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    tbeycoulduotseeiira ^ because the hat of darkness hid him ; and yet he trembled aa ^ heeaii fc d . own- near them , bo terrible were those brazen . claavs . Two of the Gorgons were foul as swine , and lay sleeping heavily ,, as-swine sleepy ; with 4 heir mighty wings outspread : but . M « dusa tossed to and = fro restlessly , J * nd *» . she tossed , Peraeua pitied her * she looked so fair « nd sad . Her plumage was like the rainbow , and her face was like the face of a nymph , only herr ; eyebrows wereknit , and her lips clenched , with everlasting care and pain ; and her long neck gleamed so white in the mirror , that Perseus had not the heart to strike , and said , "Ah , that it had been either of her sisters !" But : * s te looked , from among her tresses the vipers' heads awoke , and peeped up-with tlieiir bright dry eyes , and showed their fangs , and hissed ; and Medusa , as she tossed , threw back her wings , and showed her brazen claws ; and Perseus saw-thatjfor all her beauty , she was as foul and venomous as the rest . Then h& came down and stepped to her boldly , and looked steadfastly on his -mirror , and struck with Herpe stoutly once ; and he did not need to strike

    again . Then he -wrapped the head in the goat-skin , turning away Ids eyes , and sprang into the air aLoft ,-faster than he ever sprang before . For Medusa ' s wings and talons rattled as she Bark dead upon the rocks ; and ber . twofoui sisters-woke , and saw her lying dead .

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    NATURAL HISTOUY . Strati LauvcH from the . Jlook of Nature . By M . S . Do Voro , of th « University of Virgiiiiii . „ Low niKl Son . This author of these interesting " Leaves" is unmistakoably u lover of nature , and like all lovers , an enthusiast . Thin , while the soum of ft genial warmth winch renders his musings attractive , at the same time cautions us somewhat iia to his generalisations and conclusions , more especially since they arc not unfrcquently expressed in a style unnecessarily Houring and ornate . The nature of the subjects , moreover , of which these reflections treat—the existence and action of animal and vegetable life—is of a kind inspecting which we may 1 ) 0 forgiven for gum-cling ournclves against , owlulity . I < or we cannot but remember not only the mysteries still presented by many among the simplest objects indention , but the vagueness » nd uncertainty often connected with those facts nssumed to have boon brought to light . Science has its marvels of discovery , yet it has its many scoruts unrovwailed . Accident , it is said , has sometimes discovered an important truth ; but oftcnor ,

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    appeared in Bltzckwood ' s Magazine . They are not , they do not pretend fa be , a full history of everything ; but the outline of the whole campaign is weS preserved ; what he has set down that he did not see , Colonel Hamley had good warrant for ; and what he did see is simply and clearly told The reader has therefore the inestimable advantage of following one individualitr and that an active and prominent one , all through the campaign- and of hearing a witness on the great subjects of difference whose word must have great weight . Moreover * Colonel Hataley has the advantage of knowing the subject on which he writes ; be is familiar with its terms ; he has read of other wars , and he can thus judge not . of the seeming absolute , but the relative value of what passes before his eyes . He has thus had many advantages and he has made the most of them . The reader who peruses in a connected form the narrative of the campaign , as told by Colonel Hamley , will rise with a far better idea of it than any other single work with which we are acquainted could supply . It will also he found a wholesome corrective of popular illusions which have done a great deal of harm . A year ago , in . the depth of our distress , feeling it keenly , and sympathising with his comrades in the tanks who felt it more keenly , Colonel Hamley wrote thus : —

    It is natural that , when men of talent have exerted all their descriptive power to set the sufferings of the army in the strongest possible light , their readers should be excited to a pitch of sympathy even beyond that which an actual sijrlit of the horrors so vividly depicted would produce . With advancing civilisation numan lifehas risen in value and consideration to an unprecedented extent our soldiers , no longer accounted as food for powder , are thought of as equal in all respects superior in some , to those citizens of ancient states who have made famous the names of Thermopylae , Plataea , and Marathon ; and those who would scruple -to deprive the worst criminal of existence , cannot hear of so inanv brave men perishing without horror . * * * Is it politic to insist so strongly on our inferiority?—or , if politic , is it just ? I have heard of letters fromParia

    WAR LITERATURE . The Story of the Campaign of Sebastopol , toritten in the Camp . By Lieutenant-Colonel E . Bruce Hamley , R . A . Blackwood and Sons . The Past Campaign : a Sketch o f the War in the East . By N . A . Woods , late Special Correspondent of the Morning Herald at the Seat of War . 2 vols . Longmans . The War in . the Crimea .: Substance of a Discourse , delivered to the Worsley Literary Institution . By the Earl 6 f Ellesmere . . John Murray . Perhaps there never was . a war so . completely fought out * as it were , under tie . public eye aa tbe present . Certainly not within the memory of man have sueh stores- of information been heaped upon the publics so soon after the events to which they relate , as we have received from all sides during the

    campaigns of 1854-55 . Although battles were fought and cities taken three thousand miles away , yet in two or three days , often less , the fact has been made known to us j and in a fortnight ox three weeks the details , in large type , have been served up with the eggs and cold chicken at our breakfast tables . At regular intervals additional information has been supplied by the monthly periodicals ; and ever and anon some volume has made its appearance , jthe . wiork of an ambitious civilian or a modest soldier . Day by day , andvv month bymonth , a running ., tire of commentary has been kept up , approving , finding fault , anticipating , suggesting , describing , until we are saturated with military details , and every fifth man is ready to tell you offhand whom we shall hang and whom we shall crown—what the generals ought to * havfr done , and what , if they are wise 3 they will do . In short , the

    whole proceedings have not been unlike a game , of chess , played but in a pubUc room , with this difference tKSft , whereasno chess-players would permit a positive Tvurlyburly of criticism , a storm of blame , advice , irony , invective , to go on around them , the players at the game of war have perforce conducted their campaign under- such an uproar as never was heard before , out-dinning the noise of Sweaborg , and over-crowding the thunders of SebastppQ . 1 . On the whole , we do not think this participation of the public in the Mttle has done any harm—rather good . The chief damage we have sus- < tained has-been in our prestige . Nations not so free as ourselves—indeed , quite unased to the utter frankness of British speech an . d writing when Britons are engaged in the process of self-correction , or the - press is vindicating

    its proud ambition- —have taken us at our word , and the more eagerly as most words recently uttered have depreciated our efforts and actions as a nation . Time will correct this ; and , so long as the spirit which has animated the British people in this war endures , we may lose our prestige , but we shall not lose any real power . When the present sliall be the past , and men look back to see what deeds were done in these days , depend upon it the things that stand out will not be the failure of the War Department , but the irresistible rush of the English troops up the steep above the Alma ; not the failure of the first bombardment , but the charge of the Light Brigade ; not the repulse at the Redan , but the splendid resistance at Inkermann ; not the seant _ s « pply of troops , but the vast , the almost incredible fleets of transports and war-ships , which have been poured forth from the harbours of . Britain to sustain this war .

    In fact , we live so close to events that we cannot see them properly . We are . unde * the shadows they project into the future . We are part of the events . We are actors , and cannot be judges . " For these and other reasons , no accurate history of the war can bo written now , in spite of the truly awtul mass of information spread abroad- We have the surface—the puWic despatches the public letters , the experiences of this officer and that civuiaiy-ttte hearsay of myriads mingling and thronging into our ears . We have what can be supplied by pictorial art and the photographic process ; we have models and lectures ; but we have not just that which we require — the documents that the drawers and pigeon-holes of certain offices and palaces m London , Paris , Vienna , St . Petersburg , and Constantinople could yield us—that the diaries and private papers of the generals could supply : m two , words , we have not the secret history of the war . Depoml upon it there is a secret history , as there is . of every event great and small j and the secret historyof tins is at

    , war present a long way from publicity . A knowledge ot tl » 8 fact shpwld temper the judgment and moderate the pen . An , # ie meanwhile we are bound to go on as well as we can . The three volumes , whose titles we have placed at the head of this notice , nrc all worthy Ot -attention , in , their way ; but they arc as different in character as they well « an ^ p , A jtunr value is in the order we have set them down , only the first is VvSfTw y i finst > and the thir ( 1 hna 8 Ome advantages over the second . w 2 L r 7 " ! with ns ° M «»' s knowledge and responsibility ;¦ Mr . 2 m !? fii J ** " }'*! ^ respondent ' s point of view , and in the corrcspou-So « »! 2 ^ ' ° l ! ! J JjOxA kH <» n » eve , from a very wide range of ohaervacftmCSP ^ i J , icil » dement , and modestly comments on the whole voluW 5 r i ?« wiU 8 ec at a K lance the varied character of the Mr " woi ^ h *! ° , ru ^ 6 " * Reread without Mr . Wooda ; but if you rend BothlSTX JiWI ° P U to do 8 O with Colonel Hamlcy ' s book by your side HamlJ ^ t v e l - ^ x ™ dable , and deserve to be read / Colonel A *« raieys volume , a a rcprint of lua lcttcjm ft , om fhc c which 1 | ftYo

    alluding to others received from the French camp , iu which , the French arav is described as being entirely occupied with taking care of the English . The Continental states , taking us at our word , begin to affect compassion for the military system of the nation which is stronger in resources now than when it saved Europe . Cannot necessary reforms be effected without such depreciatory outcry ? Might not the comparisons I speak of be drawn with greater fairness ? Legions of fresh troops were always ready to cover , and more than cover , the losses of the French . England and France are friends—long may they continue so—3 ior should any subject be hinted at which is likely to excite jealousy between them ' but let us be just to ourselves . Nothing has yet occurred to prove that our ancient reputation in arms is endangered . °

    Again , a glance to the future : — ¦ We hav * e little to learn in war from any nation , and the superiority in the internal management of the French army is principally due , in niy judgment , wherever it really exists , to the ample supplies of men and material ' ' which , maintained-and practised in time of peace , respond with ease and efficiency to the requirements of war . Probably all tnis will now be . remedied . Soldiers will be enlisted , transport procured , surgeons commissioned , and the ' glory of England maintained in a fashion worthy of her unrivalled resources—and then WilLcoxne peace . And with peace will return our habit of considering that alone valuable the valu

    e pt which can be measured by the commercial standard : the army will shrivel to a skeleton—its members will be again the objectof jealovfsy and taunts —until , in a new war , we Bball again learn our deficiencies from our misfortunes . In our fir , st campaigns , our victories will remain unimproved for want of cavalry ; our supplies of all kinds will fail for want of transport ; and our troops suddenlytransformed from popinjays to heroes , will be called on to mako good with blood and B \ veat the parsimony of the repentant nation . Although Mr . Woods has given us an entertaining and instructive book ; ve cannot place it on the same level with that of Colonel Hamley . If was- our good fortune to read the letters which Mr . Woods so faithfully supplied to the Morning Herald , and we were very grateful for them at the time . But

    these volumes are an amplified , without being a corrected or chastened edition of those letters ; and much that might have been omitted is retained , a * ul much that might have been suppressed is supplied . One compressed volume wouldhaye been far better than two diffuse ones ; one clear-flowing narrative would have been far more acceptable than an attempt to perform fche impossible —to give us a complete history . Mr . Woods disclaims all pretension to military criticism , a disclaimer which his readers will not readily allow . lie is also disposed to use his privilege as a Briton and a correspondent , and find fault very freelv . Throughout his book he betrays a yielding to the morbid fancy that the French have shown a superiority over the English in this fntnous fight for Sebaatopol . But happily at the close he controverts the error , that the French took Sebastopol— " than , this opinion nothing can be more erroneous , " ' thus shows that reflection can < lo much for a man . It is onlv

    to be regretted that both volumes had not been revised in a similar spirit . So far we have to except to this " Post Campaign . " But we would not -willingly do Mr . Woods any injustice . He is zealous , reailly in earnest , painstaking—Jhe possesses a talent for clear description which is not common , mid all his letters from the camp were full of information . Althp . ii . gh we cannot rely on his book with thorough trust , we enn , with this qualification , safely recommend it to the public as one of . the best media for obtaining a glimpse of the campaign .

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    jBP I H E L E A I ) E ft . [ No , 305 , Saturday . ' " " ¦ ¦ i i ¦ ii ii i M ' i i i ¦ ¦ i i ¦ i , . - i ^ = SC 5 =

• Citation
  • Leader (1850-1860), Jan. 26, 1856, page 90, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2125/page/18/