Literary Gossip.

New Zealand Mail, Issue 237, 25 March 1876, Page 5

Literary Gossip.

Mr. Widdleton, the New York publisher, and the holder of the American copyright of Edgar Poe’s works, has finally suppressed Mr. Griswold’s defamaloi’y memoir, replacing it by Mr. J. H. Ingram’s sketch of the life of Poe in the Memorial Edition of his Poetical Works. The Athencmm states that in the first week in January a new weekly Liberal review is to appear, entitled the Secularist, to be edited by Mr. G. J. Hollyoake and Mr. G. W. Foote. The object of the paper is to show that that which is secular is not atheistic. The Earl of Crawford has in the press a metrical tale, entitled, “Argo; or, the Quest of the Golden Fleece.” It will be in ten books, and will be published by Mr. Murray. Under the title of “Three Centuries of English Song,” Mrs. Masson, wife of the Edinburgh professor, is writing what those who have had the opportunity of seeing part of the manuscript expect will be a more graceful and instructive sketch of our poetic literatui-e between Chaucer’s days and Shakspere’s than has yet been published. Mr. John Murray, in his admirable seines of “ Choice Travels and Adventures,” has issued a new and popular edition, in two handsome volumes, of “Dr. Livingstone’s Missionary Travels in South Africa,” 1840-56, and “An Expedition to the Zambesi, and the Discovery of Lakes Shirma and Nyassa,” 1858-64. The books contain several excellent illustrations and maps. To those who cannot afford the original volumes these abridgments of them will be specially welcome. The initial number of Hand and Heart, a new paper for the household, has appeared, and gives good promise of becoming popular. It is conducted by the Rev. Charles Bullock, the editor of Our Own Fireside, and other wellknown magazines. If what is called “pure literature” were always made as interesting as Mr. Bullock’s works are, we should hear less of the blighting influences of the “ penny dreadful” style of publications. Hand and Heart is effectively illustrated. Mr. W. P. Nimmo has published a handsome volume, by James Stothert, on “ French and Spanish Painters,” in which appear critical and biographical accounts of the most celebrated artists of the French and Spanish schools of painting, as well as an instructive sketch of the rise and progress of painting in the two countries. The volume is embellished with numerous illustrations on steel from the more famous pictures. The Academy is glad to be able to contradict, on the best authority, a statement which has appeared in a daily Scottish contemporary that “ Mr. Henry S. King, the eminent publisher, is very ill at Cannes.” Mr. King has not left England, although he will probably do so very soon. It is true that he has been ill, but we are happy to say that his illness has taken a favorable turn. Mr. Quaritch has in the press a “ Glossary of Liturgical Terms,” by Dr. F. G. Lee; and a new edition of Plawlcins’s work on “ English Silver Coins,” with a few new plates, under the editorship of Mr. Kenyon, the author’s grandson. The first edition has long been very scarce. The death is announced, on Christmas Day, of Mr. James Keene, who for half a century has been proprietor and editor of Keene's Bath Journal, a paper well known in the West of England. Mr. Keene, who was very much respected in Bath by all classes, had attained the ripe age of eighty years. Mr. Augustus Mayhew, of Montpelier-row, Twickenham,, author of “Paved with Gold; or, the Romance and Reality of the London Streets;” “Faces for Fortunes,” &c., and brother to the late Mr. Horace Mayhew, died somewhat suddenly lately, at Richmond Infirmary, from hernia. In conjunction with his brother Horace he wrote many popular works, among which were “ The Greatest Plague of Life; or, A Lady in Search of a Good Servant,” “The Image of his Father; or, One Boy is More Trouble than a Dozen Girls, “Story of a Peasant Boy Philosophez*, and “Young Benjamin Franklin.”

THE LIFE OF EDWARD IRVING, By Mrs. Oliphant. (From the N. B. D. Mail.) Mrs. Oliphant has in these most interesting volumes done justice to a career, splendid in its native grandeur, yet “hawk’d at,” stricken and sorrowful far beyond the lot of ordinary mortals. The volumes are inscribed “ to all who love the memory of Edward Irving, which the writer has found by much experiment to mean all who ever knew him.” The materials of the memoir, evidently authentic, and collected with much care from a variety of sources, have been arranged with discrimination and skill, aod woven into a narrative at once romantic in its incidents and mournfully instructive in the lessons which it teaches. The diaries and letters of Irving, in the possession of his surviving children, Professor Irving of Melbourne, and Mrs. Gardiner, London ; his nephews, J. Fergusson, Esq., and W. Dickson, Esq., of Glasgow ; Rev. Dr. Grierson, Errol ; Mrs. Carlyle of Chelsea ; Rev. Dr. Hanna ; Rev. Mr. Campbell, late of Row ; Rev. A. J. Scott, of Manchester, some time Irving’s assistant in the then newly-erected Scotch Church, Regentsquare ; Dr. G. M. Scott of Hampstead ; the Rev. R. H. Story of Roseneath ; the late Mr. Henry Drummond, M.P., Mrs. Wm. Hamilton, and other friends, have been placed at the disposal of Mrs. Oliphant, who brings to the work a sensibility and devotion, a depth of feeling and earnestness of purpose, congenial to the greatness of her theme. “ I hoped,” she says, “ to get personal consolation, amid heavy troubles, out of a life so full of great love, faith and sorrow; and I have found this life so much more lofty, pure, and true than my imagination, that the picture unfolding under my hands lias often made me pause to think how such a painter as the blessed Angelico took the attitude of devotion at his labor, and painted such saints on his knees.” A slight sketch of Irving’s career, following the narrative of Mrs. Oliphant, haud passibus cequis, may not be uninteresting to our readers. Edward Irving was born in Annan on the 4th of August, 1792. His father, who was a farmer by trade, was descended from an Albigensian, or French Protestant refugee family, who settled in Annan, one of his ancestors becoming parish minister of that quiet little town. His mother, Mary Lowther, the daughter of a small border laird, was remarkable both for bulky vigor and comeliness of form. Edward used to say, “There are no women now like my mother.” In fact, hew family appear to have been a race of giant*. One of her brothers, a Scottish Hercules, is said, after being sorely tried in temper by some impertinent braggadocio, to have seized a poker and twisted it round the neck of his assailant, so that it required the assistance of a blacksmith to release him from the pillory. Edward, who was the second son, had two brothers—John, a medical officer in the E. I. Co.’s service, and George, both of whom died in early life, and five sisters, one of whom still survives. Edward’s squint is said to have been contracted while he was yet a child, being laid on one side in a cradle opposite a long narrow window, one eye being habitually exercised by the light, and the other hopelessly closed by the wooden side of the cradle. Edward’s first school was that kept by Peggy Paine, a relative of the notorious author of the “ Age of Reason.” Thence he went to Annan Academy, taught by Mr. Adam Hope, the preceptor of Thomas Carlyle. His forte here was mathematics, but his boyhood was chiefly remarkable for athletic sports and exercises. His constant companion was Hugh Clapperton, the African explorer, who lived in the adjoining house, the two often sharing their meals together. Their intimacy was continued till death, Clapperton’s last letter being addressed to Irving, then in the heyday of his popularity. Dr. Macfarlane, in his “ Life and Times of Dr. Lawson,” mentions a number of distinguished men, who, with Thomas Carlyle, had been educated by Mr. Johnston, the Secession minister of Ecclefechan ;,and we learn from Mrs. Oliphant that at an early period of his life it was Edward Irving’s frequent habit on Sundays to walk to that village in order to hear the Burgher minister. At the age of 13, Edward, accompanied by his brother John, left Annan for the University of Edinburgh, where he attracted the friendly notice of Professor Christison and Sir John Leslie ; but his curriculum was no way brilliant. He took his degree in 1809.. His favorite study was “ Hooker’s Ecclesiastical Polity.” In light reading his delight was the « Arabian Nights.” He used to carry a miniature copy of Ossian in his waistcoat pocket, and was in the habit of reciting long passages to his college companions. After he had. attended one year at the Divinity Hall,. Irving, in 1810, on the recommendation of Sir John Leslie and Professor Christison, was appointed master of the Mathematical School at Haddington. Here his success in teaching and popularity, both with his pupils and their parents, was immense. He was generally accompanied in his walks by some of his favorite pupils. One of these, Mr. Patrick, sheriff of Haddington, tells the following anecdote: — “ Being an excellent walker, all his excursions were made on foot. Upon, one occasion when Dr. Chalmers, then rising into fame, was announced to preach in St. George », Edinburgh, upon a summer week-day evening, Irving set out from Haddington after school hours, accompanied by several of his pupils, and returned the same night, accomplishing the distance of about 35 miles without any other rest than what was obtained in church.” Mrs. Oliphant adds —“The fatigue of this long walk was enlivened when the little party arrived at the church by a little outbreak of imperious pugnacity, not perhaps quite seemly in such a place, but characteristic enough. Tired with their walk, the boys and their youthful leader made their way up to the gallery of the church, where they directed their steps towards one particular pew, which was quite unoccupied. Their entrance into the vacant place was, however, stopped by a man who stretched his arm across the pew and an-

nouncecl that it was engaged. Irving remonstrated, and represented that at such a time all the seats were open to the public, but without effect. At last his patience gave way, and raisin o' his hand, he exclaimed, evidently with 111 hfs natural magniloquence of voice and gesture, ‘Remove your arm or I will shatter it hi nieces >’ His astonished opponent fell back in utter dismay, like Mrs. Siddons’ shopman and made a precipitate retreat, while the rejoicing boys took possession of the pew Thus for the first time, Irving and Chalmers were’ brought, if not together at least into the same assembly. Ihe great preacher knew nothing of the lad who had come nearly 18 miles to hear him preach, and sat resting his mighty yoj l 1 ful limbs in the seat from which he had driven his enemy.” We shall presently see that nine years afterwards, in this very Church of St George’s, at the request of its celebiated minister, Dr. Andrew Thompson, Irving preached his first sermon before Dr. Chalmers, with a. view to his appointment as colleague m the parish of St. John’s, Glasgow. Among Irving’s pupils at Haddington was the son of Gilbert Burns, the poet s brother, with whom he continued on terms of intimacy. From Haddington, at the end of two years, Irvin" went to Kirkcaldy, and, on the recommendation of Sir John Leslie, became teacher of the New Academy, whose duties he continued to discharge for the next seven years. Mrs. Oliphant observes : “ The recollection of him is still fresh m the town : his picturesque looks, his odd ways, his severities, his kindnesses, the distinct individuality of the man. Here that title which afterwards was to be the popular designation of a religious community came into. piayiui use, long and innocently antedating its more permanent meaning, and the Academy scholars distinguished each other as ‘ Irvingates a special and affectionate bond of fraternity, lie was now twenty, and had attained his full height, which some say was two and some four inches over six feet ; his appearance was noble and remarkable to a high degree, his features fine, his figure,. m its • great height, fully developed and vigorous ; the only drawback to his good looks being the defect in his eye, which, with so many and great advantages to counterbalance it, seems rather to have given piquancy to his face than to have lessened its attraction. Such a figure attracted universal attention ; lie could not pass through a village without being remarked and gazed after 5 and some of his Kirkcaldy pupils remember the moment when they first saw him, with the clearness which marks not an ordinary meeting, but an event. This recollection is perhaps assisted by the fact that, thou"h a divinity student, already overshadowed by the needful gravity of the priesthood, and in present possession of all the importance of a dominie, he had no such solemn regard to dress as afterwards became one of his peculiarities, but made his appearance in Kirkcaldy in a morning coat made of some set of tartan in which red predominated, to the admiration of all beholders.” In the manse of Kirkcaldy, and in the person of Isabella Martin, eldest daughter of the parish minister, Irving found his future mate. Her eldest sister afterwards became the wife of Mr. Wrn. Hamilton, one of the early officebearers of the Caledonian Chapel, Hattongarden, and signed the call to Irving, and remained faithful to him to the last. Plaving completed “partial” attendance at the Divinity Hall, Irvine was “taken on trial” by the Presbytery of Kirkcaldy, and early in 1815 duly licensed to preach. A humorous description of his first sermon, preached in Annan, is given by an early friend. The “ haill toon, profoundly critical and much interested, turned out to hear him; even his ancient teachers, with solemn brows, came out to sit in judgment on Edward’s sermon. A certain excitement of interest, unusual to that humdrum atmosphere, thrilled through the building. "When the sermon was in full current, some incautious movement of the young preacher tilted aside the great Bible, and the sermon itself—that direful “paper,” which Scotch congregations hold in high despite—dropped out bodily, and fluttered down upon the precentor’s desk underneath. A perfect rustle of excitement ran through the church. Here was an unhoped-for crisis ! what would the neophyte do now ? The young preacher calmly stooped his great figure over the pulpit, grasped the manuscript as it lay, broadways, crushed it up in his great hand, thrust it into a pocket, and went on as fluently as before. His success was triumphant. To criticise a man so visibly independent of the “paper” would have been presumption indeed. In Kirkcaldy the preacher was less fortunate in finding appreciating audiences. There was “ ower muckle granner,” too much grandeur, in his discourses to please the churchgoers in the “ Ijang Town.” The parish church, which years after was disastrously crowded to hear him, was in those early days literally emptied of the accustomed worshippers when he made his appearance in the pulpit as Dr. Martin’s substitute. But Irving was not the man to be discouraged. He was constitutionally pugnacious, and rejoiced to encounter opposition. "Walking with Dr. Grierson to the Assembly in 1816, when the 42nd lined the streets through which the Commissioner’s pi-ocession was to pass, Irving pointed the doctor’s attention to the tallest soldier in the line, saying, “Do you see that fellow? I should like to meet him in a dark entry.” “Eor what purpose?” asked Grierson. “ Just,” said he, “ that I might find out what amount of drubbing I could bear.” (To be continued.)