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Leader (1850-1860), 29th May 1858, Edition 2 of 2, Page 19, PUBLICATIONS ATN T D REPUBLICAN?IONS. Me...

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      Into. 427, May 29, 1858.] T H E L, Ea"D ...

      INTO . 427 , May 29 , 1858 . ] T H E L , EA " D E R . _ . __ 523 _

      Publications Atn T D Republican?Ions. Me...

      PUBLICATIONS ATN D REPUBLICAN ? IONS . Messrs . Longman aud Co . Lave now . completed the new edition , in seven volumes , of Lord Macaulay ' s History . This edition is a precious boon to a large and increasing class of readers , . . to' whom the original library octsivo was inaccessible . The worker ennobles the work , and the noble art of printing finds a 'i : cites sacer in Mr . Henry Bradbury , a name identified .-with some of the most brilliant enterprises . of the press in this classic land of freedom . Priidiitg ¦ -.-its Dawn , Day , and Destiny ( Bradbury and Evans ) , is the title of an Address delivered at the Royal Institution , and now dedicated to the' Prince , of Wales . " With sustained elevation of thought , enthusiastic feeling , and refined expression , with all the resources of wide and various reading , and all the authority of experience , Mr . Bradbury illustrates the history of printing as an intellectual agent in the past , the present , and the future of civilization .

      Of the works which are daily issuing from the inexhaustible fecundity of the press the vast majority are almost as ephemeral in their imputation as the newspaper advertisements winch announce their birth . It is only now and then that some work of profound learning and research appears which it would be an impertinence to dismiss with a hasty and indifferent salutation . Such a work is A Historical and Critical Commentary on the Old Testament , ic ' dh a nero Translation , ^ ' M . M . Kalisch , Phil . Doc . M . A . ( Longman and Co . ) , of which the second part , containing the Book of Genesis , is now in our hands , and reserved for studious investigation . Dr . Kalisch . has undertaken no . ordinary task , but he lias approached his labours in a fearless and reverent spirit , armed at all points , arid fully sensible of the demands of what he justly calls " a new era of religious thought . " His work is destined to fill an important place in the library of every sincere truth-seeker who is not afraid of the new lights putting out the old . '

      We cannot at present follow the Rev . Edward Huntingford into the Practical Interpretation of the A / iocalypse , which , under the significant title The Voice of the Last Fruph ^ t ( Skeilington ) , he has contributed to the field of inquiry already traversed with disinterested audacity by Dr . Cumming ; afield , it would appear , ravaged by an army of " Sceptical Locusts , " in whose ranks we fear Dr . Cumming will be charitably disposed to reckon all who are not fully convinced that his latest publication , Thy Word is Truth : an Apology for Christianity ¦ ( Arthur Hall , Virtue , and Co . ) , is a sword and shield against the assaults of reason and science . If the Christian scheme could be killed by an apology , Dr . Cumming would be the death of it ; and we earnestly recommend him , in the interest of his own reputation , to leave science alone , and stick to the easier and more remunerative business of insulting his fellow-Christians of the Catholic Church

      A fifth edition of Mr . D . Puseley ' s account of The Rise , Progress ^ and Present Condition of Australia , Tasmania , and j \~ ew Zealand ( JEffmghani Wilson ) , enables us to recommend it to intending emigrants and to readers who have friends or relatives in those colonies . With the exception of some extraneous reflections , which Mr . Puscley might have omitted without prejudice to his book , we can speak favourably of its useful information . Dr . Armstrong's . Observations on ¦ Haval Hygiene and' Scurcy ( John Churchill ) are in every respect a valuable and ' authoritative contribution to a "branch of medical practice which in a maritime country deserves to hold a high place . Dr . Armstrong writes with special authority , having served

      in her Majesty ' s ship Investigator on an Arctic expedition , and having kept a careful journal of his practice during the whole course of that trying service . His experience in the treatment of scurvy lias taught him the means of prevention , and tlie results of his experience , as contained in these pages , deserve the serious attention of our mercantile marine . ' Dr . ; Armstrong ' s remarks on Naval Hygiene generally , written under the highest professional sanction by a man of direct personal experience and scientific acquirements , constitute a text-book for the medical oflicers in the service , and at a time when so much is thought and written about Sanitary Jiefonn in the Arriry , claim a , t least an equal share of public interest .

      Messrs . Routledge and Co . have published a new and cheap edition of Mr . Disraeli ' s Jiiography of Lord George licnlinck . A . cheap and condensed edition of the Memoirs of Frederick Ferlhos is published by Messrs . Constable and Co . ( Hamilton , Adams , and Co ., London ) , excluding " all that does not hear directly on Perthes ' s Life , Character , and Doings . " The chapters on the Religious Life of Germany in the larger ¦ work have , however , been retained , " though to some extent rearranged . " We noticed the Memoirs at some length on their first appearance in an Dnglish translation , and we have only now to add that the Life aud Times 0 / Frederick Ferthcn , as the present abridged form of his Alemoirs is entitled , is a most readable and delightful book . Choice Notes from " Rotes' aud Qi / ertW ( Bell and Daldy ) id the first instalment of a series of collected treasures from the columns of our valued contemporary . The present volume is devoted to History , junl is full of curious matter 5 pleasant to read en ¦ pmsanl , and well worthy of preservation in a permanent shame .

      The Education of the JIui \ um . Race ( Smith and Elder ) is a translation from Lessing ' s noble pages , written in a high and generous spirit , which may be commended , to the disciples of Dr . Cumming for profitable- study and imitation . " Here is a passage from the Preface , of wide application : — " lOaeh little sect of religion has doubtless had some gonn of the truth-within it Which has rendered it subservient to the great purpose of fertilizing the world—but so long as the professors of either of them think that they arc favoured children of the Divine Father , whom he regards willi a complacency with which He does not view the rest of humanity , so long is the fulness ol laod ' s idea not attained by them . " Mrs . Ellis , the well-known author of " The Women of England , " sends vis two volumes , which we shall read with pleasure Untie ? - tho title ol tnends

      J . ' I'ltOHtls tit i . lim . f / ii / ui . ltVi' /> . vi / f / ' f l-ti > u < loir's :.. „ ., 1 ! 1 iii 1 . 1 1 • * . at their own Ftrcmk ( Bontley ) , thi . s estimable lady has set lierself to paint in huthiul colours " The Private Life of the People culled Quakers . " It was a happy notion of Messrs . Jilackwood and Sons when they deterj mneu to collect and republic in a compact and portable form , and in a clear

      type for railway readers , their Tides from Blackicoo & . A monthly number for sixpence , and a volume such as we have now before us for eighteenpence , is cheap literature , indeed . There is plenty of literature in the market which cannot be said to be cheap at any price ; but most of these Tales from Blaclmood ' . would be cheap even at a mueh higher price than this . It is no joke for the most conscientious critic to deal with a new novel by Lady Buiwer Lytton . We are a little surprised that this much-enduring and much-abusing lady should hate the opinion of a press peopled ( if the public will believe her ) with hired bravos and brigands whose pens can be purchased by a glass of gin- and-water . ' We have always been disposed to make large allowance for- the circumstances under which Lady Bulvver ' s

      complimentary language has been penned , and although , a lady who treats you us a cut-throat if you are honestly severe , and as a humbug if your severity is not unaccompanied with a respectful sympathy , is , we repeat , somewhat difficult to deal with , we are glad to record a more favourable first impression , of Lady Bulwer Lytton ' s new " Photographic Novel , " The World and Ids Wi fe ; or , a Person of * ¦ Conseqwence ( Skeet ) , than its immediate predecessor bad permitted us to anticipate . Wh en Lady iiulwer Lytton calls her new novel " Photographic , " we fear she refers to the " chemicals " in which her pen is dipped ,-as much as to the pitiless reality which she aims at in her descriptions . But we shall have more to say of her latest production next week .

      Messrs . Houttedge and Co . are publishing a novel , written by the author of " Too Clever by Half , " & c . Most of the scenes are laid in India . We hope that Mr . Lang will prove that he has not fallen off- —so far as that country is concerned—since the days when he wi'ote " The YVetherbys" in Fraser's ^ faijazine .

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      Clitlrfe

      The Drama In Taei3. A.Wece Of Some Prete...

      THE DRAMA IN TAEI 3 . A . wece of some pretensions is just now playing at tlie -Tiieatre-Fkax ^ is , by MM . Scribe and Legouvk . It is entitled ITairy Fingers : —Les Dohjts de-Feea pretty name enough . The story , wInch now develops into five acts , oscillating violently between drama and farce , would-.-p er ] iaj > s have better suited a vaudeville . A poor relative of a noble family of Brittany , skilled in needlework , finds herself rather coldly treated , disappears , becomes a fashionable milliner , accumulates wealth , and is ultimately received back again . There is , of course , a cousin , who is a lover . The idea would have been very pleasing if presented in smaller dimensions , aoid somewhat less emphatically . M . Legoovk , who supplies the philosophy of the piece , ha . s got hold of a -wrong theory j or at any . rate ,-lie addresses a very limited public . Nobody now , or nobody worth speaking of , cares about these struggles , in . which the prejudices of birth form the chief pivot . In France , especially , M . Legouv £ is an anachronism / His

      JPiit jJrolt de ConguC'te was not more wanted than his Doiyts da Fee . If there be people who object to receive such a man as Guori / e Bernard as a son-in-law , they live in some out-of-the-way corner . which the general public never visits . The drama should deal with the great facts and great follies or * the day , not ¦ with absurdities which may have survived in a few insignificant persons . It would be too late now , for . example , to make fun of the old ladies who protest against railways , though some such no doubt still exist . For the same reason , it is impossible for an audience to . sympathize at all with the distress of the Ptoermds . On the other hand , M . Legouve has a tendency to sentimentalize rather disagreeably in an opposite direction . Ho follows and exaggerates the fashion which among literary men , who perhaps know their public , is to adulate labour as birth was formerly adulated . All this is very false . There is nothing sacred in labour , which , if not a curse , 5 s at any rate a painful obligation . Kxeellent for human kind it is evidently , but as a chastisement or a chain .

      What makes it respectable is simply that , like every other respectable thing , it is connected with the idea of duty . To snake it the ( Subject of an enthusiastic speech , especially when it takes the form of millinery , is high treason against taste , pc-rlmns against morality . . Tlie French ouerier , cockered up into the idea that if lie earns live francs a day lie is an estimable citizen , is only too apt now to answer all reproaches directed iigainst liis debauchery , Ins egotism , his use-J

      ( T 1 VO 111 tilCtf ^ l r ' fl Mi \ nnli \ nnn / in , t a 4 lw > T / i * i tit mIi ^ i » x * ; V 1 1 tlno ¦« 1-1 ^ , 1 . ' ¦ # '»•/ tm ? !» ., » ... I .. ** give himself a countenance , as the French say . All this arises from the adoption of 11 wrong ( one . Tlie ideas are in general proper , the situations are cleverly contrived , the dialogue is sparkling , the acting is superb ; but one feels ashamed to be amused , because a wrung class of feelings is addressed . We do not at all share in the idea put forward 03 ' some JL'Yoneli critics that tlie- reason this piece was coldly received at its iirst appearance was because a noble young liuly was changed into a vouturfrre . Such a metamorphosis might have been brought about by a poetical mind in such a manner as not to shock tlie most delicate taste . But there is much that is equivocal in Ahulemoisdk / Jcnnunce ' s position ; and , moreover , the tone of apology is too evident . It is not the public whose aristocratic feelings are ofleiuleil ; it is tho plebeian author who is too ashamed tor hid noble-blooded heroine . It is a pity that -M . Liojuij v ' - has

      — - what shall we call it ?—this morbid desire to correct tliu world in a matter which has occupied the attention of novelists over since novels begun , but which novelists hivvu very properly abandoned since their principles havo triumphed , except in some very limited circles . " We are nearly all uyivod that tlie handsome young man , who is so clover and generous , ought to marry tho noble , aiul beautiful , and virtuous youny-laily . Wo are also nearly all agreed that when said noble , and beautilul , and virtuous young lady hii . snu fortune , sho ought to work , instead of puling away until she ends in consumption on the pavement . There arc other tougher problems to grapple willi , and M . LkuovvU is capable of dealing with them . With M . bcitxni ; to furnish that admirable skill , which makes the llimsiest etory acceptable , he niiylit still do great things ); but wocjinnot ieel interest in 11 poor oppressed girl , who , miur living in dependence for years , iinds she has '' the diamonds of her mother" to tall buck

  • Citation
    • Leader (1850-1860), May 29, 1858, page 19, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_29051858/page/19/