The Sun.
London, England, 1863-06-05 00:00:00

LITERATURE.

Points of Contact between Science and Art. By
his Eminence Cardinal Wiseman. Imperial Bve.
Pp. 93. Hurst and Blackett.
At the Royal Institution, on the 30th of last Janu-
ary, Cardinal Wiseman delivered this lecture upon
the mutual relationship of Science and Art—a lec-
ture heard at that time with " protracted attention"
by a numerous audience. It is now published, with a
few additions, for the benefit of the general public.
The eminent lecturer, it is worthy of observation in
in the first instance, prefaced his remarks with a
very modest comparison. " There is an anecdote of
Hannibal," he said, " with which I am sure every
one here is well acquainted. When an exile at a
foreign Court he was invited, as you have been this
evening, to attend a lecture. He listened to it at-
tentively ; but when asked, at its close, by one of
the admiring audience what he thought of the per-
formance, with characteristic bluntness, he replied,
That it had been his lot in the course of his life to
meet with many old dotards, but never with one
who so fully deserved that title, as the man who had
just dared to discourse upon the art of war in the
presence of Hannibal !" The Cardinal's hearers,
however, were not likely (now that the lecture
is printed, we may add, they are not likely)
—to join in any similar reproach. To the
lovers of Art and Science he spoke as one of
themselves, as one " glad to escape from more
engrossing and more systematic pursuits, to spend
an hour or two in the company of those two fasci-
nating sisters—Art and Science. The union," he
here goes on to say, " which I have proposed to esta-
blish between the two is one so obvious that I have
feared I may have selected a very commonplace
subject in thusjoining the two together—the Points
of Contact between Science and Art. In familiar
discourse we can hardly speak of the-one without
the other ; they seem to go necessarily hand in
hand." "If 1 had to choose from ancient times,"
he says afterwards, " the representative man' of
this union, it would be the great artist Leonardo da.
Vinci." Thereupon follows this very beautiful and
well deserved tribute :
CARDINAL WISEMAN ON THE "PRINCE CONSORT."
" But we need not go back so far as three centuries, to
fix upon one in whom has been concentrated this twofold
feeling, and that so equally and impartially in his blend-
ing affection, that we might say he never saw Art without
Science, never looked at Science without seeing Art ; and
who considered both as the peat moving powers by which
civilisation and progress were to be advanced in this his
adopted country. You will easily understand that I allude
to that Prince so lately taken from us, who for many years
studied to the utmost the mesas of prosperity for England,
and became convinced that none was more important than
to bring together, as far as possible, these two great mani-
festations of intellectual cultivation and of social refine-
ment."

After alluding to the " great idea" of erecting as
the Prince's Memorial, " a noble hall of combined
Science and Art, in which the two can meet in
friendship, and mutually support, assist and grace
each other"—the Cardinal expresses his conviction
that the proposal will meet with a universal response.
He declares his own opinion, in fact, that "it would
ba impossible to erect a more fitting and splendid
monument than has been proposed, to one whose
history presents this rare, if not singular feature,
that the reverence and affection for the memory of
his many noble qualities and gracious gifts seem to
become more and more vivid, in proportion as we
recede from the sorrowful period at which they
began to be only a memory." After these very in-
teresting preliminary remarks the Cardinal enters
upon his Discourse, dividing it under three heads,
Painting, Sculpture, and Architecture. Many of
the Cardinal's suggestions are well worthy of
very general attention, and the anecdotes
with which he enlivened his remarks, no
doubt assisted materially in Enchaining the
attention of his hearers. These passages afford
another evidence of the ease with which a really
great mind can condescend, on duo occasion, "to
adorn a tale" with all the treasures of a well stored
memory and a playful humour, as well as to " point
a moral" in fitting season with the acute reasoning
of a profound logician, or the brilliant eloquence of
a master in the art of oratory. At the conclusion
of the lecture the Cardinal very happily compares
the mutual relationship of Science and Art to the
two feet, " such as Creative Wisdom has given to
every human creature "—" if one pretends to move
on alone it will find it has no power of progress.
Thus Art and Science" he adds "should go together,
belonging to the same body, animated by the same
spirit, obeying, in reality, the same principle of life
and action." Having cited which graceful thought,
thus felicitously expressed, we cannot possibly do
better than close our brief notice of the Cardinal's
Lecture with that most happy similitude.

The Noctes .4inbrosiance. Cheap Edition. IIIus•
trated with portraits. Part I. W. Blackwood

and Sons.

Several years ago some of the contributors

Punch issued from the press a little volume of fun
and frolic, rattled off with pen and pencil—a comical
little unpretending brochure, called by them for the
" nonce," or more literally for the sheer " non-
sense" of the thing, and in reference to the publish-
ing price of it, " A Shilling's Worth of Nonsense."
Here, in this wonderful little first of twelve
monthly instalments of the famotzs Noetes
Ambrostane is, on the contrary, a shilling's worth of
such wit, wisdom, eloquence, poetry, cri-
tical acumen, boisterous hilarity, abounding and
varied vivaciousness as certainly we don't
fall in with anywhere nowadays. Read these mar-
vellous pages as often as we may, they never by any
possibili!y can tire upon us. Ephemeral though ma'^Y
of the men and things referred to in them undoubt-
edly are, there they indisputably are, so to speak,
eternised'—Embalmed in the amber kabrostanos

One may wonder, es Pope has it, " how the devil they
got there," but being there, they are thenceforth ob-
jects of perpetual interest to us. We have a very
high appreciation of the really extraordinary merits
oflthat big book, in a nobler sense we will call

it the magnum opus of " Walter Savage Lan-
dor—the well-known, but now little read, "Ima-
ginary Conversations." But, with all our
admiration for many of those same Ima-
ginary Conversations, what amongst them all can
possibly be brought into serious comparison with
these far more remarkable imaginary conver-
sations, world-renowned as the Noctes Ambrosianee?
Did ever wit run riot more hilariously ? Was there
ever a more irresistibly infectious burst of animal
spirits ? Were there ever gathered together a set
of interlocutors better worth listening to, we
wonder, than Timothy Tickler, and Hogg the
Ettrick Shepherd, and glorious old Christopher
North himself, with his bright eye, and his " golden
tongue," and his formidable crutch, and his preju-
dices, and his predilections ? Thinking of Professor
Wilson,the grand old times don't seem so far off after
all—for verily we can say of even the last generation
(thinking of him ! having these Noctes Ambrosianae
of his before us !), " there were giants in those days."
And here these wonderful Noctes are coming forth
anew, in another guise than any in which they
have yet appeared, the happiest guise of all, as it
seems to us, the happiest not only that has yet been
thought of, but that could by any possibility be
thought of—A Cheap Edition ! To be issued in
twelve monthly instalments—illustrated with the
best of all kinds of illustrations for a work of this
character, " Portraits," engraved on steel from
paintings taken from, the life. Here as the embel-

lishment to Part I. is—that hero of Pert
I.—The Shepherd. And looking at the
face as it good-humouredly glowers upon us, we
might fancy that Hogg's voice had just done sound-
iog out—let us say his wondrous little discourse upon
poultry—'s Let the hens aye sit thEirsels ; and
never offer to tak ony notict. of ::te clockels. They
canna thole being looked at, when they come
screeching out frae their het eggs, a' in a fever,
wi' their feathers tapsy-towry, and howking holes
in the girth, till the gravel gangs down-through
and aff amang the plummage like dew draps, and
now scourin' aff to some weel-kend corner for drink
and victual." Was there ever such a realist ? One
almost feels the hen-excitement on one while reed-
ing it ! . . . We regard this issue of the NocteB
Ambroszance as nothing less than a boon to the
reading public. As a re-issue of a popular modern
classic, it deserves the success that, we doubt not, it
will command.

Bentley's Miscellany.
Mr. Ainsworth's historical romance of Cardinal
Pole proceeds with interest. The character of the
Cardinal appears to great advantage in this number
in contrast to some of his contemporaries. Con-
stance Tyrrell is rescued from her irksome confine.
ment by his intercession, although the cause of
Ashert Clinton's love still runs roughly. The King
and Queen in this part pay a visit to the Cardinal,
and have brought before them the prisoners Con-
stance Tyrrell and the fanatic Derrick Carver. A
crisis appears to be approaching in the story. A
paper on Heligoland gives an entertaining account
of that little island, which it styles the smallest of
the British possessions. It is described as "a rock
of red sandstone and lime, about two hundred and
twenty feet in height, which is so steep that only
a single flight of steps forms the road from the
upper land to the lower land, which lies within a
width of a few hundred paces to the south-east of
the cliffs. At every other spot the rock is quite
perpendicular, and it is only possible at very low
water to walk round it dryshod. The bathing on
the coast of this singular spot is growing in favour,
and the writer of this description recommends a
summer excursion thither as a pleasant change
from our English watering-places. Mrs. Bushby
gives an agreeable account of a recent visit to Den-
mark and Sweden. She describes the people of both
countries as remarkable for their kindness and hos-
pitality to strangers. The story of modern mar-
riages a la mode is brought to a most tragical con-
clusion, the fate of the greater part of the dramatis
personae being certainly richly deserved. Monks-
hood contributes a paper on Sir Pertinax Macsyco-
phant and the numerous class who have followed
his advice, and thriven in the world by " boo wing
down." Frederick Marshall, whose able articles
on France and the French have often attracted our
notice, has an article on French Horses which will
interest all learned in such matters.

New Monthly Magazine.

" The Shadow of Ashlydy at" is nearly concluded,
and the painful story is most naturally described.
In this part we have Cecile's wedding, which is a
very trieste affair, and Maria is preparing herself
for death, but the sting is to part from Meta. The
writer, with her usual discernment, has drawn this
scene exceedingly well—" Oh reader, reader, do you
know what it is this parting between mother and
child; to lay a child in the grave is little grief, but to
leave it to the mercy of the world is—there is no-
thing like to it in human anguish." Thomas Godol
phin is also nearing his end. He was a good man,
but too facile to deal with one like his brother George.
With these sad scenes enacting at Priors Ash, it is
repulsive alike to the taste and feelings to hear of
gay George Godolphin amusing himself in Lon-
don, while his wife and brother are paying the
penalty of his faults with their lives. An interest-
ing article is that on " Albert Darer." It is in itself
a suggestive subject, and is made the most of in this
comprehensive sketch. At the close of its attrac-
tive pages we find quoted, as follows, some of the
beautiful lines of Longfellow on one who exercised
such a beneficial influence on his age :
In the valley of the Peguitz, where, amid broad meadow

lands
Rise the blue Franconian Mountains, Nuremberg the

ancient stands.
Quaint old town of toil and traffic, quaint old town of art
and song,
Memories haunt thy pointed gables like the rooks that
round them thr®ng.
Memories of the Middle Ages, when the emperors, rough

and bold, _
Had their dwelling in thy castle, time defying, centuries old

Here, where art was still religion, with a simple reveren

_ . ..
heart,
Lived and laboured Albrecht Diirer, the Evangelist of Art;
Hence in silence and in sorrow, toiling still with busy hand.
Like an emigrant he wandered, seeking for the Better Land.

" Emigravit" is the inscription on the tombstone where he
lies,

Dead he is not—but departed—for the artist never dies.

Fairer seems the ancient city, and the sunshine seems more

fair,

That ho once has trod its pavement, that he once has

breathed its air !
" Granville do Vigne" finishes, in this number,
rather more satisfactorily than might have been
expected from its lugubrious course. In the Envoi
we are told the purport of the story, which is to
trace out the evils that resulted to two men from an
early marriage, " the meat fatal error that man can
make." " The Primeval Forests of the Amzzons" is a
readable paper. " The English Nobility" will please
those who like to study such subjects. It is curious
to note how rapidly changes ensue through mis-
alliances. "In 1639 a son of the great grandson of
Margaret Plantagenet, daughter and heiress of the
Duke of Clarence, was a soap boiler i❑ Newport."
Some other articles of interest complete this num-
ber.