The Sun.
London, England, 1857-02-16 00:00:00

LITERATURE.

Westminster Review.—Under the quaint and
somewhat questionable heading of " Wordliness
and Other-Worldliness," we have a sparkling, but
bitter and otherwise exceptionable article on the
poet Young. Much of the criticiPm is unimpeach-
able ; but the apparent motive of the onslaught,
together w;th occasional bits of flagrant irreverence,
mar the reader's satisfaction in the perusal. "No
man," we are told, " can be better fitted (than
Young) for an Established Church. He personifies

completely her nice balance of temporalities and
spiritualities. He is equally impressed with
the momentousness of death and of burial
fees—he languishes at once for immortal life
and for " livinge"—he has a fervid attach-
ment to patrons in general, but on the
whole prefers the Almighty . . To a clay
compounded chiefly of the worldling and the rhe-
tnrician there is added a real spark of Promethean
fire. He will one day clothe his apostrophes and
objurgations, his astronomical religion, and his
charnel-house morality in lasiinz verse, which will
stand like a Juggernaut made of gold and jewels,
at mice magnificent and repulsive. Towards the
conclusion a contrast is presented between him and
the poet Cowper—the sum of which is as follows :
—" In Young we have the type of that deficient
human sympathy, that impiety towards the present
and visible which flies for its motives, its sanctities,
and its religion to the remote, the vague, and the
unknown. In Cowper we have the type of that
genuine lova which cherishes things in- proportion
to their nearness, and feels its reverence grow in
proportion to the intimacy of its knowledge."
Enough has been adduced to show the scope and
tendency of the article. Au able paper on the
" Capabilities and Disabilities of Women" is suc-
ceeded by a gloomy article on -" English Law : its
Oppression and Confusion:" The writer offers
little hope of real and substantial improvement
until the people are better represented in Par-
liament, small and very slow reforms being, in
his opinion, all that at present it is any use to ask
for. The description given of the existing state
of the liw and the progress made towards reform is
anyth'ng but grateful to one's feeling Of nationality,
and, what is more, to one's sense of justice. The
" State of Parties in Italy since 1848" is the sub-
ject of one of 'the most vigorous articles in the
number. The writer foresees, sooner or later, a
renewal of the struggle between right and injustice
in Italy; designates indifference to the issue as
" atheism," and asserting that we have never
grasped the Italian question in its unity; essays
",to obtain from a brief survey of facts and docu-
ments, too_ little known, ingirtht into it."
The profound sacredness attaching to the idea of
nationality being demonstrated, it is said—" In
Italy all these sacred instincts and realities of race,
language, and cherishedtraditions were perhaps more
ruthlessly violated than in any other country in
Europe by the treaties of an, which our Govern-
ment has recently agreed, with the despotic Go-
vernments of Europe, to respect." Proof of this
having been given, "the natural result, we are
told, was seen first in a latmt, then iu an open
struggle on the part of the populations the
Treaties of Vienna divided ln spite of
Governmental maps, Lombards, Romans, Tuscans,
Neapolitans, and Sicilians continue to feel that they
are but part of an indestructible whole—the Italian
people. The prophecy of Dante, Petrarch, and
Machiavelli will be fulfilled, for the idea of Dante
lives in the hearts of twenty-six millions of Italians
suffering under a common tyranny, and united by
a common martyrdom. They seek to become, and
they will not rest till they do become, a compact
whole, and bear their just weight in the scale of
Europe. Napoleon comprehended this, and de-
clared at St. Helena that " unity of man-
ners, of language, of literature, must at a
future, more or less remote, end in, bring-
ing her inhabitants under one government."
There is an idea at work. No local remedies, no
fractionary improvements or partial reforms will
consequently avail. "In England, from not un-
derstanding this idea, we have imagined Italy di-
vided into a variety of parties, but, in fact, the
Italians know that there are two—the Party of
Action, or the National Patty, and the Moderate
Party. . . . A glance at the late insurrections,
in different parts of the Peninsula, and at the
leaders who have arisen out of such insurrections
will show that all have consciously or unconsciously
tended to the realisation of the great idea, the
unity of Italy." The National party, it is said, is
eminently the party of the people, while the Mode-
rate party is composed, of those who, despairing
of ithe Italians being able to free themselves
and 'vindicate their right to a national existence
in the face of Europe, seek to obtain through
diplomacy, from the Governments of Europe,
gradual administrative reform, and a slow and
partial amelioration of the tyranny under which
Italy now writhes. The treachery of Charles
Albert to the great Italian cause is forcibly ex-
hibited in a retrospect of the war of independence,
and the fact, that after such experience of the
consequences of putting their trust in princes, the
moderate party in Italy should still preach to the
people, that their hope is in the king of Piedmont,
is said not to be surprising. "We have seen that
they are men without grasp of intellect, without
first principles to guide them." Another quota-
tion, and we are done ; it relates both to the pre-
se

nf and the future. "There is in Italy a visible
progressive movement, and it is especially evident
since the Crimean war,. towards the national party.
It counts among its ranks the working classes of
the cities all over Italy, and almost all the young,
men who fought in Lombardy, Venice, Rome, and
Sicily in 1847, 1848, and 1849. One thing is certain,
that as hatred and abhorrence of Austria is the
dominant idea` of every true Italian heart,
whenever the National Party shall raise its
flag for action even the great bulk of Piedmontese
will cease all talk of opportunity and diplomatic
arrangements, rally round the tricolor standard,
and forget aliminor differences in the universal cry
of " Fuori de Barbari." Among the remaining
contributions may be noticed an elaborate article on
the proposed ." Revision of the English Bible,"
and another of more immediate interest, if not of
greater importance, on " Herat and the Persian
war." The writer is of opinion, and undertakes to
show an invasion of India by Persia is far from im-
practicable, and asserts that one fundamental
axiom ought regulate all our policy in Persia
—to wit, that the day will come when she will
combine with Russia in molesting us there. He
recommends our establishing ourselves in Candahar,
the real key of India, and which, according to the
best living authorities, could be reached at present
by an invading army from the frontiers of Georgia
with but little difficulty. Candahar, to be sure,
belongs to the Affghans, but a little diplomacy
might put it in our possession—that failing, it is
said we would b 3 justified in taking it by force, the
welfare of a few ..A.ffghans being as nothing to that
of the millions of India.

The National Review.
An excellent number—tile best indeed we have
seen of this newly-established review. To variety
is added the positive merit of judicious selection,-
and a quiet power and comprehensiveness of grasp
have been brought to bear on some of the subjects
but too seldom met with in our periodical literature.
The most noticeable article is one on "William
Wordsworth," which opens the number. The writer
manifests a subtle and masterly apprehension of
the ge!iius of the poet, and a judicial impartiality
in setting forth his defects and merits. In order
nsion of Wordsworth's matter, we
to the compre.LP
are told "it is absolutely necessary to understand
his manner first. There is no poet who gives to
his theme so perfectly ne:7 a birth as Wordsworth.
Not indeed that he discerns and revivifies the
natural life which is in it but he creates a new
thing altogether—namely, tie life of thought which
it has the power to generate it; his own brooding
imagination. Thus he uses huma2 sorrow, for ex-
ample, as an influence to stir up his ovn meditative
spirit till it loses its own nature, and beCtallos--

" 'Sorrow that is not sorrow, but deliglif,
And miserable love, that is not pain
To hear of, for the glory that redounds
Therefrom to human kind and what we are.'
It is this strange transmuting power which his
meditative spirit exercises over all earthly and
human themes, that gives to Wordsworth's poems
the intense air of solitude which everywhere per-
vades them. He is the most solitary of poets. . .
In solitude only could they have originated, and
in solitude only can they be perfectly enjoyed.
. . . Natural rays of feeling are refracted the
moment they enter Wordsworth's imagination. It
is na the theme acting on the man that you see,
but the man acting on the theme." Going back a
little, we find this brief description of the poet's
mind. "It was in substance that of a ' plain'
Englishman, though steeped in. the dim light- of
constant meditation, and gifted w ith
though narrow imaginative forces" The piercing
le article,
however, is of too continuous a character for brief
extracts to do justice to its merits, or those of its
subject. A paper on " The Relations
_ of Art to
Religion" appears to have-Rust inian inspiration.
the title of a clever article,
ties of that eccentric
Belated. The chief of
faculty of simultaneous
ment," his offspring
t being
Spurgeon and his they
dered, not however Popularity"in the
exact results his
likely to approve. ~i, been N vritten under
~alzac in Pantoutles" is
author in which the peculiari-
th are gra/. thically pre-
ese is an " instinctive
s conception an d embodi
created rot that„ they
may calculati % Niril
are ef....d. idl3:
.faitishe
precise spirit (1 rl"tn
are
more sympathetic adw ...t
" The Literature o. 'teaui
upping"
DuPPliefi an entertaining paper, Nv _eye tile