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    lar <* e space is occupied with minute portrayals of ! character , and with the elaboration of romantic situations ; some- of these are strongly marked and peculiarly original ^ especially the scenes descriptive- of * the love passages between an ancient Colonel and the- selr ' -tprtruring maiden , the tragedy of whose life is brought to a ruthless close ; The writer dwells with perhaps morbid intensity upon episodes of this nature ; but it is , her great merit that the personages of her tale are so far human and real that not one of them is made up of gloss , varnish ,, opajline transparency , idyllic sweetness , bushy eyebrows , scowls , and dagger-teeth . Her fault i * a tendency to a redundance of detail , interrupting the flow ; of thfr narj&tive , which frequently stagnates in large overflows of dialogue , on in , epistolary reservoirs still more artificial and purposeless .

    Charmione : a Tale of the Great Athenian Revolution . By Edward A . Leatham , M . A . 2 vols . ( Bradbury and Evans . ) — It has been Mr . iieatham ' s object to construct a romantic restoration of the manners-and customs of ancient Greece . The attempt has frequently been made , but never , we think , successfully , in Germany or in England . Mr . Leatham has been bolder , perhaps , than any of his predecessors , for the curtain of iris drama rising discloses at once a group in which J ? er . icles , Alcibiades , Sophocles , Theramenes , Thrasybulus , Critias , Lycias , and Nicias figure , while Plato himself is afterwards brought upon the stage , with all the sophists , sages , wacriors , and statesmen of the time . Ajnong the ladies ¦* of the Grecian years' ace > numbered Arfcemo , the daughter of Demosthenes , Eucharis , daughter off Nicias , and Charmione herself * the cynosure of the ; story . These personages converse , eat , drink , are married and given in marriage , fight , and die in a style which it is Mr . Leatham ' s pleasure to

    -call Greek , and it is simply just to say that the effect is sufficiently entertaining ; but we cannot avoid the persuasion that considerable study and -talent have been thrown away . N »* but that a novel laid among a classic people in . a classic age might have its fascinations ; the material is not obsolete ; only the artist has not come . Mx . Leatham , laborious in his accumulation of , details , has selected them without much artistic aim , and even his description of a Grecian marriage wants colour and animation . Here was an -opportunity to bring the crowned bride upon the scene in the pure splendour -and poetical variety of the Attic costume , and to paint a . hundred aspects of pagan manners ; but what modern picture is not superfluous while we -can read how the nuptials of Garanos were celebrated ? Mr . Leatham has done his best , although he would have done better , we think , to leave Athenian fashions to be studied in the works of such authors as have wrought into really historical views the substances and suggestions of all antique literature and modern criticism .

    The Forsters a Novel . By Marguerite A . Power , author of ' Evelyn . Forester . ' 2 vols . ( Newby . j—Miss Power , well kn o wn as the niece of Lady Biessington , and as an elegant and agreeable writer , has now published her second novel . It is a great advance upon the first . ' Evelyn Forester' was clever and characteristic , but it was written with less ease , less knowledge of society , ' less spirit and rapidity , than these two volumes . The story of The Forsters is painful , and betrays a saddened exoerienco ; we might blame , indeed , the writer ' s disposition to put her dramatic personages < to death whenever it becomes necessary to destroy an obnoxious influence or a harsh association ; but the quality most conspicuous in the book is- the truth with which the domestic interior of the Forster household has been -delineated . These bickerings , these jealousies , the fretful phantasies of spoiled human nature , are sketched from life . Miss Power brings her contrasts together within the circle of the same family , 'her two heroinesbeing- sisters j ^ while to heighten the tone of the Eomance , incidents are daringly multiplied . We have found The Forsters not a little interesting ,, and we gladly assert its claims to success .

    . Bauntiess . By tho Author of Hands not Hearts , ' ' The Kevelaiions , of . a . Commonplace Man . ' 2 vols . ( J . W . Parkeu and Son . )—This story haa -a deeply religious tinge , and turns upon a personal sacrifice which long delays th « t happiness of the individuals concerned . It is written with delicacy and ) polish ; the hand is that of one evidently familiar with the English life * of town and country , who has been a close student of manners , and has -a thoroughly generous appreciation of the passions that torment tho fpailties of our human nature . Dawn and Twilight : a Tale . By the Author of' Amy Grant , ' &c . 2 vols . - ( J . W . Parker and Son . )—This beautiful tale will bo read with enhanced interest on account of itd writer ' s untimely death . It is , throughout ,

    ¦ '• mournful' sweet , ' na if tho author knew her last work in life was being . accomplished . While It was passing through the preBS she died . We dare not-allow criticism to linger over tho book , but may justly say that , as a . story , it is very graceful and very touching . Overman Love . Fnoin the Papers ot an Alien . Translated , with the- sanction- of the- author , by ( Susanna VViukworth . ( Chapman and Hall . )~~ This sfcrarrgely-chnrming fragment has been rendered into congenial English by one of our beat- German translators . It is already known to tho English public ; and we find it unnecessary to say more- than that these Papers * of an Alien , revealing in every page the chastened tendernoss of a fine heart , ¦ and the discursive thoughfclulness of an accomplished intellect , can scarcely read ' better-in the original than in Miba Winkworth ' s version .

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    year on the Continent * , taking observations , jocular ok profound , it is all pith and richness . Not that the witer-affecte an oracular tone ; far from it * he scarcely ceases laughing . from the beginning , to the end of September quizzing himself , his companions , Englandj the-world s and things in general but invariably converting his chat into pleasing and not unprofitable doct rine ' Thus , on board the Calais packet , he dashes into a familiar treatise on seasickness , and the resolve of every reader will be , after mastering the hyp othesis , to try the experiment , with eternal gratitude to Mr . Wilson as the result , should his plan succeed . In his-ovn ease it was triumphant , for , havinobound a shawl tightly round his body , and arranged , himself in such a posture as to fix the stomach in one steady position , the cause of nause a was removed , and a fact was added to science . Setting foot on French , soil , he delays not to declare his gratitude to the cookery which has done so much for that vivacious people , and renders full justice to the

    soup , and the succession of proper drinks and viands to follow . Strange that the curse of humanity should be perpetually denounced against the British system , and yet our household kitchen-masters are not ashamed . France , however , was not the ground selected by Mr . Wilson for his rapid explorations . The third chapter brings him to Chaudefontaine and Spa , where sedatives and tonics well out of the earth , for the invi goration of dancers , gamblers , and visitors , who throng round the knaves and simpletons to admire them , and perhaps to envy their courage . The effect of these early draughts produced , in the doctor ' s fatigued fi-aine a sense of vigour , and cutlets and St . Jullien suffered accordingly ; but the inspection hatfonly begun . Aix-la-Chapelle was in sight , and here , after a lively interlude on German money , he wanders among the alterative waters where Charlemagne and Napoleon bathed , and where the name of Erasmus Wilson was a charm that kindled an excitement among the medical population .

    From Aix-la-Chapelle his path lay to Langen Schwalbach , among some of the most celebrated , wonders of German scenery , and across the Taunus mountains , where health is a natural product of the soil , and where muriated , carbonated , chalybeate , and sulphureous watecs , cold and thermal , form the principal wealth of the inhabitants . In this region Mr . Wilson delighted . Here towered the mighty castle of Lahneck , and from its windows , high among the hills , the tourist saw a blaze of light ; for here a certain Irish nobleman , Lord Moriarty , has revived the feudal grandeur of the Byzantine stronghold , which has a chapel possessing a bull of indulgence , granted in 1322 by the Pontiff John XXIII . The casements are illuminated at night to guide the traveller ; the dungeons are full of juice from the vineyai-ds of the Rhine and Moselle ; and Mr Wilson found the hospitality of Lahneck very consoling . His pilgrimage , however , was not to German cellars , but to springs and fountains , and at Lansren Schwalbach he drank the water-wine of the Romans : — ¦

    The water is received , into two oval-shaped basins of red sandstone , about two feet in depth ; and these basins are lodged in a shallow pit , paved and lined by red sandstone , and reached by a flight of steps at each side . The bottom of the basin is perforated with holes , one with several , the other , the chief drinking basin , with one only . The carbonic acid gas rises up through these holes in little coveys of bubbles , and breaks upon the surface with a crackling noise . The one opening of the drinking basin is intended to concentrate the carbonic acid gas , which then boils up in large bubbles , and is further accumulated by a bright metal funnel , sunk below the lovel of the water , and . into -which the whole of the gas rushes , sometimes lifting up the surface water as though it were in strong ebullition . A good-looking girl performs tlio part of barmaid of the spring , handing to tho visitors , as they approach the outer rail , a glass cup of her generous liquor , for which she dips into the pewter funnel . After

    quailing his cup , the drinker places it on a small shelf inside the top of tlie rail , anil then hastens away for his walk , returning for auother glass when the first ia well shaken down , or , in tho language of these free-drinkers , digested . " This is the sixth cup ( half-pints ) 1 have swallowed this morning , " said a nhrenzied-looking Knglishnian to liis friend , while I was gently sipping tho inspiring but somewhat cold beverage at his elbow ; " this ia my sixth cup , and I think by tho time I , have walked over that hill and get back again I can drink a seventh . " I thought so too , from hid appi-nrnncc , for he didn ' t seem to me to have room for a stomach under hid waistband ; innl 1 came to the conclusion that the water must have slipped down some side alloy , ami gone clear of his stomach altogether ; or else that ho was an editor i f u London daily paper , and lived upon ink . Nearly four grains of cold iron , to wash out his stomach before breakfast ; enough to give it tho iron-mould , or turn the poor thing' into corrugated leather ,

    The roses of Schlangonbad suggest a digression on German / lowers : — Germany appears to me to be romarkably destitute of flowers j and , with the exception of oleanders , and pomegranates , and tho double convolvolu . s , I . senrc'ly s'i \ v " flower worth looking at throughout my journey . At tho tubles d'hote , several llowur girla were admitted at different placed , but tliok little bouquats wcro i . l' the »> wst pitiably miserable kind ; oven a bouquet which an enamoured swain bought fur hid ladyo-lovo was so excessively common that an English maiden would have ivjoctcd it with contempt . That on Gorman dinners is more flattering : — - In tho flrut placo , there arrives a soup plate of light potago , something between broth and gravy noup , and not at all unacceptable ; necondly , there i-onuw I lie hurt which Iiuh boon uwed to mako tho potago , and which is not in tlic lea * t derive- tho worae for the process ; it is tender , has a pleasant flavour , and is a dish tlint no niau

    A DOCTOR'S TOUR . A . Three WceW Scamper through tha Spua of Q # > mutny and Buhjmin . With an Appendix on tho Nature and Uses oti Mineral "Wa / ters . By Erasmus Wilson , ~ - F . RTSr" - " " ¦—— ¦ ¦ ' ¦¦ '" ¦ —¦ ¦— " - ¦¦ ¦¦¦¦ - . GhuroliM ; - A thousand tourists gossip ; but of gossip , there aro various kinds and ¦ quulrties . That of Mir , Wilson >» the gobbipiof n scholar ,, one who . Una studied cities and men , who is obsouvant n » well , o » cheenful ^ andi whose naaruAivti resemble ^ in . itu uubofcunco and colour , tho hash sort of , uonuvuroai » Qnn ~ U > iniorma , it interests , it euliveiib , it is . never trivial or tadiouo ,, novae pompous , but always well-bulunood , suggestive ,, and * practical . Xo-eay this , ia to any tha / b Mr . Wilaoa io nob » common toui-bt , » nd that is , emphutiuoJUy whafc'Me . mQon . Tula book ia entitled ) A ' Mrae Woekd Scamper ; mid y . ot , « ompacMa < ib with the works of axxy ooekufty dilottanta w , h # , has , hum a

    in hb right somhcs can allow to pass ; not that ho gets It in n lump , but only n » " small dish , containing , whan full , some six or eight slices , from which ln > jhjIitIsj <"'« or two , as hunger may prompt . Accompanying tho bouilli , u » thin boile . l fivsli l ) OlJ is called , is u small diah of potatoes in fragments , oomotimes Hinothorcd in biiii « "" | " so oudtt tho second course . Now , tho distribution of food to a long tnblf <>' ' l " . ° hixty guests , ho that all may bo served with tho aaino article and at tho aaniu moment , id a matter which calls for aomo degree of ingenuity , and ingenuity anil ^ riuiriiwhii * aro not wanting _ to tho accomplishment of the object . It ia managed tlwn s M ' sliced ' foTTTix gua ^ fiHvnTwS ovor ' Tol ^ tt ^^ times tun , sixty guestn ; then lot tboro bo prepared ten of those dlnliu . s , ami poniieil oa tho table in tho middle of ovory six pornons , with a diah of potatoos between each ; then , as the guests help themselves , or tho waltor hands tho diah to tho nix for whoia it is intended , an hoou a » you aro served and . havo timo to look around , you Hud U'la

    ovory one olio lius been served also . At Ikwnbovg ho receives tho card of a German . ' Uoctor , whorounon urisos thia quuint and way disquisition ; - — Now , doctor , lot me road you a lesaon ; enamelled , oards , I havo boeu given to understand , aro proparod witji . wuito load ,, and tho preparation , ia , highly pernicious t °

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    m ^ T 1 E : LHABKR . [ N < & . ^ LO , Xatswa&x 30 ^ 185 ^

• Citation
  • Leader (1850-1860), Jan. 30, 1858, page 114, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2228/page/18/