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renders the picture of those almost incredible times not only more distinct, but less incredible and less poignantly painful than they are wont to seem. The French Revolution is apt to look to modern readers more like a chapter out of the Apocalypse than out of human history. And Mr. Carlyle, by his wonderful gorgeousness of colouring and cloudiness of outline, has rather strengthened than weakened the impression. The pictures of this story, while they give even a keener sense of the unrighteousness and lust which were at the source of the Revolution, seem to justify it to history better than all Mr. Carlyle's opulence of pictorial insight, by showing how its fires tempered the true steel in all classes of natures, patrician or plebeian, high or low.

From the Spectator.

NERVES AND NERVE.

ness appears to be the possession of fine senses, fine perceptions, and fine sensations, especially the former, and he accuses the human race in general which speaks oppro briously of the nerves, and has no nerves of its own, of being distinguished by three characteristics, -(1) it never knows when a thing is going to happen; (2) it never knows when a thing is happening; (3) it never remembers a thing when it has happened; - from all which characteristics Mr. Matthew Browne deduces with some triumph that it is much better to be nervous than not.

And no doubt if being nervous means having plenty of special and trustworthy reports from the universe of what is going on there, or is likely to go on there, or has gone on there, it is as much better to be nervous than unnervous as it is better to see than to be blind, to hear than to be deaf, to feel than to be destitute of the sense of touch. But how if having nerves involves a special but untrustworthy report of past, present, or future, or even a special but purely fictitious report of the same? If nervousness imply merely a superior sysTHE new sixpenny magazine, the Argosy, tem of telegraphic communication with the has amongst several other clever papers mind, well and good. But suppose it means one of great humour by Mr. Matthew a nervous organization about as useful as Browne in favour of nerves. This gentle-"the overland telegraph from Galle," and man is much hurt at the ordinary dispar- implies the constant receipt of such scraps agement of nerves. He remarks that while of information from the external world as we have all heard of muscular Christians, this, received on Wednesday :- "Question no one has ever yet heard of nervous United States Treaty tim latms Pashiaky Christians, though nerves have certainly worse," or of highly exciting but completemuch more to do with spiritual emotions ly imaginary facts, like that from the Crithan muscles. Nerves even come off bad- mea about the Tartar who had ridden ly as compared with adipose tissue. Pro- seven hundred miles to bring word of the phetic denunciations against such as be fat fall of Sebastopol about a year before that in Zion are on record; none against such event happened. Would the frequent aras be nervous. Yet the fat man is tol- rival in the mind of intimations of either erated, loved, at worst laughed at, while of these valuable species be an advantage the nervous man is not only laughed to any one? and yet no one who knows at, he is disliked." Nevertheless, asks what nerves' are, will doubt that they do Mr. Browne, "were the Martyrs fat? Is very frequently involve the receipt by the Mr. John Stuart Mill fat? Is Mr. Glad- mind of exceedingly unintelligible and disstone fat? No, the nation would not trust mal messages, ushered in with great pomp its income with a fat man, it knows of seeming import, like " tim latms Pashiaky better." Certainly Mr. Gladstone is nerv- worse; -or that, more unpleasant and ous, if not exactly, as we shall see present- disturbing still, the little mental bell will ly, in Mr. Matthew Browne's sense of that ring convulsively in the mind of a person term. Mr. Browne goes on to enforce with with nerves, to call attention to the arrival much humour the shameful libels often pub- of a message from the external world lished against the nerves even by physi- which does not arrive at all. The pale cians, as, for example, by Dr. Trotter, of imaginaion watches the bell vibrating conBath, whose idea of a nervous person is a vulsively, like bells ringing in an empty person who has "the wind," who suffers house which are pulled by no visible hand, from borborigmi, and has other " ignomini--and nothing (but terror) comes of it. ous symptoms not to be particularized." Perhaps Mr. Matthew Browne will mainMr. Browne's own definition of nervous-tain that this is not nervousness, is as little

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nervousness as the borborigmi attributed to | too much for the considering and originating nerves at which he is so justly indignant. power. Suppose a telegraphic centre which But we are afraid he must take the good receives nothing but true reports, but is so and the bad of nerves together, and it is much occupied with receiving them that it unquestionably true that while nerves in has neither time nor power to send back good order mean an improved system of answers to the communicating districts, and telegraphic communication with the uni- you have nearly the state of a nervous verse, nerves in bad order mean many organization which receives such a multithings a good deal worse than no communi- tude of even true impressions that it cannot cation at all, false communications, or react with any power or judgment upon the ominous announcements of coming com- world. No doubt this is frequently the true munications which do not come. When condition of the poetic temperament, esMrs. Gamp remarked that "fiddlestrings is pecially of poets, who, like Shelley, have weakness to expredge my nerves this sometimes scarcely power even to sift and night," she, though not a person of delicate arrange the delicate impressions they resensibilities and perceptions, had got hold of ceive, so confusing and overpowering is the the true image to express the pains of ner- throng. There is a description, we think vous liabilities, tense and agitated fibres by Mr. Trelawny, of his finding Shelley vibrating with unintelligible undertones or sitting in a wood, with some scraps of paper screams which tell nothing of the hand that filled with half-coherent thoughts and impressed them, and often little or nothing verses, all teeming so fast from his brain of any meaning they were intended that, as Shelley felt, they were a mere to convey. No doubt Mr. Browne will anarchy of beautiful impressions, treading as say very properly that disease of a high fast on each other's heels, and causing as function must be more dangerous and many collisions of meaning and feeling as, acfatal than disease of a low one, and that if cording to the latest theory of Saturn's a diseased digestion issues only in borborigmi | rings, there are among the planetary beads and other ignominious symptoms maliciously which by their rotation compose those rings. ascribed to nerves, diseased nerves must issue in something worse, but that it would be as absurd to argue from borborigmi that a digestion is a misfortune, or from undecipherable telegrams that the telegraph is a nuisance, as from evil presentiments, and empty terrors, that nerves are a mistake. Well, that is true, no doubt; but suppose we have nerves altogether healthy, still they will be in the way in two cases if the pain and pleasure their use gives is so far in advance of their informing or percipient power as to occupy and chain the mind in the attitude of suffering or enjoyment; or, secondly, if they report more than the mind can grasp and use. A sweet smell, for instance, is more pleasant than instructive, a freezing temperature is more painful than instructive, and if the nerves be of a kind to tremble with such intense enjoyment in the one case and such intense pain in the other as to exclude much use of the perceptive nerves, then nervousness of this kind is undoubtedly with limited creatures capable of only a certain defined amount of conscious being -a misfortune. Persons who are "all naked feeling and raw life' are like Isane of York on the dog-irons in Front De Benf's dungeon. They receive plenty of reports of a very exciting, but by no means of an instructive kind. Nay, even perceptive as distinguished from sensitive nervousness may be in excess, if it is

Now what we think Mr. Matthew Browne has forgotten to point out in his amusing article is, that "nerves" in his sense the apparatus for receiving delicate impressions and sensations certainly do not promote but rather diminish nerve, the power by which we react upon the world and turn to full account the anarchic assemblage of our impressions. Shelley had no doubt nerve in some things. He was not afraid of dying, for instance, and could lie quite still in a boat in perfect tranquillity in the immediate prospect of drowning, and without being able to swim a stroke. But this was rather deficiency in love of life than the nerve which resists disturbing influences, concentrates all available and serviceable impressions for immediate use, and so organizes the mind for the purposes of life. clear that Shelley had exceedingly little of this sort of nerve,- as his wild visions, and almost disturbed reason after such visions, prove. Of all poets whose lives we know Goethe had perhaps the most nerve, indeed his finest poems bear more trace of nerve, that is, deliberate marshalling of his own inward forces to meet external experiences, than of nerves in Mr. Mathew Browne's sense, the involuntary reporters of sense. It is curious enough that nerve in our sense can even neutralize and, so to say, absolutely suspend the impressions produced by the nerves as mere special report

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As soldiers in battle lose an arm or a leg without receiving any information of the fact except from the mechanical difficulty of using what is no longer there to be used, so in a hundred operations of ordinary life the tension which a man puts upon his active or intellectual faculties will actually render him almost sensation-proof and perception-proof till the tension is voluntarily relaxed. Indeed many men exhibit nervousness in the ordinary sense only when women, who have no sympathy with this sort of tension, and are scarcely aware when it is going on, break in upon it with little irruptions from practical lite, - solici tations to attend to the bills and admire the children, or, it may be, mere indications, as irritating as anything else, that a suspense of attention at a critical point is no effort or annoyance to themselves, by whispered inquiries after a finer kind of darning silk in the very crisis of a discussion, or voluntary exits in the middle of a passage read aloud from a book to win their sympathy. "Nervous" men are frequently men rather of nerve than of nerves, who concentrate their mind strongly on one task at a time, and cannot bear to relax the reins till it is accomplished. But Mr. Matthew Browne is certainly mistaken in supposing that "nerves are necessarily favourable to "nerve." Women have more nerves than men, so far as a much readier perception of the multiplicity of things happening before their eyes, and imagination of much which does not happen except in their own minds, is concerned, but their nerves usually lead to want of nerve. On the other hand, men like Governor Eyre, with nerve enough for a martyrdom, the martyrs, by the way, had probably much more concentrative nerve than delicacy of nerves, have very fine nerves, or he would have died under the suffering of his 700-mile desert walk, could not have endured to let loose the wild Maroons even on negroes, and would have been horror-struck instead of gratified with Colonel Hobbs's account of his pleasant ways of investigating guilt by holding a pistol to the head of an informer. In short Mr. Matthew Browne, while a little more than just to nerves, has been decidedly less than just to nerve. The power to react upon life certainly does not vary at all in proportion to the delicacy and variety of the reports received from life. Great literary men may have been usually men of nerves, but the greatest practical men have been men of nerve. The highest nervous constitution is to have a slight preponderance of nerve over

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nerves, but to have as much of both as possible. Hence Mr. Matthew Browne has been somewhat unjust to the stupid world he criticizes, by underrating its nerve, which is often very much in excess of that of the nervous class he eulogizes. No doubt it is less credit to have good nerve if you have obtuse nerves, but it is a real misfortune to have power of nerves in great excess over your power of nerve.

ESPARTO GRASS.

THE important position which the lately discovered article of petroleum has rapidly taken in commerce is very interesting in itself, as suggesting how quickly the discov ery of any new principle of notion would exercise an important influence on the present state of our industry. Another discovery has lately been made, which, though of less importance than that of petroleum, is still so interesting in character, and so useful as regards an important article of manufacture, that we think our readers will be glad to receive the following information on the subject.

We allude to the discovery lately made of the applicability of the Atocha, or as it is called in Spain "sparto," to the manufacture of paper. Mr. Lloyd, of the Walthamstow Paper Mills, is stated to have had a great share in the merit of this discovery; and Mr. Mark, the British Consul at Mala ga, has drawn up an interesting report on the subject, which has lately been made public in the commercial reports.

This grass is the produce of waste lands,

it requires no expense in cultivation and little in collecting. It is best propagated from the roots and not from seed. It is perennial and propagates of itself, and improves by a regular yearly gathering if plucked with sufficient care. Mr. Mark has devoted great care in his endeavours to ascertain the climate and soil which are favourable to the development of the plant; and it appears that the Atocha requires a decidedly hot and dry climate, that it grows equally well in the plains and in the mountains to a moderate elevation, and that as regards soil it flourishes both in calcareous and argilaceous soils, or when these soils are blended in the form of marl.

The greatest quantity is shipped from the provinces of Almeria and Marcia; but it is found, though in less abundance, in all the

present rate of annual export at 50,000

Southern Provinces of Spain. It is also in that period; and Mr. Mark estimates the said to be plentiful in some parts of the opposite Coast of Africa, and shipments are made from Oran to England.

tons.

Mr. Mark anticipates that even at its Prior to the discovery of its being avail- present enhanced price the Spanish grass able for the manufacture of paper the will take a place with cotton, hemp, and esparto had been used in Spain as fuel, in wool as one of the staple and essential the manufacture of ropes for mining bases of manufacturing industry, and if and rigging, and for making baskets and this anticipation should be realized, in admatting. But the discovery of the valua- dition to the valuable resource which it ble properties of the grass has made a com- seems likely to prove to our paper manufacplete revolution in the districts where it turers, it will form an important element grows. Fortunes have been realized by in trade between this country and Spain, individuals who were the proprietors of the indeed we already learn that our ship-ownland which produces it. The price has ers have largely profited by a discovery more than doubled, and is now estimated which has enabled them to find freights for by Mr. Mark at £4 2s. per English ton on their vessels employed in conveying coals board. The greater part of the exports and machinery to the mining districts in have as yet been directed to England, where in the brief space of three or four years the article has become a requisite of the highest importance, 160,000 tons having been, as it is said, imported into England

Spain, and which had hitherto, in the majority of cases, been under the necessity of returning to England in ballast.— Economist, Dec. 30.

"THERE SHALL BE NO MORE SEA."

"THERE shall be no more sea:

So spake the Prophet of the golden lips,
Whose vision, clear and free,

Saw the far depths of that Apocalypse.

From each cavernous deep,

Shall that rich voice of praise,
Wide Ocean's anthem echoing to her Lord-
That hymn of ancient days,
A thousand parts all met in sweet accord

Shall that be heard no more?
Shall all the beauty, all the glory flee?
Shall the new earth's rich store

Where storms come not, and tempest wave is Lack the bright marvels of th' encircling sea?

dumb,

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Leviathan is tamed

CONSIDER

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The lilies of the field whose bloom is brief: We are as they;

Like them we fade away,

As doth a leaf.

Consider

The sparrows of the air of small account: Our God doth view

Whether they fall or mount,

He guards us too.

Consider

The lilies that do neither spin nor toil,
Yet are most fair :-
What profits all this care

Who scorn'd the waters in their pride of And all this coil?

strength;

And now no more is named

Consider

Where once he measured all his monstrous The birds that have no barn nor harvest

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We know not how the streams

Of those great rivers shall flow wide and free, And yet the Prophet's dreams

Proclaim aloud, "There shall be no more sea."

We know not . . . but the veil

Which hides it from our sight shall one day lift,

And, where in vision pale

As yet the darkness and the storm-clouds drift,

God shall make all things new, And shoreless sea shall join with sealess shore; And cleansed eyes shall view Might, wisdom, mercy, met for evermore. Good Words.

E. H. P.

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