The Press. — London, England, 1855-10-27 00:00:00

OCTOBER 27, 1855. iittratart. The Life and Travels of Herodotus. An Imaginary Biography Founded on Fact. By J. Talboys Wheeler, F.R.G.S. London : Longmans. Arm all that has been written and spoken upon education in England, it is still astonish ing how comparatively inferior is the character of our didactic works intended for the im provement of adolescent classes. If a parent or preceptor desires to make a present of a handsome and useful book, containing much special information, and exhibiting a pleasing style, it is not easy to obtain what is wanted. Of mere school-books there is a superabun dance ; and our English classics, whether poets, essayists, or historians, do not always suit the requirements of the young persons, whose shelves may already be over-supplied with works of that kind. Would it be unrea sonable to expect that the counters of our biblio poies should have a range of volumes on classi cal subjects, readable in style, and showing re search in matter? The classics occupy a great part in our English system of culture, and we have no reason to be ashamed of the performances of our scholars. Thirlwall, Grote, and Mure have won deserved distinc tion, and are respected wherever the names of Heeren, Muller, and Wachsmuth are appre ciated ; and in other departments of classical illustration we have some highly distinguished reputations. There is reason to complain that there are so few pleasing books which recognise and em body the late discoveries and rare knowledge of some of our modern scholars. " The Travels of Anacharsis," by the Abbe Barthe lemy, was a good sort of book in its day. The style had considerable rhetorical force, and exhibited the unction of the peculiar school of French eloquence. Its blending of literary nerve with academical knowledge was dis played with ability, and the book deserved its vogue. But the mere name of " Anacharsis " shows what revolutions in educational matters we have gone through. In the literature of the eighteenth century all classical subjects were seen through an artificial haze, while all the labours of our modern scholars have tended to realise, and in some respects to vulgarise, our conceptions of antiquity. The artificial classicism of Abbe Barthelemy is as obsolete as the splendours of the old mansions in the Faubourg St. Germain. The author of the work before us has attempted to produce a performance of a kind much wanted. His conception is more vigorous than his power of execution, and he has erred by giving too much of compilation, and not enough of composition. "An Imagi nary Biography Founded on Fact," necessa. rily presents great difficulties to a writer There must be invention of story and lifelike incidents, while the allusions and subject matter must have authenticity of detail. Per fect success in such an anomalous class of com position could scarcely be expected. Even "historical" novels of the best kind contain much that is erroneous. Fiction and fact, are jumbled together; and the novelist seeking to interest his readers at any price tries, at the expense of truth, "to make things pleasant," like a too " sharp " committee of directors to a bubble company. Mr. Wheeler candidly acknowledges these difficulties, but we cannot say that he has overcome them. Herodotus was areal person, while his celebrated history contains much that is legendary and dubious. The plan of writing an " imaginary" life, therefore, of one who actually lived, interferes with the personal interest of the work and destroys the illusion. A purely fictitious character should have been taken : " Gil Blas," or " Anastasius," should have suggested the sort of groundwork of the life of an adventurer; strong human interest should have been concentrated in the principal cha racter; and the author's knowledge, and what might be called the properties of the subject, should have been placed in a secondary light, occasional passages being authenticated with references to an appendix. But to do all that would require genius for fiction and some THE PRESS. proficiency in novel writing ; and we fear that the greatest talents would not find adequate success in applying their faculties to subjects so entirely remote from modern manners and conceptions as the social life five centuries before the Christian era. The titlepage here promises us matter illustrative of History, manners, religion, literature, arts, and social condition of the Greeks, Egyptians, Persians, Babylonians, Hebrews, Scythians, and other ancient nations, in the days of Pericles and Nehemiah. Certainly an ample bill of fare, and, so far as to the matter, the author has kept his pro mise. He has not bated us a single dish, but we do not approve of the way in which the repast is served. He owns at once all the liberties that he has taken : The author's anxious desire to render it as popular as possible has led him to take such freedoms as may probably be censured by the severer scholar. He has taken Herodotus to Persepolis and Jerusalem, and brought him into contact with Nehemiah, for the sake of connecting the awned history of the world with the pro fane. He has been compelled to throw a thick veil over the dark vices of the ancient world that he might fit his book for general perusal. He has been obliged to avoid all criticism and boldly state results which have not as yet received the approval of every scholar. He has even thought it advisable to omit specific references to autho rities, as they would involve much critical discussion and bewilder those readers for whom he has more especially written. The value of his performance is greatly diminished by the suppression of his au thorities. An appendix, with references to the portions of various works, would have been most useful to the general reader. He does not, for example, make the least reference to the valuable commentary on Herodotus by Dr. Blakesley, in Messrs. Long and Macleane's edition, in the " Bibliotheca Classics" (Whittaker's, 1854). Mr. Wheeler says if his present work meets with public approbation, it shall be followed by others of a similar class. We doubt whether he has the special aptitude for this most peculiar kind of composition ; but, probably, in a second attempt he would show improvement. As he is familiar with his subject, and as he has a smooth, flexible style, we shall give some specimens of his writing. We select pas sages which exemplify the defects and merits of his performance. Thus we are treated to a family party at the house of Polydorus at Corinth, and Herodotus gets hints about the sights of the city:— He determined to make friends with Polydorus, whom he pitied as the victim of an all-engrossing business ; and likewise to increase his experience of the fair sex, by con versing with the lovely daughters of his host. Upon entering the room where the family appeared to take their meals, he found the tables spread w►th wine, white bread, pickled fish, and other delicacies, and no one present but Polydorus and his two sisters, who received him with a thousand compliments. Herodotus, determined to show his politeness and breeding, made suitable replies ; for he had been better accustomed to polite manners than to female society. Melissa's raven hair was braided in the most complicated manner, and confined in a beautifully ornamented bandeau ; whilst the white shoulder of Lydia was set off with the elaborately-chased clasp which fastened her chiton ; and indeed, had it not been for the lively re marks of the two fair ladies, Herodotus would have been perfectly awe-struck by their marvellous beauty. " I am afraid," said Polydorus, " that I cannot attend you to-day; but my sisters may perhaps serve as company, and our streets will afford yon sights. If, however, you like to walk along the street leading to Cenchrea, we can give you a dinner at our office, and I will show you all our statues and pictures, and drive you back to supper. I have promised to follow Glauous immediately, for we have ta load a ship which sails tomorrow for Athens; but after to-day I shall have more leisure." Uttering a few more apologies, Polydorus withdrew from the room, and left the house for his father's place of business. But ah ! Mr. Wheeler, why did you not favour us with "the lively remarks" of those two interesting young ladies ? The first sentence of the following passage is disappointing, and the tenor of its writing shows that we have a compiler before us We need not repeat the conversation which followed. The ladies of Corinth were far more free and unrestrained in their manners than those of any other Greek city, and Melissa and Lydia fairly aroused our young traveller by the gaiety and animation of their discourse. They made lively remarks upon the weather, expressed the utmost weariness at the noise and excitement of Corinth, avowed wishes for some flowery home in a quiet island, rallied Herodotus on the fair maidens of lonia, and brought him out to an extent which surptised himself and delighted his fair listeners. The lady of the house entered the room, but after the usual compliments her presence was almost for• gotten. The slaves removed the remains of the morning meal, but their attentions were totally unheeded. The grave and philosophic Herodotus was repeating philosophic 1027 criticisms, quoticg sentimental lyrics and gay iambics, de scribing all the wonders of Samoa and Pe the scenery of the lonian isles, boasting .•t the snub) b;,.cs and glorious shores of his native land, and, in short, con ducting himself in a style which would have done honour to young Athens. It was, therefore, nearly noon before he finally left his fair entertainers, and commenced his walk through the streets of Corinth, of which we shall have much to say in our next chapter. Here is, however, a much better attempt to realise the author's proposed object. It has a stronger air of human life, with fidelity to local colour : The sun was just rising over the hills of Halicarnassus, when Herodotus stood on the deck of a Samian mer chantman, and took a silent farewell of his native city. The slopes on which the several houses were built sur rounded the harbour like the walls of an amphitheatre, gradually declining towards the sea. His heart was full, for he had just taken a last farewell of his father, and wai watching the early beams gilding the roof of that home which he hail never left ht-fore. The noise and bustle, however, of the scene around him soon broke in upon his melancholy. The rowers below were labouring to get the ship out to sea, where she would meet with a favorable wind. Sailors were running about with long boat-hooks, to prevent the vessel's sides from coming in contact with the piers. The captain was standing at the helm, screaming out a volley of oaths and directions upon every one around him, and apparently only restrained by the necessity of holding the tiller from rushing for ward and throwing some bewildered seaman over the bulwarks. The freshness of the morning air, and the liveliness of the spray, gave a new and welcome buoyancy to our hero's spirits; and when, some two or three hours afterwards, the rowers had brought the ship round the promontory, and the sailors set the sails to the wind, he seemed to ride so joyously over the billows, that, he felt more inclined to cheerfulness and jesting than he had experienced for months. The vessel was making a return voyage from Egypt, and the only passengers on board were Herodotus and a slave whom he had brought with him. Our hero soon entered into conversation with the captain, who, whether in a calm or in a storm, was a very amusing man, and who described all the wonders connected with the temples and pyramids of Memphis and the Delta, until Herodotus could scarcely help think ing that his conversation was almost as interesting as epic rhapsodies. Dr. Arnold was nearly the first in England to set the example of intensifying desc riptio of ancient life by references to our moderns politics. Much of his history of Rome reads like a translation of Livy interleaved with Hansard, and the jargon of English politics in the days of the Melbourne Ministry is too often obtruded on the reader. As a man Dr. Arnold was truly admirable, but his opinions we often dissent from, and in no respects more than in his ideas on the art of writing history. But Arnold was biassed by the pre• vious example of Niebuhr. The great German showed in his researches that the era of the French Revolution was present to his memory and imagination while making his litekary excavations. Mr. Wheeler follows these eminent examples. Thus, in treating of the period B.C. 610-460 at Athens, he tells us of " Two great political "parties at Athens—the Conservatives, led by " Isageras ; and the Reform party, led by " Clisthenes " : and elsewhere (p. 14) we read of " The Young Athens (!) party, led by Peri cles." In attempting dialogue the author's I pen at once runs into dissertation. Thus the beginning of the following passage is lifelike, but the compiler soon appears : - - - " And what do you think of Athens? " said Euphorion to Herodotus as they sat together in the warm afternoon in the open court of the andronitis. " I scarcely know yet," replied our traveller. "It seems to be more populous than Sparta, and yet not so large ; and more bustling than Corinth, but without half the traffic." " True," replied Euphorion ; " Athens is a young giant. Her infant democracy is already as strong as the Hera cleid Government of Sparta. Her citizens work not for themselves, like the traders at Corinth, but for the State. They are the bravest, the wisest, the gayest, and the most active in all the world. To-morrow we shall see men from all the demes in Attica at the Popular Assembly. By the way, you will want a little enlightenment upon the present state of affairs at Athens, or you will not be able to under stand the speeches. " There are two /great parties in Athens--the old Conservative party, and the more democratic, or young Athens party. The Conservative party is headed by Cimon, the son of Milthules ; the young Athens party by Pericles, the son of Xantluppus. Cimon and the Conser vatives are opposed to all progress and all reforms. They want to carry on the war against Persia for ever, to keep up a friendly alliance with Sparta under any circum stances, and to stem the tide of democracy. Oa the other hand, Pericles and young Athens are all for progress and for democratic perfection. They wish to end the war with Persia by an honourable peace, to renounce the alliance with Sparta, to set up the land forces of Argos as a rival to the land forces of Sparta, and to obtain for Atbees the headship of Hellas. I