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September 20 > 1856.] TH E IiBADjE^R. 3Q...
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WAtxoMt. ;
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¦ ' V . ¦ : .. . . . . ¦ Critics are not...
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It is notorious that the light Literatur...
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"Weimar in 1825" is the title of an extr...
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That all animals give out carbonic acid ...
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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Transcript
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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.
Additionally, when viewing full transcripts, extracted text may not be in the same order as the original document.
September 20 > 1856.] Th E Iibadje^R. 3q...
September 20 > 1856 . ] TH E IiBADjE ^ R . 3 Q 5
Watxomt. ;
WAtxoMt . ;
¦ ' V . ¦ : .. . . . . ¦ Critics Are Not...
¦ ' V . ¦ : .. . . . . ¦ Critics are notthe legislators , buttbe judges and policeof literature . ' They do no make laws—they interpret and try to enforce them . — Edinburgh Revtew .
It Is Notorious That The Light Literatur...
It is notorious that the light Literature of modern France is generally exeluded from most families , even jn France , by the immorality of its tone and the audacity of its topics . Novels and plays are almost always found trenching upon subjects which careful ' fathers and husbands object to see their daughters and wives scrutinizing . We need only allude to- a fact so notorious for the sake of calling attention to the other singular fact , namely , that French writers , even as a matter of calculation , do not more frequently try the effect of writing whatall may read . The ' wicked and witty' novels are so clever , that nothing but great cleverness can expect to produce an impression on the public accustomed to them ; but a little wit will go a great way if exercised on subjects-which are themselves pleasant , or at least not unfit for universal hearing ; just as a very mediocre talent will carry an Evangelical novel into every Evangelical circle , solittle accustomed are Evangelical readers to meet with anything approaching the vivacity and interest of mundane fiction ^ If French writers would but exercise their ingenuity within more restricted limits ,, they would find their success tenfold . Emixe Souvestre , by instinct perhaps , discovered this secret , and with very moderate ability achieved a reputation , and commands to this day a public for works , tiresome indeed , but not violating the sanctities of feeling , and those delicacies which are not conventionalisms , but belong to all real moral feeling . M . Edmund About has just furnished another example of the truth : his collection of tales , Les Mariag-es de Paris , is all ' the rage in Paris , and sold in great quantities at all railway stations , not only in virtue of the author ' s name , which has become extensively known by means of the charming Tolla , but also in virtue of the fact that the tales were " written by the fireside , between a mother and a sister , " and are fit ' to be read where they were written . There is nothing hew * in these stories — nothing , except the writing , which is always healthy and happy— to justify their success , were not almost all the talent of France engaged in other literature than the litte ' rature de famille . Had they been less moral they would have scarcely secured attention ; but being at once amusing , witty , and proper , their success is immense . It is amazing what dull plays and feeble books tlxe good French public will applaud and read if once it is persuaded that these works are moral ; it has not a very keen sense , and is apt to take queer views of X \\ qpria ; Mo ? ithgoii ir but , nevertheless , whatever it does regard as moral it loudly applauds . Why , then , are writers so seldom to be induced to supply a demand so obvious ? The causes are many ; and one of the most potent is , that young men write immoral books because young men are prone to tiejanfeu-ons de vice , and think it gives them an air to be on the most intimate terms with all forms of corruption ; while men of mediocre talent naturally seek strength in strong situations , piquancy in subjects which are highly spiced , and thrilling effects hi crime . M . Anoox made his name by a charming and perfectly unobjectionable novel ; he has again achieved a large sale by a series of commonplace , but perfectly unobjectionable stories . The reader may order Les Manages de Paris without misgiving .
"Weimar In 1825" Is The Title Of An Extr...
" Weimar in 1825 " is the title of an extremely pleasant paper \ n Putnam ' s Monthly Magazine , in which an American records his recollections of a brief stay in the little Saxon city on the llm . His visit to Goethe we will quote : — After dinner ( which at the public table of the Erbpritiz was served at half-past one ) , learning that Goethe dined at two , I waited till a quarter past three , and then ¦ walked to his house in the Fraucnplatz ( Woman's Place ) , not two hundred yards from the hotel . I had no letter , and , knowing that Goothe refused to admit unlabelled ¦ visitors , I rang the bell with misgivings . The servant said , the Jlerr Geheivicrath ( the privy-councillor ) had not yet risen from table . ' " There , " cried I , vexedly to myself , as I turned away , " by my impatience I have forfeited the nt best doubtful chance of seeing the great man . The summons of his writer from tho dining-room to the door , he will feel as an intrusion on his privacy and comfort , and be thereby jarred into an inhospitable mood . " I walked into tho park , enlivened on a sunny Sunday afternoon with Weimar ' s quiet denizens . Towards four I was again ringing Goethe ' s hell . Tho servant asked my name . I gave him my card , on which I had Written , " aus Washington , America . " My home being near the capital , I availed myself of this to couple my name with that of the sublime man—honoured by all tUo hundred millions in Christendom—the presenting of which to the imagination of a great poet might , I hoped , suddenly kindle an emotion that would plead irresistibly in my bclmlf . The servant quickly returned and ushered me in . I ascended tho celebrated -wide , easy , Italian staircase . On tho threshold I was about to pass , my eye foil pleasantly on the hospitable salvk , inlaid in large mosaic letters . The door was opened boforo me by tho servant , and there , in the centre of the room , tall , large , orect , majestic , Goethe stood , slightly borno forward by tho intcntness of hia look , out of those largo luminous eyes , fixed on tho entrance . In 1825 , Americans were seldom seen so far inland . In his whole life Goethe liad not probably met with six . Tho announcement of ono for the unbusied moments of after-dinner , was , I daro say , to tho ever fresh student and universal observer , a piquant novelty . Hla attitude and expression , as T entered , were these of an expectant naturalist , eager 3 y awaiting thoTransatlantic phenomenon . Gootho was then in liia seventy-sixth year ; but neither on his face nor figure -waa there any detracting mark of ago . Kindly and gracefully he received me ; advancing as I entered , bade me bascatod on the sofa , and eat down beside mo . In a few moments I was perfectly at eaeo . ¦ , ,. . ? ¦ :
At such .. an interview the opening cpay-ersatipn . is inevitably predetermined HoW long I had been in Europe ; the route . by which I ^ uid come ^ tbesea-yowiiw " . \ pt in . he learnt that for fifteen months I tad ^ been a student at Goitingen , lie inquired with interest for several of the professors , especially Blumenbach and Sartoruw What a position was mine then at that moment—seated besideone Traser than ' wisest of the seven sages of Greece , in whose single ; head was morefcaowledce thin in the heads of all the seven together ; the wisest man . then living , n * r , saver twt »& r three , the wisest that ever has lived : Across the Atlantic , through . England AaA Belgium , across the Rhine ( railroads and ocean steamshi ps were not m Kcsedavsrtl had come , to be taught by the wise men of GSttingen . And here ' sat I face toi face with the teacher of these Gottingen teachers , with him from whom every ¦ one of train had learnt , and from whom the best of them were still learning . Yet , ir * this in «*«^ viewx with the chief of teachers , the wisest of the wise—an interview which hundxela of the highest men of to-day -would almost give a finger " to have had—in this nrfvJ leged tete-a-tete , it was not Goethe who taught me , it was I who taught Goethe . T It was always so . The old . Jupiter would have had a terrible time of W with his pilgrim , worshippers if he had been unwise enough to think of displaying himself to them ; instead of that , he was interested in making them , display themselves to him , in telling lim something he -wanted to know , and thus making the visit not altogether a bore . The American ' s presentation at Court is also worth extracting : —• Of the importance attached to costume at the courts of Europe ,, our -whole country has lately become aware , through the recommendation ( which should have been positive instruction ) sent by our Government in 1853 to its diplomatic representatives - in conforming to-which , be it said , and presenting himself in simple citizen ' s dresa at the begilded French Court , our charge d ' affaires at Paris , Henry S . Sanford earned , by his manly and truly republican bearing , a well-merited distinction . Thus close upon the heels of the resolution to go to court in Weimar came the question of costume . A uniform of some kind , my English friends told me , I must have , the etiquette requiring it . I might follow my own taste and fancy in the colour and style . On « of those gentlemen— -a man of parts and a graduate of Oxford , who had not even an . ensign ' s commission—wore always at court the full dress of an . English field-marshal for which he had paid in London one hundred guineas . This ambitious fancy , by tha way , cost him , a few weeks later , a ludicrous mortification ; for the Duke of Clarence ( afterwards William ; IV . ) happening to visit the Weimar court , the young civilian ' not wishing his field-marshalship to be cliallenged l ) y so high a personage , withdre-w for a -week . Uniform I had none , and there was hardly time , had I even been so disposed , to have one first invented , and then made up by the tailor . The Englishman cast about in vain to compound an outfit , by borrowing a coat from one , pantaloons from another , & c . ; but among them were few superfluous articles of the courtly kind . At last I suggested , that with sword , chapeau-bras , knee-breeches , and silk stockings , I might possibly be admitted . The chamberlain was applied to . He received the proposal favourably , and would consider it . The matter was doubtless submitted to the Grand Duke and Duchess . It is not at all improbable that even Goethe was consulted . For in Weimar , on anything great or small , that was worth a consultation , his opinion was sure tp be sought . Be that as it may , the chamberlain gave * consenting answer . Instantly a tailor was set to-work on the ' inexpressibles . ' Oixa Englishman furnished a sword , another a chapeau ; and so , with my black Stultz dress-coat , and a white vest , I was equipped . History , to be history , must be truthfully told ; and therefore , however painful to my feelings it be to pluck the lightest feather from the plume of my friend Sanford , I have to proclaim , that at about tba time he was born I had made the initiatory step in the blacft coat affah * . A sedan is a light chair covered at top , with curtains on the sides and front , borne on poles by two men . An acceptable vehicle it is , where a pair of muscular human arms can be hired at the rate of twenty-five cents a day , where distances are not measured by miles , and when you are in full dress with thin shoes . It takes you in and puts you out under cover of hall or entry . A single servant in livery received me at the foot of the grand ducal stairway , and conducted me up into one of the receiving-rooms , where were already several of nay new native acquaintance . The company gathered rapidly , and we soon passed into a larger room , where I was presented to the Grand Duchess ., The Grand Duke-was ill . The Grand Duchess was affable , and spoke of her son , Duke Bernhardt , who was then travelling in the United States . The introduction and conversation were as unceremonious as they would have been in the drawing-room of a well-bred lady in Boston or Baltimore . It was in this palace , at the head of the stairs I had ascended , that tliis Grand Duchess received Napoleon the day after the battle of Jena , and by her calm courage , womanly dignity , and intellectual readiness , rebuked his vulgar violence , and extorted an unwilling respect . Ignoble natures , feeling nobleness to be a reproach to themselves hate the true and pure , and , when unavoidably confronted with them , pay them a reluctant homage . At three the Grand Duches 3 led the way into the dining-room . About fifty persons sat down to a long table , the Grand Duchess in the centre . Opposite and beside her were placed the elderly and officially elevated , while the younger members of the company mustered at the extremities , where , intermingled with , the maids of honour , and remote from the stately legal centre , we were under no other restraint than that which refines the freedom of ladies and gentlemen . Behind each guest was a servant in livery . The dinner was princely . That it was , moreover , excellent , I havo no doubt ; but this I cannot affirm from personal judgment ; for , happily , my critical craft in . this significant province of civilized culture was only developed some yeara later , Of the service—at once lavish and refined—of the grand ducal table , take this as a sample . No sooner was a glass emptied than it- was replenished by the watchful attendant . Through this silent savory sign your preference-r-if you had one—was learnt , and hospitably indulged . You had , for instance , but to leave your Claret and Rhenish and Champagne unfinished , and to drain your Burgundy glass : so often as it was found empty it was refilled with Chambertin or Olos Vougeot , to the number of a dozen or more fillings , should any guest be rash enough to trust his head with so many . Tho dinner lasted till towards flve , when tho company followed the Duchess back into the receiving-rooms . Here we lingered less than a half-hour , and then withdrew , to return at seven to tea , conversation , and cams . In the evening I left the palace early , having made an engagement to sup at eight with Ober-tnedicmal-rath ( Upper Medical Councillor ) Froricp , a man of large knowledge and practical ability , and . of distinguished liberality , and for . those qualities much-valued by tho Grand Duke .
That All Animals Give Out Carbonic Acid ...
That all animals give out carbonic acid is familiar to . pyery on ; e i but ll 9 vv > and where , this carbonic acid is formed still remains a . profound mystery , in spito of the easy confidence with ., whioh many -write , ! ? , following Likbi < j > , ' s ; pleasant mode of settling difficulties , tftlk of . the oxidation , of ( cavbon in tlie ; exercise of the tissues . Those , interested , in thjs . questiqn we . refer to ; a valuable paper in the Anfuikstfes Sciences filniuralles ^ by , Moi ^ eschotx , on tbp
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), Sept. 20, 1856, page 17, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_20091856/page/17/
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