viction, that its knowledge, and its religion, But it is time for us to leave the East may not be so contemptible after all; while and its Poet, yet ere we suffer our curtain in the mean time, the national centres of to drop, we are tempted to gratify our Mohammedanism are almost universally readers with the following excellent bit of helpless; dependent for their security on characteristic painting, the preface to a the indifference or the mutual jealousies of series of such tales as have delighted the the Christian powers. A" crusade," would Easterns in all ages :now be a pitiful massacre. No Saladin will ever again defy him of the Lion Heart, or hew down the knights of France at Tiberias, while on the Mount of the Beatitudes, a Bishop of Saint Jean d'Acre "lifts the true cross as a standard at the THE KIOSK. Above the ripple of a shallow stream, place where Christ said, whosoever shall their eyes • Michaud. ↑ Mohammed Ali has, however, been employed for more than twenty years back in erecting a magnificent Mosque of Egyptian Marble at Cairo. It is a vast and irregular structure, but irregularity is not incompatible with great general effect in edifices of this style. Though usually charged with utter indifferentism, the Pacha, in that spirit of petty superstition so frequently found allied with infidelity, delays the completion of his mosque, from apprehension of the fulfilment of a prophecy which has pronounced that his life is to terminate with the laying of the last stone of this structure. Quæst. Evangel., ii., 40. WIFE AND CHILDREN OF THOMAS HOOD.-It is with deep regret that we have to announce the decease of the widow of the late Thomas Hood, the celebrated humorist and poet. The public are aware physical suffering and much mental anxiety; and that Mr. Hood's life was closed in the midst of much there is little doubt that the unwearied exertions of Mrs. Hood, her unceasing attendance on her husband's death-bed, and the grief and trial which preceded and followed her bereavement, have been the immediate cause of the disease which has thus prematurely terminated her existence. She expired on the morning of Friday, the 4th of December. The children of Mr. Hood, are, we are sorry to learn, in consequence of the death of their last remaining parent, left entirely dependent upon the small fund, amounting, we believe, to about 8007., collected by public subscription at the period of Mr. Hood's death. The pension of 100%., granted by Sir Robert Peel ceases with the death of Mrs. Hood, who lived but a twelvemonth to enjoy it. We believe that Lord John Russell has already been applied to by the friends of the family to continue the pension to the children; but his lordship has intimated his inability to comply with the request, since the pension becomes, by the death of Mrs. Hood, the property of the public. We feel confident that the wishes and intentions of the public will be best answered by a new grant of the same trifling amount to the orphans, to whose departed and highly-gifted parent that public owes so large a debt of gratitude.--Times, From Frazier's Magazine. LITERARY LEGISLATORS.-No. I. DISRAELI, THE YOUNGER. The following spirited sketch of this eminent author and ranks to the command; or it will be deridwriter is from the pen of S. H. Francis, Esq., author of the ed as a mere carpet warrior-a gay popinpopular series published in Frazier's Magazine on the Con-jay of scarlet and feathers. No doubt we temporary Orators. Though not free from a little scandal, it is highly graphic and entertaining.)-ED. are often right and always safe in the long run. If we disgust some at the very outset of their career, whom a little justice or a PRETENSION and presumption are so repug- little judicial charity of construction might nant to the feelings of the British people, have made great or brilliant men, we at the that even talent of a high order will be same time extinguish many an incipient undervalued, if its possessor be too eager to charlatan. Comfortable generalities save display it. Forgetting that the desire for us the trouble of much thought or analysis; praise and admiration is the great spur to and an universal condemnation of every intellectual exertion, we too readily mistake effort to emerge from the dead level of corits promptings for a more ignoble habit of rect mediocrity-a studied neglect or lavish mind. Vanity is often confounded with the ridicule of every such attempt, even though love of fame; and the ebullitions of an am- it might be (as in poor Keats's case) the bitious spirit or a luxuriant imagination are death-struggle of expiring genius, will save undeservedly condemned as mere extrava- us from being plagued with new ideas, and gancies of self-esteem. Amidst the tares from the necessity, which happily is a law and weeds, we overlook the true but humble of the human mind, of testing them and shoot that struggles feebly though steadily giving them their due place. If by this into the light. We laugh at superficial difference we sometimes miss a great gain, errors and follies, because we are un- we at least lessen the chances of our being able or unwilling to discern the germ of truth which they obscure. A forced and often an unnatural union is demanded between merit and modesty; though all experience teaches us that where intellectual power exists, latent, perhaps, but really in greatest fortitude, it is often there that the most violent, the most ill-regulated, the most extravagant efforts are made for its development. Thus it is that we allow pains- There is another habit of the national taking, humble mediocrity to deceive us, mind which, like this instinctive mistrust while we disregard its natural superior; and of theories and new ideas, affects the efforts we stifle and crush many a strong aspiring and position of a man who desires to rise in spirit in the very throes of its young life, the world. The English are suspicious of if, indeed, we do not more frequently turn sudden success; they value no reputation, it aside into false channels, to expend its however brilliant, if it has sprung up, mushnatural force in uncongenial modes of ac-room-like, in a night. Their commercial tion. It is our practical genius that makes habits, as well as their political experience, us hate ideas. As we will not take paper point to one great moral rule. Slow and money that is not immediately convertible steady it is with them that wins the race. into gold, so we will not accept the pro- The idea of apprenticeship, realized in all ducts of the intellect if they have not a trades and professions, pervades also their kind of market value. We cry "Cui notions of political usefulness. If they bono?" of a Canning, while we trust our murmur at seeing a prince of the blood put purses to a Peel. The symptoms of genius to the command of an invading expedition, breed in our minds just so many suspicions, till genius itself must put on the uniform of prejudice, and pass upwards from the imposed upon by false pretences, and therefore of our suffering an ignoble loss. Whether this habit of mind be a right or a wrong one it matters not here; it is a fact. We apply the "workhouse test" to all new ideas. If a Columbus came among us with the theory of a new world, we would try the navigator's claims by putting him to the oar. so they equally object to see a new or undisciplined mind invested with political power, even though the individual so se lected may be the creature of their own favor. It is the same in all pursuits of life. Rapid fortunes made by a contract, or a lucky turn in the stock-market, are always looked at askance. Be the gold ever so solid, or ever so securely hoarded, the reality of its existence is scarcely believed in. Or such fortunes are likened to the house built upon sand. A superstitious instinct prognosticates their instability. "Light come, light go," is the phrase. Again, in literature, sudden fame, however well deserved, is undervalued. Though all the world may be ringing with the writer's name, though the echo of laughter may resound from Dover to California, and Continental Europe, in sympathy, enjoy unintelligible humor in impracticable translations, -still this cold, calculating English mind, so loving probation and gradation, will hesitate even to accept the notorious fact; and will give you, in place of enthusiastic praise, a dry and sagacious prophecy that such a writer, if he "went up like a rocket, would come down like the stick." of intellectual power, if they are put forward modestly and without pretension. But they are unmerciful towards those who would seek to take them by storm without having the requisite matériel. There are many living instances of gentlemen who have been utterly cowed and put down, laughed into perpetual silence, in consequence of some unlucky flight of halting rhetoric, but who are in mind immeasurably superior to those by whom they were sacrificed. Unless men who are ambitious of distinction, will make themselves masters of what may be termed the mechanics of oratory and statesmanship, the highest powers of mind will be lost upon the House of Commons. To succeed there, every man must to a certain extent be an actor-must merge his individuality in some specific character, which he must strive to impress as a whole upon the general mind of the House. And the line, which he thus may mark out for himself, must be one tending to some practical result, either as regards legislative usefulness, or its effect on political combinations. If we are obtusely dubious of the fact Mere abstract theories of policy or governwhen it stares us in the face, it is not sur-ment find a deaf ear in the House of Comprising that our national prejudice should mons. So also will the most novel ideas, extend with still greater force to the effort the most brilliant metaphors, the most sterto realise it. If we undervalue a reputa- ling enthusiasm, unless used in furtherance tion acquired on a sudden, it is natural that of some tangible, intelligible object. A we should go the length even of ridiculing young thinker, fresh from the schools or the the attempts made to acquire it. Woe to libraries, may indulge in his day-dreams of the aspiring mind that will strive to reach legislative perfectibility, or may strive to the goal by any but the beaten path! At impress the representatives and rulers of the every deviation he will meet impassable nation with more exalted ideas of their barriers; and every successful obstruction functions, and of true policy of state; but of his efforts will be hailed with exulting if he be not met at the very outset with laughter by the unsympathising multitude, overpowering ridicule, he will at least be while he will himself be thrust back again treated with that chilling neglect, that to the very rear. We have been so often scarcely concealed contempt, which comtaken in by charlatans and impostors, both fortable, complacent mediocrity has always in politics and literature, that our natural at hand for any manifestations of that magnanimity and generosity have become genius which it so ignobly hates. But if absorbed in a necessary selfishness; and we the very same man who thus fails in his show a remorseless want of pity for the ex- more exalted aim, descends into the arena travagancies of an exuberant mind, if its equipped for combat, and by planting one ambition be too great to put itself in har- or two successful blows on an antagonist ness, and submit to that training by which shows that he is, by ever so little, a profiit can alone become strengthened and con- cient in the science which especially finds solidated. In the House of Commons, this favor in a debating society, he may thencedisposition to enjoy the discomfiture of pre- forth bring forward his ideas and his theotension is concentrated until it perpetually ries in whatever shape he will, so that they forces itself into action. They will bow have a practical bearing; and the very deferentially before a master-mind, one of same views which, under other circumstanthe conditions of superiority being the pos- ces, would expose him to ridicule, will now session of a tact sufficient to avoid glaring procure him attentive listening, and, in all failures. On the other hand, they will probability, party alliances, if not personal cherish the slightest indications of merit or converts. Mr. Disraeli, throughout his eccentric | have attained a perfection as a debater career, has singularly exemplified the opera- which has had no parallel since the genius tion of these prejudices, and the truth of of Canning ceased to illumine the dull those propositions. If we look back at the atmosphere of senatorial mediocrity with many brilliant productions of his pen, that the fitful flashes of his incomparable wit. for more than twenty years have been the Mr. Disraeli would have been successful delight of his contemporaries (not only his at an earlier stage in his career, if he had fellow-subjects, but also the natives of had less cleverness and more craft. An every country in the civilised portion of ambition disproportioned to his position the globe), we shall be struck with aston-inspired him with preposterous hopes and ishment that he should have held, until a aims; and an unfortunate gift of the power very recent period, so low a place in the of satire supplied him at once with the opinion of the great mass of his country- temptation and the means of securing a men; that his name should have been asso- sudden and too easy notoriety. He has ciated with ideas of egotism, vanity, pre- always been in a hurry to be a great man. tension, extravagance, and crudity, never It has been his error to have, from time to to be matured; and that not only as a time, overlooked the wide gulf, the toilsome party man should he have been regarded as and laborious interval, between the concepunsafe, but that as a political thinker he tion of a grand idea, the creation of a comshould have been held to be unsound. For prehensive theory, and its realization. He unquestionably through these various publi- has achieved the most brilliant triumphs, cations, whether works of fiction or political in imagination; in act, he has sustained demonstrations, there were scattered pas- almost as many defeats. He would always sages not surpassed by any contemporary be himself alone. He was his own General, writer; and clear, intelligible ideas of his own Army, his own Gazette to record policy, which ought to have commanded at- his victories. tention, if only that they might be discussed, and, if possible, refuted. On the other hand, it is equally a reason for surprise, the contrasted position of Mr. Disraeli, when, in the session of 1846, he drew off in triumph from his prolonged contest with Sir Robert Peel, with that in which he was in the year 1837, when he consummated the most egregious and ridiculous failure, the same amount of abilities being assumed, that had ever befallen any man in the House of Commons. He never served. He must always be a leader, even of imaginary troops; prince, of even the pettiest royalty. Not really more of an egotist than many men around him who possessed more cunning, it was always his misfortune to appear intensely egotistical. As John Bull is a great leveller where individual vanity is concerned, this habit of mind was fatal to Mr. Disraeli in public opinion. The temptation to laugh in return at the man who was the satirist of all around him was irresistible. Unfortunately, he has given To account for these contradictions, and too many opportunities. In a series of at the same time to trace the causes of his dashing assaults on the portals of the continued political proscription, as well as Temple of Fame, he has only once or twice his deferred success, it will be necessary to come off signally victorious. Either his cast a backward glance at the main events undertaking has been too great for his of his literary and political life. The powers, or his powers, strong in themselves, temptation to smile-nay, even to indulge have been so ill-disciplined as to have in a good English guffaw (which in these become worse than weak. In the many days of superficial refinement has become a attempts of his vigorous vanity to make a rare and dangerous indulgence), will from position for himself, it is remarkable in time to time be great; but in watching the what a variety of different shapes his mind Protean efforts of Mr. Disraeli to slip in has sought expression. As a romance many false characters into the Temple of writer, a political and social satirist, newsFame, we shall strive not to lose sight of paper editor, pamphleteer, poet, orator, he the remarkable fact, that at the very has from time to time betrayed how great eleventh hour, when he was supposed to were his aims, while he has seldom suchave burnt out all his natural fire, and to ceeded in completely attaining them. have " gone out," like many other eccentric trap was laid for his vain-glorious spirit at human pyrotechnics, with a most unsavory the very outset of his career. At the risk odor, he should suddenly have shot up of being paradoxical, we would say that all again with renewed life and brilliancy, and his after failures were owing to his first A success. It has taken him nearly twenty years to get over its effects on his too ardent and susceptible mind. have been characterised by such eccentricity and extravagance. One could almost believe that a species of moral retribution The appearance of Vivian Grey caused a had thus made the rash and presumptuous great excitement in the literary world. satirist the slave of the spirit he had evokThe book was eagerly read. The bold ed. Whether it was that he really was handling, and almost reckless power; the enamored of such tinsel statesmanship, or views of society, if often impudently false, that the impression of his Vivian Grey-isms still strikingly original and coherent; the was constantly reproduced in the public graphic portraiture; the dashing satire and mind, there cannot be a doubt that his subglowing sentiment with which its pages sequent political acts were associated with abounded, supplied an irresistible stimulus this his first considerable literary effort, to the literary appetite of the day, till, until, whether truly or not, it was looked although the wise condemned and the criti- upon as containing the type of his mind. cal sneered, those who read only for The success of the work intoxicated him amusement were delighted, and there were for a time. Raised suddenly to a giddy not wanting many of good authority who eminence he struggled convulsively to resaw in this first shoot of a young intellect tain his uncertain tenure; but there was at the germs of future vigor and strength. that time no sound basis for his reputation, It is not our province, in this sketch, to and he was almost the last to discover this enter into any critical analysis of the purely vital weakness. The faults of Vivian Grey literary portion of Mr. Disraeli's works. became, in some subsequent works, exaggeTheir beauties and defects have been suffi-rated to a degree of absurdity utterly inciently ascertained from time to time as comprehensible, when we look at the litethey appeared. But, in another respect, they come within the scope of our plan; for they have, almost without an exception, a political bearing. rary perfection, and, at times, at the severe taste, of some of the later productions of the same mind. These extravagancies were more glaring in his non-political works. In Vivian Grey, itself, we find the germ His Contarini Fleming, or, as he afterwards of much of the subsequent fruition of Mr. styled it, Psychological Romance, in spite Disraeli's mind. It is more than probable of its superficial views and flashy sentiment, that he was in imagination the hero of his its false coloring and exaggerated tone, exhiown tale; for he has there created an at- bited unquestionable power and striking orimosphere, and called characters into exist- ginality; and in those portions in which court ence, such as would form the world in which and political intrigues were sketched and he would delight, could he have the making diplomatic character portrayed, there were of it. Throughout his political life Mr. quite as much satirical force and vigor of Disraeli has been looking out for a Marquis handling as in any of the scenes in Vivian de Carabas, whom he could make the lever Grey. There was the same unconscious, or of his ambition, the accomplice of his spas- perhaps intentional self-painting, the same modic patriotism. The same craving for idealizing of Benjamin Disraeli, his thoughts, political intrigue; the same desire for short his person, and his deeds, the same veni, vidi, cuts to fame and power; the same false vici, trick of ruling men in imagination, of tastes for grand coups de théatre; the same astonishing mankind by grand theories, of passion for flashy and imposing theories, being all-in-all with kings and ministers, coupled with the small charlatanism of par- that have ever characterized the intellectual ty coteries; the same inadequacy of power efforts of this brilliant but too ambitious polifor gigantic schemes and aims, that made tician, and have made him overlook, from time the character of the hero of the satirical to time, all those barriers which the real, unnovel so seductive to the reader inexperienced in actual life, and dazzled by the false splendors of creative ingenuity, may be traced throughout the eccentric public life of the author, until we have had too much reason to regret that he should until very lately have lived in a sort of phantasmagora world of his own creation, his occasional descents from which into the real world of working, thinking, practical men, poetical world, opposed to his vaulting spirit. As a purely literary work, if, like the pictures of some of our living artists, it was designed and colored to gratify the false taste of a contemporary public, it at least deserves the praise of being consistent with itself, whilst its exuberant imagery and captivating diction render it at once an exciting and a delightful stimulant to the imagination. For our present purpose it is |