The Sun.
London, England, 1852-08-10 00:00:00

THE S UNI LONDON, TUES DAY

LITERATURE.
A POPULAR HISTORY OF THE AWL-
-I,U7Rizi. Be Mary Roberts, author of " filw
Coixholog,•ist's Companion." Reeve and Benham.
lo the cooloilation of tnii work Miss Roberts has
evidently endeavoured to please both the student and
the general reader. The former is furnished with a
summary of the newest writings and researches of
Mr. Reeve and other naturalists, with well-designed
and beautifully coloured representations of all the
latest discovered molluscs, their habits, &c. To those
who do not undertand such things, and who would
throw aside a book full of Latin names and scientific
terms, the authoress has provide.' much information,
which must interest an. Much light has been lately
thrown ulx'n the Molluvra Sall which inhabit
thcte curious and gigantic snells which adorn our
mantelpieces, and at n hick, although many look with
attention they little think what cares and privations
its owner once underwent to provide for his wants
and guard himself from his enemies. Paley was
wofully at fault when, in his " Moral Philosophy," he
cited the oyster, limpet, and othershelifish assexamples
or those whose only happiness was found in peace and
quiet. Of the fallacy of that supposition the follow-
random extract will give a sufficient proof :
" The animal inhabitant of the Pinna marina is a blind
slog, surrounded with numerous enemies, and parti-
cularly obnoxious to the tiepic% or cattle fish, who
watches the motion of the Puma, and no sooner does
the hitter opcn.his bi7alvz., shell, which occasionally ex-
ceeds two feet in length, than he rushes upon him like a
lion.

"It will naturally be asked how such a blind de-
faiceless creature can either procure food or protect
himself from the attack of his implacable enemies?
Nature uniformly redoubles her exertions in favour of
the weak; or rather, it may ho sald, that the God of
Nature effers, by this nets and affecting compensation, an
additional reason for unreserved eanAidenee in Him. A
kind of crab-fish, naked like the hermit, andyery quick-
sighted, is the constant companion of the Pitons, marina.
Toey live and lodge together in the shell which belongs
to Lite latter. When the:Yinna has occasion to cat he
opens his valves, end sends out his faithful purveyor to
procure food. If any toe approaches, ttie watchful crab
returns with the utmost speed and anxiety to his blind
protector, who, being thus warned of danger, shuts his
valves and escapes the rage of the enemy; when, oh the
contrary, the crab loads hinisoll with booty, ha makes
genile noise at the opening of the shell, which is closed
dozing his ansence, anu when admitted the two friends
tent,t, together on the fruits of his industry. This curious
Rant, although wall known to the ancients, escaped till
lately the observation of the moderns. Aristotle felts
us that toe k'inna kept a guard to watch fur him; that
there grew to the mouth of the Placa a small parasite,
h,,ving claws, and serving as a caterer, resembling a
crab, and termed the i'muophylitx. In like manner
Vim), mentions a, singular animal called Pitinoiheres,
whin, lie shjs, is liable to injury, and therefore I.ru-
dandy hides himself in the shell of oysters. He also
speaks or t.e Paula as belonging to a genus of shell
produced in muddy water, and constantly attended
toy a companion."
Of the existence of- this &II Pliny wrote some
eighteen hundred years ago; but the story was treated
as a table. The knowledge of its existence was for-
gotten, and only lately revived. Such anecdotes are
to be met with throughout the volume. Lae history
of how the ancients concocted their dyes, from the
shells of fishes, and the labour and enormous expense
that it required to dye but a smell quantity of wool,
is very interesting. The book is rendered still more
attractive by the number of beautifully coloured plates
representing the various tiihcimens of fish of which it
treats. It is also handsomely bound.

ANCIENT AND MODERN INDIA. By W.
Cooke Taylor. Revised by P. J. iliackenna, Esq.
James Madden.
This wo:.k cannot but prove a moat useful one to
those who desire to know the history of British India
from the commencement, without going through
many volumes and having to read a great deal of
matter which is not required for the occasion. Here
we have a complete history of Hindostan from the
earliest ages, its conquerors, feuth, and the different
nations that composed that portion of Asia. It will
be interesting to those who have read Moore's
Lalla Rookh" to find that the originals of Selim
and Normahal, in the Feast of Rose, flourished in
ilindostan iu the early part of the seventeenth cen-
tury, and that Moore has rather underdrawn the
influence that Normahal exercised over Selim. lie
became so deeply enamoured of her that he named
her Normahal, or " light of the harem," and spent
every hour he could spare from the affairs of state in
her company. In his autobiographyography the Emperor
declares—

" At the period in which this is written (about four-
teen years atter he began to tetn), I may say the whole
concerns my hourebold, whether gild or jewels, is
under her whole and entire m:magement. Wray tinre-
sfrved confidence indeed this ptincesz is in complete
possession, and I may allege without a ialhicy that the
whole fortune of my empire has b--.en consigned to this
nighty endowed family. The lathor being my finance
minister, the sou my lientenant•general, with unlimited
powers, and the daughter the inseparable companion of
my cares."
The author gives graphic and interesting accounts
of all the Dutch, French, and native wars in which
Great Britain has been engaged since the commence-
ment of her Indian trade, with strictures or apologies
f*.ir the backnlidings of the various governors and ge-
nerals during Will eventful history. The accounts of
the principal battles and memoirs of the more im-
portant personages are interesting and concise. The
c,,mpilation or this work is excellent, for besides a
full index of each chapter, by the side of every page
are small notes stating what each paragraph contains,
so that the reader by glancing his eye down the mar-
gin may know the contents or where to find the para-
graph required.

THE DUTIES, RIGHTS, and LIABILITIES
of JUSTICES of the PEACE. By Thomas
William Saunders. John Crocliford.
in this little volume Mr. Saunders has endeavoured
to enable justices of the peace to be independent to
to a certain degree of their clerks, who, in nine
cases out of ten (where the justice of the peace holds
his office solely because he is a landowner) perform
all the duties of their superiors. The author of this
work has collected all the principal Acts which regu-
late the conduct of justices, with many useful rules
to guide them.

DISCOURSES ON VARIOUS SUBJECTS,
Read before Literary and Philosophical Societies.
By Samuel Bailey. Longman.
Tills work consists of nine of Mr. Bailey's dis-
courses, which he has read at various periods before
certain societies. Although, perhaps, the majority of
the public will not feel a great interest in the whole.
of the essay, still, owing to their extreme variety, the
reader is sure to find some of them to suit his taste.
They consist of a " Treatise on the Mutual Relation of
Sciences ;" " An Account of the Discovery of a Mam-.
moth Elephant in the North of Siberia, '
with Geologi-
cal Stutistics ;" " The English Language "
y. Political
land;" " General Principles of Physical Investiga-
tion ;" "Tae Mechanical Causes of Thunder ;" " Pa-
radoxes of Vision ;'' " The Theory of Witt," Bce.
From all these, which are well written, the reader
cannot fail to find employment. The account of the
di3 overt' of the fossil elephant at the mouth of the
,:
Lena, a rivtr in
Eastern
Bailey as though ha had been
a n
eyewitness.
witness. The
TMhre.
chief while hunting, entire
monster was first discovered in 11;199
'enbcyasaedTuinnguiitahne
ice. Three years afterwards, the ice haying
given way, the body of an enormous elephant
in perfect preservation, was found lying on
taken
r sand
bank, bank, but before any active measures were k
its removal, it was much mutiliaed by
the natives and
wild animals. The remains were subsequently re-
moved to St. Petersburg h by Mr. Adams. Mr. Bailey
gives a full description of the monster, and gives an
able discourse on the various surmises which arose as
to how it ever got to Siberia. The other two
dis-
courses have equal interest in their way, and are di-
versified by various anecdotes.

eS:rieunT•olo'd:SETsq.
OXFORD UNjalnreffiß
STATUTES. By
vgotih favourecik the public
Mr. Heywood has at
with the second and final e of this work, the
publicition of which has been delayed by the death of
Mr. Ward, the Deputy High
Heyow.omoedr volume, and
personally to
Univeri.ity, who translated the former of Oxford
whose death compelled Mr.
, which ex-
superintend the translation of the rem
been the author's endeavour to
uni-
versity statutes, es tar as practicable, theh compileinda. L has
;ii'Led, since its foundation, whether in
to be
pt or
in a printed fore. The first volume brongbtri
to the year 1768. Vol. IL carries us up to the of:rsauP
the Royal Commission in 1850. Many iitetutes are to
be found in these pages which are not generally
found in the printed statutes, as many mcamieripts
have been translated and added to those already in
print. A compilation of its statutes is, in fact, the most
correct history that is to be found of a university, for
they embrace all from the &lance:ler to the under-
graduate, and an alceraion in th statutes show-3 an
alteration in the habits and requiri-inents, of those
whom they affect.

NOTES ON NOR ivi Am 114 Agricul-
tural, Economical, antl Social. BY , Sort.
Johnston. ‘) vols. W. Blackwoodana
tVc congratuLte Mr. on
stand which he 11:2s taken as req:irds tie
concerning Auieric3, its inhabitants, and pronace
viz ,
has acted up to what be has stated in tne prefa-',„O
that, although a " he ha 3 endeavoured
spaak fairly and with candour of the states and pro-
vinces through ,Nhich he has travelled. It
rPcznlrks
ge!her an uncommon hook ; for, instead of the tourist
who carries his t,i.cetehbo:k with him to depict the
banties of scenery, Mr. ji.:tinston has taken his note-
book with him, in order that he may give his coma-
.

trymon a true aeon
inquiry of the account from personal observation and
produce of the land in the North
American
provinces, its market prices, and the profit
that the farmer makes on it. 'Die author describes
his_ travels throughout New Brunswick, Si:. Law-
rence, &c., in an off hand manner, evidently more in-
tent upon agricultural pursuits than anything else ;
nevertheless he. finds time to look into the universi-
ties, and to describe the timber trade and other
institutions of the country. He remarks "that in
America, as with us in general, the most zealous im-
provers are those who retiring from commercial pur-
suits come fresh to the tilling of the soil, untram-
.melled by prejudice, and open to weigh fairly the
ehnoces of profi; from this or that mode of husbandry."
This work Mug prove very useful to those about to
emigrate to America.

JOIN VST OCK AND PRIVATE BANKS
DIRE CT 0 RY. Part I. Groombridge and Sons,
Paternoster-row.

The editor of the Bankers' Magazine has emi-
nently entitled himself to the thanks and gratitude of
the banking community by the publication of this
valuable work, which will henceforward form an in-
dispensable adjunct not only to every bank, but to
every great commercial establishment througbout the
entire country. The collection of the lists of joint-
stock shareholders, and the description of the several
partners in the private banks, although taken from the
official returns, have involved much labour in pro-
ducing the accuracy without which it would be
worse then useless. The present part contains all
the requisite information respecting the banks in
England and Wales. It also comprises a digest of
the Acts of Paliament now in force relating to the
constitution end privileges of the Bank of England
and joint-stock banks, and a digest and analysis of
cases decided under these Acts, and also of the law
affecting joint-stock bank shareholders, and of cases
decided under the winding-up Acts. There is also
a great variety of useful information, all of which
exhibits unequivocal evidence of the extraordinary
care and attention bestowed in its collection. We
trust that the indefatigable author will receive many
substantial marks of the gratitude that should be
bestowed on the author of that which will, we have
no doubt, prove fur several years a standard book of
reference in all matters relating to banks and
banking.

EXAGGERATION.
ByEL
beiai COOK.
We wonder what would thought of a person who
deliberately loaded and fired a forty-pounder to kill a
bluebottle, or who begged the loan of a sack to carry
house a pot tie of strawberries in. What would be our
opinion of any one who employed a sledge hammer to
drive a tack, or who purchased a quarter of oats to fill a
nose-bag; why we should undoubtedly believe him to be
in no state to make a will, and question the propriety of
his going et large. Yet we find greater innovations of
consistency committed every day as regards the purpose
and meaning of language, without our conceiving any
direct notion that the parties induleing in such are fitting
candidates fur election at St. Luke's.
The habit of exaggeration in language is a charac-
teristic in many people, which appears to us to afford a
truer index of their general qualities than is ordinarily
observed. A great depth in any faculty, or acute in-
tensity of any feeling, is seldom possessed by those who
invariably use the most imposing words they can find to
express their opinions and sentiments. The stereotyped
grandiloquence and florid warmth of tone used by them
in discussing simple matters, or relating simple incidents,
are, to our matter-of-fact organization, little beyond the
flourishing of drum and trumpet, which upon close in-
vestigation is found to be the issue of sheepskin, brass,
and common atmosphere. Some people's tongues are
eternally emulating the frog in the old table, and always
straining into an ox—a state of verbal inflation alike
ridiculous and false. There are those who never expe-
rience a moderate and occasional degree of pain but
they speak of it as a " splitting" headache, and " awful"
spasm, or " dreadful" torture. If they meet with a
slight incision of the skin, they have " cut their finger
to the bone;" the application of a mustard poultice for
five minutes never fails to "flay them alive;" a common
cold is mentioned seriously as a" most violent influenza;"
and a week or twowf fever is recorded as a " severe and
frightful illness." The " superlative" is the reigning
mood with them; skim milk becomes Devonshire cream,
end small beer Guinness's stout; " superb," " exquisite,"
" wonderful," ° glorious," " horrible," " tremendous,"
" delicious," " charming," " beautiful," " terrific," as.
tonishing," and such extreme adjectives, hang on their
lips as plentifully as conjunctions, and we often wonder,
while gauging the narrow eslibre of brain whence the
big torrent issues, how such large furniture could be
found in such a small house. Let these people repeat a
story or circumstance, and you can hardy detect the
original, they see everything through a magnifying glass
and kaleidoscope blended. Talk of painting in veritable
colours, the foreground and outlines, often given in mere
words, beat the pre-Rsphaelites by notches; a Dutch
garden all tulips and peacocks, or a summer sunset all
purple and gold, are soft and unimposing compared to
the limning power of one of these fluent sign-painters.
We ence kept account for a lady, dut:ing a three miles'
walk through rather sandy lanes, who declared herself
" halt dead" with fatigue every few minutes; and we
found that she had died exactly eleven times and a half
at the end of the journey, when she swallowed cider and
sandwiches in a most vital fashion, considering her mul-
tiplied state of demise. We met a cottager's child,
which she rushed up to and pronounced to be an " an-
gslic little cherub;" but our near• sighted eyes could only
perceive about as average a bread-and-butter-devouring
little biped as ever plagued a mother: thou she informed
us that the view to the left was " grandly sublime,"
though there was nothing to elicit rapture beyond a
broad common fringed with a plantation, barely relieved
in the foreground with a very yellow pond, and still yel-
lower gotliags.
We chanced to tell this lady of a visit we had paid to
the Porcelain Works at Worcester, and mentioned
among other things, that a part of the materials used
was ground animal bones; shortly afterwards we were
told that we must have made a mistake in our recital,
for Mrs. H. had repeated our account, and impugned
our veracity by declaring, that cups and saucers were
made of ground human bones, and saying that we had
assured her of the fact. We informed her one day that
a marble figure just put up in a friend's hall was three
hundred weight, and were laughed at soon after for hav-
ing told Mrs. H. that it was three tons. We have never
talked much to Mrs. H. since these florid mistakes.
An elderly gentleman amuses us very often by his de-
scription of his only Son. The young men, according
to his papa's portraying. is an " immense genius,"—tn.
deed his " mind is too much for his body;" his abilities
are in fact so great that they do not know what he is fit
for; he "plays divinely," " sinesessentisitda," and "pos-
sessions the poet's iitspiration 10 a wonderful degree;"
if he lives loeg enough he will "do something very
grand;" and withal, he is "so delicate in constitution
that ho can hardly bear the wind to blow on him!,
Thi,tre are the doting sire's own words, but we should,
in giving a candid opinion of the youth, use less elevated
language, and say that ho is nothing more than a spruce
fir, entered and labelled in his pa's grand conservatory
as a cedar of Lebanon; and as for his "delicate consti-
tution," it seems to stand pretty well under an.unlimited
amount of large dissipations und " small hours."
Now these people are but types of a class.
We met with these inflated exaggerations in manifold
shapes—from the Prime Minister to the potboy, from
the political leader writer to the last-dying-speech-and-
confession inditer, from the continentally-educated
duchess to the A-B-C-less scullery-maid; there seems a
natural tendency in many to verbal apoplexy, and we
wonder some imaginations are not found dead in their
beds. Our public press teems with this exaggeration as
much as our private parties. We should like to know
how many " great national crises," how many "awful
and eventful epochs," how many vergiags on " desperate
revolutions," and how many " most serious and fatal
consequences to the country," have occurred in the
neweeaper columns during our recollection? Yet, St. Paul's stands where it always did, and exiled royal foxes
seek old England as the safest cover they
can run into.
We should like to know how many reviewers have held
up the "coming genius of the age," and pointed atten-
tion to the " most distinguished writer in English lite-
rature;" how many volumes have been pronounced as
"the finest work that has appeared for many years;"
and yet we offer come across same of these sterling
productions in partnership with the trunk-maker's
paste. We should like to have the sum total of domestic
hyperboles, such as being " as hot as tire," " as black as
a coal," being "delighted and charmed" to see a tenth-
rate acquaintance, and being " deeply distressed" to hear
that Mrs. Robinson's seventh child has fallen sick of toe
much pudding. What a census of illuminated "figures"
we should have to wade through, and what outrageous
fibs. We have no great objection to a respectable
" white lie" now and then, such a judicious bit of colour-
ing often gives valuable relict to a bit of domestic " Rem_
braudt," and dispels the gloom of a household "Salvator
Rinse" but we do not admire the silly and sup is
euous
induleence in lies that bear all the tints of the rainbow.
Not that we are alvocates for drab-coloured sermons
or pale grey philosophy solely. We can enjoy the true-
blue love-letter, and participate in the deep scarlet burst
of eethuids,ain, as much as any Parnassus-climbing idiot;
but we certainly quarrel with the general mode of spelt eh
adopted by those who deal so widely in the big " words"
of the dictionary, without attars:Atm; to those words the
slightest portion el their meanings. The " flowers of
rhetoric" ere only acce;,table when stacked by the ever-
greens of Truth and Settee. The habit of exaggeration
in language tihouli be guarded against; it misleads the
crednioui and °Wands the perzeprive; it imposes on us
the society of a balloon, when a moileratelyedzed skull
would filt the place much batter; it begets much evil in
promising what it cannot prrtirrn, and we have often
round the most glossing declarations of intended good
service end in mere LiAn vows. Those who, when we
ask a favour; isfilrea they will de it, " cost what if may,"
and though they may have to mere heaven and earth,"
are
never feu" he us to be so likely to confer it as a
certain e!
"d3' tairson we could name, who says he will
"do it if he can." Strove exeegeration iu everyday
I;nguugo should be wedded- we thilde as behig mentally
utiesaah3h and conversaiionally wearying. A Siriight,
far ware intention in speech is as grateful to ats:xiates
ass well ordered dress, and we feel as much doubt and
islike in talking to one who, with very inferior intellect,
flings all sorts of loquacious yeast in our ears, as we
should in grasPing in unwashed coarse hand, covered
,
wee paste rings. NoW, kind reads-, we have filled up
the "hove before snorts" with our penland•ink dreaming,
and if we express an earnest hope that it is for your
„fluseuvllt, pray don't accuse us of Exaggeration,—
Eliza Cook's Journal,