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    RIVERSTON , Bieerston . ' . . ByGeorgiana M . Craik . 3 vols . Smith , Elder , and Co . Miss GeWrgjana Cka . ik , daughter of Professor Craik of Belfast , and favourably known , we believe , for some smaller tales in periodicals , has here put forth ; a novel , which has made us wish to become acquainted witlx those antecedents ; for it is a production of no little rnark , and qualified to interest old as well sis young . The chief merit of it is not in the plot , or rather plats ( for there is a succession of them ) . Their mode of treatment is good ; and it is impossible not to be intei-ested in them , on account of the persons principally concerned ; but they are from the old storehouse of infidelities and duels . The eharin of the book is in its perception of character , and in tile picturesqucness and force of the style . The best thing in the plot is the very successiveness to which we have alluded ; for though it may be

    reckoned unartistical by readers accustomed to expect all "the persons of the story to be brought together at the close of it , as they are in the last act of a drama , instead of being dismissed when they cease to be needed , yet this , though uncommon in novel-writing , squares with the real events of life , andso far combines novelty itself * in the rarer sense of the word , with probability . We must own , however , that we do not suspect the authoi-ess of having intended any such merit . Riventon is _ _ history of a family in middle life , written by the governess ¦ who resides with it , and who herself becomes the chief female person concerned . She is a governess of very governing tendencies , with a heart nevertheless prepared to renounce them in favour of some person of the

    other sex , who must be as superior to men iii general as she is to women ; and this person she meets with in a certain 'Uncle Gilbert , ' who , as the reader may guess by the appellation , is a gentleman about twice as old perhaps as herself ; and he is sot only so , but grim-visaged and deformed—to wit , hump-backed —and inclined on that account to quarrel with herself and with every body else who has the advantage of him ,- not , indeed , because of the advantage , but because of the tendency which he thinks it gives them to despise him ; for the grim hunchback is an excellent-hearted fellow , and has only-been rendered apparently savage by that same despair of procuring a loving partner for life , which has been secretly gnawing at "the heart of the beau til ul but portionless governess .

    Here , the reader will see , is the old story of Beauty and the Beast ; of the Hunchback in the play ; and perhaps ofJEsop himself and the fair Rhodope . But he will lose no little pleasure , if it prevent him from becoming acquainted with this variation of an old theme ; for it is really excellent of its kind . A reminiscence of Jane Eyre and her ' master' may also be stiried in his mind ; but he will do the sanie injustice both to himself and the authoress , if he suffer a perceivable influence from that original to blind him to the independence of Miss Craik ' s own powers of thinking and writing , as well as to a certain superiority on the side of feminine delicacy . Her emotional as well as reflective powers are of no ordinary description . These two

    personages , however , have by no means the whole book to themselves . 'There is abundance , as well as subtlety , of character . There 5 s , anion " others , Helen Wynter , who jilts her lover into suicide , and herself into despair and reformation ; Effie , her sister , a cold-seeming nature , very loving ; Sydney , another sister , who plays a game of involuntary cross purposes with her lover , each thinking the love to have been given up ; Mrs . Ramsay , a sister of Uncle Gilbert ' s , sweet and quiet under adversity ( a very pleasing portrait ); and another sister , Ursula , a stupid , dictatorial woman , who thinks herself at the top of creation , solely from the absence of all ideas about it , except those of living upon her inherited comforts , of having her way , and thinking meanly of her brother ' s understanding for interest ^ ing himself in the poor . But the book must speak for itself . Here is the governess ' s first' meeting with ' uncle Gilbert , ' whose surname is Kingsley : — °

    I saw what , as she sat , Mrs . Ramsay could nut see , that a hand was opening the latched door into her g-arden : ere I spuho , a liyure issued from it , and footsteps were directed towards the house . " There is Mr . Kinsley !" She looked and saw him , and , a colour almost like youth came to her pale cheek her eye lightened too , and sparkled—her whole face * eemed to grow young- ; I scarcely knew her . . ¦ ¦ , . . . My honnot was not on—I could not go before he entered , yet I was vexed to force myself upon their meeting . I would have gathered up my garments and hastily adjourned to tlio adjoining mom , but she arrested my departure , bidding me stay peaceably where I was , and 1 had scarcely retreated to the further window , and sat me down , when Mr . King . sley entered .

    It was a quiet meeting . He advanced and stood beside her , and held , both her outstretched hands in his , before he once spoke . " My dear Grace ! " he said then , and he stooped down and kissed her . She simply said , " God bless you ! " and if it had not beon for the tones of either voice , I should have thought the mutual welcome cold . I remember Mr . Kingsley distinctly , as he stood before me nt that moment . 1 saw a stature slightly dwarfed , though mainly iu comparison with its breadth ; I saw a frame firm-knit and spare , muscular , bony , indicative of great strength ; 1 saw a breadth of misshapen shoulder surmounted by a head of vast proportions—a head d . ukly adorned with a loose mane of locks , long , rich , bewildered , dusky its a nightcloud , descending almost to his shoulders , and lying thickly there , their dusky depths only stirring as the head they grew from turned or shook .

    lliuy were the offspring , as 1 afterwards perceived , of a double vanity ; nor did they altogether fail to feed the appetite that allowed them , for they both concealed , iu some measure , the deformity of the . shoulders , and certainly , in a striking degree , displayed the luvwh bounty witli which nature had sought in this exalting of one feature to recompense him for so much robbery . Not , ho wuyor , that her solo recompense lay in these luxuriant tresses ; some reparation , also , the face itself could boast . An inauspicious face it wius at the lirst viewm , cS ;< , 0 ? f ' " , ll > Krlln ; 1 U 1 iro " fiui ( J - l > ° » " < l i » to hard , deep Hues , sorrowful and stem ; thus it appeared at first ; but with a . second glance , perception of one darks ' th !^ wt ° a , ' ou its /! uslcy front aw ° ° - uuui h « h ^ ^ U * ™»»« V « - Smvi . . r < V ° U townrds m ° tliathoinad « wlu . nW Ku .. any kT , ZST 7 l li ° T ™ MhUri ) ly ' " ls" » ldl ' « »« y l'reaoncc had till then BhonV u * 7 T u 8 Ccmul Htartlcd > dueled even , by the light that dukff It ««™ . «' frojn 'wo of the keenest eyes that ever had rested on my face d-aik they were » 3 a . venter ' s n . ght , guarded by thick projecting eyebrow , furnished

    with a curtain of naturally drooping eyelids , and jetty , thick-fringed lashes , yet was the glance they flashed , upon me a very flame of fire . Mildly composed , almost serene , he had appeared to me at the moment of his entrance ; his face , ugly as it was had not shocked me ; his deformed figure had borne itself with a certain ease and dignity that had impressed me favourably ; his whole demeanour , however , changed now at the sight of me with an almost magical celerity . Watchful , suspicious , wrathful in an instant grewthe dark face ; an intense consciousness of his deformity appeared to rouse itself in him , and , with this consciousness , an expression of the most morbidly keen pride and defiance that I ever saw upon a human face .

    It was a transition ugly enough : I had liked him better at the first ; the quiet and subdued tone of his appearance had'been to my mind infinitely more full of propriety , more dignified , more touching , even , than was this second phase that he presented to me—this futile rising up in arms against his destiny—this needlessly exhibited defiance towards an imaginary or possible derision , which , whether it was called forth by anything especially obnoxious in my individual presence , or was the general front that he assumed towards strangers of whatever description , I could not but regardapart from the little it said in favour of his temper—as savouring alike of weakness and a much too sensitive vanity .

    Honor ( for such is the governess ' s Christian name ) goes quietly away , and the chapter concludes with a plaasant compliment from her to a niece of the uncle on the likeness between their eyes , which the niece has not wit enough to appreciate . But a terrible night succeeds . The governess , from some undefined feeling , becomes more than ever sensible of the hopeless isolation of her state of life , and expi'esses her wretchedness with affeetinor vehemence : — - ° I know not from what cause it was , but I could not sleep that night . The short hours of darkness passed , the dawn came , and still I lay wakeful and restless . Such nights of watching come to me at certain seasons : 1 owe them to states of the atmosphere ; to states of the body ; oftenest , and always then most painfully , to states of the mind . Seldom is sleep other than coy with me . Gently I have to woo her ; supplicatingly I must lie waiting her coming : often her hand will touch the door-latch , raise it , and almost seem to enter : then with a cruel caprice abruptly vanish , and leave me still > vakeful for long hours .

    Supplieantly I said I waited : nay , not always in my mood-suppliant . Beyond certain limits humility will , not carry me : my petition long denied , 1 rise defiant ; suing for hours in vain , I cease to implore . My vigil then grows riot -with unloosed thought ; 1 give liberty to heart and brain : I let imagination free . The morrow will bring with it its sure hours of languid pain—I know that well ; abused nature then will claim restitution , but now at least I take my revenge on sleep . I laugh at her boasted power , I defy her coyness : often I rise , " and half-dressed pace my room , till my -wearied limbs refuse me longer obedience : in nights dark as eclipse , in wind and storm , in moon and starlight , in chill dawn and early sun-blaze , not an hour of the long winter nights , not an hour of the slow gathering splendour of summer mornings , but lias seen mv watch . <

    This night I could not sleep . I knew not if it was the morning ' s alarm [ of a mad dog ] that kept me wakeful : possibly , resenting my attempted scorn of her , Fear now chose to take revenge on me , and , holding with my weary eyelids , to teach me , that by one so frail as I her mighty power dared not be braved !^ Some influence doubtless there was over me , for through this night a throbbing life was in each pulse arid nerve : my fancies took strange colours : shadows not of death , but of a pallid life , stretched out to long , worn-out duration , rose before me : hope paled , seeing tliat picture ; anguish came upon me : I called aloud : — "Not living death ! not life , " I eric " , " without life ' s passionate essence , be my portion ! . Stones for bread , and viueg r for water , give me these , oh God ! if thou will try me , and , with thy sternness , . » ve me here and there one draught of -wine—one morsel of life-giving food ; but shi ; niy life up in no death-like cloister ! send me to no frozen regions ! chain me . n-jt down my burning heart—my xestless brain—in dead grey calm—lest my soul rebel . "

    lhere is more of this passionate eloquence , followed by a pious and wise patience ; for Honor is not more remarkable for the strength of her feelings than for that of her good sense . The authoress has the power of projecting herself into the stormiest , and luckily , also , into the sunniest feelings of others : We wish we had room for some passages of the latter ; but cannot make it . Her poor governess , though beginning with dislike of her new acquaintance , is here nevertheless ° in the coin ^ mcucement of a passion , -which foi'tunately leads to a happy conclusion ; and _ therein we leave her , only observing , that it occupies the best portions of the second and third Volumes , and all with great subtlety of treatment . If the heroine begins with the love of power , she ends with the love of love and if the strength of her character induces her not umvillingly to find a lover in this new sort of < rood Mirabeim of a

    man with his lion mane , his heart is what assures his triumph ; for we have forgotten to mention , that she rejects a handsome young lover for his grim , and elderly sake .

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    LIFE OF LORD BACON . Francis Bacon of Verulam : Jiectlistic Philosophy and its Aye . By Kuno Fischer . Translated from tho German by John Oxenford . London : Longman and Co . This is a remarkable and seasonable book , which deserves a hearty welcome from all English readers who care to think as well as read . It is an intelligent and symputhetic appreciation by a German professor of the English thinker , who , of all English thinkers , is most opposed to the characteristic bias of German thought . This fundamental opposition is expressed in the title of Dr . Fischer ' s work by the term realistic . Gorman thinkers are , as a class , idealist-, spiritualists , rationalists , tending to exalt intellect and pure thought over the senses and experience , just as the French are characteristically materialists ., sensationalists , positivists , making tho senses the supreme source

    of knowledge and absolute criterion of truth . But the living reality whicl philosophy has to investigate and explain , is neither mind nor body alone but both , and the whole action of Bacon ' s mind is resolutely real . Whai God hath joined together , he refuses to put asunder . He looks the nctua truth of nature and life lull in the face , and will not sacrifice a jot of the reality to accommodate a theory or meet the exigencies of a system . Nothing could well be a greater perplexity and offence to dreamers and theorists than such a habit of mind , and accordingly Biieon hua iu Germany been systematically misunderstood and misrepresented . Alternately treated vyifcli contempt , aasuilcd with hostile but ignorant criticism , and denounced as an impostor , ho has rarely been seriously studied , and never fairly appreciated . By some historians of philosophy he is spoken of as a person of considerable

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    No . 398 , November 7 , 1857 . ] THE LEADER . 1073

• Citation
  • Leader (1850-1860), Nov. 7, 1857, page 1073, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2216/page/17/