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been here, and I fancy if I stay in Malvern for twelve months, I never shall. After the meat, various puddings, tapioca, sago, bread, and rice, generally rise to the charmed lips of the enamoured spectators. Feeding time over, we disperse until seven o'clock brings us to the re-union at tea. Our doctor appears to be most hospitably inclined, and seldom an evening passes that we do not find two or three, or more, entertaining strangers at the table, sometimes persons of rank, sometimes persons of conversational power, but always persons whose tastes are congenial to the company. The other evening we had Lady P, a very interesting woman indeed, although she did not say much. I felt an interest in her on account of her active benevolence as the friend of Mrs. Fry, and as the wife of the late Sir John P―, whose energy and benevolence all who have learned to know, have learned to esteem. An evening or two ago, we had Lady M- and this was an occasion when we had a fine storm of song and talk, lasting in the drawing-room till what would be considered a somewhat late hour. One of the most interesting evenings I have spent here was with Mrs. A———, and I only fear that, from no bad manners of mine, I managed to monopolize with her and Dr. Stevens nearly the whole of the conversation, the central point of which was whether the mind be seated in the brain or in the stomach. What think you of that? All sorts of people look in here; we rub off the rust and the dust of false notions and prejudices most admirably. Methodists, quakers, baptists, independents, and church people; baronets, colonels, captains, tradesmen, merchants, ladies of rank, and ladies who would like to be thought of rank;-I have been in the company of all these, and seen them all together, since I have been here, sitting on the same sofa, chatting over the same book, entering with gusto into the same view or idea. How admirably minds and characters meet together in a place like this."-(P. 88.) "We are strange people here, and do strange things. This morning I was up on the beacon by seven o'clock; a pretty considerable height, let me tell you; but before I arrived there, I met a gentleman without a hat, his uncombed hair 'streamed like a meteor to the troubled wind,' passing to and fro with a glass of water in his hand, which he had been at the trouble of carrying up for the purpose of drinking on the top from St. Anne's Well. Little Graefenberg glasses are very common here; you can easily put them in your pocket and avail yourself of every spring. Abandonment is the style of living; the more abandoned you are, the more happy, the more likely to find the benefit of the treatment. Upon the whole, all the people here are very abandoned characters; they are compelled to be so. Mercy upon us, how could it be expected that we could wade through all the purgatorial fashionabilities of our truly ridiculous town life? In towns, we pad and puff ourselves up and out, with stocks and neckerchiefs, tight boots, tight pantaloons, fronts which have very properly been denominated hypocrites, and ten thousand little inventions, every one an inversion of the simple teaching of nature. Here, in our house, we have one man who will run about without a hat, and another

never wears braces, and a third will not, if he can possibly help it, mount a neckerchief, and a fourth strives to steer clear of waistcoats; the aim is everywhere to bring back a natural glow, to make the warmth of nature supersede the warmth of clothes."—P. 103.

We learn, then, from the practice of hydropathy an important lesson, namely, that to preserve health, we must preserve the balance of our mental and of our bodily powers by affording them liberty to restore themselves in relaxation from all undue demand. We learn what indeed we all know by instinct or intuition, that an easy life is the likeliest to last, provided we keep a clean conscience as well as a clean skin. We must, in short, do our duty to the body by attending to all its claims upon us, while taking our places in society in such a manner as to be busy for its benefit as well as for our own. Thus shall we best sustain that perpetual motion within us called life, and best preserve the balance of decay and reproduction on which, by a mysterious ordinance, depend health and happiness, so far as bodily machinery and the working of its corresponding mental functions are concerned. Physiologists all confirm the doctrine which our invalid strenuously enforces, as if his own discovery, "Living things can repair their own injuries." That is, of course, provided the injury be not too extensive, and the living thing be supplied with what it needs, and delivered from all obstructions to the natural efforts of the living spirit within it. As we would avoid injury so must we endeavour to obtain what as human beings, with souls as well as bodies, our Maker intends for us; and then we shall be in as fair a way of retaining health if we possess that blessing, or of recovering it when lost, as far as the probationary circumstances of this world of sin and death will allow.

We only add the words of a wise man (Jeremy Taylor): "God is He only that needs no help, and God hath created the physician for thine; therefore, use him temperately without violent confidence; and sweetly, without uncivil distrustings."

ART. II.-ORIENTAL AND WESTERN SIBERIA. Oriental and Western Siberia: a Narrative of Seven Years' Explorations and Adventures in Siberia, Mongolia, the Kirghis Steppes, Chinese Tartary, and part of Central Asia. By Thomas Witlam Atkinson. With a Map and numerous Illustrations. London: Hurst & Blackett. 1858.

THE courage, energy, and perseverance of the Anglo-Saxon race have become proverbial. In war, in commerce, in political

and social science, the possession of these qualities has enabled them to surpass all competitors, while in the field of discovery they stand unrivalled. Who but one of that chosen race would have attempted the bold and apparently desperate task of crossing the vast continent of Africa from sea to sea, an enterprise but lately successfully carried out by the gallant Dr. Livingstone? and who, except an Anglo-Saxon, would dream of spending seven long years in the wild regions of Siberia and Chinese Tartary, merely for the purpose of gazing upon what had never before been seen by European eye, and sketching what had never before been sketched by European pencil? Yet this is just what Mr. Atkinson has done, in spite of cold, fatigue, and hunger, and in defiance of the perils of travel amidst unknown mountains, tempest-vexed lakes, raging torrents, and pathless deserts, as well as of those arising from the lawlessness and cupidity of the wild robber-tribes that inhabit the steppes bordering upon the great central desert of Asia. He seems to have possessed rare qualifications for his daring enterprise-of tall stature and great activity, a gallant horseman, an unerring shot with the rifle and the pistol, he was just the man to win the applause and conciliate the regard of the wild spirits among whom he was thrown; and when danger threatened, to confront it with promptitude and vigour. He also enjoyed the great advantage of a special passport from the late Emperor of Russia, which proved a talisman throughout his wide dominions, and swept down every obstacle that barred his progress. Armed with this passport, he travelled, in carriages, on horseback, and in boats, 39,500 miles in the course of his seven years' wanderings; his route extending from Kokhan on the west, to the eastern end of Lake Baikal, and as far south as the Chinese town of Tchin-si, including the immense chain of the Syan-shan, never before seen by any European; as well as a large portion of the western part of the desert of Gobi, over which, six centuries ago, Genghiz Khan marched his wild hordes towards the West. During these seven years, he made 560 sketches of the scenery of Siberia and the hitherto unexplored regions of central Asia, some of which were executed under circumstances of great difficulty and danger-in the tents of the nomad tribes of the Kirghis, among snowy mountains, or on the brink of precipices with a perpendicular depth of 1,500 feet. These sketches furnish the illustrations to the volume before us, which are both numerous and beautiful, and convey a high idea of the peculiarity and grandeur of the lake and mountain scenery, particularly between Siberia and Mongolia. For days and weeks together, Mr. Atkinson was almost entirely dependent for

subsistence on his rifle and fowling-piece; and he gives a tempting account of the double snipes, pheasants, bustards, partridges, blackcock, wild duck, antelopes, deer, and wild boar, that fell victims to his skill. He often travelled, particularly in Mongolia and Chinese Tartary, with a large retinue of Cossacks and Kalmucks, all well armed and prepared for the worst, as was needful while traversing steppes infested by robber tribes, and desperate convicts escaped from the Chinese penal settlements. This armed and numerous following caused Mr. Atkinson to be taken more than once for a powerful robber chief, and his assistance was twice earnestly solicited, and a large share of plunder promised him, if he would join in an expedition against Koubaldos, the most renowned freebooter of the steppes.

Mr. Atkinson's book possesses one great advantage over that of Dr. Livingstone. It is remarkably good in point of style, which is clear, graphic, and forcible. It is also accompanied by an excellent map, upon which the author's wanderings are distinctly marked out. He passes slightly over his journey from St. Petersburg to Moscow, and presses on towards the less known and more interesting portions of his route. After a fatiguing journey he reached Ekaterineberg, the capital of the Oural, and the centre of its extensive and important mining operations. At the house of a director of mines, in which he had been compelled to take refuge by stress of weather, he met with a rather overpowering specimen of Russian hospitality, which is thus amusingly recorded:

"In Siberia, each good housewife makes from the wild fruits, of which there is a great variety, several sorts of nalifka (cordial). A bottle of this was produced, and a glass of it handed to me; it was the colour of claret, but the flavour vastly superior. I took a second glass to their particular satisfaction; immediately four other bottles of different sorts were ordered in, from all of which I was obliged to drink a 'wee drap' during supper; and most delicious nalifkas they were. Finally, as a finish to our repast, my host brought in a bottle of champagne and two glasses on a tray, evidently intending that he and I should drink it alone; but here I was forced to disappoint him, for as soon as he had filled a bumper for me, I could not help presenting it to his wife, evidently to her great surprise and pleasure. Another glass was brought for me, and we then very deliberately proceeded to finish the bottle. When this was disposed of, I thought all concluded for the night, but was mistaken; my hostess left the room, returning with other varieties, all of which she insisted on my tasting; this with them means finishing a glass; I had no sooner taken one than she had another ready. At last I got through the tasting process, or, at least, supposed that I had. But judge my astonishment, when my host walked in with another bottle of cham

pagne, which, in spite of all opposition, my friends compelled me to join in drinking. I was then provided with a sofa to sleep on, and turned in for the night."

This forms a capital pendant to Lord Dufferin's account of his jovial dinner-party with the Governor of Reikiavik, where he was challenged by each of the twenty guests to drink wine (which in Iceland, as in Siberia, means emptying your glass) before the public toasts began.

On page 42, we are presented with a sketch of the birth-place of the great-grandfather of the present Prince Demidoff, who now possesses, in and around the Oural mountains, an estate of upwards of three millions of acres, on which nature has been most lavish of her wealth. Iron and copper ore appear to be inexhaustible. Platinum and gold are in the upper valleys, and malachite also is found there in enormous quantities, as well as porphyry, jaspers, and marbles of great beauty; while the forests are thickly timbered, and extend over more than 2,000 square miles. The capital of this vast estate is the town of Nijne Tagilsk, with a population of 25,000 inhabitants, where iron and copper are worked on a very extensive scale. Anatole Demidoff spares no expense in educating the young men on his estates who show any talent for geology, mineralogy, or mechanics. He has sent several to England and France, affording them every facility for prosecuting their studies; to some he has given their freedom, and several of those in his service have acquired considerable wealth. The Demidoffs early saw the advantage which they would derive from imparting to their workmen a knowledge of the fine arts, and there was a school of design in Nijne Tagilsk seventy years ago; several workmen belonging to that town were sent to Italy and placed with eminent artists, under whom they studied for some years, returning home fully qualified to act as teachers themselves; and Mr. Atkinson tells us that he has seen five or six tables painted by them that would do credit to any establishment in Europe at the present day.

At Kooshwink, on the Asiatic side of the Oural, our author had a violent attack of fever, which was subdued by the following powerful method of treatment:

"In the course of half an hour the doctor arrived, and seeing the condition I was in, directed that I should at once go to bed, while a Russian bath should be prepared for me. This was commencing business in earnest. In due time the bath was got ready, to which I was carried by two sturdy Cossacks. Having laid aside my last clothing, the body-guard placed me on the top shelf of the bath-room, within an inch of the furnace-if I may so call it-and there steamed me till I thought my individuality well-nigh gone. After about forty

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