The Sun.
London, England, 1837-06-01 00:00:00

11ETV MONTHLY

There is an excellent likeness of James Smith in
this Number, accompanied by a brief Memoir of his
life, penned in a lively, good humoured style, and
containing one or two characteristic anecdotes. The
" Gurney Papers," by the Editor, are entertaining—
Mr. Hook cannot write otherwise—but some of the
dialogue portion is too much spun out. " Lions" is
an essay, in which there is much truth, as the sub-
joined extract will show :

" To define what constitutes a lion,' would he about as
easy a task as to describe the colours of a chameleon. The
elements of lionism are of necessity evanescent, as they are
various. Provided the thing be not common-place and fami-
liar, there is scarcely a particular that will not constitute its
owner a lion. The nearest approach, therefore, that can be
made towards precision, is to state that a lion is—whatever so-
ciety chooses to adopt for one. Under the sanction of that
great authority, the merest jackass in nature may arise to leo-
nine celebrity; and hence, probably, the origin of the fable.
had iEsop's lion not brayed, he might have continued a lion
to the end of the chapter ; and so too might ours, if they could
abstain from being too demonstrative in their way, make their
angel visits few and far between, and take care to get out of
town whenever they see themselves in danger of being super-
seded by something more taking and transmutative than them-
selves. Without this foresight the throne of lionism is more
subject to frequent and sudden revolutions than that of
France ; and nothing is more common than to.sce the lion
of yesterday reduced to the jackass of to-day. Whatever,
then, be the accidental quality which equips a man with the
mane and tail, and qualifies him to grin at the unicorn in the
king's arms, novelty is essential to the transformation. Few
lions survive the season ;' and they even who have established
the most enduring claims to that social clot, arc never " ram-
pant" for more than the first year. We look, for instance,
upon Mr. Moore, as being, by his poetic reputation, his agree-
able talent, and his exhilarating powers of conversation, about
as lasting a lion as any the age has produced ; but he knows
life too well, to enter into useless competition with a Turk, an
Osage, or an Ashantee, at the moment when they burst on the
delighted gaze of the town, in all the radiant brilliancy of a
first arrival. Thus it is that one lion supersedes another,
Mut undo supervenit undam ; that inferior claims, if unworn,
are more powerful than the highest, when once they have be-
come the worse of the wear; and that without reference to the
kind or the degree of personal merit, in the matter of lionism,
" the last fool is welcome as the former."

Captain Marryatt's " Phantom Ship" bids fair to
he the best, as we feel sure it will be the most popular,
tale that this prolific novelist has yet penned. There
arc two or three striking bits of hobgoblinism in the
present portion of it. The one-eyed pilot Schrifton,
who we suspect will turn out to be one of Lucifer's
body-guards, is a sketch after the manner of the German
school, and will remind the reader of one of Hoffman's
(liableries. "A. Tiger Hunt on the Nielgherry Hills"
is not so graphic in its sketches as it has been ; but
no one, quoth the old adage, is wise at all hours. The
" Mo!ler's Revenge" is a passable talc. The writer
is Mr. Grattan, to whom the public is indebted for
many a well-written novel. " The Perplexity of a
Deaf Gentleman" is an amusing idea, skilfully wrought
out. It would make a capital subject for a farce, and
accordingly we recommend Mr. Buckstone to try his
hand at it. The style is lively and pointed, but not
elaborately so. " Jannetje ter Beek" is by Alfred
Crowquill. It is cleverly written. " The Converza-
tione" reviews the books of the month in a light, con-
versational manner.