The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser. — Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1855-11-27 00:00:00

SUPPLEMENT tbrri.! f;-ltauro xl4 RTISER. TO AND GENERAL COMMERCIAL ADVE 1 - 4 - 2,5_ ] THE MIRROR OF HOPE. a mid the desert's rugged scene, v bell lee Hope! why dost thou stand, L'Ola4Ying thus with silent mien A mystic mirror in thine hand? Alas, My sinking heart to mock, Th e gleaming crystal cheats mine eyes, t 414i tg on barren sand and rock , "ke light, the tints of , Paradise. ed in the glass I see Y ore rocks, with MOSS and flow'rets gay; ° , 411 g leaves bedeck the blighted tree, L' h d 'mid the sands a streamlet's play; -0 false are dower, and trream, and leaf ; t:. l% k ground—the vision's o'er— tget cruel Hope to sport with grief ; Th y magic shall deceive no more. 11 ,,, t4t eh thy mirror—break it—strew li t ;" acatter'd relics far and near— : I "j full many a vivid hue, gleam and ray are sparkling here. e t 411 the wilderness they beam, Toe ladehiyer'd crystal's atoms bright, imake the illumin'd landscape seem ,7 141 gent with a wondrous light. tit' e arth -born stars here glittering keen, , i ce fragments of a rainbow there, lewels dropt by elfin queen, t7 k t fountain's spray, like dew-drops fair, te rror mirror multiplies „ 1)4 - 'llinly.broken fairy spell : h b Pel in thee what magic lies! is indestructible ! REVIEWS. \Vc• 10 4 .1 t 4 , 4l6 rosiance. Vol. 11. By Professor 'kit Edinburgh and London : William Ili Iv°o c l and Sons. Ree ° l 4 serial instalment of Wilson's , fi n bl i .isellany, in which wit and wisdom, ' i ll ; e nairth and melancholy, are so sweetly ' . 8 t -11 ?Nv before the public, throwing its ~..,, k 4 ktl l , -- "nee on every intellectual group Nt - y i r , a uge of cultivated society. The cha t . w ilson's Isr genius, numerous as were its i 4l „ Ilis and splendid its dazzling corrusca- Ote probably no more faithful mirror than ikti o 7hing, daring, and seemingly hap-hazard I , apn to3 strewn with almost reckless prodi- I ..7lng the ever varying scenes of those 7 symposia. In those teeming scenes kz, ,k l O and wild glee and gamesome frolic 'l 4 l ed up with profound wisdom—dashing %Lward humour o chastened with pathetic reckless hilarity with sober judgmer ' ( ,: 80 tempered andattuned to virlue and i 3 that every mood of mind finds some 41 chord has been struck by the muttered 6% or the sonorous chimes—the- breathing 1 e r d O r powerf u l ca dence which sound in tit Yet Conflicting harmony throughout the 01-18 and mighty song. The powerful in -1 of Wilson, homogenous, clear, and radiant , i In any-coloured scnes of the " Noctes," is ti N ll all the s p ar kli ng var i ety of its en dl ess t ~lIM hues --its matchle ss e ff u l gence reflect , 1 4 _, ,ivid i mage f rom every facet of its many- Z t l surface, adorning the characters and eir- I th ey ZEi " with refl e et,'sine with , 'NI lus w ith the ( )z Bate f splendours not their own," sparkling light ;" yet, like the diamond, tinging each glow of his own manly and LIV RPOOL, TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 27, 1855. inherent virtue. Scarcely a phase of human society—hardly a social incident connected with the lot of man but is treated of or glanced at in this " magic mirror ;" but all of them are treated of in relation to that world which lies beyond our own, and amidst even the most hilarious of out bursts there is an index which clearly points to the mysterious workings of that •- Providence which fashions all our ends, Rough hew them how we will. In the curious compound of vanity, egotism, and shrewdness of the Shepherd ; the sententious perspicacity of Tickler; and the staid and Mentor like philosophy of Christopher North, there is not merely a fine preservation of the dramatic identity peculiar to each, but there is also the most unmistakeable evidence of that innate sense of responsibility which, while it displayed his sympathy with his fellow-men, his pity for their misfortunes, his censure of their failings, and his joyin their virtueand exalted destiny, isnot entirely absorbed in those their merely earthly concerns. To these his heart, his love, his griefs were given, But all his serious thoughts had rest in heaven. We are, however, insensibly wandering from the pleasing task before us—presenting to our readers some idea of the numerous beauties, which,— Like Orient pearls at random strung, grace and enliven every page of the volume un der consideration, as well as that which has pre ceded it and those which are to follow. Take as one example his sagacious remarks on the— IDOLATRY OF GENIUS. -- - NORTH : Well, then, mark my drift, James. We idolise Genius, to the neglect of the worship of Virtue. To our thoughts, Genius is all in all—Virtue absolutely , nothing. Human nature seems to be glorified in Shake speare, because his intellect was various and vast, and because it comprehended a knowledge of all the work ings, perhaps, of human being. But if there be truth in that faith to which the Christian world is bound, how dare we, on that ground, to look on Shakespeare as almost greater and better than Man ? Why, to criticise one of his works poorly, or badly, or insolently, is it held to be blasphemy ? Why ? Is Genius so sacred, so holy a thing, per se, and apart from Virtue ? Folly all ! One truly good action performed is worth all that ever Shake speare wrote. Who is the Swan of Avon in comparison to the humblest being that ever purified his spirit in the waters of eternal life ! SHEPHERD: Speak awa! I'll no interrupt you --but whether I agree wi' you or no's anither question. NORTH: Only listen, James, to our eulogies on genius. How virtue must vail her radiant forehead before that idol! How the whole world speaks out her ceaseless sympathy with the woes of (genius ! How silent as frost, when virtue pines! Let a young poet poison himself in wrathful despair— and all the muses weep over his un hallowed bier. Let a young Christian die under the visitation of God, who weeps ? No eye hut his mother's. We know that such deaths are every day—every hour — but the thought affects us not—we have no thought— and heap after heap is added, unbewailed, to city or country churchyard. But let a poet, forsooth, die in y h out —pay the debt of nature early—and Nature herself, throughout her elements, must in her turn pay tribute to his shade. SHEPHERD : Dinna mak me unhappy, sir—dinna make me sae very unhappy, sir, I beseech you—try and explain awa what you hae said, to the satisfaction o' our hearts and understandins. NORTH: Impossible. We are base idolaters. 'Tis in fatuation—not religion. Is it Genius, or is it Virtue, that shall send a soul to heaven ? SHEPHERD . Virtue—there's nae denying that ;—vir , toe, sir.—virtue. NoRTH: Let us then feel, think, speak, and act, as if we so believed. Is Poetry necessary to our salvation ? Is Paradise Lost better than the New Testament ? [GRATIS. SHEPHRRD: Oh ! dinna mak me unhappy. Say again that Poetry is religion. NORTH ; Religion has in it the finest and truest spirit of poetry, and the finest and truest spirit of poetry has in it the spirit of religion. But — SHEPHERD ; Say nae main—say nae main I'm satin fled wi' that NORTH ; Oh ! James, it makes my very soul sick within me to hear the puny whinings poured by phiNo sophical sentimentalists over the failings—the errors—the vices of genius ! There has been, I fear, too much of that traitorous dereliction of the only true faith, even in some eloquent eulogies on the dead, which I have been the means of giving to the world. Have you not often felt that, when reading what has been said about our own immortal Burns? SHEpHERD: I have in my calmer moments. NORTH ; While the hypocritical and the base exagger ated all that illustrious man's aberrations from the right path, nor had the heart to acknowledge the manifold temptations strewed around his feet,—the enthusiastic and the generous ran into the other extreme, and weakly —I must not say wickedly—strove to extenuate them into mere trifles—in too many instances to deny them al together; and when too flagrant to be denied, dared to declare that we were bound to forget and forgive them on the score of the poet's genius—as if genius, the guardian of virtue, could ever be regarded as the pander to vice, and the slave of sin. Thus they were willing to sacrifice morality, rather than that the idol set up before their imagination should be degraded ; and did far worse injury, and offered far worse insult, to Virtue and Religion, 19y thus slurring over the offences of Burns against both, than ever was done by those offences themselves —for Burns bitterly repented what they almost canonised ; and the evil practice of one man can never do so much injury to society, as the evil theory of a thousand. Burns erred greatly and greviously ; and since the world knows that I he did, as well from friends as from foes, let us be lenient and merciful to him, whose worth was great; but just and faithful to that law of right, which must on no con sideration be violated by our judgments, but which must ! maintain and exercise its severe and sovereign power over all transgressions, and more especially over the transgres sions of those to whom nature has granted endowments that might have been, had their possepsors nobly willed it, the ministers of unmingled good to themselves and the whole human race. SHEPHERD : You've written better about Burns yoursel, sir, nor onybody else breathin. That you hae—baith better and aftener—and a' friends of the poet ought to be grateful to Christopher North. NORTH : That is true praise coming from my Shepherd. But I have fallen into the error I now reprehended. Systematic extract from a repository so charm ing, and so redundantly filled, is no easy task, and one who undertakes it soon feels the reality of une embarrasse des riehesses ; he becomes speedily overwhemed by the abundance of the material by which he finds himself on all sides surrounded. We have already alluded to Wil son's finely attuned sympathies with the misfor tunes to which all " men of woman born" are subject ; hear how eloquently, yet with what unobtrusive sweetness, he reflects upon THE SORROWS OF THE POOR. NORTH : There is something more affecting in the natural sorrows of poor men, my dear Shepherd, as, after a few days' wrestling with affliction, they appear again at their usual work—melancholy, but not miserable. SHEPHERD: You ken a gude deal, sir, about the life and character o' the puir ; but then it's frae philosophical and poetical observation and sympathy—no frae art-and part participation, like mine, in their merriment and their meesery. Folk in what they ca' the upper classes o' society, a' look upon life inair or less, as u scene o' enjoyment, and amusement, and delicht. They get a' selfish in their sensi bilities, and would fain mak the verra laws o' natur obedient to their wull. Thus they cherish and encourage habits o' thocht and feeling that are maist adverse to obedience and resignation to the decrees o' the Almighty—when these decrees dash in pieces small the idols o' their earthy Iworship. NORTH : Too true, alas l my dearest Shepherd. 6 , 4 3