The Press.
London, England, 1853-07-02 00:00:00

THE PRESS.

in the worst sense, popular, are the effusions
from the inspiration of excitable nerves.
There have been great poets and orators who
had not a peculiarly excitable nervous system,
and it is a vulgar fallacy to suppose that the
emotional must largely enter into the mani-
festations of genius. " You will never be an
actor if you play from your nerves," said Mrs.
Sithlons to an actor relying on his " emotional
temperantent." And yet of all voeations that
of an actor might appear to depend most upon
nervous sensibility.
We think, however, that Sir Edward Lytton
has certainly erred in not taking more popular
themes. His subjects. as in the ease of " King
Arthur," have been fre►luently remote from the
aspinttions of our age, anti the atfect ions of the
modern British people. Like Wordsworth. he
has too often invoked the muse when his mood
of mind was not propitious to his visitation, and,
even when he avowedly deals with objective
nature, he has allowed too large a sway to his
own peculi►n• method of viewing human life.
Upon a poetical theme, perfectly in harmony
with his own genius, we think that he could
produce a work that would fitr transcend "King
Arthur," or " The New Tinton." He excels
most in painting those phases of life where
philosophical reflections may be allowed to
intermingle with picturesque description. We
have often thought that no other poet of
modern times could, like Sir Edward Lytton,
fill up, tin• instance, those grand outlines for
an epic poem on " The Reformation" whieh
were found in Gray's papers. On such a theme
we should have great expectations from his
muse.

Limited in our spaee, we eau extract only
two specimens front the present volume. What
a quantity of thought is compressed in this
passage !

TAllxvr AND ovfvtriv.
Talent convinces—lienius hut excites;
This tasks the n•arson, that the soul delights.
Talent front sither jtulgno takes its birth,
And reconciles the pinion to the onilt ;
ienitts unsettles with desires the mind,
I 'ontented not till earth lie left ;
Talent, the sunshine on *cultured soil,
Ripens the fruit, by slow degrees, for toil;
I:twins, the sudden his of the skies,
(in cloud itself reflects its wondrous dies:
And, to the earth, in tears and glory, gii
flag's.. in its airy arch the isonip of !
gives all that vulgar critics need—
Anil frames a howl-kook for the !hill to read ;
fieniiis, the l'ythian of the Itritutiful,
1 AltVeS its large truths a riddle to the
eyes profane a veil the Isis svreens.
And fools on fools still ask—" what liantlet means?"

We have no doubt ithat the pathetic senti•
ment with whieh the following lines are in-
formed has often been felt by many of our
readers
ItEl'afllllAL OW LETTEIII4 WIIITTEN IN WOUTII.
when vaguely thro the autumn hive
Donn the pale scenes last view's in surmise'. skies,
(tut from the mist the thoughts of snotty days
Allot golden youth
Were ye, in truth, my thoughts ?—aloong the years
Flies hack the wondering and incredulous
In the still two:hives of lost hopes and tears
Your date mid tale to Mat.
Gradual RIIII slow, reweaving link to link,
Epowth, and place, imol image it recalls,
And (owns the thoughts it never more eau t
I him pictures in dim halls!
I)im pictures now; and tmee ye breathed and soured,
And took your life as loromilly from the sun
As if immortals l—sehenissl, aspired, and loved,

. .
And sunk to rest ;--slerp on !

As a translator from the Greek, Sir Edward
Lytton has won well-merited praise. We
should rather see his powers applied to original
subjects of the kind that we have previously
mentioned ; nevertheless we may suggest that
a thinslation of the Greek tragedians would
be a precious gift to our literature. Sir Ed-
ward Lytton has all the special aptitude, both
scholarly and artistic, required for P4O difficult
a function. But on this point we may make
some remarks when the volumes containing
his dramas shall I►e under our consideration.

Lockhart's Spanish Ballads. Tsmdmi : Murray.
Jr is very pleasant to see that there is, as in the case
of these celebrated ballads, a popular demand for
standard literature. As we turn over our old favourites
in this half-a-crown edition, we feel lthat, while the
press is producing much that is low, it is counter
acting the evil by also reprinting works in such a
form as enables the multitude of readers to be at

once cheap and classical in their tastes. This edition
has excellent type and paper, and is suited for the
pocket. Wandering in the summer season amid

Fountain hemlr and I.lisuly groves—
Tlio Osiers Willett Isle pitwoou loves,"
we need not wish for a more delightful companion
than a poet who will render in nervous English, like
Mr. Lockhart, the romantic higends a the ballad
literature of Spain. Recollecting the superbly -illus.
tnited edition of these charming poems, we feel
increased pleasure in their being thus made *Teti-
Rible to

The Essays or Counsels, Civil and Moral, with a
Table of' the Colours of Good and Era. By Fran-
el% Bacon, Viseotttlt St. Alban.

The Two Books ig* Francis ltarms on tiw Prlicience
and Advancement of Learning.

1,4,11414 m : Parker and Son.

Tut:sr. two volumes appear as portions of a great and
useful plan, which the editor states to comprise the
" issuing at in►ervals, in a cheap form. some of the
chief works of our great English atither?4." The be-
ginning was well made, some months since, in the
publication of a reprint ol''• Booker~ Ecclesiastical
Polity," and the series is well continued with the
above works of the great father or the inductive
philosophy. The volumes are earefidly edited, eapi
tally got np, presented in a light., available form, and
wonderfully cheap, teen in this ago of cheapness.

Companion to the Railway Edition of toot Cau►p-
bell'x Life of Bartel. London : Chapman tusti
Tilts little volume contains a reprint of the well-
known article published in the E.rosaister on the atlth
of I►eceiuber, ltis2, as we presume, by way of a
Christina/4-Imlx for I,ord t'ampbell, %lib 114111114.1
on his lordship's mode of dealing with its strictures,
which are cuittecingly illustrative of his pretensions as
an author. The e.rpoxotre, for we can call it by no
other 1111111 C, of his lordship's incompetency is $4l)
elaborate, that it might be made the foundation of a
quo Ira rro eft) in the tliteeit's Bench to question his
lordship's right to meddle with English history.

Eureka, No. '2. A Sequel to t Keptol to !dull John
Russell's I'ust. bag. I Icfen4l :.I. Vincent.
Tuts pamphlet. is it sevond instalment of s4llllO
Amble addenda to the Report, of the Oxford
'nix-entity Commission, aml 114 such is respeetfully
iloslieated to iii i "from whom alone of the Heads of
Colleges no answer was received to any of the com-
munications qf the Connaission."—lteport, lingo
Appendix It. Of the maitre of I licso uddendu, its well
its the t-tingullif cifemilstitnecm which they
have come heroin' the public, the I'4l4wing passage
from the letter of Alf. JCIOIO'S tlesshllueu will sink°
for information' :
" In that ere 111t.14.11.1l 11111'1'0 ill while wu was in, Inane
I'aw•ties 1114111//1 likippiell 11111'~ us the left 1114. 1 14stlislisi
residens was eltstrisil 41111. The 111esm le* they
101 10.111111 1111'111 W 1414 poiriligimis, which liming 011.11,41111114
101' 111 e liINWIIIII.III I.lll* 0111' 011. 41141• iv:N.l64ms, I awl my
1 e1)j1111,114 wax 11.11111^slcil 10 set 111111g4 nllllll. 111111 vionliiily
isollis•km the issiters as wits lielig alssit, for the 1.111110/141
1)11 .1.111 to lilt tire4mgmeer 1114 ill j0)14 11111 1:11111i •
111.1111: 1.11 1111. greet Couniervitt iv l'awty 111111 V:1114 emineektud
with our 1 imment. While I wos ilewty a 1 ienkimi of
Illy 111'111111i1111111% 1111110.11 M 111 111.0111 ill, 111101 Ile 1119)1, Myll Ile,
Jeuil:es, if I wils 104 gull IA convert them 4114 k 'llll4 1100
Ulla 11101 11'1 1441 10 that en: gns.ii tier a
palmy 141 a lb.' Knowing my From Chawlus to be a
SO11)1111111, 111111 a 1111411 as klllloll n 1 hull{ 01' 100, 1001'14C
recently hail a sitivatiiin mailer the late liook of %% vitamin'''.
I axed hint down to my club that night,fuld sent on 11111
peeper,' in a plate warmer by it young 1" x'° Its wand
upon UN 1111104.1' KUV 011b4. resilling
on en', I Nee at Imee 4tri he was interested, and' Jennies,'
says he, "fliomi ilokiments must rum before the l'oblin
eye, 1 k1111W)1 1111 11111)111 NIL It's 111111 o•re comislin about
the Il awk stall Gems, UN kith' my poor 1,141 11‘ tier. I woe
poor 41141 Master 'ol4ll at IVarnier .111711 IV, II 144141111 g and a
mailing, and a reading on it, mill I knov44l it 1111 111 1110
111'11111 011 elll 11101 Y. he got it &11u. I Slew 11411,1 ts is bad 14
health and constitution, they causes lowish's; and impairs
disgesti (((( , and blew pills in the consiquents.' Says I,
Chawles, I aunt sanguinary that these pee:pens is wittli any.
thiuk, or theyil louver liven and gone and left till 14,1.44.
Says he ' Darby me Boy," In all these Inkyries, the part
HS they 4114411 publish is tillers 1:111011/4 and interresting
then what they brings alum the. public, so lets 104»11. 110
tivac ill 1100 k ing on um over.' %Ve um ovve, 141111 we
40111114 3111 down a sarmplo which I lutwles sari i 4 missy-
humus, but moistly about a stibc4nuislon KM was 1111141111:11
respo.et spawting matters 1111141118 Colleolge
Clinwles mud self was eyily gratified with *list we read,
both been spawling 1144111, and linewies well acqueented with
Ilawksfuil, huveing fornily hail in linage a Toll eif Christ-
church which had a lionixiiill4 111011101' 1111 %rim
actind he'd be kirupted and perwefted by theta wiekud
scouts."

If the discovery of certain well-known name*
among the tritnesseg cited in th© original report hag
occasioned any lurprim: to the pensive publics thew

210

presence is thus ingeniously accounted for in the
following memorandum:—

" Observing that our list of evidence was not quite what
we could have wished it to have been, we considered it ex-
pedient to put down in our alphabetical index the mimes
of Mr. Bailey Jenks, It. Simmons, the landlord of the
Lamb and Flag, and other eminent gentlemen spirtstnen
to whom our inquiries haul been transmitted, leaving it to
the public to discover that the only answer we received
from these parties was an intimation to the effect, that
they hall HO intention of Wilding any ro tat • with
us whatever. Thus that artful and experienced jockey,
the very father of the turf, poor dear old Joe Martin, who
Mew up Aniseed aky high, aunt said be was only a cum
mom fellow and uu seeretary at all, appears in the index
side by side with our most deturmitied backers. It is lOU,
prising bow much this expedient has eontritotted to the
apparent respectability of our list of evidence, and Ism
many superficial readers have been taken in by it. One
alone of the heads of tmi ll i l it; establishments was too
sharp (Or 115, HIIII n 41111114 sit UlleWer, Or We should err-
wilily have had him diiwn among the rest. Aniseed wrote
a letter Insult billiKeir iu his private capacity to himself as
secretary of the suborn 111 l ission, by which he imparted to
himself inueli valuable inforniuthm ; and, sine tir two of lour
torn body following his example, we were easily provided
with a mass of evidence suffirient for the purpose of our
inquiry."
These addenda also contain some portions of the
evidence in what we may consider its rough state—
harr alio, a letter from Mr. Clackit, M.P. for Old-
castle-over Mine ; from the Devastation Club, Pen-
men; and from It. Whitehead, an Australian
colonist, formerly engaged in the Oxford coaching
business. The latter thus expresses himself in the
vernacular :

" I cant alma r them Oxford couching chaps, every holly
abuses em, and they abut (4)111110.1st to 110 their work.
'They wants more stimulus, tout all 11
a.. ley eaves to is to jo.1:
aliong the rosul, mitil they can get their iii the
evanitrv, where they finds the pat wot suits their eon-
and we hears no tivire fill eat. They (limy sieli
a lazy lot 0 Passengers, that them us wants to brush along
rant make no way along at all. I was hauled disgusted as
how, when I cum nil' the top of a well appinted country
(smelt, and had to take my place upon the monkey hoard
of one o' these here crowded %vehicles, and took to drink
and idleness ilinsediately in consikence. Hut I 144/1.111 got
myself into their way o business. and turned out a tie-
monitions rogue. I drove them ('Mist listrelt Swells lip
and ilgovii Logic Iwo., spite the old I lean, for ten how' a
day, term after term, 411111 1' sl my conch inside and
11111, till we was a must busted. It W 1•1111 altogether
honest quite, • just 10 1111411 as raja 1111'11' fare, 11111.
I was onkimmen hurt up just t 114.11, 111111 being, us all
allows, a find rate hand, had great temptation fiw to over.
load."

" lye knowel OxtOrd Gents out in llorseteiiily in weny
r 111 l my sitiyatimis, for which they wasnt qualified by an
means by a College edieation; sums in partiekler as wf is a
Hoods at 111•VIT hail 'well tnu hl by any college
Tutor how to put a polish on a Ilts4, or tell a Nuggs4
when lie seed it from a like.. 11111lliS, 1 yet he'll !mid
his mooney in Hie Itivrcr every With these
remarks, I am, I kmlititi your obedient. servant,
ItomN Wurrctickn."

These extracts we hare no ►loubt will bespeak
attention to this valuable contribution to our
euritlean literature.

P11111.14..V114)N5.

The Funeral l'rocession of the I)ukr of Wellington.

lAmolon : Ackermann and Co.
A ',Axon: oil is the natural form in which to depict
procession ; anal among processions there were
never any that. better deserved such counmemorati
than the splendid and melancholy pageant which pre-
ceded to Si. l'aul's the funereal car of wetiington. The
component parts of that-long cavalcaule--t he represen-
tatives and emblems by which Church anal State,
Queen and People, the Sen lees, the City, the lin-
vernment, the Empire itself, alike partook in
the sad glories of that day---are represented
with great acenntey in the panoramic view
before us. Without pretending tat artistic finish
in drawing or tint, the successive groups of
military, state, or civic assistants are very
effectively portrayed, much care being evident in pre-
serving the fidelity of sequence and costume. The
panorama is magnificently mounted, and will give a
graphic idea of the memorable spectacle to the mul
titudes who were Mot present- Ilt, it, and suggest
mournful and yet not unpleasing reminiscences to
the multitudes who were.

The Alphabet Annotated, and Hint* 'Ton Slip-slop.
By an Old Etonian. London Ackermann and Co.
pretence of vivifying isuiversation from
vulgarism and misprominciat ion, the author has strung
together a multitude of specimens of both offences in
lloggrel veNe, and set them in a frame of very elabo-
rate and fanciful design. Thus the words or blun-
ders meat' sl in the text find illustration in the
margin, generally of a burlesque tendency. mil often
sufficiently laughable. For example, the ineffectual
II in " honour" is symbolised by a candidate pledg-
ing himself on the hWings, and the treatment in-

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