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LITTELL'S LIVING AGE-No. 539.-16 SEPT., 1854.

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THESE six portraits of Lord Byron, painted | teresting biographical study, which must be left at different periods of his life, present a very in- to the science and imagination of our readers.

THE WITHERED KING.

TYRANTS dread all whom they raise high in place;
From the good, danger,-from the bad, disgrace.
They doubt the lords, mistrust the people's hate,
Till blood becomes a principle of state:
Secured nor by their guards, nor by their right;
But still they fear even more than they affright.

So have I read a story of a king

COWLEY.

Whose hand was heavy on the hearts men, Whose tongue spoke lies, and every lie a sting, Who trampled onward through a gory fen, And laugh'd to see its teeming haze arise, Spreading a crimson mist before the skies.

But age fell on him, and with age a dread

Of life and death-a leaden gloom of fear That sat down at his board, and filled his bed, And stirred his flesh, and crept within his hair.

In crowds he fear'd each man; and, when alone, He fear'd himself, and wasted to the bone.

Within a castle strongly fortified

He shut himself, and listened all day long To his own mutterings, and the wind that sigh'd

In the outer trees, a close and secret song; And when night fell, he sat with straining car, And hearken'd for some danger gathering near.

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Even now a sceptred tyrant, Europe-bann'd,
Listens the enemy's approach, and waits
To hear his strongholds crumble into sand,

And the loud cannon knocking at the gates.
In vain his armèd legions round him draw;
For who can save him from his inward awe?
Household Words.

A few Leaves from the Newly-invented Process of "Nature Printing," showing the Application of the Art for the Re-production of Botanical and other Natural Objects. Printed and published by Bradbury and Evans, Patentees.

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THESE very beautiful plates are the result of new patented process, by which impressions of plants (or of any other flattish substance) may be taken from the actual objects that are to be represented.

A number of well-known plants-ferns, celandine, the yellow pimpernel, tormentilla, nettle, the hedge woundwort, meadow-sweet, etc.-are here printed off from fresh and well-chosen specimens so accurately as to give the character of foliage and the general appearance of the flower, with as much truth as there could be in the dried specimen, and with more beauty. A printed herbarium may in this way be formed, which no time shall corrupt, and no insects infest, and that shall be at the same time a charming book of pictures. The botanist will not indeed find that by Nature-Printing the necessity for keeping actual specimens is superseded, since the most essential characters of the flower seem to admit only in an imperfect degree of being copied by the printer. But whoever desires merely to know plants out of doors by sight, and to be reminded of them in-doors pleasantly by faithful copies, can do no better than lay up for himself a store of these pictures which Nature-Printing puts at his disposal. The process is one that admits of application to a large number of purposes, and that will certainly, when all its uses shall have been developed, do much good and be a welcome service to the world.

be procured in the Pacific and Eastern Oceans. It is found in Australia, and is soon to be abundant in Calcutta, obtained from the Burdwan mines. The Alta California has learned from Captain Adams, the bearer of the despatches from Commodore Perry concerning the treaty with Japan, that "a coal depot will be established at Simoda, for the convenience of steamers, running from California to China, and the Jupanese agree to supply whatever quantity of coal may be required." If we are to believe that coal can be obtained abundantly in Japan as it is already said to be obtained in Vancouver's Island, we may anticipate a great diminution of expense in navigating the Eastern Ocean and the Pacific by steam, and some relaxation in the excessive de mand which has within a few years arisen for English coal. Within a short period the demand for half the steam navigation of the world and for our own locomotives has been added to the greatly increasing demand for coal from the augmentation of population and the increase of foundries, furnaces, and steam engines. To this extensive demand, and the consequent haste and carelessness in getting coal, must be attributed in great part, the many accidents which have recently occurred in our coal mines. The success ful prosecution of mining in Belgium, which has been of great service in reducing the strain on us, and a similar successful prosecution of coal-getting which is going on in Germany, and from which we are told we may soon expect to see coal from Germany imported into England, are both very important facts. A few years ago, but before the present enlarged consumption of coal had taken place, alarms were expressed lest our supply should fail, and though accurate calculations of the probable quantity in existence and likely to be required, postponed the period of deficiency to some very remote time, the consumption is increasing so rapidly, and the article has on one or two occasions lately been so dear, that we may rejoice at the intelligence that coal is to be obtained from several other quarters. As progress is made in obtaining it, there will be less occasion to press on our own resources, and we shall hear probably of fewer accidents from haste and carelessness.-Economist.

Certainly a more charming development of the art of the printer, or one more suggestive of the delicacy that accompanies consummate skill, can scarcely be conceived than an invention, by which, even from ender flower petals, copies are "struck off." The old printers' phrase sounds rude enough in such connection. But Messrs. BRANDY ON THE MOUNTAINS.-It is astonBradbury and Evans, having extracted all the ishing the effect produced by spirits upon persons beauty that lay hidden for printers' purposes in of even the strongest constitution, when indulged lead, antimony, ink, and grease-having left no in at an elevation of 10,000 or 12,000 feet. I triumph of the old printers' eraft unattained-have had opportunities of observing this; and now travel to fresh fields and pastures new, even Captain S informed me, that at 19,000 feet to fields and pastures veritable, for a new grace it is perfectly dangerous to take any quantity of to be added to the virtues of that ancient black-raw spirit, as even half a wine-glass of brandy amoor, the Press-Examiner.

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produces intoxication. I would recommend all hill-travellers to drink nothing but hot tea; for travelling up mountains and down valleys, across bridges of very questionable security, requires a firm and steady nerve, which it is impossible for those who indulge freely in the use of spirits to retain long in the snowy regions.-James's Volun teer's Scramble.—

BOOKS FOR CHILDREN.

From the North British Review.

BOOKS FOR CHILDREN.

1. Robinson Crusoe.

2. The Arabian Nights' Entertainments. 3. Esop's Fables.

4. The Story of Reynard the Fox. 5. Gulliver's Travels.

6. Tales of the Genii.

7. Frank.

characters of modern life, with its level average of conventional decorum. Each period in its place serves the ordained purpose; and so it is well. The peculiar development of each is providentially adapted to the circumstances which are at once its cause and effect.

And so it is, if we attempt to form a just comparison of Youth with Manhood. Unreasonable, indeed, it were to wish for fullborn manhood in the boy; scarcely less so to de8. The History of Sandford and Merton. sire, in this life, to arrest the fleeting graces 9. The Pilgrim's Progress. of youth, and fix them in perpetual childhood. 10. Social Tales for the Young. By Mrs. The gradual change, mournful as it is to witSHERWOOD. London, 1837. ness, the fading bloom of gentle unsuspicious 11. The History of the Fairchild Family; innocence, the cold numbness stealing over or, The Child's Manual. By Mrs. SHER- the generous instincts, instead of awakening WOOD. Fifteenth Edition. London, 1845. vain and querulous repinings, may serve ra12. The History of Henry Milner, a little ther to impress that life is moving on to its Boy not brought up according to the full development. All that is fair must fade, Fashion of this Work. By Mrs. SHER- in order that it may be renewed in richer loveSixth Ediaon. London, 1845. liness. While it lasts let it be admired for its intrinsic qualities, as it deserves. Assuredly, if the wisdom of intuition transcends the dis14. Agathos and other Stories. By BISHOP cursive travailings of the understanding; if WILBERFORCE. Eleventh Edition. Lon- the princely innocence "that thinketh no don, 1846. evil," more nearly approaches the Divine na15. The Distant Hills. By the Rev. W. AD-ture, than virtue dimmed and soiled in the AMS. London, 1849.

WOOD.

13. Amy Herbert. Edited by the Rev. W. SEWELL. Lordon, 1844.

16. The Cherry Stones; or, Charlton School. A Tale for Youth. By the Rev. W. ADAMS. London, 1853.

17. The Four Seasons. By DE LA MOTTE FOUQUE. London, 1846.

18. Danish Fairy Legends and Tales. By CHRISTIAN HANS ANDERSEN. Second Edition. London, 1852.

19. Hope on! Hope Ever! By MARY HOW-
ITT. London, 1852.

20. Ministering Children. A Tale dedica-
ted to Childhood. London, 1854.
21. Margaret Cecil. Edinburgh, 1854.

conflict with sin; if strong Hope, and undoubting Faith, and stintless Charity, are the especial prerogatives of youth, then it must be allowed that the period of childhood presents to us no faint foreshadowing of the beatific life that is to come hereafter.

The soul that rises with us, our life's star,
Hath elsewhere had its setting,

And cometh from afar;
Not in entire forgetfulness,
And not in utter nakedness,
But, trailing clouds of glory, do we come,
From God, who is our home:
Heaven lies about us in our infancy!

DR. JOHNSON used to say, that a boy at school is the happiest of human beings. If he Persons advanced, or advancing in life, and had added, that youth is not only the happiest particularly those whose occupations involve period of life, but also the best, in the highest them in the exciting pursuit of power or richsense of the word, perhaps there would not es, are apt to look down upon youth as an unbe given so general a consent as to the maxim profitable time, as a mere preliminary to real which he has enunciated. Graceful, engaging, life, to be despatched with all convenient interesting, every one would allow it to be. speed, and then to be forgotten. They are The dewy freshness of the morning, the soft not aware how much they have need to learn fragrance of spring, the tender beauty of a from it, and to sympathize with it. It is very budding flower, are the images that naturally good for all to dwell much in the presence of belong to that stage of existence. But, then, the young. The greatest and best of men The strange and unanit is wanting, it might be urged, in the tried have loved to do so. virtue and balanced judgment of experience. swerable questions which children are conTo take tinually asking, inadequate utterances of unThe comparison is not an easy one. a parallel case. It is always difficult to weigh utterable thoughts, convict the proudest intelthe merits and demerits of one period in the lect of its ignorance. Their trustful and afworld's history against those of another. The fectionate confidence in others, rebukes the passionate excesses and heroic impulses of a suspicious caution of experienced manhood. partially civilized age, can scarcely be reduced The unstudied grace of every" breeze-like to a common standard with the stereotyped motion," the gladsomeness of the "self-born

carol," their free and full enjoyment of every- | primordial elements; or even if Biography thing beautiful and glorious around them, were more careful to trace out the records of these, and such like traits, are angelic rather the first fifteen years of a human life. than human; they speak of innocence; and A wise judgment of the curious and very happiness, and love; they say to anxious influential kind of literature suggested by the hearts, "Take no thought for the aorrow,"- books enumerated at the head of this article, "Be not troubled about many things' Nor depends much on the correctness of the estiis boyhood an ineloquent teacher. Its gener-mate that is formed of the moral and intellecous ardor, its dauntless activity, its chivalrous tual condition of those for whose benefit they sense of honor, its fond attachments, its hope- are written, on our insight into child-life. fulness, and truthfulness, its clear bright eye, Some of the peculiar traits of boyhood are fair cheek, light and joyous frame, how often overlooked by those who cater for the strangely unlike is all this to the wrinkled instruction and amusement of that strangely brow and heavy tread, the callousness and deliberate selfishness by which it is too often succeeded. Much, very much is to be learned from the young.

interesting class. Hence some of the besetting dangers of the books for children now in vogue, especially as these arise from premature intellectual cultivation, the encourageIt is to be regretted, that the recollections ment of a morbid habit of self-consciousness, of childhood and youth in most persons so and the undue development of the reasoning, soon grow dim and perish, obliterated from almost to the exelusion of the imaginative the heart by the noisy waves of active life, faculties. Education, in one form or other; that men can so seldom trace their way back should be the great question of every age, to a very early time. In one sense, indeed, seeing that the cultivation of his race is surely childhood is never forgotten. Love or ambi- the most important work in which man can tion may usurp for a time a tyrannic sway be engaged. It is professedly the great quesover the heart, and seem to blot out all the tion of these times; yet, amid much useful time before; but, except in the wretched discussion of school arrangements, and the criminal, whose keenest pang of remorse is to compare himself with what he was once, the thought of the home of other days never fails to act like magic on the heart, the faces and haunts familiar to the child remain enshrined in the memory of the man, and command forever an affectionate reverence. Those

-Happy days, that were as long As twenty days are now,

methods of teaching, some of the les obvious aspects of the process of change, which is everywhere and incessantly going on in human minds, are, it seems, too much neglected. And the books by which they are amused and spontaneously educated, are surely among the most powerful domestic influences to which children are exposed. This department of literature has worthily engaged writers of the highest intellect, who have known childhood well, and the habits and tastes of successive generations are formed by the fruit of their labors.

with each morrow, as it then seemed, severed from yesterday by a solid barrier, as it were, in the intervening night; those scenes where Before attempting to answer the question, no thought of change or decay ever intruded, What sort of writing is best adapted to the but which, as well as the actors in them, were young? another question accordingly must be unconsciously regarded as destined to abide entertained, What are their tastes and cafor ever,-how shall their memory be lost ex-pacities? The warm and affectionate suscep cept by a violent and unnatural renunciation

of the former self?

tibility of children, their noble aspirations, their confiding trust in others, and unselfish So would I that my days should be, admiration of whatever is beautiful and good, Bound each to each by natural piety. -traits like these, with the counterpoise of such defects as restlessness, imprudence, apSoft breezes, fraught with pure and peace- petency of pleasure, and impatience of pain ful recollections from those Isles of the Blest, or restraint, are manifest at a glance. But thus soothe and refresh the heated brow of there are phenomena less obtrusive, some of the way-worn traveller in the journey of life. which, at first sight, appear scarcely reconcilaBut, if it were possible, how strangely inter- ble one with another. These ought to be esting would be a voyage of discovery into considered; for, though from causes already those happy regions, that "sunny land of alluded to, from the want of sympathy bechildhood" through which we have travelled, tween old and young, and from the insidious -if memory could distinctly recall the first assiduity with which the cares of the man dawnings of intelligence, unravel the tangled imperceptibly obliterate the very different web of thought and feeling which has baffled experiences of the child, it is difficult to unLocke and Descartes, and analyze the com- derstand thoroughly the hidden things of plex substance of the human mind into its childhood, so as to see their unity and re

lation to each other as parts of a mysterious modesty, of impetuosity and gentleness, of the whole, yet something may be gathered. Some component parts, according to the Eastern few scattered fragments, a frieze here, a apologue, of the lion and the dove, is particubroken capital there, may serve to remind larly noticeable in boys. But we must prous how fair and how wonderful the ruin must ceed to collect in detail a few of their most have been, while it stood a living temple. remarkable characteristics.

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One of the chief points of difference be- One of these is what may be most shortly tween boyhood and girlhood,—and it is to the expressed by a word that has come unluckily life of boys that our following remarks chiefly to savor rather of philosophic pedantry-their refer, is, that the boy is not merely, or chief- objectivity. It may be true scientifically that ly, passing through a state of transition. With the quality of color,-the green, for instance, the other sex, it is for the most part different. of a tree or meadow, resides in the mind rath With them, from the moment of emerging er than in the natural object itself; but the from the nursery to the auspicious epoch of opposite belief is more pleasant, and is one coming out," too often all is a dreary blank. source of the vivid enjoyment which children There is no cricket, no football, nor one of the feel in everything proposed to the senses. many avocations of a boy's little world to en- They cling to what is concrete and outward. liven it. With so few objects of interest in To them every person, nay, every brute creathe present, the centre of attraction becomes ture, every inanimate object that seizes their fixed in the distant prospect of the first ball, attention becomes an independent and indiand its momentous consequences; hence so vidual object. The image stands within the often in young ladies an insipid and artificial mind in bold relief, as if it were a living thing, tone, totally different from the independence in causeless and self-essential individuality; and unworldly spirit of a boy, especially at a for as yet there is no habit of causation, no public school. He lives in a world of his own, ætiatic" habit as it has been called, but an very complete and satisfying while it lasts. unhesitating and uncritical acceptance of However alluring may be the opening vista of everything presented. Particulars are as yet "real life," and however eager he may be to in no danger of evanescing into abstractions. anticipate the dignity of manhood, still there They are scarcely numerous enough to require is very much to prize and enjoy in the present digestion and arrangement into classes. Each on its own account, very much that he must one holds its place by its own right in the relinquish on assuming the " toga virilis." It memory, a real, actual, concrete quasi-person. was a serious mistake in the artist to represent And as the memory is then most impressible, the sons of Laocoon in the finished propor- so it is also most retentive then without much tions of little men, not with the wavy outlines aid from causality or logical relation. The of youth. It would be a similar error in any system of education, and it is one of frequent occurrence now in books written for the young, to regard them merely as men on a smaller scale, and not, as they are, denizens of another world, of whom it may be said :

Solemque suum et sua sidera nôrunt.

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fact, and the fact alone is enough. Even a name, a proper name, is draped with form and color by the lavish exuberance of the imagination, and seems to assert its own indefeasible fitness. Dry rules, formal and unmeaning as they seem, scarcely cost an effort to be remembered, though the principle of them, the "wherefore" of their operation, remain unexplained. Prom this objectivity comes a The man, matured in years, pressing onwards child's love of imitation, not only of imitating to some mark-power, it may be, or money,what is attractive, but of imitating everything or, at all events, aware of the grave that ex- for imitation's sake; his aptness for mimicry, pects him, cannot fail to note anxiously the and taste for everything in the way of acting; progress of each day. He is, as it were, borne the entire belief with which, either as spectaalong on a downward stream, whose waters tor, or himself the tiny actor, he loses his own flow more and more swiftly as they approach identity in that of the person represented.* the sea. Meanwhile, the child is floating hither Hence, too, the fondness for pictures, not from and thither on a sunlit ocean, wrapt in the un- any conscious appreciation of the imitator's conscious security of an eternal now. This ingenuity-so far the little connoisseurs escape completeness, or, to borrow an expressive Mr. Ruskin's stern condemnation of what he word from a foreign tongue, this "entelechy" deems a low and mechanical taste in art-but of boyhood, results in part from the rich vari- because the picture to them becomes for the ety of aspects which that age presents inter- moment the very person, or place, or incident nally. Coleridge, the poet-philosopher, says represented. that there has never has been a really great man, without a considerable admixture of the feminine-not the effeminate-element in his character. This combination of courage and

*In one sense it is true, that a boy loses the he identifies the personages of it with himself. reality of history in the very act of realizing; for rather than himself with them.

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