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718 THE X< IS A DE^ * [Literary
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have been lef t motherless, and almost f...
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CHOICE NOTES FROM " NOTES AND QU14RIES "...
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¦liMo Volunteers} how to Organise and Dr...
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T*„„* Life Axduilkktvinambrloaior, Sketches
circumference , which separates the American from * he Canadian' Fall , 'I made out nineteen isles and islets ; some no larger than a dining-table , others twenty or a hundered times as large , and several of them supporting tout a single tree , and others-two or three trees , blooming and flourishing , amid the war of waters , and suggesting to the unpractised eyea fear that every moment would be the last both of them and their vegetation /' The human senses are incapable of comprehending the full " -lory of the Niagara spectacle , which might indeed be cited as a sufficient proof to uphold the entire theoiy of the author of " Man and his not its
Dwelling Place "—the book we mean , subject , or rather subjects . The inadequacy of the human intellect to grasp the Universe becomes in the presence of " this great vision of the guarded " cataract a felt truth . This truth also may be applied with justice to ifche political and social relations of the country;—perhaps of any country . I ) r . Mackay strives to ^ understand and appreciate American institutions , still he finds there is much that escapes him . He brings to bear his public experience on all these , and so far as he can compare and contrast , he gains a certain satisfaction . Butthe absolute aspects remain mvsteribus . There is the peculiar and
unapproachable secret that lies at -the base of national or individual character which operates as the reason -why the circumstances have taken , a specific shape more or less anomalous . There is the bias of the ¦ will ^ which nothing but the conscience can control ; a conscience-which acts according to the degree in which it is enlightened , and which on its moral side can only be enlightened by the Great Spirit , -whom even the savage in the wilderness acknowledges ^ and-whose influence is claimed alike by saint and sage . Here at last we must look for the clistinguishhig characteristic , and must confess ourselves lost in wonder and in ignorance .
It is not possible to do more , at present , than introduce Dr . Mackay ' s book to our readers .. topics treated in it are of too multifarious a character to permit of cursory survey ^ and each Turould furnish matter for a grave separate essay . We must content ourselves , therefore , with commending these volumes to careful perusal , as presenting a body of Political Doctrine , illustrated by the author ' s experience of America , derived by him under favourable circumstances , the result of careful and diligent observation , assisted by personal associations well calculated to facilitate the way to the attainment of truth .
718 The X< Is A De^ * [Literary
718 THE X < IS A DE ^ * [ Literary
Have Been Lef T Motherless, And Almost F...
have been lef t motherless , and almost friendless in the world , have by the exercise of their own energies surmounted all difficulties and become great ; we freely admit , however , that it is impossible for a child to possess any intellect , a passion , or impulse , that he did not derive from his parents A child may possess more or less capacity than his parents , but he cannot possess what they were devoid of . The perpetuation of races seems in some sense to be the perpetuation of ideas and systems ; as a hierarchy , a monarchy , a republic , a despotism will exist unchanged for ages . It appears that the people living under each of those forms of
Govern-The work is in one handsome volume , with two beautiful steel engravings , from original portraits of the mother of Napoleon and Jeanne D'Alhre't Queen of Navarre . ' '
ment never think of changing it : what they have inherited and become accustomed to they preserve from generation to generation . Not so , however , are transmitted and upheld the virtues and vices of individuals . It is true the children may inherit the physique j the hair , whether red or . black , the expression of the features , the tone of the voice , and the gait of the parent , but their tastes and tendencies we know may in some cases be altogether different from those of the parent . The tendency of nations to war , the desire in man to travel , to communicate with his fellow , may have been as strong when the ark or the pyramids
were building as it is now . The object and aim of men in fighting and travelling were then , no doubt , precisely the same as they are now . But how changed have the means of both become ! War now is a science , and we need not wait now-a-days even for the mail tram to bring us a letter of intelligence—your news can be sent instantaneously ^ in a telegram . So the character of St . Augustine and that of Goethe is as different as the age which gave them , birth , and we cannot quite make up our mind to assent to the doctrine of " hereditary ^ properties , " and believe that the character of either of those great men was entirely formed by the mother . The influences and wants of their age ,
we apprehend , had something more to do with them , though each of them had a mother who was an honour to him . But what mother bequeathed to Homer and to * Shakespeare their splendid endowments '¦? Or take Alexander the Great for an instance ; what sort of a woman was the mother of the man whp at the age of thirty-two had conquered the world ?—who burnt a town out of mere caprice—who burnt a friend because he refused to adore him as a deity , and who , when Anaxarchus , the philosopher , told him of other worlds , wept that he could hot conquer them . To judge from Alexander ' s acts , one would think that he owed his birth to Mars and Laverna , and not to
A perfect woman , nobly planned , To warn , to comfort , to command . These considerations , however , we do not place as objections against the " Mothers of Great Men , " by the talented author of the " Women of England ; " we merely suggest them against any _ misc onception that may possibly occur on perusing a work , the moral influence and literary excellence of which we willingly testify- are great and undoubted . " He did that which was right in the sight of the Lord , according to all that jDavid his father did , " was the old religious way of writing biography , merely mentioning the name of the mother . But times have changed , and the mother now has
THE IIOTHEKS OF GKEAT MEN . By Mrs . Ellis , Author of > ' / Jhe Women of England ; " & c . London : Eichard Bentley , New Burlington-Btreet . 1859 . In this very excellent work Mrs . Ellis has given to the world sketches of eleven great men , varied with briefer notices of others , who owe , it is affirmed , the formation of then ? characters directly to maternal influence . The great men , howeveramong whom are St . Augustine and Napoleon , Alfred the Great and John Wesley , Goethe and Lord Byron—do not much resemble each other . ISTeither do the mothers of these great men , to whom it is asserted they owe their greatness ,
possess any striking points of resemblance to each other , except those of maternal love and solicitude for their children . But , in this otherwise valuable work , the doctrine of maternal influence is , perhaps , carried to too greafc an extreme , the virtues and the vices of the son being traced with too inflexible a pen to the influence of the mother . In the course of the work we have thought , too , that we have perceived in the author ' s theory slight traces Jiere and there of fatalism * ov transmigration of eoul » , and that in every life a new doctrine of responsibility seems to be taught . Of course , the talented author of this work will
repudiate such a charge as this ; nor do we tnmJc she is at . all intentionally guilty of it , yet we must be excused for stating—though it be far from the design of tho work— -what the proposition of * ' hereditary properties and tendencies " suggested to us . Wo < lo not dispute the transmission of properties from parent to son , but we object to its being elevated into a faith , how catholic and beautiful soever that faith may appear to be . That great men have had great mothers is a fact placed beyond a doubt , by the admirable sketches before us . But the exceptions to this rule are so numerous , that wo protest against any inclination -to raise it into the dignity of an invariable and un * disputed doctrine . For wo know that men who
something more than a name in biograpby . one has a sacred trust and duty to discharge , and an important mission to fulfil . As the world advances it is np wonder that the mind should grow weary of apostrophising stars and magnifying states , and endeavour to do something towards raising into history as shining examples those mothers who have contributed so much to the progress Of humanity . The mother of St . Augustine may not have much sympathy with Napoleon , nor the mother of Wesley with forming such a character as Goethe , but the judicious and intelligent mother may read profitably these " Mothers of Great
Men , " although she may * not desire to see ner son initiated either into the precise tenets of the one , or the military tactics of the other : a man may become great' in the world and useful to society without much resembling either . It is not necessary , even if it were possible , to form oil men after ono model . Mrs . Ellis has , however , hero and there hinted at the difficulties of a task which she undertook with diffidence , but which , wo must say , she has nobly finished . Indeed , tho merits of tho work are eo great , and its influence so purifying , that we commend it strongly to the consideration and favour of the mothers of England .
Choice Notes From " Notes And Qu14ries "...
CHOICE NOTES FROM " NOTES AND QU 14 RIES " - FolkXore . —Bell arid Daldy . Those who know " Notes and Queries" are -well aware of the information contributed in its pages to our knowledge of" Folk Lore . " A volume of 300 closely printed pages is tlie result , and certainly the matter contained in it is remarkably suggestive , as well as amusing and instructive . One or two examples may be profitably quoted . " Poxdtry . —The crowing of a hen bodes evil , and is frequently followed by the death of some member of the family . When , therefore , Dame Partlet thus experiments upon the note of her mate , she pays her head as the price of her temerity , a complete severance of the offending member being supposed to be the only way of averting the threatened calamity . No house , it is said , can thrive whose hens are addicted to this kind of amusement . Ilence the old proverb often quoted in this district : — " ' A whistling woman and a crowing hen , Is neither fit for God nor inen . ' " According to Pluquet , the Normans have a similar belief , and a saying singularly like the English one : — " ' Une poule qui chante le eoq , et tine fille qui siffle , portent malheur dana la inaisou . " NOKTHtTMBERI-ANlJ TKADITIOX . " . Joaney or Johnny Heed , the j > arish clerk of a village near Newcastle , was returning home one evening , and in passing a gate by the roadside marvelled much to see nine eats about it . His wonder was changed to horror when one of the cats addressed him , ' Joaney Reed , Joaney Reed , tell Dan Ratcliffe that Peg Powson is dead . ' Joaney hurried home to his wife , and instantly informed her of the circumstance , wondering at the same time who Dan Ratcliffe might be ; when up sprang the cat from the hearth , and exclaiming ' If Peg Powson ' s dead , it ' s no time for me . to be _ here , ' rushed out of the hous e and was seen no more . " . We add a third for its humour : — THE LAWYERS * PATRON SAIXT .
" And now because I am speakcing of Pettyfogers , give me leave to tell yoit a story I mett with when 1 lived in Rome . Goeing with a Romane to see some Antiquityes , he showed mo a chapell dedicated to one St . Evona , a lawyer of Brittanie , who he said came to Rome to entreat the Pope to give the Lawyers of Brittanie a Patron , to which the Pope replied , That he knew of no Saint but what was disposed of to other Professions . At which Evona was very sad , and earnestly begd of the Pope to think of one for him . At last the Pope proposed to St . Evona that lie should goe round the church of bt . John de Latera blindfould , and after he had said so many Ave Marias , that the first Saint lie layd hold of should be his Patron , which the good old Lawyer of his
willingly undertook ; and at the end Ave-Maryes he stopt at Saint Michels altar , where He laid hold of the Divell , under St . Michels feet , and cryd out , This is our Saint , let him be our Patron . So being unblindfolded , and seeing what a Patron he had chosen , he went to his lodgings so dejected , that in few moneths after he die'd , and coming to heaven ' s gates knockt hard . Whereupon St . Poter asked whp it was that knocked so bouldly . lie replyod , That he was St . Evona the Advocate , Away , away , said St . Peter ; hero is but ono Advocate in heaven ' . here is no room for you Lawyers . O but , said St . Evona , I am that honest Lawyer who never tooke fees on both sides , or pleaded in a baa cause , nor did . I evqr set my Naibours together Dy the Earoa . or lived by the sins of the people VV ell
then , said St . Peter , come in . This news oomeing down to Romo , a witty Poet writ upon St . hvonn s tomb these words : —r' St . Evona un Hriton , Advooftt non Larron , HaloluluU . ' " This story nut me in mind of Ben Johnson goeing throw a ehuroh in Surry , seeing pooro people weeping over a grave , asked one of the women why they wept . Oh ; said slice , wo have lost o }»\ P ™" " lawyer , Justice Randall j he kept us all in peaco , and always , was so good as to keep us from goo . ng to lawj the best man over lived . WoU , so id Ben Johnson , I will send you an epitaph to write on his Tomb , which was , T—• God works wonders now nnd thon ; t lloro lyoe a lawyer un honest mn «>
¦Limo Volunteers} How To Organise And Dr...
¦ liMo Volunteers } how to Organise and Drill Thm . By Hans Busk , M . A . —ltoutlodgo , Warncs ana lloutlodgo . A exsASONAULE work of manifest convoniouca .
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), June 11, 1859, page 10, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_11061859/page/10/
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