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    of popular joy . But that he may not he supposed to spare the terrorists , we quote the peroration of this chapter : " France , Revolution , Liberty , how dearly have you expiated that crime against nature ! The world could no longer understand , mingled with the groans of the Abbaye , your hymns of fraternity and deliverance . Between you and it a red veil hung , behind which it could not see all that was heroic in your achievements , or all that you promised to perform . You were the life , the nations sought you ; they found the living linked with the dead , and they recoiled affrighted . " The memory of Saint Bartholomew , or of the Sicilian Vespers , formed no extenuation of these crimes . Nor should it be pleaded , in mitigation of tbe prison massacres , that the same doors had once been stained with the blood of the Armagnacs , shed by the Burgundians . The friends of liberty have no privilege to crime—least of all to the habitual crime of tyrants .

    Tbe struggle of the Mountain with the Gironde , and the trial of the King , occupy the three concluding chapters . M . Louis Blanc pursues his analysis throughout , subjecting every document to criticism , and every critic to the test of contemporary evidence . His work is thus a ripe history , by which we mean a history composed of all the necessary materials — finished , polished , purified , and arranged in harmony . Its accuracy does not take from the ease and richness of the style . In another respect M . Louis Blanc ' s work is a model . It disposes events—each with its proper accessories—as well as characters—each closely pourtrayed—in groups ; gives them a dramatic motion , and never loses the momentum of a well-trained eloquence . -

    _ _ _ . . . „ . , . . ,, It by no means follows from this estimate of the history that we accept all its conclusions . M . Louis Blanc , we believe , understates some circumstances , and overstates others . When his work is completed , and all its parts are examined in their mutual relations , certain passages may be referred to which will not bear criticism . But he may claim the high merits of integrity and industry . He has gone for evidence to the best sources , and he has the power of reproducing the essence of every authentic record in a style at once serious and charming . His history lays open new aspects of the French Revolution , and it should have the effect of modifying the popular view of that event , in England as well as in France .

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    , me , only teach , Love !— That shall be to-morrow As I ought Not to-night : I will speak thy speech , Love I must bury sorrow Think thy thought— Out of sight . Meet , if thou require it , —Must a little weep , Love , Both demands , . —Foolish me ! Laying flesh and spirit And so fall asleep , Love * In thy hands ! Loved by thee . " We should like to quote " The Statue and the Bust ; " but it is too long , and we dare not spoil it by piecemeal citation . Take this story of—A LIGHT WOMAN . So far as our story approaches the end , Which do you pity the inost of us three ?—My friend , or the mistress of my friend With her wanton eyes , or me ? My friend was already too good to lose , And seemed in the way of improvement yet , When she crossed his path with her hunting noose And over him drew her net . When I saw him tangled in her toils , A shame , said I , if she adds just him To her nine-and-ninety other spoils , The hundredth , for a whim ! And before niy friend be wholly hers , How easy to prove to him , I said , An eagle ' s the gaine her pride prefers , Though she snaps at the wren instead ! So I gave her eyes niy own eyes to take , My hand sought hers as in earnest need , And round she turned for my noble sake , And gave rue herself indeed . The eagle ana I , with my fame in the world , The wren is he , Avith his maiden face . —You look away and your lip is curled ? Patience , a moment ' s space ! For see—my friend goes shaking and whifce ; He eyes me as the basilisk : I have turned , it appears , his day to night , Eclipsing his sun ' s disc . And I did it , he thinks , as a very thief : " Though I love her—that he comprehends—One should master one ' s passions , ( love , in chief ) And be loyal to one ' s friends . ' " And Bhe , —she lies in niy hand as tame As a pena- hung basking over a wall , — Just a touch to try and off it came ; 'Tis mine , —can I let it fall ? With no mind to eat it , that ' n the worst ! Were it thrown in the road , would the case assist ? 'Twas quenching a dozen blue-flies' thirst When I gave its stalk a twiBt . And I , —what I seem to my friend , you see—What I soon shall seem to his love , you guess . What I seem to myself , do you ask of me ? No hero , I confess . 'Tis an awkward thing to play with souls , And matter enough to save one ' s own . Yet think of my friend , and the burning coala He played -with for bito of stone ! One liken to show the truth for the truth ; That the woman was light is very true : But suppoBO tihe sayri , —never mind that youth—What wrong have I done to you ? Well , any how , hero the Htory stays , So far at leuBt an I understand ; And , Kobert Urowning , you writer of playa , Here ' s a subject made to your hand ! In quite another way , and somewhat injured by nwant of a line or two of explicit explanation , is this : — HOW IT STRIKES A CONTEMPORARY . I only knew one poot in niy life : And thin , or oouaothing like it , wan bin way . You saw go up and down Valhulolid , A man of mark , to know next time you saw . His very Hcrvkeablo unit of black W iih courtly onco ami coimciontiouH ntill , And muny might have worn it , though none did : Tho cloak that aomowhat hIioiio and showed the turoadH Had purpoHo , and tho rulF , Hignificanco . Ho walkod and tupped tho pavement with Iuh cane , Scenting tho world , looking it full in face , An old dog , bald and blindish , at bin IiooIh . They turned up , now , tho alloy by tho ch " ™\ ' thnrnHOiYOH That loads no whither ; now , they breathed thc mHolvoH On tho main promenade ju » t at tho wrong U « io . You'd como upon bin HonitiniBing hat , Making a peaked nhu < lo bluokur than ) tnoll Againut tho Hinglo window npnrod hoh ><> »»<»'""' Intact yot with Uh n . oulduiwl Mooris h work , — Or else HurpriHo tho forrd of Mh ntick Trying thoSnortr . r ' H tamnor 'fcwoan t cchink * Of Homo now shop u-lniifuiiig , I ' rciioh and fine .

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    December 1 , 1855 . ] 1 THE LEADER . 1157

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    ROBERT BROWNING'S MEN AND WOMEN . Men and Women . By Robert Browning . In Two Volumes . Chapman and Hall . ( first article . ) Robert Browning seems to us unmistakeably the most original poet of the day . We do not say the highest in reach , the most perfect in art , but the most distinctively original . Tennyson and Mr . Browning have both , we believe , more of that indescribable quality which is indicated by the phrase , poetic genius ; but in both the parentage is obvious . Although we cannot call them imitators , we recognise their affinity to the poets who preceded them . In Robert Browning we detect no such parentage . He stands alone . He writes as if Wordsworth , Shelley , Coleridge , Keats had never been . For Shelley and Keats he has an avowed love , but no trace of their influence is visible . If any affinities between his poetry and that of predecessors are to be found , they must be sought in our old dramatists rather than in any modern writer . This quality , which is surely very precious and rare , will necessarily act as a barrier to his popularity . It " puts the reader out . " He hears unfamiliar accents , and must learn to accommodate his ear to them . Tins , however , is the more difficult , because Browning ' s manner is not only unusual , but abrupt , puzzling , needlessly obscure . He cramps his thoughts in hemistichs , instead of giving them space and air . He obscures what might otherwise be intelligible by some whimsical turn or title , which carry the mind away from the obvious meaning . We need not dwell on . this much and justly noticed obscurity in a poet , who , like Browning , may be supposed to have settled down in his manner , from which no criticism now can move him . It is enough to indicate the point in passing , and to warn the reader , in reading him , not to give way impatiently—not to be provoked by what may seem mere whim and perversity , but to give some time and thought , ' assured that the pages which distress him are not without tlieir value , if he " observingly distil it out . " . In Men and Women , all Browning ' s merits and all his old defects may be found . The same power of terse , suggestive writing ; the same abundance of imagery , forming , as it were , the flesh and substance of the verse , not often forced into external ornament—the tissue of the garment is of gold , not of common stuff , with golden spangles glittering here and there-the same dramatic power of going out o himself , and speaking through his characters ; the same reach of knowledge and richness of observation ; and , to close this enumeration before we make a catalogue of his qualities , the same marvellous power of story-telling in verse , render these volumes as acceptable as they arc original . Such defects as we may espy in the poems arc not the defects likely to mislead young poets ; and as Browning is not a youngster to profit by newspaper criticism , he may as well not be teased by it . Our space will be better filled with extracts . Here , for instance , is a little poem , which , except for the obscurity of the fourth stanza , is a complete history :-- A WOMAN ' S LAST WORD . Lot ' H contend no more , Lovo , | What ro faiao as truth in , Strive nor woop— I Fa \ na to th « e ? All bo ivh before , Lovo , ! Whoro tho Horpont a tootli in , —Only sloop f » "un troo—What ho wild aB words are ? Where tho applo reddens —I and thou Never pry — In dobato , tin birds are , Lost we Ioho our EiIouh , Hawk on bough ! Kvo and I ! See tho oroaturo stalking Bo a god and hold mo While we wpoak— With a charm—Huh 1 » and hide tho talking , ' Bo a man and fold mo Check on ohoek I I With thino arm !

• Citation
  • Leader (1850-1860), Dec. 1, 1855, page 1157, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2117/page/17/