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tablish brutal congregations on the edges of towns and villages, in which, from the universality of crime, there is neither conscience nor law.

From The London Review, 20 June.
MR. LONGFELLOW.

the first, or even of the second, order. But then he has never apparently claimed such a position. There is no more modest, no less self-assertive writer. About each and all of his lyrics there is a prevalent delicacy and absence of personal obtrusion. He neither forces 'his emotions on you, nor strives to disclose himself harrowed with profound griefs, loves, or distraction. In THE arrival of Mr. Longfellow from some measure this constant, finical reserve America and the appropriate compliment detracts from his merits, while, at the same paid to him at Cambridge suggest a review time, it suits admirably the wide audience of his popularity. He has decidedly gained which he addresses. They are not subject a place of honour amongst poets, and that to thrills or throes of passion which are not without possessing any one qualification of concerned with every-day joys and griefs. a great poet. He is a living illustration of They can feel in such matters as the loss of the truth that to write profoundly or deeply a child. Mr. Longfellow speaks home to is not the way to win contemporary fame them of the vacant chair" and other relor repute. The average understanding of ics. That misfortunes are blessings in dispeople is low enough, and we have a proof guise, that good comes of evil, are trite that in literature the largest sale for a book beliefs, out of which Mr. Longfellow has may be obtained for a work of amazing made many pleasant verses; indeed, so dulness and stupidity. Mr. Longfellow, universal is his optimism that he tells that however, has the power of touching delicate even the Devil himself has some good in and homely instincts and sympathies. The him, if we only knew it. This amiability is fact of his being an American, with a love especially pleasing to the gregarious minds; for the old country, warmed and cultivated this domestic sweetness appeals with sucby travel, gives to his writings a certain cess to thousands who would shrink from charm and glow of enthusiasm altogether the analytical doubts and questionings of different from that which we meet in the Mr. Browning, and sometimes even of Mr. spirit of English writers. This is not so Tennyson. Mr. Longfellow also underimmediately perceptible, but still it is pres- stands the value of Biblical language and ent, and comes home to our minds in the the use of texts in composition. Good perend, when reading "Hyperion" for in- sons of both sexes attach an affectionate stance. No Englishman, with a conscious- importance to the words in which Chrisness that he could in a comparatively few tianity was revealed and preached; and the hours go to the Rhine, could have written Puritan traditions of America have aided that book. It has the enthusiasm of a Mr. Longfellow in acquiring a taste and stranger for the realization of things which facility for the introduction of those pashad hitherto been dreams and fancies to sages in the Scriptures which stir the relihim. Every page is instinct with a solem- gious heart most effectually. nity and reverence for the old ground which Together with a simplicity which somehad reared poets and had a picturesque histo- times appears almost affected, Mr. Longry, whose relics were still standing over the fellow combines a certain play of fancy river which the Germans love. And even which is not at all of the finest or best in those verses which have become house- quality, but which is eminently calculated hold words it is possible to detect a mood to win the admiration of the general reader. of feeling which is more or less derived Very often those fancies are neither more from the nationality of the writer. "Excel- nor less than gaudy conceits, which occasior" and the songs of work, while they sion no sentiment beyond that of a rude typify the energetic impulses of the whole and ignorant surprise. There are poems English-speaking race, appeared at a time of Mr. Longfellow in which the subject is when the "Lotos Eaters" was fashionable sadly tricked out with paste jewels, but then, amongst us. Then, again, take Mr. Long- on the other hand, he has inclosed a beautifellow's "Golden Legend." Few English ful idea in snow-white expression, with perstudents would have so studied the media- haps one grand diamond ornament to set it val stories and quaint customs of Europe off. His mind has a great bias towards the for the purposes of poetic treatment. They appear all the more attractive to Mr. Longfellow from his distance from them.

Mr. Longfellow has never been accepted in his own country or in this as a poet of

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picturesque aspect of things, and he has a tendency to allow this inclination to carry him too far. Another imperfection in his verses must be noted in his habit of almost dissolving the central idea by the quantity

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of words and the various ways in which he sincerely trust he will be met with a cordial turns it over and over again. Many people hospitality and welcome. Whatever faults rather like this. They prefer to have the a critic may find in the completeness of his good thing shown them in many lights and poetry, no one can question the sincere and in various colours. Condensed poetry is noble spirit and the beauty of the mental not at all in favour with the million. They impulses his verses are calculated to give. require, as Dr. Whately said, a fair pro- He has been the advocate of abolition at a portion of chaff with their oats. Too much time when to abuse slavery was more than nutriment at once is bad for weak stomachs. hazardous; his pen has been used to There is one work of Mr. Longfellow's furnish the inmates of quiet homes with which is not half popular enough, and we thoughts which they would keep in preferbelieve it is because it is artistically, per- ence perhaps to views of greater breadth haps, the best he has produced. "Kav- and grasp; and we trust that when he reanagh" is a delightful story, and worth a turns to the other side of the Atlantic it will dozen "Golden Legends," Hiawathas," be with pleasant memories of the manner in Evangelines." Besides being a fine which a poet was personally recognised in a specimen of illuminated prose, it contains country where he has been known and some touches of genuine humour, that rarest respected so long and so widely from his of all qualities, and an unforced pathos books. which is the more effective from its simplicity. Reading it one feels an agreeable sense of contact with a mind of perhaps greater culture than force, but still with no mean power of reducing its impressions to an harmonious and distinct shape. Here, as in his other productions, Mr. Longfellow is essentially reserved, and, so to speak, bashful. He never apparently puts out his full strength.

Or "

In descriptions of natural scenery Mr. Longfellow has a very felicitous style. No one ever succeeds in bringing a landscape or a sunset before us who limits his picture to mere details, dry and topographical points. To reproduce some notion of the feelings stirred up by the locality should be the main object of an artist. Now, a painter may do this by the sentiment of atmosphere and shadows, by perspective, by colours. A writer has only words at his disposal, and to have them serve him faithfully in this purpose he must in a measure charge them with colour. Then they become picturesque in the proper sense of that term. Efforts to do this sometimes result in what Mr. Ruskin terms the pathetic fallacy. In both prose and verse Mr. Longfellow is most fortunate in this respect. Woods, rivers, and mountains are depicted in phrases which not only recall the places, but which characterize them, conferring the distinctive quality and effect in them which are most striking. And those phrases are not limited to inclosing but one suggestion. They possess the power of summing up as it were the scents as well as the sights of the fields and of the

sea.

We could find many examples in Mr. Longfellow's prose and verse books to prove this statement-so many that we should not have room to quote them.

Mr. Longfellow has reason to expect an honourable reception in England, and we

From The London Review. POULTRY.*

THERE is a great deal of ignorance and of consequent cruelty displayed in the ordinary management of the poultry-yard. In country places, where the taste of the lady of the house in her drawing-room and garden is unquestionable, it is not unusual to find, even where there is a feminine pretence to seeing after such matters, that the fowl are sadly neglected. Unless they are taken up as a "fancy" this is very frequently the case. The little book which " G. P." offers on the subject, without exhausting the theme, gives sound practical advice on it, and if its contents are perused with attention, the reader can scarcely have an excuse for want of definite and distinct information.

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"G. P." does not approve of "pets."
She is going to teach us to make chicken-
pie, and thinks it would not be a good prep-
aration to engage our sentimental affec-
tions for its proposed contents. This is
eminently a practical view, and all through
the book the same tone prevails. The bird
that is best to eat is the best bird with “G.
P."; "a neat, round, small-boned sort,"
she terms it. The Bramah is recommended
as good for hatching. The Dorking is un-
fortunately delicate in constitution. The
White Dorking, however, appears to pos-
sess the finest qualities to be expected from
a fowl. It performs the maternal duties
with perseverance and discretion, and also
makes a capital dish. The bird is some-
what deficient in courage, but the defect
may be remedied by crossing it with the

G. P., Author of "Home Nursing." Dinner and
Housekeeping," &c. London: Routledge & Son.

The Poultry-yard: its Pleasure and Profit. By

creature, and he hung his tail feathers and went about nervously and as an object of contempt." A good bird, "G. P." thinks, will be able to take care of a dozen hens.

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hardy barn-door. The latter, too, is also reigned afterwards "the beaten cock's own improved, gaining in flesh and form. The hens flouted him. They despised the poor Poland fowl excels as a layer. It derives its name not from Poland, but from Holland, the designation being simply a vulgar rendering of Poulet Hollandois. For eggs, the Black Spanish birds are to be com- A walled-in yard is the best place to keep mended. "Those that are tinged of a rich fowls in. It possesses the advantages of brownish colour, not too dark, are beautiful enabling the birds to take exercise and move for breakfast, the colour being a great ad- about. Furnish it plentifully with water. dition to the effect of the table." With re- Sink a tub in the ground as a tank, and gard to cocks, "G. P." thinks that a cock nail rough sticks across it like the bars of a ought to die after three years old. At that ladder. The hens will go to drink by this time his temper becomes jealous and irri- means, but if two cocks are kept it would table, he plagues all the hens, and when be well to have a couple of ways to the you come to eat him you find him tough. water. "A quarrel," remarks our author, In reference to his points-he ought to be once begun between two cocks is a neverhandsome in the first place. "G. P." says ending grief. To forget and forgive forms emphatically" there is not a known instance no part of a cock's virtues." Supply the in which appearances go for more than in place with lime generously. If you do not the case of a cock." He ought also to pos- the hen draws on her own resources for the sess the faculty or accomplishment of crow-necessary encasement of the egg, and the ing fully and clearly. None of your gurg- result is that she becomes sickly and spiritling spasms or cart-wheel shrieks, but a less. This is a fact often forgotten in poulfine clear note. You should be careful also that he does not make music at unseemly hours. "A cock who crows in an aimless manner at all hours and under no provocation, is growing old or losing his character, or he has never had any character to lose." His deportment should be proud, and he should have no feathers on his legs. Eccentricity of demeanour is a proof of incompetence. A cock who hurries about, betrays agitation at slight circumstances, goes here and there as if taking care of no one but himself, and carries his head depressed as if he were driven, is a bad cock." In size he ought to be small and compact also, "quick to form an opinion, or to act on his perceptions." A red comb and wattles of the same colour are desirable. Observe his manners and customs carefully. "A cock who looks well, works well, crows well, and collects his hens well together in the evening," is perfection. If you keep two in a yard, you must be careful that there is no rivalry. To avoid constant bickering and fighting one bird should be younger and smaller than the other. Thus an absolute despotism is secured, and peace is to be had on no other terms. "G. P." once had a couple of young cocks of equal size and beauty in the poultry yard. There was constant war between them, the hens were "beaten and unhappy," and the eggs were often addled. "G. P." consulted with an experienced man, who made the cocks enter into a tremendous combat, in which the claim to eminence was made decisive, one winning gloriously while the other gave up. Curious enough, though peace and order

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try yards. Charcoal is also requisite. Air
should be allowed to circulate freely. If it
is not feasible to keep a yard, and you are
limited to a coop, be careful to let the fowls
out in the morning, "if you would not be
cruelly disturbed by the cock crowing. It
is his business the first thing in the morning
to collect his hens, and to take them out on
their first excursion after food. A shut-up
cock, poor creature, goes on crowing, and
crows all the more because it is the only
one of his morning duties that the shut-up
coop permits him to perform." The fowl-
house should be as free as possible from
noises. If the birds are disturbed at night
the eggs will turn out badly. Your cook
will complain of failures with omelettes.
This may be due to the "persistent yelping
of a tiresome dog, or the disturbance of the
hen-roost by perhaps the idle cracking of a
whip in the late hours of the evening, or
the night-long banging of an unfastened
door." The roosting-place ought to be
from wall to wall. The bars to form it
should never be made of smooth or polished
wood, but of rough and enduring material
- in fact, branches of trees with the bark
left on will be found the best. The habit
of putting up ornamental perches results in
disease to the hens, which often causes them
to get up from the nests when sitting.
P." tells a story of a hen which became so
attached to a cook that whenever it had an
egg to lay it ran into the kitchen and
dropped it as a token of esteem into the lap
of its patron, who held out her apron to re-
ceive the contribution, and then "there
would come quite a dignified descent and a

"G.

stately strut round the kitchen, with the while the violins keep up a sort of tender
hen's triumphant chuck, chuck, chuck, and tugging and gasping as an accompaniment
then the high note of rejoicing which always to the gruesome business of the stage.
announces the fact of a new-laid egg." That this is effective there can be no doubt,
Here is another story of the same kind :---
otherwise it would not be done. The cus-
"A dove living at this present moment has tom violates realistic propriety altogether,
frequently laid its eggs in a lady's lap, in and requires a stronger concession of be-
the folds of a black silk apron, while the lady lief from us than even the footlights or the
works; sitting very still, winking up with paint on the faces of the actresses. But,
its wondering, questioning, sly-looking eyes, as it were, to prove that there must be
as much as to say, 'Do you guess what I some special leaning in human nature for
am accomplishing?' The dove remains moving scenes and moving music at the
till a loud self-satisfied coo announces the same time, there is the opera. Here indeed
accomplished fact, when she gets up, and the heart-strings and the fiddle-strings are
walks off with the absurdest airs of satisfac- played upon together all the evening. By
tion." From this it may be seen that the this means the opera becomes the most
modest handy hen-book of "G. P." is not emotional of entertainments. Faust and
only useful, but interesting. There is a Marguerite are not more distinctly swearing
fair amount of quaint observation and prac-eternal constancy while the Devil growls in
tical experience in the little work set out the corner than the gentlemen under Mr.
in a neat and unaffected style.
Costa's management are blowing and saw-
ing a similar idea into your ears.
guerite changes her key with her feelings,
and necessitates a fresh crook for the cor-
nopean. Our good friend Mephistophiles
owes a great deal of his diabolical character
to the hoarse bray with which his sentiments
are echoed and supported by the band. In
the last scene of all, when the fair saint is
wound up by machinery into the opposite
direction from that taken by M. Petit and
Signor Naudin, if we want to forget the ab-
surdity of the finish, we must lend our ears
again to Mr. Costa and his assistants. The
apotheosis does not seem to be so unnatural
when taken as illustrative of the music.

From The London Review.
HEART-STRINGS AND FIDDLE-STRINGS.

#

IN one of Douglas Jerrold's novels, "St.
Giles's and St. James's,' an amusing dis-
pute takes place between the performers in
a band employed for electioneering purposes.
The subject of the quarrel turns upon the
amount of enthusiasm which each instrument
is capable of exciting in order to send a
member to the House of Commons, and as
well as we can recollect the drum has the
best of the argument, the player strongly
insisting that but for his exertions many a
politician then serving his country would
have been condemned to a private and ob-
scure life.
The notion has more than a
mere satirical value; there is a certain
amount of truth in it. Anything that can
be helped by sentiment can be helped by
music, and often with such effect that we
are inclined to excuse the fanciful saying of
Thomas Hood- "Heaven reward the man
who first hit upon the very original notion
of sawing the inside of a cat with the tail of
a horse."
If you refer to the poets you will
find with what perseverance they work out
this idea. Whether they sing of sun, moon,
stars, women, flowers, or men, they are cer-
tain to illustrate their thoughts with phrases
and images taken from this art. In thea-
tres, what could be done without the or-
chestra? The agony-point of the drama is
scored in the books of the trombone, the
flute, and the fiddle. In the thrilling situa-
tions the ghost scene in the "Corsican
Brothers" for example - the gas is lowered,
and the cornet-à-piston shut off as it were,

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Do mothers ever think of the mischief done at flower-shows by Godfrey's band? A waltz or a dainty selection may send to the winds the experiences of a brace of seasons. There are men who calculate their chances with women by the keen susceptibility of some of the latter to the softening influences of well-played music, and who can bring to their aid in real courtship the unreal courtship on the boards of the opera-house, or the suggestive harmonies of the promenade. Those Italians apparently singing their souls out to each other, with such beautiful languor or passionate energy, often make or mar the prospects of careful mothers of daughters. The flowershow bands are not, of course, so effective, the players do not embrace each other, and if they did the effect would not be very romantic; but still they may dispose towards that sense of luxurious emotion which is not unfavourable for sighing lovers. Thus a kettle-drum may boast of having sent a couple to St. George's, and it may be that the couple may owe a debt of gratitude or a curse to the kettle-drum all their lives

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Is instrumental music altogether

afterwards. We know what the piano has its own.
brought about in this respect. Messrs. inarticulate?
Collard and Erard are perhaps the greatest
match makers in the country. Think of
what must lie on the musical conscience of
an instrument which has been flirted over
by a whole family of daughters, whose notes
have been fired off to drown the whispers
of numberless assistants, or to aid the pro-
cess of landing a nervous fish! We are
almost afraid to touch the subject of music
in churches, and hint of the responsibilities
incurred by an organ, or by a musical cler-
gyman who sets up an amateur choir of the
best tenor, soprano, and bass voices to be
found among the most respectable of his
parishioners. The "Village Blacksmith"
of Mr. Longfellow is represented as feeling
more or less refreshed at the sound of his
daughter's voice as she trills and quavers
the hymns on Sundays. If she was a village
beauty we may be sure the young lady's
performance attracted the notice of younger
men in the congregation than her father.

ing cold, by means of the opera or concert.

To return to the social aspect of our theme, what was a shepherd without his flageolet? He wooed his Chloe or Phyllis with tunes. The custom has dropped off in our day, but survives, to some degree, in another shape, as we have tried to show. There are, indeed, a few left who remind us of the tradition. Amateur tenors are to be found in society who manage to fascinate with their good notes, as Corydon did with his pastoral straw; and there are young gentlemen who, as Mr. Punch says this week, perform on the "comb," or something else. But, as a rule, the fashion now prevails vicariously. The light serenade is no longer in vogue. The concertina, with which some misguided artisans now and then interfere with the cats in order to compliment the young women with whom they travel in penny steamers, puts an end to amorous caterwauling on the part of gentlemen, if there was ever much of it in EngWe have heard a clever novelist ask to land. In Spain, the cavaliers did not genhave an air played to him over and over erally strum a single guitar, but engaged again, out of which, when questioned, he a band to come under the lattice of the confessed he had been constructing a story adored, and perform to please her. We a complete and rounded story, which be- can effect the same object easier, and withcame more and more definite in its propor-out so much danger of the young lady catchtions and mechanism every time that he listened to the tune, until at last it could be These gigantic concerts at the Crystal written down. Now, there was one spe- Palace afford us another example of the cially odd circumstance about this fact. The power of fiddle-strings to touch the heart. melody was a very old melody, and from People have been known to shed tears at time immemorial had been attached to a love the great sobs of sound which burst from legend. The story-spinner did not know time to time from the orchestra. But here this legend, and yet he very nearly guessed the emotion is something more than romanit in forming his own conception; not only tic, it is real and sincere enough at least to guessed it generally, the mere idea of it, put little notions of love-thoughts out of the but matters in it of sentimental detail. We way. Our country cousins, who managed do not claim for this remarkable coincidence to procure comfortable places, and who any more value than it is worth, but still it were not oppressed with the heat, no matter is not beneath notice in an essay like the how well disposed for the amusement, propresent. A Scotch gentleman (Dr. Hay) bably (if they were fairly susceptible to went close enough to undertake to build a musical impressions) postponed flirting until house on a musical basis, and he mentioned they had forgotten the agitation and subsethe fact of his having tested the Parthenon quent melancholy and loneliness which enin connection with his theory, when the re- sues after the hearing of those wonderful chosult corresponded favourably with his appar- ruses. And this brings us to the use of the ently eccentric idea. Music is not a fully fiddle-strings. Music has magnificent edudeveloped art, and we may get more from cational possibilities which have been as yet it yet more than the poets have given us. but partially released by its masters and There is something very striking in a frag-professors. It can do more than teach pasment of a letter of Mendelssohn, in which sion. We know it can aid religion, but unthe musician described Goethe as listening fortunately it can be degraded to ignoble to him playing from twilight into the dark. purposes, almost as painting may be when Other great minds, too, have fed themselves painting is at its lowest, and is the pimp of at times upon music. The great question vice. is, whether it has only the power of starting ideas, or whether it sends new notions of

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The sort of heart-strings vibrating to the song of Therese, vibrating to the tunes of

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