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cept the Prussian and the Scandinavian as at present defined, it is vain to expect active co-operation in the war from Denmark or Sweden. As on the Continent, so within the Sound, we encounter nothing but Russia at first-hand or Russia at secondhand; but still every where Russia. Has she not a reversionary interest in the Danish crown? Does she not stand virtually at the gates of Stockholm? Is it forgotten by either, how she took Norway from the one to give it to the other, and awarded Finland to herself? Has she not, within two years, set her thievish eyes on Finmark, and despatched "summer travellers" to survey by stealth the lines of road, and take soundings in Fiords where the water is never frozen and the largest navy might always lie? In the face of a neighbour whose power and inclinations are alike unchastened, what help can these second-rate states dare to give us? King Oscar may well fear that Finland, if restored to him at the expense of a Russia otherwise entire, would be but a fatal gift, which no outside Atlantic alliances could enable him to hold; and which would never be repaid without a huge territorial usury, if not the forfeiture of a crown. But with a restored Poland at Riga it would be otherwise. The territories bordering on the Neva would be enclosed between two states with no probable causes of mutual collision, and with a common paramount interest in preventing the aggrandisement of the Czars. An advance on Finland could be taken in the rear from Courland. The whole group of countries now paralysed by a terror that is ubiquitous would breathe again, and be free both to develop their interior life and to ally themselves by their natural affinities. North Germany, now misrepresented by its courts and benumbed by its officialism, would assert its true genius again, and escape from federal intrigues and military drill into national existence. The lands of the Northmen and the Danes, so akin to our own in habits, language, and feeling, would join us in defending the freedom of the seas, in favouring the development of secondary nations, and checking any tendency to huge uniformity of empire. The countries of Luther, of Gustavus Adolphus, and of the Princes of Orange would own with us the deep pledges which their history and ours has given to the Reformation; and refuse to surrender the principles of Protestant civilisation to any returning sacerdotalism. And wherever, as in Sardinia, in Poland, (may we not add, in Italy and in Hungary ?) the aspiration after political liberty has sprung direct out of the bosom of the old church. without passing through the medium of a religious revolution, the alliance of France, Catholic but not papal, with England, conservative though Protestant and free, against the living embodiment of hierarchical and military aggression, may well set at

rest ecclesiastic scruples, and show that around the standard now raised the progressive tendencies of civilised Europe, be the baptism that consecrates them what it may, are assembling themselves for mutual protection. England is prepared to be faithful to such an alliance. She is falsely accused, as an entire people, of selfish indifference to the political courses of the outİying world. Show her a nation, or group of nations, free of the soldier, free of the priest, reverent to law, resolute for justice, trusting in reality and truth; and we believe she will own, at any sacrifice, her natural affinity. Till international relations are determined less by dynastic diplomacy and more by these inartificial attractions, European societies must remain in the most precarious condition. From the Tuscan Sea to the North Cape, the Continent has scarcely a government that is not either paralysed or retrograde,-that either dares to win or has not utterly forfeited the active loyalty of its best subjects. Yet in every country the elements of regeneration abound, either motionless in despondency or wildly tossing about for want of sympathy and guidance. In the east of Europe is a power that systematically uses for her own ends the weaknesses, the jealousies, the fears, the bigotries of courts and hierarchies. the west let there be, in expression of its own genius and for the well-being of the world, an alliance around which the strength, the aspirations, the hopes and highest faith of nations may rally and find support. We ask for no propagandism, but only for self-protection to the ripest fruits of political experience and developed Christianity. We would raise a breakwater against any return of the tide of barbarism, which has now had its ebb of centuries, and which nothing but the fierce east-wind can hurl upon us again. And the contribution to these ends for which we pray in 1856 is-A CAMPAIGN IN POLAND.

In

LIST OF RECENT WORKS SUITABLE FOR BOOK-SOCIETIES.

History of England. By T. B. Macaulay. Vols. 3 and 4. Longman. Philip the Second of Spain. By W. H. Prescott. Bentley.

The Life of Jeanne d'Albret, Queen of Navarre. By Miss Freer. 2 vols. Hurst and Blackett.

[A faithful if not very vivid piece of historical biography.]

A History of Rome. By H. G. Liddell, D.D. 2 vols. Murray. The History of Piedmont. By Antonio Gallenga. 3 vols. Chapman and Hall.

[A thorough and valuable as well as most opportune book, yet not untinged by personal prejudices.]

The Life and Works of Goethe. By G. H. Lewes. 2 vols. Nutt. The Life of Henry Fielding. By Frederick Lawrence. Hall, Virtue, and Co.

Faith and Practice. By Rev. John Penrose. Murray.

Augustinian Doctrine of Predestination. By Rev. J. B. Mozley, B.D. Murray.

[A disquisition of great clearness as well as subtlety.] Sermons by the late Rev. Frederick W. Robertson of Brighton. Second Series. Smith and Elder.

[Fully equal in interest to the former series.]

Men and Women. By Robert Browning. 2 vols. Chapman and Hall. The Rivulet. By Thomas T. Lynch. Theobald.

Noctes Ambrosianæ, 2d vol. By Professor Wilson. Blackwood.

Lectures to Ladies on Practical Subjects.

Kingsley, &c. Macmillan.

By Messrs. Maurice,

Minnesota; or, the Far West. By Lawrence Oliphant. Blackwood.

[A very amusing volume.]

My Exile in Siberia. By Alexander Herzen. 2 vols. Hurst and Blackett.

The Last of the Arctic Voyages. By Sir Edward Belcher. 2 vols. Lovel Reeve.

[A book full of interesting details conveyed in the most struggling, inarticulate style. The drawings and maps are very well got up.] Five Years in Damascus. By Rev. J. L. Porter. 2 vols. Murray. Western Wanderings; or, a Pleasure-Tour in Canada. Kingston. Chapman and Hall.

By W. H. G.

240

Recent Works suitable for Book-Societies.

Eight Years' Wandering in Ceylon.

The Fur-Hunters of the Far West.
Smith and Elder.

By S. W. Baker. Longman.

By Alexander Ross. 2 vols.

[A strange life ruggedly told. The Indian glossaries are interesting to the philologist.]

Madame Pfeiffer's Second Voyage round the World. Longman.

The Past Campaign. By N. A. Woods. Longman.

The Story of the Campaign of Sebastopol. By Major E. Bruce Hamley. Blackwood.

Two Summer Cruises with the Baltic Fleet in 1854-5. By Rev. R. E.
Hughes. Smith and Elder.

Lilliesleaf. By the Author of "Margaret Maitland."
Blackett.

Zaidee. A Romance. By Margaret Oliphant. Blackwood.

Hurst and

The Heroes; or, Greek Tales for my Children. By Charles Kingsley. Bell and Daldy.

THE NATIONAL REVIEW.

APRIL 1856.

ART. I.-CHARACTERISTICS OF GOETHE.

The Life and Works of Goethe: with Sketches of his Age and Contemporaries, from published and unpublished sources. By G. H. Lewes. 2 vols. Nutt, 1855.

Freundschaftliche Briefe von Goethe und seiner Frau an Nicolaus Meyer, aus den Jahren 1800-1831. Leipzig, Hartung, 1856. [Friendly Letters from Goethe and his Wife to Nicolas Meyer, between the years 1800 and 1831. Leipzic, 1856.]

GOETHE tells us in his Autobiography, that while his mind was wandering about in search of a religious system, and thus passing over the intermediate areas between the various regions of theological belief, he met with a certain phenomenon which seemed to him to belong to none of them, and which he used to call therefore dæmonic influence. "It was not divine, for it seemed unintellectual; nor human, for it was no result of understanding; nor diabolic, for it was of beneficent tendency; nor angelic, for you could often notice in it a certain mischievousness. It resembled chance, inasmuch as it demonstrated nothing; but was like providence, inasmuch as it showed symptoms of continuity. Every thing which fetters human agency seemed to yield before it; it seemed to dispose arbitrarily of the necessary elements of our existence." It is not always, says this great observer of life, "the first and best, either in moral nature or in abilities," who possess this magnetic influence, and it is but rarely "that they recommend themselves by goodness of heart; but a gigantic force goes out of them, and they exercise an incredible power over all creatures, nay, even over the elements themselves; and who can say how far this influence may reach? forces united are powerless against them. The masses are fas

No. IV. APRIL 1856.

R

All moral

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