The Sun.
London, England, 1852-04-10 00:00:00

SUN,

•
LITERATURE.
LENA; OR, -THE SILENT WOMAN. By
the Author of "p'ing's Cope, 6-c. 6,•c 3 Vols. Smith
and Elder, Cornhill.
After the enillesS variety of tales in which all the
personages are of it mature age, it is refreshing alike
to the fancy and the memory to meet with a narra-
tive in which the leading characters are " still fresh
with the brightness of youth." Indeed, at the com•
mencement they are mere children, but that time is
rapidly sketched; and the greater part of the work
describes them in their girlhood, just entering on life.
Cecil is the heroine, in point of fact, although the mild
and impressive Lena casts a spell over all her friends,
and her influence extends to scenes in which her pre-
sence does not appear. As may he supposed from her
style, she is doomed to a melancholy life. A beauty
and an heiress, the world is not her rest; she finds no
peace in gaiety or bustle, and is glad, after
all her vaunted wealth has been snatched away from
her, to seclude herself in the country, in the village
where she passed the dearly remembered days of her
serene childhood. Cecil is a :witty, arch, and mirth-
loving a
vinn eggairyrll, full of spirits and energy; left an orphan
age, surrounded by envious friends, and
watched over by jealous relatives, she fights on her
own way in the world, which she ever beholds with a
smile, although it has been but a sorry place for her.
At last she triumphs over her enemies, and is left
as
happy as this state will permit, a consummation all
must approve of, for she wins all hearts by her truth-
fulness and vivacity. Lauri, her youngest sister, is a
most original character, and it is to be hoped, a most
unusual one. Lady Morland, the scheming mother,
is an admirable csricature of those who attempt to
cover worldly craftiness by the cloak of religion, and
ashamed of their actions, always seek other ex-
cuses for their conduct. than
.the real motive.
Lord Hurstrnonceaux passes through a variety of ad-
ventures, from being a simple - youth at Naples to
becoming the heir of one of the greatest dukos In
England. His adventures are skilfully deliru
when he enters society, and the matcli,uicker beset
him. Wherever he goes he is followed, admired, and
invited, till in ;leap:: it he retires from the contest sad
seeks relief in the country. On the whole the story
is of a very entertaining nature, and all must wel-
come the fresh and invigorating style which charac-
terises its pages. Life seems as it is, light and shade ;
the world appears in its true colours, good and bad ;
aed while many mournful occurrences intervene, the
spirit of buoyancy and energy is -kept up, the clouds
soon pass away from the scene, and the prospect again
sh-

inis brightly ;
Lena was sitting on the edge of a table covered with
hothouse-flowers, which she was clipping and arranging
in a jar. She was then twelve years old, fair, with that
snowy delicacy of shin seen but once in an age, yet
there was a pink colour on her cheeks and the tips of her
delicate fingers. Her light heir was drawn back into a
net which confined it in large silken masses, not shining,
it was too soft; it had not that metallic brilliancy
often seen in fair hair; it was of the palest straw colour,
her eyebrows much darker, her e ye-lashes black, her
eyes grey, and sort as ground glass, large, round, and
fully opened; her forehead broad, pale, holy ; her
features small, her lips rose leaves. She was slight as
a reed, and as she tat sideways on the table, the foot and
ankle, hanging down, were slender almost to a fault."
" Cecil read and worked and played till she was
weary, and then she thought she would get Mrs. Payne
to show her the old dresses her uncle had menioried.
The good lady opened a great carved chest on the first
landing, and Cecil seen strewed the floor with brocaded
sacques, old point, high-heeled shoes, steel-hilted ra-
piers, and all the finery of the last century.
" With the housekeeper's assistance, she transported
what she fancied iuto the state-bedroom, which was
graced by the portrait of a great aunt of Mr. Morland,
a beauty of the court of Queen Anne, and there she
persuaded the good woman to powder her hair, and
draw it up over a cushion, and adorn it with buds of
rose-coloured and silver ribbon. A brocaded sacque of
the same colour, and hoop petticoat of white satin, co-
vered with large gold flowers, high-heeled shoes of rose
colour, worked in silver, splendid point ruffles and
apron, and a carved ivory fan, transformed her, Mrs.
Payee declared, into the pertect image of the black-
eyed coquette of Knoller. A few patches completed
the effect of the coiffure, and as Cecil looked in the
glass, her dazzling eyes and complexion, heightened by
the powder, all the beauties of her flue figure, rendered
more conspicuous ley the exaggerated splendour of her
costume, she could ,not help wishing she might look
half as well when she was presented at court iu the
spring.
" But all this took up a good deal of time, and on
looking at the buhl clock on the chimney-piece, she
found it wanted only a few minutes of seven, and not
caring to keep her uncle waiting while she disrobed, and
perhaps not sorry that he should see her looking so very
well, she clattered down in her high-heeled shoes, and
finding the drawing-room empty, seated herself in an
attitude by one of the ebony tables, end wondered whe-
ther she should be so fortunate as to make her uncle
start. But to her dismay, as Mr. Morland came in at
one door, Lord Hurstmonceaux entered by the other,
and though they both stood still and gazed at her with
the utmost surprise., wished herself fathoms deep
under the earth."

THE SCHOOL FOR FATHERS. An Old
English Story. By 'F. Gwynne. Smith and Elder.
A curious and original tale, which describes the
vain endeavours of' a frivolous and heartless father of
the eighteenth century to transform his honest though
unpolished son into a fashionable gentleman. Having
been educated by his uncle, a country squire, he hid
acquired all his tastes and habits, prefering fox hunt-
ing and similar sports to any town amusements.
The melancholy conclusion of the tale is somewhat
unexpected, and it points out in the strongest manner
the folly of striving to counteract inclinations and
habits so decided, and removing those who are happy
and useful in their own sphere to one for which they
are totally unfitted arid in which they become a
laughing-stock to others and a misery to themselves.
The following extract shows the opinions of the
author :
" Fathers! before you put your sons in any particular
if you oan, their various dispositions,
path of life, sturly,
characters, talents, and capabilities. How often do we
see men in the army or navy, who, bad they been al-
lowed to follow their true bent, would have made excel-
lent churchmen or lawyers; and who, on their father's
death, quit the profession of arms for more genial pur-
suits. again, how'otten do we_ see a languishing non-
chalant clergyman, without feeling for his calling, per-
rishing with ennui. who would have been a distinguished
soldier but for the paternal will which said—' Tnat boy
must go into the Church. Then, again, we behold a
barrister detesting pen and ink, and close hot rooms, and
law-study and practice, a being whose aspirations and
talents all pointed to the sea; but his lather's taste
pointed to an intellectual' profession, and the boy,
without the least loie of study, or much aptitude for it,
is dragooned, bon gre mal gre to the bar! You will see
such an one, during his vacation, living in salt water--
yachting, steaming, rowing, voyaging in merchantmen,
and returning to his gown and wig with a weary heart!
Ido not mean that because a boy has read Rohser
Crusoe.' as young gentlemen are Wont to pronounce the
name, that his enthusiasm is to be gratified by being sent
in quest of shipwrecks and Man Friday, any mere than
that he should be allowed to be a highwayman—a cha-
racter for which some boys have a great poichant7-be-
cause his enthusiasm has been awakened by the life of
Robin Hood or Dick Turpin; but it is a cruel eight to
see a man's life passing by in the daily avocations of a
profession for which he has no feeling—perhaps positive
dislike—and to which a father's will condemned him
before he could walk or talk!
" Young gentlemen's caprices should not bo studied;
but their characters and aptitudes are entitled to some
little consideration."
The hook is printed in the old English type, and the
style is lively and pleasing.

THE LILY OF ST. P AUL' S. A Romance of Old
London By the Author of "Prevethlan." Smith
awl Elder, Cornhill.
' The reader of this work is carried back into the
good old times; he is transported from the quiet
humdrum of the present work-a-day world to the
Past in its scenes of romance and riots. Instead of
the alt-pervading spirit of commerce that is now ap-
parent, he
gveantein is in,roduced to lordly palaces and fair
rdt
PBin
,:roa river that is navigated by barges, to con-
friars and a 4tglnge : up in tbe heart of the city, and to
rougiefares. The of charity perambulating its tho-
carefully worked story is ;very intricate, but it is
cerned in it are veruy'' athl although the persons eon.
ceed each other rapidly, and the events sue-
It reYquiraelid i 3 perfectly clear and
' straightforward.
systems of mystery and
orru,cpetizdneefdo,r
stohegarnecaitenat
Lniitiraer
crime to be perpetrated in the
and yet to remain unavenged, o fict civilization,
heroine,
does not appaar much in the aceno:
T.lle,Priar
name is everywhere met with.
always. -appearing when
ka_utould,h ught her
Bernardo ero
is a very interesting eharaciter 1
There
is a most awful iudividua ,
not expected, and heating everything secret:
wbo are ably
are several miner Psketched.
e
among them,ers°Fnsi'tzbugh, a dissolutec
celebrated
Reynold
elebrated
The great Reformer, Wycliffe, and the
John Gaunt, of Lancaster,
are likewise involved .
its
the plot, but they are seldom brought forward.
,
Altogether, this is an original stye . of novel, skilful
in its execution . and -attracting in its interest:
,
Some of the descriptions are admirable, particu-
larly the following of the oldead mashter s home ana
mode of life, and the picte oft ilig t falling over
London:— -
" Twilight, it was said, was then deepening, her
night I
had now fallen upon the vast city, covering with
its
great pall its noble mansions, its strong fortresses,
great monasteries, its hundred end eighty churches, its
myriad hearths, its mighty population, penetrating with
her gloom into the most secret cell of the gigantic hive.
Few spectacles are more impressive then the repose of a
great city.
" Sleep, beautiful in the cradle of infancy, or on the
couch of youth, becomes sublime when the siumberer is
the metropolis of a nation.
" Patertos:,r-row ev.,:n at the date of this narrative,
'''''' Partly inl;i;eite'd by the lc ;:titeato precurson of
'lime pa.trutis of livrature who, ilt wore modern times
have earned fur the locality a celebrity as wide as the
world. It "would not be easy how tolaydown
the pre-
cise topography-of s district much °banged evon since