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

the angles of direction must all bear to some fixed
angle the same simple relation 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 name with distinction,
and has laid the basis, we conceive, of no ephe-
meral reputation. By illustrating it anew through
the medium of this graceful treatise, he has con-
ferred 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-Menters. 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 Pike
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
" Typee" bears to the South Sea Archipelago—
revealed 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, tat 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 river 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 Lander 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
Coupee 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 youth fair-haired
and delicate (like his mother, who was a " blon de,"
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., &e.—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 'napes 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 h'alf-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, dm, 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 is kept inacontinued state of suspense and wondering
excite-
ment. Throughout the whole story Captain
M
Reid shows a delightful familiarity with aytnhee
North American
animate and inanimate marvels of the great
Continent. f
timate acquaintance with its He reveals an
ain-
flora, and " while undertakinuna and its
e rsoe
sibility for the truth of his sto gno nlf-
observes as
e authorth eotfniththehi esmpful'
nßeossy
Hunters 'in his preface, "h
claims considerationt for
of the materials out of which it is constructed.,,
Several times duritnog the course of the narrative,
he takes occasion to his
contempt and aendlows.e.t_ nfost unmitigated
Naturalists, io detestation 11at
Againsth e is pleasedthis,.
we
;
must protest
iwnenmousmetaspruorteedstilat,lka all the fort© of conviction, and
nsguagaagien.stAagsapinecsitesalo.lftilzhe ptreaasssaogne:
to some
.among the noblest pioneers in
the science of Natural Fristory. Against all this, in
fact, we must protest, as against a knowledge in
very flagrant
and.,:3_, very heinous ingratitudo. No one can possibly
. mire more than we do the high and admirable