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      Apbh, 28,1855.] The Leadek 401

      Apbh , 28 , 1855 . ] THE lEADEK 401

      '3l*Ffivt*Iy'foti*I≫ ^Lu^Fimu-W

      literature *

      Critics Are Not The Legislators, Bat The...

      Critics are not the legislators , bat the ' jadges and police of literature . They do not make Iaw 3— they interpret and try to enforce them . —Edzttburgh Review .

      On The4tli Of March Last Year, In Giving...

      On the 4 tli of March last year , in giving a biographical sketch of Lamennais , who had just died , we nientioned his having been for some time engaged on a translation of Dante . Indeed * it was near the close of his analytical account of the Purgatorio that his hand was arrested by death ; enough remains , however , of his work to interest all students of Literature ; enough remains to show what this final testament and confession of faith would have been . His literary executor , E . D . Forgues , is about to publish the translation of the Inferno / and the proof sheets of the Introduction lie before us . This Introduction is a work by itself , and worthy of being separately translated for English readers as an eloquent and thoughtful study of Dante , Ms Life , his Doctrines , and his Works . In the Considerations Generates , which

      open the work , Lamenwais sketches in his fervent and brilliant style the state of Europe , intellectually and morally , at the time of Dante ' s appearance , and concludes , saying : " This poem is at once a tomb and a cradle : the magnificent tomb of a departing world , and the cradle of a world about to be born ; a portico of two temples , the Temple of the Past and the Temple of the Future . The Past has placed there its creeds , its traditions , its science , as the Egyptians placed their kings and symbolical gods in the sepulchres of Thebes and of Memphis . The Future brings to it the aspirations and the germs which it envelops in the garments of a newly-born language and a splendid poetry—a mysterious child nourished at two breasts , sacred tradition , and profane fiction , Moses and Saint Paui ,, Homer and Virgil . "

      A biographical Memoir follows , which is succeeded by chapters on Dante ' s works and doctrines . After these pages of eloquent criticism we have the analysis of the Inferno , and the greater part of the Purgatorio ; where Lamennais breaks off , his editor has borrowed from Mr . Leonard Simpson ' s analysis the concluding paragraphs , thus completing the work . The present is not a fitting occasion to do justice to Lamennais as a critic of Dante ; it would require a separate article , and a long one , which the English version may give us an opportunity of writing . Enough for to-day if we call attention to the forthcoming publication .

      If Dante Leads Us To Rome And The Middle...

      If Dante leads us to Rome and the Middle Ages , we have only to take up the last number of La Revue des Deux Mondes to find ourselves en pleine histoire de Borne . First , there is a long and valuable paper by Amedek Thierry , on " Heraclius , ' in which the story of the termination of the second empire of the Huns and the foundation of Croatia , Servia , and Bulgaria is handled in a masterly style . Then there is a paper by Ampere , on the First Centuries of the Republic , in his curious series UHistoire Ro ?> iaine a Home . From a posthumous work about to appear , by M . Ozanam , a long extract is published , which treats of the " Commencement des Nations Neo-Latines : " and . to comulete this Italian colour , Paui . » e Musset gives a Latines ; " andto complete this Italian colour , Paui . » e Musset gives a

      , charining little sf 6 fy 7 of ~ lJairaiiiife " - ^* - -Le ^ atito' ' --touch € d 4 n-hi & . happie & t . spirit . From this enumeration it will be seen that the present number of the Revue commends itself strongly to the reader interested in Rome—and what reader can remain indifferent to that magical city ? The Revue , however , provides even for this mythical reader . It entices him , for example , with a description of the Caravan to Mecca , forming the second paper of the series , " La Syrie et les Bc'douins ; " it entices him ( not very powerfully ) with a review of Franz Palacky ' s works on the History of Bohemia ; and it entices and enchains him with a delightful paper of Natural History , by

      M . Quatrefagks , on the ' l Metamorphoses of Butterflies , Insects , Reptiles , " & c . The writer possesses the art of making science agreeable and intelligible to the laity , and no one will read without interest his description of the series of metamorphoses which characterise the life of these insects and animals . Apart from the metamorphoses which are undergone by the creature in the egg , M . Quatrefaqes classifies the changes under three heads , or periods : the first period being one of external and internal activity , having the exclusive purpose of the growth of the individual ; the second being one of internal activity , which modifies the individual ; the third being one of external and internal activity , which has for its final purpose the propagation of the race .

      One curious point we may remark . The female butterfly dies immediately after depositing her eg # s , the mule having already preceded her in what M . Qu . vtuefaoks magnificently styles 4 l the tomb . " For them , us indeed for most insects , marriage is mortal ; their existence ceases as soon as they have assured the existence of the nice . Nor is this fact simply a fact of coincidence . There is causal connexion between the death of the individual and the propagation of the race . Let the marriage of these butterflies be retarded , and their lives , usually so hrief , are prolonged in a remarkable manner . This is sometimes seen with butterflies born late in

      the autumn : the coldness of the season arrests their development , the metamorphoses which are necessary before the power of reproduction is attained are arrested , and winter comes on to find them still unwedded ; they seek Bhelter from the cold , subsist through the winter , and reappear

      as gay young bachelor and virgin in the earliest splendours of spring . Now , here is a case of vestal purity prolonging the normal life of a few weeks into that of several months . But , lest this should tempt any of those willing propter vitam vivendi perdere causas , we must add that the same thing is by no means true of mankind . All examples of longevity in our race " are found among married people ; celibacy is as fatal to us as it is favourable to the insect .

      Is that phrase " favourable to the insect" correct after all ? Are we not in error altogether in measuring life by Time ? Sheijuey used to say that the ephemeron who hovered during one day over a pool lived perhaps as long as the tortoise , measuring time by sensation . Without taking up this ground , we may say that Life being a cycle of definite changes , which terminates only when those changes are accomplished , it matters little whether those changes are accelerated or retarded ; the amount of change and the order of change being constant , the life is the same in each case .

      Another remark is suggested by this article , another paradox worth a passing notice . That fecundity has some mysterious relation with starvation is se en not only in the terribly familiar facts of curates' families ( when curates have seventy or eighty pounds a year ) , Irish families , and the general complaint that the mouths are found most numerous in houses where the food is scantiest ; it is seen not only in the fact that gardeners impoverish trees to make them fruitful , and that grass in sandy or gravelly soil is always full of seed ; but it is seen in so many cases that Mr . Doubleday , in his True Law of Population ^ actually propounds the theory of starvation being the measure of fecundity , as over-feeding is of sterility . We have on more than one occasion shown how untenable is this theory , and how contradicted by a wider survey of facts . But we allude to it to show that , at any rate ,

      under-feeding does stand in some direct relation to fecundity , if not constituting the sole cause ; and with that fact before us , it is curious to read M . Quatrefages on the formation of the Queen Bee . As he reminds us , it is only in virtue of an exorbitant share of food that the working Bee becomes developed into a Queen Bee ; and if any of the food set aside for the royal larva happens to fall into the cells of the other larva ; , these plebeian parties incontinently develop into dynastic personages . While , therefore , on the one hand we see a mass of facts pointing to some direct relation between underfeeding and fecundity , and between over-feeding and sterility , in the Bees we see the reverse is true : there over-feeding is the condition of fecundity . May we not connect this with the fact formerly noticed in these columns of the large proportion of numerous offspring among aristocratic families ?

      The North American Review Has Two Articl...

      The North American Review has two articles in the present number upon English writers . One on Mr . Dove ' s " Science of Politics ; " and one on " Miss Yonge ' s Novels "—Heartease , and the Heir of Redclyffe—tvro works which have certainly had greater success than any religious novels since the days of Hannah More . The critic is very enthusiastic ; but his acumen may be estimated by the following criticism of our incomparable Miss Austen : — Miss Austen ' s characters are perfectly , faultlessly delineated : but were they worth delineating at all ? Some of them arc clever . Some of them-. are good . Are they , any of them , interesting , elevated , or elevating ? We shut them up in the books where '" tfiey respectively belong , with no sigh of regret that they . can . never . come out , but rather with one of relief , like that with which we close the door on a family of respectable bores , who have happily brought their parting call to a conclusion , and are off , with very flattering prospects , for California , while we rejoice that they are likely to do so well , and that we are likely to have no more to do with them .

      The Imperial Government Of France Has Re...

      The Imperial Government of France has replied to some recent elections of the Academy by the sudden creation of a Batch of Academicians , selected , of course , from among the most servile of its own creatures . This batch of ten is to form a new section of the Academy of Moral and Political Sciences , classified as Politique , Administration , Finances . The names of the nonelected are considered to be a sufficient counterpoise to future-BERRTsas , Ponsards , and LegouviSs . The Fort y are naturally enraged at this monstrous intervention . For a moment it occurred , as it well might occur , to certain of the most distinguished of the Old Academicians , that a fitting opportunity had arrived for a moral demonstration . MM . Tiiiebs , Miqnet , and Db Tocqukvii ^ le talked of a collective resignation , peradventure fifteen "just men" could be found among the forty . But , alas for cheap magnanimity J the fifteen were not forthcoming . Indeed , writes a private correspondent , Diogenes would scarcely have lit his lamp to look for them .

      A Series Of Lectures That Cannot Fail To...

      A series of Lectures that cannot fail to be interesting will be delivered on successive Wednesdays , commencing oh the IGth of May , by Signor Monti — on Ancient and Modern Sculpture . No attempt will be made to establish abstract principles or to enter into antiquarian and theoretical controversies . The object is practical—to give an intellectual history of the Art of Sculpture , its var ious origins , development , aim , und progress . The judgment will thus bo aided to appreciate the sculptures of different periods and different countries , by a comparison of tho works themselves . The Lectures will be illustrated by diagrams of tho most noted works and examples , exhibiting different processes , which the lecturer will sometimes exemplify in . tho actual execution . No sculptor of our day has-so perfect an apprehension of life in stone as Monti ; he has a large knowledge , a profound

  • Citation
    • Leader (1850-1860), April 28, 1855, page 17, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_28041855/page/17/