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6a T H E LEADEB. [No. 408, January 16, 1...
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ANECDOTES OF LITERARY LIFE. Fifty Years*...
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The Works Of Samuel Browx. Lectures On T...
f j _ analvzed him to atoms befoi-e proceeding to value the suggestion of Soidas that the Argonauts were pilgrims in pursuit of the alchemical secret . Affain ' he was , as a critic , too accurate to pass over the Spagyric assumptions of such names as Crysippus , or to detect the error lurking under Dumas's facile method of evaporating Maria the Jewess into a thin mist of fable . Chemistry , he believed , is an older science than Dumas was willing to acknowledge , older than Lavoisier , if not so ancient as to claim Thales as its father . Xavoisier , at least , was so impressed by the dogmas of Thales that tis alembics were long employed-in investigating the possibility of converting water into an earthy substance . Scheele experimented with the same purpose in view , and every one has beard of Davy's experiments on the electrolysis of water . These inquiries , carried m certain directions , connect themselves with the history of alchemy . In treating of the Arabian poly-Bharmists , represented by Geber , whose 'Summit of Perfection is the oldest book on chemistry extant , Dr . Brown rebuked the bigotry of Johnson and does foil justice to the ornament of the reign of the Abassides . Geber ' s theory not only pervaded the East , but was powerful enough to taint the works of Cavendish and Priestley ; it was in Europe that the science became grotesque . Potable gold , Geberbad said , was the celestial hippocrene or elixir , but the heretic Arnoldus applied bis art to some purpose , and the essential ' oil of turpentine , the oil of rosemary and Hungary water , were products of his laboratory . Basil "Valentine went far into the search for * he philosopher's stone , which he imagined to be a compound of mercury , sulphur , and salt , but he also opened up the science of metallurgy . Then came Paracelsus , an incarnation of intellect poisoned by vanity , and alchemy was at its climax . Dr . Brown's learning was brought to bear upon three points in connexion with the code of the Alchemists : —that they believed in the Alcabest or universal solvent , actually realized by modern chemistry in the element fluorine ; in the transmutability of metals—an opinion ' ineradicable from the instincts of science ; ' and in the elixir of life or universal medicine , the last idea not having been conceived until the dotage of alchemy . Dr . Brown did well to follow his treatise on the Alchemists with one on Phlogiston , to pass from connical fluids , the chloride of tin , and the purple precipitate of gold , to the transcendental science of combustion . In the course of his essay , many biographical notices of extreme interest are introduced , bringing the history to its turning point at the transition from the « ra of Phlogiston and the cupel to that of oxygen and the balance . The Kosicrueian mystery disappeared ; the empyrean was melted in a crucible ; the Zoroastrian creed was brought into * the presence of a chemical product as combination of caloric and light , a double vibration , a pair of imponderables , and a couple of dynamides . ' Dr . Brown was qualified to deal with subjects of this class , because he was superior to every form of flippancy . His treatise on ghosts and ghostseers is not ridicule but reason . Plato , Pliny , Henry More , Donne , Matthew Hall , Samuel Johnson , Addison , and others , he reminds us , believed in Appearances . Passavarit , Kstsbenmayer , Ennemore , Stilling , Kerner , and Schubert have written gravely on ghostly dreams ; and it is due to a solemn < loubt that its grounds should be seriously investigated , and accordingly the process of argument is carried on deliberately , without sneers or even smiles , . and the most rational reader need not be dissatisfied with the conclusion . In fact , the fabric of shadows is undermined , and parts slowly and cloudily into ruins . Nevertheless , Dr . Brown admitted all is not known that may be known concerning ghosts and ghost-seers . The world must learn to wait . It waited long enough for other discoveries . Meanwhile , we point attention to this and the other writings in the two volumes of Dr . Brown ' s collected works , the productions of a cultivated , original , and masculine mind . The regret of every reader will be that so earnest and successful a thinker was ¦ cut off at the age of thirty-two .
6a T H E Leadeb. [No. 408, January 16, 1...
6 a T H E LEADEB . [ No . 408 , January 16 , 1858 .
Anecdotes Of Literary Life. Fifty Years*...
ANECDOTES OF LITERARY LIFE . Fifty Years * Recollections , Literary and Personal , with Observations on Men and Things . By Cyrus Bedding . 3 vols . Skeet . Mb . Cf bus Redding has lived long in the great world , has . associated with -all classes of persons , is free-spoken , and has an excellent memory . He ( ni ght have written a very entertaining memoir , for the materials were at hand , and it is not every one who has been dandled on the knee of John Howard , preached to by John Wesley , frigiitened by the mutiny at the Jtfore , admitted to join the funeral of Pitt , and delighted by the living oratory of Fox . A wondrous and motley procession passes through the Autobiography , including a hundred men and women , celebrated or notorious , whom Mr . Redding has known , after one fashion or another ; and it would have been surprising had he not written a . book which , in spite of its tedious interludes of egotism , will be read with interest by many who will meet old friends in its pages , as well as listen to new anecdotes ; but Mr . Redding overflows his recollections with himself , and although a part of his literary ¦ career may have been worth noticing , we must say he is not a little intrusive with his careful chronicle of early studies , latter-duy dialogues , and incidents of no importance whatever to any one but himself . " I was early in love ;" ¦ " I was pleased with Burns j" " Scott ' s 'Marmion' delighted mo , and it was well calculated to do so / ' are specimens of the triviality to which the memoirs owe half their bulk . This we say at onco , in order that wo may not have to turn from Mr . Reading ' s more interesting sketches to his follies as an autobiographer . During the first ^ period of his life , mixing in what is ¦ called good , society , ho heard an infinite abundance of gossip , and being a ^ . jricfc ^ upjcj f ^ rjfleji , ^ was there , drinking throe bottles of port wine every unv , and of London , when Pitt always quaffed a . full benkor before he spoke in Parliament , and when Tierney ia saw ! to have catted him the Devil ' s darning-needle . At Bath , Mr . Bedding met Sir John Moore ; in London , at the Cheshire Cheese , he dined with Laurence , who carried the colours of , the 60 th Regiment ut the battle of Mindon ; at Brighton was ' then' seen , upon the Steyne , the Green Man , who painted his house green , and wore hia costuino of that colour , to his gloves and neckcloth . It is something like seeing a ghost revisiting ; the glimpses of the moon , to hour these reminiscences , published
in 1858 , by a gentleman who once walked down Fleet-street in a blue dress , coat , white waistcoat , iemon-coloured breeches , white silk stockings , silver knee and shoe buckles , and a prodigious cocked hat . "Suspenders were not yet in vogue , and the shirt was invariably displayed above the waistband . " Add to this that Mr . Redding was present at the Westminster election when Sheridan shouted to the elector who had refused him ' his countenance , ' " Take it away ; it is the most villanous one I have ever beheld ! " and we have a tolerable idea of the ancestral voice that is addressing our generation . The boy Betty disgusted him ; by Siddons he was electrified ; the genius of Miss O'Neill he doubted ; Mrs . Jordan ' s acting was , to him , as exhilarating as a cordial wine . In society , he was introduced to Madame de Stael , then past her prime , and to a large number of the individuals called celebrities ; of all he has an opinion to pass , and of some he has preserved interesting reminiscences . Mr . Redding ' s notice of Dr . Parr is a good example of his manner : — Parr was tinder the middle height in stature , square and strongly built , his body large in proportion to his lower limbs . His eyes were grey , of the middling size , and sparkled to the last when animated in conversation . The back part of his head was massy and capacious , his forehead full . His characteristic benevolence appeared most in his mode of life . He was remarkable for his kindness to his friends , neighbours , and servants , rendering them all the good in his power . He lisped a little in speaking . He drank seldom more then half a dozen glasses of wine , but he fed largely , rather than choicely , when at a dinner party , or with a friend . It was singular that when alone , he scarcely eat at all , or satisfied himself with a mouthful of anything that fell in hia way . His stomach was strong , and his digestive powers excellent . When fish was on the table , where there was shrimp sauce , the moment the fish was removed , he would pour out the sauce on his plate and eat it , and this down to the last years of his life . Six or eight persons were his favourite number at table . It was seldom known at Hatton how many would dine . I have sat down ¦ with eight or nine , when he imagined Mrs . Parr and myself were to be his only guests . The copiousness of his information , the clearness , and order of his language , were remarkable , but the latter was too formal . He was not a mere ' verb and noun man , ' as some have erroneously said , nor did he parade his learning ostentatiously . He had read almost every English writer of note , besides the ancient classics , which he knew so critically . He did not display his classical knowledge in mixed society . With the right kind of company , he overflowed with this knowledge and learned lore . His manner of speaking , and putting things was peculiar , and more remarkable than his matter ; those of course died with him , and cannot be described . He regarded our sanguinary law with indignation . Placed in the witnessbox at the assizes , on a life and death case , when he had given his evidence , he began to lecture the judge and court . " Go down , Dr . Parr , go down , " said the judge . " I will go down , my lord , I will go down , I will go out of this slaughter-house as fast as I can . " i * reaching the assize sermon , he took for his text , " God shall smite thee thou whited wall ; for sittest thou to judge ine after the law , and commandest me to be smitten contrary to the law . " He was known to the circle at Hollerton , when William Roscoe was the central figure in Liverpool society , and with Thomas Roscoe he was familiar with the vain and irritable madness of Ugo Foscolo . As a variation , however , we quote a passage illustrative of public manners : — I remember sitting once with the counsel close to a servant girl , in the prime of life , who had murdered her mistress , as some said , ' under the immediate instigation of the devil . ' She did not attempt a justification . She only said her young mistresses bad gone out for a walk , and she was below cutting up a cucumber , when something came into her head that she must kill her . She went up-staira , and cut the old lady ' s throat with the knife she had in her hand . Her mistress was kind , she had no complaint to make against her , she said . While the jury wore out , I threw a note to the solicitor for the prosecution . " They say , if found guilty , she will be executed where the murder was committed ? " I took care that the prisoner , who could see the table over my shoulder , should not observe what I wrote . The solicitor threw me a piece of paper open . "No , she will be executed here , and cut np at Mr . , the surgeon , on Tuesday . " The prisoner was alive , in tho full flush of health , not yet found guilty , only the wood panel of the partition between us * In regard to a fellow creature's doom , suoh waa tho light way in which life was spoken about , in a case of essential madness * oue can hardly doubt . " Two men to be hung to-day , gentlemen , nt twelve o'clock , " the gaoler would say , coming into the magistrates' room ; " the time is approaching . " The chairman would then propose an adjournment until half-past two , to lunch in the interim , when tho men would have been strangled and cut down , al'tor hanging an hour for passing a pound note , or stealing to the value of a few shillings . I remember men for small offences comparatively , who were executed with fow spectators prosent . In those days , it waa the criminal of magnitude thut drew , tho sympathy of crowds . Two convicts , I remember , behaved well , until tho chaplain began a practice of endeavouring to worm out a confession us to an nccjomplko . From that moment , they would have no more communication with him , not even on the scaffold ; and so they died . With Thomas Campbell he waa engaged in many literary undertakings , as well as with Mr . J . A . St . John , editor of the London Weekly Reviewthe principal literary organ of that day—and tho author of tlio Rejected Addresses . From one of Horace Smith ' s letters we muko n quotation : — Two more cantos of Don Juan aro finished , at which I for ono feel littlo pleasure , for I hato ull productions , whatever bo their talent , which prosent ditmourtcuiiig n » d degrading view a of human natnre . This is , in my opinion , worse tlmn impiety , though it is tho lattor imputation which will destroy its popularity in Knglaiul , almost tho only country existing in Europe whore bigotry retains itn omnipotence . Here is another : — " Upon looking over tho letters of Shelley that I lmvo presorvotl , I find that I cannot , however anxious to oblige you , comply with your request , lor tlioy uro of too confidential and hazardous a nature to bo copporplatod . Several aio riMiuudts for loans to himself or Godwin ; some make private mention of Byron , Mooro , unu Hunt , that it might not bo ri g ht to promulgate , and almost nil aro full ol' such li ' eterodox notions as might Iiorrffy many ' gooil " folka who ' mlglHi'Tiappoii To so ' e ' tftom . You ahull road thoao Iottors when you next viait mo , and I am sure you will youraou concur in tho prudence of my withholding them . Mr . Redding glances inside ? Vat hole ' Bockford ' s house : — Jowola , and costly nrtlclou of all kinds , lay in open drawers about his houso \ anil , being told lie might bo robbod , he replied ho knew all hla aorvunta too well to four that ; and , as to burglars , " I am in no fear of them . All my BoryaiUa uro groat guns in their way * and I urn a prodigious largo blunderbuss myself . " Ono lot or diamonda he hud unaot . They lay looao in an ancient tamsa . Those ho named "W 1 diamonds , ' because a rolation of hla , who kept a number of cats to which , who "
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), Jan. 16, 1858, page 18, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_16011858/page/18/
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