LADIES' EDINBURGH MAGAZINE. ©N
Total Page：16
File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb
£ «^»'® ?i-^ ^^ _^ ^ *''!* . ■ iSir-" ;:<'■ t *l!^. 1 National Library of Scotland *B000444681* u 'ic)3 II H %l THE LADIES' EDINBUEGH MAGAZINE BEING A NEW SERIES OF "THE ATTEMPT." VOL. I. EDINBURGH: MACLAREN & MACNIVEN. MDCCCLXXV. EDINBURGH : PRINTED BY COLSTON & SON. ^r 1936 ^ CONTENTS. PAGE Bonnie Little Mary, by Lutea Reseda, 207 Christian Woman's Work in India, The, by S. S. Hewlett, 225, 278, 309, 335 Dragon of the North, The, by E. J. 0., 25, 33, 60, 101, 1-12, 165, 197, 229, 261, 293, 325, 357 Dreams, by Melensa, . 155 Enigma, by Jane B. Ballant^ne, . .173 " En Route to Italy," by Mrs. Brewster Macpherson, . 11, 40 Exhibition of the Royal Scottish Academy, The, by M. E. T., 77 Features of the Face Indicative of Character ? Are the, by Martyn Hay, 365 " From Italy," by Mrs. Brewster Macpherson, . 282 Halcyon Days, by Gratia, 128 Highland Spring, A, by Enna, 140 Hopping-Time in the "Garden of England," by Gratia, . 342 In the Twilight, by Joan Scott, 86 lona, by H. A. B., 174 Literary Merit tested by Popularity, by Ircene, . .149 Miss Thackeray's Fairy Tales, by E. V. Lynne, . 110 Musical Season, Our last, by Our Notebook, .... 133 Old Home, The, by Martyn Hay, 61 Our Library Table, 30, 132, 388 Patience, by Joan Scott, 308 Puppy's Paradise, by Estelle, 117 IV Contents, PAGE Qualities Essential to the Novelist, On some, by Procla, . 1 Reverie, A, by Naomi S. Smith, 24 Shadow and Sunshine, by Melensa, 260 Shield of Achilles, The, by Jeanie Morison, .... 277 Sonnet, by Jeanie Morison, 52 Temptation, by Mrs. Brewster Macpherson, .... 341 Tischendorf, The late Dr., by Sigma, 94 To my Lady, by R., 254 Walt Whatman's " Leaves of Grass," Thoughts on, by Joan Scott, 17 Werburga of Chester, by Procla, 52, 87, 119, 155, 187, 221, 246, 313, 347, 373 Woman's Work— L Introduction, by Phoebe Blyth, 184 II. Girls' Schools, by Louisa Innes Lumsden, . 208, 238 III. Engraving on Wood, by B. B. M'Laren, . 272 IV. Nursing, by Probationer, 301 v. Medicine a Profession for Women, by Eliza W. Dunbar, M.D., 383 VI. Years, by Naomi S. Smith, . .... 380 THE LADIES' EDINBURGH MAGAZINE. ©n some ^ualiti^s (Kssalial to tlie ^uuelist. IN order to attain to some idea of what qualities are essential to the novelist, we must first inquire, what is the task which he has to perform ? The world of fiction is a very large world, and that province in it called the Novel is a most extensive and growing province. Of late years it has been widening its limits in many directions—con- quering a new nation there, here claiming a new science for its own, appropriating a new sect in religion, or dilating on some great chapter in history. And in pro- portion to the extent of its efforts is the difficulty in finding an answer to the question. What is a novel ? Difficult as the answer may be when we look at the ingredients in many novels, if we look at their essence alone it cannot fail to be this—a novel is a work of art. It must always be so, even where, as in many cases, the art is but as a drop in a whole bucket of science and speculation. A novel is a work of art, though not generallj^, nor necessarily, of the highest kind of art. The following remarks by a fellow of Balliol College may throw some light on art, in its relation to philosophy and to human life:—" Mere copying is not art. The artist brings nature before us, as we have seen it, perhaps, only once or twice in our lives, under the influence of some strong emotion. He does that for us which we cannot do for ourselves ; he reproduces those moments of spiritual exaltation in which 'we feel that we are better than we know'—moments which we can remember, and of which the mere memory No 1.—JANUARY 1875. A 2 The Ladies Edinhuagh Magazine. may be the light of our lives, but Avhich no act of our own will can bring back. It is not till the distinction has been appreciated between nature as it is and nature as we make it to be, between that which we see and that which ' having not seen, we love,' that any branch of art can be reckoned in its proper value." The writer of these remarks then goes on to contrast the matter-of-fact aspect of the source of our knowledge with the aspect of philosophy, art, and religion. The former takes our knowledge to be exclusively the result of the action of human thought; the latter admits the co-operation of nature by the transmission of images. The view of art, taking its stand on this basis, involves the absolute fusion of thought and things. The habitual interpretation of natural events by the analogy of human design, is but an anticipation of, and a step towards, such a true conquest of nature. This habitual interpretation is a proof that, " to the ordinary man, nature presents itself, not as something external, but, like a friend, as ' another liimself.'" Pure emotion is the medium of the true conquest of nature thus daily anticipated. In it " the experiences of life are held together, and the animal element is so fused with the spiritual as to form one organisation, through which the same impulse runs with unimpeded energy. Then man has made nature his own, by becoming a conscious partaker of the reason which animates him and it. The attainment of this consummation can only approach realisation through the operation of a power which can penetrate the whole man, and act on every moment of his life. But that power, which, in the form of religion, can make every meal a sacrament, and trans- form human passion into the likeness of divine love, is represented at a lower stage, not only by the unifying action of speculative philosophy, but by the combining force of art." Art, then, is the celebration of the union of man with nature. And he must be one with her, else whence those untold feelings of sympathy with her sublime moods, of yearning after her loveliness ? That only arouses our feeling, which has something akin to ourselves; we know this from our intercourse with our fellow-men ; we may know it too from our intercourse with nature. Those thoughts of the Oxford graduate present to our minds a philosophy, under the shadow of which we may The Ladies^ Edinburgh Magzaine. 3 live happily. Not so that other philosophy of the French- man, worshipping the human, yet placing before it a "fatality that must be accepted." And this is the philosophy which we trace in the writings of George Eliot. Which view is the more favourable to art, that whicli shows us nature as the friend of man, or that which represents her as an adverse and superior power? What, then, is the place which the novel holds among Avorks of art? To our age it stands in the same relation in which the drama stood to an earlier age: the drama, in its turn, succeeded the epic. Poetic art spoke first in the epic. Man was one with nature, with a oneness so complete that it was unconscious. The powers of nature and of heroes Avere one to him ; man and nature worked together. Hence the old epic, so simple, so grandly objective, so bound to the hearts of nations. Then came the drama. Man poetised his higher moods and nobler actions. Thus he gradually grew more subjective; new varieties of the drama called for new phases of thought and character. Gradually this study of human nature grew to essays on men and manners, and then to stories of men and manners, or novels. The novel was less high art than the drama, but it described men more faithfully, and thus led to a more exact esti- mate of character. Still it is a work of art; it must be so, if it fulfil its mission aright. It must give large and true views of life; it must epitomise the feelings and actions of existences ; it must have some ideas besides those of character alone ; it must go only where imagina- tion and feeling can go with it. That the history of the world revolves in circles is a remark frequently made by careful observers. Looking at the novel from this point of view, should not we expect it soon to quit the field in favour of some other species of production ? Are not its frantic attempts to scale the heights of science and philosophy a proof that every pathway, every track in its own level ground, has become a too common thoroughfare? With the next revolution of the wheel of literature, possibly the drama may again come uppermost. Not as it was before ; less exalted above life, more expanded over it; less star- gazing, looking more around; exalting real life and real human beings into a region of poetry. And then, why should not the epic reappear ? At a stage when advance- ment in many things shall have been attained at the cost 4 The Ladies^ Edinburgh Magazine. of a vast amount of subjectivity, the learner will have his task by heart, and man will have accomplished the true end of being; he will again be one with nature. But not as before ; not in the old way of making human the torrent, the sun, the stone; but in the knowledge, deepened into feeling, of nature's vast powers—powers ever working for man and with man.