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ton , John Stuart Mill , Dr . Vaughn , Professor Forbes , are altogether S , £ ^^ S ^ S ^^ tfSSSS ^ 2 sB ^ a ^» sffi ^^ as » have no pretension to the title ) he omits such names as Bourcicault and Marston But the omissions one might pardon , were the articles inserted , ^ M ^^ aLkTebahn , an active caterer to the large public desirous of studying German , has produced an edition of Faust ( Longman & Co . ) , which we can seriously recommend , not only as a very useful and instructive book to the tyro , but as a volume acceptable even to the advanced
student There is no work so much studied as the J < aust ; deservedly so there is no work in the language more difficult of accurate comprehension Mr . Falck Lebahn first presents us with the whole text . He then gives an entire translation of this text , in separate sentence * , which are classified according to the various grammatical rules they illustrate ; references on the pages of the text and notes guiding the student through the labyrinth ; and this is followed by another appendix of notes , mostly exegetical , wherein a large extent of reading is brought to bear upon the several points of this difficult poem . The Select Poems of Prior and Swift ( J . W , Parker and Son ) is an
agreeable jrepublication , the editor having by judicious selection presented the best specimens of these verse writers—we must not call them poetsso as to ensure their introduction into families . ^ The same publishers have reprinted , from Fruser ' s Magazine , the admirable story ot Ihaby Grand , wherein we welcome a real addition to our stores ot faction , lne author , Mr . Whyte Melville , writes with a freshness , dash , and vigour , which would carry even lighter materials to success ; he has also an experience of life and a facility in depicting it , far above what we are
accustomed to see in novels . . . , Here is another republication , and one of some interest—viz ., thes late Macvey Napier ' s essays on Lord Bacon and Sir Walter Baletgh ( Macmillan and Co . ) The essay on Bacon , published originally in the Edtnburgh Boyal Society Transactions , we have long desired to have in . a more accessible shape . It is an erudite and careful investigation mto the traces of Bacon ' s influence at home and abroad , wherein the writer shows that the common notion of Bacon's ideas having had little immediate influence , is a mistake . Probably this , as most other questions connected with our great thinker , will be finally set at rest by Mr . Speddmg , when the long talked of Life appears ; meanwhile the student will be gratetul to Mr . Napier for his essay . The article on Raleigh is from the Edinbur gh , Review , where Mr . Napier inserted it on relinquishing his cherished plan of writing Raleih ' s life . It is instructive , but heavy .
g The new edition of Walton and Cotton ' s Angler ( Ingram , Cook & Co . ) may be called a new work : the editor , Ephemera , has brought that delightful work up to the present state of science , both as regards angling and natural history . Leaving the original text unaltered , he hw , ia the form of foot-notes and intercalated chapters , corrected , amplified , and modernized Walton , giving the directions Walton seldom gave , and the natural history Walton was not in a position to give . Ephemera himsell , however is open to correction—not as an angling authority ( at least by us ) , but as a naturalist : for example , bo states that " no river fish ever watches its spawn or ova after deposition ; " has he never heard ot the round-headed liassar , a freshwater fish of Demerara , which , like the gobius , builds a vest for its young , and protects them as courageously as a hen protects her eggs P ii xl 7 t j
... _ :. _ __ -........ >^ The mention of alien brings by natural transition the Poultry Booh ( W S . Orr and Co . ) before us . This is the first part of a new work by the Itev W . Wingfield and G . W . Johnson , on the characteristics , management , breeding , and medical treatment of Poultry , with coloured representations admirably executed by Harrison Weir . It is really a very handsome and a very useful book . This part treats of the Shangnae Fowl , a breed which has ktomo so much " tho rage" among amateurs ol poultrythat the sum of 100 / . was actually paid the other day at
Ham-, mcrsinith for 11 single fowl J We need not say that this book _ is more adapted for tho library of the country gentleman than for that of the man of letters ; but Tor its public it is really a work of great promise . From the poultry-yard wo pass to ' French Cookery adapted to English Families . l ? y M isa Crawford ( Bentley ) . A subject upon Which wo cannot form a 1 Horary judgement , not being adopts in la belle science , which owns Brillat Havana an its rhetorician ; but we asked for a practical opinionand received one not favourable to Miss Crawford ' s book .
, After cookery comes Medical Aid ! Mr . Jabez Hogg compiles lor emigrants and cottagers The Domestic Medical and Surgical Guide ( Ingram , Cook , and Co . ) , which will l > e found of great U 8 Oj w | icn . surgeon and physician cannot , be got for love or money ; but in such matters it in terribly true that " a little learning is a dangerous thing ; " and when we reflect that , doctors never , Have in extremity , prescribe for themselves , we may estimate the folly of aunts , mothers , and " exporioneod" friends who volunteer to dose the patient victim .
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TRACTS AGAINST SUNDAY REFORM . "H A- Tfill TirK SKOOND . A short time since , when we examined our first batch of Sabbatarian Tracts , we selected a lady and a bishop for special notice-. Both were opponents whom it wan a pleasure to encounter . , Tho lady might , it ih true , wander rather wildly from her subject into illimitable regions of general theology ; and tho bishop might not always bo quite as accurate as we could havo wished to'find him in his method of reasoning ; but , at any rate , the first ¦ writer was full of overflowing gentleness and affection , as authors of the fair Hex always should ho ; and the last , however incorrectly ho might argue , wrote with the frankness and moderation of tone which become a Christian and a gentleman . Have we any more writers to critidae , now that we are about to examine a second batch of tracts against Sunday Reform , who roBciublo in spirit the lady and the bishopP Certainly not , if we if 010 to judge only by tho first author on our present list . Tho
redoubtable opponent who now stands forth and confronts us , is no other than the champion ( theological ) bruiser of the Protestant Prize-Ring ; the great controversial pugilist who always " means fighting , " and nothing else ; who is to be heard of any day , through his backers , at the Exeter Hall Aims ; who lately tried to " make a match" with Wiseman ( better known to the Theological Fancy as " The Cardinal" ); and who heads the " harmonic meetings" at the Scottish National Church , in Crown-court , under the style and title of the Reverend Doctor Cumming .
The Doctor is a wary pamphleteer-pugilist . He begins to fight by making a series of clever feints ; he appears at first to be sparring far more for our advantage than for his own—but we know him of old : he is only watching his opportunity to administer such a terrific Sabbatarian " upper-cut" on his adversary ' s head as shall win him the fight in tho first round . But , speaking literally and not figuratively , what are the " feints , " and what the " upper-cut ? " asks the reader . The & ** £ * are compliments to Sir Joseph Paxton , and eulogies on the Crystal Palace . The upper-cut is the Fourth Commandment . Palace
Doctor Cumming's protest against opening the Crystal on Sunday is conveyed in the form of a letter to Sir Joseph Paxton . The first eidit pao-es of the tract thus addressed , breathe the most blandly liberal spirit , which expresses itself in a style that reminds us m places , by its absurdly incongruous imagery , of the very worst order of bad American poetry The Doctor , for example , calls the Crystal Palace a prophetic instalment , " and refers to present social difficulties as " broken and tangled strings of creation , " which want " retiming ! Haying quoted these specimens of his style , let us now get on to a specimen of his deeolveherished convictions"
" - . _ ..,,,.. „ He considers the Fourth Commandment to be strictly obligatory on all Christians at the present day . He understands the teaching of the Bible on this point tobe " unequivocal . " He defines the " Christian Sabbath to be " God ' s consecration of a seventh of man ' s time forthe study and understand ins of the truths , motives , duties , hopes of Christianity , ' ; tobe " a remedial revelation from God , " to be " a day for redemption studies , not for creation studies , " and so forth . Now , we have two plain questions to ask of Doctor Cumming in relation to these ideas of his . 1 st . Where does-he find any direct authority for them in the NewTestament ? 2 nd . Howdoes he himse f f mat commanameniauurewiu
keep the Fourth Commandment ,, 6 x ^~ to every member of a household , distinctly says of the seventh day— In it thou shalt not do any worJc . " There is no subsequent clause , of exception : there are no reservations following these words . Doctor Cumming tells us that he accepts this commandment strictly and unequivocally- — therefore he must practically accept it like a Jew—therefore he ought to keep it like a Jew . Does he do so P Does he forbid the housemaid to make the beds , and the cook to boil milk for his coffee on the Sabbath morning P If he does not , he is untrue to his own convictions . In his case no plea of " works of necessity" can be allowed ; for that plea proceeds on a principle of free interpretation for which the Fourth Commandment itself gives no warrant—a principle which mustfrom its nature
_ expand perilously in all sorts of anti-Sabbatarian directions according to each man ' s ideas of applying it aright . If on the other hand , Doctor Cummmg , who believes in the Sabbath like ' Jew , does indeed honestly prove his belief , by keeping it like a Jew in his own house , how ,, in the name of all that is most audacious , can he have the effrontery to insinuate ( as he does at page 9 ) that his Hebrew practices are sanctioned nationally at this moment by the English legislature P How can he talk of protecting the Sabbath from desecration , when it is already legally desecrated according to his own principles and
his own habits in fifty different ways , in fifty different places , at fifty different times , from one end of England to the other . Does the J ourth Commandment allow chemists to serve behind counters on Sundays P pastrycooks to keep soup hot on Sundays ? door-keepers to admit fine people to tho Zoological Gardens on Sundays ? cabmen to drive weakly ladies on rainy days to tlie Scottish National Church in Crown-court on Sundays P No ! The Legislature allows it , but not the Fourth Commandment And Doctor Cumming is , nevertheless , satisfied with the Legislature but only as lonff as it stops where it is . If it impartially throw open which
the doors of the Crystal Palace on Sunday , along with other doors are open already , then Doctor Cumming eries lie upon it m a desecrating Legislature ; and shouts aloud , from his Synagogue in Crown-court , " Remember the Fourth Commandment !" Absurd as he is so far , the Doctor becomes perfectly frantic a little further on . He admits that the working classes , under existing circumstances , can only hope to hoc the Crystal Palace on Sunday ; and he proposes a remedy for thin , which ho terms , in his own bombastic way , " invasion on the empire of Mammon ; " blasphemously adding that this private " invasion" will prevent " a public invasion on the jurisdiction of God . " In plain English , his proposal is , to keep the Sydonliam Palace fihut of course , on Sunday ; but to make every Saturday , during six
months in the year , " a monthly holiday in every establishment in London after twelve o'clock at noon ; and in provincial towns to make at least one or "two of these monthly Saturdays entire holidays . This , " he adds , " if practicable , and I am sure it is ho (!) , would meet the difficulty . " " Practicable ! " Oh , Doctor dimming ! who would ever have thought you such an innocent man P " Meet the difficulty ! " Ueverend Sir : do you know what the difficulty really in P We will suppose your impossible project to be really carried out . W ^ o will support © that the working classes have given , as you suggest , half an
hour extra to each day h work during six months , for the mike of the Saturday half-holiday ; we will suppose , where they may havo refused to do this , that " Christian objeetorn" have subscribed to " cover the sacrifice of one day ' s wages , " and we will finally suppose that tho artisans all go to the Crystal Palace on these free Saturdays of theirs . Very well , then—you saiy triumphantly— -that moots the dillieulty . It does nothing of the kind . Tho real difficulty—( oh , perverse generation of clergymen , when will you open your eyes and recognise it P)—the real difficulty is , how to occupy the leisure of' the groat bulk of the working elusses innocently and usefully on Sunday—reverend gentlemen , like
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428 THE LEADER . [ &A * t > Ki > A- * ,
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), April 30, 1853, page 428, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1984/page/20/
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