From The Spectator. LETTER-WRITERS AND AUTOBIOGRA PHERS.* lie, comes within his province. This may be a comfortable theory, and it is certainly prolific. It enables Mr. Knight to insert letters from great men, to great men, and about great men. He can carry autobiography so far as to quote a description of George III. from one of Galt's novels, We cannot see that any distinct principle has guided Mr. Charles Knight in making this selection. His object has apparently been to make a selection. Some of the let-though it is not even suggested that George ters in the volume have been happily chosen, and bear not only on the characters of their writers, but on the epistolary art. So much cannot be said of the autobiographical fragments, unless they are accepted as private letters written to a friendly posterity. We do not mean that they are devoid of interest. De Quincey's sad memorials of himself, Gibbon's stately History of the Rise and Progress of the Gibbonian Empire, Cowper's memoirs, which, as is well pointed out in this book, present a marked contrast to his letters, afford Mr. Knight many valuable extracts. But except as being readable in themselves, and completing our knowledge of their authors, these sketches have no peculiar claim on our consideration. They are not representative, as they ought to be, and as some of the letters are. When once a selection is made without any thread of unity running through its component parts, when anything that looks attractive is made use of, and much that does not even hold out such a hope is quoted for the sake of quotation, the effect produced is that of paste and scissors, what might seem catholicity of taste is regarded as smattering, and the panegyrics of the compiler on his favourite pieces are taken for puffery of the wares he has to offer. Mr. Charles Knight will be hardly exposed to such suspicions, but he will not have to thank his present book for his escape. If he had not been an old and faithful servant of literature, we might either have passed over this work as a mere compilation, or have dealt severely with its shortcomings. As it is, we think Mr. Charles Knight has taken one of those small liberties which old servants will take occasionally, has made too much of a good idea, and smothered what were promising materials under an inordinate bulk of needless extract. III. wrote under the alias of Galt, or that Galt drew on his own character for Sir Andrew Wylie. But though Mr. Knight may quote he cannot force the public to read, and he will hardly persuade critics to form an estimate of the worth of his collection. We may avail ourselves of it to point out some of the leading characteristics of the letters it contains, and we must remark that many of these letters are too good for the company in which they are placed. One of the striking, though purely accidental, features of Mr. Knight's work is the publication of some new letters of Southey and Canning. Another interesting feature is the reproduction of the private letters of Junius to Woodfall. But it is difficult to understand why these letters of Southey and Canning should be considered epistolary models simply because they are unpublished, or why short notes which are made memorable by the mystery that surrounds their writer should rank with the delicate art of Cowper, the impulsive friendliness of Burke, and the stiff ease of Gibbon. The following passage is indeed characteristic of Southey: Such a title as Half-Hours with the best Letter-Writers and Autobiographers of course prepares us for an introduction to those who excelled in either department. Mr. Knight has not even attempted this in the present series. He seems to think that any letter, so long as it contains interesting matter, or bears a name known to the pub • Half-Hours with the Best Letter-Writers and Autobiographers. By Charles Knight. Second Series. London: Routledge. 666 Among my employments I must not forget the most important-Coke. I am obediently but I am not obedient enough to think it a good diligent in reading this man's commentariesbook for the young student. It is so completely unmethodical that I think it should only be read after a man was a tolerable lawyer. For my own part, I find I know something of everything, but have no arranged knowledge. It is like reading Wanley's Wonders or Seward's Anecdotes to learn history. I envy you who have done with these things, and often wish myself again at Burton. Certainly, I deem some regular employment necessary for most mensome professional study to fix them. But for myself, I am so thoroughly fond of literary pursuits, that it is not by this principle I can recLuckily there is a oncile myself to law. stronger motive, and unluckily that motive applies to me. 999 It serves, too, for a link of connection between Southey's letters and those of Canning, when we have Southey writing, "The Aristocrats have found out that such poems are very Jacobinical, and Canning__and Nares have given me the title of the Jacobine Poet, and regularly abused me once a 66 week since the Anti-Jacobine made its ap-freedom and less regularity than to you; pearance. They are the best advertise- for as the thoughts come crowding into my ments in the world, and will soon ridicule head, I cannot forbear putting 'em down, any book into a third edition." Moreover, be they in what order or disorder they will.” any of Canning's early letters, and notably Of course this freedom may be carried to the one in which he speaks of his Eaton life, such an extent as to become carelessness, would be valuable to the son of the pub- but good writers know when to unbend and lisher of the Microcosm. We are willing to when to stop short. That they should be allow for such motives, and it is hard not able to unbend appears not only from Cowto respect them even more than they de- per's example, but from the severe judgserve. Besides, a name is so large an ele- ment he passes on the affected smartness ment in the popularity of a letter that it of Pope. This foolish vanity," he says, often seems to supply the want of all that "would have spoiled me quite, and would should accompany it. When once we have have made me as disgusting a letter-writer a character before us, everything connected as Pope, who seems to have thought that with it seems characteristic. The distinc- unless a sentence was well turned, and tion between features and peculiarities, be- every period pointed with some conceit, it tween what makes up the character and was not worth the carriage. Accordingly, what happens to be attached to it, between he is to me, except in very few instances, what is public and general and what is local the most disagreeable maker of epistles that and personal, is constantly overlooked. A ever I met with." Even Gibbon relaxes man's features may be marked, and yet may now and then, neque semper arcum tendit. be wholly exceptional. The private letters The account of the Decline and Fall, given of Junius, for instance, are most significant to his stepmother, may be usefully conso far as the private character of their wri- trasted with the more youthful letter to his ter is concerned. In his Popular History aunt, which we quote below. "I am just of England, Mr. Knight could comment at present engaged in a great historical appropriately on the audacity which would work -no less than a History of the Dehave weaker letters disowned, the self-im-cline and Fall of the Roman Empire; with portance which looked forward to attainder, the first volume of which I may very possithe assumption which called Garrick a vaga- bly oppress the public next winter. It bond and told him to keep to his panto- would require some pages to give a more mimes. But here such comments are out particular idea of it; but I shall only say in of place. One does not select letters in or- general that the subject is curious, and der to show that their writer was a "worth-never yet treated as it deserves; and that less scoundrel." Even if the value of these during some years it has been in my thoughts, letters was greater than it is, it would be and even under my pen.' The letter to purely individual. And this alone ought his aunt dates from his nineteenth year, and to exclude them from a representative col- is far more of a precursor of the Decline lection. and Fall than the one which announces its approaching publication: 11 : Perhaps we have not made our meaning clear. If so the fault has been rather with "Dear Madam,- Fear no reproaches for Mr. Knight than with us. So few, comyour negligence, however great; for your siparatively, of the letters in this series come fence, however long. I love you too well to make up to the true standard, that in dwelling on you any. Nothing, in my opinion, is so ridicuthose which have fallen short of it we have lous as some kinds of friends, wives, and lovers, forgotten to define it. The reader has, who look on no crime as so heinous as the lethowever, examples of perfect art in Cow- ting slip a post without writing. The charm of per's letters, from which Mr. Knight has friendship is liberty; and he that would destroy drawn both wisely and liberally. In all the one, destroys, without designing it, the betCowper's letters there is that amount of ter half of the other. I compare friendship to freedom which marks the distinction be- charity, and letters to alms; the last signifies tween familiar correspondence and the set nothing without the first, and very often the tasks of authorship. "Now, upon the first is very strong, although it does not show word of a poor creature," Cowper remarks itself by the other. It is not good-will which is in one place, "I have said all that I have wanting, it is only opportunities or means. said without the least intention to say one months-four months: I began not to be anHowever, one month-two months-three word of it when I began." There is a gry, but to be uneasy, for fear some accident very similar confession in Madame de Se- had happened to you. I was often on the point vigné, and Burke, as quoted by Mr. Knight, of writing, but was always stopped by the hopes tells one of his correspondents, "I do not of hearing from you the next post. Besides, know to whom I could write with greater not to flatter you, your excuse is a very bad one. You cannot entertain me by your letters. I think I ought to know that better than you; and I assure you that one of your plain sincere letters entertains me more than the most polished one of Pliny or Cicero. "Tis your heart speaks, and I look on your heart as much better in its way than either of their heads." In many the affectation of literature. A poor little girl of this stamp was in my room one day when a gentleman was sitting with me. He asked her what she was reading at school. "Oh, Sir, the whole circle of the sciences!". -"Indeed!” said he;" that must be a very large work!”. "No, Sir; it is a very little book, it cost half a crown." My friend smiled, and lamented that There is something in the suggestion as to what was of such easy attainment had cost oppressing the public which takes even the him so much time and money. I asked a first of these letters out of the category in little girl, a servant's child, the other day, which Cowper's letters would be classed. what she was reading, and if she could say her But what could be more pedantic than the Catechism. Oh, no, Madam, I am learning assurance that news from an affectionate re- Syntax!" What I am going to add, you will lation is weighed in the balance against think an exaggeration, if not an invention, but the works of Pliny and Cicero? Such an it is a literal fact. A girl in the next parish beallusion shows a mind absorbed in dry stud-ing asked what she learnt, answered, "I learns ies, and even more proud of them than gogarphy, and the harts and senses. pleased with them. It is true that in the friendly correspondence of famous people we too often detect those follies of the wise which Johnson assigned to the last scene of life. But, then, these follies may have their charm for us. They may show us that great men are not more than men. They may make us more contented with our own littleness, and more ready to allow the merits of those who are not wholly removed from our appreciation. Besides their charm, they have often a valuable lesson. It must strengthen our hopes for the progress of the world to find that the arguments employed fifty years ago by persons to whose judgments some deference must be paid, have now become the undisputed property of men with whom it would be idle to argue. This, at least, is the moral we draw from the following letter of Hannah More's, written in 1823 to William Wilberforce: "Our poor are now to be made scholars and philosophers. I am not the champion of ignorance, but I own I am alarmed at the violence of the contrast. The poor must not only read English, but ancient history, and even the sciences are to be laid open to them. Now, not to inquire where would they get the money, -I ask, where would a labouring man get the time? Time is the fortune of a poor man; and as to what they would gain from Grecian history, why, they would learn that the meanest citizen of Athens could determine on the merits of a tragedy of Euripides; to do which they must always live in a playhouse, as, indeed, they almost always did; they were such critics in language as to detect a foreign accent in a great philosopher, &c.-and yet history does not speak of a more turbulent, unmanageable, profligate people. If you are not quite tired of me and my senilities, I will proceed to a few facts to illustrate my theory. Not only in the great national schools, but in the little paltry cottage seminaries of three-pence a week, I hear of the most ridiculous instances of schools, I am assured, writing and accounts prenticeship to sin. He who is taught arithmeare taught on Sundays. This is a regular aptic when a boy will, when a man, open his shop on a Sunday. Now, in my poor judgment, all this has a revolutionary as well as irreligious tendercy; and the misfortune is, that the growing ultraism on the side of learning, falsely so called, will irritate and inflame the old bigotry, which hugged absolute ignorance as hidden treasure, not to be parted with; while the sober measure of Christian instruction which lies between the two extremes will be rejected by both parties.' 999 From The Economist. Byeways in Palestine. By JAMES FINN, WE have no doubt that Mr. Finn enjoyed his travels among the Byeways of the Holy Land as much as he tells us he did, but he has not the faculty of reproducing his enjoyment for the benefit of his readers. A more conscientiously dull book has seldom fallen to our lot to notice, yet there is a good deal in it that might have been made interesting, and that even now is worth seeking out at the expense of a few yawns of weariness over the tedium of the task. Its object is best shown by some words in the preface, which will also serve as a specimen of the point of view from which the author looks at his subject and of his style of treatment: Bible, in order to hold fast their confidence in its predictions for the future, should rush into the extreme of pronouncing the Holy Land to be cursed in its present capabilities. It is verily and indeed cursed in its Government and in its want of population; but still the soil is that of "a land which the Lord thy God careth for." There is a deep meaning in the words "The Earth is the Lord's," when applied to that peculiar country; for it is a reserved property, an estate in abeyance, and not even in a subordinate sense can it be the fief of the men whom it eats up. I have seen enough to convince me that astonishing will be the amount of its produce, and the rapidity also when the obstacles now existing are removed. road, became perfectly secure. On one of my visits, a list was presented to me of ninety-eight inhabitants where a year-anda-half before there was not one. Homesteads were rebuilt; the people possessed horned cattle and flocks of sheep and goats, as well as beehives. I saw women doors a cat and a kitten; all was going on grinding at the mill, and at one of the prosperously. Purer pleasure I never felt than when in riding occasionally with our children we saw the threshing of wheat and barley in progress, and heard the women singing, or the little children shouting at their games. Sixty cows used to be driven at noon to drink at the spring. We returned to Jerusalem on the 21st of October, and on the 28th of November that village was again a mass of ruins, — the houses demolished, the people dispersed, their newly sown corn and the vineyards ploughed over, - the fine spring of water choked up once more, and my Australian trees planted there torn up by the roots. All this was allowed to be done within nine miles of Jerusalem to gratify persons engaged in an intrigue which ended in deeds far worse than this." The author may truly say this country is cursed in its Government. Under a settled and just if stern rule, this experiment proves what the people and soil are capable of effecting. We will give a few extracts from differ It is to this part of his notes of travel that we shall confine ourselves. The productive capabilities of this once fertile, but now all but desert land; the archæological investigations do not strike us as of great value though in his wanderings Mr. Finn came across many curious relics of antiquity, such as that of the "Syrian Stonehenge," near Sarepta (now Sarafend), "certainly of earlier period than any Greek or Roman architecture in the country." His records of his various journeys are dull in the extreme, the fault of a want of literary ability, not of any lack of picturesque and varied incidents. There can be no monotony at least in travelling in a country where villages spring up and vanish in a year or two. "At one time Fool-ent parts of his book illustrative of the ah" (in the plan of Esdraelon) was a heap writer's theory of the productiveness of the of ruins, while its neighbour Afoolah had soil under even its present mode of cultivaits residents; on my next visit it was Fool- tion: ah rebuilt and the other a heap of overthrown stones; or next time both of them lying in utter silence and desertion." The author tried his hand at the construction of a village near to a summer residence- (if a cottage of rough stones with tents for sleeping in, a kitchen built out of a mud wall and branches of trees, and an ancient sepulchre for a summer house, the whole perched on a hill-side on the way from Jerusalem to Hebron, deserves so high sounding a name). A friend, of whom I hope to speak more in another time and place, superintended for me the rebuilding of an ancient Biblical village that lay a heap and a desolation, and cleared out its spring of water, which, by being choked up with rubbish, made its way unseen underground. It thus became nearly as copious as that alongside of Solomon's Pools. gathered people into the village, vineyards were planted, crops were sown and reaped there, taxes were paid to the Government, and the vicinity, which previously had been notorious for robberies on the Hebron 66 In one place (on the Philistine plain), I remarked some hundred yards square of fine oats. This was surprising, as I knew that oats are not cultivated in Palestine. The people assured me that they were of excellent quality; and as the name " "Khafeer" seemed to be well known, it seems difficult to understand that oats have not been at some time cultivated in that part of the country. With respect to its Arabic name, it is worth notice how near it is to the German name "Hafer" for oats. Wetzstein has since found wild oats growing on the N.E. of the Haurn. . . . . All the plain and the low hills formed one waving sheet of corn without divisions or trees; and often, as we had no tracks for guidance, we had to take sight of some object on the horizon and work straight towards it. It was amid such a wonderful profusion that Samson let loose the foxes or Philistines, and he called it "doing them a disjackals with firebrands, taking revenge on the pleasure!" I have seen from Jerusalem the smoke of corn burning, which had accidentally taken fire in this very district. er hour brought us to Asdood (Ashdod) of the Philistines, with Atna and Bait Duràs on Anoth our left. I do not know where in all the Holy Land I have seen such excellent agriculture of grain, olive trees, and orchards of fruit, as here in Ashdod. The fields would do credit to English farming, the tall, healthy, and cleanly population wore perfectly white though rather coarse dresses, and carried no guns, only the short sword called the Khanjar. We rested in an orchard beneath a large mulberry tree, the fruit of which was just setting, and the adjacent pomegranate trees shone in their glazed foliage and bright scarlet blossoms, the hedges of prickly pear were bursting into yellow fruit, palm trees rising beyond, the sky was of deep sapphire brilliancy, and the sun delightfully hot. 66 In a footnote our author tells us that I since that journey I have been told by the country people that between Gaza and Beersheba it is the practice to sow wheat very thinly indeed, and to expect every seed to produce thirty to fifty stalks, and every stalk to give forty seeds." A land which can bear forty, fifty, or an hundredfold after this fashion, is not yet without hopes of future prosperity, whenever the incubus of Turkish rule (if ever that golden time for Palestine is to arrive) shall be removed. From The Glasgow Christian News. BARNES' NOTES ON THE PSALMS. Ir is with feelings tinged with sorrow that we direct attention to this work from the pen of one of the most useful servants of the Lord Jesus Christ. The name of Albert Barnes is a household name on both sides of the Atlantic, and it is respected and beloved wherever known. He who bears it has no enemies and a multitude of friends. His works are numerous, and they have aimed at the highest of all ends, the unfolding the meaning of the word of God. He has sent out more than half a million of volumes of Commentary on the Scriptures in his native land, and as many, if not more, in Great Britain, And now we are assured by himself that his work is done. He has reached that condition in life when he must needs lay down his unwearied pen, and wait the call of the Master. . . . There is something appropriate in closing a long life's work such as that of Albert Barnes with Notes on the Book of Psalms.' It requires many qualifications to expound the Songs of Zion, and amongst some of the most essential are those which alone can be possessed through experience. The Psalms are great deeps into which the mature and the mellowed alone can descend, to bring to the surface the rich truth which they contain. No young man, except in a high spiritual state, should attempt to expound the Psalms as a whole. His wing may be so strong as to carry him high enough and hold him up long enough at a time to survey a small corner of this marvellous field of inspiration, but a comprehensive survey for such an one is not possible. The real Christian soul who has had its sins and its sorrows, its darkness and its light, its sight of the righteousness as well as of the mercy of God-who has wept as well as rejoiced, is alone furnished with what is needed to expound the forms of speech, by which, for ages, the members of the Church of the living God have expressed their fears, reverence, and love to the Hearer of praise, and the Answerer of prayer. Such an one is our author. He is a man who by natural talent, culture, and experience is somewhat well-fitted for the task he has undertaken. For twelve long years he has devoted himself to this undertaking, and we are mistaken if this his last work will not be reckoned among the best, if not the best book which has proceeded from his pen. THE Rev. Albert Barnes is the author of a series of Critical, Explanatory, and Practical Notes on the Book of Psalms (Harpers), to be finished in three volumes, the first of which is just published. The preparation of the work has been carried on at intervals for the last twelve years, and Mr. Barnes now offers it as the completion of his Commentaries on the Scriptures. From any attempt to carry the undertaking further he is debarred by failing eye-sight. The vol ume before us opens with a brief introduction on the history of this collection of sacred songs. Not many more than half the number are ascribed to David, the rest having been composed by various authors. The period within which the different Psalms were produced extends from the time of Moses to the return of the Jews from the captivity of Babylon, or later. The character of the book gives evidence that it is composed of several separate collections, probably made at different epochs, and finally combined for use in public worship. The first collection is formed entirely of the Psalms of David, while the other four consist principally of songs by other poets, many being entirely anonymous. The formation of the Psalter or assembling of the whole book is ascribed by the Jewish Talmud to King David; but the more modern date of many of the Psalms contradicts the assertion. The received opinion among modern critics is, that the general colleotion was made by Ezra about 450 years before Christ. In Mr. Barnes's work the Psalms are printed, each verse by itself, on the top of the page, the remainder being occupied by copious notes and comments. Every point in which the translation differs from the original, or fails to convey the full meaning, is minutely explained, and descriptions are given of all local incidents and customs which in any way affect the sense. Mr. Barnes also takes the opportunity to point out the moral and religious lessons conveyed in the text, and to exhibit its beauties of feeling and expression. With these volumes, if they are indeed to be the last, Mr. Barnes will bring to a close a long and eminent course of la bors in the field of religious literature. For many years his works have been widely circu lated, and his unusual ability has been constantly and fervently exercised in the support of evangelical Christianity. New York Sun. |