The Sun.
London, England, 1863-12-18 00:00:00

our own, is ever rapidly hastening. Turning,
however, from any mere illustrative figures of
speech, which, after all, at the best, but dimly hint
the really marvellous contrast observable between
" The Student" and " Caxtoniana"—we may say at

once of the latter that as a collection of Miscella-
neous Essays, they occupy a very high, and, at the
same time, a very exceptional position. Pisistratus
Caxton, by right of these Essays of his, will take high
rank among the world's Great Essayists—among the
Great Essayists, and even, we might say (bearing
in mind the terseness of some of the utterances here
encountered not infrequently in Caxtoniana) among
the great Epigrammatists of various literatures. Sur-
passed by them all, that is by all the greatest among
these Great Essayists and Epigrammatists, sur-
passed by them all, in the distinguishing merit
peculiar to each—in the quaintness of his delight-
ful humour by the inimitable Elia, in the glitter
of his poignant sarcasms by the cynical and
caustic Rochefoucault, in the fullness of meaning
discernible in every pregnant sentence, in every
pregnant word of Lord Verulam, in the endless
suggestiveness of every seemingly chance and
casual touch of Montaigne, and so forth, through
the whole glorious catalogue. Pisistratus, so far
"holds his own" among them all, by the combina-
tion, very wonderful of its kind, of qualities the
most diversified in these seven and twenty multi-
farious essays of Caxtoniana. Alternately, and that,
too, with a very rapid,alternation, they are humour-
ous and pathetic, impressive and whimsical, full'ot
the shrewdest worldly wisdom (instance, in regard
to this vii. "On the Management of Money")
didactic, metaphysical, analytic, and, while elo-
quent always, eloquent sometimes with the capti-
vating eloquence of so much written day-dreaming !
Upon the very threshold of Caxtoniana, however,
it should be here remarked, what indeed we
had purposed remarking much earlier, that we
encounter upon a preliminary fly-leaf, as
charming a specimen of Sir Edward Lytton's,
almost at times, perfected style of composition
as any, perhaps, that could be found in the whole
range of these two volumes. We refer, in saying
this, to the dedication of Caxtoniana. But then, it
should be said, in all truth, that Sir Edward,
throughout his extended and remarkable career as
an author, has ever shown himself to be particularly
felicitous in his Dedications. They crowd upon
our recollection, these most graceful end courtly de-
dications of his, at this mere casual mention of
his skill in an art as difficult, we should suppose, to
succeed in as he succeeds in it, as the art of well-
conceiving a mural or monumental inscription !
Among the many happy dedications he has already
penned, who that knows his writings familiarly but
bears in remembrance his exquisitely tender dedi-
cation of his collected works to his mother, his
dedication of The Pilgrims of the Rhine to one of
his brothers, his humorous dedication of Money to
John Forster, the man of letters, of The Last Days
of Pompeii toe Sir William Gell, and of another
romance to John Gibson, the sculptor ? Several
others we here pass over unnoticed. And now, there
finally comes from his hand this most charming
dedication (to a rarely- gifted and world-famed
artist) of the two volumes of Caxtoniana. How
does it run, this gracefullest and courtliest of Dedi-
cations ? Simply thus :

" To Henrich Ernst.—My dear Ernst,—Accept the de-
dication of these ' Essays.' You will recognise in some of
them subjects on which I have not unfrequently conversed
with you and the charming critic who so worthily bears
your distinguished name. The friendship I have formed
with natures so noble as hers and your own has added a
new charm to my life; and all who have the privilege to
know you will comprehend the affectionate pride with which
I inscribe to that friendship this gratefulmemerial.—E.B.L.
—Knebworih, October, 1863."

Simply expressed and brief though the wording of
this dedication is, we are much mistaken if it is not,
in the estimation of the eminent artist to whom it
is addressed, beyond all the garlands that could be
flung before him, in homage to him and to his art,
with this advantage, that it is one that is perennial.
Abundant illustrations of the truth of the remarks
we have here taken occasion to indulge in, with
reference more especially to the extraordinary
diversity of the contents compacted together
in these two volumes of " Caxtoniana,"
might be adduced. Yet—to what end, in
point of fact, need one other passage be cited from
a work as secure of winning its own audience, as
the former writings of its voluminous author have
done, almost equally abroad and at home, almost
equally, it might even be asserted, in both hemi-
spheres. In one of his former works, we have a
remembrance of Bulwer alluding to the fuller mead
of recognition awarded to his more serious contri-
butions to literature among the Germans than
among his own countrymen. In a speech delivered
by him some years afterwards from a public
platform in the metropolis, it was upon the occasion
of a meeting in reference to the Question of Uopy-
right, we have a distinct recollection of his remark-
ing that the absence of any copyright treaty be-
tween England and the United States, had involved
a loss to himself, individually, even then, of, at the
very least, some sixty thousand pounds sterling.
With such a public to address, by right of his fame,
upon either side of the ocean, upon either side of the
channel, Sir Bulwer Lytton needs now less than
ever that the material out of which he has con-
structed any new literary fabric should be evidenced
or rather exemplified, by the exposition to that end,
as abstracted from it, of yet one other of those
everlasting bricks or boulders of Hierocles' Skolas-
tikes. If we were, by a hackneyed hyperbole of com-
pliment, to speak of the words composing these two
volumes of Caxtoniana as in any way comparable
to the fabled gems dropping from the lips of the
Arabian Princess, we should be constrained to add,
in the way of a yet more extravagant hyperbole,
that here, too, all of them, diamonds, rubies,
sapphires, garnets, amethysts, emeralds, have been
previously cut by the cunning hand of the intellec-
tual lapidary. Some amongst them are, in truth,
not unworthy, as it appears to us—though here
but in a prose setting (prose, however, with a
"rhythm")—of ranking by reason their lustre
with those—

" Jewels, five words long,
That on the stretched forefinger of all Tinse
Sparkle for ever I"

In Caxi oniana Sir Bulwer Lytton's Genius dis-
ports itself in all its variety. Grave though the
general tone of the Essays undoubtedly is, even to
the gravity of a homily, here and there, for example,
as an indication of its diversity in contrasting
styles, the drollery of illustration introduced, at
intervals, is kindred in its breadth to that
evidenced long ago in the delineation of the
young lover's veteran henchman in " Eugene
Aram," in the portraiture of the worthy provincial
linendraper in "Night and Morning," in the inci-
dent even of Mr. Pelham dropping in at pudding
time in the small shopkeeper's back parlour, when
that most fastidious of fine gentlemen is undergoing
the purgatorial infliction of a• diligent per-
sonal canvass. Now that the admirable Lib-
rary Edition of the Novels and Romances of
the Author of " The Caxtons" and " Caxtoniana"
has been completed according to the promise of the
prospectus issued by the publishers at the time of its
commencement, we would here put it to those
publishers whether it might not be advisable to
append, volume by volume, to that same Library
Edition of Bolas er's Novels and Romances, revised
reprints of the pick at least among his miscellaneone
writings. Suggested, of course, by this first cnnc
,
tive appearance of Caxtoniana—,. The Ston.dgeestinig,
some such form as the one we are heret
05 companion
namely, as a companion volume,
most acceptable.h
from
oem Novelst
e pressand
volumes, to the forty-odd volurn:L:fs
Romances, could hardly fabi
of. his Poems,
succession, as supple-
Afterwards there might
to the comprehensive Library
at monthly interva,lf:
mentary volumes
Edition of Balvver
History
his of Attie
of his Ploys, of SiVnordkuseteiossued reprints
ns, and of his
principal Speeches both in and out of Parliament.
Reverting, however, for a moment to the work
now, immediately before us, this series
of
essays entitled (in remembrance of that Family
Picture, which is perhaps their author's master-
piece) Caxtoniana we may here, on laying it aside,
after a very careful perusal and analysis of its
contents, Very eon filently predicate in its regard
that it will often be
turned back to in the hereafter
by its reader, alternately. ftir consolation and for
encouragement.