The Sun.
London, England, 1863-08-18 00:00:00

LITERATURE.

)pposite Neighbours. A Novel, in 2 vols. Bentley.
This work opens very attractively with two con-
trasting glimpses of the domestic life of the Win-
chesters and the Waylies, the Opposite Neighbours,
who give its title to the book. Contrasted although
the scenes revealed to us are in many respects, in
both there is one sad similarity. The Waylies are
in absolute penury, while the Winchesters are in
apparent prosperity, but both are in a different
degree in reduced circumstances, • and life is a
struggle on both sides of the street. Poor Blanche
Waylie looks out from her bare and comfortless
apartment and sees, with a sigh of envy, Captain
Winchester, well dressed, issue from the opposite
house, quite unconscious that he too is in dire per-
plexity, and that "his coat buttoned over, and so
well fitting, hid from view two or three long bills
which he felt hopeless as to being able to pay !"
Half of the world, as the saying is, being uncon-
scious of the troub;es of the other half. The
Winchesters and the Waylies are two very
charming families. Blanche Waylie and Mary
Winchester are two natural and delightful
heroines, and the home groups, of which they
are the centres, are in their several ways sin-
gularly attractive. As the story advances, how-
ever, the stage becomes inconveniently crowded.
The Henleigh family monopolise our attention, but
we cannot say that they divert our interest from
our more pleasant companions of the first volume.
Mr. Henleigh is odious and repulsive to a superla-
tive degree, and the history of his iniquities is most
improbable. Toe whole episode regarding the mys-
terious Rose and her very mysterious father, and
her yet more mysterious husband, had been far
better omitted. The author, with a mistaken in-
tention of increasing the interest of the tale, has
had recourse to these melo-dramatic " spiritings
away" and startling reappearances, but quite unne-
cessarily_ The real interest of the work consists in
its charming domestic scenes. The attractive cha,
ratters of the Opposite Neighbours ywi
make them welcome guests with many readers, not
withstanding the uninteresting companions that fo
low in their train.

Enshrined Hearts of Warriors and Illustrious
People. By Emily Sophia Hartshorne. Oae vol.,
pp. 452. Hard wicke.
A meditation over this book is like a reverie in
an old churchyard—soothing and edifying in its
effects. For a time the busy hum of everyday life
is silent—the insignificant cares and yet more in-
significant aspirations of our work-a-day livee, are
forgotten, and for the time we spiritually repose in
consecrated ground. A sentiment, of this nature
has evidently inspired the compiler of this interest.
ing work—a very monument of patience and per-
severance. In the few graceful remarks with which
she introduces her labours she reminds us that " It
is very good for us to go out of our own times
and live :n the past; perhaps we all do so
unconsciously, and without knowing it. The
imaginative past may have caused us as many
pleasant thoughts, as the realisation of our hopes
has done when granted to us in the halm." To
the authoress this compilation of most curious and
isolated facts has evidently been a labour of love—
her heart has been in her work, and she has in con-
sequence done fall justice to her subject, and pre-
sented us with a work that is at once a valuable
relic of medimval antiquity, and a new curiosity of
literature. A brief history of " The Sacred Enter.
prise"—the Crusades—is very appropriately pre-
fixed to these records of enshrined hearts, many of
which once beat beneath the red cross or the scollop
shell. The first of the enshrined hearts which is
recorded in chronological order is that of Stephen,
Earl of Brittany, who died in 1104, and whose
heart is enshrined in the Abbey of St. Martin's at
York, and the last heart mentioned is that of the
late King William IV. of Prussia. About two
hundred and fifty enshrined hearts are altogether
enumerated in this volume. Many romantic tales
and legends are very happily introduced in the
course of these records, many new evidences of how
much Truth is stranger than Fiction. It is a book that
will be read with thoughtful interest by many, and
turned to again and again with new pleasure. In
the comments made by the authoress upon the
enclosure of Napoleon's heart in a silver vase shortly
after his death on the sth of May, 1821, at St.
Helena, the writer observes that she knows not
what has become of that silver vase with
its precious enclosure. Is shs not aware that it
was interred with the body of the Great Emperor
—being placed there (at the time of the first sepul-
ture under the willows) in the innermost coffin, be-
tween the legs, close to the little three-cornered
hat ! That there it was found to be in 1840 at the
time of the disinterment ! And that, consequently,
the heart of Napoleon in that silver vase reposes
now, together with the body of the Great Emperor
and King, in his more than regal tomb under the
dome of the Invalides.

Young Life ; its Chances and Changes. By the
Author of " Hidden Links." Three vols. Skeet.
Chances and Changes indeed beset the lives of
the two heroines of this history, mother and
daughter. The mother, the daughter of a clergy-
man, is, in the first chapter of the first volume,
privately married to a young nobleman, who shortly
afterwards disclaims the marriage, and publicly
espouses a lady of title. The real wife, although
" possessed of every proof and sign" to establish
her rights, with a quixotic self-sacrifice allows her
place to be given to another, and dies in obscurity
abroad, leaving a little daughter to encounter perils
and persecutions unnumbered. A very benevolent
and charming old lady, Madame de Consterdine,
wishes to adopt thoorphan, but she is prevented from
so cluing by the evil genius of the tare, a cruel uncle,
who is aware of the real parentage of the mother.
less girl, and who makes use of the secret to exer-
cise a potent influence over her noble father. From
this glimpse it will be seen that the story possesses
an extravagant interest. The unsuitable marriage
into which the heroine is persuaded is singularly
improbable and very repulsive. The third volume,
however, brings a happier turn of affairs, and
all's well that ends well.'