The Sun.
London, England, 1855-08-23 00:00:00

LITERATU.R E.

The Poetical Works of William Lisle Bowles, with
a Memoir, 4.c. By the Rev. G. Gilallan. Jaws'
Nichol, Edinburgh.
The Poetical Works of Mark Akenside and John
Dyer. Edited by the Rev. R. A. Wil.
Routledge and Co.
The Modern Scottish Minstrel. By Chas. Biogerst
L.L.D. Adam and Charles Black, Edinburgh.
Mr. Gallen pursues his task with unabated
earnestness, and though we cannot but take eseer
tion now and then to a certain inflation of style,
which is his besetting sin, and occasionally cllieg.„
tion his critical dogmas, we are inclined to &Wu
the
whether any other man was better fittta for
task of popularising (no little merit that) what vms,
mpant to be and now is a popular library edizios g_s`
English and Scottish poetry. The poetical le°rP
and genius of Bowles, meet in the main with ct
criminating treatment. The editor designates
poet the father of modern poetry, and says alnt
other things of 17tis works that their leading eleito
is sentit ent, " warm, mellow, tender, and °—"d
melancholy sentiment. He bas no
thought, uo powerful pictures of passion (91 lies
creative imagination, but over all his poetrY ode
a sweet autumnal moonlight of pensive and genedi,
feeling." Of the Messrs. Routledge's pePullpier
tion of the works of the respective authors of a
sures of the Imagination," " Grongar Hill,
" The Fleece," we cannot but speak fava11,„57,Z0%
profouno
Any bona fide attez_npt to introduce two snob
poets as Akenside arid Dyer to almost an en
so
generation, for practically it amounts
to that,,
much have they een overlooked, had been Plla.lor
00
worthy ; but one carried out like this—t 10
being well printed and got up, and beell"- fin.
illustrated by Birkett Foster, I elides • ,
taming judicious memoirs of the jilt stria!' roe
together with a portrait of Dyer, issued Tgor
first time in connection with his works, an"„t-hort
ral hitherto unpublished poems by Oesalnea-trost,
redounds greatly to their credit, and, vie

will meet with success. Arat fe-
-46 The Modern Scottish Minstrel "is the pa to
lume of a contemplated series of six, deeigli'ctie
enshrine as in one cabinet the modern e:itbo
and varied minstrelsy of Scotland, includ'pe'a
Gaelic translated into lowland melody. TV; ose
thors are consi lered modern by Dr. Rogers
livc ext -nd into the past halt-century. Tb
popular lyrical compositions of -the various 134.r,gi•
are preced,d by memoirs, as far as possible tg,o,
nal. and it is the author's intention, we are told:
to introduce in the succeeding volumes five 8:701
on the various departments of Scottish poetr:n to
song, together with beautiful engravings, t:re-leet
each volume. The present contains an e,l"-,DI
portrait of Sir Walter Scott, awl among tueni be
strels whose memoirs and songs are given 0„,,n
found the respective authors of " Tullochg°lo
" Roy's Wife," &c., "Auld Rhin Gray, -as;
of Kirkeonnel Lee," " Oh, blaw ye westlin wt
"
"Kate of Gowrie," " Upon the banks of 11°1„ :0
i
Clyde," and " the Laird o' Cockpen," the c°,-1114
b-ing further enriched by a number of cbanritbe
songs never before published by the author " pt.
last named—Caroline, Barones4 of Nairn•
i to
Rogers seems well qualified for his task, and it,4 ,g
he hoped that he will meet with every encoe*--
merit to complete it.

The Genie of Arttis, &c. Tales by Annie 6
Sau, ders. fo
aide'

Three charming little fairy tales by a god
fourteen ! young lady who appears to be °foto
as she is clever—tales it would delig'it us to Pil''re it
the hands of our juvenile acquaintance, we ll',
only to watch their looks of wonder and del 0
as nestling in some obscure corner they drencise,
their contents. Tales picturesque, and co;ser
and, above all, imbued' ith pure and gel:l'3°l/-oer'
timent. Of the three, we prefer the first, r
however, for its particular tendency, and its ,13,0
lation of the fine morn! nature of the author, 'roil
any other cause. In it we are told of 1/„„tife
Genie, who, having punished with a destr.lta'ae
storm the villagers of Artois, for their inglleaos
for the innumerable blessings be had conferr the
them, is induced by the goodneos of a girl .c 4,,
village, to reveal himself to her while aseklltory
ascertain the cause of the visitation one nights oa
her off on a month's visit to Fairy Land,B,.'t th 6
her return entrust her with power to (I°llltoeft
villagers, and restore to them their lost baler 007
This being effected, the remainder of 1,`,130
shall be given in Annie's own words : 0111°1--/-
~,The Genie appeared to all the people on the
mountain, and everybody thanked him for the 1,001
ieqson he lad given them. He then spoke to the cgloro
as folio.: :—'You all see thatit is through the %pp/
of this brave girl, Louise Roseville. that this FR-bar
change has been effected, t,lerafore she must Nbc,f,- OSP
reward.' me,' said the Genie, addressing P
how can I recompense you ?' pits'
" By transforming me into a star,' answer"
'to ”... At tA,ie.'
"That instant she found herself soaring jebte
clouds among the bright stars, hut she was the brigoor
of' them all. It is her greatest clpliaht to wat'Lb.ooo
her native village. If you look up high in the 1- her
on a lovely balmy summer's evening you w;11,;-.0er•
gliding gracefully along ! Her name now is %der,
"Ttisto be hoped that you, too, my deal; re oar
when every one is slumbering, and the world isWatt
loped in darkness. may have a bright little star to
over and take care of you."
The remaining stories inculcate fidelityand 133 As-
as the precedino. does virtue and aelf_deyotiolle,b3o.
tell of gallant knights, fair ladies, mighty of
tern, wonderful transformations, heavy
constancy, and virtue triumphantly emergiMti-
last from every difficulty. Tales like these'r,. of
voting the youthful mind at once by the besuil
their incidents, and sure to elevate and re gated
their pure morality, cannot. be too widely clrf bee
or ton copiously produced, and we shall live ill 018
of seeing more from the same graceful JO'
predominance of the moral element in the 1330300
pates from our minds most of those apPrelle
to which precocity generally gives rise.

d Co,
Private Life of an E stern King. 110Pe 31% the
A work likely to be much sought after, la-tite'
libraries. of mechanics' and other literal.ll'lnte'
tions, the narrative possessint, the absorbingtroog
rest rest, of a romance, vet carrvitig with it a ',hos°
conviction. of its general truth. The writerl to
name is not given, found his way 001, 004
Lucknow, was introduced to the Kill of 01w-id in
became a member of that monarch's bou'ell°
the ca.rocity, so fa,r as we con saber, of jibrgt the
In this office he remained for three yea,rs,?: sgr
expiration of which p -.rind the influence of ":s AP'
jesty's barh-r—a quondam London barbero tb°
nrentice—who practically ruled the King' first'
t"risperation of his worse qualities, from 080000
roved too m iny for him, and he quitted 3 peg'
in which for his credit he bad remained o°lool
One result of this sojourn is the present :It'e
au
which describes the private life of the I°l,f,lieg;
Ills Court.. The incidents are sufficiently in"
but given an Eastern despot, whose po4ioPos
flamed by drunkenness and traded on by 100
principled syconhant, are only restrained not
of the British Resident, and there is enele,
hit
only to account for the revelations here ra3
For those darker deeds which the author Pril °
oce
'seeps hack. Sufficient evidence, howevertl'olltb:
to show that the kingdom of Onde would ve„oti°l;
',otter for absorption, though the King in §ot
he dead, into the Company's dominieng•
least exciting portions of the work are t sot%
soriptive of set combats between -wild heas„tsi of tip
of these are quite thrilling, and the account loam ',,,
"man-eater," a singularly vicious horse, c5l vrilos.
he read without a shudder. The alltbOrily 01,
style is full of vigour and more than lis4ll„9'es
phic, studiously avoids politics and CoTrirs ist°'-to
self almost aichisively to his, task. ~130ter,
noting, however, that he gives a high c',9, eiOn
the women of India, to whos:4 influence
looks for its redemption.

89Oh°
55.

The Year- ns or - pita
800 the Natio f 1.85 u.
mitt.l3u Longman and C°•nivev n r-
A second edition of a very useful c°—of
of national statistics of every descripfi°l3„g l: e
tance, throughout the world, embrscsesoil-lar
amount of information only to be foonugerent the
+-attered throuah many volumes in di,,tttit,s,ro-
2.113geq• To the politician, the iller'hilant'" a
,non on 'Change, the patriot, and
eist the hook will he found a decided uvv°,lila a
there is no class of intelligent man but
well to ponder over its contents. the P, 00. aro

compendium of Chronology. B i-T. ~• Ø.
merit. Edited by the
Longman, Brown, Green, and Loognigng* this
e value of a portable work, contajnin,gl„ll:tori,
doe, the most important d t ofgenet
aes i the r
political, ecclesiastical e
, and literary, fr ~,,,e i d
'.
Hon of the -world to so late as the end ok the it is
1854, will readily be appreciated , aild I;e:-.0h101
+dded that, by the u,„ differentf* tyrogr-, Jill
Rev. 3-03(10 Alcorn 3'
characters, the trouble oof r fence is
lessened,cervider-o-
ciju .
m is proportionably increased.

Bertingcharnp. Natimnal French Grain/46r'
Whittaker and Co.
ifyhe fact of a fourth edition being called f 0 eat
Lt tries to the popularity of this work, which aPti' auct
.),, us to he admirably adapted to its °Wet 'of 0
11 ely to facilitate greatly the arvirereencfasge.
"7.01-grounded knowledge of the French Wrreserf
A short guide to Paris is added in. the P
Ilitio2. _ .
. -