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    Desultory , like the book , shall be our notice , leaping from point to point as humour urges . First let us hear some fragments of the sermon on that British (" above all others ) ambition of

    GETTING ON IN THE WOELD . " It is not the wish to get on that I have any , controversy with ; for I am wel aware that' competence must be in a way to be secured , before the mind is sufficiently liberated from a thousand sordid hopes and fears , to rise to any generous or exalted effort . It is the never losing sight of ' getting on '—it is the fusing of every point and purpose of existence in that pursuit , and the setting that one object before the heart as all it has to seek , which I resist and disapprove of ; and I believe if the matter were scrutinized , it would be found that every man carries a counsellor in his own breast , which with * a still small voice , ' resists and disapproves of it also .

    " And what a great matter is it to understand , and be in amity with , this counsellor , —this Divine moderator between the man and his heart , —this regulator of its wild impulses , —this calm , centralizing rebuker and restrainer of its excesses I " This reads marvellously lite the philosophy of those privileged beings Laving " a comfortable independence , " ( and what that is has been told us by the pious particularity and love of exactness which dictated the clause in that famous prayer , " And if , O Lord , thou shouldst not know what comfortable independence is , — 'tis three hundred a year ! " ) for you observe the writer will not allow the mind to be capable of rising to any generous or exalted effort , unless competence have liberated it from sordid hopes . This , though a slip of the pen , is indicative . Let us , however , hear the continuation ; she is speaking of the restraining conscience , as distinguished from the onward rushing will : —

    " But few persons , it will be said , are sensible of this restraining power . Granted ; yet that is no reason why they should not be so . They do not perceive its influence because there is a want of humble passivity in yielding to it . The will has become so imperious by long indulgence , and has so often and so violently torn itself away from its proper centre , that it runs on unchecked in its froward , zigzag course ; sometimes exploding and wounding itself , and sometimes wounding others . Could the planets have also found a will of their own , they would probably have long since upset the universe . " But to resume the point we were considering . " There is nothing like a clear understanding of terms in acting upon a proposition . A man proposes to get on in life .

    " Very good ; let him do so by all means , for nothing can be more in unison with nature and reason than such a design . Everything gets on to its appointed end , and is intended to do so ; but as the man has to shape his own course to his own object , and is not governed by necessity as the seed in the ground is , to take uniform steps to a uniform end , but is left to adopt such measures as seem to his particular choice to look like getting on , it is surely of the last importance that he should have a most distinct and ever present comprehension of the exact meaning of the term , and of the sense which he himself attaches to it . " Now , as far we , I can judge , the gentleman whom I have just visited , considers ' getting on' to mean getting up above other people ; possessing more splendid appointments , a more aristocratic acquaintance ; ignoring the customs , manners , and even the existence of those who have not ascended as high ais himself in the

    ladder he is mounting ; and the sitting down at last at the top ot it , a pompous goose in almost everybody ' s eyes but his own . " This is surely a ' lame and impotent conclusion' to arrive at ; but it is the legitimate result of forgetting the consideration of moral progress while calculating the problem of success , and of viewing things not as they are , but as they

    seem . " Nothing can be called success but that which is accompanied with peace of mind ; and peace of mind , bo it known to all the world , is not a thing that slides into the lot as an accident , a matter that may or may not be there , just as it happens . No , no—your true ' getting on / is first and firmly recognising this ingredient of success ils essential , and as that which must bo got and grasped before all other getting . " Although not of the newest , this is of the kind which needs being preached to men in their feverish blindness of pursuit . Some qualification seems nocOHSary as to that . supposed indispensable- condition , " peace of

    mind . " We should rather say—looking at the energetic conflicts of life , the very passion of which makes victory glorious—that " agitation of mind" was quite an indispensable as peace ; just as activity in neccHBury to the muscles , and makes us sensible of repose , ho arc conflict , agitation , terrible anxiety , infinite yearnings , fluctuating gleams of hope and shadows of doubt , necessary to keep the mind from mantling , like a stagnant pool , with fertile inferiority of life , and to make us fitly enjoy the blessing of peace . " 1 sometimes feel the want to die as the wakeful feel the want to Hleep , " said Madame Du Defland ; but the miserable and the wakeful only feel this longing for peace at tinien : peace is death , and life in conflict- —ever-renewing , ever-welcome conflict .

    What our authoress . says in her summing up , is well . said , and to the purpose : — " The . sum and substance , therefore , of what might be said to the man whose pride is bin stepping-stone , is this : ' If you would rise to true nobility , which means the nobility of mind , establish it us an abiding principle of action , never to < lo anything that you would be ashamed of . And observe always , ( lie distinction between whatyou , the absolute judge , are ashamed of , and what the inferior you , the wayward will of self , would only be ashamed of , if it were , known . The one is

    the lung that rules in the consciences anil must be treated with the reveren % » due to a king ; the other is a poor sneaking slave , that would do everything that is mean ami crooked , even to the robbing of an apple-stall , if not kept in awe by the right ful monarch . ' Kcverenec thyself , ' is a profound inaxini of ancient wisdom , and be mm : to keep up the reverend * most , when most alone . Thus exercising your pride for the purpose for which it was bestowed , you will have its services on solid grounds , and will not exhaust the capacities of this useful agent in poor and paltry enterprises . The real object for which you are working may still be Hclf-aggnmdizcnient , but it will be the gmttncsM of a well-regulated , peaceful , honourable

    interior , that you keep constantly in view as the condition in which you hope to sit down , and say with the old song ,

    " ' My mind to me a kingdom is . ' It is an inconceivable blessing to understand the true nature of things ; for it ia scarcely an exaggeration to say , that far more than half the misery that desolates the world , arises from the profound ignorance of mankind respecting the intrinsic value of the objects which they covet , and spend their best energies upon . " I do not say that these objects are without certain attractions , or that they may not be very pleasant to possess ; but I do say to everybody , know them for what they are , and estimate them accordingly ; and do not make the fatal mistake of supposing that coronet , or coach and four , or any worldly matter whatever that may be dangling before the mind ' s eye , has any relation to the mind ' s peace ; though , unhappily , it may have a very potent influence in promoting its poverty , in so far as its genuine worth and nobility are concerned . "

    Turning from this subject to another , see how nicely she reveaJs one of the little weaknesses of our race : —

    COXCOMBRY OF CONFESSIONS . " This desire of creating a sensation , exists , perhaps , in greater strength in the female sex than the other ; but it is a potent part of humanity in both . In the religious world it is disguised becomingly under the notion of anxiety about spiritual welfare . Nothing is more engaging and really interesting , than any evidence of sincere solicitude in young persons , or any persons , to know the way of truth and righteousness , and to acquire those elevated views and principles which are the only shield we can interpose between Our temptations and our passions .

    " But really , as it seems to me , all right teaching and preaching does so distinctly turn the inquirer away from human help , and drive him so directly into the closet of the heart , there to ' shut the door , and pray to his Father which seeth in secret /—that when I have heard young people talk of consulting their dear minister' about this and the other temptation , I have found it impossible to believe but that a lively desire of creating an interest for themselves in the heart of their spiritual adviser , was more actively prompting them , than a simple wish to do what is right ; for , when this is the only motive , how near is the counsellor !"

    The sarcastic moralist who thought that lovers found pleasure in each other's society , because they talked incessantl y of themselves and their feelings , would probably be at no loss to infer from the above passage , why young ladies are so prone to fall in love with the " dear minister . " Here is a passage every Reviewer will endorse : — " There is something in the first glance we cast upon a new book ( at least so it is with me ) which tells at once whether or not it will be pleasantly readable . Particular words catch the eye , and striking the mind something after the manner in which a tuning-fork strikes a piano-forte , they elicit a response which is or is not in unison with the thoughts they awaken . There are certain terms and phrases which , in the twinkling of an eye , extinguish all my hopes and expectations from a book .

    " This is a prejudice , some will say , and should be overcome . There may be something of prejudice in most instantaneous decisions ; but I have lived long enough to have a great rdspect for first and prompt impressions ; and in regard to books , I scarcely know the occasion in which a glance of five minutes over a new one , did not suffice to tell me its genuine character ; and I dare say , most readers ( by which I mean people who really do read a book , not those who look at it ) would say the same . " When , therefore , in the ' Memoirs of Margaret Fuller , Marchesa d'Ossoli , ' I caught the names of Dante , Goethe , Ariosto , and poetical allusions in English , German , and Italian to the arts , —to genius , and such like spangles , sprinkling almost every page , I had a strong presentiment that I was to meet with a mind too stilted to furnish her observers with the plain homespun which is ' your only wear , ' in such a world as this;—and which is so constantly useful , that one is ready to beg , borrow , or steal a bit of it wherever it can be found . " If these passages have stimulated the reader ' s curiosity , they have done enough . It is a book for a quiet summer afternoon .

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    BOOKS ON OUR TABLE . Life in Mexico during a Residence of Two Yeara in that Country . By Marlunio Calderon . Abridged from the original . ( The Hook-Cane . ) Siinms anil Mclutyru . Madame Caivduhon jje i . a BaboVs gay and sparkling letters , descriptive of I'il « in Mexico , have been somewhat abridged , and so brought within the compass of a single volume of Shnma and Mclntyre ' s Jiook-Case . The sarno publishers have issued a new edition of The Wilmington . ? , by the author of Emilia Wyndham , in their 1 ' arlour Library . Hnc-yclojMdia of IGnqinecrinq , Civil and Mechanical , or General Dictionary of Arts ,

    Sciences , and . Manufactures , liy l'Mward . Loniax , C . K ., attainted by Tbos . Uunyon and W . II . Villiers Sun key . Part I . J . \> ter . JiieUoii . Tiiib is the first part of a new encyclopedia , which although useful of course , ax all such dictionaries of reference are , has nevertheless no spceilic quality which renders its publication desirable , for it is inferior to the more elaborate encyclopedias both in compass and ability , and at the same time has no prominent feature to compensate for that general inferiority . The design of the work is too extensive or not extensive enough . Asa Dictionary of Civil Engineering it contains too much unnceesnary matter ; as a General Dictionary of Arts , . Sciences , and Manufactures , it is somewhat meagre . There are to be 20 of these three-shilling parts .

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    Money ami Moral * , liy Jolm Liilor . . . T . C liCipnmii Hints to itaUwin / Traveller * , and Country Vixitom to London . Jlriullmry ami ' ' ' . ' J Iliot / raphi / <\ f Or . Nlwridun Mutpratt . ' Jolm Chim lnll . Hot / tut ' * Onidtifor Travellers Iteltjinm and the Rhine . . . 1 > - } io f" ! ' , l . rttrr . do M . Churlni Alutheiv * ttu . r , Auteiirn Drainatiqau * < I « la Franca . J . . Mitolij" " The Poetry of Childhood . Hy ( Joodwyn Uarinby . W . Tw «« 'tUt ' liiicvi'lmniutiu Metropolitans Jliatori / of the ChrUtian Church in the . / Second and Third Cent tine * Jiy . 1 . A .. l « r «> mon , O . D . " ' ( Jriflln ami < « . ' ItititoriA dt \ la Uettauration . 1 ' ar A . Do Lamai-lino . \ V . < M ' Invent meat * for the Working Cluitet . Hy VV . It . Urui ? . Longman , Urown , iiiKl * - <> The llookcami . Hemnrkuble JCventnin the Career of Napoleon . HiiimiH and M'liityiu Parlour Library . llouMbenj . \\ y U . 1 \ It . Janii'H . HiiniuH ami M Inl . V " Home Ciralo . 1 ' urt XXXVII . W . H . Johu »<»» .

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    734 THE L E APE R . [ Saturday ,

• Citation
  • Leader (1850-1860), July 31, 1852, page 734, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1945/page/18/