On this page
- Departments (1)
-
Text (6)
-
~ i ^LUyrilllirF^ _______
-
Untitled Article
-
Untitled Article
-
Untitled Article
-
Untitled Article
-
Untitled Article
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.
-
-
Transcript
-
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.
Additionally, when viewing full transcripts, extracted text may not be in the same order as the original document.
~ I ^Luyrilllirf^ _______
ittontm *
Untitled Article
Periodicals of the month , that should have been noticed last -week , had they reached us in time , are Hogg's Instructor , Our Friend , The Masonic Mirror , and Tlie Dublin Journal of Industrial Progress . The most attractive article in Hogg ' s Instructor is a paper on Lotus Kosscth , by Mr . George Gilfillan—the result of Mr . Giufili , an * s observations of the great Hungarian during his recent visit to Glasgow . Mr . Gilfillan , who had previously seen Mazzini , thus contrasts , as a physiognomist , his impressions of the Hungarian and the Italian : — Kossuth ' s appearance seemed to disappoint all at first , and certainly did us . "We expected a high Magyar chief , of military bearing and majestic stature ; and here was a middle-sized , French-looking person , -with a face which expressed rather restless activity than power , and an eye rather crafty than penetrating . We saw in him at once a type of that boundless versatility which distinguishes his genius , but no
display of those higher qualities of wisdom and imagination which had been attributed to him . We were led irresistibly to contrast his appearance with that of Mazzini , whom we met two years ago in London . He is certainly the noblestlooking man we ever beheld . His face and head seem to have stepped out of an ancient Italian picture ; a brow , large and white as marble , rises like an Alp from amid black hair ; and two eyes , like dark stars , roll below—masses of dusky and piercing light—such eyes as burned in the head of the peasant poet of Scotland , but with more depth of expression—altogether , a presence in which you tremble , as though one of the high-minded assassins of Cassar stood beside you . Kossuth has by no means such a Roman look , nor does he give you the same impression of power , subtlety , and elevation ; his very moustache , compared to Mazzini ' s , being only a fringe of plantation compare ! to a forest , and the craft in his eye not attaining to that dark profundity which lies in Mazzini ' s—
" Orb within orb , deeper than sleep or death . " Having seen both the men , we cannot say that the contrast in this delineation strikes us as accurate . Mazziki ' s is a nolle and beautiful face ; but Kosstjth ' s has finer characteristics than Mr ; Gilfmxan attributes to it ; and if Mazzini's face ia the true face for a Mazzini , Kossuth ' s is the true face for a Kossuth . And what as Mr . Giupiixau ' s estimate of Kossuth ' s mind and powers ? Speaking of his oratory , he says : — He has given , in some of his speeches , evidences of rare poetic genius . We remember , ere the first furor about him had fully subsided , having had a little conversation on the subject with Edward Miall , the able editor of . the Nonconformist He admired him to enthusiasm , and preferred him to Burke ; a preference in which ¦ we did not coincide then , and far less now , since we have seen and heani the man , Kossuth , with all his knowledge and insight , is essentially a singer , a Magyar scald ,
a sublime rhapsoclist . Buike was a philosopher , -who became ever and anon passionate and poetical , but whose habitual sphere was thought . Kossuth ' s speeches abound in clap-traps and commonplaces ; mixed with bursts of rare magnificence . Burke has no platitudes—no appeals to the passions of mobs ; and though amid his flights he often rests , yet he never Jlags . The poetry in Burke is ever interpenetrated ¦ with his thought , and attains sometimes to epic grandeur ; that of Kossuth has less weight of matter , and is more lyrical and fluctuating in its movement . Kossath ' s speeches are wild melodies wailing out truth ; Ikirke ' s are high arguments , kindling as they move into music and poetic song . The Magyars notoriously have Asiatic blood in them ; and Kossuth , the niodel Magyar man , evinces his descent by the lofty orientalism of liis figures and language . What would seem bombast in occidentalists , is called nature in him As a general principle , the most of Kossuth ' s long sentences arc empty though eloquent ; the most of his short
• ones are true , good , and memorable None of his long and highlywrought perorations can be nnmed for effect with these simple words— " It was not I who inspired the people of Hungary—they inspired me ! " Such brief electric touches remind ua more of the style of Chatham or O'Connell , than of anything in the present day . They may bo « alled the algebra of oratory , effecting vaat results more by swift symbols than by language . Those are the strongest words for popular effect -which are the simplest and most direct . Fiat hue -was but two words—the result was the universe ! Those words of power we have quoted—and we could have quoted hundreds more—are bare of figure . But he has scattered through his speeches some most striking metaphors , bold almost as those of Homer or the Bible . " 1 know , " ho says , " that the light has spread , and that even bayonets think . " " I know that all tho Czura of tho world are but mean dust in the hand of God . " " Even the grass that toill r / roio out of my grave , will cry out- to heaven and to man , England find
America J do not forget , in your proud security , thoso that arc oppressed . " Akin alike to his oratorical and poetical power , is that unexpectedness which d ' lNtinguirtlK's much of his speaking . In sonic parts of hi . s orations , ctxch sentence in a surprise , not rising up from , but leaping- out of , tho womb of that which preceded it . Ilia periods generally are connected together , not by the links of logical eonwequence , but by tho unity of feeling and of poetic growth . A lire , in climbing a tower or a hill-aide of pines , does not ascend by regular stages , and in measured , modulated waven , but by hasty rushes , Mattered tonftuop , and sudden wlioots of ilame , often returning on and relapsing into itself , but . ailwayn at last , completing its purpose ; and thus travels to ita climax tho mind of poetic , and especially of lyrical genius- Indeed , no wind ho intensely oriental as KoHsnith ' s am calmly or consecutively reason . Tlio Htmniim of argument may be present , but it is bid , even as tho trunk of a tree on lire is hid by tho towering flames , to tho momentum and tumble richncaa and glory of which it nevertheless adds .
Neither do we thinlc this appreciation accurate . A vein of the keenest , deepest reason pervades all Kossutii ' s oratory ; he ia , with nil his other merits , a man of pro / bund proriositiojuil intellect ; and his oratory consists in his ability to send forth bis propositions in a state of conflagration . " Politics is tho science of exigencies "—in all Bunius there is not n finer or deeper definition than that , nor one exjnessed with more of occidental terseness and precision . And then his long sentences are not inferior to his abort ones . "Wo have aeon quoted in the Athcuuxivi from K . ohs * vth ' b printed speeches , and wo have heard from Kossuth ' s own lips sentences long enough , which for power , grnndcur , and weird-liko effect on tho imagination , seemed comparublo to the finest passages in the musters of imaginative
literature . We suspect Mt . Gizfilxan must have judged of Kossuth solely from his Glasgow orations . Our Friend keeps up its character for tasteful selection and fine literary execution—in this respect , meriting more praise than many periodicals of higher pretensions . From a paper of sayings and aphorisms entitled " Shavings , " we select the following " theory : "I have a theory , that it is when a poet is thrown into dull cities or an ugly country , that he chiefly resor ts to the sky for images and illustrations ; and that the more of the air you find in a poet , the less of the earth . Smith , Bailey , and Tennyson are my chief examples ; Smith and Bailey in cities , and Tennyson in the fen districts , are unusually rich in . their observations of atmospheric changes . This is the counterbalance nature supplies . It is the . same in painting : Cuyp ' s skill , and our English painters' success in atmosphere , arise from the same cause . The Masonic Mirror is an excellent periodical—for Masons .
In the Dublin Journal of Industrial Progress there is an interesting paper on the possible improvements in Bread-baking . The result of what is stated is an impression that it is quite within the compass of a little judicious science to give us much nicer bread and more of it out of a given quantity of flour than we now get , and at less cost . The New York Quarterly Review , for October , is conspicuous for an article on " Abolitionism , in America , " in which , while professing to be a friend to the gradual emancipation of the negroes all over the United States , the writer attacks the Abolitionist party as disgracing themselves , and . violating their duties to the constitution by their mode of piocedure .
Untitled Article
The papers , making guesses stand for news , have been announcing that Mr . Alexander . Smith is engaged on a new poem , to appear this season . We have reason for believing that this is not the case , and that , though Mr . Smith is engaged an occupations which will tend to the cultivation of his genius and fit it for new appearances , he is at present allowing his Muse to rest . By-the-by , what an absurd story is that which has been going about of Mr . Smith ' s appointment to the office of assistant to the Astronomer Royal for Scotland , as " a mark of the Queen ' s approbation of his astronomical descriptions 1 " The statement appeared first in tlie Edinburgh Guardian , by way of a jocular twitting of Mr . Smith for his known affection for 11 the stars" in his-verses ; and now the Edinburgh Guardian , aghast at the results of its joke—for Mr . Smith ' s appointment to the office has been published as an article of news in almost all the English papers—vows never more to joke oa that subject .
Untitled Article
Mormonism is developing itself more and more . "We have before us the first three parts of a publication , in large quarto , entitled Route , front Liverpool to the Great Salt Lake Valley , illustrated in a series of Sjolendid Steel Engravings and Woodcuts , from Sketches made on the Spot arid from Life , with a Map of tfie Overland portion of tlie Journey , ' . Ihe editor of tins publication , the writers , and the illustrators , appear all to be Mormonites ; and the work—which is published in Liverpool—appears to be designed to serve the purposes of Mormonite propagandise in this country . So much we gather , at least , from the style of the work and from the announcement on the cover , which states that the work will furnish "incidental instructions to emigrants , '' and that " the statistical information -will be drawn from the
most authentic sources , " and that " the portion of it which relates to the Latter-day Saints will be particularly valuable , owing to the difficulty hitherto experienced by all classes in obtaining anything accurate from the conflicting statements which have appeared from time to time in a » rcjit portion of the public press . " At the same time , the publisher solicits that extensive patronage which can alone justify the publication "—so that the work may be so far a speculation . It is to bo completed in fourteen parts , at one shilling each . The parts already issued suggest , at all events , that the undertaking is one requiring eapital—the paper and lcttcr-prosa being superior , and the Engravings large and genuine . The letter-press , so far as we have examined it , consists of a history of the Mormonite
emigration from Great Britain from 1840 to the present tune , with documents and statistics interspersed . It seems that in 1840 , a company of 200 British converts to Mormonism sailed from Liverpool for America umler the cave of Theodomk Tuni ^ Y , a returning missionary ; and that in the same year another company sailed from Bristol . In the following year the "Apostles" of the Churoh of tho Latter-day Saints appointed an accredited agent iu Great Britain to superintend the emigration of converts ; and from that time there 1 ms been a regular fiuecossion of such agents . ( Wo observes that the agent for 1851-2 was a Frankmn D . Kichaups , and that the name of the Liverpool publisher of tho present work is I' \ D . Richards— wl » icu
confirms our notion that tho work is not pure bookseller ' s . speculation , >> ut part of tho agency of the sect . ) Thti number of emigrants shipped to tho Mormonite colonies by these agents to tho present time in , according to an exuet register of the different vessels , their times of muling , &o ., 15 , 042 . In addition to these , there have been M ) emigrants from Germany , and 1003 from tho Scandinavian countries ; making the entire European , emigration during tho last fourteen yours 17 , 195 . A claHsincatiou is given of the Uritiali emigrants according to their trades mid professions , from whicli it appuars that there ia hardly sx txade in the Directory tunt hat ) not furnished its contribution . Ihe annual expenses of the emigrant agency in Groat Britain an atated to bo fiO . OQOf .
Untitled Article
Critics are not the legislators , but the judges and police of literature . They do not make laws—they interpret and try to enforce them . —Edinburgh Review .
Untitled Article
November 11 , ^ 1854 . ] THE LEADER . li ) 69
-
-
Citation
-
Leader (1850-1860), Nov. 11, 1854, page 1069, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2064/page/13/
-