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" Seen by few " of Lord Maidstone ' s intimates it is very probable ; the work is usually confined to readers of intelligence . In a note appended to the passage Lord Maidstone says . " I scarcely know whether this infamous Saper ( the Satirist ) exists now . " 'Not do we ; but we will tell Lord faidstone what it was which constituted the speciality of that paperviz ., a reckless dragging of private names into publicity , and an incessant effort to be satirical without wit or honest indignation : that is to say , precisely what the noble viscount has exhibited in The Deluge !
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DAISY BUENS . Daisy Burns . A Tale . B y Julie Kavanagh , author of "Nathalie . " In 3 vols . Bentley . When the Wedding Guest was stopped by the Ancient Mariner , and forced to listen to his tale , his irritable impatience at the ungainly appearance of the Mariner broke forth in emphatic language ; but chafe as he might , he was stayed—the Mariner "held him with his glittering eye , " and forced him to hear the story to an end . Something like this is the effect on the reader produced by Daisy Burns .
The book is disagreeable—its unreality surpasses all licence—yet the " glittering eye" holds you fast . In vain you protest against the violation of nature and probability—in vain you feel inclined to toss the volume aside because of its caricatures of human beings—the fascination exercised by passion , the irrepressible sympathy awakened by this picture of deep and single-hearted love , fastens you to the story , and will not release you till the end be known . We do not remember any work , written by a person of anything like Miss Kavanagli ' s ability , so uniformly untrue to nature ; it amounts to the fantastic . And yet the book carried us on with untiring interest .
Daisy Burns is left an orphan , and is adopted , by a young artist aged twenty . We see at once that she will fall in love with him as she grows up ; indeed , every new turn in the story plainly reveals the whole path that will be followed , so that the least experienced novel reader will divine the plot long before the incidents evolve it—which , after all , is only a fault in a novel of incident , and not one at all in a novel of passion and reflection like this . It is the history of a girl ' s passion which fills the three volumes . Her childish affection and jealousy , and the gradual alteration of the man ' s feelings from thepaternal into the marital , make up the substance of the tale . We will not pause to consider the defectivepsycholoofy which keeps Daisyso
long in impossible ignorance of her own feelings , and keeps Cornelius in doubt ; because , as we before said , the characterization is uniformly untrue , and this is only one illustration of it . For the same reason we will not dissect the preposterous figure of Miriam Hussell , whose jealousy of Daisy would be intelligible were it not for the acts by which she expresses it . What is true and interesting in the book is the clinging love and unbounded devotion of Daisy for Cornelius : there is something touching and enchanting in the picture which makes one forgive all the other faults . Head Daisy Burns , therefore , for this , and be not too critical—that is our advice . There is some charming writing in it—and nothing of the flippancy or mawkishness so commonly interfering with one ' s enjoyment of novels .
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SCIENTIFIC MEMOIRS . Scientific Memoir * Selected from the Transactions of Foreign Academies and from , Foreign Journals . New Series . Parts I . and II . Taylor ami Francis . Pkobably all our scientific readers are acquainted with the Foreign Memoirs , translated by Mr . Richard Taylor ; and none acquainted with them can have heard without regret of their cessation : it will be gratifying , therefore , to learn that this important publication is resumed , with ono excellent modification—viz ., a division of subjects under different editors . The Memoirs now consist of two parts , each purchasable separately—a Biological part , devoted to Botany and Zoology , and a Physical part , devoted to Natural Philosophy . The- Biological portion is edited by Arthur Henfrey and T . H . Huxley ; the Physical , by John Tyndall and William Francis .
The two parts of ouch division now before us contain very important papers , among which let us name Clausius on the Mechanical Equivalent of an Elective Discharge , and the heating of the conducting wire which accompanies it ; Knoblauch on the Dependence of lladiant IIcat in its passage through Crystals upon the Direction , of Transmission ; and llolmholtz on the Conservation of Force , —papers , however , too abstruse for popular abstract . The botany and zoology will bo found more generally interesting ; especially Dr . Hoffmann ' s valuablo account of his experiments and conclusions respecting the circulation of the sap in plants . Does the sap circulate , at all ? remains a , question for the anatomist , ; does it ascend and descend so as to form a . circulation P The doubts that
eonfuso this Hiibjc-ct arise mainly from the want of philosophical 'method . Every positive Biologist will nt once pronounce Mint in organisms ho various as thoso of tho vegetable kingdom , the- degree of specialization of each will bring with it corresponding specialization of function—in other words , that the nutritive process of sup-distribution will vary with the varying complexity of tho organism . This premised , let us open Dr . HoiTmann ' B excellent essay . He begins with the lowest forms—tho fungi , and shows b y experiment that in them the path of circulation has no fixed boundaries , and presents no anatomical peculiarities : the ( hud penetrates forwards and laterally between tho colls , proceeding most rapidly in thoso places where tho laxity of the tissue and the direction of the cells oppose tho smallest amount of resistance ; just a . s the fluid sat unites blotting paper . Proceeding to ( he examination of higher vegetable forms , ho Bays : —
" In tho preceding section un attempt was made to prove that in tho lower cellular plants , in accordance with then- homogeneous structure 1 h «> Hindu passing from tho soil into tho plants , took no fixed direction , but , soaking through from cell to cell , advanced most , rapidly wherever the laxity of tho tissue , opposed tho minimum of rt ' sintnnci ) . In tho Vascular Cryptogams , on tho contrary , in tho Fornn , it wan found that apceinl organs , tho Btrenked vchsoIh , already present themselves , oxclufctively deutined to contain gaaeoua fluids , while tho UuidH nlmorbed from
the earth first ascended within the looser cellular tissue m the vicinity of those vessels , and were from thence diffused throughout the remainder of the tissues of the vegetable ; not , indeed , without previously undergoing suitable elaboration and amelioration . " In the Monocotyledonous plants , where the specialization of the anatomical systems becomes more distinctly marked , similar results are met with , and it is especially seen liere , that the function ordinarily attributed to the system of the spiral vessels and their allies , is devoid of all proof in fact , and has been deduced from experiments , in which sufficient regard was not paid to all the circumstances involved . " We cannot follow him further ; enough has been done to indicate the nature of this paper . those the Hectocoi
The most surprising contributions , however , are on ylus , by Miiller , Verany , and Vogt . Probably most of our readers have heard of the Hectocbtylus , as a parasitic animal found attached to the female Argonaut . It is a little animal , furnished with pedunculated suckers ; but the precise position it should assume in a classification had greatly troubled naturalists . We will not enter upon a history of the various opinions which this parasite has called forth ; but will state briefly what the latest researches establish . The males of the cephalopod mollusca develope cne of their arms into a special organ of generation , which is , however , not simply a spermatophor ' e or seed bag , but an animal capable of independent life ; when its development is complete , it is detached from the parent body , and swims free till it encounters a female , upon whom it fastens , and is found there living in her body as a parasite , but really fecundating her ova . These arms are renewed periodically . For the details we must refer to these Scientific Memoirs .
When we add , that engravings accompany these Memoirs , and that the price of each part is only three shillings , we have done enough to make several of our readers subscribers to this New Series .
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THE RELIGION FOR OUR AGE . Ten Sermons on Religion . By Theodore Parker . John Chapman ( [ thibd article . ] Having treated of Truth and Justice—that is , of Heligion as manifested in the Intellect and Conscience—Parker proceeds to consider Religion as manifested in the Affections ; his language is heartfelt and elevated on this as on the other subjects , and we-feel that in borrowing largely from his pages to enrich our columns we are earning the reader's gratitude . Love is the piety of the Affections . All the folly and extravagance of got up enthusiasm and calculated sentimentality—ail the serious mistakes and excesses—all the pains , deep and enduring , which it brings with it into life , are incapable of diminishing the force of this omnipotent and central piety . lie who for Love hath undergone The worst that can befal , Is happier thousandfold than one Who never loved at all ; A grace within his heart liatli reigned "Which nothing , else can bring : Thank God ! for all that I have gained From that high suffering ! And this is so because Love not only calls into energetic action the whole of our being , moving it as with some divine impulse , but because Love is Love for lovintr ' s sake . We do not love Truth for its use , but for
its truthfulness ; we do not love Justice for its social necessity , but for its own sake ; and in like manner the love which makes us yearn towards mistress , parent , child , and friend , is independent of their convenience to us , their use to us ; although often bound up with those it does not spring from them , nor is it related in soul to them : we love because a loving nature moves u . s . Jlenco it is that love survives ill-treatment , survives the hope of return , survives by virtue of its own life . . Hence it , is , moreover , that some one could say with profound truth—" There is greater pleasure in lovintf than in being loved . "
The above paragraph sets forth the ideal state . In reality , this faculty of loving , like the faculty of perceiving and holding by the Truth , or tho faculty of perceiving and acting up to Justice , is variously apportioned among men . There are souks in whom personality is centripetal , and these are tho selfish ; there are others in whom personality is centrifugal- —it rays out its affluence like a sun—and these art ; the sympathetic , loving natures . Between the two extremes there is every variety of degree . How Love under its various forms of passion and of sympathy operates
among men need not be pointed out . It vitalizes and humanizes society ; but it also disturbs and perverts it . The aHections often conquer Truth and Justice witli a blind vehemence . They need occasional control . They need also sedulous culture ; for although it in true that no man is without them , it , is also true that many men are as deficient in that , form of piety an in others . JJy saying ( Jod is . Love , we have not dono all ; we must ; worship him a . s Love , and by worship no lip-service of punctilious ritual is meant , but actirc piety . In other words , we must cultivate the aHections .
Parker will toll you how . strong and pervading is the ride of the affections : — " Indeed , with most ; men tho affections ( . ale : the lend of nil the spiritual powers ; only they act in a confined . sphere of the family , class , sect , or nation . Men trust , the heart moro tlmn the head . Tim muss of men have more confidence in a man of great alfcction Mian in ono of great , thought ; pardon Ik commonly popular , mercy hotter loved Mian severity . Mvn rejoice when tho murderer is arrested ; but Hliout nt his luquitlnl of the crime . The happiness of this greater part of men comes from alfectional more than intellect . mil or moral houici-s . Hence the abundant inten'Kt fell , in talk about persons , the popular fondness for personal anecdotes , biographies , halluda , love-stories , and the like . Tho mass of inon love tho pemm of their great man , not bin opinions , and care more to kco his fuc . e , and hear lm voice than to know IiIh ideas of truth and of 'justice . It \ h m > with religious teachers . Men sympathize with tho person before they lake bin doctrine , lionco tho po-
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February 26 , 1853 . ] THE LEADER . 211
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Leader (1850-1860), Feb. 26, 1853, page 211, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1975/page/19/
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