The Thousand Nights and a Night.
Athwart the welkin slant the snows and pile
On sill and balcony, their feathery feet
Trip o'er the landscape, and pursuing sleet
Earth's brow beglooming, robs the skies of smile:
Lies in her mourning-shroud our Northern Isle
And bitter winds in battle o'er her meet.
Her world is death-like, when behold! we greet
Light-gleams from morning-land in welcome while.
A light of golden mine and orient pearl--
Vistas of fairy-land, where Beauty reigns
And Valiance revels; cloudless moon, fierce sun,
The wold, the palm-tree; cities; hosts; a whirl
Of life in tents and palaces and fanes:
The light that streams from THOUSAND NIGHTS AND ONE.
Isabel Burton,
Tangier, Marocco: Feb. 19, 1886.
The Biography of the Book
and
Its Reviewers Reviewed.
Preliminary.
I here propose to produce what may be called the "biography" of a book
whereof, methinks, the writer has some reason to be proud, a work which, after
occupying him for the third of a century, well nigh half the life of average
man and the normal endurance of a generation, can show for result these
sixteen volumes. A labour of such parts and magnitude deserves, in my humble
opinion, some notice of the main features distinguishing its career,
especially of its presentation to Court (Public Opinion) and its reception by
the high officials of the Palace, the critics, reviewers and criticasters.
And there is yet another consideration. To ignore the charges and criminations
brought forward by certain literary Sir Oracles would be wilfully suffering
judgment to go by default. However unpopular and despised may be, as a rule,
the criticism of critique, and however veridical the famous apothegm "A
controversy in the Press with the Press is the controversy of a fly with a
spider," I hold it the author's bounder duty, in presence of the Great Public,
to put forth his reply, if he have any satisfactory and interesting rejoinder,
and by such ordeal to purge himself and prove his innocence unless he would
incur wittingly impeachment for contumacy and contempt of court.
It is not only an instinct of human nature expressed by nemo me impurè
lacessit which impels to answering in presence of the passers by the enemy at
the gate; it is also a debt which his honour and a respectful regard for the
good opinion of his fellows compel the author to repay. The man who is feeble
enough silently to suffer detraction and calumny at the hands of some sciolist
or Halb-bildung sheltering his miserable individuality under the shadow (may
it never be less!) of " King We," simply sins against himself as the Arabs say
and offends good manners by holding out a premium to wanton aggression and
injurious doing. The reading world has a right to hear the alteram partem
before it shall deliver that judgment and shall pronounce that sentence
wherefrom lies no appeal. To ignore and not to visit with représailles
unworthy and calumnious censure, may become that ideal and transcendental man
who forgives (for a personal and egoistical reason) those who trespass against
him. But the sublime doctrine which commands us to love our enemies and affect
those who despitefully entreat us is in perilous proximity to the ridiculous;
at any rate it is a vain and futile rule of life which the general never
thinks of obeying. It contrasts poorly with the common sense of the
pagan--Fiat Justitia, ruat clum; and the heathenish and old- Adamical
sentiment of the clansman anent Roderick Dhu--
"Who rights his wrong where it was given
If it were in the court of Heaven,"