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I hear ' some reader ask . Just look at it , and if , on closer scrutiny , you do not find that the flower is curiously constructed , and different from ordinary flowers , I am very much mistaken .. ' Mr . Stainton has heard , perhaps , that people in the country are dull , and with congenial dulness he has written for them . How otherwise explain the purpose of the platitudes -which are strewn like weeds over his pages ?
E . g .: — In that lonely spot how this reminiscence of his childhood affects the whole man He passes in review whole years of his life , thinks to what purpose he has lived and is living ; determines that much of his past time has been -wasted , and resolves in future to do better . The reader will now , with considerable scepticism , read Mr . Stainton's praises of Natural History as a means of intellectual culture : — For strange is it , that whereas every form of animal and vegetable life contains much both to interest and to instruct , to too many such forms are unintelligible ; true they were taught in early life some two or three languages , and something of the history of the human race , but how to study the works of their Creator they have never learnt ; and the influence of such study on the human mind is not a thing to be despised , as all know who have drunk at that fountain of delight .
And the sceptical reader will be inclined to say , If Mr . Stainton is to be accepted as a specimen of the effects which the study of nature produces " on the human mind , " I think , on the whole , 1 prefer the study of " two or three languages , and something of the history of the human race . " If we had lighted on any passages in this volume which had the slightest value or interest , we would willingly quote them as a set-off against the severity of our criticism ; but there are none ; the book is wholly worthless , and were it not for its attractive title , which will make others as eager to see it as we were ourselves , we would have taken no notice of it whatever .
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NEW FICTIONS . The Grown Ward . By Archibald Boyd , Author of " The Duchess . " 3 vols . ( Bentley . )—There are two standards by which a novelist may be tried—the standard of art , and the standard of the circulating library . We prefer the latter in dealing with The Crown Ward and several other three-volume sets that lie on our table . It is unnecessary , in all cases , to apply the laws of literature . Nine-tenths of the books that appear are addressed to uncritical readers , and there is no reason why tl » e uncritical should not read and enjoy them . Mr . Archibald Boyd , it is true , appeals , by his manner and by his choice of a subject , to criticism more close than ordinary . He has attempted to revise Scott's description of James the First , to represent the difference between the language and habits of the same king on different thrones , and to produce a picture , historically exact , of the age and its associations . Nevertheless , his case need not be taken into any high court . The three volumes of The Crown Ward may
pass rapidly from reader to reader , may be sent down to the watering-place m Mudie ' s parcels , and lie about the breakfast-room among the ephemerides of the season . It is essentially a conventional book—deliberately , studiously conventional . The characters axe strictly proper , fold their arms with consummate dignity , draw themselves up to their full height when necessary , go through the other time-hallowed gymnastics of the social drama , and act , in all situations , precisely as the novel reader expects and desires . As to the historical point insisted upon by Mr . Boyd , it seems to us that the reputation of King James was fully established before ' Me Crown Ward appeared . He was a plethoric and dirty pedant , whose pedantry and dirt have dimmed the page of many a hardwritten romance ; and if Mir . Boyd has done more than usual justice to the foulness of his linen , his half-articulate brogue , and his barbaric Latinity , future story-tellers and dramatists may take the hint . We say future , because as „ ., * .-. ! .. «„ + ! . « . « n . T / vi . M »» ^^ nar ^^\ o nnmo -fli *> i \\ f \ hpirnpift will annfiar in new novels .
though it may not be the fortune of the filthy prince to be described again so carefully as by Mr . Boyd . . . . , . The one moderate merit of the novel consists m the ingenuity with which , the events are strung together . They are not new events ; they are not described in a style better than smooth common-place ; but they are cleverly connected , and varied with sulBcient tact to lead the reader on passively to the end . We must beg Mr . Boyd not to undervalue this praise . Ike quality assigned to his story is a quality that few of our general story-tellers command . It the reader be running over a list of new novels , he may—provided he be a novel-reader from habit—send for The Crown Ward , and expect to be amused . The Old Grey Church . By the Author of " Trevclyan , ' &c . 3 vols . ( Bentley . ) - The predominant principle of this novel is Misery . Everybody not nhsolntftlv foolish is miserable , and lor no reason that we can discover , lhe
leading personage is Eustace Grey , the resurrection of a character dispersed m particles through many dead and sepulchred romances . He is tall , thin , and moony he is destined for the Church ; his prospects arc slender ; he loves a girl of wealth and station ; lie might be happy , but that he is troubled with an hysterical conscience , wlnck is perpetually turning him red , or blue , or ashy . Luc y whom he might have married and settled with had it not been necessary for tiie author of " Trevclyan" to write another story , blights his happiness without any assignable object , and is herself blighted , partly by his woes , partly by a most unaccountable marriage , partly by the hangman , who disposes oi her father in front of Dcbtors ' -door , Newgate . For utter a patient attention to two volumes of unutterable wretchedness Mr . Lushmgton , Lucy s tatlier begins to change countenance , and is rapidly transtonncd into bn John Dean -p ^ , i fi . « r .. ,., l .. l / . iit . hfiiilcnr Thenceforward , half-way to the end , the interest
is purely that of an Old Bailey investigation There are the preliminaries be ioic the magistrate , the ominous fallings of the detective oilieer , the ransacking oi the bailk , the trial , the Attorney-General ' s speech , the examinations and crossexaminations , the retirement of the iwy—verdict-emotion oi the ]* - sUence in court-sentence-visit of relatives to condemned cell-sheutt s intimation to the prisoner that his hour is comc-bcll of St . Scpi lcsine s-b . anal service-pinioning- falling of the drop-last struggles . AH this is ye y exciting , but we have read it in the newspapers . The only difference is tha . the banker ' s family arc very cool , and that Eustace plays the part of an idiot gasping , and weeping , and Pegging for mercy , and bending over Lucy , and usli g tolndia . Tile satire of the novel is as weak as the romance . I « » ad c - racters speak out their villany , the fools their folly , the immaculate their virtue , Seaway unknown to human nature . The sickliest of readers can scarcely relish this . most vapid of novels . , / fiiion ,,, n ,, , Henry Lute ; or , Life and Existence . By Emilia Marryat 2 vols ( Chapman and Hall )— \ fre have aome sympathy with the author of Henry Lyle ; she la obviously amiable and sincere . She is possessed of intelligence and euthusuwm
This book , too , is her first . But we must advise hey , if she produces a second , to take Henry Lyle as a model of / what Her second ' production ought not to be . The idea is that of a contrast between the career of a gifted man who really lives , and of one who only exists and wastes away in the desolation of selfishness . So far Miss Marryat ' s conception is admissible as the subject of a social story . But , what society , and what a story ! 'Heiny Xyle ? # ^/< 4 rthur Vere exists , and both die . Both , also , love Augusta Leigh , who : marries the Life in
preference to the Existence , although worldly and corporeal advantages are possessed by the latter . In consequence thereof , the Existence tracks the Life , which leaves a trail of blood , b y which it may be traced . This is not a figurative , but a literal statement of the story . Henry Lyle , the happy and virtuous , but pecuniarily-embarrassed husband of Augusta , is a Claude Lorraine by profession ; but , though good and gifted , is by constitution a most disagreeable hero . Miss Marryat does not hang , or behead , or stab him , or consume him with hectic fires , or ernulate the psychological studies of certain modern novelists , who take insanity as the pivot of then * stories . No ; Henry Lyle spits blood ,. " deluges the room with blood , " " streams with blood , " is " covered with
blood , " enough to revolt an executioner . But every tune Henry Lyle bursts a vessel ; Arthur Vere enters Augusta ' s presence , taunting her with her husband ' s inevitable death , and sometimes b y his very words necessitating the use of a styptic . He follows the melanchol y pair to Florence , asks Augusta how she feels at the agony of her dying angel , writes profane pamphlets , and , ultimately returning to London , falls down in front of Northumberland House , is mortally injured , and lies in agony at the Golden Cross Hotel . Thither comes Augusta . Ly le and Vere perish about the same tune , are recorded in the same obituary , and fade out of sight as completely as if Henry Lyle had never been written .
The Linesman ; or , Service in the Ghcards and the Line During England ' s Long Peace and Little Wars . By Colonel Elers Napier . 3 yols . ( G . W . Hyde . )—The Linesman is scarcely a novel . It is composed of pictures and discussions sketchily put together , so as to constitute a reply , in the form of fiction , to the notorious " Memorial of the Guards . " Colonel Napier has seen a good deal of military life , and possesses a sort of literary facility common to all the Napiers His volumes are dedicated to Colonel Tulloch , who is not to be held responsible , however , for the Linesman ' s opinions , or for his invective . The narrative itself is a suppositious review , founded in fact , " of course , of a soldier's career in the Line compared with a soldier ' s career in the Guards ; the lanesman dropping into retirement , " in pale , contented sort of discontent , as a Captain unattached , and the Guardsman alighting among the upper ten thousand as a General , an Honorable , and a K . C . B . An examination at a military college , a fox-hunt , a Parisian assault of arms , a duel , a . Punishment Parade , various scenes of ffamblinff and coquetry , precede the hero ' s embarkation for
India Colonel Napier obligingly skips the voyage , and does not describe either a flyin" fish or a man overboard ; a pic-nic in Madeira , or a gale in the Pacific ; the cinnamon scent of Ceylon , or Indian starlight . A page suffices for the transition from Gravesend to Madras , from English sign-boards and meadows to the low , tawny coast , cavernous temples , dust , and palms of the warm and abundant East . The story takes at once an Indian colour , streaked with allusions to the anomalies of the British military system , and with arguments of every description on affairs of public policy . The Colonel throws his hero into the fevers of the Burmese campaign , but brings him off , abruptly , on sick leave , and pauses a long while to talk of Prince Albert and the Guards . Happily , however Lieutenant Beresford makes a second voyage to Madras , describes a march to Hyderabad , introduces a piquant episode on Platonic love , relates anecdotes of taxation and torture , confesses the results of a Nautch dance , and forces a pleasant variation of improbability by reviving a certain blonde Pansioi uneniai jr
enne called * Melanie , in the name ana gauze an queen , au » ur » , » story of the murderous Phansegars , a Suttee , an adventure , equivocally consummated , with the sculpturesque Sittayah , and a tiger tragedy , bringing out the Colonel ' s powers of effect and exaggeration , confer on the voiumes tlie merits , at least , of spirit and variety . The Linesman is a hearty , rough , manly book , which will amuse the military class , and , bemg adventurous » and melodramatic , may have attractions for other sorts of readers . Arthur Vawjhan . By B . T . Williams , M . A . ( Kent and Co . )—A sad , unpretending story , in one volume , written with grace and point ; very martisticaUy constructed , yet not deficient in evidences of culture and observation . A similar remark applies to The Good Time Coming , byT . S . Arthur ( Hodson ) , who appears to have published a library of miniature romance and whose style . w that of florid elaboration . Glenmorven ; or , Nedley Rectory , byH . T . Mulhssy ( Hope and Co . ) , resembles in style and spirit The Heir oj tedcltffe lt » **« g «^ » tori * False Two to One w& The Politician
T ** to ^^ hv ™™* . Honour , belong , to Parker ' s well-written but didactic series . The Merchant Vessel ( Sampson Low ) is a story to chain a boy to his chair and charm his . action , koAShoe Pac Recollections : a Wayside Glimpse of American Life , by Walter Marsh ( Trubner ) , a collection of characteristic sketches illustrating tlie realities of American manners . Let us append to the list three books not designed as practical reflexions of society , but as allegories to please and teucli young nin P ds These arc , the Stories of an Old Maidby Madame Emile dc Girardin ( Addcv and Co ) , to which may be assigned high rank among nursery classics , so sin pH tender , and joyous arc they ; The King of Root Valley and ks Curious daughter : a Fairy Tale , by It . lteiuieh ( Chapman and Hall ) , a fantastic and ingenious talc , with eight Irilliant pictures of the world in whichj-ooks are violet birds purple , kings yellow , and lions vermilion : and Princess Use ; a Sgend , uLs / atua by La ° dy lluxwell Wallace ( Bell andDaldy ) . This mm Mr quisite Midsummer gift , a book in the best style of iauyism , delicate and Kt and fanciful , anu clad in rose colour and gold And the story , translated admirably by Lady Wallace , is not less elegant and rich .
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MEMOIRS OP DOCTORS WAHDLAW AND KITTO . Memoirs of the Life and Writing , of Ralph Wardluv , D . D . By William ' "mta * Alexander , V . D . Second Edition . Edinburgh : Adam and Charles Black . Memoir , of Dr . John Kitto . Uy J . E . Kyland . Edinburgh : Oliphant and Son * . Dn Wabduw possessed many admirers both in England and Scotland . Hence we find that a seeond edition of his Memoirs has been called for within three months after the publication of the first ' ^ *"""*« " * principally if not entirely , amongBt tboso sects which look with an evil eye uponThe union of Churi ' and State . Of their views he wa * a - £ nch ju £ porter . When but a young man he entered warmly into the controversy concerning the power of the civil magistrate in things sacred , and at a much later J 3 d when discussions on Church eBtabHHhments and the Voluntary ayetem moved the religion world , he advocated etill more boldly tbo mune principles .
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Jieke 3 Sy 16503 THE Ii E ADtfB . 3 ?
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Leader (1850-1860), June 28, 1856, page 617, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2147/page/17/
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