Literature and its Professors. By THOMAS PURNELL. (Bell & Daldy, 7s. 6d.)-Mr. Purnell's volume takes high ground, and discusses such topics as the posi tion of men of letters, their place in Parliament, their mission as teachers, literary hero-worship, criticism the province of the anonymous, and descriptive literature, with much power of argument and no small command of language-never trifling with his subject, but stating his opinions in a straightforward, earnest, and evidently sincere manner, that is very attractive. Adopting Thackeray's dictumn, that the profession of literature is to be respected, not from any sentimental tenderness to authors, but in just such measure as its followers make it, and themselves, worthy of respect, he pursues the argument to its natural end, and shows bow and why modern littérateurs so often fail to make good their position in the world as men, citizens, and statesmen, while at the same time they delight the world by the scintillations of their genius and the brightness of their fancy. Though we differ from Mr. Purnell in many important particulars-as, for instance, when he tells us in an authoritative manner, that literature has degraded step by step, till at length it has become synonymous with writing, and every person who describes current events, or reports another's speech, claims to be a man of letters"-yet bis several chapters are so freshly written that we cannot but respect their writer. After discussing the prominent features of his subject, and touching, lightly and pleasantly, the main characteristics of modern literature and its professors, he proceeds to examine the pretensions and claims of such men as Giraldus Cambrensis, Montaigne, Roger Williams, Steele, Sterne, Swift, and Mazzini, in their several characters of teachers, essayists, wits, and patriot. He now treads upon more nevertheless holds his footing firmly; and, coming dangerous ground, but he after Thackeray, discusses the literary merits of Steele and his friends with some judgment, though many will fail to agree with him in his esti possibly mate of Sterne, whose "delicate relations with The Political Writings of Richard Cobden. 2 vols., 8vo. (W. Ridgway. 24s.)-Mr. Cobden was one of those who, although they occupy high rank in the opinion of their contemporaries, exercise by far a greater indirect influence than they are able to accomplish by political action. This is much to say of the man who was the chief agent in repealing the corn laws, and reforming our tariff. But it is eminently true in Cobden's case. Day by day, certain notions that he entertained and discussed with his friends, or urged on the platform and in the press, with that earnest incisive style, of which the unadorned orator was a master, gradually gained ground; and, whilst they were met at the time with a persistent and determined opposition by men who conscientiously disapproved and disliked their tendency, it is now clear that the views he advocated were sound, and have in a great degree been assented to by the opponents of his whole life. His notion of the balance of power, of Colonial government, of the treatment due to Ireland, of Indian affairs, of military and naval organization, are all now admitted to have been the result, not only of a patriotic spirit, but to contain more than a modicum of truth. The doctrine of non-intervention, advocated by Cobden, at one time thought by statesmen to be not only dangerous, but, detrimental to the best interests of our country, is now so generally believed in, that any ministry which endeavoured to bring the country into war for such a cause as that we espoused when our troops were sent to the Crimea, would be forced from office upon their proposing active interference. Even in the case of Denmark, when our interference would have been more appropriate, and by virtue of a semi-promise of assistance we had raised the expecta tions of aid in the weaker power, no aid was given, because the nation had learned to see the evil conscquences that would ensue from our interposition. It had come to the conclusion, that our duty in conti nental disputes or Trans-Atlantic civil war lies in strict neutrality. Cobden, indeed, thoroughly appreciating the spirit of the English people from whom he sprang, was able to anticipate their wishes, and, possessing the instincts they themselves possessed, but in a greater degree, was able to predict the course of conduct they would hereafter pursue. The two volumes now before us, dedicated by his widow to the friends of the late statesman, will exemplify these remarks. The First consists of" England, Ireland, and America," the well-known brochure on " Russia," and three letters (addressed to a clergyman) and designed to compare the situation of 1793 with the time at which they were written. "England, Ireland, and America," published in 1835, is the first literary production of Mr. Cobden. Those who read the work at the time, ignorant till long afterwards as to the authorship, speak in high terms of the effect produced on them by its perusal thirty-two years ago. The author at that early period surveys subjects from a point of view in which they are now generally regarded. He saw the importance to Ireland of Trans-Atlantic packet stations on her own shores; he pointed out that the existence of slavery in America would hereafter "serve to teach mankind that no deed of guilt or oppression can be perpetrated with impunity, even by the most powerful;' he gave also in this work his first contribution to the literature of free trade. In "Russia," he advocates reforms in the Foreign policy of Eng. land, proportionate to the changes that have been effected in the principles of domestic policy, founding his arguments upon the insane alarm created in this country in 1836, by the belief entertained of a coming Russian invasion. "1793 and 1853," is on a subject germane to the preceding-the anticipated French invasion in the latter named year, and is very lucid and logical in its facts and arrangement. The Second volume contains the writer's views on international maritime law as affecting the rights of belligerents and neutrals; on the subject of Indian wars and the manner in which they are got up; a defence of himself from the attacks made on him for resisting a war women" he generously excuses in virtue of the hu mourist's candour and pleasant frankness. Occasionally Mr. Parnell is somewhat obscure. When he says, in his essay on eriticism, "The best books in every language abound in the gravest faults," does he mean that there are grave faults to be found in all books, or that the gravest of faults are to be discovered in the best of books? We cannot think he means to say that the worst books have the fewest faults and the best the greatest number. These, however, are but slight discrepancies in a volume in many respects a notable one, and the publication of which will at once assure its author a respectable and enviable place in the world of letters, CATERA CLASSICORUM. Sophocles: The Electra. Rivington-Last month we noticed with approval the appearance of the Clarendon Press Series, and today we introduce to our readers the first of a selec. tion of Greek and Latin writers under the above titles. All the authors commonly read are to appear in the series with an not only for classical students of the Universities, but English commentary, available also for the highest forms of the public schools. The Electra of Sophocles is the first that has reached us, and the reason given for the selection is, we think, ralid Unlike the Chephora of Escylus, the Electra, in accordance with a practice introduced by rts author, possesses an independent unity, and has, apparently, neither prelude nor sequel. And, in addihon to this, the play itself has many advantages to recommend it for the honour it has received. Dindorf's well-known text has almost invariably been followed in the edition. The type is clear, and the notes are varied and judicious. The introduction gives an intersting account of the origin of the myth on which the drams is founded. The Pelopid story is traced in its torical growth, as it appears in the Iliad, in the Diyssey, in early fragments, and in Pindar. We differ from the writer in his notion that little is to be rained by placing the Chophore and the Electra bow presented to us beside the Electra of Euripides. We think there is much to be gained from the comparison. Not only is it interesting to discover how Two minds artistically treat a similar subject, but it THE BOOKSELLER, FER. 28, 1867. (Russia), which is now regarded as a "colossal blunder;" and concludes with an historical episode, entitled, "The Three Panics," in which the author with argument and humour, facts and fancies, exposes the absurd alarms to which the country has been periodi cally subjected. Not only the admirers of Richard Cobden, but all who feel interest in domestic and foreign politics, will derive advantage from the study of these writings of the Manchester manufacturer. street. Lessons from the life of the Late James Nisbet, Pub- Lancashire Folk-Lore, Illustrative of the Superstitions, generation to generation, it has been the aim of Some 128 Musings about Men, Compiled and analytically arrange from the Writings of the Good and Great. By HENR SOUTHGATE. (Ward and Lock.)—Like the compiler previous volumes-"Many Thoughts of Many Minds, 'What Men have said about Women and thi is a collection of extracts, in prose and verse, from a Navigation. By JAMES PRYDE. (Chambers.)—This language of our "sea-dogs." The work is one of the part. Translations from Euripides. (Nutt.)-Transla tions of the Greek classics seem to be one of the fashion; but we are inclined to think that there is a deeper cause than mere fashion at work in the matter, and that productions of this kind form a necessary phenomenon of a state of things to which Rénan alludes when he says, “Le caractère du XIXème me siècle c'est la critique." The tendency of the scholar seems no longer, as formerly, to seek in the great masters of literature inspiration for great original works; but to look upon the worthy exposition of them as a higher object than the production of inferior imitations. But whatever may be the part of the author, it is the duty of the critic to look, not so much at the object of such works, as at the perform ance. We must take for granted that the aim of translation is to bring before the minds of those to whom the original is a sealed book the nearest approach to its spirit and form of which a translation can be capable. The only means that the critic has of deciding this is by comparison with the best of other translations, and by examining that before him as an independent poem; for, unless it is good, and even great in this respect, he may be very certain that it does not represent Euripides. To enter into a detailed criticism, comparative and grammatical, would be to overstep our limits. We content ourselves with saying that the translation before us seems in these respects to be fairly and accurately done. we should say that the work is almost too correct and As a poem, accurate to fairly represent Euripides. We say this with deference, knowing what different views are ! entertained as to the debateable land between the extremes of literal and imitative translation. Perhaps it will be safer to point out, as concisely as possible, a few of the merits and defects about which there can be no two opinions. In the first place-and this is a great merit-the translation is very exact. While while many of the smaller pieces are suitable for scrap book, extracts, or recitations. Micah, the Priest-Maker; a Handbook on Ritualism. By T. BINNEY. (Jackson and Walford.)-The attention of the author having been drawn to the manner in which certain clergymen perform the services of the Church of England, he prepared a series of discourses on the subject, which he delivered to his own congregation, and now, with a few additions, publishes as a volume. The work is important as a discussion on Ritualism from a Nonconformist point of view; and sets out by instituting a comparison between Micah (the man of Mount Ephraim, mentioned in Judges xvii., as having set up a priest for himself, and a house of gods) and the modern Ritualists. Micah's religion consisted, says Mr. Binney, "in a blind and superstitious veneration for the outward and visible in Divine worship; and in depending for spiritual grace (if he ever thought of that) on ceremony and ritual. Micah was a Ritualist far better men than he have, in all ages, attached Many superstitious importance to the forms and accidents of religious service. It is well known that there has appeared of late in our own land a great and sudden revival of ritualistic practices-things which it was supposed the Protestant Reformation had destroyed, and which it had long been thought the Church of England repudiated. The resurrection of the dead past is, in all circles, the constant subject of conversation. It furnishes articles for every newspaper. It is advocated and defended, or attacked and disowned in books, sermons, pamphlets, tracts innumerable. It is our duty to understand what it is, what it means, how it came about, what it is doing, and what is to be done with it." And thus in several chapters he discusses the scriptural authority for, and present legality of, the adoption of vestments by Protestant priests; the nature of the revived doctrines, and their real or assumed basis in the English Prayer Book; the office of the priesthood, and the doctrines of absolution and confession; the real presence, bap. tism, &c.; arriving, finally, at the conclusion that, if "instead of men making priestly pretensions, and indulging in ridiculous imitations of Roman Catholic ritual, we had amongst us" a ministry of true and faithful followers of Christ and His apostles, "people might be instructed as to what God's truth really is," without the necessity for a New Reformation. every word and phrase appears to be rendered, some idea of the exactness with which the text is adhered to may be obtained from the circumstance that while the edition of the "Medea" before us is divided into 1419 verses, the translation of Mr. Cartwright consists of no more than 1458-a most noticeable fact, when we consider the great difficulty of rendering Greek into English without being diffuse. In the second place, the versification is artistic and pleasant to read -another great merit in a translator of Euripides. But no reader of the poem will, we think, fail to observe that, taken altogether, Mr. Cartwright hardly ever sufficiently soars from the mere translator to the poet; and we doubt if any one who is not himself a graceful and subtle poet can properly be the interpreter of one of the most graceful and subtle of all poets. Railways, Steamers, and Telegraphs; a Glance at their Recent Progress and Present State. (W. and R. Chamber-Founded upon a previous volume by Mr. George Dodd, this is a graphic account of the rise and growth of the railway and telegraph systems, with araple notices of steamboats as the successors of the old the present advanced state of science and mechanism, saling vessels; the whole brought into harmony with as applied to our chief means of locomotion and intertreatise, enough is said to make the reader familiar communication. Though by no means an exhaustive with the pecularities which distinguish the methods by which locomotion and telegraphy are rendered available and profitable to their promoters. The volume is admirably illustrated with views of the prineipal great engineering works of the present day; and after each division is given a tabular account of the progress made during the half-century from 1815 to 1966; a well-compiled index adding to the value of the work as a book of reference. Rustic Songs and Wayside Musings. By J. R. WITHERS. Fourth Edition. (Darton & Co.)-The author modestly disclaims any pretension to the grandeur of the epic, the wit of epigram, or the tenderness of the elegy; he thinks no "thoughts that burn," and sings no songs that "take the prisoned soul, and it in elysium;" nevertheless, he writes with a It's pen, and often, with his gentle undersong, Awakens memories of youth and summer fields that men would willingly forget. The "Dream of Mary Stuart," the most ambitious poem in the volume, is full of tenderness rhythmically expressed ; Credibilia; or, Discourses on Questions of Christian Faith. By the Rev. JAMES CRANBROOK. & Co.-"The following sermons," says the author, in (Fullarton a modest and deprecatory preface, "make no pretensions to literary excellence. They were written extemporaneously for my ordinary ministry, and were never intended for publication. The style is adapted to spoken discourses; and needs the intonations, pauses, and emphases of the voice to help out the meaning. I have allowed myself to be persuaded to publish them, however, by the hope that the method of stating Divine truth employed in them may help to sustain the faith of those who feel perplexed by the many doubts modern criticism has called into existence." The sermons were preached by the author at Edinburgh, at intervals spreading over a year's ministry, and are at once argumentative and convincing, showing the writer to be an earnest thinker, and an eloquent expounder of gospel truth. Up and Down the London Streets. By MARK LEMON. (Chapman and Hall.)-The Editor of Punch has done well to reprint his papers, with the illustrations, from "London Society;" for a more genial series of chapters on a well-worn subject, it has not been our fortune lately to peruse. Though containing nothing that may not be found in the pages of Cunningham, Knight, Timbs, and other London historians, to whom, indeed, Mr. Lemon acknowledges himself indebted, these chapters on the London of the past and present, are written in a pleasant. gossipping vein, that cannot but be attractive to all sorts of readers. Those who take their cicerone arm-in-arm through the highways and byeways, recalling past days and their belongings, and not by any means ignoring present days and their im provements, will certainly not regret to find, that though he is not archæological, he is always entertaining and in high spirits. "Woodburn Grange:" a Story of English Country Life. By WILLIAM HOWITT. 3 vols. (C. W. Wood.)— In "Woodburn Grange" Mr. Howitt gets back to the midland counties and the Trent, with the scenery of which neighbourhood he is lovingly familiar. But instead of gossiping, as of old, about trees and flowers and rural occupations, he gives us a sort of politicoagricultural tale, in which the poor are contrasted with the rich to the advantage of the latter-and the claims of knightly lineage and gentle culture are of less account than wealth and reputation acquired by industry and trade; reminding us of one of Robert Brough's fierce radical lyrics, in which, after satirising the Old English Gentleman, he says "He's loyal, generous, his word's his bond to king and clown! I grant him type of all these gifts-have won our land renown; And yet 'tis hard! six parishes, twelve hamlets, and a town, This splendid sample to produce, should be, as 'twere, boiled down!" But though all readers may not agree to consider Sir Roger Rockville-tall, aristocratic, exclusive, and stately -a fair representative of England's squirearchy, any more than they may accept Simon Degs-the last of a long line of paupers, who grows rich by trade, and finally buys land and enters the charmed circle of proprietors as an average sample of the commercial classes, they will yet find in these volumes ample food for discussion and argument. The Wife's Peril; a Romance. 3 vols., post 8vo. By J. I. Lockhart. (Saunders & Otley. 31s. 6d.)-In this work, which in the plot and material colouring resembles the romances of the last century, we have a novel with a purpose. The author makes this "Wife Peril" the vehicle for certain advanced views of politics and life. It is interesting, and well written. Poetry of the Orient. By WILLIAM ROUNSEVILLE ALGER. (Roberts Brothers, Boston, U.S.)-Events, places, modes of thought not their own seem to have strange fascination for the Americans. Poets and prose writers alike hanker after foreign lands, and employ their genius upon foreign themes. This, perhaps, is to be accounted for by the want among themselves of a national history, with its long line of historical and poetical associations. But whilst admitting that she has no history properly her own, it is wrong to speak of America as a young nation. She was never young in the sense in which we speak of England as having been once young. Just as Minerva sprang full-grown and fully armed from her father's brain, so, we conceive, must America be regarded as having come into being already equipped for political and intellectual existence. She had no need tentatively to waste her efforts in the struggle for life. She had few experiments to make. She had no language to form, no laws to frame, no religion to develope, no literature to invent and improve as she herself improved. The English language, and the English laws, and the English Bible, and the English Shakespeare, at the outset of her career, were hers as much as they were ours. Our history was hers, and what we boast of she, too, is able to lay claim to as her own. But American writers appear to feel little interest in our history. They travel into lands of poetry and mythology further removed from their own experience. They are perpetually talking, even in works of a popular nature, of the sacred books of Confucius, of the sayings of Menu, of Hafiz and Firdusi, of the Vedas and Shastres, the Dzat and the Koran, whilst the early and romantic history and traditions of England, common to them as to us, is ignored. Here is Mr. Alger, for instance, who thinks there is a striking propriety, and the promise of profit, in bringing to the acquaintance of Americans the most marked mental characteristics of the Orientals. "Must not a spiritual contact between the enterprising young West and the meditative old East," he asks, "be a source of uncommon stimulus and culture?" We cannot see this. It' is now too late to engraft upon American thought the gorgeous imagery and quaint versification of the East. The mytho logies, the ethics, and the poetic forms of Persia, Arabia, and Hindustan, are utterly unsuited to the requirements of the great Western republic. But, whilst differing from Mr. Alger as to the value he puts upon his labours in the direction and to the extent he imagines, we are conscious that he has rendered a service to literature in producing this volume, and that we should be doing him injustice if we failed to see merit and use in his performance. The greater portion of the specimens here presented to the reader are, he tells us, faithful representations of certain Persian, Hindu, and Arab thoughts, sentiments, and fancies which he has met with in the voluminous records of the various Asiatic Societies, in prose versions of Eastern poets, and in a thousand scattered sources. Of the rest, which bears a very slight proportion to the whole, "the originating hint and impulse alone, or merely the character and style, are Oriental." Mr. Alger himself, it appears, is unacquainted with the languages from which he has drawn his inspiration. His poems are translations of translations; so that we have in his volume-first, poems strictly, but mediately, translated from the original, and, secondly, original poems after the Eastern manner. To judge his productions per se, they are extremely creditable to his taste and powers of vers: fication; to judge them as original renderings of original materials, we have not the means of identitior opportunity of comparison. There is, however, we are sure, a large class of readers in Eng. land to whom the thoughts and imagery, the form and substance, will be welcome. cation " 18 He Superstition and Force. Essays on the Wager of Law-the Wager of Battle-the Ordeal-Torture. By HENRY C. LEA. (Lea, Philadelphia.)-Mr. Lea bas contributed a very interesting volume to our stock of works on the science of jurisprudence. He does not treat his subject from a scientific point of view, but historically, and addresses himself less to lawyers than to the public at large. His aim has been to group together facts, so that with a slender thread of commentary they may present certain phases of human society which are not without interest for the student of man and his history. The fact that the first three essays have, in a condensed form, already appeared in the "North American Review guaranty that they are not of a dry and technical character. The whole, indeed, may be read with advantage by those to whom a dissertation on the science of law would be altogether distasteful and worthless. In the first article, entitled, "The Wager of Law," Mr. Lea brings together all the facts necessary to enable his reader to form an accurate idea of the forms and processes, the benefits and evils, that resulted from the system of compurgation. supplies numerous entertaining examples of its use, traces its origin, gives an account of its operation in various countries, and its different applications by various classes-bringing down his narrative to the decadence and final extinction of the custom. The latest indication of established legal provision made for supporting an accusatorial oath by conjurators occurs, according to Mr. Lea, in the Laws of Britanny, as revised in 1539. In England, a case occurred so late as 1799, in which year a defendant successfully eluded payment of a claim by producing compurgators, who "each held up his right hand, and then laid their hands upon the book and swore that they believed what the defendant swore was true." The court endeavoured to prevent this farce; but law was law, and reason was forced to submit. It was not till 1833 that "the wager of law" was formally abrogated in this country. In "The Wager of Battle" that ordeal is distinguished from duel; its use amongst different nations is exemplified; the causes of its employment are stated; its restrictions are enumerated; the punish ments that resulted from defeat are stated, and its final extinction succinctly traced. The various forms of " Ordeal" are specified in the third article; and in the fourth we have an extremely valuable resumé ol the different systems of " panied its use. Torture" that have been employed, and the deplorable results which accom Mr. Lea informs us, in his prefatory note, that for all statements he has scrupulously cited the authorities. But in more than one instance we I believe he has not been sufficiently sceptical as to what constitutes an authority. New America, By W. HEPWORTH DIXON. With Illustrations from original Photographs. 2 vols. (Hurst and Blackett.)-We are bound to say that, since the publication of Mr. Dickens' "American Notes," no more carious and entertaining contribution to the literature of transatlantic travel than this "New America" has appeared. Putting aside the author's evident inclination to moralize upon American men and manners upon every possible occasion, and making all allowances for his amiable credulity in face of, to him, an entirely new order of things, we are inclined to think that his account of Brigham Young and his surroundings will not be received with disfavour by the disciples of Mormonism, nor viewed with distrust by the general British public. Of Mr. Dixon's style it is annecessary to say more than that it is less pictorial than we, remembering his "Holy Land" and John Howard," were entitled to expect. Passing by the chapters he devotes to the Western Country, Kansas, the Prairies, the Indian Question, the Republican Platform, Uncle Sam's Estate, Feminine Politics, Squatters, Shakers, Spiritualism, Equal Rights, Young America, Manners, Liberty, Politics, Law and Justice, Colour, and the probable reconstruction of the Union, -these topics having all been discussed over and over again-we may at once go with him to the city established by the "Saints" in the not long since howling desert of Utah. He describes the Salt Lake City as wide, clean, and well-built; not unlike other American cities, except for the remarkable absence of grog shops, lager beer saloons, and drinking bars. "The hotels," he says, "have no bars; the streets have no betting-houses, brothels, no drinking-places. no gaming-tables, no No house is now open for the sale of drink (though the Gentiles swear they will have one open in a few weeks); and the table of the hotel," at which they were stopping, “is served at morning, noon, and night with tea. that the Saints were I cannot buy a glass of beer or a flask of wine!" We suspect joke upon the too-curious travellers. "In this absence playing a sort of practical of publie solicitation to sip either claret-cobbler, whiskey, Bourbon, Tom and Jerry, mint-julep, eyeopener, fis-up, or any other Yankee deception in the shape of liquor, the city is certainly very much unlike Leavenworth and the River-towns, where every third heuse appears to be a drinking den." The travellers' first sight of the great prophet, Brigham Young, and his wives and his children, is described as a most morally-conducted place-the was at the theatre, which green-rooms real drawing-rooms, every lady with her own separate dressing and retiring-room, scrupulously clean; peace and order reigning in the midst of fun and frolic;" and neither within nor without the doors, nor about them, "the riot of our own Lyceum and Drury Lane. No loose women, no pickpockets, no ragged boys and girls, no drunken and blaspheming men. As a Mormon never drinks spirits, and rarely smokes tobacco, the only dissipation in which you find these hundreds of hearty creatures indulging their appetites is that of sucking peaches." Fancy the disepation of sucking a peach! In this theatrical elysium be found Brigham Young, whom he describes as a man with a "large head, broad face, blue eyes, light brown hair, good nose, and merry mouth; a man planly dressed in black coat and pantaloons, white waistcoat and cravat, gold studs and sleeve-links (!), English in build and looks-but English of the middle eisas, and of a provincial town. Such was the Mormon prophet, pope, and king, as we first saw him in the temple is to their religious life. One symbolises pre. The travellers remained in the " City of the Saints" for fifteen days, during which time they became intimate with Brigham Young and the principal elders; made acquaintance with their wives, romped with their children, and obtained a good deal of information on the subject of polygamy. They learned, among other things, that plurality of wives formed no part of Joe Smith's system, but had been introduced by his successor, Young; that women or, at least, the women then in Utahmade no open objection to the "institution;" that incestuous unions were not uncommon, a man some. times taking both a widow and her daughter to wife, and Young himself declaring that the only objection to the marriage of brother and sister was the " judice of society;" that every elder has, at least, two wives, in addition to several who may be married to him "spiritually," without any relation as to marriage, as we understand it in England, existing between them; that the wives sometimes live in separate establishments, and sometimes, as in Young's case, in one house, after the manner of a Turkish seraglio; and that, generally, the man is king in his household, while his women have no right and no status beyond that of servants and slaves to his passions! and, in the face of all this, Mr. Dixon believes Young to be an honest, well-meaning, and conscientious man. They found that though public drinking and smoking were not countenanced, wine and cigars were largely consumed in all houses except hotels. Generally, the men were sensual, and the women sad and depressed. They are says our author-very quiet and subdued in manner, as if all dash, all sportiveness, all life, had been preached out of them. They seldom smiled, except with a wan and wearied look; and though they are all of English race, we never heard them laugh with the bright merriment of English girls." No wonder, for they were systematically kept in ignorance, and seemed to be only clever at nursing, needle-work, and preserving fruit. "Anything like the ease and bearing of an English lady is not to be found in Salt Lake, even among the households of the rich;" no woman hints by her manner that she is mistress of her own house; and the practice of polygamy, so far from being popular with the sex, is often looked upon with abhorrence by young and attractive girls, who prefer a life of labour, to one of " ease and leisure in the harem of a Mormon bishop." We have no space for quotation, or we might present our readers with some most delicious morsels concerning the presidents, bishops, and elders, and their "sealed" wives and charming families. The existence of Mormonism and polygamy is a scandal and a disgrace to civilization and Christianity. Like the Ishmaelites, and yet unlike them, the hands of all men are against them, and their hands are against every man who is likely to oppose them. Every house contains arms, and every man carries a revolver about him as part of his regular and necessary equipment for every-day occupation. But the fact remains, that, within little more than a quarter of a century, the Mormons have built a city in a wilderness, and carried a certain sort of civilization thither; that peace and plenty surround them; and that they send forth missionaries to all parts of the world to propagate their faith. church and system is open to all the world; emigrants are continually coming in troops into their cities; they are tolerant of all opinions and creeds; and theatre, smong his people." A portrait of this great man embellishes Mr. Dixon's text, and from it we should take him to be a rather sensual and slightly intellectual prize-fighter."A lady, one of his wires, whom we afterwards came to know as Amelia, st with him in the box; she, too, was dressed in quiet English style; now and then she eyed the audience from behind her curtain through an operaglass, as English ladies are apt to do at home. She was pretty, and appeared to us then rather pensive and poetical." Young has eighteen wives, and as he told me himself, forty-eight living chidren, some of whom are grown up and married." All Mormons are both workers and preachers, though they may be dupes and fanatics, they increase "and what the theatre is to their social life, the Their and multiply. Perhaps the persecution and assassi. D |