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Leader (1850-1860), 12th February 1859, Edition 2 of 2, Page 15

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      . Life And Organisation. Outlines Of Phy...

      be assimilated-by the higher classes of . animals . ^ The means of building up their frames is organised matter . Matter once organised , too , and now found many fathoms beneath the earth ' s surface , supplies many of man ' s wants , and is even necessary to the ex istence of society in its present -form ; liife , the most remote in time that we have yet formed any conception of , the life embedded in coal , forms part of our life . In like manner , lifethe most remote in space—the life embodied in , a tea life , or a coffee bean , forms part of our life , and is as much a necessity of existence * though it became known to us at a late period , as the coal we dig from the mines , the oxen we fatten , and the corn we produce by our . industry . .

      Departing from the ordinary physiological mode of treating this subject , we have endeavoured briefly to point out , in plain language , some of the « Uief attributes of life . To those who have closely scrutinised the external world with all the aids of modern arts , and have traced life in invisible atoms , and who can draw no feasible line of demarcation between vegetable and animal life , the world is deeply indebted . The multitudinous variety of forms , all nevertheless of one type , which they have discovered and described , fills us with wonder at the minuteness and yet magnificence of that creation of which man forms a part . It is not our purpose to follow their researches into the beds of the ocean , the forests , and climates of the earth , nor take any special notice of the minute creatures they have made us acquainted with . We have finished our brief statement of some of the chief

      attributes of life , and the second important question which arises from its wide diffusion , below man —What is the life above man ? for neither the popular faith nor scientific discoveries justify the supposition that there is no life higher than his between him and his Creator—we may advert to hereafter .

      ¦ . . . -¦- ¦ • T ¦ _ - . , . . ¦G- 0^64...

      ¦ . . . - ¦ - ¦ T ¦ _ - . , . . ¦ g- 0 ^ 64 , ' February 12 , 1859 . ] THE LEADER ,. 207

      Unprotected Females In Sicily. ¦Unprotec...

      UNPROTECTED FEMALES IN SICILY . ¦ Unprotected Females in Sicily , Calabria , ; and on the top of Mouni j & tna . One vol . . Routledge , Waynes , and Routledge . A capital title for a book ; as good as the Unprotected Females in fflorway , which came from the same pen . It freshens up the subject—at least in appearance . Sicily is known to every man of a wandering disposition who at any time during the year has a six weeks' vacation ^ and fifty pounds to spare . for letters of credit . The eruptions of Mount JEtna have been described by the forcible writer , have been chatted about by the agreeable rattle ,

      youngest good-looking ( so we gather slyly from the pages )—having tried the inhabitants of the snowy North , and finding them attentive but not rude , go boldly to the other extreme of European civilisation - —even into the veritable camp of Don Giovanni himself—and meet with nothing more dreadful than one offer of marriage ! Has gallantry fled , or are Amazons at a discount ? Norway we are not surprised at ; but Italy ? Shame . Within sight of the Barbary coast , and no interesting pirates to carry them off . The whole world is running to utilitarian seed . Medora stands upon the sea-shore sighing for Conrad ; but Conrad has gone into the

      Newcastle-collier trade , and is running a profitable cargo of tobacco under the innocent-looking shield of the friendly Wall ' s-end . Our unprotected , or rather uninsulted , females , ascend their mountains , their volcanoes , and their cathedrals ; they see the ragged lazzaroni begging in the streets , and the waggons" loaded ' with the produce of the fruitful vine ; they visit monasteries , inns , and theatres ; they talk of ladies' legs , and gentlemen ' s clothing ( fie !); they see fat Jesuits , and jolly priests , and they hear the musLC

      of the mandoline ; they gaze upon ruined temples that stand upon bleak hills , and which , like Stonehenge , are picturesque , but drafty ; they are shown old paintings of Madonnas del All-sorts-of-things , but especially of the colours of a Westphalia ham ; they try if monks will flirt ( for shame !) , and find that they will ; . they wander in orange-groves ; and they are amused with a poncinello show at Naples ; finally , they return home with copious notes , and in excellent spirits , and , as quickly as possible , they tell us all about it .

      May the old lady , after this , retire upon her wellearned traveller ' s laurels ; and the young lady take her next journey in the company of a lawful protector !

      liave been discoursed upon by the scientific investigator , and it only remains for the political economist to tell us what effect they have upon the local xents . Men who used to be content with a perusal of the account of the great earthquako at [ Lisbon , have now experienced many mild shocks of such convulsions of nature , and describe their sensations >( in their o ^ ra inimitably funny manner ) as being very similar to what they felt when walking home from a club-dinner . Calabria has been " done " by high-pressure tourists , to say nothing of commercial travellers , and its picturesque brigands ( which we

      see , by the way , upon . every drop-scone at every theatre ) are reduced by calculation to the prosaic level of a per-centage . As the turn p ike-trusts in England aro to foreigners , so are tho brigands' fees abroad to English travellers . There is nothing more in it , except a property-dagger to collect this property-tax . Children of the sunny South—hot-blooded , fierce-Qyed , read y with , the stiletto even over tho family dinner-tablo $ f the inaoaroni lacks its proper ftayour ( so tray oilers used to tolls us ) , arc . now familiar to us in the persons of Putch-looking burghers in many parts of our metropolis , peacefully rolling tho chocolate-stick ju the chooolate-can , or selling us palatable summer refreshment in tho

      shapp of poany icos . Wo know thorn all—thorp is nothing now . under the sun . Our most popular and our cheapest periodicals talk to us as complacently of the oavahore , tho garoon , aud the iahvostoluk , as they would of tho man at tho potato-can found the corner . They aro supposed to be our bosom friends in this oosinopohlan ago , when a danoo of Zulu Kaffirs is considered ono of tho stock entertainments of a suburban tea-garden . Wh y should wo look beyond the . tillo-pago -of- tho bopk before us?—Because two " unprotected folaaw' are doing the journey . Two ladies—mother ftn daughter — strong-minded — . not particularly apta-bodied , — ft little masculine , perhaps — tho

      Right. Or Wrong. Right Or Wrong; By Gjir...

      RIGHT . OR WRONG . Right or Wrong ; By Gjiraldine E . Jewsbury . Two vols . ¦ ¦ , '¦ " ¦ Hurst and Blackett . It is a difficult tiling for novel . writers , now-a-days , to hit upon anything very fresh , or to venture into regions of fancy or life that have not already been tolerably well explored . : But novel , readers of fashion are exigent . They must have their spring and autumn literary luxuries ;• ¦¦ 'they' will no more do without their early and late novel than they will do . without early peas or late pineapples . Hence the difficulty of supplying the literary market with anything very original . Writers content themselves

      to pierce through , the veil of human imposture or to stand up boldly against poor human tyranny . Fortunately the fair sex of England know very little of monkery or the requirements of the Romish creed beyond what they collect from description or from a passing peep into the interior of some well-frequented Ro man Catholic ' chapel , and sure we are , if they can bring themselves to credit the marital disabilities which hedge round priest and prior , in conformity with Roman Catholic dicipline , they will bless their lucky stars that they can never be placed in the same disagreeable predicament as was the heroine Marguerite by her marriage with Paul the Monk . We have said enough of this novel to render it unnecessary that we should go into further detail of plot or cha ^ - racters . We prefer to close our remarks by sending the . reader to'the work itself .

      with recasting old incidents , remodelling old characters , redistributing old situations , and , by the help of style and seasoning , manage to furnish forth a supply of seasonable novels , pretty sure to sell , and to have an ephemeral . popularity . Miss Jewsbury has already made for herself an approving public . Her published novels have prepared lier readers to receive new works from her pen with pleasure , and though we cannot promise in Right or V ro ) iff that they will find anything very recherch £ , still enough of the genius of the writer and of striking incident will be found to ensure a warm welcome to the work .

      Miss Jewsbury has selected two main incidents as the groundwork of her novel : the first , that of a beautiful girl seduced by a noble libertine through the agency of a pretended marriage ; the second , the temptations and dangers of a Roman Catholic semipriest . Tho first is' ratlior n delicate subject to tleal with , but Miss Jewsbury has shown herself equal to tho occasion , and while sho fills tho reader with loathing towards tho seduocr , and anger at a state of sooioty which afforded facilities for atrocities like those detailed , she poutrives to enlist sympathy for the seduced . Tho second incidont ,. wlucli has reference to Roman Catholic dogmas and discipline , will hardly bo understood in its full forco by .

      Protestant readers . When they find a couple ol handsome ,-healthy , young , and loving persons lawfully wedded , suddenly severed , e wensd et thovo , bcoause certain elderly people at Rome had decreed that such cohabitation was " mortal sin , " to bo punished by bodily torture and death- " -whon they read of the monlul horror und disquietude of a sensible mtiiried man , who thinks ho has committed " sin" in having violated tho laws of his Church in this rosncotthey will only feel wondor that any rational boinjron the faco of tho earth ooukl bo found to boliovo in tho foroo or sanctity pf trumpery forms of discipline in direct- contravention of the Soriplural command to " inoi'oaso and multiply , " and only contempt for the mental blindnoss and weakness that arc unable cither

      Who's Who In 1859. Who's Who In 1859. Ed...

      WHO'S WHO IN 1859 . Who ' s Who in 1859 . Edited by C .-H . Oakes , M . A . Baily , Brothers . This little concentrated essence of Court Calendar , Peerage , Baronetage , Army List , Navy List , and . Law List , is certainly , to our profession at least , one of the handiest of handy books . One of its peculiar features which j if not of absolute value or importance to the public , shows the industry of the compiler , is the column of ages attached to the list of IPeers , Peers' heirs , Baronets , Knights , and Members of the Commons' House . ¦ To give a fair

      idea of its contents , we should have to copy a very long table , which would be inconvenient ; but we may say , in a few words , that something 1 about nearly everybody in every profession , who . is anybody at all , may be found out in its pages . Tile last of these comprise the obituary , from which , we gather that the past year has removed one hundred and seventy from the roll of notabilities . To conclude , Who ' s Who has become * partly from . ¦ La-bit , partly from its real usefulness , an annual necessary to journalists , and to use a phrase more common with advertisers than reviewers , we can almost fancy that no library or boudoir-table cau be complete without it .

      The Literary And Educational Year Book J...

      The Literary and Educational Year Book Jar 1859 . Kent " and Co . — Here are more than three hundred octavo pages of useful information for . half a crown . It is indeed a most extraordinary collection of matters . The leading tables relate to nil books published from the middle of November , 1857 , to the middle of . November , 1858 , and also a list of new editions and works reduced in price . American and foreign works are also recorded , and the articles contained in the Quarterly serials . Then we have lists of lecturers paid and gratuitous ; of newspapers , native and foreign ; of periodicals -weekly , monthly , quarterly ; of societies , clubs , reading- rooms , universities , colleges , schools , institutions , and almost of every point of social interest * The utility of the work is immense .

      Books Received. Tales From Blackwood. No...

      BOOKS RECEIVED . Tales from Blackwood . No . XI . Diary and Correspondence of John Evelyn , F . R . S . By "William Braj ' , Esq ., F . A . S . A New Edition in 4 vola . Vol . s . I . and II . H . G . B 6 hu . Tho Formation and Progress of the Tiers Elat , or Third Estate , of France . By Augustia Thierry . 2 vols . in 1 . II . G . Bolm . Animal Physiology . By W . B . Carpenter , M . D . New Edition . II . G . Bolm . Western Central Africa . By R . Jamioson . Eflanghara Wilson .

      The- Origin of Christian Tenets : The Jews qf Alexandria John Chapman . Tail's Edinburgh Magazine . No . CCCII . Vol . XXVI . Edinburgh : Sutherland and Knox . l / idtuvy of France from the Earliest Times to 1818 . By tho Row Jamos ' -White . W . BluukwootI ami Sons . Thouf / hta on Parliamentary Reform . By John Stuart Ml ' ll . J . W . Parker , Routledge's Shahspearc . Edited by II . Sumiton . Part XXXIV . February . KoutloUgo and Co . Extremes ; or , Men of the Day . A Comedy in Ttaea

      Acts , By Edmund Falconer , M . D . A . C . John Mitchell . _ Tho Student ' s Tiumet a History of Enghn < i , By Davit Humo . John Murray . Failure qf the Forbes Mackenzie Act . By James Stirling . Glastfow ; Jnines Madohoso . The Bombay Almanack for 1859 . Algor and Street . Stanford ' s Nvio Map < f Parliamentary Divisions and Boroughs of England and Wahs . Edward Stanford . Facia aud Fallacies Relating to tho Main Drainage iSahcmu of the Metropolitan Board qf Works , IS . Stanford .

  • Citation
    • Leader (1850-1860), Feb. 12, 1859, page 15, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_12021859/page/15/