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much in earnest.

ray,

Johnson was not light enough for satire, | Should Reason guide thee with her brightest -of which a certain negligence, whether real or skilfully simulated, is the very essence. For such negligence he was too Juvenal himself, indeed, is often too earnest for the genius of satire, but where he is earnest, his earnestness is the earnestness of disgust; while Johnson is apt to throw in a drop of genuine compassion. Thus Juvenal describes old age with a sort of loathing; here, for instance, is the least scornful part of his sickening picture:

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more;

Now pall the tasteless meats and joyless wines,
And luxury with sighs her slave resigns.

That is not bad verse of its sort, but it must be admitted that it does not paint the vanity of the wish for long life with any thing approaching to the deadly scorn of Juvenal; there is far too much pity in it. But admit that Johnson does not write true satire, and then observe that wherever a vein of moral indignation, of generous contempt, can be brought into his theme, Johnson rises at once above his model. There is hardly any passage in Juvenal's terrible satire to compare in poctical fire with that in which Johnson depicts the pains of the severe literary life, as he himself, with his own deep vein of constitutional melancholy, had known tem, of its high instincts, its ascetic impuses, its weariness, its poverty, its insolent patrons, and its glory reaped too

late:

Yet sould thy soul indulge the gen'rous heat
Till captive Science yields her last retreat;

And pour on misty Doubt resistless day;
Should no false kindness lure to loose delight,
Nor praise relax, nor difficulty fright;
And Sloth effuse her opiate fumes in vain;
Should tempting Novelty thy cell refrain,
Should Beauty blunt on fops her fatal dart,
Nor claim the triumph of a letter'd heart;
Should no disease thy torpid veins invade,
Nor Melancholy's phantoms haunt thy shade;
Yet hope not life from grief or danger free,
Nor think the doom of man revers'd for thee:
Deign on the passing world to turn thine eyes,
And pause awhile from letters to be wise;
There mark what ills the scholar's life assail,
Toil, envy, want, the patron, and the jail.
See nations, slowly wise, and meanly just,
To buried merit raise the tardy bust.
If dreams yet flatter, once again attend,
Hear Lydiat's life, and Galileo's end.
the list of the almost unendurable evils of
This brief inclusion of "the patron " in
the literary struggle, — “ Toil, envy, want,
the patron, and the jail," is a touch of
scorn which only true genius could have
conceived. And at least an equal power
of concentrating a whole world of lofty
feeling in a touch is illustrated in by far
the best-quoted of all Johnson's lines, the
close of his picture of the career of
Charles XII., the lines in which he ob-
serves, with a half-smile, on the paradox
that the best purpose left to which to turn
so terrible a name should be the purpose
of the moralist or the romance-writer:

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The vanquish'd hero leaves his broken bands,
And shows his miseries in distant lands;
Condemn'd a needy supplicant to wait,
While ladies interpose, and slaves debate.
But did not Chance at length her error mend?
Did rival monarchs give the fatal wound?
Did no subverted empire mark his end?
Or hostile millions press him to the ground?
His fall was destin'd to a barren strand,
A petty fortress, and a dubious hand;
He left the name, at which the world grew
pale,
To point a moral, or adorn a tale.
But after all, Johnson's poetry was at its
to the vigorous piety of his ardent, though
best when employed in giving expression
ever realized more deeply than he, that
somewhat elephantine mind.
life is disappointment; no one ever real-
ized more deeply, that disappointment
The verses in which he turns Juvenal's
itself may be life, and a noble life, too.
rather dry and languid admonitions to
pray for a healthy mind in a healthy body,
into a passionate protest against the "ag-
nostic" theory that because we never
| really know what will be for our benefit, we

No one

and yet a more caustic expression for the
tained in the couplet,-
true agnostic theory of life than that con-

should not pray at all, are full of the con- | With these celestial Wisdom calms the mind centrated lightning as well as the thunder And makes the happiness she does not find. of his noblest work. No doubt one is It would be hardly possible to find a truer always a little sensible, in reading Johnson's poetry, that it appears to assume for human nature more mass and dignity in general than is quite consistent with our knowledge either of ourselves or of our fellow- Must helpless man, in ignorance sedate, creatures; and sometimes we are just a Roll darkling down the torrent of his fate? little ashamed of having so sonorous a voice given even to our deepest and most "Sedate" ignorance is the very attitude passionate feelings. There is in his no- of mind in which clearly "the Unknown blest verse a sound which seems to be and Unknowable " ought to be approached, borrowed from the trumpet through which and yet it expresses, as it would be otherthe Athenian actors conveyed their voice wise difficult to express, the revolt of to the utmost limits of their great open-human nature against the creed it implies. air theatre. But then, if ours were a world of human beings cast on the scale of Johnson, we do not know that this rolling thunder would even seem too grandiAt all events, what can have more of the intense compression which marks a vivid inward fire than the fine close to his "Vanity of Human Wishes"?

ose.

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Safe in his power, whose eyes discern afar
The secret ambush of a specious pray'r !
Implore his aid, in his decisions rest,
Secure, whate'er he gives, he gives the best.
Yet, when the sense of sacred presence fires,
And strong devotion to the skies aspires,
Pour forth thy fervors for a healthful mind,
Obedient passions, and a will resign'd;
For love, which scarce collective man can fill;
For patience, sov'reign o'er transmuted ill;
For faith, that, panting for a happier seat,
Counts death kind Nature's signal of retreat :
These goods for man the laws of Heav'n or-
dain,

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These goods he grants, who grants the pow'r to gain;

Again, what can express more grandly the helplessness and the dreariness of the

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stream of tendency" of which, on that theory, we are the sport, than the line in which those "darkling" rapids are de

scribed?

On the whole, though there is no flexibility in Johnson's poetry, and no variety, us in Pope and Dryden would have though the monotony which often wearies wearied us still more in Johnson if Johnson had been anything like as voluminous a poet as Pope or Dryden, yet no poetry of that order, neither Pope's nor Dryden's, seems to us to contain so much that is really majestic in it, so much that portrays for us a great mind and a glowing heart, groping its way painfully through the darkness of the world, by the help of a vivid but distant gleam of supernatural light, and intent on "making"-by that aid "the happiness it could not find." Johnson was too intent on great ends for a satirist; his mind was too stiff for the poetry of ordinary sentiment or ordinary reflection; but for the rare occasions on which you want in poetry what we may call the concentrated pressure of many atmospheres, whether for the purpose of expressing the vastness of Shakespeare's genius, or the sorely hampered life of human shortsightedness and want, or the secret store of power to be found in human self-abnegation,- we know of no English poet like Dr. Johnson.

ABSORPTIVE POWER OF MILK. Attention has been called in the daily papers to a practice prevalent in some parts of the country, which appears to illustrate the power possessed by milk of absorbing atmospheric impurities. It is that of placing a saucer of new

milk in a larder, to preserve meat or game from taint. It is said that not only does it answer that purpose, but that the milk after a few hours becomes so bad that no animal will touch it.

Fifth Series,
Volume XV.

No. 1676. July 22, 1876.

From Beginning,
Vol. CXXX.

CONTENTS.

I. PHYSICS AND PHYSIOLOGY OF HARMONY, Westminster Review,

II. THE LADY CANDIDATE. Conclusion,

III. ORDEALS AND OATHS,

.

IV. WALTHER VON DER Vogelweide,

.

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V. LEIGH HUNT AND LORD BROUGHAM.
Original Letters. By S. R. Townshend
Meyer,

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VI. PARTIAL DEAFNESS,

Blackwood's Magazine,
Macmillan's Magazine,
Cornhill Magazine,

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PUBLISHED EVERY SATURDAY BY
LITTELL & GAY, BOSTON.

194 194

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For EIGHT DOLLARS, remitted directly to the Publishers, the LIVING AGE will be punctually forwarded for a year, free of postage.

An extra copy of THE LIVING AGE is sent gratis to any one getting up a club of Five New Subscribers. Remittances should be made by bank draft or check, or by post-office money-order. if possible. If neither of these can be procured, the money should be sent in a registered letter. All postmasters are obliged to register letters when requested to do so. Drafts, checks and money-orders should be made payable to the order of LITTELL & GAY.

Single Numbers of THE LIVING AGE, 18 cents.

TO A YOUNG LADY ON THE APPROACH OF THE SEASON.

I.

AT ten o'clock your maid awakes you;

You breakfast when she's done your hair;
At twelve the groom arrives and takes you
In Rotten Row to breathe the air.
From twelve to one you ride with vigor;
Your horse how gracefully you sit;
Your habit, too, shows off your figure,
As all your cavaliers admit.
One other habit I could mention-

I hope your feelings won't be hurt,
But you receive so much attention,
I sometimes fancy you're a flirt.

Of course you're not annoyed, I merely would indite

Your life as you lead it by day and night.

II.

At two you've lunch; at three it's over, And visitors in shoals arrive; Admirers many, perhaps a lover

Your next event is tea at five. At six o'clock you go out driving

From Grosvenor to Albert Gate, To occupy yourself contriving

Till dinner time comes round at eight. Each hour as now the night advances

Some fresh attraction with it brings; A concert followed by some dancesThe opera, if Patti sings.

III.

At twelve you waltz; at one you've leisure
To try some chicken and champagne ;
At two you do yourself the pleasure
Of starting off to waltz again.
At three your partners hate each other
You scarcely know which loves you best ;
Emotion you have none to smother,

But lightly with them all you jest.
At four your chaperon gives warning
That it is really time to go;

You wish good night, and say next morning At twelve you'll meet them in the Row.

IV.

My darling, you're so very pretty,
I've often thought, upon my life,
That it would be a downright pity
To look upon you as a wife.
I don't think your ideas of marriage
With those of many would accord,
The opera, horses, and a carriage,

Are things so few men can afford.
And then you need so much devotion
To furnish it who would not try?
But each would find it, I've a notion,
Too much for one man to supply.

Of course you're not annoyed, I merely would indite

Your life as you lead it by day and night.
H. SUTHERLAND EDWARDS.

Macmillan's Magazine.

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She draws the curtain back, and peers
Into the world beyond;

The garden gleams in flowery tiers,
The fish leap in the pond;
Behind there is a misty hill,
How grey it all has grown!
Perhaps it was her father's will,
Perhaps it is her own.

He turns aside, he pleads no more,
But goes with drooping head;
A man is often wounded sore,
Who dons a coat of red.

And so he sadly rides away,
Slowly o'er hill and plain;
But, let us hope, some other day
He will ride back again!
Spectator.
June 1.

H. E. DUFF.

From The Westminster Review.

in acoustics, that a short glance at these latter is all that is required to understand what has been accomplished by an interscientific combination of these facts with well-known principles of physiology and the notation of music.

The phenomena of sound which are comprehended in the science of acoustics are essentially classed together under one name, because they are perceived by us through one particular organ of sense the ear. The primary meaning of the term sound may accordingly be defined as any external action capable of exciting in us the sensation of hearing. When, however, those actions which we perceive as sound are examined as to their physical nature it is found that they all consist essentially in motion. In many cases this is easily recognizable by the touch; thus, for example, when sound is produced by a piano, or a violin, or a tuningfork, a tremulous or vibratory motion may be felt in some parts of the sounding bodies. These vibrations are not accidental; if they are prevented by mechanical means the sound ceases; if the vibrat

PHYSICS AND PHYSIOLOGY OF HARMONY.* WHENEVER an attempt is made to review some great progress in any branch of the physical sciences a difficulty presents itself at the outset which is quite unknown to the writer on any political, social, or even metaphysical subject. The latter may almost invariably take it for granted that the facts which form the basis of his discussion or the substance for his reasoning are perfectly well known to those for whom he writes; indeed, he is quite aware that only that portion of the public which possesses a complete mastery of the antecedent facts, or at least a good acquaintance with correlated facts, will take a real interest in his arguments, while every one else will scarcely care to take cognizance of them, whatever their intrinsic merit or importance. Not so in science. It happens most frequently that the knowledge | of the fundamental facts, which is required for a clear insight in any new great discovery or important principle, is even among the most educated either deficient or totally wanting as far as the particular subject is concerned, while yet the interesting strings of the piano, or those of the in any new great scientific acquisition and progress is most widespread and genuine. As a consequence the necessity has always presented itself to every writer on scientific subjects to proceed in a kind of his torical manner, step by step from what has been known in the earliest times to what has been discovered only yesterday. It is no doubt due to such a method, which requires a never-flagging attention on the part of the reader, that much of the pro verbial dryness of scientific literature is principally due; but, fortunately, the recent development of certain highly important and profoundly interesting generalizations in the physical theory of harmony rests so immediately on primary sensations, and on some few elementary facts

* 1. The Sensations of Tone as a Physiological Basis for the Theory of Music. By HERMANN L. F. HELMHOLTZ, M.D., Professor of Physics in the University of Berlin. Translated, with Additional Notes and an Additional Appendix, by ALEXANDER J. ELLIS, B.A., F.R.S. London. 1875.

2. Sound. By JOHN TYNDALL, D.C.L., F.R.S.,

Professor of Natural Philosophy in the Royal Institution of Great Britain. 3rd Edition. London. 1875.

violin, or the prongs of the tuning-fork, be touched with the fingers the sound is immediately stopped.

In order that a sounding body may be heard it is not sufficient for it to perform appropriate movements; it is necessary that these movements should be imparted to the ear by the motion of an intermediate material body. In most cases the movements of sounding bodies are propagated by the air, sometimes also, but much less frequently, by liquid or solid bodies. The transmission of the motion which constitutes sound must, however, be clearly distinguished from the progressive motion of the air itself, produced by various other causes, just as the advance of a wave on the surface of water is distinct from the onward flow of the water. A small body floating upon the wavy surface of water is lifted up and down by the waves, but it has little or no movement backwards or forwards. Indeed, careful experiments have shown that when a uniform series of Waves follow each other along the surface of water the particles of the liquid which

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