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the hat him 90 l H,E LEA D,E Jl [No. 305...
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, ' ' I s . . - - 3 3 1 . 1 3 WAR LITERA...
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, ¦> , —u . . NATURAL HISTOBY. Stray Lea...
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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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Kitfgsley's Heeoes. The Heroes; Or, Gree...
0 iiey : cBtffa lib ^ i ^ nim 7 beefttise of d arkness Md ; aaadyefrhe tirembled a # he ^ cd & tdown ^ near them , eo" terrible were tho & e brazen « laws . Two of the Gorgons were foul as swine , and lay sleeping heavily , as ewrne afeep ^ wi ^ isifcheir migaty" "wings ^ outspread : but Medusa tosaed to and fro restiSfe & y ? sfli < 3 i as-she ' tossed / Perseus pitied her , she looked so fair aaid sad . Her plumage was like the rainbow , and her face was like the face of a nymph , only % tt' ^ y € l ^ 6 W * -Were-feait , ttnd ' lier lips olenohed , with everlasting care and pain ; ¦ sfa'dPher-Iong riefefc gleamed so white in tie mirror , that Perseus hrid' not the heart to strike , and said , "Ah , that it had be « n either of her sisters !" -iBut « # he ^ looked , from among her tresses the vipers' heads awoke , and peeped 1 » p ^ witEtheir bright dry eyes , and showed their fangs , and hissed ; and Medusa , * $ & she 'tossed , threw back her wings , and showed her brazen claws ; and PerseuB l 8 aW ^ ti & t , ' for riH & er beauty ; eke was as foul and venomous as the rest . Then lie came down and stepped io her boldly , and looked steadfastly on Mr < mirror ; an * struck with ' Herpe stoutly once ; and he did not need to strike 8 $ && n < Tffienh « 'wrappe d the head in the ' goatskin , turning away his eyes , and sprang Into the adr alorb ; fsfeter than-he ever sprang before . For Medusa ' s wings and talons rattled as she sank dead . upon the rocks ; and her two foul sisters woke , and-saw h 6 r lying dead .
The Hat Him 90 L H,E Lea D,E Jl [No. 305...
the hat him 90 l H , E LEA D , E Jl [ No . 305 , Saturday .
, ' ' I S . . - - 3 3 1 . 1 3 War Litera...
WAR LITERATURE . The Stosry-of the Campaign of Sebastopol , written in tke Camp . By Lieu tenant-Colonel ' & . Brace Hamley , JR . A . Blackwood and Sons . The Past-Campai gn " : a Sketth of the War in the East . By N , A . Woods , late Special '¦¦ -Correspondent of the Mbm & vg Herald a . t the Seat of War . 2 veils . Longmans . The War tn ^ ifteCrimea ; Stibstmce of a Discourse ^ delivered to the Worshy Literary JjtstiiutioTi . By the Earl of EJlesmere . John Murray . ^ BSKA ^ S thefeueve ^ wasia ^ wai 1 so completely fought out , as it were , under t & e ^ ubUtf eye iastlie pVeseiir . Certainly not within the memory of mail have snch stores of information been heaped upon the puhlic , so soon after the events ta which they relate , as we have received from all sides during the Campaigns of' 185 £ -55 . Although battles were fought and cities taken three thousand miles away , yet in two or three days , often , less , the fact has been made known to us ; and in a fortnight or three -weeks the details , in large type , have been served up with the .-eggs- and cold chicken at our breakfast tables . A-t Tegular intervals additional information lias been supplied by themontlily periodicals ; aitd ever and anon some volume has made its appear-^ e # > the ^ we * k ; ^^^^ a modest soldier . E > ay by day , SHd ~ "in « nth by-ntonth ; a I'inining fia-e of commentary has been kept tip , ^ pprbviflg , fifiding ' ' faulty anticipating , suggeisting , describing , until Weare 3 atttt & tfedwitV ^ is ready to tell you offhand , whom we shall hang and -whom we shall crown . —what the generals tijgg % - ;^ In short , the whole proceedings have not been unlike a game of chess , played out in a publiq room , with this difference that , whereas no chess-players would permit a positive hurlyburly of criticism , a storm of blame , advice , irony , invective , I to go ott around them , the players at the game of war have perforce conducted * heir campaign under su ch an uproar as never was heard before , out-dinning the noise of Sweaborg , ajnd over-crowding the thunders of Sehastl ) p 0 ll On the whole , we do-not think this participation of the public in the b & ttle has done any harm—rather good . The chief damage we have siis * tamfedhasbeenin our prestige . Nations not so free as ourselves—indeed , < julte unused to the utter frankness of British speech and writing when Bri- tons are engaged in the process of self-correction , or the press is vindicating its prouol ambition—have taken us at our word , and the more eagerly as most words recently uttered have depreciated our efforts and actions as a nation . Time will correct this ;" , so long as the spirit which has animated the British people in this war endures , we may lose our prestige , but we shall not lose any real power . When the present shall be the past , and j men' look bade to see what deeds were done in these days , depend upon it the tings ' that stand out will not be the failure of the War Department , but tlie ^ j ^ Mv ' rus * * h e English troops up the steep above ' the Alma ; not tfee mitfreof the first bombardment , but the charge of the'Light Brigade ; not the repulse at the Redan , but the splendid resistance at inkermann ; not the s & mtsupply of troops , but the vast , the almost incredible fleets of transports and war-ships , which have been poured forth > f from the harbours of Britain to sustain this war . ¦ In-feet , we live so close to events that we cannot see them properly . We are under the shadows they project into the future . We are part of the events . We are actors , and cannot be judges . For these and other reasons , n ( L £ S Curate nistory o the ^ ar can be written now , in spite of the truly *! " $ ?• mass of information spread abroad . We have the surface-the public despatches , the-public letters , the experiences of this officer and that ^ Vihaia ; the hearsay of myriads mingling and thronging into our ears . We have what can be suppliod by pictorial art and the . photographic process ; we have models arid lectures ; but we have not just that which we require —the- documents that the drawers and pigeon-holes of certain offices and palaces in London , Paris , Vienna , St . Petersburg , and Constantinople could yield us—that the diaries and private papers of the generate could' supply : «* t # otwords , we ; have not the secret history of' the war . Depend uT > om > it there as a secret history , as there is of every event great and-small ; and the aecreto ( history of this' war is * at , present a long way ftom publicity . A IcnowiP * ' ? thlfFfact shoultlitemper the judgment and moderate the pen . > in the ineiinwhile Tve are bound to go on as well as we can . The tnrce 12 inSf > y vhoae titles we llftve placed at the head of this notice , arc all worthy A « L ^ tm ?!' . nvtheir wa ? ' * hey are as different ™ character as they well oanvnw .. UJeir wluo is in the order we have set them down , only the first is SwtwSi first ^ mti tho thir < 1 has some advantages over the second SSS ^^ SS , ^ ' ^^ 8 with afioMier ' s knowledge and responsibility ; Mr A ^ WfSrJSS *? 3 * ^ orresptmdent ' s point of view , and in the correBpon ^^ JS ^^^^ ^ 06100 ^ ' from a very wide range of observa ^ t MM ^^ S ^^'> f ^ ^ ' - md modestly comments on tho whole voEes CnlnUuH * 8 C 0 ftt a Kla « ce the valued character of the ^ mod ^ Si ^ rt ^ v ^^ road wthouf Mr . Woods ; Iwt tfyou read fcoH , ikrein fh ^ S ^ *^ 11 * ° 4 o ao w ith C (> lono 1 Hamley ' b book by your side HawlevV v ^ umA dc 8 ree readable , and deserve to be rea ( f . * Colonel ttomleys volume i 8 „ reprmt of his letters from the camp which have
J appeared in * 2 ? itc & w < io 'd ' s Magazine . They are not , they do not pretend tn be , a'fwlHnsto » y of everything j but the ontline of the whole campaign is well preservefd ; whathe has-set down'that he did not see , Colonel Hamlev hS good warrant for ; and what he did see is simply and clearly told . The Teader has thereftjre the inestimable advantage of following one individualitv and thar-an active and prominent one , all through the campaign- and of hearing a ^ witness on the great subjects of difference whose word must hare great weight . Moreover , Colonel Hamley has the advantage of Umwina the subject on which he-writes ; he is familiar with its terms ; he has read of other wars , and lie can thus judge not of the seeming absolute , but the relative value of what passes before his eyes . He has thus had many advantages , and he has made the most of them . The . reader who peruses in a connected form the narrative of the campaign , as told by Colonel Hamley , will rise with a far better idea of it than anyother single work with which we are acauainterf
could supply . It will also be found a wholesome corrective of popular illusions which have done a great deal of harm . A year ago , in the depth of our distress , feeling it keenly , and sympathising with his comrades in the ranks who felt it more keenly , Colonel Hamley wrote thus : — It is natural that , when men of talent have exerted all their descriptive power to set the sufferings of the army in the strongest possible light , their , readers should be excited to a piteh of sympathy eTen beyond that which an actual sight of the horrors so ' vividly depicted would produce . With advancing civilisatiou humlifshas risen in value and consideration
an to an unprecedented extent our soldiers , no longer accounted as food for powder , are thought of as equal in all respects , superior in some , to those citizens of ancient states who have made famous the names of Thermopylae , Platsea , and Marathon ; and those who would scruple to deprive the worst criminal of existence , cannot hear of so many brave men : perishing without iorror . , * ¦ * * ' Is it politic to insist so strongly on our inferiority ?—or , impolitic , is it just ? I have heard of ; letters from Paiia alluduig to others received from the French camp , iu which the French army is described as being entirely occupied with taking care of the English . The Con .
tinental states , tatkmgus at otir word , begin to affeci compassion for the military system of the nation which is stronger dn resources now than when it saved Europe . Cannot necessary reforms be effected without such depreciatory outcry ? Might ? not t ^ e comparisons I s ^ eak of be dr awn-wi th greater fairness ? Legions of fresh troops were always ready to cover , and tnore than cover , the losses of the French . England and France are friends—long may they continue so—nor should any subject be hinted at which is likely to escite jealousy between them : but lot us be just to ourselves ^ Nothing has yet occurred to prove that out ancient reputation in arms is endangered . Again , a glance to' the future : ¦—" ¦
We havelrttte to learn in war from any nation , and the superiority in the internal management of the PVench army is principally due , in my judgment , wherever it really exists , to the ample supplies of men and material -which , maintained and practised in time of peace , respond witl ease and efficiency to the requirements of war . Probably all this wall now be remedied . Soldiers will Toe enlisted , transport procured , surgeons commissioned , and the glory of England maintained uxa fashion worthy of her unrivalled resources—and then will come peace . And -with , peace will return our habit of considering thafc alone valuable , the value of which can be measured by the commercial standard : the army will shrivel to a skeleton—its members will be again th « object of jealousy and taunts —until , in a new war , we shall again learn our deficiencies from our misfortunes . In our first campaigns , our victories will remain unimproved for want of cavalry ; onr supplies of all kinds will fail for want of transport ; and our troops suddenly transformed from popinjays to heroes , will be called on to make good with blood and-flweat the parsimony of the repentant nation .
Although Mr . Woods has given us an entertaining and instructive book we cannot place it on the same level with that of Colonel Hamley . It was our good fortune to read-the letters which Mr . Woods so faithfully supplied to the Morning Herald * and we were very grateful for them at the time . But these volumes are . an amplified , without being a corrected or chastened edition of those letters ; and much that might have been omitted is retained , and much that niight have been suppressed is supplied . One compressed volume would have been far better than two diffuse ones ; one , clear-flowing narrative would have ( been far more acceptable than an attempt to perform tlie impossible —to give us a complete history . Mr . W opds disclaims all pretension to military criticism , a disclaimer which his readers will not readily allow . He is also disposed to use his , privilege as a Briton and a correspondent , and find fault f
very reely . Throughout his book he betrays a yielding to tho morbid fancy that the French have shown a superiority over the English in this famous fight for Sebastopol . But happily at the close he controverts the error , that the French took Sebastopol— "than this opinion nothing can be more erroneous , " and thus shows that reflection can do much for a man . It is only to be regrettvd that both volumes had not been revised in a similar spir it . So far we have to except to this " Past Campaign . " But we would not willingly do Mr . Woods any injustice . - He is zealous , really in earnest , painstaking—he possesses a talent ( pr clear description which is not common , and all his letters from the camp were full of information . Although we cannot rely on his book with thorough trust , we can , with this qualiiication , safely recommend it to the public as one of the best media for obtaining a glimpse of the > campaign .
, ¦> , —U . . Natural Histoby. Stray Lea...
, ¦> , —u . . NATURAL HISTOBY . Stray Leaves from the Book of" Nature . By M . S . Do Veto , of the University of ' Virginia . Low and son . ' Thb author of theao interesting M Leaves" ia unmistakcably a lover of I nature , and like all lovers , an enthusiast . Tins , while the aourco of a s genial warmth which venders his musings attractive , at the same time . cautions us somewhat as to hia generalisations and conclusions , more especi-. ally Bineq they are not unftequentl y expressed in a style unnecessarily soaring - and ornate . The nature of the subjects , moreover , of which those reflections - treat—the * existence and action of animal and vegetable life—i « of a kind rc-3 meeting which we-may be forgiven for guarding ourselves against credulity . 3 I or we cannot but remember not only the mysteries still presented by many 1 among the simplest objects in creation , but the vagueness and uncertainty . often connected with those facts assumed to have been brought to light . 1 Science has its marvels of discovery , yet it has its many secrets unrovcnlod . 3 . Accident ,, it is said , has sometimes discovered » n important truth ; but oftoncr , . . - - .
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), Jan. 26, 1856, page 18, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_26011856/page/18/
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