The Sun.
London, England, 1853-05-10 00:00:00

THE SUN, LONDON, TTJESDAY EVENIN'Gr, MAY 10, 1853

4YTOUN ON POETRY,

LECTURE THE SECOND.

In pursuance of his project, and in accordance with
the scheme marked out on his printed syllabus, Professor
Aytoun, yesterday afternoon, delivered at Willis's
Rooms the second lecture of his course of six on Poetry
and Dramatic Literature. We were gratified to observe
that in spite of the unseasonable inclemency of the wea-
ther, a numerous and attentive audience again assembled
to listen to the opinions entertained upon the subject of
poetic art by the author of " Lays of the Scottish Cava-
liers." The lecturer, in many respects, appeared to us
to be still more heterodox, if possible, in those opinions
than he did during the time occupied by his introductory
observations. He seems to regard art as having nothing
whatever to do with poetry—the latter, according to
him, being not alone in conception, but actually in ex-
pression the fruit of intuitive knowledge and innate
skill, or, in other words, of pure and simple inspira-
tion. Unquestionably, we regard the germ of it as
spontaneous. But we think with him, as lie him-
self appears to have forgotten that he said once, as
it were, inadvertently, that that germ admits of cultiva-
tion, and that what he called deliciously the " magni-
ficent flower" of poetry, is the result of that cultivation.
He declares himself that he cannot believe Homer—
whom he designates, by the way, the Natural Poet, as
contradistinguished from the Artificial Poet, Virgil—he
declares himself, we say, that he cannot believe Homer
to have been a beggar. He considers him to have been
no mendicant ballad-singer, wandering through ancient
Greece, from city to city, subsisting upon the alms doled
out to him partly by charity and partly by admiration.
Rather does he regard him as one who, during his life-
time, was recognised as an honoured bard by his coun-
trymen. Homer, indeed, was no graduate at an uni-
versity ; but he was not for that reason unlearned. He
was, doubtless, no recognised authority at first under
the porch among the philosophers ; but he was not
therefore illiterate. He, at least cannot be taken as
an example of the accuracy of Professor Aytoun's
hypothesis, that poetry springs up from the natural rich-
ness of the soil in which it is nurtured—with the exuber-
ance of wild flowers or underwood—a harvest reaped
after no toil at the harrow or the ploughshare. For the
Lecturer insisted, during the delivery of his second dis-
sertation on Poetry and Dramatic Literature, that the
great epic of Homer was a masterpiece created out of
the adroitly disriminated materials of tradition. In
avowing that belief, Professor Aytoun gave utterance
to one of the most admirable of those ingenious and
beautiful metaphors with which his discourse is
frequently interpersed. He said that Homer took
those traditions about the " tale of Troy divine," dis-
jointed and contradictory as they were before his time,
and, melting them down in the furnace of his genius,
ran them off afterwards into the mould of that co-
lossal masterpiece which no poet since his time has
ever dreamt of rivalling, any more than architects
have ever dreamt of rivalling one of the primeval pyra-
mids. Surely, then, there was art, and erudition (of
its kind), and application, and forethought in this birth
of the " Iliad"—scarcely less systematic in its way than
in the growth of any one of those despised, but exqui-
site, effusions of the Wasp of Twickenham. No. Pro-
fessor Aytoun furnishes his strange hypothesis at every
turn with some new and overwhelming contradiction.
Nay, he himself, we take it, is a disproof of it by a sort
of visible embodiment. Without his knowledge of the
rules of art and of the laws of taste, and without the se-
dulous application of those rules and laws, of that art and
taste throughout the delightful labours of composition—,
we should never have found so many sources of pleasure
in his own rythmical productions, the Messrs. Black-
wood would never have been enabled to produce
so speedily the sixth edition of the " Lays of
the Scottish Cavaliers." Unconsciously, this may
doubtless occur, unconsciously it undoubtedly does
occur with the majority, but it no less certainly occurs
too with them than it manifestly does with the minority.
There was an art no less in Cowper than in Pope, al-
though the latter may have appeared more trammelled.
With Pope it was—to his own view at least-- the true
ars poetica. With Cowper it was, in some particulars,
perhaps—though we venture to deny that altogether—a
yet truer art, the art of arts, the ars celare artem. But
still with both an art—with all its intricacies of dogmas,
platitudesst and conventionalities. Professor Aytoun,
however, is manifestly " wedded" to a belief in his own
hypothesis. It is obviously bone of his bone and flesh
of his flesh. We despair of procuring a divorce in any
Court of Arches. We can only marvel at the phenome-
non of any man cherishing this eccentric opinion, when he
himself must be ranked amens, those by whose writings
its inaccuracy is most glaringly demonstrated.
The following was the programme of the lecture de-
livered yesterday as given in the syllabus :
" Diversity of National Tastes—General characteristics
of Oriental and European Poetry—Contrast between
French and English Tragedy—National Style Perverted
by Foreign Imitation—Dryden's attempt to Naturalise
Rhymed Tragedy—Fluctuations of the National Taste
at Different periods—The Epos described--Distinction
between Tradition and History—The Elements of In-
terest necessary for Narrative Poetry—Homer's locality
of the Plain of Troy—The Grand Epical Cycle of the
Greeks—The Inferior Interest of Purely Imaginative
Poetry—The Pilgrims of the Troad—Homer and Virgil
compared—The Artist's Morning Song, from Goethe—
Lyrical Poetry described—lts Type in Pindar—" What
Song the Syrens sang "—Development of Dramatic
Poetry—Conjunction of Epical, Lyrical, and Dramatic
Poetry at the National Gaines of Greece."
Perhaps the most graceful portion was that in which
the Lecturer, after likening the effects of the school of
Pope and his imitators to those produced by a prolonged
frost, compared the outburst of the flowers of poesy,
subsequent to the appearance of Cowper and his fol-
lowers, to the gushing forth of the green leaves and
blossoms after a thaw—the glorious and delicate efflo-
rescence of vernal vegetation. A delicious quotation was
here aptly introduced from the wonderful " Sensitive
Plant " of Shelley. In a later portion of his dis-
course, the Lecturer declaimed with considerable
spirit that noble " Artist's Morning Song," from
Goethe, in which the bard of the "Iliad" is so grandly and
glowingly eulogised. The second lecture closed with a
majestic reminiscence—the memory of an Olympiad—
when, the races having been run, and the gladiators
having competed, and tho athletes having hurled the
disc, the purely intellectual festivities commenced.
There we beheld in imagination what were then the
three grand types of the past, the present, and the
future—the ancient Bard chaunting a passage from the
National Epic, the Lyrist singing the glories of the con-
temporary Victors, the early cultivators of the histrionic
art testing their) powers over an Athenian audience
from the platform on the cart of Thespis. There, in fact,
was the recollection of Homer—there was the living
Pindar—there was the promise of the approaching
iEschyltts.
Among those who were present yesterday at the
second lecture, we observed the Duchess of Sutherland,
the Duchess of Norfolk, the Duke and Duchess of
Argyll, the Duchess of Cleveland, the Marchioness of
Aylesbury, the Earl and Countess of Eglinton, the
Countess of Wilton' the Countess of Jersey, the Countess
of Lichfield and Lady Anne Charteris, the Countess of
Zetland, the Countess of Talbot, Lord and Lady Blan-
tyre, Lady Colchester, Lady Borough, Lord and Lady
John Manners, Lady Eastlake, Lady Duff, Lady An,
trobus, Lady Powlett, the Right Hon. B. Disraeli, M.P, ,
and Mrs. Disraeli, the Hon. Mrs. Rouse, the Il on. Mrs.
Liddell, Mr. Gilbert Lewis, Mr. Hayward, Mr. Conolly,
M.P., Colonel Wildman, Mr. Blair, Mr. Strickland, &e.

THE NEW AUSTRALIAN MAIL SYSTEM.—The sum to
be paid in future for the conveyance of a mail to Aus-
tralia will be 1,0001. sterling. The following are the
chief conditions of the tender for conveying the next
Australian mail. The mail may be conveyed in a
steamer or sailing vessel by any route, and she may sail
from London, Liverpool, Plymouth, or Southampton.
The vessel must be dispatched on the 4th of June next ;
if not, a daily penalty of 501. will be enforced ' • and if
the vessel is not dispatched on the 9th of June the con-
tract can be annulled and a penalty of 2501. inflicted.
The Australian mails may be landed at Adelaide, Mel-
bourne, or Sydney. If the mail packet only calls at one
port 100/. is to be deducted for the delivery of each of
the other mails by the colonial postmasters, and the
time for the performance of the contract is to be reduced.
The penalty for not delivering the mails in the time spe-
cified is 201. a day. The total penalties are not to ex-
ceed 1,2501. The mail ship must be registered at
Lloyd's Al. The mail room is to contain a space
equal to 1,000 cubic feet, or larger, if required. It is to
be under lock and key, and protected from leakage. No
letters are to be conveyed by the mail ship except those
contained in the mails or privileged by law, The con-
tract is not to be underlet without the consent of the
Postmaster-General. No member of the House of
Commons is to be connected with the contract.
THE ABORTION CASE AT CLAPHAM.—Yesterday orders
were read at all the station-houses in London, and com-
municated to all the county police, requiring the officers
to use every exertion to apprehend the Rev. Mr. Gordon,
the late curate of St. Andrew's, Holborn, who stands
charged with being concerned, with Dr. Cunningham
and Messrs. Currie and Thomas, in procuring abortion
on the person of Miss Ann Morden, at Stockwell. It
is firmly believed that he has not left the country, but
that he is in concealment in or near the metropolis. It
is expected that if not apprehended soon, a reward will
be offered for his apprehension.
THE ROYAL NAVAL FEMALE SCHOOL.—On Saturday
the 14th annual general meeting of the friends and sub-
scribers of this charitable institution was held at Willis's
Rooms ; Earl Manvers, president, in the' chair. The
Hon. F. Maude, R.N., read the report, which stated
that the balance sheet showed the total receipts from all
sources for the past year (including a balance in hand of
2701. 13s. 3d. ; donations, 136/. 7s. lubscriptions,
1,3311. 7s. ; and
pupils' payments Id. ; s
,727/. ls. 7d.) to
amount to 3,704/. 198. ; and after' all the expenses
had been defrayed, and 2501. invested for the " endow-
ment" and the " building fund," there was left a balance
in hand of 317/. 10s. 100. The report was adopted.
NEWSPAPER STAMPS.—Yesterday a return was issued
of the halfpenny newspaper stamps in the United King-
dom during last year. The total number of such stamps
was 16,599,602 ; and the amount paid for the same,
34,5821. 14s. 3d. In England, the stamps at a half-
penny numbered 16,217,054 ; in Wales, 11,418 ; in
Scotland, 235,720 ; and in Ireland, 135,410.
THE HOUSES OF PARLIAMENT AND THE JEWS.—Mr.
Anderton will, it is expected, on Thursday next, bring
on the following motion, of which he gave notice on
Saturday, in the Court of Common Council—" That it
be referred to examine into the state of the existing laws
precluding any of her Majesty's British born subjects
from holding any civil office or trust in any of her do-
minions by reason of their religious tenets, and what
steps are advisable to be taken by the friends of civil and
religious liberty, and by this court in particular, to pro-
cure the abolition of such laws, that all her Majesty's
subjects may enjoy the same rights without any test of
their religious creeds."

NEWMARKET RACES.

(THIS DAY.)

BY ELECTRIC TELEGRAPH.

FIFTY POUNDS PLATE. T.M.M.

Koh-i-noor
Waverley

Six ran.
Placid left Newmarket for Shrewsbury at 12 o'clock.

RETIREMENT OP MR. MARE.-SUPPRESSION
OF THE PLYMOUTH DISCLOSURES.

Mr. Mare has abandoned the defence of Hs seat for
Plymouth, and has thus brought the proceedings to an
abrupt termination. This was, no doubt, prudent on
his part. It stops all further exposure of himself and
his agents, and also the expense of defending a position
which did not admit of being pursued. But the main
reason for giving in was, no doubt, the desire to spare
Mr. Stafford, and his other friends at the Admiralty,
from any further exposure in relation to the Plymouth
election, where one of Mr. Samuel Truscott's many
friends who stood for dockyards was bringing discredit,
not upon himself and his aides-de-camp of the civil ser-
vice, but largely compromising the heads of a great and
important department of the State.
But the exposures cannot be allowed to end here.
The Plymouth Committee retired to consult as to whe-
ther they would permit the retirement of Mr. Mare to
conclude their investigations ; and we think their deci-
sion to proceed no further, under the circumstances, was
hardly prudent, or just towards the public. The case of
Plymouth must now certainly be referred to the Dock-
yard Committee. There are many more things to be
inquired into still, besides the election dinners paid out
of "Navy Contingencies," and transferring the duties
of the Admiralty in Whitehall to the "gentlemen of the
the press."--Morning Advertiser.

CENTRAL CRIMINAL COURT.
(THIS DAY.)

, OLD COURT.
(Before the Recorder.)

William Winter, 18, described as a labourer, pleaded
guilty to an indictment charging him with stealing a
handkerchief, value 25., the property of John Gallie,
from his person in
.Cheapside, and he was sentenced to
imprisonment, with hard labour, for four calendar
months.

NEW COURT.
(Before the Common Sergeant.)

During the whole of the morning the time was occu-
pied in this court in trying prisoners indicted for passing
bad coin, and the cases were likely to last the remainder
of the day, there being no less than 38 prisoners for trial.
The committals were—from the City, 4 ; Middlesex, 14 ;
Essex, 2 • Kent, 4 ; Surrey, 14. The cases were all of
the usual character, not possessing any feature of suffi-
cient interest to warrant a report ; but it may be re-
marked that, whatever has been said against the Mint
authorities for not prosecuting every case of uttering
base coin that is brought before the police courts, the
result of the indictments preferred by them at these
sessions fully justifies the course they adopt, for
few, if any, of the prisoners brought here escape
conviction. Were it otherwise, the charge of utter-
ing bad coin being generally a question of intent in
the mind of the person charged of which the jury have
to judge, if persons only suspected, from the fact of a
single uttering, were sent for trial upon that alone, they
would invariably be acquitted, and thus the county
being put to a useless expense, which, by the judicious
selection of the Mint prosecutors, is invariably avoided.
Not any ,of the prisoners tried during the morning were
acquitted, and the sentences passed upon them were
various terms of imprisonment of from six to twelve
months.