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    LITERATURE, SCIENCE, ART, &c.

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    Untitled Article

    It is not merely the fact tliat w are arrived at that lull in publishing matters which precedes the great doings in May and the opening of the London season ; but it is plain that the absorbing interest which is excited by matters altogether non-literary has produced an unnatural scarcity of those topics to -which this article is usually addressed . Precluded by a sense of propriety from commenting upon matters of mere personal interest upon the one hand , and by the utter absence of specific facts on the other , our condition is only to be paralleled by that miserable

    dilemma in which the children of Israel found themselves when they were required to make bricks without straw , and were not even allowed a scanty modicum of chaff for a substitute . Perhaps the most interesting event of the week - —though it is certainly one which will be eared for in a very limited circle only—has been the commencement of the sale of the Libri MSS . at Messrs . Sotheby and Wilkinson ' s Rooms , in Wellington-street . To the uninitiated observer , strolling : in accidentally to wile away an hour over the sale , in the expectation of watching the fluctuating biddings and the eagerness of the bidders , it would be a disappointment to find the whole matter in the hands of some twelve or

    fifteen very ordinary-looking -personages , chs .- ? posing of the whole business in a very calm , unconcerned , and undemonstrative manner . No excitement , no anxiety , noner of that eager covetousness which distinguishes a sale which is attended by wealthy buyers , by the amateurs themselves , and where the conclusion of a vehement struggle for the mastery is greeted by a round of applause . In point of fact , almost the only attendants at the Libri sale are dealers , with commissions , of course , from great collectors and national collections ^ and these gentlemen

    very naturally get the matter over with as little trouble and excitement to themselves as possible . The . truth is , that at all these sales the intervention of an agent is absolutely necessary ; for , independently of the fact that they have a better understanding among themselves than , outside buyers can possibly have , they are invaluable in keeping secret the identity of the actual purchaser , which is a point of infinite importance . Were it known , for instance , that the British Museum or the Bibliothec | ue had determined upon having a book , the price might be run up upon having a book , the price might be run up

    against them to a ruinous extent . In spite ,, however of the secrecy preserved , "we betieve that the British Museum and Sir Thomas Phillips have been the great purchasers in the first four days' sale . During the early part of the first day , the prices ranged ridiculously low ; but an influx of orders from the country and abroad made a great change in the aspect of affairs , and it is now thought that the entire collection will not fetch much less than £ 8 , 000 , Among the lots , which . excited the greatest amount of competition we may notice a vellum MS . of the venerable Bedo ' s Commentary on St , . M a ^ k , which fetched 1241 . ; a splendid manuscript of the

    Epistles and lesser works of St . Cyprian , belonging to the eighth century , which Drought I 7 o £ » a paper Dante , 581 . ; a fine Greek manuscript of the Evangelists , with various readings , 174 ? . ; an Armenian vellum copy of the Evangelists , with illuminated calendar and letters , 907 . ; a Latin Gospel on vellum , with a preface of J Hioronymua , 150 / . ; an illuminated Gospel , 100 ? . ; a MS , of an unpublished work of Galileo , entitled "Do Munch Sphasra cum JTiguris , " in his own handwriting , 101 ? . ( this was purchased for the British Museum ) ? a Hebrew MS . on the Pascal Feast , with Spanish illuminations , 108 / . The sale will not be concluded until next Tuesday . We should bo at a loss to pi'onounoe upon tl * p most compact book which has appeared during the week . With scarce an exception , they hove been of a slight or ephemeral charadtei' — -pamphlets , novels , and the like . Perhaps the most curious iu that of a little brochure published l > y

    Messrs . Kent and Co ., a monograph on rabbits cooking , by an English gourmet . This amateur of the timid inhabitant of the warren gives no less than one hundred and twenty-four distinct ways of cooking rabbits ! . '<'¦' Next week we have forthcoming a new novel by the talented author of " It is Never too Late to Mend . " We understand that this time Mr . Beade will be really original , and will give

    a practical answer to those contumers who assert that he is obliged to trade upon borrowed capital . The nanie of this coming book is a proof that he has not lost his predilection for p roverbial titles ; it is , " Love Me Little , Love Me Long , " and is intented to illustrate the lesson which Davie Gellatly gave to young Waverley , that the passions of young men are like blazing straw , and that which burns not so brightly hath more enduring heat . —

    " Young man ' s wrath is like light straw on fire , Heard , ye so merrily the little bird sing ; But like whitfi-hpt steel is-the old man ' s ire , And the throstle-cock ' s head is under his wing . " Another candidate for fame in the field of fiction is Mr . H . F . Choi-ley , who has ridden many tournays in the lists of literature before this ; though ( sooth to say ) he lias always been worsted hitherto . Mr . Ghorley is said to have chosen for this new venture " the wrongs of the women in the higher classes ; " As it may be fairly presumed that he never would have undertaken such a subject without a proper knowledge of the subject , some amount of success may be at last expected .

    Among other announcements are a volume of poems by Mr . Garnett , of the British Museum Library , called " Io , -and other Poems . " Mr ; Garnett has already earned some laurels by a little unpretending volume , entitled " Primula " ( Hardwicke ) , which made its appearance anonymously last year , and attracted some notice . He is the son of Garnett , the linguist , also formerly of the British Museum .

    A posthumous work of Hugh Miller's is also immediately forthcoming , entitled , i'A Sketchbook of Popular Geology , " consisting of lectures delivered at the Philosophic Institute of Edinburgh , and with a preface by his widow , herself no mean geologist . Messrs . A . and C . Black , of Edinburgh , will produce , on the 1 st of May , the first volume of a new edition of Waverley , with most of the old engravings , and at a price reduced much below the last forty-eight volume edition . '

    It is pleasing to find that all gratitude is not yet extinct in the world . Lady Bulwer , grateful to Mr . " \ Voodley , the proprietor and editor of the Somerset County Gazette , for his zealous advocacy of her rights during her late incarceration in an asylum , ' has presented her champion with a magnificent silver inkstand . May he never have occasion to use it in her service again ! The Bookseller , among other items of interesting intelligence , informs us that Mr . Edwards , formerl y of the British Museum Library , more lately Chief Librarian of the Manchester Free Library and the author of the grea , t work on Libraries , lately published by Mr . Trubnor , has taken to trade by joining the firm of Dunnill and Palmer , in Manchester . Our French notes of noveltios are but meagre .

    * ' *» AAMUV'MV t ** . ***** IM 7 ^*« % W UUVJJMI 4 VU MIA * ** WW * VWU « M g paper on the trial and execution of Havaillac , the murderer of Henri Quatre , as part of his series called "Lo Ti'esor des pieces raves ofc inedites . " There is a new Gazette des JBeaux Arts , started tinder the editorship of M , Charles Blonoj the brother of M . Louis Blanc , and now ( wo behove ) employed in the engraving department of the Bibliothe (][ UQ Imperialo . It is now in its sixth number , and , from the specimens we have seen , is , both as to matter and illustrations , second to nothing of the kind that has ever boon attemptod . Wo have to correot an error in stating that Mr . Baynes , the author of the masterly essays wo lately reviewed , is an American . The Scotch are too proud to own him to allow this error to pass uncorrooted .

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    AMERICAN LITERATURE . Triibner ' s Biographical Guide to American Literature ' a classed list ( if books published in the United State ' of America during the last forty years . With Biblio ' s graphical Introduction , Notes , and Al phabetical Index . Compiled and edited by Nicholas Triibner . Triibner and Co . [ CONCLUDED . ] Periodical literature , independent of such publications as more properly come under the denomination of newspapers , forms smot her class , and the names of the journals which it embraces fill seven pa ^ es . Indeed , newspapers and periodicals devoted to literature and science may very justly be called

    the foster parents of American literature , and , therefore , in a work like the present , they claim for theinselveaa careful and accurate classification . The first newspaper , or news-placard , as its originators designated it , wliich appeared iu America , was printed at Boston , in 1 G 89 . ; but the first regular issue of . it was in the autumn of the following year . _ This " News-placard " is one of the greatest of bibliographical curiosities , only a single copy of it being known , preserved in our State-paj ? er Office , at Whitehall . It was rigidly suppressed , as it " came out contrary to law , and - ¦¦ contained

    reflections of very high nature . " By high , as applied in the language of ¦ the . Circumlocution Office of that day , we presume we are to understand offensive to the Government , at the tinie quite sufficient ground for stippressing any newspaper at home . Freedom of the press was thus nipped in the bud , and it was not till fourteen yews afterwards , in 1704 , that the postmaster of Boston , John Campbell , produced the Boston News Letter , which is , properly speaking , the parent of American newspapers . That journal continued in existence till 1776 , and its siiccess called into being two

    rivals in 1719—the Boston Gazette arid the American Weekly J \ fercurie \ —all three issued weekly , and the latter at Philadelphia . In 1754 Boston issued four weekly newspapers , representing the opinions of the New Eiiglanders , the politicians frpin whom sprang " the Tea-party , " to whom the declaration of American independence , in 1776 is mainly due . Pennsylvania and New York , also , each had two weekly papers in 1754 , but it was not till after that declaration that the ¦ freedom , of

    the press called into being a host of newspapers , and even in the first year of independence no leas than thirty-four weekly newsjiapers were published in the young republic , la 1 S 01 the number had increased to something like two hundred , several of which were issued daily . In the year 1810 the official report gives a total of three hundred and fifty-nine , of which twenty-seven were dnilv papers ; and in 1850 , the date of the last official statement , quoted in the volume , these had increased to two thousand eight hundred , with an annual circulation of between four nml five hundred millions of copies Since then it is estimated that the number of newspapers ptibliahcd in the tinted States is little less than four thousand . w -- -

    r ^ UiVVVM AM AH V Wf *^ AVWM * r ^** VARMVV ^^ — — , - Habits of thought once nccpuvQ < l hy a people seldom lose their original nntionnlity . vj o ¦ quite agree with the opening passage of Mr . 4- rubnors prolegomena :- — „ " The literature of a people takos Us impress fl-oni their peculiar habits of thoug ht , or it would not : w > national but universal In no case is this wore ovdont than in that of England , in nil classes ol vrhlcn there- is the unmistakable practical Ang lo-biucon sense as its chief characteristic If wo wish to undorstand thoso habits of thought of any nation , * o must carefully study the gradual tonne in \ v \ nuh way havo been deroloped , beginning with them- hW" ™ and tracing thorn down to our own times , L » ° r nation oatfi , which Punstnn prepared for tbo Angtt

    Saxon king , is still , but slightly altoroa , mo w »«» tion oath of . the sovereigns of England , and J 1 \ " '" the eye over the six volumes of Anglo-Saxon chaitors , collected by the late Mr . J . M . Komblo , ™ ° } J ™ £ " to admit that , allowing for altered el ™ " '" 1 ^ 08 ' the Anglo-Saxon mind of the tenth oonfurv beorj . J strong affinity to . that of the EngllHmum qf wo nineteenth . If this bo so with regard toj g " literature , how much more necessary is tlio k" ° ] ledge of tiio sources which »« -vo Borvoil to ft » m uiw habits of thought of tho poopjo of the Uiiltocl bt ucs of America , wlio , iu Uttlo mor <} thau halt a conturj ,

    Untitled Article

    LITERARY" CJ 1 HONICLE OF THE WEEK . ¦ ¦ -. —r- *» ¦ '

    Literature, Science, Art, &C.

    LITERATURE , SCIENCE , ART , &c .

    Untitled Article

    428 THE PSTo . 4 ^ 1 , April 2 , 185 Q . .: \

• Citation
  • Leader (1850-1860), April 2, 1859, page 428, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2288/page/12/