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    humbler Russian life . If so , it will appear curiously enough just as the condition of life represented is passing away . The same publishers have in the press a new volume-of poems by Mr . Kingslett , whether dramatic , narrative , or lyrical , Andromeda , and other Poems does not determine . Mr . Kings ^ ey has already proved that he possesses both dramatic and lyrical powers of a high order , and the new volume will excite both interest and curiosity in a large circle of readers . Messrs . Pabker and Sow also announce as nearly ready for publication the third and fourth volumes of Mr . Fbotos ' s History of Unglfitid .

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    EDMUND BURKE . History of the Life and Times of Edmund Burke . By Thomas Macknight . Vols . I . and II . Chapman and Hall . A new life of Edmund Burke was called for . The work of Prior is in many respects unsatisfactory . It is incomplete and uncritical . It is better than Thackeray ' s life of Chatham , and than any life of Fox that has yet been produced ; but it partakes of the faults common to most biographies of the statesmen and orators of that period , Moore ' s biography of Sheridan not excepted . Mr . Macknight ' s book , so far as he has developed it , is an advance upon those publications . Elaborate and careful , written with great energy , and abounding in well-silted anecdotes , portrait-sketches , and passages of picturesque description , it includes a full view of the times in which Burke moved , from his youth to his entrance upon official life . . The long Indian episode has yet to come , the impeachment of Hastings , the wild and virulent crusade against the principles of the French Revolution , the quarrel with earlv friends , the partial eclipse , we must say , o a luminous and powerful

    mind . We are not sure , however , that Mr . Mackmgnt has not traced his plan upon too large a scale . Four solid volumes—two thousand broad and dense pages—exceed , we think , the necessities of almost any biography . But Mr . Macknight ' s design has been to bring forward the great Irish orator as only the central figure of a wide scene , representing an era of English and European history , and even the history of India and the New World . To succeed in such an aim is in one sense impossible . If a life of Burke is to comprehend a chronicle of every event which engaged his public efforts , it must also comprehend a clear if not laborious account of the personages with whom he acted , whether in concert or opposition , and the picture must be crowded with full-lengths of Fox , Pitt , Sheridan , Washington , and Warren Hastings . This difficulty , however , is to some extent inevitable , although Mr . Macknight has perhaps succumbed to it in more than an unavoidable degree . At the same , time—and now we are pointing to his princir > al defect as a bioerapher—he has too studiously dwarfed the

    contemporaries of Edmund Burke , so as to dilate the proportions of his own favourite statesman . The orator is to him a hero , the cynosure an epoch , the bright particular star of a galaxy , a sun among the spheres . It is plain that he exalts Burke above Chatham , Fox , Pitt , and Sheridan—justly in the last instance , perhaps , since the eloquence of Sheridan was weak and tawdry as compared with that of him who pleaded for American independence and French degradation , for the rights of Tippoo and the Bourbons , for the cause of Washington and the cause of Louis XVI . But it does not follow that because , the oratory of Fox was different from that of Burke it was inferior to it . We have fewer examples remaining of the former than of the latter ; it was not constructed , prepared , arranged , and moulded with similar precaution and foresight ; it was an ebullition ; it flashed from the intellect , and passing through the mind of the audience , was lost in their memories , of Edmund

    instead of being formalized in volumes , as were the speeches Burke . But we believe Fox to have been a far more effective debater than his older rival ; his argument was more keen , his language more simple and direct . Burke , whatever may be said , is frequently monotonous and always heavy ; we do not think we have missed a passage in his extant writings , jet we have never found , even in the correspondence , a trace of that light , sparkling effervescence attributed by Mr . Macknight to some of the speeches in Parliament . In another respect we differ from Mr . Macknight . Burke ' s was not , we think , an attractive character ; it was estimable rather than amiable . A better moral man he undoubtedly was than Fox ; and yet Fox—generous and noble beyond all bounds—was born to be loved , while JBurke was born to be honoured . The biographer is not of this opinion ; he even finds

    sweetness and tenderness among the characteristics of Edmund Burke ; but amid the frigid , pomp and measured formality of his demonstrations , we have never been able to detect this golden ore of the warmest human sympathy . Not that Burke was insensible ; on the contrary , he was as kind and benevolent as he was just and pure ; but there was an asceticism in hia charity , a hardness in his friendship , a species of indefinite ceremonial reserve in his affection . There was not a wild-flower in , his nature ; all was cultivated , decorous , and stately ; even when at home , ruralizing and sporting , he appears to have been a man who would say *^ Sir" to his dearest friend . If we add that Mr . Mncknight exhausts eulogy upon the oratory and patriotism of Edmund Burke , expatiates without limit upon the moral influence of his public exertions , and marks him as the greatest man of his age , we have

    recounted nil the objections except one which we have to suggest with regard to this important biography . To toko a last exception—the manner of the book is slightly theatrical , a fault which may more easily bo pardoned . than ^^ nd , Qr ^ t . OQ < iJn sQ competent awritor . It is most conspicuous in the chapter-headings : — ? ThTBe ' ginning ;' " "irtBrF 6 rlc ) rh'HoWof '' Politicmns ;* ' Faithful among the Faithless , ' 'The Herald of the Future , ' ? Through Koppel'a Agony of Glory , ' Storm and Yiotory . ' A similar defect has been noticed in Mr . Motley ' s brilliant history- of the war of independence in Holland . Therefore , Mr . Mueknight may quote a valuable precedent , but his work is , nevertheless , defaced by excrescences of this kind . Let us add that , ns the author of The Right Hon . B . Disraeli , M . P .: a Literary and Political Biography , and Thirty Years of Foreign Policy : a History qf the Secret taryahtpa of the Earl of Aberdeen and Viscount Palmerston , ho might have been expected to deal in irony find invective ; but the spirit of this book , in « general sense , is particularly calm ; it does credit to Mr . Macknight , und

    will better serve his reputation than either of the former essays , anonymousl y published , to which his name is now attached . The work is one in which politicians of all ages and classes , of all shades and positions , will be interested . It appeals , also , to the ordinary students of history , presenting as it does a large view of a most interesting period , crowded with vicissitudes , conflicts , changes , and the growth of personal reputations . Mr . Macknight has treated his subject ably , and has written , indeed , the first book which can fairly be called a biography of Edmund Burke . Faults it has , but they are faults we are not likel y to miss in any writer who attempts to supersede these volumes , while the merits of the author are numerous and remarkable . Mr . Macknight has emphatically studied his subject before attempting to deal with it ; he has compiled from none of his predecessors , but has used them as contributors to a large mass of information never before collected , verified , and arranged . He has rejected , upon satisfactory grounds , several poimlar anecdotes ; he has collated a large number of state papers , and has

    also introduced the testimony of Emm the Armenian , who tells more of Burke , in his private capacity , than any other writer , but whose autobiography seems to have been unknown to most historians of the time . Burke ' s own writings have of course been read with diligence by Mr . Macknight , who singularly exaggerates their value , we think , when he describes them as only second in genius and worth to Shakspeare ' s plays . Taken for all in all , however , this is a most welcome and interesting biography .

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    TENERIFFE . Teneriffe : an Astronomer ' s Experiment ; or , Specialities of a Residence above the Clouds . By C . Piazzi Smyth , F . R . S ., F . R . A .. S . Illustrated with Photostereographs . Reeve . In May , 1856 , Mr . Piazzi Smyth was entrusted with a scientific mission to the Peak of Teneriffe , and a number of valuable instruments and a yacht were placed at his disposal by private individuals . His main object was to

    ascertain how far astronomical observation can be improved by eliminating the lower third part o the atmosphere ; an equatorial telescope , therefore , formed part of his equipment . Arriving at the island in July , he conveyed this apparatus up the volcanic flanks of the mountain , to stations at the height of 8900 and 10 , 700 feet , and carried on a series of experiments during two months . His narrative , produced in an elegant form , and illustrated upon a novel plan with photo-stereographs ( a book stereoscope , folded in a case like a map , being attached ) , is in many respects remarkable . The scientific results of the mission were of no inconsiderable importance , from the

    special point of view selected by Mr . Smyth ; but he has added a variety of interesting remarks upon a body of natural phenomena concerning which our positive knowledge is to this day restricted within very narrow limits . Mr . Smyth distributes his relation under four heads : the first including the voyage out and the ascent of Teneriffe , the second describing the experiences of the astronomical party on the crater of elevation , the third referring to the crater of eruption and the peak , and the fourth to the insular lowlands . The iron yacht Titania carried Mr . Smyth to within a few miles of his lodging upon the mountain , flying before the trade winds , and through a wondrous shoal of medusae estimated to be upwards of two hundred millions

    , in number . Among these huge whales were sporting , the leviathans feeding upon the formless floats of living gelatine . Then , swimming crabs were caught , with paddle-shaped claws ; next , approaching the Canaries , the water was observed to be of a deep Prussian blue ; and , finally , the horizon was riven by the headlands of Teneriffe . On the 10 th of July the astronomer and his wife rode into Orotava , near the Peak , which was , nevertheless , concealed by the clouds that hun # like a tent around the lower bulk of the mountain ; four days after , they began the ascent with mules and horses , across the bare bones of Teneriffb , exposed by a rush of fire from the volcano that tore away the Vineyards ; from red mounds with eanin ? anertures streams of a thick , vivid material were flowing perpetually ; gaping apertures streams ui u tuiun , vinu « iai < ci « " « "i . » uniug j ^ v <» j ^ u ^ ...., / j

    at an elevation of nineteen hundred feet the yellow bloom and pink leaves of the hypericum brightened the slopes ; a thousand feet higher and they were above the clouds , which seldom { pass upwards above that boundary ; beyond it the hot blue sky sent down its brightness upon vast expanses of mist ; here milch goats were feeding ; at 4700 feet they found a singular leguminous plant ; at 5280 a solitary pine , the last of a forest ; at 7127 they entered ' a most moonlike region ; ' at 9000 they bivouacked at Guajura , within ten paces of a precipice fifteen hundred feet deep . It was with difficulty that a station was secured , since a powerful wind roams about the mountain , overturning everything except solid stone walls . The sunrise , watched from this elevation , was variegated , though not brilliant , but the

    splendour of the day was all but insufferable . . Here they passed some time , the astronomer rambling about the heights and picking up bits of obsidian , with a single violet , and dead butterflies oj a beautiful purple ; but a duaty haze in the atmosphere at first infcerlercu with the employment of the telescopes . However , this effect was only partially produced , for in the evening Mr . Smyth wus delighted with tuo marvellously fine definition of the stars , the discs and rings of which were perfectly displayed . Every result , however , pointed to the probable aavantage of observing from a still greater altitude . But , before rematvui g Mr . Smyth explored the great crater , streaked with streams oj yeuow , rich red , and blue-black > va . His chapter on Solar Radiation will have an interest for all scientific readers . The spectacle of a whirlwind above tue cloudsf blowing ~ the -dust ^ froin-Toiiqriffo , J ^ 9-PJ !) . ejll « ifi ! li ^^ . Cftn re , f 1 , " ably expect to witness more than once in his life ; it sometimes ^ "K '" '" ? the vapours below and tossed them to heaven with fantastic Jury . « ww now dfttftrminfitl to scale the Peak itself , and a nartv wivs sent oil in auvanoo .

    On the night after they left , a fire was seen upon tho mountain I " " ° ' through the telescope , tongues of flame were discerned leaping up among black rocks , casting a momentary light upon tho figures of several men . This myeterioua apparition excited intense curiosity , " and Mr . bmytli , auci » brief delay , pushed on to ascend and examine the central cone ; l ) OVOI"i Alba Vista , ten thousand seven hundred feet above the sea , no beast o » burden could go , consequently tho scientific apparatus was planted in wu »

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    _ , „ _ THE LEADER . [ No . 412 , February 13 , 1858 .

• Citation
  • Leader (1850-1860), Feb. 13, 1858, page 160, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2230/page/16/