The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser. — Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1855-12-04 00:00:00

SUPPLEMENT TO THE LIVERPOOL STAN 194 composition ; in a book of travels, unless in the hands of an exceedingly skilful artist, it is posi tively mischievous, and will, we greatly fear, pro cure for Mr. Hurlbut's " tall writing" the epithet of " prose run mad," if indeed it be not success ful in earning the title of " drunken prose," bestowed by a great critic on the turgid and now all-but-forgotten lucubrations by Hervey, entitled "Meditations among the Tombs." The Poetical Works of Johnson, Parnell, Gray, and Smollett. With Memoirs, Critical Disser tations, and Explanatory Notes, by the Rev. George Gilfillan. Edinburgh : James Nichol. Liverpool : Philip and Son. Among the numerous and praiseworthy at tempts which have of late years been originated for the production and spread of cheap literature through all ranks of the people, we know of none more deserving of unqualified commendation than " Nichol's Library Edition of the British Poets," of which series that before us forms the eighteenth volume, and the concluding one of the third year's issue. Those eighteen volumes form an exceedingly handsome set, printed with accuracy and elegance, on beautiful paper ; and they are in all respects done up in a manner so tasteful as to be worthy of the poetry which they embalm, while they aid in its diffusion. The force and fulness of this compliment will become more ob vious when reference is made to the works in cluded in the volumes alluded to. They contain the poetical works of those Titanic sons of song, Milton and Thomson, Young and Cowper, Dryden and Churchill, and Butler ; of the elegant Gray, Goldsmith, Beattie, and Parnell ; of the sonorous Johnson and expressive Collins ; of the fanciful Shenstone and of the reflective Herbert and Bowles, the didactic Blair, the tasteful Smollett, and the suggestive Falconer, and whimsical Wharton ; a body of poet r y at once extensive, rich, and varied, with a text unimpeachable in accuracy, and an aspect, external and internal, such as does credit to the press of Ballantyne. Having said thus much, the language of panegyric is expended, unless, indeed, we add that the whole has been published at the incredibly low price of three annual subscriptions of one guinea each. That such a series could be published at such a price, without ruin to the publisher, ap peared at the outset impossible ; experience, however, has proved that the spirited endeavour of Mr. Nichol . was not beyond the reach of success, and gladly do we learn that public patronage has been bestowed with such liberality on so deserving a project as to warrant and en courage its continuance. Along with the volume just published, the title of which stands at the head of this notice, Mr. Nichol has also issued the prospectus of his fourth year's series. This will, as usual, consist of six volumes, the first three being devoted to the poetry of the great Scottish bard, Burns, together with selections from the writings of his contemporaries,Alexander Wilson, Hector McNeil, Robert Tannahill, Richard Gall, and James Mayne. In the three volumes thus announced for publication in the first half of 1856, we con fess to some misgivings as to the terms " selec tions from the writings of his contemporaries ;" but if we are entitled, as we undoubtedly are, to judge of the future from our experience of the past, any apprehension becomes as unnecessary as it would be illiberal and unjust. Of the three re maining volumes for next year, the fourth and fifth are to comprise the works of Pope, and the sixth to comprehend the " Poetical Remains of Henry Kirk White." Thus steadily and substan tially does the publisher continue his undertaking to produce " in superior style, deserving of a place on the shelves of the best libraries, and offered at about one-third of the usual selling prices," an edition of the British Poets, such as any na tion may be proud to possess. The Poetry of Creation. In Seven Parts. By Nicholas Michell. London : Chapman and Hall. The author of this tastefully got up volume is already known, and that favourably, to the literary world, as a writer of acknowledged merit. The forerunners of the present being two poems respectively named " Ruins of Many Lands," and " Spirits of the Past," in addition to which he has also published some minor poems. The one now under consideration is a didactic poem, founded upon a noble theme, and elaborated with great care and skill. Its object, as stated by its author, "is not so much to contemplate the creation during its progress to perfection, as to survey the finished features of the earth, and to view Nature in her present aspects of beauty and grandeur." In pursuance of this plan, the poet has before him a widely comprehensive field for contemplation, and although its plan does not necessarily involve the full elucidation of such a task, his undertaking would be less or more in complete did not his contemplative and in quiring spirit range freely over the past and prophetically dip into the future. Before creation peopled earth, Its eye shall roll through chaos back; And where the furthest heaven had birth, The spirit trace its rising track. And where the future mars or makes, Its glance dilate o'er all shall be, While sun is quenched or system breaks, Fixed in its own eternity. Impressed with the truth of this self-imposed rule, our author launches boldly, yet with a reverent spirit, upon the mighty scheme of crea tion as that is unfolded to our observation in the inspired p4ges of the Mosaic history, and illus trates it by rapid yet suggestive allusion to the various lights thrown upon the subject by modern science. From this cursory yet pleasing contem plation he passes rapidly to his main theme, and " proceeds to view Nature in her present aspects of beauty and grandeur." This he does with a fulness of imagery and a richness of harmonised expression which prove him to be deeply imbued with the spirit of his subject. Some faint idea of the poet's style and intent may be gleaned from the following APOSTROPHE TO THE EARTH'S CREATOR. Come, seraphs! view this carpet spread, Enamelling the earth's wide floor; — The bosky vales, the hill's dew'd head, The sky-roofed plain, the river's shore, Are green, all living green, e'en meet For holy angels' shining feet. Then, too, the varied host behold, Of herb and plant, and flower and tree, Of every tint— white, green, and gold— Of every size, and graceful mould, Countless as stars in heaven may be. It seems creation's bounteous Lord, From the full storehouse of the sky, A myriad glorious things had poured, And bid them bloom beneath his eye ; Each one a thought in that great mind; Oh infinite ! all wise as kind! Thus to adorn our world, and give The germ by which those beauties live, That earth may never lose her dress, Her robe of bridal loveliness. The poem, which is in seven parts—each part contemplating a different phase of creative power —concludes by a sweetly-painted picture of the death-bed and dying scene of a pure-minded, religious, and hopeful maiden, in which the re creative round is traced by the analogy of the setting sun : The maiden marks the red sun sink. And faint and fainter on the brink Of that flushed sea the sweet beams shine, Till paling to a purple line : , ARD. [DECEMBER /1_,J...8 And where the light ? it bath not died) But follows the blest orb of day, Warming the world's far sloping slu e ' dt And making there creation gaY• tT From the specimens given, the intelligent o f t i d will be able to perceive that the 3 ' 111 , ° , 0 c1 " Poetry of Creation s ' is possessed 0i : %gil l3ll t and a cultivated mind, and that he is S i noSt tlt'l s by true poetic fervour. The poem, li k t e ,ied ,„ b fi l e e of the present day, is copiously ill es esf t ' ii t id planatory notes, in which the antv r ," s c h ,` e ti with ready acumen the different pheri °- by :"fit,, serve as his machinery. The theories fer eif those phenomena are exhibit e d in r e t each other, are also briefly gl a nced ' plained. the jj Adventures of My Cousin Smooth ; Ti Quibbles of Great Governments. Pi „ T Templeton. London : W. Tweedie; b i o ore This is a quizzical review of the , o on if ) 'ouns" policy of General Pi erce an d I P O 5 a ~f in the annexation li ne . Th e dispotesrso those gentry contrive, like pegs to drollery, are glanced at in a, spirit of cv", s bel t and in not a few instance s " t brok raced in the reductio ad absurdum stYl e i d numerous ramifications, the ridiculous e r 7 b e b 0 all of which is strongly brought out. '`,tif, e professes to be a sort of allegorical nary; diplomatic intercourse between .‘SolomonSill I a 'cute representative of " Young Anierir e os f ; which the British anti-annexation doctrOililq smartly contrasted with our own practice.,,V. the avowed object of the book is, b y se ttlio; prejudices of the British and the Anler i f e l o t t o strong light, to awaken the good sole a perception of their mutually d e peo erl- f or i/ 11/ ( towards each other. The points clO se , li v iali4 tration are happily selected, and the w— the matters in dispute is shown with so facility in the use of stinging banters ; f ti a 6 e humouredly thrown in as to avoid,;s ls. o rancour. In the good-humoured reci e 'tlle, amount of sarcasm is l e t l oose upoil h eld o f conceived " Univer sa l Congre ss " lately te tie e : 4 4 the European continent, in w hich the P re ,b - et e Lr America to dictate, o r e v e n to int er f e re O a " oncV, of European policy, are severely handl e solo' of posed. The " Adventures of My Cousin stsilei iv are conceived and carried out i n the 10j, badinage and bante r s o h a ppily ertil l 1 i ," ° ; l ' "Knickerbocker's Hi s tory of N e w Y° r- 4 ..0r1 : , 1 ), although not equal to that ad m irable g oo" delicacy of conceptio n an d rac i ness of °- it is well-timed, and ably executed. (i,o, New Music. Published by R. Cocks London. . We have before us several characteritlciep tastefully-arranged ballads and other ' l . - 0 11 ,„` I t :; pieces, including Longfellow's celebrated ser'oprl'i, " Stars of the Summer Night," set to al 3 P c ' o lcli e ; ' music by J. W. Hobbs ; and " The )-1- Love," a song written by Lady Clar e r r ilee ed wedded to sweet music by Hobbs. " Peeping in at the Window," a ballad t s tfos') by Bianchi Taylor ;" and The 5 "; c pid Knock." These are all got up and arr Bl3e teri s l, the beauty and grace so generally charocm", of the pieces which issue from this est 1_9.1_i!,/a A STRANGE PREACHER IS -4311° His name was strange. Many t fl yeto°l hit 11 ` 1 1 ; conduct was strange also. He was B Te 13) 4 preacher and a sweet singer. Nothing 030000 so much plea su r e a s to g o about the c,ierp . oj preaching and singing. A benevolent ge d 01. well off in worldly gear, desiring to ver d his family comfortable' in their declining dts d. for ol generously presented him a title -de 41 rea Ptea ‘, I ' A BU l e I Ote " d `` r ~o An T here )., 4 t han Beare eOl - 1 '1 lir 1: P , H` i 41. 1 , - ° 1 S e t . b PI hi l,te eteci o kiN v tl Oht et -ers