The Press.
London, England, 1854-01-21 00:00:00

JANUARY 21, 1854.

no doubt that in America it will be extremely
valuable. In the matter of the fine arts
Brother Jonathan is in a state of utter dark
ness—in fact, more than a century behind his
relatives on this side of the Atlantic. As he
generally prefers the works of his own country-
men to those of foreigners, we trust he may
peruse these volumes with assiduity, and
thereby get himself into training to learn the
rudiments of a subject of which he is at pre-
sent deplorably ignorant. In the politics of
art Mr. Hillard may be most justly described
as a "moderate." Though he has had but
few opportunities of acquiring the requisite
knowledge to constitute himself a superior
critic, his observations upon many of
the great works are often written with point
and effect. Where, however, he steps out of
the beaten path his judgment is more ques
tionable. Thus we find the following remarks
on the Venus de' Medici and the Apollo
Belvedere, which, to say the least, have the
merit of originality
The Venus de' Medici is the presiding genius of the
place. She faces the door, and from her central position,
and the general inclination of her figure, seems extending
a gracious welcome to all who enter. I hardly dare to set
down the impressions which this celebrated statue made
upon me. The courage with which Cobbett assails the
ripremacy of Shakespeare is a quality of doubtful value,
all not to admire the Venus de' Medici seems a solecism
is taste nearly as singular. Perhaps my expectations were
r dsed too high for any form hewn from marble to reach ;
at auy rate, with a feeling like that of a single dissenting
juryman in an exciting case, 1 confess to a disappointment
at first, which, though lessened by subsequent visits, never
entirely disappeared. The statue is but four feet eleven
inches in height, which gives a sort of doll-like character
to the whole figure. The hands—a modern restoration—
are unnecessarily bad ; the head is small in proportion to
the body ; and there is a sort of vacant simper upon the
face. There is certainly wonderful beauty in the undu-
lating outline of the whole form. The lines flow into each
other as softly and delicately as if the winds of summer
had moulded the frame. But this seems hardly enough to
call forth the raptures into which so many intellectual men
have fallen over her. Admirable as was the workmanship,
the expression had in it more of earth than of heaven. It
was not a goddess, unconscious alike of her beauty and
her nakedness—into whose bosom no ray of human passion
or human weakness had ever darted—but a lovely woman,
who knew her power, and enjoyed her triumphs.

The Apollo Belvedere provokes criticism, because it ap•
pears to defy it. It seems to ma to bear the same relation
ti the works of the school of Phidias that Euripides does
to Sophocles. Beauty is beginning to be divorced from
simplicity. There is—shall I speak the word ?—a little of
the flue gentleman about the Apollo ; and in the expres-
sion there seems to be a gleam of satisfaction reflected
from the admiration which his beauty awakens. There is
not enough of the serene unconsciousness of the immortal
g As. The disdain and triumph of the countenance are
those of a mortal who had doubted his aim, and was sur-
prised at his success. And then the attitude, what does it
mean? Does an archer ever hold up his right arm after
discharging the arrow ? The glory of the statue is its airy
movement. The chest seems to dilate, and the figure to
grow tall, before the spectator's eyes. The admirable
lightness and elasticity of the form are, in a great measure,
lost in casts. There are, doubtless, finer statues in the
world than the Apollo—works proceeding from a deeper
vein of sentiment, and breathing a more simple grandeur
—but there are none more fascinating. In this statue,
more than in any other work in marble, we recognise the
grace and animation of a living form ; a sympathetic
charm which every one can feel.
The concluding chapters, 28 and 29,
which are devoted to a short account of
celebrated travellers and writers upon Italy,
are very instructive, and will prove very useful
to those who are anxious to make themselves
acquainted with the opinions and powers of
criticism of modern travellers of reputation.

Letters from Sarawak ; addressed to a Child. By
Mrs. M'Dougall. London : Grant and Griffith.
As we see " third thousand " marked on the titlepage,
we presume this pretty little book is already popular,
and in many respects it deserves to be so. The
author, Mrs. M'Dougall, in December, 1847, sailed
for Sarawak with her husband, who combined the
character of n clergyman with that of a physician,
and who seems to have been invited to Borneo by Sir
James Brooke, to officiate in his double capacity.
Little Charley, their child, was left behind in England,
and the result of the separation has been this volume
of 141 pages, consisting of eighteen letters, addressed
by mamma to her little boy. The voyage to Singa-
pore is well described : it has not the monotony which
usually attends such descriptions ; indeed,
M'Dougal was fortunate in the incidents she wit-
ne3sed off the island of Java :
" The sun poured down on our heads, and made the
decks too hot to touch ; the sky looked like a brazen
shield, under which the sea seemed to sicken and die ; for
14ire was not one ripple on its surface but a kind of scum

THE PRESS.

on which slimy sea•snakes and unwholesome little insects
were crawling."

The ancient mariner in his voyage saw something
similar, if we remember accurately—" Yea, living
things, with legs, did crawl upon the slimy sea."
As the work contains several pretty illustrations, we
regret that this was not made the subject of one of
them. The account of Sarawak, and of such parts of
Borneo as are known, is concisely and pleasingly
written. The people and their manners, the mineral
productions of the country, the intertangled forests
stretching as far as vision extends, the blue hills here
and there, those giant trees which grow to the height
of 150 feet, the gorgeous flowers that hang from
twining parasites over the great rivers, the birds,
beasts, and reptiles of this rich land, follow each
other in diversified succession. One anecdote of a
pet bear we cannot refrain from giving : the species to
which it belongs is remarkably diminutive :
" One day it made its way into the store-room, where
stood a tall jar, full of brown sugar, with rather a narrow
mouth. Bruin dipped its paws into the jar, and ate all he
could get at ; then, finding there was still a great deal in
the jar beyond his reach, he proceeded to let himself down
into it. For four days no one could imagine what was
become of the bear ; they began to fear he had strayed into
the jungle, when some one, opening the store-room door,
heard curious grumbling sounds issuing from the sugar-
jar ; and there sat Bruin on his hind legs, having eaten all
the sugar, and thus having let itself down too deep to be
able to get out again. These bears live very much on
honey iu the jungle."
In the last letter the career of Sir James Brooke is
briefly sketched. The tone is, of course, and no
doubt deservedly, eulogistic ; but a panegyric on the
Rajah of Sarawak is out of place in a work which
purports to be " letters addressed to a child."

National Education in Scotland. A Letter to the
Right Hon. the Earl of Aberdeen, &c. By John
Hope, Writer to the Signet. London : Arthur
Hall, Virtue, and Co.

IN Scotland the Government aids local educational
efforts by supplemental grants. This rule the
author of the pamphlet before us would invert, con-
tending that where schools do not exist Government
should originate them. The religious difficulty
which has hitherto been the great obstacle to educa-
tional measures he proposes to obviate in a singular
manner. When schools are built he would put them
up to auction, and the sect or denomination which
offered to contribute thost to defray the past expendi-
ture of erecting them and the current salaries should
have the control of the establishment.

The Progress and Present Position of Russia in the

East. London : Murray.
THE ambition of Russia is an old story. Seventeen
years ago the author of the above volume undertook
to describe the stealthy advances she was making
towards Constantinople, Khiva, and India, and to
warn the nations of Western Europe against possible
consequences. Two editions of the book were de
manded in 1830 and 1838. A third is now issued in
consequence of recent events, and a supplemental
chapter is added, working up to the latest dates the
facts and arguments which prove, in the words of the
new preface, that " the history of Russia inculcates
" no lesson more clearly than this, that to return to
" the state of things as they stood before her last un-
" provoked invasion of the Turkish territories would
" only be to postpone the contest until she should
" find a more favourable opportunity for renewing it."

Zohrab ; or, a Midsummer Day's Dream ; and other
Poems. By William Thomas Thornton. London:
Longmans.
Mn. THORNTON says that "he believes his attempts
" in verse to be not inferior to those of many other
" authors whose productions have been received with
" considerable favour by the public ;" yet he declares
that his object in publishing the volume before us is
higher than that of "contributing to popular amuse-
" ment or competing for popular applause." That
object, he intimates, will be obvious to any one who
reads his earlier poems in the order in which they
are placed. We have done so, and confess we are as
ignorant of his motive as we were before we had read
a line. The first poem is a version in rhyme of the
story of " Zohrab and Rustum ;" the last an imita-
tion of an epistle of Horace. The first is a subject
which Matthew Arnold has made his own, and in
the last Pope gained some fame. It is no discredit
to Mr. Thornton to say that he does not equal
either.

Kate and Rosalind; or, Early Experiences.
London : Grant and Griffith.
Teas is a tale intended to place the young on their
guard against the first approaches of Puseyism.
The meaning is good, but the execution possesses
little merit. If it followed that when persons became

67

Puseyites they lost the manners of ladies and gentle-
men, than this novel would be truthful in its
delineations. We fancy the author is young, and in
future efforts recommend care, attention to artistic
effect, and a studious excision of redundancies.

PERIODICAL LITERATURE.

The Churchman's Year Book for 1854.
London : Cox.

Tnis is the third volume of a very useful publication.
It contains an analysis of parliamentary debates,
legal decisions, and acts passed on, or relating to, ec-
clesiastical affairs during the past year. Corre-
spondence between bishops and the clergy on im-
portant points, proceedings in the various dioceses,
university intelligence, the Church in the colonies, or-
dinations, preferments, clerical obituary—in short,
every subject connected with the Church and inte-
resting to the clergy—is touched upon, and conve-
niently arranged for reference, in this volume of
about WO pages.

The Freemasons' Quarterly Magazine. London :
ltoutledge and Co.
Tuts number contains ten articles, besides corre-
spondence and intelligence. But there is no neutral
ground on which the profane and the initiated may
meet in common. Even in a " Sketch from Cologne,"
by Mrs. Ward, and in an incident of the Peninsular
war by Miss l'ardoe, the mystery of masonry startles
us by its wonder-working effect. But alas ! the school-
boy's text, that "familiarity breeds contempt," is ve-
rified in the conduct of those who, in performing the
rites of masonry, excite the curiosity of the unini-
tiated. Who could suppose that, at a recent meeting
in those symbolic robes, "there was a general feeling
" that the proceedings exhibited carelessness—an
" impression heightened by the fact of two or three
td

excellent brethren walking about the room and
chatting sotto voce during the sublime ceremony of
the third degree"? In one article are some sen-
sible remarks on the folly of young men neglecting
the duties of life for the purpose of attending masonic
lodges.

Church of Scotland Magazine and Review.
London: Hall, Virtue, and Co.

THIS, the ninth number, commences with an address
to its readers in which it is truly stated that "The
times during which our lot is cast call, indeed, for an
unflinching maintenance of the faith once delivered
to the saints.' . . . ltomanism is advancing with
stealthy tread. . . . The age is one of progress
in evil as well as good." The article that follows,
viz., part second of " Persecution of the French Pro-
testants," ably describes how Home crushes freedom
when she possesses the power. The other articles
are well selected for a magazine of this character.

The Post Magazine Almanack for 1854. London :

I'ateman.

IN addition to the ordinary information, touching
matters astronomical, political, commercial, and offi-
cial, the Post Magazine Alinanack presents, by way
of specialty, a copious selection from the prospec-
tuses of insurance companies.

PUBLICATIONS RECEIVED.

Kate and Rosalind..

&trent and Griffith:
' Befleyp.

.Taeobit;sdisr;:iii.---Ttsy. A. lithani.
Strictures on Archdeacon Wilber:fon e. Rev. C. 8. Bird. Ditto.
Memoir and Sermons of the Ber. A. Boss. Hatchard.
Sunlight through the Mist. Murray.
Handbook for Greece. Ditto.
The History of Yucatan. C. St. John Fancotui. Ditto.
Letter to Lord Palmerston on Harrow School. C. J. Vaughan.
Ditto.

The Poet Magazine Almannek, 1P24. l'atenien.
The National Miserthin,. January. J. 11. 1' .
A Letter to the Right lion. Viscount Drundonrig on the
Parish Schools. Moodie.
The Home. 141 and 142. Pavey.
Prince Albert. Ridgway.
Church Courts and Clutch Rates. J. li. Gallon. Ditto.
Darkness Dispersed by Gospel Lioht. Ilielugtnns.
Report tf the Peel River Land Company. 11a11.

~■

68

to develop her great abilities. Possibly Mr. Buck-
stone's indefatigable energy will find a method of
solving this problem. Time will show.
Richard the Third and The Tempest are said to be
in preparation at the PRINCESS'S, and will no dcubt
be produced with all the splendour which invariably
distinguishes the revivals at this theatre. We were
much concerned to bear a report to the effect that
Mrs. Kean was dangerously ill, and we look anxiously
for the reappearance of her name in the bills as the
indication of her restoration to health. Mrs. Kean
has been so long and (so deservedly a public favourite
that her indisposition must he a matter of the deepest
regret to all frequenters of the London theatres.
OLYMPIC THEATRE.—The visitors to this house on
Thursday evening were surprised to find nothing
offered for their entertainment except closed doors and
gigantic placards of explanatory tenor, whose pith
lay in the following message telegraphed that morn-
ing from Windsor :
" Mr. George Ellis, Windsor, to Charles Kean, Esq.,
Torrington-square, London.--` I am instructed by Colonel
Phipps to telegraph to Mr. Wigan to come down imme'
diately to act Rolando. I send the message to you direct,
instead, on my own responsibility. Mr. Wigan is to close
his theatre, if necessary.'
Being sent in this roundabout fashion, the message
reached Mr. Wigan too late for him to substitute
another piece for The First Night, in which his own
presence was indispensable. He had, therefore, no
choice but to adopt Mr. Ellis's alternative and close
his theatre.
The revival of The First Night has drawn great
houses at the OLYMPIC. We are informed that the
next novelty at this house will be a play, in three
acts, by Mr. Chorley. For the present, it seems, the
manager does not feel disposed to alter his attractive
bill of fare.
BY an oversight in our last number we gave the
honours of the performance of Sir E. B. Lytton's
play of Money at Windsor on the 12th to the Olym-
pic company. It was, on the contrary, a " coalition "
performance, exhibiting the cream of all the London
companies, and, among them, of four managers—
Kean, Wigan, Buckstone, and Webster.