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March 29, 1856.j THE LEADER, 307
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A NEW ENGLISH-GUEEK LEXICON. A Copious P...
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TRAVEL TALK. Panama in 1855. By Robert T...
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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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Three Novels. Maurice Elvingto?I; Or, On...
social life , equally with other classes ; but if Sir Archibald be disposed to philanthropy , what can we object , so that he be grammatical ? At all events , we are glad that the preface , not the novel , is ' * by Sir A . Alison , Barfc . " The curtain rises , as in a pantomime , upon a circle of young girls , coldly clad in gauze skirts , rose or green silk bodices , silver and flowers , who exhibit their white complexions ., their supple figures , their light limbs , and all the attitudes of the fairy Allegro on and behind the stage of a theatre in a large German town . Here is the clue , the point , the moral , of the story . It is the contrast of before and behind the scenes , the glitter and the tissue , the tears and the poverty of the poor actresses and dancers who ., " heart stifled , "
sing gay songs to thoughtless audiences . Sir Archibald Alison , who could have " done the reviews" to admiration on a cheap and popular , or on a dear and fashionable organ , points to HaklancJer ' s " picture of the ballet-dancers , and their fearful subjection to the caprices of the public ; of the restraints , dulness , and etiquette of the Grand Ducal Courts , and of the licentious life of robbers . " And , really , there is a glimpse of Eastern richness in the chambers of Cceur de Rose , and a dark Radcliffe horror in the revelations of the young judge , who consigns people to trap-doors and rivers , with all the implacable gentleness of an inquisitor . Clara is a violent , improbable , overwrought narrative , but it is original in style and matter , and has a sort of Dumas rapidity and variety which will enliven and refresh the reader in search of
romances new . The Letter and the Spirit , a Novel . By Professor H . 3 vols . Newby . Professor H— writes in altissimn , but with obvious pain . The spasms of The Letter andthe Spirit a . re purely artificial , —incoherence without " spontaneity , " to use the technicals of the elect , Amid the broken chapters —letters , fragments of diaries , harrowing recollections , may be discerned the symbolism of some philosophy in which Professor H is a pupil or a master ; but the subtlety has escaped our analysis . What latent moral , indeed , would have a chance in such a book as The Letter and the Spirit , which
begins and ends with ravings , moanings , froth and riot beyond appreciation ? The foreground , is occupied by a dying woman , a frantic youth , and one of those large , rigid , peremptory men , who stand so well on the stage , and hurl people about so sublimely . Having studiously taken up their threads we prepare to enter the labyrinth , in spite of the howling wilderness of delirium after the first chapter but are all at once brought up by an interjectional episode- —the first of several of extracts from the journal of a country curate . This person says " Ha ! " "No ! No ! " " Oh" "Oh there are confusing doctrines in the
world—predestination"What ! free will—the doctruae 3 of the schools , philosophy , the law of Christ , do they here agree ? Can they be reconciled ? Have I mistaken my missionam I a poet-priest , or ani I mad 1- —I must and will work my way to truth , should the path lay through , hell fire—this host of passion—sense of -weakness , Oh , niy God ! This is on the last day of 1852 ; tlie first day of 1853 discovers the curate scratching off "Time , Time ! Eternity ! Ha ! Ha !" The barrier—yes , there are limits—yet there is -understanding—are we free agents , rational , or irrational ? What is law ? Have we most of the angel or the brute ? What is matter ? What spirit ? Do we iinderstand the causes of action —compound and simple stibstances ? What is man ' ? and what are flies ? " Pish , pish ! The light ! " the curate answers . "What enlarged ideas , yet what a microscopic power of visiongreat things and small . Ho ! Ho !"
But the cosmoramic series includes " a ciuise in the waters of the Lake of Fashion , " as a relief to the vision of corpse pallours , madnesses and miseries of The Letter and the Spirit . But that ruthless curate , like a starving Brahmin , returns with his howl to the door , throwing in -our faces the Ultimate , the Eternal , and Thomas Carl } le . Beine : too seriously disturbed by Ins profane metaphysics to attempt a clear exposition of plot or character , we must leave the volumes to the fearless reader with this peroration to Professor H ; that he may write a better book , and ought to try .
March 29, 1856.J The Leader, 307
March 29 , 1856 . j THE LEADER , 307
A New English-Gueek Lexicon. A Copious P...
A NEW ENGLISH-GUEEK LEXICON . A Copious Praseolagical JZnglish-Greek / Lexicon . Founded on a Work prepared by Dr . J . W . FriidersUorir . Kovised , enlarged , & c , by the lato T . K . Arnold , and Henry Browne , M . A . Rlvingtons . Tub late Dr . Thomas Kercheyer Arnold , in conjunction with Dr . FradersdorfF , projected this admirable Lexicon , which occupied seven years in its preparation , and four years in its passage through the press . Some years previously , Dr . Rost had produced his Deutch Orieckisches fVorterbuch , which suggested to Dr . Arnold and his coadjutors the idea of a new English-Greek Lexicon
, containing , not the ordinary verbal parallels alone , but , as far as possible , the whole body of English and Greek synonyms reflected , in their finest variety , and faintest tints of meaning . Dr . Fradersdorfr" undertook to translate , adajjt , and arrange the dictionary published by Dr . Rost , and this task , arduous and perplexing aa it was , he performed ivith scrupulous exactitude . The materials thus prepared , were assigned to Dr . Arnold , to bo wrought into an English-Greek Lexicon , but that well-known scholar died before a third of the volume was completed , and the Reverend Henry Browne , iu Novembor 1852 , inherited the labour . '
Five-sevenths of the work were produced under his superintendence . Of course he enjoyed the advantage of having the vast mass of Dx . Rost's materials , not onl y translated , but analysed by Dr . Jfradcrsdorff " in the order of the host English Dictionaries . " But his additional labours were not small J jrat collating the Lexicon , word by word with those of Franz , Pane , and Ozaneaux , ho next criticised it with the aid of Liudcll , Scott , and Yonge , whose works , however meritorious , did not supply what is presented in this volume : — It rouuuniJ to be obsorvod , that numorous nrtioloa havo boen written qnito indopondontly of works already in existence . This ban boon done frequently , in those words of most common uso and extonaivo aigniftuation in whloh tho oliarootoriBtao idioms of our language arc moot oonupiououa ; always , in the bocalled " relntionnl" or "form-words , " whether vorba auxiliary of tonao and snood , or pronouiiH and pronominal , words , conjunctions , nogative ami other adverbial paitiolon , and propositione . U in some of these artioloH tho length to vrtxloh tjxey havo boon oamed may « oom moro suitublo to n Grwumaror Manual
of Greek Composit ion than to a Lexicon , the Writer can only plead Mb desire to make this work as practically useful as possible . If this be a fault at any rate he has consulted the advantage of the student at the cost of no slight trouble to himself , which might have been spared by sending the learner to seek out in the pages of Arnold , Jelf , or Madvig , the information which is here brought together at one view . . We are glad to find that the Rev . Mr . Browne admits the impracticability of producing a literally complete Lexicon . Not only m so far as one language differs from another in genius , in construction , in flexibility ; but , m so tar as one nation differs from another in character , habits , wants , culture , the difficulty is enhanced of finding parallel words with exactly identical meanings-Can an Englishman translate " surveillance" into his own tonguet But and dead the disparity
between an ancient and a modern , a living a tonguegoes still further . The Greeks certainly did not liave the same things that we have , therefore how could they have words to denote them ? It is true that we force classical terms into use for our appliances and inventions ; but to appropriate a word as a name is not to translate it or to find its equivalent in the living language . The editors of the Lexicon avow , also , that it may contain sdjfeie errors , not arising from the insuperable difficulties of the undertaking , but from a careful examination of its general scope , and the articles on some words that bear a multiplicity of interpretations we are inclined to accept it as one of the best that has been produced for the use of teachers and scholars . If we are content with this generalisation , and dismiss the Lexicon without treating it upon a lareer plan , it is not because the book is unimportant—for
it is a monument of laborious and practical scholarship not of a common kind — but because , in journalism , it is wise to avoid erudite technicalities , as Mr . Browne and Dr . Fr ' adersdorff would know—if they were reviewers themselves .
Travel Talk. Panama In 1855. By Robert T...
TRAVEL TALK . Panama in 1855 . By Robert Tomes . Sampson Low . Mr . Robert Tomes received an invitation from the Directors of the Panama Railway Company , in January of last year , to accompany a deputation about to proceed south to celebrate the opening of the entire line from Aspinvval to Panama . To this expedition Mr . Tomes was nothing ' loth ; so having bid adieu to his wife , and procured a baan-new note-book , he set sail for the great isthmus . But here his horizon was overcast . He [ found the new town , which owes its origin to the railway , surrounded by . low , - flat , unhealthy swamps ; over which the " poisonous atmosphere hangs like a pall of death . " The aspect of the inhabitants was not more cheering . " The AfricanAsiatic
features of every man , woman > or child , European , , pi American , had the ghastly look of those who suffer from the malignant effects of miasmatic poison . " The arrival , of-a ' horde ofCalifornian voyagers is a great event at Aspinwal . Hotels deserted the clay before swarm with this wild variety of the genus homo ; and bar-rooins reek again with an atmosphere of gin-sling and brandy ^ coek-tail which the busy , bilious-faced bar-keeper , only yesterday prostrate with fever , shuffles across the counter in quick succession . Our traveller had to endure this purgatory for three days , when he started from Aspinwal to Panama by the rail . Seven miles beyond Mutachin is Culebm—the Summit the railroad people call it—since it is the highest point on the route , being 250 feet above high tide of the Pacific . " We had thus , " says the observant Mr . Tomes , "been struggling up hill from Aspinwal at the degree of ascent of 61 feet per mile ; and once at the top we were compensated by the more rapid descent to Panama of 70 feet per mile . Here had been the heaviest work on the line , where a mass of earth , 1 , 300 in
length , and 24 feet in depth , containing 30 , 000 feet in all , had been cut through to make way for the lords of the creation ; who were now so triumphantly steering onward in what we are pleased to term , in spite of bowie-knives aiid revolvers , the march of civilisation . " The tirst ground for the railway was broken December , 1850 ; in July , 1852 , only 23 . 1 miles were ready for traffic ; in December , 1854 , the open line had reached Culebra or the Summits , and on the 27 th of January , 1855 , a locomotive passed over the whole road of fortyrnine miles from ocean to ocean . After an agreeable sojourn at Panama , during which our traveller is proud to make the acquaintance of a scion of an ancient earldom , he returns to Aspinwal , finds the " Mess House" full , his own room appropriated to the young English lord , to whom he feels ... himself " bonud to defer , being his elder by a dozen years or more , and only a republican . " The hook , notwithstanding much egotistical cant , has some readable pages , and gives an interesting account of the Panama Railway , ami the country through which it passes .
I * arisian Lights and French Principles . By Jumes Jackson Jarves . Sampson TuOMT "In travelling , a man must carry knowledge with him if he would bring home knowledge , " says Dr . Johnson . Mr . Jarves , however , belongs to that numerous class which think " no such thing . " He goes to Paris , feels inspired to write , takes down forgotten books from the shelves of old libraries , patches up a series of articles on what he fancies Pnrisinn life , sending them to Harper's Magazine ; and , having exhausted the patience and credulity of Harper's special public , he throws himself upon the almighty patience and credulity of the public at large . His volume iaa medley of the frivolous and the mean ; where he is not ignorant , he is audacious . He attempts to draw a picture of Paris social and Paris architectural j but , failing , falls into
the easier line of caricature . Tho historical passages are more adaptations of traditionary twaddle . It was surely worth the while of a " democrat" before narrating-stale anecdotes in the style of a wcak-witted dowager , to ascertain that ho was " up to tho mark" of criticism j for , example , his account of Mademoiselle do Sombn-cuil being compelled by tlio mob to drink a glass of warm blood fresh from tho still writhing victims to save her father ' s life , is one of the ferocious lies of the Reaction . This and similar disproved anecdotes are raked up and told with all the unction of the Faubourg St . Germain . Mr . Jarves' twitterings , accompanied by woodcuts that would shame the Seven Dials , ore wot of the kind to amuse or to inform .
New Zealand , By lidwnrd Urown Fittoii . Stanford . Nothing ia more difficult to find than good advice , unless it be the resolution to follow it . To omigrants leaving Knglund to traverse twelve or sixteen thousand miles oil water , and to drcm down on an island about which they scarcely know anything , every detail of information , however subordinate , which
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), March 29, 1856, page 19, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_29031856/page/19/
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