The Sun.
London, England, 1865-12-28 00:00:00

LITERATURE.

Illustrated Gift-Books.
Handbook of Christian Symbolism. By W. and
G. Audsley, Architects. Day and Son (Limited).

—Another of those magnificent works (le luxe, in
the production of which the celebrated firm of
publishers and chromolithographers, the Messrs.
Day and Son (Limited), stand altogether unrivalled,
has here been issued from the press in the form of
this superb Handbook, Giftbook and Christmas-

book, all in one, upon the exquisite theme of
" Christian Symbolism." And as a glorious

indication, even externally, of what is meant
by Christian Symbolism —we have outside
the volume depicted for us in red and
golden emblazonry upon a solid bevilled binding
of apple-green cloth imitative of morocco— The
Cross, the emblem of Salvation, surrounded by
The Circle, the emblem of Eternity, and this again
surrounded in its turn by The Nimbus, the emblem
of the Glory of the Divinity. Upon the centre
of the Cross, the ineffable symbol of The
Pentacle, consisting of two interwoven Equilateral
Triangles, each and all of them emblematical of
the Adorable Trinity—within the central sexagon
formed by the inner tracery of the Pentacle, the
holy initial-letters I H S—significative of Human
Redemption. The contents of the volume, however,
although extending to no more than eight compa-
ratively brief chapters, will be found upon examina-
tion to be more than a simply tentative treatise upon
the subject of Christian Symbolism generally—being
the rather in point of fact upon all the great essen-
tials of symbolism as it relates to Christianity, ex-
haustive, as a treatise, for the generality of readers.
Archeologists and Antiquarians will dig deeper of
course into the foundations of this mysterious theme,
but for the generality of readers, we repeat, the
volume as it now stands, is to all intents and pur-
poses, sufficient, is—as we have said, in a manner
almost exhaustive. The compilation of the
work has evidently been for the fraternal authors of
it, who are architects, a labour of love, and we should
imagine also from the mere choice of the subject
matter of their disquisition—but still more, let us
add, from the manner in which it has been treated
by them throughout—a labour no less of unaffected
devotion than of enthusiastically artistic apprecia-
tion. However this may be, the result of their joint
labour is such as to delight the eye and to captivate
the imagination. The book will exercise a charm
over those who consult it : for few will care to con-
sult it who are not predisposed to look upon its em-
blazoned delineations and the accompanying expla-
natory letterpress with a profound and sympathetic
interest. Its character altogether is intensely
High Church, or, to speak more emphatically, in-
tensely Catholic. Its accumulation of the lovely facts
here brought together for artistic and literary cele-
bration, is drawn from the treasury of the past,
from the depths of the catacombs, from the sculp-
tured traceries and adornments of the old gothic
cathedrals, from the gorgeous emblazonments of their
stained-glass windows, of their tapestried banners
and hangings and draperies, of their priceless chalices,
and tabernacles, and remonstrances, and lecturns, and
thuribles, and reliquaries, and all the rest of their
costly paraphernalia, fabricated for the most part
from one or other of the precious metals, and en-
crusted and powdered over in profusion with every
variety of precious stones. After a comprehensive
introduction relating to the whole suggestive beauty
of what is signified by Christian Symbolism, the
authors consider, herein, the whole subject of that
symbolism minutely and reverently in detail. The
Nimbus of God is first taken into consideration. Then
the Aureole and Glory of the Saints. After that
the Nimbus of the Angels and Archangels. The
second chapter then takes into account the august
symbols and emblems of the Omnipotent God—the
symbols now of the First, now of the Second, now
of the Third Person of the Blessed Trinity, now of
the Holy Trinity in Its indivisible Unity—the
Equilateral Triangle, the trefoil, the three Greek
letters 0 12N, meaning 6 1:n", "lam." And so on—
through all the august and lovely hieroglyphics
symbolical of the Mysteries of Eternity, of the
Glories of Time, of the sacred annals and divine
Truths of Christianity.
By the Loch and Riverside. Edmonton and

Douglas.—An oblong volume of no inconsider-
able dimensions, containing within it a rich
store of humour at once of a pictorial and
a piscatorial character. Whoever the artist
may be, he carefully conceals his identity
under initials (K. I. F.), almost amounting to the
anonymous. Having all the while no reason what-
ever for such concealment so far as the excellence,
freshness, and vivacity of his drawings are concerned.
If the late John Leech had ever indulged his
humorous fancy by drawing with a greasy crayon
upon a lithographic stone, instead of with a lead
pencil upon boxwood, we might have looked for
just such a series of sketches as these by K. I. F.
as a sort companion to Mr. Briggs's angling adven-
tures.

Tennyson's Princess. Illustrated by Maclise.—
Although the name of Moxon still appears upon the
title-page of this exquisite and luxurious volume,
the work is issued now, we believe, from the estab-
ment of the Messrs. Routledge and Sons—
coming to us from the Broadway, Ludgate-hill,
and not as hitherto from Dover-street, Piccadilly.
Identically the same with the work as it originally
appeared some seasons back, this charming edition
of "The Princess," by Alfred Tennyson, illustrated
by Daniel Maclise, leaves us nothing whatever to
say of it in the way of additional commendation.
It is, if not the poet's masterpiece, or the artist's
chef d'ceuvre, a veritable capo d'opera among
elegantly decorated publications—a jewel of a book
even in its material or substantive character as such,
that is to say in its mere binding, paper, and typo-

graphy.
TVordsworth's Poems for the Young. Strahan.—
Externally even, this dainty gift book is singu-
larly attractive. Ingeniously let into the binding
are three of the prettiest coloured illustrations,
the letterpress inside being besides this very plenti-
fully embellished. Among all the many lovely
poems of William Wordsworth, about the
very loveliest are those in celebration of the charms
of childhood. The little cottage girl who persists in
saying " We are Seven "—who is there that knows
her not, or, that knowing her, does not love her ?
Here she is brought visibly before us, and together
with her all her little male and female associates, the
children born of the brain and heart of the bard of
Rydal Mount. Welcome to our affections at
all times, coming to us, no matter under what
guise or aspect, they are especially and very dearly
welcome at a home-season like this of Christmas-
time, and when they appear before us in a shape in
itself so exceptionally alluring.
Scenes from the Winter's Tale. Illuminators,
Owen Jones and Henry Warren ; on Stone, A.
Warren. Day and Son (Limited).—A gorgeous
book, the leaves of which are less leaves than
they are thick tablets covered over with the
richest blazonry and the loveliest illuminations.
Perdita Leontes—Hermione—Florizel—Autoly-
cue, and the rest of the leading dramatis persona of
Shakspere's exquisite classics pastoral drama of " The
Winter's Tale" here appear before us in visionary
splendour to the music of the Immortal Bard him-
self and under a very halo or aureole of chromatic
magnificence glittering around them at the
touch of the luminous pencils of Owen Jones and
Henry Warren. None but a lover of illuminated
literature already familiar with the magical beauty
lavished upon works of this luxurious character
emanating from the Messrs. Day and Son's
establishment can form the faintest notion
of the glory of colour squandered over
these pages (or tablets as we have called them).
delineative of " Scenes from the Winter's Tale,"
from any mere verbal description. To say that they
are leaves resplendent with all the colours of the
rainbow, would be to say hardly anything. For
salmon colour, and mauve, and ruby, and delicatest
pink, and purpling damson are but very faintly, if
at all discernable, among all the variable tints of the
arch of Iris, whereas here, under the brushes of
Owen Jones and Henry -Warren, aided by the
Messrs. Day and Son's (Limited), un-limited appli-
ances theyhave been squandered over and around the
text and the embellishments with all the imperial
luxuriance of the modern art of chromolithography,

It is a work of poetic and artistic volu
luscious in the glow and the grace of it—in the
grace of the outlines and in the glow of the colouring
--alike in tone though unlike in degree to the sense
of the more educated and the less educated among
its purchasers. Opening the book anywhere—
merely to see it is to accord to it our instant ad-
miration.

)tuousnes

Passages from Modern English Poets: Illustrated
by the Junior Etching Club. Day and Son (Limited)•
—Nearly fifty original etchings are here brought
together—to be precise, forty-seven in all--as illus-
trative of English Poets, living or dead, almost all of
them Poets of the present century. Sparsely scattered
through the collection, the exceptions, in effect, go
no further back than Grey or Shenstone. Several
of these etchings are of singular beauty, manY
of them are of great force and dash, a few
are of remarkable power. But mingled with
these there are others so crude or jejune, so
blurred or scratchy, as to be falteringly indi-
cative of their having come from the needle of a
mere amateur or tyro in the etcher's art. As a
whole, however, coupled with the selection of Poems
the etchings illustrate, the book is a literary and
artistic elegance among Christmas offerings.

.The Path on Earth to the Gate of Heaven. By
the Rev. F. Arnold. Dean and Co.—A volume
more like one of the old fashioned illustrated
gilt-edged annuals has not for a long time
been published. It is purely of a religious
character, however, as the graceful title of the book
clearly enough indicates. A charming Christmas
souvenir or New Year's offering it makes, moreover,
and one in many ways worthy of preservation.
Several famous paintings have been selected among
the themes apportioned to the artists whose powers
have adorned the letter-press of the rev. author
with sixteen really beautiful embellishments. Con-
spicuous among them will be recognised the Mignon
of Ary Scheffer and the Christian Martyr of Slin-
geneyer. A volume, it is altogether, that can
hardly be otherwise than a most welcome decora-
tion to the table of any boudoir or drawing-room
where Christianity is revered and art appreciated.
An Alphabet of Monograms. By Henry Leslie.
Day and Son (Limited).—A marvellous reper-
tory of Monograms, comprising within it up-
wards of Five Hundred Designs—every one
among them contrived, invented, we might say,
and afterwards very dexterously and elegantly
engraved by the same hand of rare cun-
ning—the hand of Henry Leslie. To enamellers,
engravers, die-sinkers, chasers, carvers, modellers,
heraldic painters, embroiderers, and illuminators,
the volume will be of a value and utility almost in-
calculable. Terminating with a very Royal-Rose
of a monogram indicative of the name of Victoria,
the book sets forth upon its title-page—that is to
say, in the four corners of it—four very remark-
able and elaborate Monograms of the names, here
of Albert Edward and Alexandra, there of Napoleon
and Eugenie. The other designs being almost all
of them simply initials interwoven.

The British TV orkman is a cheap illustrated
periodical of sterling excellence, mainly remark-
able for the boldness, and occasionally the beauty,
of its woodcut embellishments.

The Band of Hope Review might be spoken of
in nearly identically the same terms, only that its
letterpress is of that intensely good character that
its influence is almost, by a sort of revulsion, to
make its reader feel slightly irreligious !
Old Jonathan is another dreadfully proper
publication—an overwhelmingly worthy old gentle-
man he is, whose talk savours so monotonously of
the mere wishy-washiness of a factitious piety that
it becomes in the end nothing less than sickeningly
vapid, utterly nauseous, and all but demoralising !

Hide and Seek. By Wilkie Collins. (Smith,
Elder, and Co.)

A new and popular edition of Wilkie Collins'
third work of fiction has here in this half-crown
volume been brought within reach of the outermost
circle of his admirers. " Antonina" was the first
or maiden work of this eminent Novelist. " Basil"
was the second. " Hide and Seek " (as we have
said) the third. Among all his works, perhaps, the
least known—certainly the least generally appre-
ciated. That he himself, however, sets high store
upon it, is indicated pretty plainly by the circum-
stance that it is the one he has selected to inscribe
in simple but merest words of affection and admi-
ration to Charles Dickens. And it assuredly will
hold, if only for that reason, high place among the
stories related by the famous tale teller to whose
enthralling fancy the world is indebted for such
other more renowned works of fiction as " The
Woman in White," " The Dead Secret," "No
Name," and the yet unfinished " Armadale."

POSTAL SERVICE OF THE UNITED STATES.—The
Postmaster-General of the United States reports
that the mail service in operation at the close of the fiscal
year ending 30th of June, 1865, embraced 6,012 routes of
the aggregate length of 142,340 miles. The aggregate
miles of transportation are stated at 57,993,494, and the
cost per mile was 111 cents by railroad, 144 cents by
steamboat, 10 cents by celerity, &c. The number of let-
ters conveyed in the mails in the year is estimated at
467,591,600. Of these 4,368,087 were returned to the dead-
letter office, including 566,097 army and navy letters. De-
ducting 1,156,401 letters returned to writers, or held as
valuable,the total number lost or destroyed was 2,352,424
or one in every 200 mailed for transmission and delivery.
Fully three-fourths of the letters returned as dead fail to
reach the parties addressed through faults of the writers,
so that the actual losses from irregularities of service and
casualties, ordinary and incidental to the war, did not ex-
ceed ono in every 800 of the estimated number intrusted to
the mails. The returns of dead letters from cities are
largely in excess of proportions based upon population.
To them special efforts have been directed to secure the
most efficient service, and it is believed improvements in
operation, chiefly that of free delivery, will diminish the
number of undelivered letters at offices in densely popu-
lated districts. The receipts of the department for the
year wore in excess of the expenditure, but in the wily'
current year the expenditure, allowing for the re-opening
of Southern offices, are estimated fit $18,768,000, leaving
deficiency of $1,200,000. The Postmaster-General re-
commends several changes in the conduct of the business
of the department. He recommends that stamped enve-
lopes be charged but at the price of the stamp, and that
"request envelopes"—that is, envelopes which have been
purchased from the post-office having a request printed on
them that they be returned if not called for in a certain
time, be so returned without additional postage. He also
recommends that pre-paid letters shall be restored to the
owners free of postage, and that letters may be forwarded
from one office to another at the request of the party ad-
dressed without extra charge. He states that, under the
present system, the cost of advertising letters which are
subsequently sent to the dead-letter office is $60,000, and
he recommends the repeal of the law giving the advertising
to the paper having the largest circulation, and thinks
that the mode of advertising should be loft discretional
with the Postmaster-General. He states the loss to the
department, which is the result of the franking privilege,
at $2,000,000, estimating that this would accrue, if free
matter was charged with existing postage rates, over and
above the annual appropriations therefor. Although the
Postmaster-General does not think the time yet come for
general reduction in the rates of postage, he confidently
looks forward to it shortly, and now thinks that new.
postal arrangements should be made with foreign countrie%
by which the rates should be materially decreased.
UNITED STATES' ARMY PENSION LIST.—In the
fiscal year ending the 30th of June, 1865, 15,000
army invalid pensioners were added to the pension rolls.
At the close of the year there were 84,130 army pensioners
on the rolls, requiring for their payment an annual appro-
priation of $7,792,772. There are on the pension rolls the
names of 1,115 widows of Revolutionary soldiers. TWO
soldiers of the army of the Revolution still live to receive
their $3OO a year—namely, Samuel Cook of Clarendon,
New York, aged 99, and William Hutchings, of Penobscot,
Maine, aged 101. It is 82 years since the termination of
that war.
The anniversary meeting of the Anthropological
Society will take place on Tuesday, January 2, when t11('
annual address will bo delivered. The fellows and thou:
friends will dine together in the evening at St. James
The next mail packet from Jamaica w ill be th©
Seine ; she is expected to-morrow, and will bring neW
from Jamaica up to the Bth inst.
CHRISTMAS MARRIAGES AT LAMBETH OLD CHURCO:
On Sunday morning last as many as 34 marriages
took place at Lambeth Old Church, on Christmas nrrni
ago
as many as 40, and on Boxing-day (Tuesday morning?
1,
many as 14 happy couples were tied together in the °°
bonds. The reason assigned for this unusual number beinto:;
married at this church is, that the fees aro less by 3s. 601 o
4s. than at any of the district churches. In consequence ‘-
therno r anmi
nog t h
to
us 7 toof
eduty
yt
mabne
wasdone o eeadc of
commencethe abovaos tchtt tr2e:
as 8 o'clock, so as to have the wholebli concluded befoio.
commencement of the regular forenoon service.