The Press.
London, England, 1858-10-09 00:00:00

THE PRESS, OCTOBER 9,1858.

he was only acting in accordance with the spirit
of the age. On the subject of Puritanism and
Sir W. Scott, we would beg to call the reviewer's
attention to a passage upon that question in a
weekly contemporary* of the date of Sept. 18th,
in which Sir Walter's testimonies to the worth
of Puritanism are all brought together, in rebuttal
of Mr. Sanford's charges of unfairness. One
more remark, and we have done. At page 410
of this article we find one of those Oaring
traits of partiality of which Mr. Sanford and
all his class of writers are so unconscious,
while so ready to charge others with the same
fault. Of the men who refused to push Reform
into Rebellion the reviewer says :—" They could
" not add to their faith patience, and condoned
" the errors of the King because they could not
" stomach equality with the King's opponents."
Now, pray, why ? What right in the world have
we to impute these motives to men like Falkland
and hioutrose ? Will any one tell us that a man
of Strafford's calibre had any reason to be jealous
of Pym? Montrose of Argyle? or Falkland of
Essex? But the Royalists must be in the wrong,
forsooth, at any price ! And this gross imputation
of superfluous motives is the price which even the
National is willing to pay.—The next article of
note is on Mr. Charles Dickens. The two prin-
cipal conclusions that we carry away from it are
not strikingly novel, yet the whole paper is both
interesting and useful That Mr. Charles
Dickens belongs to the order of irregular rather
than of symmetrical geniuses, and that his best
characters are caricatures, are opinions we have
long held without being proud of our originality.
It is the way in which the paper is worked out,
and the style in which it is written, that make it
such pleasant reading. Here are some ex-
amples :

He has a very peculiar power of taking hold of some
particular traits, and making a character out of them. He
is especially apt to incarnate particular professions in this
way. Many of his people never speak without some
allusion to their occupation. You cannot separate them
from it. Nor does the writer ever separate them. What
would Mr. Mould be if not an undertaker? or Mrs. Gamp
if not a nurse? or Charley Rates if not a pickpocket? Not
only is human nature in them subdued to what it works
in, but there seems to be no nature to subdue ; the whole
character is the idealization of a trade, and is not in fancy
or thought distinguishable from it. Accordingly, of neces•
city, such delineations become caricatures. We do not in
general contrast them with reality ; but as soon as we do,
we are struck with the monstrous exaggerations which they
present. You could no more fancy Sam Weller, or Mark
Tapley, or the Artful I)odger really existing, walking about
among common ordinary men and women, than you can
fancy a talking duck or a writing bear. They are utterly
beyond the pale of ordinary social intercourse. We sus-
pect, in.laed, that Mr. Dickens does not conceive his
characters to himself as mixing in the society he mixes
in. He sees people in the street, doing certain things,
talking in a certain way, and his fancy petrifies them in
the act. He goes on fancying hundreds of reduplications
of that act and that speech ; he frames an existence in
which there is nothing else but that aspect which attracted
his attention.

• • • • a
Mr. Pickwick moves easily over all the surface of
English life from Goswell•street to Dingley Dell, from
I)ingley Dell to the Ipswich elections, from drinking milk •
punch in a wheelbarrow to sleeping in the approximate
pound, and no one ever thinks of applying to him the
ordinary maxims which we should apply to any common
person in life, or to any common personage in a fiction.
Nobody thinks it is wrong in Mr Pickwick to drink too
much milk•punch in a wheelbarrow, to introduce worth-
less people of whom he knows nothing to the families of
people for whom he really cares ; nobody holds him respon-
sible for the consequences ; nobody thinks there is any
thing wrong in his taking Mr. 13cb Sawyer and Mr. Ben•
jamin Allen to visit Mr. Winkle senior, and thereby almost
irretrievably offending him with his son's marriage. We
do not reject moral remarks such as these, hut they never
occur to as. Indeed the indistinct consciousness that

such observations are possible, and that they are hovering
&bent our minds, enhances the humour of the narrative.
We are in a conventional world, where the mere elliliVad
of common life do not apply, and yet which has all the
amusing detail, and picturesque elements, and singular
eccentricities of common life. Mr. Pickwick is a per-
sonified ideal; a kind of amateur in life, whose course
we watch through all the circumstances of ordinary
existence, and at whose follies we are amused just as
really skilled people are at the mistakes of an amateur
in their art. His being in the pound is not wrong; his
being the, victim of Messrs. Dodson is not foolish. " Always
shout with the mob," said Mr, Pickwick. " But suppose
there are two mobs," said Mr. Snodgrass. " Then shoat
with the loudest," said Mr. Pickwick. This is not in him
weakness or time-serving, or want of principle, as in most
even of fictitious people it would be. It is his way.
• • • • •
At the same time it is essential to remember, that how.
ever great may be and is the charm of such exaggerated
personifications, the best specimens of them are immensely
less excellent, belong to an altogether lower range of intel-
lectual achievements, than the real depiction of actual

• Literary Gazes'..

living men. It is amusing to read of beings out of the
laws of morality, but it is more profoundly interesting, as
well as more instructive, to read of those whose life in its
moral conditions resembles our own. We see this most
distinctly when the representations are given by the genius
of the same writer. Falstaff is a sort of sack.holding
paunch, an exaggerated overdevelopment which no one
thinks of holding down to the commonplace rules of the
ten commandments and the atatute•law. We do not think
of them in connection with hint They belong to a world
apart. Accordingly we are vexed when the king discards
him and reproves him. Such a fate was a necessary ad•
herence on Shakespeare's part to the historical tradition ;
he never probably thought of departing from it, nor would
his audience have perhaps endured his doing so. But to
those who look at the historical plays as pure works of
imaginative art, it seems certainly an artistic misconception
to have developed so marvellous an unmoral impersona-
tion, and then to have subjected it to an ethical and pnnitive
judgment. Still, notwithstanding this error, which was
very likely inevitable, Falstaff is probably the most remark.
able specimen of caricature representation to be found in
literature. And its very excellence of execution only shows
how inferior is the kind of art which creates only such
representations. Who could compare the genius, marvel-
lous as must be its fertility, which was needful to create a
Falstaff with that shown in the higher productions of the
same mind in Hamlet, Ophelia, and Lear? We feel in-
stantaneously the difference between the aggregating
accident which rakes up from the externalities of life other
accidents analogous to itself, and the central ideal of a
real character which cannot show itself wholly in any acci.
dents, but which exemplifies itself partially in many, whish
unfolds itself gradually in wide spheres of action, and yet,
as with those we know beat in life, leaves something hardly
to be understood, and after years of familiarity is a problem
and a difficulty to the last. in the same way the embodied
characteristics and grotesque exaggerations of Mr. Dickens,
notwithstanding all their !tumour and all their marvellous
abundance, can never be fur a moment compared with the
great works of the real painters of essential human nature.
In his depreciation of Mr. Dickens's young ladies
we think the reviewer goes too far. 'We admit,
however, that he is faulty in this respect, and
would hint that the defect may possibly be con-
nected with the following one :
His works nowhere indicate that he possesses in any
degree the passive taste which decides what is good in the
writings of other people and what is not, and which per.
forms the same critical duty upon a writer's own efforts
when the confusing mists of productive imagination have
passed away. Nor has Mr. Dickens the gentlemanly
instinot which in many minds supplies the place of purely
critical discernment, and which, by constant association
with those who know what is best, acquires a secondhand
perception of that which is best. He has no tendency
to conventionalism for good or for evil ; his merits are far
removed from the ordinary path of writers, and it was not
probably so much effort to him as to other men to step so
far out of that path : he scarcely knew how far it was.
For the same reason he cannot tell how faulty his writing
will often be thought, for he cannot tell what people will
think.

The concluding paper, on " Professional Reli-
gion," is a snarling Dissenter's diatribe, and calls
for no further comment. We have passed over
two or three papers of special rather than general
interest, not because we have any doubt of the
ability with which they are executed, but because
the present number demands all the space we
could afford for subjects with which every reader
can sympathize.

The National Magazine this month gives a very
good entertainment. Among the best papers are
" Flower Gossip," a nice readable cenversational
essay, as the name imports ; an excellent story by
Holme Lee, called " Not Married for Love ;" some
useful observations on Russia by Mr. Sutherland
Edwatids ; and a good copy of verses by Mr. Thorn-
bury, called " The Epicurean's Garden." Two good
engravings are " Rabbit Shooting " and " The
Trooper's Stable."
The October number of the Art Journal is not
less attractive than usual. We have three beautiful
illustrations—viz., " The Foot-bath," being a very
pretty girl and her maid, with that useful domestic
utensil, the foot-pan, the former just showing enough
of a shapely leg and angle to tantalize us ; " The
Old Mill," a picturesque little rural fragment; and a
fine engraving of Pat, accompanied by a suitable
memoir. In a paper on the Princess's Theatre, the
editors announce their intention of opening their
columns to a detailed notice of Mr. Charles Rean's
Shakspearian revivals, all of which he intends to
reproduce in the final year of his occupancy. The
present paper is a critique of his King Lear and The
Merchant of Venice, and is highly favourable to Mr.
Kean. " The Book of the Thames," by Mr. and
Mrs. S. C. Hall, has now got as far down as the
Dreadnought, and though the parts of the river to
many people the most interesting are now passed,
the book is still almost as pleasant reading as ever.
The Englishwoman's Journal has now reached its
eighth number, and may fairly be supposed to have
passed through all the perils of infancy. " Domestic
Life " is a lively and truthful article, and the series of
" Female Artists " is continued by an inisraining

memoir of Mlle. de Fanveau, about whom we sup-
pose the generality of English readers know very
little. The remaining papers are of average
merit.

Titan contains an amusing and thoroughly true
paper called "My First Lock-up," from which we
make the following extracts :

PuLICEMAN.
We came upon a small knot of people looking on with
blank faces at a woman lying on the ground, whom two
policemen—officers, I ought to call them—were attempt-
ing to drag away. I would gladly have hurried past, but
the " addition " insisted on an investigation of the circum-
stances. Certainly I saw the policeman kick this wretched
creature; certainly they dragged her along the pavement
by the arms, and struck her, till she rose upon her feet.
She was intoxicated, I have no doubt of it. She may
have been disorderly, for aught I know; but she was a
woman, and my blood boiled to see her treated like a dog.
Trembling with indignation and nervousness, and
hating popularity, but drawn into it like a moth to the
flame, I, Sydebotham—l, the quiet man, gave vent to my
feelings, and, addressing tha " Akers," said,—
" Taks care of her ; remember she is a woman."
" fake that man into custody," was the immediate
answer, and the next moment I was pinioned by a third
menial of the law.

THE MAGISTRATE.

My case came on at last ; and I had the pleasure of
being again put in the dock with the wretched creature
I had interceded for. She was fined five
and dismissed. My case was evidently far more im-
portant.,
As the policeman in the box repeated the false account
he had given before the inspector, I considered it due to
myself to cross-examine him. I had reason to regret this
measure. Stingem, who was all politeness at first, in-
terrupted me impatiently. He was evidently annoyed at
being kept longer than necessary. "If you intend to be
your own counsel," he said, " I should advise you to seek
professional assistance." Of course the policeman re-
turned a flat denial to all my questions, and I was about to
call my witness when Stingem again interfered.
" On your own admission," be said, " 1 can decide the
case. I am amazed to find that a man of your cloth "(I
looked at my quiet, black frock-coat) " should attempt to
rescue the creature at sour side, whom you dignify by the
name of woman. I cannot sufficiently reprobate your con-
duct," and so on for some five minutes. I was astonished at
the loud tones and emphatic manner he employed, but I
soon perceived that he was speaking for the press, repre
rented by two somewhat scrubby gentlemen at my right
hand. He concluded by fining me forty shillings, and I
left the court.

The same evening I was amused to read a highly-
coloured account of the proceedings in an evening paper,
in which, for the first time in my life, I was described as a
" fashionably-attired individual."
We had a good laugh at home over the whole affair ; bat
I can assure you that if my first lock-up has made me a
wiser man, It has also added not a little to the sad view one
is forced sometimes to take of human nature, and raised in
me a distrust of the police of which I was innocent
before.

The Gordian Knot and Davenport Dunn both in-
crease in interest, and, as we have before said, seem
likely to prove better than anything hitherto given to
the world by their talented authors.

A Compendium of History from the Creation to the
Commencement of the Christian Era. By A. H.
London : Hamilton.
ALTHOUOII somewhat more than three thousand
years have elapsed since "The Preacher" com-
plained that of the making of books there was no
end, the nuisance has certainly not abated with the
progress of time. A notable instance of bookmaking
now lies before us. The compiler affects to have
supplied a want frequently regretted by " persons
engaged in tuition "—that of a " concise and simple
" work on history, which should at once comprehend
" in one consecutive train all the leading and most
" important facts, and unincumbered by dry and
" wearisome details." But bow does the reader
imagine this " obvious void " has been filled up ?
Simply by abridging so much of Rollin's "Ancient
History " as refers to the affairs of Greece from
the earliest times to the death of Cleopatra.
Many passages, indeed, are appropriated without
even a verbal alteration, and still more are dis-
tinguishable only by a slight transposition of the
clauses of a sentence. Then, this compendious
history disposes of Egypt in a single page, and
of the Assyrian empire in three—without any
attempt being made to turn to account the re-
searches of modern travellers. Of the Romans no
notice whatever is taken until they were mixed up
with the affairs of Greece, while the other nations of
antiquity are all equally consigned to an impartial
oblivion. A page suffices for the expo 'don of the
Grecian mythology, and four are devoted o the seven
wise men ; while the "succinct accoun f the poets
" and other illustrious men of Greece" embraces 110
more than Homer, Herotiotus, Hesiod, Archilochus,
Stesichorus, Simonides, Anacreon, Thespis, and
Sappho. Still, if there be any one who desires to
become familiar with the spirit and—we may add—
the letter of Rollin's History without that amount of

study which bas been pronounced a " weariness of the
ossi
flesh;' he may pbly find that desire gratified in
A. IL
this compendium by

God is Love. London : Dayton and Co.
Tins is one of those religious volumes of which we
understand that the sale is something prodigious.
If so, the author may well dispense with eulogy ;
and we shall therefore content ourselves with saying
that, no doubt, for persons in affliction or adversity,
this little volume will be found a consolatory and
sustaining resource.

Poems. By William Tidd Matson. London :
Groombridge.

- - -
IVE have little to add to the opinion we formerly
expressed of Mr. Matson's poetry. tie is a man of
highly-cultivated taste, and has a mind well stored
with poetical associations and images. These qualities
will generally enable a writer to depict his emotions
in smooth and agreeable verse, and Mr. Matson is
certainly no exception. His versification is strikingly
fluent, and reminds us occasionally of the peculiar
rhythm of Longfellow. We should especially select
in illustration of these remarks the " Lament of an
Old Man," "By the Seaside," "Love Benighted,"
from Anacreon, and "Lady Alice Fleming." The
book is nicely got up, and is certainly above the ave-
rage of the ruck of poetry.

PUBLICATIONS RECEIVED.
BOOKS.

Fallen Heroes of the Indian War. A Poem. By John V.
The English Cookery Book. By J. H. Walsh, F.R.C.S.—

- Routledge.
Indio; an Historical Sketch. By Rev. Geo. Trevor, M.A.
—Religious Tract Society.
Memoir of Joseph Curtis, a Model Man. By the Author
of "Means and Ends.""—Sampson Low.
A Memoir, Letters, and Diary of the Rev. Henry S.
Pole!) =pion M.A —Bentley.
Gordon of Duncairn. A Novel.—Bentley.
A Handbook for Travellers in Syria and Palestine. Parts
I. and 11.—Murray
The Descendants of the Stuarts ; An Unchronicled Page
in England's History. By Wm. Townend.—Longmans.

The Church: its Mission, Government, and (Worship.—

Triibner.
Reply to the Statement of the Directors of the Atlantic
Teleg►aph Company.—Bradbury and Evans.
4 Test Book for Students. By the Rev. Thomas Stantial,
M.A.—Bell and Laldy.
Hollingsworth and Modern Poetry.—Freeman.
Elementary Notes on the History of France. By Mrs.
Edmunds.—Tallant and Allen.

The Quarterly Journal of Dental Science.
Tait's Edinburgh Magazine.
London University Magazine.
Meliora.
The Money Bag.

zric arts.