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circumference , which separates the American from the Canadian Fall , I made out nineteen isles and islets ;; some no larger than a dining-table , others twenty or a hmidered times as large , and several of them supporting but a Bingle tree ^ and others two or three trees , blooming and flourishing , amid the war of waters , and suggesting to the unpractised eye a fear that every moment would be the last both of them and their vegetation /'
The human senses are incapable of comprehending the full gloiy of the Niagara spectacle , which might indeed be cited as a suihcient proof to uphold the « ntire theory of the author of " Man and his Dwelling Place "—the book we-mean , not its subject , or rather subjects . The inadequacy of the human intellect to grasp the Universe becomes in the presence of " this great vision of the guarded " cataract a felt truth .
This truth also may be applied with justice to the political and social relations of the country ;—perhaps of any country . Dr . Mackay strives to understand and appreciate American institutions , still he finds there is much that escapes him . He "brings to bear his public experience on all these , and so far as he can compare and contrast , he gains _ a certainsatisfaction . But the absolute aspects remain mysterious- There is the peculiar and unapproachable secret that lies at the base of national or
individual character which operates as the reason -why the circumstances liave taken a specific shape more or less anomalous . There is the bias of the will , which nothing but the conscience can control ; a conscience which acts according to the degree in ¦ which it is enlightened , and which on its moral Bide can only be enlightened by the Great Spirit , whom even the savage in the wilderness acknowled ges ^ and whose influence is claimed alike by faint and sage . Here at last we must look for the . tlisiinguishing characteristic , and must confess ourselves lost in wonder and in ignorance .
It is not possible to do more , at present , than introduce Dr . Mackay ' s book to our readers . The topics treated in it are of too multifarious a character to permit of cursory survey , and each -would furnish matter for a grave separate essay . We must content ourselves , therefore , with commending these volumes to careful perusal , as presenting a body of Political Doctrine , illustrated by the author ' s experience of America , derived by liirn under favourable circumstances , the result of -careful and diligent observation , assisted by personal associations well calculated to facilitate the ' way to the attainment of truth .
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CHOICE NOTES FROM " NOTES AXD QUIMUES " Folk Lore ;—Bell and Daldy . Those who know " K " otes and Queries" are well aware of the information contributed in its pa ^ es to our knowledge of " Folk Lore . " A v . oluine ° 300 closely printed pages is the result , and certainly the matter contained in it is remarkably suo- «» estive , as well as amusing and instructive . One" or two examples may be profitably quoted .
"Poultry . —The crowing of a hen bodes evil , and is frequently followed by the death of some member of the family . When , therefore , Dame Partlet thus experiments upon the note of her mate , she pays her head as the price of her temerity , a complete severance of the offending member being supposed to be the only way of averting the threatened calamity . No house , it is said , can thrive whose hens are addicted to this kind of amusement . Hence the old proverb often quoted in this district : —
" * A whistling woman and a crowing- hen , Is neither fit for God nor men . ' " According to Pluquet , the Normans have a similar belief , and a saying singularly like the English one : •—" ' Une poule qui chante le po < i , et unc fillc qui siffle , portent , -mallifiiir diins la-maisnn . " . '
NOttTHUainERI >\ XI > ¦ TRADITION * . V Joaney . or Johnny Heed , the parish clerk of a ¦ village near Newcastle , was returning home one evening , and in passing a gate by the roadside marvelled much to see nine cats about it . His wonder was changed to horror when one of the cats addressed him , ' Joaney Reed , Joaney Reed , tell Dan EatclifFe that Peg Powson is dead . ' Joaney hurried liorue to his wife , and instantly informed her of the circumstance , wondering at the same time who Dan Eatclifle might be ; when up sprang the cat from the hearth , and exclaiming 'If Peg Ppwson ' s dead , it ' s no time for me to be here , ' ruslied out of the hous e arid was seen no more . " We add a third for its humour : — THE LAWYERS' I'A-TKON SAIXT . "And nowbecause I am speakcing of Pettyfogers , give me leave to tell you a story I ihett with when I lived in Rome . Goeiug with a Roinane to see some Antiquityes , he showed me a chapell dedicated to one St . Evona , a lawyer of JJrittanie , who he said came to Rome to entreat the Popo to give the Lawyers of Brittanio a Patron , to which the Pope replied , That he knew of no Saint but what was disposed of to other Professions . At which Evona wa s very sad , and earnestly b ' egd of the Pope to think of one for him . At last the Pope proposed to St . Evona that he should goe round the church of St . John de Latera blindfould , and after he had said so many Ave Marias , that the first Saint lie layd hold of should be his Patron , -which the good old Lawyer willingly undertook ; and at the end of Ins
Ave-Maryes he stopt at Saint Michels altar , where he laid hold of the Divell , under St . Michols feet , and cry * out , This is our Saint , let him be our Patron . So being unblindfolded , and seeing Avhat a Patron he had chosen , he went to his lodgings so dejected , that in few moneths after he die'd , and coming to heaven ' s gates knookt hard . Whereupon fet . rotor asked who it was that knocked so bouldly . lie roplyed , That he was St . Evona the Advocate , Away , away , satf St . Peter 5 here is but one Advocate in heaven i here is no room for you Lawyers .. 0 but , said'St . Evona , I am that honest Lawyer who never tooke fees on both sides , or pleaded in a paci cause , nor did lever set my Naibours together by theEares , or lived by the sins of the people , wen then , said St . Peter , come in . This news comeing down to Koine , a witty Poet writ upon St . Evona »
tomb these . words : — St . ICvona un Ilrlt on , Advoout non Ijiirroii , Halolultth . ' "This story put me in mind of Bon Johnson gooing throw a church in Surry , seeing pooro people weeping- over a grave , asked one of tlio women wliy they wept . Oh , saidsheo , wo have lost our protious lwyor , Justice Randall j ho kept us all m po acie , andedwaya was so good as to koop « s _ * . S ° -a % ln law , the best man ever lived . Well , said lion Johiiflon , I will send you an epitaph to write on His Tomb , which woe , — ' God works wonders now ami then ; Horo lyoa a lawyer an honest num .
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. )¦¦¦ in p ™ ' Jii / le Volunteers ; how to Organise and Drill Them . % y Hans Buslc , M . A . —Routlcdgo , Warnos nml Itoutlodgo , A eiaABONAni . M work of manifest convenience .
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have been left ; motherless , and almost friendless in the world , have by the exercise of their own energies surmounted all difficulties and become great ; we freely admit , however , that it is impossible for a child to possess any intellect , a passion , or impulse , that he did not dez-ive from his parents . A child may possess more or less capacity than his parents , but he cannot possess what they were devoid of .
The perpetuation of races seems in some sense to be the perpetuation of ideas and systems ; as a hierarchy , a monarchy , a republic , a despotism will exist unchanged for ages . It appeai-s that the people living under each of those forms of Government never think of changing it : what they have inherited and become accustomed to they jpreserve from generation to generation . Not so , however , are transmitted and upheld the virtues and vices of individuals . It is true the children may inherit the physique , the hair , whether red or black , the expression of the features , the tone of the voice , and
and the gait of the parent , but their tastes tendencies we know may in some cases be alto ? - gether different from those of the parent . The tendency of nations to war , the desire in man to travel , to communicate wiih his fellow , may have been as strong when the ark or the pyramids were building as it is now . The object and aim of men in fighting and travelling were then , no doubt , precisely tlie same as they are now . But how changed have the means of both become ! War now is a science , and we need not wait now-a-days even for the mail train to bring us a letter of
intelligence- —your news can be sent instantaneously ^ m a telegram . So the character of St . Augustine and that of Goethe is as different as the age which gave them birth , and we cannot quite make up our mind fo assent to the doctrine of" hereditary properties , " and believe that the character of either of those great men was entirely formed by the mother . The influences and wants of their age , we apprehend , had something more to do- with them , though each of them had a mother who was an honour to him . But what mother bequeathed
to Homer and to Shakespeare their splendid endowments ? Or take Alexander the Great for an instance } what sort of a woman was the mother of the man "who at the age of thirty-two had conquered the world?—who burnt a town out of mere caprice—wko burnt a friend because he refused to adore him as a deity , and who , when Anaxarchus , the philosopher , told him of other worlds , wept that he could not conquer them . To judge from Alexander ' s acts , one would think that he owed his birth to Mars and Laverna , and not to
A perfect woman , nobly planned , To waro > to comfort , to command . These considerations , however , we do not place as objections against the " Mothers of Great Men , " by the talented author of the " Women of England ; " we merely suggest them against any misconception that may possibly occur on pei'using a work , the moral influence and literary excellence of which weViUingly testify are great and undoubted . " He did that which was right in- the sight o the Lord , according to all that jDavid his father did , " was the old religious way of-writing biography , merely mentioning the name of the mother . J 3 ut times have chamredand the mother now has
The work is in one handsome volume , with two beautiful steel engravings , from original portraits of the mother of Napoleon and Jeanne D'Albret Queen of Navarre . '
. something more than a name in biography . She has a sacred trust and duty to discharge , and an important mission to fulfil . As the world advances it is no wonder that the mind should grow weary of apostrophising stars and magnifying states , and endeavour to do something towards raising into history as shining examples those mothers who have contributed so much to the progress of humanity . The mother of St . Augustine may not have much sympathy with Napoleon , nor the mother of WeBley with forming such a character as Goethe , but the judicious and intelligent mo * ther may road profitably these " Mothers of Great
THE MOTHERS OF GKEAT MEN . By Mrs . Ellis , Author of "The Women of England , " &c . London : Richard Uentley , New Bwllngton-street . 1859 . In this very excellent work Mrs . Ellis has given to the world sketches of eleven great men , varied with briefer notices of others , who owe , it is affirmed , the formation " of their characters , directly to maternal influence . The great men , howeveramong whom are St . Augustine and Napoleon , Alfred the Great and John Wesley , Goethe and Xjord Byron—do not much resemble each other . ^ Neither do the mothers of these great men , to
-whom it is asserted they owe their greatness , possess any striking points of resemblance to each other , except those of maternal love and solicitude for their children . Bat , in this otherwise valuable work , the doctrine of maternal influence is , perhaps , carried to too great apt extreme , the virtues and the vices of the son being traced with too inflexible a pen to the influence of the mother . In the course of the work we have thought , too , that wo liave perceived in the author ' s theory slight traces liere and there of fatalism , or transmigration of souls , and that in every life a new doctrine of responsibility seems to be taught . Of course , the talented author of this work , will
repudiate suoh a charge as this ; nor do we tlunk she is . at all intontionftlly guilty of it , yet wo mUst l > e excused for stating—though it be far from the design of , the work—what the proposition of * ' hereditaiy properties and tendencies " suggested to us . Wo do not dispute the transmission of properties from parent to son , but wo object to its toeing elevated into a faith , how catholic and boau-Jtfful tfoover that faith may appear to bo . That groat men have had groat mothers is a fact placed beyond a doubt , by the admirable sketches Before us . But the exceptions to this rule are so numerous , that we protest against any inclination to raise it into the dignity of an invariable and undisputed doctrine . For wo know that men who
Men , " although she may not desire to see her son initiated either into the precise tenets of the ono , or the militar y tactics of the other : a man may become great in the world and useful to society without much resembling either . It is not necessary , even if it were possible , to form all men after ono modol . Mrs . Ellis has , however , hero and there hinted at the difficulties of a task which sho undertook with diffidence , but which , wo must say , she has i ; ol ) ly finished . Indood , tho merits of the work aro bo great , and its influence so purifying , that wo commend it strongl y to tho consideration and , favoiu * of tho mpthors or England .
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yiS THE : LEA PER . [ Literary
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Leader (1850-1860), June 11, 1859, page 718, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2298/page/10/
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