The Sun.
London, England, 1856-12-06 00:00:00

LITERATURE.

The Catnpaig24 in the Crimea. An Historical
Sketch by George Brackenbury. Illustrated by
William Simpson. 2d Seri s. Colnaghi and
Company'.
Mr. Simpson's exquisite memorial of 44 Tho Cam-
paign in the Crimea" is here completed. Another
series of Forty-one double-tinted Plates, from
Drawings taken on the spot, brings the narrative
down to the actual close of the War with the cap-
ture of the Malakhoff. The accompanying letter-
press, descriptive of the events here pictorially cele-
brated by the - it of Mr. 8- -.till preserves

pencil o. nnipson, s prea%-
aa itself, throughout, those characteristics of perspi-
A Manual of Domestic Economy. By Fie
Walsh F R.C.S. G. Routledge.
ca.city and precision v l,ich imparted such an imme- This is one of the most complete and practice/
diately recognisable charm to the first half of the volumes for domestic reference
that has apear Historical Sketch from the pen of Mr. Brackenbury. for some time. It is arranged for families spend-
Nothing of any real importance has been passed ing from 110 G/. to 1,000/. a year. It is divided into
over unnoticed, either by the keen eye of the artist, twelve books. The first is an opening essay cm the
or by the exact and scrutinising judgment of the practice of economy. The second and third re-
spectively treat of "The House and its acoesso ries,"
writer his companion. Here, on the very title-
page of the new volume, in a vivid vignette, re- and of "Furniture and Furnishing," and are Vull of
minding one of Landseer's famous symbolic picture valuable information for any person commencing
of War, is a frightful glimpse enough of a Bomb- housekeeping. In the latter dapartment is a table
o
proof Chamber in the Malakhoff. Yonder, in onef prices, giving four different scales, suited
stirring panoramic view, is a peep at the Disem- to the means of families possessing incomes of
barkation of the Expedition to Kertch, and the 1,0001., 5001., 250/., and 100/. a year. These, four
blowing-up of St. Paul's Battery. Turning over inconissi are referred to throughout the book, and,
another page, we have before us the Fortress of of course, include a large class of families. The
Tenikale, looking towards the Sea of Azof—an- fourth and fifth departments treat of the duties of
other, Kertch from the North—another, the town- domestic servants and the supplies of the house.
batteries or interior fortifications of Sebastopol. At The numerous receipts and cooking details to be
one moment we have, filing past in mournful pro- found in this part have been obtained from an ex-
cession, the Funeral Cortege of Lord Raglan, as it perienced cook, and have been practically
tested.
moved slowly aw,ty from Head-quarters. Amang the numerous other divisions of the work
another we are admitted to an inner view of those those on the management of the health, on the
I:Lead-quarters of the English army before the brave iiestsuent of infants, and the symptoms of disease
old soldier's death, and recognise, almost at a will be especially valuable, when it is recollected
glance, the principal personages gathered about that the work is from the pen of a medical practi-
the table in a Council of War—Lord Raglan, Omer tioner whose experience, he says, has supplied him
Pacha, General Canrobert, and their associates in with nearly all his information. With the eazeep-
that enterprise of peril and responsibility. Scat- Eon of a few details of the household provinces pe.
tered up and down the volume are the varioas culiarly under a lady's care he tell. us, " there is
Camps of the different Divisions. The Battle no single compartment with which I have not been
of the Tchernaya is portrayed in one of practically acquainted, from the building and furs
these graphic sketches—taken on the spot— nishinff of the house, through the different kinds
the Interior of the Mamelon in another of marketing and shopping, to the management
—hero one of the Wards of the Hospital at Scutari of the nursery and sick-room." Parts of the work
—there the investiture of the Order of the Bath at have been subjected to the examination of a come
the Head-quarters of the British army before mittee of ladies, who have supplied some of: the
Sebastopol. Imagine two volumes (like those of receipts. The chapters on lighting, water, ven.tilas
Mr. Simpson) delineative—by drawings " taken on tion, and preservation from fire contain the "received
the spot"--of the Campaigns of Marlborough, or of theories and most useful appliances of modern da.: vs."
the Campaigns of Wellington ! Fancy two ele- The books on the purchase and maintenance: of
gantly gilded, tinted, printed books, illustrating horses and carriages, and the social duties of he ads
thus minutely Vittoria and Malplaquet, Ramillies of families, relate to the more important branc hes
and Fuentes D'Onore, scenes of the deeds of glory of domestic economy. Of course tastes and copi.
done in the grand old days—for both are equally nions may differ on the various trifling details, but
of the Past now—by the two great Dukes of Eng- the great amount of information, both in rei rard
land, the Giant Wielders of the Giant Sword of to the chief duties of domestic manage' vent
Britannia! Conceive the interest with which we and to the smallerimatters on which it iii so
should pore over such pages—how we should de- difficult for the inexperienced to obtain instruct ion,
your every syllable of the descriptive letter-press, renders it a most useful auxiliary for all under tak-
written thus in the broad full light of the Present ing the direction of a household. We trust it may
—how we should examine every minute line of the obtain that success which its varied information
artist's sketches, drawn at the actual time of the merits. It embraces in one work the different
occurrences, and in the identical spots commemo- branches of knowledge which usually occupy save-
rated Precisely what we might feel while look- ral distinct volumes, and its complete and practical,
ing over mementoes of those bygone wars of British character renders it an invaluable work of domes,.
History ; others will feel, hereafter, when turning tic reference.
over these fascinating records of the late Crimean
Struggle records coloured into life by the
facile pencil of Mr. Simpson, or eloquent
with the simple but earnest words of Mr. Bracken-
bury. It is observable in regard to the last-men-
tioned that, at the close of his brief but sufficient
preface, he gracefully acknowledges having derived
many useful hints and much valuable information
from the works of eminent historians of the War,
such, for example, as Col. Hawley, the contribu-
tor to Blackwood's Magazine and Mr. Russell the
world-famous Times' Correspondent. Now that
the Second Series is actually before us, we may
speak of the work in its entirety, and we do so with
only (if that be possible) a more hearty reiteration
of the praises to which we gave utterance in its
regard at the period of its brilliant and eminently
propitious commencement. It constitutes, we
cannot but think, the most compact, the most ap-
propriate, and the most beautiful memorial yet
published of the Great War in the Crimea, the
War which we still lament as having closed so
fatally, but the record of which we cannot but still
linger over with a rapt and fascinated interest, lit
up as its many deplorable disasters are by the
glorious remembrance of such Days of Fame and
Deeds of Daring as those of Alma, and of Inker
man, and of Balaklaya !

Matter : Its Forms and Governing Laws. By
George Duplex. With numerous Illustrations
on Wood. Bradhnry and Evans.
A very masterly little treatise--literally De om-
nibus Rebus et Quibusdam Aliis. A wonderfully
lucid and condensed epitome of—Everything ! A
microcosm in its marvellous way—a positive,
actual " world in little "—a tiny mirror, as it were,
held up to Nature and reflecting within the narrow
limit of its circumference the whole Universe. We
do not speak of the little volume before us, when we
speak of it thus, in any way at all in the language
of exaggeration. It is a treatise extending only
over 161 moderately sited pages—pages simply de-
scriptive of the Forms and Qroverning Laws of
Matter—yet, within these 161 pages, the author of
the book defines, by an exquisite:chain of analogies,
the relation of Everything with Everything. De-
monstrating, in fact, by the clear and irresistable
force of a succession of logical definitions the truth
of Pope's:axiomatic distich, that—
" All are but parts of one stupendous whole,
Whose Body Nature is, and God the Soul."
Altogether the book—small though it is, and un-
pretending though it is in its general character—
is literally the very marrow and pith of all the
Ologies, the"cream of the cream" of all the aciences,
the essence, or, we should rather say, the quint-
essence of every branch and section of Natural
Philosophy. After a few Preliminary Definitions
of Matter, we are inducted, by 3 chapter on "Bodies
of Matter Moving in Space," to Astronomy—by
another chapter on the "Governing Laws of
Bodies Moving in Space," to what Mrs. Somerville
has admirably termed the Mechanism of the Idea-
yens—by another chapter on " Terrestrial Matter,"
to Geology. Diverging this last one into four sepa-
rate and comprehensive sections—one on " Heat,"
another on "Light," another on " Magnetism,"
another on " Electricity." After a chapter on the
"Laws of Attraction and Affinity," we have an-
other on the " Chemistry of the Elementary Sub-
stances"—one on the " Primary Formation of the
Terrestrial Forms of Matter"—a chapter on " Ter-
restrial Internal Heat," and another on the
" Vitalisation of Matter." A chapter follows
this on " Vegetation"—another on " Vegetable
Nutrition," another on " Vegetal Reproduc-
tion." 'We next come to " Vegetable Chemistry,"
to " Animalised Matter"—to "Animal Nutrition,"
and " Animal Reproduction." " Intelligent and
Intellectual Matter" is then considered—" Human
Intellectual Matter" —and "Human Organs of
Nutrition." Nutrition proves to be a theme lead-
ing on step by step to an examination of the " Or-
gans of external sensation," otherwise of the
" Perceptive Organs," to " Intellectuality," to
"R
eason,"
the Memory," " Volition," " Thought,"
the " Passions," and the "Emotions." Finally, the
work closes with a distinct reference to " Sleep,"
" Death," and " Health"—thus sounding from the
treble to the diapason the whole Gamut of Human
Knowledge. Altogether the book is, to our think-
ing, something wonderfully fine for its comprehen-
siveness, and yet, be it added, in no one respect
what can be called superficial. It is a volume, in
short—penned by a hand hitherto wholly unknown
to us, that of George Duplex—placing within reach
of the masses, at the cost of just two or three shil-
lings, a perfect Feast of Instruction.

Automatic Mechanism. By Frederick Gray.

H. Renshaw.
Automatic Mechanism is here considered exclu-
sively in relation to its application in the con-
struction of Artificial Limbs in cases of Amputa-
tion. And considered in that particular, it will be
gallant
t
very generally admitted, by one eminentlyg
qualified to speak upon the subject—seeing that
Mr. Gray was the ingenious fabricator of the fa-
mous artificial leg worn by the late al well
e the
Field Marshal, the Marquis of Anglesea ! He
was the Operator to the late Marquis, as well as
the constructor of that curious limb—
old man to walk, and ride, and move abnoaubtlintog
last like any other mortal who had not for forty
odd years literally " had one foot in the grave !"
Mr. Gray, however, has done greater wonders in
his way even than this—he has made an artificial leg
for a young lady, Miss A....,. H, .. i . (vide p.
with which she is enabled not only
dance,
but
u t 145)
to
dance
Aided by him, the pretty
Widow "frequently." e f
Ems uo liy."
ntel
eanever lave entered upon her
exceedingly embarrassing explanation ! -Here is
ono of the latest of Mr.
Gray's automatic achieve-
ments—it is the case of the gallant