The Sun.
London, England, 1830-03-06 00:00:00

LITERATURE.

" Etruscan History and Antiquities" displays
marks of research on a subject on which little
additional light, of any importance, can now be
thrown. The details, however, are curious, and
may serve to transport an antiquary, and wile away
the leisure hours of a literati. " Wilson's Life
and Times of Defoe" is overpraised, but justice
is done to the memory of one of the most extra-
ordinary individuals that modern times have
seen. Whether viewed as a politician, a po-
lemic, a romance-writer, or a man of general
acquirements, Defoe stands high among the
authors of the early part of the 18th century;,
His " Robinson Crusoe" is the finest thing of
the sort extant ; and his account of the plague
abounds in passages worthy of Thucydides.
Who can forget the solemn yet simple opening
of Defoe's history, the best Rails of which Pro-
fessor Wilson has imitated, but scarcely equalled,
in his poem of the " City of the Plague." Yet
this is the man that the wasp of Twickenham
thus contemptuously alluded to,
" Earless on high stood unabashed Defoe."
_

It is a quere which will last the longest, Pope's
best works, or Defoe's " Robinson Crusoe."
Were we to give our opinion, we should give it
in favour of the romance. It is throughout a
broad intelligible appeal to the feelings of human
nature generally, Pope's popularity is of a more
artificial and restricted character. " The
Woman Empire" is an elaborate digest of the
contents of the numerous recent publications on
that subject by Frankland, Madden, Walsh, and
others. " Southey's Colloquies on Society"
are treated somewhat severely, yet not without
justice. On the whole, the number is an excel-
lent one.

POETICAL ASPIRATIONS. LONDON, 1830.
Considering the very low ebb to which good
poetry:is reduced at the present day, we see no
great reason why this young gentleman should
not attain his share of popularity as well as others.
His " Aspirations," if not presumptuous, are
at any rate fervent, and likely to prove accept-
able to the taste of a public for which Campbell,
Moore, Rogers, Wordsworth, J. Montgomery
of Sheffield, Southey, Croly, and Coleridge,
have long since ceased to write.

SKETCHES FROM NATURE. LONDON, 1830.
This is a quaint but amusing medley of na-
tural history, anecdotes, and essays, bound to-
gether by so slight a thread of connection, that
the very whisper of a fastidious critic would be
almost sufficient to snap the ligature. However,
as the volume, though rambling and unconnected,
is amusing, intelligent, and pleasantly written,
we feel bound to speak highly in its praise.

ARCANA OF SCIENCE AND ART. Loxnox, 1830.
" Science"—says Sir Humphrey Davy---" is
nothing more than the refinement of common
sense, making use of facts &ready known, to
acquire new facts." This is the principle upon
which the present little volume is conducted.
It is a sort of Annual Register of popular in-
ventions and itnprovements, and displays much
judgment and discretion in its arrangement of,
and comments on, scientific and mechanical
inventions.

There is one of the ceremonies still continued
at the House of Lords which would ha mope honoured in

. .
the breach than in the obaervance. We do not mean the
badge of conquest retaine I in giving the Royal Assent to
Bills in Norman French, but the practice of swearing
witnesses at the bar who are to be examined before Cott_
mittees. Thus the several witnesses who are summoned
to give evidence before the East India Committee have to
attend during the sitting of the House to be sworn at the
bar; and then on same following ,lay to attend the Corn
mittee : such useless was'e of time might be saved by the
Committee having deputed to them the power of swearing
their own witnesses. This loss of time is a grievous evil
to many persen,, and answer, no unfol purpose.

EDINBURGH REVIEW, No. C.
EDINBURGH, 1830.
There is a very spirited, and assuredly a very
• just attack on Mr. Sadler, in the present num-
ber, for his recent absurd and inconsistent ad-
dress to the ship-owners at Whitbv. The
proper deference is paid to the arguments he
used on that memorable occasion, and will, no
doubt, if the Hon. Gentleman's speech be not
already forgotten, have a truly salutary counter-
acting effect. " Maw's Journal "is a short but
intelligent notice of some travels through South
America. The most interesting portions of it
are some particulars relative to a voyage down
the mighty river Amazon or Maranon :
" About a day's sail below Laguna the Gualiaga opens
• into the main branch of the Maranon ; and about a
hundred and fifty mi'es lower there was felt an increase in
the depth and force of the current, which announced, even
amidst the darkness of the n;ght, the influx of the great
tributary of the Ucayali, after a course of upwards of a
thousand miles. The Maranon now attains its full meze
nitude ; awl its course downwards to the Atlantic forms,
perhaps, the grandest river navigation on the face of the
earth. Its direct line comprises twenty-two degrees of
longitude, or above sixteen hundred miles, throughout the
whole of which it was judged capable of receiving vessels
of the greatest size. The region perforated by this inland
sea, consists of one immense plain, not encroached on even
by a hillock from the bordering Andes, but sloping gra-
dually and almost insensibly down to the Atlantic.
" During the voyage, sometimes one, sometimes even both
shores were invisible. The channel was filled with islands,
usually little more than sand-banks, the largest of which
were wooded. The breadth of the stream was indicated
by a triple current, that of mid-channel being slower titan
the two along the banks; the rate varying from three to
six miles an hour. These currents were effecting con-
tinual changes both in the shore and islands. Portions of
the bank would be seen falling in, while the trees with
which it was clothed were thrown in masses into the water
Sometimes there trees, having their roots deeply fixed, re-
mained after the surrounding soil had been washed away,
and stood like watery groves.
" On either bank, the animal and feathered creation, in
vast numbers, filled the -earth and the air. The shores
resounded with the cries of various large birds, among
which the moutuns were the most numerous. The coati,
with its note resembling a watchman's bell, and heard at
several miles distance, took its station on the top of a tree,
and amused itself with making the woods ring. The
uruba, or crow-vulture, duly attended the travellers' meals,
and screamed in despair when it found nothing left.
Parrots crowded the villages, joining in the mirth and
talk of the Indians; so as often it could not be known by
the ear whether an Indian or a parrot was talking. Toe
chief land-animal was the tiger, of various species and
sizes, some very powerful, though not quite matching
those of Bengal. The yucca marina, a species of the
walrus, is the chief inhabitant of the river. It was stated
to Mr. Maw, that certain lakes connected with the Ma-
ranon, were ingested with serpents so monstrous and for-
midable, that neither man, nor animal of any other species,
durst approach these waters. Condamine mentions a
similar statement as made to him ; a coineirlence which
makes it probable, that these hikes really contain some
serpents of extraordinary size."