The Press.
London, England, 1856-11-29 00:00:00

THE PRESS.

She shook her head,—" The mouse and bee
For crumb or flower will linger;
The dog is happy at my knee,
The cat purrs at my finger
But he,—to him the least thing given
Means greet things at a distance;
He wants my world, my sun, my heaven,
Soul, body, whole existence.
They say Love gives as well as takes;
But I'm a simple maiden;
My mother's first smile when she wakes
I still have smiled and prayed in.
I only know my mother's love,
Which gives all and asks nothing;
And this new loving sets the groove
Too much the way of loathing.
Unless he gives me all in change,
I forfeit all things by him :
The risk is terrible and strange—
I tremble, doubt, deny him.
He's sweetest friend or hardest foe,
Best angel or worst devil;
I either hate, or love him so,
I can't be merely civil.
You trust a woman who puts forth
Her blossoms thick as summer's?
You think she dreams what love is worth
Who casts it to new comers?
Such love's a cowslip•ball to fling,
A moment's pretty pastime.
I give—myself, if any thing,
The first time and the last time.
And, neighbour of the trellised house,
A man should murmur never,
Though treated worse than dog or mouse
Till doted on for ever."

The sentiment of this pretty piece deserved more
care in setting than Mrs. Browning thought proper
to bestow on the verse. Some lines by the Rev. H.
Thompson, commemorating the celebration of the
Sacrament previous to the assault on the Redan, are
among the best verses yet produced by the war :
A youthful priest sat in his tent
As closed an autumn day,
While meditation came and went
'Twist England, far away,
And the good blood that should be spent
In the grim morrow's fray.
He mused how thousands then should stand
Their Maker's throne before,
And know the secrets of that land
Where trial dny is o'er,
And Woe and Weal impress their seal -
For ever, evermore !
Up rode in haste an orderly,
His shako touch'd he light ;
And reverent for the chieftains he
Besought the holiest Rite :
For shriven and blest should Christian be
When boune for deadly fight.
Brief pause ! behind the guarded foss,
A plank on the drum head,
For altar cloth proud England's Cross,
Stout Scotland's Saltier red,
Mid the blue field of Ireland's shield,—
The holy board is spread.
No vessels proud of jewelled plate
On the dread Altar rest,
But Need and Love can consecrate
Where Faith bestows her best;
And by the Presence uncreate
Gold—earth, alike are blest.
Two bayonets, ere to-morrow's night
With foeman's steel to close,
Upheld the symbols of the Light
That on the world arose,
When " Peace on earth " Heaven's armies bright,
Sang to the midnight snows.
The canvas roof, for chancel arch,
Stoops o'er the pride of war,
As in the three•score warrior's march
With medal, clasp, and star,
Guard—grenadier, and cuirassier,
And lancer, and hussar.
• • • • • • •

The remaining verses are finished with equal care,
and they conclude with an affecting yet elevating'
thow,lit. Among the prose compositions we have
been particularly pleased with " Hawthorne's Pilgrim-
age to Uttoxeter " (pronounced, says Hawthorne,
Yute-oxeter, though we have generally heard it by
natives pronounced Uxter), to mark the spot where
Johnson stood in the market-place to do pe-
nance for an act of disobedience to his
father committed fifty years before. This
paper is simply written, but every line shows
artistic power. Tradition has not preserved the
place where Johnson stood. If the book stall kept
by Johnson's father was close to the church, it must
have been some space removed from the market.
But Mr. Hawthorne remarks :

The picturesqueness and full impressiveness of the
story require that Johnson, doing his penance, should have
been the very nucleus of the crowd,—the midmost men of
the marketplace,—a central figure of Memory and Re-
morse, contrasting with and overpowering the sultry ma-
terialism around him.

A bas-relief on the pedestal of Johnson's statute at
Lichfield shows him " standing bare •beaded in the

1145

Uttozeter market-place, very sad and woe-begone,
with the wind and rain driving hard against him;
while some market-people and children gaze awe-
stricken into his lace, and an aged man and woman,
with ciasped 1. ands, are praying for him." We have
noticed those papers only which struck us as most
remarkable; but the whole volume indicates taste
and refinement.

2. The volume of "Rhymes and floundelayes " has
never been surpassed for beauty of illustration. The
plan of the letterpress is to cull passages from the
poets in praise of rural life. First, " Sunrise " and
" Morning" are illustrated by a number of choice
poetic pieces ; then succeeds "Spring," with descrip-
tions of the songs of birds—melody dearly beloved
and rapturously sang by poets, and thoughts on
spring flowers. " Summer " introduces us to the
noontide joys of the year, with pictures of flocks and
herds, and rich sketches of summer scenery. With
" Autumn " come harvest and the pleasures of wan-
dering through woods and by streams; and to
" Winter " are joined country sports and songs on
Christmastide. As the volume opens with descrip-
tions of " Morning," it closes with thoughts on
" Evening " and " Night." The passages are in all
cases chosen with a fine feeling for poetry ; but in
some cases, as when the lark and the nightingale
are introduced, the illustrative passages might have
been more numerous, both to show the fertility of
poetic genius, and the different manner in which the
same theme is handled by poets of different cast of
mind. Surely, in such a selection, the lines of
Shelley and Wordsworth to the lark should have
been inserted together with those of Hogg.
The wood engravings constitute the original and
most attractive part of the book. They are very
numerous, and many of them are masterpieces of
their respective artists. Birket Foster contributes
some of the happiest sketches of his fertile pencil.
The frontispiece, " A Summer Evening," represent-
ing a hayfield with loaded wain, and the last plate,
" A Winter's Night," are charming specimens of
poetic art. In the latter drawing, however, the sen•
timent of repose described in Shelley's verse is not
marked. Clouds move across the sky, and there are
shattered trees in the foreground. But the pic-
turesque effect of the "castled steep," the hills, the
ravine, and the water, is heightened by the partial
veil thrown across the moon's disc. Ot her admirable
examples of the artist's skill are "Sunrise at Sea"
(page 2) ; the woodland scenes, with their depth of
shade, at 39, 55, and 109 ; " The Village Alehouse,"
exquisitely pictured in all its details, at 73 ; with
"The Harvest Home," at 121; and "A Homestead
in Winter," at 147. Mr. E. Duncan's rural scenes
are all extremely pretty, as are those of Mr. Dodgson
and Mr. Hnlme. Some of the designs by Mr. Harrison
Weir are remarkable for their rural character and
careful finish : such are the cottage exterior, at 43 ;
the heron, at 93 ; and the two sporting scenes, master-
pieces of his pencil, at 125 and 155. Walter
Goodall and John Absolon contribute groups of
rustic figures ; the former pictures a pretty ruin and
mill-stream at 132. The book is produced in a style
suitable to the great merit and beauty of the illus-
trations. The paper is tinted, the leaves richly gilt,
and the binding solid and handsome. It is altogether
a most favorable example of the perfection to which
art has been brought in our day for illustration of
the finest thoughts of poetry.

The Myrtle and the Heather. A Tale. Two Vols.
By A. M. Goodrich. London : J. W. Parker and
Son.

THIS story deserves to be called successful, though
not rising above mediocrity in its composition in any
of its component parts. The leading idea alone is
good. It is that of a young girl, the daughter
of an English father and Italian mother, who, pos-
sessing a genius for music, is carried to England by
the Countess of St. Helens, whom she met at
Florence, for the purpose of introduction to the
English public. The countess is young, fashionable,
and a beauty, and aspires to be a patroness of art
and literature. But behind her outward show of
liberalty is hidden a purely vain and selfish disposi-
tion, which rejoices in the eclat of bringing forward
so beautiful and accomplished a debutante, but has
very little care for her protegee's real happiness, or
appreciation of her nobility of character. She
quarrels with Beatrice on discovering that she will
not break a promise given to her father, never to
appear on the stage, and dismisses her with unkind-
ness and contumely. Beatrice, however, finds other
friends, is brought out in London as a concert-singer,
and on her first night achieves a most brilliant suc-
cess, at which her former patroness is unexpectedly
present, and is overcome with rage and disappoint-
ment.

Mr. Maxwell is the Scotch
rio Lindsay, the husband of
Helens, and Judith Maxwell, w'
sub-heroine, is his daughter.

trived to dispossess Sir Roderic,
and dissipated man, of his wh(

steward of Sir Rode-
the Countess of St.
who may be called the
The steward ha, con-
eric, an improvident
hole estates, and it is

1146

in her efforts to persuade her father to make restitu-
tion
that Judith's character is displayed. Max..vell
had already agreed privately with Sir Roderic to
resign all his claims it his nephew and heir, Horace,
should become the husband of Judith. But Horace
is already in love with Beatrice ; and so the Lindsays
are expelled from 'Juror Castle, and Horace ie
obliged to betake himself to a profession. At this
part of the story the scene is laid in Scotland ; and
the account of Horace's coming of age, and the
festivitives at Castle Duror, are perhaps the most
attractive portions of the tale. The plot is defective,
because, in the first place, it wants unity, and be-
cause, in the second, the conclusion, by which we
mean the marriage of the hero and heroine, in no
way depends on the catastrophe. Beatrice and
Horace would have been married whether the latter
had never lost or had never recovered the estates;
and the device in the underplot, by which Judith's
marriage is made to depend on her father's confes-
sion of guilt, seems forced and unnatural.
The two young ladies, Beatrice and Judith, repre-
sent, of course, the Myrtle and the Heather. The
expression is a pretty one, and the contrast is prettily
sustained. Beatrice is all love, and Judith is all
energy ; the one cannot say a harsh word even of
those who injure her, the other is severe even to
those who love her. The remaining characters all
have sufficient reality about them to maintain the
necessary illusion, but the authoress does not attempt
analysis of character. 1 n her personages there is no
gradual formation of habits, or development of the
passions ; what they are at the beginning of the
story that they are at the end, and our whole interest
in them is dependent on the romance thrown around
the career of Beatrice.

The morality of the story is of the ordinary kind.
The virtue of unselfishness is the theme of eulogy,
but we find occasional observations which prove the
authoress to have studied human nature with effect,
and to have acquired skill in the expression of
sorrow. Such are contained in the following pas-
sages :

I will explain your meaning for you. It is, that, with
all your pretty, gentle ways, you would not like to be
directed—or, at least, not by iiie. Well, this is honest,
and not altogether discouraging; though, perhaps, you
wish me to consider it so. I have always found that those
who solicit advice, and affect to need guidance and invite
correction, are those who least avail themselves of either of
the three. Moreover, when I have taken a fancy to any
one, I am not easily shaken off. I will serve you, not
absolutely against your consent, but ua far as you will
allow me. Don't be frightened; and, above all, be as
honest with yourself as you have been with me. If my
advice prove unpalatable, take care that you do not reject
it because you weakly prefer something pleasanter, and
fancy the while that you resent my interference only be•
cause you wish to maintain a becoming independence.
Again :

SATURDAY,

tables are important. Thus, we find that in the
year 1855 the National Debt was augmented by the
sum of 27,988,3061., a charge upon us and our
posterity for ever of at least ono million annually.
Having regularly pre-erved this volume we can speak
with confidence of its permanent value. "As worth-
less as an old almanac " is certainly in no degree
applicable to it. It forms a handy annual register
full of facts, and most convenient for reference.

German Reading Book. By Dr. M. M. Fischel.

Second Edition. London : Nutt.
THE rapid sale of a first edition of this " German
Reading Book" is some evidence of its usefulness.
The plan of it is easily explained. A simple en-
gaging tale by Franz Hoffman is printed on one
page in the original German text, while a literal
translation in English, word for word, and line for
line, is printed on the opposite page. In foot-notes
are explained the various significations, figurative
and proper, attached to particular words, while the
principal rules of German grammar suggested by
the text are also kept in the stu,lent's mind by refer-
ences in the notes. An elementary German grammar
is added ; so that the book, while supplying a copious
vocabulary or words, and exhibiting the construction
of the German language, familiarises the reader with
grammatical rules, and initiates him into the mys-
teries of conjugation of verbs, and inflection of sub-
stantives. Dr. Fischel assures us that he has tried
this volume in his tutorial labours with the greatest
success, and we can believe it. Whatever tends to
interest the mind during the necessarily tedious
process of acquiring a language, must be beneficial
in stimulating the intellect of the pupil. With due
precaution to make the pupil keep to grammatical
labours as he proceeds with the tett, we can imagine
that he will by aid of this book gain a good store of
words, and a tolerable knowledge of construction,
while mastering the difficulties of grammar. The
volume is produced with great care and intelligence,
and, we imagine, requires only to be known to come
into general use. One of its merits is, that it may
be studied with advantage by those who have made
some progress in the language, as well as by those
who are about to commence the work of acquisition.
It will be the part of the teacher to see that the book
is made an aid to real study, and not a substitute
for it.

PUBLICATIONS RECEIVED.—Nov. 17.
BOOKS.

Queen Eleanor's Vengeance, and other Poems. W. C

Bennett Three Vols. Hurst and Blanket
A Manual of Domestic Economy. Routledge and Co
Kansas, its Interior and Exterior Life. Sarah T. L. Robinson.

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