The Sun.
London, England, 1864-04-30 00:00:00

FRANCE.

BOURSE, April 29.—The market has been again
heavy, and prices show a slight further decline,
Threes, for the Account, being now at 66f. 65c.
Mobilier, which opened at 1,185 f., have since gra-
dually improved to 1,200 f., but with only a limited
amount of business doing. Railway Shares rather
offered, and some of the lines are a trifle lower.
The market closed as follows :

4,1,- per Cents. 94 Italian Loan 6B 75
Do. end month.... Do. end month 6B 70
3 per Cents
Do. end month 66 70 Do. end month....
Credit Mobilier 1205 Russian
Do. end m0nth....1205 Austrian
Bank Shares 3350 Spanish Threes..., 51i
Credit Foncier 1250 Horne Debt
Roman
RAILWAYS.
Cash. Account.
885 SB7 50
975 975
940 945
885
635 .. 660 .-
500
475 .. 477 50
370 367 50
410 413 75
555 .. 556 25
492 50 .. 49J
567 50 .. 567 50
't7o 265

Orleans
Northern
Lyons and Mediterranean
New ditto
Southern
Western
Eastern
Sardinian
Austrian
Lombard
North of Spain
Saragossa
Ditto to Barcelona

LITERATURE,

The Elixir of Youth, a Legend in four parts, with
other Poems and Notes. By John Lodge Eller-
ton, M.A. Author of " The Bridal of Salerno,"
&c. One Vol., pp. 262. Longman.

Mr. Ellcrton has chosen for the theme of his
longest poem an old legend of the alchemists, said
to have been found among a collection of manuscripts
at Padua a century or two back. The story we remem-
ber reading many years ago in some periodical.
The subject is well suited for a ballad, it is dismal
and thrilling enough to please the lovers of the ter-
rible, and the moral conveyed is appalling. The
elixir of life has been discovered by an anxious
enquirer—the elixir of life, at the anoigting touch
of which the dead body of age is endued with the
life and beauty of youth; but to whom shall the
precious deposit be entrusted? The old mart Ugo•
lino entrusts it to his son Manfred, who selfishly
desires to retain it for himself. He first essays the
efficacy of the, gift by letting one drop fall into the
dull eye of his dead father.
"When, lo I at once it beamed, instinct
With pure and living light,
And gazed with rapture on the youth
Transparent, full, and bright 1"
- - -

_ .
Manfred, however, "seals the priceless flask" and
withdraws.
" The eye flashed fire, as if it fain
The parricide would blight
With one fierce withering glance of hate,
Then closed in endless night."
A ghastly picture, indeed ! And even more
direful is the result of Manfred's own machina.
tions. A love story of " Evadne and Agnes," and
some miscellaneous poems of average merit complete
the volume.

Legends of Iceland. Collected by Jon Arnason.
Translated by G. E. J. Powell and Eirekur
Magnusson, with twenty-eight illustrations.
1 Vol., pp. 263. Bentley.

The frozen regions of the North have a literature
and a fairy-lore peculiarly their own. The trolls
and the elves and the fairy-folk of Iceland differ
widoly from the English fairies of "Arthur's
day." They have .a kindred resemblance, perhaps,
to the Brownies of Scotland,and an innate sympathy
in the practical roguery of Robin Goodfellow.
Yet the national peculiarities of the, elves of the
North are unmistakeable, and the legends of
their doings and misdoings may (as they have done
in the instance before us) fill a good volume.
Jon Amason, who has been surnamed the
Grimm of Iceland, having emulated the labours of
those German bro hers, whose name is so unsuitable
to their occupation—Jon Amason has col-
lected the majority of the fairy tales of Iceland
—stories of water-monsters, stories of trolls, stories
of ghosts and goblins, and miscellaneous stories of
every imaginable description. These taleP, so
delightful to the hearts of children of all
ages, are here presented to us in an English
dress. As a literary curiosity the work is valuable,
as Iceland holds a high place in romantic literature.
The weird tales here collected acquire additional
force from the very clever illustrations which accom-
pany them. These illustrations tire some of them
most grotesque and most alarming. Tne girl
pursued across the morass by the terrible Giantess
—the dreadful monster which affrights Kolberm—
the skeleton seated in the church and others, are
enough to leave a terrible impression on all who
see them. Some of these pictures, as, for example,
that of the *figures standing on the brink of a pre-
cipice, at page 72, or that of the youth groping his
way in the subterranean passage, are very cleverly
designed. Artists and engravers have done their
best to add to the attraction of these enthralling
and some of them appalling legends.