The Sun.
London, England, 1847-07-16 00:00:00

LITERATURE.

THE WESTMINSTER AND FOREIGN
QUARTERLY REVIEW. No. XCIII. and
No. LXX
Not the most effectively finished, but certainly the
most interesting paper, in this double quarterly, is
the one, half-critical, half-biographical, upon the
character, the abilities, and the literary productions of
Rudolph Topffer. Dissent, however, we must, from
an opinion expressed by the reviewer at the outset of
his paper, to-wit "that Richelieu, though a great
statesman, was an execrable poet." To our thinking
it would have been more correct to have said Riche-
lieu was no poet at all. Who can forget his trum-
pery attempt to induce Pierre Corneille to pawn a
portion of his dramatic glory Who can ever forget
the incident about The Cid? Richelieu an execrable
poet ? We protest again distinctly that the great
Cardinal was as much a coryphee as a poet. IVe not
only marvel with the reviewer that Geneva, or he
might have said Switzerland in its totality, "so
illustrious in other respects for its intellectual
fertility, has hitherto produced very little in
the department of imaginative literature,"
but we wonder that in a region so eminently
calculated to enkindle artistic enthusiasm, no
really wonderful painter has ever appeared.
Why, the landscapes would seem to arouse the emula-
tion of a thousand Salvator Rosas—the domestic
.
primitiveness a race ofTeniers—the historic scrolls a
whole generation of Titians. France has her Poussin,
Spain her Murillo, England her Hogarth, Flanders
her Rubens, Dutchland her Ostade, America her
West, Italy her Buonarotti, her divine Raphael, her
incomparable Lionardo, her Caraccis, her Corregio,
her Domenichino, her Guido, her Paul Veronese, her
Guilio Romano, but Switzerland ! In romantic
literature, as just observed, she is almost a blank.
Stars have risen over her mountains, however, to
beacon after emulators along:that highway of art, and
not the least bright amongst those is Rudolph Topfler.
Born at Geneva, on the 17th of February, 1799, he
has disappeared already, but he has left behind him
fragments of genius which must excite the talents of
his countrymen. Shelley called the broken sculpture
of the ancients—such as the Elgin marble—
the despair of modern art. The expression
was an emphatic one—but true. The frag-
ments of imaginative literature left behind him
by Topffer, will not so much excite feelings of despair
in his posterity, as those of admiration, and, what is
better, emulation. The reviewer in the Foreign
Quarterly has done well in introducing this natural
romancist, or rather novelist, to the attention of those
English readers, who are, as yet, unacquainted with
his compositions—particularly with his " Presbytere,"
his " Bibliotheque demon Oncle," and his "Rose et
Gertrude.' "Persian Poetry" is an attar of rose
contribution, suggested by a very graceful work, by
Miss Louisa Stuart Costello. A companion article is
the one entitled "Birds of Jamaica." Bookworms
will alone read the " Trial of the Earl of Somerset,"
and Quakers will alone find attraction in the "Life
of George Fox ;" to both classes respectively, we
commend them therefore. From the critical notice of
Mrs. Butler's " Year of Consolation," we cannot re-
sist requoting one of the quotations, descriptive of the
Apollo Belvidere :
"From the moment I set my feet in the Vatican I
was possessed with a sort of nervous terror, lest I should
be utterly disappointed in it: this feeling increased with
every chamber I entered, to such a degree as to cause
me to feel absolutely sick with excitement; I feared to
look round each new room, lest I should confront this
great divinity, and remained unmoved; each time I ex-
perienced a sense of absolute relief when I found that
we had not yet reached that shrine; and I believe, if it
had been proposed to me to leave the Vatican without
seeing the Apollo at all, I should have been well pleased
to have done so; and yet for all future time I shall know
better. All that has been written, all that has been
said, all that has been copied in drawing, painting, or
sculpture, of this wonderful statue, has left the marvel
of its beauty unimpaired; no foreknowledge can prepare
one for it, nor any description give one an idea of its
grace and lightness, nor any number of ecstasies rub off
the bloom of its divinity. I could believe the legend of
the girl who died for love of it; for myself, my eyes
swam in tears, and my knees knocked together, and I
could hardly draw my breath while I stood before it;
the guides held up torches to show the light through
the marble drapery, while I was dazzled with the light
shining through the marble face; and the French lady
emitted opinions in a voice as sharp as needle-points.
Heaven! what a witness to the glory of the human soul
is such a conception as this! Man's thoughts devised,
man's fingers wrought this god! This perfect creation
had its origin in the yet fairer idea of a man's brain,
for who ever yet worked as he imagined! There was a
lovelier and a grander shape in the mind of him who
made this, than even this that he has made! Oh, well
may we thank the only true God for being formed
capable of such things. I have no words to speak my
sense of gratitude for these new revelations of beauty
and of grace, vouchsafed to me in this the very mourn-
ing-time of my life; angels have ministered, do minister,
to me incessantly, and this enchanting presence, this
divinity of the beauty-worshipping heathens, is to me a
very messenger of my God, bidding me bless him who
bath permitted me to behold it."
"International Law," and the " Currency principles,"
are the two political papers of the number, and a
multitude of miscellaneous notices,' complete the
Westminster and Foreiza Quarterly. This number
is one of the least meritorious that has been published
for a considerable period.

THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND QUARTERLY
REVIEW. No. XLIII.
We cannot afford a better conception of the diver-
sity and character of the papers contained in this
quarter of the Church of England Review, than by
enumerating the different contributions. Firstly,
there is an argumentative and elaborate article on
" The Church of the Future." Secondly, there is a
chapter of Asiatic interest, upon " China : Political,
Commercial, and Social." Thirdly, there is a con-
sideration of the progress and facilities of " Educa-
tion in France,"—a matter of vital importance just
now. Fourthly, there is a fantastic examination of
Lord Lindsay's theory of " Progression by Anta •
gonism." Fifthly, there is a striking essay about
" Clerical Insufficiency and Church Reform."
Sixthly, a commemorative paper on " Church of
England Poetry,"—rather braggart, like in tone, but
that by-the-way. Seventhly, a misrepresentation of
" The Manufacturing System," which will stir up
the bile of the :Manchester population—if it be ever
perused by
ythat
and abusiveportion
oftheoutcry community.againsEtig,h,tih,lhye,
a prolonged
Teachers of the People," from which we shall pre•
sently make a quotation. Ninthly, a gossip anent
" Travels in Peru." Tenthly, an argument on an
old theme, " Scriptural Geology." And an appen-
dix of " Notices of Books." We have particularly
referred to an abusive outcry against " The Teachers
of the People,"--it is an outcry most abusive and
most ignorant. Against whom in the name of common
sense does the reader imagine is this ignorant abuse
directed ? Who does he imagine to be here stigma-
tised as the moral pests of the people ? Why, Elihu
Burritt, the editor and contributors to the People's
Journal, the writers for Jerrold's Weekly Newspaper,
Douglas Jerrold himself, and—Charles Dickens ! 0
Mistress Caudle, rise and vindicate thy creator ! 0
Sairey Gamp, leave the bottle on the chimbley-piece
for once, which, unbeknown, you drinks from to the
shade of Harris, and do likewise with thy frequent
pardner, Betsey Prig. As a sample of this egregious
piece of absurdity, we transcribe the subjoined
passages :
" The Douglas Jerrold-school of socialism is clearly a
foreign importation. It has done more to enervate the
manly and truth-loving sentiments of the English mind
than all the circumstances which have lately tended to
depress the working man's condition. It is one of the
results of that propagandism which France glories in as
her special mission—which she initiated with the bloody
mysteries of the guillotine and ministered to all Europe
in fire, and sword, and desolation, by the brave but
ferocious spirits of her Grande Armee. Though the
maintenance of universal peace be assumed as a leading
doctrine, yet antagonism to existing institutions is its
object. Give its disciples the same field, the like power,
and a sufficient impellant motive, they would soon find
themselves, with Elihu Burritt's morbid nonsense in their
mouths, hesitating at no desperate deed which might
compel the adoption of their creed. The moral and
social regeneration of which they boast was baptised in
blood, and must, some day or other, have its confirmation
in deadly strife. These men are ever talking of moral
force as that to which alone they trust for their social
conquests, though the forms of speech which they use
are fierce and warlike enough. Moral force is all very
well where physical strength cannot be exerted ; but, if
the issue of the great socialistic mission, which France
advocates and apostate Englishmen adopt, is to rest on
moral force alone, it is not difficult to predicate that it
will be one of failure, since moral force and right prin-
ciples must go together, and of the latter this socialistic
mission is devoid. We are no advocates for the bigotries
optdt
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characteristics
brotherhood
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family—be
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ramifications
a family requires. To ask us to become nu-English,
that we may be the disciples of a system of which the
foreign socialist is the missionary, is tantamount to
requiring that we efface the individual characteristics
which mark our place in the great family of man; and it
is just this end which the Douglas Jerrold-school of
philosophy is aiming at. If it be effected, men will
become confederate, but will never be brethren: there
may be association, but there will not be confidence;
and the only bond that will hold them together will
be one of selfish interest, and nct of holy affection.
However great the evils of this day may be, the theories
of socialistic writers will neither ameliorate nor remedy
them. They may goad the social sufferer into madness,
yt o aalympnh
ti ma by,ae aa np empty
into
ex-
hortationhis
hand, but, when they see him use it to the hurt of oyery
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