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    natural science . His artificial system enabled the botanist at once to assign to every plant its proper place along with its generic and specific name . Hence it was adopted , after but little opposition , even by those who were cognisant of its many imperfections , as at . all events the best system which had hitherto been propounded , and which , for a time , must occupy the ground till a more truthful and natural system should be discovered . To those who have had occasion to consult the older works on botany it will be noways surprising that such should have been the case . Instead of the former mystification of names he gave which each its

    a simple nomenclature , by plant naa patronymic or family name , as well as its individuality defined by a specific name , and so cleverly were , by these means , his forces marshalled before him , that the student found but little difficulty in assigning its proper place to every newly-discovered plant with the same facility with which he could trace all that were hitherto known , in the complete catalogue of plants which accompanied the new system on its first promulgation . This system of Linnseus is founded on the number , position , and relative proportions of stamens and pistils—the organs of reproduction , and divides the whole vegetable subdivided into

    kingdom into twenty-four Classes , one hundred and twenty-one Orders . These Orders are again divided into two hundred Genera , and the Genera into thirty thousand Species . So minute an arrangement made it , therefore , easy to find its definite place for every plant ; but it was too artificial to serve the purposes of general utility , as it leaves all but undefined the economical and medicinal uses of plants . The natural system , founded by Jussieu and De Candolle , and improved by Brown , Lindley , and others , meets this great want , and reduces the economy of all vegetable life to the regulation of a , very limited code of laws , founded lants which with

    upon the discovery that all p agree one another in organisation , abo agree in the secretions governed by that organisation . But we are speaking of Linnseus himself , and have only touched upon the rival systems incidentally—a knowledge of both of which is essential to the scientific inquirer , because upon the principles of that of Linnssusj in . most cases , all new discoveries in the vegetable kingdom are first described . Linnseus kept a diary , and imperfect as it is , it is a most important document in the hands of so skilful a biographer as Miss Brightwell , who has undertaken her task as a labour of love , and given us a picture of the struggles of the poor pastor ' s son in his upward course from indigence and neglect to independence , wealth , and universal respect . He was born in May , 1707 , at Rusbult , in the south of Swedenand his father , who was the minister

    , adjiuictus of the parish , was as poor as any of his class . Young Linne was sent to school at Wexio , but even after twelve years' schooling his progress was so slow that his parents had at one time serious thoughts of apprenticing him to a tailor or a shoemaker . " It would bo well if we knew how to use our boys , " says the clever author of Tom Broicrfs School-Days . Fortunately for the world of science , . young Charles was not doomed , like our own William Gifford , to the drudgery of a mere mechanical trade . He was sent to Lund to study medicine , and became an inmate in the house of Dr . Stobous , the professor of medicine , who soon discovered the innate love of natural history in his pupil , and allowed him full access to his museum and collections .

    Still ho was denied the privilege of access to the doctor's library ; but , an it fell out , ho managed to obtain that also . Ho formed an acquaintance with a fellow lodger , u young German student , who enjoyed the advantage be coveted , and in return for teaching him the principles of physiology , ho obtained of this youth books from Stobftus ' s library . Ho passed whole nights in reading the books thus clandestinely procured ; but it happened that the mother of StobUus , who wus iufirm and ailing , lay awnko several nights in

    succession , and seeing a light constantly burning in Limuous ' s room , fearful of fire desired her eon to chide the young Smalnndor for his carelessness . Two nights after , at midnight , the lad was surprised by a visit from his host , who found him to his astonishment diligently poring over his books . Being asked why ho did not go to bed , and where he had procured the books , ho was compelled to confess everything . StobUus ordered him immediately to go to bod : and the noxt morning , colling for liim , gave him permission to make what use ho pleased of his library .

    Thin was the groat step in his upward career . From that time Stobous aotod tho . part of a -father to the young naturalist , and soroly did ho feel the

    latter ' s apparent ingratitude in leaving the University of Lund for that of Upsala without consulting him . At Upsala Linnaeus had many difficulties to qncounter , and so great was his poverty , that he had to coyer up . the holes in his shoes with pieces of blackened paper . Fortune again befriended , him , and whilst dining with Duke Humphrey / to whom of necessity he had now become almost a daily guest , in the academical garden , he was accosted by the venerable Dr . Olaf Celsius , who had lately returned from the Holy Land , where he had been making collections for his celebrated work upon the botany of the Bible . He soon discovered the merits of Linnajus , gave him his protection , with board and lod < nmr in his own house , allowing him the full use first

    of his library . Here he composed Ins essay on the Sexes of Plants , and upon Celsius communicating it to Dr . Rudbeck , who then filled the Botanical chair in that University , he desired to become better acquainted with the author of so " masculine a composition , " which led the way to Limifeus being appointed to lecture in the botanical garden as the assistant to the professor , and eventually , though after many years of struggle spent in various parts of the world , he reached the height of his ambit ion , and filled the chair of his former friend and benefactor with such a high reputation that the small University of Upsala g radually rose to be numbered with the most celebrated in Europe , and the pupils who attended his lectures , in one year alone , amounted to no less than fifteen hundred .

    Miss Brightwell gives many extracts from the Diary , but we have not spaee for . more than a single specimen . It relates to his journey in Lapland , one of the most arduous and painful progresses ever made in the pursuit of a favourite study : — On ray first ascending these wild Alps I felt as if in a new world . Here were no forests to be seen , but mountains upon mountains , larger and larger as I advanced , all covered witH * snow . No road , no tracks , nor any sign of inhabitants were visible . The declining sun never disappeared sufficiently to allow nny cooling shade , and by climbing to the more elevated parts of these lofty mountains , I could see it at midnight above the horizon . This spectacle I considered as not one of the least of nature ' s miracles , for -what inhabitant of other countries would not wish to behold it ? O Lord , how

    wonderful are Thy works ! ..... The observer of nature sees with admiration that the whole world is full of the glory of God ! Blessed be the Lord for the beauty of summer and of spring , and for what is here in greater perfection than almost anywhere else in the world ^ -the air , the water , the verdure of the herbage , and the song of the birds ! Linnseus died on the 10 th of January , 177 S , aged seventy , to the regret of all Europe . Sir James Edward Smith became the purchaser of his library and museum , which afterwards formed the nucleus of that of the Linntean Society , and the visitor to the Society ' s house in Soho-square may have the satisfaction of consulting the very books which he consulted , and of contemplating the identical plants which he collected with his own hands , and described in his Species Planktnim . ^ %

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    THE LIFE OF CHARLOTTE BRONTE . The Life of Charlotte Bronte . By Mrs . Gaskoll . Fourth Edition . Smith , Elder , and Co . Few biographies were ever published which their readers did not consider they could improve bv the excision of certain portions ; although the standards that our idiosyncrasies set up for us vary so much , that the would-be surgeons do not so _ often agree where to operate , as that operating is desirable . On the propriety , however , of omitting from the present edition of Mrs , Gaskcll ' s work such passages as wore manifestly out of place in such a tribute of affection , there were , wo believe , no two opinions ; and it is therefore satisfactory that , the authoress has taken heart to y ield gracefully , and that the emendations in question have not lessened , if they have not added much to , the general value of her performance . The finest ion whether further abbreviation would bo desirable , depends in some dogrcc on the general question , whothor a biography is better written by a stranger or by aJYiond ; in the latter case some superfluity of details is natural . Wo are disposed to think correction might even now bo applied to a low points of detail in tho family history , which tho fair biographer seems to havo ' accepted second-hand with implicit faith . Such a one prosents itself , whore we are told that Mr . Bronte" s six . children , of whom tho oldest , Maria , was but seven years , old , used to walk out together towards tho wild moors without attendanoo . Tho

    precocious development of locomotive power in the youngest of the little flock may well have surprised the good old woman" who supplied the information . We should in fairness add that we do not advance this apocryphal-looking tale as a sample of the book , which , though stamped deeply with amiable enthusiasm , is well known in substance to portray most truthfully Miss Bronte ' s early life , her trials , and her joys . The most careless reader can hardly fail to derive improvement from its perusal . It tells of no romantic or exceptional events , nor even of great and startling obstacles overleaped by ardent and heroic impulses ; but it exhibits to us the homel y

    life of a young lady who , in spite of feeble frame , scant education , domestic cares and toils amounting even to drudgery , was borne by a firm will along the weary road that led to ultimate success . It is an old tale , oft told , having a sweet and convenient moral ; but we may yet season this with a reflection that a mother of children gave us . It by no means follows , she said , that your half-trained , dragged-up children must fail in after life , or tbat you may magnify any success they meet with on the score of the little gifts wherewith they set out . For , those who watch the ways of young people

    will tell you , and struggling folk should bear tins little fact in mind , that what you are pleased to call advantages may in truth be impediments if the path be thorny . It is observed that the offspring of intelligent parents really gain a greater development of mental power from the invention and coinage of amusements for themselves under the pressure of harrow circumstances than comes to others whose every childish desire is anticipated by favouring ? fortune . Rely upon it , continued our friend—and we believe her—that our children now-a-days have so over-much done for them that tlicir incenuilV is

    stifled by surrounding facilities . The Brontes , with their inventing of plays , and with no doll or rocking-horse bought to amuse them , were in a fairer way to fortune , and happiness too , than most of the weedy little hot-house plants , to economise whose facilities artists rack their brains , and who almost spring from the perambulator to the Pantheon Bazaar and an allowance of pocket money .

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    THE ENGLISH COOKERY BOOK . The Eiiglish Cookery Booh . By J . IJ . Walsh , F . R . C . S . Routledge and Co . The French are our masters in culinary science . Proud andi 2 ) erfide Albion condescends to make the admission . Three hundred and sixty-five ways of dressing an egg—that , is the French boast ; we have nothing to cap it ; let our neighbours , therefore , he rrnwiiftd with the crown of brassica . But still

    we are not quite barbarians in the art of cooking food —we know a thing or two—and , though we may not be able to ragoo . a lady ' s slipper with such exquisite ability as to puzzle a convocation of gourmets , we can put a sirloin of beef , a haunch of mutton , or a rump-steak , before Ihe lovers of real good eating done to that turn of perfection which might move the envy of a . CarGine , a Soyer , or any other Parisian monarch of the mouth .

    We have cookery-books not a few , of various degrees of merit ; some are wanting in simplicity of style , sonic in economy , sonic in even tho commonest directions how to prepare in the best way tho commonest dishes . But from nil can be gleaned hints which , when combined , may assist in producing that rarest specimen of the genus // otiio ^—tx good plain cook . The prosent work has one very great recommendation—it contains a considerable number of receipts for plain dishes , and for homely luxuries , all within the reach of people of moderate income . But thero aro sonic deficiencies . "Why is the receipt for stewed cheese left out , when toasted choose is given P Then , surely , tho directions for

    cooking a rump-steak—a feat , according to an octogenarian cook at Dolly ' s , none but lumm of superlative genius can perfectly aocoinplish—arc surely not according to the highest canons of the most accomplished cooks . " Some cooks beat them for ten minutes with a rolling-pin , " says our Eng lish cooking oracle ; this , too , with lmrdly a word oi remonstrance . AVIiat ! bent a I hroc-qiKirfor-ijieli thick tender point rump-steak vilh a rollniff-j'iiir Why , tho most merciful punishment wo would jnmel ; for such an atrocity , practised only by barbarous nations in barbarous times , would ho n ten innfutcs hammering with tho same rollinff-pm on tho head and shoulders of the oflbmliiitf culprit . But , after all , much must bo allowed lor liwto / and

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    No . 447 , October 16 , 1858 , 1 _ T j * J ^^ gJ ^ ... _ X 093

• Citation
  • Leader (1850-1860), Oct. 16, 1858, page 1093, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2264/page/13/