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18 fHE LE A j D E _B 1 ___ .__C^ o jJ^\^...
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GOSSE'& MAEINE ZOOLOGY. A JIfaiiualvf Ma...
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LADY BULWEK'S LAST. Very Successful! By ...
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THE MILDMAYES. The Mildmayes; or, the Cl...
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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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State Paper Anecdotes. State Papei's And...
near it , -with , orders to let no one go out , and sent for large glasses , and gave each , of them toiee or four bumpers , as a sign that he meant to do them honour . Addison , writing' from . Paris , complained that he had not seen a blush since he came among the French people . Possibly he might have admired tke shyness of the Czar . We scarcely know what to think of Stepney ' s " passion" as declared to Leibnitz : — Herewith is a specimen of our English stage . The piece is not uvithont wit , but it might pass for rather too libertiae , and that is why I dare not have it sent to Berlin ; but you will do , eir , with it as you please , and perhaps the morality of " Plato" will have the better of the licentiousness of a fashionable author . I entreat you to cast me at the feet of our adorable Electress , and to believe me , with much passion and esteem , & c . : , So Berlin would not tolerate what " was fashionable in London .
It would not be easy to show , by extracts , how valuable or how entertaining this volume is . The parts are so connected by allusion and by the intermediate passages of biography , that they must be read together . The editor , however , might have spared himself any apology for the publication . His work is one which must be consulted by every student of European history during the period referred to , and as that period is the important one prior to the grand alliance against Louis XIV , it is obvious that letters and papers like these , instead ^ o f being superfluous , are essential , not only to the historian , but to those critical readers by whom the historian's accuracy is tested .
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Gosse'& Maeine Zoology. A Jifaiiualvf Ma...
GOSSE' & MAEINE ZOOLOGY . A JIfaiiualvf Marine Zoology _ for the British Isles . By Philip Henry Gosse . Van Yoorst . Mb . <* oss : e has * deserved well of the ^ Republic of Letters ; ' and in point of direct service he has done nothing so admirable as the compilation of this excellent Manual ^ for which every naturalist and every amateur at the seaside -will thank him . It is distinctively a book to be used , not a book to be read . Its purpose is to enable the student to identify any animal he may find on . the sea-shore , or in the rock-pools ; and thus it fills the place of a glossary of technical terms in one of Nature ' s most interesting books . Many a man finds his interest tepid till it is warmed by the satisfaction of naming the objects brought before him ; there is a delight in naming for its own sake ; and when this process of naming is the proimrinary step to
acquiring all other knowledge of the object , we may understand the interest it excites ^ Now suppose you have been rambling among the rocks , and ybur . Tiitt & ntion is arrested by a little creature , bright in colour , elegant in form , creeping along the dark underside of an overhanging ledge , evidently tiot a fish , evidently not a crab , evidently not a worm , yet wholly unknown to you . If your ignorance finds no resource in the knowledge of some better-instructed companion , you must continue your ramble , content to be ignorant of the name , the nature , and the habits of this animal . If , on the contrary , you have Mr . Gosse ' s Manual at home , you carry the creature away with you , and turning over Mr . Gosse ' s pages soon ascertain its name , or at least the genus to which it belongs ; having thus found the place of the animalin the . great aninxal kingdom , you can then turn to any work on natural history to learn about the structure and habits of your new acquaintance .
Suci is the sort of service rendered by this Manual to the uninstructed ; and not Jess useful is the service rendered to the naturalist , for few naturalists can carry in their memories the burden of all the generic distinctions between marine animals . In the first part of this Manual there are given all the genera of Radiata and Annulosa , in the second all the Mollusca and Vertebrata . _ Besides the clear , succinct description of each genus , a woodcut illustration of each renders the eye familiar with the form . It turns out curiously enough that the number of illustrations ia each part is the same , namely , three hundred and thirty-nine ; that is to say , there are extl d
acy as many genera now recognizeof Radiate and Annulose animals as there are of Molluscs and Vertebrates . This is , of course , a mere accident , fimce the division into genera is arbitrary , and no one pretends that all genera are known . Be that as it may , this little book , which may conveniently find a placei in the pocket , contains six hundred and seventy-ei <» ht woodcut illustrations , the greater part of them original drawings by Mr . Go 3 se himself ; so that if it possessed no other merit this would alone suffice to render it indispensable to the naiuralist . Happily the book luis other merits , in the shape of information carefully compiled and clearly stated , and many useful references to authorities .
_ Mr . ; GosBe adopts the idea , now pretty general , that the Polyzoa belon " to the Molluscous- division , in spite of their external resemblances to the rolypes , and he boldly places them among the Molluscs . In this , peHiaps be has thought more of systematic views on classification , than of the student s convenience . To any one already familiar with the Polyzoa ' there wiU-ot course be no hesitation as to where the genus is to be sough * in Mr . fcrosse s pages ; bwt to the Btudent anxious to identify the " polyp" he has found , and hot . already aware that this " polyp" is a moMtisc , and must be sought for in the secondvoltiihe of the Manual , there will probably be some S l ° V 1- dlffi £ £ * ^ ™ ngement . It seems to us quite clear that without adopting De BlaurmHe ' s principle of classifying animals according £ w 5 - envelo £ r tUo r *«* Prmcfrle of scientific classification , we shoulS adopt it in worts of reference like the present , since tbe external chamomost
i » Z ! » e ^*^ % U $ ose immediately ^ cognized by the student ; and mtho case of the Polyzoa , they are so remarkably similar in external charactenstics to the hydrotd polypes , that they were always classed with them , r ^ Wod g * ^* " ^ ^ « f Van Veueden , Illman , and < other ^ Z ^ J « £ S $ iSRJF ™ ilvtern al *•»*«*¦*» * * £ thl ^ r ^ JtT hi £ ? > ™ f S ^ t weight ; a little familiarity with tho Manual will suffice to set tho student right . Meanwhile , every reader S ^ ° ? n ° ™ ° , a book which wtl 1 inform h »» of SicTlaiZTi evwj crab , fish , worm , or polypo he may find on the sea-shore-
Lady Bulwek's Last. Very Successful! By ...
LADY BULWEK'S LAST . Very Successful ! By Lady Buhver Lytton . 3 vols . Whittaker and Co Somewhere near the Strand , if we believe Lady Bulwer , is a den inf ested by a conspiracy of critics . These persons form a sect , with a chief , a regular organization , a plan of action , passwords , and ceremonies of initiati on Their general object is to guard the growth of literary reputations , so that none may prosper who is not obsequiously , soul and heart , their slave , while their particular object , at present , is to persecute Lady Bulwer . They have their temples and their idols , these mercenary savages , who write corrosion with poisoned pens . Froni their impure cloaca flows the stream of criticism blistering the hand of the young artist , feeding with noxious flattery the egotism of the impostor , and diurnally circulating-an insinuation against the good , name of the lady who sketches the picture . Let us beg her to ca « t away this illusion of her wincing eyes ; let us assure her that the malignant concert she supposes to exist among reviewers is a mere fancy of her ownshe is not the female Rousseau of our literary world ; nor is the class of writers she alludes to governed in general by any other law than the la w of conscience and of self-respect . It may seem very ingenious , when one is in a bitter mood , to accuse half the human race of corruption ; but asperity of this kind is apt to degenerate into a monomania . If Lady Bulwer means to write any niore novels , we warn her that the public will be tired of hearing her repeat , each time with tenfold virulence , the story of her wrongs , real and imaginary . How much better would have "been her position had she maintained a dignified and delicate silence , instead of harshly wailin » , upbraiding , and reviling forever , exposing all her wounds , and asking ° every passer-by to be interested in the agony of hate . Nothing more melancholy has ever been written than the preface to-Ve-ry Successful—a confusion of ghastly invective , and of sarcasms which are not always decently u ttered . We will make jio quotations from this unhappy prelude , though it is thrust into each of the three volumes , that the reader may , without fail , observe to what grossness and folly Lady Bulwer can descend . Of the novel itself , had personalities been excluded , it might have been said that Lady Bulwer is a mistress of misquotation ; but the personalities , pressed into almost every page , not only render it painful , but interfere materially -with , its interest . Even in this respect Lady Bulwer must stand in her own light ; she will continually break off her narrative and full into hysierics of acrimony , mocking her enemies , persecutors , and slanderers , and . dragging to remembrance anecdotes of private life , the relation of which is nowhere so scandalous as in an ecclesiastical court , unless it be in a novel . Sympathy the public might have felt for Lady Buiwer ; but what trace of womanly self-r-espect is exhibited in her portrait of the successful literary baroset , popular at railway stalls , with " the head of a goat on the body of a grasshopper ? " _ Bat it ' s the expression of the face that Is so horrible ; the lines in it make it look like an intersected map of vice , bounded , on one side by the Black Sea of Hypocrisy , and on the other ty Falsehood Mountains . This pestilential tone pervades Lady Bulwer ' s novel—her picture of the " Literary In quisition , " which is a phantasy of her own , of " the fearful sewer of iniquity" flowing through the newspapers and critical publications , of the " infamous association" and " infernal ordinary" where reviewers meet and compound their malicious misrepresentations for the Saturday following , and of the ever-recurring baronefc with " hideous horse teeth" who is th ° e demon of the melodrama . If Lady Bulwer can . still control her own mind , we entreat her- not to produce another book like this—a book that humiliates the author , and repels the reader . ¦
The Mildmayes. The Mildmayes; Or, The Cl...
THE MILDMAYES . The Mildmayes ; or , the Clergyman's Secret : a Story of Twenty Years Ago . By Danby North . 3 vols . Chapman aud Hall . Akoxher novel with an earnest purpose . How long is our patience to be abused by these insults to our taste and understanding i * We have no objection to find sermons in stones , or to see such a book as this at the bottom of a running brook , but we protest against this perverse desecration of light literature . "Works of fiction are no longer a pleasing recreation after the toils and occupations of the day . They have become a positive and wearisome labour . Every monomaniac -who wishes to force his one idea upon his neighbours now wiites a tale , and thus under false pretences induces the public to listen to his nonsense . Another one aims at acquiring a ten-table reputation for great research , but finds it easier to produce a fla ° hy romance than an . historical memoir . Were this tho worst development of the principle of making things pleasant , it might be endured if it could
not be commended . Tho nauaos at least may thence be learned ol the great men who lived in the days of yore , and some idea may be farmed of the manners and customs of our ancestors . It is certainly a slovenly and inaccurate mode of gathering knowledge , but the sickly appetite must sometimes be stimulated by high-seasoned delicacies . And an historical romance gives one fair warning beforehand . The title prepares you for a distortion of facts , and you are , therefore , not surprised to discover that the most startling incidents in the career of n Woolsey or a Cromwell were subservient to the > progress of John Smith ' s courtship of Anna Brown . Tho nuisance , however , becomes intolerable when , expecting to be amused with a lively picture of social follies and absurdities , you find yourself suddenly plunged head foremost into a polemical controversy , or the discussion ot some knotty point in church doctrine and discipline . IS ovcls ol this stamp are a literary swindle . Their writers know full well that not one
man in a million would give a straw for their opinions on any subject whatsoever . Iho public does not caro one iota for their thoughts : it only seeks to bo amused in tho old-fashioned way . It demands that every ohu adhere to his specialty and be true to his colours , tfor history , it looks to the man of patient research ; for philosophy , to the profound thinker ; for tlioology , to one who loves to He upon thorns ; for amusement , to the witty but goodnutured satirist . A novel should be something of a satire , but have nothing m common with a sermon . The admixture of the eacred and the profane constitutes a picture as disagreeable to behold as tho monster
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), Jan. 3, 1857, page 18, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_03011857/page/18/
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