GLEANINGS.

Waikato Times, Volume XIX, Issue 1613, 4 November 1882, Page 4

GLEANINGS.

L/bel Defined. — A law student once defined a libel as " something a man says, and aftei wards -wishes to goodness he hadn't." Tub Atheiucuin regrets to hear that the publication of Thackeray's suppressed preface to his "Irish Sketch 800k I is in. definitely postponed. T/irc Century Company and the Cambridge University Press, England, will publish simultaneously Dr Charles WaUlstein's work on Phidias. Mr William Sharp is writing a book on Dante Gabriel Rossctti and his influence on art and literature. Macmillan and Co. are the publishers. The number of books and magazines published in Germany during 1881 is 15,101. MrR. N. Cpst's book, "The Religions and Languages of India," has been translated into Italian. A lkttkb of Qiioen Anne at a recent sale in London sold for £30. One from Queen Henrietta Marie to Cardinal Mazarin went for £21. Another of Henri 11., Prince de Comic, sold for £80 An English writer of a genealogical work claims to have gained from the spirits, through the medium of a good clairvoyant, information that settled many a hard problem in family history. ' A new daily paper entitled "Le Matin" has boon added to the seventy or eighty other organs which manage to grind a living out of the easy going Parisians. Its politics will be independent and republican. Tiik second edition of " The Revolt of Man," which appeared anonymously in the "Leisure Hour Series," will bear the authoi 's name, Walter Bcsant. Tiik next volumes in Harper's "English Men of letter* Scries" will be "Sterne," by H. D. Traill ; ".Swift,' by Leslie Stephen ; and "Macau lay," by J Cotter Morrison. Tun influence of Herder and other German authors on the poet Coleridge j is the theme of a work by Dr Alois Brandi, the German writer. It is almost ready for press. A Fkknoh tianslation of the Japanese tale of "Foity Ronins" has been brought out by M. Quantin, the French publisher. It is illustrated by Rci-Sai Yci-Len, of Yeddo. AmwvrAcr; of wealth : A man with a private library of 12,000 books is well . fixed. He isn't supposed to know anything and is never asked for information. It is the man mho has scraped together a dozen volumes who is bored to death about the population of London and the name of the undertaker who buried Diogenes. Jamks GrOßnojf Bknkktt'.s wealth and his sensible lavishness have made the curious desirous of knowing what the true condition of his financial resources is. We learn from an authority that he is worth over £1,100,000, and there is no one to spend it on but himself. The "Herald," •« hich is wholly his, is more valuable now than ever before. He is said to have refused an offer of £800,000 for it. A London paper has discovered a great want in New Zealand. It hears we have "a great opening for sensible clergymen, several incumbencies being vacant." The adjective is, to say the least, an ambiguous one. Rtckvkd Waonkk having finished '•Parsifal," has already set to work upon another opera, founded upon an Indian legend. Immediately after the production of "Parsifal" all the Wagner committees formed in the days of the Bayrcuth piophet's ill fortune in Germany and Austria will probably be dissolved, as it is held that nothing more is needed for the triumph of the "Music of the futuie." Henceforward Wagner fara de so. "OriDv"is in particularly bad odour, it appears, in Florence at present. The other day she was asked whether she would like a certain well-known American writer to bo intioduccd to her. "Let me see," said she thoughtfully. "I think I have lead something of his. No, I don't uant to be introduced to him. He wouldn't be any use to me, and I never let myself be introduced to people I can't make any use of.' 1 Poetic creature ! It was night : the sable goddess stretched her leaden sceptre over the slumbering world, and they were still sw ingmg on the old front gate. He had placed his arm round her graceful waist and drew her closer to his tluobbiiig l)i east to protect her from the falling dews of hca\ en. Her head Avas resting on his strong manly shoulders, and the lovelight was shining in her lustrous eyes as bright as the head light of a locomotive. He looked her earnestly in her eye and passionately murmured, " Jemima, has your people had new tatcrs yet ?" A Sociktv lias been organised in England to excavate the Delta of the Nile. It is proposed to raise a fund for the purpose of conducting excavations in the Delta, which up to this time has been rarely visited by travellers. Here must, undoubtedly, lie concealed the documents of a lost period of Bible history — documents w hich -\\ ill furnish the key to a whole scries of perplexing problems. The position of the land of Goshcn is now ascci taincd. The site of its capital, Goshcn, is indicated by a lofty mound, where, if anywhere, are to be found the missing recoids of those four centuries of the Hebrew sojourn in Egypt, A\hich aie passed ovei in a few verses of the Bible so that the history of the Israelites during that age is almost a blank. Pithom and Rameses, the "treasure" or store-cities built during the oppression, would richly repay exploration.— Southern Cross. An Amkkicvn Lk<u.«>lator'.sHcmor. — The Hon Lewis Barker, well known as one of the best public speakers and wits in Maine, was a member of the Legislature. Of course he was conspicuous ; so was his large black shaggy dog. One day when " Lew" was addressing the House, in the midst of a very exciting debate (he was und'-r way pouring forth his smooth-flowing but impassioned sentences), the dog also rose in the middle of the House, and looking towards the Speaker, commenced a \ igorous bow-wowing in his big voice, completely drowning the silvery tones of his master. "Lew" stopped, and called out to his dog, " Down, sir ! down ! I have the floor. It is against the rules for more than one Barker to address the House at one time." The dog yielded the floor, and of course there was tremendous laughter.