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vikonaDy the W of the lalwiatoiy ; andv ^ at no / seoret inorganic n&W <* ja be ftilly understood except ijion this asanmptaon . ^ ; ^ Sr ! pjv ^ s Mystery is little less ' mysterious , though more metaphysical . H Q writes ^ with force , and has read , metaphysical bdqks . ^ It is no disjrrace to him if be has failed in solving the problem of Evil , but it would have lieen more prudent , we think , had he refrained from publishing his failure . Those who like- speculations , on the Infinite . and on Moral Evil , may find food in this volume to their taste ; we cannot promise them anything remarkably novel or profound .
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.. ; THE TRADE OF NORTH AFRICA . Wcmdttriijyt in North Africa . By James Hamilton . Murray . Whbt ^ pytene yraa an opulentr city , gleaming like a gate of marble on the borders of tiiie desert , great caravans came down from the African interior -wl ^ i ^ ryV gold , precious stones , ostrich feathers , and slaves , the luxuries of Greece . -At re « mlar intervals daring the year similar caravans continue to bring down to the sea similar merchandize . But Cyrene is a ruin-ra crowd of shattered temples , and theatres , and empty tombs . So , also , are the sister cities of the Pentapolis ; and the once flourishing commerce that was carried on between the southern coasts of the Mediterranean and the . vast territories of Africa , beyond Barca and the Libyan solitudes , has dwindled into a wretched traffic , chiefly in male and female slaves , who find their "way to
the various ports of the Mohammedan empire , philanthropists and cruisers notwithstanding . But along , the line of the highway , from oasis to oasis , the remains of splendid caravanserais attest the prosperity of the ancient trade . The allusions , of the Greek writers prove , that at an early period a large commercial marine was attached to the port of Cyrene , whose merchants were known -as far as the shores of . Asia Minor . The balmy gums of this region were sold in Rome for their weight in silver . Moreover , the neighbouring country was flourishing and fertile . Nowhere did the olive thrive moreluxuriantly . The immense tracts at present covered by it in every direction throughout the Pentapolis , show how extensively it must have been cultivated in an age of agricultural industry . Not even Sicily yielded richer crops of cbru . The grape ripens in this happy ^ climate during six months in the year ; the ancient accounts of harvests lasting nine months are corroborated by modern experience . The celebrated flowers of
the Cyrenaica still cluster on the ground . Cleopatra was perfumed , with attar from the roses of Cyrene . The Greeks ate its honey , and compared ifc : With _ th < e sweeter gatherings of Hymettus . The Arabs still collect this honey , " still possess the magnificent horses , herds , and flocks for which their pastures were renowned in antiquity . let Cyrene is scarcely less & ruin than Syracuse . The contiguous territories , once flourishing and populous , have become wildernesses , scantily peopled , sparely cultivated , unknown to civilization . The verdure shrinks yearly . to a ^ narrbwer circle rOTirid the perpetual but neglected fountain . The Cotomerce of the people is restricted to an interchange of dates and coirh for ' * ttde ^ arms and domestic utensils , except when , at long and
uncertain intervals , the great caravan from Waday arrives . Then , says Mr . Hamilton , the o , Id picture of . Cyrenean activity is for a short time renewed . The desert ,, for , weeks , is ajive with long files of camels , which enter the town la ^ en with iyory and gum- With these arrive also hundreds of slaves , the . spoilsiof war ^ who have marched on foot across twenty-one d egrees of the parching latitude of Northern Africa , who may have been twelve days at a time on the road without water , who have been dragged naked through the torrid li g ht with & handful of meal daily for their sustenance , and who , in all teases ; have seen many of their number drop , expiring on the road . The profits of this traffic are still enormous , as may be conceived , when it is remembered that slaves are more valuable than ivory , which , when brought from Waday , sells in Europe , or in the East , at a profit of five hundred
per cent . The Sultan of the interior kingdom of Waday is usually the proprietor of the greater part ; of the caravan . Some of our readers have probably seen a p icture of his Economies in the graphic book of the Sheikh El Touny , which has been translated into English . At Benghazi , on the Mediterranean coasts , his agents usually buy an abundance of gaudy cottons manufactured for that particular market , coral , paper , and arms , besides receiving for him * fhe offerings of the 'Frankish dealers—now a carriage , now a service of plated silver . It needs a persevering imagination to realize the picture of tne Wadayan king rolling in a Long-acre barouche among the conical p ^ a ^ s and tufted , palms o ? Central Africa . He is said to have begun to coin dollars from a die sent to him from Europe , the old coinage being
Spanish with the addition of a native paper currency—unstamped , ungraved , unwritten—virgin paper , without symbol or signature of any kind . The price of a fowl is one sheet of paper ; the price of a sheep , eight . It may be imagined how lucrative are the royal monopolies of Waday , when it i » mentioned that the Turkish Government levies , at a station half-way across the desert , a duty of 25 dollars on every ninety-eight pounds of ivory , or morethan its original value * and a duty of a dollar on each slave , who is further taxed seven dollars and a half at Benghrazi , unlesa he be destined for Constantinople . The wandering Majabra Arabs , who dwell near the oasis of lalb / are , to a great extent , the carriers of the slave and ivory trade ffcom Fezzan , where they purchase slaves from the wholesale merchants , who fldftjte anannual inounion into Bornou , and return with five or six hundred
e $ mivea . - <>¦¦ - ''¦ : ¦ - s ;¦ . . - ¦ . ; ..- , -. >«§^ -gWtfi route * are , followed by the traders from the Barbary coast , *^ 8 MWjP foup different , points of that extensive bel t of populous country * M& imfthei ^ aamss Central iAfrica , and includes the kingdoms of Waday , Boxdam , ftp ^ dac , and OCittibuctoo . The route from Waday appears to be a « J AdQrA , ra « i | fioiiAl » nyithoughiMr . Hamilton seems to connect it with one of * fify < NW MH > t > ltnttfcofioojmm « r « e .. , ¦ We , think ho will find , however , tliat it was ^ 9 Wii ^ W »^ i « AHri » g , ^ gMln 8 tIisojfttuwy .,, ; Slaves and ivory are , also brought 4 WAifrAnv > Jft ornou ^ fwani ^ SeUulan , tthe , . principal exports are slaves ,, ivory , ^ nna ^ iRB ^ jj jpH igo , » na » ki |« ,, liaUof tbe trt » de of tins country being legitimate . The history of this traffic is very encouraging to those who deplore th ^ prevalence of the trade in human beings . Wax began to bo sent to Tripoli seventeen years aero , elephants * teetli fifteen , while it ia only four
years since indigo was first exported . From Timbuctoo no slaves are sent As gold , senna , gumdragon , and cassia tire discovered in increasing quan ^ tities , the profits of the legitimate commerce will be enhanced in proportion to that of the slave-trade . - - Mr " . Hamilton ' s volume , whence apart of this information is d erived , contains an account of his journey from Benghazi , on the North African coast , along the cultivated sea-border to Cyrene , to the exquisite . fountainwatered solitude of Grenriah , to various Greek and . Roman ruins , and to the ancient Apollonia and Tolmeta .- Returning from this-journey ; ; he struck into the . wilder route across the desert . to . Angila , along the lirieof the interior trade , to Angila , Ialo , and . Siwah , which had not been visited by a European since Mr . Bayle St . John explored it several years ago . Mr . Hamilton ' s narrative of his residence is almost identical with that of nis predecessor . He , too , describes the conferences with the Sheikhs , night attacks , forced
detentions , insults from , the bigoted Siwi chiefs , the Temple of the Sun , the agriculture and the sociaVeconomy of the oasis . The incidents of his various excursions , plainly but pleasantl y narrated , are combined with observations on the antiquities , trade , and civilization of Northern Africa . For some readers his account of the Cyrenean remains will possess much interest . These remains consist of a vast necropolis enclosing the ancient city , some built of masonry , some of monolithic simplicity , others deeply and elaborately hewn in the rock . Specimens of sculpture , with vases and intaglios are occasionally found amid the confused masses of marble walls , columns , cornices , and basements , indicating the agora , the theatres , the shrines of the" dilapidated city , which was surrounded by walls still traceable , solid and imposing architecture . The main aqueduct , in its vastness and solidity , resembles a Roman work , though the stones are uniformly engraved with Greek characters . Neither buildings nor statues , however , appear to belong to the highest period of antique art .
Mr . Hamilton has broken ground in a part of Africa which has been little explored by recent travellers . There is no reason why others should not imitate his example , and dig among the Cipollino dust of Cyrene , instead of pic-nicing for ever at Thebes , or scratching the columns of Dendera .
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A VERY BAD BOOK . June : a Booh for the Country in Summer Time . By H . T . Stainton . Longman and Co . A prettier or pleasanter subject could scarcely have been chosen than that of Mr . Stainton ' s book ; and it would require some ingenuity to make out of so charming a subject a book at once so worthless and so dull . It has all that " decent debility" which Sydney Smith noted in bad sermons , and it has no information to give its dulness the pretext of solidity . Mr . Stainton is an entomologist , and might , one would think , have told us something interesting about the insects of June ; for even his terrible style might be forgotten if it were the vehicle of instruction ; but when , as in this case , it is simply the vehicle of his own foolish sentiments , his preferences , and his rhapsodies , the reader is justly indignant . We have never seen any of Mr . Stainton ' s entomological writings , and are willing to assume that they have their merits ; but after this book on June , he will , we trust , never again venture beyond the limits of his special study .
The first section is devoted to an analysis of the various ingredients which constitute a delightful day in June , which are said to be as follows : — 1 ° duration of daylight ; 2 ° temperature , warm but rarely sultry ; 3 ° splendid appearance of the garden ; 4 ° rich and varied herbage of the fields ; 5 ° dense , yet fresh green foliage of the wood ; 6 ° the song of birds ; 7 ° the blaze of insect life , so suddenly at its maximum . These are dwelt on seriatim by Mr . Stainton with a prodigality of twaddle and nif " ¦ ardliness of sense or information such as only " decent debility " can achieve . We will quote the whole of what is devoted to No . 2 , begging the reader not to skip it , but to roll it leisurely over in his mind that he may taste its full flavour : — The Temperatctre Warm but not Sultry . —It ia a melancholy reflection that man should be eo influenced by the weather , that his temper to a great extent reflects the Bkyey influences ; in cold ungenial weather in May , how many persons are crabbed I feeling that " the times are out of joint ; " a pleasant warm summery day comesand then they are as agreeable as the weather .
, In July and August , on the other hand , there is an increase of hot sultry weather , and again you hear the cry , " What a disagreeable day ! I enn stand any sort of weather but this ; it is so close , you feel as if you couldn ' t breathe . " Now June , taken as a whole , Bteers clear of botli theao faults ; taken as a whole , I say , because individual days in individual Junea may be found painfully cold ( I think I can romembor wet days when the thermometer never reached 45 ° ) , and others in the opposite extreme , unpleasantly sultry . The actual heat is not so much a drawback to enjoyment as the absenco ot lresn breezes to moderate the heat ; for you may have very pleasant enjoyable weather , with the thermometer above 80 ° ; and you may have unpleasantly cold wenther , with the thermometer below 65 ° . . It is astonishing how rapidly the human frame habituates itself to the alterations 01 temperature ; the first two or three days of hot weather we have , we feel the heat , but after that , we get quite accustomed to it ; and if the weather changes bo as torcvert to the temperate climate wo were previously enjoying , we at once exclaim , un . how chilly it is ! " Who , that is gifted with the faculties of observation , has noi
noticed this ? ?) In No . 8 , which treats of " the splendid appearance of the garden , Mr . Stainton thus moralizes : — Now it is that the cistus expande ita soon-to-be-prostrato petals , reminding ono most forcibly , of the truth , that" All that ' s bright must fade , The brightest still the fleetest . " It scatters ita white favonra all around it , as if their beauties wore not worth r 0 ^" " ing , and the fallen petals servo to ornament many a humble plant beneath it . »»» we not then rather compare it to the bonevolent action of ono who , having more , " he requires for his own use , imparts to those less plentifully supplied < and oiiau wu not deduce from it the moral ; that our talents are not to bo employed nimply tor o » u own gratification , but should bo exerted for the benefit and happiness of otn T ; Happy indeodl is ho who , does not , when he « eoa the fallen petals of the ciatus , reuoc that that plant has distributed more than he has . - . .. But I must not omit to notice that singular plant , tho mignonette . Why singular
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in the world of 0 W 6 . 1 &W&K foflB-JL 3 >* ff jBffi [ No . 32 yp SkrteBA ^ u
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Leader (1850-1860), June 28, 1856, page 616, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2147/page/16/
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