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Iso. 507- Dec. 10, 1859.} THE LEADER 134...
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LITERATURE.
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¦ LITERARY NOTES OF THE WEEK.
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• * ¦ . . T ELE eminently useful individ...
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LITERARY NOTES OF THE . WE^K
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AT HOME AXD ABEOAp. By Bayard^aylor.—Sam...
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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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Iso. 507- Dec. 10, 1859.} The Leader 134...
Iso . 507- Dec . 10 , 1859 . } THE LEADER 1349
Literature.
LITERATURE .
¦ Literary Notes Of The Week.
¦ LITERARY NOTES OF THE WEEK .
• * ¦ . . T Ele Eminently Useful Individ...
• * ¦ . . T ELE eminently useful individual who goes about " calling people ' s attention " has brought under the notice of Mr . T . C . Newby the statement of " George Eliot , " and the remarks of the Press upon that lady or gentleman ' s letter . Mr . Newby says , in a letter to a contemporary , " 'I bat I have advertised a book , entitled ' Adam Bede , Junior , a sequel , ' is true ; that I have endeavoured to delude the public into a belief that the work was written by Miss Evans or George Eliot , is false . "* lord Brougham is about to issue his Mathematical "Works in one volume , dedicated to the University of Edinburgh . The announcement is thus made : "In the press , and speedily wi 11 b , e published , in one vol ., 8 vo , dedicated to the University of Edinburgh . ' Tracts , Mathematical and Physical . ' By Ilenry Lord Brougham , I / L . D ., F . R . S ., Member of the National Institute of France , ami Chancellor of the University of Edinburgh . " The tracts or essays are in number eleven . . Mr . John Veitch , M . A , author of the " Memoir of Dugald Stewart , " in the new edition of his works , and joint editor with Professor Mansel of " Sir William Hamilton ' s Lectures , " is a candidate for the chair of Logic in the University of St . Andrew , vacant by the death of Professor Spalding .
HEATHEN AND HOLY LANDS : OR , SUNNT DATS . ON THE SAL WEEN , NILE , AND JORDAN . By Captain J . P . BriggB . —Smith , Elder and Co . . It is seldom that we . meet with , a book of travels so original as this . It commences , not with England , but with the antipodean provinces of Tavoy—a beautiful section of our Indian Empire . We thus start at once in the East , on the banks of the Tenasserim , amongst Budhistsand Burmese , a picturesque group , but strange . Captain Briggs is minute in his description of the place and manners , ' having acted there in a judicial capacity . Christian missions have been more siiceessfu !
among these people than elsewhere in the East . Were proper assistance sent out to them , Captain Briggs is of opinion , that they would meet with unprecedented encouragement . There is a marked difference in prosperity and comfort between the Christian and heathen villages and districts . A great check , too , is put to crimes of violence by Christian teachings . He calculates the number of Christians in the Tenasserim provinces at 75 , 000 souls . "As a Magistrate , " he adds , " upwards of eight years' experience on this coast , I can vouch for the great improvement in morality among the Christian Karens , and can affifm that ten Christian villages give less work to a police officer than one heathen Karen village . " * The reader will resort with considerable confidence , to such a record as this , proceeding from an authority so competent . He proceeds to state that polygamy is allowed among the people ; but most have only one wife , and few more than two . ' " The first , or head wife , " the Captain continues , "is usually the choice of the husband in his youth ; and when she ceases to have children she often assists in the choice of a young wife , who is . bound to obey her ; for here , at least , children are still an assistance , not a burden to their parents . Marriage is simply a civil con tract , which either party may dissolve on certain grounds , such as proved incompatibility of temper , or barrenness ; the penalty , on the other hand , being that the dissatisfied party usually gives a dowry , or forfeits all personal effects to the other . The woman has equal civil rights w ^ ith the man , and even a casual observer mu « t remark fewer disputes and quarrels between man and wife than in any other community .
" I have already passed a remark on the morality and influence of the JBudhist priests , but they are also the ordinary schoolmasters of the country . Thev employ their leisure in teaching , gratuitously , the boys of the village , or division of the town , in the vicinity of their monastery , to read and write their native language ; while women who have taken ascetic vows , or sometimes old widows , give similar instruction to the girls . The simple rudiments of arithmetic are also taught in these schools , but beyond this the education of the laity seldom goes ; a young man , however , who wishes to acquire the . abstruse tenets of the Budhist creed , is boarded and lodge d in the monastery for any time he may desire to prosecute his studies . "
The people are prone to suicide also , on slight occasions ; children corrected by their parents , or thwarted in their affections , resort to it atonce as a refuge from oppression . Yet they are disposed to gaiety . National festivals are frequent—races , banquets , games , wrestling-matches , and buffalo-O author has divided his book into two parts , the first being devoted to the above particulars . He comme nces the second part with some account of Cairo , the Nile , the pyramids of Egypt , and Thebes . ' lie spent a whole day at Esneh , and examined the temple . Another day also ho spent on boautiml , unearthly Philoc , and then away on into the burning lands of Ethiopia , past Dcrr , its capital , and Aboo-Symbal , on till he reached Wndec tlalfeh , just below the second cataract , on
the thirty-second day from Cairo . " We find him soon , after the examp le of Belzoni , exploring ( ho passages and chambers of the Tombs at Thebes , and , m n il respects , performing the part of an em-nest , energetic , and courageous traveller . We have ne xt hia visit to Denderah , and his examination of the tomplc of Athor ; nor wad he iuattuntivo to the antiquities of Memphis , and the pyramids of Saliarah . The city in which Moses was educated by a princess could not fail to interest him ; nor is he unmindful that hero was kept the famous bull " Apia . " The tombs of these sacred bulls have boon found lately by a Frenchman , M . Manyat , " who is busy despoiling thorn o ( tnolr rnoet valuable antiquities . '' Why has not England its paid savans , commissioned to make and register
The Council of University College , L , ondori , at their session on Saturday last , appointed Syed Abdoolah Professor of Hindustani in tlicCollege . The chair had been held , in conjunction with that of Tamil , b y the Baron Von Streng , who , however , on learning that Syed Abdoolah : was willing to undertake to instruct tlie class , and after bearing testimony to his high qualifications for the office , offered to make way for him for the reasons urged on another occasion by Sir Henry Rawlinson , that although the dead languages are best taught by European professors skilled in the science of grammar , and with some knowledge of comparative philology , a native should bo preferred for all the living dialects of India . Messrs . Hogg announce that their migazihe , Titan , will not be published after the present number , with which number it concludes its
twentyninth volume . The Academy of Inscriptions und Belles Lettres has just announced the subjects for the prizes to be given in 18 C 0 and 1861 . The 13 ordin gold medal , of the value of 3 , 000 fr ., is to . be conferred , next year , on an essay on the knowledge of the ancients respecting that part of Africa situated with'in the tropics , and particularly Nigretia and the region of the Upper Nile , from the time of He rodotus to that of Pliny and Ptolemy . In 1861 , it is to be the and
given to the best history of language literature of the Ethiopians , with a list of the original works and translations , an account of the various epochs of the literature of Abyssinia , and of the characteristics that mark the dates of questionable writings . The Louis Fould prize , which consists of the interest on 20 , 000 fr . for three years , will be given , next year , to the author of the best history of the arts of design , their origin , progress , and transmission ; to be written in French or bntin , and open to the competition of all the world . It is that Empisthe
exreported M . , manager of the Theatre Francais , has been appointed Inspector-General of Public Libraries . The post , whjich was originally created for M . Romieu , as a consolation for the loss of tho direction of the Beaux Arts , has not hitherto boon filled up since * The second edition of " The Life of Sir Charles Bell , " by Ara 6 d 6 e Pichot . is just announced for publication—the first having been eagorly caught up by tho great mnn ' u admirers on tho Continent . " At the present moment" ( says a Puris letter ) " a vast floirit of inauirv has arisen in France concerning the
right assumed by science in England to claim an equal share of tho world ' s gratitude with that of France , and tho publication of this History ot Sir Charles Boll " has done a great deal to dissipate the ignorant opposition with which such claim has sometimes boon met . Society , tho only rightful judge ot medical skill , and whose judgment , being founded on self-interest , is seldom in fault , has choaun in France to adopt tho renown of many a British physioluu with as much good will as that accorded to those belonging to tho French school . Buclmn and Jamoa in tho last generation—Simpson and Clurk in our ownare os woll known und frequently quoted as tho moat popular professors of the Academic de Medicine . "
Literary Notes Of The . We^K
all such discoveries , for the benefit of science and philosophy ? But we do nothing for " an . idea . ' * We ab ' andon all such'influences to the Gaul . In our traveller ' s estimation , the Egyptians , both men and women , are generally very plain . Alexandria , a mixture of the Oriental and European ^ is in the worst taste ; yet , from its situation , may be the capital of the world , and is the stepping-stone between Europe and India . We must speed rapidly through the remaining chapters of the book . Smyrna , the villages of Iona , Rhodes , and Cvprus are now-a-days familiar names ; so likewise is Palestine and its suburbs . But here our traveller manifests enthusiasm , and expects bis reader to sympathise with him . He had chosen the spring-time for his visit , and found Palestine in all its glory . He passed through to the hill-country of Judea , and entered a country where the rose of Sharon no longer blooms—in fact , a wilderness and robberhaunt . But at length he saw , from the heights , Jerusalem , and shortly afterwards was within the sacred walls . Here we leave him ; merely adding , that the last chapter shows him on board-ship , steaming down the Red Sea , bound for the farfar F . ast "
At Home Axd Abeoap. By Bayard^Aylor.—Sam...
AT HOME AXD ABEOAp . By Bayard ^ aylor . —Samp-. eon Low , Sou , and Co . " As a traveller Mr . Bayard Taylor has won public confidence as much as in his capacity of bookmaker . His penchant for travel appears to have been as decided as that of the celebrated Ida PFeiffer , whom we see Mr . Taylor claims as . his friend . His wish , however , took the form of an elevated position , and thus tlie command of a wider horizon . His instinct , accordingly , was to climb a mountain , and he was able at length to gratify his ardent desire in tlie neighbourhood of the Hudson , among the Catskiils . This trip he made during an
apprenticeship holiday . It served also for his apprenticeship to a traveller ' s life . It was his first start in the world . We next find him on the Susquehanua Rivei ' , at Baltimore and in Washington ; undergoing , meanwhile , the weariness and the perils of a night walk of many . miles—nearly fifty—in order to gain his destination . Some people think that the great difficulty of travelling is an ignorance of foreign tongues . Mr . Taylor assures Ins readers , on the authority of Ida assumed is
PfeifFer and his own , that the difficulty no difficulty at all . Difficulties , like dangers , he tells us , appear formidable at a distance , but when encountered face to face they vanish . It is his opinion that if all mankind were suddenly deprived of the power of speech , though the embarrassment and confusion would be very great for a few days , yet , ere the lapse of a fortnight , government , business , and society would move on in their accustomed courses . On entering a foreign country the traveller naturally resorts to signs and gestures ,
and soon aids them with tone and expression . That unused power of interpretation which developes itself so marvellously in the deaf and dumb is at once called into action ; and answers the purpose much better than an imperfect knowledge of the language . Tlie facilities of modern travel are , however , now so greatly multiplied that " tho veriest Cockney may travel from J-. onaon to Vienna and find his own language spoken in every hotel he enters . Railroads have not onjy brou ght about the abolition of all the real annoyances' of the passport system , but they have increased travel to such an extent as to make it , in some countries , the chief source of revenue to the people—who are thus obliged to accommodate themselves in every possible * wuy to tlie wants oi their customers . " In these narratives Mr . Taylor has reco rded some minor incidents which would not readily find a place in his larger and more important books of travels . Amongst these memorabilia he records some visionary visitations which will occur to tho tired traveller when , from sheer weariness , the will as well as tho body becomes passive , and imagination , prompted by some unknown stimulus , revels in a world of her own making . 1 hose tales of the supernatural are exceedingly well tolu ^ ana there are those who will not so roiuhly accept tho natural solution as tho author himself , Wo must , in justice to tho author and the subject , which now-a-days has acquired such extraordinary importance , present an example or two of those spocial experiences .
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), Dec. 10, 1859, page 17, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_10121859/page/17/
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