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LITERATURE.
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Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
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" ^^— ¦ TTiHE eminently useful individual who , goes about J _ " calling people ' s attention " has brought under the notice of Mr . T . C . Newby tlie statement of " George Eliot , " and tTie remarks of the Press upon that lady or gentleman ' s letter . . Mr . Newby says , in a letter to a contemporary , " 1 hat I have advertised a book , entitjed ' Adam Bede , Junior , a sequel , ' is true ; that I have endeavoured to delude the public into a belief that the wo rk was written by Miss Evans or George Eliot , is false . " ,
Lord Brougham is about to issue his Mathematical Works in one volume , dedicated to the TJniversity of Edinburgh . The announcement is thus made : "In the press , and speedily will be published , in one vol ., 8 vo , dedicated to the University of Edinburgh . ' Tracts , Mathematical and Physical , ' By Henry Lord Brougham , I / L . D ., F . R . S ., Member of the National Institute of France , and Chancellor of the University of Ediiibur-h . ' " ' The tracts or essays are in number eleven . Mr . John Veitch , M . A ., author of the " Memoir of Dugald Stewart , " in the new edition of his works , and joint editor with Professor Mansel of " Sir William Hamilton ' s Lectures , " is a candidate for the chair of Logic in the University of St . Andrew ,
vacant by the death of Professor Spalding . ' The Council of University College , London , at their session on Saturday last , appointed Syerl Abdoolah Professor of Hindustani in tlieCollege . The chair had been held , in conjunction with that of Tamil , by the Baron Von Streng , who , however , on learning that Syed Abdobla-h was willing to undertake to instruct the class , and after bearing testimony to his high qualifications for the office , offered to make way for him for the reasons urged on another occasion by Sir Henry Rawliuson , that although the dead languages are best taught by European professors skilled in the science of grammar , and with some knowledge of comparative philology , a native should bo preferred for all the living dialects of India .
Messrs . Hogg annouiTce that their magazine , Titan , will not be published after the present number , with which number it concludes its twentyninth volume . The Academy of Inscriptions and Belles Lectres has just announced the subjects for the prizes to be given in 1860 and 18 G 1 . The Bordin gold medal , of the value of 3 , 000 fr ., is to be conferred , next year , on an essay on the knowledge of the ancients respecting that part of Africa situated within the tropics , and particularly Nlgretia and the region of the Upper Nile , from the time of Herodotus to 1861 it is to be
that of Pliny and Ptolemy . In , given to the best history of the language and literature of the Ethiopians , with a list of the original works and translations , an account of the various epochs of the literature of Abyssinia , and oi the characteristics that mark the dates of questionable writings . The Louis Fould prize , which consists of the interest on 20 , 000 fr . for three years , will be given , next year , to the author of the best history of the arts of design , their origin , progress , and transmission j to be written in French or Latin , and open to the competition of all the world . It is that Empiath
reported M . , e ex-manager of the Theatre Francais , has boon appointed Inspector-Gonerul of Public Libraries . The post , which was originally created for M . Rdmiou , as a consolation for the loss of the direction of the Beaux Arts , has not hitherto been filled up since his death . „ , _ , , The second edition of " The Life of Sir Charles Bell , " by Am £ d 6 e Piohot , is just announced for publication—the first having been eagerly cauyht up by the great man ' s admirers on the Continent . " At the present moment" ( says a Paris lotter ) " a vast BDirit of inauJrv hua arisen in Franco concerning the claim
right assumed by science in England to an equal share of the world ' s gratitude with that ot Franco , and tliu publication of this " History ot Sir Charles Bell" has done a great deal to dissipate the ignorant opposition with which such claim has sometimes been mot . Society , the only rightful judge ot medical skill , and whoso judgment , being founded on self-interest , is seldom in ftiult , has chosen inXraiice to adopt tho renown of many a British physician with as much good will as that accorded to those belonging to tho French school . Bua'han and Jamoa in the last generation—Simpson and Clerk In our ownare as well known and frequently quoted as the most popular professors of the Academic do Modialae . "
HEATHEN AND HOLY LANDS : OR , SUNNY DAYS ON THE SALWEEN , NILE , AND JORDAN . By Captain J . P . Briggs . —Smith , Elder and Co . It is seldom that we meet with a book of travels so original as this . It commences , not with England , but with the antipodean provinces of Tavoy— -a beautiful section of our Indian Empire . We thus start at once in the East , on the banks of the Tehasserim , amongst Budhists and Burmese , a picturesque group , but strange . Captain Briggs is minute in his description of the place and manners , 'having acted therein a judicial capacity . Christian missions have been more successful
among these people than elsewhere in the East . Were proper assistance sent out to them , Captain Briggs is of opinion , that they would meet with unprecedented encouragement . There is a marked , difference in prosperity and comfort between the Christian and heathen villages and districts . A great check , too , is put to crimes of violence hy Christian teachings . He calculates the number of Christians in the Tenasserim provinces at 75 , 000-souls . "As a Magistrate , " fie adds , "
upwards of eight years' experience on this coast , I can vouch for the great improvement in morality among the Christian Karens , and can affirm that ten Christian villages give less work to a police officer than one heathen Karen village . " The reader will resort with considerable confidence to such a record as this , proceeding from an authority so competent . He proceeds to state that polygamy is allowed among the people ; but most have only One wife , and few more than two .
" The first , or head wife , " the Captain continues , " usually the choice of the husband in his youth ; and when she ceases to have children she often assistsln the choice of a young wife , who is bound to obey her ; . for here , at least , children are still an assistance , not a burden to their parents . Marriage is simply a civil contract , -which either party may dissolve on certain grounds , such , as proved incompatibility of temper , or" barrenness ; the penalty , on the other hand , being that the dissatisfied party usually gives a dowry , or forfeits all personal effects to the other . The woman lias equal civil rights with the man , and even a casual observer niu « t remark fewer disputes and quarrels between man and wife than in any other community . remark the
"I have already passed a on morality and influence of the Budhist priests , but they are also the ordinary sc hoolmasters of the country . They employ their leisure in teaching , gratuitously , the boys of the village , or division of the town , in the vicinity of their monastery , to rend and write their native language ; while women who have taken ascetic vows , or sometimes old widows , give similar instruction to the girls . The simple rudiments of arithmetic are also taught in these schools , but beyond this the education of tlie laity seldom goes ; a young man , however , who wishes to acquire the abstruse tenets of the Budhist creed , is boarded and lodged in the monastery for any time he may desire to prosecute his studies . ''
The people are prone to suicide also , on slight occasions ; children corrected by their parents , or thwarted in their affections , resort to it at once as a refuge from oppression . Yet they are disposed to gaiety . National festivals are frequent—races , banquets , games , wrestling-matches , and buflalofighting . The author has divided his book into two parts , the first being devoted to the above particulars . He commences the second part with some account of Cairo ; the Nile , the pyramids of Egypt , and Thebes . He spent a -whole day » t Esneh , and also he
examined the temple . Another day spent on beautiful , unearthly Philoe , and then away on into the burning lands of Ethiopia , past Derr , its qapital , and Aboo-Symbal , on till he reached Wadee Hnlfeh , just below the second , cataract , on the thirty-second day from Cairo . " We find him soon , after tho example of Belzoni , exploring tlie passages and chambers of tho Tombs at Thebes , and , in nil respects , nortorraing tho part of an earnest , energetic , and courageous traveller . We have next his visit to Denderah , and his examination of the temple of Athor ; nor was he inattentive to the antiquities of Memphis , nnd the
pyramids of Salmrah . Tho city m which Moses was educated by a princess oould not fail to interest him ; nor is ho unmindful that here was kopt the famous bull " Apis . " Tho tombs of those sacred bulls have been found lately by a Frenchman , M . Manyat , " who is busy despoiling them oi thoir most valuable antiquities . " Why has not England its paid savans , commissioned to make and register
all such discoveries , for the benefit of science and philosophy ? But we do nothing for " an idea . " We abandon all such influences to the Gaul . In our traveller ' s estimation , the Egyptians , both men and women , are generally very plain ; Alexandria , a mixture of the Oriental and European , is in the worst taste ; yet , from its situation , may be the capital of the world , and is the stepping-stone between Europe and India . We must speed rapidly through the remaining chapters of the book . Smyrna , the villages of Iona , RKodes , and Cyprus are now-a-days familiar names : so likewise is Palestine and its suburbs .
But here our traveller manifests enthusiasm , and expects his reader to sympathise with him . He had chosen the spring-time for his visit , and found Palestine in all its glory . He passed through to the hill-country of Judea , and entered a country where the rose of Sharon no longer blooms—in fact , awilderness and robberhaunt . But at length he saw , from the heights , Jerusalem , and shortly afterwards was within the sacred walls . Here we leave him ; merely adding , that the last chapter shows him on board-ship , * steaming down the Red Sea , bound for the far— - far East . ''
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AT HOME AND ABROAD . By Bayard Taylor . —Sampson Low , Son , and Co . As a traveller Mr . Bayard Taylor has won public confidence as much as in his capacity of bookmaker . His penchant for travel appears to have been as decided as that of the celebrated Ida . Pfeiffer , whom we see Mr . Taylor claims as his friend . His wish , however , took the form of an elevated position , and thus the command of a wider horizon . His instinct , accordingly , was to climb a mountain , and he was able at length to gratify his ardent desire in the neighbourhood of the . Hudson , among
the Catskills . This trip he made . during an apprenticeship holiday . It served also for his apprenticeship to a traveller ' s life . It was his first start in the world . We next find him on' the Susquehanna River , at Baltimore and in Washington ; undergoing , meanwhile , the weai-iness and tlie perils of a night -walk of many miles—nearly fifty—in order to gain his destination . Some people think that the . great difficulty of travelling is an ignorance of foreign tongues . Mr . Taylor assures his readers , on the authority of Ida Pfeiffer and his own , that the assumed difficulty is no difficulty at all . Difficulties , like dangers , he
tells us , appear formidable at a distance , but when encountered face to face they vanish . It is his opinion that if all mankind were suddenly deprived of the power of speech , though the embarrassment and confusion would be very great for a few days , yet , ere the lapse of a fortnight , government , business , and society would move on in their accustomed courses . On entering a foreign country the traveller naturally resorts to signs and gestures , and soon aids them with tone and expression . That unused power of interpretation which developes itself so marvellously in the deaf and
dumb is at once called into action ; and answers the purpose much better than an imperfect knowledge of the language , The facilities of modern travel are , however , now so greatly multiplied that ?« the veriest Cockney may travel from London to Vienna and find his own language spoken m every hotel he enters . Railroads have not only brought about the abolition of all the real annoyance ^ of the passport system , but they have increased travel to such an extent as to make it , in some cQunfliofl , the chief source of revenue to the people—who are thus obliged to aocommodate themselves in every possible way to tho wants ot
their customers . " In these narratives Mr . Taylor has recorded some minor incidents which would not readily find a place in his larger and more important books of travels . Amongst theso memorabilia be records some visionary visitations whioh will occur to tho tired traveller when , from sheer weariness , the will ns woll as tho body becomes passive , and imoffination , prompted by some unknown stimulus , revels in a world of her own making . Those tales of the supernatural are exceedingly well tola , and there are those who will not so readily accept tho natural solution as tho author himself .
We must , in justiqe to the author and the subject , which , now-a-days has acquired such extraordinary importance , present an example or two of these special experiences .
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LITERARY NOTES OF THE WEEK . "
Literature.
LITERATURE .
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Ko . 507- Dec . 10 ,. 1859 . ] THE IiEADEB . 1349
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Leader (1850-1860), Dec. 10, 1859, page 1349, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2324/page/17/
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