On this page
- Departments (1)
-
Text (5)
-
¦ . ¦ ¦ ¦ ¦ ' ¦< "'... . ' . ¦ . , ¦ ¦ 1...
-
IPtfrrrtftW JLUUlUUlU
-
- ¦ ' . ¦ ?"-— .. •¦ ¦ . Critics are not...
-
» ¦ - . - . ¦ ¦ ¦ The Quarterly is alway...
-
SEA ANEMONES. A Manual of the 8ea Anemon...
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.
-
-
Transcript
-
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.
¦ . ¦ ¦ ¦ ¦ ' ¦< "'... . ' . ¦ . , ¦ ¦ 1...
. ¦ ¦ ¦ ¦ ' ¦< "' ... . ' . ¦ . , ¦ ¦ 1024 THE LEADES , _____ ^ Eg o ^ j ^ SAT ^ AT ,
Iptfrrrtftw Jluuluulu
ICittraturt
- ¦ ' . ¦ ?"-— .. •¦ ¦ . Critics Are Not...
- ¦ ' . ¦ ? " - — .. •¦ ¦ . Critics are not the legislators , but tne judges and police of literature . They do not make laws—they interpret and try to enforce them . — Edinburgh Sevtetp .
» ¦ - . - . ¦ ¦ ¦ The Quarterly Is Alway...
» ¦ - . - . ¦ ¦ ¦ The Quarterly is always agreeable reading , and generally contrives to give one striking article to furnish diners-out with a topic ; the last number contains much facile reading , but no one remarkable paper . Bacon ' s Essays as annotated by / WhatMiY is touched in an anecdotic manner . Here is a passage on the suppression of the indications of poverty : — A gentleman in narrow circumstances quoted the common saying , " Poverty is no crime , " and -was answered , "Yes , but it is -worse . " Many prove that they are seriously of this opinion by the dishonest art 3 which they practise to get money . Others look down upon the indigent as though the things external to a man , and not the man himself , were the proper objects of regard . All such people earn the stern rebuke of Gray that their poverty is in their mind . Archbishop WTiately , however ,
dwells upon the just distinction that though poverty is not disgraceful , the exhibition of it is felt to be indecent . " A man of sense is not ashamed of confessing it ; but he keeps the marks of it out of sight . " He mentions that a person , who disputed the assertion , observed in refutation of it , " " Why this coat that 1 now have on I have had turned because I could not well afford a new one , and I care not who knows it . " His instance , as the Archbishop acutely remarks , proved the point he was controverting , orhe "would have worn the coat without turning . " He might have had it scoured , if needful ; but though clean , it would still have looked threadbare ; and he did not like to make this display of poverty . " If his principle had been correct he would have been content in weather , when he did not require it for warmth , to walk the streets , or call upon his friends , without any coat at all , and might have alleged the same
reason , that he could not well afford to wear one every day . Ignorance of this difference between shame of poverty itself , and shame of being compelled to expose it in ways which are a violation of the established proprieties of life , has given rise to many erroneous judgments . Among the companions of Reynolds , when he was studying his art at Rome , was a fellow-pupil of the name of Astley . They made an excursion , with some others , on a sultry day , and all except Astley took off their coats . After several taunts he was persuaded to do the same , and displayed on the back of his waistcoat a foaming waterfall . Distress had compelled him to patch his clothes with one of his own landscapes . His reluctance to exhibit his expedient is imputed by one biographer to a proud heart . " It was more likely to be due to a sense of decorum . And here is another on professions of disinterestedness : —
La Rochefoucauld has said that self-interest speaks all sorts of languages and personates all kinds of parts , even that of disinterestedness . There is none which the greedy petitioners for place personate so often . The transparent and disgusting hypocrisy of desiring preferment purely for the good of the country and from a sense of public duty , is stated by Lord Brougham to be incessant . Once , on his remarking to Lord Melbourne that nobody could tell till he came into office how base men were , the latter humorously replied , " On the contrary , I never before had such an opinion of human virtue , for I now find . that self-denial is the sole motive in seeking advancement , and personal gain the only thing that is never dreamt of . " This might have been extended by reference to those modest authors ¦ who assure us in their speeches and prefaces that " Truth is their only object "pence , position , reputation ,-of course , never entering into their motives . Dr . Carpenter is so enamoured of this formula that in a new edition of one
of his books " . the Author refers with satisfaction to the following passage in the preface to his former edition : Truth is his only object , & c , & c . " M . Chevbeol told the Academie Francaise that his chemical investigations had been prompted from first to last by but one motive—Truth . Of course the assembled savans received this statement with entire confidence . For the sake of variety we should be glad to hear some man avow Ms real objects besides Truth . Another amusing paper in the Quarterly is one on " French Algeria , "
¦ ch picturesquely describes the present appearance and the past history of that colony . Those who meditate a visit to Algiers , either for curiosity , health , or the desire "to kill one lion -which has eaten a man , " should read this paper . " New biographies of Montaigne" is a pleasant , biographical 8 ketch of the old Gascon moralist ; and " Ancient Rome" an elaborate topographical essay . A capital subject , " The Physiognomy of the Human Form , " 1 ms been spoiled by the meagre and heavy treatment of the reviewer , -whose paper has , however , the one unintentional merit of thoroughly warning the intelligent reader against Cabus ' s works on that subject .
Those who have read the article on " Botanical Geography" in the last Edinburgh , will be interested in the far abler and more entertaining treatment of the same topic in Let Revue des Deux Mondes , by M . Charles Martins , the translator of Goethe ' s works on Botany and Zoology . He says that -without any exaggeration one may reckon the number of species already described in books , or existing in collections , at 120 , 000 ; and if we reckon the number of species which probably exist on the entire surface of the globe , we inua ^ agree with M . de Candoixk in estimating it at from 400 , 000 to 500 , 000 . . A pleasant exercise for the botanical memory !
M . Remus at continues his exposition of the state of Religious Controversy in England with an estimate of Colkkidgb and Arnold . Ho contradicts the opinion current in France that only political liberty is permitted l . ^ gland , and refers to tl » e labours of Mr . Hoi / toake , especially to his public discussions , as evidence that the utmost freedom of opinion is possible even , c-n religious matters . He snys : "M . Holyoake est un gentleman qui s ^ t donn « n triate tache non seulement de signaler les abua et les fautes de toutes les 6 gliaes , maia encore d ' etablir sinon que Dieu n ' cxiste pas , au moins qu ll e » t impossible et inutile dc savoir s'il existe . " We know not whether the word « genUemin" i 8 meant us a sarcasm pointing to the " trist © tacho ;" but if perfect integrity , and undeviating courtesy accompanying unflinching firmness , are the attributes of a gentleman , all who know Mr . Hqj , toakjs
will , even when differing most widely from him , declare that the title isT without any sarcasm . M . Remdsat ' s estimate of Colebidge will offe a the admirers of that singularly overrated man who fancied himself a Pi tonist on the slenderest acquaintance with Pxato , and who persuadta many that he was an original ttinker by audacious plagiarisms from Gerrn philosophers . That Coleridge exercised a very powerful influence on Ih age , by influencing many remarkable minds , is unquestionable ; Taut to those who were never within the sphere of his personal fascination , and who can not , in imagination , place themselves in that intellectual condition when German thought first began to stir in English minds , it will ever remain , a surprising example of personal ^ fj ^ , for which no published documents give any reasonable grounds .
Sea Anemones. A Manual Of The 8ea Anemon...
SEA ANEMONES . A Manual of the 8 ea Anemones commonly found on the English Coast . Bv the fco George Tugwell . . Van y Oc 5 " A whiter m Blackwood the other day spoke of *« the Rev . George Tu » well so y ell and so honorably known to the Anemones of Ilfracombe , " and this little volume assures us that the Anemones may be proud of their acquaintance , the more so as he will certainly increase the thronging crowds of their admirers by this Manual , the illustrations to which are triumphs of colourprinting , and almost equal in beauty the delicate creatures they pourtray " The diagrams and woodcuts with which books on Natural History endeavour to of these
convey images lovely marine animals are better than nothingbut that is all we can say for them . No one would recognize , aa Actinia Bellis , or a Gem ., or a Snipe feather , or a Frog , or an Aurora , from a woodcut . He might gather a ^ rude rudimentary approximative notion of what an Anemone was , as distinguished from a Sertularia , or a Ttclularia ; but without colour no illustration could guide him to more specific knowledge . In this Manual we have large and admirably drawn figures of the animals in their natural aspepts , as they expand under overhanging boulders and bloom in dark crevices , not as they appear in spirits of wine . No one having seen these illustrations -will be at a loss to identify the animals when he comes upon them on the coast . :
But what is sm Anemone ? The first chapter of this Manual is devoted to an explanation . Books of reference , Mr . Tugwell finds , are not quite so explanatory , as initial ignorance could wish : — "A sea-anemone , " I find it said , "is a radiate anLmal- —an actiniform polyp . Body single , fleshy , conoid , fixed by its oase . kocomotive . Mouth in centre of upper disc , surrounded by one or more seriesi of conical , tubular , retractile tentacuLa . " There—what do you think of that ? Supposing you had never seen a sea-anemone , do you believe you could go down instantly to the rocks , and bring back a specimen or two without any difficulty ? . Certainly not . Accordingly he takes us a pleasant circuit of the animal kingdom , for which most readers will be grateful ; and at the end of the promenade the reader finds that he has got a tolerable idea of what the animal is , and the pictures -will tell hirn what it is like . The question then presents itself . Where is the Anemone to be found ? and the second chapter is devoted to it . How charmingly Mr . Tugwell writes of his favourites and their chase may be gathered from , these extracts : —
Let us go down to the rock together . It is a glorious afternoon in the early summer time . A cool sea-wind is blowing from the ¦ westward ; and the vertical sunblaze is quenched from time to time by solitary masses of soft white cloud majestically rolling in , from Lundy , or dimmed by those delicately-barred and fringed troops of cirri which are sailing in the upper current of air from the far-off line of the Welsh Mountains . Yesterday a heavy ground-sea was surging in from the Atlantic , but now a scarcely perceptible rise and fall of the waveless tide is swirling among the distant peaks of Tock , and playing -with the sea-weed tangles , as a strong man with the glistening tresses of the wife of his heart . The tides ares at their " spring , " with a fall of two-and-thirty fe « t , and another hour will bring us to the flood—what more , then , can a naturalist desire ? Let u » go . Suppose we leave the Promenade and the Tunnels to our friends—especially him of the " practical" mind—and climb yonder range of hills , where seven Tons , like seven fair jewels in a king ' s crown , sun-emblazoned , beautiful , girdle this pleasant valley , and hush the din of the shore-breakers on stormy winter nights . Across the fern-hidden , wandering , many-voiced "Wilder . Past the ha-zlcs and the hawthorns ,
and the meadow-grass , - where the corn-crake shrills in the land , day and night , his dry and carking ditty . "Under the furze copse , where the heavy-scented glories of iti golden blossoms are gleaming , where the crisp purple heather and the climbing scarlet tangles of the dodder and the fresh green volutes of the young fern-leaves , yield a homo and a happy " pleasaunco" to the insects , and the birds , and the countless , restless troops of the rabbits , who , among the well-known mazes , hold perpetual holiday . Another step , and we stand on the verge of a precipice , and look down upon the grey rocks , a hundred feet beneath us , and faintly hear the quiet breathings of the sunlit sea . We will follow this sheep-track , which winds round the edge of the cliff—a dangerous path enough on winter evenings when a heavy gale is blowing from the westward , and the long Atlantic rollers are breaking in foam-clouds on the shore . But thero is no hazard on this quiet afternoon , so onwards , rapidly and fearlessly ; » J now we descend the triangular slope of Torr Point , carpeted with the slippery , shin ing grass of the sea-thrift , and fringed with tho white campion blossoms and the swt foliage of tho samphire . They come upon a large and shallow pool : —
It is very beautiful , perfectly « lear and transparent , mirroring every cloud-sludoTr , and reflecting the glare of the sun , bo that at firat wo can see little but its wind-ruffl « a surface . The dense , pink-hucd coralline-tufts line its maTgin , then tho delicatelylobed , waving foliago of tho green Iuvct , and beyond tho dark crisp thickets of tna Carrageen moss , whoso « very branch hurla back a changeful , many-tinted rainbow oi light . Here at tho vergo of the pool wo find a noblo prey , " tho waxen-armea Anthea , " Anthea cerats r or , as h « is impolitely surnamed in these parta , " Legs : t " body is of an olive-green hue , and . thence depend a forest of long , waving , snake-uW green tentacles , witli l > right purple tips . Next to hirn is another variety , slatecoloured throughout , and some day wb may be fortunate enough to meet with a S P ' |" men which shall bo white as the fallen snow . This Anthea is generally found in snwlow , sunny pools , and quite close to the water ' s edge , so that ho to > o ia fond of »« though not as much so ns his neighbour , tho " common" anemone . Still lower , hore under the shadow of an overhanging rock , is a sheltered cornw , and a bed of fino shingle just covered with water , and a sight which you will n 0 | i f ° * i 5 get for many a day . What a . magnifioont " bloom 1 " it is too largo for a » W "
-
-
Citation
-
Leader (1850-1860), Oct. 25, 1856, page 16, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_25101856/page/16/
-