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philosophy and science in ancient Greece and through We Roman Empire , tracing the advance ofiearnirfg ' and philosophy from Socrates and Plato to Cicero . Mathematics culminated into the ¦ wonders of astronomical science at Alexandria , and gave the Romans greater advantages than ever fell to the Greeks . The connection between astronomy and religion was then traced , and the lecturer came to the decay of arts and arms in Greece . Generalising upon his Bubject , the professor pointed put that it was not by the exclusive cultivation of one science that the mind is best educated : We need the cultivation of numerous branches to ensure the overthrew
due cultivation of the mind , After the of the Roman Empire education fell into neglect ; but with the rise of the baronial and aristocratic power : a superior training was required . Here the professor pointed out the assistance to mental education derived from physical training . In conclusion , the professor pressed upon all young men studying for professions , not to be- contented with the inere requirements of the individual pursuit alone , but hy strenuous cultivation to strengthen all their mental powers . A man of more learning than sense is , like a general at Balaklava starving his troops for- want of knowiedge how-to get . at . the stores which are within his reach . •; The -object of
the student should be to attain the power of arrangement' and . a sound judgment , by which to bring as it were into a focus all points of value . Variety : of thought and ? versatility are best attained by broad arid liberal , culture ; and there is a danger of begins ning purely professional studj' at too early a period : A really liberal education makes the man a better citizen , and enables him to sympathise with all science and to gain knowledge from every source .
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V ICISSITUDES OF FAMILIES , and other Essays . By SirBernard Burke , Ulster King- of Arms . —Longman , Gre . ,. Long ? nan , ¦ & Roberts . This work , which- is one of great interest , has arrived at a second edition .. The interest is one essentially human . The author rightly judges that the interest attaching to individual fortunes excites more sympathy than what belongs to the fate of kingdoms . The mutability characterising these fortunes is of itself striking . " What race , " exclaims itr . Burke , "in Europe surpassed in royal position , personal achievement , and romantic n / TiTfirkiivrm * - * 4 it » / - \ Atrn "T ^ lViiiformr % cit-a <*/> Miollv wiert nQ
valiant , and no less renowned in the Cabinet than in the field ? But let us look back only so far as the year 1 G 37 , and we shall find the gr eat-great grandson of Margaret Plantagenet , erself the daughter and heiress of George , JJuke of Clarence , following the cobbler ' s craft at Newport , a little town in Shropshire ! Other instances are also adduced . Among the lineal descendants , for exainple , of Edmund of Woodstock , Earl of Kent , sixth son of Edward I ., King of England , entitfed { to quarter the royal arms , occur a butcher and a toll-gatherer ; the first , a
JMr . Joseph Smart , of Hales Owen ; the latter , a Mr . George Wilmot , keeper of the turnpike gate at Cooper ' s Bank , near Dudley . Then , -again , among the- descendants of Thomas Plantagenet , Duke of Gloucester , fifth son of Edward HI . * we discover Mr . Stephen James Penny , the late sexton at St . George ' s , Hanover-square . Such are the changes , more dr less wonderful , effected by time . Scotland and Ireland are' as abundant in instances as in England . r . The catalogue of family misfortunes begins with the Percys and the Nevilles . Wo have , then , the " rise and fall of the Cromwells , " a iamily of high standing in Huntingdonshire , long before the birth became rich the
of the great Oliver , and who by purchase of dissolved monasteries . The male line of the family expired in 1821 with Mr . Oliver Cromwell , an attorney , and the son of a grocer . Within four generations it sunk into absolute obscurity , andTbecame altogether extinct . ^ The liairde of Gartsherrie Ironworks occupy an important chapter . , The sons Of a small farmer r osining at Monkland , near Glasgow , who , between 1-820 and the present year , have raised themselves to the ( iret position as Scottish merchants by the development of the coal and iron trade . Within tho 4 aat twelve or fifteen years they have secured by purchase magnificent estates . On this subject Sir Bernard Burke indulges in the following rcflectidnsi— •" ¦ ••* . 1-
,. tfl ,. trust that I shall not wound aristocrat ^ feelings—I will not calji thqm prejudice ^ ( for i such feelings ore , good in their proper place and , v < ffcl ) in due fcoundf ^ when J , a , ay UnU > evwh trammer of great « fltatm ;; fcam the old to the new ^ racea . ^ an Immense befteflt . to the country , < Wot-that- , i | np nev nawM § ft
better landlord , neighbour , magistrate , or member of Parliament than the man of ancient lineage ; generally quite thereverse . Not that the individual instances of a noble , and time-honoured , race being forced to give way to one fresh from the ranks of the people , are . ^ otherwise than repugnant to our tastes and habits of thought . But such changes serve as the props and bulwarks of the existing social and political institutions . of Great . Britain . In this country there is happily no conventional barrier raised against the admission of a man of the people into the ranks of the aristocracy . Industry and good conduct , favoured by Providence , in the acquisition of wealth , may raise a poor man to a place among the rich landed gentry of the country , and another generation may see him not only in the House of Lords , but allied by blood to the highest
families of the laud . . " Therefore it is the true interest of the people to maintain those social and political institutions which are thus liberal towards them . >• " If the insurmountable barrier of a proud nobility of sixteen quarters existed in England , as it did , and as it still does , in some continental countries , pur government and constitution would « iot be worth six months' purchase . It is the safeguard of English institutions that adruission to the aristocracy is not exclusively barred Against the ambition of a man of humble birth , and that a place there , when once obtained , is jealously guarded by the right of primogeniture . Each generation witnesses the ascent the le the
of numbers of men of peopamong upper ten thousand of English aristocracy , and when there , they generally become the most exclusive preservers of the footing which they have gained . It is well for England that men like . the Bairds hasten to invest their hundred thousand or their million in great landed estates ; and moreover , that they centre their wealth on their eldest sons . What a contrast does this rich , flourishing , popular aristocracy exhibit to the poverty-stricken nobility of most continental countries , which , on the ojie ha n , rarely admits of accessions from the people , and on the other , fritters away its possessions by eternal subdivisions of titles and estates among every branch of its race , however remote .
" This forms one of the most striking and beneficial discrepancies between our social institutions and those . of most of the great continental states . "With us , a merchant no sooner realises a ' fortune then his ambition is to be a country gentleman , and to push upwards among the old families of a county . He sends his son to Eton and Oxford , where he associates on equal terms with young men of birth . He seeks matrimonial alliances for his children among those of a superior class : and , unless there is ( something ridiculous or forbidding about him efforts uccessful
and his family , hj } s are generally s , and the next generation sees the Liverpool merchant or the Manchester cotton-spinner ' s son or grandson associated and allied with houses which were founded at the conquest or during the barons' wars . There is scarcely a peer , however exalted his rank : may be , who has not some degree of cousinhood with families of very ordinary pretensions ; and not a few of our Cabinet ministers in modern times are but one remove from the counting-house , through the intermediate step of a merchant or cotton-spinner turned squire . "
" Dick Martin ' s Act" for preventing cruelty to animals ought to be sufficient to preserve the family of Connemara from oblivion . The member for Galway was the representative of this house . Sir B . Burke devotes a chapter to " the Princess of Connemara , " the last owner of the vast estate -which , notwithstanding its extent , was so encumbered that it became a serious question in what way she was to kcejp the inheritance together . The princess married a poor relation , Mr . Gbnnc Bell ; whereupon the story proceeds as follows ,: — - . ,. « .. .
•* On the day of marriage Mr . Gonne Bell assumed by royal license , dated 15 th Sept . 1847 , the name of his bride * and shortly afterwards both parties united in borrowing a large euro of money , from the Law Life , Assurance Company , in order to consolidate the encumbrances upon the estate at a Lower rate of interest . But this attempt to . save themselves was defeated by events over which they had . np ; control . The year , of famine carae on ,. government works were commenced , and tlm tenants , boob , oeased to pay
any rents whatever , and as a . natural ; . consequence the owners of ftp , m ^ ny , thousand < acres , were uo longer able to pay up tho 7 inBtft , Mne . ntajduo upon their , mortgage , Men actu > £ in lurge bodjea ^ re , seldom ao meroiftU aa when they are ., Jn 4 iv ! dM » My , responsible fw theiu aeed , s ,, an 4 the Lfrvr ( W ) T »? A 8 » viinucoi 8 ovJoty formed no-exception , fco . . ( hl « * wtert > Jf . geneual expert * wco . TU . oy iasiaterti . vpon Mf * dj * e , fperft > rinanw m their fcpnek and tbftfc »>« inglufld « R , ^ o ^ brourastuncea imp ^ ftW > lei tlua , vo « tC ^ nnwm (> r ^ ipipjpe »; ty « mo . w > jQ the EnonmbttWJd Ketivt ^ Qmvt * - » n 4 Pbtfomm * ; <* M
race of Martin of Ballinahinch was sold out : the times were the worst possible for an advantageous sale ; and the Assurance Company bought in almost the entire of the estate , at a sura immeasurably below ? Its real value , and quite inadequate , even with the produce of the remnant of the lands bought byother parties , to tlie liquidation of its heavy liabilities . Not a single acre remained for the poor heiress of what was once a princely estate , and while others were thus fattening upon her ancient inheritance , the Princess of Connemara , ' without any fault of her own . became an absolute pauper . The home of
her fathers had passed away to strangers , leaving nothing behind but debts and the bitter recollection of what she had la ^ Hy been . A more painful example of family decadence will not easily be found , though the roll of such events , as I baye already shown , i s sufficiently extensive . In most cases the fall is more , or less gradual , the downward course speeding on with e ' aeli descendant- But here , although the worrn of decay had for some time been at work , eating and undermining what seemed from its size to be indestructible , yet its progress ^ was almost too rapid for . notice , and when the building fell it seemed to fall at once , sweeping , everything
before it . -. . . This narrative will not only speak for itself , but recommend the book of which , it forms a part . Nothing more romanticthan these true stories can be found in the whole range of fiction . They have , besides , the advantage of being facts , and will command the attention of intelligent readers .
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THE JirNISTEK'S 'W ' dOING . By E . Beeclxer Stowe » Author of " Uncle Tom ' s Cabin , " " Sunny aicinories , " &c . —Sampson L <> w , Son & Co . «• ¦ Thje Minister ' s Wooing " is a different story from any of Mrs . Stowe ' s previous works , and : one which will convince many of her thoughtful and critical readers , vrho have hitherto doubted her capabilities , that she is able to write an ifiter ' estbag story of quiet domestic Kfe as well as one made up of horrible . incidents of slave life . But before we examine critically the work we will give an . outline of the story . In the introduction , Mrs .
Stowe says she " has endeavoured in this story to paint a style of life and manners which existed in New England in the earlier days of her national existence . Some of the characters are historic . The leading events of the story ore founded on actual facts , although the author has taken the liberty to arrange and vary them for the purposes of the story ; " , further , * 'has executed the work with a reverential tenderness for those great and religious minds who laid in New Eng land the foundations of many generations , and tor those institutions and habits of life from which , asirom
a fruitful germ , sprang all the present prosperity of America ; " concludes by reconnnending * t " to the kindly thoughts of the British fireside , from which the fathers and mothers of America first went out to give to English ideas and institutions a growth in the hew world . " ' The jrtpry opens after the Wax for independence , and treats of Puritan life and manners , worn a domestic point of view , as they existed in some of the settlements
of New England at thajt' time . The . principal scene is laid in Newport , where a tea party is g iven by Widow Scudder to her neighbours , which gives Mrs . Stowe an opportunity . pf presenting to the reader some well-conceived and : lively sketches of character and mannerisms , that bear witness that she has closely studied the times of Trfuch , her story treats . The widow has pne daughter , whose portrait is so poetically ' clmwh by jMrs . Stpwe that wo caaaot refrain from quoting it :- ^ -
" The gentle Mary stands in . the . doorway with the af ternoon sun streaming in spots of flickering golden light on lipv smooth pale-brown hair ,-r-a petite figure , in a full stuff petticoat and wlute Bhortkowu , she stands reaching- up one hand and ^ oomg to something among tlw applerblossonw .-rand npwa Java dove comes wliirring round . and aottlearpa Uer flniror . —and we , tlxut liay . O : § een pictuies , think , as we lools on her girlish face , ^ ith its . litoea of atotu-, esaue beauty , on the tremmlous , hwWnfantine expression of her lovely month , and the general w ^ . of simuUcitv and pucity .- 'Ofl jsonuj ^ old pigturoa oiJfthe
KirJhood of the Virgin . , « Mt Mrs ., aouuuer was thinlunff of no . siwU J ? opieli matter , I . icaa aspure youi-not Bhei , I don't- ^ i nlq ^ ou could JU » vo dono W ft heater iwdisaltythanitp nxontioft her a ^ ujjRUtei ? in any such connection * ,. fihD , h * d ; nov «» . ' , Reert a painting to . her M < h nwkMmetoWtw »* MM $ a'l"bQ rewittded of tliW »> , find iAwtharmox « mthe'jdftwfljW « B : evidentJyj for Borne-xwsjm >* i » o ftHTPturltOjrnfiwv ^^ e ea 4 < L , in Ai qHlok ^ fli « pi e )« i » tliy ^ vt «> ow « vj : > t <; Qmo , lioo » e » cliiid 1 don't tool \ rit / Utthat * , fclcflvfit ' fl lti ^ ,, limfc me were dr ^ sed , a « a fW ^ y ^ rrrftttd-iM ^ yvbUw ^ ofi ^ vafl
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^ 49 9 . Oct . 15 , 1859- ] THE LKADEB . U 57
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), Oct. 15, 1859, page 1157, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2316/page/17/
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