The Sun.
London, England, 1853-03-17 00:00:00

- . " •
rast giv'erf her torlo4 t upTn the work other hands—God,
who did not hear, according to her dimmed apprehen-
sion,-those terrible prayers for Harry, which once wrung
her very heart, gave her to see him pass away with
peace and hope at the end, and bas permitted her—her,
so greedy of good fame and honour—to clear and redress
his sullied name ; and the angels know the deep, un-
speakable humility of thanksgiving which swells in
Martha's heart. So to all despairs, agonies, bitternesses
of the strong heart, which once stormed through them
all, but which God has chastened, exercised, at length
blessed, comes this end. Harvest and seed-time in one
combination, hopes realised and hopes to come, all giv-
ing thanks morning and evening for fair days sent to
them out of the heavens, and sorrow charmed into sweet
repose, and dangers kept away. But though Martha's
eyes are blind with tears, and her heart calls upon
Harry—Harry, safe in the strong hand of the Father,
where temptation and sorrow can reach him never more
—the same heart rises up in the great strength of joy
and faith, and blesses God, who knoweth the beginning
from the end—who maketh His highway through the
flood and, the flame—His highway still, terrible though
it be—who conducts into the pleasant places, and re-
freshes the failing breast with hope, andfthe sleep which
He gives to His beloved fell sweet and deep that night
upon the wearied heareof Martha Muir."

Zanoni. By Sir E. Bulwer Lytton. Cheap Edi-
tion. Chapman and Jlall.
It is not without ample reason that the author
of this noble romance ranks it amongst the highest
of his prose works of imagination. Although we
have not failed to recognise under the current of
the ,fiction a variety of typical meanings of very
profound significance, we have never been among
the number of those who have resolutely regarded
it as an allegory. It were as erroneous to treat it
obdurately as a production of a simply allegoric
character, asTit; would be—and in this we follow
the hint contained in the exceedingly suggestive
" Note" appendedlto!the present vplume—to treat
in the same perverse manner the " Faust" of
GoUthe, or the " Hamlet" of Shalispere. indeed, we
cannot altogether adopt as sufficient the:ingemous
suggestion of the anonymous critic whose explana-
tion of the meaning of " ZA11011i" is honoured by
insertion in the reprint before us, and who argues
that the hero of the story should be considered as
the incarnation (if one might so express it)of
ism, Zanoni, the character we mean, and not the
book, is something more than the symbol of Idealism
—just as Faust is something more than the type of
Intellectual Ambition, or as Hamlet is something
more than the, embodiment of Human Irresolution.
Each, we take it, must rather be regarded as a
veritable IllioroCOsM : a being inspired by peculiar
aspirations and acting under
the
circumstances.
Singularly clever though the explanation here
given by some unknO.Wit commentator (" one of our
most eminent living writers," as Sir E. B. Lytton
himself tells us in his " Preface"), undoubtedly
is _it is to us, we repeat, altogether unsatisfactory.
Zanoni, as we have seen, may, to a certain extent,
be considered to represent idealism," and Mej-
nour " Sciences" and Viola " Human Instinct '
,
and, Aidon‘ai "Faith," and the Dweller of the
Threshold " Fear," and Nicot " Passion," and
Glyndon " Unsustained Aspiration, and Mervale
" Conventionalism"—but that is very far from all,
there are beyond these inner meanings still =-
penetrated, Nevertheless, although to a consider-
able extent dissatisfied with the argument ad-
vanced by the writer of this very curious Appendix,
we must again acknowledge it to be so far ingenious
that we are in a manner grateful for its publication.
It may excite in the minds of the more super-
ficial or unoontemplative readers of " Zanoni" a
train of wholesome and elevating speculation. It
may afford them a clue through the labyrinths of its
subtle and mysterious philosophy. During' the
Preface to the present edition, our author takes
occasion to remark somewhat earnestly--" I refer
those who do me the honour to read Zanoni'
with more attention than is given to ordinary
romance, to the poem of ' King Arthur' for sug-
gestive conjecture into most of the regions of specu-
lative research, affecting the higher and more im-
portant condition of our ultimate being, which
have engaged the students of immaterial philosophy
in my own age"—a recommentation, by the way,
which, if adopted, must prove not less pleasurable
than profitable to the students in this philosophy.
Of the romance, as a work of' art, it would be
almost an impertinence in this place to offer any-
thing like a formal analysis. Its beauty has long
since been recognised and appreciated. Its fasci-
nation we have all felt, deepening and enlarging as
we advanced in the perusal, from the first wailing*
of that wierd cremona of Pisani to the last hell-
born reverberations of that grizzly Reign of Terror
(depicted in such ghastly and sombre colours to-
wards the close of the narrative), and which may
be said to have only terminated with the yells of
the populace round the guillotine when the axe
descends, and " blackness rushes on the soul of
Maximilian Robespierre." " Zanoni" must be re-
garded as invested with another interest not yet
mentioned, and one, moreover, of a very remark-
able character—that of having tended to popularise
in this country the otherwise recondite history o:
the still not extinct race of the Rosicrucians.

(Collected Poetical and Dramatic Works of Sir E.
Bulwer Lytton. Vol 11. Chapman and Hall.
Another volume of this excellent edition of the
Collected Poetical and Dramatic productions of
Sir E. Bulwer Lytton having just appeared, it only
remains to observe that it comprises the first nine
books of " King Arthur," an epic, the beauties of
which we ourselves have already frequently com-
mended, after having subjected it as a work of art
to the elaborate analysis of impartial criticism.
New graces become apparent on every re-perusal,
and that, we take it, is a sufficient token of sterling
excellence in either ancient or modern contribu-
tions to literature. A single perusal, however,
will amply satisfy the mind of every discerning
reader that " King Arthur " is as assuredly one
of the most remarkable of living effusions as it is
undoubtedly and beyond all question our author's
poetic masterpiece.

The Natural Principles of Beauty. By D. R.
Hay, F. R. S. E. Blackwood.
A treatise which, in its ingenuity, not less than
its subject, is exquisitely beautiful. 'Already, in a
more elaborate production, the anther had ex-
plained how the msthetic developments of the
human form coincide perfectly with that law of
harmonic ratio which has been allowed to be an
universal law of nature ever since the age of
Pythagoras. Upon this coincidence Mr. Hay has
based a new and very charming system of propor-
tion. He has expounded his system, moreover,
with infinite elaboration. His last splendid volume
will have sufficiently indicated this—the work is
entitled, " The Geometric Beauty of the Human
Figure Defined." His present treatise we take to
be a yet clearer evidence of the correctness of his
views, afforded through the medium of an indivi-
dualised illustration. It can scarcely fail to popu-
larise the system of which the author is the origi-
nator. As the writer himself intimates, at the
outset of his new publication, the method by which
he has founded upon the law of harmonic ratio a
distinct system of proportion may be readily enough
expounded. a It consists in dividing the semi-
circle by 2,3, 5, and 7, and multiples of these
primes, in the same arithmetical progression in
which the monochord spontaneously divides itself
in the production of the harmonics of sound, and
using the angles thus produced in applying har-
monic proportion to plane figures, through diagonal
direction instead of vertical and horizontal distance.
By this means," continues Mr. Hay, " divisions by
2,4, &c., give what may be termed, in harmonical
phraseology, tonic angles ; divisions by 3,6, &c.,
dominant angles ; divisions by 5, 10, &c., mcdi-
ant angles ; and divisions by 7, 14, &c., subtonic
angles." In all this we only recognise another and
very admirable indication of the analogy traceable
between the fine arts—an analogy which has long
since, in various particulars, been more thaii
• suspected. Colour and sound have long been
felt to possess this analogy, to a degree
that elevates into something more than the
oddly fanciful that remark of the blind man,
that Scarlet was like the blare of a trumpet.
Hitherto detected in other quarters, this latent
analogy has now been gracefully traced out by.
Mr. Hay, and applied by him to the more inti-
mate association of form and number—according
to the rules which had previously been known
to link number to harmony by a series of
symmetrical proportions. Besides the more com-
prehensive production already alluded to as
having emanated from the same hand, there
have appeared various others, all tending to
establish the author's really exquisite Theory
of the Beautiful in Form. This theory, as he him-
self reminds us in the preface to the elegant pamph-
let here submitted to criticism, " is applicable
to every species of formative art, from an architec-
tural structure to the meanest household utensil."
He has deemed it advisable, however, to restrict
its application through the present treatise to the
structure of the Human Figure. Even here he
has still further restricted himself—and, let us
add, we cannot but think judiciously—to the
analysis of the Female Figure alone. The
argument is illustrated by four engravings, besides
a frontispiece. To quote once more the words of
the author—" Here an attempt has been made to
prove that the mind is capable, through the eye,
of judging of symmetry, or of proportional
beauty, by seizing on the prominent points of an
object, and inquiring what are the relative direc-
tions which the other points occupy as seen from
these." Furthermore, he observes—" It has been
made to appear that the highest standard of sym-
metry, so estimated, is deduced from the simplest
law that could have been conceived—the law that

the angles of direction must all bear to_seme fixed
angle the same_simple relatien which the different
tones in a chord ,of music bear to the fundamental
note—that is, relations expressed arithmetically
by the smallest natural numbers. Briefly, it is here
proved, "that man, the image of his Maker, has
even in his low estate a frame based on the type of
the most perfectly conceivable symmetry.' By
founding (if we may so phrase it) this noble theory,
Mr. Hay has covered his ;Time with, distinction,
and has laid the basis, wei conceive, of no ephe-
meral reputation. By illustrating it anew through
the medium of this graceful treatise, he has con-
ferntd a real boon upon the community, for he has
afforded the public another opportunity of follow-
ing the golden rule of the poet—by looking through
the holy and awful mystery of Creation to the
holier, and yet more awful, mystery of Omnipo-
tence.

The Boy-Htmters.

By Captain Mayne Reid.
Bogue.
A companion volume has here been produced to
that charming story of the "Desert Home," which
we took occasion to commend in the strongest
terms—as it eminently well deserved—at the time
of its first appearance. The present narrative IlLike
its predecessor, is avowedly written for children,
and is designed, as all such works should be, to
convey instruction in the very process of creating
amusement. Captain Mayne Reid has already
shown in a remarkable manner his skill as a writer
of fiction. His two earlier effusions, the animated
and popular " Rifle Rangers," but, still more, the
enthralling and picturesque " Scalp Hunters"—a
production, by the way, that may be regarded as
bearing to the North American Prairies the same
kind'of relation that Herman Melville's exquisite
ic Typee" bears to the South Sea Archipelago—
rev ed no ordinary powers of originality as a
fabulist or story-teller on the part of our new
literary adventurer. This originality we did not
fail at once to recognise ; and we have a gratifying
remembrance that we were about the first to assert
that Captain Mayne Reid had displayed merits as
a writer such as augured admirably for his futur
performance. We were not tardy in proclaiming
this to be our conscientious conviction as re-
viewers. , Nor have we been disappointed in
our anticipations. Without attempting any very
extravagant enterprise, our author has endea-
voured to extend his popularity since that
period, and in doing this he has displayed merits
which in his regard we had not even conjectured.
Aspiring to charm the imagination of childhood by
the description of fanciful incidents, and of ficti-
tious characters, he has shown very unusual re-
sources of invention—but, more than this, an inti-
mate and enviable knowledge of nature, both
animate and inanimate. These capacities, presented
to our notice for the first time • by Captain Mayne
Reid in his " Desert Home," have been yet more
strikingly developed in his new volume, entitled
" The Boy Hunters.' Let us acknowledge, how-
ever, at once, that we cannot regard the latter to
be in any degree comparable to the former simply
as a work of imagination. It possesses none of its
peculiar and alluring fascination. It retains not a
vestige of that charm which led one on from page
to page, from chapter to chapter, through the whole
history of the lost faniily in the wilderness. It re-
calls to mind no sort of associating recollection of
the famous " Swiss Family Robinson"—much less
does it revive our early and loving remembrance of
our inimitable Defoe's masterpiece. Unlike the
" Desert Home" in these respects, this new tale-of
" The Boy Hunters" bears more of an analogy to
" Sandford and Merton" than to the incomparable
" Robinson Crusoe." It teaches by example. It
is crowded, if not with " wise saws," at any rate
with "modern instances" in abundance. The drift
of the narrative may be very readily indicated, and
from this the character of the whole work may be
at once understood. We are taken first of all to
Point Coupee, about three hundred miles up the
longest river in the world—starting from its mouth
or delta—the riper Mississippi. Here we are intro-
troduced to a farm settlement belonging to a
Frenchman named Landi, one of Napoleon's
old soldiers, a colonel of chasseurs, who,
on the downfall of the Emperor, has emigrated
to this region of the globe, accompanied by his
three children. Colonel Landi is presented to the
reader at once in his true character—now that his
military propensities have, by the misfortunes of
his hero-idol, been denied any further development
—namely, in the character of a Hunter Naturalist.
Besides his three sons, the old Colonel has another
companion—Hugot, a male domestic, formerly one
of the soldiers in his regiment, now his attached
and devoted adherent. With neither of these,
however, has the story much to do—with neither
master nor man have we much interest, our atten-
tion being from the very outset almost exclusively
restricted to the sayings and doings of Colonel
Landi's three children. They set forth together at
the commencement of the book upon an adventure
which does not terminate until the very conclusion
of the narrative. That adventure consists in the
discovery and capture of a white buffalo—the skin
of which, as a rare curiosity, Colonel Landi has
been requested, by an autograph letter from Europe,
to send to his friend Charles Lucien, Prince of
Musignano—in alluding to whose merits, as a
naturalist, our author says, to our mind drolly
enough, "Not all the Bonapartes have been bad"
—as naive an expression of intolerance towards
the imperial race as a body, as even Walter
Savage Landor himself would desire. Returning,
however, to the purport of the present volume, it
may be repeated, that, to gratify Prince Lucien
with a surprise, by sending him one of those white
skins which he has almost defied his friend to pro-
cure—they being regarded as scarcely less fabulous
and unprocurable than ,the plumage of a phoenix
or the horn of a unicorn—Colonel Landi resolves
to send his three young sons out on an ex-
pedition of research into the buffalo-wilder-
ness. A wooden leg, won in the wars, pre-
vents him from going himself in quest of the
desired booty. Hugot again must stop at Point
Coupe° with his beloved master, his old Colonel.
There consequently remains no alternative. The
boys must depart—and they go accordingly—though
not until after being provided with all desirable
equipments. The book recounts to us—and in this
lies its attraction—their various adventures. First
of all, however, we are made acquainted with them
individually—the writer describing them very cle-
verly, and with very agreeable niceness of discrimi-
nation. Basil is the eldest, a black-haired stripling
of seventeen, a " mighty hunter" like one of old,
the true " son of his father" in blood, and born a
Corsican. Lucien is the second, a ybuth fair-haired
and delicate (like his mother, who was a " blonde,"
and one of the Basques), ever busy with his book
when he is not himself making personal researches
after knowledge, a student devoted to natural his-
tory of the sciences comprised in which botany
and geology are his favourites. Francois, a curly-
haired urchin, is the youngest, and is described by
the author as quick-witted, " merry to madness,"
&c., &c.—in short, more than any of them, a French-
man. These are the three " Boy Hunters," who
start upon the expedition in search of a white buf-
falo, and in the course of which search they en-
counter all sorts of interesting adventures. Of
course, they obtain the coveted prize. in the end,
but not until after they have passed through nu-
merous hairbreadth 'stapes and become involved in
a series of enthralling difficulties. It must not be
forgotten that besides the children of Colonel Landi,
there are four other characters of some interest,
who participate in these difficulties and adventures.
These are of course, the beasts of burden. Basil's
horse, which is a half-Arab, is known as "Black
Hawk." Lucien's is a sober, quiet cob, named
very appropriately "Le Bourgeois." Francois',
like himself, a little skittish creature, more like a
pony in size than a horse, though he is a full-grown
horse too, being one of the fiery breed of the mus-
tangs, is called "Le Chat." Besides these, there
is the she-mule, " wiry and wicked as any of its
race," employed to carry the tent, the provisions,
the implements, the utensils, &c., „a true-bred
Mexican mule, designated " Jeannette." Such are
the members of the little party which sets out upon
this eccentric expedition. Basil on Black Hawk—
Lucien on Le Bourgeois—Francois on Le Chat—
and clattering after them the poor mule Jeannette.
But no, there is yet another creature to complete
the group, a noble dog—" A bloodhound with the
cross of a mastiff"—Marengo. So they jog forth
on their adventures. Exceedingly unlike angels'
visits in these as in all other respects, these .same
adventurers are neither " few" nor " far between."
On the contrary, they are so startling and novel of
their kind, and follow each other in such rapid suc-
cession, that the attention of the reader iskept in
the
hae
continited state of suspense and wondering excite-
ment. Throughout the whole story Captain Mayne
Reid shows a delightful familiarity with
animate and inanimate marvels of the
North American Continent. He reveals angr
in-
timate acquaintance with its fauna and its
flora, and " while undertaking
sibility for the truth of his sto
" "o
no
oht
he erl jes'lll2:yf
observes in his preface, " the author
Hunters' claims consideration for the truthfulness
of the materials out of which it is constructed,, Several times during the co he
of the narrative,
choenttaekmeps
toaccandsi
occasion
otatexpresspleasedto hismost Tt d
call your Closet Naturalists. Against this w
iunsnu ig,a ee
must protest with all the force of conviction, and
in no measured languagien:atAga
we must protest, as against to some among the nobles+. •
sapeincsitesalloftgoehewptitedra::::::gl;
talniedsvcieernyee— of Natural
His.toprylon. eeArsgaininst
all h
flaffrant
fact, We must protest, as against a veil -
can possibly
heinous ingtitule. No one d
• admire more than.. .we do the high 81'