The Press.
London, England, 1857-07-11 00:00:00

THE PRESS, JULY 11,1857.

vol. iii. R. 509 ; Priestly's Memoirs, vol. i. pp. 127, 128,
440, vol. ii. p. 751 ; Cappe's Memoirs, p. 367; Nichors Lit.
Anec. of Eighteenth Century, vol. iv. p. 671, vol. viii. p. 473 ;
Nichors Must. of Lit. Hist. vol. v. p. 640 ; Combc's Notes on
the United Stales, vol. ii. pp. 171, 172, 183.
But an index-maker might add 9 couple of
pages more of references in the same style,
and, what is more to the point, another index-
maker could fill pages of references to show
the increase of religion. The tone of society
at London and Paris is the best answer to the
increase of scepticism alleged by this author.
But we cite the foregoing note as a sample of
his manner, and in index-learning he is a pro-
ficient.
Alluding to the invention of gunpowder, we
have this note :

The consequences of the invention of gunpowder are
considered very superficially by Frederick Schlegel
(Lectures on the History of Literature, vol. ii. pp. 37, 38),
and by Dugald Stewart (Philosophy of the Mind, vol. i. p.
282). They are examined with much greater ability,
though by no means exhaustively, in Smith's Wealth of
Nations, book v. chap. i. pp. 292, 298, 297; Herder's Ideen
tar Geschichte der Menschheit, vol. iv. p. 301 ; Hallam 's
Middle Ages, vol. ii. p. 470.
But surely Frederick Schlegel and Dugald
Stewart could not enter at length in such
works upon the invention of gunpowder. Mr.
Buckle does not know that digressions damage
the directness of purpose which ought to be
looked for in every great work.
Of his style of thinking with reference to
famous individuals, we shall take him upon
George 111., Edmund Burke, and Voltaire :
This reactionary movement was greatly aided by the
personal character of George 111. • for be, being despotic
as well as superstitous, was equally anxious to extend the
prerogative, and strengthen the Church. Every liberal
sentiment, every thing approaching to reform, nay, even
the mere mention of irquity, was an abomination in the
eyes of that narrow and ignorant prince. Without know.
ledge, without taste, without even a glimpse of one of the
sciences, or afeeling for one of the fine arts, education had
done nothing to enlarge a mind which nature had more than
usually contracted. Totally ignorant of the history and
resources of foreign countries, and barely knowing their
geographical position, his information was scarcely more
extensive respecting the people over whom he was called
to rule. In that immense mass of evidence now extant,
and which consists of every description of private corre-
spondence, records of private conversationl and of public
acts, there is not to be found the slightest proof that he
knew any one of those numerous things which the
governor of a country ought to know ' • or, indeed, that he
was acquainted with a single duty of his position, except
that mere mechanical routine of ordinary business, which
might have been effected by the lowest clerk in the
meanest office in his kingdom.
- -

This sort of cant we thought was obsolete.
George 111. would not be the slave of the
Whig faction, and its writers have never ceased
abusing him. King George did not set up for
the character of a scholar upon the smattering
of mechanics' institutes, and we may admit
that he was not skilled in literary accomplish-
ments; but he knew how to rule himself and,
others. ' He was a brave man, an honest man,
and a pious man ; and it is truly disgusting,
at this time of day, to find a writer branding
his piety as " superstition." The effect pro-
duced by his conscientious character, and by
his strict morality, was of prodigious benefit in
the relaxed and degenerate morality of the
eighteenth century. He reverenced his God,
he was faithful to his kingly obligations, and
he felt for his people like a true English king ;
and that people enthusiastically repaid him
with an homage never given to any sovereign
since Elizabeth. They revered his simple
virtues, his manly disregard of the vices and
frippery and empty tinsel of Court life ; and
when the revolutionary storm came, King
George sat on an unshaken throne.

We suppose that Mr. Buckle, and pedants of
his kind, would prefer a James 1., or a King of
Bavaria, to a sovereign like George 111. But
the people of England do not want their kings
to be pedagogues or public writers. King
George, after some years of obloquy, became
a great national favourite, and the " reason
why " is not difficult to discover. He was an
excellent specimen of an Englishman, and a
good type of the people whom he ruled. He
had the merits and prejudices of the English
character. If he was bola to his foes, he was
faithful to his friends. He was a pious Chris-
tian and an honest Protestant. Popularity
followed him, though he never ran after it.
In an ago of infidelity, he was a believer ; in
an ago of voluptuousness, he was undebauehed ;
in the midst of calumny, slander, and faction,
104 14emI wse 444ttuated. no livo4 to trittluph

over his foes, and he did so amidst the acclaim
of an empire. From his own pocket he pro-
vided for the wants of the children of his arch-
enemy, Lord Chatham ; and was it not like
just retribution that, after being vilified by
the first Pitt, King George should have
been served by the son of his personal enemy,
developed into a thorough Tory, and for seven-
teen years the dutiful servant of the Crown ?
As there is ignorant depreciation of George
111., so there is ignorant admiration of Burke
shown by this author. Burke can be quoted
on both sides of the question, and there are
many passages in his life of an equivocal cha-
racter. His genius and acquisitions of know-
ledge, and his powers as a great writer, are
beyond dispute. But Mr. Buckle does not
know all that is to be said against Burke.
Was he safe, and to be relied on ? Were his
views on India adopted by the country?
Where is the practical measure ever drawn up
by his hand ? Had he temper to lead a
party ? Did he not use vituperation to excess,
and refuse to be responsible? Were there not
many personal faults (to be touched with the
reverence due to the infirmities of genius) in
Edmund Burke that greatly detracted from
his vast powers? It is strange. also, that Mr.
Buckle, who admires " scepticism " so much,
and rails so often at " superstition," should
go into ecstasies about Burke, who would
deride the " philosophy " of such a writer as
that before us.
Voltaire is an object of Mr. Buckle's enthu-
siastic admiration. He writes :

There is, indeed, something extraordinary in the
change which, in France, one generation was able to effect
in the method of writing history. The beet way, perhaps,
to form an idea of this, will be to compare the works of
Voltaire with those of Bossnet; because these great
authors were probably the most able, and were certainly
the most influential, Frenchmen during the period they
respectively represented. The first great improvement
which we find is Voltaire, as compared with Bonnet, is
an increased perception of the dignity of the human intel-
lect. In addition to the circumstances already noticed,
we must remember that the reading of Bossnet lay in a
direction which prevented him from feeling this. He had
not studied those branches of knowledge where great things
have been achieved ; but he was very conversant with
the writings of the saints and fathers, whose speculations
are by no means calculated to give us a high opinion of
the resources of their own understanding. Thus accus-
tomed to contemplate the workings of the mind in what
is, on the whole, the most puerile literature Europe has
ever produced, the contempt which Bonnet felt for man-
kind went on increasing; until it reached that inordinate
degree which, in his later works, is painfully conspicuous.
But Voltaire, who paid no attention to such things as
these, passed his long life in the constant accumulation of
real and available knowledge. His mind was essentially
modern. Despising unsupported authority, and heedless
of tradition, he devoted himself to subjects in which the
triumph of the human reason is too apparent to be mis-
taken. The more his knowledge advanced, the more he
admired those vast powers by which the knowledge had
been created. Hence his admiration for the intellect of
man, so far from diminishing, grew with his growth ; anti
just in the same proportion, there was strengthened his
love of humanity, and his dislike to the prejudices which
had long obscured its history. That this, in the march of
his mind, was the course it actually followed, will be evi-
dent to any one who considers the different spirit of his
works, in reference to the different periods of life in which
they were produced.
A passage like this (and there are many such
in the volume) could never stand criticism.
" The dignity of the human intellect" is an
unfortunate phrase as applied to Voltaire, who
was totally deficient in the faculty of venera-
tion. Mr. Buckle has no knowledge of the
fathers of the Church, else he would not pro-
nounce their writings " the most puerile
" literature Europe has ever (!) produced ;" and
elsewhere Mr. Buckle says of Voltaire :
I have been the more particular in stating the
immense obligations history is under to Voltaire, because
in England there exists against him a prejudice, which
nothing but ignorance, or something worse than igen.
ranee, can excuse ; and because, taking him on the whole,
he is probably the greatest historian Europe has yet pro.
duced.
An author commits himself by such extrava-
gance. Voltaire introduced the pamphleteer,
ing mode of writing history. The grave,
measured, and dignified style was entirely
beyond his appreciation. He wished that
history should be light, sparkling, and
popularly readable. But there are long series
of events which cannot be treated in a sharp,
smart, lively style.
There are many passages scattered through
this enormous volume which run counter
to the feelings and prejudices of the majority
I of our gnglitich pqbliat an 4 which 4rl

likely to be distasteful. We have no desire
to put a young author on a literary rack,
and we allow some latitude to the wild
speculations of an immature thinker. Mr.
Buckle's mind is a vast catalogue of books ;
he is a cycloptedia on two legs ; and it would
be an amusing subject for speculation whether
a young gentleman of his type could over fall
in love. We should like to hear him attempt
table-talk with three or four young ladies,
and see how far his research would help him
against the village curata and the militia lieu-
tenant. His dedication rune, "To my mother
" I dedicate this the first volume of my first
" work "—five volumes squeezed into one,
and still nothing but a " General Introduction."
Mrs. Buckle by this time must knew that her
son is "out," in a publisher's sense; and the
author's friends may congratulate him on
having manufactured the biggest book seen
for many a day. What Bentley said of War-
burton's "Divine Legation" is applicable to
Mr. Buckle,—" This man has an enormous
" appetite, but very bad digestion."

Essays, Critical and Imaginative. By Pro-

fessor Wilson. Vol. IV. London : Black-

woods.
THE latest volume of these essays is devoted
entirely to classical subjects—" Homer and
his Translators," and the "Agamemnon of
.lEschylus." We need scarcely say that on the
first-mentioned subject Wilson is thoroughly
at home. There is something Homeric in the
man himself; and his appreciation of the old
heroes, as well as of the spirit of the bard
who sung their deeds, is something far trans-
cending that which men of refined natures
and pure taste almost invariably entertain fur
them. What Byron is to some men, Words-
worth to others, and Tennyson to a third class,
that Homer seems to have been to Christo-
pher North. But, notwithstanding his
thorough comprehension of, and jealousy for,
the beauties of the Greek original, both as a
scholar and a poet, he was too catholic-
minded at man to join in that depreciation of
his translators which has so long been the
fashion, and he has accordingly devoted a long
and very careful essay to a comparison of
their merits, which cannot fail in some degree
to reinstate them in popular estimation.
The most remarkable feature in the essay,
taken as a whole, is the superiority assigned
to the version of Sotheby ; and although we
are pleased to see somewhat tardy justice dis
pensed to that elegant waiter, yet we cannot
help thinking that Wilson's chivalry has in one
or two instances blinded his judgment. We
shall give one or two specimens of his mode
of criticism, regretting that he is too full and
lengthy on every remarkable passage to allow
of our doing more.
In the celebrated scene between Hector and
Andromache, Pope, Cowper, and Sotheby are
thus criticised. We select only the translation
of a particular couplet :

Yet while my Hector still survives, I see
My father, mother, brethren, ell in thee.
Alas! my parents, brothers, kindred, all.
Once more will perish, if my husband fall.

The first two lines are almost, but not quite perfect—for
we miss in them the two endearing words that, to Hector's
ear, must hive been the most affecting of all—the words
that conclude the two most comprehensive lines ever love
breathed—SaxicO; Traeccsoi-ruc," and thou art my blooming
spouse !" While the last two lines—which contain the
word desiderated in its proper place, " husband "—are too
ingenious by far, and copied injudiciously from Chapman
and Dryden, and, after all, liker Abraham Cowley than
Dan Homer. The rest of Andromache's speech is, with
the exception of the first two lines of it, well done ; and
the two concluding lines, though not in Homer, make an
affecting and a natural close, and may be more than for-
given.

But how doth Cowper conquer the two immortal lines,
and reduce !them under the English yoke ? How stands
he the Test?

All these are lost—but In thy wedded love,
My faithful Hector—l regain thorn all.
Here the meaning, the feeling, the passion is doubtless
transfused into a comprehensive power of " English unde-
filed." The lines are good and great lines—and workby of
Cowper. But Homer's, though not greater—not so great
—are better, for there is a tenderness in the words he puts
into Andromache's lips, which surpasses all other merit.
Cowper says 'call these are lost ;" but Homer gives us all
these" themselves—over again—and in a heap—at once
IRlPPepaive and clustering

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