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

LIT

.R E.

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Harry Muir. By the author of " Adam Grieme,"
&c. 3 vols. Hurst and Blackett.
It is impossible to conceive a more simple tale
than this. In the quiet and secluded country
dwell its heroes and heroines, far away from the
strife of politics, the maze of fasluon, the din of
business, and the traffic of commerce. No won-
derful event is introduced, and no striking casualty
appears, and yet, notwithstanding, it would be
difficult to find a more interesting story, or to meet
With 4!-°l.c Powerfully-delineated dramatis persona.
Nature is here shown forth, and truth speaks now.
Scottish manners, customs, scenery, and life are
veryaby drawn; from ths little Maggie MacgillivraY
f clipping" at her mother's, door in the sunlight,) to the aged dragon who guarded the familiar scenes
from whence he had seen generations pass away.
Harry Muir, the nominal hero, is only a secondary
personage in the tale—the results of his doings are
t"e4t4TP§ of e WPFIc and the effects he causes
fora the subject-matter for remark ; but it is his
eldest sister Martha to whom the first place must
be given. Her vigorous Toad could well have borne
her taenlibr through every trouble—but it was not so
to be. She, had to bear the heaviest burden this
life can bring, to remain passive, when burning for
action, to let things take Weir course of evil, when
she felt that
ex exertions they might be turned
into a *afe and secure 044444 in this, character
the authoress aellieVe§ a signal triumph. Many
may rileh on in the struggles of life and fall or win,
but it is only a few who can control themselves,
who can see their dearest wishes crumble beneath
their feet, their cherished fabrics dashed down into
the dust, and yet go on, in wailing strongth, hope,
and courage. Their heart's desire, their soul's am-
bition, is gone ; it has become worse than dead—but
the spirit will not yield ; it resists to the end.
Martha is shown like this. At first she rebelled
against her fate, and would not bend to circnra-
tances; but time, that shattered her 4iglAt haPes, and
cast a shade over her yOung life, brought wisdom
age might have envied, andfaith martyrs might have
emulated, She is made pleasing in her manners,
which is not often seen in those cast in her mould :
her way of yielding the precedence to her
young sister-in-law (quite a piild, her ways,)
while conscious herself of surpassing other
women in intellect, is very graceful and
touching. Rose and Violet are charming girls,
4411 afford a relief tci the sombre foreground of the
picture, Cuthbert Charteris, with his determined
and resolute conduct i is welcome, after the vacil-
lating and wayward harry. The indiscriminating
multitude are always led away by such men as
Harry ; but the far,seeing and wise-judging know
that those who feel the least make others suffer the
most, and that those who laugh in trouble and
revel, without a care for the day, aro clouding others'
sunshine, and laying .up in store many a sad mor-
row for those connected with them, 4n admirable
lesson is here given for those unversed in such
knowledge. No one is sent here to smile and enjoy
himself, bit to promote the welfare, and, if possible,
the happiness of others. Harry never cared for
his wife, his children, his three sisters, his friends,
his home, or his fortunes, All might go to wreck
and ruin, provided he was amused—not that he
was bad-hearted or evil-disposed by nature. But
what is nature without grace, and what good worth
mentioning is there in a man who cannot refuse
wrong or trampling under his feet the snares of those
he really, despises ? One point is very natural :
Harry, so yielding abroad, was a very despot when
crossed at home. He exerted his authority as mas-
ter of the house, but he could never be the master
of himself. With his transitory physical advan-
tages, with health and strength buoying him up,
he felt himself as king and lord of all, never caring
or heeding for that inward power stronger than
armed hosts, and " mightiest in the mighty," which
can -stand forth unharmed in the midst of ill, meet
the seducing tempters face to face, and resist and
overcome them. As little Violet said in her precocious
reflections, "Is it all the fault of those who lead
away ? Are not people themselves to blame for being
led away ?" And again, " You never talk of folks
being led away for good." Many are the wise say-
ings of Martha in the long, wearying season of
trouble which those wretched sisters had to endure.
When Rose said her heart was breaking, Agnes
(the miserable wife) exclaimed it would kill her.
Martha, whose feelings for Harry, whom she had

watched tendedand taught from infancy--combined
a mother's!care, a sister's sympathy, and a wife's de-
votion, faltered not—her love was immortal in its
depth and height, its foundation sunk far below
earth's annoyances, its fervour exalted her above

time and space, and sought the seventh heaven.
Thus she entreated them
"It must not kill you. Bairns, hear me; you must
let nothing kill you, nothing crush you, even in your
innocent hearts, till God sends the messenger that will
not be gainsaid. Now it is coming—may be ruin, may be
destruction, certain distress and anguish. But the end
is coming which God knows ; you must not pine, you
must not weep, nor waste your strength with mourning.
Bairns, we have to wait, and be ready and strong, to
meet it when it comes. This is what we have to do."
The end was long appearing, but it came all too
soon. Then did the heroic sister complete her per-
fect work, perfect as far as earth will allow, for it
bore the stamp of Heaven, and spoke of the life to
come. "To live in hearts we leave behind is not
to die." Martha knew this ' • but the question is,
How do we lire in those hearts ? Many blamed,
some despised, her brother. She had to reverse
that blame, to change that feeling, and she suc-
ceeded. As far as the world outside and his home
were concerned, he had only been extravagant ; he
had laid down good plans, but not carried them
out. Two thoughts suggest themselves to the
mind at the conclusion of this work. A warning
is held out, a promise is given. To all such as
Harry ruin is near. Youth and strength are as
shadows flying away at a breath ; riches, talents,
and honours make themselves wings and are gone ;
but the memory of the just is sacred ; in his home
it is revered as a household god—in his land it is
blessed by the generations of his countrymen ; and
for those like to Martha it is shown that we are not
to think we can be all we like or seek, although
we crush selfishness and cast away folly. The
ambition of good becomes an evil, unless we follow
instead of leading. In the path assigned to us
there may the endeavours soar, but it is not right
or reasonable to mark out a course the fancy de-
sires, and, because success does not smile, call the
world a &sort, full of vanity and vexation of spirit.
Sorrowful was Martha most of the days of the years
of her sojourn, but her sorrow turned at last to
joy—not the wild zest of young hopes, but the
tutored thanksgiving of a disciplined heart. Vain
were her talents when exercised in her own way—
her life was nothing, her brother's death struck
terror to her hopes. It was not till yielding to the
will of Him who gave the talents that she triumphed.
She lifted up her eyes to the heavens, where she
trusted her departed treasure had passed, before
on earth she found peace. In the following pas-
sages will be shown the great force of the author in
describing her characters :—Alexander Muir was an
excellent old man, in whom age had no power
to chill his affections to God and man, and
who was young again in his love to the rising race
around him.

The conclusion, when Martha looks out by moon-
light on the scene sacred to the memory of sorrows
passed away, sweet
in in the blessedness of hopes
fulfilled, and shiningthe glory of promises in
store, is surpassingly imagined. Her long day of
work over, at evening tide she rested from her
labours ; the glaring noonday of distracting trials
was spent—the calm orb of night, the stars of peace,
shone down upon her suffering heart and soothed
her wearied spirit. With one alteration, •to her
might be applied the epitome of Evangeline, " Fair
was she and young when, in hope, began the long
journey, faded was she and old when it ended,"
not in disappointment, but in love, that took the
sting from sin and the -victory from the grave.
"Alexander Muir was one of those whose end of life
seemed almost as pure as its beginning. A spirit so
blameless and placid that we might almost think it had
only been sent here, because it is a greater joy to be a
man, and know by certain experiment the wonderful
mystery of redemption, than to be satisfied with such
i
knowledge as the sinless n heaven can gain. It is happy
for us amid the dark records of common lives, that here
and there God permits us one such man, born to be
purer than his fellows ; so much lower than the angels,
that the taint of native sin has come with him into the
world—so much higher than they, that the mantle of the
Lord has fallen upon him, and that he stands accepted
in a holiness achieved by the Master and King of all.
Lichened over with the moss of age, in quiet places here
and there. live gracious souls of this happy class, and
Alexander Muir was one." *
"That night, standing on the turret, Martha looks
' out upon the lands of Allenders—the lands which her
own labour had cleared of every overpowering burden,
and which the same vigorous and unwearied faculties
shall yet clear of every encumbrance, if it please God.
The moonlight glimmers over the slumbering village of
Maidlin—over the pretty houses of poor Harry's impa.
tient fancy, where Harry's labourers now dwell peace-
fully, and know that their improved condition was the
will and purpose of the kindly-remembered dead.
And the little spire of Maidlin Church shoots
up into the sky, guarding the rest of him
whose memory no man dares malign—whose name
has come to honour, and sweet fame, since it shone
upon that tablet on the wall, an
ch
fulfilment,e ve r
gained expres-
sion not one wish or pas-
sing
or without
endeavour or settled purpose to fulfil ; and Martha's
sn ipnr o jwe
ec
rt ofds
rwhoseremains
thoughts turn back—back to her own ambitious youth
and its bitter disappointment—back. to the beautiful
ainms without
dawn of Harry's life—to its blight, and to its end. And
this grand resurrection of her buried hopes brings tears
to Martha's eyes, and humility to her full and swelling
heart. God, whose good pleasure it once was to put the
bar of utter powerlessness upon her ambition, has at