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    poems , most of which hare already appeared in Household Words , Fraser , Sfc . A pleasant easy sons ; , often musical and never fantastic , innocent of " Passion ' s misting Deeps , though passionate enough for the occasion , climbing none of the heights of " Thought ' s eternal Tast , " yet thoughtful too- A sample or so will show this : —

    THE LIGHTHOUSE . ' " The plunging storm flies fierce against the pane , And thrills oar cottage with redoubled shocks ; The chimney matters and the rafters strain ; Without , the breakers roar along the rocks . " See , from our fire and taper-lighted room , aoyr savage , pitiless , and uncontrolTd The grim horizon shows its tossing gloom Of "wares from unknown angry gnlphs nproll'd ; " Where , underneath that black portentous lid , A long pale space between the night and sea Gleams awful ; while in deepest darkness hid All otter things in oar despair agree . " Bnt lo ! what star amid the thickest dark A soft and unexpected dawn has made ? O welcome Lighthouse , thy unruffled spark . Piercing the turmoil ana . the deathly shade ! " By such a glimpse o ' er thedistracted -wave Fall many a soul to-night is re-possest Of courage and of order , strong to save ; And like effect it works within mj breast . " Three faithful men have set themselres to stand Against all storms that from the « ky can blow , Where peril jnust expect no ¦ aiding ihand , And tedium no relief may hope to know . " Nor shout they , passing brothers to inform What weariness thejr feel , or what affright ; Bat tranquilly in solito . de and storm Abide from month to month , and show their light . " The ballad of Lady Alice , unlike the Ballad of Babe Christabel , is ballad : — " IiAJ > Y ALICE . " Now what doth Lady Alice so late on the turret stair , Without a lamp to light her , bnt . the diamond in her hair ; When every arching passage overflows with , shallow gloom , And dreams float through . the castle , into every silent room ? " She trembles at her . footsteps , although they fall so light ; Through the turret loopholes she sees the wild midnight ; Broken vapours streaming across the stormy sly ; Down the empty corridors the blast doth moan and cry .

    " She steals along a gallery she pauses by a door ; And fast her tears are dropping down upon the oaken floor ; And thrice she seems returning—but thrice she tutus again : — Now heavy lie the cloud of sleep en that old father ' s brain ! " Oh , -welTit were that never shouldst thou waken from thy sleep ! For wherefore should they waken , who waken Tuit to weep ? No more , no more beside thy bed * doth Peace a vigil keep , But Woe , —a lion that awaits thy rousing for its leap . u . " An afternoon of April , no sun appears on high , But a moist and yellow lustre Ms the deepnets of the shy : And through the ca 8 tle-gateway r left empty and forlorn , Along the leafless avenue an flononr'd bier is borne . " They stop . The long line closes up like some gigantic worm ; A snap * is standing in the path , a . wan and ghost-like form , Which gazes fixedly ; nor moves , nor utters any sound ; Then , like a stqjfcue built of snow , sinks dowa upon the ground . " And though her clothes are ragged , and thong ! her feet are bare , And though all wild and tangled falls her heavy silk-brown hair ; Though from her eyes the brightness , from her cheeks the bloom is fled , They know their Lady Alice , the darling of the dead . " With silence , in her own old room the fainting form they lay , Where all things stand unalter'd since the niglit she fled away : Bat who—but who shall bring to life her father from the clay ? But who shall give her back again her heart of a former day ?" We object to the image of " the worm" in the last stanza but three , as calling up discordant ideas ; so also we think that image of a statue of snow very infelicitous , as depicting the fall of a fainting woman : but the rest is powerful and simple . We should have quoted the Dirty Old Man , tut our limits are passed ; and we must leave the other volumes lying before us for a second razzia .

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    BOOKS OK OUR TABLE . The History of the Decline and Fall qf the Roman Umpire . By Edward Gibbon Esa With Notes , by Dean Milman and M . Guizot . Edited , with Additional Notes , liy W Smith , LL . D . Vol . I . John Murray Correspondence between the Sight Honourable J . W . Groher and tfio Eight Horumratdo Lord John Russell on some Passat / en qf " Moore ' s Diary ; " with a Postscript bu Mr . Croker , explanatory of Mr . Moore 8 acquaintance and correspondence with him . .. .,, „• . John Murray . Mitsworths Maaaztne . Chapman and Hall . Volburn ' s New Monthly . Chapman and Hall Burns . By Thomas Carlyle . ( Reading Jor Traveller * . ) Chapman and Half Adams ' s Parlia-mentary Handbook . B y B . Morton . H Adams The Eye in Health and Disease . By Alfred Smoe , P . IL S . Longman and Co . Practical Observations on Qout and its Complications , and on the Treatment of Joints stiffened by Gouty Deposits . By T . fipenoer Wells . John Churchill The English Cyclopedia . Bradbury and Evans ! TheNewcomes Bradbury and Evans . Writings of Douglas Jerrold . Plays . Punch OHloe The Home Oircl * . "VV . S . Jolinson The Annotated Edition of the English Poets . By Robert Boll . Vol . II .

    „ .,,,,. „ J- W . Parker and Son . Bentley ' s Miscellany . B ,. Bontloy . Secret and Ineditea Documents , connectedtoith Russian History and Diplomacy . Translated by J . R . Moroll . f ) . Uogno . Tfie Knout and the Russians . By Germain do Lagny . D IJoiruo Jtentley ' s Monthly Review . Piper . Stephenson , and Co . Chambers s Journal . \ y . and It . Chambera . The Northern Tribune . j . Biirlow Tho Mediterranean . A Memoir—Physical , Historical , and Nautical . By Rear-Atlmirai William Heiiry Smyth , lt . B . F ., D . C . L . J . W . Parker and Son . Hogg sInstructor . Jamos Hork Purple Tints oj I ' arit—Character and Manners in the New Empire . By Bayle St . John ! * vols' Chapman and Hall .

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    THE BRITISH INSTITUTION . The artists who exhibit in the British Institution this year suffer from a kind of rivalry which is not generally recognised as injurious . There are many works on the walls wnich bear evidences of great pains of labouring , not only in the execution of the particular work , but in the study requisite to acquire that skill of execution . Many of them show a tasteful feeling , and mark that which is considered the English capacity for colouring ; and stien separately in the studio of the artist , tlierc is many such a work cha

    which would extort at lonst sonic mild compliment to its pleasing - racter . But when a number of such works are brought together , —^ tfhen , for example , there is not one single young lady set before you without any particular action or expression , simply as a study of youthful womanhood , — not a dozen , not n score , but many dozens or scores of such young ladied gracefully and quietly reposing , fancifully but modestly dressed , with tresses carefully combed and arranged ; the utmost sympathy with , the sex cannot prevent a certain sense of tedium . One feels that the artists

    might advantageously vary the theme ; and there is , at all events , one branch of action into winch they might venture . If so many of iliem must take for their subjects the Jessica or Juliet of private life , they mig ht at lenst follow that Jessica or Juliet in the round of experience and s

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    monotonous . Had the American author possessed more of the dramatic quality than the author of The Lovelock , it would at once have occurred to him that when Messrs . Grange" and Montepin took Dumas ' s romance , and therefrom constructed their drama , whatever they omitted was omitted with theatrical intent , whatever changes they made were made with an eye to the differences between the drama and the novel . A wise caution , therefore , would be necessary before restoring ; what they had omitted . But our American only thought of producing a new version ; and he produced it . As a sample of utter imbecility consider this one invention of his own : inead of leaving the superstitious sympathy consecrated by tradition between twins , as it stands in Dumas , hi must attempt an explanation of it by

    making the twins originally connected together like the Siamese Twins ! I beg to assure him that this is not only a sheer absurdity as a matter of art , but equally so as a matter of physiology . If lie knew anything about those curious examples of what are called " double monsters , " he would know that even when two heads and two trunks are so intimately united that they form one body , with only two legs for the four arms , even then . — when the same current of blood nourishes two living mdividualities—the mental characteristics are not similar , the emotions are not more sympathetic than they would be with two brothers or sisters , and that which affects the one does not necessarily affect the other . Science fortunately possessesa most interesting and instructive illustration of what has just been said , in

    AMERICAN PHILOSOPHY AND AMERICAN DRAMATISTS . This week I have had two manifestations of the American mind in the shape of a wearisome version of The Corsican Brothers , and a huge packet of MSS ., with the promising title * Orphic Fraqments : The Musings of a Meditative Mind , which accompanied a letter from an unknown , unknowable | ' admirer . " About the drama little need be said . It is a new version of that piece which at the Thea . tbe Histohique and the Princess ' s proved itself an effective , ingenious , thrilling melodrame . The novelty consists in making what was effective clumsy , what was ingenious absurd , what was thrilling

    the case of the twins Rita and Christina , who , with two heads and trunks grafted together on one pair of legs , had certain functions in common , but for the rest were entirely different , and differed in character , one being gsv , the other melancholy , one slept while the other was awake , and so forth When Rita was seized with the bronchitis , which subsequently ^ carried both off * , Christina was unaffected . Rita remained without sensation for some hours in the death struggle , during which Christina was full of life , and took the breast as before , only her pulse being accelerated and her respiration troubled ; when Rita expired Christina suddenly expired also . I don ' t state this for the benefit of the dramatist . He is a nincompoop with whom I will have no transactions . But beloved readers are informed

    of the case for their amusement and instruction . Having ^ wasted so many lines on the Corsican Brothers , I turn to my American admirer , He has sent me a huge packet for which I do not thank him . Reading manuscripts is my aversion ; and philosophical manuscripts ! I , who am as innocent of all knowledge of philosophy as Charles Kean is of Xiphilin ! I , who would curl my whiskers ( when I had them ) with the finest treatise ever composed ! But you see what a thing the " bubble reputation" is . In America they accept me as a philosopher , because , I suppose , I sometimes " philosophise" about the drama . And , lo ! an Orpheus , — -an occult thinker , ¦«—a sayer of dark sayings meant to enlighten the world , sends me reams of Metaphysics , with the two modest requests : First , that I should kindly

    peruse the said reams ; Second , that I should introduce them to the notice of the thinking public of England . It is but fair to add that the request is wrapped up in language of the most complimentary kind , from which it would appear that my intellect was at once the most dazzling and profound , while my style was the most profound and dazzling . I say it would appear so , did not * the same magnificent eulogy which exalts me into the rank of an august Thinker and a superlative Writer , at the same time , and in the same breath , exalt the flatterer into the rank of an Orpheus speaking the language of " eternal truth . " It is one word for me and two for himself with my

    correspondent . Now , although I have as ready an appetite for praise as another , and perhaps in the immodest recesses of my heart have my own opinion of my own qualities , nevertheless before one glories in praise one should estimate the praiser . Therefore , before I feel quite sure of the titles so liberally bestowed by Orpheus , I must see what right he has to those he so liberally bestows upon himself . By Its standard he measures mo . What is my measure of him ? That you shall know next week , when , having meditated the Orphic Fragments , I will lay some of them before you . Vivian .

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    212 THE LEADER . [ Saturday ,

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• Citation
  • Leader (1850-1860), March 4, 1854, page 212, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2028/page/20/