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Leader (1850-1860), 16th June 1860, Edition 1 of 2, Page 573

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    • CU-JilOSlTI'KS OF SCIEXt'K.*
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      Untitled Article

      fertile bruin appears to be inexhaustible , and all the tales in the volume before us riot only possess a symbolical meaning , but are enriched with such a variety of images and fanciful interpolations as render-tr cm the most delicious and enchanting reading-. The- infallibility of the true spirit of Christianity in overcoming- all the evils of life is Ihe moral couched beneath all these elegant little fables .. Of these the " Mud Kind ' Daughter" is perhaps the most beautiful and suggestive . The following : is the line -of argument pursued : — The King of Egypt falling sickj he is recommended by his phy-RiVian to touch of certain plant which grows in a deep morass near

      the sandhills of Jutland . His daughter , the princess , accompanied by two female companions under the likeness of swans , forthwith undertake a journey to the north of Europe , in order to procure the medicinal herb . Arrived at their destination , her treacherous friends first make themselves mistresses of the princess ' s magical disguise , and then leave her to perish in the morass . Some time after , a newly-born infant- "is discovered reclining on the petals of a waterlily springing out of this same morass , and is conveyed , under peculiar circumstances , to the dwelling of the Vikin < r ' s wife , by whom it is adopted . This little interloper is the daughter of the Mud-king and his Egyptian bride . The Viking ' s wife speedily becomes aware that herproifr / ee is under the influence of some powerful . charm , in niht transformed into the

      virtue of which she becomes every g semblance of a frog , and does not resume her natural shape till the succeeding morning . When the young lady is about sixteen years old , a Christian priest is brought captive to her foster-father ' s castle , and is delivered by our heroine during the period of one of her hideous metamorphoses ; for it should'here be mentioned that , though during the day-time , in the pride of her youth and loveliness , she exhibits a disposition malicious , savage , and ferocious , quite the opposite is the case during the long , tedious hours of her affliction ;—then her heart is docile and tender as a lamb . The priest , in return for her act of generosity , resolves to release her from her purgatorial state ; he accordingly baptizes her in the name of Jesus Christ , marking 1 her several times with the sign of the cross . It is not , however , until the sign is received myvnrdly as well as outand faiththat it

      " Restoration , " ultimately returns to England , and falls a victim to the remorseless cruelty of the justly execrated " Judge Jeffreys . " This little work will well reward the reader for the time expended on its perusal . / ' Lady ' . Goodchild's Fairy Ring" is composed 6 f a series of tales ,-adapted to the blender comprehension of childhood , in all of which the element of magic and supernatural agency is conspicuously brought forward . These stories are of a decidedly superior order to those usually compiled for the benefit of the rising generation , being all written with- the utmost delicacy and skill , and each

      containing" a most instructive and unexceptionable moral . Amongst those which we would especially recommend to the consideration of our juvenile brethren , are " The Little lied JIan , " " Father Barbel , " and " The Sea King ' s Bride . " " Chilcote Park , " by the author of " Likes and Dislikes , " is a very innocent story , perfectly simple in all its details , a :: d-evidently written with no higher ambitious object than the transmission ( to all who shall accept , and profit by the same ) of a highly-commendable and instructive moral . The heroines are two ' sisters ; Agnes and Hcrthu , both orphans , and the possessors of considerable fortunes . ' Bertha , the younger , after contracting herself to her cousin Francis , exhibits unmistakeable signs of the ravages of con-* J — . A _ T . _ X ~ . ¦ - _¦ ¦_ _ J — - r ^ I _ »_ t- —m . ** _ - _ A * V 1 . W ^ • * V AB ^^ A SM ^» tion tendency to which disease her friends have prognosti

      *— ^* * . ^ ^ * ^^ ^ . ^^ ^ sump , a - cated from her cradle . After ' a hurried . marriage , she is taken abroad by her husband , with a view to the renovation of her shattered health , and dies in Algiers . The widowed Francis , in the intensity of his grief , fails an . easy , prey to the machinations of a Jesuit priest , by whom he is induced to enter into the communion of the church of Rome ; and he ultimately proceeds as a missionary of that faith to China . Agnes , thus left to her own resources , takes up her abode with her half-brother and his wife , one Mr . and Mrs . Burgess , whose cupidity is speedily excited by the prospect of having the entire . management of their relative ' s fortune . In order to accomplish this object , they take advantage of . a temporary aberration of intellect , the natural consequence of a violent attack of brain-fever , to incarcerate the poor girl in , a . lunatic asylum .

      -m j -t ^ ¦ ' ' ' " . _ l -1 _ ' ___ .- j * __ __ 1 _• _ - _¦• .. 1 i . f .. X ^ T . _ . »« Tr « . »« --l I .... i-1 * a From this disagreeable position she is ultiintitely relieved by-the niag . nanim . ous " 'devotion of an old admirer , Dr . Martin , to whom she ultimately intrusts her . '¦ happiness , after having-, in the bitter Fchoohof adversity , ' worked out the redemption . of her own wayward heart , and conned the universal lesson that every ni : sn and woman , to be truly happy , must have some object in existence : and that the noblest of all " objects , especially to a ' woman of wealth and independence , is the welfare and ' 'happiness of others . Thus , from out _ _ r sorest need , she extracts ' the precious seedsof- "future . prosperity and peace . ~ "' ' ' . ~ ' Though written in the simplest and most unassuming form , the useful moral contained in this little volume-will be a ' secure recommendation to the public .

      wardly / in the true spirit of Christian charity , acquires any potency in dissolving the terrible -charm under which her existence groans . Once enshrined in . her heart the knowledge and love of the Redeemer , then her disguise falls off like a worn-out garment , and she steps forth in £ o _ the -world an ; uncontaminated and true-hearted woman . Receiving a visitation from her ghostly confessor after the period of his natural existence , she begs that he witl accord her a momentary . glimpse into the state of departed spirits ; her wish is granted , and she is burne upwards beyond the vault of heaven for the space ( according to her finite calculations ) of about three minutes . There she is met by a sight so dazzling as to be entirely undistinguishable . Upon her return to earth she finds everything arouml her changed—( he old faces have passed away , and a new' geneiation has sprung up , as it were , by magic ; centuries have rolled bv during her short acquaintance with the Infinite : She

      at once comprehends the truth—a thousand years in time is but as the space of three minutes in eternity . All the tales are of this fanciful and allegorical description , and a decided treat is in store for tho reader who shall devote a few of his leisure hours to their perusal . ' — A' series of tales , b 3 ^ Vin s 7 ^ ins 7 'HrntIecr ' 'Chapters on Wives / are deserving of the highest praise . The authoress informs us in . the preface , that it is her intention in the present volume to exhibit , a little of the stem roninJicc of married life , and draw a lew vivid , pictures of the fortitude and heroism of woman in her double , capacity of wife and mother , a subject , she says , not popular with novelists in general , who hold it as a maxim that all romance censes I t the matrimonial altarMrsEllis has proved this inion to be j

      a . . op a fallacy ; and in a collection of beautiful and unaffected stories has j shown how deep an interest lies hidden benenth the every-day I routine and common-place duties of wedded existence . It is not till after marriage that the higher capabilities of woman are thoroughly developed , and her character assumes anything like consistency or settled tendencies , whether for good or evil . Once she sets her foot within the charmed circle her realWfe begins , and opportunities gradually present themselves for the awakening and starting into life of all her dormant faculties—she becomes a different being . Of course every wifo has to undergo a probationary course before she can fully comprehend the responsibilities entailed upon her by her new office ; then her nobler qualities ( if noble qualities Bhe possesses ) assert their superiority over all selfish feelings , and hho stands discovered to her husband and tho world in her true nature , Nothing could be more artistic than Mrs . Ellis ' s trentment of her in her workand thisperhaps

      subject ; her heart is evidently , , , constitutes ono of the chief charms of this lady ' s writings . We have merely to add that these tales are worthy tho reputation of the authoress . " Alice Lislo , " by the Rev . R . King , is an ably written and decidedly , interesting 1 story . The scene is laid in tho reign of Charles . ' I ,, extending pyer tlie protectorato of Oliver . Crqinwell ; aiid the author betrays nn intimate acquiiintnnco with the different contending factions find antagonistic principles which agitated tlmt stormy period of English history . Tlie author ' s clerical education has enabled him to enter into his subject with more than usual clearness and perspicuity ; and though perhaps a little prejudiced in favour of puritanical discipline and rigid self-denial , hit * conclusions us to tho relative merits of Cavalior ar . d Roundhead , nru generally correctly and impartiully drawn . The story is simple . Alice LiBle , tho wife of a staunch puritan , after escaping , by a timely retreat into Holland accompanied by her husband , the dangers of tho

      Untitled Article

      MR . ' TIMBS has already so pleasantly acquainted us with so many Curiosities of Science , that , we are prepared to welcome a second series with peculiar pleasure . It commences with the subject of alchemy , and treats it with a more decorous respect than - ^ -genera ^ A ^ eKttriTd-er fHHnvttrds ^^ ahvays , however , treated with contempt . Friar ¦ Bacon believed , and Sir Isaac Newton made experiments in it . Mr . Tiinbs here states a . fact" which is not generally known , though generally asserted by the mystic ' s , and ¦ particularly by Law . Among Sir Isaac ' s papers large extracts " out of Jacob Behmen ' s works , were found , written with hi . s own hand . Law states that lie had learned from undoubted authority that , in n former ' part of his life , Sir II 0111 11 I 1 UOUUII . U IHIIHUIIIJ IIHH , 111 ii lui hici l "' " " •"" ' •¦"» ~"

      Jsaac was led into a search of the Philosopher ' s Tincture , and with Dr . Newton , his relative , set up furnaces ; and that they were for 'several months at'work in quest of the Tincture . The substantial truth of the istiiternent U proved by Dr . Newton ' s own letter , in which he says : " About six weeks at spring , and at y fall , y * fire in the ohiboratory scarcely was but , wliitrh was well furnished with chyniienl materials , as bodyes , receivers , heads , crucibles , &c , which wa s made verv little use of , y « crucibles excepled , in which ho fused his metals . He would sometimes , though very seldom , look into an old mouldy book which lay in hia eluboratory , I think it was entitled ' Agricoln de Metallis ; 'the tninsinnting of metals being his chief design , for which purpose antimony was a groat ingredient . Near his elabonitory was his garden . . . . His brick furnaces , pro ro nata , ho made and altorod himself , without troubling a bricklayer . " MrTimbs has done his best to exhaust this subject by the mime-IlirJ MWRlii / ib aiti i " ?

      . XfM . A » JLHHUCf Illin \ IUI 1 U *< v ;« «^ v » - •*•« «« r ( j — - ~ ~ — , ¦ -- ; rous notices , including tho lutost and earliest periods , which he has bestowed on it . He then proceeds to modern chemistry , and the great discoveries in it , which are such invaluable aids to civilization . Tho phenomena of Allotropism have a similarity with those of nlc-hemy—they indicate , not , certainly , A ho transmutation of metals into gold , but transmutation , nevertheless , of a certain kind . Much Jnitiwlcdge" of ii 6 ri-n > et » ilHcf clementa ^ ^ inight bo gftfiicd , irwo coul * succeed in obtaining" hydrogen and nitrogen in the liquid or solid form . Hitherto they hnvo resisted till efforts , though hydrogen , m ninny of its relations , nets ns though it wero a metal . Mr . inrnday has long boon of opinion that tho various forms under wlncli the forces of matter « ro made , manifest hnvo a common origin , and are convertible ono into another . . ^ ¦

      Untitled Article

      • T / iim / o not generally Known fa , niliai-lj / JCrphuiud . ^"' iS'& ' jf Science . Second Berks . A Book for Old and YounK . By John imds , 1 M 3 . A . Kent & Co .

      Untitled Article

      June 16 , 1860 J The Leader and Saturday Analyst . 573

      Cu-Jiloslti'ks Of Sciext'k.*

      cujiios . iT . rEs or sciexck . *

  • Citation
    • Leader (1850-1860), June 16, 1860, page 573, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2352/page/17/