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308 THE LEADER. [No. 314, Saturday ^
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. /D :. . _ ' NATURAL HISTORY. f_ Popula...
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( ft\ |tt> 03 t*f K v vb'4jv XaKvm * _
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"PARADISE LOST" ON THE STAGE. (FROM A. C...
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EASTER MONDATT AT THE THEATRES, &o. That...
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Transcript
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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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Travel Talk. Panama In 1855. By Robert T...
comes from a practical and experienced observer , is valuable . Mr- Fitton is not a speculative writer upon New Zealand and the advantages it offers to emigration . He is a colonial landowner , and was a resident in the colony ; we may , therefore , take his testimony as that of an eye-witness . Mr . Fitton is hot prejudiced in favour of one part of the North and Middle Island to another . He takes us through the six districts into which they are divided , describes Auckland , New Plymouth , Wellington , Nelson , the Canterbury settlement and Ofcago , and the peculiarities of the soil surrounding them , and explains whether they are more adapted severally for agricultural or grazing purposes . He sketches life and society in the colony , and gives us a slight history of the group from the time of its discovery to the present day . His . remarks are always judicious . He would not have the emigrant too sanguine ; he cautions him against the extravagant pictures that have been put forth , and su pplies him with really valuable advice about emigrating . We noay fairly recommend the work to all who think of seeking a home in one of our colonies , and wish | to compare their respective claims . Says Mr . Bittern :- ? J Are you sure you are doing right in leading your present home and occupation at all ? No person who has ever enjoyed life in England would , I thiidf 7 profess to prefer a colonial life , if he were sufficiently independent to be able to male a selection . Those , however , he adds , " who have to make their own way in the world , will nowhere find so great an admixture of the . agreeable society and civmsation of England , combined with facilities for making money and living economically , as in the settlements of New Zealand . "
308 The Leader. [No. 314, Saturday ^
308 THE LEADER . [ No . 314 , Saturday ^
. /D :. . _ ' Natural History. F_ Popula...
. / D :. . _ ' NATURAL HISTORY . f _ Popular Hhtory of Birds . By Adam White . Reeve MR . White is fortunate in his subject , since " birds , " he considers , are •^ I ' " ^ " ^ ac tive of creatures . " He has , moreover , treated it with sumcient skill to ensure the ready acceptance of his little volume- It is appropriate m design and execution , blending attributes which will recommend rt to youthful students with elements essential to render it pleasing to those who read for amusement only . Mr . White ' s statements bear the impress of tnith , tourists , explorers , and professors lending their testimony to the facts narrated . The author would have done better had he woven , his materials into a more original form . Had the specimens afforded ^ i ntervals of hiss . own unaffected manner been carried continuously on , his Mif White borrows has illustrations of ornithology from the northern , the v /^ ^ ' ** WeiL ** the tr *> pical regions . Among the splendidly-attired & nui uuui tuc
t ,. — ' ¦—— - » v" ° , uu vu , singularity ot its can . nas earned the name of the Bell * bird . It is of this bird that the " Wanderer m X » emerara , so enthusiastically exclaims that " Actaeon would stop in mid chase , and Orpheus himself would drop his lute to listen to it , so sweet , so romantic * jjo musical is the toll of this pretty snow-white Campanero . " It is useful to the traveller , for invariably its note may be heard at noonday rf ^ ft ? of three miles , tolling every three Or four minutes . Them M ithe Ulock bird also , a resident in Western Africa , so named from the call it utters precisely at eight o ' clock in the morning , at mid-day , at four in the noon , and at sunset . to ^ toalluSof ' P arted pleasantly , may be found in this contribution Popi ^ mstory of tM Palms . By Bertbbld Seemann , M . A . AK entire little volume is deservedly dedicated to the Palm , one of the most elegant , usetul , and extensive among the orders of the vegetable kingdom . A noet has said that to every nation Providence has assigned a special tree affording subsistence and shelter , which maybe justly affirmed concerning the palm , from the numberless uses to which it is applied . India has the £ * ° ?™ ze * Iand **« pme , and more favoured regions this Prince of Foliage , ot winch the great botanist exclaims in admiration , " Man dwells naturally witmn the tropics , and lives on the fruit of the palm ; he exists in other parts of the world , and there makes shift to feed on corn and flesh . " hiKW ^ r ^ ' ^ Ss with tWs enthusiasm , and possessing , besides ni » general scientific quahfications , an entire mastery over his special subject , spares no pains to render it attractive , so that there are few who would not ™ JL jT F m * S *? page slhe has enricne < l w *<* Ae result of hia varied researches . I » addition to a diligent collection of facts relative to the nature and properties of the tree , we find numerous instance * of the various purposes for which the palm is available , as well as of the traditions and superstitions attaching to it . The ^ cocoa-nut species , almost exclusively confined to the tropics , is especially distinguished . The Cingalese have a record in honour of its healthful properties . Une of their devout Rajahs being stricken suddenly with a cutaneous disease , had in a vision this vegetable elixir revealed , to which , being guided by inspiration , he found in the delicious crystal liquid of of £ ts nut an efficacy beyond that of Albana and Pharpar . aims celebrity , it is to be inferred , led to that singular custom observed among ti » e toandwich Islanders , who attached so much importance to the produce of me tree ( sparingly yielded in their territory ) , that the privilege of partakins of xt , as well as every other privilege , belonged only to the men . The women were forbidden under penalty of disobedience to the gods to touch it . lAe monopoly went on , till at length a female chieftain , more than ordinarily bqia , defied the vengeance of men and gods by breaking the law and securing permanently the indulgence of eating forbidden fruit . j Pflnttor Qeograghy of Plants , By E . M . 0 . E . lStod by Charles Daubeny , M . D ., F . R . S . i * S */» JP roverb says , "to know a flower one must know the spot where ii , - ^™ * * ° facilitate the attainment of such knowledge is the design in liSfV " /^ V ° f Pla nt 8 > whic " * series of pictures exhibits the pecu-2 , ? : vegetation according to various climates . Hence arises an interest JSSSL ™ « otherwiae 1 ) 6 wanting to mere details of botanical information cj * $ egor » call y presented , thew ^ W ^ 5 V i- luXUr \ ance of the tropics illustrated in the splendour of 222 " % ' ! *» chiM » a « f the lotus and the lily , amd the delicate to tlift iS ;?* yTO ftwd ^ mfromtne emeTOW aspect of the temperate regions to tfteacantuy clad notfh , where even the Polar zone h , not entirely divested
of verdure . Of the lichen it boasts nineteen species , in addition to which are miniature willows and eko , uisitely blossomed heath , and numerous flowers varying in hue from wl \ itc * purple . Much speculation mingles with the facts collected as to the origin of the various characteristics of trees and plants peculiar to different localities , as well as respecting the transmutations observable in certain species and the influence of climate on vegetation , with which , as is inevitable , great uncertainty is associated . Popular Garden Botany . By Agnes Cation . A more decidedly practical tendency is discernible in this little production . In it the writer- undertakes to assist those already interested in such pursuits in the cultivation of their own especial Flora . To effect this , she has carefully arranged according to system the different genera , with descriptions general and scientific of their appearance and properties , so that the amateur may be guided to an enlightened selection for his garden . Thus only the hardy and half-hardy plants usually introduced are enumerated .
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"Paradise Lost" On The Stage. (From A. C...
" PARADISE LOST" ON THE STAGE . ( FROM A . CORRESPONDENT JK TA . RIS . ) .. .. Paradis Per du , t \\ e new play , which in virtue of its title alone raised immense expectations in Paris , will scarcely , as I think , raise also the fallen fortunes of that unlucky Theatre , the Ambigu Comique . Their last two dramas have not succeeded , and I cannot believe that Paradis Perdu will greatly enrich the treasury . I was at the first performance . The Theatre was crammed and the audience in a fever of expectation . The play began a little after eight and ended a little after one in the morning : —the * ' waits" between the Acts actually extending to forty minutes or more ! Never did I see the amazing patience of a Parisian audience more severely taxed , or more wonderfully preserved . The " blouses" certainly howled from time to time , and whistled , and thumped the Cair a ( rather to my amazement ) with their feet . But it wasalLgood humoured ; there was no vindictive hissing when the tardy curtain rose at last . "Well , and the play ? It is the joint production of M . M . Dennery and F . Dugtfk > and , with all possible respect for those gentlemen , I will venture to say that they never wrote anything so intensely dull as Paradis Perdu before in their lives . For the first three acts , Moses , Milton , and Lord Byron have been laid under contribution . The council of the fallen angels , with a scene badly copied from Martin ' s Pande-Milton raraaisewit
monium , made up the hrst act—taken irom , , n Auam and Eve , and the Serpent , and the Apple , and f the Angels with fiery swords , filled the second—taken from Moses . " Life * ' on the wrong side of Eden , with the murder of Abel , composed the third—taken verbatim , as to all the points in the dialogue , from the "Mystery of Cain . " The orgies of the wicked descendants of Cain , and the buildiug ' of the Ark , occupied the fourth Act , taken from nobody in p articular , and the worst act of all . The fifth Act was committed to the scene-painters and machinists , and contained all the fine effects , and presented the spectacle of the Deluge , in several " parts . " This was the only striking portion of the play . The rising of the waters , the pouring and mingling of great cascades , the sinking of rocks with screaming people on them , the foundering of a boat , the engulphing of a whole family clinging to a tree , the floating of corpses on the surface of the water , the Ark on the horizon , and the Apotheosis of the heroine of the fourth Act , who drowns herself rather than give her soul to Satan—all made up a sufficiently exciting spectacle . Strict people injEngland will say the whole ex * hibition was blasphemous . If it is , surely the painting of the Deluge as a picture is blasphemous , and if I was wrong in sitting to see Adam with skins on , in a fresh-coloured garden of Eden , I can't understand how my respectable friends at home can be right in sitting to hear Adam sing in plain clothes in an orchestra , which they do when they go to hear the Creation . It is only the difference between different species of artistic versions of the Bible . Nothing could be less profane in intention than Paradis Perdu . It was decorous and devout even to dulness . Two things struck me particularly in connexion with it . The first was the total absence of any feeling for the supernatural , on the part of authors , actors , and scene-painters . All the spiritual conceptions presented by the subject were missed by everybody . Satan was acted with the manners of a polished French gentleman—nothing with an unearthly sound or look about it was said or done by him . Paradise , as conceived by the scenepainter , might have been a nook in Hampstead Heath . The only original thing put into the play by the authors was of the inevitable adulterous kind ! In the third Act , when JEve appears as the mother of Cain and Abel , Satan makes love to her ! They enn't help it , these unhappy French dramatists . They must have their little adulterine interest , give them what subject you will . But I am forgetting the second thing that I remarked : this wns that the play had one refreshing novelty . Eve , being the first woman , the heroine of Paradis Perdu could not talk to us incessantly about Ma Mdrel All other French stage-heroines , within my experience , never succeed in getting that maternal dead weight thoroughly off their rainda from the first ; Act to the last : it waa delightful to know that we were safe from ilia Mfre I whenever Eve appeared . She wns a very nice woman , this XBve : acted very prettily ami innocentfy , and had the moat beautiful blonde hair hanging down * fill over her , tobelow the waist . Adam , like Satan , was intensely gentlemanlike ; so was Japhet , so was Abel , so was Cain even , in a brisk excitable way . Upon the whole , excepting the machinery of the Deluge , I should venture to say that you will suffer no great loss in England frpm respecting the nationalprejudices , and not having an adaptation of Paradis Perdu
Easter Mondatt At The Theatres, &O. That...
EASTER MONDATT AT THE THEATRES , & o . That great day for British " Gcntdom "—Easter-Monday—is not wlnftt it used to bo . Whether from increasing susceptibility to the East winds , or from more rofmed tastes , Greenwich Fair languishes ; and , whether from managerial parsimoniousness , or from the enhanced glory of the Christinas pieces , tho theatres do not , its of old , put forth a duzzling coruacation of splendid new spectacles . Perhaps the generation ia getting more serious and
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), March 29, 1856, page 20, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_29031856/page/20/
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