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    68 Tlie Leader and Saturday Anal yst. [J...

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    * 8t>lf~&6l<p; with Illustrations of Oha...

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    necessity of earnestness in the pursuit ...

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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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    There Are Great Differences, However, In...

    than have hitherto been recognised by physiologists , amongst ™ ho \ n no affinity of language ^ Will ie found , " He then delivers himself of a strong opinion , that "the theories current as to the derivation of the many varieties of the human rape , from , a few primitive types , will not bear examination . " We think it wght to record this dictum , though we have not space now to discuss it as a proposition , much less to enter into the various ramifications pi argument and doctrine to which it would logically lead . Sir John Bowling ' s theory of language we must quote , as he repeats it more than once , and would , therefore , appear desirous of raising a question on it i" A great variety of languages is to be found among the wild people of the interior ; . Not only are dialects of the various tribes unintelligible to each other , but sometimes a language is confined to a single fumily group . Where there haa been no intercourse , there is no similitude . Words are . ^ CI ! W » tn mam ., find lanauaae is created by that necessity . Hence , trie

    further the study of idioms is pursued back into antiquity , the greater their number be found . Civilization has destroyed hundreds , perhaps thousands , of idioms , and is still carrying on the work by diminishing the number of languages in which man holds intercourse with man . It is no bold prophecy to aver thatin the course of centuries , the numberofseparate tonqucsriill be reduced to a small amount . In France , the French ; in Italy , the Tuscan ; in Spain , the Castilian ; in Germany , the Saxon ; in Great Britain ; the English , are becoming the predominant languages of the people , and have been gradually superseding the multitude of idioms which were used only a few generations ago . Adelung recorded the names of nearly 4 , 000 spoken and existing lataguages ^ but ^ a list of those whicli time has extinguished would be far more extensive .

    Of an entirely different character is Dr . Russell ' s work on India . The author went forth to see " the reed shaken by the wind , and returns to tell us what he saw , and how it was shaken . He was accompanied by Mr . Lundgren . who has supplied the several illustrations to the work . Our readers must not expect from us an analysis , —so much depends upon the writer ' s style , that they must read * the book for themselves . None but his own words , for instance , can describe the manner in which the report of Havelock s death was received at Alexandria . He regrets that England has not her just is

    share of moral influence in the East . The civilization decidedly Prench ; diplomatic communications , European literature , are French . The bazaars are full of portraits of Bonaparte , and KIeber , and pictures of the battle of the Pyramids . His description of the Desert , and the sentiment it inspires , is most striking . One amusing anecdote , in the midst of all , he tells us , of an attempt by a native barber at Suez to shave him while he slept . He found it was esteemed the cliefd ' . qiuvre of Asiatic tonsorial art to shave a man while slumbering without waking him . , ' . _ # LordCanni is

    Oiiivanthbr ' s account and portraifc of . ng highly creditable to the Governoi > general , and testifies to his very great abilities , as well as to his singular courtesy . The traveller was on his wiry to Cawnpore , and preparing for an introduction to Sir Colin Campbell , the Commander-in-Chief . Dr . Russell was jiaturally anxious about the truth of the statements concerning mutilated women , but , up to this point , he was unable to meet with * single instance . ' ' _ . Dr . Russell shows much sympathy for the Hindoo race , and wonders that we are not more cai'eful pf our conduct in those distant regions . Were the wrongs we permit committed nearer home , he is of opinion that they would not be so quietly flowed , lie mentions with indignation his hearing " that the menagerie of the King of Oude , as much his private property as his watch or turban , were sold under discreditable circumstances , and his jewels seized and impounded , thpugh we had no more claim on them than on the crown diamonds of Russia . Do the English people care for these

    things ? " asks Dr . Russell ; "do they know them ? The hundred millions of Hindostan know them well , and care about them too . " The diary form in which this book is written , though it might furnish good extracts if it were our eye to give them , causes the personal so to dominate over the historical , that it requires much careful reading to extract from it the information desirable as the substance of , » i review . The volumes present a series of dioramic pictures as they daily pass before the eyes of the author , and to describe these were to rewrite the journal of which they form the contents . Dr . Russell , however , paints his scenes with the pencil of a novice , and he confesses it . He has to learn every thing , as ho courses along j bo thnt his Diary does not describe India as it is , but the state of the writer ' s mind us to India . He gains his experience bit by bit , and we yam it with him . His " look » t Cawripore , ' and his meeting thero with Azimoola Khun , are both markworthy , both for the

    incidents and the reflections . His description of the siege of Luckuow is appalling . His life in camp seems to have been madofor him exceedingly pleasant , and the confidence placed in him by the Oommamlor-in-Oluef almost unlimited . But Dr . Russell has a full senao of the horrors of war , and treats them as horrors . Ho has no tendency to translate their guilt into glory . He refuses to be unjust to tlie native , and censures his own countrymen freely . Our conduct towards the King * of Delhi ho condemns in no measured terms . He sops rightly that our own safety in India depends on the extinction of the faults by which its Government has been fntnlly distinguished .

    68 Tlie Leader And Saturday Anal Yst. [J...

    68 Tlie Leader and Saturday Anal yst . [ Jan . 21 , 1 S 60 .

    * 8t>Lf~&6l<P; With Illustrations Of Oha...

    * 8 t > lf ~& 6 l < p ; with Illustrations of Oharaator and Conduct . By Sawuhi . Smxjuws , author of the " JLifo of George Stephonson . " London ; John Murray , 1859 .

    Necessity Of Earnestness In The Pursuit ...

    necessity of earnestness in the pursuit of every object of hfe . " What ' is worth doing , is worth doing well , " might be his motto . By self-help he really means industry , perseverance , energy , courage , and self-denial ; and he seeks to illustrate his subject by copious examples of men who have arrived at fame , through every obstacle of birth and fortune . The book is , indeed , a compressed biographical dictionary . Mr . Smiles does not add much of his own libretto to his characters ; he lets them pretty well play their own part , and by a constant succession , hy an interminable repetition of the same examples of strong will , perseverance , success , he seeks to impress hearers his book isin fact

    those characteristics indelibly on his ;— , , a most valuable collection of biographical sketches or extracts ( illustrations of character and conduct , he calls them ) , collected with much industry , and carefully and skilfully arranged , which , taken -with his own exhortations , which are distinguished by ail unusual weight of true wisdom and a rare eloquence , —form a volume of most powerful rhetoric in favour of the virtues he inculcates . No one can read the book , and get up without feeling that man without those virtues is naught ; nay more , without the fancy , that hard work is some preternatural agent that can effect results almost beyond the

    scope of human conception . The ostensible object of the work then , is to prove that success is not to be obtained without diligence , self-denial , and determination . But it does not stop here : we are bound to say that Mr . Smiles has conjured up such a terrible picture of the hardships entailed by success in this world , that it becomes a question whether some sort of failure may not be preferable . ¦ " All work and no play , all work and no play , " he says in effect ; " mind that—as you would live no play ! Look at so arid so , and so and so—they didn't go to bed for a week ; they fed on crusts , they laboured day and night , and at odd hours besides : ceaseless toil , if you please , my friends ! It is this—if you make up your mind to be a grinder , you must never cease grinding ; never look to the light or left ; let nature , let man ( and woman ) pass ; stick to your grindstone , and you will become such an admirable grinder , that people will not know the difference between you and a genius . "

    _ . . ..... ... , But let alone grinding , is ' anything worth being bought at such a price as this ? Is there riot something nobler , after all , than hard \ york even ? Has Providence given us this pleasing anxious being , merely for the use of the workshop , or the study ? Are the beauties of nature * the affections , the delights of the senses , to count for nothing , except to such as make them the objects of their study ? Success was meant to minister to man , not man to place his nature in the balance against success . If the liuman mind has had allotted to it stern duties while it remains on this earth , it has also been endowed with sensation * of extreme delight . Their origin is common , and it is no doubt intended that they should be used together . To show that we are doing no injustice to iMr . Smiles , we . will

    quote a few of his examples of workers—thus , Arkwright worked for seventeen hours a day , and began to learn the English grammar at fifty ; his time was so valuable , that he always travelled with four horses . Watt was thirty years upon his condensing engine , and Stephensbn twenty-five upon his locomotive . Walter Scott as a copying clerk managed to copy one hundred and twenty pages of MS . in the twenty-four hours . When a clerk in the Court of Session he got up at five every morning , lighted his own fire , and did his literary work before breakfast . John Britton worked sixteen hours a day . Loudon sat up two whole nights a week to study , while working like a labourer all day . Joseph Hume got up at six , worked all day , and outsat the House of Commons every night . Hale studied sixteen hours a day —Hume the historian wrote thirteen—Hunter allowed himself but

    five hours' sleep in the twenty-four—Jenner was twenty years in perfecting vaccination—^ Herschcl , while in the band of the Bath pumproom , finished ' two . hundred specula before he made one that would suit his telescope—Titian worked daily for seven 3 'ears at the " Last Supper ''—Meyerbeer studies muftic for fifteen hours a day—Giardini said it would take twelve hours a day for twenty years / to learn the violin , and Taglioni could only arrive at her perfection in dancing , by constantly practising until she fainted . Foley , the founder of the present noble family of that name , worked his passage twice to Sweden and back , and supported himself there as a fiddler for several yertrs , in order to learn the secret of splitting iron . Eldon rose at four in the morning , and worked till late at night , with a wet towel round his head to keep him awake—but t ) iere is no necessity to multiply instances of the labour of lawyers , history and biography are rife with them , and the shelves of many a library attest an industry that is almost superhuman .

    But what is this success in life after all P To have accomplished an undertaking that will benefit the human race till the end of time , to have made a name that will never be spolceu without a thrill of triumph , are , indeed , noble results , well' worth striving 1 for , —almost , but not quite , worth the casting * overboard of human weakness and human pleasure * But how many can attain this P How many have attained itP There is necessarily a limit , not only to the subjects which will confer such a fame , but to the persons who are capable of reaching it . How many of our readers have hoard , of Elihu BurrittP Yet he probably worked harder than any man that

    TRAINING AND STRAINING . * Mb . Sjittr . EB ' s valuable and instructive book ia < founded , as ho lells us , upon an introductory lecture , delivered by him to a society of working men in a northern town ; its object is to inculcate the

    ever lived : while earning' his living * ns a blacksmith he learnt forty languages 1 Mr . Smiles a creed is , in fact , a muscular one . " The fablo of the labors of Hercules / ' ho says , "ia indeed the type of . all human doing nnd success . " Hard work ia really a question of physical strength ; and , to dp Mr . Smiles justice , he fully acknowledges , in the latter part of his book , tho necessity of physical education as a help to the intellect ; and heroin it appoint to us that ho is hardly Consistent . At one time it is " given a man with a strong 1 will and ceaseless industry , and he can do any thing ; oven

• Citation
  • Leader (1850-1860), Jan. 21, 1860, page 16, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_21011860/page/16/