Current:

Leader (1850-1860), 4th August 1860, Edition 1 of 2, Page 705, Untitled Article

Page 705
Page 9
9 of 16

On this page

  • Departments (3)
    • M. DUMAS' GARIBALDI.? ••
    • SIR A. II. ELTON'S NEW NOVEL.* axiom sinned against than sinning-"
    • CURIOSITIES OF NATURAL IIISTOJRY.
  • Text (8)
  • Transcript

    • Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.

      Additionally, when viewing full transcripts, extracted text may not be in the same order as the original document.

      Untitled Article

      TH E old , * ' move , might be brought to bear upon ' a large majority of . cases in which the actions of weak and misguided men have been laid open to the ^ ravest and severest reprehension . Often our cou rse , of ¦ " conduct is shaped hy circumstances , over which we have originally nopoAver of control ; ' and often , Avith the best intentions in the world , and while earnestly endeavouring- to act uprightly and honourably by nil with 'whom we are thrown in contact , we are turned aside from

      the straight path by some unexpected calamity , with which , we are not constitutionally strong enough to contend , and the advent oi which it Avo \ ild have been impossible to have guarded against , or even remotely to have foreseen . Doubtless , the world is . uncharitable in ' many of the conclusions which it draws from _ ill - trifted appearances , and the denunciations which it utters against some of its more glaring and unfortunate delinquents . We arc apt to judge too much from the surface , and do not dive deep enough into the hidden stream , to enable us to arrive at the root and core of the evil , the disastrous consequences of which we so deplore and condemn . Did we but educate wrselves in the habit of Hcarchm ^ keenly and consistently to the bottom of things , wo should , indeed , be surprised at our * discovering how many of the accusations scouted

      brought against individuals , who are thereby shunned and by society , would turn out to be the grossest and most unfounded of calumnies ; and also , how many extenuating circumstances might be alleged , even in the instances of some of our greatest criminals , sufficient to recommend them to . tlw mercy and forbcaraneo of thenoutfwedi ^ the cause through the result , and much error , confusion , and misconstruction , is the necessary consequence of thro superficial view of human nature . Sir Arthur Halluin Elton ' s novel , . entitled . Herbert C / iamtcey , a wan wore Waned Affaiinti than v » 'Vill& ; an admirable illustration of the theory we have just set forth . " » e heroHerbert Chawmy \* introduced to us us thovictim <* J }™

      Untitled Article

      with the Pope , it is to sustain him against his own . Here there is a inio'hty difference , nevertheless , a doom Jiangs over them both . Islam sees all her Jrontiers falling in ; Rome her centre heaving beneath her . The question is not " will they fall ? " but " when ?" The earthquake is prepared , and only awaits tnir command-.

      Untitled Article

      enough to expose them without the protection of an impervious glass case . The doctor ' s drawing-room , bore witness to his pursuits , and visitors remorselessly handled delicate fossils and minerals with that vexatious monkey propensity , for which school-boys are famous , and their elders seldom free . To set mantraps or ¦ ¦ spring guns , under such circumstances , would certainly be held right in ethics , whatever it might be in law ; but the Dean adopted a milder p lan , and obtained his object , by displaying the conspicuous admonition , Paws off . " ' Ladies and gentlemen are particularly requested , ' * ¦ &c ,.., < fcc , might have failed , but there was an honest energy about iS Paws oft ' . " that merited and achieved success .

      Having cleared off'the . "'¦ Geological Auction , ' Mr . Buckiand conducts his readers through -a " ( iame'keeper ' s Museum ; " and in the relics of the miserable creatures , sacrificed under the name ot vermin , he finds ample materials for amusing dissertation . We regret that he condemns the hedgehog : as an eater of eggs , and consequent destroyer of game , for we had hoped that the reputation of our British porcupine had been maligned , and that he was guiltless of interference with the domestic economy of partridge or pheasant . Mr . Buckland ' s evidence , however , seems conclusive , although the mischief done by the hedgehog is probably exaggerated . He does eat eggsand not satisfied with their contents , devours the shells .

      , Another chapter , " A Hunt on the Sea shore , " affords an amusing introduction to marine zoology , and , on the authority of an anonymous correspondent in the Field , settles the dispute how the pholas bores his hole in the stone , by affirming : that the feat is accomplished by a rasping : motion of the shell . This has always been the most ' probable supposition , and it is satisfactory to learn that the process has actually been seen . The story of the pholas is by no means complimentary to men of science . For hundreds of years millions of these creatures did make their holes-in various rocks along the shore . At least they were- found in them , and the Conclusion was inevitable that the hermit had dug his own cell .

      But how ? The shell was as thin as paper , and very brittle . It * edges were adapted to a rasping process , but naturalists fancied them inadequate to the task performed , so they invented learned and ingenious theories , at winch the pholas must have laughed , it he had heard them talk . One imaginative philosopher decided that the ••' siUcious particles" imbedded in the anterior portion ^ of the animal converted him into a living , and , we may add , a knowing " file . " Unfortunately for this theory no such particles could be found . Other savttirts affirmed , that the rocks were pierced through the corrosive action of an acid . They did not know of any acid capable of making holes in chalk , clay , vvpod , and sand , but

      what did that matter ? The philosophers wanted an acid of abnormal properties—they-could think of nothing else that would screen their ignorance , and rather than tell the truth , that they knew nothing about the matter , tEe acid required was declared to exist . Hadrthis heen the case the peculiar acid must htLve been found , biit its absence did not damage the hypothesis in the eyes of its inventors , and , to this day , natural history books repeat the idle tale . There is not much inductive philosophy in this , but it offers an illustration of the constant tendency of the human mind to invent any fictions , rather than confess that the solution of an enigma is beyond its present reach . In other parts of Mr . Buckland ' s book will be found many stories of visits to whales thrown up on our Coast , and of their gigantic anatomy , coupled with full particulars of some mermaids ingeniously compounded of monfejy * raiid"fish 7—t- — - r \ r- — . —~

      THERE aro few pleasanter writers , of a gossiping kind , than the son of the late Dean of Westminster , whose devotion to " eolo ^ v > yon for him an abiding name , Mr . Francis Buckland vorv " successfully hit the public taste in his first series of the " Curiosities of Cultural History , " and he will scarcely be less fortunate with the second which is full of varied information , most pleasantly conveyed , and adorned with a marvellous frontispiece , in which an ichthyosarcrus is biting through the long neck of a plesiosaurus , two pterodactyls ore fighting a duel in mid air , while amnonites , nautili , and wonderful fishes crowd each corner of the aquatic Or terrestrial space . Mr . Buckland commences with a chapter entitled a " Geological Auction , " in which ho describes the sale of his father ' s private collection , and furnishes many anecdotes of the genial and humorous philosopher whose name he bears ,- one of ' which supplies a recipe for keeping an umbrella , that is unique in its way It appears that the learned Dean suffered like the- rest of the world from wrongful abstractions of an article which popular morality scarcely deems it a theft to steal , and to guard against a ^ epetition ~ of ~ thVottbnce ^ Dr . Buckland" to be conspicuously engraved upon the handle of a somewhat uglv umbrella ; this dovieo succeeded , and tho implement » o oddly protected reached a venerable though dilapidated ago in its owner ' s hands . Equally to tho point was his method of stopping „ an annoying variety of trespass , which every one has experienced who possesses a collection of interesting objects , and is daring Garibaldis an Autobloffmpliy . Edited by Alexandra l > un » as . Translated by William Robsori . Routloduo , Warno , and Koutledgo . t Curiosities of Aadiral HM »> y . eeemul norloi . liy Fruncm T . BnOKUmfl , M . A . London ; Bontley ,

      Untitled Article

      r |"" VFFE life ° f sl hero so romantic as Garibaldi , told by a writer JL ' so romantic as Dumas , will ; naturally read like a romance ,.-and we ' have accordingly to make great deductions in perusing the so-called autobiography by Dumas of GaribaMi . In u preliminary-address . M " . Dumas lets us into some of the secrets of freemasonry , as used by the-great Napoleon for his purposes . The mightiest of the time were ^ members of the mystical brotherhood , it Was their policy ; but in this , Louis XVIII , 011 his return to France , would not share . The Bourbon had neither forgotten nor learned anything . He declared , that " he never would allow a member of his family to form ¦ . part of any secret society whatever . " Italy now neglected freemasonry , but Carbonarisni took its place . " This association seemed to have ' ' taken up the task which masonry had abandoned , that of furthering the cause of political emancipation . " Two other sects . took the same direction , that of " The Catholic , Apostolic , and Roman Congregation , " and that of" The Consistorial Society . " In ihose few words , we have the romance of contemporaneous history . Let us proceed . Carbonarisni . was the only one of the associations that survived the tentative trials . In this . Lumen Bonaparte was raised to the degree of ' Grand Light . " The sect ultimately took the name of the " Latin Society . " It Avas very extensive . One document states that , in the kingdom of the Two Sicilies , it numbered eight hundred thousand souls ; and that neither the efforts of the police ., nor . any other vigilance , could check its unceasing growth . Five years after its establishment in Italy , Carbonarism had obtained , as its results , the recognition of a constitution in Spain , a constitution at Naples , and the proclamation of a constitution in Piedmont . All these suiiered , liowever , from after ¦ ¦

      cv . tri « ir > . ... . We cannot retrace a story so well known . M . Dumas ends it with these words : '" Charles Albert had now become one of the family of sovereigns in the Holy Alliance : and , like the Pope , like the King of ^ p iesVlikeJ ^ ra ^^ stained with the blood of his people . There Aras , at that time , living ; it Nice ; his native placed ; young man who , after seeing all this blood floAV , resolved to take an oath to" consecrate his life to the ¦ Worship- 'of- ' that liberty for which so many martyrs had fallen . This vouns > - man , then twenty-six years of age , was _ Joseph iiaribaldi . " And now the . autobiography opens , and the hero k permitted to _ speak for himself . ; It is not needful for us to go into theHetail of this , having already reviewed the isubstance of the work in , another form . The .. . work- ' takes us doAvn to 1849 . One extract -is- - ' suggestive . It is this : Before the news of the m ' g-ht of Leclru llolliri and the democratic party to England , every day which I prolonged the existence of lt <) me was a day of hope . " After receiving that news , resistance was nothing but useless despair ; and I conceive that the Romans had clone too much in the face of the world to stand in need of havingrecourse to despair . The coalesced poAvers had enclosed the Roman ~ rtepublie ^ tliatasJto ^ ax . jjIlAhedem «) ld Avails of the JSmelian . We liati ; nothing more tTrdtrbotrto-brefflc ^ through the circle and carry , as Scipio did , the Avar into Cai-thage . Now , our Carthage is Naples ; it is there that I hope some day despotism and 1 shall again meet face to face . May that day be near « " ¦¦ ¦ - •¦ ¦ - ' ¦ ¦ . ¦ ¦ ... . . - . ¦; ¦ . ¦ : ' ¦¦¦¦¦ , . ¦ : That day is approaching ; perhaps it is not even to-morrow , perhaps it ' is even to-day . This work is well calculated to enkindle patriotic enthusiasm for liberty and independence .

      Untitled Article

      , , ^ ! ii » ¦¦ ¦ ^¦ i — im—¦* " ¦— . ——^**~~^^^ m ^ mmm ^ mm ^^^ P ^ mm ^^^* t * mmm a ^—^^^^»^^«» . MiU || a « "tJlwbfrt Channel « » ' ' ' ? 'V \ £ F&rtaL $ ™ i'ToT / ' Am' . » S ! X UaUain Elton . Bart . « utl > or or " yUelow the Surface . ' ^ «« . " ' •"" Kt ( l « r , and Co ,

      Untitled Article

      Aug . 4 I 860 . ] TJie Saturday Analyst and Leader . 705

      M. Dumas' Garibaldi.? ••

      M . DUMAS' GAIUBALDI . ? ..

      Sir A. Ii. Elton's New Novel.* Axiom Sinned Against Than Sinning-"

      axiom sinned against than sinning-SIR A . H . ELTON'S NEW NOVEL . *

      Curiosities Of Natural Iiistojry.

      CURIOSITIES OF NATURAL HISTORY .

  • Citation
    • Leader (1850-1860), Aug. 4, 1860, page 705, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2359/page/9/