The Sun.
London, England, 1837-05-30 00:00:00

LITERATURE.

LOCKHART'S LIFE OF SCOTT. Vol 3.
Cadell, Edinburgh, 1837.
The present volume is more interesting than either
of its predecessors, being fuller of anecdote, and more
diversified in its details. Scott is here presented toyer
at the most bustling and anxious period of his li
011
when his poetic renown (for a season only) wAs
the wane, in consequence of the all-engrossing, interest
of Lord Byron's productions ; when he was somethtn g
in
hampered by pecuniary embarrassments ; and was '.
ditating, by way of retrieving his fortunes, that series
of fictions i'hich will last as long as the English
guage shall endure. We have abundance of curio's
details respecting the origiu and progress of Waverle,
,acteyr,
one anecdote, in particular, is of so strking a cha
that we cannot refrain from extracting it

pening," says Mr. Lockhart, • ,d ono
** To pass through Edinburgh in June, 1814, I din- 10
day with William Menzies (now one of the Supreme :1141
at the Cape of Good Hope), whose residence %vas then,i's
George-street, situated very near to, and at right ono!,
with, North Castle-street. It was a play of young reid
sons, most of them, like Menzies and myself, clestin•ov
for the Bar of Scotland, all gay an thoughtless, enin',
ing the first flush of manhood, with little rernonbiZho
of the yesterday, or care of the morrow• two
my companion's worthy father and uncle, after secing,..es,
or three bottles go round, left the juveniles to thentse'loa
the weather being hot, we adjourned to a library, wbicb.„•,o%
one large window looking northwards. After cad
here for an hour or more, I observed that a shade ha lb
over the aspect of my friend, who happened to be Patiot
immediately opposite to myself, and said something $1
intimated a fear of his being unwell. No,' said be',.sit
shall be well enough presently ; if you will only Int Icon'
where you are, and take my chair ; for there is
founded hand in sight of me here, which has °
01
bothered me before ; and now it won't let me 6" with
glass with a good will.' I rose to change places ild,
him accordingly, and he pointed out to me this Ova
which, like the writing on Belshazzar's wall, Ova
his hour of hilarity. Since we sat down,' lie
I have been watching it—it fascinates my eye---it rii,
"
sQ
stops—page after page is finished, and thrown on that
,11 be
of MSS., and still it goes on unwearied—and so it wager
candles are brought in, and God knows how nb
that It is the same every night—l cant stand the ad
of it when lam not at my books.' Some stupid, d°gtbe;
engrossing clerk probably,' exclaimed myself or some 0," $1
giddy yonth in our society. No, boys,' said our the
know what hand it is—'tis Walter Scott's.' This ria to
hand that, in the evenings of three summer Weeks, vi.°
the two last volumes of Waverley l"
" Guy Mannering," was written with equal raPir of
Mr. Lockhart assuring us that it was the therela.
"only three weeks"—a diligence to which to
no parallel in the literary annals of this °A.def'
other country. To be sure Voltaire's " Catwi of
was begun and finished within the short FPauceiick
seven days, as a birth-day day present to a it
seller who was the author's friend ; but this, be.re
remembered, was but one short tale ; and V°Pll,i;
unlike Scott, had no dry legal duties to distract
the
attention during the day. A few weeks after :el
battle of Waterloo, Scott visited this celebrs'lo
field of action, and afterwards Paris, where ail
was introducd to, and became acquainted with'prot
the leading actors in that stirring period—the Eillit.cy
of Russia, the King of Prussia, Blucher, the Ces'-irecl
Platoff, and the Duke of Wellington. When
his opinion of this last, the author of " Mallll°r
replied, that he " might now say he had seen and 0-10
versed with all classes of society, from the pal9eLeis
the cottage, and including every covceivable wit(
of science and ignorance—but that he had Ile of
felt awed or abashed, except in the resirence
one man—the Duke of Wellington I" Iv et :he
not surprised at this, for the splendour 0' of
Duke's achievements cannot but have had ao'
basilisk fascination for the poet whose highest 00
tiou it was in youth to become a hero, and who
never more in his element than when describing The
..d dclinc.ting the characters of warriorS•
narrative of Scott's visit to the Shetland Islam
which is inserted in this volume, will be read with -10
much interest as even Paul's incomparable Letters
his Kinsfolk.

NICK OF THE WOODS, 3 Vols.

Bentley, London, 1837.
There are scenes in this tale, especially in the
volume, which are in no respect inferior tothe Ie
p'r,
contained in Cooper's romance of the " Pioneers. e,
Bird, the author, whose play of Spartacus was so gene,
rally popular a year or two since in the United StAi;
has the most vivid conceptions of character, whicl,'fbe
pourtrays in a free, bold, and stirring manner• bco
state of Kentucky, as it was in the year 1782, sc ey
the first white settlers had only just succeeded in atio
cuing it from the domination of the aboriginal to
tribes, has supplied him with abundant materialser,
work on ; with backwoodsmen, Kentucky railso''
itinerant pedlars, &c. scarcely less savage in their Obei
tiers and habits than the red Indians, with whou,o
i,„l
are brought into constant collision ;—and these var.?
out-of-the-way characters, who, we believe, are,nl,
fast passing away, Doctor Bird has delineated wito
care, a skill, and we may even add, an ori,gi eel'
which are not surpassed by the best American v 0 e,'
ists. The sketches of " Roaring Ralph Stackr,o(l
and " Wandering Nathan ;" of the strange' ;11
scenery in which they are located ; and the sca't-ors,
less strange events in which they are principal ne"filat
will be sure to make " Nick of the Woods" as poPr

as any tale that has appeared this season.

A DREAM OF LIFE. A PoE3I.

By TICK RE!". WILLIAM GLIRDEN MOORX.
Smith, Elder, Co., London, 1837.
Though wanting in method, and disfigured by gig
'melons, tasteless changes of rhythm and metre' eti,
Poem is not destitute of strong evidences of a true pa
ot
cal imagination. In itself it is but an earnest "fe%:loite
might be expected from the author, were lie to (1 e
his leisure to the cultivation of the beautiful aodtt lof
good, in a form well adapted to the developeme9nts.
the purest, the tenderest, and the loftiest sentialcok
The following extracts from Mr. Moore's unPrete of
ing volume—which is dedicated to the eitizell'stiej
Lincoln—are the genuine effusions of a mind e"b
with the spirit of poetry :
" There stood,
Bendinganxious group,—methought they wished to
In its sweet face the page of future life,
To gather the complexion of its days
From that which nature gave, or dark or fair;
And as the downy 'cheek of Geraldine
( For so they called the infant,) was embrowncat
As if a shadow had passed on before,
And left its saddening impress, e'er the sun
Of her life's morn had ris'n, I heard a sigh,--
Deep,—piteous,—breathe from that anxious group'
A prayer, too, rose in solemn silence thence,
Rose like a cloud of incense, undisturbed
By breath of human passion, pure and holy,
And floating thro' the regions high above
The ken of mortal sight, was fragrant still. d,
Ah ! little thought they, as they lingering st°°
In meditation deep, o'er that dear child,
How many and how great her future trials.
And little heeded she, or good or ill,
So called by older tenants of the world,
Wrapt in the babe's vacuity of thought. 0
Oh, infancy ! what simple joys content
Thy simpler wants ; beauty is undesired,
If placed beyond thy sight :—indifferent
To man's unreasonable hoprs, thy days
Pass on with even tido ; subject, indeed,
To momentcry ebbs and flows, yet still
TThee
nceloxutdsetehsatblainuinsgheodneb,wlrieitleurunpulogn
cart' •
Sweet, simple days ! when bounding w.ith°ut
We climb the hill, and nestle in the seat n,_d ,br01)
Scooped from its sido ; sonic thick and stye:,
Spreading its arms as shelter from the 11
TFohre ntehee dartingblue
violet,off andwe search,daisy
Of spotless white and coronet of gold..
c..l'd
While thy swift wings are leaving far b
These dear remembrances, so interweaved
With my existence, spare to memorY
What otherwise 'tis well should den'
in scattered
ts fringge