The Sun.
London, England, 1857-02-26 00:00:00

THE QUARTERLIES.

The Quarterly Review. No. CCI.
The new number of The Quarterly has already
reached a second edition. We are not surpti,ed
'4t. it. It is alt .crether a most remarkable number.
Full of interest, full of novelty, replete with evi-
dences of refined and elegant scholarship, and
abounding with information. There are eight se-
parate coutributi...ns, making up the contents of the
pre,ent instaiment. The. first of theie eight articles
be'ng a very elaborate and, as it prOves when, once
fairly adventured upon, a singularly readable sur-
vey of the topographical labours of Messrs. Baker,
Bridges, Fuller, S oneberg, Hudson, Whellael
and llartshorne, in illustration of the "History
and Anti(pities of Northamptonsh're " Next we
have—very pleasant reading for Mr. Harry Brad-
bury—a genial paper upon "Ferns and their por-
traits—Nature- Prinfng," in which the reviewer
not less eagerly than the review-stq evinces a readiness
to—.

"Hie to haunts right seldom seen,
Lovely, lonesome, cool, and green,
Where the morning dew lies longest,

Where the Lady Fern grows strongest::"
according to Sir Walter's exquisite sylvan descrip-
tion. Later on, guided and companioned by ano-
ther critic in the Quarterly, we wander off, in a
pleasant Waltonian essay, in quest of that Emperor
of Fish " The Salmon." Another reviewer de-
scAnti,)g upon "The Rat" merrily reminds us at
the outset of his treatise upon it, how—

" Boswell relates that the wits, who assembled at the house
of Sir Joshua Reynolds to hear Grainger's poem on the Sugar
cane' read in manuscript, burst into laughter wheln, after
much pompous blank.verse, a new paragraph commenced with
the invocation—

" Now, Huse, let's sing of rats."

Adding—
" But if a mean topic for the bard, they are an interesting
subject to the naturalist, an anxious one to the agriculturist,
and of some importance to everybody."
Previougly, however, to these two eccentric, but
instructive and entertaining, papers anent "The
Rat" and " The Salmon"—we are indebted to a
gifted and 'scholarly critic in the Quarterly for a
masterly disquisition upon " Homer and his Suc-
cessors in Epic Poetry.' A disquisition in which
—setting aside not only the great mass of Epic
Poets (Secondary and Subordinate), but with them
even Milton with his " Paradise Lost," and Dante
with his "Diving Cornmedia"—the Reviewer con-
trasts, and weighs in the balance, and analyses, with
the subtlest tokens of taste and judgment, Homer's
" Iliad " and " Odyssea," Virgil's "Eneid," and
Tasso's " Gerusalerame Liberate." Before enter-
ing, however, upon this more detailed examination
of the great masterpieces of Homer, Virgil, and
Tasso, the Quarterly .Review observes incidentally of
Dante as compared with Milton, that while he is
in the Purgatorio and Paradise more heavenly than
Milton, be is throughout the Diviva Commedia'
"truly and profoundly human." Subsequently, in
illustration, or rather verification, of the remark
that " the immense power of Virgil as a poet bad
been demonstrated before he wrote the '2Eneid,"
the writer observes, very admirably, "He
had shown their full splendour in the Geor-
gics ; though the eooe or (so to speak) the heart,
even of that great work was touched with paralysil
by his Epicurean and self-centring philosophy.
It is added, however, a little later on—as regret-
fully as truthfully—that about the only Touch of
Nature in the whole of that grand epic of the
Eneid is the simile (viii., 407) of the mother la-
bouring with her maidens at night
" Castum ut servare cubilo
Conjugis, et possit parvos edncero natos."
As a magnificent specimen of Hcmer's descriptive
powers, we have, excerpted, his picture of the first
great mental convulsion of Achilles :
We oaro• IDAsionn. 6' are 147/Er', iv 6E of irop
arieEcraw Xacioure atetvaexa tuppipttev,
it 87e sbarryavov gir ipvocralavoc irapci
roes ttiv avaaricraw, 0 8' 'Arpeianv ivaptgot,
iiF riXov 7rainntlV, ipplicriti re OVILOV.
While, as a crowning tribute of homage to the ge-
nius of Tasso, the whole of this really masterly cri-
ticism upon Epic Poetry closes with these earnest
remarks of the review& :—That while—
" It must be confessed a great and sharp descent from the
stature of Homer as a creative poet to that of Tasso—yst he
too is a classic of Italy, and a classic of the world ; and if for
a moment we feel it a disparagement to his country that she
suffers in this one comparison, let her soothe her ruffled roe
collection by the consciousness that though Tasso has not
rivalled Homer, at least no other poet of a modern time and
country has rivalled him; none has erected, upon similar
foundations to his, a fabric so lofty and so durable, so full of
beauty and of grace ; so well entitled, if not to vie with the
very greatest achievement of the ages that went before him,
at least to challenge or to win the admiration of those that
have succeeded. To lose the match against Homer is far
more than to win it from another competitor. Few indeed
are the sons of genius, and elect among the elect, who can
be brought into comparison with that sire and king of verse ;
and Tasso we are persuaded would bear us no grudge for thus
far, in his words, limiting his honours
" e cio fig sommo onore ;
Questi gia con Gernando in gars venue,"
The tone of the very admirable biographic criti-
SiStn upon " Sir Charles Napier"—upon tits
Sir Charles Napier upon the great Sir
Charles Napier, the Conqueror of Scinde,
and the Hero of Meannee and Hyderabad, may at'
once be conjectured from the subjoined preamble
to it—
" This,' says Sir William Napier,"shall be the story of
a man who never tarnished his reputation by a shameful'
deed—of one who subdued distant nations by his valour,
and then governed them so wisely that English rule wag/
reverenced and loved where before it had been feared and
execrated.' This we may add is the story of a man who
united in his person qualities as fascinating as were. ever
combined in a hero—of a man who joined to the chivalry
of a soldier the sensitiveness of a woman—whose soul
seemed by turns to be flaming with fire and melting with
tenderness—whose life presents a singular combination of
romantic adventures with domestic virtues—of memorable
deeds with the unfailing commentary of sagacious reflec-
tions and touching sentiments." •
And rightly is the Life of Charles Napier penned
in this spirit of love and admiration—whether writ-
ten "at large" by the pen of his heroic and gifted
brother Sir William,* or "in little" by the hardly
slepsesakcoonfgcenhaiarllecsiNitc aipieinr,
atshe he
ought
sp Foko—ernoto
as he has been hitherto so seldom spoken of, in the
words of Truth, is literally to speak of him in the
language of Panegyric I From the preceding arti-
cle—a biographic criticism, or as it might perhaps
be more correctly designated the posthumous
apology of " Lord R iglan " we extract the
following interesting memento of the tranquil
manner of the demise of a gentle and gallant
soldier. Premising that the reviewer has just im-
mediately before this observed that Lord Raglan
had only taken to his bed on the 26th of June,
1855
" The evening after ho was thought to have improved, and,
by no means to have gone back on the morning of the 28th,
but about four o'clock in the afternoon it became evident to
everybody that he was rapidly sinking. His nephew, Lord
eN w a
8 ai With
better,
el
te thattfetr
Durghersh, whom he loved for the sunny disposition conga.
'dal to his own, which he retained in the midst of danger and •
trial, informed him e wasohte
to
affirmedgrowing
w sh t
to worse.taat lkhhe
w 1"
reso-
lute mind which had attended him through life, and which
.1n
succumbed to
ed h nothing,
weve,, 1
undis-
turbed till about eight o'clock, when General Aire to rouse
anti
l were then
the rieapsteawteodrdseovherae
spoke.
lptiomkees
him, told him that his nephew was in the room. Y'He woke
up and said, Francis, come to the other side,' Francis give
meia up.
h Theya hand,' d , '
Francis,
eneexipYeifdt
twenty minutes afterwards in such perfect quietness that the
bystanders could hard
ly tell he was gone,—dying with the
same simplicity with which ho had lived. Providence who had
visited him with
so many afflictions to fit him for this happy
Dour, •
, spared him the sorrow of apprehending his danger
and the bitterness of
pang which would have come over
him when he thought of the relatives and friends far away in
his native laud. His entire life may be said to have been a
preparation for death. Te the eye of the observer his char-
acter seemed without a single flaw, and many a time have his
friends been heard to say that, if ever a perfect being existed
in the world, Lord Raglan was the man. That he was chosen
solely for his qualities in his early youth as a bosom friend of
Sir Arthur Wellesley, and that he retained this pre-eminence.
without a moment's interruption, to the death of the Duke_
a space of mere than forty years—would be evidence itself
he was possessed of extraordinary worth."
The eighth and concluding article relates to
"Our Political Prospects—Domestic, Foreign,
and Financial."

* It may be permitted to us here briefly to remark that
our comments upon the latest historic masterpiece of
Lieut.-General Sir
William Napier, Vols. I. and 11. of
his glorious brother's biography—" The Life and Opinions
°' Murreaoy : Londou—are only postponed until such
in the heavy debates of Parliament may
of General Sir Charles James Napier, G.C.8.P1
4 vols.
tli2in me
as a pause
aff,d. us (literally) space in our columns for their publi-
c ation.—[Em SUIT.]

Last night Mr. S. Cowell, who has been "starring it"
in the provinces for the last three or four months, reap-
.
reap-
peared for one night at his old favourite place of amuse.
ment, the Canterbury Hall, So enthusiastic was his
reception that the audience were reluctant to part corn.
pany, even after Mr. Cowell bad sung four of his famous
comic songs without the slightest intermission. Tile re-
appearance.of this favourite comic singer was entirely
unexpected, as Mr. Cowell, having to pass through Lon-
don on. his way to Scotland, determined to spend an
evening with his old friends. He gave his services
proprietor of this establiasnhdm
leyts,;.etehntitliiimhowing the respect and good feeling
gexraFistlaAtiTntAgnb'y,lßE
a fire broke out inO Mr.
ent C. Morton, the worthy
naSpaetrutridnany
emioarnimrgoisebtouKt lirl.koh'eoaloteckn:
near Huddersfield known RR Levi's mill, and the pro,
Perty of Mr. Steard, of Huddersfield. While a man of
feak intellect named Watiam Smith was wallowing
cotton and wool together, in the teazer, or willow room,
the friction of the machinery ignited the cotton. Smith
drew the burning cotton out of the machine and threw
g
upon a mass of wool and cotton lying by,
which la
v
thus ignited. The flames spread with great e
to the
extent of about 2 0001. was done. rapidity,
arid, before they c-übl he extinguished,
burnt bcdy of Smith was
afterwards found, crouched
behind some oil casks. An inquest was
held upon the The charred and damage
remain,"Acci-
dental death"
eoaftlr,
was
returned. unfortunate wan, and a verdict of