The Sun.
London, England, 1863-11-09 00:00:00

LITERATURE,

71e Heiress and her Lovers. A Novel. By Geor.
giana, Lady Chatterton, author of " Memorials of
Lord Gambier," " Translations from the German

of J. P. Richter," &c. Three Vols. Bentley.
Lady Chatterton is a brilliant writer and a deep
thinker. Her facile pen not only enthrals the in-
terest but arouses the attentive consideration of her
readers. The theme of her present story is, how-
ever, not a happy one. It is true that, in the course
of it, we make acquaintance with some very charm-
ing characters. Nesta " the Heiress," Eva Dro-
more, Aunt Mary, and Lord Mowbray, and some
others. Poetical justice is, to a certain extent,
dealt out to good and bad at the falling of
curtain. Still, as we have said, the theme is not a
pleasant one. Notwithstanding the loveable cha-
racter of the heroine and her daughter, for
the story continues to the second genera-
tion, W 9 have continually before our minds
most depraved characters and most revolt-
ing crimes, in the persons and deeds, of Morgan
O'Neil and Honoria, Lady Glenmaurice. Their
characters, for the credit of human nature, we must
regard as singularly overdrawn. IN hen we first
meet with them, they are young, proud, and ambi-
tious, loving each other, and yet unwilling to sacri-
fice personal pride or ambition for affection. Mor-
gan O'Neil having convicted Honoria in an act
of deliberate falsehood, renounces her at
once, and turns to the fair heiress who,
unhappily for herself, is devoted to him. Yet this
same Morgan, so indignant at an act of duplicity in
another, does not scruple afterwards to commit acts
of the meanest perfidy and the basest treachery
imaginable. His after intimacy with Honoria
hardly probable. He is described as an ambitious
man, a rising member of Parliament. The ambi-
tion and self-esteem of his proud and arrogant nature
would purely, have preserved him from the debas-
ing effects of a passion so recklessly and remorse-
lessly indulged in, for Morgan is not represented as
being of an ardent or impassioned temperament.
Whether true to nature or not, the story of Morgan
O'Neil and Honoria is very revolting : and the sins
of the parents are visited upon the children, for
Roland O'Neil falls in love with his own sister, the
supposed daughter of Lady Glenmaurice, the children
having been changed in infancy, but both being
in reality the offspring of Morgan O'Neil, born at
the same hour, the one the daughter of his injured
wife—the fine-minded Nesta—and the other the
son of Honoria, the faithless wife of Lord Glen-
maurice. However well intended, to point a moral
and to illustrate the fatal consequences of a first
false step, the frequent introduction of incidents
like the above, into our domestic novels, is
greatly to be deprecated. There are crimes
about which " ignorance is bliss," and it
is worse than folly in our novel writers to drag
them to the light and depict them in their full
enormity. We the more regret such an error of
judgment in the present instance, because Lady
Chatterton's novel is evidently dictated by the
highest principles, and it is filled throughout with
noble and elevated sentiments. As evidence of
which we may quote the following judicious re-
marks on—

• MORAL DEVELOPMENT.
The kind of biased indifference which she evinces is a
bad symptom in the human soul. It is one of the surest
evidences of deterioration. We ought to become happier as
we grow old. I mean, we ought to have learnt to derive
more and more pleasure from everything; for appreciation
of what is good and beautiful must year after year become
more fully developed if we have lived to any purpose; and
though the peculiar enjoyment which physical vigour com-
municates to all sensation may, perhaps must be diminished,
yet the training and cultivation which the bodily senses
have received increase their appreciative capacity, and we,
consequently, derive more pleasure from all we see, feel,
think of, or imagine. In fact, to be really fitted for Heaven,
we should (I think) become happier even in this world as
we grow old.
Our natural instinct, too, induces us to improve. Most
people hope and long to improve. We all Icok forward to
something more, though perhaps few are conscious of wish-
ing to become better. But, at any rate, we all expect or
hope to become happier, and I verily believe that, the older
we grow, this expectation or hope is ever strengthening
instead of diminishing, in spite of endless disappointments
and bitter sufferings. I have the strongest faith in the
capacity we all possess to improve. I behove most firmly
in our powers of individual development, while I as firmly
disbelieve in the modern theory, which is now becoming sv
fatally common—the progressive development of the human
race in this world.
Here again is an example of practical philosophy :

AUNT MARY'S ART OF HAPPINESS.
Most of our unhappiness (not our misfortunes, remember,
fGr these aro often blessings in disguise, as I think, Richter
says), but the unhappiness which often cling to uslike
ouar
wet blanket, and seems to smother with its cold weights
daily and hourly well-being—most of this unhappine,svises
pro-
ceeds from allowing ourselves to expect too much. Wishes
Ilnas_
and hopes become an amusement, and if
erhaps foolish)
of life. I feel grateful to many of theat(Pdifferen
t periods
nagcd, a pleasant distraction from some of the dull realities
wishes and hopes that have buoyed
;dreams which some •
will be, fulfilled. Like the pleasuanafter_
taste of happiness
of my life, although they never werr and probably never
times visit our sleep, they leave an
never can be repeated
on the mind, although
fulfilled—thatourutb e
w aro
ofoxtpheooytaatw
Beware of allowing ourselves
v4,,mouch higher degree exactly
rioeteubveksu.notewfteeting visions of the night.
ought to have such and such
deserve and who value it
te
tot
ti thinking; Ntvhe
adte deserve—that
lion
much le.-3e have attain
what„we wanto
cw 3. become convinced of the dire conse-
len° theseof
not wnot attaining' a constant spirit of cheerful resig-
im
miardtse a
comparatively
qnuotiocn—to those who can learn from Scripture that self-
owproficiency in the art of
appilooogs
which
lotil almost
may
be pa
enjoyable.
kundse:aho
These is one thing, however, which I, and I trust only a
few others suffer from, which is the moat difficult of all to
counteract—that is, natural and inherited low spirits. It is,
' however, this very sulLring which has tended to impress
on my mind the necessity of cultivating cheerfulness, and
looking out for enj,,yinent and innocent distraction among
all the little dully concerns and sights of every-day life.
Although the condemnation is too sweeping in its
character, there is much truth in the following :

OBJECTIONS TO PHOTOGRAPH.Y.

I am afraid that photography used in portraits tends to
cultivate a taste for ugliness. They induce people tobo

batisfied with. their wUret jOOIiP, aild to be rtcouciletrio

gracelessness, harshness, and caricature. It is almost ira
possible that a photograph can give the likeness of a people
at their best moments. And best moments, when we wear
the harmonious expression, which inward contentment and
good feeling gives, ought to be encouraged, multiplied, and
coaxed out in every possible way. It should be our con-
stant endeavour to attain permanently the best expression
of our best moments, the outward indication of that cha •
rooter of mind and disposition which we would liko to trans-
mit to a portrait, and to be known in by those whose opi-
nions we value most. Many people take quite a different
view of the case, and imagine that it is an indication of
honesty and an absence of vanity to be satisfied with their
ugliest expression. Bat lam afraid the satisfaction they
derive from it proceeds more from the besetting sin of these
times—self-sufficiency, and an absence of any wish or hope
to become better."

These passages, which we have quoted at ran-
dom, are but inadequate specimens of the
thoughtful, speculative character of the work under
notice—a work in many respects deserving a very
attentive perusal, grievously flawed though it is by
the unfortunate character of the plot.

The Gallery of Geography. Pictorial and Descrip-
tive. By the Rev. Thos. Milner, M.A. Part 1.,
pp. 64. William and Robert Chambers, of Lou-

do❑ and Edinburgh.

Those eminent volunteer promoters of Popular
Education, the Messrs. William and Robert Cham-
bers, of London and Edinburgh, have, without
doubt, in this beautiful serial, adventured upon one of
their most remarkable enterprises. That fact is al-
ready evident upon an examination of this first part,
or initial number. According to the announcement
of the prospectus, we observe, that the work will be
completed in either sixteen or seventeen of these in-
stalments. The result being, when the periodical issue
has been brought, in about a couple of years' time,
to a close, the gradual accumulation in the hands of
the subscriber of a very handsome volume in-
deed—a volume remarkable in. every particular
for the beauty of the letterpress and of
the illustrations, and for the general excel-
lence of the mere " getting up" as well as of the
typography. Capital paper, large, readable type,
ample pages (ample, that is, remembering what is
likely to be the thickness of the volume when
finished)—pages, moreover, not double-columned—
and, added to all this, a variety of elegant and ap-
propriate embellishments scattered plentifully
through the text, elegant little drawings (crisply
cut on the box by the cunning implements of skilled
engravers) from pencils as well known and as widely
appreciated as those of Harrison Weir, of J. F.
Sargent, of Daniel, and of Clark Stanton. Those are
among the principalattraetions combined in this new'
serial by theMessrs.Chambers—as fitting accessories,
that is, to the attraction stamped upon the very face
of it at its commencement, by the intimation that the
whole of this elaborate production is to emanate
from the hand of the rev. and learned author of The
gallery of Nature, as well of many other compila-
tions of almost equal celebrity. The fact of this
simple announcement that the Rev. Thomas Milner
is to write this Gallery of Geography, a Gallery which
is to be in point of fact a descriptive tour of the
world, will be sufficient to inspire confidence in the
probable merit of the book as a whole. Precisely as
would be the case were a new serial upon ornithology
Announced as forthcoming by the 111,:esrs. Rout--
Ledge, under the supervision of that able and popu-
tar naturalist, the Rev. Mr. Wood. An admirably
well engraved vignette title-page, representing St.
Paul's Cathedral as seen from St. Ann's Church,
opens " part one" of this Gallery of Geography. As
a matter of course, as a matter of sheer necessity,
indeed—as " part one," the instalment before us is
purely introductory. It relates, in effect, in the
first instance, to the modes of travel and navigation
among the ancients. It defines then succinctly the
geographical knowledge of those same Ancients.
Coming further down towards our own time, the
author afterwards depicts the extent of the geo-
graphical knowledge in the Middle Ages—ages titat,
any rational man ought to blush to call " Dark,'
tf only it be borne in mind that during these
:riddle ages all profane literature, all the classic
authors of Greece and Rome, as well as the divine
records of the Holy Scriptures themselves, were ten-
lerly treasured up by those venerable and learned
ministers of the Church to whose sublime genius
ind sublimer piety Europe is indebted for those grsnd
and glorious old Gothic Cathedrals, " petrified music,',
or "dreams in stone," that are, we Wight almost
venture to say it, the despair of modern architec-
ture. A fourth chapter of the work relates not
only the history of the Passage of the Cape of Good
Hope, and of the crossing of the Atlantic, but ac_
.
quaints the reader with all that is known in regard
to the earliest circumnavigation of the globe. A
fifth chapter acquaints us with various particulars
in regard to the remotest records of north-easteen,
north-western, and north-polar voyages. The
sixth, and last chapter in the number, being
devoted to the commemoration of the famous
English and Dutch circumnavigators of the
seventeenth century. So that, even in this first
number of the new serial it will be seen the ground
is fairly cleared for what is to constitute, or eve are,
much mistaken, a very noble superstructure. The
body of the work, we are already apprized, will be
apportioned into five divisions—l. Europe, 11.
Asia, 111. Africa, IV. America, V. Ocean is. Each
of these comprehensive divisions, of course, being
subdivided into a series of chapters. By this
means the work, as a whole, in spite of
its almost bewildering magnitude, will
be, readily enough, systemized. Many of the
embellishments have the additional interest and
attraction of being taken from original sketches;
a large number of them even from photographs •
So far as we can possibly judge of a work of such ullt
usually large dimensions and of such extraordinary
diversity—relating, as it must do, to matters• not only
geographical and topographical, but to the .annals
of the human race, to the rise and fall of empires,
to the commemoration of famous men, to the distri-
bution of the animal and vegetable kiegdoms in all
parte of the habitable globe—it gives promise even
now of reflecting the highest honour upon all par'
ties engaged in its production, from the pub-
lishers, the author, and the illustrators downwards'
through all the mere mechanical departments called
into play by the commencement of so important an
undertaking as the publication of this noble I` Gal-
lery of Geography."

Dietrichsen and liannay's _Royal Almanack Jar

1864. pp. 166. Edward Cleaver.
As usual, this nothing less than marvellous'
Almanack appears betimes early in November.
Considering the price of it, the scope of it, and the
whole excellence of the getting up of it, bearing in
mind, its accuracy, its diversity, its enormous multi..
plicity of names and statistics—it is surely, even
nowadays, in this age of cheap and admirab/e
spAdyroe
Majestyi
anntr
jto:iinea,n ,navg
code,
kQrrvery
lu
literallynothingseaeopn
nearly
tyhliea_
ialteaeraits,sstost
rhtol,
ihonaaanesi, as
os
been
astonishing
tenshengoe hutravee twenty-seventh
twenty-eighthj u t
yseaai
rd ,o
ft
teal:, ter.
marvellous. The present issue for 1864, being bis'
happy and glorious reign of her Most Gracious
of the publication of Dietrichsen and Hannafg
coming
belovedout
nativessy
oe :er
whiler afterei
; ea
has been seated upon the throne. The almanack i 5
an old favourite. But it does not by any means pre'
sume upon the reputation it has won. It is in it°
every arrangement as thoroughly and carefully'
compiled as it has ever been : com,prising with it
—still—besides—the royal genealogy of England'
the Peerage ; Parliamentary, Court, County, and
Colonial Calendar ; Army aad Navy,
lists alphabetically arranged ; u Register °:
Remarkable o,;carrences during the prececk"
ing twelvemonth ; a L ;idon, Provincial, Colonial
and Foreign Banking Directory ; fair lists for lii)
land, Scotland, and Ireland; besides a really ever'
mous mass of other useful and interesting inforts4:
tion. Among these, Acts of Parliament, posts'
regulations, and so forth—to say nothing of daily'
tide tables for London, Bristol, Hal!, Live:
pool,-and 238 other seaports ! Certainly, enotio;
for the money and to spare, seeing that the 10°
is purchaseable fur a mere sixpence.

Saunders 01ley and Morgan's British ArillY
Review. November, 1863.
So fares we can comprehend it, this little publi:
cation is issued under the timbre of the new lirtu
of
Army, India, and Colonial Agents of 9, Waterloo'
place—not under that;of the old firm of Sgunderfb