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    THE LEADER. [No. 407, January 9, 1858. J...

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    THE ALCHEMISTS. Bemarks upon. Alchemy an...

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    THE SPORTS OF MERRY ENGLAND. Merrie Engl...

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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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    Ludlow's Indian Lectures. British India:...

    # - ^ . < Jtha Nizam ' s territories preferred to that of Mairwara ? Is-the S ^ fh WeJtewt system so hateful as that of Oude under its native princes ? Sr ¥ udS . w ' so / n statement , in his thirteenth , lecture , is an admirable- com-Stacy on , the random . rhetoric of the ninth . Of the public works executed under British superintendence he givesj upon the whole , a tolerably fair JuBGOunlw . drawing : a useful contrast between , the improved and the neglected Mowinces , Hi » tendency ,, however , is to impeach the Company _ s government afc-alL hazards , so that it is literally painful to read his version of the Sattara aorpewsession . Of Lord Dalhousie he writes ungenerously , un-. candidlyTand in . a spirit of defiant dogmatism ,, which , we hope , did not mis-I ^ ui hiThearers at the Working Men ' s College . They must seek elsewhere whicu has been

    for an authentic view of Lord Dalhousie ' s Indian policy , made the subject of so much cruel misrepresentation . The future will show whether he deserved ill or well of the Government he served with so much devotion and vigour . But a single illustration should teach those who read * s students the danger of trustin g too implicitly in the counsels of a fluent « nd forcible lecturer . What would Mr . John Malcolm Ludlow do ? He would restore the dethroned dynasty of Oude and the boy-Kajah of Sattara , and < n : ant increase of territory to Putteala . and Jheend , to Gwalior , Indore , and Jodhpore . That is to say , the rebels of Oude should be rewarded for their rebellion , and India should be taught that conquered territories may be regained by their deposed dynasties , on condition of a massacre and a military rising . We find few traces of sound critical acumen or practical poBtical sa <* aeity in Mr . Ludlow ' s book , which i » rather a popular compendrara , upon which the reader may rely for vivid and accurate impressions of ancient and general Indian history . It is , in ail its parts , exceedingly well written .

    The Leader. [No. 407, January 9, 1858. J...

    THE LEADER . [ No . 407 , January 9 , 1858 . J ) 9 ; . —¦• "

    The Alchemists. Bemarks Upon. Alchemy An...

    THE ALCHEMISTS . Bemarks upon . Alchemy and the AlcJtemists , indicating a Method of Discovering the True Nature of Hermetic Philosophy . Boston : Crosby , Nichols , and Co . The . author professes to have discovered the key of the hermetic science-Alchemy , he contends ) was not a search for an agent by which the baser metals nugfat be converted into gold , but a philosophical method of operating aman the heart of man , the writings of the adepts being treatises on religious education , bidden in symbolical language . The words gold , silver , lead , salt , sulphur , mercury , orpiment , sol * luna , wine , acid , and alkali formed a veil , peneteafele : only by the initiated , behind which lurked the opinions of reformers ; wha dared not avow their doctrines . The elixir of life , the universal . medicinC r and the philosopher ' s ; atoue , were moral mysteries ; and they have ridiculed the Cabala who never understood the secret . Those old

    alchemists were not mechanical Argonauts , ransacking nature in . search of * he power to transmute lead into gold ; they were missionaries and martyrs . So , runs- this erudite and ingenious- argument , which is certainly ably sustained , although it is not difficult to detect the writer ' s alchemical faculty of reducing all doubts to dross , and turning into golden philosophy every elementm the Rosicrueian crucible . He builds up a system of divinity from the hermetic treatises , and translates their ambiguities a * parables ; but the profane , interpreting their work * literally , plunged into the monomania which Has overwhelmed alchemy with the reproaches of the modern , world . We think the author ' s theory is one that deserves further examination . It is ¦ original and bold , but his citations , if by- uo means conclusive , are not to be disposed of by a sneer . It must be admitted , however , that if the hermetic wickers of the highest class were simply philosophers ,, employing symbols for miht well far

    the mutual communication of their ideas , they gas —so as posterity was concerned—have written in , arrowheads and the characters of the ¦ Sinaf tic or Egyptian hieroglyphy . Sometimes man waai designated as The Stone , antimony , lead , zinc , or arsenic ; . but they point to the means of his perfection as animated mercury , the serpent , the green lion , shark water , or virgjiaa' milk . Figuier , speaking of this element , ways that none of the alchemists have ever discovered it .. However , according to the new American system of deciphering , it means a pure conscience—rather an obvious , but not a very satisfactory solution . The author may have caught a glimpse © fjKHnet concealed philosophy , but he asks too much when he desires us to true this dictionary of alchemic simples and compounds , translated from , the original metnpbors » The spirit of fire , transmuting all things , the salt of tactac , the spirit of wine , driven to the centre by cold , and the essential . salt of vipers , remain , mysterious ,,, in spite of his efforts to pierce the

    obscuxitkja of . the hermetic dialects . The writers say that great virtues appertain to-the salt of vipers ; , they speak often of furnaces , retorts , cucurbits , and alembics ; and all this may be intended in a moral instead of a physical sense .:, but , the version , biro , presented is , to say the least ,, arbitrary . Axlef & iua wrote on antimony -. antimony is here said to mean man ; , but Aiteabiua , whatever hf » intention * . wa » illegibly obscure , and spoke of the salt o £ the sun Mid moon , to be made , uomogene with other imperfect bodies , of , a * gentvive , the water , of life , azoth ,, Iatten , and the true tincture ; Basilius ' Valaatiae add * the unicorn ' s horn ,. ' the aguish mngnelified needle , ' . something feminine that * in . a mysterious penetration of homogeneal forms meeto her beatitude . ' Conning , oven these books , as the author says > ' a hfliAy reader might be mystified a , little . ' If Bishop Berkeley knew what jtltsahest meant , and if K . unkel was wrong , in his application of a physical law tor demonstrate its impossibility , it may safely be affirmed that no one baa . even reduced to clear common sense the worka of Geber the Arabian . gels

    Of . aaurae * the- , language of the adepts was not designed for ordinary readers ,. being expressl y ^ Mgn atedias ^ Jrn ??'< ? ^^^ 8 ° and the language of an ; thio ,, Ti « we . v , Giv does wot ; prove it tf <> "have * coniaifieU ~ any pUilbTo ^ hyiiSoW " practical tkan that which occupied itself in studying the secret of transmutation . Wkmt waa- of a mixed nature between fixed and not fixed , and partook of a < salpkux : aaurine ? What was a raw ,, cooling , feminine fire ? Or the lostsal wwtev that cleansed the aarbhi ? ' We somewhat ; auapecfc the facility of the American interpretation . Three ( lowers are to bo Bought by the alohevaiatf say the musters of the science—the damask-coloured violet , the milkwhite . Lily ,, and the amaranth . Gathering tlva fresh violets on . the bank of the jjoLdao , river , when , they have put . on the most deUoot © colour of the dock

    sapphire , ' the sun will give thee signs . ' This may be fancy , or mysticism or nonsense , but it is of a different texture from that hermetic pattern worked into the Romance of the Rose . Ture gold , violet , citrine , virg } ns milk , purple , and transcendant redness prove that , as Eyrenaeus says , ' this art is very cabalistieal . ' And cabalistical , we think , it will remain . The American * author has suggested a clue to the secret of that strange philosophy , and has been too diligent a student to deserve ridicule ; but it must be confessed that the subject remains where it was before Kopp or Figuier published their disquisitions .

    The Sports Of Merry England. Merrie Engl...

    THE SPORTS OF MERRY ENGLAND . Merrie Engl and , its Sports and Pastimes . By Lord William Lennox , Author of ' Corapton Audley , ' ' Percy Hamilton , ' ' Philip Courtney , ' ' Wellington in Private Life , ' & c . & c . Newby . The season has arrived when ' Old Christmas brings his sports again , ' and the appearance of a book specially full of anecdote and information on matters connected with the favourite recreations of the English people is most opportune-. This circumstance , combined with the author ' s previous reputation , will ensure for the volume an extensive popularity . ll No cavalry officers like my brave fox-hunters , " said Wellington at Salamanca . And certainly the man who sits his horse like a centaur ; who by a judicious bridle hand , can , as it were , lift the noble beast over every spot of difficult ground ; whose judgment of distance is

    perfect , from following the chase through a wild and difficult country—must be allowed to have passed no unworthy novitiate , ere entering upon that nobler hunting where the game is man . Skill and daring are almost intuitive in the English sportsman . He canters his horse over the green sward , and ' crams ' him at a six-foot stone fence , or charges a twenty-foot winter torrent with equal indifference . Impelled by this bold chivalrous spirit , the author of the book before us , being a sojourner at Brussels when the Duke marehed into it , followed him to Waterloo en amateur , and as we believe , in plain clothes , charged with the cavalry throughout the whole of that bloody fray , and left it only when carried wounded to his tent .

    The introduction to Merrie England , enumerates the ' points' which guided our forefathers in their selection of a good horse . He should , said they , have fifteen good ' propyrtees and condicions , ' to wit—three of a man , three of a woman , three of a fox , three of a hare , three of an ass . Of a man , bold , proud , and hardy j of a woman , fair breasts , fair hair , and easy to move ; of a fox , fair tail , short ears , with a good trot ; of a hare , a great eye , a dry heel , and well running ; of an ass , a big chin , a flat leg , and a good hoof . The following accurate and graphic picture of an onslaug ht of poachers upon a game preserve about Christmas time may perhaps help to banish from many of our readers' minds their sympathy il » r that worthless and desperate caste of sylvan marauders : —

    On a dark and cloudy night in November , I observed five men stealthily crawling through the thickly covered underwood of my retreat . " Here's a likely place , " whispered one , as bo drew from his pocket a wiry noose , and placed it across a cutting in the plantation . " Here Jim , " cried another , " drop the beans between t 4 ic hedge and that stack of buckwheat . " " Look out on the right branch of that larch ; a pop from your walking-stick will settle him , " cried a third . In a second , the whizzing noise of an air-gun was heard , and a splendid cock pheasant fell from his roost , at the feet of the poacher . " All right ! " exclaimed two others who were patrolling outside the plantation . During this- awful moment I was crouched up under a hedgerow , within a . very few yarda of the principal speaker , but happily escaped observation . Day now began , to break , and showed numbers of my furry brethren , noosed and struggling in the agonies of death , while many a gorgeous pheasant cock full stricken with almost instantaneous death . Footsteps were now heard amoiif , ' the crashing underwood , and a party of keepers approached . " I thought how it was , " exclaimed their leader , as with his knife he cut open the glossy green , blue , and purplu neck of one of the victims , and brought out a horse bean pierced with strong bridt / cn . " All these birds have been choked by the rascally gang . " 1

    ' Ascot Heath on the Cup day , ' is a lively , life-like sketch , and the roya procession up the course , headed by the Master of the Buckhounds , in his uniform of Lincoln green and gold , with the golden dog-couples dangling from his buldrie , is a very pleasant sylvan spectacle . Not so the rod-collared , red-cuffed , blue livery Vvindsor uniform , worn by the ' nstutest of diplomatists '— -Punch's prote ' gi ' ., and by his ministerial confreres . Their appearance in the rear of all , so suggestive of a body of district letter-carriers in a post-office van , is regularly hailed by shouts of laughter from the populace . Passing over the chapter entitled ' Chanting for the Million , ' which hns some excellent admonitory suggestions to ' young gentlemen in search of a horse , ' we come to the author ' s enthusiastic description of his first mount with the Goodwood hounds , whilst passing the Chritsmns hoiiduy at hi . s Grace of Richmond ' s . The hounds met at Valdoe Wood . " ' Gone uway ! ' " shouts old Tom Grant , the huntsman . ' Hold luird , gentlemen , ' cried thuL first-rate sportswoman , Mrs . Dorrieti , as she was herself preparing for u start . Give time

    ' em , ' said old Tom , approaching me , who , rather cowed upon this , my first appearunce , had shrunk back behind the redcoats , whom I then regarded as wonders of the world . * Come along , youngster , I'll show you the way ; there , down that ride , turn short to the right ; the fox is suro to sink the wind ; . as you are well mounted , sot your pony ' s head strai g , nnil you'll got the brush . ' We approached Halnokerj part of the palings had been broken down ; I spied the gup , nnd went at it , us fcho huntsman afterwards said , 'like a Briton . ' The f ' uet is , that even with the top broken down , the fence was a stiff ono . The huntsman followed me . ' Uravo , youTi ^ uTT ; 'H ^ r 6 uWd ^ rd " T ^^ field . ' ' Set the field ! ' thought I . Wellington after Waterloo was not prouder than I was at this , my first victory . The fox wout straight down wind ton miles , over a beautiful Hat country , and the hounds ran into him upon Houghton . bridge us he was crossing the Aruudel river . No ouo except the huntsman , the first , whipper-in , and myself , were up , tlw field having been thnow . u * o . ut at'Haliidker Hark . The brush was presented to mo with great cougptUailutions , and to this day I retain it as a- proud and well-earned trophy . "

• Citation
  • Leader (1850-1860), Jan. 9, 1858, page 18, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_09011858/page/18/