No. 1192. Fourth Series, No. 53. 6 April, 1867. ECCE DEUS. Essays on the Life and Doctrine of Jesus Christ. With Controversial Notes on BACKBONE. Photographed from the "Scalpel." By Edward Dixon, M. D. THE RICH HUSBAND. A Novel, by Mrs. J. H. Riddell, Author of " George Geilb," &c. &c. THE OPEN POLAR SEA; a Narrative of a Voyage of Discovery towards the North Pole, in the Schooner" United States." By Dr. I. I. Hayes. New York: Hurd & Houghton. FOR EIGHT DOLLARS, remitted directly to the Publishers, the Living Age will be punctually forwarded a commission for forwarding the money. Price of the First Series, in Cloth, 36 volumes, 90 dollars. 2 A SWEET THING IN CHIGNONS. Uncle. Now, my dear FANNY, it is your birthday. Let me see, how old are you? Not yet arrived at years of discretion, eh? Well, my dear, here is a little present for you-a little scientific instrument. Science is fashion able now, you know. Here is a microscope, to study minute botany with- and entomology. Fanny. Oh, thank you, Uncle ! Uncle. Entomology; science of insects, you know. Minute entomology; of insects not visible to the naked eye. Mites in cheese, for instance. Fanny. Nasty, horrid things! Uncle. Well, if you like better, diminutive water-insects; the water-flea and the cyclops and such. But I suppose you would wish to eschew mites. I mean not to eat them? Fanny. Oh yes, Uncle ! have lesser fleas ; and so ad infinitum." Fleas are parasites. But gregarines are not fleas. Fanny. I should hope not. But what are they, then? which "are seen at the free end of the hair, and Uncle. "Little dark brown knots," my love, These are gregarines." They are the discovery may even be distinguished by the naked eye. whose country has doubtless afforded him a of a M. LINDEMANN, & Russian professor, fine field for observation in this branch of zool ogy. Fanny. What? They are, as I said, Uncle. Never mind. Uncle. Then you should examine your cheese. parasites of parasites. They are not easily With this you can. Other things also, besides destroyed. They resist the effects of drying cheese. There is cheese-and there are chig-corrosive things that injure the hair will kill and even of boiling." Nothing, in short, but nons. Fanny. Chignons" and "cheese" sounds funny. But Uncle. Yes, my dear. Alliteration. cheese and chignons have r more in common than Ch. However, you think chignons are "the cheese, " eh? Fanny. They are the fashion, Uncle, dear. Uncle. Yes; they are the fashion. So were "fronts "" in my young days. Both false hair. Wise ladies then wore it before; now they wear it behind. The dandies of the day used, as they said, to quiz it. Fanny. Quiz? Uncle. Yes. It was one of their slang words derived from looking through an eye-glass, called a quizzing-glass. Meant to inspect, as it were, and ridicule. Now, their successors, the swells, quiz chignons. But you can quiz your chignon yourself-with your microscope. Fanny. Why should I, Uncle ? Uncle. To see if it contains any gregarines. Fanny. Gregarines! Law, I should think they were pretty. Uncle. No, my dear, they are parasites. Parasites of parasites. Fanny. Now, nonsense, Uncle. I know what a parasite is: "One who frequents rich tables, and earns his welcome by flattery."-DB. JOHNSON. Uncle. "The little fleas have other fleas, and smaller fleas to bite 'em. Those smaller fleas them. Fanny. Oh, the horrid things! Oh, the abominable, dreadful, disgusting, nasty creatures! Uncle. According to M. LINDEMANN, seventy-six per cent. of the false hair used for chignons in Russia is infested with them. Fanny. That's enough, Uncle ! Uncle. In the conditions of a ball-room he says, they grow and multiply; fly about in millions, get inhaled, drop on the refreshments -in fact Fanny. Oh, Uncle, don't say any more, please. Stand out of the way from the grate, do. I won't wear the thing another moment. (Tears off her Chignon.) it ? Uncle. Stay; wouldn't you like to examine Prom Blackwood's Magazine. construct scenes of vivid interest. They carefully record provincialisms and grammatical solecisms; they go into detail, It is a notorious difficulty for one class with a marvellous confidence of knowing coarse, homely, or simple, as it may be, to put itself into the position of another, their ground. And all the while they are to adopt its tone of feeling, to comprehend the victims of illusions. We see two men its leading motives of action, its distinctive of equal powers for the work, and similar prejudices, prepossessions, and impulses; opportunities, arrive at diametrically oppoits likes and dislikes, and those constant site conclusions, according to their prepospervading influences which form character, sessions: and all for want of a key. They and lie at the root of the differences which know nothing of the world they affect to separate order from order, and keep them be familiar with from mere partial outside at such an impassable distance from real in- contact. They would not know how to actimacy. High and low, gentlemen and count for those distinct and often opposing artisans, master and servant, ladies and standards in morals; for the tolerance and poor folks, encounter one another at cer- the intolerance of public opinion which we tain points and in particular relations; but observe in the class called "the poor; " for the most discerning cannot pretend to see the position of women, and its points of into one another much beyond their point greater independence under a seeming subof contact. Employers, clergymen, benevo-jugation of brute force; for the different lent visitors, carry their own atmosphere models of what is attractive or excellent. with them wherever they go, and things They have no clue to the tastes and antipaare seen and coloured through its medium. thies which constitute the barrier we inIn their presence mutual interests are dis- dicate between poor and rich, and which, cussed from a non-natural point of view. once entertained, once rendered by habit a The minds of both parties relax out of a part of nature, can never be wholly eradicertain tension and artificial condition cated; so that the humbly-born, who have when removed from the contact and espion- risen in the world, whatever their powers, age of an unsympathising witness. This opportunities, or success in life, can never implies no design, no deception of any kind, see things with the eyes of those about probably no knowledge of check or im- them, can never rid themselves of the old pediment to a more perfect understanding. impressions-harden their hearts as they It is only that neither party can display any will against the memories of childhood, or large or clear picture of themselves where struggle as they may from better motives to the mind, to be informed, is so ill prepared forget. Of course, so far as men act on the to receive a comprehensive idea. Hence highest principles, they must be alike. The an inevitable mutual reticence. The supe-model king, subject, landlord, tenant, tradesrior must keep back something from the man, and mechanic, noble virgin and simple dependant; the most devoted pastor has cottage maiden, can all meet on a perfect an easy privacy he does not desire to ad- understanding. There is but one highest mit his poorer flock into; the lady does not motive. It is when motives of earth set in care that the humble object of her bounty that confusion arises. It is the different should be able to picture her in the unre- alloys infused into our virtues by pride, straint of her drawing-room life; and in vanity, selfishness, envy, jealousy, according like manner the labourer, the "hand," the to the calls upon them, that separate famigood woman that stands before her kindly lies and classes, and that give to each not visitant garrulously detailing her list of sor- only their distinctive faults, but their rows and grievances, have each an inner picturesque characteristics. world from which it is impossible to lift up the curtain, or let in full daylight, so as to reveal all the motives, interests, notions, pains, and pleasures, which make up an individual and family life so hopelessly different in a thousand points from that unconsciously contrasted with it. In spite of this difficulty, it is a favourite exercise of fancy to picture the life of classes with which the delineator has none of the knowledge that comes of experience. In depicting the poor, for instance, writers "The low light gives the colour," and character is made out of the presence of, or the temptation to, human error, and the degrees in which it is yielded to or resisted. If this difficulty of a perfect understand-. ing exists between all well-defined classes, it follows that the wider the difference of social standing the greater the difficulty. This will, perhaps, be disputed, for many persons profess to find it much easier to enter into the mind of the very poor than of the class above them, less dependent on their favour and support. But mere recipients have hardly arrived at the dignity of an order. They are not a class, but rather the debris of a class, or the matter out of which a class is to rise. They are understood in the degree in which they do not presume to possess an independent judgment, or habits of reflection which might perchance run counter to their betters. When people profess to understand the poor, they ought to consider how far the understanding goes. Do they realise the condition they think they sympathise with, or perceive what is latent and ready to spring into life at a moment's warning under any change of circumstances? We repeat, it is in proportion to the real distance in habits and aspirations that the ignorance dwelt upon prevails. The gentleman is further removed from the man whose family are reduced to herd together in one bedroom, and who is thankful for a shilling -however humbly acquiescent and sincerely willing to assimilate every thought to the opinion of the great man who is kind to. him and is master over him — than from the self-sufficient cocky small shopkeeper, who can house his family decently, and has notions of rising in the world. They have more thoughts, hopes, and impulses in common. They can reckon more nearly on each other's course of action under changed circumstances. One reason for this is, that as classes rise in importance they have their organs, and acquire the art of self-portraiture. While people are described by their betters a vast deal must remain behind, and what is made prominent nullified by the omission; but no person can take pen in hand and describe himself without our learning a a great deal about him. It may not be what he intends us to learn, but it is knowledge nevertheless. It is not easy to get at the self-portraiture of the very poor or the very ignorant and rude class, or the class perhaps neither one nor the other, whose ambition has not yet taken the direction of making an outside reputation for itself. Now it is because it throws light on these unrepresented classes that our present subject possesses an interest to us wholly out of proportion with- we ought perhaps to say entirely independent of poetical or literary merit. A body of hymns of a widespread popularity, yet to be found in no collection with which our reader is familiar, and procurable in no shop he is likely to frequent, may have their point of interest independent of our approval of matter or style. When these are illustrated by autobiographical notices of one of their chief promulgators, himself of the unrepresented class, hymns and man sufficiently vigorous and characteristic, we need not apologize for calling the attention to them of such as find their curiosity stimulated by all popular demonstrations: who cannot pass a "Gospel theatre" without speculating on the feelings at work in all that tumult, or hear "Fiddling Jem", hailed by an expectant crowd as he approaches the closed doors in grim respectability, without a curiosity to know how he will acquit himself; who, if they encounter in any of our large towns a marching band of obstreporous religionists, try in vain to catch the words of the noisy strain, or if they observe a street preacher holding the attention of a "lot of roughs," would fain know where he got his training and aptitude for the work; who have a hankering to know more, and a feeling less cold than mere contempt, even towards the notices on the walls which invite them to go and hear the "celebrated boy-preacher who will address an audience from such a place, or Miss So-and-so, who will preach three times on the following Sunday; or Jack Birch the converted nigger-singer, and Jem Jones the converted dog-fighter (we quote verbatim), who will hold special services in such a room, with the additional attraction and sphere for speech-making of the "sweeps' tea-meeting" in the course of the week. One apology is necessary before plunging into our subject. Of all virtues reverence needs the most careful fostering, and the people who delight in these hymns and the gatherings where they are sung, as a rule were born and have lived under no such fostering influence. So much as a matter of fact does reverence go along with training, education, and cultivation of the taste, that it may be treated in part as an intellectual quality. The child whose earliest acquaintance with the name of God is through the medium of oaths and blasphemies, who is familiar with scenes of brutal violence, whose innocence was tainted by precocious knowledge of evil, can hardly under any change of feeling, under conversion itself, be reverent according to our standard; and, indeed, without this contact with gross evil, the mere life among crowds, the hindrances in the way of afi privacy, the want of solitude, are fatal to that awe which is the sentiment earliest infused into the religiously trained child of O! What's the news, what's the news? tell them you've begun to pray, That's the news, that's the news! you have joined the conquering band, You're marching to the better land, And now with joy at God's command, That That's the news, that's the news!" -Richard Weaver's Hymn-Book. the educated classes. Again, the prema- | And then, if any one should say, "Whene'er we meet you always say, What's the news, what's the news? What's the news, what's the news? That's the news, that's the news! The Lamb was slain on Calvary, That's the news, that's the news! To set a world of sinners free, That's the news, that's the news! "Twas there His precious blood was shed, 'Twas there on Him our sins were laid, And now He's risen from the dead, That's the news, that's the news! His work's reviving all around, That's the news, that's the news! And many have salvation found, That's the news, that's the news! And since their souls have caught the flame, That's the news, that's the news! The Lord hath pardoned all my sin, That's the news, that's the news! That's the news, that's the news! And Christ the Lord can save you too, 'That's the news, that's the news! That's the news, that's the news! Or another, in equal favour, which indicates in such free and easy terms the period of conversion : Come, ye that fear the Lord, unto me; For Christ, the other day, saved my soul. Or the far lower depth, to outside ears, reached in the collection compiled for the Hallelujah Band," where a few solemn words are played upon with a flippant iteration shocking to our ears, but regarded as a legitimate stimulus in these assemblages where excitement passes for devotion: "Come to Jesus, come to Jesus, He will save you, He will save you, He will save you just now. |