The Sun.
London, England, 1839-11-14 00:00:00

EVENING EDITION.

LITERATURE.

THE STUDENTS' HAND-BOOK _A TREA-
TISE ON A BOX OF INSTRUMENTS.—
THE -MERCANTILE PENMAN.
Relic and Fletcher, London, 1839.
Few things, in their way, are more remarkable
than the great improvements that have been made
within the last few years in our elementary works of
education. It is not long since the majority of our
school books, even the most popular, were filled
with the most preposterous supererogatory matters
—in fact, seemed written with no other view than
to perplex and lead astray. Instead of conciseness
and simplicity, amplification, and of the most weari-
some sort, was had recourse to ; and the young
mind was burdened with a collection of pedantic
rules which could seldom or never be applied to any
useful purpose, first, from the vague, lumbering
style in which they were laid down, and secondly,
from the almost endless variety of them. But we
have changed all this now, and for the better. Day
by day our school-books, especially our grammars,
are becoming simpler and more intelligible in their
character. We condense, where we used to am-
plify. The Rule, which, with its exceptions and
its examples,, would formerly have occupied a page
or more of close print, is now packed up in one or
two short, pertinent sentences, which conrey quite
as much information as is necessary to the under-
standing of the youthful student. By this process
of simplification, not only is much valuable time
sared, but a sounder progress is made by the tyro,
who is encouraged to exertion by finding that he
is no longer, as of old, working like a blind mole
in the dark. The unassuming little works before
us—each of which, twenty years ago, would have
formed a thick, large-sized duodecimo, and even
then contained not half as much useful matter as
it now contains—are modelled on the new system
of elementary instruction ; and of their sort, are
far superior to any with which we arc acquainted.

THE JEWEL.
Groombridge, London, 1839.
We have here a. tasteful collection of sacred,
narrative, legendary, and descriptive poems, made
up chiefly from the works of modern authors
Among them, we find Lord John Russell, from
whose much-calumniated tragedy of " Don Car-
los," the editor has extracted the following passage,
which we also quote, because we believe it will be
new to many of our readers. The line which we
have marked in italics, evinces much poetic sensi-
bility. Indeed we had no idea—for we have never
read " Don Carlos"—that his Lordship possessed
so much feeling and fancy :
"The light is disappearing through the dim
And narrow window of my evening !
At this same hour of evening I have stood
Upon the borders of the mountain ridge
That skirts the plain of Seville : the broad sun
In full effulgence o'er a cloudless sky
Poured his last flood of brightness ; the brown hills,
The aloe hedge, the rhododendron wild,
The golden orange, and the purple grape,
All seemed as clothed in light—and now, 'tis gone
The God of Day is vanished: a low bell
The general stillness breaks, but not offends;
All tongues are whispering prayer and thanks to heaven
And soon again the light guitar is heard,
And aged grandsires with young hearts behold
The tender maidens that with graceful step
Le4d on the village dance."

A TREATISE ON THE EYE.
Churchill, London, 1839.
A very serviceable practical treatise, written by
Dr. Franz, who, it is plain to see in every page,
has devoted much time and attention to his subject.

SMITH'S STANDARD LIBRARY.
Smith, London, 1839.
The present part is a republication of the whole
of Sterne's " Tristram Shandy," beautifully printed
in a commodious octavo form. Ten years ago this
work would have cost at least twelve shillings, Yet
here we have it for three shillings Verily, if this
be not cheap literature, we know not what is !

RULES AND REGULATIONS FOR
BILLIARDS.
Smith and Elder, London, 1839.
The author of this Treatise writes with all the
freshness and vigour of an enthusiast, which is a
great recommendation to his volume, for what is
written con amore, and with earnestness, is gene-
rally read with pleasure. We could not endure a
tame, spiritless Essay on Billiards, any more than
we could put up with a mere staid, temperate trac-
tate. on pantomme. To write so as to be read,
upon this subject, a man should go the whole hog
in its favour, or leave it alone. This was the peat
charm of the late " Mr. Hazlitt's Essay on the
Game of Fives." You saw that he was in earnest
With his theme, and this conviction ensured your
attention, perhaps even your sympathy. Old Izaac
Walton was another writer of this stamp ; and so
was his son-in,law Cotton : and so is our modern
" Nimrod," Apperton. Mr. Kentfield, to whom
we are indebted for the volume before us, may
claim to belong to the same hearty, straightforward
school ; for he is no discreet half-hogger, but goes
the whole porker in behalf of his darling
game. Billiards is evidently with him a matter of
first-rate importance. It is not merely a pastime,
but a branch of the Fine Arts. Nay, more ; it is
a science, and of the loftiest order. Some mean
minds may conceive astronomy, mathematics, and
natural philosophy to be of more consequence, and
to demand severer application ; but we question
much if Mr. Kentfield thinks so. And he is in the
right to be proud of his hobby, and ride it with
spirit, So far from demurring to his earnestness,
We cordially approve of it. Why do we pay such
respectful attention to Ude s theory on the skinning
of eels ; and Mrs. Glass's hypothesis on the roasting
of wood-cocks ? Because we feel that, like Mr.
Rentfield, they write in a spirit of generous devo-
tion to their theme. Mark, with what impressive-
ness of manner our author commences his preface !
" The object of this work," quoth he, " is to con-
vey a sound, systematic knowledge, founded on
correct and established scientific principles, and
elucidated by intelligible diagrams." He then
goes on to institute a parallel between billiards and
chess, giving, of course, the preference to the former
pastime. " Chess," he adds, " is a solitary and silent
game." It is " the mathematics of the mind—the
encounter of two master spirits." It is clear by
this definition that chess is no great favourite with
Mr. Kentfield ; and we do not wonder at it, for we
can conceive nothing more dull than to sit moodily
pondering over a move for half an hour together,
Just opposite your adversary, who is quite as silent,
and looks besides as grave and perplexed as if he
had just read his banker's name in the Gazette.
Draughts is another game of the same character,
Which no Christian with the slightest pretension to
animal spirits can think of without a yawn. But
billiards, as our Author states, is quite another
thing. It introduces, to use his own earnest lan-
guage, " a new train of ideas of a gently exciting
nature; and while you are playing at it, you have
the comfort of knowing, that you are " walking at
the
of between two and three miles an hour,
so
that you
You are absolutely killing two birds with one
stone we r r
of all billiard players, emmend
this volume to the attt irion
tPlityers, for it is the completest work
of the sort in
he language,
the
different
embellisuage, being, in addition to its
rules and regulations, embellished with several
Plates illustrative
strokes of the game.

ST. JAMES'S THEA./;C
--:--.,
After the Sonnant-
bula last night, in which, bythe
almost reconciled us to the absence way, Miss Cooper
produced
of Grisi, a piece
called A Lord in Pawn was
in Pawn is Lord Proxy (Tilbury), wucei`,l* The Lord
who, The
unex-
pectedly come to a title without a fortune,
anxious to supply the deficiency by marriage and is
rich widow Huckaback, he fancying that she
with the
tiful young lady with whom he has danced atsaa beau"
recent
ball. It happens, however, that this young lady (who
is the neice of Mrs. Huckaback) is in love witliCar-
mine (Brindall), a young painter, who is painting the
portrait of the old widow in the character of a she
p_
Lord Proxy employs a shoemaker of the name.
of Bristle (Davidson) as a go-between to the widow, and
after sundry mistakes and some confusion the two
matches are made, that of the Lord with the widow,
and the painter with the young lady. The title arises
from a debt of Lord Proxy to Bristle, amounting to
1,2001. for the payment of which his Lordship is in
pawn, and the discharge of which, of course, depends
upon his marriage. In the end the painter turns out to
be the Lord, but the Lord would make but a bad
painter. The audience did not like the Lord in Pawn,
nor did we, but de morluis nil, we hope the next novelty
will be more deserving of success.
HOP INTELLIGENCE—WORCESTER, Nov. 9.
--The supply of hops to-day, considering the early pe-
riod of the season, was unusually small, which confirms
the opinion now generally entertained, that the present
estimated duty for this collection, will not be realised.
The market was steady, and prices very firm at the
quotations given the previous week. Weighed to-day,
47.5 Sockets of new, 10
week, 226 pockets of pockets of old ; weighed in the
new, 50 pockets of old hops,
Worcester Herald.