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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6833f05 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text diff --git a/16228-8.txt b/16228-8.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..cdc994a --- /dev/null +++ b/16228-8.txt @@ -0,0 +1,2500 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Chambers' Edinburgh Journal, by Various + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Chambers' Edinburgh Journal + Volume XVII., No 422, New Series, January 31, 1852 + +Author: Various + +Editor: Robert Chambers and William Chambers + +Release Date: July 7, 2005 [EBook #16228] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK CHAMBERS' EDINBURGH JOURNAL *** + + + + +Produced by Malcolm Farmer, Richard J. Shiffer and the +Online Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net + + + + + + + + + CHAMBERS' EDINBURGH JOURNAL + + + CONDUCTED BY WILLIAM AND ROBERT CHAMBERS, EDITORS OF 'CHAMBERS'S + INFORMATION FOR THE PEOPLE,' 'CHAMBERS'S EDUCATIONAL COURSE,' &c. + + + No. 422. NEW SERIES. SATURDAY, JANUARY 31, 1852. PRICE 1-1/2 _d._ + + + + +THE HAPPY JACKS. + + +'On Saturday, then, at two--humble hours, humble fare; but plenty, and +good of its kind; with a talk over old fellows and old times.' + +Such was the pith of an invitation to dinner, to accept which I +started on a pleasant summer Saturday on the top of a Kentish-town +omnibus. My host was Happy Jack. Everybody called him 'Happy Jack:' he +called himself 'Happy Jack.' He believed he was an intensely 'Happy' +Jack. Yet his friends shook their heads, and the grandest shook theirs +the longest, as they added the ominous addendum of 'Poor Devil' to +'Happy Jack.' + +'Seen that unhappy wretch, Happy Jack, lately?' + +'Seen him! of course, yesterday: he came to borrow a half-sovereign, +as two of his children had the measles. He was in the highest spirits, +for the pawnbroker lent him more on his watch than he had expected, +and so Jack considered the extra shilling or two pure gain. I don't +know how the wretch lives, but he seems happier than ever.' + +On another occasion, the dialogue would be quite different. + +'Who do you think I saw last night in the first tier at the +Opera?--who but Happy Jack, and Mrs Happy Jack, and the two eldest +Happy Jack girls! Jack himself resplendent in diamond studs, and +tremendously laced shirt-front; and as for the women--actually queens +of Sheba. A really respectable carriage, too, at the door; for I +followed them out in amazement: and off they went like so many lords +and ladies. Oh, the sun has been shining somehow on the Happy Jacks!' + +In due time I stood before the Terrace honoured by the residence of +the Happy Jacks--one of those white, stuccoed rows of houses, with +bright green doors and bright brass-plates thereon, which suburban +builders so greatly affect. As I entered the square patch of +front-garden, I perceived straw lying about, as though there had been +recent packing; and looking at the drawing-room window, I missed the +muslin curtain and the canary's brass cage swathed all over in gauze. +The door opened before I knocked, and Happy Jack was the opener. He +was clad in an old shooting-coat and slippers, had a long clay-pipe in +his mouth, and was in a state of intense general _déshabille_. Looking +beyond him, I saw that the house was in _déshabille_ as well as the +master. There were stairs certainly, but where was the stair-carpet? +Happy Jack, however, was clearly as happy as usual. He had a round, +red face; and, I will add, a red nose. But the usual sprightly smile +stirred the red round face, the usual big guffaw came leaping from the +largely opening mouth, the usual gleam of mingled sharpness and +_bonhomie_ shone from the large blue eyes. Happy Jack closed the door, +and, taking my arm, walked me backwards and forwards on the gravel. + +'My boy,' he said, 'we've had a little domestic affair inside; but you +being, like myself, a man of the world, we were not of course going to +give up our dinner for that. The fact is,' said Jack, attempting to +assume a heroic and sentimental tone and attitude, 'that, for the +present at least, my household gods are shattered!' + +'You mean that'---- + +'As I said, my household gods are shattered, even in the shrine!' + +It was obvious that the twang of this fine phrase gave Jack uncommon +pleasure. He repeated it again and again under his breath, flourishing +his pipe, so as, allegorically and metaphorically, to set forth the +extent of his desolation. + +'In other words,' I went on, 'there has been an--an execution'---- + +'And the brokers have not left a stick. But what of that? These, are +accidents which will occur in the best'---- + +'And Mrs'---- + +'Oh! She, you know, is apt to be a little downhearted at times; and +empty rooms somehow act on her idiosyncrasy. A good woman, but weak. +So she's gone for the present to her sisters; and as for the girls, +why, Emily is with her mother, and Jane is at the Joneses. Very decent +people the Joneses. I put Jones up to a thing which would have made +his fortune the week before last; but he wouldn't have it. Jones is +slow, and--well---- And Clara is with the Hopkinses: I believe so, at +least; and Maria is---- Confound me if I know where Maria is; but I +suppose she's somewhere. Her mother managed it all: I didn't +interfere. And so now, as you know the best and the worst, let's come +to dinner.' + +An empty house is a dismal thing--almost as dismal as a dead body. The +echo, as you walk, is dismal; the blank, stripped walls, shewing the +places where the pictures and the mirrors have been, are dismal; the +bits of straw and the odds and ends of cord are dismal; the coldness, +the stillness, the blankness, are dismal. It is no longer a +habitation, but a shell. + +In the dining-room stood a small deal-table, covered with a scanty +cloth, like an enlarged towel; and a baked joint, with the potatoes +under it, smoked before us. The foaming pewter-can stood beside it, +with a couple of plates, and knives and steel forks. Two Windsor +chairs, of evident public-house mould, completed the festive +preparations and the furniture of the room. The whole thing looked +very dreary; and as I gazed, I felt my appetite fade under the sense +of desolation. Not so Happy Jack. 'Come, sit down, sit down. I don't +admire baked meat as a rule, but you know, as somebody says-- + + "When spits and jacks are gone and spent, + Then ovens are most excellent," + And also most con-ven-i-ent. + +The people at the Chequers managed it all. Excellent people they are. +I owe them some money, which I shall have great pleasure in paying as +soon as possible. No man can pay it sooner.' + +The dinner, however, went off with the greatest success. Happy Jack +was happier than ever, and consequently irresistible. Every two or +three minutes he lugged in something about his household gods and the +desolation of his hearth, evidently enjoying the sentiment highly. +Then he talked of his plans of taking a new and more expensive house, +in a fashionable locality, and furnishing it on a far handsomer scale +than the old one. In fact, he seemed rather obliged to the brokers +than otherwise for taking the quondam furniture off his hands. It was +quite behind the present taste--much of it positively ugly. He had +been ashamed to see his wife sitting in that atrocious old easy-chair, +but he hoped that he had taken a step which would change all for the +better. Warming with his dinner and the liquor, Happy Jack got more +and more eloquent and sentimental. He declaimed upon the virtues of +Mrs J., and the beauties of the girls. He proposed all their healths +_seriatim_. He regretted the little incident which had prevented their +appearance at the festive board; but though absent in person, he was +sure that they were present in spirit; and with this impression, he +would beg permission to favour them with a song--a song of the social +affections--a song of hearth and home--a song which had cheered, and +warmed, and softened many a kindly and honest heart: and with this +Happy Jack sang--and exceedingly well too, but with a sort of +dreadfully ludicrous sentiment--the highly appropriate ditty of _My +Ain Fireside_. + +Happy Jack was of no particular profession: he was a bit of a +_littérateur_, a bit of a journalist, a bit of a man of business, a +bit of an agent, a bit of a projector, a bit of a City man, and a bit +of a West-end man. His business, he said, was of a general nature. He +was usually to be heard of in connection with apocryphal companies and +misty speculations. He was always great as an agitator. As soon as a +League was formed, Happy Jack flew to its head-quarters as a vulture +to a battle-field. Was it a league for the promotion of +vegetarianism?--or a league for the lowering of the price of meat?--a +league for reforming the national costume?--or a league for repealing +the laws still existing upon the Statute-book against witches?--Happy +Jack was ever in the thickest of the fray, lecturing, expounding, +arguing, getting up extempore meetings of the frequenters of +public-houses, of which he sent reports to the morning papers, +announcing the 'numerous, highly respectable, and influential' nature +of the assembly, and modestly hinting, that Mr Happy Jack, 'who was +received with enthusiastic applause, moved, in a long and +argumentative address, a series of resolutions pledging the meeting +to,' &c. Jack, in fact, fully believed that he had done rather more +for free-trade than Cobden. Not, he said, that he was jealous of the +Manchester champion; circumstances had made the latter better +known--that he admitted; still he could not but know--and knowing, +feel--in his own heart of hearts, his own merits, and his own +exertions. + +The railway mania was, as may be judged, a grand time for Happy Jack. +The number of lines of which he was a provisional director, the number +of schemes which came out--and often at good premiums too--under his +auspices; the number of railway journals which he founded, and the +number of academies which he established for the instruction of +youthful engineers--are they not written in the annals of the period? +Jack himself started as an engineer without any previous educational +ceremony whatever. His manner of laying out a 'direct line' was happy +and expeditious. He took a map and a ruler, and drew upon the one, by +the help of the other, a straight stroke in red ink--which looked +professional--from terminus to terminus. Afterwards, he stated +distinctly in writing, so that there could be no mistake about the +matter, that there were no engineering difficulties--that the landed +proprietors along the line were quite enthusiastic in their promotion +of the scheme--and that the probable profits, as deduced from +carefully drawn-up traffic-tables, would be about 35 per cent. At this +time, Happy Jack was quite a minor Hudson. He lived in an atmosphere +of shares, scrip, and prospectuses. Money poured in from every +quarter. A scrap of paper with an application for shares was worth the +bright tissue of the Bank--and Jack lost no time in changing the one +for the other. Amid the mass of railway newspapers, he started _The +Railway Sleeper Awakened_, _The Railway Whistle_, _The Railway +Turntable_, and _The Railway Timetable_; and it was in the first +number of the last famous organ--it lived for three weeks--in which +appeared a letter signed 'A Constant Reader.' After the bursting of +the bubble, Happy Jack appeared to have burst too; for his whereabouts +for a long time was unknown, and there were no traditions of his being +seen. Then he began to be heard of from distant and constantly varying +quarters of the town. Now you had a note from Shepherd's Bush, and +next day from Bermondsey. On Tuesday, Jack dated Little King Street, +Clapham Road; on Thursday, the communication reached you from Little +Queen Street, Victoria Villas, Hackney; and next week perhaps you were +favoured with a note from some of the minor little Inns of Court, +where the writer would be found getting up a company on the fourth +floor in a grimy room, furnished with a high deal-desk, two +three-legged stools, and illimitable foolscap, pens, and ink. + +Where Mrs Happy Jack and the young-lady Happy Jacks went to at these +times, the boldest speculator has failed to discover: they vanished, +as it were, into thin air, and were seen no more till the sunshine +came, when they returned with the swallows. The lady herself was a +meek, mild creature, skilful in the art of living on nothing, and +making up dresses without material. She adored her husband, and +believed him the greatest man in the world. On the occurrence of such +little household incidents as an execution, or Jack making a rapid act +of cabmanship from his own hearth to the cheerful residence of Mr Levi +in Cursitor Street, the poor little woman, after having indulged +herself in the small luxury of a 'good cry,' would go to work to pack +up shirts and socks manfully, and with great foresight, would always +bring Jack's daily food in a basket, seeing that Mr Levi's bills are +constructed upon a scale of uncommon dimensions; after which, she +would eat the dinner with him in the coffee-room, drink to better +days, play cribbage, and at last get very nearly as joyous in that +greasy, grimy, sorrow-laden room, with bars on the outside of the +windows, as if it were the happy home she possessed a few weeks ago, +and which she always hoped to possess again. As for the girls, they +were trained by too good a master and mistress not to become apt +scholars. They knew what a bill of sale was from their tenderest +years; the broker's was no unfamiliar face; and they quite understood +how to treat a man in possession. Their management of duns was +consummate. Happy Jack used to listen to the comedy of excuses and +coaxings; and when the importunate had departed, grumblingly and +unpaid, he used solemnly to kiss his daughters on the forehead, and +invoke all sorts of blessings upon his preservers, his good angels, +his little girls, who were so clever, and so faithful, and so true. + +And in many respects they were good girls. The style in which they +turned frocks, put a new appearance upon hoods, and cloaks, and +bonnets, and came forth in what seemed the very lustre of novelty--the +whole got up by a skilful mutual adaptation of garments and parts of +garments--was wonderful to all lady beholders. In cookery, they beat +the famous _chef_ who sent up five courses and a dessert, made out of +a greasy pair of jack-boots and the grass from the ramparts of the +besieged town. Their wonderful little made-dishes were mere scraps and +fragments, which in any other house would have been flung away, but +which were so artistically and scientifically handled by the young +ladies, and so tossed up, and titivated, and eked out with gravies, +and sauces, and strange devices of nondescript pasty, that Happy Jack, +feasting upon these wonderful creations of ingenuity, used to vow that +he never dined so well as when there was nothing in the house for +dinner. To their wandering, predatory life the whole family were +perfectly accustomed. A sudden turn out of quarters they cared no more +for than hardened old dragoons. They never lost pluck. One speculation +down, another came on. Sometimes the little household was united. A +bit of luck in the City or the West had been achieved, and Happy Jack +issued cards for 'At Homes,' and behaved, and looked, and spoke like +an alderman, or the member of a house of fifty years' standing. When +strangers saw his white waistcoat, and blue coat with brass buttons, +and heard him talk of a glut of gold, and money being a mere drug, +they speculated as to whether he was the governor or the vice-governor +of the Bank of England, or only the man who signs the five-pound +notes. That day six weeks, Jack had probably 'come through the court;' +a process which he always used somehow to achieve with flying colours, +behaving in such a plausible and fascinating way to the commissioner, +that that functionary regularly made a speech, in which he +congratulated Happy Jack on his candour, and evident desire to deal +fairly with his creditors, and told him he left that court without the +shadow of a stain upon his character. In the Bench, in dreary suburban +lodgings, or in the comfortable houses which they sometimes occupied, +the Happy Jacks were always the Happy Jacks. Their constitution +triumphed over everything. If anything could ruffle their serenity, it +was the refusal of a tradesman to give credit. But _uno avulso non +deficit alter_, as Jack was accustomed, on such occasions, classically +to say to his wife--presently deviating into the corresponding +vernacular of--'Well, my dear, if one cock fights shy, try another.' + +A list of Jack's speculations would be instructive. He once took a +theatre without a penny to carry it on; and having announced _Hamlet_ +without anybody to play, boldly studied and performed the part +himself, to the unextinguishable delight of the audience. Soon after +this, he formed a company for supplying the metropolis with Punches of +a better class, and enacting a more moral drama than the old +legitimate one--making Punch, in fact, a virtuous and domestic +character; and he drew the attention of government to the moral +benefits likely to be derived to society from this dramatic reform. +Soon after, he departed for Spain in the gallant Legion; but not +finding the speculation profitable, turned newspaper correspondent, +and was thrice in imminent danger of being shot as a spy. Flung back +somehow to England, he suddenly turned up as a lecturer on chemistry, +and then established a dancing institution and Terpsichorean Athenæum. +Of late, Jack has found a good friend in animal magnetism, and his +_séances_ have been reasonably successful. When performing in the +country districts, Jack varied the entertainments by a lecture on the +properties of guano, which he threw in for nothing, and which was +highly appreciated by the agricultural interest. Jack's books were +principally works of travel. His _Journey to the Fountains of the +Niger_ is generally esteemed highly amusing, if not instructive: it +was knocked off at Highbury; and his _Wanderings in the Mountains of +the Moon_, written in Little Chelsea, has been favourably reviewed by +many well-informed and discriminating organs of literary intelligence, +as the work of a man evidently well acquainted with the regions he +professes to describe. + +Where the Happy Jacks are at this moment no one can tell. They have +become invisible since the last clean out. A deprecatory legend has +indeed been in circulation, which professed that Jack was dead, and +that this was the manner in which, on his deathbed, he provided for +his family:-- + +'Mrs Happy Jack,' said the departing man, 'I'm not afraid of you. You +have got on some way or other for nearly forty years, and I don't see +why you shouldn't get on some way or other for forty more. Therefore, +so far as you are concerned, my mind is easy. But, then, you +girls--you poor little inexperienced poppets, who know nothing of the +world. There's Jane; but then she's pretty--really beautiful. Why, her +face is a fortune: she will of course captivate a rich man; and what +more can a father wish? As for Emily--I fear Emily, my dear, +you're rather plain than otherwise; but what, I would ask, is +beauty?--fleeting, transitory, skin-deep. The happiest marriages are +those of mutual affection--not one-sided admiration: so, on the whole, +I should say that my mind is easier about Emily than Jane. As for +Maria, she's so clever, she can't but get on. As a musician, an +artist, an authoress, what bright careers are open for her! While as +for you, stupid little Clara, who never could be taught anything--I +very much doubt whether the dunces of this world are not the very +happiest people in it--Yes, Clara; leave to others the vain and empty +distinctions of literary renown, which is but a bubble, and be happy +in the homely path of obscure but virtuous duty!' + +Happy Jack ceased. There was a pause. 'And now,' he said, 'having +provided for my family, I will go to sleep, with a clear conscience +and a tranquil mind.' + +I said that I always distrusted this legend. I am happy to say, that +even as I write I have proof positive that it is purely a fiction. I +have just had a card put into my hand requesting my presence at a +private exhibition of the celebrated Bloomer Family, while an +accompanying private note from Jack himself informs me that the +'celebrated and charming Bloomer group--universally allowed to be the +most perfect and interesting representatives of the new _régime_ in +costume'--are no other than the Happy Jacks _redivivi_--Mrs J. and the +girls donning the transatlantic attire, and Happy Jack himself +delivering a lecture upon the vagaries of fashion and the +inconsistencies of dress, in a new garment invented by himself, and +combining the Roman toga with the Highland kilt. + + + + +THE DESERT HOME.[1] + + +Robinson Crusoe is the parent of a line of fictions, all more or less +entertaining; but those of our own day, as might be expected, share +largely in the practical spirit of the time, making amusement in some +degree the mere menstruum of information. Following the Swiss Family +Robinson, we have here an English Family Robinson, which might as well +be called an American Family Robinson; and although ostensibly meant +for the holiday recreation of youth, it proves to be a production +equally well suited for children of six feet and upwards. The author +is personally familiar with the scenes he describes, and is thus able +to give them a verisimilitude which in other circumstances can be +attained only by the rarest genius; and notwithstanding the +associations, of his last book, the _Scalp-hunters_, there is only one +bloody conflict in the present one fought by animals of the genus +Homo. + +The local habitation of the lost family is a nook in the Great +American Desert--a nook in a desert twenty-five times the size of +England! But this wilderness of about a million square miles is not +all sand or all barren earth: it contains numerous other features of +interest besides mountains and oases; it includes the country of New +Mexico, with its towns and cities; the country round the Great Salt +and Utah Lakes, where the germ of a Mormon nation is expanding on all +sides; and it is traversed in its whole breadth by the Rocky +Mountains. An English family, after being ruined in St Louis, and +reduced to their last hundred pounds, are persuaded by a Scottish +miner to accompany him across this desert to New Mexico. 'They are a +wonderful people,' says the story-teller, 'these same Scotch. They are +but a small nation, yet their influence is felt everywhere upon the +globe. Go where you will, you will find them in positions of trust and +importance--always prospering, yet, in the midst of prosperity, still +remembering, with strong feelings of attachment, the land of their +birth. They manage the marts of London, the commerce of India, the +fur-trade of America, and the mines of Mexico. Over all the American +wilderness you will meet them, side by side with the backwoods-pioneer +himself, and even pushing him from his own ground. From the Gulf of +Mexico to the Arctic Sea, they have impressed with their Gaelic names +rock, river, and mountain; and many an Indian tribe owns a Scotchman +for its chief.' + +The adventurers join a caravan, which is attacked by Indians, and the +family of the destined Robinson find themselves alone in the +wilderness, 800 miles from the American frontier on the east, 1000 +miles from any civilised settlement on either the north or south, and +200 miles from the farthest advanced lines of New Mexico in the +desert. They are, in short, lost; but in due time they are found again +by other explorers. These strangers are standing on the edge of a +cliff several hundred feet sheer down. 'Away below--far below where we +were--lay a lovely valley, smiling in all the luxuriance of bright +vegetation. It was of nearly an oval shape, bounded upon all sides by +a frowning precipice, that rose around it like a wall. Its length +could not have been less than ten miles, and its greatest breadth +about half of its length. We were at its upper end, and of course +viewed it lengthwise. Along the face of the precipice there were trees +hanging out horizontally, and some of them even growing with their +tops downward. These trees were cedars and pines; and we could +perceive also the knotted limbs of huge cacti protruding from the +crevices of the rocks. We could see the wild mezcal, or maguey-plant, +growing against the cliff--its scarlet leaves contrasting finely with +the dark foliage of the cedars and cacti. Some of these plants stood +out on the very brow of the overhanging precipice, and their long +curving blades gave a singular character to the landscape. Along the +face of the dark cliffs all was rough, and gloomy, and picturesque. +How different was the scene below! Here everything looked soft, and +smiling, and beautiful. There were broad stretches of woodland, where +the thick foliage of the trees met and clustered together, so that it +looked like the surface of the earth itself; but we knew it was only +the green leaves, for here and there were spots of brighter green, +that we saw were glades covered with grassy turf. The leaves of the +trees were of different colours, for it was now late in the autumn. +Some were yellow, and some of a deep claret colour: some were +bright-red, and some of a beautiful maroon; and there were green, and +brighter green, and others of a silvery-whitish hue. All these colours +were mingled together, and blended into each other, like the flowers +upon a rich carpet. Near the centre of the valley was a large shining +object, which we knew to be water. It was evidently a lake of crystal +purity, and smooth as a mirror. The sun was now up to meridian height, +and his yellow beams falling upon its surface caused it to gleam like +a sheet of gold. We could not trace the outlines of the water, for the +trees partially hid it from our view, but we saw that the smoke that +had at first attracted us rose up somewhere from the western shore of +the lake.' In this strange oasis they found what appeared to be a snug +farm-house, with stables and outhouses, garden and fields, horses and +cattle. Here they were hospitably entertained by the proprietor, his +wife, and two sons, and served by a faithful negro; and of course it +is the history of the settlers, and their struggles, expedients, and +contrivances which form the staple of the work. + +In this history we have the process of building a log-house, and the +usual modes of assembling round the squatter such of the comforts of +life as may be obtained in the desert; but our family Robinson appears +to have been the most ingenious as well as the most fortunate of +adventurers, for there are very few, even of the luxuries of civilised +society, which are beyond his reach. The natural history of the book, +however, is its main feature; and the adventures of the lost family +with the unreasoning denizens of the desert remind us not unfrequently +of the pictures of Audubon. This is among the earliest:--'There were +high cliffs fronting us, and along the face of these five large +reddish objects were moving, so fast that I at first thought they were +birds upon the wing. After watching them a moment, however, I saw that +they were quadrupeds; but so nimbly did they go, leaping from ledge to +ledge, that it was impossible to see their limbs. They appeared to be +animals of the deer species, somewhat larger than sheep or goats; but +we could see that, in place of antlers, each of them had a pair of +huge curving horns. As they leaped downward, from one platform of the +cliffs to another, we fancied that they whirled about in the air, as +though they were "turning somersaults," and seemed at times to come +down heads foremost! There was a spur of the cliff that sloped down to +within less than a hundred yards of the place where we sat. It ended +in an abrupt precipice, of some sixty or seventy feet in height above +the plain. The animals, on reaching the level of this spur, ran along +it until they had arrived at its end. Seeing the precipice, they +suddenly stopped, as if to reconnoitre it; and we had now a full view +of them, as they stood outlined against the sky, with their graceful +limbs and great curved horns, almost as large as their bodies. We +thought, of course, they could get no farther for the precipice, and I +was calculating whether my rifle, which I had laid hold of, would +reach them at that distance. All at once, to our astonishment, the +foremost sprang out from the cliff, and whirling through the air, lit +upon his head on the hard plain below! We could see that he came down +upon his horns, and rebounding up again to the height of several feet, +he turned a second somersault, and then dropped upon his legs, and +stood still! Nothing daunted, the rest followed, one after the other, +in quick succession, like so many street-tumblers; and, like them, +after the feat had been performed, the animals stood for a moment, as +if waiting for applause!' These were the _argali_, or wild sheep, +popularly termed bighorns, and resembling an immense yellow goat or +deer furnished with a pair of ram's horns. + +Such are the anecdotes which the reader will find thickly scattered +throughout this volume; but perhaps the most interesting are a series +of conflicts witnessed by the father and one of the sons, and in the +course of which they are themselves exposed to some danger. They had +gone out to gather from the live oaks a kind of moss, which they +found to be quite equal to curled hair for stuffing mattresses; and +while perched upon one of the trees, the drama opened by the violent +scolding of a pair of orioles, or Baltimore birds--so called from +their colour, a mixture of black and orange, being the same as that in +the coat-of-arms of Lord Baltimore. The cause of the disturbance +appeared to be a nondescript animal close to the edge of the thicket, +with a variety of little legs, tails, heads, ears, and eyes stuck over +its body. 'All at once the numerous heads seemed to separate from the +main body, becoming little bodies of themselves, with long tails upon +them, and looking just like a squad of white rats! The large body to +which they had all been attached we now saw was an old female opossum, +and evidently the mother of the whole troop. She was about the size of +a cat, and covered with woolly hair of a light gray colour.... The +little 'possums were exact pictures of their mother--all having the +same sharp snouts and long naked tails. We counted no less than +thirteen of them, playing and tumbling about among the leaves.' The +old 'possum looked wistfully up at the nest of the orioles, hanging +like a distended stocking from the topmost twigs of the tree. After a +little consideration she uttered a sharp note, which brought the +little ones about her in a twinkling. 'Several of them ran into the +pouch which she had caused to open for them; two of them took a turn +of their little tails around the root of hers, and climbed up on her +rump, almost burying themselves in her long wool; while two or three +others fastened themselves about her neck and shoulders. It was a most +singular sight to see the little creatures holding on with "tails, +teeth, and toe-nails," while some peeped comically out of the great +breast-pocket.' Burdened in this way, she climbed the tree, and then +taking hold of the young 'possums, one by one, with her mouth, she +made them twist their tails round a branch, and hang with their heads +downwards. 'Five or six of the "kittens" were still upon the ground. +For these she returned, and taking them up as before, again climbed +the tree. She disposed of the second load precisely as she had done +the others, until the thirteen little possums hung head downwards +along the branch like a string of candles!' + +The mother now climbed higher up; but the nest, with its tempting +eggs, hung beyond her reach; and although she suspended herself by the +tail--at last almost by its very tip--and swung like a pendulum, +clutching as she swung, it was all in vain. At length, with a bitter +snarl, she gave up the adventure as hopeless, detached the young ones +from their hold, flung them testily to the ground, and descending, +took them all into her pouch and upon her back, and trudged away. +'Frank and I now deemed it proper to interfere, and cut off the +retreat of the old 'possum: so, dropping from our perch, we soon +overtook and captured the whole family. The old one, on first seeing +us approach, rolled herself into a round clump, so that neither her +head nor legs could be seen, and in this attitude feigned to be quite +dead. Several of the youngsters who were _outside_, immediately +detached themselves, and imitated the example of their mother--so that +the family now presented the appearance of a large ball of whitish +wool, with several smaller "clews" lying around it!' The family +Crusoes, however, were not to be cheated: they took the whole +prisoners, intending to carry them home; and making the mother fast to +one of the saplings, returned to their tree. + +Soon the persecuted orioles began to scream and scold as before. Their +enemy this time was a huge moccason, one of the most venomous of +serpents. 'It was one of the largest of its species; and its great +flat head, protruding sockets, and sparkling eyes, added to the +hideousness of its appearance. Every now and then, as it advanced, it +threw out its forked tongue, which, moist with poisonous saliva, +flashed under the sunbeam like jets of fire. It was crawling directly +for the tree on which hung the nest.' The birds seemed to think he +meant to climb to their nest, and descended in rage and terror to the +lower branches. 'The snake, seeing them approach almost within range +of his hideous maw, gathered himself into a coil, and prepared to +strike. His eyes scintillated like sparks of fire, and seemed to +fascinate the birds; for instead of retiring, they each moment drew +nearer and nearer, now alighting on the ground, then flapping back to +the branches, and anon darting to the ground again--as though they +were under some spell from those fiery eyes, and were unable to take +themselves away. Their motions appeared to grow less energetic, their +chirping became almost inaudible, and their wings seemed hardly to +expand as they flew, or rather fluttered, around the head of the +serpent. One of them at length dropped down upon the ground within +reach of the snake, and stood with open bill, as if exhausted, and +unable to move farther. We were expecting to see the snake suddenly +launch forth upon his feathered victim; when all at once his coils +flew out, his body was thrown at full length, and he commenced +retreating from the tree!' The object that caused this diversion was +soon visible. 'It was an animal about the size of a wolf, and of a +dark-gray or blackish colour. Its body was compact, round-shaped, and +covered, not with hair, but with shaggy bristles, that along the ridge +of its back were nearly six inches in length, and gave it the +appearance of having a mane. It had very short ears, no tail whatever, +or only a knob; and we could see that its feet were hoofed, not clawed +as in beasts of prey. But whether beast of prey or not, its long +mouth, with two white tusks protruding over the jaws, gave it a very +formidable appearance. Its head and nose resembled those of the hog +more than any other animal; and in fact it was nothing else than the +peccary--the wild hog of Mexico.' + +The moccason did not wait to parley with his enemy, but skulked away +through the long grass, every now and then raising his head to glare +behind him. But the peccary tracked him by the smell, and on coming up +to him, uttered a shrill grunt. 'The snake, finding that he was +overtaken, threw himself into a coil, and prepared to give battle; +while his antagonist, now looking more like a great porcupine than a +pig, drew back, as if to take the advantage of a run; and then halted. +Both for a moment eyed each other--the peccary evidently calculating +its distance--while the great snake seemed cowed and quivering with +affright. Its appearance was entirely different from the bright +semblance it had exhibited but a moment before when engaged with the +birds. Its eyes were less fiery, and its whole body seemed more ashy +and wrinkled. We had not many moments to observe it, for the peccary +was now seen to rush forward, spring high into the air, and pounce +down with all her feet held together upon the coils of the serpent! +She immediately bounded back again; and, quick as thought, once more +rose above her victim. The snake was now uncoiled, and writhing over +the ground. Another rush from the peccary, another spring, and the +sharp hoofs of the animal came down upon the neck of the serpent, +crushing it upon the hard turf. The body of the reptile, distended to +its full length, quivered for a moment, and then lay motionless along +the grass. The victor uttered another sharp cry, that seemed intended +as a call to her young ones, who, emerging from the weeds where they +had concealed themselves, ran nimbly forward to the spot.' + +While the father and son are watching the peccary peeling the serpent +as adroitly as a fishmonger would skin an eel, another actor enters +upon the scene. This was the dreaded cougar, an animal of the size of +a calf, and with the head and general appearance of a cat. Creeping +stealthily round his victim, who is busy feasting on the quarry, he +at length attains the proper vantage-ground, and gathering himself up +like a cat, springs with a terrific scream upon the back of the +peccary, burying his claws in her neck, and clasping her all over in +his fatal embrace. 'The frightened animal uttered a shrill cry, and +struggled to free itself. Both rolled over the ground--the peccary all +the while gnashing its jaws, and continuing to send forth its strange +sharp cries, until the woods echoed again. Even the young ones ran +around, mixing in the combat--now flung sprawling upon the earth, now +springing up again, snapping their little jaws, and imitating the cry +of their mother. The cougar alone fought in silence. Since the first +wild scream not a sound had escaped him; but from that moment his +claws never relaxed their hold, and we could see that with his teeth +he was silently tearing the throat of his victim.' + +The Robinsons of the desert were now in an awkward predicament; for +although they had been safe from the peccary, the cougar could climb a +tree like a squirrel. A noise, however, disturbs him from his meal, +and swinging the dead animal on his back, he begins to skulk away. But +he is interrupted before he can reach cover; and as the new-comers +prove to be twenty or thirty peccaries, summoned to the field by the +dying screams of their comrade, he has more to do than to think of his +dinner. To fling down his burden, to leap upon the foremost of his +enemies, is but the work of an instant; but the avengers crowd round +him with their gnashing jaws and piercing cries, and the brute darts +up the tree like a flash of red fire, and crouches not twenty feet +above the heads of the horrified spectators! The father, however, +after some agonising moments of deliberation, brings him down with his +rifle; and the cougar, falling among the eager crowd below, is torn to +pieces in a moment. But this does not get rid of the peccaries, who +set up their fiendish screams anew as they discover two other victims +in the tree. The father fires again and again, dropping his peccary +each time, till five lie dead upon the ground; but the rage of the +rest only becomes more and more furious--and the marksman is at his +last bullet. Here we shall leave him; and such of our readers as may +be interested in his fate--who form, we suspect, a very handsome +percentage on the whole--may make inquiries for themselves at his +Desert Home. + + * * * * * + +FOOTNOTES: + +[1] Or the Adventures of a Lost Family in the Wilderness. By Captain +Mayne Reid. London: Bogue. 1852. + + + + +THE VATTEVILLE RUBY. + + +The clock of the church of Besançon had struck nine, when a woman +about fifty years of age, wrapped in a cotton shawl and carrying a +small basket on her arm, knocked at the door of a house in the Rue St +Vincent, which, however, at the period we refer to, bore the name of +Rue de la Liberté. The door opened. 'It is you, Dame Margaret,' said +the porter, with a very cross look. 'It is high time for you. All my +lodgers have come home long since; you are always the last, and'---- + +'That is not my fault, I assure you, my dear M. Thiebaut,' said, the +old woman in a deprecatory tone. 'My day's work is only just finished, +and when work is to be done'---- + +'That's all very fine,' he muttered. 'It might do well enough if I +could even reckon on a Christmas-box at the end of the year; but as it +is, I may count myself well off, if I do but get paid for taking up +their letters.' + +The old woman did not hear the last words, for with quick and firm +step she had been making her way up the six flights of stairs, steep +enough to make her head reel had she been ascending them for the first +time. 'Nine o'clock!--nine o'clock! How uneasy she must be!' and as +she spoke, she opened with her latch-key the door of a wretched +garret, in which dimly burned a rushlight, whose flickering flame +scarcely seemed to render visible the scanty furniture the room +contained. + +'Is that you, my good Margaret?' said a feeble and broken voice from +the farther end of the little apartment. + +'Yes, my dear lady; yes, it is I; and very sorry I am to have made you +uneasy. But Madame Lebriton, my worthy employer, is so active herself, +that she always finds the workwoman's day too short--though it is good +twelve hours--and just as I was going to fold up my work, she brought +me a job in a great hurry. I could not refuse her; but this time, I +must own, I got well paid for being obliging, for after I had done, +she said in her most good-natured way: "Here, you shall take home with +you some of this nice pie, and this bottle of good wine, and have a +comfortable supper with your sister." So she always calls you, +madame,' added Margaret, while complacently glancing at the basket, +the contents of which she now laid out upon the table. 'As I believe +it is safest for you, I do not undeceive her, though it is easily +known she cannot have looked very close at us, or she might have seen +that I could only be the servant of so noble-looking a lady'---- + +The feeble voice interrupted her: 'My servant!--you my servant! when, +instead of rewarding your services, I allow you to toil for my +support, and to lavish upon me the most tender, the most devoted +affection! My poor Margaret! you who have undertaken for me at your +age, and with your infirmities, daily and arduous toil, are you not +indeed a sister of whom I may well be proud? Your nobility has a +higher origin than mine. Reduced by political changes, which have left +me homeless and penniless, I owe everything to you; and so tenderly do +you minister to me, that even in this garret I could still almost +fancy myself the noble Abbess of Vatteville!' + +As she spoke, the aged lady raised herself in her old arm-chair, and +throwing back a black veil, disclosed features still beautiful, and a +forehead still free from every wrinkle, and eyes now sparkling with +something of their former brilliancy. She extended her hand to +Margaret, who affectionately kissed it; and then, apprehensive that +further excitement could not but be injurious to her mistress, the +faithful creature endeavoured to divert her thoughts into another +channel, by inviting her to partake of the little feast provided by +the kindness of her employer. Margaret being in the habit of taking +her meals in the house where she worked, the noble Lady Marie Anne +Adelaide de Vatteville was thus usually left alone and unattended, to +eat the scanty fare prescribed by the extreme narrowness of her +resources; so that she now felt quite cheered by the novel comfort, +not merely of the better-spread table, but of the company of her +faithful servant; and it was in an almost mirthful tone she said, when +the repast was ended: 'Margaret, I have a secret to confide to you. I +will not--I ought not to keep it any longer to myself.' + +'A secret, my dear mistress! a secret from me!' exclaimed the faithful +creature in a slightly reproachful tone. + +'Yes, dear Margaret, a secret from you; but to be so no longer. No +more henceforth of the toils you have undergone for me; they must be +given up: I cannot do without you. At my age, to be left alone is +intolerable. When you are not near me, I get so lonely, and sometimes +feel quite afraid, I cannot tell of what, but I suppose it is natural +to the old to fear; and often--will you believe it?--I catch myself +weeping like a very child. Ah! when age comes on us, we lose all +strength, all fortitude. But you will not leave me any more? Promise +me, dear Margaret.' + +'But in that case what is to become of us?' said Margaret. + +'This is the very thing I have to tell. And now listen to me. Take +this key, and in the right-hand drawer of the press you will find the +green casket, where, among my letters and family papers, you will see +a small case, which bring to me.' + +Margaret, not a little surprised, did as she was desired. The abbess +gazed on the case for some moments in silence, and Margaret thought +she saw a tear glisten in her eye as she pressed the box to her lips, +and kissed it tenderly and reverentially. + +'I have sworn,' she said, 'never to part with it; yet what can I do? +It must be so: it is the will of God.' And with a trembling hand, as +if about to commit sacrilege, she opened the case, and drew from it a +ruby of great brilliancy and beauty. 'You see this jewel?' she said. +'Margaret, it is the glory of my ancient house; it is the last gem in +my coronet, and more precious in my eyes than anything in the world. +My grand-uncle, the noblest of men, the Archbishop of Besançon, +brought it from the East; and when, in guerdon for some-family +service, Louis XIV. founded the Abbey of Vatteville, and made my +grand-aunt the first abbess of the order, he himself adorned her cross +with it. You now know the value of the jewel to me; and though I +cannot tell its marketable value, still, notwithstanding the pressure +of the times, I cannot but think it must bring sufficient to secure +us, for some time at least, from want. "Were I to consider myself +alone, I would starve sooner than touch the sacred deposit; but to +allow you, Margaret, to suffer, and to suffer for me--to take +advantage any longer of your disinterested affection and devoted +fidelity--would be base selfishness. God has at last taught me that I +was but sacrificing you to my pride, and I must hasten to make +atonement. I will endeavour to raise money on this jewel. You know old +M. Simon? Notwithstanding his mean appearance and humble mode of +living, I am persuaded he is a rich man; and though parsimonious in +the extreme, he is good-natured and obliging whenever he can be so +without any risk of loss to himself.' + +The next day, in pursuance of her project, the abbess, accompanied by +Margaret, repaired to the house of M. Simon. 'I know, sir,' she said, +'from your kindness to some friends of mine, that you feel an interest +in the class to which I belong, and that you are incapable of +betraying a confidence reposed in you. I am the Abbess of Vatteville. +Driven forth from the plundered and ruined abbey, I am living in the +town under an assumed name. I have been stripped of everything; and +but for the self-sacrificing attachment of a faithful servant, I must +have died of want. However, I have still one resource, and only one. I +know not if I am right in availing myself of it, but at my age the +power to struggle fails. Besides, do not suffer alone; and this +consideration decides me. Will you, then, have the goodness to give me +a loan on this jewel?' + +'I believe, madame, you have mistaken me for a pawnbroker. I am not in +the habit of advancing money in this way. I am myself very poor, and +money is now everywhere scarce. I should be very glad to be able to +oblige you, but just at present it is quite out of the question.' + +For a moment the poor abbess felt all hope extinct; but with a last +effort to move his compassion, she said: 'Oh, sir, remember that +secrecy is of such importance to me, I dare not apply to any one else. +The privacy, the obscurity in which I live, alone has prevented me +from paying with my blood the penalty attached to a noble name and +lineage.' + +'But how am I to ascertain the value of the jewel? I am no jeweller; +and I fear, in my ignorance, to wrong either you or myself.' + +'I implore you, sir, not to refuse me. I have no alternative But to +starve; for I am too old to work, and beg I cannot. Keep the jewel as +a pledge, and give me some relief.' + +Old Simon, though covetous, was not devoid of feeling. He was touched +by the tears of the venerable lady; and besides, the more he looked at +the jewel, the more persuaded he became of its being really valuable. +After a few moments' consideration, he said: 'All the money I am worth +at this moment is 1500 francs; and though I have my suspicions that I +am making a foolish bargain, I had rather run any risk than leave you +in such distress. The next time I have business in Paris, I can +ascertain the value of the jewel, and if I have given you too little, +I will make it up to you.' And with, a glad and grateful heart the +abbess took home the 1500 francs, thankful at having obtained the +means of subsistence for at least a year. + +Some months later, old Simon went up to Paris, and hastening to one of +the principal jewellers, shewed the ruby, and begged to know its +value. The jeweller took the stone carelessly; but after a few +moments' examination of it, he cast a rapid glance at the threadbare +coat and mean appearance of the possessor, and then abruptly +exclaimed: 'This jewel does not belong to you, and you must not leave +the house till you account for its being in your possession. Close the +doors,' he said to his foreman, 'and send for the police.' In vain did +Simon protest his innocence; in vain did he offer every proof of it. +The lapidary would listen to nothing; but at every look he gave the +gem, he darted at him a fresh glance of angry contempt. 'You must be a +fool as well as a knave,' he said. 'Do you know, scoundrel, that this +is the Vatteville--the prince of rubies; the most splendid, the rarest +of gems. It might be deemed a mere creation of imagination, were it +not enrolled and accurately described in the archives of our art. See +here, in the _Guide des Lapidaires_, a print of it. Mark its antique +fashioning, and that dark spot!--yes, it is indeed the precious ruby +so long thought lost. Rest assured, fellow, you shall not quit the +house until you satisfy me how you have contrived to get possession of +it.' + +'I should at once have told you, but from unwillingness to endanger +the life of a poor woman who has confided in me. I got the jewel from +the Abbess de Vatteville herself, and it is her last and only +resource.' And now M. Simon proved, by unquestionable documents, that +notwithstanding his more than humble appearance, he was a man of +wealth and respectability, and received the apologies which were +tendered, together with assurances that Madame Vatteville's secret was +safe with one who, he begged to say,'knew how to respect misfortune, +whenever and however presented to his notice.' + +'But what is the jewel worth?' asked M. Simon. + +'Millions, sir! and neither I nor any one else in the trade here could +purchase it, unless as a joint concern, and in case of a coronation or +a marriage in one of the royal houses of Europe, for such an occasion +alone could make it not a risk to buy it. But meanwhile I will, if you +wish, mention it to some of the trade.' + +'I am in no hurry,' said Simon, almost bewildered by the possession of +such a treasure. 'I may as well wait for some such occasion, and in +the meantime can make any necessary advances to the abbess. Perhaps I +may call on you again.' + +The first day of the year 1795 had just dawned, and there was a thick +and chilling fog. The abbess and her faithful servant felt this day +more than usually depressed, for fifteen months had now elapsed since +the 1500 francs had been received for the ruby, and there now remained +provision only for a few days longer. 'I have got no answer from M. +Simon,' said the abbess; and in giving utterance to her own thought, +she was replying to what was at that moment passing through Margaret's +mind. 'I fear he has not been able to get more for the ruby than he +thinks fair interest for the money he advanced to me.' + +'It is most likely,' said Margaret; and both relapsed into their +former desponding silence. + +'What a dreary New-Year's Day!' resumed Madame de Vatteville, in a +melancholy tone. + +'Oh, why can I not help you, dear mistress?' exclaimed Margaret, +suddenly starting from her reverie. 'Cheerfully would I lay down my +life for you!' + +'And why can I not return in any way your devoted attachment, my poor +Margaret?' + +At this instant, two loud and hurried knocks at the door startled them +both from their seats, and it was with a trembling hand Margaret +opened it to admit the old porter, and a servant with a letter in his +hand. + +'Thank you, thank you, M. Thiebaut: this letter is for my mistress.' +But the inquisitive old man either did not or would not understand +Margaret's hint to him to retire, and Madame de Vatteville was obliged +to tell him to leave the room. + +'Not a penny to bless herself with, though she has come to a better +apartment!' muttered he, enraged at the disappointment to his +curiosity--'and yet as proud as an aristocrat!' + +The abbess approached the casement, broke the seal with trembling +hand, and read as follows:-- + + 'I have at length been able to treat with a merchant for the + article in question, and have, after much difficulty, + obtained a sum of 25,000 francs--far beyond anything I could + have hoped. But the sum is to be paid in instalments, at + long intervals. It may therefore be more convenient for you, + under your peculiar circumstances, to accept the offer I now + make of a pension of 1500 francs, to revert after your + decease to the servant whom you mentioned as so devotedly + attached to you. If you are willing to accept this offer, + the bearer will hand you the necessary documents, by which + you are to make over to me all further claim upon the + property placed in my hands; and on your affixing your + signature, he will pay you the first year in advance. + + SIMON.' + +'What a worthy, excellent man!' joyfully exclaimed the abbess; for, in +the noble integrity of her heart, she had no suspicion that he could +take advantage of her circumstances. + +However Simon settled the matter with his conscience, the abbess, +trained in the school of adversity to be content with being preserved +from absolute want, passed the remainder of her life quietly and +happily with her good Margaret, both every day invoking blessings on +the head of him whom they regarded as a generous benefactor. Madame de +Vatteville lived to the age of one hundred, and her faithful Margaret +survived only a few months the mistress to whom she had given such +affecting proofs of attachment. + +But Simon's detestable fraud proved of no use to him. After keeping +his treasure for several years, he thought the Emperor's coronation +presented a favourable opportunity for disposing of it. Unfortunately +for him, his grasping avarice one morning suggested a thought which +his ignorance prevented his rejecting: 'Since this ruby--old-fashioned +and stained as it is--can be worth so much, what would be its value if +freed from all defect, and in modern setting?' And he soon found a +lapidary, who, for a sum of 3000 francs, modernised it, and effaced +the spot, and with it the impress, the stamp of its antiquity--all +that gave it value, beauty, worth! This wanting, no jeweller could +recognise it: it was no longer worth a thousand crowns. + +It was thus that the most splendid ruby in Europe lost its value and +its fame; and its name is now only to be found in _The Lapidaries' +Guide_, as that which had once been the most costly of gems. It seemed +as if it could not survive the last of the illustrious house to which +it owed its introduction into Europe, and its name. + + + + +HENRY TAYLOR. + + + 'There is delight in singing, though none hear + Beside the singer: and there is delight + In praising, though the praiser sit alone, + And see the praised far off him, far above.' + --W.S. LANDOR. + +It has been said, with more of truth than flattery, that literature of +any kind which requires the reader himself to think, in order to +enjoy, can never be popular. The writings of Mr Henry Taylor are to be +classed in this category. The reader of his dramas must study in order +to relish them; and their audience, therefore, must be of the fit, +though few kind. Goethe somewhere remarks, that it is not what we take +from a book so much as what we bring to it that actually profits us. +But this is hard doctrine, caviare to the multitude. And so long as +popular indolence and popular distaste for habits of reflection shall +continue the order of the day, so long will it be difficult for +writers of Mr Taylor's type to popularise their meditations; to see +themselves quoted in every provincial newspaper and twelfth-rate +magazine; to be gloriously pirated by eager hordes at Brussels and New +York; or to create a furor in 'the Row' on the day of publication, and +turn bibliopolic premises into 'overflowing houses.' The public asks +for glaring effects, palpable hits, double-dyed colours, treble X +inspirations, concentrated essence of sentiments, and emotions up to +French-romance pitch. With such a public, what has our author in +common? While _they_ make literary demands after their own heart, and +expect every candidate for their _not_ evergreen laurels to conform to +their rules, Mr Taylor calmly unfolds his theory, that it is from +'deep self-possession, an intense repose' that all genuine emanations +of poetic genius proceed, and expresses his doubt whether any high +endeavour of poetic art ever has been or ever will be promoted by the +stimulation of popular applause.[2] He denies that youth is the poet's +prime. He contends that what constitutes a great poet is a rare and +peculiar balance of all the faculties--the balance of reason with +imagination, passion with self-possession, abundance with reserve, and +inventive conception with executive ability. He insists that no man is +worthy of the name of a poet who would not rather be read a hundred +times by one reader than once by a hundred. He affirms that poetry, +unless written simply to please and pamper, and not to elevate or +instruct, will do little indeed towards procuring its writer a +subsistence, and that it will probably not even yield him such a +return as would suffice to support a labouring man for one month out +of the twelve.[3] Tenets like these are not for the million. The +propounder they regard as talking at them, not to them. His principles +and practice, his canons of taste, and his literary achievements, are +far above out of their sight--his merit they are content to take on +trust, by the hearing of the ear, a mystery of faith alone. + +Perhaps men shrewder than good Sir Roger de Coverley might aver that +much is to be said on both sides--that there may be something of +fallacy on the part of poet as well as people in this controversy. It +is possible to set the standard too high as well as too low--to plant +it on an elevation so distant that its symbol can no longer be +deciphered, as well as to fix it so low that its folds draggle in mire +and dust. If genius systematically appeal only to the initiated few, +it must learn to do without the homage of the outer multitude. For +its slender income of fame, it has mainly itself to thank. These +remarks apply with primary force to that class of contemporary poets +who delight in the mystic and enigmatical, and whose ideas are so apt +to vanish, like Homer's heroes, in a cloud--among whom Robert Browning +and Philip J. Bailey are conspicuous names; and in a secondary degree +to that other class, lucid indeed in thought, and classically definite +in expression, but otherwise too scholastic and abstract for popular +sympathies--among whom we may cite Walter Savage Landor and Henry +Taylor. Coleridge[4] tells us that, to enjoy poetry, we must combine a +more than ordinary sympathy with the objects, emotions, or incidents +contemplated by the poet, consequent on rare sensibility, with a more +than ordinary activity of the mind in respect of the fancy and +imagination. This more than ordinary mental activity is especially +demanded from the readers--say rather the students--of _Philip van +Artevelde_ and its kindred dramas. Those who are thus equipped will +commonly be found to agree in admiring the writings of this author; +among them he is unquestionably 'popular,' if it be any test of +popularity to send forth a second edition three months after the +first. Scholarship can appreciate, pure intellect can find nutriment +in, his reflective and carefully-wrought pages. His heroes and +heroines, cold and unimpassioned to the man of society, are classic +and genial to the man of thought. A Quarterly Reviewer observes, that +the blended dignity of thought, and a sedate moral habit, invests his +poetry with a stateliness in which the drama is generally deficient, +and makes his writings illustrate, in some degree, a new form of the +art. In all that he writes he stands revealed the true English +gentleman, 'that grand old name,' as Tennyson calls it, + + Defamed by every charlatan, + And soiled with all ignoble use.' + +_Isaac Comnenus_--in which a recent critic discovers much of that +Byronian vein upon which Mr Taylor is severe in his own +criticisms--being little remarkable in itself, as well as the least +remarkable of his dramatic performances, need not detain us. The +career of _Philip van Artevelde_ belongs to an era when, as Sir James +Stephen remarks, the whole of Europe, under the influence of some +strange sympathy, was agitated by the simultaneous discontents of all +her great civic populations--when the insurgent spirit, commencing in +the Italian republics, had spread from the south to the north of the +Alps, everywhere marking its advance by tumult, spoil, and bloodshed. +'Wat Tyler and his bands had menaced London; and the communes of +Flanders, under the command of Philip van Artevelde, had broken out +into open war with the counts, their seigneurs, and with their +suzerain lord, the Duke of Burgundy. On the issue of that attempt the +fate of the royal and baronial power seemed to hang in France, not +less than in Flanders.'[5] The drama composed by Mr Taylor to +represent the fortunes of the 'Chief Captain of the White Hoods and of +Ghent,' consists of two plays and an interlude--_The Lay of +Elena_--and being, as he says in his preface, equal in length to about +six such plays as are adapted to the stage, was not, of course, +intended to solicit the most sweet voices of pit and gallery, +although it has since been subjected to that ordeal at the instance of +Mr Macready. Historic truth is said to be preserved in it, as far as +the material events are concerned--with the usual exception of such +occasional dilatations and compressions of time as are required in +dramatic composition. And notwithstanding the limited imagination and +the too artificial passion which characterise it, _Philip van +Artevelde_ is in very many respects a noble work, as it certainly is +its author's chef-d'oeuvre. It has been pronounced by no mean +authority the superior of every dramatic composition of modern times, +including the _Sardanapalus_ of Lord Byron, the _Remorse_ of +Coleridge, and the _Cenci_ of Shelley. The portraiture of Philip is +one of those elaborate and highly-finished studies which repay as well +as require minute investigation. He is at once profoundly meditative +and surpassingly active. His energy of brain is only rivalled by his +readiness of hand. In him the active mood and the passive--the +practical and the ideal--the objective and the subjective--are not as +parallel lines that never meet, but are sections of one line, +describing the circle of his all-embracing mind. His youth has been, +that of a dreamy recluse, the scorn of men of the world. 'Oh, fear him +not, my lord,' says one of them to the Earl of Flanders: + + --'His father's name + Is all that from his father[6] he derives. + He is a man of singular address + In catching river fish. His life hath been + Till now, more like a peasant's or a monk's, + Than like the issue of so great a man.' + +Similarly the earl himself describes him as 'a man that as much +knowledge has of war as I of brewing mead--a bookish nursling of the +monks--a meacock.' But when the last scene of all has closed his +strange eventful history, the testimony of a nobler, wiser foe,[7] +ascribes to him great gifts of courage, discretion, wit, an equal +temper, an ample soul, rock-bound and fortified against assaults of +transitory passion, but founded on a surging subterranean fire that +stirs him to lofty enterprise--a man prompt, capable, and calm, +wanting nothing in soldiership except good-fortune. Ever tempted to +reverie, he yet refuses, even for one little hour, to yield up the +weal of Flanders to idle thought or vacant retrospect. Having once put +his hand to the plough of action, with clear foresight, not blindfold +bravery, his language is--'Though I indulge no more the dream of +living, as I hoped I might have lived, a life of temperate and +thoughtful joy, yet I repine not, and from this time forth will cast +no look behind.' The first part of the drama leaves him an exultant +victor, an honourable prosperous, and happy man. The second +part--which alike in interest and treatment is very inferior to the +first--finds him falling, and leaves him 'fallen, fallen, fallen, from +his high estate.' His sun, no longer trailing clouds of glory, sets in +a wintry and misty gloom. And yet in the act of dying he emits flashes +of the ancient brightness, and we feel that so dies a hero. The other +_dramatis personæ_ pale their ineffectual fires before his central +light. + +After a silence of nearly ten years--characteristic of Mr Taylor's +deliberative and disciplined mind--he produced (1842) _Edwin the +Fair_, of whose story the little that was known, he observes, was +romantic enough to have impressed itself on the popular memory--the +tale of _Edwy and Elgiva_ having been current in the nursery long +before it came to be studied as a historical question. In illustrating +this tale he borrows from the bordering reigns 'incidents which were +characteristic of the times,' though some are of opinion, that his +deviation from historical truth has rather impaired than aided the +poetical effect of the drama. With artistic skill, and often with +sustained energy, he develops the career of the 'All-Fair' prince, and +his relation to the monkish struggle of the tenth century; the hostile +intrigues and stormy violence of Dunstan; the loyal tenacity and Saxon +frank-heartedness of Earl Leolf and his allies; the celebrated +coronation-scene, and 'most admired disorder' of the banquet; the +discovery and denunciation of Edwin's secret nuptials; his +imprisonment in the Tower of London; the confusion and dispersion of +his adherents; the ecclesiastical finesse and conjuror-tricks of +Dunstan; the king's rescue and temporary success; the murder of +Elgiva, and Edwin's own death in the essay to avenge her. It is around +Dunstan, the representative of spiritual despotism, that the interest +centres. The character of this 'Saint,' like that of Hildebrand and à +Becket, has been made one of the problems of history. Mr Taylor's +reading of the part is masterly, and we think correct. His Dunstan is +not wholly sane; he believes himself inspired to read the alphabet of +Heaven's stars, and to behold visions beyond the bounds of human +foresight; one of the few to whom, 'and not in mercy, is it given to +read the mixed celestial cypher: not in mercy, save as a penance +merciful in issue.' His mischievous influence over the popular mind is +sealed by the partial and latent degree of his insanity, for 'madness +that doth least declare itself endangers most, and ever most infects +the unsound many.' His great natural powers are tainted by the one +black spot; his youth has been devoted to books, to the study of +chemistry and mechanics; his manhood to observing 'the ways of men and +policies of state' in the court of Edred; 'and were he not pushed +sometimes past the confines of his reason, he would o'ertop the +world.' Next to him in interest comes Earl Leolf, from whose lips +proceed some of the finest poetry in the play, especially that +exquisite soliloquy[8] on the sea-shore at Hastings. Athulf, the +brother of Elgiva, is another happy portrait--a man bright and jocund +as the morn, who can and will detect the springs of fruitfulness and +joy in earth's waste places, and whose bluff dislike of Dunstan is +aptly illustrated in the scene where he brings the king's commands, +and is kept waiting by the monks during Dunstan's matutinal +flagellation:-- + + _'Athulf._ But, sirs, it is in haste--in haste extreme-- + Matters of state, and hot with haste. + + _Second Monk_. My lord, + We will so say, but truly at this present + He is about to scourge himself. + + _Athulf_. I'll wait. + For a king's ransom would I not cut short + So good a work! I pray you, for how long? + + _Second Monk_. For twice the _De Profundis_, sung in slow time. + + _Athulf_. Please him to make it ten times, I will wait. + And could I be of use, this knotted trifle, + This dog-whip here has oft been worse employed.' + +In his recent play, _The Virgin Widow_ (1850), Mr Taylor declines from +the promise of his earlier efforts. The preface suggests great things; +but they are not forthcoming. There is much careful finish, much +sententious rhetoric, much elegant description; but there is little of +racy humour (the play is a 'romantic comedy'), little of poetical +freshness, little of lively flesh and blood portraiture, and more of +melodramatic expedience than dramatic construction. Neither comedy nor +melodrama is our author's _forte_. + +In 1836 Mr Taylor published _The Statesman_, a book which contained +the 'views and maxims respecting the transaction of public business,' +which had been suggested to its author by twelve years' experience of +official life. He has since then allowed that it was wanting in that +general interest which might possibly have been felt in the results of +a more extensive and varied conversancy with public life.[9] In 1848 +he produced _Notes from Life_, professedly a kind of supplemental +volume to the former, embodying the conclusions of an attentive +observation of life at large. The first essay investigates in detail +the right measure and manner to be adopted in getting, saving, +spending, giving, taking, lending, borrowing, and bequeathing 'money;' +and a weighty, valuable essay it is, with no lack of golden grains and +eke of diamond-dust in its composition. The thoughts are not given in +the bullion lump, but are well refined, and having passed through the +engraver's hands, they shine with the true polish, ring with the true +sound. In terse, pregnant, and somewhat oracular diction, we are here +instructed how to avoid the evils contingent upon bold commercial +enterprise--how to guard against excesses of the accumulative +instinct--how to exercise a thoroughly conscientious mode of +regulating expenditure, eschewing prodigality, that vice of a weak +nature, as avarice is of a strong one--how to be generous in giving; +'for the essence of generosity is in self-sacrifice, waste, on the +contrary, comes always by self-indulgence'--how to withstand +solicitations for loans, when the loans are to accommodate weak men in +sacrificing the future to the present. The essay on _Humility and +Independence_ is equally good, and pleasantly demonstrates the +proposition, that Humility is the true mother of Independence; and +that Pride, which is so often supposed to stand to her in that +relation, is in reality the step-mother by whom is wrought the very +destruction and ruin of Independence. False humilities are ordered +into court, and summarily convicted by this single-eyed judge, whose +cross-examination of these 'sham respectabilities' elicits many a +suggestive practical truth. There is more of philosophy and prudence +than of romance in the excursus on _Choice in Marriage_; but the +philosophy is shrewd and instructive, uttering many a homely hint of +value in its way: as where we are reminded that if marrying _for_ +money is to be justified only in the case of those unhappy persons who +are fit for nothing better, it does not follow that marrying _without_ +money is to be justified in others; and again, that the negotiations +and transactions connected with marriage-settlements are eminently +useful, as searching character and testing affection, before an +irrevocable step be taken; and again, that when two very young persons +are joined together in matrimony, it is as if one sweet-pea should be +put as a prop to another. The essay on _Wisdom_ is elevated and +thoughtful, like most of the essayist's papers, but somewhat too heavy +for miscellaneous readers. With his wonted clearness he distinguishes +Wisdom from understanding, talents, capacity, ability, sagacity, +sense, &c. and defines it as that exercise of the reason into which +the heart enters--a structure of the understanding rising out of the +moral and spiritual nature. Then follows a section on _Children_, +which explodes not a few educational fallacies, and propounds certain +articles of faith and practice wholesome for these times, though it +will probably wear a prim and quakerish aspect to the admirers of Jean +Paul's famous tractate[10] on the same theme. The concluding paper in +this series, entitled _The Life Poetic_, is the liveliest, if not the +most valuable of the six: it has, however, been charged, with +considerable show of justice, with a tendency to strip genius of all +that is individual and spontaneous, or to accredit it only 'when it +moves abroad sedately, clad in the uniform of a peculiar college.' Mr +Taylor's 'solicitous and premeditated formalism' of poetical doctrine +is, it must be confessed, a little too strait-laced. The true poet is +born, not made. Still, in their place, our author's dogmas have their +use, and might, if duly marked and inwardly digested, annually deter +many aspirants who are _not_ poets from proving so incontestably to +the careless public that negative fact. + +_Notes from Books_ followed within a few months, but met with a less +cordial reception. Of the four essays comprised in this volume, three +are reprinted contributions to the _Quarterly Review_, being +criticisms on the poetry of Wordsworth and Aubrey de Vere; and +worthily do they illustrate--those on Wordsworth at least--Mr Taylor's +composite faculty of depth and delicacy in poetical exposition. Of +Wordsworth's many and gifted commentators--among them Wilson, +Coleridge, Hazlitt, De Quincey, Lamb, Moir, Sterling--few have shewn a +happier insight into the idiosyncrasy, or done more justice to the +beauties of the patriarch of the Lakes. With Wordsworth for a subject, +and the _Quarterly Review_ for a 'door of utterance,' Mr Taylor is +quite in his element. The fourth essay, on the _Ways of the Rich and +Great_, is enriched with wise saws and modern instances. Its +_matériel_ is composed of ripe observation and reflective good sense; +but the manner is objected to as marred by conceits of style--a sin +not very safely to be committed by so stern a censor of it in others. +His authoritative air in laying down the law is also occasionally +unpleasing to some readers; and great as his tact in essay-writing is, +he wants that easy grace and pervading _bonhomie_ which imparts such a +charm to the works of one with whom he has been erroneously +identified--the anonymous author of _Friends in Council_. But, after +all, he is one of those writers to whom our current literature is +really indebted, and whose sage, sententious, and well-hammered +thoughts may be profitably, as well as safely, commended to every +thinking soul among us. + + * * * * * + +FOOTNOTES: + +[2] _Notes from Life._ + +[3] Ibid. + +[4] _Literary Remains._ + +[5] _Lectures on the History of France._ + +[6] Namely, Jacques van Artevelde, 'the noblest and the wisest man +that ever ruled in Ghent,' and whom the factious citizens slew at his +own door. + +[7] Duke of Burgundy, in the last scene of Part II. + +[8] Beginning:-- + + 'Rocks that beheld my boyhood! Perilous shelf + That nursed my infant courage! Once again + I, stand before you--not as in other days + In your gray faces smiling; but like you + The worse for weather.'... + +How sweet the lines:-- + + The sun shall soon + Dip westerly; but oh! how little like + Are life's two twilights! Would the last were first, + And the first last! that so we might he soothed + Upon the thoroughfares of busy life + Beneath the noon-day sun, with hope of joy + Fresh as the morn,' &c. + --_Act II. scene ii._ + +[9] Preface to _Notes from Life._ + +[10] _Levana_, of which an able translation was published by Messrs +Longman in 1848. + + + + +RAILWAY JUBILEE IN AMERICA. + + +The opening in September last of the grand railway which unites +Massachusetts with British North America is one of the most noticeable +events of our times. Before this, the commercial path of transit from +Europe lay from the Atlantic up the St Lawrence, the navigation of +which--at all times difficult and dangerous--is closed by ice during +five months of the year, and thus all intercourse through the States, +except by sleighs, stopped. Now, goods may be brought direct to Boston +and shipped to Europe, or unshipped at Boston for the Canadas without +interruption. But in a moral and social point of view, the subject is +still more important. Rivalry and bad feeling vanish before +intercourse, and the locomotive mows down prejudices faster than corn +falls before the Yankee reaping-machine. + +When I heard that there was to be a _procession_, the word vulgarised +the whole affair. It conjured up before my mind's eye our doings of +the sort in England, with the Lord Mayor's Show at the head of them; +and I concluded that the Yankee attempt would be still more trashy. +Let us see how it turned out. I send you a newspaper for the details; +but _here_ you must be a spectator, with the whole picture dashing, +mass by mass, upon your sensorium. + +As the first requisite for enjoyment, it was a glorious day even for +this climate. Nothing shews off a pageant like fine weather. I left +home shortly after daybreak, and went to the Common, as it is +called--a Park about as large as St James's, handsomely laid out, with +long alleys, some parallel, others crossing at various angles, and all +shaded by fine trees. The scene presented by this Park reminded me of +Camacho's wedding in _Don Quixote_, on a large scale. There stood the +tent for the banquet, constructed to dine 3000 persons, and decorated +with the flags of America and England streaming from the top, with the +flags of other nations below. Close by, were large tents for the +preparation of viands, surrounded with all the paraphernalia of a +feast. In various places, booths had been erected by the city, for the +gratuitous supply of all comers with pure iced water, and these were +thronged throughout the day, especially with children. The pedestrian +portion of the procession assembled in the Park, while the vehicles +crowded all the adjacent streets. And now might be observed the +various societies, with their bands of music; volunteer companies +marching here and there, getting into step, arranging their order and +practising their tunes. I was chatting with a raw Vermonter, who was +as much a stranger as myself. 'In the name of creation,' he suddenly +exclaimed, 'what tarnal screeching is that yonder?' 'That,' I said, +'is the bagpipes, the national music of Scotland.' 'That?' said he: +'it would clear a State of racoons in no time!' But the Scots had +determined to shine, and they advanced: a tall Highlander first, in +full costume, and blowing the pipes at his loudest; after him ten +others, in full Highland costume, with a banner--the Scottish Friends; +and about 200 with silk sashes, and walking three abreast. The +Catholic Irishmen followed, with a banner displaying a portrait of the +Pope and other Catholic emblems; and directly after came the +Protestant Irishmen, with their banners and music. Why will they not +associate thus in their own land? A very interesting portion of the +assembling was a party of about a thousand fine-looking, hardy men, +all remarkably clean, dressed in labourers' costume--blue blouses and +white trousers--headed by a band of music playing Irish popular tunes, +with a large banner of the stars and stripes, and the word 'Liberty,' +with the inscription--'The Irish Labourers. Under this we find +Protection for our Labour.' + +The Park is an irregular square. On the north side, on the highest +point of the city, stands the State-House, where the legislature +meets. Near that is the house which was formerly inhabited by the +governor, at the time the British flag waved where there now fly, +glancing in the sun, the stars and stripes. As the president was +expected at the State-House, and the procession was to start from +thence, that was the point of attraction, where the spectators formed +into a vast, dense, and steady mass. We English are in the habit of +seeing the paraphernalia of courts, and are slow to disconnect the +ideas of pomp and state from the persons of those who hold power and +distinction; but the chief of this great nation, together with the +secretary of state, had arrived in town by railway in an ordinary +carriage, without the least parade, and the corporation had hired for +the occasion an open carriage-and-four--such an equipage as would have +passed quite unnoticed in an English provincial town. Let me here +observe, that by an ordinary carriage I mean a carriage open to all; +for in America there are no locomotive distinctions of 1st, 2d, and 3d +classes. I never saw expectation more on tiptoe. A rattle round the +corner was heard; then the noise of the wheels ceased, and then the +president--a tall, gentlemanly-looking, elderly man--was ascending the +steps of the State-House; and as soon as his gray locks were seen by +the immense multitude, such a shout arose as only Anglo-Saxon lungs +can raise and prolong. The president turned round on the landing of +the steps, took off his hat, bowed, and entered the hall. I have seen +many ceremonies, regal and imperial, which passed off very much like a +scene at a theatre; but I felt the sublime simplicity of this. There +is no road to distinction here but talent; and as the fine old man +stood on the steps bowing, with Mr Webster, Secretary of State, by his +side, they looked the very embodiment of intellect, and the manly, +overpowering shout of the crowd the recognition of it. The +multitudinous voices died away in the distance with a peculiar effect. +No firing of guns. While on this part of the subject, I may mention my +strong impression, that in no place is the government so much +respected as in America. The public press may ridicule and joke upon +certain acts of individuals; but whatever side is taken, there is +nothing that can bring the laws, or those who administer them, into +disrespect. This produces order to an extent unknown elsewhere. No one +seems to question the law or the commands of its officers excepting +Europeans, who bring their turbulent habits with them. + +Leaving this imposing scene, I turned to the route of the procession, +which had been advertised to pass through certain streets. In some +degree to account for the masses of human beings that filled them, the +three railways had kept pouring people in for three days, and the +trains, immediately on arrival, turned back to fetch the thousands +they had left waiting at the stations. It was said that there never +was such a gathering in one place since the independence of the +States. The arrangements of the pageant were made by the committee of +the city; but the audience, or public, arranged themselves, and never +was there anything better done. Along the whole line of streets, about +three miles in length, the goods had been removed from the +shop-windows, and their places filled with ladies. Every window that +commanded a view was appropriated to females and children, who were +likewise in many cases on the tops of the houses. Men occupied the +pavement to the kerbstone. The roadway was kept by deputy-marshals, +who rode up and down, in black dress suits, cocked, open hats, and +white sashes; and in this vast assemblage their every request was +immediately attended to. At the end of every street, carriages of all +descriptions were placed, filled with people. As an instance of the +courtesy of the spectators, my wife had handed our Little Red +Ridinghood to some gentleman on the top of an omnibus, who very kindly +held her up to see the show, and took charge of her while Mrs W---- +found her way to the window where her place had been kept. If anything +could mark the kindly disposition and good order of the crowd, it was +the fact, that although I should think all the children in the city +were there, not one was hurt, but everybody exerted himself to +accommodate this interesting portion of the community. Across the +streets, and at all available points, the stars and stripes waved +proudly in the air, and altogether the scene was most beautiful and +imposing. I walked the whole length of the route before the procession +moved, and the _coup d'oeil_ was perfect. The military portion looked +remarkably well; but when the open carriage appeared in which rode +Lord Elgin and his friends, the representative of Great Britain was +greeted with such shouts and by such waving of handkerchiefs from the +windows by crowds of elegantly dressed females, as I am sure his +lordship can never forget. On his part, Lord Elgin continued bowing in +acknowledgment, almost without intermission, for two hours and twenty +minutes--the time occupied in passing. + +Nearly equal to this was the enthusiasm elicited by the appearance of +an open carriage, drawn by four grays, and containing only two men, +wellnigh ninety years of age, then the sole survivors, in the State of +Massachusetts, of those who fought in the War of Independence. It is +the custom to shew honour to the survivors of that event on all public +occasions. On the 4th of July last, the last public gathering, there +were four in the carriage: two are gone. Before the carriage, was +carried the banner of Washington, used in the struggle. When these old +men raised their withered hands to remove their hats, in reply to the +welcome of the crowd, they appeared like spirits of the past. In all +probability, they will not appear in public again; but the fruits of +their courage will live for ever. The appropriateness and beauty of +the arrangement of details were remarkable in the representation of +the particular trades. The most imposing objects were the two new +locomotives, shining brilliantly in their might of brass and steel, +and richly painted; and as they loomed in sight, turning the bends of +the streets, they were truly magnificent and appropriate objects. Each +was raised upon a car, so that, on the whole, it was thirty feet high; +it was drawn by eighteen iron-gray horses, all in line, decorated with +blue ribbons, and handsomely caparisoned; each horse being led by a +workman, in clean, new, working costume. The next was a procession on +foot. Eight negroes, in Eastern costume, walked as guards round a +platform, carried palanquin-fashion by four negroes, with 5000 ounces +of manufactured silver-plate, built up in a pyramid, and forming a +splendid object, fully equal in workmanship to anything of the kind I +have seen. A very interesting part of the pageant was the children of +the different schools, in four-wheeled cars, covered with drapery, and +decorated with flowers and plants; and it was really pleasing to see +the happy little creatures enjoying such a holiday as they would never +forget. It is impossible to give a third of the details of this unique +procession; but I cannot omit to notice the last feature--the +labourers on their truck-horses. These were the carmen of the town. +Their clean, healthy, happy faces, with their glossy horses, decorated +with ribbons, made me regard them as the best and proudest cavalry a +nation could have. These are all men who, a very short time since, +landed from the Old World--fugitives from misery and starvation. + +I had a ticket offered me for the banquet, but I preferred being +outside among the people. I have had enough of dinner-speeches in my +time, although this occasion was one of peculiar interest. The Park +continued to be crowded to excess; and as the company arrived, they +were greeted by the people and the bands of music stationed here and +there. But what sound is that? They are drinking toasts within; and +one is now given which stirs the vast multitude like an electrical +shock. I cannot hear at first, the roar is so deafening: but presently +I am able to analyse the sounds that have caused the commotion; and I +confess it is with a beating heart, and a sort of choking sensation in +the throat, I hear every lip repeat--'The Queen of England!' and every +band in the Park take up from the music in the tent our own national +strain, till the whole atmosphere vibrates with _God save the Queen!_ +The effect was magical, and I felt gratified beyond measure--not alone +at the compliment to our country, but as evidence that the +Anglo-Saxons are still one great community, and that the proceedings +of that day would rivet between the two countries the bond of common +blood. The day closed as happily as it had begun, and the streets were +crowded up to a late hour. I was in all the thickest of the press, and +I know that there was not a single accident, nor did I see or hear of +any instance of drunkenness or disorder. All was harmony and +good-humour. + +I would mention, as a strong proof of the growing interest felt for +the old country here, in New England especially, that almost every +family is desirous of being known to be connected with it. They have +all English names; and a numerous society have employed a gentleman of +skill in such matters for the last ten years in England in tracing out +the English branches of the different families, in the State, so as to +have the genealogy complete. This has become a passion; and I have +found every person I met who could trace his descent from the +mother-country proud of it. I fell in, the other day, with a highly +intelligent American, who told me with quite a feeling of pride, that +his grandfather and grandmother were English, and his wife's father a +Scot. + + + + +THINGS TALKED OF IN LONDON. + +_January 1852._ + + +Notwithstanding our busy and acquisitive propensities, we of the +metropolis have found time to wish one another a happy new-year, and +to send friendly greetings to our country cousins also. We don't like +to take the step from one year into another without a _coup d'amitié_. +Besides all which, we are in the habit of considering ourselves at the +present season more than ever entitled to partake of the recreations +offered us, whether theatrical, musical, pictorial, saltatorial, +philosophical, or scientific. And so, while simple-minded people are +looking into the new almanacs to test the accuracy of the predictions, +I must try to fill a page or two with such matters of talk as will +bear reproduction in print. + +First of all, among the discussions and communications at the +Astronomical Society, it is stated that the term 'meteoric astronomy' +is one which we shall shortly be able to use with almost absolute +certainty, as M. Petit of Toulouse has succeeded in determining the +orbits of meteors relatively to the sun as well as to the earth. His +conclusions are considered valuable, especially with respect to the +meteor of August 19, 1847, which, it appears, came 'from the regions +of space beyond our system;' having, as is estimated, occupied more +than 373,000 years in passing from its point of departure to its fall +in the North Sea, near the shores of Belgium! This is another addition +to our knowledge of meteoric phenomena which affords promise of +further results. Certain members of the same society are still at work +on what has been a tedious task--the restoration of the standard yard, +rendered necessary, as you will remember, by the destruction of the +original in the Parliament-House conflagration, more than ten years +ago. The work proceeds slowly but surely, as the extremest pains are +taken to insure accuracy, the measurements, bisections, and +graduations being read off with a microscope. When finished, it will +be centuplicated or more, if necessary, and, as is said, a copy +deposited in every corporate town in the kingdom. This restoration of +the standard is not so easy a task as would be commonly supposed, for +apart from the determination of the yard with mathematical accuracy, +alternations of heat and cold have to be taken into account; for, as +is well known, a strip of metal which measures thirty-six inches long +in a temperature of 70 degrees, will not measure the same in 50 +degrees. Connected with this subject, it was stated at one of the +meetings of the society, that the ancient Saxon yard was nearly +identical with the modern French _mètre_; whence a suggestion of 'the +possibility of the Saxon yard being actually derived from a former +measure of the earth, made at a period beyond the range of history, +the results of which have been preserved during many centuries of +barbarism.' Be this as it may, we are now given to understand that the +Egyptian Pyramids, whether originally erected for purposes of +sepulture or not, are, at the same time, definite portions of a degree +of the earth's surface in the meridian of Egypt; and it has been +proposed, as these mighty structures are far more durable even now +than anything which we could build in England, that when our standard +shall be re-established, the length shall be cut on the side of one of +the pyramids, together with such explanatory particulars as may he +necessary, so as to preserve the record for all coming time. Modern +science thus availing itself of the labours of the past, would be a +remarkable incident in the history of philosophy. + +The appearance of extraordinary spots on the sun has attracted a more +than ordinary degree of attention to that luminary, and to Mr J. +Nasmyth's 'views respecting the source of light,' which, though +published a few months since, are now again talked about. Mr Nasmyth, +after several years' observation, comes to the conclusion, 'that +whatever be the source of light, its production appears to result from +an action induced on the _exterior surface_ of the solar sphere;' and +he believes it reasonable to 'consider the true source of the latent +element of light to reside, _not in the solar orb_, but in space +itself; and that the grand function and duty of the sun is to act as +an agent for the bringing forth into vivid existence its due portion +of the illuminating or luciferous element; which element he supposes +to be diffused throughout the boundless regions of space, and which in +that case must be perfectly exhaustless. Further, assuming this +luciferous element to be not equally diffused through space, we find a +reason why in some ages of the earth's history the heat should have +been greater than at others, why stars have been seen to vary in +brightness, and why there was that puzzle to geologists--a glacial +period. During that period, according to Mr Nasmyth, with whose words +I finish this part of my communication, 'an arctic climate spread from +the poles towards the equator, and left the record of such a condition +in glacial handwriting on the mountain walls of our elder mountain +ravines, of which there is such abundant and unquestionable evidence.' + +Our Microscopical Society have made a discovery in an all but +invisible subject: they now state the _Volvox globator_ to be a +vegetable, and not, as has long been supposed, an animal, as its +cells, presumed to be ova, are produced in the same way as in certain +kinds of _algæ_. In the discussion excited by this announcement, it +came out that several other minute forms, classed by Ehrenberg among +living animalcules, are in reality vegetable; which, if true, shews +that a good deal of microscopical work will have to be done over +again. The Syro-Egyptian Society, too, have heard something relating +to the same subject--a paper on Ehrenberg's examination by the +microscope of the anciently deposited alluvium of the Nile, from which +it appears that 'microscopic animals' in countless numbers were the +cause of the remarkable fertility of the soil, and not vegetable or +unctuous matters. Talking of deposits reminds me of a little fact +which I must not forget to mention--the finding of a fossil reptile in +the 'Old Red' of your county of Moray is, barring the alarm, as much a +cause of astonishment to our geologists, as was the mark of the foot +on the sand to Robinson Crusoe. + +Now for a few gatherings from the continent. M. Chalambel has laid +before the Académie at Paris a 'Note on a Modification to be +introduced in the Preparation of Butter, which improves its Quality +and prolongs its Preservation.' 'If butter,' he observes, 'contained +only the fat parts of milk, it would undergo only very slow +alterations when in contact with the air; but it retains a certain +quantity of _caseum_, found in the cream, which caseum, by its +fermentation, produces butyric-acid, and to which is owing the +disagreeable flavour of rancid butter. The usual washing of butter +rids it but very imperfectly of this cause of alteration, for the +water does not wet the butter, and cannot dissolve the caseum, which +has become insoluble under the influence of the acids that develop +themselves in the cream. A more complete separation would be obtained +if these acids were saturated; the caseum would again be soluble, and +consequently the quantity retained in the butter would be almost +entirely carried away by the washing-water.' + +The remedy proposed is: 'When the cream is in the churn, pour in--a +little at a time, and keep stirring--enough of lime-wash to destroy +the acidity entirely. The cream is then to be churned until the butter +separates; but before it forms into lumps, the buttermilk is to be +poured off, and replaced by cold water, in which the churning is to be +continued until the butter is complete, when it is to be taken from +the churn and treated as usual. I have,' says M. Chalambel, 'by +following this method, obtained butter always better, and which kept +longer, than when made in the ordinary way. The buttermilk, deprived +of its sharp taste, was drunk with pleasure by men and animals, and +had lost its laxative properties.' By means of lime-wash or +lime-water, he has restored butter so 'far gone' that it could only +have been recovered by melting; but any alkaline lixivium will answer +the same purpose. + +I have more than once kept you informed of the inquiry concerning the +effects of iodine on the human system, which has so long engaged the +attention of several eminent chemists on the continent; and now have +to report something further by M. Fourcault, whose communication +thereupon to the Académie is entitled, 'On the Absence of Iodine in +Water and Alimentary Substances, considered as Cause of Goître and +Crétinism, and on the Means of Preventing the Development of these +Affections.' He has investigated the subject profoundly and +analytically, and concludes that 'the absence or insufficiency of +iodine in water and in alimentary substances, is to be considered as +the primitive cause, special or _sui generis_, of goître and +Crétinism;' that the existence of the diseases does not depend on the +presence more or less of sulphate of lime or magnesia in the animal +economy; that 'iodine acts in goître as iron in chlorosis--by +restoring to the system one of its essential principles;' and that +'the most powerful secondary or auxiliary causes are: a coarse and +uniform vegetable regimen; living at the bottom of deep, enclosed +valleys; in low and damp houses, into which air and light penetrate +with difficulty; the alliance of infected families among themselves; +and the want of such employment as would yield a comfortable +subsistence and proper development of the physical forces.' In +commenting on these statements, Baron Thénard observed that M. +Chatain, in the course of his able researches on iodine, had analysed +the waters of those Alpine valleys most subject to goître, and found +that mineral almost entirely wanting. And it has been proved that +sea-salt, containing a minute quantity of ioduret of potassium, acted +as a preservative from goître on all the inhabitants of a district who +made use of it. The air, too, has been examined as well as the water, +and, so far as yet ascertained, the proportion of iodine in the +atmosphere is variable, and much greater in amount in some regions +than in others. The activity prevailing in this particular branch of +inquiry is the more encouraging, as the maladies which it aims at +removing are of so peculiarly distressing a nature; and the +investigation is one likely to lead also to valuable incidental +results. + +Next, M. Abeille, chief physician to the hospital at Ajaccio, has an +interesting communication--On the employment of electricity to +counteract the accidents arising from too long inhalation of ether or +chloroform. He found that patients submitted to galvano-puncture could +not be rendered insensible by the effects of ether--the galvanism +invariably restored sensation--and taking this accidentally-discovered +fact as the basis of further research, he set to work and made a +series of experiments on living animals, and arrived at results which +in a brief summary are: that electricity, made to operate by means of +needles implanted in several parts of the body, especially in the +direction of the cerebro-spinal axis, reawakes sensibility, and +immediately puts the relaxed muscles into play. 'It constitutes,' he +adds, 'according to my experiments, the most prompt and efficacious +means--I may say the only efficacious--to restore to life any person +whose inhalation of chloroform has been prolonged beyond the time +prescribed by prudence. It is the first means to which recourse ought +to be had; and trials made in other ways appeared to me to lead to +nothing but loss of time, which in many cases would be fatal.' + +M.H. Deschamps says, that there is a 'certain sign of death,' which, +if attended to, will entirely prevent risk of that much-dreaded +accident--premature interment. It is a certain green tinge which +always makes its appearance on the abdomen, even before the cadaverous +smell, and is a positive evidence that decomposition has begun. There +are some people to whom the knowledge of this fact will be a +satisfaction; but if, as is popularly supposed, bodies are not +unfrequently buried alive, how is it that we never hear of a revival +in a dissecting-room? Then, on another point of physiology, M. Payerne +states, with regard to the distress experienced by many persons in the +ascent of a high mountain, 'that the lassitude and breathlessness felt +in elevated places appear to proceed, not from an insufficiency of +oxygen, but rather from the rupture of the equilibrium between the +tension of the fluids contained in our organs and that of the ambient +air, whatever be the way in which the rupture is produced.' And, to +close these physiological matters, M. Chuart begs the Académie to +include among their premiums for rendering arts or trades less +insalubrious, one for 'different inventions designed to diminish the +frequency of accidents which take place in coal-mines from explosions +of gas.' How much such inventions are needed, recent events in our own +coal districts but too painfully demonstrate. + +Our Meteorological Society may perhaps take a hint from M. Liais's +suggestion as to the 'possibility of applying photography to determine +the height of clouds, and to the observation of shooting-stars;' and +M.F. Cailliaud, director of the museum at Nantes, says something not +uninteresting to naturalists--namely, that the statements commonly +made, that all molluscous animals perforate stone by means of an acid, +is not the fact with regard to _Pholades_ and _Tarets_. He observes, +that although a workman would be amazed on hearing a proposition to +pierce calcareous stone with the shell of a _Pholas_, yet he himself +has done it, and holds the success to be a proof that the animal can +do the same. The idea of the acid might be accepted, while it was +proved that the creatures were to be found only in limestone; but now +that he has sent to the Académie specimens of gneiss and mica schist, +containing pholades, on which the acid has no effect, he conceives +that they must have entered by boring. They have also been found in +porphyry--a fact of which Brongniart said, many years ago, that nature +had concealed the explanation, and we must wait for a solution. +Whether M. Cailliaud's solution be the true one or not, is a point +that will soon be verified or disproved by geologists and naturalists, +who are never better pleased than when an inquiry, which may lead to +new views of nature, opens before them. + +That the age of great books is not past, is proved by an arrival from +America--the United States' government having presented to several +public and private institutions in this country, a large, handsome +quarto, which contains, to quote the whole title, _Historical and +Statistical Information respecting the History, Condition, and +Prospects of the Indian Tribes of the United States, collected and +prepared under the Direction of the Bureau of Indian Affairs, per Act +of Congress_. The preparation and arrangement of this work having been +intrusted to Mr Schoolcraft is a sufficient guarantee for its value. +It throws much light on the Indian tribes of North America, and +rectifies many erroneous ideas and impressions concerning them and +their origin. Perhaps you will allow me to give you, in a few words, +the author's views on this part of the subject. He considers the +ancient monuments, found in parts of the United States and in Mexico, +to have originated within five hundred years of the dispersion from +Babel; that the Indians are the Almogic branch of the Eber-ites; and +that the ancient monuments do not denote so high a degree of +civilisation as is generally supposed. It is only since the discovery +of America by Europeans that anything like certainty attaches to the +history of the natives. The Mohicans 'preserve the memory of the +appearance and voyage of Hudson, up the river bearing his name, in +1609;' and among other tribes similar traditions are retained. In the +wrong-headedness and persistence of idea, the Indians entirely +resemble the Oriental branches of the great Semitic family; and the +evidence shews that originally they crossed over from Asia at +Behring's Strait, a voyage still performed in canoes to the present +day. One of the titles of Montezuma was Lord of the Seven Caves; and +the caves in which tradition says the traverse took place, are taken +to be the caves or subterranean abodes still used by the Aleutian +islanders. This was current among the Aztecs in 1519, and the voyage +of the United States' Exploring Expedition has furnished a +philological proof of connection, in the peculiar termination of nouns +in _tl_, which is common to the inhabitants of Nootka Sound, as it was +to the Aztecs. The more the Indians are studied, the more does +everything about them appear to be Eastern--their language, religion, +calendar, architecture, &c. Their worship of fire in the open air, +avoiding the use of temples, is precisely that of Zoroaster, as is +also their leading doctrine of two spirits--good and evil--ruling the +world; and the allegory of the _egg of Ormuzd_ has been found in an +earthwork on the top of a hill in Adams's County, Ohio. 'It represents +the coil of a serpent, 700 feet long, but it is thought would reach, +if deprived of its curves, 1000 feet. The jaws of the serpent are +represented as widely distended, as if in the act of swallowing. In +the interstice is an oval or egg-shaped mound.' This repetition of a +symbol is considered as further proof of Eastern derivation. + +Do not suppose, however, that this is a sample of the whole volume, +for ample details and information are given on all matters connected +with the Indians--their arts, habits, pursuits, pictorial literature +(so to speak), sports, and agriculture. Some idea of their +capabilities in husbandry may be gathered from the fact, that in +Michigan, ancient 'garden-beds' have been discovered, extending for +150 miles along the banks of rivers. Students will find a mine of +information in this book, which, though but the first of a series, +contains nearly 600 pages--a rare feast for ethnologists. + +The Royal Irish Academy in Dublin have published a report of their +proceedings, which comprise reports on rain-falls, meteors, ancient +urns, and other Irish antiquities, besides Roman and Carthaginian; on +hygrometry, chiefly with regard to the pressure of the dew-point; and +on artificial islands. Of the latter, it appears that several exist in +different parts of Ireland; but the one to which attention is +particularly directed is near Strokestown, Roscommon. The lake +Clonfinlough having been drained by the Board of Works, the structure +of the islet, which had long occupied its centre, was laid bare. It +proved to be about 130 feet in diameter, constructed on oak piles, +forming a sort of 'triple stockade,' with stems laid flat towards the +centre for a floor, over which earth, clay, and marl were heaped, with +two flat irregular stone-floors covering the whole at different depths +below the surface. Two canoes were also found, each hollowed out of a +single tree, and a great collection of miscellaneous ornaments and +domestic utensils--all of which being illustrative of different +periods of Irish history, will receive due attention at the hands of +Irish antiquaries. Visitors to the Society's Museum will be gratified +to know that Mr Petrie is preparing a catalogue of that valuable and +interesting assemblage of rarities. He is to begin with the Stone +Period, and come down to the Bronze and Iron, according to their +respective dates, with dissertations prefixed. This is following the +good example set by your Scottish Society of Antiquaries. + +It is a fact honourable to the society that they do not confine their +honours exclusively to contributors to their own 'Transactions.' At +their late anniversary, they gave their gold medal to the Rev. J.H. +Jellett, for his labours in treating the noblest mathematical subjects +in a way to make them intelligible to students. As the president said +in his address: 'Descending from the more desirable position of an +inventor to the humbler but more useful one of enabling others to +place themselves on a level with himself, by compiling for their use +an excellent elementary treatise, he has conferred on his species a +benefit of the highest order,' in a work which otherwise was 'as +little likely to be given to the world as it was desirable that it +should be so.' + +It is time to close; but I must first clear off a few miscellaneous +items. The Admiralty Report concerning the Arctic expeditions is +canvassed pretty freely, and with significant hints that justice has +not been rendered in its conclusions. We can only hope that really +efficient commanders will be sent out with the expedition that is to +be despatched in April or May next; if not, it will be abortive, as +the others have been, and we shall never know what has become of +Franklin. It appears that the news of Collinson's ships being on their +return is unfounded. It was communicated from the United States, and +has been contradicted; and for all we know to the contrary, Collinson +and his coadjutor Maclure may come home next summer by way of Baffin's +Bay. There are now 226 telegraph stations connected with the central +establishment in Lothbury, behind the Bank of England. Of these, 70 +are principal stations, at which the attendance is day and night; and +in the whole, a distance of 2500 miles is embraced, with 800 more over +which the wires are now being stretched. The charges for transmission +of messages have been lowered with a beneficial result, the business +of the telegraph having greatly increased. There must be a still +further reduction before the 'thought-flasher' becomes as generally +available here as it is in America. It is now in real earnest going to +Ireland. A ship has been despatched to fetch Cleopatra's so-called +'needle:' the Panopticon at length has found a local habitation, and +is assuming a tangible form in the shape of bricks and mortar: ocean +steamers are more than ever talked about; and every month a new one, +better than all before, is launched: gold, too, is a favourite topic; +and Australian and Californian mining-shares are plentiful in the +market; so also are those of Irish Waste-Land Improvement Companies, +who, in addition to the reclamation, propose to grow beet-root, flax, +and chicory. At last we have got one or two penny news-rooms--not so +good, however, as yours in Edinburgh; and a project is mooted to +establish reading and waiting rooms combined, in different parts of +the capital. There is talk, too, of central railway termini, of new +bridges, new streets, and of converting Kennington Common into a +park--how soon to be realised remains to be seen. + + + + +THE TURN OF LIFE. + + +From forty to sixty, a man who has properly regulated himself, may be +considered as in the prime of life. His matured strength of +constitution renders him almost impervious to the attacks of disease, +and experience has given his judgment the soundness of almost +infallibility. His mind is resolute, firm, and equal; all his +functions are in the highest order; he assumes the mastery over +business; builds up a competence on the foundation he has formed in +early manhood, and passes through a period of life attended by many +gratifications. Having gone a year or two past sixty, he arrives at a +critical period in the road of existence; the river of death flows +before him, and he remains at a stand-still. But athwart this river +is a viaduct, called 'The turn of Life,' which, if crossed in safety, +leads to the valley, 'Old Age.' The bridge is constructed of fragile +materials, and it depends upon how it is trodden whether it bend or +break. Gout, apoplexy, and other bad characters are also in the +vicinity to waylay the traveller, and thrust him from the pass; but +let him gird up his loins, and provide himself with a fitting staff, +and he may trudge on in safety with perfect composure. To quit a +metaphor, the 'Turn of Life' is a turn either into a prolonged walk or +into the grave. The system and power having reached their utmost +expansion, now begin either to close like flowers at sunset, or break +down at once. One injudicious stimulant--a single fatal excitement, +may force it beyond its strength--whilst a careful supply of props, +and the withdrawal of all that tends to force a plant, will sustain it +in beauty and in vigour until night has entirely set.--_The Science of +Life, by a Physician_. + + + + +NERVE. + + +An Indian sword-player declared at a great public festival, that he +could cleave, vertically, a small lime laid on a man's palm without +injury to the member; and the general (Sir Charles Napier) extended +his right hand for the trial. The sword-player, awed by his rank, was +reluctant, and cut the fruit horizontally. Being urged to fulfil his +boast, he examined the palm, said it was not one to be experimented on +with safety, and refused to proceed. The general then extended his +left hand, which was admitted to be suitable in form; yet the Indian +still declined the trial; and when pressed, twice waved his thin, +keen-edged blade, as if to strike, and twice withheld the blow, +declaring he was uncertain of success. Finally, he was forced to make +trial, and the lime fell open, cleanly divided: the edge of the sword +had just marked its passage over the skin without drawing a drop of +blood!--_Sir Charles Napier's Administration in Scinde_. + + + + +WIRE USED IN EMBROIDERY. + + +In the manufacture of embroidery fine threads of silver gilt are used. +To produce these, a bar of silver, weighing 180 ounces, is gilt with +an ounce of gold; this bar is then wire-drawn until it is reduced to a +thread so fine that 3400 feet of it weigh less than an ounce. It is +then flattened by being submitted to a severe pressure between +rollers, in which process its length is increased to 4000 feet. Each +foot of the flattened wire weighs, therefore, the 4000th part of an +ounce. But as in the processes of wire-drawing and rolling the +proportion of the two metals is maintained, the gold which covers the +surface of the fine thread thus produced consists only of the 180th +part of its whole weight. Therefore the gold which covers one foot is +only the 720,000th part of an ounce, and consequently the gold which +covers an inch will be the 8,640,000th part of an ounce. If this inch +be again divided into 100 equal parts, each part will be distinctly +visible without the aid of a microscope, and yet the gold which covers +such visible part will be only the 864,000,000th part of an ounce. But +we need not stop even here. This portion of the wire may be viewed +through a microscope which magnifies 500 times; and by these means, +therefore, its 500th part will become visible.--_Lardner's Handbook_. + + + + +CHEAP LIVING. + + +In the interior of Bulgaria and Upper Moesia, the low price of +provision and cattle of every description is almost fabulous compared +with the prices of Western Europe. A fat sheep or lamb usually costs +from 1s. 6d. to 2s.; an ox, 40s.; cows, 30s.; and a horse, in the best +possible travelling condition, from L.4 to L.5 sterling; wool, hides, +tallow, wax, and honey, are equally low. In the towns and hans by the +road-side everything is sold by weight: you can get a pound of meat +for a halfpenny, a pound of bread for the same, and wine, which is +also sold by weight, costs about the same money. In Servia, pigs +everywhere form the staple commodity of the country. I have seen some +that, would weigh from 150 lbs. to 200 lbs. or more offered for sale +at 300 Turkish piastres the dozen; in the neighbourhood of the Danube +they fetch a little more. The expense of keeping these animals in a +country abounding with forests being so trifling, and the prospect of +gain to the proprietor so certain, we cannot wonder that no landowner +is without them, and that they constitute the richest class in the +principality. In fact, pig-jobbers are here men of the highest rank: +the prince, his ministers, civil and military governors, are all +engaged in this lucrative traffic.--_Spencer's Travels._ + + + + +MOUNTAINS IN SNOW. + + + Cold--oh, deathly cold--and silent, lie the white hills 'neath + the sky, + Like a soul whom fate has covered with thy snows, Adversity! + Not a sough of wind comes moaning; the same outline, high and + bare, + As in pleasant days of summer, rises in the murky air. + + Very quiet--very silent--whether shines the mocking sun + Through the wintry blue, or lowering drift the feathery + snow-clouds dun: + Always quiet, always silent, be it night or be it day, + With that pale shroud coldly lying where the heather-blossoms lay. + + Can they be the very mountains that we looked at, you and I? + One long wavy line of purple painted on the sunset sky; + With the new moon's edge just touching that dark rim, like + dancer's foot, + Or young Dian's, on the hill-side for Endymion waiting mute. + + O how golden was that even!--O how balm the summer air! + How the bridegroom sky bent loving o'er its earth so virgin fair! + How the earth looked up to heaven like a bride with joy oppressed, + In her thankfulness half-weeping that she was thus overblest! + + Ghostly mountains! 'Silence--silence!' now is aye your soundless + voice, + Lifted in an awful patience o'er the world's uproarious noise; + O'er its jarrings and its greetings--o'er its loving and its + hate-- + Silence! Bare thy brows all dumbly to the snows of heaven, + and--wait!' + + * * * * * + +_Just Published_, + +_Price 2s. 6d. sewed, 3s. Cloth Boards_, + +LIFE AND WORKS OF BURNS.--Volume III. Edited by ROBERT CHAMBERS. To be +completed in Four Volumes. + + * * * * * + +_Price 6d. Paper Cover_, + +CHAMBERS'S POCKET MISCELLANY.--Volume II. To be continued in Monthly +Volumes. + + * * * * * + +_Price 2s. Cloth Boards_, + +ELEMENTARY LATIN GRAMMAR. Edited by DRS SCHMITZ and ZUMPT.--Forming +one of the Volumes of the LATIN SECTION of CHAMBERS'S EDUCATIONAL +COURSE. + + * * * * * + +_Price 1s. 3d. Cloth Boards_, + +LATIN EXERCISES: A Companion to the ELEMENTARY LATIN GRAMMAR. Edited +by DRS SCHMITZ and ZUMPT.--Forming one of the Volumes of the LATIN +SECTION of CHAMBERS'S EDUCATIONAL COURSE. + + * * * * * + +Printed and Published by W. and R. CHAMBERS, High Street, Edinburgh. +Also sold by W.S. ORR, Amen Corner, London; D.N. CHAMBERS, 55 West +Nile Street, Glasgow; and J. M'GLASHAN, 50 Upper Sackville Street, +Dublin.--Advertisements for Monthly Parts are requested to be sent to +MAXWELL & Co., 31 Nicholas Lane, Lombard Street, London, to whom all +applications respecting their insertion must be made. + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Chambers' Edinburgh Journal, by Various + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK CHAMBERS' EDINBURGH JOURNAL *** + +***** This file should be named 16228-8.txt or 16228-8.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/1/6/2/2/16228/ + +Produced by Malcolm Farmer, Richard J. 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January 31, 1852 + </title> + <style type="text/css"> + /*<![CDATA[*/ + + <!-- + body {margin-left: 10%; margin-right: 10%; + max-width: 40em;} + .poem span.i8 {display: block; margin-left: 8em;} + .poem span.i13 {display: block; margin-left: 13em;} + p {text-align: justify;} + p.center {text-align: center;} + p.date {text-align:right; margin-right: 10%} + p.author, p.author-up {text-align: right; + font-variant: small-caps; + margin-right: 10%;} + p.author-up {margin-top: -1.0em;} + blockquote {text-align: justify; font-size: 0.9em;} + h1,h2,h3,h4,h5,h6 {text-align: center;} + pre {font-size: 0.8em;} + .returnTOC {text-align: right; font-size: 70%;} + hr {text-align: center; width: 50%;} + html>body hr {margin-right: 25%; margin-left: 25%; width: 50%;} + hr.full {width: 100%;} + html>body hr.full {margin-right: 0%; margin-left: 0%; width: 100%;} + hr.short {text-align: center; width: 20%;} + html>body hr.short {margin-right: 40%; margin-left: 40%; width: 20%;} + .sc {font-variant: small-caps;} + .note + {margin-left: 10%; margin-right: 10%; font-size: 0.9em;} + span.pagenum {position: absolute; left: 1%; right: 91%; font-size: 8pt;} + .fnanchor { + font-size: smaller; /* discreet [X] */ + vertical-align: 2px; /* bumped up a trace from baseline */ + } + .contents + {margin-left:30%; margin-right:10%; margin-bottom: 1em; text-align: left;} + .poem + {margin-left:20%; margin-right:10%; margin-bottom: 1em; text-align: left;} + .poem .stanza {margin: 1em 0em 1em 0em;} + .poem p {margin: 0; padding-left: 3em; text-indent: -3em;} + .poem p.i2 {margin-left: 1em;} + .poem p.i4 {margin-left: 2em;} + .poem p.i6 {margin-left: 3em;} + .poem p.i8 {margin-left: 4em;} + .poem p.i20 {margin-left: 10em;} + // --> + /*]]>*/ + </style> +</head> +<body> + + +<pre> + +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Chambers' Edinburgh Journal, by Various + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Chambers' Edinburgh Journal + Volume XVII., No 422, New Series, January 31, 1852 + +Author: Various + +Editor: Robert Chambers and William Chambers + +Release Date: July 7, 2005 [EBook #16228] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK CHAMBERS' EDINBURGH JOURNAL *** + + + + +Produced by Malcolm Farmer, Richard J. Shiffer and the +Online Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net + + + + + + +</pre> + + +<h1>CHAMBERS' EDINBURGH JOURNAL</h1> + +<h2><a name="Contents" id="Contents">CONTENTS</a></h2> + +<div class="contents"> +<!-- Autogenerated TOC. Modify or delete as required. --> +<p> + <a href="#THE_HAPPY_JACKS">THE HAPPY JACKS.</a><br /> + <a href="#THE_DESERT_HOME1">THE DESERT HOME.</a><br /> + <a href="#THE_VATTEVILLE_RUBY">THE VATTEVILLE RUBY.</a><br /> + <a href="#HENRY_TAYLOR">HENRY TAYLOR.</a><br /> + <a href="#RAILWAY_JUBILEE_IN_AMERICA">RAILWAY JUBILEE IN AMERICA.</a><br /> + <a href="#THINGS_TALKED_OF_IN_LONDON">THINGS TALKED OF IN LONDON.</a><br /> + <a href="#THE_TURN_OF_LIFE">THE TURN OF LIFE.</a><br /> + <a href="#NERVE">NERVE.</a><br /> + <a href="#WIRE_USED_IN_EMBROIDERY">WIRE USED IN EMBROIDERY.</a><br /> + <a href="#CHEAP_LIVING">CHEAP LIVING.</a><br /> + <a href="#MOUNTAINS_IN_SNOW">MOUNTAINS IN SNOW.</a><br /> + </p> +<!-- End Autogenerated TOC. --> +</div> + +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page65" id="page65"></a>[pg 65]</span> + +<img src="images/banner.png" + width="100%" + alt="Banner: Chambers' Edinburgh Journal" /> + +<h4>CONDUCTED BY WILLIAM AND ROBERT CHAMBERS, EDITORS OF 'CHAMBERS'S +INFORMATION FOR THE PEOPLE,' 'CHAMBERS'S EDUCATIONAL COURSE,' &c.</h4> + +<hr class="full" /> + +<table width="100%" + summary="Volume, Date and Price"> +<tr> +<td align="left"><b>No. 422. NEW SERIES.</b></td> +<td align="left"><b>SATURDAY, JANUARY 31, 1852.</b></td> +<td align="right"><b>PRICE 1½<i>d</i>.</b></td> +</tr> +</table> + +<hr class="full" /> + +<h2><a name="THE_HAPPY_JACKS" id="THE_HAPPY_JACKS">THE HAPPY JACKS.</a></h2> + +<p class="returnTOC"><a href="#Contents">Return to Table of + Contents</a></p> + +<p><span class="sc">'On</span> Saturday, then, at two—humble hours, humble fare; but plenty, and +good of its kind; with a talk over old fellows and old times.'</p> + +<p>Such was the pith of an invitation to dinner, to accept which I +started on a pleasant summer Saturday on the top of a Kentish-town +omnibus. My host was Happy Jack. Everybody called him 'Happy Jack:' he +called himself 'Happy Jack.' He believed he was an intensely 'Happy' +Jack. Yet his friends shook their heads, and the grandest shook theirs +the longest, as they added the ominous addendum of 'Poor Devil' to +'Happy Jack.'</p> + +<p>'Seen that unhappy wretch, Happy Jack, lately?'</p> + +<p>'Seen him! of course, yesterday: he came to borrow a half-sovereign, +as two of his children had the measles. He was in the highest spirits, +for the pawnbroker lent him more on his watch than he had expected, +and so Jack considered the extra shilling or two pure gain. I don't +know how the wretch lives, but he seems happier than ever.'</p> + +<p>On another occasion, the dialogue would be quite different.</p> + +<p>'Who do you think I saw last night in the first tier at the +Opera?—who but Happy Jack, and Mrs Happy Jack, and the two eldest +Happy Jack girls! Jack himself resplendent in diamond studs, and +tremendously laced shirt-front; and as for the women—actually queens +of Sheba. A really respectable carriage, too, at the door; for I +followed them out in amazement: and off they went like so many lords +and ladies. Oh, the sun has been shining somehow on the Happy Jacks!'</p> + +<p>In due time I stood before the Terrace honoured by the residence of +the Happy Jacks—one of those white, stuccoed rows of houses, with +bright green doors and bright brass-plates thereon, which suburban +builders so greatly affect. As I entered the square patch of +front-garden, I perceived straw lying about, as though there had been +recent packing; and looking at the drawing-room window, I missed the +muslin curtain and the canary's brass cage swathed all over in gauze. +The door opened before I knocked, and Happy Jack was the opener. He +was clad in an old shooting-coat and slippers, had a long clay-pipe in +his mouth, and was in a state of intense general <i>déshabille</i>. Looking +beyond him, I saw that the house was in <i>déshabille</i> as well as the +master. There were stairs certainly, but where was the stair-carpet? +Happy Jack, however, was clearly as happy as usual. He had a round, +red face; and, I will add, a red nose. But the usual sprightly smile +stirred the red round face, the usual big guffaw came leaping from the +largely opening mouth, the usual gleam of mingled sharpness and +<i>bonhomie</i> shone from the large blue eyes. Happy Jack closed the door, +and, taking my arm, walked me backwards and forwards on the gravel.</p> + +<p>'My boy,' he said, 'we've had a little domestic affair inside; but you +being, like myself, a man of the world, we were not of course going to +give up our dinner for that. The fact is,' said Jack, attempting to +assume a heroic and sentimental tone and attitude, 'that, for the +present at least, my household gods are shattered!'</p> + +<p>'You mean that'——</p> + +<p>'As I said, my household gods are shattered, even in the shrine!'</p> + +<p>It was obvious that the twang of this fine phrase gave Jack uncommon +pleasure. He repeated it again and again under his breath, flourishing +his pipe, so as, allegorically and metaphorically, to set forth the +extent of his desolation.</p> + +<p>'In other words,' I went on, 'there has been an—an execution'——</p> + +<p>'And the brokers have not left a stick. But what of that? These, are +accidents which will occur in the best'——</p> + +<p>'And Mrs'——</p> + +<p>'Oh! She, you know, is apt to be a little downhearted at times; and +empty rooms somehow act on her idiosyncrasy. A good woman, but weak. +So she's gone for the present to her sisters; and as for the girls, +why, Emily is with her mother, and Jane is at the Joneses. Very decent +people the Joneses. I put Jones up to a thing which would have made +his fortune the week before last; but he wouldn't have it. Jones is +slow, and—well—— And Clara is with the Hopkinses: I believe so, at +least; and Maria is—— Confound me if I know where Maria is; but I +suppose she's somewhere. Her mother managed it all: I didn't +interfere. And so now, as you know the best and the worst, let's come +to dinner.'</p> + +<p>An empty house is a dismal thing—almost as dismal as a dead body. The +echo, as you walk, is dismal; the blank, stripped walls, shewing the +places where the pictures and the mirrors have been, are dismal; the +bits of straw and the odds and ends of cord are dismal; the coldness, +the stillness, the blankness, are dismal. It is no longer a +habitation, but a shell.</p> + +<p>In the dining-room stood a small deal-table, covered with a scanty +cloth, like an enlarged towel; and a baked joint, with the potatoes +under it, smoked before us. The foaming pewter-can stood beside it, +with a couple of plates, and knives and steel forks. Two Windsor +chairs, of evident public-house mould, completed the festive +preparations and the furniture of the room. The whole thing looked +very dreary; and as I +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page66" id="page66"></a>[pg 66]</span> +gazed, I felt my appetite fade under the sense +of desolation. Not so Happy Jack. 'Come, sit down, sit down. I don't +admire baked meat as a rule, but you know, as somebody says—</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span>"When spits and jacks are gone and spent,<br /></span> +<span>Then ovens are most excellent,"<br /></span> +<span>And also most con-ven-i-ent.<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>The people at the Chequers managed it all. Excellent people they are. +I owe them some money, which I shall have great pleasure in paying as +soon as possible. No man can pay it sooner.'</p> + +<p>The dinner, however, went off with the greatest success. Happy Jack +was happier than ever, and consequently irresistible. Every two or +three minutes he lugged in something about his household gods and the +desolation of his hearth, evidently enjoying the sentiment highly. +Then he talked of his plans of taking a new and more expensive house, +in a fashionable locality, and furnishing it on a far handsomer scale +than the old one. In fact, he seemed rather obliged to the brokers +than otherwise for taking the quondam furniture off his hands. It was +quite behind the present taste—much of it positively ugly. He had +been ashamed to see his wife sitting in that atrocious old easy-chair, +but he hoped that he had taken a step which would change all for the +better. Warming with his dinner and the liquor, Happy Jack got more +and more eloquent and sentimental. He declaimed upon the virtues of +Mrs J., and the beauties of the girls. He proposed all their healths +<i>seriatim</i>. He regretted the little incident which had prevented their +appearance at the festive board; but though absent in person, he was +sure that they were present in spirit; and with this impression, he +would beg permission to favour them with a song—a song of the social +affections—a song of hearth and home—a song which had cheered, and +warmed, and softened many a kindly and honest heart: and with this +Happy Jack sang—and exceedingly well too, but with a sort of +dreadfully ludicrous sentiment—the highly appropriate ditty of <i>My +Ain Fireside</i>.</p> + +<p>Happy Jack was of no particular profession: he was a bit of a +<i>littérateur</i>, a bit of a journalist, a bit of a man of business, a +bit of an agent, a bit of a projector, a bit of a City man, and a bit +of a West-end man. His business, he said, was of a general nature. He +was usually to be heard of in connection with apocryphal companies and +misty speculations. He was always great as an agitator. As soon as a +League was formed, Happy Jack flew to its head-quarters as a vulture +to a battle-field. Was it a league for the promotion of +vegetarianism?—or a league for the lowering of the price of meat?—a +league for reforming the national costume?—or a league for repealing +the laws still existing upon the Statute-book against witches?—Happy +Jack was ever in the thickest of the fray, lecturing, expounding, +arguing, getting up extempore meetings of the frequenters of +public-houses, of which he sent reports to the morning papers, +announcing the 'numerous, highly respectable, and influential' nature +of the assembly, and modestly hinting, that Mr Happy Jack, 'who was +received with enthusiastic applause, moved, in a long and +argumentative address, a series of resolutions pledging the meeting +to,' &c. Jack, in fact, fully believed that he had done rather more +for free-trade than Cobden. Not, he said, that he was jealous of the +Manchester champion; circumstances had made the latter better +known—that he admitted; still he could not but know—and knowing, +feel—in his own heart of hearts, his own merits, and his own +exertions.</p> + +<p>The railway mania was, as may be judged, a grand time for Happy Jack. +The number of lines of which he was a provisional director, the number +of schemes which came out—and often at good premiums too—under his +auspices; the number of railway journals which he founded, and the +number of academies which he established for the instruction of +youthful engineers—are they not written in the annals of the period? +Jack himself started as an engineer without any previous educational +ceremony whatever. His manner of laying out a 'direct line' was happy +and expeditious. He took a map and a ruler, and drew upon the one, by +the help of the other, a straight stroke in red ink—which looked +professional—from terminus to terminus. Afterwards, he stated +distinctly in writing, so that there could be no mistake about the +matter, that there were no engineering difficulties—that the landed +proprietors along the line were quite enthusiastic in their promotion +of the scheme—and that the probable profits, as deduced from +carefully drawn-up traffic-tables, would be about 35 per cent. At this +time, Happy Jack was quite a minor Hudson. He lived in an atmosphere +of shares, scrip, and prospectuses. Money poured in from every +quarter. A scrap of paper with an application for shares was worth the +bright tissue of the Bank—and Jack lost no time in changing the one +for the other. Amid the mass of railway newspapers, he started <i>The +Railway Sleeper Awakened</i>, <i>The Railway Whistle</i>, <i>The Railway +Turntable</i>, and <i>The Railway Timetable</i>; and it was in the first +number of the last famous organ—it lived for three weeks—in which +appeared a letter signed 'A Constant Reader.' After the bursting of +the bubble, Happy Jack appeared to have burst too; for his whereabouts +for a long time was unknown, and there were no traditions of his being +seen. Then he began to be heard of from distant and constantly varying +quarters of the town. Now you had a note from Shepherd's Bush, and +next day from Bermondsey. On Tuesday, Jack dated Little King Street, +Clapham Road; on Thursday, the communication reached you from Little +Queen Street, Victoria Villas, Hackney; and next week perhaps you were +favoured with a note from some of the minor little Inns of Court, +where the writer would be found getting up a company on the fourth +floor in a grimy room, furnished with a high deal-desk, two +three-legged stools, and illimitable foolscap, pens, and ink.</p> + +<p>Where Mrs Happy Jack and the young-lady Happy Jacks went to at these +times, the boldest speculator has failed to discover: they vanished, +as it were, into thin air, and were seen no more till the sunshine +came, when they returned with the swallows. The lady herself was a +meek, mild creature, skilful in the art of living on nothing, and +making up dresses without material. She adored her husband, and +believed him the greatest man in the world. On the occurrence of such +little household incidents as an execution, or Jack making a rapid act +of cabmanship from his own hearth to the cheerful residence of Mr Levi +in Cursitor Street, the poor little woman, after having indulged +herself in the small luxury of a 'good cry,' would go to work to pack +up shirts and socks manfully, and with great foresight, would always +bring Jack's daily food in a basket, seeing that Mr Levi's bills are +constructed upon a scale of uncommon dimensions; after which, she +would eat the dinner with him in the coffee-room, drink to better +days, play cribbage, and at last get very nearly as joyous in that +greasy, grimy, sorrow-laden room, with bars on the outside of the +windows, as if it were the happy home she possessed a few weeks ago, +and which she always hoped to possess again. As for the girls, they +were trained by too good a master and mistress not to become apt +scholars. They knew what a bill of sale was from their tenderest +years; the broker's was no unfamiliar face; and they quite understood +how to treat a man in possession. Their management of duns was +consummate. Happy Jack used to listen to the comedy of excuses and +coaxings; and when the importunate had departed, grumblingly and +unpaid, he used solemnly to kiss his daughters on the forehead, and +invoke all sorts of blessings upon his preservers, his good angels, +his little girls, who were so clever, and so faithful, and so true. +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page67" id="page67"></a>[pg 67]</span> +</p> + +<p>And in many respects they were good girls. The style in which they +turned frocks, put a new appearance upon hoods, and cloaks, and +bonnets, and came forth in what seemed the very lustre of novelty—the +whole got up by a skilful mutual adaptation of garments and parts of +garments—was wonderful to all lady beholders. In cookery, they beat +the famous <i>chef</i> who sent up five courses and a dessert, made out of +a greasy pair of jack-boots and the grass from the ramparts of the +besieged town. Their wonderful little made-dishes were mere scraps and +fragments, which in any other house would have been flung away, but +which were so artistically and scientifically handled by the young +ladies, and so tossed up, and titivated, and eked out with gravies, +and sauces, and strange devices of nondescript pasty, that Happy Jack, +feasting upon these wonderful creations of ingenuity, used to vow that +he never dined so well as when there was nothing in the house for +dinner. To their wandering, predatory life the whole family were +perfectly accustomed. A sudden turn out of quarters they cared no more +for than hardened old dragoons. They never lost pluck. One speculation +down, another came on. Sometimes the little household was united. A +bit of luck in the City or the West had been achieved, and Happy Jack +issued cards for 'At Homes,' and behaved, and looked, and spoke like +an alderman, or the member of a house of fifty years' standing. When +strangers saw his white waistcoat, and blue coat with brass buttons, +and heard him talk of a glut of gold, and money being a mere drug, +they speculated as to whether he was the governor or the vice-governor +of the Bank of England, or only the man who signs the five-pound +notes. That day six weeks, Jack had probably 'come through the court;' +a process which he always used somehow to achieve with flying colours, +behaving in such a plausible and fascinating way to the commissioner, +that that functionary regularly made a speech, in which he +congratulated Happy Jack on his candour, and evident desire to deal +fairly with his creditors, and told him he left that court without the +shadow of a stain upon his character. In the Bench, in dreary suburban +lodgings, or in the comfortable houses which they sometimes occupied, +the Happy Jacks were always the Happy Jacks. Their constitution +triumphed over everything. If anything could ruffle their serenity, it +was the refusal of a tradesman to give credit. But <i>uno avulso non +deficit alter</i>, as Jack was accustomed, on such occasions, classically +to say to his wife—presently deviating into the corresponding +vernacular of—'Well, my dear, if one cock fights shy, try another.'</p> + +<p>A list of Jack's speculations would be instructive. He once took a +theatre without a penny to carry it on; and having announced <i>Hamlet</i> +without anybody to play, boldly studied and performed the part +himself, to the unextinguishable delight of the audience. Soon after +this, he formed a company for supplying the metropolis with Punches of +a better class, and enacting a more moral drama than the old +legitimate one—making Punch, in fact, a virtuous and domestic +character; and he drew the attention of government to the moral +benefits likely to be derived to society from this dramatic reform. +Soon after, he departed for Spain in the gallant Legion; but not +finding the speculation profitable, turned newspaper correspondent, +and was thrice in imminent danger of being shot as a spy. Flung back +somehow to England, he suddenly turned up as a lecturer on chemistry, +and then established a dancing institution and Terpsichorean Athenæum. +Of late, Jack has found a good friend in animal magnetism, and his +<i>séances</i> have been reasonably successful. When performing in the +country districts, Jack varied the entertainments by a lecture on the +properties of guano, which he threw in for nothing, and which was +highly appreciated by the agricultural interest. Jack's books were +principally works of travel. His <i>Journey to the Fountains of the +Niger</i> is generally esteemed highly amusing, if not instructive: it +was knocked off at Highbury; and his <i>Wanderings in the Mountains of +the Moon</i>, written in Little Chelsea, has been favourably reviewed by +many well-informed and discriminating organs of literary intelligence, +as the work of a man evidently well acquainted with the regions he +professes to describe.</p> + +<p>Where the Happy Jacks are at this moment no one can tell. They have +become invisible since the last clean out. A deprecatory legend has +indeed been in circulation, which professed that Jack was dead, and +that this was the manner in which, on his deathbed, he provided for +his family:—</p> + +<p>'Mrs Happy Jack,' said the departing man, 'I'm not afraid of you. You +have got on some way or other for nearly forty years, and I don't see +why you shouldn't get on some way or other for forty more. Therefore, +so far as you are concerned, my mind is easy. But, then, you +girls—you poor little inexperienced poppets, who know nothing of the +world. There's Jane; but then she's pretty—really beautiful. Why, her +face is a fortune: she will of course captivate a rich man; and what +more can a father wish? As for Emily—I fear Emily, my dear, you're +rather plain than otherwise; but what, I would ask, is +beauty?—fleeting, transitory, skin-deep. The happiest marriages are +those of mutual affection—not one-sided admiration: so, on the whole, +I should say that my mind is easier about Emily than Jane. As for +Maria, she's so clever, she can't but get on. As a musician, an +artist, an authoress, what bright careers are open for her! While as +for you, stupid little Clara, who never could be taught anything—I +very much doubt whether the dunces of this world are not the very +happiest people in it—Yes, Clara; leave to others the vain and empty +distinctions of literary renown, which is but a bubble, and be happy +in the homely path of obscure but virtuous duty!'</p> + +<p>Happy Jack ceased. There was a pause. 'And now,' he said, 'having +provided for my family, I will go to sleep, with a clear conscience +and a tranquil mind.'</p> + +<p>I said that I always distrusted this legend. I am happy to say, that +even as I write I have proof positive that it is purely a fiction. I +have just had a card put into my hand requesting my presence at a +private exhibition of the celebrated Bloomer Family, while an +accompanying private note from Jack himself informs me that the +'celebrated and charming Bloomer group—universally allowed to be the +most perfect and interesting representatives of the new <i>régime</i> in +costume'—are no other than the Happy Jacks <i>redivivi</i>—Mrs J. and the +girls donning the transatlantic attire, and Happy Jack himself +delivering a lecture upon the vagaries of fashion and the +inconsistencies of dress, in a new garment invented by himself, and +combining the Roman toga with the Highland kilt.</p> +<br /> + + +<hr /> +<h2><a name="THE_DESERT_HOME1" id="THE_DESERT_HOME1">THE DESERT HOME.</a> +<a name="FNanchor_1_1" id="FNanchor_1_1"></a><a href="#Footnote_1_1" class="fnanchor">[1]</a></h2> + +<p class="returnTOC"><a href="#Contents">Return to Table of + Contents</a></p> + +<p><span class="sc">Robinson Crusoe</span> is the parent of a line of fictions, all more or less +entertaining; but those of our own day, as might be expected, share +largely in the practical spirit of the time, making amusement in some +degree the mere menstruum of information. Following the Swiss Family +Robinson, we have here an English Family Robinson, which might as well +be called an American Family Robinson; and although ostensibly meant +for the holiday recreation of youth, it proves to be a production +equally well suited for children of six feet and upwards. The author +is personally familiar with the scenes he describes, and is thus able +to give them a verisimilitude +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page68" id="page68"></a>[pg 68]</span> +which in other circumstances can be +attained only by the rarest genius; and notwithstanding the +associations, of his last book, the <i>Scalp-hunters</i>, there is only one +bloody conflict in the present one fought by animals of the genus +Homo.</p> + +<p>The local habitation of the lost family is a nook in the Great +American Desert—a nook in a desert twenty-five times the size of +England! But this wilderness of about a million square miles is not +all sand or all barren earth: it contains numerous other features of +interest besides mountains and oases; it includes the country of New +Mexico, with its towns and cities; the country round the Great Salt +and Utah Lakes, where the germ of a Mormon nation is expanding on all +sides; and it is traversed in its whole breadth by the Rocky +Mountains. An English family, after being ruined in St Louis, and +reduced to their last hundred pounds, are persuaded by a Scottish +miner to accompany him across this desert to New Mexico. 'They are a +wonderful people,' says the story-teller, 'these same Scotch. They are +but a small nation, yet their influence is felt everywhere upon the +globe. Go where you will, you will find them in positions of trust and +importance—always prospering, yet, in the midst of prosperity, still +remembering, with strong feelings of attachment, the land of their +birth. They manage the marts of London, the commerce of India, the +fur-trade of America, and the mines of Mexico. Over all the American +wilderness you will meet them, side by side with the backwoods-pioneer +himself, and even pushing him from his own ground. From the Gulf of +Mexico to the Arctic Sea, they have impressed with their Gaelic names +rock, river, and mountain; and many an Indian tribe owns a Scotchman +for its chief.'</p> + +<p>The adventurers join a caravan, which is attacked by Indians, and the +family of the destined Robinson find themselves alone in the +wilderness, 800 miles from the American frontier on the east, 1000 +miles from any civilised settlement on either the north or south, and +200 miles from the farthest advanced lines of New Mexico in the +desert. They are, in short, lost; but in due time they are found again +by other explorers. These strangers are standing on the edge of a +cliff several hundred feet sheer down. 'Away below—far below where we +were—lay a lovely valley, smiling in all the luxuriance of bright +vegetation. It was of nearly an oval shape, bounded upon all sides by +a frowning precipice, that rose around it like a wall. Its length +could not have been less than ten miles, and its greatest breadth +about half of its length. We were at its upper end, and of course +viewed it lengthwise. Along the face of the precipice there were trees +hanging out horizontally, and some of them even growing with their +tops downward. These trees were cedars and pines; and we could +perceive also the knotted limbs of huge cacti protruding from the +crevices of the rocks. We could see the wild mezcal, or maguey-plant, +growing against the cliff—its scarlet leaves contrasting finely with +the dark foliage of the cedars and cacti. Some of these plants stood +out on the very brow of the overhanging precipice, and their long +curving blades gave a singular character to the landscape. Along the +face of the dark cliffs all was rough, and gloomy, and picturesque. +How different was the scene below! Here everything looked soft, and +smiling, and beautiful. There were broad stretches of woodland, where +the thick foliage of the trees met and clustered together, so that it +looked like the surface of the earth itself; but we knew it was only +the green leaves, for here and there were spots of brighter green, +that we saw were glades covered with grassy turf. The leaves of the +trees were of different colours, for it was now late in the autumn. +Some were yellow, and some of a deep claret colour: some were +bright-red, and some of a beautiful maroon; and there were green, and +brighter green, and others of a silvery-whitish hue. All these colours +were mingled together, and blended into each other, like the flowers +upon a rich carpet. Near the centre of the valley was a large shining +object, which we knew to be water. It was evidently a lake of crystal +purity, and smooth as a mirror. The sun was now up to meridian height, +and his yellow beams falling upon its surface caused it to gleam like +a sheet of gold. We could not trace the outlines of the water, for the +trees partially hid it from our view, but we saw that the smoke that +had at first attracted us rose up somewhere from the western shore of +the lake.' In this strange oasis they found what appeared to be a snug +farm-house, with stables and outhouses, garden and fields, horses and +cattle. Here they were hospitably entertained by the proprietor, his +wife, and two sons, and served by a faithful negro; and of course it +is the history of the settlers, and their struggles, expedients, and +contrivances which form the staple of the work.</p> + +<p>In this history we have the process of building a log-house, and the +usual modes of assembling round the squatter such of the comforts of +life as may be obtained in the desert; but our family Robinson appears +to have been the most ingenious as well as the most fortunate of +adventurers, for there are very few, even of the luxuries of civilised +society, which are beyond his reach. The natural history of the book, +however, is its main feature; and the adventures of the lost family +with the unreasoning denizens of the desert remind us not unfrequently +of the pictures of Audubon. This is among the earliest:—'There were +high cliffs fronting us, and along the face of these five large +reddish objects were moving, so fast that I at first thought they were +birds upon the wing. After watching them a moment, however, I saw that +they were quadrupeds; but so nimbly did they go, leaping from ledge to +ledge, that it was impossible to see their limbs. They appeared to be +animals of the deer species, somewhat larger than sheep or goats; but +we could see that, in place of antlers, each of them had a pair of +huge curving horns. As they leaped downward, from one platform of the +cliffs to another, we fancied that they whirled about in the air, as +though they were "turning somersaults," and seemed at times to come +down heads foremost! There was a spur of the cliff that sloped down to +within less than a hundred yards of the place where we sat. It ended +in an abrupt precipice, of some sixty or seventy feet in height above +the plain. The animals, on reaching the level of this spur, ran along +it until they had arrived at its end. Seeing the precipice, they +suddenly stopped, as if to reconnoitre it; and we had now a full view +of them, as they stood outlined against the sky, with their graceful +limbs and great curved horns, almost as large as their bodies. We +thought, of course, they could get no farther for the precipice, and I +was calculating whether my rifle, which I had laid hold of, would +reach them at that distance. All at once, to our astonishment, the +foremost sprang out from the cliff, and whirling through the air, lit +upon his head on the hard plain below! We could see that he came down +upon his horns, and rebounding up again to the height of several feet, +he turned a second somersault, and then dropped upon his legs, and +stood still! Nothing daunted, the rest followed, one after the other, +in quick succession, like so many street-tumblers; and, like them, +after the feat had been performed, the animals stood for a moment, as +if waiting for applause!' These were the <i>argali</i>, or wild sheep, +popularly termed bighorns, and resembling an immense yellow goat or +deer furnished with a pair of ram's horns.</p> + +<p>Such are the anecdotes which the reader will find thickly scattered +throughout this volume; but perhaps the most interesting are a series +of conflicts witnessed by the father and one of the sons, and in the +course of which they are themselves exposed to some danger. They had +gone out to gather from the live oaks a kind +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page69" id="page69"></a>[pg 69]</span> +of moss, which they +found to be quite equal to curled hair for stuffing mattresses; and +while perched upon one of the trees, the drama opened by the violent +scolding of a pair of orioles, or Baltimore birds—so called from +their colour, a mixture of black and orange, being the same as that in +the coat-of-arms of Lord Baltimore. The cause of the disturbance +appeared to be a nondescript animal close to the edge of the thicket, +with a variety of little legs, tails, heads, ears, and eyes stuck over +its body. 'All at once the numerous heads seemed to separate from the +main body, becoming little bodies of themselves, with long tails upon +them, and looking just like a squad of white rats! The large body to +which they had all been attached we now saw was an old female opossum, +and evidently the mother of the whole troop. She was about the size of +a cat, and covered with woolly hair of a light gray colour.... The +little 'possums were exact pictures of their mother—all having the +same sharp snouts and long naked tails. We counted no less than +thirteen of them, playing and tumbling about among the leaves.' The +old 'possum looked wistfully up at the nest of the orioles, hanging +like a distended stocking from the topmost twigs of the tree. After a +little consideration she uttered a sharp note, which brought the +little ones about her in a twinkling. 'Several of them ran into the +pouch which she had caused to open for them; two of them took a turn +of their little tails around the root of hers, and climbed up on her +rump, almost burying themselves in her long wool; while two or three +others fastened themselves about her neck and shoulders. It was a most +singular sight to see the little creatures holding on with "tails, +teeth, and toe-nails," while some peeped comically out of the great +breast-pocket.' Burdened in this way, she climbed the tree, and then +taking hold of the young 'possums, one by one, with her mouth, she +made them twist their tails round a branch, and hang with their heads +downwards. 'Five or six of the "kittens" were still upon the ground. +For these she returned, and taking them up as before, again climbed +the tree. She disposed of the second load precisely as she had done +the others, until the thirteen little possums hung head downwards +along the branch like a string of candles!'</p> + +<p>The mother now climbed higher up; but the nest, with its tempting +eggs, hung beyond her reach; and although she suspended herself by the +tail—at last almost by its very tip—and swung like a pendulum, +clutching as she swung, it was all in vain. At length, with a bitter +snarl, she gave up the adventure as hopeless, detached the young ones +from their hold, flung them testily to the ground, and descending, +took them all into her pouch and upon her back, and trudged away. +'Frank and I now deemed it proper to interfere, and cut off the +retreat of the old 'possum: so, dropping from our perch, we soon +overtook and captured the whole family. The old one, on first seeing +us approach, rolled herself into a round clump, so that neither her +head nor legs could be seen, and in this attitude feigned to be quite +dead. Several of the youngsters who were <i>outside</i>, immediately +detached themselves, and imitated the example of their mother—so that +the family now presented the appearance of a large ball of whitish +wool, with several smaller "clews" lying around it!' The family +Crusoes, however, were not to be cheated: they took the whole +prisoners, intending to carry them home; and making the mother fast to +one of the saplings, returned to their tree.</p> + +<p>Soon the persecuted orioles began to scream and scold as before. Their +enemy this time was a huge moccason, one of the most venomous of +serpents. 'It was one of the largest of its species; and its great +flat head, protruding sockets, and sparkling eyes, added to the +hideousness of its appearance. Every now and then, as it advanced, it +threw out its forked tongue, which, moist with poisonous saliva, +flashed under the sunbeam like jets of fire. It was crawling directly +for the tree on which hung the nest.' The birds seemed to think he +meant to climb to their nest, and descended in rage and terror to the +lower branches. 'The snake, seeing them approach almost within range +of his hideous maw, gathered himself into a coil, and prepared to +strike. His eyes scintillated like sparks of fire, and seemed to +fascinate the birds; for instead of retiring, they each moment drew +nearer and nearer, now alighting on the ground, then flapping back to +the branches, and anon darting to the ground again—as though they +were under some spell from those fiery eyes, and were unable to take +themselves away. Their motions appeared to grow less energetic, their +chirping became almost inaudible, and their wings seemed hardly to +expand as they flew, or rather fluttered, around the head of the +serpent. One of them at length dropped down upon the ground within +reach of the snake, and stood with open bill, as if exhausted, and +unable to move farther. We were expecting to see the snake suddenly +launch forth upon his feathered victim; when all at once his coils +flew out, his body was thrown at full length, and he commenced +retreating from the tree!' The object that caused this diversion was +soon visible. 'It was an animal about the size of a wolf, and of a +dark-gray or blackish colour. Its body was compact, round-shaped, and +covered, not with hair, but with shaggy bristles, that along the ridge +of its back were nearly six inches in length, and gave it the +appearance of having a mane. It had very short ears, no tail whatever, +or only a knob; and we could see that its feet were hoofed, not clawed +as in beasts of prey. But whether beast of prey or not, its long +mouth, with two white tusks protruding over the jaws, gave it a very +formidable appearance. Its head and nose resembled those of the hog +more than any other animal; and in fact it was nothing else than the +peccary—the wild hog of Mexico.'</p> + +<p>The moccason did not wait to parley with his enemy, but skulked away +through the long grass, every now and then raising his head to glare +behind him. But the peccary tracked him by the smell, and on coming up +to him, uttered a shrill grunt. 'The snake, finding that he was +overtaken, threw himself into a coil, and prepared to give battle; +while his antagonist, now looking more like a great porcupine than a +pig, drew back, as if to take the advantage of a run; and then halted. +Both for a moment eyed each other—the peccary evidently calculating +its distance—while the great snake seemed cowed and quivering with +affright. Its appearance was entirely different from the bright +semblance it had exhibited but a moment before when engaged with the +birds. Its eyes were less fiery, and its whole body seemed more ashy +and wrinkled. We had not many moments to observe it, for the peccary +was now seen to rush forward, spring high into the air, and pounce +down with all her feet held together upon the coils of the serpent! +She immediately bounded back again; and, quick as thought, once more +rose above her victim. The snake was now uncoiled, and writhing over +the ground. Another rush from the peccary, another spring, and the +sharp hoofs of the animal came down upon the neck of the serpent, +crushing it upon the hard turf. The body of the reptile, distended to +its full length, quivered for a moment, and then lay motionless along +the grass. The victor uttered another sharp cry, that seemed intended +as a call to her young ones, who, emerging from the weeds where they +had concealed themselves, ran nimbly forward to the spot.'</p> + +<p>While the father and son are watching the peccary peeling the serpent +as adroitly as a fishmonger would skin an eel, another actor enters +upon the scene. This was the dreaded cougar, an animal of the size of +a calf, and with the head and general appearance of a cat. Creeping +stealthily round his victim, who is busy +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page70" id="page70"></a>[pg 70]</span> +feasting on the quarry, he +at length attains the proper vantage-ground, and gathering himself up +like a cat, springs with a terrific scream upon the back of the +peccary, burying his claws in her neck, and clasping her all over in +his fatal embrace. 'The frightened animal uttered a shrill cry, and +struggled to free itself. Both rolled over the ground—the peccary all +the while gnashing its jaws, and continuing to send forth its strange +sharp cries, until the woods echoed again. Even the young ones ran +around, mixing in the combat—now flung sprawling upon the earth, now +springing up again, snapping their little jaws, and imitating the cry +of their mother. The cougar alone fought in silence. Since the first +wild scream not a sound had escaped him; but from that moment his +claws never relaxed their hold, and we could see that with his teeth +he was silently tearing the throat of his victim.'</p> + +<p>The Robinsons of the desert were now in an awkward predicament; for +although they had been safe from the peccary, the cougar could climb a +tree like a squirrel. A noise, however, disturbs him from his meal, +and swinging the dead animal on his back, he begins to skulk away. But +he is interrupted before he can reach cover; and as the new-comers +prove to be twenty or thirty peccaries, summoned to the field by the +dying screams of their comrade, he has more to do than to think of his +dinner. To fling down his burden, to leap upon the foremost of his +enemies, is but the work of an instant; but the avengers crowd round +him with their gnashing jaws and piercing cries, and the brute darts +up the tree like a flash of red fire, and crouches not twenty feet +above the heads of the horrified spectators! The father, however, +after some agonising moments of deliberation, brings him down with his +rifle; and the cougar, falling among the eager crowd below, is torn to +pieces in a moment. But this does not get rid of the peccaries, who +set up their fiendish screams anew as they discover two other victims +in the tree. The father fires again and again, dropping his peccary +each time, till five lie dead upon the ground; but the rage of the +rest only becomes more and more furious—and the marksman is at his +last bullet. Here we shall leave him; and such of our readers as may +be interested in his fate—who form, we suspect, a very handsome +percentage on the whole—may make inquiries for themselves at his +Desert Home.</p> + +<div class="footnotes"><h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_1_1" id="Footnote_1_1"></a><a href="#FNanchor_1_1"><span class="label">[1]</span></a> Or the Adventures of a Lost Family in the Wilderness. By +Captain Mayne Reid. London: Bogue. 1852.</p></div> +</div> +<br /> + +<hr /> +<h2><a name="THE_VATTEVILLE_RUBY" id="THE_VATTEVILLE_RUBY">THE VATTEVILLE RUBY.</a></h2> + +<p class="returnTOC"><a href="#Contents">Return to Table of + Contents</a></p> + +<p><span class="sc">The</span> clock of the church of Besançon had struck nine, when a woman +about fifty years of age, wrapped in a cotton shawl and carrying a +small basket on her arm, knocked at the door of a house in the Rue St +Vincent, which, however, at the period we refer to, bore the name of +Rue de la Liberté. The door opened. 'It is you, Dame Margaret,' said +the porter, with a very cross look. 'It is high time for you. All my +lodgers have come home long since; you are always the last, and'——</p> + +<p>'That is not my fault, I assure you, my dear M. Thiebaut,' said, the +old woman in a deprecatory tone. 'My day's work is only just finished, +and when work is to be done'——</p> + +<p>'That's all very fine,' he muttered. 'It might do well enough if I +could even reckon on a Christmas-box at the end of the year; but as it +is, I may count myself well off, if I do but get paid for taking up +their letters.'</p> + +<p>The old woman did not hear the last words, for with quick and firm +step she had been making her way up the six flights of stairs, steep +enough to make her head reel had she been ascending them for the first +time. 'Nine o'clock!—nine o'clock! How uneasy she must be!' and as +she spoke, she opened with her latch-key the door of a wretched +garret, in which dimly burned a rushlight, whose flickering flame +scarcely seemed to render visible the scanty furniture the room +contained.</p> + +<p>'Is that you, my good Margaret?' said a feeble and broken voice from +the farther end of the little apartment.</p> + +<p>'Yes, my dear lady; yes, it is I; and very sorry I am to have made you +uneasy. But Madame Lebriton, my worthy employer, is so active herself, +that she always finds the workwoman's day too short—though it is good +twelve hours—and just as I was going to fold up my work, she brought +me a job in a great hurry. I could not refuse her; but this time, I +must own, I got well paid for being obliging, for after I had done, +she said in her most good-natured way: "Here, you shall take home with +you some of this nice pie, and this bottle of good wine, and have a +comfortable supper with your sister." So she always calls you, +madame,' added Margaret, while complacently glancing at the basket, +the contents of which she now laid out upon the table. 'As I believe +it is safest for you, I do not undeceive her, though it is easily +known she cannot have looked very close at us, or she might have seen +that I could only be the servant of so noble-looking a lady'——</p> + +<p>The feeble voice interrupted her: 'My servant!—you my servant! when, +instead of rewarding your services, I allow you to toil for my +support, and to lavish upon me the most tender, the most devoted +affection! My poor Margaret! you who have undertaken for me at your +age, and with your infirmities, daily and arduous toil, are you not +indeed a sister of whom I may well be proud? Your nobility has a +higher origin than mine. Reduced by political changes, which have left +me homeless and penniless, I owe everything to you; and so tenderly do +you minister to me, that even in this garret I could still almost +fancy myself the noble Abbess of Vatteville!'</p> + +<p>As she spoke, the aged lady raised herself in her old arm-chair, and +throwing back a black veil, disclosed features still beautiful, and a +forehead still free from every wrinkle, and eyes now sparkling with +something of their former brilliancy. She extended her hand to +Margaret, who affectionately kissed it; and then, apprehensive that +further excitement could not but be injurious to her mistress, the +faithful creature endeavoured to divert her thoughts into another +channel, by inviting her to partake of the little feast provided by +the kindness of her employer. Margaret being in the habit of taking +her meals in the house where she worked, the noble Lady Marie Anne +Adelaide de Vatteville was thus usually left alone and unattended, to +eat the scanty fare prescribed by the extreme narrowness of her +resources; so that she now felt quite cheered by the novel comfort, +not merely of the better-spread table, but of the company of her +faithful servant; and it was in an almost mirthful tone she said, when +the repast was ended: 'Margaret, I have a secret to confide to you. I +will not—I ought not to keep it any longer to myself.'</p> + +<p>'A secret, my dear mistress! a secret from me!' exclaimed the faithful +creature in a slightly reproachful tone.</p> + +<p>'Yes, dear Margaret, a secret from you; but to be so no longer. No +more henceforth of the toils you have undergone for me; they must be +given up: I cannot do without you. At my age, to be left alone is +intolerable. When you are not near me, I get so lonely, and sometimes +feel quite afraid, I cannot tell of what, but I suppose it is natural +to the old to fear; and often—will you believe it?—I catch myself +weeping like a very child. Ah! when age comes on us, we lose all + +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page71" id="page71"></a>[pg 71]</span> +strength, all fortitude. But you will not leave me any more? Promise +me, dear Margaret.'</p> + +<p>'But in that case what is to become of us?' said Margaret.</p> + +<p>'This is the very thing I have to tell. And now listen to me. Take +this key, and in the right-hand drawer of the press you will find the +green casket, where, among my letters and family papers, you will see +a small case, which bring to me.'</p> + +<p>Margaret, not a little surprised, did as she was desired. The abbess +gazed on the case for some moments in silence, and Margaret thought +she saw a tear glisten in her eye as she pressed the box to her lips, +and kissed it tenderly and reverentially.</p> + +<p>'I have sworn,' she said, 'never to part with it; yet what can I do? +It must be so: it is the will of God.' And with a trembling hand, as +if about to commit sacrilege, she opened the case, and drew from it a +ruby of great brilliancy and beauty. 'You see this jewel?' she said. +'Margaret, it is the glory of my ancient house; it is the last gem in +my coronet, and more precious in my eyes than anything in the world. +My grand-uncle, the noblest of men, the Archbishop of Besançon, +brought it from the East; and when, in guerdon for some-family +service, Louis XIV. founded the Abbey of Vatteville, and made my +grand-aunt the first abbess of the order, he himself adorned her cross +with it. You now know the value of the jewel to me; and though I +cannot tell its marketable value, still, notwithstanding the pressure +of the times, I cannot but think it must bring sufficient to secure +us, for some time at least, from want. "Were I to consider myself +alone, I would starve sooner than touch the sacred deposit; but to +allow you, Margaret, to suffer, and to suffer for me—to take +advantage any longer of your disinterested affection and devoted +fidelity—would be base selfishness. God has at last taught me that I +was but sacrificing you to my pride, and I must hasten to make +atonement. I will endeavour to raise money on this jewel. You know old +M. Simon? Notwithstanding his mean appearance and humble mode of +living, I am persuaded he is a rich man; and though parsimonious in +the extreme, he is good-natured and obliging whenever he can be so +without any risk of loss to himself.'</p> + +<p>The next day, in pursuance of her project, the abbess, accompanied by +Margaret, repaired to the house of M. Simon. 'I know, sir,' she said, +'from your kindness to some friends of mine, that you feel an interest +in the class to which I belong, and that you are incapable of +betraying a confidence reposed in you. I am the Abbess of Vatteville. +Driven forth from the plundered and ruined abbey, I am living in the +town under an assumed name. I have been stripped of everything; and +but for the self-sacrificing attachment of a faithful servant, I must +have died of want. However, I have still one resource, and only one. I +know not if I am right in availing myself of it, but at my age the +power to struggle fails. Besides, do not suffer alone; and this +consideration decides me. Will you, then, have the goodness to give me +a loan on this jewel?'</p> + +<p>'I believe, madame, you have mistaken me for a pawnbroker. I am not in +the habit of advancing money in this way. I am myself very poor, and +money is now everywhere scarce. I should be very glad to be able to +oblige you, but just at present it is quite out of the question.'</p> + +<p>For a moment the poor abbess felt all hope extinct; but with a last +effort to move his compassion, she said: 'Oh, sir, remember that +secrecy is of such importance to me, I dare not apply to any one else. +The privacy, the obscurity in which I live, alone has prevented me +from paying with my blood the penalty attached to a noble name and +lineage.'</p> + +<p>'But how am I to ascertain the value of the jewel? I am no jeweller; +and I fear, in my ignorance, to wrong either you or myself.'</p> + +<p>'I implore you, sir, not to refuse me. I have no alternative But to +starve; for I am too old to work, and beg I cannot. Keep the jewel as +a pledge, and give me some relief.'</p> + +<p>Old Simon, though covetous, was not devoid of feeling. He was touched +by the tears of the venerable lady; and besides, the more he looked at +the jewel, the more persuaded he became of its being really valuable. +After a few moments' consideration, he said: 'All the money I am worth +at this moment is 1500 francs; and though I have my suspicions that I +am making a foolish bargain, I had rather run any risk than leave you +in such distress. The next time I have business in Paris, I can +ascertain the value of the jewel, and if I have given you too little, +I will make it up to you.' And with, a glad and grateful heart the +abbess took home the 1500 francs, thankful at having obtained the +means of subsistence for at least a year.</p> + +<p>Some months later, old Simon went up to Paris, and hastening to one of +the principal jewellers, shewed the ruby, and begged to know its +value. The jeweller took the stone carelessly; but after a few +moments' examination of it, he cast a rapid glance at the threadbare +coat and mean appearance of the possessor, and then abruptly +exclaimed: 'This jewel does not belong to you, and you must not leave +the house till you account for its being in your possession. Close the +doors,' he said to his foreman, 'and send for the police.' In vain did +Simon protest his innocence; in vain did he offer every proof of it. +The lapidary would listen to nothing; but at every look he gave the +gem, he darted at him a fresh glance of angry contempt. 'You must be a +fool as well as a knave,' he said. 'Do you know, scoundrel, that this +is the Vatteville—the prince of rubies; the most splendid, the rarest +of gems. It might be deemed a mere creation of imagination, were it +not enrolled and accurately described in the archives of our art. See +here, in the <i>Guide des Lapidaires</i>, a print of it. Mark its antique +fashioning, and that dark spot!—yes, it is indeed the precious ruby +so long thought lost. Rest assured, fellow, you shall not quit the +house until you satisfy me how you have contrived to get possession of +it.'</p> + +<p>'I should at once have told you, but from unwillingness to endanger +the life of a poor woman who has confided in me. I got the jewel from +the Abbess de Vatteville herself, and it is her last and only +resource.' And now M. Simon proved, by unquestionable documents, that +notwithstanding his more than humble appearance, he was a man of +wealth and respectability, and received the apologies which were +tendered, together with assurances that Madame Vatteville's secret was +safe with one who, he begged to say,'knew how to respect misfortune, +whenever and however presented to his notice.'</p> + +<p>'But what is the jewel worth?' asked M. Simon.</p> + +<p>'Millions, sir! and neither I nor any one else in the trade here could +purchase it, unless as a joint concern, and in case of a coronation or +a marriage in one of the royal houses of Europe, for such an occasion +alone could make it not a risk to buy it. But meanwhile I will, if you +wish, mention it to some of the trade.'</p> + +<p>'I am in no hurry,' said Simon, almost bewildered by the possession of +such a treasure. 'I may as well wait for some such occasion, and in +the meantime can make any necessary advances to the abbess. Perhaps I +may call on you again.'</p> + +<p>The first day of the year 1795 had just dawned, and there was a thick +and chilling fog. The abbess and her faithful servant felt this day +more than usually depressed, for fifteen months had now elapsed since +the 1500 francs had been received for the ruby, and there now remained +provision only for a few days longer. 'I have got no answer from M. +Simon,' said the +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page72" id="page72"></a>[pg 72]</span> +abbess; and in giving utterance to her own thought, +she was replying to what was at that moment passing through Margaret's +mind. 'I fear he has not been able to get more for the ruby than he +thinks fair interest for the money he advanced to me.'</p> + +<p>'It is most likely,' said Margaret; and both relapsed into their +former desponding silence.</p> + +<p>'What a dreary New-Year's Day!' resumed Madame de Vatteville, in a +melancholy tone.</p> + +<p>'Oh, why can I not help you, dear mistress?' exclaimed Margaret, +suddenly starting from her reverie. 'Cheerfully would I lay down my +life for you!'</p> + +<p>'And why can I not return in any way your devoted attachment, my poor +Margaret?'</p> + +<p>At this instant, two loud and hurried knocks at the door startled them +both from their seats, and it was with a trembling hand Margaret +opened it to admit the old porter, and a servant with a letter in his +hand.</p> + +<p>'Thank you, thank you, M. Thiebaut: this letter is for my mistress.' +But the inquisitive old man either did not or would not understand +Margaret's hint to him to retire, and Madame de Vatteville was obliged +to tell him to leave the room.</p> + +<p>'Not a penny to bless herself with, though she has come to a better +apartment!' muttered he, enraged at the disappointment to his +curiosity—'and yet as proud as an aristocrat!'</p> + +<p>The abbess approached the casement, broke the seal with trembling +hand, and read as follows:—</p> + +<blockquote> +<p>'I have at length been able to treat with a merchant for the + article in question, and have, after much difficulty, + obtained a sum of 25,000 francs—far beyond anything I could + have hoped. But the sum is to be paid in instalments, at + long intervals. It may therefore be more convenient for you, + under your peculiar circumstances, to accept the offer I now + make of a pension of 1500 francs, to revert after your + decease to the servant whom you mentioned as so devotedly + attached to you. If you are willing to accept this offer, + the bearer will hand you the necessary documents, by which + you are to make over to me all further claim upon the + property placed in my hands; and on your affixing your + signature, he will pay you the first year in advance.</p> + +<p class="author-up">Simon.'</p> +</blockquote> + +<p>'What a worthy, excellent man!' joyfully exclaimed the abbess; for, in +the noble integrity of her heart, she had no suspicion that he could +take advantage of her circumstances.</p> + +<p>However Simon settled the matter with his conscience, the abbess, +trained in the school of adversity to be content with being preserved +from absolute want, passed the remainder of her life quietly and +happily with her good Margaret, both every day invoking blessings on +the head of him whom they regarded as a generous benefactor. Madame de +Vatteville lived to the age of one hundred, and her faithful Margaret +survived only a few months the mistress to whom she had given such +affecting proofs of attachment.</p> + +<p>But Simon's detestable fraud proved of no use to him. After keeping +his treasure for several years, he thought the Emperor's coronation +presented a favourable opportunity for disposing of it. Unfortunately +for him, his grasping avarice one morning suggested a thought which +his ignorance prevented his rejecting: 'Since this ruby—old-fashioned +and stained as it is—can be worth so much, what would be its value if +freed from all defect, and in modern setting?' And he soon found a +lapidary, who, for a sum of 3000 francs, modernised it, and effaced +the spot, and with it the impress, the stamp of its antiquity—all +that gave it value, beauty, worth! This wanting, no jeweller could +recognise it: it was no longer worth a thousand crowns.</p> + +<p>It was thus that the most splendid ruby in Europe lost its value and +its fame; and its name is now only to be found in <i>The Lapidaries' +Guide</i>, as that which had once been the most costly of gems. It seemed +as if it could not survive the last of the illustrious house to which +it owed its introduction into Europe, and its name.</p> +<br /> + + +<hr /> +<h2><a name="HENRY_TAYLOR" id="HENRY_TAYLOR">HENRY TAYLOR.</a></h2> + +<p class="returnTOC"><a href="#Contents">Return to Table of + Contents</a></p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span>'There is delight in singing, though none hear<br /></span> +<span>Beside the singer: and there is delight<br /></span> +<span>In praising, though the praiser sit alone,<br /></span> +<span>And see the praised far off him, far above.'<br /></span> +<span class="i13">—<span class="sc">W.S. Landor.</span><br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p><span class="sc">It</span> has been said, with more of truth than flattery, that literature of +any kind which requires the reader himself to think, in order to +enjoy, can never be popular. The writings of Mr Henry Taylor are to be +classed in this category. The reader of his dramas must study in order +to relish them; and their audience, therefore, must be of the fit, +though few kind. Goethe somewhere remarks, that it is not what we take +from a book so much as what we bring to it that actually profits us. +But this is hard doctrine, caviare to the multitude. And so long as +popular indolence and popular distaste for habits of reflection shall +continue the order of the day, so long will it be difficult for +writers of Mr Taylor's type to popularise their meditations; to see +themselves quoted in every provincial newspaper and twelfth-rate +magazine; to be gloriously pirated by eager hordes at Brussels and New +York; or to create a furor in 'the Row' on the day of publication, and +turn bibliopolic premises into 'overflowing houses.' The public asks +for glaring effects, palpable hits, double-dyed colours, treble X +inspirations, concentrated essence of sentiments, and emotions up to +French-romance pitch. With such a public, what has our author in +common? While <i>they</i> make literary demands after their own heart, and +expect every candidate for their <i>not</i> evergreen laurels to conform to +their rules, Mr Taylor calmly unfolds his theory, that it is from +'deep self-possession, an intense repose' that all genuine emanations +of poetic genius proceed, and expresses his doubt whether any high +endeavour of poetic art ever has been or ever will be promoted by the +stimulation of popular applause.<a name="FNanchor_2_2" id="FNanchor_2_2"></a><a href="#Footnote_2_2" class="fnanchor">[2]</a> He denies that youth is the poet's +prime. He contends that what constitutes a great poet is a rare and +peculiar balance of all the faculties—the balance of reason with +imagination, passion with self-possession, abundance with reserve, and +inventive conception with executive ability. He insists that no man is +worthy of the name of a poet who would not rather be read a hundred +times by one reader than once by a hundred. He affirms that poetry, +unless written simply to please and pamper, and not to elevate or +instruct, will do little indeed towards procuring its writer a +subsistence, and that it will probably not even yield him such a +return as would suffice to support a labouring man for one month out +of the twelve.<a name="FNanchor_3_3" id="FNanchor_3_3"></a><a href="#Footnote_3_3" class="fnanchor">[3]</a> Tenets like these are not for the million. The +propounder they regard as talking at them, not to them. His principles +and practice, his canons of taste, and his literary achievements, are +far above out of their sight—his merit they are content to take on +trust, by the hearing of the ear, a mystery of faith alone.</p> + +<p>Perhaps men shrewder than good Sir Roger de Coverley might aver that +much is to be said on both sides—that there may be something of +fallacy on the part of poet as well as people in this controversy. It +is possible to set the standard too high as well as too low—to plant +it on an elevation so distant that its symbol can no longer be +deciphered, as well as to fix it so low that its folds draggle in mire +and dust. If genius systematically appeal only to the initiated few, +it must learn to do without the homage of the outer +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page73" id="page73"></a>[pg 73]</span> +multitude. For +its slender income of fame, it has mainly itself to thank. These +remarks apply with primary force to that class of contemporary poets +who delight in the mystic and enigmatical, and whose ideas are so apt +to vanish, like Homer's heroes, in a cloud—among whom Robert Browning +and Philip J. Bailey are conspicuous names; and in a secondary degree +to that other class, lucid indeed in thought, and classically definite +in expression, but otherwise too scholastic and abstract for popular +sympathies—among whom we may cite Walter Savage Landor and Henry +Taylor. Coleridge<a name="FNanchor_4_4" id="FNanchor_4_4"></a><a href="#Footnote_4_4" class="fnanchor">[4]</a> tells us that, to enjoy poetry, we must combine a +more than ordinary sympathy with the objects, emotions, or incidents +contemplated by the poet, consequent on rare sensibility, with a more +than ordinary activity of the mind in respect of the fancy and +imagination. This more than ordinary mental activity is especially +demanded from the readers—say rather the students—of <i>Philip van +Artevelde</i> and its kindred dramas. Those who are thus equipped will +commonly be found to agree in admiring the writings of this author; +among them he is unquestionably 'popular,' if it be any test of +popularity to send forth a second edition three months after the +first. Scholarship can appreciate, pure intellect can find nutriment +in, his reflective and carefully-wrought pages. His heroes and +heroines, cold and unimpassioned to the man of society, are classic +and genial to the man of thought. A Quarterly Reviewer observes, that +the blended dignity of thought, and a sedate moral habit, invests his +poetry with a stateliness in which the drama is generally deficient, +and makes his writings illustrate, in some degree, a new form of the +art. In all that he writes he stands revealed the true English +gentleman, 'that grand old name,' as Tennyson calls it,</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span>Defamed by every charlatan,<br /></span> +<span>And soiled with all ignoble use.'<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p><i>Isaac Comnenus</i>—in which a recent critic discovers much of that +Byronian vein upon which Mr Taylor is severe in his own +criticisms—being little remarkable in itself, as well as the least +remarkable of his dramatic performances, need not detain us. The +career of <i>Philip van Artevelde</i> belongs to an era when, as Sir James +Stephen remarks, the whole of Europe, under the influence of some +strange sympathy, was agitated by the simultaneous discontents of all +her great civic populations—when the insurgent spirit, commencing in +the Italian republics, had spread from the south to the north of the +Alps, everywhere marking its advance by tumult, spoil, and bloodshed. +'Wat Tyler and his bands had menaced London; and the communes of +Flanders, under the command of Philip van Artevelde, had broken out +into open war with the counts, their seigneurs, and with their +suzerain lord, the Duke of Burgundy. On the issue of that attempt the +fate of the royal and baronial power seemed to hang in France, not +less than in Flanders.'<a name="FNanchor_5_5" id="FNanchor_5_5"></a><a href="#Footnote_5_5" class="fnanchor">[5]</a> The drama composed by Mr Taylor to +represent the fortunes of the 'Chief Captain of the White Hoods and of +Ghent,' consists of two plays and an interlude—<i>The Lay of +Elena</i>—and being, as he says in his preface, equal in length to about +six such plays as are adapted to the stage, was not, of course, +intended to solicit the most sweet voices of pit and gallery, +although it has since been subjected to that ordeal at the instance of +Mr Macready. Historic truth is said to be preserved in it, as far as +the material events are concerned—with the usual exception of such +occasional dilatations and compressions of time as are required in +dramatic composition. And notwithstanding the limited imagination and +the too artificial passion which characterise it, <i>Philip van +Artevelde</i> is in very many respects a noble work, as it certainly is +its author's chef-d'oeuvre. It has been pronounced by no mean +authority the superior of every dramatic composition of modern times, +including the <i>Sardanapalus</i> of Lord Byron, the <i>Remorse</i> of +Coleridge, and the <i>Cenci</i> of Shelley. The portraiture of Philip is +one of those elaborate and highly-finished studies which repay as well +as require minute investigation. He is at once profoundly meditative +and surpassingly active. His energy of brain is only rivalled by his +readiness of hand. In him the active mood and the passive—the +practical and the ideal—the objective and the subjective—are not as +parallel lines that never meet, but are sections of one line, +describing the circle of his all-embracing mind. His youth has been, +that of a dreamy recluse, the scorn of men of the world. 'Oh, fear him +not, my lord,' says one of them to the Earl of Flanders:</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i8">—'His father's name<br /></span> +<span>Is all that from his father<a name="FNanchor_6_6" id="FNanchor_6_6"></a><a href="#Footnote_6_6" class="fnanchor">[6]</a> he derives.<br /></span> +<span>He is a man of singular address<br /></span> +<span>In catching river fish. His life hath been<br /></span> +<span>Till now, more like a peasant's or a monk's,<br /></span> +<span>Than like the issue of so great a man.'<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>Similarly the earl himself describes him as 'a man that as much +knowledge has of war as I of brewing mead—a bookish nursling of the +monks—a meacock.' But when the last scene of all has closed his +strange eventful history, the testimony of a nobler, wiser foe,<a name="FNanchor_7_7" id="FNanchor_7_7"></a><a href="#Footnote_7_7" class="fnanchor">[7]</a> +ascribes to him great gifts of courage, discretion, wit, an equal +temper, an ample soul, rock-bound and fortified against assaults of +transitory passion, but founded on a surging subterranean fire that +stirs him to lofty enterprise—a man prompt, capable, and calm, +wanting nothing in soldiership except good-fortune. Ever tempted to +reverie, he yet refuses, even for one little hour, to yield up the +weal of Flanders to idle thought or vacant retrospect. Having once put +his hand to the plough of action, with clear foresight, not blindfold +bravery, his language is—'Though I indulge no more the dream of +living, as I hoped I might have lived, a life of temperate and +thoughtful joy, yet I repine not, and from this time forth will cast +no look behind.' The first part of the drama leaves him an exultant +victor, an honourable prosperous, and happy man. The second +part—which alike in interest and treatment is very inferior to the +first—finds him falling, and leaves him 'fallen, fallen, fallen, from +his high estate.' His sun, no longer trailing clouds of glory, sets in +a wintry and misty gloom. And yet in the act of dying he emits flashes +of the ancient brightness, and we feel that so dies a hero. The other +<i>dramatis personæ</i> pale their ineffectual fires before his central +light.</p> + +<p>After a silence of nearly ten years—characteristic of Mr Taylor's +deliberative and disciplined mind—he produced (1842) <i>Edwin the +Fair</i>, of whose story the little that was known, he observes, was +romantic enough to have impressed itself on the popular memory—the +tale of <i>Edwy and Elgiva</i> having been current in the nursery long +before it came to be studied as a historical question. In illustrating +this tale he borrows from the bordering reigns 'incidents which were +characteristic of the times,' though some are of opinion, that his +deviation from historical truth has rather impaired than aided the +poetical effect of the drama. With artistic skill, and often with +sustained energy, he develops the career of the 'All-Fair' prince, and +his relation to the monkish struggle of the tenth century; the hostile +intrigues and stormy violence of Dunstan; the loyal tenacity and Saxon +frank-heartedness of Earl Leolf and his allies; the celebrated +coronation-scene, and 'most admired disorder' of the banquet; the +discovery and denunciation of Edwin's secret nuptials; +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page74" id="page74"></a>[pg 74]</span> +his +imprisonment in the Tower of London; the confusion and dispersion of +his adherents; the ecclesiastical finesse and conjuror-tricks of +Dunstan; the king's rescue and temporary success; the murder of +Elgiva, and Edwin's own death in the essay to avenge her. It is around +Dunstan, the representative of spiritual despotism, that the interest +centres. The character of this 'Saint,' like that of Hildebrand and à +Becket, has been made one of the problems of history. Mr Taylor's +reading of the part is masterly, and we think correct. His Dunstan is +not wholly sane; he believes himself inspired to read the alphabet of +Heaven's stars, and to behold visions beyond the bounds of human +foresight; one of the few to whom, 'and not in mercy, is it given to +read the mixed celestial cypher: not in mercy, save as a penance +merciful in issue.' His mischievous influence over the popular mind is +sealed by the partial and latent degree of his insanity, for 'madness +that doth least declare itself endangers most, and ever most infects +the unsound many.' His great natural powers are tainted by the one +black spot; his youth has been devoted to books, to the study of +chemistry and mechanics; his manhood to observing 'the ways of men and +policies of state' in the court of Edred; 'and were he not pushed +sometimes past the confines of his reason, he would o'ertop the +world.' Next to him in interest comes Earl Leolf, from whose lips +proceed some of the finest poetry in the play, especially that +exquisite soliloquy<a name="FNanchor_8_8" id="FNanchor_8_8"></a><a href="#Footnote_8_8" class="fnanchor">[8]</a> on the sea-shore at Hastings. Athulf, the +brother of Elgiva, is another happy portrait—a man bright and jocund +as the morn, who can and will detect the springs of fruitfulness and +joy in earth's waste places, and whose bluff dislike of Dunstan is +aptly illustrated in the scene where he brings the king's commands, +and is kept waiting by the monks during Dunstan's matutinal +flagellation:—</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span><i>'Athulf.</i> But, sirs, it is in haste—in haste extreme—<br /></span> +<span>Matters of state, and hot with haste.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span><i>Second Monk</i>. My lord,<br /></span> +<span>We will so say, but truly at this present<br /></span> +<span>He is about to scourge himself.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span><i>Athulf</i>. + + I'll wait.<br /></span> +<span>For a king's ransom would I not cut short<br /></span> +<span>So good a work! I pray you, for how long?<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span><i>Second Monk</i>. For twice the <i>De Profundis</i>, sung in slow time.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span><i>Athulf</i>. Please him to make it ten times, I will wait.<br /></span> +<span>And could I be of use, this knotted trifle,<br /></span> +<span>This dog-whip here has oft been worse employed.'<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>In his recent play, <i>The Virgin Widow</i> (1850), Mr Taylor declines from +the promise of his earlier efforts. The preface suggests great things; +but they are not forthcoming. There is much careful finish, much +sententious rhetoric, much elegant description; but there is little of +racy humour (the play is a 'romantic comedy'), little of poetical +freshness, little of lively flesh and blood portraiture, and more of +melodramatic expedience than dramatic construction. Neither comedy nor +melodrama is our author's <i>forte</i>.</p> + +<p>In 1836 Mr Taylor published <i>The Statesman</i>, a book which contained +the 'views and maxims respecting the transaction of public business,' +which had been suggested to its author by twelve years' experience of +official life. He has since then allowed that it was wanting in that +general interest which might possibly have been felt in the results of +a more extensive and varied conversancy with public life.<a name="FNanchor_9_9" id="FNanchor_9_9"></a><a href="#Footnote_9_9" class="fnanchor">[9]</a> In 1848 +he produced <i>Notes from Life</i>, professedly a kind of supplemental +volume to the former, embodying the conclusions of an attentive +observation of life at large. The first essay investigates in detail +the right measure and manner to be adopted in getting, saving, +spending, giving, taking, lending, borrowing, and bequeathing 'money;' +and a weighty, valuable essay it is, with no lack of golden grains and +eke of diamond-dust in its composition. The thoughts are not given in +the bullion lump, but are well refined, and having passed through the +engraver's hands, they shine with the true polish, ring with the true +sound. In terse, pregnant, and somewhat oracular diction, we are here +instructed how to avoid the evils contingent upon bold commercial +enterprise—how to guard against excesses of the accumulative +instinct—how to exercise a thoroughly conscientious mode of +regulating expenditure, eschewing prodigality, that vice of a weak +nature, as avarice is of a strong one—how to be generous in giving; +'for the essence of generosity is in self-sacrifice, waste, on the +contrary, comes always by self-indulgence'—how to withstand +solicitations for loans, when the loans are to accommodate weak men in +sacrificing the future to the present. The essay on <i>Humility and +Independence</i> is equally good, and pleasantly demonstrates the +proposition, that Humility is the true mother of Independence; and +that Pride, which is so often supposed to stand to her in that +relation, is in reality the step-mother by whom is wrought the very +destruction and ruin of Independence. False humilities are ordered +into court, and summarily convicted by this single-eyed judge, whose +cross-examination of these 'sham respectabilities' elicits many a +suggestive practical truth. There is more of philosophy and prudence +than of romance in the excursus on <i>Choice in Marriage</i>; but the +philosophy is shrewd and instructive, uttering many a homely hint of +value in its way: as where we are reminded that if marrying <i>for</i> +money is to be justified only in the case of those unhappy persons who +are fit for nothing better, it does not follow that marrying <i>without</i> +money is to be justified in others; and again, that the negotiations +and transactions connected with marriage-settlements are eminently +useful, as searching character and testing affection, before an +irrevocable step be taken; and again, that when two very young persons +are joined together in matrimony, it is as if one sweet-pea should be +put as a prop to another. The essay on <i>Wisdom</i> is elevated and +thoughtful, like most of the essayist's papers, but somewhat too heavy +for miscellaneous readers. With his wonted clearness he distinguishes +Wisdom from understanding, talents, capacity, ability, sagacity, +sense, &c. and defines it as that exercise of the reason into which +the heart enters—a structure of the understanding rising out of the +moral and spiritual nature. Then follows a section on <i>Children</i>, +which explodes not a few educational fallacies, and propounds certain +articles of faith and practice wholesome for these times, though it +will probably wear a prim and quakerish aspect to the admirers of Jean +Paul's famous tractate<a name="FNanchor_10_10" id="FNanchor_10_10"></a><a href="#Footnote_10_10" class="fnanchor">[10]</a> on the same theme. The concluding paper in +this series, entitled <i>The Life Poetic</i>, is the liveliest, if not the +most valuable of the six: it has, however, been charged, with +considerable show of justice, with a tendency to strip genius of all +that is individual and spontaneous, or to accredit it only 'when it +moves abroad sedately, clad in the uniform of a peculiar college.' Mr +Taylor's 'solicitous and premeditated formalism' of poetical doctrine +is, it must +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page75" id="page75"></a>[pg 75]</span> +be confessed, a little too strait-laced. The true poet is +born, not made. Still, in their place, our author's dogmas have their +use, and might, if duly marked and inwardly digested, annually deter +many aspirants who are <i>not</i> poets from proving so incontestably to +the careless public that negative fact.</p> + +<p><i>Notes from Books</i> followed within a few months, but met with a less +cordial reception. Of the four essays comprised in this volume, three +are reprinted contributions to the <i>Quarterly Review</i>, being +criticisms on the poetry of Wordsworth and Aubrey de Vere; and +worthily do they illustrate—those on Wordsworth at least—Mr Taylor's +composite faculty of depth and delicacy in poetical exposition. Of +Wordsworth's many and gifted commentators—among them Wilson, +Coleridge, Hazlitt, De Quincey, Lamb, Moir, Sterling—few have shewn a +happier insight into the idiosyncrasy, or done more justice to the +beauties of the patriarch of the Lakes. With Wordsworth for a subject, +and the <i>Quarterly Review</i> for a 'door of utterance,' Mr Taylor is +quite in his element. The fourth essay, on the <i>Ways of the Rich and +Great</i>, is enriched with wise saws and modern instances. Its +<i>matériel</i> is composed of ripe observation and reflective good sense; +but the manner is objected to as marred by conceits of style—a sin +not very safely to be committed by so stern a censor of it in others. +His authoritative air in laying down the law is also occasionally +unpleasing to some readers; and great as his tact in essay-writing is, +he wants that easy grace and pervading <i>bonhomie</i> which imparts such a +charm to the works of one with whom he has been erroneously +identified—the anonymous author of <i>Friends in Council</i>. But, after +all, he is one of those writers to whom our current literature is +really indebted, and whose sage, sententious, and well-hammered +thoughts may be profitably, as well as safely, commended to every +thinking soul among us.</p> + +<div class="footnotes"><h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_2_2" id="Footnote_2_2"></a><a href="#FNanchor_2_2"><span class="label">[2]</span></a> <i>Notes from Life.</i></p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_3_3" id="Footnote_3_3"></a><a href="#FNanchor_3_3"><span class="label">[3]</span></a> Ibid.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_4_4" id="Footnote_4_4"></a><a href="#FNanchor_4_4"><span class="label">[4]</span></a> <i>Literary Remains.</i></p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_5_5" id="Footnote_5_5"></a><a href="#FNanchor_5_5"><span class="label">[5]</span></a> <i>Lectures on the History of France.</i></p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_6_6" id="Footnote_6_6"></a><a href="#FNanchor_6_6"><span class="label">[6]</span></a> Namely, Jacques van Artevelde, 'the noblest and the +wisest man that ever ruled in Ghent,' and whom the factious citizens +slew at his own door.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_7_7" id="Footnote_7_7"></a><a href="#FNanchor_7_7"><span class="label">[7]</span></a> Duke of Burgundy, in the last scene of Part II.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_8_8" id="Footnote_8_8"></a><a href="#FNanchor_8_8"><span class="label">[8]</span></a> Beginning:— +</p> +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span>'Rocks that beheld my boyhood! Perilous shelf<br /></span> +<span>That nursed my infant courage! Once again<br /></span> +<span>I, stand before you—not as in other days<br /></span> +<span>In your gray faces smiling; but like you<br /></span> +<span>The worse for weather.'...<br /></span> +</div></div> +<p> +How sweet the lines:— +</p> +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span>The sun shall soon<br /></span> +<span>Dip westerly; but oh! how little like<br /></span> +<span>Are life's two twilights! Would the last were first,<br /></span> +<span>And the first last! that so we might he soothed<br /></span> +<span>Upon the thoroughfares of busy life<br /></span> +<span>Beneath the noon-day sun, with hope of joy<br /></span> +<span>Fresh as the morn,' &c.<br /></span> +<span class="i13">—<i>Act II. scene ii.</i><br /></span> +</div></div> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_9_9" id="Footnote_9_9"></a><a href="#FNanchor_9_9"><span class="label">[9]</span></a> Preface to <i>Notes from Life.</i></p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_10_10" id="Footnote_10_10"></a><a href="#FNanchor_10_10"><span class="label">[10]</span></a> <i>Levana</i>, of which an able translation was published by +Messrs Longman in 1848.</p></div> +</div> +<br /> + +<hr /> +<h2><a name="RAILWAY_JUBILEE_IN_AMERICA" id="RAILWAY_JUBILEE_IN_AMERICA">RAILWAY JUBILEE IN AMERICA.</a></h2> + +<p class="returnTOC"><a href="#Contents">Return to Table of + Contents</a></p> + +<p><span class="sc">The</span> opening in September last of the grand railway which unites +Massachusetts with British North America is one of the most noticeable +events of our times. Before this, the commercial path of transit from +Europe lay from the Atlantic up the St Lawrence, the navigation of +which—at all times difficult and dangerous—is closed by ice during +five months of the year, and thus all intercourse through the States, +except by sleighs, stopped. Now, goods may be brought direct to Boston +and shipped to Europe, or unshipped at Boston for the Canadas without +interruption. But in a moral and social point of view, the subject is +still more important. Rivalry and bad feeling vanish before +intercourse, and the locomotive mows down prejudices faster than corn +falls before the Yankee reaping-machine.</p> + +<p>When I heard that there was to be a <i>procession</i>, the word vulgarised +the whole affair. It conjured up before my mind's eye our doings of +the sort in England, with the Lord Mayor's Show at the head of them; +and I concluded that the Yankee attempt would be still more trashy. +Let us see how it turned out. I send you a newspaper for the details; +but <i>here</i> you must be a spectator, with the whole picture dashing, +mass by mass, upon your sensorium.</p> + +<p>As the first requisite for enjoyment, it was a glorious day even for +this climate. Nothing shews off a pageant like fine weather. I left +home shortly after daybreak, and went to the Common, as it is +called—a Park about as large as St James's, handsomely laid out, with +long alleys, some parallel, others crossing at various angles, and all +shaded by fine trees. The scene presented by this Park reminded me of +Camacho's wedding in <i>Don Quixote</i>, on a large scale. There stood the +tent for the banquet, constructed to dine 3000 persons, and decorated +with the flags of America and England streaming from the top, with the +flags of other nations below. Close by, were large tents for the +preparation of viands, surrounded with all the paraphernalia of a +feast. In various places, booths had been erected by the city, for the +gratuitous supply of all comers with pure iced water, and these were +thronged throughout the day, especially with children. The pedestrian +portion of the procession assembled in the Park, while the vehicles +crowded all the adjacent streets. And now might be observed the +various societies, with their bands of music; volunteer companies +marching here and there, getting into step, arranging their order and +practising their tunes. I was chatting with a raw Vermonter, who was +as much a stranger as myself. 'In the name of creation,' he suddenly +exclaimed, 'what tarnal screeching is that yonder?' 'That,' I said, +'is the bagpipes, the national music of Scotland.' 'That?' said he: +'it would clear a State of racoons in no time!' But the Scots had +determined to shine, and they advanced: a tall Highlander first, in +full costume, and blowing the pipes at his loudest; after him ten +others, in full Highland costume, with a banner—the Scottish Friends; +and about 200 with silk sashes, and walking three abreast. The +Catholic Irishmen followed, with a banner displaying a portrait of the +Pope and other Catholic emblems; and directly after came the +Protestant Irishmen, with their banners and music. Why will they not +associate thus in their own land? A very interesting portion of the +assembling was a party of about a thousand fine-looking, hardy men, +all remarkably clean, dressed in labourers' costume—blue blouses and +white trousers—headed by a band of music playing Irish popular tunes, +with a large banner of the stars and stripes, and the word 'Liberty,' +with the inscription—'The Irish Labourers. Under this we find +Protection for our Labour.'</p> + +<p>The Park is an irregular square. On the north side, on the highest +point of the city, stands the State-House, where the legislature +meets. Near that is the house which was formerly inhabited by the +governor, at the time the British flag waved where there now fly, +glancing in the sun, the stars and stripes. As the president was +expected at the State-House, and the procession was to start from +thence, that was the point of attraction, where the spectators formed +into a vast, dense, and steady mass. We English are in the habit of +seeing the paraphernalia of courts, and are slow to disconnect the +ideas of pomp and state from the persons of those who hold power and +distinction; but the chief of this great nation, together with the +secretary of state, had arrived in town by railway in an ordinary +carriage, without the least parade, and the corporation had hired for +the occasion an open carriage-and-four—such an equipage as would have +passed quite unnoticed in an English provincial town. Let me here +observe, that by an ordinary carriage I mean a carriage open to all; +for in America there are no locomotive distinctions of 1st, 2d, and 3d +classes. I never saw expectation more on tiptoe. A rattle round the +corner was heard; then the noise of the wheels ceased, and then the +president—a tall, gentlemanly-looking, elderly man—was ascending the +steps of the State-House; and as soon as his gray locks were seen by +the immense multitude, such a shout arose as only Anglo-Saxon lungs +can raise and prolong. The president turned round on the landing of +the steps, took off his hat, bowed, and entered the hall. I have seen +many ceremonies, regal and imperial, which passed off very much like a +scene at a theatre; but I felt the sublime simplicity of this. There +is no road to distinction +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page76" id="page76"></a>[pg 76]</span> +here but talent; and as the fine old man +stood on the steps bowing, with Mr Webster, Secretary of State, by his +side, they looked the very embodiment of intellect, and the manly, +overpowering shout of the crowd the recognition of it. The +multitudinous voices died away in the distance with a peculiar effect. +No firing of guns. While on this part of the subject, I may mention my +strong impression, that in no place is the government so much +respected as in America. The public press may ridicule and joke upon +certain acts of individuals; but whatever side is taken, there is +nothing that can bring the laws, or those who administer them, into +disrespect. This produces order to an extent unknown elsewhere. No one +seems to question the law or the commands of its officers excepting +Europeans, who bring their turbulent habits with them.</p> + +<p>Leaving this imposing scene, I turned to the route of the procession, +which had been advertised to pass through certain streets. In some +degree to account for the masses of human beings that filled them, the +three railways had kept pouring people in for three days, and the +trains, immediately on arrival, turned back to fetch the thousands +they had left waiting at the stations. It was said that there never +was such a gathering in one place since the independence of the +States. The arrangements of the pageant were made by the committee of +the city; but the audience, or public, arranged themselves, and never +was there anything better done. Along the whole line of streets, about +three miles in length, the goods had been removed from the +shop-windows, and their places filled with ladies. Every window that +commanded a view was appropriated to females and children, who were +likewise in many cases on the tops of the houses. Men occupied the +pavement to the kerbstone. The roadway was kept by deputy-marshals, +who rode up and down, in black dress suits, cocked, open hats, and +white sashes; and in this vast assemblage their every request was +immediately attended to. At the end of every street, carriages of all +descriptions were placed, filled with people. As an instance of the +courtesy of the spectators, my wife had handed our Little Red +Ridinghood to some gentleman on the top of an omnibus, who very kindly +held her up to see the show, and took charge of her while Mrs W—— +found her way to the window where her place had been kept. If anything +could mark the kindly disposition and good order of the crowd, it was +the fact, that although I should think all the children in the city +were there, not one was hurt, but everybody exerted himself to +accommodate this interesting portion of the community. Across the +streets, and at all available points, the stars and stripes waved +proudly in the air, and altogether the scene was most beautiful and +imposing. I walked the whole length of the route before the procession +moved, and the <i>coup d'oeil</i> was perfect. The military portion looked +remarkably well; but when the open carriage appeared in which rode +Lord Elgin and his friends, the representative of Great Britain was +greeted with such shouts and by such waving of handkerchiefs from the +windows by crowds of elegantly dressed females, as I am sure his +lordship can never forget. On his part, Lord Elgin continued bowing in +acknowledgment, almost without intermission, for two hours and twenty +minutes—the time occupied in passing.</p> + +<p>Nearly equal to this was the enthusiasm elicited by the appearance of +an open carriage, drawn by four grays, and containing only two men, +wellnigh ninety years of age, then the sole survivors, in the State of +Massachusetts, of those who fought in the War of Independence. It is +the custom to shew honour to the survivors of that event on all public +occasions. On the 4th of July last, the last public gathering, there +were four in the carriage: two are gone. Before the carriage, was +carried the banner of Washington, used in the struggle. When these old +men raised their withered hands to remove their hats, in reply to the +welcome of the crowd, they appeared like spirits of the past. In all +probability, they will not appear in public again; but the fruits of +their courage will live for ever. The appropriateness and beauty of +the arrangement of details were remarkable in the representation of +the particular trades. The most imposing objects were the two new +locomotives, shining brilliantly in their might of brass and steel, +and richly painted; and as they loomed in sight, turning the bends of +the streets, they were truly magnificent and appropriate objects. Each +was raised upon a car, so that, on the whole, it was thirty feet high; +it was drawn by eighteen iron-gray horses, all in line, decorated with +blue ribbons, and handsomely caparisoned; each horse being led by a +workman, in clean, new, working costume. The next was a procession on +foot. Eight negroes, in Eastern costume, walked as guards round a +platform, carried palanquin-fashion by four negroes, with 5000 ounces +of manufactured silver-plate, built up in a pyramid, and forming a +splendid object, fully equal in workmanship to anything of the kind I +have seen. A very interesting part of the pageant was the children of +the different schools, in four-wheeled cars, covered with drapery, and +decorated with flowers and plants; and it was really pleasing to see +the happy little creatures enjoying such a holiday as they would never +forget. It is impossible to give a third of the details of this unique +procession; but I cannot omit to notice the last feature—the +labourers on their truck-horses. These were the carmen of the town. +Their clean, healthy, happy faces, with their glossy horses, decorated +with ribbons, made me regard them as the best and proudest cavalry a +nation could have. These are all men who, a very short time since, +landed from the Old World—fugitives from misery and starvation.</p> + +<p>I had a ticket offered me for the banquet, but I preferred being +outside among the people. I have had enough of dinner-speeches in my +time, although this occasion was one of peculiar interest. The Park +continued to be crowded to excess; and as the company arrived, they +were greeted by the people and the bands of music stationed here and +there. But what sound is that? They are drinking toasts within; and +one is now given which stirs the vast multitude like an electrical +shock. I cannot hear at first, the roar is so deafening: but presently +I am able to analyse the sounds that have caused the commotion; and I +confess it is with a beating heart, and a sort of choking sensation in +the throat, I hear every lip repeat—'The Queen of England!' and every +band in the Park take up from the music in the tent our own national +strain, till the whole atmosphere vibrates with <i>God save the Queen!</i> +The effect was magical, and I felt gratified beyond measure—not alone +at the compliment to our country, but as evidence that the +Anglo-Saxons are still one great community, and that the proceedings +of that day would rivet between the two countries the bond of common +blood. The day closed as happily as it had begun, and the streets were +crowded up to a late hour. I was in all the thickest of the press, and +I know that there was not a single accident, nor did I see or hear of +any instance of drunkenness or disorder. All was harmony and +good-humour.</p> + +<p>I would mention, as a strong proof of the growing interest felt for +the old country here, in New England especially, that almost every +family is desirous of being known to be connected with it. They have +all English names; and a numerous society have employed a gentleman of +skill in such matters for the last ten years in England in tracing out +the English branches of the different families, in the State, so as to +have the genealogy complete. This has become a passion; and I have +found every person I met who could trace his +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page77" id="page77"></a>[pg 77]</span> +descent from the +mother-country proud of it. I fell in, the other day, with a highly +intelligent American, who told me with quite a feeling of pride, that +his grandfather and grandmother were English, and his wife's father a +Scot.</p> +<br /> + + +<hr /> +<h2><a name="THINGS_TALKED_OF_IN_LONDON" id="THINGS_TALKED_OF_IN_LONDON">THINGS TALKED OF IN LONDON.</a></h2> + +<p class="date"><i>January 1852.</i></p> + +<p class="returnTOC"><a href="#Contents">Return to Table of + Contents</a></p> + +<p><span class="sc">Notwithstanding</span> our busy and acquisitive propensities, we of the +metropolis have found time to wish one another a happy new-year, and +to send friendly greetings to our country cousins also. We don't like +to take the step from one year into another without a <i>coup d'amitié</i>. +Besides all which, we are in the habit of considering ourselves at the +present season more than ever entitled to partake of the recreations +offered us, whether theatrical, musical, pictorial, saltatorial, +philosophical, or scientific. And so, while simple-minded people are +looking into the new almanacs to test the accuracy of the predictions, +I must try to fill a page or two with such matters of talk as will +bear reproduction in print.</p> + +<p>First of all, among the discussions and communications at the +Astronomical Society, it is stated that the term 'meteoric astronomy' +is one which we shall shortly be able to use with almost absolute +certainty, as M. Petit of Toulouse has succeeded in determining the +orbits of meteors relatively to the sun as well as to the earth. His +conclusions are considered valuable, especially with respect to the +meteor of August 19, 1847, which, it appears, came 'from the regions +of space beyond our system;' having, as is estimated, occupied more +than 373,000 years in passing from its point of departure to its fall +in the North Sea, near the shores of Belgium! This is another addition +to our knowledge of meteoric phenomena which affords promise of +further results. Certain members of the same society are still at work +on what has been a tedious task—the restoration of the standard yard, +rendered necessary, as you will remember, by the destruction of the +original in the Parliament-House conflagration, more than ten years +ago. The work proceeds slowly but surely, as the extremest pains are +taken to insure accuracy, the measurements, bisections, and +graduations being read off with a microscope. When finished, it will +be centuplicated or more, if necessary, and, as is said, a copy +deposited in every corporate town in the kingdom. This restoration of +the standard is not so easy a task as would be commonly supposed, for +apart from the determination of the yard with mathematical accuracy, +alternations of heat and cold have to be taken into account; for, as +is well known, a strip of metal which measures thirty-six inches long +in a temperature of 70 degrees, will not measure the same in 50 +degrees. Connected with this subject, it was stated at one of the +meetings of the society, that the ancient Saxon yard was nearly +identical with the modern French <i>mètre</i>; whence a suggestion of 'the +possibility of the Saxon yard being actually derived from a former +measure of the earth, made at a period beyond the range of history, +the results of which have been preserved during many centuries of +barbarism.' Be this as it may, we are now given to understand that the +Egyptian Pyramids, whether originally erected for purposes of +sepulture or not, are, at the same time, definite portions of a degree +of the earth's surface in the meridian of Egypt; and it has been +proposed, as these mighty structures are far more durable even now +than anything which we could build in England, that when our standard +shall be re-established, the length shall be cut on the side of one of +the pyramids, together with such explanatory particulars as may he +necessary, so as to preserve the record for all coming time. Modern +science thus availing itself of the labours of the past, would be a +remarkable incident in the history of philosophy.</p> + +<p>The appearance of extraordinary spots on the sun has attracted a more +than ordinary degree of attention to that luminary, and to Mr J. +Nasmyth's 'views respecting the source of light,' which, though +published a few months since, are now again talked about. Mr Nasmyth, +after several years' observation, comes to the conclusion, 'that +whatever be the source of light, its production appears to result from +an action induced on the <i>exterior surface</i> of the solar sphere;' and +he believes it reasonable to 'consider the true source of the latent +element of light to reside, <i>not in the solar orb</i>, but in space +itself; and that the grand function and duty of the sun is to act as +an agent for the bringing forth into vivid existence its due portion +of the illuminating or luciferous element; which element he supposes +to be diffused throughout the boundless regions of space, and which in +that case must be perfectly exhaustless. Further, assuming this +luciferous element to be not equally diffused through space, we find a +reason why in some ages of the earth's history the heat should have +been greater than at others, why stars have been seen to vary in +brightness, and why there was that puzzle to geologists—a glacial +period. During that period, according to Mr Nasmyth, with whose words +I finish this part of my communication, 'an arctic climate spread from +the poles towards the equator, and left the record of such a condition +in glacial handwriting on the mountain walls of our elder mountain +ravines, of which there is such abundant and unquestionable evidence.'</p> + +<p>Our Microscopical Society have made a discovery in an all but +invisible subject: they now state the <i>Volvox globator</i> to be a +vegetable, and not, as has long been supposed, an animal, as its +cells, presumed to be ova, are produced in the same way as in certain +kinds of <i>algæ</i>. In the discussion excited by this announcement, it +came out that several other minute forms, classed by Ehrenberg among +living animalcules, are in reality vegetable; which, if true, shews +that a good deal of microscopical work will have to be done over +again. The Syro-Egyptian Society, too, have heard something relating +to the same subject—a paper on Ehrenberg's examination by the +microscope of the anciently deposited alluvium of the Nile, from which +it appears that 'microscopic animals' in countless numbers were the +cause of the remarkable fertility of the soil, and not vegetable or +unctuous matters. Talking of deposits reminds me of a little fact +which I must not forget to mention—the finding of a fossil reptile in +the 'Old Red' of your county of Moray is, barring the alarm, as much a +cause of astonishment to our geologists, as was the mark of the foot +on the sand to Robinson Crusoe.</p> + +<p>Now for a few gatherings from the continent. M. Chalambel has laid +before the Académie at Paris a 'Note on a Modification to be +introduced in the Preparation of Butter, which improves its Quality +and prolongs its Preservation.' 'If butter,' he observes, 'contained +only the fat parts of milk, it would undergo only very slow +alterations when in contact with the air; but it retains a certain +quantity of <i>caseum</i>, found in the cream, which caseum, by its +fermentation, produces butyric-acid, and to which is owing the +disagreeable flavour of rancid butter. The usual washing of butter +rids it but very imperfectly of this cause of alteration, for the +water does not wet the butter, and cannot dissolve the caseum, which +has become insoluble under the influence of the acids that develop +themselves in the cream. A more complete separation would be obtained +if these acids were saturated; the caseum would again be soluble, and +consequently the quantity retained in the butter would be almost +entirely carried away by the washing-water.'</p> + +<p>The remedy proposed is: 'When the cream is in the churn, pour in—a +little at a time, and keep stirring—enough of lime-wash to destroy +the acidity entirely. The cream is then to be churned until the butter +separates; but before it forms into lumps, the buttermilk +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page78" id="page78"></a>[pg 78]</span> +is to be +poured off, and replaced by cold water, in which the churning is to be +continued until the butter is complete, when it is to be taken from +the churn and treated as usual. I have,' says M. Chalambel, 'by +following this method, obtained butter always better, and which kept +longer, than when made in the ordinary way. The buttermilk, deprived +of its sharp taste, was drunk with pleasure by men and animals, and +had lost its laxative properties.' By means of lime-wash or +lime-water, he has restored butter so 'far gone' that it could only +have been recovered by melting; but any alkaline lixivium will answer +the same purpose.</p> + +<p>I have more than once kept you informed of the inquiry concerning the +effects of iodine on the human system, which has so long engaged the +attention of several eminent chemists on the continent; and now have +to report something further by M. Fourcault, whose communication +thereupon to the Académie is entitled, 'On the Absence of Iodine in +Water and Alimentary Substances, considered as Cause of Goître and +Crétinism, and on the Means of Preventing the Development of these +Affections.' He has investigated the subject profoundly and +analytically, and concludes that 'the absence or insufficiency of +iodine in water and in alimentary substances, is to be considered as +the primitive cause, special or <i>sui generis</i>, of goître and +Crétinism;' that the existence of the diseases does not depend on the +presence more or less of sulphate of lime or magnesia in the animal +economy; that 'iodine acts in goître as iron in chlorosis—by +restoring to the system one of its essential principles;' and that +'the most powerful secondary or auxiliary causes are: a coarse and +uniform vegetable regimen; living at the bottom of deep, enclosed +valleys; in low and damp houses, into which air and light penetrate +with difficulty; the alliance of infected families among themselves; +and the want of such employment as would yield a comfortable +subsistence and proper development of the physical forces.' In +commenting on these statements, Baron Thénard observed that M. +Chatain, in the course of his able researches on iodine, had analysed +the waters of those Alpine valleys most subject to goître, and found +that mineral almost entirely wanting. And it has been proved that +sea-salt, containing a minute quantity of ioduret of potassium, acted +as a preservative from goître on all the inhabitants of a district who +made use of it. The air, too, has been examined as well as the water, +and, so far as yet ascertained, the proportion of iodine in the +atmosphere is variable, and much greater in amount in some regions +than in others. The activity prevailing in this particular branch of +inquiry is the more encouraging, as the maladies which it aims at +removing are of so peculiarly distressing a nature; and the +investigation is one likely to lead also to valuable incidental +results.</p> + +<p>Next, M. Abeille, chief physician to the hospital at Ajaccio, has an +interesting communication—On the employment of electricity to +counteract the accidents arising from too long inhalation of ether or +chloroform. He found that patients submitted to galvano-puncture could +not be rendered insensible by the effects of ether—the galvanism +invariably restored sensation—and taking this accidentally-discovered +fact as the basis of further research, he set to work and made a +series of experiments on living animals, and arrived at results which +in a brief summary are: that electricity, made to operate by means of +needles implanted in several parts of the body, especially in the +direction of the cerebro-spinal axis, reawakes sensibility, and +immediately puts the relaxed muscles into play. 'It constitutes,' he +adds, 'according to my experiments, the most prompt and efficacious +means—I may say the only efficacious—to restore to life any person +whose inhalation of chloroform has been prolonged beyond the time +prescribed by prudence. It is the first means to which recourse ought +to be had; and trials made in other ways appeared to me to lead to +nothing but loss of time, which in many cases would be fatal.'</p> + +<p>M.H. Deschamps says, that there is a 'certain sign of death,' which, +if attended to, will entirely prevent risk of that much-dreaded +accident—premature interment. It is a certain green tinge which +always makes its appearance on the abdomen, even before the cadaverous +smell, and is a positive evidence that decomposition has begun. There +are some people to whom the knowledge of this fact will be a +satisfaction; but if, as is popularly supposed, bodies are not +unfrequently buried alive, how is it that we never hear of a revival +in a dissecting-room? Then, on another point of physiology, M. Payerne +states, with regard to the distress experienced by many persons in the +ascent of a high mountain, 'that the lassitude and breathlessness felt +in elevated places appear to proceed, not from an insufficiency of +oxygen, but rather from the rupture of the equilibrium between the +tension of the fluids contained in our organs and that of the ambient +air, whatever be the way in which the rupture is produced.' And, to +close these physiological matters, M. Chuart begs the Académie to +include among their premiums for rendering arts or trades less +insalubrious, one for 'different inventions designed to diminish the +frequency of accidents which take place in coal-mines from explosions +of gas.' How much such inventions are needed, recent events in our own +coal districts but too painfully demonstrate.</p> + +<p>Our Meteorological Society may perhaps take a hint from M. Liais's +suggestion as to the 'possibility of applying photography to determine +the height of clouds, and to the observation of shooting-stars;' and +M.F. Cailliaud, director of the museum at Nantes, says something not +uninteresting to naturalists—namely, that the statements commonly +made, that all molluscous animals perforate stone by means of an acid, +is not the fact with regard to <i>Pholades</i> and <i>Tarets</i>. He observes, +that although a workman would be amazed on hearing a proposition to +pierce calcareous stone with the shell of a <i>Pholas</i>, yet he himself +has done it, and holds the success to be a proof that the animal can +do the same. The idea of the acid might be accepted, while it was +proved that the creatures were to be found only in limestone; but now +that he has sent to the Académie specimens of gneiss and mica schist, +containing pholades, on which the acid has no effect, he conceives +that they must have entered by boring. They have also been found in +porphyry—a fact of which Brongniart said, many years ago, that nature +had concealed the explanation, and we must wait for a solution. +Whether M. Cailliaud's solution be the true one or not, is a point +that will soon be verified or disproved by geologists and naturalists, +who are never better pleased than when an inquiry, which may lead to +new views of nature, opens before them.</p> + +<p>That the age of great books is not past, is proved by an arrival from +America—the United States' government having presented to several +public and private institutions in this country, a large, handsome +quarto, which contains, to quote the whole title, <i>Historical and +Statistical Information respecting the History, Condition, and +Prospects of the Indian Tribes of the United States, collected and +prepared under the Direction of the Bureau of Indian Affairs, per Act +of Congress</i>. The preparation and arrangement of this work having been +intrusted to Mr Schoolcraft is a sufficient guarantee for its value. +It throws much light on the Indian tribes of North America, and +rectifies many erroneous ideas and impressions concerning them and +their origin. Perhaps you will allow me to give you, in a few words, +the author's views on this part of the subject. He considers the +ancient monuments, found in parts of the United States and in Mexico, +to have originated within five hundred years of the dispersion from +Babel; that the Indians are the Almogic branch of the Eber-ites; +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page79" id="page79"></a>[pg 79]</span> +and +that the ancient monuments do not denote so high a degree of +civilisation as is generally supposed. It is only since the discovery +of America by Europeans that anything like certainty attaches to the +history of the natives. The Mohicans 'preserve the memory of the +appearance and voyage of Hudson, up the river bearing his name, in +1609;' and among other tribes similar traditions are retained. In the +wrong-headedness and persistence of idea, the Indians entirely +resemble the Oriental branches of the great Semitic family; and the +evidence shews that originally they crossed over from Asia at +Behring's Strait, a voyage still performed in canoes to the present +day. One of the titles of Montezuma was Lord of the Seven Caves; and +the caves in which tradition says the traverse took place, are taken +to be the caves or subterranean abodes still used by the Aleutian +islanders. This was current among the Aztecs in 1519, and the voyage +of the United States' Exploring Expedition has furnished a +philological proof of connection, in the peculiar termination of nouns +in <i>tl</i>, which is common to the inhabitants of Nootka Sound, as it was +to the Aztecs. The more the Indians are studied, the more does +everything about them appear to be Eastern—their language, religion, +calendar, architecture, &c. Their worship of fire in the open air, +avoiding the use of temples, is precisely that of Zoroaster, as is +also their leading doctrine of two spirits—good and evil—ruling the +world; and the allegory of the <i>egg of Ormuzd</i> has been found in an +earthwork on the top of a hill in Adams's County, Ohio. 'It represents +the coil of a serpent, 700 feet long, but it is thought would reach, +if deprived of its curves, 1000 feet. The jaws of the serpent are +represented as widely distended, as if in the act of swallowing. In +the interstice is an oval or egg-shaped mound.' This repetition of a +symbol is considered as further proof of Eastern derivation.</p> + +<p>Do not suppose, however, that this is a sample of the whole volume, +for ample details and information are given on all matters connected +with the Indians—their arts, habits, pursuits, pictorial literature +(so to speak), sports, and agriculture. Some idea of their +capabilities in husbandry may be gathered from the fact, that in +Michigan, ancient 'garden-beds' have been discovered, extending for +150 miles along the banks of rivers. Students will find a mine of +information in this book, which, though but the first of a series, +contains nearly 600 pages—a rare feast for ethnologists.</p> + +<p>The Royal Irish Academy in Dublin have published a report of their +proceedings, which comprise reports on rain-falls, meteors, ancient +urns, and other Irish antiquities, besides Roman and Carthaginian; on +hygrometry, chiefly with regard to the pressure of the dew-point; and +on artificial islands. Of the latter, it appears that several exist in +different parts of Ireland; but the one to which attention is +particularly directed is near Strokestown, Roscommon. The lake +Clonfinlough having been drained by the Board of Works, the structure +of the islet, which had long occupied its centre, was laid bare. It +proved to be about 130 feet in diameter, constructed on oak piles, +forming a sort of 'triple stockade,' with stems laid flat towards the +centre for a floor, over which earth, clay, and marl were heaped, with +two flat irregular stone-floors covering the whole at different depths +below the surface. Two canoes were also found, each hollowed out of a +single tree, and a great collection of miscellaneous ornaments and +domestic utensils—all of which being illustrative of different +periods of Irish history, will receive due attention at the hands of +Irish antiquaries. Visitors to the Society's Museum will be gratified +to know that Mr Petrie is preparing a catalogue of that valuable and +interesting assemblage of rarities. He is to begin with the Stone +Period, and come down to the Bronze and Iron, according to their +respective dates, with dissertations prefixed. This is following the +good example set by your Scottish Society of Antiquaries.</p> + +<p>It is a fact honourable to the society that they do not confine their +honours exclusively to contributors to their own 'Transactions.' At +their late anniversary, they gave their gold medal to the Rev. J.H. +Jellett, for his labours in treating the noblest mathematical subjects +in a way to make them intelligible to students. As the president said +in his address: 'Descending from the more desirable position of an +inventor to the humbler but more useful one of enabling others to +place themselves on a level with himself, by compiling for their use +an excellent elementary treatise, he has conferred on his species a +benefit of the highest order,' in a work which otherwise was 'as +little likely to be given to the world as it was desirable that it +should be so.'</p> + +<p>It is time to close; but I must first clear off a few miscellaneous +items. The Admiralty Report concerning the Arctic expeditions is +canvassed pretty freely, and with significant hints that justice has +not been rendered in its conclusions. We can only hope that really +efficient commanders will be sent out with the expedition that is to +be despatched in April or May next; if not, it will be abortive, as +the others have been, and we shall never know what has become of +Franklin. It appears that the news of Collinson's ships being on their +return is unfounded. It was communicated from the United States, and +has been contradicted; and for all we know to the contrary, Collinson +and his coadjutor Maclure may come home next summer by way of Baffin's +Bay. There are now 226 telegraph stations connected with the central +establishment in Lothbury, behind the Bank of England. Of these, 70 +are principal stations, at which the attendance is day and night; and +in the whole, a distance of 2500 miles is embraced, with 800 more over +which the wires are now being stretched. The charges for transmission +of messages have been lowered with a beneficial result, the business +of the telegraph having greatly increased. There must be a still +further reduction before the 'thought-flasher' becomes as generally +available here as it is in America. It is now in real earnest going to +Ireland. A ship has been despatched to fetch Cleopatra's so-called +'needle:' the Panopticon at length has found a local habitation, and +is assuming a tangible form in the shape of bricks and mortar: ocean +steamers are more than ever talked about; and every month a new one, +better than all before, is launched: gold, too, is a favourite topic; +and Australian and Californian mining-shares are plentiful in the +market; so also are those of Irish Waste-Land Improvement Companies, +who, in addition to the reclamation, propose to grow beet-root, flax, +and chicory. At last we have got one or two penny news-rooms—not so +good, however, as yours in Edinburgh; and a project is mooted to +establish reading and waiting rooms combined, in different parts of +the capital. There is talk, too, of central railway termini, of new +bridges, new streets, and of converting Kennington Common into a +park—how soon to be realised remains to be seen.</p> +<br /> + + +<hr /> +<h2><a name="THE_TURN_OF_LIFE" id="THE_TURN_OF_LIFE">THE TURN OF LIFE.</a></h2> + +<p class="returnTOC"><a href="#Contents">Return to Table of + Contents</a></p> + +<p>From forty to sixty, a man who has properly regulated himself, may be +considered as in the prime of life. His matured strength of +constitution renders him almost impervious to the attacks of disease, +and experience has given his judgment the soundness of almost +infallibility. His mind is resolute, firm, and equal; all his +functions are in the highest order; he assumes the mastery over +business; builds up a competence on the foundation he has formed in +early manhood, and passes through a period of life attended by many +gratifications. Having gone a year or two past sixty, he arrives at a +critical period in the road of existence; the river of death flows +before him, and he remains at a stand-still. But athwart +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page80" id="page80"></a>[pg 80]</span> +this river +is a viaduct, called 'The turn of Life,' which, if crossed in safety, +leads to the valley, 'Old Age.' The bridge is constructed of fragile +materials, and it depends upon how it is trodden whether it bend or +break. Gout, apoplexy, and other bad characters are also in the +vicinity to waylay the traveller, and thrust him from the pass; but +let him gird up his loins, and provide himself with a fitting staff, +and he may trudge on in safety with perfect composure. To quit a +metaphor, the 'Turn of Life' is a turn either into a prolonged walk or +into the grave. The system and power having reached their utmost +expansion, now begin either to close like flowers at sunset, or break +down at once. One injudicious stimulant—a single fatal excitement, +may force it beyond its strength—whilst a careful supply of props, +and the withdrawal of all that tends to force a plant, will sustain it +in beauty and in vigour until night has entirely set.—<i>The Science of +Life, by a Physician</i>.</p> +<br /> + + +<hr /> +<h2><a name="NERVE" id="NERVE">NERVE.</a></h2> + +<p class="returnTOC"><a href="#Contents">Return to Table of + Contents</a></p> + +<p>An Indian sword-player declared at a great public festival, that he +could cleave, vertically, a small lime laid on a man's palm without +injury to the member; and the general (Sir Charles Napier) extended +his right hand for the trial. The sword-player, awed by his rank, was +reluctant, and cut the fruit horizontally. Being urged to fulfil his +boast, he examined the palm, said it was not one to be experimented on +with safety, and refused to proceed. The general then extended his +left hand, which was admitted to be suitable in form; yet the Indian +still declined the trial; and when pressed, twice waved his thin, +keen-edged blade, as if to strike, and twice withheld the blow, +declaring he was uncertain of success. Finally, he was forced to make +trial, and the lime fell open, cleanly divided: the edge of the sword +had just marked its passage over the skin without drawing a drop of +blood!—<i>Sir Charles Napier's Administration in Scinde</i>.</p> +<br /> + + +<hr /> +<h2><a name="WIRE_USED_IN_EMBROIDERY" id="WIRE_USED_IN_EMBROIDERY">WIRE USED IN EMBROIDERY.</a></h2> + +<p class="returnTOC"><a href="#Contents">Return to Table of + Contents</a></p> + +<p>In the manufacture of embroidery fine threads of silver gilt are used. +To produce these, a bar of silver, weighing 180 ounces, is gilt with +an ounce of gold; this bar is then wire-drawn until it is reduced to a +thread so fine that 3400 feet of it weigh less than an ounce. It is +then flattened by being submitted to a severe pressure between +rollers, in which process its length is increased to 4000 feet. Each +foot of the flattened wire weighs, therefore, the 4000th part of an +ounce. But as in the processes of wire-drawing and rolling the +proportion of the two metals is maintained, the gold which covers the +surface of the fine thread thus produced consists only of the 180th +part of its whole weight. Therefore the gold which covers one foot is +only the 720,000th part of an ounce, and consequently the gold which +covers an inch will be the 8,640,000th part of an ounce. If this inch +be again divided into 100 equal parts, each part will be distinctly +visible without the aid of a microscope, and yet the gold which covers +such visible part will be only the 864,000,000th part of an ounce. But +we need not stop even here. This portion of the wire may be viewed +through a microscope which magnifies 500 times; and by these means, +therefore, its 500th part will become visible.—<i>Lardner's Handbook</i>.</p> +<br /> + + +<hr /> +<h2><a name="CHEAP_LIVING" id="CHEAP_LIVING">CHEAP LIVING.</a></h2> + +<p class="returnTOC"><a href="#Contents">Return to Table of + Contents</a></p> + +<p>In the interior of Bulgaria and Upper Moesia, the low price of +provision and cattle of every description is almost fabulous compared +with the prices of Western Europe. A fat sheep or lamb usually costs +from 1s. 6d. to 2s.; an ox, 40s.; cows, 30s.; and a horse, in the best +possible travelling condition, from L.4 to L.5 sterling; wool, hides, +tallow, wax, and honey, are equally low. In the towns and hans by the +road-side everything is sold by weight: you can get a pound of meat +for a halfpenny, a pound of bread for the same, and wine, which is +also sold by weight, costs about the same money. In Servia, pigs +everywhere form the staple commodity of the country. I have seen some +that, would weigh from 150 lbs. to 200 lbs. or more offered for sale +at 300 Turkish piastres the dozen; in the neighbourhood of the Danube +they fetch a little more. The expense of keeping these animals in a +country abounding with forests being so trifling, and the prospect of +gain to the proprietor so certain, we cannot wonder that no landowner +is without them, and that they constitute the richest class in the +principality. In fact, pig-jobbers are here men of the highest rank: +the prince, his ministers, civil and military governors, are all +engaged in this lucrative traffic.—<i>Spencer's Travels.</i></p> +<br /> + + +<hr /> +<h2><a name="MOUNTAINS_IN_SNOW" id="MOUNTAINS_IN_SNOW">MOUNTAINS IN SNOW.</a></h2> + +<p class="returnTOC"><a href="#Contents">Return to Table of + Contents</a></p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span>Cold—oh, deathly cold—and silent, lie the white hills 'neath<br /></span> +<span class="i4">the sky,<br /></span> +<span>Like a soul whom fate has covered with thy snows, Adversity!<br /></span> +<span>Not a sough of wind comes moaning; the same outline, high and<br /></span> +<span class="i4">bare,<br /></span> +<span>As in pleasant days of summer, rises in the murky air.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span>Very quiet—very silent—whether shines the mocking sun<br /></span> +<span>Through the wintry blue, or lowering drift the feathery<br /></span> +<span class="i4">snow-clouds dun:<br /></span> +<span>Always quiet, always silent, be it night or be it day,<br /></span> +<span>With that pale shroud coldly lying where the heather-blossoms lay.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span>Can they be the very mountains that we looked at, you and I?<br /></span> +<span>One long wavy line of purple painted on the sunset sky;<br /></span> +<span>With the new moon's edge just touching that dark rim, like<br /></span> +<span class="i4">dancer's foot,<br /></span> +<span>Or young Dian's, on the hill-side for Endymion waiting mute.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span>O how golden was that even!—O how balm the summer air!<br /></span> +<span>How the bridegroom sky bent loving o'er its earth so virgin fair!<br /></span> +<span>How the earth looked up to heaven like a bride with joy oppressed,<br /></span> +<span>In her thankfulness half-weeping that she was thus overblest!<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span>Ghostly mountains! 'Silence—silence!' now is aye your soundless<br /></span> +<span class="i4">voice,<br /></span> +<span>Lifted in an awful patience o'er the world's uproarious noise;<br /></span> +<span>O'er its jarrings and its greetings—o'er its loving and its<br /></span> +<span class="i4">hate—<br /></span> +<span>Silence! Bare thy brows all dumbly to the snows of heaven,<br /></span> +<span class="i4">and—wait!'<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<hr /> + +<p class="center"><i>Just Published</i>,</p> + +<p class="center"><i>Price 2s. 6d. sewed, 3s. Cloth Boards</i>,</p> + +<p>LIFE AND WORKS OF BURNS.—Volume III. Edited by <span class="sc">Robert Chambers</span>. To be +completed in Four Volumes.</p> + +<hr class="short" /> + +<p class="center"><i>Price 6d. Paper Cover</i>,</p> + +<p>CHAMBERS'S POCKET MISCELLANY.—Volume II. To be continued in Monthly +Volumes.</p> + +<hr class="short" /> + +<p class="center"><i>Price 2s. Cloth Boards</i>,</p> + +<p>ELEMENTARY LATIN GRAMMAR. Edited by <span class="sc">Drs Schmitz</span> and <span class="sc">Zumpt.</span>—Forming +one of the Volumes of the <span class="sc">Latin Section Of Chambers's Educational +Course</span>.</p> + +<hr class="short" /> + +<p class="center"><i>Price 1s. 3d. Cloth Boards</i>,</p> + +<p>LATIN EXERCISES: A Companion to the <span class="sc">Elementary Latin Grammar</span>. Edited +by <span class="sc">Drs Schmitz</span> and <span class="sc">Zumpt</span>.—Forming one of the Volumes of the <span class="sc">Latin +Section Of Chambers's Educational Course</span>.</p> + +<hr /> + +<p>Printed and Published by W. and R. <span class="sc">Chambers</span>, High Street, Edinburgh. +Also sold by W.S. <span class="sc">Orr</span>, Amen Corner, London; D.N. <span class="sc">Chambers</span>, 55 West +Nile Street, Glasgow; and J. <span class="sc">M'Glashan</span>, 50 Upper Sackville Street, +Dublin.—Advertisements for Monthly Parts are requested to be sent to +<span class="sc">Maxwell</span> & Co., 31 Nicholas Lane, Lombard Street, London, to whom all +applications respecting their insertion must be made.</p> +<hr class="full" /> + + + + + + + +<pre> + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Chambers' Edinburgh Journal, by Various + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK CHAMBERS' EDINBURGH JOURNAL *** + +***** This file should be named 16228-h.htm or 16228-h.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/1/6/2/2/16228/ + +Produced by Malcolm Farmer, Richard J. 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You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Chambers' Edinburgh Journal + Volume XVII., No 422, New Series, January 31, 1852 + +Author: Various + +Editor: Robert Chambers and William Chambers + +Release Date: July 7, 2005 [EBook #16228] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK CHAMBERS' EDINBURGH JOURNAL *** + + + + +Produced by Malcolm Farmer, Richard J. Shiffer and the +Online Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net + + + + + + + + + CHAMBERS' EDINBURGH JOURNAL + + + CONDUCTED BY WILLIAM AND ROBERT CHAMBERS, EDITORS OF 'CHAMBERS'S + INFORMATION FOR THE PEOPLE,' 'CHAMBERS'S EDUCATIONAL COURSE,' &c. + + + No. 422. NEW SERIES. SATURDAY, JANUARY 31, 1852. PRICE 1-1/2 _d._ + + + + +THE HAPPY JACKS. + + +'On Saturday, then, at two--humble hours, humble fare; but plenty, and +good of its kind; with a talk over old fellows and old times.' + +Such was the pith of an invitation to dinner, to accept which I +started on a pleasant summer Saturday on the top of a Kentish-town +omnibus. My host was Happy Jack. Everybody called him 'Happy Jack:' he +called himself 'Happy Jack.' He believed he was an intensely 'Happy' +Jack. Yet his friends shook their heads, and the grandest shook theirs +the longest, as they added the ominous addendum of 'Poor Devil' to +'Happy Jack.' + +'Seen that unhappy wretch, Happy Jack, lately?' + +'Seen him! of course, yesterday: he came to borrow a half-sovereign, +as two of his children had the measles. He was in the highest spirits, +for the pawnbroker lent him more on his watch than he had expected, +and so Jack considered the extra shilling or two pure gain. I don't +know how the wretch lives, but he seems happier than ever.' + +On another occasion, the dialogue would be quite different. + +'Who do you think I saw last night in the first tier at the +Opera?--who but Happy Jack, and Mrs Happy Jack, and the two eldest +Happy Jack girls! Jack himself resplendent in diamond studs, and +tremendously laced shirt-front; and as for the women--actually queens +of Sheba. A really respectable carriage, too, at the door; for I +followed them out in amazement: and off they went like so many lords +and ladies. Oh, the sun has been shining somehow on the Happy Jacks!' + +In due time I stood before the Terrace honoured by the residence of +the Happy Jacks--one of those white, stuccoed rows of houses, with +bright green doors and bright brass-plates thereon, which suburban +builders so greatly affect. As I entered the square patch of +front-garden, I perceived straw lying about, as though there had been +recent packing; and looking at the drawing-room window, I missed the +muslin curtain and the canary's brass cage swathed all over in gauze. +The door opened before I knocked, and Happy Jack was the opener. He +was clad in an old shooting-coat and slippers, had a long clay-pipe in +his mouth, and was in a state of intense general _deshabille_. Looking +beyond him, I saw that the house was in _deshabille_ as well as the +master. There were stairs certainly, but where was the stair-carpet? +Happy Jack, however, was clearly as happy as usual. He had a round, +red face; and, I will add, a red nose. But the usual sprightly smile +stirred the red round face, the usual big guffaw came leaping from the +largely opening mouth, the usual gleam of mingled sharpness and +_bonhomie_ shone from the large blue eyes. Happy Jack closed the door, +and, taking my arm, walked me backwards and forwards on the gravel. + +'My boy,' he said, 'we've had a little domestic affair inside; but you +being, like myself, a man of the world, we were not of course going to +give up our dinner for that. The fact is,' said Jack, attempting to +assume a heroic and sentimental tone and attitude, 'that, for the +present at least, my household gods are shattered!' + +'You mean that'---- + +'As I said, my household gods are shattered, even in the shrine!' + +It was obvious that the twang of this fine phrase gave Jack uncommon +pleasure. He repeated it again and again under his breath, flourishing +his pipe, so as, allegorically and metaphorically, to set forth the +extent of his desolation. + +'In other words,' I went on, 'there has been an--an execution'---- + +'And the brokers have not left a stick. But what of that? These, are +accidents which will occur in the best'---- + +'And Mrs'---- + +'Oh! She, you know, is apt to be a little downhearted at times; and +empty rooms somehow act on her idiosyncrasy. A good woman, but weak. +So she's gone for the present to her sisters; and as for the girls, +why, Emily is with her mother, and Jane is at the Joneses. Very decent +people the Joneses. I put Jones up to a thing which would have made +his fortune the week before last; but he wouldn't have it. Jones is +slow, and--well---- And Clara is with the Hopkinses: I believe so, at +least; and Maria is---- Confound me if I know where Maria is; but I +suppose she's somewhere. Her mother managed it all: I didn't +interfere. And so now, as you know the best and the worst, let's come +to dinner.' + +An empty house is a dismal thing--almost as dismal as a dead body. The +echo, as you walk, is dismal; the blank, stripped walls, shewing the +places where the pictures and the mirrors have been, are dismal; the +bits of straw and the odds and ends of cord are dismal; the coldness, +the stillness, the blankness, are dismal. It is no longer a +habitation, but a shell. + +In the dining-room stood a small deal-table, covered with a scanty +cloth, like an enlarged towel; and a baked joint, with the potatoes +under it, smoked before us. The foaming pewter-can stood beside it, +with a couple of plates, and knives and steel forks. Two Windsor +chairs, of evident public-house mould, completed the festive +preparations and the furniture of the room. The whole thing looked +very dreary; and as I gazed, I felt my appetite fade under the sense +of desolation. Not so Happy Jack. 'Come, sit down, sit down. I don't +admire baked meat as a rule, but you know, as somebody says-- + + "When spits and jacks are gone and spent, + Then ovens are most excellent," + And also most con-ven-i-ent. + +The people at the Chequers managed it all. Excellent people they are. +I owe them some money, which I shall have great pleasure in paying as +soon as possible. No man can pay it sooner.' + +The dinner, however, went off with the greatest success. Happy Jack +was happier than ever, and consequently irresistible. Every two or +three minutes he lugged in something about his household gods and the +desolation of his hearth, evidently enjoying the sentiment highly. +Then he talked of his plans of taking a new and more expensive house, +in a fashionable locality, and furnishing it on a far handsomer scale +than the old one. In fact, he seemed rather obliged to the brokers +than otherwise for taking the quondam furniture off his hands. It was +quite behind the present taste--much of it positively ugly. He had +been ashamed to see his wife sitting in that atrocious old easy-chair, +but he hoped that he had taken a step which would change all for the +better. Warming with his dinner and the liquor, Happy Jack got more +and more eloquent and sentimental. He declaimed upon the virtues of +Mrs J., and the beauties of the girls. He proposed all their healths +_seriatim_. He regretted the little incident which had prevented their +appearance at the festive board; but though absent in person, he was +sure that they were present in spirit; and with this impression, he +would beg permission to favour them with a song--a song of the social +affections--a song of hearth and home--a song which had cheered, and +warmed, and softened many a kindly and honest heart: and with this +Happy Jack sang--and exceedingly well too, but with a sort of +dreadfully ludicrous sentiment--the highly appropriate ditty of _My +Ain Fireside_. + +Happy Jack was of no particular profession: he was a bit of a +_litterateur_, a bit of a journalist, a bit of a man of business, a +bit of an agent, a bit of a projector, a bit of a City man, and a bit +of a West-end man. His business, he said, was of a general nature. He +was usually to be heard of in connection with apocryphal companies and +misty speculations. He was always great as an agitator. As soon as a +League was formed, Happy Jack flew to its head-quarters as a vulture +to a battle-field. Was it a league for the promotion of +vegetarianism?--or a league for the lowering of the price of meat?--a +league for reforming the national costume?--or a league for repealing +the laws still existing upon the Statute-book against witches?--Happy +Jack was ever in the thickest of the fray, lecturing, expounding, +arguing, getting up extempore meetings of the frequenters of +public-houses, of which he sent reports to the morning papers, +announcing the 'numerous, highly respectable, and influential' nature +of the assembly, and modestly hinting, that Mr Happy Jack, 'who was +received with enthusiastic applause, moved, in a long and +argumentative address, a series of resolutions pledging the meeting +to,' &c. Jack, in fact, fully believed that he had done rather more +for free-trade than Cobden. Not, he said, that he was jealous of the +Manchester champion; circumstances had made the latter better +known--that he admitted; still he could not but know--and knowing, +feel--in his own heart of hearts, his own merits, and his own +exertions. + +The railway mania was, as may be judged, a grand time for Happy Jack. +The number of lines of which he was a provisional director, the number +of schemes which came out--and often at good premiums too--under his +auspices; the number of railway journals which he founded, and the +number of academies which he established for the instruction of +youthful engineers--are they not written in the annals of the period? +Jack himself started as an engineer without any previous educational +ceremony whatever. His manner of laying out a 'direct line' was happy +and expeditious. He took a map and a ruler, and drew upon the one, by +the help of the other, a straight stroke in red ink--which looked +professional--from terminus to terminus. Afterwards, he stated +distinctly in writing, so that there could be no mistake about the +matter, that there were no engineering difficulties--that the landed +proprietors along the line were quite enthusiastic in their promotion +of the scheme--and that the probable profits, as deduced from +carefully drawn-up traffic-tables, would be about 35 per cent. At this +time, Happy Jack was quite a minor Hudson. He lived in an atmosphere +of shares, scrip, and prospectuses. Money poured in from every +quarter. A scrap of paper with an application for shares was worth the +bright tissue of the Bank--and Jack lost no time in changing the one +for the other. Amid the mass of railway newspapers, he started _The +Railway Sleeper Awakened_, _The Railway Whistle_, _The Railway +Turntable_, and _The Railway Timetable_; and it was in the first +number of the last famous organ--it lived for three weeks--in which +appeared a letter signed 'A Constant Reader.' After the bursting of +the bubble, Happy Jack appeared to have burst too; for his whereabouts +for a long time was unknown, and there were no traditions of his being +seen. Then he began to be heard of from distant and constantly varying +quarters of the town. Now you had a note from Shepherd's Bush, and +next day from Bermondsey. On Tuesday, Jack dated Little King Street, +Clapham Road; on Thursday, the communication reached you from Little +Queen Street, Victoria Villas, Hackney; and next week perhaps you were +favoured with a note from some of the minor little Inns of Court, +where the writer would be found getting up a company on the fourth +floor in a grimy room, furnished with a high deal-desk, two +three-legged stools, and illimitable foolscap, pens, and ink. + +Where Mrs Happy Jack and the young-lady Happy Jacks went to at these +times, the boldest speculator has failed to discover: they vanished, +as it were, into thin air, and were seen no more till the sunshine +came, when they returned with the swallows. The lady herself was a +meek, mild creature, skilful in the art of living on nothing, and +making up dresses without material. She adored her husband, and +believed him the greatest man in the world. On the occurrence of such +little household incidents as an execution, or Jack making a rapid act +of cabmanship from his own hearth to the cheerful residence of Mr Levi +in Cursitor Street, the poor little woman, after having indulged +herself in the small luxury of a 'good cry,' would go to work to pack +up shirts and socks manfully, and with great foresight, would always +bring Jack's daily food in a basket, seeing that Mr Levi's bills are +constructed upon a scale of uncommon dimensions; after which, she +would eat the dinner with him in the coffee-room, drink to better +days, play cribbage, and at last get very nearly as joyous in that +greasy, grimy, sorrow-laden room, with bars on the outside of the +windows, as if it were the happy home she possessed a few weeks ago, +and which she always hoped to possess again. As for the girls, they +were trained by too good a master and mistress not to become apt +scholars. They knew what a bill of sale was from their tenderest +years; the broker's was no unfamiliar face; and they quite understood +how to treat a man in possession. Their management of duns was +consummate. Happy Jack used to listen to the comedy of excuses and +coaxings; and when the importunate had departed, grumblingly and +unpaid, he used solemnly to kiss his daughters on the forehead, and +invoke all sorts of blessings upon his preservers, his good angels, +his little girls, who were so clever, and so faithful, and so true. + +And in many respects they were good girls. The style in which they +turned frocks, put a new appearance upon hoods, and cloaks, and +bonnets, and came forth in what seemed the very lustre of novelty--the +whole got up by a skilful mutual adaptation of garments and parts of +garments--was wonderful to all lady beholders. In cookery, they beat +the famous _chef_ who sent up five courses and a dessert, made out of +a greasy pair of jack-boots and the grass from the ramparts of the +besieged town. Their wonderful little made-dishes were mere scraps and +fragments, which in any other house would have been flung away, but +which were so artistically and scientifically handled by the young +ladies, and so tossed up, and titivated, and eked out with gravies, +and sauces, and strange devices of nondescript pasty, that Happy Jack, +feasting upon these wonderful creations of ingenuity, used to vow that +he never dined so well as when there was nothing in the house for +dinner. To their wandering, predatory life the whole family were +perfectly accustomed. A sudden turn out of quarters they cared no more +for than hardened old dragoons. They never lost pluck. One speculation +down, another came on. Sometimes the little household was united. A +bit of luck in the City or the West had been achieved, and Happy Jack +issued cards for 'At Homes,' and behaved, and looked, and spoke like +an alderman, or the member of a house of fifty years' standing. When +strangers saw his white waistcoat, and blue coat with brass buttons, +and heard him talk of a glut of gold, and money being a mere drug, +they speculated as to whether he was the governor or the vice-governor +of the Bank of England, or only the man who signs the five-pound +notes. That day six weeks, Jack had probably 'come through the court;' +a process which he always used somehow to achieve with flying colours, +behaving in such a plausible and fascinating way to the commissioner, +that that functionary regularly made a speech, in which he +congratulated Happy Jack on his candour, and evident desire to deal +fairly with his creditors, and told him he left that court without the +shadow of a stain upon his character. In the Bench, in dreary suburban +lodgings, or in the comfortable houses which they sometimes occupied, +the Happy Jacks were always the Happy Jacks. Their constitution +triumphed over everything. If anything could ruffle their serenity, it +was the refusal of a tradesman to give credit. But _uno avulso non +deficit alter_, as Jack was accustomed, on such occasions, classically +to say to his wife--presently deviating into the corresponding +vernacular of--'Well, my dear, if one cock fights shy, try another.' + +A list of Jack's speculations would be instructive. He once took a +theatre without a penny to carry it on; and having announced _Hamlet_ +without anybody to play, boldly studied and performed the part +himself, to the unextinguishable delight of the audience. Soon after +this, he formed a company for supplying the metropolis with Punches of +a better class, and enacting a more moral drama than the old +legitimate one--making Punch, in fact, a virtuous and domestic +character; and he drew the attention of government to the moral +benefits likely to be derived to society from this dramatic reform. +Soon after, he departed for Spain in the gallant Legion; but not +finding the speculation profitable, turned newspaper correspondent, +and was thrice in imminent danger of being shot as a spy. Flung back +somehow to England, he suddenly turned up as a lecturer on chemistry, +and then established a dancing institution and Terpsichorean Athenaeum. +Of late, Jack has found a good friend in animal magnetism, and his +_seances_ have been reasonably successful. When performing in the +country districts, Jack varied the entertainments by a lecture on the +properties of guano, which he threw in for nothing, and which was +highly appreciated by the agricultural interest. Jack's books were +principally works of travel. His _Journey to the Fountains of the +Niger_ is generally esteemed highly amusing, if not instructive: it +was knocked off at Highbury; and his _Wanderings in the Mountains of +the Moon_, written in Little Chelsea, has been favourably reviewed by +many well-informed and discriminating organs of literary intelligence, +as the work of a man evidently well acquainted with the regions he +professes to describe. + +Where the Happy Jacks are at this moment no one can tell. They have +become invisible since the last clean out. A deprecatory legend has +indeed been in circulation, which professed that Jack was dead, and +that this was the manner in which, on his deathbed, he provided for +his family:-- + +'Mrs Happy Jack,' said the departing man, 'I'm not afraid of you. You +have got on some way or other for nearly forty years, and I don't see +why you shouldn't get on some way or other for forty more. Therefore, +so far as you are concerned, my mind is easy. But, then, you +girls--you poor little inexperienced poppets, who know nothing of the +world. There's Jane; but then she's pretty--really beautiful. Why, her +face is a fortune: she will of course captivate a rich man; and what +more can a father wish? As for Emily--I fear Emily, my dear, +you're rather plain than otherwise; but what, I would ask, is +beauty?--fleeting, transitory, skin-deep. The happiest marriages are +those of mutual affection--not one-sided admiration: so, on the whole, +I should say that my mind is easier about Emily than Jane. As for +Maria, she's so clever, she can't but get on. As a musician, an +artist, an authoress, what bright careers are open for her! While as +for you, stupid little Clara, who never could be taught anything--I +very much doubt whether the dunces of this world are not the very +happiest people in it--Yes, Clara; leave to others the vain and empty +distinctions of literary renown, which is but a bubble, and be happy +in the homely path of obscure but virtuous duty!' + +Happy Jack ceased. There was a pause. 'And now,' he said, 'having +provided for my family, I will go to sleep, with a clear conscience +and a tranquil mind.' + +I said that I always distrusted this legend. I am happy to say, that +even as I write I have proof positive that it is purely a fiction. I +have just had a card put into my hand requesting my presence at a +private exhibition of the celebrated Bloomer Family, while an +accompanying private note from Jack himself informs me that the +'celebrated and charming Bloomer group--universally allowed to be the +most perfect and interesting representatives of the new _regime_ in +costume'--are no other than the Happy Jacks _redivivi_--Mrs J. and the +girls donning the transatlantic attire, and Happy Jack himself +delivering a lecture upon the vagaries of fashion and the +inconsistencies of dress, in a new garment invented by himself, and +combining the Roman toga with the Highland kilt. + + + + +THE DESERT HOME.[1] + + +Robinson Crusoe is the parent of a line of fictions, all more or less +entertaining; but those of our own day, as might be expected, share +largely in the practical spirit of the time, making amusement in some +degree the mere menstruum of information. Following the Swiss Family +Robinson, we have here an English Family Robinson, which might as well +be called an American Family Robinson; and although ostensibly meant +for the holiday recreation of youth, it proves to be a production +equally well suited for children of six feet and upwards. The author +is personally familiar with the scenes he describes, and is thus able +to give them a verisimilitude which in other circumstances can be +attained only by the rarest genius; and notwithstanding the +associations, of his last book, the _Scalp-hunters_, there is only one +bloody conflict in the present one fought by animals of the genus +Homo. + +The local habitation of the lost family is a nook in the Great +American Desert--a nook in a desert twenty-five times the size of +England! But this wilderness of about a million square miles is not +all sand or all barren earth: it contains numerous other features of +interest besides mountains and oases; it includes the country of New +Mexico, with its towns and cities; the country round the Great Salt +and Utah Lakes, where the germ of a Mormon nation is expanding on all +sides; and it is traversed in its whole breadth by the Rocky +Mountains. An English family, after being ruined in St Louis, and +reduced to their last hundred pounds, are persuaded by a Scottish +miner to accompany him across this desert to New Mexico. 'They are a +wonderful people,' says the story-teller, 'these same Scotch. They are +but a small nation, yet their influence is felt everywhere upon the +globe. Go where you will, you will find them in positions of trust and +importance--always prospering, yet, in the midst of prosperity, still +remembering, with strong feelings of attachment, the land of their +birth. They manage the marts of London, the commerce of India, the +fur-trade of America, and the mines of Mexico. Over all the American +wilderness you will meet them, side by side with the backwoods-pioneer +himself, and even pushing him from his own ground. From the Gulf of +Mexico to the Arctic Sea, they have impressed with their Gaelic names +rock, river, and mountain; and many an Indian tribe owns a Scotchman +for its chief.' + +The adventurers join a caravan, which is attacked by Indians, and the +family of the destined Robinson find themselves alone in the +wilderness, 800 miles from the American frontier on the east, 1000 +miles from any civilised settlement on either the north or south, and +200 miles from the farthest advanced lines of New Mexico in the +desert. They are, in short, lost; but in due time they are found again +by other explorers. These strangers are standing on the edge of a +cliff several hundred feet sheer down. 'Away below--far below where we +were--lay a lovely valley, smiling in all the luxuriance of bright +vegetation. It was of nearly an oval shape, bounded upon all sides by +a frowning precipice, that rose around it like a wall. Its length +could not have been less than ten miles, and its greatest breadth +about half of its length. We were at its upper end, and of course +viewed it lengthwise. Along the face of the precipice there were trees +hanging out horizontally, and some of them even growing with their +tops downward. These trees were cedars and pines; and we could +perceive also the knotted limbs of huge cacti protruding from the +crevices of the rocks. We could see the wild mezcal, or maguey-plant, +growing against the cliff--its scarlet leaves contrasting finely with +the dark foliage of the cedars and cacti. Some of these plants stood +out on the very brow of the overhanging precipice, and their long +curving blades gave a singular character to the landscape. Along the +face of the dark cliffs all was rough, and gloomy, and picturesque. +How different was the scene below! Here everything looked soft, and +smiling, and beautiful. There were broad stretches of woodland, where +the thick foliage of the trees met and clustered together, so that it +looked like the surface of the earth itself; but we knew it was only +the green leaves, for here and there were spots of brighter green, +that we saw were glades covered with grassy turf. The leaves of the +trees were of different colours, for it was now late in the autumn. +Some were yellow, and some of a deep claret colour: some were +bright-red, and some of a beautiful maroon; and there were green, and +brighter green, and others of a silvery-whitish hue. All these colours +were mingled together, and blended into each other, like the flowers +upon a rich carpet. Near the centre of the valley was a large shining +object, which we knew to be water. It was evidently a lake of crystal +purity, and smooth as a mirror. The sun was now up to meridian height, +and his yellow beams falling upon its surface caused it to gleam like +a sheet of gold. We could not trace the outlines of the water, for the +trees partially hid it from our view, but we saw that the smoke that +had at first attracted us rose up somewhere from the western shore of +the lake.' In this strange oasis they found what appeared to be a snug +farm-house, with stables and outhouses, garden and fields, horses and +cattle. Here they were hospitably entertained by the proprietor, his +wife, and two sons, and served by a faithful negro; and of course it +is the history of the settlers, and their struggles, expedients, and +contrivances which form the staple of the work. + +In this history we have the process of building a log-house, and the +usual modes of assembling round the squatter such of the comforts of +life as may be obtained in the desert; but our family Robinson appears +to have been the most ingenious as well as the most fortunate of +adventurers, for there are very few, even of the luxuries of civilised +society, which are beyond his reach. The natural history of the book, +however, is its main feature; and the adventures of the lost family +with the unreasoning denizens of the desert remind us not unfrequently +of the pictures of Audubon. This is among the earliest:--'There were +high cliffs fronting us, and along the face of these five large +reddish objects were moving, so fast that I at first thought they were +birds upon the wing. After watching them a moment, however, I saw that +they were quadrupeds; but so nimbly did they go, leaping from ledge to +ledge, that it was impossible to see their limbs. They appeared to be +animals of the deer species, somewhat larger than sheep or goats; but +we could see that, in place of antlers, each of them had a pair of +huge curving horns. As they leaped downward, from one platform of the +cliffs to another, we fancied that they whirled about in the air, as +though they were "turning somersaults," and seemed at times to come +down heads foremost! There was a spur of the cliff that sloped down to +within less than a hundred yards of the place where we sat. It ended +in an abrupt precipice, of some sixty or seventy feet in height above +the plain. The animals, on reaching the level of this spur, ran along +it until they had arrived at its end. Seeing the precipice, they +suddenly stopped, as if to reconnoitre it; and we had now a full view +of them, as they stood outlined against the sky, with their graceful +limbs and great curved horns, almost as large as their bodies. We +thought, of course, they could get no farther for the precipice, and I +was calculating whether my rifle, which I had laid hold of, would +reach them at that distance. All at once, to our astonishment, the +foremost sprang out from the cliff, and whirling through the air, lit +upon his head on the hard plain below! We could see that he came down +upon his horns, and rebounding up again to the height of several feet, +he turned a second somersault, and then dropped upon his legs, and +stood still! Nothing daunted, the rest followed, one after the other, +in quick succession, like so many street-tumblers; and, like them, +after the feat had been performed, the animals stood for a moment, as +if waiting for applause!' These were the _argali_, or wild sheep, +popularly termed bighorns, and resembling an immense yellow goat or +deer furnished with a pair of ram's horns. + +Such are the anecdotes which the reader will find thickly scattered +throughout this volume; but perhaps the most interesting are a series +of conflicts witnessed by the father and one of the sons, and in the +course of which they are themselves exposed to some danger. They had +gone out to gather from the live oaks a kind of moss, which they +found to be quite equal to curled hair for stuffing mattresses; and +while perched upon one of the trees, the drama opened by the violent +scolding of a pair of orioles, or Baltimore birds--so called from +their colour, a mixture of black and orange, being the same as that in +the coat-of-arms of Lord Baltimore. The cause of the disturbance +appeared to be a nondescript animal close to the edge of the thicket, +with a variety of little legs, tails, heads, ears, and eyes stuck over +its body. 'All at once the numerous heads seemed to separate from the +main body, becoming little bodies of themselves, with long tails upon +them, and looking just like a squad of white rats! The large body to +which they had all been attached we now saw was an old female opossum, +and evidently the mother of the whole troop. She was about the size of +a cat, and covered with woolly hair of a light gray colour.... The +little 'possums were exact pictures of their mother--all having the +same sharp snouts and long naked tails. We counted no less than +thirteen of them, playing and tumbling about among the leaves.' The +old 'possum looked wistfully up at the nest of the orioles, hanging +like a distended stocking from the topmost twigs of the tree. After a +little consideration she uttered a sharp note, which brought the +little ones about her in a twinkling. 'Several of them ran into the +pouch which she had caused to open for them; two of them took a turn +of their little tails around the root of hers, and climbed up on her +rump, almost burying themselves in her long wool; while two or three +others fastened themselves about her neck and shoulders. It was a most +singular sight to see the little creatures holding on with "tails, +teeth, and toe-nails," while some peeped comically out of the great +breast-pocket.' Burdened in this way, she climbed the tree, and then +taking hold of the young 'possums, one by one, with her mouth, she +made them twist their tails round a branch, and hang with their heads +downwards. 'Five or six of the "kittens" were still upon the ground. +For these she returned, and taking them up as before, again climbed +the tree. She disposed of the second load precisely as she had done +the others, until the thirteen little possums hung head downwards +along the branch like a string of candles!' + +The mother now climbed higher up; but the nest, with its tempting +eggs, hung beyond her reach; and although she suspended herself by the +tail--at last almost by its very tip--and swung like a pendulum, +clutching as she swung, it was all in vain. At length, with a bitter +snarl, she gave up the adventure as hopeless, detached the young ones +from their hold, flung them testily to the ground, and descending, +took them all into her pouch and upon her back, and trudged away. +'Frank and I now deemed it proper to interfere, and cut off the +retreat of the old 'possum: so, dropping from our perch, we soon +overtook and captured the whole family. The old one, on first seeing +us approach, rolled herself into a round clump, so that neither her +head nor legs could be seen, and in this attitude feigned to be quite +dead. Several of the youngsters who were _outside_, immediately +detached themselves, and imitated the example of their mother--so that +the family now presented the appearance of a large ball of whitish +wool, with several smaller "clews" lying around it!' The family +Crusoes, however, were not to be cheated: they took the whole +prisoners, intending to carry them home; and making the mother fast to +one of the saplings, returned to their tree. + +Soon the persecuted orioles began to scream and scold as before. Their +enemy this time was a huge moccason, one of the most venomous of +serpents. 'It was one of the largest of its species; and its great +flat head, protruding sockets, and sparkling eyes, added to the +hideousness of its appearance. Every now and then, as it advanced, it +threw out its forked tongue, which, moist with poisonous saliva, +flashed under the sunbeam like jets of fire. It was crawling directly +for the tree on which hung the nest.' The birds seemed to think he +meant to climb to their nest, and descended in rage and terror to the +lower branches. 'The snake, seeing them approach almost within range +of his hideous maw, gathered himself into a coil, and prepared to +strike. His eyes scintillated like sparks of fire, and seemed to +fascinate the birds; for instead of retiring, they each moment drew +nearer and nearer, now alighting on the ground, then flapping back to +the branches, and anon darting to the ground again--as though they +were under some spell from those fiery eyes, and were unable to take +themselves away. Their motions appeared to grow less energetic, their +chirping became almost inaudible, and their wings seemed hardly to +expand as they flew, or rather fluttered, around the head of the +serpent. One of them at length dropped down upon the ground within +reach of the snake, and stood with open bill, as if exhausted, and +unable to move farther. We were expecting to see the snake suddenly +launch forth upon his feathered victim; when all at once his coils +flew out, his body was thrown at full length, and he commenced +retreating from the tree!' The object that caused this diversion was +soon visible. 'It was an animal about the size of a wolf, and of a +dark-gray or blackish colour. Its body was compact, round-shaped, and +covered, not with hair, but with shaggy bristles, that along the ridge +of its back were nearly six inches in length, and gave it the +appearance of having a mane. It had very short ears, no tail whatever, +or only a knob; and we could see that its feet were hoofed, not clawed +as in beasts of prey. But whether beast of prey or not, its long +mouth, with two white tusks protruding over the jaws, gave it a very +formidable appearance. Its head and nose resembled those of the hog +more than any other animal; and in fact it was nothing else than the +peccary--the wild hog of Mexico.' + +The moccason did not wait to parley with his enemy, but skulked away +through the long grass, every now and then raising his head to glare +behind him. But the peccary tracked him by the smell, and on coming up +to him, uttered a shrill grunt. 'The snake, finding that he was +overtaken, threw himself into a coil, and prepared to give battle; +while his antagonist, now looking more like a great porcupine than a +pig, drew back, as if to take the advantage of a run; and then halted. +Both for a moment eyed each other--the peccary evidently calculating +its distance--while the great snake seemed cowed and quivering with +affright. Its appearance was entirely different from the bright +semblance it had exhibited but a moment before when engaged with the +birds. Its eyes were less fiery, and its whole body seemed more ashy +and wrinkled. We had not many moments to observe it, for the peccary +was now seen to rush forward, spring high into the air, and pounce +down with all her feet held together upon the coils of the serpent! +She immediately bounded back again; and, quick as thought, once more +rose above her victim. The snake was now uncoiled, and writhing over +the ground. Another rush from the peccary, another spring, and the +sharp hoofs of the animal came down upon the neck of the serpent, +crushing it upon the hard turf. The body of the reptile, distended to +its full length, quivered for a moment, and then lay motionless along +the grass. The victor uttered another sharp cry, that seemed intended +as a call to her young ones, who, emerging from the weeds where they +had concealed themselves, ran nimbly forward to the spot.' + +While the father and son are watching the peccary peeling the serpent +as adroitly as a fishmonger would skin an eel, another actor enters +upon the scene. This was the dreaded cougar, an animal of the size of +a calf, and with the head and general appearance of a cat. Creeping +stealthily round his victim, who is busy feasting on the quarry, he +at length attains the proper vantage-ground, and gathering himself up +like a cat, springs with a terrific scream upon the back of the +peccary, burying his claws in her neck, and clasping her all over in +his fatal embrace. 'The frightened animal uttered a shrill cry, and +struggled to free itself. Both rolled over the ground--the peccary all +the while gnashing its jaws, and continuing to send forth its strange +sharp cries, until the woods echoed again. Even the young ones ran +around, mixing in the combat--now flung sprawling upon the earth, now +springing up again, snapping their little jaws, and imitating the cry +of their mother. The cougar alone fought in silence. Since the first +wild scream not a sound had escaped him; but from that moment his +claws never relaxed their hold, and we could see that with his teeth +he was silently tearing the throat of his victim.' + +The Robinsons of the desert were now in an awkward predicament; for +although they had been safe from the peccary, the cougar could climb a +tree like a squirrel. A noise, however, disturbs him from his meal, +and swinging the dead animal on his back, he begins to skulk away. But +he is interrupted before he can reach cover; and as the new-comers +prove to be twenty or thirty peccaries, summoned to the field by the +dying screams of their comrade, he has more to do than to think of his +dinner. To fling down his burden, to leap upon the foremost of his +enemies, is but the work of an instant; but the avengers crowd round +him with their gnashing jaws and piercing cries, and the brute darts +up the tree like a flash of red fire, and crouches not twenty feet +above the heads of the horrified spectators! The father, however, +after some agonising moments of deliberation, brings him down with his +rifle; and the cougar, falling among the eager crowd below, is torn to +pieces in a moment. But this does not get rid of the peccaries, who +set up their fiendish screams anew as they discover two other victims +in the tree. The father fires again and again, dropping his peccary +each time, till five lie dead upon the ground; but the rage of the +rest only becomes more and more furious--and the marksman is at his +last bullet. Here we shall leave him; and such of our readers as may +be interested in his fate--who form, we suspect, a very handsome +percentage on the whole--may make inquiries for themselves at his +Desert Home. + + * * * * * + +FOOTNOTES: + +[1] Or the Adventures of a Lost Family in the Wilderness. By Captain +Mayne Reid. London: Bogue. 1852. + + + + +THE VATTEVILLE RUBY. + + +The clock of the church of Besancon had struck nine, when a woman +about fifty years of age, wrapped in a cotton shawl and carrying a +small basket on her arm, knocked at the door of a house in the Rue St +Vincent, which, however, at the period we refer to, bore the name of +Rue de la Liberte. The door opened. 'It is you, Dame Margaret,' said +the porter, with a very cross look. 'It is high time for you. All my +lodgers have come home long since; you are always the last, and'---- + +'That is not my fault, I assure you, my dear M. Thiebaut,' said, the +old woman in a deprecatory tone. 'My day's work is only just finished, +and when work is to be done'---- + +'That's all very fine,' he muttered. 'It might do well enough if I +could even reckon on a Christmas-box at the end of the year; but as it +is, I may count myself well off, if I do but get paid for taking up +their letters.' + +The old woman did not hear the last words, for with quick and firm +step she had been making her way up the six flights of stairs, steep +enough to make her head reel had she been ascending them for the first +time. 'Nine o'clock!--nine o'clock! How uneasy she must be!' and as +she spoke, she opened with her latch-key the door of a wretched +garret, in which dimly burned a rushlight, whose flickering flame +scarcely seemed to render visible the scanty furniture the room +contained. + +'Is that you, my good Margaret?' said a feeble and broken voice from +the farther end of the little apartment. + +'Yes, my dear lady; yes, it is I; and very sorry I am to have made you +uneasy. But Madame Lebriton, my worthy employer, is so active herself, +that she always finds the workwoman's day too short--though it is good +twelve hours--and just as I was going to fold up my work, she brought +me a job in a great hurry. I could not refuse her; but this time, I +must own, I got well paid for being obliging, for after I had done, +she said in her most good-natured way: "Here, you shall take home with +you some of this nice pie, and this bottle of good wine, and have a +comfortable supper with your sister." So she always calls you, +madame,' added Margaret, while complacently glancing at the basket, +the contents of which she now laid out upon the table. 'As I believe +it is safest for you, I do not undeceive her, though it is easily +known she cannot have looked very close at us, or she might have seen +that I could only be the servant of so noble-looking a lady'---- + +The feeble voice interrupted her: 'My servant!--you my servant! when, +instead of rewarding your services, I allow you to toil for my +support, and to lavish upon me the most tender, the most devoted +affection! My poor Margaret! you who have undertaken for me at your +age, and with your infirmities, daily and arduous toil, are you not +indeed a sister of whom I may well be proud? Your nobility has a +higher origin than mine. Reduced by political changes, which have left +me homeless and penniless, I owe everything to you; and so tenderly do +you minister to me, that even in this garret I could still almost +fancy myself the noble Abbess of Vatteville!' + +As she spoke, the aged lady raised herself in her old arm-chair, and +throwing back a black veil, disclosed features still beautiful, and a +forehead still free from every wrinkle, and eyes now sparkling with +something of their former brilliancy. She extended her hand to +Margaret, who affectionately kissed it; and then, apprehensive that +further excitement could not but be injurious to her mistress, the +faithful creature endeavoured to divert her thoughts into another +channel, by inviting her to partake of the little feast provided by +the kindness of her employer. Margaret being in the habit of taking +her meals in the house where she worked, the noble Lady Marie Anne +Adelaide de Vatteville was thus usually left alone and unattended, to +eat the scanty fare prescribed by the extreme narrowness of her +resources; so that she now felt quite cheered by the novel comfort, +not merely of the better-spread table, but of the company of her +faithful servant; and it was in an almost mirthful tone she said, when +the repast was ended: 'Margaret, I have a secret to confide to you. I +will not--I ought not to keep it any longer to myself.' + +'A secret, my dear mistress! a secret from me!' exclaimed the faithful +creature in a slightly reproachful tone. + +'Yes, dear Margaret, a secret from you; but to be so no longer. No +more henceforth of the toils you have undergone for me; they must be +given up: I cannot do without you. At my age, to be left alone is +intolerable. When you are not near me, I get so lonely, and sometimes +feel quite afraid, I cannot tell of what, but I suppose it is natural +to the old to fear; and often--will you believe it?--I catch myself +weeping like a very child. Ah! when age comes on us, we lose all +strength, all fortitude. But you will not leave me any more? Promise +me, dear Margaret.' + +'But in that case what is to become of us?' said Margaret. + +'This is the very thing I have to tell. And now listen to me. Take +this key, and in the right-hand drawer of the press you will find the +green casket, where, among my letters and family papers, you will see +a small case, which bring to me.' + +Margaret, not a little surprised, did as she was desired. The abbess +gazed on the case for some moments in silence, and Margaret thought +she saw a tear glisten in her eye as she pressed the box to her lips, +and kissed it tenderly and reverentially. + +'I have sworn,' she said, 'never to part with it; yet what can I do? +It must be so: it is the will of God.' And with a trembling hand, as +if about to commit sacrilege, she opened the case, and drew from it a +ruby of great brilliancy and beauty. 'You see this jewel?' she said. +'Margaret, it is the glory of my ancient house; it is the last gem in +my coronet, and more precious in my eyes than anything in the world. +My grand-uncle, the noblest of men, the Archbishop of Besancon, +brought it from the East; and when, in guerdon for some-family +service, Louis XIV. founded the Abbey of Vatteville, and made my +grand-aunt the first abbess of the order, he himself adorned her cross +with it. You now know the value of the jewel to me; and though I +cannot tell its marketable value, still, notwithstanding the pressure +of the times, I cannot but think it must bring sufficient to secure +us, for some time at least, from want. "Were I to consider myself +alone, I would starve sooner than touch the sacred deposit; but to +allow you, Margaret, to suffer, and to suffer for me--to take +advantage any longer of your disinterested affection and devoted +fidelity--would be base selfishness. God has at last taught me that I +was but sacrificing you to my pride, and I must hasten to make +atonement. I will endeavour to raise money on this jewel. You know old +M. Simon? Notwithstanding his mean appearance and humble mode of +living, I am persuaded he is a rich man; and though parsimonious in +the extreme, he is good-natured and obliging whenever he can be so +without any risk of loss to himself.' + +The next day, in pursuance of her project, the abbess, accompanied by +Margaret, repaired to the house of M. Simon. 'I know, sir,' she said, +'from your kindness to some friends of mine, that you feel an interest +in the class to which I belong, and that you are incapable of +betraying a confidence reposed in you. I am the Abbess of Vatteville. +Driven forth from the plundered and ruined abbey, I am living in the +town under an assumed name. I have been stripped of everything; and +but for the self-sacrificing attachment of a faithful servant, I must +have died of want. However, I have still one resource, and only one. I +know not if I am right in availing myself of it, but at my age the +power to struggle fails. Besides, do not suffer alone; and this +consideration decides me. Will you, then, have the goodness to give me +a loan on this jewel?' + +'I believe, madame, you have mistaken me for a pawnbroker. I am not in +the habit of advancing money in this way. I am myself very poor, and +money is now everywhere scarce. I should be very glad to be able to +oblige you, but just at present it is quite out of the question.' + +For a moment the poor abbess felt all hope extinct; but with a last +effort to move his compassion, she said: 'Oh, sir, remember that +secrecy is of such importance to me, I dare not apply to any one else. +The privacy, the obscurity in which I live, alone has prevented me +from paying with my blood the penalty attached to a noble name and +lineage.' + +'But how am I to ascertain the value of the jewel? I am no jeweller; +and I fear, in my ignorance, to wrong either you or myself.' + +'I implore you, sir, not to refuse me. I have no alternative But to +starve; for I am too old to work, and beg I cannot. Keep the jewel as +a pledge, and give me some relief.' + +Old Simon, though covetous, was not devoid of feeling. He was touched +by the tears of the venerable lady; and besides, the more he looked at +the jewel, the more persuaded he became of its being really valuable. +After a few moments' consideration, he said: 'All the money I am worth +at this moment is 1500 francs; and though I have my suspicions that I +am making a foolish bargain, I had rather run any risk than leave you +in such distress. The next time I have business in Paris, I can +ascertain the value of the jewel, and if I have given you too little, +I will make it up to you.' And with, a glad and grateful heart the +abbess took home the 1500 francs, thankful at having obtained the +means of subsistence for at least a year. + +Some months later, old Simon went up to Paris, and hastening to one of +the principal jewellers, shewed the ruby, and begged to know its +value. The jeweller took the stone carelessly; but after a few +moments' examination of it, he cast a rapid glance at the threadbare +coat and mean appearance of the possessor, and then abruptly +exclaimed: 'This jewel does not belong to you, and you must not leave +the house till you account for its being in your possession. Close the +doors,' he said to his foreman, 'and send for the police.' In vain did +Simon protest his innocence; in vain did he offer every proof of it. +The lapidary would listen to nothing; but at every look he gave the +gem, he darted at him a fresh glance of angry contempt. 'You must be a +fool as well as a knave,' he said. 'Do you know, scoundrel, that this +is the Vatteville--the prince of rubies; the most splendid, the rarest +of gems. It might be deemed a mere creation of imagination, were it +not enrolled and accurately described in the archives of our art. See +here, in the _Guide des Lapidaires_, a print of it. Mark its antique +fashioning, and that dark spot!--yes, it is indeed the precious ruby +so long thought lost. Rest assured, fellow, you shall not quit the +house until you satisfy me how you have contrived to get possession of +it.' + +'I should at once have told you, but from unwillingness to endanger +the life of a poor woman who has confided in me. I got the jewel from +the Abbess de Vatteville herself, and it is her last and only +resource.' And now M. Simon proved, by unquestionable documents, that +notwithstanding his more than humble appearance, he was a man of +wealth and respectability, and received the apologies which were +tendered, together with assurances that Madame Vatteville's secret was +safe with one who, he begged to say,'knew how to respect misfortune, +whenever and however presented to his notice.' + +'But what is the jewel worth?' asked M. Simon. + +'Millions, sir! and neither I nor any one else in the trade here could +purchase it, unless as a joint concern, and in case of a coronation or +a marriage in one of the royal houses of Europe, for such an occasion +alone could make it not a risk to buy it. But meanwhile I will, if you +wish, mention it to some of the trade.' + +'I am in no hurry,' said Simon, almost bewildered by the possession of +such a treasure. 'I may as well wait for some such occasion, and in +the meantime can make any necessary advances to the abbess. Perhaps I +may call on you again.' + +The first day of the year 1795 had just dawned, and there was a thick +and chilling fog. The abbess and her faithful servant felt this day +more than usually depressed, for fifteen months had now elapsed since +the 1500 francs had been received for the ruby, and there now remained +provision only for a few days longer. 'I have got no answer from M. +Simon,' said the abbess; and in giving utterance to her own thought, +she was replying to what was at that moment passing through Margaret's +mind. 'I fear he has not been able to get more for the ruby than he +thinks fair interest for the money he advanced to me.' + +'It is most likely,' said Margaret; and both relapsed into their +former desponding silence. + +'What a dreary New-Year's Day!' resumed Madame de Vatteville, in a +melancholy tone. + +'Oh, why can I not help you, dear mistress?' exclaimed Margaret, +suddenly starting from her reverie. 'Cheerfully would I lay down my +life for you!' + +'And why can I not return in any way your devoted attachment, my poor +Margaret?' + +At this instant, two loud and hurried knocks at the door startled them +both from their seats, and it was with a trembling hand Margaret +opened it to admit the old porter, and a servant with a letter in his +hand. + +'Thank you, thank you, M. Thiebaut: this letter is for my mistress.' +But the inquisitive old man either did not or would not understand +Margaret's hint to him to retire, and Madame de Vatteville was obliged +to tell him to leave the room. + +'Not a penny to bless herself with, though she has come to a better +apartment!' muttered he, enraged at the disappointment to his +curiosity--'and yet as proud as an aristocrat!' + +The abbess approached the casement, broke the seal with trembling +hand, and read as follows:-- + + 'I have at length been able to treat with a merchant for the + article in question, and have, after much difficulty, + obtained a sum of 25,000 francs--far beyond anything I could + have hoped. But the sum is to be paid in instalments, at + long intervals. It may therefore be more convenient for you, + under your peculiar circumstances, to accept the offer I now + make of a pension of 1500 francs, to revert after your + decease to the servant whom you mentioned as so devotedly + attached to you. If you are willing to accept this offer, + the bearer will hand you the necessary documents, by which + you are to make over to me all further claim upon the + property placed in my hands; and on your affixing your + signature, he will pay you the first year in advance. + + SIMON.' + +'What a worthy, excellent man!' joyfully exclaimed the abbess; for, in +the noble integrity of her heart, she had no suspicion that he could +take advantage of her circumstances. + +However Simon settled the matter with his conscience, the abbess, +trained in the school of adversity to be content with being preserved +from absolute want, passed the remainder of her life quietly and +happily with her good Margaret, both every day invoking blessings on +the head of him whom they regarded as a generous benefactor. Madame de +Vatteville lived to the age of one hundred, and her faithful Margaret +survived only a few months the mistress to whom she had given such +affecting proofs of attachment. + +But Simon's detestable fraud proved of no use to him. After keeping +his treasure for several years, he thought the Emperor's coronation +presented a favourable opportunity for disposing of it. Unfortunately +for him, his grasping avarice one morning suggested a thought which +his ignorance prevented his rejecting: 'Since this ruby--old-fashioned +and stained as it is--can be worth so much, what would be its value if +freed from all defect, and in modern setting?' And he soon found a +lapidary, who, for a sum of 3000 francs, modernised it, and effaced +the spot, and with it the impress, the stamp of its antiquity--all +that gave it value, beauty, worth! This wanting, no jeweller could +recognise it: it was no longer worth a thousand crowns. + +It was thus that the most splendid ruby in Europe lost its value and +its fame; and its name is now only to be found in _The Lapidaries' +Guide_, as that which had once been the most costly of gems. It seemed +as if it could not survive the last of the illustrious house to which +it owed its introduction into Europe, and its name. + + + + +HENRY TAYLOR. + + + 'There is delight in singing, though none hear + Beside the singer: and there is delight + In praising, though the praiser sit alone, + And see the praised far off him, far above.' + --W.S. LANDOR. + +It has been said, with more of truth than flattery, that literature of +any kind which requires the reader himself to think, in order to +enjoy, can never be popular. The writings of Mr Henry Taylor are to be +classed in this category. The reader of his dramas must study in order +to relish them; and their audience, therefore, must be of the fit, +though few kind. Goethe somewhere remarks, that it is not what we take +from a book so much as what we bring to it that actually profits us. +But this is hard doctrine, caviare to the multitude. And so long as +popular indolence and popular distaste for habits of reflection shall +continue the order of the day, so long will it be difficult for +writers of Mr Taylor's type to popularise their meditations; to see +themselves quoted in every provincial newspaper and twelfth-rate +magazine; to be gloriously pirated by eager hordes at Brussels and New +York; or to create a furor in 'the Row' on the day of publication, and +turn bibliopolic premises into 'overflowing houses.' The public asks +for glaring effects, palpable hits, double-dyed colours, treble X +inspirations, concentrated essence of sentiments, and emotions up to +French-romance pitch. With such a public, what has our author in +common? While _they_ make literary demands after their own heart, and +expect every candidate for their _not_ evergreen laurels to conform to +their rules, Mr Taylor calmly unfolds his theory, that it is from +'deep self-possession, an intense repose' that all genuine emanations +of poetic genius proceed, and expresses his doubt whether any high +endeavour of poetic art ever has been or ever will be promoted by the +stimulation of popular applause.[2] He denies that youth is the poet's +prime. He contends that what constitutes a great poet is a rare and +peculiar balance of all the faculties--the balance of reason with +imagination, passion with self-possession, abundance with reserve, and +inventive conception with executive ability. He insists that no man is +worthy of the name of a poet who would not rather be read a hundred +times by one reader than once by a hundred. He affirms that poetry, +unless written simply to please and pamper, and not to elevate or +instruct, will do little indeed towards procuring its writer a +subsistence, and that it will probably not even yield him such a +return as would suffice to support a labouring man for one month out +of the twelve.[3] Tenets like these are not for the million. The +propounder they regard as talking at them, not to them. His principles +and practice, his canons of taste, and his literary achievements, are +far above out of their sight--his merit they are content to take on +trust, by the hearing of the ear, a mystery of faith alone. + +Perhaps men shrewder than good Sir Roger de Coverley might aver that +much is to be said on both sides--that there may be something of +fallacy on the part of poet as well as people in this controversy. It +is possible to set the standard too high as well as too low--to plant +it on an elevation so distant that its symbol can no longer be +deciphered, as well as to fix it so low that its folds draggle in mire +and dust. If genius systematically appeal only to the initiated few, +it must learn to do without the homage of the outer multitude. For +its slender income of fame, it has mainly itself to thank. These +remarks apply with primary force to that class of contemporary poets +who delight in the mystic and enigmatical, and whose ideas are so apt +to vanish, like Homer's heroes, in a cloud--among whom Robert Browning +and Philip J. Bailey are conspicuous names; and in a secondary degree +to that other class, lucid indeed in thought, and classically definite +in expression, but otherwise too scholastic and abstract for popular +sympathies--among whom we may cite Walter Savage Landor and Henry +Taylor. Coleridge[4] tells us that, to enjoy poetry, we must combine a +more than ordinary sympathy with the objects, emotions, or incidents +contemplated by the poet, consequent on rare sensibility, with a more +than ordinary activity of the mind in respect of the fancy and +imagination. This more than ordinary mental activity is especially +demanded from the readers--say rather the students--of _Philip van +Artevelde_ and its kindred dramas. Those who are thus equipped will +commonly be found to agree in admiring the writings of this author; +among them he is unquestionably 'popular,' if it be any test of +popularity to send forth a second edition three months after the +first. Scholarship can appreciate, pure intellect can find nutriment +in, his reflective and carefully-wrought pages. His heroes and +heroines, cold and unimpassioned to the man of society, are classic +and genial to the man of thought. A Quarterly Reviewer observes, that +the blended dignity of thought, and a sedate moral habit, invests his +poetry with a stateliness in which the drama is generally deficient, +and makes his writings illustrate, in some degree, a new form of the +art. In all that he writes he stands revealed the true English +gentleman, 'that grand old name,' as Tennyson calls it, + + Defamed by every charlatan, + And soiled with all ignoble use.' + +_Isaac Comnenus_--in which a recent critic discovers much of that +Byronian vein upon which Mr Taylor is severe in his own +criticisms--being little remarkable in itself, as well as the least +remarkable of his dramatic performances, need not detain us. The +career of _Philip van Artevelde_ belongs to an era when, as Sir James +Stephen remarks, the whole of Europe, under the influence of some +strange sympathy, was agitated by the simultaneous discontents of all +her great civic populations--when the insurgent spirit, commencing in +the Italian republics, had spread from the south to the north of the +Alps, everywhere marking its advance by tumult, spoil, and bloodshed. +'Wat Tyler and his bands had menaced London; and the communes of +Flanders, under the command of Philip van Artevelde, had broken out +into open war with the counts, their seigneurs, and with their +suzerain lord, the Duke of Burgundy. On the issue of that attempt the +fate of the royal and baronial power seemed to hang in France, not +less than in Flanders.'[5] The drama composed by Mr Taylor to +represent the fortunes of the 'Chief Captain of the White Hoods and of +Ghent,' consists of two plays and an interlude--_The Lay of +Elena_--and being, as he says in his preface, equal in length to about +six such plays as are adapted to the stage, was not, of course, +intended to solicit the most sweet voices of pit and gallery, +although it has since been subjected to that ordeal at the instance of +Mr Macready. Historic truth is said to be preserved in it, as far as +the material events are concerned--with the usual exception of such +occasional dilatations and compressions of time as are required in +dramatic composition. And notwithstanding the limited imagination and +the too artificial passion which characterise it, _Philip van +Artevelde_ is in very many respects a noble work, as it certainly is +its author's chef-d'oeuvre. It has been pronounced by no mean +authority the superior of every dramatic composition of modern times, +including the _Sardanapalus_ of Lord Byron, the _Remorse_ of +Coleridge, and the _Cenci_ of Shelley. The portraiture of Philip is +one of those elaborate and highly-finished studies which repay as well +as require minute investigation. He is at once profoundly meditative +and surpassingly active. His energy of brain is only rivalled by his +readiness of hand. In him the active mood and the passive--the +practical and the ideal--the objective and the subjective--are not as +parallel lines that never meet, but are sections of one line, +describing the circle of his all-embracing mind. His youth has been, +that of a dreamy recluse, the scorn of men of the world. 'Oh, fear him +not, my lord,' says one of them to the Earl of Flanders: + + --'His father's name + Is all that from his father[6] he derives. + He is a man of singular address + In catching river fish. His life hath been + Till now, more like a peasant's or a monk's, + Than like the issue of so great a man.' + +Similarly the earl himself describes him as 'a man that as much +knowledge has of war as I of brewing mead--a bookish nursling of the +monks--a meacock.' But when the last scene of all has closed his +strange eventful history, the testimony of a nobler, wiser foe,[7] +ascribes to him great gifts of courage, discretion, wit, an equal +temper, an ample soul, rock-bound and fortified against assaults of +transitory passion, but founded on a surging subterranean fire that +stirs him to lofty enterprise--a man prompt, capable, and calm, +wanting nothing in soldiership except good-fortune. Ever tempted to +reverie, he yet refuses, even for one little hour, to yield up the +weal of Flanders to idle thought or vacant retrospect. Having once put +his hand to the plough of action, with clear foresight, not blindfold +bravery, his language is--'Though I indulge no more the dream of +living, as I hoped I might have lived, a life of temperate and +thoughtful joy, yet I repine not, and from this time forth will cast +no look behind.' The first part of the drama leaves him an exultant +victor, an honourable prosperous, and happy man. The second +part--which alike in interest and treatment is very inferior to the +first--finds him falling, and leaves him 'fallen, fallen, fallen, from +his high estate.' His sun, no longer trailing clouds of glory, sets in +a wintry and misty gloom. And yet in the act of dying he emits flashes +of the ancient brightness, and we feel that so dies a hero. The other +_dramatis personae_ pale their ineffectual fires before his central +light. + +After a silence of nearly ten years--characteristic of Mr Taylor's +deliberative and disciplined mind--he produced (1842) _Edwin the +Fair_, of whose story the little that was known, he observes, was +romantic enough to have impressed itself on the popular memory--the +tale of _Edwy and Elgiva_ having been current in the nursery long +before it came to be studied as a historical question. In illustrating +this tale he borrows from the bordering reigns 'incidents which were +characteristic of the times,' though some are of opinion, that his +deviation from historical truth has rather impaired than aided the +poetical effect of the drama. With artistic skill, and often with +sustained energy, he develops the career of the 'All-Fair' prince, and +his relation to the monkish struggle of the tenth century; the hostile +intrigues and stormy violence of Dunstan; the loyal tenacity and Saxon +frank-heartedness of Earl Leolf and his allies; the celebrated +coronation-scene, and 'most admired disorder' of the banquet; the +discovery and denunciation of Edwin's secret nuptials; his +imprisonment in the Tower of London; the confusion and dispersion of +his adherents; the ecclesiastical finesse and conjuror-tricks of +Dunstan; the king's rescue and temporary success; the murder of +Elgiva, and Edwin's own death in the essay to avenge her. It is around +Dunstan, the representative of spiritual despotism, that the interest +centres. The character of this 'Saint,' like that of Hildebrand and a +Becket, has been made one of the problems of history. Mr Taylor's +reading of the part is masterly, and we think correct. His Dunstan is +not wholly sane; he believes himself inspired to read the alphabet of +Heaven's stars, and to behold visions beyond the bounds of human +foresight; one of the few to whom, 'and not in mercy, is it given to +read the mixed celestial cypher: not in mercy, save as a penance +merciful in issue.' His mischievous influence over the popular mind is +sealed by the partial and latent degree of his insanity, for 'madness +that doth least declare itself endangers most, and ever most infects +the unsound many.' His great natural powers are tainted by the one +black spot; his youth has been devoted to books, to the study of +chemistry and mechanics; his manhood to observing 'the ways of men and +policies of state' in the court of Edred; 'and were he not pushed +sometimes past the confines of his reason, he would o'ertop the +world.' Next to him in interest comes Earl Leolf, from whose lips +proceed some of the finest poetry in the play, especially that +exquisite soliloquy[8] on the sea-shore at Hastings. Athulf, the +brother of Elgiva, is another happy portrait--a man bright and jocund +as the morn, who can and will detect the springs of fruitfulness and +joy in earth's waste places, and whose bluff dislike of Dunstan is +aptly illustrated in the scene where he brings the king's commands, +and is kept waiting by the monks during Dunstan's matutinal +flagellation:-- + + _'Athulf._ But, sirs, it is in haste--in haste extreme-- + Matters of state, and hot with haste. + + _Second Monk_. My lord, + We will so say, but truly at this present + He is about to scourge himself. + + _Athulf_. I'll wait. + For a king's ransom would I not cut short + So good a work! I pray you, for how long? + + _Second Monk_. For twice the _De Profundis_, sung in slow time. + + _Athulf_. Please him to make it ten times, I will wait. + And could I be of use, this knotted trifle, + This dog-whip here has oft been worse employed.' + +In his recent play, _The Virgin Widow_ (1850), Mr Taylor declines from +the promise of his earlier efforts. The preface suggests great things; +but they are not forthcoming. There is much careful finish, much +sententious rhetoric, much elegant description; but there is little of +racy humour (the play is a 'romantic comedy'), little of poetical +freshness, little of lively flesh and blood portraiture, and more of +melodramatic expedience than dramatic construction. Neither comedy nor +melodrama is our author's _forte_. + +In 1836 Mr Taylor published _The Statesman_, a book which contained +the 'views and maxims respecting the transaction of public business,' +which had been suggested to its author by twelve years' experience of +official life. He has since then allowed that it was wanting in that +general interest which might possibly have been felt in the results of +a more extensive and varied conversancy with public life.[9] In 1848 +he produced _Notes from Life_, professedly a kind of supplemental +volume to the former, embodying the conclusions of an attentive +observation of life at large. The first essay investigates in detail +the right measure and manner to be adopted in getting, saving, +spending, giving, taking, lending, borrowing, and bequeathing 'money;' +and a weighty, valuable essay it is, with no lack of golden grains and +eke of diamond-dust in its composition. The thoughts are not given in +the bullion lump, but are well refined, and having passed through the +engraver's hands, they shine with the true polish, ring with the true +sound. In terse, pregnant, and somewhat oracular diction, we are here +instructed how to avoid the evils contingent upon bold commercial +enterprise--how to guard against excesses of the accumulative +instinct--how to exercise a thoroughly conscientious mode of +regulating expenditure, eschewing prodigality, that vice of a weak +nature, as avarice is of a strong one--how to be generous in giving; +'for the essence of generosity is in self-sacrifice, waste, on the +contrary, comes always by self-indulgence'--how to withstand +solicitations for loans, when the loans are to accommodate weak men in +sacrificing the future to the present. The essay on _Humility and +Independence_ is equally good, and pleasantly demonstrates the +proposition, that Humility is the true mother of Independence; and +that Pride, which is so often supposed to stand to her in that +relation, is in reality the step-mother by whom is wrought the very +destruction and ruin of Independence. False humilities are ordered +into court, and summarily convicted by this single-eyed judge, whose +cross-examination of these 'sham respectabilities' elicits many a +suggestive practical truth. There is more of philosophy and prudence +than of romance in the excursus on _Choice in Marriage_; but the +philosophy is shrewd and instructive, uttering many a homely hint of +value in its way: as where we are reminded that if marrying _for_ +money is to be justified only in the case of those unhappy persons who +are fit for nothing better, it does not follow that marrying _without_ +money is to be justified in others; and again, that the negotiations +and transactions connected with marriage-settlements are eminently +useful, as searching character and testing affection, before an +irrevocable step be taken; and again, that when two very young persons +are joined together in matrimony, it is as if one sweet-pea should be +put as a prop to another. The essay on _Wisdom_ is elevated and +thoughtful, like most of the essayist's papers, but somewhat too heavy +for miscellaneous readers. With his wonted clearness he distinguishes +Wisdom from understanding, talents, capacity, ability, sagacity, +sense, &c. and defines it as that exercise of the reason into which +the heart enters--a structure of the understanding rising out of the +moral and spiritual nature. Then follows a section on _Children_, +which explodes not a few educational fallacies, and propounds certain +articles of faith and practice wholesome for these times, though it +will probably wear a prim and quakerish aspect to the admirers of Jean +Paul's famous tractate[10] on the same theme. The concluding paper in +this series, entitled _The Life Poetic_, is the liveliest, if not the +most valuable of the six: it has, however, been charged, with +considerable show of justice, with a tendency to strip genius of all +that is individual and spontaneous, or to accredit it only 'when it +moves abroad sedately, clad in the uniform of a peculiar college.' Mr +Taylor's 'solicitous and premeditated formalism' of poetical doctrine +is, it must be confessed, a little too strait-laced. The true poet is +born, not made. Still, in their place, our author's dogmas have their +use, and might, if duly marked and inwardly digested, annually deter +many aspirants who are _not_ poets from proving so incontestably to +the careless public that negative fact. + +_Notes from Books_ followed within a few months, but met with a less +cordial reception. Of the four essays comprised in this volume, three +are reprinted contributions to the _Quarterly Review_, being +criticisms on the poetry of Wordsworth and Aubrey de Vere; and +worthily do they illustrate--those on Wordsworth at least--Mr Taylor's +composite faculty of depth and delicacy in poetical exposition. Of +Wordsworth's many and gifted commentators--among them Wilson, +Coleridge, Hazlitt, De Quincey, Lamb, Moir, Sterling--few have shewn a +happier insight into the idiosyncrasy, or done more justice to the +beauties of the patriarch of the Lakes. With Wordsworth for a subject, +and the _Quarterly Review_ for a 'door of utterance,' Mr Taylor is +quite in his element. The fourth essay, on the _Ways of the Rich and +Great_, is enriched with wise saws and modern instances. Its +_materiel_ is composed of ripe observation and reflective good sense; +but the manner is objected to as marred by conceits of style--a sin +not very safely to be committed by so stern a censor of it in others. +His authoritative air in laying down the law is also occasionally +unpleasing to some readers; and great as his tact in essay-writing is, +he wants that easy grace and pervading _bonhomie_ which imparts such a +charm to the works of one with whom he has been erroneously +identified--the anonymous author of _Friends in Council_. But, after +all, he is one of those writers to whom our current literature is +really indebted, and whose sage, sententious, and well-hammered +thoughts may be profitably, as well as safely, commended to every +thinking soul among us. + + * * * * * + +FOOTNOTES: + +[2] _Notes from Life._ + +[3] Ibid. + +[4] _Literary Remains._ + +[5] _Lectures on the History of France._ + +[6] Namely, Jacques van Artevelde, 'the noblest and the wisest man +that ever ruled in Ghent,' and whom the factious citizens slew at his +own door. + +[7] Duke of Burgundy, in the last scene of Part II. + +[8] Beginning:-- + + 'Rocks that beheld my boyhood! Perilous shelf + That nursed my infant courage! Once again + I, stand before you--not as in other days + In your gray faces smiling; but like you + The worse for weather.'... + +How sweet the lines:-- + + The sun shall soon + Dip westerly; but oh! how little like + Are life's two twilights! Would the last were first, + And the first last! that so we might he soothed + Upon the thoroughfares of busy life + Beneath the noon-day sun, with hope of joy + Fresh as the morn,' &c. + --_Act II. scene ii._ + +[9] Preface to _Notes from Life._ + +[10] _Levana_, of which an able translation was published by Messrs +Longman in 1848. + + + + +RAILWAY JUBILEE IN AMERICA. + + +The opening in September last of the grand railway which unites +Massachusetts with British North America is one of the most noticeable +events of our times. Before this, the commercial path of transit from +Europe lay from the Atlantic up the St Lawrence, the navigation of +which--at all times difficult and dangerous--is closed by ice during +five months of the year, and thus all intercourse through the States, +except by sleighs, stopped. Now, goods may be brought direct to Boston +and shipped to Europe, or unshipped at Boston for the Canadas without +interruption. But in a moral and social point of view, the subject is +still more important. Rivalry and bad feeling vanish before +intercourse, and the locomotive mows down prejudices faster than corn +falls before the Yankee reaping-machine. + +When I heard that there was to be a _procession_, the word vulgarised +the whole affair. It conjured up before my mind's eye our doings of +the sort in England, with the Lord Mayor's Show at the head of them; +and I concluded that the Yankee attempt would be still more trashy. +Let us see how it turned out. I send you a newspaper for the details; +but _here_ you must be a spectator, with the whole picture dashing, +mass by mass, upon your sensorium. + +As the first requisite for enjoyment, it was a glorious day even for +this climate. Nothing shews off a pageant like fine weather. I left +home shortly after daybreak, and went to the Common, as it is +called--a Park about as large as St James's, handsomely laid out, with +long alleys, some parallel, others crossing at various angles, and all +shaded by fine trees. The scene presented by this Park reminded me of +Camacho's wedding in _Don Quixote_, on a large scale. There stood the +tent for the banquet, constructed to dine 3000 persons, and decorated +with the flags of America and England streaming from the top, with the +flags of other nations below. Close by, were large tents for the +preparation of viands, surrounded with all the paraphernalia of a +feast. In various places, booths had been erected by the city, for the +gratuitous supply of all comers with pure iced water, and these were +thronged throughout the day, especially with children. The pedestrian +portion of the procession assembled in the Park, while the vehicles +crowded all the adjacent streets. And now might be observed the +various societies, with their bands of music; volunteer companies +marching here and there, getting into step, arranging their order and +practising their tunes. I was chatting with a raw Vermonter, who was +as much a stranger as myself. 'In the name of creation,' he suddenly +exclaimed, 'what tarnal screeching is that yonder?' 'That,' I said, +'is the bagpipes, the national music of Scotland.' 'That?' said he: +'it would clear a State of racoons in no time!' But the Scots had +determined to shine, and they advanced: a tall Highlander first, in +full costume, and blowing the pipes at his loudest; after him ten +others, in full Highland costume, with a banner--the Scottish Friends; +and about 200 with silk sashes, and walking three abreast. The +Catholic Irishmen followed, with a banner displaying a portrait of the +Pope and other Catholic emblems; and directly after came the +Protestant Irishmen, with their banners and music. Why will they not +associate thus in their own land? A very interesting portion of the +assembling was a party of about a thousand fine-looking, hardy men, +all remarkably clean, dressed in labourers' costume--blue blouses and +white trousers--headed by a band of music playing Irish popular tunes, +with a large banner of the stars and stripes, and the word 'Liberty,' +with the inscription--'The Irish Labourers. Under this we find +Protection for our Labour.' + +The Park is an irregular square. On the north side, on the highest +point of the city, stands the State-House, where the legislature +meets. Near that is the house which was formerly inhabited by the +governor, at the time the British flag waved where there now fly, +glancing in the sun, the stars and stripes. As the president was +expected at the State-House, and the procession was to start from +thence, that was the point of attraction, where the spectators formed +into a vast, dense, and steady mass. We English are in the habit of +seeing the paraphernalia of courts, and are slow to disconnect the +ideas of pomp and state from the persons of those who hold power and +distinction; but the chief of this great nation, together with the +secretary of state, had arrived in town by railway in an ordinary +carriage, without the least parade, and the corporation had hired for +the occasion an open carriage-and-four--such an equipage as would have +passed quite unnoticed in an English provincial town. Let me here +observe, that by an ordinary carriage I mean a carriage open to all; +for in America there are no locomotive distinctions of 1st, 2d, and 3d +classes. I never saw expectation more on tiptoe. A rattle round the +corner was heard; then the noise of the wheels ceased, and then the +president--a tall, gentlemanly-looking, elderly man--was ascending the +steps of the State-House; and as soon as his gray locks were seen by +the immense multitude, such a shout arose as only Anglo-Saxon lungs +can raise and prolong. The president turned round on the landing of +the steps, took off his hat, bowed, and entered the hall. I have seen +many ceremonies, regal and imperial, which passed off very much like a +scene at a theatre; but I felt the sublime simplicity of this. There +is no road to distinction here but talent; and as the fine old man +stood on the steps bowing, with Mr Webster, Secretary of State, by his +side, they looked the very embodiment of intellect, and the manly, +overpowering shout of the crowd the recognition of it. The +multitudinous voices died away in the distance with a peculiar effect. +No firing of guns. While on this part of the subject, I may mention my +strong impression, that in no place is the government so much +respected as in America. The public press may ridicule and joke upon +certain acts of individuals; but whatever side is taken, there is +nothing that can bring the laws, or those who administer them, into +disrespect. This produces order to an extent unknown elsewhere. No one +seems to question the law or the commands of its officers excepting +Europeans, who bring their turbulent habits with them. + +Leaving this imposing scene, I turned to the route of the procession, +which had been advertised to pass through certain streets. In some +degree to account for the masses of human beings that filled them, the +three railways had kept pouring people in for three days, and the +trains, immediately on arrival, turned back to fetch the thousands +they had left waiting at the stations. It was said that there never +was such a gathering in one place since the independence of the +States. The arrangements of the pageant were made by the committee of +the city; but the audience, or public, arranged themselves, and never +was there anything better done. Along the whole line of streets, about +three miles in length, the goods had been removed from the +shop-windows, and their places filled with ladies. Every window that +commanded a view was appropriated to females and children, who were +likewise in many cases on the tops of the houses. Men occupied the +pavement to the kerbstone. The roadway was kept by deputy-marshals, +who rode up and down, in black dress suits, cocked, open hats, and +white sashes; and in this vast assemblage their every request was +immediately attended to. At the end of every street, carriages of all +descriptions were placed, filled with people. As an instance of the +courtesy of the spectators, my wife had handed our Little Red +Ridinghood to some gentleman on the top of an omnibus, who very kindly +held her up to see the show, and took charge of her while Mrs W---- +found her way to the window where her place had been kept. If anything +could mark the kindly disposition and good order of the crowd, it was +the fact, that although I should think all the children in the city +were there, not one was hurt, but everybody exerted himself to +accommodate this interesting portion of the community. Across the +streets, and at all available points, the stars and stripes waved +proudly in the air, and altogether the scene was most beautiful and +imposing. I walked the whole length of the route before the procession +moved, and the _coup d'oeil_ was perfect. The military portion looked +remarkably well; but when the open carriage appeared in which rode +Lord Elgin and his friends, the representative of Great Britain was +greeted with such shouts and by such waving of handkerchiefs from the +windows by crowds of elegantly dressed females, as I am sure his +lordship can never forget. On his part, Lord Elgin continued bowing in +acknowledgment, almost without intermission, for two hours and twenty +minutes--the time occupied in passing. + +Nearly equal to this was the enthusiasm elicited by the appearance of +an open carriage, drawn by four grays, and containing only two men, +wellnigh ninety years of age, then the sole survivors, in the State of +Massachusetts, of those who fought in the War of Independence. It is +the custom to shew honour to the survivors of that event on all public +occasions. On the 4th of July last, the last public gathering, there +were four in the carriage: two are gone. Before the carriage, was +carried the banner of Washington, used in the struggle. When these old +men raised their withered hands to remove their hats, in reply to the +welcome of the crowd, they appeared like spirits of the past. In all +probability, they will not appear in public again; but the fruits of +their courage will live for ever. The appropriateness and beauty of +the arrangement of details were remarkable in the representation of +the particular trades. The most imposing objects were the two new +locomotives, shining brilliantly in their might of brass and steel, +and richly painted; and as they loomed in sight, turning the bends of +the streets, they were truly magnificent and appropriate objects. Each +was raised upon a car, so that, on the whole, it was thirty feet high; +it was drawn by eighteen iron-gray horses, all in line, decorated with +blue ribbons, and handsomely caparisoned; each horse being led by a +workman, in clean, new, working costume. The next was a procession on +foot. Eight negroes, in Eastern costume, walked as guards round a +platform, carried palanquin-fashion by four negroes, with 5000 ounces +of manufactured silver-plate, built up in a pyramid, and forming a +splendid object, fully equal in workmanship to anything of the kind I +have seen. A very interesting part of the pageant was the children of +the different schools, in four-wheeled cars, covered with drapery, and +decorated with flowers and plants; and it was really pleasing to see +the happy little creatures enjoying such a holiday as they would never +forget. It is impossible to give a third of the details of this unique +procession; but I cannot omit to notice the last feature--the +labourers on their truck-horses. These were the carmen of the town. +Their clean, healthy, happy faces, with their glossy horses, decorated +with ribbons, made me regard them as the best and proudest cavalry a +nation could have. These are all men who, a very short time since, +landed from the Old World--fugitives from misery and starvation. + +I had a ticket offered me for the banquet, but I preferred being +outside among the people. I have had enough of dinner-speeches in my +time, although this occasion was one of peculiar interest. The Park +continued to be crowded to excess; and as the company arrived, they +were greeted by the people and the bands of music stationed here and +there. But what sound is that? They are drinking toasts within; and +one is now given which stirs the vast multitude like an electrical +shock. I cannot hear at first, the roar is so deafening: but presently +I am able to analyse the sounds that have caused the commotion; and I +confess it is with a beating heart, and a sort of choking sensation in +the throat, I hear every lip repeat--'The Queen of England!' and every +band in the Park take up from the music in the tent our own national +strain, till the whole atmosphere vibrates with _God save the Queen!_ +The effect was magical, and I felt gratified beyond measure--not alone +at the compliment to our country, but as evidence that the +Anglo-Saxons are still one great community, and that the proceedings +of that day would rivet between the two countries the bond of common +blood. The day closed as happily as it had begun, and the streets were +crowded up to a late hour. I was in all the thickest of the press, and +I know that there was not a single accident, nor did I see or hear of +any instance of drunkenness or disorder. All was harmony and +good-humour. + +I would mention, as a strong proof of the growing interest felt for +the old country here, in New England especially, that almost every +family is desirous of being known to be connected with it. They have +all English names; and a numerous society have employed a gentleman of +skill in such matters for the last ten years in England in tracing out +the English branches of the different families, in the State, so as to +have the genealogy complete. This has become a passion; and I have +found every person I met who could trace his descent from the +mother-country proud of it. I fell in, the other day, with a highly +intelligent American, who told me with quite a feeling of pride, that +his grandfather and grandmother were English, and his wife's father a +Scot. + + + + +THINGS TALKED OF IN LONDON. + +_January 1852._ + + +Notwithstanding our busy and acquisitive propensities, we of the +metropolis have found time to wish one another a happy new-year, and +to send friendly greetings to our country cousins also. We don't like +to take the step from one year into another without a _coup d'amitie_. +Besides all which, we are in the habit of considering ourselves at the +present season more than ever entitled to partake of the recreations +offered us, whether theatrical, musical, pictorial, saltatorial, +philosophical, or scientific. And so, while simple-minded people are +looking into the new almanacs to test the accuracy of the predictions, +I must try to fill a page or two with such matters of talk as will +bear reproduction in print. + +First of all, among the discussions and communications at the +Astronomical Society, it is stated that the term 'meteoric astronomy' +is one which we shall shortly be able to use with almost absolute +certainty, as M. Petit of Toulouse has succeeded in determining the +orbits of meteors relatively to the sun as well as to the earth. His +conclusions are considered valuable, especially with respect to the +meteor of August 19, 1847, which, it appears, came 'from the regions +of space beyond our system;' having, as is estimated, occupied more +than 373,000 years in passing from its point of departure to its fall +in the North Sea, near the shores of Belgium! This is another addition +to our knowledge of meteoric phenomena which affords promise of +further results. Certain members of the same society are still at work +on what has been a tedious task--the restoration of the standard yard, +rendered necessary, as you will remember, by the destruction of the +original in the Parliament-House conflagration, more than ten years +ago. The work proceeds slowly but surely, as the extremest pains are +taken to insure accuracy, the measurements, bisections, and +graduations being read off with a microscope. When finished, it will +be centuplicated or more, if necessary, and, as is said, a copy +deposited in every corporate town in the kingdom. This restoration of +the standard is not so easy a task as would be commonly supposed, for +apart from the determination of the yard with mathematical accuracy, +alternations of heat and cold have to be taken into account; for, as +is well known, a strip of metal which measures thirty-six inches long +in a temperature of 70 degrees, will not measure the same in 50 +degrees. Connected with this subject, it was stated at one of the +meetings of the society, that the ancient Saxon yard was nearly +identical with the modern French _metre_; whence a suggestion of 'the +possibility of the Saxon yard being actually derived from a former +measure of the earth, made at a period beyond the range of history, +the results of which have been preserved during many centuries of +barbarism.' Be this as it may, we are now given to understand that the +Egyptian Pyramids, whether originally erected for purposes of +sepulture or not, are, at the same time, definite portions of a degree +of the earth's surface in the meridian of Egypt; and it has been +proposed, as these mighty structures are far more durable even now +than anything which we could build in England, that when our standard +shall be re-established, the length shall be cut on the side of one of +the pyramids, together with such explanatory particulars as may he +necessary, so as to preserve the record for all coming time. Modern +science thus availing itself of the labours of the past, would be a +remarkable incident in the history of philosophy. + +The appearance of extraordinary spots on the sun has attracted a more +than ordinary degree of attention to that luminary, and to Mr J. +Nasmyth's 'views respecting the source of light,' which, though +published a few months since, are now again talked about. Mr Nasmyth, +after several years' observation, comes to the conclusion, 'that +whatever be the source of light, its production appears to result from +an action induced on the _exterior surface_ of the solar sphere;' and +he believes it reasonable to 'consider the true source of the latent +element of light to reside, _not in the solar orb_, but in space +itself; and that the grand function and duty of the sun is to act as +an agent for the bringing forth into vivid existence its due portion +of the illuminating or luciferous element; which element he supposes +to be diffused throughout the boundless regions of space, and which in +that case must be perfectly exhaustless. Further, assuming this +luciferous element to be not equally diffused through space, we find a +reason why in some ages of the earth's history the heat should have +been greater than at others, why stars have been seen to vary in +brightness, and why there was that puzzle to geologists--a glacial +period. During that period, according to Mr Nasmyth, with whose words +I finish this part of my communication, 'an arctic climate spread from +the poles towards the equator, and left the record of such a condition +in glacial handwriting on the mountain walls of our elder mountain +ravines, of which there is such abundant and unquestionable evidence.' + +Our Microscopical Society have made a discovery in an all but +invisible subject: they now state the _Volvox globator_ to be a +vegetable, and not, as has long been supposed, an animal, as its +cells, presumed to be ova, are produced in the same way as in certain +kinds of _algae_. In the discussion excited by this announcement, it +came out that several other minute forms, classed by Ehrenberg among +living animalcules, are in reality vegetable; which, if true, shews +that a good deal of microscopical work will have to be done over +again. The Syro-Egyptian Society, too, have heard something relating +to the same subject--a paper on Ehrenberg's examination by the +microscope of the anciently deposited alluvium of the Nile, from which +it appears that 'microscopic animals' in countless numbers were the +cause of the remarkable fertility of the soil, and not vegetable or +unctuous matters. Talking of deposits reminds me of a little fact +which I must not forget to mention--the finding of a fossil reptile in +the 'Old Red' of your county of Moray is, barring the alarm, as much a +cause of astonishment to our geologists, as was the mark of the foot +on the sand to Robinson Crusoe. + +Now for a few gatherings from the continent. M. Chalambel has laid +before the Academie at Paris a 'Note on a Modification to be +introduced in the Preparation of Butter, which improves its Quality +and prolongs its Preservation.' 'If butter,' he observes, 'contained +only the fat parts of milk, it would undergo only very slow +alterations when in contact with the air; but it retains a certain +quantity of _caseum_, found in the cream, which caseum, by its +fermentation, produces butyric-acid, and to which is owing the +disagreeable flavour of rancid butter. The usual washing of butter +rids it but very imperfectly of this cause of alteration, for the +water does not wet the butter, and cannot dissolve the caseum, which +has become insoluble under the influence of the acids that develop +themselves in the cream. A more complete separation would be obtained +if these acids were saturated; the caseum would again be soluble, and +consequently the quantity retained in the butter would be almost +entirely carried away by the washing-water.' + +The remedy proposed is: 'When the cream is in the churn, pour in--a +little at a time, and keep stirring--enough of lime-wash to destroy +the acidity entirely. The cream is then to be churned until the butter +separates; but before it forms into lumps, the buttermilk is to be +poured off, and replaced by cold water, in which the churning is to be +continued until the butter is complete, when it is to be taken from +the churn and treated as usual. I have,' says M. Chalambel, 'by +following this method, obtained butter always better, and which kept +longer, than when made in the ordinary way. The buttermilk, deprived +of its sharp taste, was drunk with pleasure by men and animals, and +had lost its laxative properties.' By means of lime-wash or +lime-water, he has restored butter so 'far gone' that it could only +have been recovered by melting; but any alkaline lixivium will answer +the same purpose. + +I have more than once kept you informed of the inquiry concerning the +effects of iodine on the human system, which has so long engaged the +attention of several eminent chemists on the continent; and now have +to report something further by M. Fourcault, whose communication +thereupon to the Academie is entitled, 'On the Absence of Iodine in +Water and Alimentary Substances, considered as Cause of Goitre and +Cretinism, and on the Means of Preventing the Development of these +Affections.' He has investigated the subject profoundly and +analytically, and concludes that 'the absence or insufficiency of +iodine in water and in alimentary substances, is to be considered as +the primitive cause, special or _sui generis_, of goitre and +Cretinism;' that the existence of the diseases does not depend on the +presence more or less of sulphate of lime or magnesia in the animal +economy; that 'iodine acts in goitre as iron in chlorosis--by +restoring to the system one of its essential principles;' and that +'the most powerful secondary or auxiliary causes are: a coarse and +uniform vegetable regimen; living at the bottom of deep, enclosed +valleys; in low and damp houses, into which air and light penetrate +with difficulty; the alliance of infected families among themselves; +and the want of such employment as would yield a comfortable +subsistence and proper development of the physical forces.' In +commenting on these statements, Baron Thenard observed that M. +Chatain, in the course of his able researches on iodine, had analysed +the waters of those Alpine valleys most subject to goitre, and found +that mineral almost entirely wanting. And it has been proved that +sea-salt, containing a minute quantity of ioduret of potassium, acted +as a preservative from goitre on all the inhabitants of a district who +made use of it. The air, too, has been examined as well as the water, +and, so far as yet ascertained, the proportion of iodine in the +atmosphere is variable, and much greater in amount in some regions +than in others. The activity prevailing in this particular branch of +inquiry is the more encouraging, as the maladies which it aims at +removing are of so peculiarly distressing a nature; and the +investigation is one likely to lead also to valuable incidental +results. + +Next, M. Abeille, chief physician to the hospital at Ajaccio, has an +interesting communication--On the employment of electricity to +counteract the accidents arising from too long inhalation of ether or +chloroform. He found that patients submitted to galvano-puncture could +not be rendered insensible by the effects of ether--the galvanism +invariably restored sensation--and taking this accidentally-discovered +fact as the basis of further research, he set to work and made a +series of experiments on living animals, and arrived at results which +in a brief summary are: that electricity, made to operate by means of +needles implanted in several parts of the body, especially in the +direction of the cerebro-spinal axis, reawakes sensibility, and +immediately puts the relaxed muscles into play. 'It constitutes,' he +adds, 'according to my experiments, the most prompt and efficacious +means--I may say the only efficacious--to restore to life any person +whose inhalation of chloroform has been prolonged beyond the time +prescribed by prudence. It is the first means to which recourse ought +to be had; and trials made in other ways appeared to me to lead to +nothing but loss of time, which in many cases would be fatal.' + +M.H. Deschamps says, that there is a 'certain sign of death,' which, +if attended to, will entirely prevent risk of that much-dreaded +accident--premature interment. It is a certain green tinge which +always makes its appearance on the abdomen, even before the cadaverous +smell, and is a positive evidence that decomposition has begun. There +are some people to whom the knowledge of this fact will be a +satisfaction; but if, as is popularly supposed, bodies are not +unfrequently buried alive, how is it that we never hear of a revival +in a dissecting-room? Then, on another point of physiology, M. Payerne +states, with regard to the distress experienced by many persons in the +ascent of a high mountain, 'that the lassitude and breathlessness felt +in elevated places appear to proceed, not from an insufficiency of +oxygen, but rather from the rupture of the equilibrium between the +tension of the fluids contained in our organs and that of the ambient +air, whatever be the way in which the rupture is produced.' And, to +close these physiological matters, M. Chuart begs the Academie to +include among their premiums for rendering arts or trades less +insalubrious, one for 'different inventions designed to diminish the +frequency of accidents which take place in coal-mines from explosions +of gas.' How much such inventions are needed, recent events in our own +coal districts but too painfully demonstrate. + +Our Meteorological Society may perhaps take a hint from M. Liais's +suggestion as to the 'possibility of applying photography to determine +the height of clouds, and to the observation of shooting-stars;' and +M.F. Cailliaud, director of the museum at Nantes, says something not +uninteresting to naturalists--namely, that the statements commonly +made, that all molluscous animals perforate stone by means of an acid, +is not the fact with regard to _Pholades_ and _Tarets_. He observes, +that although a workman would be amazed on hearing a proposition to +pierce calcareous stone with the shell of a _Pholas_, yet he himself +has done it, and holds the success to be a proof that the animal can +do the same. The idea of the acid might be accepted, while it was +proved that the creatures were to be found only in limestone; but now +that he has sent to the Academie specimens of gneiss and mica schist, +containing pholades, on which the acid has no effect, he conceives +that they must have entered by boring. They have also been found in +porphyry--a fact of which Brongniart said, many years ago, that nature +had concealed the explanation, and we must wait for a solution. +Whether M. Cailliaud's solution be the true one or not, is a point +that will soon be verified or disproved by geologists and naturalists, +who are never better pleased than when an inquiry, which may lead to +new views of nature, opens before them. + +That the age of great books is not past, is proved by an arrival from +America--the United States' government having presented to several +public and private institutions in this country, a large, handsome +quarto, which contains, to quote the whole title, _Historical and +Statistical Information respecting the History, Condition, and +Prospects of the Indian Tribes of the United States, collected and +prepared under the Direction of the Bureau of Indian Affairs, per Act +of Congress_. The preparation and arrangement of this work having been +intrusted to Mr Schoolcraft is a sufficient guarantee for its value. +It throws much light on the Indian tribes of North America, and +rectifies many erroneous ideas and impressions concerning them and +their origin. Perhaps you will allow me to give you, in a few words, +the author's views on this part of the subject. He considers the +ancient monuments, found in parts of the United States and in Mexico, +to have originated within five hundred years of the dispersion from +Babel; that the Indians are the Almogic branch of the Eber-ites; and +that the ancient monuments do not denote so high a degree of +civilisation as is generally supposed. It is only since the discovery +of America by Europeans that anything like certainty attaches to the +history of the natives. The Mohicans 'preserve the memory of the +appearance and voyage of Hudson, up the river bearing his name, in +1609;' and among other tribes similar traditions are retained. In the +wrong-headedness and persistence of idea, the Indians entirely +resemble the Oriental branches of the great Semitic family; and the +evidence shews that originally they crossed over from Asia at +Behring's Strait, a voyage still performed in canoes to the present +day. One of the titles of Montezuma was Lord of the Seven Caves; and +the caves in which tradition says the traverse took place, are taken +to be the caves or subterranean abodes still used by the Aleutian +islanders. This was current among the Aztecs in 1519, and the voyage +of the United States' Exploring Expedition has furnished a +philological proof of connection, in the peculiar termination of nouns +in _tl_, which is common to the inhabitants of Nootka Sound, as it was +to the Aztecs. The more the Indians are studied, the more does +everything about them appear to be Eastern--their language, religion, +calendar, architecture, &c. Their worship of fire in the open air, +avoiding the use of temples, is precisely that of Zoroaster, as is +also their leading doctrine of two spirits--good and evil--ruling the +world; and the allegory of the _egg of Ormuzd_ has been found in an +earthwork on the top of a hill in Adams's County, Ohio. 'It represents +the coil of a serpent, 700 feet long, but it is thought would reach, +if deprived of its curves, 1000 feet. The jaws of the serpent are +represented as widely distended, as if in the act of swallowing. In +the interstice is an oval or egg-shaped mound.' This repetition of a +symbol is considered as further proof of Eastern derivation. + +Do not suppose, however, that this is a sample of the whole volume, +for ample details and information are given on all matters connected +with the Indians--their arts, habits, pursuits, pictorial literature +(so to speak), sports, and agriculture. Some idea of their +capabilities in husbandry may be gathered from the fact, that in +Michigan, ancient 'garden-beds' have been discovered, extending for +150 miles along the banks of rivers. Students will find a mine of +information in this book, which, though but the first of a series, +contains nearly 600 pages--a rare feast for ethnologists. + +The Royal Irish Academy in Dublin have published a report of their +proceedings, which comprise reports on rain-falls, meteors, ancient +urns, and other Irish antiquities, besides Roman and Carthaginian; on +hygrometry, chiefly with regard to the pressure of the dew-point; and +on artificial islands. Of the latter, it appears that several exist in +different parts of Ireland; but the one to which attention is +particularly directed is near Strokestown, Roscommon. The lake +Clonfinlough having been drained by the Board of Works, the structure +of the islet, which had long occupied its centre, was laid bare. It +proved to be about 130 feet in diameter, constructed on oak piles, +forming a sort of 'triple stockade,' with stems laid flat towards the +centre for a floor, over which earth, clay, and marl were heaped, with +two flat irregular stone-floors covering the whole at different depths +below the surface. Two canoes were also found, each hollowed out of a +single tree, and a great collection of miscellaneous ornaments and +domestic utensils--all of which being illustrative of different +periods of Irish history, will receive due attention at the hands of +Irish antiquaries. Visitors to the Society's Museum will be gratified +to know that Mr Petrie is preparing a catalogue of that valuable and +interesting assemblage of rarities. He is to begin with the Stone +Period, and come down to the Bronze and Iron, according to their +respective dates, with dissertations prefixed. This is following the +good example set by your Scottish Society of Antiquaries. + +It is a fact honourable to the society that they do not confine their +honours exclusively to contributors to their own 'Transactions.' At +their late anniversary, they gave their gold medal to the Rev. J.H. +Jellett, for his labours in treating the noblest mathematical subjects +in a way to make them intelligible to students. As the president said +in his address: 'Descending from the more desirable position of an +inventor to the humbler but more useful one of enabling others to +place themselves on a level with himself, by compiling for their use +an excellent elementary treatise, he has conferred on his species a +benefit of the highest order,' in a work which otherwise was 'as +little likely to be given to the world as it was desirable that it +should be so.' + +It is time to close; but I must first clear off a few miscellaneous +items. The Admiralty Report concerning the Arctic expeditions is +canvassed pretty freely, and with significant hints that justice has +not been rendered in its conclusions. We can only hope that really +efficient commanders will be sent out with the expedition that is to +be despatched in April or May next; if not, it will be abortive, as +the others have been, and we shall never know what has become of +Franklin. It appears that the news of Collinson's ships being on their +return is unfounded. It was communicated from the United States, and +has been contradicted; and for all we know to the contrary, Collinson +and his coadjutor Maclure may come home next summer by way of Baffin's +Bay. There are now 226 telegraph stations connected with the central +establishment in Lothbury, behind the Bank of England. Of these, 70 +are principal stations, at which the attendance is day and night; and +in the whole, a distance of 2500 miles is embraced, with 800 more over +which the wires are now being stretched. The charges for transmission +of messages have been lowered with a beneficial result, the business +of the telegraph having greatly increased. There must be a still +further reduction before the 'thought-flasher' becomes as generally +available here as it is in America. It is now in real earnest going to +Ireland. A ship has been despatched to fetch Cleopatra's so-called +'needle:' the Panopticon at length has found a local habitation, and +is assuming a tangible form in the shape of bricks and mortar: ocean +steamers are more than ever talked about; and every month a new one, +better than all before, is launched: gold, too, is a favourite topic; +and Australian and Californian mining-shares are plentiful in the +market; so also are those of Irish Waste-Land Improvement Companies, +who, in addition to the reclamation, propose to grow beet-root, flax, +and chicory. At last we have got one or two penny news-rooms--not so +good, however, as yours in Edinburgh; and a project is mooted to +establish reading and waiting rooms combined, in different parts of +the capital. There is talk, too, of central railway termini, of new +bridges, new streets, and of converting Kennington Common into a +park--how soon to be realised remains to be seen. + + + + +THE TURN OF LIFE. + + +From forty to sixty, a man who has properly regulated himself, may be +considered as in the prime of life. His matured strength of +constitution renders him almost impervious to the attacks of disease, +and experience has given his judgment the soundness of almost +infallibility. His mind is resolute, firm, and equal; all his +functions are in the highest order; he assumes the mastery over +business; builds up a competence on the foundation he has formed in +early manhood, and passes through a period of life attended by many +gratifications. Having gone a year or two past sixty, he arrives at a +critical period in the road of existence; the river of death flows +before him, and he remains at a stand-still. But athwart this river +is a viaduct, called 'The turn of Life,' which, if crossed in safety, +leads to the valley, 'Old Age.' The bridge is constructed of fragile +materials, and it depends upon how it is trodden whether it bend or +break. Gout, apoplexy, and other bad characters are also in the +vicinity to waylay the traveller, and thrust him from the pass; but +let him gird up his loins, and provide himself with a fitting staff, +and he may trudge on in safety with perfect composure. To quit a +metaphor, the 'Turn of Life' is a turn either into a prolonged walk or +into the grave. The system and power having reached their utmost +expansion, now begin either to close like flowers at sunset, or break +down at once. One injudicious stimulant--a single fatal excitement, +may force it beyond its strength--whilst a careful supply of props, +and the withdrawal of all that tends to force a plant, will sustain it +in beauty and in vigour until night has entirely set.--_The Science of +Life, by a Physician_. + + + + +NERVE. + + +An Indian sword-player declared at a great public festival, that he +could cleave, vertically, a small lime laid on a man's palm without +injury to the member; and the general (Sir Charles Napier) extended +his right hand for the trial. The sword-player, awed by his rank, was +reluctant, and cut the fruit horizontally. Being urged to fulfil his +boast, he examined the palm, said it was not one to be experimented on +with safety, and refused to proceed. The general then extended his +left hand, which was admitted to be suitable in form; yet the Indian +still declined the trial; and when pressed, twice waved his thin, +keen-edged blade, as if to strike, and twice withheld the blow, +declaring he was uncertain of success. Finally, he was forced to make +trial, and the lime fell open, cleanly divided: the edge of the sword +had just marked its passage over the skin without drawing a drop of +blood!--_Sir Charles Napier's Administration in Scinde_. + + + + +WIRE USED IN EMBROIDERY. + + +In the manufacture of embroidery fine threads of silver gilt are used. +To produce these, a bar of silver, weighing 180 ounces, is gilt with +an ounce of gold; this bar is then wire-drawn until it is reduced to a +thread so fine that 3400 feet of it weigh less than an ounce. It is +then flattened by being submitted to a severe pressure between +rollers, in which process its length is increased to 4000 feet. Each +foot of the flattened wire weighs, therefore, the 4000th part of an +ounce. But as in the processes of wire-drawing and rolling the +proportion of the two metals is maintained, the gold which covers the +surface of the fine thread thus produced consists only of the 180th +part of its whole weight. Therefore the gold which covers one foot is +only the 720,000th part of an ounce, and consequently the gold which +covers an inch will be the 8,640,000th part of an ounce. If this inch +be again divided into 100 equal parts, each part will be distinctly +visible without the aid of a microscope, and yet the gold which covers +such visible part will be only the 864,000,000th part of an ounce. But +we need not stop even here. This portion of the wire may be viewed +through a microscope which magnifies 500 times; and by these means, +therefore, its 500th part will become visible.--_Lardner's Handbook_. + + + + +CHEAP LIVING. + + +In the interior of Bulgaria and Upper Moesia, the low price of +provision and cattle of every description is almost fabulous compared +with the prices of Western Europe. A fat sheep or lamb usually costs +from 1s. 6d. to 2s.; an ox, 40s.; cows, 30s.; and a horse, in the best +possible travelling condition, from L.4 to L.5 sterling; wool, hides, +tallow, wax, and honey, are equally low. In the towns and hans by the +road-side everything is sold by weight: you can get a pound of meat +for a halfpenny, a pound of bread for the same, and wine, which is +also sold by weight, costs about the same money. In Servia, pigs +everywhere form the staple commodity of the country. I have seen some +that, would weigh from 150 lbs. to 200 lbs. or more offered for sale +at 300 Turkish piastres the dozen; in the neighbourhood of the Danube +they fetch a little more. The expense of keeping these animals in a +country abounding with forests being so trifling, and the prospect of +gain to the proprietor so certain, we cannot wonder that no landowner +is without them, and that they constitute the richest class in the +principality. In fact, pig-jobbers are here men of the highest rank: +the prince, his ministers, civil and military governors, are all +engaged in this lucrative traffic.--_Spencer's Travels._ + + + + +MOUNTAINS IN SNOW. + + + Cold--oh, deathly cold--and silent, lie the white hills 'neath + the sky, + Like a soul whom fate has covered with thy snows, Adversity! + Not a sough of wind comes moaning; the same outline, high and + bare, + As in pleasant days of summer, rises in the murky air. + + Very quiet--very silent--whether shines the mocking sun + Through the wintry blue, or lowering drift the feathery + snow-clouds dun: + Always quiet, always silent, be it night or be it day, + With that pale shroud coldly lying where the heather-blossoms lay. + + Can they be the very mountains that we looked at, you and I? + One long wavy line of purple painted on the sunset sky; + With the new moon's edge just touching that dark rim, like + dancer's foot, + Or young Dian's, on the hill-side for Endymion waiting mute. + + O how golden was that even!--O how balm the summer air! + How the bridegroom sky bent loving o'er its earth so virgin fair! + How the earth looked up to heaven like a bride with joy oppressed, + In her thankfulness half-weeping that she was thus overblest! + + Ghostly mountains! 'Silence--silence!' now is aye your soundless + voice, + Lifted in an awful patience o'er the world's uproarious noise; + O'er its jarrings and its greetings--o'er its loving and its + hate-- + Silence! Bare thy brows all dumbly to the snows of heaven, + and--wait!' + + * * * * * + +_Just Published_, + +_Price 2s. 6d. sewed, 3s. Cloth Boards_, + +LIFE AND WORKS OF BURNS.--Volume III. Edited by ROBERT CHAMBERS. To be +completed in Four Volumes. + + * * * * * + +_Price 6d. Paper Cover_, + +CHAMBERS'S POCKET MISCELLANY.--Volume II. To be continued in Monthly +Volumes. + + * * * * * + +_Price 2s. Cloth Boards_, + +ELEMENTARY LATIN GRAMMAR. Edited by DRS SCHMITZ and ZUMPT.--Forming +one of the Volumes of the LATIN SECTION of CHAMBERS'S EDUCATIONAL +COURSE. + + * * * * * + +_Price 1s. 3d. Cloth Boards_, + +LATIN EXERCISES: A Companion to the ELEMENTARY LATIN GRAMMAR. Edited +by DRS SCHMITZ and ZUMPT.--Forming one of the Volumes of the LATIN +SECTION of CHAMBERS'S EDUCATIONAL COURSE. + + * * * * * + +Printed and Published by W. and R. CHAMBERS, High Street, Edinburgh. +Also sold by W.S. ORR, Amen Corner, London; D.N. CHAMBERS, 55 West +Nile Street, Glasgow; and J. M'GLASHAN, 50 Upper Sackville Street, +Dublin.--Advertisements for Monthly Parts are requested to be sent to +MAXWELL & Co., 31 Nicholas Lane, Lombard Street, London, to whom all +applications respecting their insertion must be made. + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Chambers' Edinburgh Journal, by Various + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK CHAMBERS' EDINBURGH JOURNAL *** + +***** This file should be named 16228.txt or 16228.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/1/6/2/2/16228/ + +Produced by Malcolm Farmer, Richard J. 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