The Sun.
London, England, 1863-12-14 00:00:00

LITERATURE.

The Introduction to Anthropology. By Dr. Theo-
dor Waltz. Vol. I. Edited by J. Frederick
Collingwood. Longman and Co.
A peculiar interest attaches to this, in many
respeots, very remarkable publication. It is the
initial volume—let us hope, to begin with—of an
extensive library of works of a similar character.
It appears under the auspices of the Anthropolo-
gical Society of London. It is very gracefully and
even eloquently inscribed by the editor of the
volume to the able Founder and First President of
the Association. Not quite one year has even yet
passed since the Anthropological Society of London
was established. Its commencement, in fact, dates
from early in the present year of grace 1863
within which year this same goodly volume appears,
not merely with the sanction and approval, but di-
rectly at the instance and by the authority, of the
newly-organised Anthropological Society of London,
as the first of a long series of standard works on the
science of Anthropology. A more felicitous selec-
tion could not, we conceive, by any possibility have
been made than the very one which has resulted
in the publication of the book lying before us as
a commencement, For within the compass of
the first volume of Dr. Theodor Waitz's
Anthropologic der Naturaker is compacted
together the most comprehensive and exhaustive
survey of the new science, yet contributed,
we believe, in any tongue, to European
Literature. To the English public generally, how-
ever, it is a book almost unknown, saving and
excepting alone by reputation. Although merely a
translation from the German, therefore, the work
is virtually, if not an original work, a perfectly new
work to the mass of readers in this country. So far
as this same rapidly executed translation can be
compared and collated with the original, it ap-
pears to be a version singularly faithful and accu-
rate is its way—the versimilitude of the work
as a translation being judiciously secured, it
we might so express it without affectation, rather
idiomatically than by giving the author's
text word for word, or, in a word, verbatim.
Again—it is but fair to Mr. Collingwood, to whose
sound judgment and devoted assiduity the conduct
of this inaugnrative literary enterprize of the
society was, as the event proves, so judiciously
entrusted, it is but fair, to Mr. Collingwood, that
we should here at once take occasion to remark
that if the work, as the first work of the Society,
was well chosen, so also, without any doubt of
it, was the editor or superintendent of it. Its
success, as a translation, here and there very
admirably annotated, is evidence, in effect, that
the labour of supervision was, in this instance,
also especially a labour of love. Mr. Collingwood
has acquitted himself more than creditably. The
book, as it now appears, is a work of especial
value, and also one of very peculiar interest. It
thoroughly fulfils its design of affording the reader
of it, within a single volume, the very
best epitome anywhere to be found of
what is the actual "present state" of Anthropo-
logical Science in Christendom. In this respect,
vol. one of the Society's projected Anthropological
Library is the direct and immediate realisation or
fulfilment of the design shadowed forth in the
following eminently suggestive passage from the
introductory address of the Society's President:—
" In selecting works to be translated, we shall be
guided by a desire to introduce books into this
country, which, while being useful to the student
and teacher, will at the same time help to give the
reading public a better appreciation of the object
and extent of anthropological science. The Council
will .not simply favour the translation of works, in
the opinions of which they agree, but will aim at
introducing those works which best represent the
prevailing opinions respecting Anthropology
on the Continent. The importation of foreign
ideas and modes of treating our science cannot
fail to produce beneficial results." Certainly,
beneficial results can hardly fail to be evolved from
the timely issuing, thus, from the press, of so very
compact and comprehensive a survey of the Science
las will here be found to have been given by one of
the most skilled Anthropologists in Europe. The
Editor expresses a hope, surely not a vain hope,
that the handy volume thus put forth as a
commencement of the Society's Library may
serve as a basis for future research." Professor
Waitz, as is but natural, indeed, under the circum•
stances with an anthropologist of such keen intelli•
gence, of such piercing acumen, and one who has
acquired, moreover, such very extensive information,
takes a far wider range within his ken than
Prichard, and Nott, and Gliddon combined. In
regard to the general arrangements of the work
as it here appears, it should be remarked that Mr.
Collingwood has, with an aye to its general perspi-
cuity, thrown the numerous references interlard-
ing the text in the original, down to the bottom of
the pages, as footnotes. Dr. Weitz himself, more-
over, is announced to have contributed to this part
of the English version of the first volume of his
"Anthropology of Primitive Peoples," several addi-
tional and perfectly original notes and new autho-
rities. What greatly enhances the utility of the
work as a text-book of the science—we had almost
said as the textbook of the science—is the amplifica-
tion of the a!ready extended table of contents, and
the addition to the volume of a copious index—the
latter being absolutely invaluable to the work as a
work of reference.

Shakespeare : a Reprint of the First Edition, the
Folio of 1623. Part 11. The Histories. L. Booth.
Another volume—(the third) to be published
betimes before next year's Tercentenary Anniversary
of William Shakspere's birth—will complete this
perfectly "unique" tribute to the genius of Eng-
land's, the World's, greatest Poet and Dramatist.

As a tribute we may safely regard this reprint as a
work absolutely unexampled cf its kind. A nobler
attestation of the fame and glory of a writer
I never was offered to any man's reputation. A
fac-simile reprint of the first collective edition
that was ever printed and published of any
author's . works. A reprint of that first
edition two hundred years afterwards! Look-
ing at the dates thereby brought afresh under our
consideration, it is almost a matter of anguish to
reflect that Shakspere had been dead and buried
several years before his works were ever published
collectively. The year of his birth was as the pro-
jected Tercentenary celebration this next year,
1864, has served very vividly to remind the whole
world-1564. The Poet survived, as we all know,
for as many years as there are weeks in the year—
dying on the fifty-second anniversary of his birth-
day, i.e., on the 23d April, 1616. The First
Edition of his Dramatic Works appearing only in
1623, that is seven years afterwards—Shakspere
himself never once had the satisfaction of seeing
those works published substantially together. Play
after play had been printed separately. But never
had those plays been grouped into a collection
during the author's life. He himself was deprived
of that gratification—while the world at large was
itself also deprived thereby of the advantage of
having those works revised and corrected by the
author's own hand upon the occasion of their first
passing through the press as a collection. Smaller
in size than the folio edition, as it actually
appeared in 1623, the reprint before us is,
otherwise than in that one particular, an exact Me
simile of the original. The very hue and general
appearance of the paper, the antique form of the
type, the double columned pages, the quaint initial
letters, tail-pieces, and heading, the very misprints
—all are precisely as they were when the Folio first
appeared across the counter of Isaac laggard and
Ed. Blount, in 1623. The former volume at this
very curious and profoundly interesting reprint con-
tained the Comedies. The volume here issued from
the press as a continuation contains the Histories.
The volume completing the work will contain the
Tragedies. The work is got up with the greatest
possible care, a care extended to it as a reprint in
every department. As a Shaksperean publication
it is a perfect treasure.

Notes of a Cruise in 11,111.5. Fawn en the Western
Pacific in 1862. By T. 11. Hood. One Vol., pp.
268. Edmonston and Douglas.
As the hero of Moliere's play spoke " prose"
without being aware of it, so the writer of this
pleasant volume has produced a book, and a very
interesting one, without intending it. Disclaiming
at the outset of his narrative all intention of
"making a book," Mr. Hood refers those who are
seeking information respecting New Zealand and
the Pacific islands to !' the hundred volumes"
already written on the subject. Abundance of in-
formation is, however, to be obtained from these un-
pretending " notes," interspersed with anecdotes
innumerable. At the very commencement we meet
with the following interesting--
ADVENTURE WITH A SHARE.
Almost every one who has seen much of salt water has
some anecdote to tell about a shark; but the adventure
that befel the gunner of the Fawn was more than usually
strange: Being a very expert diver, he had been employed
to recover the treasure from the Peninsular and Oriental
Company's ship Ave, wrecked a few years ago on the coast
of Ceylon. Having, in a gutta-percha dress, made his way
into the saloon, he was busy searching for the bullion,
when, to his horror, he saw a huge ground-shark come
sailing in at the door. With great presence of mind he lay
motionless on the locker, and watched it silently and
grimly cruising about. One can well imagine his feel-
ings when he saw its cold green eyes fixed upon him,
and felt it pushing against the leaden soles of his
boots, and rubbing against his dress, the slightest
puncture in which would have been certain destruction.
After ten minutes of suspense, which must have seemed an
age, during which the monster came back twice or thrice to
have another look at him, Mr. Pounds' courage and cool-
ness were rewarded by seeing him steering his way back as
he came. Afterwards he armed himself with a large dagger
when he went down to the wreck, from which he recovered
altogether £220,000, having spent 850 hours under water.
He had some narrow escapes at times, from the opening and
shutting of the iron plates of the ship as they worked with
the roll of the sea. The air-pipe was twice severed from
his helmet ; but fortunately slackening, it warned the
people above to lose no time in rescuing him from his peril-
ous position.

One or two large sharks were captured by the
crew of the Fawn, and " suffered death," says Mr.
Hood, " in a manner nu other creature would Lk
subjected to at the hands of English sailors, whose
usual tenderness for animals is (not without some
reason) utterly wanting in respect to the tiger of
the sea." During the cruise here commemorated,
the Fawn, leaving Sydney on the 7th May, 1862,
proceeded to New Zealand, and after lingering a
while at Auckland, visited successfully the Nieue,
or Savage Islands, the Samoan group, the Feejee
islands, and many other islands of the Western
Pacific, until, after touching at Norfolk Island, she
finally returned to England on the 6th September.
The glimpses afforded us of the natives of these
scattered islands,are rendered more effective by the
introduction of various illustrations. In one place we
have portraits of a heathen warrior and his wife ;
in another of some Samoan girls in their usual
dress ; of a bride and her bridesmaids ; of chiefs in
war costume, ; numbering altogether no less
than twenty-one illustrations. While visiting the
Samoan islands, Mr. Hood expresses the regret
with which he, in common with many other prac
tical, common sense Christians, viewed the religion::
animosities which characterise so many self-styled
Christians :-
22d June.—Rainy, hot, and oppressive. This daS, we
went to the Bethel Church, where certainly we listened to
a most unprofitable service. There being no one bold
enough to raise the tune, the minister apologized and read
the hymns, and then preached a sermon, which was simply
a tirade against the "poor Pope," as he called him, and the
Catholic missionaries on the island, for withholding the
bible from the natives, geologists also receiving their share
of the anathemas, being in some mysterious way charge-
able with the same offence. One regrets much to see how
religious differences influence the missionaries of different
sects. With regard to the Catholic priests, it might have
been supposed thata fellow-feeling of admiration would have
induced their opponents to draw a veil over their errors,
and that the consideration of a self-sacrificing zeal, equal to
their own, would have inspired a more Christian sympathy
for all who preach the Cross in the hearts of the sternest
enemies to forms and ceremony. But unfortunately the
jealousies existing even between the Wesleyans and the
clergymen of the London mission, are equally detrimental
to the interests of both.
The Roman Catholic priests live as frugally as any other
missionaries, and the spirit which animates them generally
may be safely believed to be that expressed by an old and
respected priest living in the interior of Fiji, who, when re-
monstrated with for not trying to obtain more of the
luxuries and even necessaries of life, said to the Consul,
"The greater the reward hereafter."
Some of the savages with whom we make acquaint-
ance are not so uncivilised as might be expected.
Here, for example, is a sketch of a Samoan native,
named—