The Sun.
London, England, 1830-02-02 00:00:00

LITERATURE.

A COMPENDIOUS GERMAN GRAMMAR.
LONDON, 1830. _

If << a great book be a great evil," and the
converse of the case hold equally good, this tiny
Lilliputian grammar must be a superlative gain
to literature. To an old gentleman, however,
who is desirous of studying German, as Cato
studied Greek at the age of eighty, its type, un-
aided by spectacles, must be nearly invisible.
But such students, fortunately for the compiler,
Mr. Bernays, are rare. His book is intended for
the use of the young—the ardent—and the am-
bitious, with whom its dimensions will be in its
favour, as tending to prove that a severe and
Judicious condensation has been exercised ; that
all unnecessary matters have been omitted, and
their place supplied by merely what is essentially
Valuable.

MAGAZINE DAY.

MONTHLY REVIEW, No. 54.

From the circumstance of this work coining
at so late an hour to hand, we have seldom had
an opportunity of doing that justice to its merits
Which they deserve. This we the more regret,
as among the numerous—we might almost add—
the countless periodicals of the day—few hold
a more distinguished station than the Monthly
Review. Whether we regard its general sense of
propriety in its strictures on the passing works
of the day; its mild, impartial, and acute style
of criticism, or minute analysis ; its varied, and,
many instances, its profound knowledge—
Whether we look to each or all of these, we shall
find the Review in question possesses high claims
to public favour. In addition to this richly-
"tented praise, we cannot too warmly commend
its temperate and sensible politics, which, unfet-
tered by Whig, Tory, or Radical, possess a
straight-forward manly independence of character.
The present number is in all respects a superior
one. The opening article, on " Landon's and
Montgomery's. Poetry," contains some just ob-
servations on the subject of the latter's Satan,
though we cannot help thinking that the Re-
viewer has been too hard on the fair " Improvi-
satrice." Besides Miss Landon's Foetic qualifi-
cations, viz. her fancy, her feeling, her frequent
propriety of expression, she evinces at times a
vigour of thought and passion, and a fullness of
idea, that satisfy us she must have reflected well
and deeply, and made the best use of her time.
" On the Present State of Foreign Affairs" is a
temperate and rational notice of Mr. Gaily
Knight's letter to the Earl of Aberdeen. We
subjoin a specimen of its quality of remark :

" There were in the worm grumblers against the ruling
powers, long before Thersites called Ulysses a fool, and
there have been ever since imitators of his illustrious
example. Freeport, in the Spectator, talking of the
hardness of trade, finds in the present day his exact coon-
.terpart in the idler, who, with his ten or twenty thou-
sand a year, lounges at his club, and growls over his
newspaper. We Ive never been without prophets, who
have foretold to our nation speedy decay and dissolution,
and yet here we are living when we ought to be dead, merry
when we ought to be sad, in the midst of our poverty
managing to pay thousands for a song at the opera,
driving the price of all the luxuries of life to unheard of
extravagance, and apparently so eloyerl with all sorts of
enjoyment, that we pay forty pounds a-day to the Siamese
boys, for the purpose of enjoying a rarity !
"Do we then deny the existence of distress ? Far be
it from us to support so direct a contradiction to esta-
blished facts : but we will ask any man, not only to seek
in his own recollection, but to discover in the records of
history, any period when distress did not exist. The
poets tail us of a golden age, when all men were honest,
and all women virtuous, when people were happy, and
dined on acorns; but since that favoured time a mixed
state of combined good and evil has always been the por-
tion, not only of men, but of nations; and it is equally
'airs to expest unalloyed happiness for the former, and
unexceptionable prosperity for the latter. What we as-
sert is this, that though partial distress is undoubtedly
experienced, yet there is far from being any foundation
for gloomy foreboding, and that there is not the least rea-
son for distrust as to the general prospects of the nation.
In attempting to support these positions, we are well aware
of the terrible odds that encounter any one who tries to
persuade an Englishman that he has a right to be happy."
4i Lectures on Sculpture" review in a spirit
adverse, but not acrimonious, the late edition of
• Mr. Flaxman's celebrated Lectures. We do not
coincide with the Reviewer's opinions, though
we respect his sagacity, his boldness, and above
all, his sound sense. « Rose's Southern Africa,"
is a notice of this enterprising traveller's re-
searches in Africa, executed ill a style and with
a spirit that would do credit to a Quarterly Re-
viewer in his happiest moments of composition,
" Letters and Journals of Lord Byron, by
Moore," is now becoming rather a hackneyed
subject, from the great difficulty that exists of
throwing a new light upon the subject. The
public has by this time fully made up
its mind that the work in question is one
of the most fascinating, instructive, and
felicitously executed in the language, an opinion
whichiiethe Reviewer unhesitatingly endorses.
T
Fifty-third number of this work, strange
to say, has only just this moment reached us ;
h is both amusing and intelligent, but as nearly
five k
wee
have elapsed since its publication, we
. shall content ourselves with this general com-
mendation.