Swansea and Glamorgan Herald, and South Wales Free Press. — 1862-09-03 (Swansea, West Glamorgan, Wales)

BLACKWOOD'S MAGAZINE. September, 1862. Mrs. Oliphant's tale of "Salem Chapel," which promised at its commencement to be one of the best tales of the day, has dwindled down to the level of a mere sensation novel. For the last three months the hero has been in one constant and tiresome paroxysm of rage, and his mother in one almost as constant paroxysm of grief. There have been three or four scenes per page, and the improbabilities of the story have grown more and more glaring, until they have arrived at a climax where a young minister whose sister is accused of murder preaches a thrilling sermon, and then rushes from his pulpit to arrest the real murderess, whom he has detected among his congregation! It is quite refreshing to turn from it to the calm philosophy of Bulwer Lytton's "Essays on Life, Literture, and Manners." There are two of these essays, the first of which is "On the Distinction between Active Thought and Reverie." It is, says Sir Bulwer, _ . .  On; thing to see an undistin'gu(shable crowd—another thing to command its numbers and marshal them into the discipline of an army; one thing to be aware of the images that rise within, and flit from us into space— another thing to form those images into ranks ot thought, and direct their march towards a definite object. Thought, as distinct from reverie—thought compact and practical, such as can be stamped into record or concen trated into action—is generally a mechanical involuntary process, the steps of which we are unable to trace. " The understanding, like the eye, while it makes us to see and perceive all other things, takes no notice of itself."* The mind, in this, greatly needs the help of some accustomed association in the physical structure. It is strange how frequently it contracts some habit of the body by which it seems to give ease to its lent, or rather vigoor tor its utterance. . . _  A couneellor, renowned for the art of his pleading, bad a trick f rubbing his spectacle-case while addressing a jury. A foolish attorney who had confided a brief to him thought this action ludicrous, and 'likely to impair the effect of the pathetic appeals, which the nature of the suit admitted. Accordingly, he watched for a sly opportunity, and stole away the speetacle-case. For the first time in his life, the counsellor's tongue faltered-his mind missed the bodily track with which it had long associated its operations ; he became confused, embarrassed—he stammered, blundered, and boggled—lost all the threads of his brief, and was about to sit down, selfdefeated, when the conscience-stricken attorney restored the spectacle-case. Straightway, with the first touch the familiar talisman, the mind recovered its self-po, session, the memory its cle.irness, the tongue its fluency; and as, again and again, the lawyer fondly rubbed the spectacle-case, argument after argument flew forth like the birds from a conjuror's box. And the jury, to whom a few minutes before the case seemed hopeless, were stormed into unanimous conviction of its justice. Such is the force of habit. Such the sympathy between mental and bodily associations. Every magician needs his wand; and perhaps every roan of genius has—his spectacle case. The second essay is "On the Spirit in which New Theories should be received." There are also in Blackwood, critical articles on Trollope's "North America," and the "Pictures in the International Exhibition ;" an article on Watering Places, and a Biography of President Jefferson Davis.