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social life , equally with other classes ; but if Sir Archibald be disposed to philanthropy , what can we object , so that he be grammatical ? At all events , we are glad that the preface , not the novel , is " by Sir A . Alison , Bait . " The curtain rises , as in a pantomime , upon a circle of young girls , coldly clad in gauze skirts , rose or green silk "bodices , silver and flowers , who exhibit their white complexions , their supple figures , their light limbs , and all the attitudes of the fairy Allegro on and behind the stage of a theatre in a large German town . Here is the clue , the point , the moral , of the stoiy . It is the contrast of before and behind the scenes , the glitter and the tissue , the tears and the poverty of the poor actresses apd dancers who , " heart stifled , "
sing gay songs to thoughtless audiences ; Sir Archibald Alison , who could have "done the reviews" to admiration on a cheap and popular , or on a dear and fashionable organ , points to Haklander's " picture of the ballet-dancers , and their fearful subjection to the caprices of the public ; of the restraints , dulness , and etiquette of the Grand Ducal Courts , and of the licentious life of robbers . " And , really , there is a glimpse of Eastern richness in the chambers of Cceur de Rose , and a dark Radcliffe horror in the revelations of the young judge , who consigns people to traj > -doors and rivers , with all the implacable gentleness of an inquisitor . Clara , is a violent , improbable , overwrought narrative , but it is original in style and matter , aiul has a sort of Dumas rapidity and variety which will enliven and refresh the reader in search of
romances new . „ . - The Letter andthe Spirit , a Novel . By Professor H . 3 vols . KTewby . Professor H— writes in altissimn , but with obvious pain . The spasms of The Letter andthe Spirit are purely artificial , —incoherence without " spontaneity , " to use the technicals of the elect . Amid the broken chapters —letters , fragments of diaries , harrowing recollections , may be discerned the symbolism of some philosophy in which Professor H——— is a pupil or a master ; but the subtlety has escaped our analysis . What latent moral , indeed , would have a chance in such a book as The Letter and the Spirit , which
begins and ends with ravings , rnoanings , froth and riot beyond appreciation ? The foreground is occupied by a dying woman , a frantic youth , and one of those large , rigid * peremptory men , who stand so well on the stage , and hurl people about so sublimely . Having studiously taken up their threads we prepare to enter the labyrinth , in spite of the howling wilderness of delirium after the first chapter but are all at once "brought up by an interjectional episode—the first of several of extracts from the journal of a country curate . This person says " Ha ! " "No ! No P' " Oh" "Oh there are - confusing doctrines in the world-
—predestination—What ! free will : —the doctrines of the schools , philosophy , the law of Christ , do tliey here agree ? Can they "be reconciled ? Have I mistaken my missionam I a poet-priest , or am I mad ?—I must and will work my -way to truth , should the path lay through liell fire—this host of passion- —sense of weakness , Oh , my God ! ' ' This is on the last day of 1852 ,- the first day of 1853 discovers the curate scratching off " Time , Time ! Eternity ! Ha ! Ha !" The barrier—yes , there are limits—yet there is understanding—are we free agents , rational , or irrational ? What is law ? Have we most of tke angel or the brute ? What is matter ? What spirib ? Do we understand the causes of action —compound and simple substances ? What is man V and what are flies ? " Pish , pish ! The light ! " the curate answers . " What enlarged ideas , yet what a microscopic poiver of visiongreat things and small . Ho ! Ho !"
But the cosmoramic series includes " a cruise in the waters of the Lake of Fashion , " as a relief to the vision of corpse pallours , madnessps and miseries of The Letter and the Spirit . But that ruthless curate ,, like a starving Brahmin , returns with his howl to the door , throwing in our faces the Ultimate , the Eternal , and Thomas Carlyle . Being too seriously disturbed by his profane metaphysics to attempt a clear exposition of plot or character , we must leave the volumes to the fearless reader with this peroration to Professor H ' , that he unay write a better book , and ought to try .
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A NEW ENGLISH-GREEK LEXICON . A Copious Praseoloyic . nl English-Greek Lexicon . Founded on a Work prepared bv Dr . J . W . FriiclcrsdoifF . Revised , enlarged , &c , by the hvte T . K . Arnold , and flenry Browne , Al . A . Rivingtons . The late Dr . Thomas Kerchever Arnold , in conjunction with Dr . Friiderstlorff , projected this admirable Lexicon , which occupied seven years in its preparation , and four years in its passage through the press . Some years previously , Dr . Rost had protluceri his Deutch Griechisckes WprterbucJi , which suggested to Arnold and his the
of Greek Composition than to a Lexicon , fclie Writer can only plead Mb desire to make this work as practically useful as possible . If this be a fault at any rate he has consulted the advantage of the studenrt at the cost of no slight trouble to himself , which might have been spared by sending the learner to seek out in the pages of Arnold , Jelf , orMadvig , the infonaation which is here brought together
at one view . We are glad to find that the Rev . Mr . Browne admits the impracticability of producing a literally complete Lexicon . Not only in so far asone language differs from another in genius , in construction , in flexibility ; but , in so tar as one nation differs from another in character , habits , wants , culture , the difficulty is enhanced of finding parallel words with exactly identical meanings . Can an . Englishman translate " surveillance" into his own tongue / But between an ancient and a modern , a living and a dead tongue—the disparity goes still further ; The Greeks certainly did not have the same things that we have , therefore how could they have words to denote them ? It is tiue that we force classical terms into use for our appliances and inventions ; but
to appropriate a word as a name is not to translate it or to find its equivalent in the living language . The editors of the Lexicon avow , also , that it may contain some errors , not arising from the insuperable difficulties of the undertaking , but from a careful examination of its general scope , and the articles on some words that bear a multiplicity of interpretations we are inclined to accept it as one of the best that has been produced for the use of teachers and scholars . If we are content with this generalisation , and dismiss the Lexicon without treating it upon a larger plan , it is not because the book is unimportant— € qt it is a monument of laborious and practical scholarship not of a common Land —but because , in journalism , it is wise to avoid erudite technicalities , as Mr . Browne and Dr . Fradersdorff would know—if they were reviewers themselves .
Dr . coadjutors idea of a new English-Greek Lexicon , containing , not the ordinary verbal parallels alone , but , as far as possible , the whole body of English and Greek synonyms reflected , in their finest variety , and faintest tints of meaning . Dr . ' Fradcrsdorif undertook to translate , adapt , and arrange the dictionary published by Dr . Rost , and this task , arduous and perplexing as it was , he performed with scrupulous exactitude . The materials thus prepared , were assigned to Dr . Arnold , to be wrought into an English-Greek Lexicon , but that wcll-knpwn scholar died before a third of the . volume wua completed ; nnd the lteveyend Henry Browne , in November 1852 , inherited the labour . '
Five-sevenths of the work were produced under his superintendence . Of course he enjoyed the advantage of having the va » t mass of Dr . Rost ' s materials , not onl y tnuislnted , but analysed by Dr . Fwiduiwlorff " in the order of the best laighsh Dictionaries . " But his additional labours wore not small . JJ irst collating tho Lexicon , word by word with those of Franz , Pape , and Ozoncnux , he next criticised it with the aid of Liddcll , Scott , nnd Yongo , whose works , however meritorious , did not supply what ia presented in thia volume : — ItroiiuuuH to bo observed that nuinoroua artialos have boon written q uite indepondontly of work * already m exigence . Thin ]> uh boon done frequently , in thoBe worelH o inofit common uho and oxtonaivo signification In which tho « SES ? « ? V i ' T ; S «« go are most conspicuous ; ahoay * , in the socalled « relational or " form . words , " whether vorbs auxiliary of tonoe and £ w ( M 1 ) r ° " mmfi 7 I" ' ? , . ™ 111 " -1 worda , conjunctions , negative and other adverbial partwloH , and propotnUona . II in oomo of these articles tho ] OnKfcu to wiucfc tUoy have boon earned umy aoom more euitablo to u Qxtanauwov Manual
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TRAVEL TALK . Panama in 1855 . By Robert Tomes . Sampson Low . Mr . Robert ToitKS received an invitation from the Directors of the Panama Railway Company , in January of last year , to accompany a deputation about to proceed south to celebrate the opening of the entire line from . ' Aspinwal to Panama . To this expedition Mr . Tomes was nothing loth ; so having bid adieu to his wife , and procured a bran-new notebook , he set sail for the great isthmus . But here his horizon was overeast . He ^ found the new town , which owes its origin to the railway ; surrounded by __ low , flat , unhealthy swamps , over which the '¦ ** poisonous atmosphere bangs like a pall of death . " The aspect of the inhabitants was not more cheering . ^ Th e features of every man , woman , or child , European , African , Asiatic or Ameriean , had the ghastlv . look of those who suffer from the malignant
effects of miasmatic poison . " The arrival of a horde of California * voyagers is a ¦ '¦ great event at Aspinwal . Hotels deserted the day before swarm with this wilcTvariety of the genus komo ; and bar-rooms reek again with an atmosphere of gin-sling and brandy-cock-tail which the busy , bilious-faced bar-keeper , only yesterday prostrate with fever , shuffles across the counter in quick succession . Our traveller had to endure this purgatory for three days , when he started from Aspinwal to Panama by the rail . Seven miles beyond Mutachin is Culebra—the Summit the railroad people call it—since it is _ the highest point on the route , being 250 feet above high tide of the Pacific . " We liad thus , " says the observant Mr . Tomes , "been struggling up hill from Aspiriwal at the degree of ascent of 61 feet per mile ; and once at the top we were compensated by the more rapid descent to Panama of 70 feet per mile . Here had been the heaviest work on the line , where a mass of earth , 1 , 300 in
length , and 24 feet in depth , containing 30 , 000 feet in all , had been cut through to make way for the lords of the creation ; who were now so triumphantly steering onward in what we are pleased to term , in spite of bowie-knives and revolvers , the march of civilisation . " The first ground for the railway was broken December , 1850 ; in July , 1852 , only 23 ]; miles were read y for traffic ; in December , 1854 , the open line had reached Culebra or the Summits , and on the 27 th of January , 1855 , a locomotive passed over the whole road of forty-nine miles from ocean to ocean . After an agreeable sojourn at Panama , during which our traveller is . proud to make the acquaintance of a scion of an ancient earldom ., he returns to Aspinwal , finds the " Mess House" full , his own room appropriated to the young English lord , to whom he feels himself " bound to defer , being his elder by a dozen years or more , and only a republican . " The book , notwithstanding much egotistical cant , has some readable pages , and gives an interesting account of the Panama Railway , and the country through which it passes . Parisian Lights and French Principles . By James Jackson Jarves . Sampson Low
" travelling , a man must carry knowledge with him if he would bring home knowledge , " says Dr . Johnson . Mr . Jarves , however , belongs to that numerous class which think " no such thing . " He goes to Paris , feels inspired to write , takes down forgotten books from the shelves of old libraries , patches up a series of articles on what lie fancies Parisian life , sending tliem to Harper ' s Magazine ; and , having exhausted the patience and credulity of Harper ' s special public , he throws himself upon the almighty patience and credulity of the public at large . His volume is a medley of the frivolous and the mean ; where he is not ignorant , he is audacious . lie attempts to draw a picture of Paris social and Paris architectural ; but , failing , falls into
the easier line of caricature . The historical passages arc mere adaptations of traditionary twaildle . It was surely worth the while of a " democrat" before narrating stale anecdotes in tho style of a wenk-witted dowager , to ascertain that he was " up to tho mark" of criticism ; for , example , his account of Mademoiselle de Soinbreuil being compelled by tho mob to drink a glasa of warm blood fresh from the still writhing victims to anve her father ' s lift ) , is one of tho ferocious lies of the Reaction . This and similar disproved anecdotes are mked up nnd told with all the unction of the Faubourg St . Germain . Mr . Jaryca * twitterings , accompanied l > y woodcuts that would shame tho Seven Diala , are not of the kind , to amuse or to inform .
JYc . w Xaalund . By Mil ward Drown Fitton . Stanford . Nothing ia more difficult to find than good advice , unless it be the resolution to follow it . To emigrants leaving llnglund to traverse twelve or sixteen thousand miles of water , amd to drop down on an island about which they scarcelyknow anything , every detail ol Information , however subordinatc , wliich
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M ^ rch 29 , 1856 . J THF LIADEJ „ 307
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), March 29, 1856, page 307, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2134/page/19/
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