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1^10 T H E L E A D E B. [No. 457, Decemb...
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LITERATURE, SCIENCE, ART, &c
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1ITERART CHROOTCLE OF THE WEEK. ¦ ¦ ¦ ?—...
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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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1^10 T H E L E A D E B. [No. 457, Decemb...
1 ^ 10 T H E L E A D E B . [ No . 457 , December 24 , 185 s f ^ g ^ tt ^^ ttKltKKKK ^ tK ^ K ^ K ^ tttt ^ Kll ^^^ l ^^^^ 1 ^^ ^^ ^^^^^^ ' ^^^^^ 1 ^^^ ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ ^^^^ 1 ^^^^^^ 1 ^^^^^ ^^^
Literature, Science, Art, &C
LITERATURE , SCIENCE , ART , & c
1iterart Chrootcle Of The Week. ¦ ¦ ¦ ?—...
1 ITERART CHROOTCLE OF THE WEEK . ¦ ¦ ¦ ?— — ¦ . What shall we select as tlie book of the week , vhen nothing very remarkable Las really appeared ? A . few novels and some reprints , with one or two Works of minor interest , such is the budget of the Christmas week , during which people ' s minds are annually intenter upon matters of more
mundane iuterest than " the feast of reason and the flow of soul . " Messrs . Longman have indeed put forward a volume on " The Logic of Banking , " by Mr . Gilbart , wrhichis likely to excite some curiosity ; for some people have never yet been able to appreciate the logic of that operation , whilst others have felt themselves puzzled by the variety of conflicting formula presented to them ; the synthesis of Sir John Dean Paul and Messrs . Cameron and Go .
must , for , example , be a very different one from that used by our more respectable , if less brilliant , bankers . Among the better reprints are Liebig ' s Familiar Letters on Chemistry" ( Walton and Maberley )—now the fourth edition of that justly celebrated work ; that popular novel , " John Halifax , Gentleman" ( Hurst and Blackett ); and Miss Mitford ' s "KecoUections" ( Bentlcy ) . Among other pleasant nugaxre must also especially notice an admirably
iumorous portfolio of " Proverbs with Pictures " ( Chapman and Hall ) , by Charles II . Bennett , a young artist who has brought to perfection the grotesque school of caricature of which George Cruikshanks was the founder . The last Christinas book issued , and not the least beautiful , is a handsome volume published by Sampson Low and Son , entitled , " The Poets of the Far West . " It is a selection of American gems , extremely well illustrated .
A writer in Household Words administers a wellmerited rap upon the knuckles to Sydney Herbert , Esq ., M . P ., for his speech at Warminstcr , and particularly for his uncalled for eulogy upon that . nondescript novel the " Heir of lledclyflf , " Entrenching himself behind an opinion of ' 31 . Guizot , the honourable member instanced tliis as the type of our best domestic novels , and reports 31 . Guizot to have said that nothing so good has ever been done in France . After exposing the short-comings of this polemical romance in a style perhaps better fitted for thepages of the Eclectic Review tlum our familiar observes that
Household Words , the writer shrewdly it Is impossible that such books should be written , either in France or elsewhere * ' ¦ until the classes are found to exist there to which such works are addressed . This is considered to be a fair retort upon the Puseyitc purists who admire the " Heir oi Hedclyffc" and attack Mr . Dickens in the pages of the Saturday Hevieio . There is often something very fine in the naivete of ignorance , but to be proud of it occasionally rises to the sublime . At the late appeal of M . dc Montaleinbert , the Procurour-Iinperiul , M . Chaix d'Est-Antre , one of the most celebrated men at the
French bur , after making a series of blunders m his ¦ use and pronunciation of English , such as excited the risible lax ities of the accused , who is himself a very consummate English scholar , astounded his ^ hearers by saying , ' * I know nothing of English , " et je m '' en filicite ; an avowal which ( according to the testimony of an eye-witness ) , was awarded jvith ** shouts of derision . * But M . Chaix d'Est-Ange is singular neither in his deficiency nor his conceit . Whoever yet met with a Frenchman fond of using English phrases , who did not continually commit the most egregious blunders P True it is that
most of our writers return the compliment in full , and murder his imperial Majesty ' s French with equal coolness and atrocity 5 but with us there arc exceptions , in Franco there arc none . We recollect finding in a note appended by Victor Hugo to a volume of Ms poems , tUo most hopclosa confusion between Guiles , "Wales , and Gael , Highland hootch ; and M . Hugo is , for a Fronchman , ox-© ecdingly well versed in English matters . Wo onoe heard him give an account of tbo Gunpowder Plot , wliioJi would not have disgraced an English professor of iustory , Here , again , m the Same doe
Deux Maudes , a magazine conducted with an ability second to none in Europe , and which professedly pays the greatest attention to English literature , and which is constantly obliging us with its opinions upon-ths ' most national matters , the most grievous blunders arc incessantly occurring . In the hist number , now before us , and in an article upon " The Revolt of the Sepoys from English Accounts , " M . E . D . Forirues , who rather plumes himself upon his
English , makes Lord DaUiousie speak ot John Nicholson as " la force d ' u-xie tour "—the fact being that lie called him " a tower of strength , " and subsequently we find " mock philanthropist" translated philanthrope pour rire . In the political chronicle of the same number Mr . E . Forcado informs his readers that the member for Kidderminster is well known to be * ' one of the cleverest editors of the Times" This is almost as bad as the
sketches of the Paris correspondents belonging to our daily journals , in one of which , a certain London editor , well known for the purity of his manners , is represented as in the frequent habit of frequenting taverns arm-in-arm with M- Louis -Blanc-. Whilst upon French matters , it may be noted that an important work is spoken of as about to be issued under Government auspices , no less than a publication of all the documents in the public archives relating to the erection of the works at Cherbourg . Considering that this embraces- " a period " of time extending from Cardinal Richelieu to the present
Emperor , it will no doubt be a very voluminous undertaking . Of literary matters of note in Paris , it may be recorded that 31 . Curmcr , who - . has acquired for himself a very honourable ' celebrity as the publisher of what rnay be called art literature , and whose splendid edition of the " Imitation dc Jesus-Christ , " with fa-e-similes from the rarest old MSS . around each page , must , be known to most virtuosi , has lately produced a fac-similc of the well-known " Book of . Hours , " painted for Queen Anne of Brittany . Madame Sand has also published a book " of rustic legends ,
collected and pruned by lu'r accomplished pen , with illustrations by young Maurice Sand . The approach of the "jour de 1 ' un" tills the book repositories of Paris with splendid " livres d ' etrennes " and " Editions de luxe , " even more remarkable than pur Christmas docs the emporia of Pateruost-cr-row . Among these sonic loans from perfidious Albion may be noticed : a translation of Hiss Edge worth ' s " Talcs for the Young and Gentle ; " some of Cuptain Mayne Reid ' s works for more adventurous
THE NATURE AND PHENOMENA OF LIFE Life : its Nature , Varieties , and Phenomena Bv r ' H . Grimlon . Wfaittaker aiid Co ° Tnis book is in most respects a good one , and the faults it . contains are obvious , and , therefor ? easily guarded against . They ' arts isolated and disintegrated from what stands beside tlicni You can reject them , and still hold the truths expressed for there is no network or complication , involving the joint reception or rejection of the -two The object of the work is twofold . First , there is mw «
a popular description of the phenomena which express and embody the mysterious substance or force to which man has given the name Life . The second and more ambitious division of the book is psychological in its structure and immediate intent and impinges , as . ill full psychologies must , on the ' cognate-themes of theology aud mctap ' hysio . But , iu both parts , the function " of the author as an in ' quircr is made strictly and continuously subservient to the higher office at which he aims—<» f a teacher . The esse is investigated onl y that the deessa may be inculcated . The first part is a . " Combe ' s Constitution of Man , " wanned and lit up by the fervour of religious reverence , and . that lofiv human
benevolence which ks fljnongst the first-of its offspring . The second ptart expresses' the insatiate gazings of nnmd'auc philosophy into the " scantily-illumined in unite , satisfied to the full with light and guidance from the rich and overflowing ' radiance of the solar light of revolution . The whole spirit . ' of the book is warm , faithful , and likeable ; deeply reverent , therefore widely hiimau alid Immune . The i ' uets given are ample , substantiated , and uith praiseworthy industry gathered from every domain of science ;• they arc often set and softened in a manner that reminds us
at every step oi" that most elegant of philosophical literati ' , Dr . Thomas Brown , by analogy and illustration appositely drawn from ancient and modem pootry . Some of tin- theories seem to us most iar-lV'Vchi'il ' aiuluiiMipp'irted ; and although the author's ironeral spirit i * their best antidote aud corrective ' , ' if thev were Mtuale in . fields ' wore germane to them than his b . iok , and supported ¦ with the so ]) hi > try and special pleading from which the author refrains , hut which could be in other hands easily grouped around them , they could not fail to be ifiilc \ in aud dani ilUH UiWliuno
) ' ) ^ ^ rous . IO DC piTplUMMg ^ ' . At I lie very outset , tiic extension of the term Life is made to reach to inorganic creation—to our minus a most ridiculous praetie : d repeal ot allnlulosopliiial nomenclature and verbal dulimt . mu . lor Life- there ought lo have hrcn written Nature , llic doctrine is not a new one Tin ; Jewish Jvabala contains it ; audit has been , we think , supported by such commentators as Jlulcliinson and laiKhiirsj . It mi-ht be expected lhat this eompr * . hciiMvcncss of implication of the term Liio , so clnu
youth , aud a full cditiou of T > i : Livingstone a Travels for more advanced readers , illustrated by forty-five splendid engravings , and with the maps stretched upon cloth—a plan of preserving these useful documents which our publishers . would do well to adopt universally . We cannot close our summary of French literary matters without mentioning a " Picturesque Journey through England , Scotland , aud Ireland , " by M . Louis Euault , " and u " Comptc-raudu of tho Brussels Congress on Copyright , " by M . Edouurdltonibcrg , the Secretary-General of the Congress .
destructive of all boundary . lines of snooyil clion , would vitiate tho whole book , « u « l " fleet confusedly its every step . But this is hardly . the case . For , gven granting that tho author s va-rt c c correct , aucf that some blonder spirit uf . J" ° ^ breathed by rocks ami fountains , us nmm . lestftlipM would bo so rare and simple , in contrast witii UJ hillnitcly various functional dovclopjncnts awl o ^ of vegetable and animal nature , as to ?™ iul ° fl m ticully the whole attention of mi mnmrcr , « ucciou by tJi ' is fanciful and somewhat harm ess f luswi , ^ 0 tHoau parts of creation in which , by U wfl sonHQof maiikiiul , a few plianta ^ st ics eMqnul , uio
Our faithful colonies of Australia arc usually the importers rather than tho exporters of literary and artistic interest , and soldom afford us much to comment upon . Scarcely even of either literary or artistic interest , nnd yet n matter worthy of note , that , the people of Melbourne have made Mr . George Coppin , comic actor and theatrical manager , one of the members of their Legislative Council , lie is now tho Ilouourublc'Georgo-Coppiu ; and one of tho Melbourne papors refers with no slight aatiafaction to tho fact , pointing out triumphantly that whilst they have so delighted to honour an actor , our Queen has wot even made a knight of Mr . Charles Kcan .
¦—vegetable , animal and sp iritual—nilieres . 21 . may be nakedly tho curious , , How d ocs MO author attomiit to justify his doclnuo . . ^" ' * . deed , it is but just , that while venturing to . ooj denin him , ho hi . nsolf ought to be I airly rep jaoutoa Two causes , wo believe , have produced 1111 » M J tho conviction of this liction of tho p » cts : urn , j very vivid fancy , which , not content with 1 jJBj J and bimilitudo , niU 4 t turn tli « m into osa . unitagj and identity ; and second , tins confuaun , pi ^ ' worthy in its oauwil motives , dangerous 111 w K siblo olIoct 8- * - ] io boos Mb ovcrywlioro ; tin 1 . w , sees tho power of God aniumtu . g all or « ilUon , * ^ primary wok . »« well tho iiiobJ ^™ W f * U plant , or the swiftest duiuzou ol tho puuua . us quote Ilia own words : — - o e tbo Uto , iu its proper , generic een » o , ta tho » ft « o 01 w
As connected with literature , as much ns with bookselling and printinff , may be recorded the deaths of two learned booksellers—Mr . Uioliard Taylor , of Red Lion Court , long tho printer to lliu Jcarned soqietics , ttnd . hiinscill' ft contribulor to their various papers ; and Mr . Potlipram , of IXolboni , whoso devotion to his business and his extensive knowledgo of old English litoruture niado him tho frequent refcreo oF tho bcdt-informcd soholara and authors in thoiv anti ^ ua riuu and bibliogruphioul inauirics .
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), Dec. 24, 1858, page 10, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_24121858/page/10/
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