The Sun.
London, England, 1862-06-24 00:00:00

POETIC DICTION.

Many words, though fewer than some suppose, aro fit
for poetry without being suitable to prose ; but ho knows
of few words, not scientific, that fit prose, and may not find
a place in poetry. The poetic character of the latter class
lies in their value in the place they appear in. And, apart
from that value, where is the poetry of the best? The
separation of prose and poetry is rather in the phraseology,
than the single words ; though, as regards phrases, he
would have a miserable notion of the grounds of poetry
who should go about to exclude idiomatic expressions from
its diction. That was the great fault of a school that once
had its admirers in this country. They had a notion of the
elevation of language apart from its indissoluble connection
with thought. Remoteness from common speech, and
sheer grandiloquence, with such are very apt to pass for
elevation. There is, however, the right expression for the
right thought. If they meet they must not be parted ; it
is a blessed union, be it prose or poetry; if separate it is a
make-shift, whether you get the thought without the ex-
pression, if indeed such a thing be possible of the whole
thought, or, which is too possible and too common, you get
the expression denuded of the thought.
And Homer, himself, with all the resources of his mar-
vellous language at command, was anything but a lover of
grandiloquence. Far from thinking that sublimity lay in
avoiding common speech,he was much of our Shakespeare's
mind, and uttered the highest things with familiar sim-
plicity. Little did he think that the dignity of the Epic
might be compromised by his not uttering common things.
in au uncommon out-of-the-way dialect. And his negli-
gence in this way has troubled the Daciera and others con-
siderably, who are for giving him a lift on these occasions.
As for eschewing common wards that aptly expressed his
meaning, nothing could be farther from our poet's manner.
The very familiarity of these words, and their at-homeness
in the minds of the hearers, would have been their greatest
recommendation to him as to our own sweet idiomatic
Shakespeare. The translator, therefore, confesses to having
made no attempt at this species of epic dignity in the follow-
ing version, although there are not wanting high names on
its side. Clarke, for instance, whose appreciation of our
poet is in general very just, yet, in a note on Iliad xiii, 707,
gravely repudiates the word rilivet as too familiar
for epic elevation I The remark would, of course, not apply
to so ripe a scholar ; but, from Greek being a dead language,
and consequently all its words on an equal footing as to
familiarity, i. e. equally un-familiar to most readers of the
orginal, they are apt to lose sight of a very important fact
in judging of the elevation of the diction, viz. that there
was no distinction between written and unwritten language
as with us. The language of books, as a separate body of
words, could not have existed, for there were no readers.
Homer indeed, I am persuaded, himself wrote and carried
his written compositions about with him for recitation ;
hut the audience he addressed was of necessity,• in an
age when manuscripts were rare and costly, unable to
read. So that in the measure that his poem should recede
from the spoken language it would cease to be intelligible.
In fact, his poems, like our old ballads, must perforce have
been written in the common language of the country, and
only more graceful because that language had attained to a
higher pitch, and the people were, perhaps, of higher
aesthetic capacity. Poetic diction, as distinguished from
common speech, there was none.

The specimens of translation given are both'spirited
and faithful, but for them we must refer our readers
to the volume itself, which contains a body of infor-
mation indispensable to those who would rightly
comprehend the subject therein discussed.

The Last Judgment. A Poem in Twelve Books.
Longman and Co.
The fact of a new edition of this poem being
issued is a sufficient proof that it must have
found favour with the public, a result to which the
orthodox element in it has, no doubt, contributed.
We give a specimen of his " comfortable creed"—
" Come ye by Me, and by My Father bless'd
Inherit, and enjoy, your endless rest ;
Enter the Kingdom through Jehovah's love,
Before the world was made for you prepared above."
While yet those words in heavenly music flow,
The Just with full immortal transport glow,
While all the joys of Heaven, in current sweet,
Flow through their raptured souls in bliss complete.
With look severe, which all compassion spurns,
The Judge then to the left in anger turns ;
While wicked men, swift as His words advance,
Shrink from His eye, and wither 'neath His glance :
"Depart, ye cursed, into endless fire,
Prepared for Satan 'neath Jehovah's ire;
There, far from Heaven and bliss, for ever dwell,
Tortured by Demon hosts, and justly doomed to Hell."

3 Unto this Last." Four Ebbays on the First Prin-
ciples of Political Economy. By John Ruskin.

Smith, Elder, and Co.

Diffidence is not one of Mr. Ruskin's characteris-
tics ; and in the preface to these essays, reprinted
from the Cornhill Magazine, while admitting that
they were, to use his own words, "reprobated in a
violent manner, as far as I could hear, by most of
the readers they met with," ho still asserts, " Not
a whit the less, I believe them to be the best, that
is to say, the truest, rightest-worded, and most ser-
viceable things I have ever written ; and the last of
them, having had especial pains spent on it, is pro-
bably the best I shall ever write." Upon the type
and binding we bestow unqualified approval.

La Belle Marie. A Romance by the Author of
" Smugglers and Foresters," &c. Booth, Regent •

street.

It is so common now-a-days for novels to be
written with the professed view of improving the
reader that it is a relief to occasionally meet with
one which appears to aim solely at amusing him,
and in this the writer ,of the present work has
thoroughly succeeded. The scene is laid on the
coast of Cornwall, one of the heroes is a bold
smuggler, and the characteristics of the wild and
lawless inhabitants of that district have all the
vigour of sketches from life. The style, moreover,
is clear and spirited. The story is interesting, the
sequence of events is natural. The writer never
obtrudes her personality, and the result is highly
agreeable and praiseworthy.

GENERAL REPORT OF THE EMIGRA-

TION COMMISSIONERS.

The general report of the Emigration Commis-
sioners for 1861 has been issued.

Emigration from the United Kingdom attained
its maximum in 1852. In 1855 emigration began
to fall off. It revived to a. slight extent in 1857, but
since then has again fallen off. In the year 1861
the number who left the United Kingdom was only
91,770, being the smallest emigration in any year
since 1844, and a.reduction, as compared with 1860,
of 36,699, and as compared with 1852 of 256,984.
The great reduction was of course in the emigra-
tion to-the United States, which fell from 87,500 in
1860 to 49,764 in 1861. The decrease to Aus-
tralia was only from 24,302 to 23,758, while to
British America there was an increase from
9,786 to 12,707. And, as might be expected,
the principal diminution was in Irish emigration,
which fell from 60,835 to 36,322, being a decrease
of 24,513, or more than two-thirds of the whole
reduction. Even if civil war had not broken out in
the United States, it is probable that the emigra-
tion to that country would never have recovered its
late proportions. As it consisted almost entirely of
Irish, the depletion of Ireland by the excessive emi-
gration of recent years must, under any circum-
stances, have brought it down to moderate propor-
tions. Between 1841 and 1851 the population of
Ireland fell from 8,175,124 to 6,515,794, or. a de-
crease of 1,659,330 ; but during the same period
Irish emigration amounted to at least l , ,
souls, or more than three-fourths of the decrease.
Between 1851 and 1861 the population of Ireland
fell from 6,515,794 to 5,764,543, oradetchreealetishof
751,251. But during the same period
emigration was upwards of 1,210,000 souls. Even,
therefore, after making allowance for Irish settled
in England before 1851, who may be included in
the return of Irish emigrants, there remains a large
margin to be accounted for only by the excess of
births over deaths in Ireland.
The amount of remittances from settlers in Ame-
rica to their friends in the United Kingdom in
1861 was, as far as the commissioners have been
able to ascertain, £426,285. The above amount,
assuming, as is probable, tbat the ()Teat bulk of it
was sent from and to Irish, Would have been more
than double what was necessary to pay the whole
exTpehneseeomfilgrri4sthioen hasmigra again been very healthy.
The mortality in ships proceeding to the United
States (for returns of which the commissioners are
obliged to depend on the shipowners) has been only
.00 per cent. In nips proceeding to the St. Law

STAMPED ....sd.

rence it was •04 per cent., and in the Governmea
ships to Australia it was 1.11 per cent.
During 18G1 no accident attended with loss of
life occurred to any passenger ship. Of 307 ships
which sailed from the United Kingdom, one, the
United States, was wrecked at the entrance of the
St. Lawrence, but the crew and passengers were
saved. No other casualty occurred.