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    In my ears the siren river Sings , and smiles up in iuj face ; But for ever , and for ever , Runs from my embrace . " Spring by spring the branches duly Clothe themselves in tender flower ; And for her sweet sake as truly All their fruit and fragrance shower . But the stream , ¦ with careless laughter Runs in merry beauty by , And it leaves me yearning after , Lorn to droop , and lone to die . In my ears the siren river Sings , and smiles up in rny face ; But for ever , and for ever , Runs from my embrace . " ! stand mazed in the moonlight , O'er its happy face to dream ; I am parched in the noonlight By that cool and brimming stream ; I am dying by the river Of her life that runs from , me , And it sparkles by me ever , With its cool felicity . In niy ears the syren river Sings , and smiles up in ray face ; But for ever , and for ever , Buna from my embrace . '

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    LIFE IK ANCIENT INDIA . Life in Ancient India . By Mrs . Speir . "With . Illustrations by George Scliarf , jun ., T . S . A .. Smith , Elder , and Co . This is an uncommon book in every "vvay . Its covers of rich blue and gold , its tinted paper -with gilded edges , its delicate and fanciful illustrations , did not prepare us for a number of Oriental essays , the . results of genuine scholarship , and of extensive researches in ia , field partly new . Mrs . Speir has been an observer as -well as a student , has lived in the Eastj has taken counsel in iier-speculations -with Orientalists of the first rank , and has produced -what naay be described as a picturesque analysis of Indian society , before and after tfre age of Alexander . Her preliminary chapter , the least original , tfijeragh not the least necessary part of the work , contains a sketch of India distributed into four divisions— -the Punjab -with th « provinces contiguous , the peninsula , the plains of the Ganges , and Bengal . This classification of territories , it must be owned , is of the most arbitrary kind ; but it assists Mrsv Speir in the completion of her plan , which is not geographical , but ¦ ¦

    system of double and rotatory crops , which Dr . Roxburgh ljelievcs thp Western nations to have derived from them . They exhibited , also the most ^ positive proofs of social culture , by practising the refined art of adul - teration . " They smelted iron ; they forced steel '; * they- manufactured Vires of metal for . their wheels , and " it has lately been discovered that the farfumed Damascus blades were of . Indian , steel , manufactured in ' the " West of India . Mr . " Wilkinson has proved that the figuring of these swords de ' pends upon the peculiar crystallisation of the ' / root , the name by wliicli manufactured steel is known in India . " In 1 Sola dagger , with pearls let into the centre of its blade , and a dagger with one blade -within another wore sent to the Great Exhibition from the province of Delhi . '

    Then , in architecture , the Hindus far surpassed the Chinese , ' whose ancient arts have been converted , by some unaccountable process , into favourite subjects of modern flattery . - The quarries are still to bo ' seen , . whence , the blocks were chiselled of -which the grandest cities of the East were constructed ; They -were , built into walls , ' colonnades , arches , and the most effective machinery was devised for lifting the immense monoliths employed by the Indian builder . In a social point of view , Mrs . Speir regards the antique Hindus with no little / admiration . ' Women , , in those sines , she is gratified to say , were not less free than .. in Troy or Judca . They were treated with as much respect as affection . They went to public feasts , they fought m battles ; their opinions were solicited ,- 'if-the' testimony of the ¦ Upaiiishads be credited , by the king in ' couue . , and they were taught to expect immortality . But in the lirahminical code they are ranked with Sudras , children , and pupils ; they might be chastised with whips or can . es : yet even here they are promised the rewards of a future life .

    One of the most useful chapters in Mrs . Spoir ' s volume is that in which she remarks upon the existing aspects of ancient Indian institutions . Only one of the original castes suryives-r-thelirahmiiiical ; the Kshatriya , Vnisya , and Sudra , as castes , are extinct . Even-the Brahmins are not extant in their original character . They are often , as . Professor Horace Hayman Wilson observes , illiterate and poor , and obliged to live by manual labour , while " men of low caste are frequently the influential religious guides of society . " The Sudras , existing no longer as a caste , constitute an independent clan , proud of their origin , and utterly forgetful of their "historic degradation . .- Sudras have been kings , and all the Mahrattas arc Sudras ; in many parts of India none "but a Sudra is a scholar or an artist . Professor . " Wilson'is , therefore , justified in saying that the Brahmiivieal system of caste has utterly failed . Mrs . Speir has written , a graceful and thoughtful book , to -which we may confidently send the reader in search of an accurate and vivid picture of ancient Indian life . The first chapter excites an interest which is sustained to the end . :

    artistic . . ¦ ¦¦ . . - . y ' / ... . .. . ' ¦ ' ' ¦¦' . ' ¦ • . . A critical account of the Rig-Veda precedes some interesting speculations on the early history of the Hindu race . This singular people , first settling along the slopes of the Aravalli hills , and thence southward to the sea , appear to have tronght -with them many traditions from the'country :-of their ¦ origin . They yrexe called Aryas ; they measured the land with rods , they ploughed the earth for barley , they carried away the produce of their fields in- carts , they wove fine cloth , they wore earrings and finger-rings , they drove chariots -with-wheels and yokes of gold . Thus did an ambitious ci y ili-¦ zatidn grow upon the sumptuous Asian plains . The physicians of this society

    thought all healing virtues were possessed by water ; that by water alone could human sufferings be allayed . Then , through the long vistas of poetical tradition , we see the Patriarchs on the Indus writing hymns , invoking the gods , making war on the predatory nations along the Aryan border . There ¦ were five classes of men , kings or chieftains , warriors , priests , agriculturists and mechanics , and , it is supposed , the aboriginal race , -who stole cattle , but who possessed fields , cities , and gold , tempting to the intruders . In the Vedic hymns alone are traces of this history found ; neither the Persian nor the Chinese annalists cast even the most uncertain light upon the infancy oi the Hindu people in India ; " , consequently , when the Rig-Yeda lets the curtain fall , a pause ensues of about six centuries . " the Sanscrit

    After that immense lapse of time , the Aryas reappear ; is spoken , the Yedas are read once more ; but the Aryas are now in possession of the great valley of the Ganges , and of cities in Oude and Tirhut . Their holy men sit on mats of sacred grass ; they wear a q . uaint religious costume ; they receive the homage of kings ; they aspire to control all classes - , they meditate over mystical doctrines of cosmogony and of immortal life . This immortality consisted , for the few and the most rarely gifted , of absorption into the divine infinite ; inferior beinga were born again as trees , beasts , kings , or gods , though this new life was far from eternal . Mrs . Speir presents , in connexion with the religious organization of the Hindus , a careful account of the four castes , of the Brahminical process of education , of the duties prescribed to rulers and warriors ; hut all this part of the picture is necessarily confused and dim . It is not until the Rayamana appears , when . a glow of epic li g ht suffuses the dusky East , its cities , gardens , shrines , its festivals , processions , and ceremonial solemnities , that the descriptions become real and clear . The Bayomana story is perfect in colour , admirable in construction , and illustrates , in wonderful detail , the varied characteristics

    of ancient Indian society . Never did the human mind invent moro fanciful distinctions than those of the Brahminical code , especially where it referred to punishments allotted in a future life . If a man stole grain in the husk he was doomed to be born a ra « 5 if a mixed yellow metal , a gander ; if exquisite perfumes , a muskrat ; if potherbs , a peacock ; if raw grain , a hedgehog . But if a Drahmin killed a Sudra , he only paid the fine awarded for the slaying of a cab , lizard , or crow . A Sudra , indeed , was valued as the sixteenth part of a Brahmin . Ho was forbidden to read the Vedaa ; they could not even be read , silently , in hiB contaminating presence . The industrious classes attained high proficiency in their several calling * . Mrs . Speir quotes the strongest testimony on this point . We saw what the ancient Indian plough was , at the Exhibition of 1851 . Their drill ploughs anticipated , by many centuries , the inventions of modern Europe . They understood the

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    AGRIPPA THE MAGICIAN . The Life of Cornelius Agrippa von Nettesheim ., iJoctor and Kniyht , commonly known \ as ' a Magician . ' By Henry Morley . 2 vols . Chapman , and Hall . In this biography of a once celebrated schol-ar , Mr . Morley worthily completes the series opened by the biography of " Bernard Palissy ; " and if there is a falling off in point of interest , there is assuredly none in point of diligence in collecting materials , and ability in using them . Mr . ' Morley . has satisfactorily proved one thing on which he was bent , namely , that Agrippa , though he did write on Magic , was no Magician , no vulgar charlatan , but a various scholar , sorely tried by the . world , 'leading ' -a wandering , uncertain life , and dying miserably in exile , aged forty-nine , hated by priests , hunted by-fools , and ill-treated by Emperors and courtiers . ' Mr . Morley has taken pains—too much pains , 'indeed , if the paradox

    maypass ; fur . hat ! he confined himself more rigidly to the biography of -Aj / rippa , and not dragged into it so many pages of historical digression and elucidation ,. the interest of his work would have been greater . Only a great master of the art c ; in properly manage this historical scenery for the actors ; in hands less able , historical scenery becomes wearisome without- any corresponding advantage . We cannot say that a clear picture of the times is here presented ; only a "rent many details about the times . The pains Mr . Morley has bestowed on the analysis of Agrippa ' s works must on the contrary earn the gratitude of . every reader . Probably these pages will be thought the most curious and interesting of the whole .

    As a picture of the scholar ' s life in the ' early part of the sixteenth century this biography is very curious , and teaches us to regard with alVoclion tlie restless , accomplished , satirical , and loving Agrippa , who is so ibntl ot his two wives , his children , his friends , and h ' i 3 < logs ; - \ vlio is so ill-used by his third wife , by the priests , and by courts . A hard time he had of it , dependent ' on royal patrons who never paid his salary but used hid tali-nls ; nwl very interesting it is to hear liiiu speaking boldly out against the Kmperor Charles V ., who suffered him to be arrested for debt , because the imperial salary was obstinately withheld . This was the language he held in presence of his iudircs : — /

    ,,..., " You would not , " lie said , " concede mo time to pay my debts ; you' would not credit me -with tho pledge of the Emperor . Why am 1 to implore of you diinoiicy , when you deny me justice ? Do you account the Emperor one of thoso nu'ii who nrc not bound by their promises ? In harshness , nynrice , ingratitude ; , open breac h ol j us written word , what excellent ninteriiil you ofiV me for writing Casaar ' s i > r . us « . « . leu me whether it is-lit that I should bo bound by oath to th-e Emperor for two voiu .-s « 3 the keeper of his records , anil , my dues from him being withheld , my sorviw t <> I "" bo compulsory ? While I have been following him about for the last yearn * ; " ! r '" I might have died of hunger had not the most reverend apostolic legate , Cimnmu evil with ma «

    Cmnpogio , sustained me . l ' osaibly you may say that I ah are this y other . - * , that not I only live upon other people ' tables , l > ut that almost all il VM ~ peror ' retainers , satellites , and doorkeepers , even those of his chamber , ' 1 <> the same , whom wo , see going tho round of other men ' s dhmors , as seekers of Luble-tnlk or parasites , to tho no slight shame of the Emperor himself . Here let me way 1 wuj li yo ^ sometimes heard what I hear very often ; saw what . I Bee . Ccrtos , if yon " | heart tho credit of the Emperor , you would adviso him otherwise , and would "M ^ your eyes blink as they do at his avarice , as if it were not bane ia lain to l « t Ins p * " sioners go ragged for lack of tlieir pay , his nobles without salaries do suit to cue for their meat , to auflPor me , his historiographer , to bo dragged into suits hi '' U > rii J- # and vexed with , the terrors of a gaol , while I have Cwsar for my debtor , ami lie M ^ e

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    105 <) _________ ______„ , T H E L E A p E II „ CNo- 345 ' Saturday ,

• Citation
  • Leader (1850-1860), Nov. 1, 1856, page 1050, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2165/page/18/