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SO July 4 1857] THE LEADER, ___J*iL_. wi...
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THE PROFESSOR. The Professor. A Tale. By...
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THE SAPPERS AND MINERS. History of the B...
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Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
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Letters From High Latitudes. Letters Fro...
ggSSiSSiSsSSSsaitf Foam : — .. -,,, ^ s ^ twh parallel of north latitude , and still an We had now almost reached the eightieth parallel . o rd from the shore _ impenetrable sheet of ^ T ?** " *^^* ^ thequestion . Our expectation of findrendered all hopes of reaching ^ ff ^/ Sgaged from ice by the action of the ing the north-west extremity- of the ^^ ^ J ^ dooraed to disappointment , currents , was-at all e ^? t , ° laJ h ^ de 8 e o a f S Amsterdam Island- which is actually in We were already ^'"^ V ^ coast seemed more encumbered than ever . No whaler north-west P ^ T ^ jS ^ treS about one hundred and twenty miles further had ever succeeded in getting more tnan entangle ourselves further in the north than we ourselves ^ certatoJy of reaching land-would be sheer folly . The ice—unless it were vntn tne o "" / k Accordingly , to this course I determined only thing to be done jras ^ return back ^^^ ' j ^^^ u ^ should turn to resign myself , * - *«« «*™ J s f afrairs . It was now eleven o'clock at night ; Fitz up to improve ^ P ^^ L j Remained on deck to see what the night might bring forth ^ t Xw g ? at ^ gJns and ' the cold was perfectly intolerable ; billow after Kw imesweeS down between the sea and sky , as if it were going to swallow ^ TvZle uSverfe . w hile the midnight sun-now completely blotted out-now iSnSy 7 trugS SnJtZne U the ragged breaches of the mist-threw down from time to » wfn unea r thly red-brown glare on the waste of the roaring waters . To ^ the wh eo / that night did we continue beating up along the edge of the ice , in thl teethtf a whole gale of wind . At last , about nine o ' clock in the morningw two short hours before the moment at which it had been agreed we should bear uf aTd abandon the attempt-we came up with a long low point of ice that had sS ^ c hed fuXr to the westward than any we had yet doubled and there , beyond , a ? open seal-open not only to the northward and the westward , but also to the e ^ t ward ' You can imagine my excitement . " Turn the hands up , Mr . Wyse !" " ^ Boutship'" " Down with the helm ! " " Helm a-lee ! " Up comes the schooner ' s head to the wind , the sails flapping with the noise of thunder ; blocks rattling against the deck , as if they wanted to knock their brains out ; ropes dancing ^ about in galvanized coils , like mad serpents ; and everything to an inexperienced eye m inextrfcable confusion ; till gradually she pays off on the other tack-the sails stiffen into d " al boards-the stay sail sheet ia let go-and heeling over on the opposite side aga n she darts forward over the sea like an arrow from the bojr . » Stand by to , make Rail ! " " Out all reefs ! " ( I could have carried sail to sink a man-of-war !) , and away the little ship went , playing leap-frog over the heavy seas , and staggering undTr her canvas , a £ if giddy with some joyful excitement > vh 1 Ch made my own heart thump so loudly . . , We shall say but one final word : no Englishman or Englishwoman accustomed to read can fail thoroughly to enjoy this graphic and genial book .
So July 4 1857] The Leader, ___J*Il_. Wi...
SO July 4 1857 ] THE LEADER , ___ J * iL _ . with all of them ^ theyhaving to consult the tasteof the
The Professor. The Professor. A Tale. By...
THE PROFESSOR . The Professor . A Tale . By Currer Bell . 2 vols . Smith , Elder , and Co . To the novel-reader this posthumous work of one who has given so much delight to novel-renders , will have but feeble interest ; but to all who are curious about the Ilistory and development of genius it will afford many suggestive reflections . In the first place let us say that the publication of the Professor completely exonerates the London publishers , who unanimously declined it . Currer Bell , in one of her letters , intimates that it was declined because it was too quietly truthful , and wanted the thrilling incidents' and * romantic characters' which novels usually present . Currer Bell was mistaken : the Professor was declined because it was dull . Ibis dulness does not arise from the quietness and everyday reality of the story , bat from the weakness and essential unreality of the story and characters . In avoiding exaggeration and romance , she has not achieved simplicity and reality The persons are at once disagreeable and improbable . T he story is tiresome and improbable . So great is the distance between the Professor and its immediate successor , Jane Eyre , that we are amazed at the total absence of eenius or indeed of any indication of superior talent in the first story ; and cannot sufficiently applaud the fortunate sagacity > vhich induced Messrs . Smith and Elder to urge Qurrer Bell to write a second story ; for even now , enlightened by the event , and profoundly admiring the faculties displayed in Jane Eure . we do not detect their germs in the Professor , nor can we honestly say that on such evidence as it affords should we have encouraged the writer to try again . In spite of unanimous refusals , in spite also of her more matured power , and the brilliant success that power secured , Currer Bell could not see the defects of this tale ; accordingly she was nearly perilling her reputation by its publication after Jane Eyre and Shirley . In the preface she drew up , we wnrl this curious r > assa"re : —
not the case - , ; public rather than their own private taste , will naturally demand from an author the romance demanded by the public . And to answer the sarcasm respecting the unpleasant discrepancy between theory and practice , we have only to say that the Profe ssor fails , not because it was constructed on the false theory that Nature and simplicity are the surest guides in Art , but because it was unreal and perverse . The incidents , as incidents , are almost all threadbare from use in poor novels ; while their mode of presentation is at once disagreeable , and fantastic . Where the AVriter draws from life , from her own actual experience , she does it with the crudeness of one who , had she not afterwards manifested such genuine power , we should have considered incapable of artistic reproduction . Where she ' invents , ' she is following in the beaten track of third-rate novelists GreaTis the interest , however , in pondering on this first work of a fine genius not more like the maturer works than a motionless grub isi like > the ¦ S-v butterfly . Still more is this comparison heightened when we find that m the Professor the has employed the same basis of personal experience as she afterSSSTJo successfully ' reproduced in Villette . The positions are lLVr-SlSit the exnerience is the same . Brussels , and school life at changed , but the ^ experienee j > ro / essor is the sketch of M . Paul ; and Irances ' HenS ot ' lucyTnove . B & fcir different the details , how different ^ In ^ Trrofesscr , as in her other works , we are struck with the constant and obtrusive preence of a purely disagreeable element The characters we not only gratuitously , unnaturally rude , but the rudeness is of a kind which Springs less fron / want of polished manners thaa from want of symnathv t 25 do , say , and feel things , which are explained by the writer as nroc ^ din- froni what we must call an irritable antagonism and a gratuitous pi oceeuing ironi **{?• " .. < for your good . ' The hero is as vicious Irthfs ° fespec t asfhe £ he 5 $ Sd the author Ividently considers it a virtue . This faun-whfeb we believe has been the source of that repulsion felt by manv reader ! of her other works-is the more surprising to us now we have SVer Life , and know that the sympathy , tenderness and benignity , so rarelv find § 5 an expression in her writings , found ample expression in her dSlv life " fbe steadfast friend , the adoring sister , the devoted daughter and the woman who could leave her writing to go into the kitchen and cut out thl N eves' of the potatoes rather than that < Tabby V feelings should be hurt by entrusting such an act to another servant-tins Charlotte Bronte was assuredly very different from the harsh , unsympathiz . ng , pedagogic ' C In on * tsL we earnestly beg young writers to give no heed whatever to the sarcasms in the Preface to this work ; to pay no attention to the supposed p ? oof Sere afforded that Nature is only a ' theoretical' demand not a demand made by readers ; and instead of appealing to Currer Bell , as an ar ™ at Z ^ writing stories which in their motives and movemen t resembTe lifeT ppeal to the Pro f essor as a proof in favour of that practice , for itS precisely m its departures from reality that this story is most wearisome .
I had not indeed published anything before I commenced " Tho Professor , but in many a crude eflbrt , destroyed almost ns soon as composed , I had got over any such tasto as I might onco have had for ornamented and redundant composition , and come to prefer what was plain and homely . At tho same timo I had adopted a set of principles on the subject of incident , & c , such as would bo generally approved ui theory , but tho result of which , when carried out into practice , often procures for an author more surprise than pleasure . I said to myself tliat my hero should work his way through life as I had seen real living men work theirs—that he should never get a shilling he had not earned—that no sudden turns should lift him in a moment to wealth and liigh station ; that whatever small competency ho might gain , should be won by the sweat of his brow ; that , before ho could Hud so much as an arbour to sit down in , lie should master at least half the ascent of ' tlie Hill of Difficulty ; ' that ho should not even marry a beautiful girl or a lady of rank . As Adam ' s son ho should share Adam's doom , and drain throughout life a mixed and moderate cup of enjoyment . 3 Ulll 111 1
111 tllO SC 4 UOI , IlOWUVOl , -I 1 UUUU LIKII . | IUUII ., guwvilll BMimuy « n " "" _ system , but would have liked something moro imaginative mid poetical—something more consonant with a highly wrought fancy , with a tasto for pathos , with sentiments moro tender , elevated , unworldly . Indeed , until an author has tried to dispoao of a irinnusoript of tliis kind , ho can never know what stores of romanco and sensibility lie hidden in broasta lie would not have suspoctud of caskoting such treasures . Men in business are usually thought to prefer tho real ; on trial tUo idoa will bo often found jTallttoloua : a passionate preference for tho wild , wonderful , and thrilling—tlio sti ' ango , startling , and harrowlnir—agitates divors aouls that show a culm and sober surface .
To answer the second sarcasm first , wo will observe that even supposing publibhers to bo moro inattor-of-iuct than other people—which is certainly
The Sappers And Miners. History Of The B...
THE SAPPERS AND MINERS . History of the Basal Sapper , and Miners , from the Formation of the Cog ** By T . W . J . Connolly . Second Edition . 2 vols . LongmanandOo . THEBBisno longer a corps of Sappers and Miners . Established in 1772 , it was merged info the Royal Engineers in 1850 . Quartermaster Connolly , ih elX ' e , has been enabled , in a ° second edition , to bring his history to a natural conclusion . First published about two years ago , his volumes have now been considerably enlarged , and will probably take their place in the military standard library . So far from being purely professional , however they are as well suited as any we know for general circulation . The army will prize them for their minute relation of incidents interesting to the soldier , and for their seventeen brig ht illustrations of uoiform ; . but the curious pub ic will be entertained by Mr . Connolly's singularly varied collection of anecdote , and his accounts of stirring events on—and under-flood and Geld , written with all the enthusiasm of a Sapper and Miner , but addressed o no particular class . He has included , in tins new issue the services of the corps in the Aland Islands , in Turkey , Bulgaria , Wallacb . a , the Crimea ^ and Circassia ; but so quickly was the original ed . tion exhausted , that doubtless hundreds of persons missed it altogether . Jt will not be superfluous , then , to indicate the character of its contents in order to show that it "I in no sense technical or dry . The Sappers and Miners were embodied about eighty years ago , and among their earlier works were the celebrated " . o * J ii ' ° ' r- /~ i ! i ij ..... n ,, n n » t-lin tnrvtfin Slftorfi of that 101 * - 01 vaiuruiun k - —v ©
subterranean galleries . ^ - "" , ^*; - * r --- , „ nna Jress ! the military artificers not only created a multitude of new defences but exhibited the bravery of lied Cross Knights . I . W may be iaid to have laid a practical foundation for the power of the English in the Mediterranean . One of their next engagements was to strengthen the Tower of London against the chances of ° a Jacobin attack Then , during the great French war , they bore their port at Antigua , v ^ ; " °% ?" ^ Toulon , Guadaloune , St . Louis , the Bruges Canal , and Ostond . They were at the blockade of kiltn , at the capture of the Danish West Indian settlements , at Oporto , Talavora , Flushing Almeida , Busaco , and Barrpsa . In u c t ' Uoy were everywhere , from 1793 to . 1815 and showed ¦ brUhautly ,. at Waterloo . TUe peace gave thorn another kind ot employment . lhey became t go , ^ surveyors , pontoon experimentalists and desroyora of snnkJn vessels , and curried tlunr triangles down tho valleys of ' the . Euphrates , across New Holland , into Canada , and badc ° »™ iTLoP AftJr " cud There they cleared the wrecks out of the bod of the river . Afcoi a other aclve hire in Australia , and a visit to Spain , dolachmonU . of tl o corps were sob to work upon Scotch trmngulutum ; but ono of thoipmost important services was tho demolition of the Koyal George . £ ° JM ™ $ & rei d a ploasantop chapter than Quartormnstop Coiiiwily « . wooiii ^ ol this onorntion curriod out by divors , who sometimes lought witU ciaus ana cTgorTeC ^ with one another , and succeeded in recovering a vast amount of valuable materials * . . ,. , . The Syrian war broke the monotony of their peaceful occupation ,, bu , perhaps , nothing could bo more interesting than thoir expedition to nuulc
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), July 4, 1857, page 17, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_04071857/page/17/
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