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IP tt^rnfitr^ j-' Hi t UlUl 14
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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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Ip Tt^Rnfitr^ J-' Hi T Ulul 14
Cittrntow .
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We see announced a new work by Owen Jones , whom Europe acknowledges as il maestro di color che sanno , in colour ( we mean no pun ) and ornamentation . It is to be The Grammar of Ornament , and to exhibit iu three thousand examples the origin and development of all those styles of ornamentwhich the science and ingenuity of all nations have produced . We are to see , not simply read of , the ornamental work of savages * of Egyptians , Persians , Greeks , Pompeians , Romans , Byzantines , Arabs , Turks , Moors , Hindoos ,
curious example , bearing out his suggestion that the leaf-insect not only looks like a leaf , but tastes like one . We divided a caterpillar in two for the purpose oP watching reflex actions , and in about ten minutes afterwards we observed the one half greedily feeding on the other . As the caterpillar is not carnivorous this conduct greatly surprised us ; however we watched it closely for some time , and the fact became indubitable . Perhaps , after all , there is no such contradiction in either case , as the mere terms convey . It may be only cannibalism in woids ; in fact , the insect feeds on vegetable substance , which has not been metamorphosed into animal substance , although it forms an integral part of animal tissue . This may bring the animal and vegetable kingdoms into more inseparable union than is currently imagined ; but it will
not otherwise alter our physiological conceptions . If the reader is sceptical of the existence of vegetable substance retaining its vegetable composition and qualities even while forming an integral part of animal tissues , let us ask him what there is more repugnant in such an idea , than in the existence of inorganic substances retaining their composition and qualities while forming integral parts of animal tissues ? Does not osseous tissue , to cite but one example , contain phosphate and carbonate of lime as integral portions , which can be removed from the organic substance as perfectly as from a lump of earth , but which when removed deprive the organic substaDce of its osseous qualities ? Into questions so complex and far-reaching as these we must not further enter . Enough if we have opened them for the speculative physiologist .
Chinese , Celts , with those of the Middle Ages , Benaissance , Elizabethan period , and the Italians ; and what we see iu coloured diagrams Owen Jones will explain in lucid philosophic text as is his wont . The work will appear in ten shilling parts ; the cost of production will be immense , and unhappily the cost of purchase must keep it from many a house where it would be very welcome . Nevertheless some of our readers may be architectural enough , or wealthy enough to make light of this obstacle ; and to such our announcement is addressed .
While Owen Jones tries to make us understand how by going back to Nature we may learn the true secrets of ornamentation , Nature herself is somewhat paradoxical in her own caprices . For example , bow many leaves she has given us , no two exactly alike ! how many insects she has given us , no two alike ! smd as if to play with , her very varieties and multiply the i nexhaustible , has she not given us the Phyllium Scythe , in other words , the insect which even those forewarned cannot distinguish from a leaf ? The first time we ever saw one of these Eastern ' marvels , a lady handed to us a small box , asking us if we knew what leaf was tying . as the hottom : a sere and yellow leaf , with all the sadness of approaching autumn in its aspect . To
her surprise we ventured-a doubt whether indeed it were a leaf at all . This doubt , which looked like the scepticism of vast , knowledge , was indeed but the shak } r offspring of \ vell-grounded ignorance . Our botanical erudition being ludicrously small , the mere appeal to it was in itself suspicious , ami on that hint we- spake- Had we been more- » " knowing we should have committed ourselves ; for in sober truth the loaf insect is so like a leaf that Sir . Andrew-Murk ay assures us , in an admirable , paper contributed to the Edinburgh Philosophical Journal this . quarter , that when visitors to the Royal Botanic Garden of Edinburgh flocked to see the new wonder , ' " they usually , after looking at the plant for a minute or two , declared they could see no ih .-ect ; "
and even when it was pointed out to them they could not rest satisfied until it was made to move , or was taken from , the plant and suffered to crawl over the attendant's finger . This constant " stirring up" appears to have been too much for its nerves- ; and its health demanded that only four days in the week should it be publicly exhibited . The insect now exhibiting iu Edinburgh is the first which has been seen alive in this quarter of the Globe ; and it is to Sirs . Major Bla . ckwood that naturalists arc indebted for the sight . Those who cannot go to
Edinburgh may at least-go to the Edinburgh Philosophical Journal , and read there the very interesting ' memoir written by Mr . Murray , who has enriched the curious observations miule oil tlie Phyllium Scythe with some philosophic speculations on the metamorphoses of insects , too long for extract lioiv , but worthy , of every one's serious attention . Mr . Murk ay expresses the hope that this specimen will only be the first of a numerous family , and that in a few years the leaf insect will be as common iii our conservatories as the canary bird is in our houses .
The wings of the Phyllium Scythe have not only the colour and form of leaves , with their stems and venation , but the colour varies at different periods of its life , always resembling some loaf . When first hatched it is of a reddish yellow , something like ' a half-dried beech leaf ; when once it has settled on a tree it speedily assumes the colour of the loaves on which it feeds , Among the leaves of the common myrtle it cannot be distinguished by the colour of the body ( the legs are browner ) ; and its habit of carrying
itself adds to the difficulty of detecting it . The tail is generally curled up a little , about us much as the bend of the myrtle leaf . * " As it beads its tail up , however , the curl would he the wrong way , unless the insect walked back downwards , which in point of ( Viet is its constant habit , adhering to the under sides of the leaves . This habit brings ' to light another beautiful contrivance for still further heightening its resemblance to a leaf . The upper surface is opaque green , just the reverse of the myrtle or guava loaf ; so that by reversing its position it brings the glossy side up and the dull side down . "
Like the leaf it feeds on it serins to ilecay ou arriving at maturity , and in the autumn it puts on that " sere and yellow " garment which the leu f assumes . I lure an interesting question arises , Can tho solar iutlueuccs which thus change the colour of foliages be the cause of the similar change in tji e colour of tho insect ? lathe identity of change , incident email identity of structure , aa regards the chlorophyll and pigment ? Some such identity would seam to bo indicated by the fact . Mr . Morbay has noticed rospertiu g the-cannibalism ' of the insert—it cats tho skin which it moults ! Mr . Muiway says he k not aware whether this singular net of cannibalism hns been observed in other insects j nor me we ; but we can furnish him with one
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SMITH O'BRIEN'S MEDITATIONS . JPrincipIes of Government ; or , Meditations in Exile . I 5 v W . Smith . O'Brien . 2 Vols . Dublin : Daffy For eighteen years Mr . Smith O'Brien was a member of the British Parliament . For six years he was a prisoner in a penal settlement . He has been a grand juror , a magistrate , a guardian of tbe poor , a political agitator , and a convict . As a country gentleman , he had opportunities for studying the manners , faculties , and feelings of the rural populations of all classes ; as a legislator , the widest and brightest vistas of metropolitan life were open to his eye . His personal connexions , familiarised him with the aristocracy , —his early career in the Senate — a career unspotted by factious intrigues—laid bare before him the workings of the Parliamentary system ; his subsequent alliance -ivith 0 'Connell was a practical lesson in . the art of empirical agitation . lie had not the demagogue ' s dangerous want , for he was rich ;
he had not the demagogue ' s dangerous gift , for he was by no means eloquent . And yet Mr . Smith O'Brien , whose opportunities for observation were so remarkable , hazarded his fortune , position , and life in a desperate attempt , and it was a desperate failure . As long as he trod in the steps of his ancestors , parallel with the respectable file of Protestant Irish gentry , he was an esteemed , influential , and mediocre individual , a parliamentarian by birth , a justice of fie peace by station , a politician by ^ courtesy . In the very hour in wliicb , scanning . the-world fr . p , m Daniel O'Connell ' s Pisgah ., he ventured upon a path of his own choosing , he ran into a labyrinth , the outlet of which was in Van Diemen ' s Land . He became first an absurdity , then a nuisance ; he was ridiculed ; he was shut in the Speaker ' s Black Hole ; he was transported ; he suffered a graduated series of penalties , and now , a conditional amnesty having softened into serious regrets the last feelings of bitterness in his mind , he publishes , with a preface dated from Brussels , two volumes of scholarly essays , moderate , argumentative , even fascinating iu their dignity and
composure . In these volumes he lias endeavoured to present a synoptical view ot society , and a theory of human government , including generalisation and details . The book , we think , will be particularly welcome to his friends . Mr . Smith O'Brien , as last seen in the three kingdoms , was the central figure of a farce , a dupe as well as a demagogue . He has since endured what , to any man is a bitter infliction , the loss of social position , of personal liberty , and of the right to live among his countrymen . He owes grace to his exile It has subdued his passions , brought his reason into play , philosophised his views of polities and history . Those who knew Smith O'iirien as a politician
—a patriot , the sympathisers called him , and patviotic he was , i \ o doubt—will be surprised to find in these forty chapters of speculation , not calmness only , but modesty . Thcj r Contain no gall of a repining spirit . The style is studieuly impersonal . Seldom does an allusion strike at a contemporary . Mr . O'Brien reviews , methodically and without display , the origin of the several forms of government , and starts from this point , upon a survey of the principles introduced into legislation by ancient and modern statesmen . His inquiry , though generalised , descends to the smallest details of executive administration , of police , of popular health and amusements ; , and of municipal organisation . It is neither very original in its plan , nor profound hi its results , yet it is a clear and sensible exposition of a political theory .
" Divested ot' almost all the ordinary interests of life , " cut off from tho means of historical and literary research , forced to depend for illustrations on his memory , Mr . O'Brien almost necessarily filled a large space with expanded truisms . But his work is essentially elementary , and its perusal > yill be more profitable to young men than to mature or prejudiced politicians . To the latter elass of readers it will be a curiosity ; to the former it supplies an excellent outline of legislative study . Of course , were we to deal as political crities with Mr . O'Brien ' s propositions or with his arguments , we should , at tho outset , cross swords with him , and dispute , at intervals , . to the end . lit in
is still , in spirit , a country gentleman : be never was more , 'fact , than » countvy gentleman who hud wandered from tho nival orbit . Rctununf within the ancient ; limits , lie only stands in contrast with his peers becnuso he brings with him the ' liberality imbibed during a long cpisod of agitation . For instance , he argues ns if centralisation and paid magistracy for the counties were inseparable ; as if all peers enjoyed moral us well ais well as a legal right to their stations ; aa if social wisdor made her abode in tho provinces nndwere a xnerc visitant in tho town . Nevertheless , there is u . passionless and charitable tone in the essays , an good 'intentions coyer a multitude of errors . An amiable platitude is tastt
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January 26 , 1856 : ] THJE LDAflgJ $ 7
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Critics are not Ihc legislators , but tho judges and police of Literature . They do not rnalce laws - they interpret and try tp caforcc them . -Mditiburgh Itecivw .
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Leader (1850-1860), Jan. 26, 1856, page 87, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2125/page/15/
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