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overcome her nervousness to him now—and feel more than repaid for all her former troubles when he smiled and kissed her kindly . " It was six o ' clock . She was deep in the mysteries of the toilet . Dresser , milliner , Lucretia , and many others , were all crowded into her shabby dressing-room , "where real gems and false , gorgeous robes and paltry trimmings , fresh flowers redolent of heaven and dirty bits of crumpled muslin libelling their beauty , lay scattered wildly about . And through the din of many voices talking all at once , were heard "Vasty ' s deep tones calling , impatiently every five minutes , ' Clara , have you not done yet ?'
" He might have been an unburied ghost waiting to take vengeance on his murderer , for the unwearied diligence . ' with which he paced those creaking boards . " Her success is immense—the sort of success artists win in novels . But the failure in her affections soon robs her triumph of its charm . She learns the true character of the man she loves , she suffers the consequences of her imprudence , she learns in her misery the misery of others , and , after many trials and much experience , finds a refuge and a home in the constant , honest love of Percival Glyn . But all that you must read in the volumes for yourself .
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mrs . Anderson ' s school . Recollection * of Mrs . Anderson ' s School . A Book for Girls . By Jane M . Winnard . Hall , Virtue , and Co , If you are stupid from the effects of dull interminable debates on the Papal aggression , if you are thoroughly weary of town life , sick of theatres , only passively tolerant of operas , overwhelmed with the ineffable phenomena of the Exposition , barely in a state of amenity with the picture exhibitions , if , in short , London life is a bore , and you are still young and unsophisticated , order your bookseller to send you Recollections of Mrs . Anderson ' s School . You
will feel how great is simplicity ; what a blessing for an author to be unaffected in an age of affectation ; how refreshing to find some one who can write upon schools and school life without being a system monger ; and what a delightful thing it would be could we have many books composed so gracefully , clearly , and with such simple words . Perhaps , too , you may regret not having been a boarding-school girl under the roof of some Mrs . Anderson : and certainly , if you have been , you will be enraptured with a volume which will call up so many pleasing associations .
There is but one experience which we can compare with our sensations on reading this volume : those of a day ' s ramble among the woods , and shady lanes , and bosky hills , and well-tilled fields , and pretty villages of Kent . We claim for the rural walk only freshness , simplicity , and joyousness ; we claim , for the book only the character of gaiety , good sense , and unadorned elegance .
Recollections of Mrs . Anderson ' s School is not a book to be criticised , but to be read and enjoyed . It is a simple account of life in a boarding-school of the better class ; there is no romance in it except the romance which belongs to all life , properly looked at . The characters of the teachers and the school girls are sketched in with free , goodhumoured , and decided touches—not vague , as such sketches usually are , but each person presented has a denned and distinct individuality . We may particularize Miss Stuart , upon the incidents of
whose life the romance of the story turns ; Miss Allan , in whom we take much greater interest ; Kllen Warwick , the genius of the school ; Grace Wilson , a roguish , little fairy-like being ; Lazy Laura , Inez Olivarez , Kate Murray , and Jane Worthington , as among the best of these sketches . There is , too , a surprising air of truthfulness over the whole volume ; and it really requires an effort of the mind io believe that tbese young ladies never had an existence , and that Avenue-house is not down in any of the directories .
Wo must not omit to mention the preface , which in some measure explains the purpose of the book ( a thing , dear reader , about which we are and were very indifferent ; you will feeliha purpose , if you can feel anything , when you have read the book ) . That purpose is simply to say a word in favour of the old boarding ( schools ; to tihow that a good boarding school is better fhun an indifferent home ; and that , spite of ladies' colleges and erudite professors , until we have a race of superior mothers we Hhall Htill continue to need the better cIuhn of boarding school mistresses . A great deal has been written of late against the old p lan of school teaching—a very nercrsary thing , no doubt ; but u gentle reaction , of a Come \ aive kind , is s easonable and judicious , and not at all opposed to the real
interests of educational progress . From these re-Vnarks it will be seen that the volume has a purpose of usefulness as well as amusement ; but it must not therefore be inferred that it is at all didactic . On the contrary , you feel the purpose through , the medium of the pleasure you experience in the perusal . We should like very much to copy out the chapter , headed "A Journey Round the School Room , " which is a capital piece of description , but forbear , and content ourselves with one short
extracts : — THE EDUCATIONAL WANT . " There are good boarding schools for girls as well a 3 bad ones—schools conducted by women who are not mean , grasping , vulgar minded , and ignorant ( as I fear too many schoolmi-tresses are ) ; but generous , large-hearted , highly-educated gentlewomen . The lives of these women are often full of noble , touching lessons , which great ladies who neither toil nor spin would do well to get by heart when they come in their way . The life of many a schoolmistress is one steady course of industry and self-sacrifice for the good of others ; and the influence of such a person over the young is always beneficial . Women of this
kind think of something beyond half-yearly bills when they take charge of a pupil ( and are sometimes defrauded of their well earned money in consequence ); they educate her according to their knowledge and ability , and take a real interest in her character and future life . Until the middle classes get a better educated race of mothers than they have at present , the occupation of such women will not be gone it seems to me . The great want in Female Education , as in the rearing of great men , is a want of welleducated mothers . Girls ought to be trained to be mothers . They should be made to understand early the dignity and sanctity of the maternal life . They ought to be taught that women ( except here and there one ) have no higher duty in this world
than—To rear , to teach Becoming as is meet and fit , A link among the days to knit The generations each with each . ' This is a woman ' s proper task—perhaps it is above all her other work . To fulfil this she requires high moral and intellectual culture , a finely-balanced conscience , a steady will , knowledge and skill , taste and
judgment . She must also keep alive within her the habit of self-improvement , bearing in mind that she will not always be the nurse of babes and the teacher of little children , but that she may live to be the mother of grown men and women ; and that , for the sake of being their companion and friend ( if for no higher reason ) she must not let her best faculties grow inert , or keep them always tethered down to the small necessities of the household . Girls who
have such a mother are blessed indeed ; they are sure to be well educated—educated so as to be worthy to rear immortal beings in their turn . "
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BOOKS ON OUR TABLE . History of the Planting and Training of the Christian Church by the Jlpostles . J 3 y Dr . Augustus * Neander . Translated from the third edition , by J . E . ltyland . ( Bohn ' a Standard Library . ) II . G . Bohn . Our readers know the unfeigned respect with which we regard Neander ' s writings ; we need , therefore , do no more at present than indicate the appearance of this translation of one of his most popular works . It embraces a view of the Christian Church in Palestineprevious to its dissemination among heathens ; with an extremely interesting section on Christian Communism , which Neander shows to have been very unlike the modern communism , recognizing , indeed , the division of wealth and the inequalities thence arising in social positions . Neander also doubts whether community of goods was ever universal ; and thinks that several passages in the Acts of the Apostles are at variance with the rclinquiahment of property . The volume also contains accounts of the spreading of Christianity from Jerusalem outwards , with the Puuline mission ; the labours of James and Peter ; the apostolic position of John ; and the Apostolic doctrine .
The Decimal System at applied to the Coinage and freights and Measures oj G ' reut Britain . Uy Henry Taylor . Fourth c < liti < m . ii roombridfje and Bonn . A little tieatiHe that deserves attentive consideration , clearly and forcibly stating the arguments for a change in the present system .
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Soninolism and I ' si / eheism : or , the . Science of the Soul and the Phenomena of Nervation , as revealed bij Vital Magnetism or . ^ ie . tmerinm , contitlered I'hyniolofiually und I' / ulotophicaHy , with Notes oj Mesmeric and I'tii / i-hmd Jixfici tenet : By JoHepli \ V . HmliK . ck , M . I ) , tit'coiul edition . J . s . Hudson . The Erne , its Liycndt and its Fly-fishing . \\ y lht > Uov . Henry Novvlaud . Chapman and Half . The Kxile and other Poem * , fly Christiana K . 1 ' ui / h . Hope and Co . Liberty , its Struffffle * and Triumphs ; or . Thoughts in yerse . tvpyetted by the lute lievolutionary Aivvenu ntt m France , Italy , and Germany . Uy tlm Hov . J . I ) . Hchouiber ^ , 11 A . Hope and Vo . 1 'luB dm Girondins par Louis Blanc Clurl «» Joubert .
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LUCREZIA BORGIA . The second performance of this opera at Covent Garden drew the most crowded house of the season on Saturday last ; in fact , the house was over , crowded , and , I presume , mainly by provincials , for they stayed to hear the second act of Roberto , which was given afterwards to make up the bill Lucrezia is one of Grisi ' s great characters , and terribly beautiful she is in it ! On Saturday she looked lovely and imperial . I have laughed so much at those enthusiasts who will insist that
Grisi and Sontag grow younger , that I ought to respect " consistency" and belie my own impressions ; but 1 won ' t : after all , what is consistency compared with truth ? Why should persistence in a wrong view be more respectable than an aberration into the right ? What is man ' s " large discourse of reason" if in its " looking before and after" it may not correct its imperfect apprehensions ? I boldly declare , therefore , that on Saturday Giulia Grisi did look younger—ten years
younger . Hang up consistency , I repudiate it ! She sang with her accustomed vigour arid expression ; but age does tell upoD her voice , which has lost the richness and volume as well as the elasticity it once had . Yet how fine her close of the prologue , when , like a panther at bay , she glares upon her persecutors ( and , by the way , what a fierce irony there is in the music at Maffio Orsini Signora son io !); and what a look that is , so lovely yet so terrible , which she flashes upon Maffio as he tears the mask from her face ! In the finale
to the second act she was so impassioned as to cover the inefficiency of Mario , who was out of voice and out of health apparently , for I never saw him so flat , and never heard him sing so indifferently . The finale to the third act Grisi gave with exquisite pathos . Angri is certainly improving . Her Maffeo Orsini is admirable : the largo of that air introduced in the third act she sung with intense feeling ; but the famous " Brindisi" was taken too slow , and it seemed as if she were more anxious to display her voice than to express the meaning of the song—a common fault !
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FIDELIO AT COYENT GARDEN . After many disappointments , Fidelio was given at last on Tuesday , and although criticism may have its reservations with respect to some portions of the performance , yet on the whole , the verdict is one of immense success . I hinted last week that the opera lies in the orchestra more than on the stage : that being the case , to the orchestra we
must look first in estimating the performance . It was superb . Costa was on his mettle . His band knew what was expected of them , and , with some allowance for different readings , for which , doubtless , excellent reasons might be given , I believe every one present felt that nothing could go better . Both overtures were vociferously encored ; but some of the accompaniments were even still more finely played .
What a giant Beethoven is , and what tenderness in that giant ! The prodigality of melodic invention in this opera is astounding — there are phrases in the symphonies which , if taken up and worked into arias , would supply a dozen operas . And yet he is not vocal ; his music tear * the singers to pieces . He who could make the violoncelli weep and the bassoons sob , who could reach altitudes of passion inaccessible to other men , who could make his orchestra follow out the intricacies of caprice , and swell into storms of harmonious beauty , who could do just
what he pleased with the orchestra , never seemed to attain that mastery over vocal effects which inferior men have achieved . You may call that a defect in bis genius , if you will . I cannot see a defect in Beethoven , he in so grand , so awful , so tender , so gloomy , so sportive , so passionate ! Tell me you don't feel him , you don ' t understand him , you don't like him ; tastes admit of no dispute ; but having once entered the sanctuary , and offered up worship to that # reat and awful genius .
do not desecrate the time and place by entering into the squabbles of wingers who cannot bear h ^ d thrown into the background by the orchestra . Those who reully care for Beethoven will have a delicious treat in listening to Costa ' n band . IJ « t 1 cannot Kay as much for the chorus . The great hymn to liberty—known as the Prisoner ' b ChoruH- ^ - actually produced no encore ! It was ill diaiributed—wanted more , or better tenors—and was
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Leader (1850-1860), May 31, 1851, page 518, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1885/page/18/
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