The Press.
London, England, 1858-11-13 00:00:00

littrature.

Curiosities of Literature. By Isaac Disraeli.
A New Edition. Edited, with Memoir and
Notes, by his Son, the Right Hon. B. Disraeli,
Chancellor of her Majesty's Exchequer. In
Three Vols. Vol. HI. London : Routledge.
ONE, of the greatest merits that any work can
possess is that of setting an example, by intro-
ducing a new school of composition. English
literature did not particularly affect the exhibi-
tion of ana in the French and Italian fashion ;
and we think that the "Curiosities of Literature"
may be cited as an instance in which the de-
scriptive talents of a popular essayist are happily
combined with the quaint knowledge and out-of-
the-way research of the compiler of ana. The
title of the work, also, contributed to its success,
and seldom did a work so well answer its title-
page. Almost every article in the three volumes
is " curious " in some respect or another ; and
with the table-talk in Boswell's Johnson, and the
lively letters of Horace Walpole, the " Curiosities
of Literature" may be placed—always various
and always new, and fit for being perused in
almost any mood of mind. The amenity of its
composer, his easy temper, his suave regard for
the cheerful views of life, diffuse an agreeable
spirit through its pages such as cannot be looked
for amidst the compilations of profounder thinkers
who were crabbed in their thoughts and inelegant
in their style.
It may be, perhaps, true that literature of this
kind is more relaxing than bracing, more amusing
than instructive, more "bizarre" than brilliant.
But Literature, like the Arts, has a great variety
of branches in which genius and taste can display
their resources. Because we admire the works of
the sculptor, the painter, and the architect, we
are not therefore to hold lightly the talents of a
carver like Grinling Gibbons, or the triumphs in
gardening of Le -Notre, or Capability Brown.
Lord Macaulay may thunder out his invective
against Horace Walpole, yet " Strawberry Hill,"
with its picturesque accessories, " curiosities " of
antiquity, and rich illustrations of bygone days,
could only have been produced by a virtuoso;
and the witty Frenchman was right in calling
Abbotsford " a romance in stone and mortar."
Isaac Disraeli's " Curiosities of Literature" was
something more, and less (if we may use the
facon de parler), than the magnum opus of a
great author. lie showed himself in it as a vir-
tuoso on paper. He brought odd knowledge
from musty folios, and made it sparkle in his own
gracefully light setting; he took us over contro-
versial themes, but never lost his temper ; he
showed us various sides of disputed critical ques-
tions, but puzzled neither himself nor his readers
in endeavouring to explain the intricate enigmas
of philosophy.
As we said in our former notices, we must
regard the " Curiosities " from the point of view
in which the work was composed, and we must
not look to find in it the decisive gravity of tone,
the judicial weight and fairness that mark the
writings of Mr. Hallam. The " Curiosities " is
a work which might be attacked by one trained
in the narrow and unfair rules of Lord Jeffrey's
school of criticism. That eminent reviewer was
fond of disparaging works of merit, because they
were something different in kind from what he
expected. lie disparaged Scott's poetry because it
was conversant with Border warfare and illus-
trative of Gaelic traditions and habits, and did
not belong to the moral school of Pope and
Crabbe ; whereas a sounder and fairer critic
would, in weighing Scott's merits as a poet, be
content to have inquired, " Has his verse the
resonant energy required for ballad poetry, for
describing the combats of Gaelic chieftains, and
painting the ever changing colours of the hill
and dale of Highland scenery ?" In Art criticism,
it is an established canon that works must be
criticised from the point of view in which they
were designed ; and we certainly think that in
critical literature the same rule ought to hold
Food. Has the author been just to his own
ideas ? Is his learning original or borrowed ? Is
his labour genuine, or is he an artful dealer in
rhetorical mosaic ? Such are the questions always
open to critics, and affording :to ample scope to
their acuteness, their knowledge, and their faculty
for judicial appraisal of literary merits.