Page:Littell's Living Age - Volume 125.djvu/654

640 he could buy Grandee up once or twice, has been unfortunate enough to make his money by selling tape by the yard and buttons by the dozen, while Grandee has dealt in them in the bulk. As for Grandee, if he had only himcelf to please, he would as soon his daughter were educated with little Miss Haberdasher as with the child of Swindle, the merchant, who has failed once or twice, and very neatly diddled the chief bulk of his creditors; and he only takes action in order that he may have peace and quietness at his own fireside. Indeed, if he were left to his own devices, his Gothic barbarity would carry him still further than we have indicated. He would hob-nob with Haberdasher himself, and he would not be at all annoyed if it came to his ears that his wife had been having a friendly gossip with Mrs. Haberdasher. But his good lady has too much sense to fall into such an indiscretion as this, and she makes it her business to see that his lax notions do not run away with him. Then, again, it is she, not he, who carefully weighs up all the qualifications and possessions of those persons who are introduced into the house of Grandee. It is she who goes in for making people know their places. It is she who can meet a so-called inferior in the street, and gaze at him as if he were a piece of inanimate sculpture. It is she who can keep would-be upstarts down. It is she who can forsake old friends because they have "become so dreadfully low, you know," that it really would not do to associate with them. It is she who can quietly drop her poor relations because it does not suit her purpose to retain a hold of them, even though by so doing, she might succeed in helping them up to her own level — she is so afraid of being dragged down to theirs. It is she who seems to imagine that those who are paid to serve her are of a race apart from herself, in the same, though a lesser degree, than are dogs, horses, and other animals, it is she who flaunts her riches and power in the face of the world. And, finally, it is she who sees a superiority and potentiality in herself which are not discerned by other people. Of course, the amount of harm that she does is incalculable. It will be, then, for those who have charge of the education of women to consider whether it is not time that their policy were revised, and that instead of girls being taught to be snobs they should be taught not to be so.

 

  expedition to the Island of St. Paul to observe the transit of Venus will bring back some interesting observations for the naturalists. At least there appear to have been some very interesting observations made on a tribe of great birds, — so far like ducks that they are much more agile in the water than on land, but without wings half as efficient as ducks, — called the Sphemiscus, whose wings are rather fins than wings, and which climbs very laboriously from the sea to the plateaus six hundred feet high, where villages of its nests are built, by the help of legs and beak and wings (or fins) all used in combination. The track up which the males return to the nests is, in fact, worn by constant use into a sort of road, and the birds always keep to it in their ascent. The fishermen on the spot call this bird — which shows no fear of man — "the magistrate," from its grave and weighty appearance. Clearly, this is another of the remarkable links between species of very different habits and instincts.

article in the new number of the Quarterly Review, on "Indian Missions" is by the Rev. Dr. Caldwell, the well-known Orientalist. It is likely that it will be republished as a pamphlet by the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel, and be also disseminated by the Church Missionary Society, for all such bodies have greatly at heart the principal thesis which Dr. Caldwell supports, that Hindus who have turned Christians in India, have by no means morally deteriorated. Dr. Caldwell — an LL.D. for many years of Glasgow University — was made the other day a D.D. of Durham by diploma — a step considered somewhat rare, as honorary D.D.s are much more common than D.D.s by diploma. It is understood Dr. Caldwell will, if certain technical difficulties can be removed, be shortly appointed to be the first bishop of a new Indian see, where he will have control over many of the chief Hindu pastorates of Southern India.