The Press. — London, England, 1853-10-01 00:00:00

524 No more At his departure shall the good Man feel Corroded with deep sadness, as he sees Setting on him the still of this bright world! No more shall Nature's lover at the grave Ills everlasting farewell take of her. Sine.. Christ hue visited Humanity, A flood of glory has dew tilled down, And given to the universe entire A character awl me g spiritual: It's all-surpassing loveliness no more. As to the Pagan eye. is clouded now Irtth a dark 'were,: i'trum I 'motion's face the veil of mystery has been torn away 'flat madden'd all its beauty, and now man I 'an trace in Nature's everlasting smile love Throovh all her features manifold he aces The slitulow Owl's l'onnnillint!t• revealed In all the magic voices that alsmial In this liantioniiiiis, ever•ts ttttt ding world. He hears re-eelioetl eloquently on The tly t • calvary gave lOrth ; In all the clouds' magnificence he find. A pagettut far more wonderful—a typc Of heaven's bright reality ; and all 'rite starry population unto him In their eternal revolutions tell A history far sublimer than their own— The fair of Bethlehem! and thus indeed, Whereas the dark and speculative mind Of old inquirers, long since laid to dust, Drinking at Nature's fountain, could but find A vague foundation for a vague surmise, And felt the draught more hitter as it gave Swertio•ss to hide most vain,—the Christian nom - , Though drinking chiefly at the well of life, And truth's receptacle, discovers still In this stunt, fountain confirmation strong Of Scripture promise. Some other lint's, in it like spirit, on the glory which springs from the desolating march of Time, are admirable in thought and elo (went in expression : th. weep no more ! Oh never mourn that all things chimp and change, Since grand as martial funeral of those Who the victorious is the onward march Of Life and Time to their completion. The Calory of the NVorld is its decay ; The Grave itself is its chief Poetry ; I tka ments most beautiful are those Which tell with voiceless eloquence of that SuWimest of all human mysteries— Man's everlasting farewell from the world The Pyramidal Sepulchres of Kings And satitto'erwhelmeil Sphinxes which remain Alone of Egypt's history ; the green mounds Which raise for desert Babylon a %nice ; The Cromlechs of the old Pli.enician race ; 'the porticoes of past Philosophy ; The shattered marbles and the gramfostrewn stones Of Attic temples. where the spirit dwelt Of old relig ion, and which still appear, m tiid t heir desolation, to reelaim Continual worship : Home's Colisenm : Pompeii's grave, and the dark Catacombs; The moss•grown Palace, and the ruined Tower Through whose grey chinks peers holily the Moon ; 'Tombs, statues, paintings. obelisk and vase — All these, the sail mementoes of the past. Who with their hoar survivorship appear To mock their tOunder's dust, and stump the World With the vain seal of M utability ,- T 11, are the very sources from which rise The thoughts that must eternalise the heart ! These are the fountains fine of poetry' These the very decorut buts whiles. Springs chiefly the World's glory. and which shed ktorie rainbows o'er the arch of Time! These are the inns maguithent which hold TreaSIIIVII a profoundest inetlitathoi ! I,tol these the saerisl Meeeog to which come ill :4ft er. told beholding tlwre, flow even this e‘istence mutable ilia% crown itself with grandeur. therefrom draw The beantiful that Life In its 4..odpictimi must hp most gliblinle. ThOre is also merit in the lines on " Prayer." and in the Song of the Angels " sufficient to deserve encouraging plaudits, though more elm, might have been bestowed on them with advantage. Thu auth►►r's philosophy is contradictory. n one place he intimates that life is but child's play—the greatest actors in this mortal stage fretting their hour to as little purpose as " The ehikl that flings a pebble from the bank." While in another place we read that our litl is a battle. •• sublimer far than Ow Titanic war. pun a 111V.ita . miemitirent. - Storni. confusion, however, may he pardoned in a mind which shows both strength and sensi- Wilt). There is so much promise and Intel leetnal energy in his verse, that it is likely age will correct his crudities of sentiment, g i g o. him .itister views of the aims of being, and mature Ins powers. THE PRESS. Izaak !aka lam. Part I. By Alexandre Dumas. Authorised translation. In monthly dialing parts. London : Clarke, Becton, and Cu. READING a romance by Duivax seems to us like seeing Aatley's on paper. His heroic cha racters recal the voltigenrs, and his humorous ones remind us of the clowns of the circus. He boasts that he has composed seven hun dyed volumes and fifty dramas, and ho now announces that " 'mink Lakadam " is "the work of his whole life," and in true eharlatanie style he pompously advertises " that whatever he has studied and learned of art, of science, of men, and of things, is to be invested in Izaak Lakadam. — He is, indeed, au in• corrigible fenilletonisi, and critical whippings only titillate him into more extravagant gambols. To admonish so successful it con tortionist, upon the true principles of art in composition, would be as absurd as commending " Demosthenes " to Sir John Villiers Shelley. The very faults of his writings are the means by which he attains his prodigious successes with the novel-reading mob of Paris. His romances arc, after till, nothing but a series of literary gymnastics, in which he has vaulted over all kinds of puppets, picturesquely attired, and cleverly compelled to shuffle here and there into melodramatic positions. Denying him any claim to be ranked with standard fiction ists who have painted " man," we admit that he is a wonderful incarnation of the various faculties of the pantomimist, the scene• painter, and the travelling showman. Mr. Rcgers prettily said of the author of " Latta Rookh," that "he must have conic into the world with a rose in his mouth, and a nightingale singing on the top of his bed." Now, we litucy that Monsieur Houdin must have been forestalled at the birth of Dumas, and that along with the ro. mauling fenilletonist there must have simul taneously appeared an " inexhaustible bottle" of ink. We snspeet, however, that these literary summe►saults must at last come to an end. Our rea►lers, also, will be inclined to think with us when they learn that " Izattk Lakadam " is another romance on their old acquaintance, " The Wandering Jew." The very idea is suggestive of utter exhaustion but of course all the Vauxhall "effects " of which the theme is capable will be shown in his own way by the author; and he will probably succeed in making the vulgar stare and " the judicious " not " grieve "—but yawn ! _ _ " Laindam " opens with a lung description of the " Appian Way," as it appeared in 1469. This eharter is written as if the author wished to rival \ ictor Hugo in certain minute anthills rian descriptions in " The Hunchback of Notre Dame." But he jumbles together the past and present with so much incoherency as to destroy all illusion. What can be worse than the following passage, in itself a fair specimen of the rhetori.• displayed in " lzaak risks dam " It was all the youth, the beauty, the fashion, the wealth, the aristocracy of Rome. The Appian Way was the Rotten flow or Longchamp of antiquity ; only, instead of lasting three days, like the Longehanip of Paris. or a few weeks, like the Rotten Row of London, it lasted all the year. About tour o'cb,ek in the afternoon ,•—when the great heat of the day was past ; when the sun glided, loss Fsihtr Ulla with diminished light, towards the Tyrrhenian sea ; when the shadows of the pines, the evergreen oaks. and the palm-trees lengthened ont flout west to east : when the liturel-rose of Sieily shook off the dust of the (lay. as the that breeze descended from the chain of blue mountains commanded by the temple of Jupiter when the magnolia of India raised its ivory blossom like u horn, and presented its seenteil ehalice to gather the evening dew ; when the nelmnbo of the Caspian sea. which hail shunned the burning tuidglay sun in the watery bosom of the lake, returned to the surface of the water to breathe through the fall span of its open cup the coolness of the hours of night: —then began to appear. issuing flvin the Apian gate, what might be called the vanguard of the dandies, the Trosowli, the young Trojans of Rome, curiously senuinised by the inhabitants of the Appian suburb. These also, at this hour. issued from their I ses. which now grew cool, and sat on thoir varionteshaped chairs fetched from within; or they leaned against the posts. which served es steps for the horsemen to mount ; or they half reclined on the cir• cular benches. fixed against the restinglikees of the dead for the better eonvenience of the living. Never did Paris, with its double column of visitors in the Champs-Elysi•es: never did Florence. hurrying to the Casehines; never did Vienna, flocking tothe Prater ; never did Naples. encumbering the Chisna—behold such a diver. shay of actors, sash a concourse of spectator~ ' SATURDAY, If we had never befo►c read any of the writing of Dumas, we might possibly be struck with his manner in this first monthly part. But we are familiarised with his claptrap., and, unless he improve in future numbers of this melodramatic serial, we are afraid that. " Lakadam" will display "the contortions and not the inspiration of the sibyl." The Philusuphy of Athebrau. By the Rev. B. Godwin, D.D. London : Arthur Hall, Virtue, and Co. Tms is a third edition of the author's lectures against. Atheism, delivered nearly twenty years ago at the Mechanies' Institution of Bradford. The writer, in a popular manner, pursues the " argument from design," and refutes Miraband's " System of Natur e With simplicity and precision. Correspondence Relating to Harrow School. Charters, Orders, and Rules of the Free (learning). SeliGol at llarrow•on-the-Hill. London, 1858. TltEst• unimportant publications originate with Mr. John Morris, of Sudbury, who attacks the school of " I larrow-on-the-Hill," and endeavours to show that the funds are diverted from their purpose. He prints his letters on the subject to the Archbishop of Canterbury, the Bishop of London, the Head Master, and also to the Vicar of harrow. None of these eminent persons; took any notice of his letters, and from the tone of the writer we think they exercised a sound discretion. Mr. Morris does not seem likely to conciliate public opinion towards him. He rails alike at the authorities of harrow and "the servility of its shopkAepers," and winds up his attacks by re. printing a tirade from Mr. John Bright ! Spain : its Position and Eranyelisation. By James Thompson. London: Partridge and Oakey. THE substance of this tract has already appeared in the " Christian Family Advocate." The author was formerly an agent of the British and Foreign Bible Society." Mr. Thompson is a very prolix writer, and we should have expected more facts from one who had filled his posts. lie does not add to our knowledge of the subject discussed. In the body of his long pamphlet he attacks Lord Howden for inactivity on the question of the burial-ground for Protestants in Spain, and in his postscript he partly retracts his un favourable strictures. He has for some time been in active communication with Sir Robert Inglis ou the whole subject of Spanish intolerance. We sympa thise with his objects, but in his attacks on Papal bigotry we would recommend him to be less wordy, in his inculpation of the common foe. Sports and Adventures in the Highlands of Scotland. By W. H. Maxwell, Esq. London : Boutledge and Co. Tins is merely a reprint of Mr. 3laxwell's " High land: and Islands of Scotland," a work greatly inferior in interest to the aan►e author's deservedly - popular " Wild Sports of the West." lu describing Scotland, Mr. Maxwell constantly interposes Irish anecdotes, and even Irish politics, which are out of place, and at times even offensive. It is a case of bookmaking not of the best description, and scarcely merit: popular circulation. A Synopsis of Foreign Moneys, Sc. By I)r. 'Malelsen. London : W. Spooner. IN the form of a broad sheet we have here a com plete .ynopsis of foreign moneys, weights, and mea sures reduced to the English standard and equivalents. It will be found very useful to merchants and others having relations with foreign countries. PUBLICATIONS RECEIVED. Thrle and thr H ? names. A. Wafter.. W. Oliphant and Sow. Jam . krt. : pr. t hips of the Ohl Meek. W. H. G. Kingston. kraut and Griffith. J. Bennett. Soutar and Contain. l'artriiire and Oake s . W. lila..kuoo.l and .1. W. Parker and Son. W. F. Paiute'. Diagram:. Part 1X Nalinuni Education ; Ulf Ensign. %%ifs Eitininisph Mugu:inc. Illnektromrs Edinburgh kreirer. Fruner't ilnparixe. The 'hurt* itiEnglond Quarterly I:erigw. Ir is known that the paper prepared for photogrs phie drawing k blackened by the light. A youn g printer at Berlin, M. Schell, p ro p oses to ut ilise this property of the photographic paper for the purpose of determining the intensity of the solar light. He has succeeded in establishing a scale of all the dark nuances which the light produces on the photogra phic paper. Humboldt. Littnow, Dove. and Pongen dont' have approved the discovery. which may be of great utility, not only for scientific researches, but also for an infinite number of domestic and rura operations.