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

LITERATURE.

THE WESTMINSTER AND FOREIGN
QUARTERLY REVI.Ii W. No. XCIII. and
No. LXX V
Not the most effectively finished, but certainly the
most interesting paper, in this double quarterly, is
the one, half-critical, half-bloaraphical, upon the
character, the abilities and the literary productions of
Rudolph Tcpffer. Dissent, however, we must, from
un 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-
ipery attempt to induce Pierre Corneille to pawn a
portion of his dramatic glory ? Who can ever forget
the incident about Tke'Cid? Richelieu an execrable
poet ? We prott st again distinctly that the great
Cardinal was as much a coryphEe as a poet. We 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
fe'tility, 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 Rosa's—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 Ruhens, 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 Tiieffer.
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 de men Oncle," and his "Rose et
Gertrude.' "Persian Poetry" is an attar of rose
c.ontribution, suggested by a very graceful work, by
Miss Louisa Stuart Costello. A companion article is
'Ale one entitled "Birds of Jamaica." Bookworms
'will alone read the " Trial of the Earl of Somerset,"
.nd Quakers will alone find attraction in the " Life
c.f George Fox ;" to both classes respectively, we
c ommend them therefore. From the critical notice of
lrs. Butler's " Year of Consolation,' we cannot re-
sin, t requoting one of the quotations, descriptive of the
Ayollo Belvidere :

"From the moment I set my feet in the Vatican I
As possessed with a sort of nervous terror, lest I should
Ue utterly disappointed in it: this feeling increased with
es-ery chamber I entered, to such a degree as to cause
.e to feel absolutely sick with excitement; I feared to
look round each new room, lest I should confront this
tgreat divinity, and remained unmoved; each time I ex-
perienced a sense of absolute relief when I found that
'tie had not yet reached that shrine; and I believe, if it
bad been proposed to me to leave the Vatican without
sfeeing 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 ,
n its beauty unimpaired;
of this wonderful statue, has left the marvel
za
no fort knowledge can prepare
gracf,or it, nor any dewription give one an idea of its
t.
h bloom of its divinity, could believe the legend of
the girl who died for love of it; for myself, my eyes
swan) 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 drapers, while I was dazzled with the light
shining through the marble face; and the French lady
emitted opinions in a voice as sbarp as needle points.
1/1e aven! what a witness to the gory of the human soul
is such a conception as this! Man's thoughts devised.•
lasn's fingers wrought this god! This perfect creation
ad 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 bas made! Oh, well
maY vve 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
inuLitude of miscellaneous notices, complete the
Westminster and Foreien Quarterly. This number
is one of the least meritorious that has been published
for a considerable period.