The Press. — London, England, 1854-01-21 00:00:00

JANUARY 21, 1854. no doubt that in America it will be extremely valuable. In the matter of the fine arts Brother Jonathan is in a state of utter dark ness—in fact, more than a century behind his relatives on this side of the Atlantic. As he generally prefers the works of his own country men to those of foreigners, we trust he may peruse these volumes with assiduity, and thereby get himself into training to learn the rudiments of a subject of which he is at pre sent deplorably ignorant. In the politics of ar t Mr. Hillard may be most justly described as a "moderate." Though he has had but few opportunities of acquiring the requisite knowledge to constitute himself a superior critic, his observations upon many of the great works are often written with point and effect. Where, however, he steps out of the beaten path his judgment is more ques tionable. Thus we find the following remarks on the Venus de' Medici and the Apollo Belvedere, which, to say the least, have the merit of originality The Venus de' Medici is the presiding genius of the place. She faces the door, and from her central position, and the general inclination of her figure, seems extending a gracious welcome to all who enter. I hardly dare to set down the impressions which this celebrated statue made upon me. The courage with which Cobbett assails the ripremacy of Shakespeare is a quality of doubtful value, all not to admire the Venus de' Medici seems a solecism is taste nearly as singular. Perhaps my expectations were r dsed too high for any form hewn from marble to reach ; at auy rate, with a feeling like that of a single dissenting juryman in an exciting case, 1 confess to a disappointment at first, which, though lessened by subsequent visits, never entirely disappeared. The statue is but four feet eleven inches in height, which gives a sort of doll-like character to the whole figure. The hands—a modern restoration— are unnecessarily bad ; the head is small in proportion to the body ; and there is a sort of vacant simper upon the face. There is certainly wonderful beauty in the undu lating outline of the whole form. The lines flow into each other as softly and delicately as if the winds of summer had moulded the frame. But this seems hardly enough to call forth the raptures into which so many intellectual men have fallen over her. Admirable as was the workmanship, the expression had in it more of earth than of heaven. It was not a goddess, unconscious alike of her beauty and her nakedness—into whose bosom no ray of human passion or human weakness had ever darted—but a lovely woman, who knew her power, and enjoyed her triumphs. The Apollo Belvedere provokes criticism, because it ap• pears to defy it. It seems to ma to bear the same relation ti the works of the school of Phidias that Euripides does to Sophocles. Beauty is beginning to be divorced from simplicity. There is—shall I speak the word ?—a little of the flue gentleman about the Apollo ; and in the expres sion there seems to be a gleam of satisfaction reflected from the admiration which his beauty awakens. There is not enough of the serene unconsciousness of the immortal g As. The disdain and triumph of the countenance are those of a mortal who had doubted his aim, and was sur prised at his success. And then the attitude, what does it mean? Does an archer ever hold up his right arm after discharging the arrow ? The glory of the statue is its airy movement. The chest seems to dilate, and the figure to grow tall, before the spectator's eyes. The admirable lightness and elasticity of the form are, in a great measure, lost in casts. There are, doubtless, finer statues in the world than the Apollo—works proceeding from a deeper vein of sentiment, and breathing a more simple grandeur —but there are none more fascinating. In this statue, more than in any other work in marble, we recognise the grace and animation of a living form ; a sympathetic charm which every one can feel. The concluding chapters, 28 and 29, which are devoted to a short account of celebrated travellers and writers upon Italy, are very instructive, and will prove very useful to those who are anxious to make themselves acquainted with the opinions and powers of criticism of modern travellers of reputation. Letters from Sarawak ; addressed to a Child. By Mrs. M'Dougall. London : Grant and Griffith. As we see " third thousand " marked on the titlepage, we presume this pretty little book is already popular, and in many respects it deserves to be so. The author, Mrs. M'Dougall, in December, 1847, sailed for Sarawak with her husband, who combined the character of n cler g y man w i t h th a t o f a physician, and who seems to h ave been i nv i ted to Borneo b y Sir James Brooke, t o o ffi c i a t e i n hi s d ou bl e capacity. Little Charley, their child, was left behind in England, and the result of the separation has been this volume of 14 1 pages, consisting of eighteen letters, addressed by mamma to her littl e b o y. Th e vo ya g e to Singa pore is well described : it has not the monotony which usually attends such descriptions ; indeed, M'Dougal was fortunate in the incidents she wit ne3sed off the island of Java : " The sun poured down on our heads, and made the decks too hot to touch ; the sky looked like a brazen shield, unde r w hi c h the sea seemed to sicken and die ; for 14 ire was not one ripple on its surface but a kind of scum THE PRESS. on which slimy sea•snakes and unwholesome little insects were crawling." The ancient mariner in his voyage saw something similar, if we remember accurately—" Yea, living things, with legs, did crawl upon the slimy sea." As the work contains several pretty illustrations, we regret that this was not made the subject of one of them. The account of Sarawak, and of such parts of Borneo as are known, is concisely and pleasingly written. The people and their manners, the mineral productions of the country, the intertangled forests stretching as far as vision extends, the blue hills here and there, those giant trees which grow to the height of 150 feet, the gorgeous flowers that hang from twining parasites over the great rivers, the birds, beasts, and reptiles of this rich land, follow each other in diversified succession. One anecdote of a pet bear we cannot refrain from giving : the species to which it belongs is remarkably diminutive : " One day it made its way into the store-room, where stood a tall jar, full of brown sugar, with rather a narrow mouth. Bruin dipped its paws into the jar, and ate all he could get at ; then, finding there was still a great deal in the jar beyond his reach, he proceeded to let himself down into it. For four days no one could imagine what was become of the bear ; they began to fear he had strayed into the jungle, when some one, opening the store-room door, heard curious grumbling sounds issuing from the sugar- jar ; and there sat Bruin on his hind legs, having eaten all the sugar, and thus having let itself down too deep to be able to get out again. These bears live very much on honey iu the jungle." In the last letter the career of Sir James Brooke is briefly sketched. The tone is, of course, and no doubt deservedly, eulogistic ; but a panegyric on the Rajah of Sarawak is out of place in a work which purports to be " letters addressed to a child." National Education in Scotland. A Letter to the Right Hon. the Earl of Aberdeen, &c. By John Hope, Writer to the Signet. London : Arthur Hall, Virtue, and Co. IN Scotland the Government aids local educational efforts by supplemental grants. This rule the author of the pamphlet before us would invert, con tending that where schools do not exist Government should originate them. The religious difficulty which has hitherto been the great obstacle to educa tional measures he proposes to obviate in a singular manner. When schools are built he would put them up to auction, and the sect or denomination which offered to contribute thost to defray the past expendi ture of erecting them and the current salaries should have the control of the establishment. The Progress and Present Position of Russia in the East. London : Murray. THE ambition of Russia is an old story. Seventeen years ago the author of the above volume undertook to describe the stealthy advances she was making towards Constantinople, Khiva, and India, and to warn the nations of Western Europe against possible consequences. Two editions of the book were de manded in 1830 and 1838. A third is now issued in consequence of recent events, and a supplemental chapter is added, working up to the latest dates the facts and arguments which prove, in the words of the new preface, that " the history of Russia inculcates " no lesson more clearly than this, that to return to " the state of things as they stood before her last un " provoked invasion of the Turkish territories would " only be to postpone the contest until she should " find a more favourable opportunity for renewing it." Zohrab ; or, a Midsummer Day's Dream ; and other Poems. By William Thomas Thornton. London: Longmans. Mn. THORNTON says that "he believes his attempts " in verse to be not inferior to those of many other " authors whose productions have been received with " considerable favour by the public ;" yet he declares that his object in publishing the volume before us is higher than that of "contributing to popular amuse " ment or competing for popular applause." That object, he intimates, will be obvious to any one who reads his earlier poems in the order in which they are placed. We have done so, and confess we are as ignorant of his motive as we were before we had read a line. The first poem is a version in rhyme of the story of " Zohrab and Rustum ;" the last an imita tion of an epistle of Horace. The first is a subject which Matthew Arnold has made his own, and in the last Pope gained some fame. It is no discredit to Mr. Thornton to say that he does not equal either. Kate and Rosalind; or, Early Experiences. London : Grant and Griffith. Teas is a tale intended to place the young on their guard against the first approaches of Puseyism. The meaning is good, but the execution possesses little merit. If it followed that when persons became 67 Puseyites they lost the manners of ladies and gentle men, than this novel would be truthful in its delineations. We fancy the author is young, and in future efforts recommend care, attention to artistic effect, and a studious excision of redundancies. PERIODICAL LITERATURE. The Churchman's Year Book for 1854. London : Cox. Tnis is the third volume of a very useful publication. It contains an analysis of parliamentary debates, legal decisions, and acts passed on, or relating to, ec clesiastical affairs during the past year. Corre spondence between bishops and the clergy on im portant points, proceedings in the various dioceses, university intelligence, the Church in the colonies, or dinations, preferments, clerical obituary—in short, every subject connected with the Church and inte resting to the clergy—is touched upon, and conve niently arranged for reference, in this volume of about WO pages. The Freemasons' Quarterly Magazine. London : ltoutledge and Co. Tuts number contains ten articles, besides corre spondence and intelligence. But there is no neutral ground on which the profane and the initiated may meet in common. Even in a " Sketch from Cologne," by Mrs. Ward, and in an incident of the Peninsular war by Miss l'ardoe, the mystery of masonry startles us by its wonder-working effect. But alas ! the school boy's text, that "familiarity breeds contempt," is ve rified in the conduct of those who, in performing the rites of masonry, excite the curiosity of the unini tiated. Who could suppose that, at a recent meeting in those symbolic robes, "there was a general feeling " that the proceedings exhibited carelessness—an " impression heightened by the fact of two or three td excellent brethren walking about the room and chatting sotto voce during the sublime ceremony of the third degree"? In one article are some sen sible remarks on the folly of young men neglecting the duties of life for the purpose of attending masonic lodges. Church of Scotland Magazine and Review. London: Hall, Virtue, and Co. THIS, the ninth number, commences with an address to its readers in which it is truly stated that "The times during which our lot is cast call, indeed, for an unflinching maintenance of the faith once delivered to the saints.' . . . ltomanism is advancing with stealthy tread. . . . The age is one of progress in evil as well as good." The article that follows, viz., part second of " Persecution of the French Pro testants," ably describes how Home crushes freedom when she possesses the power. The other articles are well selected for a magazine of this character. The Post Magazine Almanack for 1854. London : I'ateman. IN addition to the ordinary information, touching matters astronomical, political, commercial, and offi cial, the Post Magazine Alinanack presents, by way of specialty, a copious selection from the prospec tuses of insurance companies. PUBLICATIONS RECEIVED. Kate and Rosalind.. &trent and Griffith: ' Befleyp. .Taeobit;sdisr;:iii. --- Ttsy. A. lithani. Strictures on Archdeacon Wilber:fon e. Rev. C. 8. Bird. Ditto. Memoir and Sermons of the Ber. A. Boss. Hatchard. Sunlight through the Mist. Murray. Handbook for Greece. Ditto. The History of Yucatan. C. St. John Fancotui. Ditto. Letter to Lord Palmerston on Harrow School. C. J. Vaughan. Ditto. The Poet Magazine Almannek, 1P24. l'atenien. The National Miserthin,. January. J. 11. 1' . A Letter to the Right lion. Viscount Drundonrig on the Parish Schools. Moodie. The Home. 141 and 142. Pavey. Prince Albert. Ridgway. Church Courts and Clutch Rates. J. li. Gallon. Ditto. Darkness Dispersed by Gospel Lioht. Ilielugtnns. Report tf the Peel River Land Company. 11a11. etc rangy . This week in the theatrical world has been singu larly barren of incit;ents. Of the present we have nothing to record; and, as we are not favoured by any of the managers with even a peep behind their respective curtains, we can only till our dramatic columns with certain gossip -tales, for the truth of which we can by no . meana vouch. Miss Cushman is announced to appear at the HAYMARKET on Monday next. We look forward to her return to the London stage with great interest. Some time has now elapsed since we had the plea sure of seeing her act; but, if we mistake not, her talent is of no common order. The only question will be, how she is to be supported through the long, heavy plays report says are to be produced in order ~M