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41 Humph ! " said the woman , all her fiery passions suddenly kindled , and sending the Lot blood into her face— " I ' m not going to be baffled and "browbeaten in that way , I can tell you , madam . Bold I am , and . will be , until I find out where my husband is ; and if ' I ' m bad , there are other people not muck better , meek as they can look sometimes . " "While uttering these words , the woman had cleared the stile , and for a moment determined to carry out her pursuit . Susannah lieard the tone in which they were uttered more distinctly than the words themselves , and indeed , the ruffled state of her feelings scarcely left her at liberty- to comprehend anything with clearness . By degrees , however , the woman fell behind , notwithstanding the defiance of her look and manner , and then Susaiuuib began to breathe again—to breathe , and to think ! The elderly people in llie story always appear in a state of suppressed alarm about their children . There is a total absence of confidence between them , and calamities , when they do occur , come like thunderclaps ; for , having no clue to the hearts of the young , or to the real state of their feelings , how can the parents and guardians anticipate what is going to happen ? Such a form . of rule , which prescribes the impossible , and begets concealment , is self-destructive ; and the advertiser for information certainly need look no further for enlightenment than to the pages of Mrs . Ellis .
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THE WORLD AND HIS WIFE . The World mid his Wife or , a Person of' Conscience . A Photographic Novel . By Lady Bulwer Lytton . C . J . Skeet . Tins " photographic" novel reminds ¦ one-strangely , of the odd caricatures of the human face divine , also called photographs , -which are exposed now in many a suburban shop window , along with toys , razor-strops , and haberdashery . Indeed , the resemblance between these " pTiqtographic likenesses " and Lady Bulwer Lytton's "photographic novel "is striking ; for as no one ever recognizes the features of any living being In those biack , leaden , bang-dog looking portraits which adorn the said places , so nobody , in the % Tildest flight of imagination , can see in those diseasedj Mephistophelian figures -which , the authoress portrays , the flesh and blood men and women of English society . Everywhere , in all her " photographic" sketchings , the jaundiced eye of the writer is traced . She defines love—that is , the love of human beings of the male sex—a $ a " compound of admiration , vanity , and selfishness ; " she thinks that both virtue and vice ( of male creatures aguin , of course ) are " simpl y grammatical , " - ; with only " this notable difference in the grammar of their passions to the grammar of language , that the latter Always' asserts the masculine to be worthier than the feminine , whereas , in the former , it is insisted that the feminine should invariably be worthier than the masculine . " But in greatest abhorrence she holds those chief manifestations of modern society , its laivs ; " for not only do-me ? i" —which in itself seems to her horrible enough— "but the most eminently profligate and immoral men , make and administer the laws ; and therefore it can scarcely be expected that such Lycurguses should uiake tliern anything but what they are : grossly immoral and unjust . " The unhappy lady Las been wronged , or , what comes to the same , flunks she has been wronged by one man , or , perhaps , half a score , and shefancies , therefore that theAvliole world of male creatures is composed of monsters , intent only on devouring the gifts of fortune or nature of their fellow-beings of the other sex . With this preconceived opinion , she sets about manufacturing her photographic sketches ; arid , in a rather characteristic way , makes a dog the chief figure of the picture . "Tatters , " a sort of dark slate * coloured Skye terrier , "thevery lean ideal of beautiful ugliness , " with *' mystex'iously luminous , and magnificently intelligent polyglot brown eyes , " is the centrepiece of Lady Bulwer Lytton ' s three-volumed photographic novel , and round this centre / in , strange comet-like courses , dance some minor personages . First of all is , the dog ' s master , one Bob Bumpus , who talks a curious gibberish of half-sentimental and half-costermonger language , typifying , in the authoress ' s opinion , the popular speech , because the h is abundantly , indeed rather too abundantly , misplaced . Next to him comes a . wicked nobleman , the Earl of Portarjis , a domestic tyrant of the Eugene Sue school , who commits crimes without end , all of which are painted in glaring colours on 1 hc due background of angelic virtue and resignation , represented by a kind , loving , virtuous " angel of a wife . " Slanderous tongues , we are afraid , will suspect the lattur to be meant as autobiographical , as indeed the authoress dwells "with evident pleasure on that figure in the photographic picture .. Not only this Lady Portarjis , but all the rest of the women in the photographic novel , arc * good , clear , kind-ftearted creatures , infinitely above the men , who arc sketched as rascals one and all , far below the dog "Tatters ' in morality . Tatters , in fact , on more than one occasion , is held up us a pattern to them . The Earl of Portarjis breaks open letters directed to his friends ; whereas the dog tries to rescue the letters from loss ; and when the Honourable Saville Vernon an employe of the British Foreign Office , wants to steal a silver locket , at a drawing-room to which he is invited , it is the dog agnhi who prevents him . To sucli . ends can irritability urge a morbidly excited authoress . It is the greater pity that , a woman like Lady Bulwer Lytton should be driven to compose photogvaphisms "in this style ; " for really one can discern in her writings , in spite of all the extravagances of style and invention , a not very common talent of expression which often , in its rugged fitness , reminds one strangely of Thoiuas Curlyle . However , the many little passages , gems of their kind , in which this is revealed , are hidden under such a mass of extravagant , if not maniacal declamation , that their beauty is not hkcly to bo appreciated by very many readers . The truth of Fichto ' s famous maxim , that there is a divine idea whieh lies at the bottom of all external forms and appearances , is more acknowledged by philosophers than by novel-readers . And novels which are professedly " photographic" ought to be , more than any others , true in outward shape- and size , liut where , except at a seven-acted melodramatic performance at the Victoria Theatre , can . realities ) " lileo the following be found ?—l Bu . V ' continuccl " ° in the same nnnti > my of moluncholy strain , " for the g-cnts rind noUihty , hof courao the naino things , or wuss , lias totully different names . ' Veil ossea , ana jockeys , and trainers too for that matter , is doctoral in a vsiv as i * not quitu according to the C « llcge of Physiciana , it stands to reason that the nobleman or gent
as pockets the thousands hou the transaction , knows notlrink vothever as to ow it vos brought about . And as for ruinating on women , by scores , that ' s in course the nobility a . nd gentry ' s life , that nohody , and least of hall thelawr , lias no business to meUUle with . Like poor Folly and her child ! ven-five year ago , I fished her aad it hout of the Paddington eaual , and ve vos hall three tookt afore a magistrate ; said sheros a going to tell as liovr a nobleman ad fust ruinated her , and then deserted her and her child . The magistrate stopped her has soon as hever she was a going to mentioii tile nobleman ' s name , saying as he couldn ' t have a lord ' s character ! compermised by a ooman of that sort . "Then ven I upped and axed who liad made her a ooman of that sort ? I was a hinsolent toayahone , and oidered another month at the treadmill ; and ven I kem out , cause I could not let poor Polly and her child starve abovit the streets , and I took em along with me to my place ; then the same ' worthy magistrate , ' as they calls em . in the noosepapers , told us as ve vos a living in wice . ' No ve baint yor worship , ' says J __< Te ' s honly a starving ; in wirtue . The- nobleman as drily Polly and her baljby into the canal , is living in wee , and no mistake , and wouldn ' t I sarve him out ; if so be as I could only know his name . ' . " IBut from tliat day to this , I ' ve niver bin liable to git it hout of the poor soft , sill } - eretur , as fears if so be has I knowed it , I'd git myself into trouble a takin lion , the lawr into nay own aids , hand so I would , too ; for the lawr , vot ' s the lawr ? but a sort of wrap-rascal for the . rich hand the great , to ' . kiver hover hall their sins and wices ; and that done , the lawr jumps Jim Crow , and turns itself hinto a sign-post , vitlx a oss-air vig hon the ' top hon it , to pint out hevery crooked road a poor devil turns down , to pick up a few rags and bones . " Ho ! but it ' s they public characters . ' parliament-men , speechifiers , hauthors , hand sicli like , has is the woppingest humbugs . ' of the whole lot . They ' s lilce blow'd hout bladders , fill'd chuck-full of wind , they his , which sarvea to keep themselves hup safe enough . But jist let any one run tlie sharp pint hof a single truth hinto these here public humbug-balloons , band they'll soon find the bempty hair has they'll git for then : pains . - - , ¦ ' . ¦ ¦¦ ¦ ' .- .. ; . - .- ¦ . - ¦ . ¦ ¦ ¦ . - ¦ ¦ . - ¦ ¦ ¦ . Yet of monologues of this description intermingled with still more questionable , dialogues , nine-tenths of the photographic novel is made up ; and the remaining tenth of really noble thoughts and sentiment , expressed ha graceful and energetic language , is hidden under this incubus of insufferable , half Eugene Sue , half casual reporter style of writing . Nay , at times , our authoress out-Herods Herod : she stumbles in with Latiii quotations—dog-Latin mostly , yet strewn broadcast all through the novel ; this is followed by the language of attaches , who " speak French ; '' then the slang of Bob Bampus and his friends , until the whole becomes a dish such as even a . fifthrate Parisian novel manufacturer would scarcely venture to set before "his customers . - - ¦' : ¦ , - ¦ : ¦ ¦ . ; ' . - ' . .: ¦ ¦¦ . - . . ¦ - . . ¦ ' ¦¦ . ¦ ' . :. . ; . , ' ¦ - ¦ ¦[/ ' , ' ¦ . ¦ Heading on the title-page that " the author reserves the right of translation , " we devoutly liope said author rnay never exercise this ri ght , lest foreigners should believe in the truth of a British . " photographic novel . "
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INTELLECTUAL EDUCATION . Intellectual Education , and its Influence on the Character and ITappiness of Women . By Emily Shirrcfir . J . W . Parker and Son . JVIiss Emily Shibeexi is one of the authors of a book / which has had . many readers—Thoughts 031 Self-culture . Her present work suggests , besides a theory of intellectual culture as generally adapted to women , a plan of education commencing with the child of twelve and ending with the girl of eighteen years of age . In developinp ; her main idea , Avliich sets aside as philosophically unsound and practically vain and unwise the whole discussion of compai * ative claims , powers , and rights , she has drawn upon the resources of a liberal and well-stored mind , and addresses herself principally to mothers wishing to undertake the education of their daughters , and often too young ,. ill-taugut » and inexperienced themselves to comprehend the magnitude of that responsibility . A preliminary inquiry discusses the requirements and capacities of children , but the general ? oope ' . of the essay is confined to the school-room discipline of girls during the six-years indicated as constituting the proper period for that elementary instruction "by means of which we hope to ground sound principles of moral and mental development . " The character is then formed and unfolded ; habits are acquired , tastes are trained . Before the age of twelve ^ in her vie \ s " , it is injudicious to enforce any serious system of education , and before seven to set any lessons to the child at all . That is the time for careless , healthy idleness , for amusement , for the free growth of the body , for the spontaneous acquisition of knowledge by observation , for the . tender culture of family and social relations . Upon these points Miss Shirreif is in harmony ¦ with Rousseau , whose argument against the encouragement of precocity might be separated from the rest of his works and reduced to a decalogue for the government of parents and teachers . Of course it is quite possible and desirable that a child should learn to read , but unless it is tempted even to this by its own inclination nothing is gained by premature compulsion , at least hefore the age of seven . Afterwards , fairy-tales , books of wonders , bright with , pictures , and sacredly free from science made easy , may tempt it to pleasant studies . l \ e thoroughly agi'ee with Miss Shirreff in prizing the old lore of crystal castles , of talking birds , of flying horses , of knights diving beneath lakes or wandering among the nodding horrors of forests to deliver enchanted princesses , as far superior to the-tractnrian class of fables , the little epilogues that tell of repi'obate fathers converted by model boys , and abandoned mothers reclaimed by small voices from the Sunday school . The bubbling springs of poetry are contained in the classics of fairy-laud , and the imagination which explores with anticipation of surprise the interior of pearly pahices in search of spell-bound fair ones with golden locks , is led thence to legend , ballad , lyric , epic , history , biography , and the glories and marvels of nature . It is not to bu supposed that James Watt never heard of Jack the Giunt-killcr , that George Stephensoii began with Archimedean primers , that Washington , nt live years old , delighted not in magic chivalry , that Florence Nig htingale m the nursery heard of no hero except the : Good Samaritan . After seven , M iss Shirred * recommends that tlie child should be accustomed to half nu hour ' s daily attention to study , about half an hour a day bring added yearly so as to graduate it in habits of application : — To make my mosuiing clear I will briefly cuuinurutc -wliut acijuirenients I . should expect to find in « girl of twelve years old . fcjhc should read and spell English pcr-
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JNO . 42 b , JTJUE O , J-ODO . J J- au JU JCj ± \ U JEj JA / . O 4 Y
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), June 5, 1858, page 547, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2245/page/19/
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