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

THE SUN,

LITERATURE.
A POPULAR HISTORY OF THE .21.10 -
LIJSCA. By Mary Roberts, author of " The
Conchologas Companion." Reale and Benham.
lii the coinpilaqon of this work Miss Roberts has
evidenlly 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 wal-designed
and beautifully coloured representations of all the
latest discovered mollusca, their habits, &c. To those
who do not understand such things, and who would
throw asi,::e a book full of Latin names and scientific
terms, the authoress has provided mach information,
which must interest all. Much light has been lately
throws' ape n the M011uw.32 the lish which inhabit
these curious and gigan!ie srells which adorn our
mantelpieces, and at which, although many look with
attentkn, they little think what cares and privations
its owner once under went to provide fur his wants
and guard himself from his enemies. Paley was
wofully at fault when, in his " Moral Philosophy," he
cited the oyster, limpet, and othershellfish as:exatnples
of 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 Piuna marina is a blind
slug, surrounded with numerous enemies, and parti-
cularly obnoxious to the' Sepia, or cattle fish, who
watches the motion of the Pinna, and no sooner dues
the latter open his bivalve shell, which occadonally ex-
ceeds two feet in length, than he rushes upon hint like a
lion.

"It will naturally be asked how such a blind de-
fsnceless creature can either procure food or protect
himself from the attack of his implacable enemies?
Nature uniformly redoubles her exertioni in favour of
the weak; or rather, it may be said, that the God of
Nature offers, by this new and affecting compensation, an
additional reason for unreserved confidence in Him. A'
kind of crab•fish, naked like the hermit, and very quick-
sighted, is the constant companion of the Piens marina.
Tney live and lodge togethei in the shell which belongs
to the latter. When the:Pinna has occasion to cat he
opens his valves, and sends out his faithful purveyor to
procure food. It any toe approaches, the 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, on the
contrary, the crab loads himself with booty, he makes a
gentle noise at the opening of the shell, which is closed
during his absence, end when admitted the two friends
feast together on the fruits of his industry. This curious
fact, although well known to the ancients, escaped till
lately the observation of the moderns. Aristotle tells
us that the Yinna kept a guard to watch fur him; that
there grew to the mouth of the Pinar' a small parasite,
having claws, and serving as a caterer, resembling a
crap, and termed the Yianophylax. In like manner
Pliny mentions a singular animal called Pinnotheres,
which, he says, is liable to injury, and therefore t.ru•
den tly hides himself in the shell of oysters. He also
speaks of tie Pinua as belonging to a genus of, shell
fish, produced iu muddy water, and constantly attended
by a companion."
Of the existence of this fish Pliny wrote some
eighteen hundred years ago; but the story was treated
as a fable. The knowledge of its existence was for-
gotten, and only lately revived. . Such anecdotes are
to be met with throughout the volume. Tee 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 small quantity of wool,
is very interesting. The book is rendered still more
attractive by the number of beautifully coloured plates
representing the various specimens of fish of which it
treats. It is also handsomely bound.

ANCIENT AND MODERN INDIA. By W.
Cooke Taylor. Revised by P. J. Machenna, Esq.
James ?Madden.
This wo:k cannot but prove a most 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, feuds, and the different
nations that composed that portion of Asia. It will
be interesting to those who have read Moore's

" Leila Rookh" to find that the originals of Selim
and Normahal, in the Feast of Rose, flourished in
Hindostan in the early part of the seventeenth cen-
tury, and that Moore has rather underdrawn the
influence that Normahal exercised over Selim. He
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. la his autobiography the Emperor
declares—

" At the period in which this is written (about four-
teen years atter he began to reign), I may say the whole
concerns of my household, whether gold or jewels, is
under her whole and entire management. Of my unre-
served confidence indeed this princess is in complete
possession, and I may allege without a fallacy that the
whole fortune of my empire has been consigned to this
highly endowed family. The father being my finance
minister, the son my lieutenant, 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
fur the backslidings of the various governors and ge-
nerals during this eventful history. The accounts of
the principal battles and memoirs of the more im-
portant personages are interesting and concise. The
compilation of 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 Crochford.
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. Longmans.
Tais 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 jaste.
They consist of a " Treatise on the Mutual Relation of
moth Elephant in the North of Siberia,w
Sciences ;" " An Account of the Discovery
cal Stotistics ;"ithofGaeMoloagmi:
" The English Language ;11" Political
Economy;" " Reformation of
of Physical
Calender of Eng-
a‘TGheenmereaolhPaoriionacli
pl:Buses oPdFsical Investiga-
tionl a n d
;; : :
Pa-
radoxes of Vision ;" " The Theory hufnder ;" "
From all these, which are well writtoen, Witt,"th &c.
cannot fail to find employment. The accounet reader
cannot
discovery of the fossil elephant at the mouth of thee
Lena, a river in Eistern Siberia, is told by Mr.
Bailey as though he had been an eye-witness. The
monster was fist discovered in 1799, by a Tangusian
chief while bunting, entirely encased in the
ice. Three years afterwards, the ice having
given way, the body of an enormous elephant
in perfect preservation, was found lying on the sand
bank, but before any active measures were taken for
its removal, it was much mutilated by the natives and
wild animals. The remains were subsequently re-
moved to St. Petersburgh by Mr. Adams. Mr. Bailey
gives a full description of the monster, and gives an
able discourse on the vari,us 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.

OXFORD UNIVERSITY STATUTES. Byl
James Heywood, Asq.
e y
secondwood
andh finalat l e n
publication of which hasblp
gt 4 favoured the public
wiMthrt.hilevolume of this work, the
delayed by the death of
University,blrlVard, twhebeDterpauestireltig
tHhheSfoterwmaerrdvoolufmOe,lftosordd
the
personally to
as r
as
practicable,
act
compile all
It has
been the author's entadTeavneoutrirrsttoicvaolurp
whose death compelled
superintend the translation of
uni-
versityiinlemaalulutshoeriptorwhich have es-
foundation, whethee,
ustne brought us up
es
ni aetruatl
i,ted since st st
iuttees
.n up to the era of
sautes are store
beto
itiol athePr;nesterdl;67.l. Vol. II carriesm
the Royal Commission iu 1850.
be found in these pages which are
es ntaotaYeg
found in the printed statutes, manuscripts
have been translated and added to thyosel
print. A compilation of its statutes is, in
fnta already in
correct history tnat is to be found of a university, for
they embrace all from the chamee.lor to the iu-d under-
graduate, and an alteration in the statutes shows e,
alteration in the habits and requirements of an
those
whom they affect.
--------------

AMERICA, Agricul•
and Soma •By James T.
W.
NOtuTral,SEcOolVioraNicaol,Rl'H l
Johnston. 2 Vols. W. B
Johnston
We, congratulate Mr. on the independent
regards his remarks
Blackwood and Son
stand
which
he
has
taken
as
„d produce. lie
concerning America, its inhabitants,
vinces t endeavoured to
be has
has acted up to what he has stated in the preface, viz ,
that, although a " Uriti'ller'"
speak fairly and witn candour of the statea and pro-
is alto
gether an uncommon hook ; fur, instead of the touristva
brough which he has travelled. It
who carries his sketchbook with bins to depia n
bt-34ttes of scenery, Air. Johnston has taken his note.
book V" 44;111/ 0, order that be way give his coun-

LONDON,

trymen a true account from personal observation and
inquiry of the produce of the land in the North
American provinces, its market prices, and the profit
that the farmer makes on it. The author describes
his travels throughout New Brunswick, St. 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-
Mslled by prejudice, and open to weigh fairly the
chances of profit from this or that mode of husbandry."
This work must prove very useful to those about to
emigrate to America.

JOINT- STOCK AND PRIVATE BANKS
DIRECTORY. Part I. Groombridge and Sons,

Paternoster-row.

The editor of the Bankers' Magazine has emi-
nently entitled himself to the thank 4 and gratitude of
the banking community by th,s publication of this
valuable work, which will henceforward form an in-
dispensable adjunct not only to every bank, but to
every great commercial establishment throughout 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 than 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 and 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 for several years a standard book of
reference in all matters relating to banks and
banking.

EXAGGERATION.
BY ELIZA COOK.

We wonder what would be thought of a person who
lhdh
leoulmiebeheerstatptl
eeo!
Pottle
reloaded and fired a
ofheatrhaewggb
strawberries
eths
the loan
nl
.eaeivehf aht forty-poundersack
k tol
would
k tob
e i ll a
carry
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 at 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 indulging in such are fitting
candidates for 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 genera) 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 moderato 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 two of fever is recorded as a " severe ad
frightful illnesa." The " superlative" is the reigning
mood with them; skim milk becomes Devonshire cream,
and small beer uinness'e stout; " superb," " exquistihteeil
" wonderful," "glorious," " horrible," " tremendous," '
" delicious," " charming," " beautiful," " terrific," " as-
tonishing,"
and such extreme adjectives, hang on
lips as plentifully as conjunctions, and we often wonder, .
while gauging the narrow calibre of brain whence the
big torrent issues, how such large furniture could be
found in such a small house. Let these people repeata
story or circumstance, and you can hardly 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-Raphaelites 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 once kept account for a lady, during a three miles' .
walk through rasher 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-
gelic 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: then 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 goslings.
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 acceunt, and impugned
our veracity by declaring, that cups and saucers wore
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 man, according
to his
'
ipsay,amn
papa's portraying,
is too much for his body; his abilitiesortraying, is an " immense genius,"—in.
deed
are in fact so great that they do not know what he is fit
fur; he "plays divinely," " sings exquisitely," and .4 pos-
sessions the poet's inspiration in a wonderful degree;"
if he lives long enough he will "do something; very
grand;" and withal, he is "so delicate in constitution
that he can hardly boar the wind to blow on him."
These 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 he is nothing more than a spruce
fir, entered and labelled in his pa's grand conservatory
as a cedar of Lebauon; and as for his "delicate 00051 j,
tution," it seems to stand pretty well under an unlimited
amount of large dissipations and " small hours."
Now those people aro hut 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-ands
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 verg,ings on " de4perate
revolutions," and how many " most serious and fatal
sPaul'sllreek oh
iosdut stands consequences
ndndrsi
like
whereaetno England
a theks
nitt
(h., country," have occurred in the
newspaper columns during our recollectiwiloeeednras?nrohyarYuavleneitieh,nxSetleotdai
awe i ws
howat yess t 1
h did,caoh cover and
reviewers
veitheyxe
toechtear
up tee "coming genius of the age," and pointed attea•
lion to the " most distinguished writer in English ate.
rature;" how many volumes have been pronounced as
"the finest work that' has appeared for many years;"
and yet we otter come across some of these sterling
productions in partnership with the trhnle-maker'
paste. We should like to have the sum total of domestics
hyperboles, such as being " as hot as fire," " as black
a coal," being " delighted and charmed" to see a tenth-
rate acquaintance, and being " deeply distressed"
i'lltSalvator
that M.rs. Robinson's seventh child has fallen s
wade
ea
through,census e f
ailuldumwinhaattedeettigterouties.
"figures"
we toWwh
touchwesheuidia pudding.
av
fibs. We have no great objection to a respectable
e white lie" now and then, such a judicious bit of colour-
ing oaten gives valuable relief to a bit of domestic " Rem_
breath," and dispels the gloom of a household
Rosa;" but we do not admire the silly and superfluous
indulgence in lies that bear all the tints of the rainbow.
Not that we are a ivoestes for dratecoloured 'Prolong
blue love-letter, and participate in the deep scarlet burst
or pale grey philosophy solely. We can enjoy
of eethuiissm, as much as any Parnasses.climbing idiot;
but we certainly quarrel ,with the general mode of spay eh
adopted by those who de it so widely in the big " words"
of the dictionary, without attaching, to those words the
slightest portion of their meanings. Tao "flowers
of
rhetoric" are only acceptable when backed by the ever.
greens of Truth and Sense. the habit of exaggeration
in language should be guarded against; it misleads the
credulous and offends the perceptive; it imposes on us
the society of a balloon, when a moderately-sized skull
would fill the place much better; it begets much evil in
prOmising what it cannot perf em, and we have often
tound the moss gluv,,ing declarations of intended good
service end in mere Irish vows. Those who, when we
ask a-favour, affirm they will do it, " cost what it may,"
and though they may have to " move heaven and earth,"
are never found by us to be so likely to confer it as ,
certain steady person we could name, who says ho will
"do it if he can." Strong exiggeracion iu everyday
language should be avoided, we think, as being mentally
unhealthy, end conversationally weerying. A straight-
forward intention in speech is as grateful to associates
as well ordered dress, and we feel as much doubt and
nislike in talkin to one who, with very inferior intellect,
fltres,s all sort of 1 ' • tin our ears, as we
a to yeas
should in
grasping un unwashed, coarse hand, covered
with paste rings.- • i we have filled
Now kind render, • up.
the "beer before morn" With our 'eu,snalnk dreaming,
and if We eUlArt'isa an eaiti,,t, our
that it is for your
1
""M„,,ent' pray don't accuse us of Exaggeratiotnee.
Eliza eseek's Journal,