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N*k_ i28 sj5g^ THE Ii EAPER. 547
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THE WORLD AND I IIS WIFE. The World and ...
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INTELIiEGTUA.L EDUCATION". Intellectual ...
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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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Friends At Their Ow1st Fireside. Friends...
" ffum ^ hi" said the woman , all her fiery passions suddenly kindled , and sending the ho * Wood .. ia &> her face— " i ' mmot going to be baffled and browbeaten in that way , I can tell you , madam . Bold 1 am , and -will be , until I find out where my husband is ; and if I'm bad , there are other people not much b & tter , meek aa they caai look sometimes . " While uttering these words , the woman had cleared ' the stile , and for a moment determined to carry ont her pursuit . Susannah , heard tie tone in . which tliey were uttered more distinctly than the words themselves , ajid . indeed , the ruffled state of her feolings scarcely left her at liberty to comprehend anything with clearness . By degrees , however , the woman fell beliind , notwithstanding the defian . ee of her look and manner , and thea Susannah began to breathe again—to breathe , aad to think !
The elderly people iu the story always appear in a state of suppressed alarm about their children . There is a total absence of confidence between them , and calamities , -when they do occur , come like thunderclaps ; for , having no clue to the hearts of the young , or t-o the real state of their feelings , how can the parents and guardrans anticipate what is going to happen ? Such a form of rule , which prescribes the impossible , and "begets concealment , is self-destructive ; and the advertiser for Information certainly need look no further for enlightenment than to the pages of Mrs . Ellis . . . ¦ ¦ ¦ ¦ ; . ¦ V - ¦ • . . ' .
N*K_ I28 Sj5g^ The Ii Eaper. 547
N * k _ i 28 sj 5 g ^ THE Ii EAPER . 547
The World And I Iis Wife. The World And ...
THE WORLD AND I IIS WIFE . The World and Ms Wife .- or , a Ferson ofConsequence . A Photographic Novel . By & ady Buhver Lytton . C . J-Skeet . This " photographic 1 ' novel reminds one strangely of the odd caricatures of the human face divine , also called photographs , which are exposed now in many a suburban shop window , along with toys , razor-strops , and haberdashery . Indeed , the resemblance between these " photographic likenesses " and ILady Bulwer Lytton ' s " photographic novel" is striking ; for as no one ever recognizes the features of any living being in those black , leaden , hang ^ -dog looiing portraits which adorn the said places , so nobody , in the wildest flight of imagination , can see in those diseased , Mephistophelian figures which the authoress poi'trays , the flesh a . nd blood men and women
of English society . Everywhere , in all her " photographic" sketchings , the jaundiced eye of the writer is traced . She defines love—that is , the love of human beings of the malesex—as a " compound of admiration , vanity , and selfishness ; " she thinks that both virtue and vice ( of ? naZe creatures again , of course ) « re 1 € simply grammatical , " with , only " this notable difference in the grananiiir of their passions to the grammar of language , that the latter always asserts the masculine to be worthier than the feminine , wheTeas , in the former , it is insisted that the feminine should invariably be worthier than the masculine / ' But in greatest abhorrence she holds those chief manifestations of modern society , its laws ; for not only do ?? je ? z "—which in itself seems to lier liorrible enough— "biit the most eminently profligate find immoral men , make and administer the laws ; and therefore it can scarcely be expected that such Lycurguses should , make them anything but what they are : grossly immoral and unjust . ''
The unhappy lady lias been wronged , or , whai comes to the same , thinJcs she has been wronged by one man , or , perhaps , half a score , and she fancies , therefore , that the u whole world of male creatures is composed of monsters , intent only on devouring the gifts of fortune or nature of their fellow-beings of the other sex . With this preconceived opinion , she sets about manufacturing her photographic sketches ; and , in a , rather characteristic way , makes a dog the chief figure of the picture . " Tatters , " a sort of dark slate-coloured Skye terrier , " the yery beau ideal of beautiful ugliness , " with ' * mysteriously luminous , and magnificently intelligent polyglot brown eyes , "
is the centre piece of Lady Bulwer Ljtton ' s three-volunied photographic novel , and Tound this centre / in strange comet-like courses , dance some minor personages . First of all is , the dog ' s master , one Bob Bumpus , who talks a curious gibberish of half-sentimental and half-costermonger language , typifying , in the authoress ' s opinion , the popular speech , because the h is abundantly , indeed rather too abundantly , misplaced . Next to him comes a wicked no"bleman , the Earl of Portarjis , a domestic tyrant of the Eugene Sueschool , who commits crimes without end , all of which are painted in glaring colours on the due background of angelic virtue and resignation , represented by a ¦ kind , loving , virtuous " angel of a wife . " Slanderous J . flYKV nf * Q _ WA HTP flTVmH \ % r 111 oiidnanf + 7- »* - \ " 1 n + + * - **» 4- r \ Vw * nt / vn « t 4- « - *— *¦» ., J- ^ 1- ! ^ , * . «« ,. W ¦¦* - ¦ ¦« fl 4 MUkJ / I'llW A 4 Af ( jU ^ JL \ J > £ JLIl 3 4 UlUUl
'~ "O » " ~»— - ~»** - * - *« j «* | V ^ . U . JL Ug « Vfcllj * O UU IV it " p hical , as indeed the authoress dwells with evident pleasure on that figure in the photographic picture . Not only this Lady Portarjis , but all the rest of the tvomen in the photographic novel , are good , dear , kind-hearted creatures , infinitely above the men , who are sketched as rascals one and all , far below the _ " Tatters" in morality . Tatters , in fsict , on more than one occasion , is held up as a pattern to them . The Earl of Portarjis breaks open letters directed to his friends ; whereas the dog tries to rescue the letters from , loss ; and when the Honourable Saville Vernon , an employe of the British Poreign Office , wants to steal a silver locket , nt a drawing-room to which he is invited , it is the dog again who prevents him . To such ends can irritability m * ge u morbidly excited authoress .
It is the greater pity that a woman like Lady Bulwer Lytton should be driven to composo photographisms "in this style ; " lor really one can discern in her writings , in spite of all the extravagances of style and invention , a not very common talent of expression , which often , in its ru ^ ed htness , reminds one stravigely of Thomas Carlyle . However , the many little passages , gems of their kind , in which this is revealed , are hidden under such a mass ot extravagant , if not maniacal declamation , that their beauty is not likely to be appreciated by _ very many readers . The truth of Fiehte ' s famous inaxim , that there is a divino idea wliich lies afc the bottom of all external forms and appearances , is more acknowledged by philosophers than by novel-readers . And novels which arc professedly " photographic" ought to be , more than any other * , true in outward shape and size . But where , except at a seven-acted melodramatic performance at the Victoria Theatre , can realities" like the following be found ?—
„„ , n ^ iw " ? r ' "I th 0 aftl " ° auatoni J melancholy strain , " for the gents os ^ -nfl £ ^ WU T . ° ° tlling 9 ) or WU 83 > haa totallv different nuinoa . Vcu aSdS ?^^ n " * "t ! T ' ° for tllftt mfttter ' ** Stored ™ h vay as Is not . uiilo according to the C « llog 0 of Physicians , it stands to reason that the nobleman or gent
as pockets tbe thousands hon the transaction , knows nothink vothever as to ow it vos brought about . And as for ruinating oa wouwn by scores , t 7 tat s incourse tie nobility and gen-try ' s life , tiiat nobody , . and least of hall the Lawr , lias no business ; to meddle with . Like poor Polly and her child j ven five year ago , I fished her and it liout of the Paddington canal , an < l ve vos hall three tookt afore & magistrate */ and she vos a going to tell as how a nobleman ad fust ruinated her , aud then deserted hBr and her child . The magistrate stopped her b , as soon as hev « r she was a going to mention the nobleman ' s name , saying as he caulciii't have a lord ' s character ! oomperuused by a ooman of that sort . " Then ven I upped and axed who had made her a ooman of that sort ? I was * binsolent wagab'one , and ordered another month , at the treadmill ; and ven I Teem out , cause I <> ould not let poor Polly and her child starve about the streets , and I took em along with : ne to my place ; then the same ' worthy magistrate , ' as they calls em in the noosepapers , told us as ve vos a living in -wice . ' No ve baint yer worsliip , ' says I— ' A-e's honly a starving in ^ virtue . The nobleman as clruv Polly and her babby into the canal , ia living in > vice , and no mistake , and wouldn't I sarve him out ; if so be as I could onlv know his name . '
" But from that day to this , I've niver bia liable to git it hout of the poor soft , silly cretur , as fears if so be has I knowed it , I'd git myself into trouble a taMn hon the lawr into my own -amis , hand so I would , too ; for the lawr , vot ' s the lawr ? but a sort of wrap-rascal for the rich hand the great , to kiver hover hall their sins and •\ vices ; and that done , the lavvr jumps Jinx Crow , and turns itself hinto a sign-post , vith a oss-air vig hon the top hon it , to pint out hevery crooked road a poor devil turns down , to piclc up a few rags and bones . " Ho ! but it ' s tliey public characters ! parliament-men , speechiiiers , hauthors , hand sich like , has is the Tvoppingest humbugs ! of the -whole lot . They ' slikeblow'd hout bladders , iill'd chuck-full of wind , they his , which sarves to keep themselves hup safe enough . 13 ut jist let any one run the sharp pint hof a single truth hinto these here public humbug-balloons , hand th . ey' 11 soon find the hempty hair has ¦ they'll ' git for their ¦ ¦
pains . ; . " - , '• ¦¦ ' - ,. • . ¦ ¦ ' . ¦ ¦ . . ¦ ... ' .. ¦ ¦ ... ; .. . Xet of monologues of this description intermingled with still more questionable dialogues , nine-tenths of the photographic novel is made up ; and the remaining tenth , of really noble thoughts and sentiment , expressed in graceful and energetic language , is hidden under this incubus of insufferable , half Eugene Sue , half casual reporter style of writing . Nay , at t imes , our authoress out-Herods Herod : she stumbles in with Latin quotations—dog-Latin mostly , yet strewn broadcast all - thrdugh . the novel ; this is followed by the language of attached , who " speak French ; '' then the slung of Bob Bumpus and his friends , until the whole becomes a dish such as even a fifthrate Parisian novel manufacturer would scarcely -venture to set before his customers . , ¦ " - . . ¦ ' ¦ -.. ¦ : ;• •¦ ¦'¦ .. ¦ '¦ . ¦ ¦ : . ; . ¦ ¦ ¦ . ; . . ¦ ; ¦ ¦ , '¦ : " -: - - - . '¦ ¦ '"¦'
Reading on the title-page that " -the author reserves the right of translationj" we devoutly hope siiid author may never exercise this right , lest foreigners should believe in the truth of a British " photographic novel . "
Inteliiegtua.L Education". Intellectual ...
INTELIiEGTUA . L EDUCATION " . Intellectual Education , and its Influence on the Character and Hap 2 > ine $ s of Women By Emily ShirrefiV J . W . Parker and Son . Miss Emut Shibkeff is one of the authors of a book which has had many readers—Thoughts on Self-culture . Her present work suggests , besides a theory of intellectual culture as generally adapted to women , a plan of education commencing with the child of twelve and ending with the girl of eighteen years of age . In developing her main idea , which sets aside as philosopliically unsound and practically vain and unwise the whole discussion of comparative claims , 'powers , and rights , she has drawn upon the resources of a liberal and well-stored mind , and addresses herself principally to mothers wishing to undertake the education of their daughters , and often
too young , ill-taught , and inexperienced themselves to compi'ehend the magnitude of that responsibility . A . preliminary inquiry discusses the requirements and capacities of children , but the general scope of the essay is confined to the school-room discipline of girls during tlie six years indicated as constituting the proper period for that element . ivy instruction "by means of which we hope to ground sound principles of ' moral and mental development . " . The character is tlien formed and unfolded ; habits are acquired , tastes are trained . Before the age of twelve , in her vie w , it is injudicious to enforce any serious system of education , and before seven to set any lessons to the child at all . That is the time for careless , healthy idleness , for amusement , for the free growth of the body , for the spontaneous acquisition of knowledge by observation , for the tender culture
of iamily and social relations . Upon these points Miss Sliirrcff is in harmony with Jllousseau , whose argument against the encouragement of precocity might be separated from the rest ot" his works and reduced to a decalogue for the government of parents and teachers . Of course it is quite possible and desirable that a child should learn to read , but unless it is tempted even to this by its own inclination nothing is gained by premature compulsion , at least before the age of seven . Afterwards , fairy-tales , books of wonders , bright with pictures , and sacredly free from science made easy , may tempt it to pleasnnt studios . We thoroughly agree with Miss ShirrelF in , prizing the old lore of crystal castles , of talking birds , of flying horses , of knights diving beneath lakes or wanJeinng among the noddin < r horrors of
forests to deliver enchanted princesses , as far superior to the tractarian class of fables , the little epilogues that tell of reprobate fathers converted by model boys , and abandoned mothers reclaimed by small voices from the Sunday school . The bubbling springs of poetry axe contained in the classics of fairy-lsind , and the imagination which explores with anticipation of surprise the interior of pearly palaces in search of spell-bound fair ones with golden locks , is led thence to legend , ballad , lyric , epic ,- history , biography , and the glories and marvels of nature . It is not to be supposed that James Watt never heard of Jack the Giunt-killer , that George Stephenson begun with Archimedean primers , tliat Washington , at five years old , delighted not in magic chivalry , that Florence Nightingale in the nursery heard of no hero except the Good Samaritan .
After seven , Miss Shirrefl' recommends that the child should be accustomed to half an hour ' s daily attention to study , about lmlf an hour a day bring added yearly so as to graduates it in habits of application ;—To rnnko my meaning clear I will briofly enumerate wlmt acquirements I should cxpccL to find in u gill of twclvo years old . fcjhe should rend and . spell English pec-
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), June 5, 1858, page 19, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_05061858/page/19/
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