On this page

• Text (2)

  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.

  • 

    1056 The Publishers' Circular Oct. i, l8...

  • 

    . »On* . The drowsy precincts of Gray's ...

• 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.

    T710rty-Nine Years Have Passed Since Thi...

    l ^ th Centuries , ' having been published in 1837-1838 . More recently lustre has been

    shed upon the historiographer ' s art by j > he labours of FroudeFreeman , Lecky , Green ,

    , Kinglake , W . H . Russell , and others . Scotland boasts of the names of John Hill Burton

    and "William F . Skene in the same period . Travellers and explorers are often the

    founders oi history . The present reign has been distinguished by noble work in the

    opening up of new countries , and by heroic examples in exploration . Achievements of this

    character have given occasion for a literature of their own , which from many points of view

    must be considered momentous contributions to the story of British prowess ••» and progress m »¦— . ^*

    Associated with the Arctic circle and with Africa , not to speak of other regionswe have a

    , noble collection of books telling many a brave story . It was in 1845 that the ' Erebus ' and

    ' Terror' started on their ill-fated expedition to ice-bound sea 3 . All the literature , therefore ,

    connected with the protracted , anxious , and intrep — id search for Franklin and Crozier belongs «» - '

    to the present age . Going from the willows of the north to the palms of the south / we

    look with interest upon the noble band of explorers who , all in the present generationhave

    , | done so much to spread the influence of civilisation in mysterious Africa . There we find

    Burton , Speke , Grant , Baker , Cameron ; the great hero Livingstone towering head and

    shoulders above them all , and it is but a span in life since every day of his work was

    accomplished . Then we have Stanley , his discoverer in times of trouble — the man

    who flashed 'Through the Dark Continent / and who ultimately succeeded in founding

    an African state free to the enterprise of all nations . All of our travellers have

    chronicled their experiences in books , some of which have a lasting interest . Besides the

    names we have mentioned reference might be made to such books as Bowring ' s ' Kingdom

    and People of Siam / Fortune ' s ' Three Years ' Wanderings in China / Layard ' s ' Nineveh and

    ^_^ * % j — its Remains / Palgrave ' s ' Narrative of a Year ' s Journey through Central and Eastern Arabia /

    and many other works CDnspicuous for descriptive power .

    Theology is represented by such writers as Archbishop Whately % t Archbishop TrenchDean

    m . , x . , Stanley , Dean AlfordDr . Norman Macleod , , Dr . Pusey , Dr . Newman , and others .

    Herschel , Hamilton , J . S . Mill , Brewater , Faraday , Lyell % f , Hug £ h MillerDarwinand

    mr e ' * , , j Huxley are among the names which adorn the list of science .

    Numbers of miscellaneous writers might be aptly referred to , but we need onlv mention

    ¦ aa- ,

    the names of De Quincey , Harriet Martineau

    and John Ruskin as luminaries of the passing age .

    Poetry ought to have received our first attention in this imperfect summary of the

    writers of the age . Campbell , Moore , Soutliey , and Wordsworth all lived in the present reign

    , but their life ' s work was finished . The interest in modern verse is certainly not so

    strong , or rather it does not reach so far as it did in days of yore . Still we have ,

    poets among us capable , not only of awakening our emotion now , but of making the words

    echo in the ears of generations yet unborn . Tennyson succeeded to the laureateship on

    the death of Wordsworth . A volume of 'Poems by Two Brothers' was the work bv

    which he made his first appearance ; his ' Poems , chiefly Lyrical / not being published

    until 1830 . Robert Browning first won attention in 1836 when his ' Paracelsus' appeared .

    The roll of poetic fame in the Victorian age likewise includes Hood , Macaulay , Aytoun , |

    Elizabeth B . Browning , Edwin Arnold , Lewis Morris , Swinburne ( whose first book , * Atalanta

    in Calydon / appeared in 1865 ) , and William Morris . The latter published his ' Defence of

    Guenevere ' in 1858 . | No one can prophesy how many reputations

    of the literati of the age may brave the shocks of time , nor can we say what names may

    emerge from present obscurity to the blaze of future appreciation . Bub from all points of

    view , so far as a contemporary judgment may be formed , the greater examples of the

    recorded thought of the present age should compare favourably with any previous period .

    Any survey , however slight , of the literature of the time would be incomp J * . lete without

    some allusion to the vast number of reference books which now aid the distribution of

    knowledge . These in their enormous extent are a modern growth . In this busy age they arc

    indispensable ; they impart knowledge as rapidly as it is required ; but there is too great

    a tendency nowadays to rely almost wholly upon - *¦ such resources . The peop x le of no nation

    can be intelligently great unless they indi - vidually •/ study •/ the products XT of the master

    minds of past ages . Our literature , let us hopewill not in future be spoken of as

    JL , - * - Gibbon speaks of the letters of the degenerate Komans Tlomjins :: — — 'A A cloud cloud oi of critics criticsor of compiler compilers ,,

    of commentators darkened the , , face of learning , and the decline of genius was soon followed

    by the corruption of taste . '

    1056 The Publishers' Circular Oct. I, L8...

    1056 The Publishers' Circular Oct . i , l 886 1

    . »On* . The Drowsy Precincts Of Gray's ...

    . » On * . The drowsy precincts of Gray's Inn ha ^ < sort of austere animation on the 28 th 29 th , and , 01

    30 th of September . - Through the kindness 1 \

• Citation
  • Publishers’ Circular (1880-1890), Oct. 1, 1886, page 1056, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/pc/issues/tec_01101886/page/6/