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Leader (1850-1860), 24th December 1859, Edition 1 of 2, Page 1397, Untitled Article

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    • LITERATURE.
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      Untitled Article

      yritb . the pleasures of hope , with the expectations of heat and sun . The attempt , however , is not very successful . Meanwhile , one evil effect of the cold has been to shake one of the few remaining articles of faith , which I still cherish . If , in the days of Rome , the cold was what it is now , it is utterly impossible to believe that the Ancient Romans wore togas , and reclined upon marble couches . Not all the historical and antiquarian evidence in the world will stand this deductio ad

      frigidum . The thing is impossible ; and we all know that what is impossible can never be . If , however , ; you once destroy my belief in the toga and the couch , I really must give up the whole concern . A clergyman of my acquaintance once propounded a simple solution of all the theological difficulties connected with astronomy , 'by stating that the stars were placed in heaven to try our faith . According to the same scientific system , I can only suggest that all the history of Rome is a fiction invented to try our patience .

      But , indeed , if one lived lon < r in Rome , I think one would get to doubt the reality of everything , lean hardly . believe , now , that in the last six months there has been war in Italy , within two hundred miles of Rome ; that the fate of Italy still hangs trembling in the balance , and that the chief province of the Papal States is still in open revolt against its rulers . There is no sign , no trace , no symptom even of what has passed , or is passing , to the world without . We seem spellbound in a dull , dead , dreary circle ^ There are no advertisements in the streets , except of devotional books for the coming season of Lent ; no pamphlets or books p laced in the booksellers ' windows , which , by their titles even , imply the existence of the war or the revolution ; no prints

      for sale of the scenes of the campaign . In one shop alone I saw a portrait of the Emperor Napoleon and Victor Emmanuel . The Roman Gazette , the only political newspaper allowed to be published here , would be almost unintelligible if taken by itself . Of domestic news there is absolutely none , except a long and pompous narrative of the opening of an American college for the priesthood , inaugurated at Rome , under the ' especial auspices of the Pontiff . The foreign news consists of long extracts from the Spanish papers about the war with Morocco , which , ' of course , meets with the special ' approbation of the Pontifical Government , a few garbled paragraphs about the movements of the crowned heads of Europe , and an indistinct allusion to the approaching

      Congress . Rome itself is more dreary and desolote than ever . There are more priests and more beggars , if that is possible . I hear , too , a fact possible enough , that there is great want amongst the pooi \ Rome has no commerce , and no manufactures , and one half the town lives either directly or indirectly upon the strangers who come here . This year the number of strangers generally , and English especially , is extremely sixuill . House-rents are barely half what they were last season . Househunting , at best a dismal task , just now is really

      melancholy work . Every other house is empty , and the owners are pitiably anxious to secure one as a tenant . However hard one ' s heart may be , it is not pleasant to be told , in the impassioned accents of Italian supplication , that unless your excellency condescends Ho tuko the apartment the speaker will have to go to prison tor debt . Servants out of place stop one in the streets to solicit employment , anil long stands of empty carriages seem waiting hopelessly for the fares that never come .

      It is the custom now , in taking lodgings at Rome , to insert a clause in the contract , that the tenant is at liberty to throw up his agreement jf the French troops leave Rome . The proviso is , J . believe , u perfectly unnecessary one , ns there xa not the remotest probability of tins' French doing more than threaten to leave for many a long day to come \ and oven if the event occurred , the chances of one ' s rent being returned is extremely small ? but the fact that such a proviso is required and ffiven . is a strange comment on the state of Koine ,

      and one , which I shpuld . like to see explamoa by the Hibernian sympathisers , and Lord Aieluing at their head . I was present the other night at the Philharmonic Concerts , whore Kohsim ' s " Moses was performed . The society is rather an aristocratic one , * the admission entirely by private tickets , and yet in so select a company it was deemed advisable to omit passages winch referred

      to the liberation of the Children of Israel , and could by any means be twisted into an allusion to the position of Italy . I forgot to mention at Florence a fact which I think may be interesting to the readers of the Leader . Our fair countrywoman , who is now the petted prim a donna of the Florentine public , Miss Anna Whitty , is the sister of Mr . T . H . Whitty , so well known as a contributor to your columns . I hear that Miss Whitty is thinking of appearing shortly in France , and will then , I trust , come on to England where she is sure of success .

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      T HE Commercial Travellers' School , for some reason , appears to excite peculiar interest in the breasts of our literary magnates , and Mr . Thackeray and other celebrated writers having already officiated as chairman at its annual dinners , that post was this week filled by Mr . Charle 3 Dickens , who made several of those admirably witty and eloquent speeches for which he has such an especial talent . In the course of the " speech of the evening" he said — "He wished to God that the members of his own order would follow the example of the commercial travellers * and , united , to an e ^ ual amount of good . ' .

      ..... Mr . Dickens has Avritten an article in the last number of All the Year Round , earnestly repudiating the imputation that in the portrait of Harold Skimpole , in his novel of " Bleak House , " he had intended to pourtray the character of his deceased friend , Leigh Hunt . He was aware , lie says , that such a belief existed , but as that opinion was only publicly expressed in-American journals , . he thought it expedient to let the report " go by , " giving due consideration to the astonishing character of the information about European celebrities so frequently to-be found in the Transatlantic press . Mr . Dickens ,

      nevertheless , confesses that some of the more amiable weaknesses of the deceased poet were present to his ¦ -mi-nd ' s-eye during the delineation of the ridiculous rtnd swindling Skimpoie . We here merely allude to this painful subject as a part of the current gossip of the dav , but shall return to it , as the truly generous and noble . character of Leigh Hunt should be cleared of any possible imputation of being akin to such a contemptible wretch a 3 Mr . Dickens has chosen to delineate in his almost impossible Skimpole . Mr . Hunt might as well be supposed to be delineated in Pecksniff . has in the

      Mr . Hotten , of Piccadilly , press a volume of Political Sketches , by Mr . J . Ilollmgshead , author of " Under Bow Bell ? , " and which , like that work , is a collection of papers from Household Words . Messrs . / Brudbury and Evans will publish , on the 7 th of January , the first number of a new military paper , entitled The Army and Naoy Gazette , and Journal of Militia and Volunteer Forces , under the editorship of Mr . W . Howard Russell , "hue the Special Correspondent of the Times . " It will bo devoted exclusively to discussions on questions relating to military service find national defences .

      Two now books , L'Exmnen Critique des Doctrines de la Religion Chrotienm . ' , " and "La Renovation Re ligiouse , " by M . Larroeque , formerly rector of the Lyons Academy , have just been seized at M Bohnc ' a foreign library , Rue Ulvoli . These works , like the " Question Konialno " of M , About , were published in Brussels . Gorman literature has sustained a loss by the death of William Grimm , the younger of the celebrated brothers . Ho was in his seventy-fourth year . The St . Petersburg correspondent of tho

      Teloqranh has this weok given a most interesting account of the literary treasures discovered by Professor Tisohendorf , who has been searching for manuscripts in various Greek , Syrian , Abyssinian , and other monasteries . Tho greatest treasure is the very oldest Greek manuscript of tho molo extant . Posldos the Old Testament , of the samo text as that used by the Apostles iu their quotations , tho manuscript contains the whole of tho Now Testament . Tho various European h brands all the Biblebut not

      p O 8 se ; 8 many MS . copies of , a single one of tho few written before iho tenth con , tury that contains nil the Now Testament . Iho two hitherto regarded as the oldest mid most compote , and hold In the highest estimation , are tho « o n tho libraries at Rome and London . But the Srmer wants four entire Epistles of St . Paul ,. and nearly tho half of another , as alao the Book of Itoveffttlons ; while in the latter tho whole of the Golnel of St . Matthew is missing , as well m SSwo parts of St . John ami the Pauline

      Epistles . The manuscript discovered at Mount Sinai , and now brought to St . Petersburg , is not defective , even in the smallest degree ; on the-contrary , it contains two works even in addition ; one complete , the other- but partially so . . la the second ' and'third centuries these latter were included in the canon of Holy "Writ / and always received the deepest reverence as precious heirlooms of the earliest inspiration of the Church of Christ . Of one of them , the Epistle of Barnabas , nearly the whole of the first half has been wanting until now , in the original Greek text ; while of the other , only one very imperfect copy was known to exist up to three years ago . No other copy of the Bible is of higher antiquity than this—indeed , the far famed Codex "Vaticanus is the only one that can at all put in any claims of competition .

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      ceylon : an account of the island , physical , historical , and topographical ; \\ t : th notices of its natural history , ANTIQUITIES , AND PRODUCTIONS . By Sir James Emerson Tennent , K . C . S-, LL . D ., &c . 2 vols . —Longman , Green , Roberts and Longman . This is the third edition , thoroughly revised , of an elaborated work , and illustrated by numerous maps , plans , and drawings . Of a production already so celebrated , it is needless now to attempt an analysis ; but , as a British possession , Ceylon is too important a place , and this book _ upon it too important a work , to be summaril y dismissed . The first volume of this great publication is

      occupied with descriptions of the physical and historical condition of Ceylon , and Sir J . E . _ Tennent has taken the utmost advantage of his official position to accumulate a large amount of material , exceedingly various in character and valuable in kind . Of the physical descriptions , rich as they are , we cannot venture to give any detail ; the abundance of nature defies selection . Palm trees , and strangely picturesque plants , and stranger insects , products highly vitalised or inanimate , perplex the traveller ; while customs , ways of life , and modes of pursuit , e xcite surprise , it may be dislike , and sometimes envy . There are , however , some peculiarities pertaining to this . third edition of an excellent work , some alterations and

      additions , which demand notice . Among these , the author mentions having inserted a chapter on the doctrines of Buddhism as it developes itself in Cey lon . His sketch , however , is confined to the principal features of what has been denominated Southern Buddhism amongst the Sino-halese ; as distinguished from Northern Buddhism in Nepal , Thibet , and China . In making this sketch , immense difficulties had to be surmounted from the various forms in which Buddhism appears iu various localities , and the different interpretations of which it is capable . Brahmanism isprobablymore arrcient than Buddhism ; but

      , , the point * is yet far from settled . The latter , however , dates many centuries before Christianity . Its present influence cxteiyls over three hundred and fifty millions of human beings , more than onethird of the human race . The Buddhists were expelled from Hindustan . some centuries after the Christian em by the Brahmins , and being thus dispersed over Eastern and Central Asia , Buddhism became an active agqnt of civilisation , furnishing to some of the far Asiatic- nations both an alphabet and a literature . Buddhism inculcntes self-reliance , intellectual elevation , and rim i ^ rPoctioii of virtue and wisdom , as within the

      rertch of every created being . Nevertheless , schisms and heresies liavc been introduced into ita doctrines , These , ns cherished among the Jaums of Guzerat and Unipootana , diller widely from its mysteries , as administered by the Lawaot Thibet ; and both are equally distinct from the metaphysical" abstractions propounded by the monies ot Nonal The worship of Buddha regards him as a cJulde and example to teach mankind how , by self-reliance and self-effort , they may secure perfect virtue hero and supremo happiness hereafter . In common with Brahmanism , it teaches the docf ,. in , > r » f ,, iGtemnsvchosis ; tho result ot tho

      transmigration leading tho purified spirit tp JSirwana — tluvfc is , " the exhaustion , but not the destruction of existence , tho close but not tlio extinction of being . " It recognises , also , the lull eligibility of every individual for the attainment of the highest decrees of intellectual perfection and ultimate bliss . It denies the Brahmanieal superiority of tho " twice-born , " and repudiates tho sacerdotal supremacy of raco . and also the supremacy of oasto . The Buddhists , therefore , readily admit that the teaching of virtue is not necessarily confined

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      Ko . 509 . Dec . 24 , 1859 . ] '' . ___ ' ' THE LEADER . , 1397

      Untitled Article

      XJTERARY NOTES OF THE WEEK .

      Literature.

      LITEEATU . RE .

  • Citation
    • Leader (1850-1860), Dec. 24, 1859, page 1397, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2326/page/17/