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Leader (1850-1860), 21st January 1860, Edition 2 of 2, Page 18

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      Misoellanies.F Education"A.L Books Aboun...

      mistake as to such , works as Watsons Rhetorical Reader and Speaker whiph contains a selection of the choicest passages from the works of the best English writers , with an introductory essay on the power and beauty of the . Englisli . tongue , and full instructions'for-the rhetorical ' management of the voice . The pieces have , indeed , Ix'en selected with especial reference , to the vocal powers , and therefore with express regard "to the aesthetic quality of rhythm . " The collection is preceded with a well-written essay " Oiv the Power and Beauty of the English Tongue , " the illustrations being principally taken from Byron , Poe , and Tennyson . Similar remarks apply to the same publisher ' s Third Book of Reading , whh-h contains some simple pieces in prose and verse , progressively arranged for the use of schools . : The principle on which the work is planned is maiiifes'tly good , and .. will , ' as it ; is stated , undoubtedly " aid the quickness and accuracy of the child both in need instruction in other

      pronunciation and spelling . "—Bat men things than rhetoric or reading- ; and not only in relation to business , but recreation . Here we have a book containing the best games in chess played by the distinguished champion Paul Morpby in Europe and America , edited by Mr , Lowenthal , the president of the St . James ' s Chess Club . The lovers of this noble game will here find some of the best examples of play extant . To the ¦ " theory of openings" great attention is profitably paid . The match games are elaborately analyzed , arid thoroughly commented on . A couple of books by Mr . Walcott are full of information on our Cathedrals , and Minster and Abbey ruins . The author tells us their history , with their architecture , monuments , and traditions ; and aleonoticesofthelarger parish churches and collegiate chapels . Short notes , also , are given of the chief objects of interest in each cathedral city . Much of church architecture may be learned from these books ; one of which contains a valuable essay on the subject . —A shilling ' s

      worth of Riddles and Jokes next invites our attention , and claims to be " si complete (?) Collection of Riddles * Enigmas , Charades , Rebuses , Words transposed , Acting Charades , Acting Proverbs , Puzzles , arid Jokes . " We may at least concede that there is a goodly amount of these for the money , and that much amusement in ay be secured by attention to its direction s . —Am ong th e " Books for Boys , " we find one of merit by Mr . William H . G . Kingston , the object of which is to give incidents piWJiaZmg in the South Seas , with some descriptions of the icy regions that may prove inr struelive as well as entertaining to the pupil- Some account , also , of tlie Island of Java is introduced . —The same writer has another story , of a more ambitious order , in which he conducts his hero Rbund the World . This is done in a somewhat bulky volume , in

      which , alter devoting 1 a chapter to the wonders of the ocean > we are taken to the Falklandsi and round Cape Horn . Then-follow adventures in Chili , and visits to Robinson Crusoe ' s island and the empire of the Incas ! Mexico , California , and Hawaii , are next laid under ¦ contribution '; to which , after some mischances from pirates , we have to add the South Seas and Japan . In this manner a mass of information is brought to bear on the juvenile mind , while curiosity is « xcited liy the progress of the story , so as to secure an interest in the knowledge imparted , —One of the best writers of this class of fiction is Mr . Ballantyne , who has had great experience in it . His rornance for this year is entitled Martin Rattler , and he takes his hero into the forests of Brazil , having invented a tale which possesses considerable pathos and more tjhan ordinai-y interest . —The next

      on our list is Miss Frances Browne , whose Traveller ' s Stories are told with a verve and simplicity which belong especially to female composition . There is , indeed , great spirit in the mode of telling , and singular invention in the contrivance of the various incidents . This is really and truly a juvenile book of rare merit . —More didactic in its vein , wo may commend Miss Henderson ' s Daily Bible Teachings ,- to each day one page of comment on a text ' given , written with neatness and -point . <—We may fitly conclude these miscellaneous notices with Dn l oco ' s translation of M . Aime * Martin ' s prize essay on The JEditcation of Mothers of Families . Here the great question of the time is answered— " the

      Civilization of the Human , Race by Women . " Dr . Lee has appended to , the work- his own remarks " on the prevailing Methods , of Education , and theii' influence upon Health ahcl Happiness . " The work , it is well Iniown , takes an extensive range of argument , and the latter is enforced with thatfino epigrammatic point which makes I'Yench books such lively 'readings Wo may cite the very last sentence of the essay as an example . * ' Young girls , young wives , young mothors , you hold the sceptre ; in your souls , much more than in the laws of legislators , now repose the futurity of Europe , and the destinies of the human race . " That Bing-ie sentence , fortunately , contains the whole gist ivnd application of the volume .

      70 7mi:Gl^^^^^P^^- [Jan; 21, I860.

      70 7 Mi : gl ^^^^^ p ^^ - [ Jan ; 21 , I 860 .

      Morphy's Games Of Oaoss, With Analytical...

      Morphy ' s Games of OAoss , with Analytical and Critical Notes . By J . Lowenthal . Henry Q . Bonn . Tho Minster and Abbot / Ruins of tho United ICingdom . The Oiithedrala of the United Kingdom . By MiuVcnzio Walcott , M . A . Edward ( Stanford . ' Middles and Jokes . By Edmund Russell . Routledgo . Old Jaalo ; a Mari-ofi-tear ' a Man and South Sea Whalor . By WUHam H . O . Kingston . T . Nelaan and Sons . Jtound the World ; a QJale for JBoys . By W . H . G , Kingston . T . Nelson und Sons . Martin Jlattlor ; or , a Soy ' s Advejrtnrea -iiv tho JToreats of JBraeil . By Robert Wiolmel Ballantyno . With Illustrations . T . Nolson and Sons . Our Unoldi The Traveller ' s Stories , liy Miss Frances Browne . "W . Kent and Co . . _ „ „„ ,,,. „ Daily JOible Teaohlnqs . Designed for tho Young . By Thuhtv S . Henderson . Knight ana Son . ¦ «„ ..,,, , . „ ,., Tho Education of Mothers of Families . By M , . Aimo Ma , rtin . With Roin » rkB by Edwin Lee , M . P . Chonpor Edition . W . J . AdnniB .

      Gleanings From Foreign Books, >. • ¦ ' ....

      GLEANINGS FROM FOREIGN BOOKS , > . ¦ ' . . ¦ AIiEXANDEB HEEZEN . . Amon ^ t " he political writers of the present day , Alexander Herzen occupies " an exceedingly interesting and important position . This position became his without his seeking- it . Destiny seemed to confer it on him after he had escaped from persecution in his own . country , and had undertaken the mission of instructing Russia from abroad , through free , bold ; fertile utterance , and of enlightening-Europe regarding Russia ' s deeper spiritual life , out of which the future development of Russia niust come . Neither political nor literary ambition attracted Herzen to this career . He aspires herein at nothing more than the right of the free man to breathe forth the truth , and it forma the most delightful aspect of his writings that he strives after the assertion of this right , with the full force of spontaneous feeling ; freshness of emotion distinguishing him quite as much as keenness of philosophical thinking . He stands on the boundary between Russian and German literature , and the energy which he has derived from both has conducted and enabled him to gain influence over the literature of England and France . In him is concentrated , in a remarkable manner , the cosmopolitan character of an age . Goethe would have regarded him as a striking confirmation of the theory of a coming universal literature . From London this one man exerts an influence on Russia such as publicistic literature has offered no example of ; and what he works and creates for Russia , becomes at the same time the property of the rest of Europe . He has succeeded in becoming , in England , the creator of a free press for Russia , whose progress it potently furthers ^ and all Europe looks with interest and sympathy on the ever increasing vigour of this activity ,-r-Life of Merzen .

      Notes On Science. A Stronomers Have For ...

      NOTES ON SCIENCE . A STRONOMERS have for some time been anxious to discover -iV . the planet or planets which were suspected to produce certain aberrations in the movements of Mercury , and the recent , observation of one small body by M . Lescaebaul ^ . has induced M . Le Vebbiee and others to : look for a plurality of revolving bodies instead of a single orb . Concerning the newly recognised member of the solar system . M . ! Le Veeeiee says that if its orbit were -cireular jjialf its major axis would be equal to -011427 , taking half the major axis of the earth ' s orbit as . unity , lie concludes that its period . of revolution is 19 days 7 hours . Being only one-seventeenth of the bulk of Mercury , and very near the Sun .,, it has been easy for it to have escaped observation , and it is no small credit to an 'amateur astronomer with

      rude imperfect apparatus that he should have been the first to detect its existent ^ although scores of practised star-gazers were directing the best instruments in the direction where it was supposed to exist . Ja addition to the search for more planets , those learned in celestial ways will shortly be on the look out for another great . comet , which is expected to nourish as grand a tail as the memorable one of ' 58 . This comet was looked for on the 2 nd August , 1858 , but as it did not then appear , and there was an uncertainty of ten years in the astronomical data * it is now expected in the August of the present year . If Pio Nono keeps an astrologer he will watch its advent with alarm , for on its appearance in 1264 , Pope Urban VI . fell sick , and died on the night that it passed away from human sight .

      This comet was described by eye witnesses as the most magnificent that had ever been seen , and , is supposed to be identical with that of . 1550 , whose brilliancy was less remarkable . The coming eclipse of July 18 th , I 860 , occupies much attention , but it will not be visible in this cpuntry . A " Revised Path of the Moon ' s Shadow" has been issued from the Nautical AlmanacJc office , and Pkofessoe Aibey has published instructions for observations on Mars . It is expected that Photography will render valuable aid in recording some of the phenomena of the eclipse . It will be employed to copy the forms of the coloured flames if they should appear , and to obtain images of the solar ring . M . Faye intends to , take a photographic apparatus to Spain , which will register the precise 1

      time between the beginningand the termination of the total obscuration . It will contain a band of sensitive paper , which will be exposed : to the light as concentrated by a lens , and will be wound off at a given rate per second . * Talking of the sun we may mention some curious discoveries recently mado by Mi do Cjiacoenao and Professor Seoohi , tho ^ one occupying himself with the light , and the other with the heat , and arriving- -at analogous results , from which it appears that the light and heat giving powers of the groat luminary are unequally distributed over his surface ^ The central space possessor these powers in the highest degree , and a zone noaror the oircumferenco only emits one half the intensity of the former . Another solar phenomenon of interest was the sudden outburst of a batch of brilliant

      light on the 1 st of September , 1 « 59 , which was noticed by Mr . Oabrinoton , and by Mr . Hodgson of Highgate . The former csUimated the velocity of its motion at the ruto of 35 , 000 miles during 1 the five minutes it was seen . Also , on the 22 ud October , M \\ Dawes noticed a bright streak , whoso edges projected beyond the disk . In chemistry some interesting : observations , have been made on tho action of sunlight in modifying or exalting- the properties of various substances ; and solarized oils—that is , oils exposed to the sun's rays—of different kinds are getting into favour with the doctors on account of alleged medicinal action not noticeable in their original state . Another new medicine is composed of or ' extracted from castor oil leaves , which nro assorted to have a remarkable property of stimulating- the secretion of milk . Some plant known to a trjbe in South America hits Jong- been used

  • Citation
    • Leader (1850-1860), Jan. 21, 1860, page 18, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_21011860/page/18/