ambitiously done , fulsej hollow , and despicable . "

      This is sound sensible teaching . Mr . Ruskin will not be accused of undervaluing labour because he here says that labour is not genius ; labour is necessary to attain mastery in Art . ; but no amount of concentrated effort will produce dignity , grace , grandeur , beauty . " Is not the evidence of Ka . se on the very front of all the greatest works in existence ? Do they not plainly say to us , not ' there has been great effort here , but , there has been a great power here ? ' " An illustration enables Mr . Ruskin io show tho vanity of the present—KDUCATION OK TIIK l'AINTKIt . II IT .. , 1 . i i * i » -.. Understand thin

      " thoroughly ; know once for all , that a poet on canvas is exactly the same species of creature as a port in song , and nearly every error in our methods of teaching will be done away with . For who among us now thinks of bringing men up to be pootH ?—of producing poets by any kind of general recipe- or method of cultivation ? . Suppose oven that we nee in a youth that which we hope may , in itH development , become a power of thi . s kind , should wo instantly , supposing that we wanted to make a poet of him , and nothing else , forbid him nil quiet , steady , rational labour ? . Should we forcer him . to perpetual npiniiing of new crudities out of hm boyish brain , find net bc / oie him , im t . lie only objects of hi . s Htudy , the luwtt of vernitu atiou which criticism has supposed itself to discover in the worku of pro-

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      Critics are not the legislators , but the radges and police of literature . They do not make laws—they anterpret and try to enforce them . —E dinburgh Review .

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      Aug . 23 , 1851 . ] tRf ) $ Htfa&en 803

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      With us nothing can be flatter than the state of Literature . In the absence of topics even Mr .

      Macfar-ItAne ' s name rises into conversation , carried thither by the reverberations of astonishment at the audacity of his denials of Mr . Gladstone ' s x statements , and at the taste and amenity of his style . It is amusing to see the energy with which men labour to render themselves more definite objects of contempt !

      Mr . Macfarlane ' s pamphlet shows what Churchill calls " A matchless intrepidity of face , " if it show nothing else . It shows how stanch Conservatism can be . While contemplating such Conservatism , we recal what Paul Louis so admirably said of some defender of Order : — " On the day of Creation what a hubbub he would have

      made 1 be would have exclaimed : O God , let us save Chaos ! Mon Dieu , conservons le chaos /" Why not ? was not Light a Revolution , and is not Revolution the greatest of evils , even when it be an issue into good ? Light is Utopian ; only brainsick dreamers and bloodthirsty ruffians want it ; every virtuous and respectable man will " stand by the Chaos of his Forefathers ! " Credat Mac farlane !

  • Citation
    • Leader (1850-1860), Aug. 23, 1851, page 803, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1897/page/15/