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I 92 THE LEADER. [Saturday,
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A N OTHER BATC H OF B OO K S . We must a...
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BOOKS ON OUR TABLE. Sohn'a Standard Libr...
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We shQuld do our utmost to encourage the...
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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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Kanke's Civil Waits In Fitance. Civil Wa...
given up to a party of paid murderers . It was a combination of private vengeance and public condemnation such as the world had never seen since the days of Sulla ' s proscriptions . To repress the horrors arising from civil war was the final cause which had built the moral foundation of the monarchy . In this act it forgot its historical origin , and made common cause with the very party whose hatred it should have controlled ; its traces were lost altogether in these orgies of blood . " Oral orders , which were " carried from town to * town with the swiftness of the wind , authorized the rage of fanaticism everywhere . According to the most moderate calculations there fell two thousand persons in Paris alone , and the number massacred in France was not less than twenty thousand . From time to time the flame broke out afresh , even after orders had been issued to restrain it . The rage of the multitude lived in its own movements , longing for blood , and nourished with blood . The minds of men were filled with wild fantasies , which made them afraid of themselves , and caused the very elements to appear fraught with terror .
" Charles IX ., about eight days after the massacre , caused his brother-in-law Henry to be summoned to him in the night . He found him as he had sprung from his bed , filled with dread at a wild tumult of confused voices , which prevented him from sleeping . Henry himself imagined he heard these sounds ; they appeared like distant shrieks and howlings , mingled with the indistinguishable rasring of a furious multitude , and with groans and curses , as on the day of the massacre . Messengers were sent into the city to ascertain whether any new tumult had broken out , but the answer returned was that all was quiet in the city , and that the commotion wias in the air . Henry could never recall this incident without a horror that made his hair stand on end . "
I 92 The Leader. [Saturday,
I 92 THE LEADER . [ Saturday ,
A N Other Batc H Of B Oo K S . We Must A...
A N OTHER BATC H OF B OO K S . We must again deal in . a summary manner with several volumes claiming notice , and worth , noticing . America sends us ( through Sampson , Low , and Co . ) a formidable volume of British eloquence , got up with great care , and of decided value to all men training themselves in oratory . It is called Select British Eloquence , embracing the best Speeches entire of the most eminent Orators of Great Britain . Dr . Gooderich , the American compiler , has not limited himself to the simple selection of great speeches —he has introduced every speaker to the reader , first by narrating the main biographical points , next by an historical introduction to each of the speeches , explaining the circumstances out of which it arose , and Thirdly by critical notes .
The Water Lily on the Danube ( Parker and Son ) is an amusing account of a novel adventure , viz ., that of taking a pair-oar boat from Lambeth to Pesth , in Hungary ! The book is far more amusing , and more suited to the public , than the previous little volume , Log of the Water Lily , because the writer has not contented himself with narrating the personal adventures of the crew , but has also sketched in brief , rapid traits , some of the characteristics of the scene through which the crew passed . For an inexhaustible delight to all who love folk lore , for all children of
all age , let us commend the rare volume of Yule Tide Stories , edited by Benjamin Thorpe , and published by Mr . Bohn in his Antiquarian Library . It is a collection of Scandinavian and Northern German tales and traditions , full of curious erudition for the erudite , full of fancy and invention for the general reader . In Mr . Bonn ' s Scientific Library , we have also the Bridgewater Treatise , composed by Chalmers , on the Adaptation of External Nature to the Moral and intellectual Constitution of Man . A work which , like everything Chalmers wrote , contains food for thought , but which , both in plan and in details , would call forth much
opposition from us were we to enter upon it . That , however , is unnecessary . Every one knows the character of the book . To the Classical Library Mr . Bohn adds a translation of Lucan ' s Pharsalia , by Mr . Kiley , and the very serviceable volume of Notes on Herodotu & , hy Dawson Turner . This book the student should possess . With a plain text of Herodotus , and this commentary by his aide , he will have all that is necessary for general purposes . The notes are grammatical and explanatory , now touching on a point of geography or history , now on a verbal difficulty . But the volume of Bacons Moral and Historical Works , added to the Standard Library , surpasses all of them in attraction , for it contains an Introductory Essay on Bacon , the well-known Essays , with translations of the
quotations , and the Apophthegms , the less known Elegant Sentences , and the Short Notes for Civil Conversation ; then follow the quaint , faneiful essays on the Wisdom of the Ancients , amusing as proofs of how a myth may be interpreted ; the celebrated New Atlantis , and the Historical Works , among which the noble Life of TIenry the Seventh , ho dear to all readers of Bacon and all lovers of stylo , takes a prominent place . There in but one thing wanting in this treasury of wisdom , this volume among volumes , namely , an index ; and the omission is the more remarkable , because Mr . Bohn has distinguished himself among publishers by the liberality with which he has bestowed indexes . We arc promised a companion volume , containing the Novum Orqanum and the De Augment is ; Ictus hope that an index will accompany it .
Among tho cheap libraries , let a , place bo reserved for the one issued by Messrs . ingrain , ( ! ooke , and Co ., under the title of Universal Library . Its shilling volumes may be accepted as separate works , or as parts of a whole . 11 is divided into six sections , and specimens of live sections lie before us . In Biography wo have a volume containing l ' saali Walton ' s well-I < now / i lives of l ) onne , Wotton , Ac . In fiction wo have the Vicar of Wake field and Pieeiola ; in Voyages , we have AnsQn ' s Voyages ; in Poetry , JSooft's Lady of the , Lake and Lay of the . Last Minstrel ; m Miscellaneous , we have Alison ' s 7 'Jssays on Taste . Old works these , and
favourites . Tho attraction of these editions is cheapness and uniformity . Liinmrtiiic ' s l / tstoire de la lies to'uration ( Duluu and Co . ) is now completed by the publication of the eighth volume , which , opening with the ascent of Charles X . to the throne of . Franco , ends with tho ignominious descent of obstinacy , and its flight before tho roused spirit of 1 H . "M ) . It is n graphic and interesting volume ; rendered peculiarly so by Lainartine ' s personal relations with many of tho actors in this drama . Thcso relations nave naturally given n bias to his pen . Charles X ., for example , is morn leniently treated than he could bo by an historian of Lainartine ' s party , who had never been honoured and flaftered by tho King . Tim bias , il' bias there be , is , however , an amiable weakness , and the reader is duly warned .
Books On Our Table. Sohn'a Standard Libr...
BOOKS ON OUR TABLE . Sohn ' a Standard Library—Foster ' * Life and Correspondence . Q 3 q ^^ ° CoI The Portrait Qallery . ' Beitr Brothers . Who ' * Who in 1853 . P «* riSe andOaker . The Youthful Thinker . Tohn Chaoman . The Spiritual Library—The Key to the Mystery , | IOBU ' A Historical Memoir of Fra Doldno and \ is fime : By L . M ™^ Brown Qreen and Co . An Outline of the Necetsary Laics of Thought . By W . Thomson . W . Pickering . Essays on Political and Social Science . By W . B . Greg . 2 ^ n Brown Green and Co . On Lesson * in Proverbs . By B . C . Trench . J- W . P « ker and Son . Alice Montrose . By Maria J . M'Intosh . 3 vols . . S ' S ^ Z " The Priest and the Curate ; or , the Two Diaries . By C . Sinclair . ^ Wackett Autobiography of an English Soldier in the United States Army . 2 vols . Hurst and Juaum . Life of Sir Walter Scott . By Donald Macleod . S W -W ° W ( 2 Remarks on the Production of the Precious Metals , and on the Depreciation tf . wM . WauiBa . Michel Chevalier . S £ ' , S * i ^ A Otw ' Claverston . A Tale . By Charles Mitchell Charles . Saundew and ¦ OUey . The Purgatory of Suicides . By T . Cooper . ££ ™™ * nd H ^ U The Poetical ami Dramatic Works of Sir Edward Buhoer Lytton . Chapman and JHUl .
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We Shquld Do Our Utmost To Encourage The...
We shQuld do our utmost to encourage the Beautiful , for the Useful encourages itself . — Goethe .
§J|L}<! Jhorfe 0f Tfy Uft ^Mut* , ' By H...
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For the first part of this reply there was no want of proof ; but the assertion that they were in the pure state in which they left the easel of the master , was a delusion . Some of the early Italian pictures were chipped , and large pieces loosened by heat or damp had dropped from the panels in which worms , the growth of a warmer clime , had been busied for centuries . Our collector , being asked if he considered restoring old pictures advisable under extreme circumstances , prescribed extreme penalties for any one who should have the temerity to entertain the idea . " Could anything be more absurd , " he insisted , " than for a modern dauber to scrub , plaster up , and repaint an old picture ?" " Certainly not . "
" Very well , then , " continued he , " would yoti have some image-maker commence operations on the Elgin marbles , wash and scrub them , plaster up the chinks , replace the absent limbs , remodel the obliterated features , and , in a word , restore them ? What would you think of such a proceeding ? How great would be your indignation ! How would you mourn the loss of Phidias , and curse the miscreant who could so abuse the sublime productions of that Athenian chisel . Thus should I feel if some officious hand , some Restorer , should attempt to practice Jiis remorseless craft upon yonder noble specimen—the gem of my collection , Leonardo da Vinci . "
As respects fragments of ancient sculpture , the views of our enthusiast possess some show of reason , but are at the same time full of exaggeration , while the comparison between old pictures and ancient sculptures is far from being happy . If the lost member of a mutilated Apollo could be found , there could be no difference of opinion as to the propriety of its resuming its original position . If a Venus stood complete in every limb , in good preservation throughout , with the exception that some unfortunate blow had struck out one eye , in consequence of which one blemish the whole statue was affected , and its influence half destroyed , what objection would there be , could some modeller replace the absent member so cleverly that all traces of the injury should disappear , and the figure again possess its full and complete effect ? Surely no one could object to such a
course being taken ? Hut because the eye could he replaced ( the other remaining to test its accuracy ) , it by no means follows that if the nose were lost that feature could be replaced with equal felicity , for although men of taste might venture a shrewd guess as to the kind of nose the face once possessed , and sculptors might realize their conception , yet for all that there would he wanting the proof by comparison present in the case of the eye ; and wherti doubt commences interference with tho originul work should cease , in deference to the original artist . However well founded a conjecture might seem , it were far better to rest with the mutilated form than to risk un absolutely supposititious addition to the fragment . As a matter of speculation , the restoration of u broken figure may be accomplished without risk to the original remnant , simply by making a mould of it and add-
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), Jan. 22, 1853, page 20, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_22011853/page/20/
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