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A BATCH OF BOOKS . . Monastic Institutions . By Samuel Phillips Day . ( Longman and Co . )—Observing on the title-page of this ¦ work that the author described "himself as " formerly of the Order of the Presentation , " 'we felt some natural apprehension of encountering one of those books in which a very large dose of controversial bitterness is grossly recommended to moderate readers by a very small sweetening of useful information . We are rejoiced to be able to acknowledge at the outset that we unwittingly did Mr . Day an injustice by feeling any doubts about his fairness and moderation as an historian of Monastic Institutions . His book , within a reasonable and portable compass , contains everything that the general reader can desire to know on the subject of the religious Orders of the Roman Church generally , and , particularly , of the Orders now established in Great Britain . The history of these is preceded by a concise and intelligently-compiled account of the origin of the
Monkish system , and is followed , m a final chapter ,-by a statement of "the pernicious tendency of Monasticism , viewed in a social , moral , physical , and political aspect . " This latter section of the work is written moderately , feelingly , and reasonably . Mr . Day has done good service to his cause , and has conferred credit on himself by a complete freedom from anything like bigotry in his tone , by manly fairness towards those with whom his opinions are at variance , and by wise avoidance of sectarian affections and recriminations in appealing to his readers . We can honestly say that Monastic Institutions may be read with profit and pleasure by all classes ; and it is onl y fair to the publishers to add—especially in these days , when cheap publications are introducing so much hideous binding and slovenly printing to the notice of a discerning public—that the book is very elegantly and sensibly got up .
A Visit to the Vaudois of Piedmont . By Edward Barnes . ( Longman and Co . )—This is the last contribution to the " Traveller's Library . " Its subject and its author ' s name will sufficiently recommend it to what is called " the religious world . " To dwellers in general beyond the pale of " pious" society , this pamphlet ( for it is no more in extent ) may be recommended as containing the last experiences of the latest traveller among the small -but ancient community of Italian Protestants . If the tone of the "work' had been less exclusive and the style less conspicuously dressed out in " evangelical" phrases , this Visit to the Vaudois would have been better adapted for the use of readers of all classes to whom the " Traveller ' s Library" is addressed .
Simplicity and Fascination ; or , Guardians and Wards . ¦ B y Anne Beale . ( Bentley . )—A mild , genial , modestly-written novel , full of every-day scenes and every-day characters , simply and smoothly presented to the reader . Nobody will sit up late to read the book through , nobody will be unpunctual at dinner on account of it : it will be pretty generally " at'home" at the libraries ; will be returned , when it is called for , without any pencil annotations praising or blaming any part of it ; will be sneered at by fast young gentlemen and transcendental young ladies ; and will be called " nice , pleasant reading" by all meek , amiable people who like a Boothing book and don't appreciate violent excitements of any kind . -For our own
parts , we are always favourably disposed to a lady ' s novel when it does not contain a strong-minded heroine ; and we very gladly accept Miss Beale's fiction as far superior to many a book of much higher pretensions . We feel , throughout , that the authoress has conscientiously and carefully done her best ; and we have had occasion to note , in many places , that she possesses genuine feeling . All the tenderer scenes in her book are uniformly the best . A little more compression of incident the next time she writes , and a sternex resolution to separate the parts of a story which are'worth telling from the parts which are not , will advance her position hi literature and increaso lier chances of success with the novel-reading world . Lindon Manor , or literal Recollections . By William' l * latt . ( Saundera
and Ottley ) , — Hero is another book of the simple and genial sort ; not calling for any elaborate criticism or aiming at uny very nigh mark ; but recommending itself to all who love rural Jbngland by its honest sympathy with country scenes and its loving observation of country characters . Readers weary of clap-trap about the War , and anxious to step aaido for a while from the whirl of passing events , will find Mr . Platt a welcome companion . They will not bo . violently excited or intensely interested by him ; but they will lind him pleasant and agreeable as a talker on familiar subjects , nnd will not have cause to complain of his detaining them loo long . My Firm Season . By Beatrice Reynolds . Edited by the Author of " Counterparts , " &c , &c . ' ( Smith , Elder , and Co . ) —A volume of impudt'iit nonsense , which no man or woman , with the slightest respect for the value of time , would think of roadinjr beyond the first dozen paue » . I wo
things havo rather amazed ua in reference to this book : —First , tfio appearance of Mosbis . Smith and Elder's names in connexion with nbsoluto . trtiHh . Secondly , the publication of an advertisement in the daily pnpovti in wlucft rapturous praises of My First Season are quoted from reviews o ( tiic wonc by some of our contemporaries . If tho public reception ol tlwa dook justifies tho advertised reception of it by aoiuo of our brother « i'" > esi wo will undertake to print one complete scene from tho story ( which w . nnrIced on first reading it ) , in order to enable our readers to -o . Uu . ate , tor thenwulvw tho amount of sense , taate , and grammar to bo iound in this novel .
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wintierbreakttp , % ari * tfre people of each wintering ground leaw their respective statibnsariatepiatr'with all possible celerity to the general rendezvous ^ t headquarters . Some paddle down the rivers in canoes ; some lead a train of pack horses through the rocks and woods ; others * in sled&es 'descend the Sndwy slypes . " Their gathering at Fort George , on the Columbia , is pleasant or otherwise * according to the prosperity of the past year . The furtaidngteasdn , of course , forms the most adventurous part 6 f the trader ' s life . % e either buys from the Indians , or traps'the animals Hmself . The feeariiffbrds as mu 6 h sport as profit . Concerning its habits Mr . Ross offers a note to a natural historian : — Along Grisly-bear River we shot four elks , twenty-two deer , two otters , two beavers , and three black bears , without stepping out of our way . But the bears were poor , and the only cause we could assign for it was the scarcity of terries and fish ; for these animals generally 'frequent "fruit and" fish countries ; and we did not notice aiiy fish in ; the river . TTratjks of wild animals , wheiqyer the ground was soft , were abundant , crossing the road-imevery direction . In one of the thicketsi 1 as we passed along , our guide took us a little out of our way to show us what he called *« feear ' s haunt , or wintering den ; -wh « re that animal , according to Indian story , remains in a dark and secluded retreat , \ rithout food or ' nourishment , for months together , sucking its paws ! There was nothing remarkable in the place : the entrance to the liair or den was through a long and -winding thicket ¦ of dense brushwood f and the bear ' s hiding-place was not in a hole under ground , but on the surface , deeply imbedded- among the fallen leaves . Over the den the snow is often many feet thick , and the bear ' s hidi » g-place is discovered only by an air-hole resembling a small funnel , sometimes not two inches in diameter , through which the breath issues , but so concealed from view that none but the keen eye of the savage « an find it out . In this den the bear is said to lie in a torpid state from December till March . The red deer , the otter , the black and red fox , the martin , the mountain sheep , the white goat , the badger , the musk-rat , and the beaver , are chased or trapped in the woods and the rivers . The trapper during the hunting months leads a life of fatigue and privation ; his horse , without forage or litter , scrapes away the snow to feed on the withered grass beneath it , and often passes the winter without drinking , only refreshed by the icicles adhering to its scanty food . He himself , with his beaver trap , engages incessantly in the pursuit of his hard and precarious industry , concealing his stores of skins in snow banks , marked by peculiar signs . Mr . Ross describes a phenomenon in natural history , the poisonous beaver : — We now turn our attention to Rivifere aux Malades . On reaching the stream we found beaver in considerable numbers : the first lift yielded forty-nine . The prospect before us was encouraging ; but here a misfortune clouded our hopes , and made beaver a secondary consideration . After breakfast the second morning , a number of the people were taken ill ; and the sickness becoming- general throughout the camp , it struck'me that there must have been something poisonous in our food or -water . Not being able to discover anything , I began to inquire more particularly what each person had eaten that morning , and found that all those who had breakfasted on the fresh beaver taken out of the river were affected , whilst those who had eaten other food remained in good health . Two hours' had not elapsed before thirty-seven persons were seized with gripings and laid up . The sickness first showed itself in a pain about the kidneys , then in ' the stomach , and-afterwards in the back of the neck and all the nerves ; and ' at length the whole system became affected . The sufferers were almost speechless and motionless ; having scarcely the power to stir , yet suffering great pain , with considerable froth about the mouth . I was seriously alarmed , for we had no medicine of . any kind in our camp , nor scarcely time to have used it ; so rapidly was the sickness increasing , that almost every soul in the camp , in the space of a few homs , was either affected with the disease , or panic-struck with fear i The first thing I applied was gunpowder : throwing , therefore , a handful or two of it into a dish of warm water , and mixing it up , I made them drink strong doses of it ; but it bad little effect . I then tried a kettle of fat broth , mixed up and boiled with a handful or two of pepper which' some of the people happened to have . I made . them drink of that freely ; and whether it was the fat or the pepper , I know not , but It soon gave relief . Some were only sick for part of the day ; but others , owing perhaps to the quantity that they had eaten , were several days before they got over it ; < and some of them felt the effects of it for a month afterwards . We then examined the flesh of the beaver , and found it much -whiter and softer , and , the people who had eaten of it said , sweeter to the taste than the flesh of beaver generally . As there was no wood about the banks of the river , wo supposed these animals must have lived on some root of a poisonous quality , which , although not . strong enough to destroy them , yet was sufficiently deleterious to injure us : from this it was that I named this stream Riviere aux Malades . In one expedition , Mr . Ross and his party brought from the Snake Territory upwards of five thousand beavers , exclusive of other peltry . In that country , he says , there is a field large and rich enough for one hundred trappers for a quarter of a century to come . In his most successful expedition , he was accompanied by fifty-five men , of whom only twenty were to be reckoned as trappers—so that they averaged two hundred and fifty each in the season . Such calculations illustrate the character of the industry which confers on the F-ar West its chief commercial importance . In another -district the , prodigality of animal life rccnls tho descriptions of South African travellers : — Wo journeyed onto tho westward for some time , until wo readied a strong and rapid stream about fifty yjirds broad , which empties itself into the Great South branch , called by our hunters Salmon River . I 'thought the more appropriate name would have been Le-wis ' s Fork , as it was tho first Columbia waters the exploring party fell on after crossing tho Rocky ¦ Mountains . This stream forced its way through a very bleak , sterile , and rocky part of the country ; yet wo crossed it and ascended up the west side for upwards of ninety miles , until wo got to a place called -Canoe Point , where tbe different branches from the four poiiitu of the compass form a -cross . This stream runs in tho direction of north-west . It did not prove rich in 'beaver , " flfty-jfivo tit a lift being the moat wo took at one time during our journey on it . ' Hero In many- i > h » eea the enow had begun to disappear , nnd tho young grass grow up-fttst ; ' and hero otnnhomes fed , for the flrat time since wo left Wathond Fort , without diggingin theawow . ' The further wo advanced , tho ecarcor were the beaver ; wo often took no moro than twenty a' dny . Bun ' ulo were abundant , immense herds of these animals being bcoji in every direction ; but they wore not fat at this season : in < one of "the valleys through- which wo passed , there could not have been less than 10 , 000 in one herd , out of which our huntora killed fiixtyj and wo pftased on , leaving thorn still feeding on tho young grass . Hero game of every description was in tho
utmost abundance , deer were feedisg'in-herds , and wild fowls of every kind covered the waters ; yet we seldom disturbed any of them , except for amusement , for our camp teemed with provisions : nevertheless , so great was the temptation , and so natural is it for hunters and trappers to waste ammunition , that all day , whether travelling or in camp , we heard shots in every direction . These volumes have . a special as well as a general interest . Their animation , their variety , their ; graphic and curious details , recommend thom- to that Reader , -who must now be styled—so discursive is he , and so voracious — -The Universal . As contributions to the history of Anglo-Saxon enter-E rise ,, peopling and fertilising the Far West of America , they possess a igher value , and deserve to rank with the rich and simple chronicles in our standard collections .
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), Oct. 27, 1855, page 1039, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2112/page/19/
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