The Press. — London, England, 1854-01-07 00:00:00

18 number of eminent names which they can re- count. Mr. Gosse, however, has viewed Devonshire chiefly as a naturalist, and we have derived great pleasure in following his researches. His name will probably be familiar to many of our readers, and certainly so to those who have seen the Aqua-vivarium in the Zoological Gardens, Regent's-park. Mr. Gosse, indeed, in his present volume, claims to be the ori ginator of marine vivaria, a point which we will not now discuss. But for those who wish to study well the mollusks—starfishes, jelly fishes, &c.—that are to be seen at the Zoolo gical Gardens, we could not recommend a more interesting and useful volume than the present. The sea anemones have doubtless been often admired by some of our readers, and Mr. Gosse is peculiarly minute and cir cumstantial in his account of them. He thus describes the mode of taking " the daisy anemone" : All along this line of limestone rock, in almost every tide-pool and hollow that retains the sea-water, from the size of one's hand upwards, we may at any time find colonies of the lovely daisy anemone, Article bellia. In the sunshine of a fair day they expand beautifully, and you may see them studding the face of the rock just beneath the surface, from the size of a shilling to that of a crown. piece. Nothing seems easier than to secure them, but no sooner do the fingers touch one, than its beautifully cir cular disc begins to curl and pucker its margin, and to in curve it in the form of a cup ; if further annoyed, the rim of this cup contracts more and more, until it closes, and the animal becomes globose and much diminished, re. ceding all the time from the assault, and retiring into the rock. Presently you discover that you can no longer touch it at all: it is shrunk to the bottom of its hole ; the sharp irregular edges of which project and furnish a stony de. fence to the inhebitant. Nothing will do but the chisel, and this is by no means easy of appliance. It is rare that the position of the hole is such as to allow of both arms working with ease ; the rock is under water, and often, if your chisel is short, it is wholly immersed during the work, when every blow which the hammer strikes upon its head has to fall upon a stratum of water, which splashes forcibly into your eyes and over your clothes ; the rock is very hard, and the chisel makes little impression ; and what is frequently the greatest disappointment of all, the powdery debris produced by the bruising of the stone mingles with the water and presently makes it perfectly opaque, as if a quantity of powdered chalk had been mixed with it, so that you cannot see how to direct the blows, you cannot discern whether you have uncovered the Article or not, and frequently are obliged to give up the attempt when nearly accomplished, simply because you can neither see hole nor Articln and as to feeling in the pap-like mud that your implement has been making, it is out of the question. Supposing, however, that you have got on pretty well, that by making a current in the pool with your hand you have washed away the clouded water suffi ciently to see the whereabouts, and that you perceive that another well-directed blow or two will split off the side of the cavity, you have now to take care so to proportion the force, that at last you may neither crush the animal with the chisel on the one hand, nor on the other drive it off so suddenly that it shall fall with the fragment to the bottom of the pool out of reach. Tho following remarks are well worthy the attention of those who make use of the micro scope : And very often indeed, just as I had got my glass to the focus, and my eye to the glass, after waiting perhaps for a quarter of an hour,—before I could get a glance with suffi cient distinctness to impress an image on my eye for de lineation, the fish would dart over to the other side, and leave me to exercise patience for another quarter. This is the perpetual experience of those who draw living animals with the microscope. The camera lucida is an admirable aid for motionless forms, but it is power less for such as are agile and fitful. Nor is the case of those minute creatures that are viewed through the com pound microscope at all better than that of my pipe-fish watched through a lens held in the fingers. In order to see it to advantage, you must allow your zoophyte or annelide space sufficient to expand or move in ; when, if it be a lively species, probably, just as you have got it steady enough to delineate the first two or three lines, away it suddenly starts, its position is quite changed, the relation of its parts to your eye is altered, or perhaps it shoots clean off, out of the field of vision. A few local anecdotes and some descrip tions of scenery are interspersed in the volume, but Mr. Gosse's merit is as a natural ist, and not a writer. Ho fails when ho attempts to describe the picturesque, for his enthusiasm is essentially scientific, and not festhetical. His admiration for the poetry of Southey, which he is perpetually quoting, shows want of literary acumen. From his anecdotes wo select the following account of THE PRESS. weathers. On the occasion I speak of, a morning in autumn, she had boldly, nay rashly, sought her favourite amusement, though a gale of wind was blowing, and the foaming sea was breaking in furious violence almost to the very top of the wall. The fishermen and idlers on the quay were just going to their breakfasts, when the sister of the swimmer rushed out of the house with a scream of distress. " A lady is drowning behind ! who will save her ?" was her eager de• mand, as she passed one young man after another. None replied, for the weather was tremendous ; till a poor shoe maker offered himself. " I'll save her, if I can, ' said he ; and he followed her swiftly through the house and yard to the head of the steps. • • • • • • As soon as he had secured the lady's hold of the rope, he sought the shore for himself, but scarcely had he swam half a dozen strokes, when the spectators on shore beheld his arms suddenly cease their vigorous play and hang down ; his legs too sank into the same pendent posture, and his head dropped upon his breast, with the face sub merged. Thus he continued to float for a short time, but moved no more. He had been subject to occasional swooning fits, from a severe blow which he had received on the head some time before ; and his brother, from whose mouth I received these details, conjectured that one of his attacks had suddenly come upon him, his predis position being perhaps aggravated by his having gone out without having broken his fast. The tide soon carried the body away out of sight; efforts were made as soon as practicable to recover it by drag ging ; and it was once hooked and brought to the surface, but before it could he hauled into the boat it sank again, and it was not till more than a fortnight after that it was found at Comb-Martin, some five miles to the eastward. Nothing could exceed the distress of the lady at the death of her courageous deliverer : for awhile she appeared inconsolable, and the effect of the whole transaction is said to have been a permanent melancholy. Her gratitude was shown in providing for the widow and children of her benefactor, who continue to this day her pensioners. The illustrative plates to this volume are excellent. It is a book well adapted for being given as a present to young naturalists, and it is not without many attractions and much information for persons more advanced in scientific pursdits. High and Low. A Novel. By the Hon. Henry Coke, Author of " A Ride over the Rocky Mountains." Hurst and Blackett. WE have had a more uneasy course in follow ing Mr. Coke through his crudely-executed volumes than if we had accompanied him over the " Rocky Mountains." Our progress, how ever, was not very exhilarating, and his " high " scenes had no sublimity or serene beauty to please the moral eye, while his " low" land stapes were excessively disagreeable, from the intrusion of very nasty persons to whom he introduced us on the route. In a first attempt at fiction it is just as well for apprentice novelists not to put their names upon the titlepage, and we do not think that the histo rical name of " Coke " will receive any addi tional lustre from the publication of these very hasty sketches. The plot has no reality, and several of its incidents are very commonplace. The hero, Pierce More, is the lover of a certain Lady Eda Longvale, who is possessed of all the prescriptive charms of heroines. Amongst his acquaintances is one Gerard Winter, who is a very odious person, and who is described at the end of the first volume as actually " hocussing " his friend More. It is no wonder, therefore, that the hero himself must not be a very desirable acquaintance when we find him in such company. He is decidedly a very flagrant specimen of what is commonly called " a loose fish." In order to make him more interesting he is represented as a sceptic, who is gradually cured of his infidelity by being transformed into a Sod- Man ! Anything more truly ridiculous in a novel we never read than the " Mr. Gregory " who is here presented as the Mentor of Pierce More. This Mr. Gregory has made up his mind about the metaphysical question of the origin of evil, but he is opposed to the eternal duration of future punishments : He heartily beseeched God fur pardon if he had deceived himself, and as earnestly prayed that, if in error, his opinion might not mislead others. Still, what he believed to be truth he did not shrink from avowing. "with regard to a future state, he considered the doc trine of unlimited punishment depended for credence, not the lbed to - • Lord and the SATIIIIDAY, Hebrew language, affording a possibility that the awful sentence passed by Christ upon sinners may not generally be understood by us in the sense He intended; and the consideration of the benign attributes of the Supreme Being—all, as he believed, united to support the doctrine that the terms ' eternal' and ' everlasting' did not neces• sarily signify unlimited punishment." To which passage the author has appended the following note : For such passages, and for the more complete exposition of this part of the argument, the author refers the reader to Southwood Smith's admirable treatise upon the Divine Government. We cannot accept Southwood Smith as a fitting expositor of " Divine government." But the fact of introducing such suggestions into a novel is proof of want of invention in the writer. " High and Low " will not repay perusal, nor justify further critical notice. Works of Samuel Warren. Vol. I. Diary of a Late Physician. London : Blackwood and Sons. Tills is the first volume of the collected works of the popular author of " Ten Thousand a Year." The form of this edition is in thick octavo volumes, containing 500 pages, printed in double columns, and the type is remarkably clear. We have no doubt that the reprints of so popular an author as Mr. Warren is will be completely successful. He has all the merits that we look for iu a popular romancist. A style nervous and fluent, thrilling incidents, and vivid colouring, commend him to popular tastes. His writings are deeply tinged with religious spirit, and have nearly all the colour of the French school of fiction, without its poisonous philosophy. They have been com plained of as too melodramatic and exaggerated, but the same charge might be preferred, some think, with more force against Mr. Dickens. Cavillers and snarlers against the genius of this gifted author must admit that all his writings are stamped with an individuality essentially his own. In the new preface to " The Diary of a late Physician " the author tells the following anecdote He hopes he may be pardoned for stating that an excel lent nobleman, since dead, was so much interested iu one of these papers, " The Martyr Philosopher," that he wrote to the late Mr. lilackwood, asking permission to reprint it separately, at his own expense, for extensive circulation among the upper classes of society ; declaring that he hint self should never forget the effect which it had produced upon his own mind and heart. Such incidents as this — the approbation of wise and good men—richly reward writers who aim, however humbly, to do good. " The Diary of a Physician " is one of the few reprints of " tales" that has been success ful. But there is a unity of purpose and a variation of uniformity in its stories that make all its parts assimilate into an artistic whole. The Ancient Egyptian. Revised and Abridged Edition. By Sir Gardner Wilkinson. 2 vols. London : Murray. THE original edition of this standard work was published upwards of twenty years since, and it has been often reprinted. To our taste the edition now before us is the best that has ever appeared. Nothing material has been omitted from the larger edition, and we ob serve that several recent discoveries are duly chronicled iu the text of the present work. In fact, we think that the word " abridged" ought to be removed from the titlepage, as calculated to give an erroneous impression. The author has revisited Egypt, and the present edition has all the advantage of those second thoughts which are so requisite for giving value to his torical and philosophical works. He says in his preface:- - _ . I have here and there introduced some remarks relating to the Greeks, thinking that a comparison of the habits and arts of other people, with those of the Egyptians, may be interesting ; and the impulse now given to taste in England has induced me to add some observations on de corative art, as well as on colour, form, and proportion, so well understood in ancient times. And as many of the ideas now gaining ground in this country regarding colour, adaptability of materials, the non-imitation of natural ob jects for ornamental purposes, and certain rules to " served in decorative works, have long been - ~~ % shows want of literary acumen. Prom his wrul regain to a lout, C [11.4G, us.ra•o a‘t,a, •• _ _ - trine of unlimited punishment depended for credence , not jects for ornamental purposes, and certain rules to be ob• anecdotes we select the following account of so much on the expressions ascribed to our Lord and the served in decorative works, have long been advocated by what happened to a lady while swimming : l anguag e of Scripture, as urn the literal meaning of those me, and properly belong to the subject of Egypt, I think Four or five years ago the large house from which these expressions, and the true signification of the words 'eter. the opportunity well suited for expressing my opinion tiptAt steps descend was temporarily occupied by two ladies of nap' and' everlasting.' He pointed out passages, both in them; while 1 rejoice that public attention has been in- rank, one of whom, among other accomplishments not the Old and New Testament, where these same terms vited to take a proper view of the mode of improving taste. very common to her sex, was distinguished as an expert were employed in a sense signifying unmistakably a Attention being now directed towards the question of and fearless swimmer. She was accustomed to plunge limited 'duration of time. The many expressions in Scrip. the precious metals, some observations on the comparative frog) these private steps when the water was high, and titre favouring the idea of a limited prthishmeut ; the con- wealth of ancient and modern limes have also appeared swim out to Ka i over yonder belt of horrid rucks, in all stoat use of hyperbole; the figurative character of the to be not out of place. • __ITT: