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On turning over the leaves to that useful book, 'Men of the Time, the reader finds mention made of the following men of letters and law Sir Archibald Alison, Mr. Thomas Chisholm Anstey, Mr. William Edmonstone Aytoun, Mr. Philip James Bailey, Mr. J.N. Ball, Mr. Sergeant Peter Burke, Sir J.B. Burke, Mr. John Hill Burton, Mr. Hans Busk, Mr. Isaac Butt, Mr. George Wingrove Cooke, Sir E.S. Creasy, Dr.
I can take a skeleton to pieces scientifically, but not a living soul. I am helpless before Mr. Swinburne, or any authentic poet, but quite at my ease before Macaulay or Professor Aytoun." Mr. Buchanan could presumably take the last two to pieces and analyse them as if they were skeletons; but before Swinburne, "the living soul," he is helpless.
Poems and Ballads of Goethe. Translated by W. Edmonstoune Aytoun, D.C.L., and Theodore Martin. New York. Delisser & Proctor. 12mo. pp. 240. 75 cts. On the Probable Fall of the Value of Gold; the Commercial and Social Consequences which may Ensue, and the Measures which it Invites. By Michel Chevalier. Translated from the French, with a Preface by Richard Cobden, Esq. New York.
"Who would not be The Laureate bold, With his butt of sherry To keep him merry, And nothing to do but pocket his gold?" But The Lay of the Lovelorn is a clumsy and rather vulgar skit on Locksley Hall a poem on which two such writers as Sir Theodore Martin and Professor Aytoun would have done well not to lay their sacrilegious hands.
The copy has a peculiar interest; it once belonged to Aytoun, the writer of "The Scottish Cavaliers," of "The Bon Gaultier Ballads," and of "Firmilian," the scourge of the Spasmodic School. Mr. Aytoun has adorned the margins with notes and with caricatures of skulls and cross-bones, while the fly-leaves bear a sonnet to the author, and a lyric in doggerel.
Nor was his success less than that of Professor Wilson, Professor Ferries, Professor Aytoun, Professor Innes, Sir William Hamilton, Hilburton, Spalding, and others whom we might mention, who have stamped the English literature with the sign-manual of their genius, and whose names will be held in remembrance and honour long after those of the most distinguished lawyers of the age shall have passed to the limbo of oblivion.
One by one these wits and scholars of the North, these epigoni who were not, indeed, of the heroes, but who had seen and remembered Scott and Wilson, have passed away. Aytoun and Carlyle and Dr. Burton, and last, Dr. Brown, are gone. Sir Theodore Martin alone is left. In her memoir of Dr. Burton remarks that, in her husband's later days, only Dr.
Carlyle was regarded by those writers of his day who clung to and revered the time-worn ruts, as chief of the "Spasmodic School," the members whereof were supposed to be distinguished by "a stained and unnatural style." This "School," which was satirized by Aytoun while editor of Blackwood's Magazine, was thought to include Tennyson, Gilfillan and other popular authors of the time.
"Hester Aytoun," said Hildegarde, softly. "This must have been her playroom, Bell. She used to live here; it is about her that I wanted to tell you. But first let us see what she has written here. I think she would be willing; we are girls, too, and I don't think Hester would mind."
And anon Was Julio forgotten and his line No wonder for this frenzied tale of mine." How? asks Aytoun, nor has the grammatical enigma yet been unriddled. "Oh! he was wearied of this passing scene! But loved not Death; his purpose was between Life and the grave; and it would vibrate there Like a wild bird that floated far and fair Betwixt the sun and sea!"