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    Gracchus , withis Titus hair , and the Goddess of Reason draped as Lucretia , were the real romantic iconoclasts of the classic faith , whatever they thought themselves to be- The most abundant periwig at the court of Louis XIT-, or the bitterest satire against the ** Precienses" Paris , were in nearer relation to the thoughts and manners of the ancients than all the travesties of classic liberty . And now henceforward the actual modern life must stand alone on its own truths , and with its own . forms of utterance ,, and what was before a loyal love of the lessons of the early masters and teachers of the intellectual-world ,-will seem to many a servile and unworthy dependence . The new ideas of the dignity of labour , of the worth of men as men , of the dangers of privilege , of society without subject classes , are wholly alien to the associations of the old history of Southern Europe . The Roman Church , indeed , as ire have already hinted , almost reciprocated the liberality of the Romau emperor who offered a place in the Pantheon to the Founder of Christianity , by the permission it gave to the moral dominion - of the classic writers over the spirits of youth , aad by its perpetuation , in its most solemn functions , of the ancient language . ... .

    as in the doctrine he labours to enforce . This do t ¦ """ the writer criticises , of course , from the orthodox point of View , but ° ^ f calmness , knowledge , and insight ; pointing out very clearly the ' close co nexion that exists "between Mr . Kingslet ' s doctrine and that of the ne Platonic mystics whom he denounces ^ as w ell as that of the mediaeval mystics whom he is disposed to accept , and showing how such a doctrine naturair emerges in spiritualistic pantheism . ^ We have left ourselves no space to do justice to the last number of the Jou ml of Psgcological Medicine ; and can only hastily note as of special inter / t the third paper ( continued from the previous series ) on " The Physiological and Psyeological Phenomena of Dreams , " and a most valuable and elaborate analysis of M . Moray ' s "Traits des De ' gene ' rescenses Physiques , IntellepWilne et Morales de l'Espece Huinaine . " queues ,

    Our enlarged politics , our improved morals , our deeper religious convictions , are a weighty compensation for these losses , and yet we linger over the old -weak and faulty world with a natural tenderness . It may be quite unimportant to humanity that the Laocoon should be - pronounced in four syllables ; and yet when we first heard a well-educated American pronounce it like " racoon , " it made us shudder . We shall get used to it . The number closes with , two political articles on " China" and " The New Parliament , " written with vigour and ability , but with a suspicious tendency to underrate the importance of Heforra .

    The National Review keeps up its reputation for good writing and acute criticism , the first article , on " Aurora Leigh /* being at once more discriminating and just in its estimate of Mrs . Bartustt Browning- ' s poetic genius than any we remember to have seen . At the outset the writer points out , we will not say Mrs . Browning ' s weakness , but certainly a limitation of her power , in the want of dramatic faculty which she evinces . The effect of keeping the mind up to the lyrical pitch through a long poem like Aurora Leigh , would naturally produce the artificial excitement he refers to in the following passage : —

    "V erse is two very different things ; it may be used either as the expression of poetic thought , or as a mere external grace , to give a charm to narratives or descriptions , or pieces of humour , to which it is not in any sense necessary . Parts of Pope , of Crabbe , andof Prior , afford ready illustrations of this use of it . But when we speak of poetry , we mean , in general , verse used as the embodiment of poetic conception , to which it clings as the body of a man does to his spirit . It is possible to take this sort of expression , which true poetic conception demands , and use it for subjectmatter whicb ^ does not in itself require it ; and , instead of letting the thought kindle the imagination for its own particular occasion , to maintain an artificial heat for general purposes . This is what is done throughout a great part of Mrs . Barrett Browning ' s poem . A greater master teaches aho-ther lesson . When his matter descends , Shakspeare's forms descend with it ; and wherever the nature of his subjectmatter demands it . he intersperses prose-scenes , or even prose speeches , in his dramas ;

    and more remarkable than these changes are the subtle variations in the rhythm , and in the warmth of the imaginative colouring , answering every where In the nicest correspondence to the level of the subject-matter . But Mrs . Browning maintains her high unstooping / light over all the varied surface of her story . She dresses her poetry as the ancient actors did their persons ; and , like them , she loses in truthfulness and nicety of expression what she gains in external display ; and it repels the modern reader to find , instead of changing feature and modulated voice , the rigid tragic mask and sounding mouthpiece of the Greek theatre . This undue poetic excitement shows itself in the imaginative diction alone , and is not accompanied by any corresponding elevation in the structure of the metre , or the flow of the rhythm ; in these the approach to prose is made as close as possible , bearing some such , analogy to OTdinary poetry as recitative does to singing ; for while the lines are rhythmical , the periods are almost all prosaic . The result we cannot help thinking a very

    unsatisfactory one ; and when , in this semi-verse , semi-prose , the matter of the author comes couched in the most daring and far-fetched metaphor , it makes the reading inconceivably difficult and wearisome . Where the matter is such as to be in keeping with this high poetic utterance , as in the last pages of the book , there is enough to kindle the answering fire in the reader ' s brnin ; nnd the bold and passionate snatchings of the imagination at depths of meaning , which no other language but its own can compel to the surface , are intuitively followed and comprehended . It is otherwise when ordinary conversation , discussion , narrative , reasoning , or self-communing , are expressed in the poetic forms which poetic matter alone justifies ; clotted upon with purple diction , and mnde to glitter with blazing jewellery of metaphor ; distracting the reader from the matter before him , annoying him with their inappropriatenoas , and often puzzling him to seize their meaning . The paper on " The Clubs of London " is full of pleasant gossip , as well as curious and valuable information on a subject which , considering its attractive

    nature , has been , as the writer remarks , singularly neglected . Only one book on the subject appears to exist , and this , justly described as a " trashy compilation , " was published thirty years ago . The writer of the article , however , is wrong in supposing the author of this work to have been an . Irish bookseller ' s hack ; he was , we believe , a quondam member of the sublime Society of Beefsteaks , whose inner life ho endeavours to expose . We must resist the temptation to quote passages illustrating the old club life of London , as well as all attempt at characterizing three other articles of interest , on " The Phases of Force , " "The Mutual Hclationa of History and Religion , " and " The Memoirs of St . Simon . " The only defect which strikes us in this number , winch belongs , ho wever , to the llevicw generally , is a certain want of breadth and power in dealing with social and political questions . There arc two articles on these subjects in the number—on " Secondary Punishments , " and " Iho Foreign Policy of tho Ministry , "—written conscientiously and with care , hut they still want the large insight , firm grasp , and familiar yet decisive handling manifested in the other departments of tho llevicw . Iho London quarterly contains , as usual , a number of good articles , but we can only pause to notice one of more than average merit , on " The Writings of Miarlcs Kmgslcy . " The writer passes in review all his publications—Sermons , loems , Novels , and Lccturcs—for tho purpose of extracting the cssenco of his moral teaching , Tins is done with skiLl und fairness , the passages selected being , we behove , just those which Mr . ICingsmy would accept as containing

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    One of the politer forms of social excommunication is the habit , not peculiar to factitious aristocracies , of treating men of wit or genius as the escaped s-uhiects of a menagerie , rather than as human beings blessed , or cursed it may be , with a more sensitive fibre , finer sympathies , and more delicate susceptibilities than the average of their fellow-creatures , but nevertheless essentially human in their lives and feelings , and not entirely insensible to self-respect . In provinciar society your man of genius , whose name is the pride of his country ' s literature , and the delight of the world , is complacently and condescendingly regarded as a species of celestial mountebank by every vulgar and respectable nobody who pays taxes , and puts his legs under a

    mahogany table , whose conversation is a cackle , and whose intellectual accomplishments are a congestion of feeble prejudice and sheepish conformity . If we may believe report , M . Alexandre Dumas , the Younger , has lately administered a very happy rebuke to a high Parisian lady who had invited the fashionable dramatist , by way , we suppose , of an attraction to her habitual guests ; As the story goes , M . A . Domas ^ s was requested to" tell a story , " and , -without shocking the courtesies of society by a positive refusal , lie replied : "With pleasure , Madame ,- but allow me to take my turn . "When M . le Capitaine d'Artillerie who came into your di-awing-room just before me has fired a gun , I will tell a story . " We are aware that it is the fashion just now in Paris to attribute to the discoverer of the Demi-Monde many an ineditcd mot in search of a father , and it is quite possible this anecdote may be a pure invention in any case 3 it is good enough to be true .

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    MRS . GASKELL'S LIFE OF CHARLOTTE BROHTJ 3 . The Life of Charlotte Bronte . In Two Volumes . By Mrs . Gaskell . Smith , Elder , and Co . ( SECOND 3 TOTICE . ) Thkbe were other fiends at Haworth besides its waywardness and its barbarism : there were damp and cold . The parsonage , as many parsonages ha-ve been , was surrounded by the churchyard ; the burial-ground lay high , and the water flowed into the village literally poisoned witli death , i Sanitary improvements were talked of long ago ; but the money-loving / people in the neighbourhood would d p nothing that was costly . They procrastinated improvement , but continued to bury in the churchyard . ' Other causes , perhaps , carried off the brother , though not precisely at that time . The only son , -Branwell ,-had much of the power which developed itself in

    his siatcrs , but a largor share , apparently , of the father ' s failings . His cleverness caused him to be a favourite with the ' natives ; ' as a boy , lie could get . away from home better than the ' -girls ; lie became a lion at the festive gatherings even of the humblest places in the neighbourhood ; and in that way , no doubt , he learned the wild courses which , ended his life 1 in 184 S . Mr . Bronto , with the capricious intelligence of his country , could see mauy things with an eagle eye , but was blind to the danger for'his family-, and indeed circumstances may have been too strong for him , at least in the this which induced

    aggregate . He had a very limited income , and it was Charlotte nnd her sisters to attempt the relief of their father by going out as governesses . The experiment wns made in 1839 ; but Charlotte ' strong sense—the sense , perhaps , brought into the family froin Penzance--soon made her feel , that to be a governess she must possess more positive information than she had derived from home ; and by dint of persuasion , and the help of a loan from her aunt , with her sister Emily she entered the school of Madame Ileger , at Brussels . We have this school in Villetle Charlotte was called home by the sudden death of her aunt , but she re-Haworth to

    turned to the same school as teacher ; and then went to again set up a school of her own , with her sisters . The speculation failed ; no pupils were obtained , and the three girls turned their thoughts to literature as a means of assisting in the household exchequer . The small volume ot poems , published at their own expense , produced no golden fruit . Charlotte and Anne each wrote a novel , but then the difficulty was to find a publisher . Messrs . Smith and Elder returned Charlotte ' s first manuscript , in one volume , but in terms so encouraging that shfc replied by offering them Jane JEgre ; it was accepted , printed , and published within two months . How it was received the public well remembers . .. It is a curious trait of the independence of the girls , that although while the work was ia progress Mr . Bronte was induced to suspect something » y seeing his girls so constantly at the deslc , he knew nothing until Charlotte presented him one of the six copies sent to her Ly her publishers . ihom " eident reminds us of a somewlmt similar one in the memoirs of Madame d'Arbhvy , where she speaks of presenting Evelina to Doctor Burney , whouau

    a rooted objection to novels : — She went into his study one afternoon after his early dinner , carrying with lier a copy of tho book , and one or two roviows , talcing care to include a notice adverse it : " Papa , I ' ve been -writing a . book . " u Have you , my dear ?" " Yes , and I-want you to read it . "

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    h what most essential 376 THE LEADER . ' - ^ q , _ 369 , Satubdat ,

• Citation
  • Leader (1850-1860), April 18, 1857, page 376, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2189/page/16/