The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser. — Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1855-11-13 00:00:00

SUPPLEMENT TO THE LIVERPOOL STANDARD 17 0 may have been its origin, a fixed article of reli gious faith. He gives the annexed sketch of THE FOUNDER OF MtTRIDISM. Moollah Mohammed was a man of an imposing ap pearance, tall and thin, with noble, dark and expressive features, a lustrous black eye, though quite blind, from long night study and watching, white hair, and a short white beard. His mild and cheerful features, yet marked by severe mental toil, indicated the learned Moollah, who was also distinguished by the green turban, with its wide blue over-garment. Never had blood stained his hands ; his life was pure, hardly could sinful thoughts be imagined to have entered his mind. The views which the Mosque commanded over the broad green forests of Daghestan, bounded on the far horizon by the blue waves of the Caspian, early impressed on his youthful mind, had in manhood, after he became blind, remained deeply graven on his soul,—the outward world to him, —associated with every thought of himself and of those attached to him. He spent his life in religious observances, and in the study of the holy hooks, which he expounded to his disciples. And this pious, gentle, peaceable old man, who appeared scarcely to be connected with the earth but by the breath of life,—whose gentle voice was scarce audible in perfect silence,—this man preached the uprising of the people like one man,—preached a bloody and relentless war, and ardent, inextinguishable hate ! His trembling guiltless hands blessed the arms which he sent forth to shed torrents of blood. He treats his readers also with a lively history of the progress of that great national movement which owes its origin to the impulsive eloquence of him whose portrait has been thus graphically sketched. We must conclude our extracts from this interesting work by the following subject of an elaborate rather than an able essay. The " Noctes" themselves, in their serial issue, were wont to excite a marked sensation, not merely in the Scottish capital, where they were thoroughly understood and lavishly admired, but also in lands beyond the border, in the sunny south, and in districts far beyond our " sea-girt isle ;" and now their republication is the signal for a wonderment as large, an opinion as diversi fied as they encounterd in their birth. The con flicting opinions uttered respecting these won derful effusions are the most conclusive, as they are certainly not the least singular testimonials of their merits. One critic finds them loose in style, another coarse ; a gingerly compounder of inof fensive literary confectionary pronounces them decidedly vulgar, and denounces them as harsh ; another concocter of dulcet adulation confesses he is unable to understand the " doric" in which a vast proportion of their beauties is enunciated ; but all concur in attributing to them great power in the use of the " wit, and words, and worth, Action and utterance, and the power of speech To stir men's blood." In the critique before us, we have one more to add to the thousand and one portraits of Wilson, the terror of charlatans, the champion and the shield of genius. The portrait is not given with familiar fidelity as to either the mental or the physical man, but there is a dash of truth and general vraisemblance in the following likeness of [Nov-EmBER 13, 180 tion. In the present num ber of this serieq Composition, she has arrive d at the very eOni...oP cated matter of "beauty ;'.' and this she 7 00 , in a manner entirely her own. Instead of 'no, wa y to ens i rd. fining her observations in an y sition, the subject she profes ses.to be meal she wanders very cursorily. o ver the gener al bel t and descants with wonderfu l superficiality a , many sorts of beauty, giving exceedin9..., ev e, tinct ideas of her meaning. One o bject,-h °11 , 5 to she has had. evidently in view, and that,_',o show herself off as an, important and cam„: t i censor of morals. To this end she eatersbei singularly, upon a criticism on what . 5 . 0 0 pleased to call an " obnoxious style" in_;P. sl f o roil and sculpture—the " nude style 6 Y her readers it is a continental style,idlie7rt 01 3 , the P o lo says, "-there is an evident desire many British artists to render more ja ill a the eye and mind of the community: .`'tlne is done obviously for-the purpose repot, i d letter which she had the temerity. to.wrlrOte the worse taste to publish, addressed tn.':„' ss Mr; Patric Park, an artist of distioe tl o l 7o l great promise, who died suddenly,. a- I n , o f tYs j two ago, at Warrington. The subj.F a ' o atioar letter is a colossal group, designed for .* 0 0 0 tribute by the Scottish people in raera.ori c oif hero, the great Wallace. Having. fir st b e " insinuated that she never SSAV the grouPAittY she was " informed by judges of taste , o sfr subject was unfit, eithter for male or f, e . o t servation," she proceeds, as she snr , I ,‘ of gentle raillery," to lecture poor Vr7 p ys mistaken notions. "You are wrong' r e of . „i " if you deem that the absolute Orbestity,ov human form displays to advantage l o b by P IP. " symmetry." Perhaps Mrs. TW 100 the " display of beauty and sla l ,_ ° ,„, e ;Of: arrayed in the graces borrowed 1 1 s Natu re Mantalini, to those bestowed by de 9 she is entitled to enjoy her prefereore'.og d uP nap, disputandwn. Her false reas ° 4 . l/1 ,, - te surd conclusions,_ being addressed 7 the ui P; l9 may have a tendency to perpetut, g e ehievous bent of judgment, and it beeo ..p w s o f expose it. She tells us that "the shard t il l nesss came into the world by the w '"l $ 111 ;t0 man." Granted; but here it was, snm. l e f e rea O f sense implanted in the individual iv' . o ciPl i e ee jo himself. It is not excited as a rifiCits action by the appearance of other s pite the shame of nakedness, and provides ts itvj exhibition in himself; but no one 01 109 to share in such a feeling. It is one °,.. t / go liar attributes of genuine art to stigg rP so kr o l in any degree associated with grosan i _ e ad A t:' Ponsonby has no £loubt read, in uu - li veri6o authority, that " to the pure all thing s holi t 0 She leads her readers to infer, althongsp O i l y / not say so, that she never saw the glip tt severely censures. We have the Ova° At e there ; we have seen it ; and howeverm ofPlos may be to differ in opinion from a la tation, we do not share in her opini° ll , 4 ",;l' " unfit either for male or female ou" 0 0 b i t ) It was a group of high artistic beantl,:eepit'ta rurient, indeed, must that mind hav e "00 could associate with its beauties any " the interests of morality and religi °l:l ,,: o o l l 4 ,l' The interests of both are more s e i ,'",forto perilled in that teaching which leadstPiiisiioto either sex to detect imaotiary insei o - aid? overlook real beauties. "%ir," said i s " ra verli school of morals to Dr. Johnson, " t o o ,tP to see that you have admitted no in l l 9 '; o liet t il into your dictionary." Madam , " 4 ' 4 ' so so y uncourtly sage and moralist, " anlY, e l'he f ) . see you have been looking for then.' der " t ilt ject under discussion is one w hich , 00 nary circumstances, would not have be' PEN AND INK PORTRAIT OF SCHANYL. Imam Schamyl, like Kazi Moollah, was born in the village of Ghiinry, in the country of the Koissubulins, in -1797. In stature he is not tall, but of very noble and handsome proportions. He is not by nature physically strong, but he has acquired remarkable power and vigour by every kind of bodily exercise. His head, of a beautiful and regular shape, his aquiline nose, small mouth, blue eyes, blond hair and beard, and delicate white skin, seem to point rather to a Germanic than an Eastern extraction. His hands and feet are formed with the most beautiful symmetry ; his mien and every movement are proud and dignified. From his childhood Schamyl manifested an iron character, a calm dignity in his whole demeanour, which nothing could shake. He courted solitude, and main tained a reserve towards every one; at the same time he studied with ardent zeal under his master, Moollah Djelal Eddin, to whom he has always been affectionately attached, and to whom he still shows the deepest veneration and unreserved filial obedience. Entire days and nights has he passed in the rocky defiles of his native mountains, buried in the study of the Koran, the Arabian theosophy, and the doctrines of Soofism, together with the ancient Persian heroic legends and songs. He has manifestly faith in himself, and in his vocation as a prophet sent by Allah. Whilst gifted with fiery eloquence, his extra ordinary talents as a general are unquestioned. Waning space warns us to desist from further extract. Those we have already given are suffi cient to indicate the extensive field glanced over in the little work before us, and also to display its author's style of thought ; for further acquain tance with the author and the subject we must refer our readers to the book itself, in which they will find much to amuse and no little to instruct them. The New Quarterly Review and Digest of Current Literature. No. XVI. London : Thomas Bosworth. The October number of the New Quarterly is issued under the auspices of a different publisher from those who stood sponsors for its earlier career. As heretofore, it starts with a succinct retrospect of the literature of the preceding quarter, a task less difficult, and less voluminous for the three months ending with September, than for any other three months of the year. Nuch of the present retrospect, which is short, is devoted to the " Memoirs and Journals of Lieutenant Bellot," which it treats in a fair and approving spirit. The first volume of the great "literary sphinx " of modern days, " The Noctes Ambrosianve" of Professor Wilson, forms the PROFESSOR WILSON. In all respects Wilson was a notability. Cast in the same mould, if not of the same material nor with the same sympathies, as John Knox ; a thorough Northman in type, with clear, honest, penetrating eyes, mane-like hair, curling a foot or two down his back, Atlantean shoulders, a head and a brow Olympian in its amplitude, and a foot and a tread like Lycurgus, he might have sat for the portrait of the surly king delineated by Chaucer : He looked a lion, with a gloomy stare, And o'er his eye-brows hung his matted hair: Big-boned and large of limb, with sinews strong, Broad-shouldered, and his arms were round and long. The country people in the Lake district used to name him Adam, from the solidity and the stateliness of his build. If he had been born in Greece, he would have led a colony, or inspired a poem ; had he been shipwrecked in the Bay of Islands, he would have been elected to the honours of feathers and paint ; in Mexico, he would have been a Filibuster ; and in Java, he might have corn., peted in popularity with the Rajah of Sarawak. That he was not eminent in travel is not intelligible ; he had a passion for it, and had projected an African expedition. As it was, he was the best wrestler ; the best runner ; the best swimmer ; the best oarsman of the district. He had a liking for all out-door sports, and within five years of his death, in spite of rheumatim, had achieved exploits with his rod. The other papers in the number are of the average quality with those which have formed the staple of its contents, since it first looked upon the sunshine. The chief merit of the New Quarterly, and no small merit it is, consists in the fact of its being a sort of catalogue raisonne of the literature of the preceding quarter. The Christian Family Advocate. Edinburgh : Murray and Stuart. This periodical is one which, from its inno cence of execution, and the generality of good in tention manifested throughout its pages, we do not feel called on, in ordinary circumstances, to visit with a lengthened commentary. On the present occasion, however, we are tempted to de viate from the usual course, and with regret feel called upon ,to speak in terms the reverse of complimentary. For a considerable number of months past, the editress of this periodical has treated her readers to a series of papers on Eng lish Composition, not very remarkable for any thing, unless, indeed, the entire originality of some of the views, and the singular oddity of their illustration, be taken as worthy of observa- • %.• 1 . eolll lllel fo r the. Pose t h and t o ' ll ellicat 4Uroj