Art [pp. 347-348]

1874.}
LITB~AB Y-A~ T.
347
NOTES.
F tlie thirty-five hundred new books pub lished ill England last year, there were
two-thirds as many works on science and art
as woH~s of fiction. When it is considered
how much more restricted in number the readers of science are than those of novels it is a
good sign that works of the former class should
make so good a show. The influence of Tyndell, IIuxley, and Proctor, is clearly betrayed
in the very prevalent eflbrt to popularize tile
sciences, not by skipping their difficulties, but
by letting a little of the light of common-sense
and a familiar vernacular into them. The
great hinderance to the teaching of common
minds by great scholars has always been the
inability of the latter to comprehend the ignorance of their audience; so that they have
started from too advanced a point, and thus
produced a confusion in the beginning which
muddled the lesson throughout. Compare the
school-hooks of thirty years ago and those in
use to-day, and the progress in the art of putting knowledge is at once apparent. These new
English scientific publications are, iii large
part, written to enlighten people wlio have not
pursued, or cannot pursue, a ~ong course of
scientific study. A little learning may be a
langerous thing, but it is surely far better than
stolid ignorance; and the general mass can
inly acquire a more or less superficial knowledgc of scientific topics. A mechanic is always ii more skillful workman when he can
understand thc scientific reason why the machine lie is making is effective for its intended
purpose. Thus it is that works of "popular
scicuce," instead of diverting those who would
i~therwise delve deep into the subjects treated
afford a little light, at least, to tliose wlio otherwise would not read upon those subjects at all.
Another gratifying feature of the year's issues is the production and wide-spread circulation of cheap editions of the English classics.
It is not very long since these were quite out
of the reach of the poorer class of English
readers; and even now, new books, whether
of science, fiction, or history, are published at
rates above the pockets of all but the well-todo ranks of society. A novel of Wilkie Collins or Rhoda Broughton, which American publishers bring out in a seventy-five-cents paper
edition, is published in London in three cloth
volumes at a retail cost of a guinea and a half.
This compels readers of moderate means to
have recourse to Mudie and other circulating
libraries for fresh entertainment.
But it has become a matter of very laudable
competition with the London publishers to issue, at the lowest profitable prices, the works
of the greatest poets and novelists. A very
tolerably printed complete edition of Shakespeare is to be had for a shilling; a sixpence
will purchase all tlie works of either Milton
`~ordswoftb, Byron, or Cowper; while the
Waverley novels may become the property
of any one who is wilihig to pay threepence
apiece for them. Such authors as Addison,
Fielding, Smollett, CAbbon, Hume, and llallam, are to be had at similar small cost; and it
will not be long before Dickens, Macaulay,
Thackeray, and Bulwer, will be quite as easily
within reach of their bumble lovers. Thus a
new realm of delight has been opened to many
to whom the names of England's famous writers
have hithefto been but shadows of ii ames 30;642;2447]and
a new sort of literary education has been added
to the system of universal and free instruction
which has just been established by the law.
The Seturdey J?evsew gives us an essay in
defense of desultory reading, and especially
of the familiar literature of the day. "In ordinary people," it says, "the most ephemeral
reading does a good deal for which the study
of the greatest men of old times is not available. One of the main purposes of judicious
reading is to rise above the ugliness and commouplace of daily life into a region of purer
thought and loftier imagination. But, unfortunately, commonplace readers find a great
difficulty in bringing the two spheres into contact. -. - Tlie most trifling of modern novelists has an advantage for ordinary minds which
it would be foolish to leave out of account. Mr.
Trollope is a very excellent writer, but we do
not fear that he will be offended if we say that,
in our opinion, he is not the equal of Shakespeare or Cervantes. ~Ye should not, however,
draw the inference that it would be good for
an ordinary young lady of the nineteenth century to preserve a complete ignorance of Barsetahire, and devote all her spare time to the
study of`11am let' and`Don Quixote.' On
tlie contrary, we should say that she would
probably learn very much from Mr. Trollope which she could not possibly learn from
the most attentive study of the older works of
art, however great their intrinsic superiority.
As one of Mr. Tennyson's characters observes,
a truth looks freshest in the fashion of the
day; and, indeed, it often flies over people's
heads altogether when expressed in any other
fashion. The heroine of`Orley Farm' may
be very inferior to J~iiet or Bosatind' and the
country clergy of Barsetahire may be unworthy
of mention by the side of the immortal madman of Cervantes. But they have the advantage of speaking a perfectly intelligible dialect. Even the most powerful and the most
musical voice becomes rather dim and loses
something of its harmony when it sounds
across two or three centuries. The ideal which
is set before us in a modeni chignon or black
hat is more easily appreciated than one which
however exquisite, is draped in unfiimiliar costume. In fact, it requires a careful culture of
the imagination before the mind can get over
the shock of an external change which seems
trifling enough to the philosophical observer."
There is a good deal of truth in these assertions
-truth which the high-tuned critics have been
too apt to forget.
In a review of Professor Hadley's "Essays,
Philological and Cntical," the AUien~um says:
"We venture to say that all scholars who
read these Essays will share our feeling of regret for the untimely death of their author.
Many Englishmen may make their first acquaintance with him through this volume. Indeed, the good work done in America is far
too little known among us; the best American
scholars show a truly German industry and
width, both of reading and speculation, while
their practical sense keeps their wfltings within a reasonable compass. In receptivity and
enthusiasm for a wider learning Amen can
scholars stand before English: and few memhers of our universities could have produced
work so varied and yet so sound as is contained in these Essays. They are marked by
a genuine erudition, and a thorough knowledge
of all that has been written on their several
subjects, to which not one in ten of our lecturers could make any claim; but still snore
striking is the good judgment which they show,
and their conspicuous fairness. Rarely have
we read a book which gives us so high a conception of the writer's whole nature; the verdicts
are clear and well balanced: and there is not a
line of unfair, or even nnkindly, criticism."
Mr. Trollope classifies the reviews which
appear in current periodicals: "There is the
review intended to sell a book, which comes
out immediately after the appearance of the
book or sometimes before it; the review whidi
gives reputation, but does not affect the sale,
and which comes a little later; the review
which snuffs a book out quietly; the review
which is to raise or lower the author a single
peg, or two pegs, as the case may be; the review which is suddenly to make an author;
and the review which is to crush him." He
adds that, "of all reviews, the crushing review
is most popular;" and thinks that "whenever
the circulation of a paper begins to slacken
the proprietors should, as a matter of course,
admonish their Alf to add a little power to tlie
crushing department."
A contemporary is reprinting" Rasselas" as
a serial. At first thought this may seem absurd; but, after all, what work could a publisher reprint so likely in these days to be entirely
novel-new as well as novel-to his readers?
R. EASTMAN JOllNSON is better
k ii own by his paintings than by any
thing in black and white; in fact, till the present time, we never saw any work of his in monochrome on public exhibition. Everybody
familiar with his pahfting of tlie " Wounded
Drummer-Boy," will remember the spirit and
grace of the picture. Unlike Mr. Johnson's
quiet ~enre pictures, this was one of the most
animated war-scenes that any of our artists had
delineated, a~id tlie early impression made by
the painting itself was not weakened when we
saw a crayon-study for the picture, which is
now on exhibition at Schaus's.
Besides this crayon, which, if we reinemher rightly, is of the size of the original picture, Sdsaus has two As arming little crayon
studies by the same artist; one called, "Now
I lay me down to sleep," with the figure of a
little child in its night-dress at its prayers by
a little coarse bed. We all should know that
it is form which gives charm of expression;
the tender features and limbs that have endeared Mr. Johnson's works to so many persons, are just as expressive in the crayon as in
mellow tints of color, and the small, plump
feet of the young child in this little drawing
are very effective and beautiful.
A third drawing by Mr. Johnson, which is
also of cabinet size, represents the interior of
a country-kitchen, which vividly recalls the
early days of cooking-stoves in New England.
A young woman is holding her child on her
lap, and warming it and herself before the little open doors of the stove on the top of
which a tea-kettle is boiling. A high mantelshelf aiid stiff cli airs are the main features of
the room, and really give the chief value to the
little sketch, whiAs has tlie woman and child
for a "mohve."
These purely American pictures are of great
value, for they are as much sisi qeneris as Dutch
interiors or Venetian canals, and, as we have
had occasion to remark before, they embody
a phase of life which is rapidly departing. All
of Mr. Johnson's pictures have a quiet basis
of technical excellence, and such artists as he
are the most suitable persons to render the
picturesque side of any kind of life; it is from
such easels as his that the pure and somewhat
austere character of some kinds of American
life will hereafter derive their title to picturesque consideration.