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observation never fail him . To persons unacquainted with the writings of previous tourists hv Cornwall , his work will be full of interest and amusernent . To others better informed on the subject , the freshest part of the Londoner ' a Walk will be the part devoted to the Scilly Isles , which the autfcor visited * and of which he gives a most animated and interesting accounts All the information which the volume contains is rendered easily accessible by an Index ; and future tourists on foot will lind a map at the beginning , and a table of distances between town and town , to help them on tbeir way , at the end of the volume . The Crimea i its Towns , Inhabitants , and Social Customs . ( Partridge and Co . )— 'We are informed on the first page that this short book , with a long title , is the production of "A Lady , resident near tlie Alma" ( Y ) What next ? Will there be forthcoming works on the Seat of War , by " A Lady , visiting in the neighbourhood of Inkerman ? " or by " A Lady who lets
lodgings on the shores of the Putrid Sea ? " " Resident near the Alma !" What extraordinary visions does that ultra-genteel phrase conjure up of a ten-roomed house with , visitors' and servants' bells , and front and back drawing-rooaa , and the contorted zinc chimney-pot jof civilisation , in a barbarous region within hail of a bloody battle-field ! What was the "iesidont lady" about when the Allies entered the Crimea ? Was she sitting at home , with her foot in a thread stirrup , working an " anti-Macassar ? or was she promenading on the heights with a Crimean footman behind her ? To these questions , and to others of a similar nature which present themselves , we get no answer ; and the critical mind loses itself , in consequence , in a maze of soft domestic conjecture . The strangest part of it is , that this little work , notwithstanding the absurd piece of clap-trap on the title-page , really possesses merit . The Lady , resident near the Alma , " has something to say , and says it briefly , clearly , and innocuously enough . We have laughed at her title-page , but we very gladly acknowledge , in all seriousness , tne merit of her book .
Woman and Her Master . By Lady Morgan . ( Bryce . )—The younger generation of readers may need to be reminded that Woman and Her Master was sufficiently successful in its day to entitle the work , after a lapse of years , to the honours of republication . Lady Morgan ' s " history of the female sex , " from the earliest times to the later period of the Roman Empire , may be described as a series of elegant discourses on the Rights of Women , preached from historical texts . Compared with the transcendentalisms of some later writers on the subject—of American writers especially—this book , strongly and uncompromisingly as it is written on the women ' s side , becomes a pattern of moderation . It will serve , in our day , not only to afibrd to all readers much curious and interesting historical information , but also to mark the limit beyond which the claims of women cannot be reasonably or usefully advanced- Side by side with , it , in strange contrast , tbere lies on our table a volume by the late Margaret Fuller d'Ossoli ( Woman in the Nineicentli Century ) , which is nothing but one loud virago-rant from beginning to end . We refrain from exposing this very foolish aud violent book , because the writer of it can do no more mischief to a jjood cause : and because we
believe that Margaret Fuller herself would , in the later and wiser days of her life , have disapproved of several of the passages from her . earlier writings , which are now most injudiciously republished by her brother . If the Rights of Women are only to be obtained by turning the natural relations of the sexes topsy-turvy ,-we feel inclined to exclaim desperately : — Lbn " may the Wrongs prevail ! Women have cause to thank Lady Morgan —but they must dread Margaret Fuller as one of those dangerous friends from whom it is au absolute act of mercy on the part of the men to protect them . Poems . By Bessie Iluyner Parkes . Second Edition . ( John Chapman . ) —
A collection of Poems by Miss Bessie Rayner Parkes came under our notice more than trro years ago ; and our remembrance of that little volume caused us to open with some interest the edition before us , containing ten or twelve new poems . We must plead guilty to having allowed a longer period of silence to pass by , since our second meeting with Miss Parkes , than is quite consistent with our profession ( honest though it be ) of gratitude for the pleasure she has given us . It is not difficult to perceive that the , artist's point of view is natural to her , whatever habits of expression « hfe may h * vo derived from artistic associations . A gentle , trusting , reverent heart speaks in all her poems , and speaks healthily and strongly . Fugitive JPoents . By Tristram . ( R . Hardwieke . ) — Tristram , the only
poet Derides Miss Parkes in our miscellaneous batch , this week , gives us a score or so of ballads in a blushing little duodecimo , crowned with a ffoldengarhuad . Tristram is the smoothest rhymester , in a small way , that we Bare ever encountered . On , on , on 7 flows the meandering mediocrity of his Knptd metre , without a fall to break its flat and watery sameness . If this Tristram plays the flute , which looks probable , we do not envy his neighbours . The outpourings of a soul like bis could be slopped by nothing but a ^ ahort notice to quit . JPc ^ M front a Belfry . By the Rev . P . W . Sholton . ( Trubner and Co . ) — jPecps from a Belfry i . s the title of nn American book , written by an Episcopalian Minister . It is written in n spirit of thorough good-will ; the principles of religious freedom , neighbourly brotherhood , charity , and all Chxtstuui virtues being enfeebled ( if wo may use-the word ) by short essays and notions . If there is little to praise in tho book , there » s kss to condemn ; and there is nlways that which wins our respect—the tolerant humilityof the true Christian .
, « % and Care ; a Family Book for Vouna . " ) fathers . Hy Mrs- L . 0 . lutbill . « % and Care ; a Family Book for Vouiuj . fathers . By Mrs- L . 0 . lutuill . ( XHkbner and Co . )—Tho author of Jot / and Cure is an American lady — Mfa . < Tuthill . She addresses her book to those interesting members of fiQqioty , the " young nu > thqra . " Mr * . Tuthill'u " views" in respect to rearing ttttitemlor utind , and touching the young idea to sulVcr patiently the snmll-*< XMkhti » iab aud other infantino trials arc disclosed in an imaginary correspondence between a young married lady , who knows nothing , and her aunt , who knows every thing , aud has no objection to tell it . On the title-PPgewo find a vorao from tho Uook of Tupper , describing a baby all at ° nqe na u weU-dpring , a messenger , a rosling -place , aud a link . W o oannot say that any of these particular phases of infant character scorns
to have been directly considered by the aunt who knows everything , or to have occurred to the niece who has just experienced the fresh sensations of nursing . But even the knowledge of mothers and their elderl y female relations must give way before that philosophy , the distinguishing virtue of which has always been its partiality for the safe side of a fact ; Motley . By Cutkbert Bede , B . A . ( James Blackwood . )—Of all books " written , with a purpose , " the dullest and most resultiess are generally those which are written with the determined purpose of being fanny ; and of all professed funniness that we ever yawned at , Motley is the heaviest ? lightness , and the most serious vanity . We have to acknowledge from Messrs . Black The Tour of Mont Blanca popular abridgment from the late Professor Forbes ' s instructive and
animated narration of Ins Travels in the Alps of Savoy . Messrs . Low and Son have sent us The Art of Elocution , by Mr . George Vandenhoff , written from the results of the author's own experience with his pupils ^ and reported to have the " approval of several Professors of Elocution ; " To Messrs . J . W . Parker and Son we are indebted for Mr . Robert Bell ' s edition of Skakspeare * s Poems . The volume is as intelligently and admirably edited as any of its predecessors in the Series of the English Poets . It will fit everybody's pocket , and it is within reach of everybody ' s purse . With Shakespeare ' s name , and with these recommendations , the book is independent of our good word . It carries its claims to success on the face of it .
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• EGYPT'S PLACE IN UNIVERSAL HISTORY . EgypCs Place in Universal History : an Historical Investigation . In Five Books . ; By Christian C . J . Bunsen . Translated by C . EL CottrelL Vols . L and II . Longman and Co . The facilities for explaining Egyptian history do not appear to increase with the zeaJ of its investigators . The Chevalier Bunsen , like other antiquarians who have written on the same subject , criticises keenly all theories which have preceded his own ; perhaps this is the easiest part of , the Egyptologer ' s task . So much remains in obscurity , so much is lost in confusion , so much depends on conjecture , that learning and ingenuity seem equally at fault \ v 4 ien they attempt to fix the limits of the Pbaraonetic rule , and to determine between what eras in the annals of our race the ancient monarchies
of Bgypt rose , flourished , and fell . If we analyse the views of any student , from Cliampollion to Lepsius , we find him surely stealing away from his proofs to his suppositions , from his discoveries to his hypotheses , from interpretations that are iucomplete to new readings that are " obvious * " and from irreconcilable statements to " indisputable conclusions . " Like a lover of old porcelain who from glittering dusl and painted fragments attempts to reconstruct a vase , the decipherer of Mem phian inscriptions places his lists of kings in every conceivable variety of juxtaposition . ( Juronologyallows him a certain space , " more or less expanded as his opinions may determine , and historical records interpose admitted boundaries which he can neither overlook nor overleap ; and to harmonise his dynasties with the exigences of time ' and . of events , he arranges them , transposes them , rejects some , extends others *
and marshals the whole , at length , into a systematic and consistentvarray-This is antiquarianism ; but is it history ? Partly the one , and par tly the other , we think ; and , therefore , in applying these-remarks to the Chevalier Butisen ' s volumes of research , we by no means undervalue the basis of solid erudition , the laborious inquiries , the acute comparisons instituted by that indefatigable writer . So far as the antique monuments of Egypt can , in the present state of learning , be comprehended , we believe he comprehends them ; he is not so fearless as Lepsius , or so positive as Osburne * he does not pretend to the Daniel ' s eye of Forster , or to the private and exclusive information of Wilkinson : but he claims the merit of having
concentrated the light of varied learning on his theme ; of having aimed at a logical method ; and of affirming nothing in a tone of absolute dogmatism . And this credit , which is no less than lie demands , is no more than he deserves . There may have been more surprising theorists , there have undoubtedly been more original investigators ? but as a critic of Egyptian history , written , restored , or imagined , the Chevalier Bunsen is unsurpassed . We , who question the reality of his discoveries , may concede him this praise ; because our scepticism arises , not from any sense of deficiency in his skill , or in his acquirements , but from our conviction that the foundation of existing theories on those remote periods in the annals of our race which concern the kings and people of ancient Egypt are for the most part
uncertain and unsubstantial . > What proofs are necessary to support tins view are supplied in tne works of the Etivptologers themselves . Vv ' e do not often , it is true , find a student of hiero' * l yphics ' so audacious as to correct the hieropliants of Old Nile in the use of ' their secret and sacred language ; yet even Cuampollion altered some of the « iav . en texts that had withstood the hot breezes ot two ttiousand years- and Lepsius , who thinks himself entitled to a pyramid as much as any Pharaoh , and who accordingly wrote his own name in gigantic cartouches in the tombs will not allow that either Manetho , Eratosthenes , or any other scribe of the empire , should put his hieratic enigmas in the way of a satisfactory solution . But the Berlin doctor would probably dispute our ideas of him and his Nilotic labours , so that we roust pass by both for the present to touch on some of the points which the Chevalier Buuscn lias most patiently himself to line
investigated . The object he originally proposed to was «< - " >* limits of Egyptian history , tosettle its connexion with that of other age * . and nations ; to derive from the monuments a clearer knowledge of the place which Kpypt occupies in the epic story of human late and progress ; and to ix , two thousand year , before the building of Solomon ' s J emp le-the remotest date in history - * wide basis on winch to const . " »« theai « J * £ ' « older world . He finds a parallel between the empire of Egypt and Wat oi China-in the union of provinces and in the ^ "it f ^^ ZZn as well as in the vuguenessot m chronology . But in hu . « °£ « of tUe of the kings is ui least attempted , and il every »«»»» ^ Jho wi 1 » ay that realm of sun and « . » d is not ^ W ^ y ^ l ^^ ' uSou * partial tho fault is Chevaher Buusen ' s i 1 hithe ^^' cirClinisUnce that he darkness , and is liable to error , is shown l > y
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APW 3 T 4 fel 8 ft 5 . ] T HE LEA OTK . 751
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Leader (1850-1860), Aug. 4, 1855, page 751, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2101/page/19/
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