The Sun.
London, England, 1864-12-02 00:00:00

WEARY WORM.

And over these tasks Janet had sat through long sunny
hours, gulphing down great choking thoughts of weariness
and disappointment. And all the while the young life was
growing and stretching within her, and the woman's na-
ture beginning to heave and swell, and burst through its
childish limits, !just as the little green germ sprouts and
pushes through its narrow prison, And in her breast was
a strange tumult that seemed as if it would never settle
down again into order, and her old pleasures were some-
how losing their brightness, and everything felt rusty, and
she wanted something, she knew not what, and felt as if
every one was giving over being kind to her. And as the
fresh' juice of the grape turns thick and sour Wore it
ors eetens into wine, so she grew restless and discontented,
and her lips took a sullen pout, and she wished some-
thing would come with a great rush and sweep her out
of this hateful past into some sunny, warm, unknown
future.

But nothing came. Life at their house was so quiet, so
very quiet. Nothing ever happened to ruffle the even sur-
face of that stagnant existence. One day was portioned
out just like another, so that Janet could tell a month be-
forehand what she would be doing at almost any hour

of the days even what they would be having for dinner.

The first break in this dull, monotonous routine is a
passing dream of love, that is a dream and nothing
more. In describing the extravagance of her
heroine's enthusiasm, the authoress tenderly and
sympathisingly exclaims—
The foolish child I And yet who, reading these pages
does not remember deeds or wishes just as foolish, which
yet, like this of hers, had on them something of that
blush and bloom of early love which is, of all things,

the purest and most beautiful -in these hearts of ours,
which so soon grow soiled and selfish as they learn the
wisdom of the world ?
A sterner discipline is, however, at hand to try the
heart and mould the character of Janet—
Nov the testing time had come, which should prove the
worth or weakness of the metal.
Through some such period of probation all of us must
pass. There is no shirking it. Come it will, unless we are
to be cast out as useless lumber among the rubbish of
humanity. With some the process ie short, sharp, sudden ;
a hot branding-iron, pressed hissing into the quivering
flesh, a swift shock of agony—but the man has stood the
test. He bears upon him now the mark of the Great
Artificer—warranted sterling gold, free from all mixture of
base alloy.
And with others this test is lighter, scarcely felt per•
haps. It is but slight work to which the master means to
put them. No need for sharp trial here.
As a fair sample of the writer's eloquence in descrip-
tion, we may give this picture of
JANET IN CHURCH.

But by degrees strange fancies began to possess her mind.
Janet was always easily swayed by surrounding influences.
Hers was not one of those serene, self-possessed natures
that remain delightfully the same under whatever circum-
stances they may be placel ; and now, as she sat gazing
into the d;m heights of the vaulted roof, the vast cathedral,
with its springing arches and clustered columns, and sculp-
tured capitals, appeared to lose its dead material aspect and
become instinct with life. The heart of the old builders
seemed still pulsing in their works. The still face of the
lookine down from his canopied niche, retainei thA
touch of that ancient humanity that had wrought itself into
the patient stone. The leaves twining around the head of
the columns still trembled with the life that had guided the
sculptor's tool. The gaunt forms, struggling forth on the
projecting bosses, shivered with that terror of the Unseen
that had made the soul of the workman quail within hint.
For in those days men wrought with their hearts as well
as with their hands, and in the dumb insensate stone shaped
out the life that stirred within their breasts. And so, as
Janet looked up at the silent faces that for long centuries
had bent down over the ohanging throng of worshippers,
she felt how completely these works of hands long crumbled
into dust linked the ages together. The dross and impurity
that had marred the lives of these long ago dead, lay buried
beneath the dust of forgotten centuries; only the immortal
truth and beauty, the self-sacrifice and devotion which
formed the essence of their work, remained. And then
Janet wondered whether her life, too, would taus bloom
when the grass grew green over her forgotten grave.
In a lighter vein is the following delightful and ex-
hilarating account of the fire lighted in the lonely
Hall of Marton to welcome its returning master
There is nothing like a bright blazing fire to make a roam
look cheerful and inviting. It smiles upon you as you enter
like the kind face of a friend. This one seemed fairly
laughing to itself in uproarious glee at the bare idea of
being allowed to burn for any other purpose than just to air
the room, and sparkled and crackled, and darted its long
tongues of flame hither and thither as if in a perfect ecatacy
of delight, fairly shaming the afternoon sunlight which was
coming softly in through the diamond panes of the west
window at the end of the room.
Some of the minor characters of the book are capi•
tal. We follow their fortunes with interest, and
they linger pleasantly in our recollection on closing
the third volume.

The Weather Guide Book : a Concise Exposition
of Astronomic-Meteorology. By Alfred Pearce.

One Vol., pp. 141. Simpkin, Marshall and Co.

The author of this very ingenious and certainly
also very original treatise, appears to be particu-
larly desirous of impressing upon the apprehension
of those who may meditate consulting his argu-
ments as those of a professed astro-meteorologist,
that the system he calls astro-meteorology has
necessarily nothing whatever to do with Astrolog).
Under the vague general impression that
it has, there is (he feels that !) a certain
amount of prejudice in many minds against astro-
meteorology. Among the men of science, not of
pseudo science, but of science itself, pur et simple,
among the physical philosophers, as we may term
them, astrology is of course confessedly ender a sort
of a taboo. Neither Owen nor Faraday would com-
placently sit down under the imputation of dabbling
in astrological inquiries. They would repudiate
such a charge as that, with an indignation mitigated
only by contempt. True, that great men of science,
great philosophers, great geniuses—such men, let
us say, as the two Bacons, the Chancellor and the
Friar, might stand adspicientes in coslum—" Illais,',
as the dear old eerie-comic wag says in Moliere's
play, "nous avons change totes cela !" And so—
very naturally—feeling that the misapprehension
might be so far prejudicial as needlessly to
narrow his audience, Mr. Pearce sets forth
the fact of the matter very distinctly indeed
—italicising his statement thus in so many
words—when he says, on page one of his Preface,
that 6. Astro-Meteorology is altogether distinct from
Astrology." Of Meteorology he gives (almost nn•
necessarily we cannot but tbitili)Sir John Iterschell's
definition, in the manner following :
Meteorology, which, in its ancient and etymological sense
included all the appearance 3 of the heavens, as well astrono-
mical as atmospheric, is at present restricted in its meaning
to the description and explanation of those phenomena
which group themselves under the heads of tho weather, of
the seasons, and of climate—phenomena, which scientifically
regarded, are referable almost entirely to the agency of thos,3
laws which govern the ever-varying affections of the at-
mosphere of our globe in its relations to heat, moisture,
and electricity, awl the movements which the changes of
those relations, brought about by astronomical or other
causes, impress upon its parts.

Having quoted which dLfinition of Meteorology,
our Astro.,Meteorologist explains that his prefix
Astronomic is employed simply to denote the fact
that his theory is based on astronomical foundations.
Having observed, as he says, " the constant reour■
rence of certain changes in the state of the atmos•
phere, and variations of the weather in coincidence
with certain relative variations of the Earth, Sun,
Moon, and Planets, (Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter,
Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune), [he says nothing
about the long4exploded planet, or in other words
the asteroids)—he has come to the coaclution. in

common with others who think with him, that the
coincidences above referred to have relations with
each other no less direct and intimate than those
traceable between cause and effect. Hence—Aetro-
Meteorology. Hence—this present treatise by Mr
Pearce, as one of the ablest among our astro-
meteorologists. Hence—(and probably also from
the success achieved by his own Quarterly
TVeather Guide)—this concise and, we will add,
this singularly lucid exposition by him of
Astronomic Meteorology. Subdividing hls trea-
tise under sixteen separate heads or chapters, Mr
Pearce here descants very ably upon the mystery
of the weather as explicable by the scientific rules
deducible from the study of meteorology, but stilt
more, according to his favourite theory, through
those other rules which he believes for his own
part quite as firmly to be deducible from astronomic
(not astrologic but astronomic!; or planetary meteo-
rology. Discoursing afterwards, turn by turn, upon
the influence (according to this theory) exercised
upon the earth's atmosphere by the Sun, the
Moon, Jupiter, Mars, Saturn, Venus, Mercury,
Uranus and Neptune. Having separate chapters
besides this, devoted to Rain, to Storms, to Earth-
quakes, to Comets, and to Meteors. The last
chapter of all—that is, the sixteenth—explaining

to the reader—of course, upon the theory of the
astro-meteorologists—How to Predict the Weather!
Having thus set forth the nature of the contents
of the little volume now under notice, we can only
end here where we commenced—namely, by re-
marking that it is, as a treatise on Astro-Meteoro.
logy, as ingenious as it is original. It is certainly
entitled to an attentive and respectful consi.
deration.

An Address to the Teetotallers of Great _Britain and
Ireland. By the Rev. Cesare Contini. Bvo.,
pp. 65. Knowles : Bayswater.
Whoever has translated this earnest discourse
from the Italian into our English vernacular has
done good service in the good cause of Temperance.
For the remarks of this Italian Father Mathew,
the Rev. Cesare Contini—Priest (as the title-page
of the little pamphlet informs us) of the Diocese,
and City of Rome, and besides that, Member of the
Statistical Society of France—are such, are so
animated by the heart-born eloquence of truth and
simplicity, that we would willingly believe them
destined (now that they are published, as here,
" done iuto English") to enjoy a wide circulation
and a lengthened popularity. It is as if Father
Contini were not satisfied with having sympathised
heart and soul in the furtherance of those
good principles, the diffusion of which amongst his
fellowmen by Father Mathew, won for the latter
so beautiful and permanent a renown (et esto
perpetua !) but, as if the promptings of his heart
in that wey, were only to be fully evidenced
by his scattering handfulls of the good seed or his
benign advice, to the right hand and to the left, i❑
Ireland end in England, at the moment of his
bidding these islands farewell. The effect pro-
duced by an examination of the discourse of Father
Contini will be found, by anyone who looks into it,
wonderfully impressive. The argument, in truth, is
that of a good man in a just cause, and, therefore, it
could hardly be otherwise than—as it is, and as we
have just now said that it is, namely—most impres-
sive

An Algerian Monkey, versus British. Apes, By
" The Spectre." With Illustrations by W.
Schwenck Gilbert. Bvo., pp. 40. Chapman

and Hall.

Several of these grotesque little illustrations are
really quite as grotesque, are almost as funny, as
the tidbits of that delighful caricaturist, known
amongst his fellows as " Dicky" Doyle. 0? "The
Spectre's" letterpress we say nothing—the literary
amber holding within it these odd flies and midges of
pictorial comicality is su far transparent that it can
be glanced through in about ten minutes, "beaux
moments," so far, that they at least won't hang
heavily.