The Sun.
London, England, 1853-03-30 00:00:00

LITERATURE.

The Boyhood of Great Men. David Bogue.
Few things are more interesting to the young
than the histories of great and adventurous lives.
Many celebrated characters trace the first direction
of their energies to some worthy object to the effect
which the account of previous efforts and triumphs
of genius had on them. It must be doubly inter-
esting to the young to read of the first attempts
and the early life of those who are now held up as
beacons to posterity. Great men of every nation
and every class are here described to us, from the
warriors whose laurels are gained in destroying
life; to the surgeons who win their fame in saving
it—from Dr. Johnson and Lord Jeffrey, to
the poets and historians they criticised—from the
astronomers who studied the heavens, and the che-
mists who analysed the elements, to the statesmen
who influenced the destinies of this world—and
the divines who taught the road to another. In
all these varied lives, however, it is most emphati-
cally impressed on the reader that
" The heights by great men reached and kept
Were not attained by sudden flight,
But they, while their companions slept,
Were toiling upwards in the night."
Resolute exertion and indefatigable industry form
the only and unfailing " road to learning," and we
trust the juvenile admirers of the great men whose
boyhood is described in this volume, may tread in
their " footprints on the sands of Time."

The Illustrated Natural History._
_By the Rev.

J. Wood, M.A. Routledge.
This is a very excellent and complete little work,
with four hundred and fifty designs. These illus-
trations are of the greatest assistance to children,
as they convey a better idea of the appearance of
the animals than any written descriptions.

Miles Tremenhere. By Mrs. Maillard. 2 vols.
Routledge.
This is a very romantic tale. The heroine lives
with her uncle and two aunts, who respectively
wish her to marry the lawyer, the doctor, and sup-
posed squire of the village, but she eludes their
vigilance, and runs off with the real squire, who
was defrauded of his rights by his cousin. But
they were anything but happy. Jealousies and
misunderstandings without end ensued. At length
Miles, yielding to his evil suspicions, deserted his
wife, and it was not till after some years of trial
and trouble that all was happily arranged by the
judicious intervention of friends. The traitor who
had undermined their happiness was discovered to
be Marmaduke Burton, the wicked cousin, who
had concealed papers of importance. The lovers
of romance may find pleasure in perusing such
tales, but it must be remarked that they are rather
overdrawn for every-day life.

Influence ; or, The Evil Genius. By the Author
of " A Trap to Catch a Sunbeam." Routledge.
This tale has for its moral the most perilous
snare that awaits the young and inexperienced on
their entry into society. While there are some few
sufficiently firm to withstand all the allurements
or ridicule of bad companions, and others capable
not to be led, but to lead, either for good or evil,

it must be admitted that by far the greatest num-
ber are guided by their associates. When the
advice of some favourite might be disregarded,
the powerful weapon of ridicule will rarely be
employed in vain, but in too many eases will defeat
every previous resolution, and will end by entirely
changing the habits, till those formerly laughed
out of their principles will soon join in the sneer
and the mocking smile which drives a new compa-
nion in the wrong way. For it is worthy of remark,
that the weakest and most vacillating characters
are strong enough to ridicule others, and those who
have not courage to do wrong themselves may
easily prevent others from doing right. This is,
therefo e, a danger against which no warning can
be too urgent, for the decline and fall of Cyril
Thornton finds but too many prototypes in real
life. The tale is full of interest, and the gentle,
yet firm, character of Ethel, the heroine, obtains
our admiration and sympathy, and contrasts favour-
ably with the misguided Honoria, and the weak
and yielding Julia. The evil genius of the book,
Gerard Forrester, meets with his reward at last,
but not till he has destroyed the happiness of
numbers and effected the ruin of his unhappy
friend, the hero. There are several other charac-
ters introduced, and the style is pleasing, and will
interest the reader.

Jane Seton; or, The King's Advocate. By James

Grant.

2 vols: Routledge.

Mr. Grant is well known as the author of the
" Romance of War." The present work is alio an
historical tale. Its plot is drawn from fact—Jane
Douglas, the sister of the Earl of Angus, having
really been burnt in the time of James the Fifth,
having been accused by a rejected lover of endea-
vouring to compass the King's death by sorcery.
Happily for the feelings of the reader, the history
of Jane Seton terminates less terribly, and the in-
nocent escape and the guilt are punished in the
most satisfactory manner. It is, however, awful
to reflect that, in a civilised country, little more
than three centuries ago, such superstition existed
and such cruelty was allowed. The trial by torture
was most ridiculous as well as inhuman, and seemed
only made to serve the purposes of the enemies of
the unfortunate sufferer, as it is well known that
many confessed crimes they had never committed
under its influenc?. ; and if admitted to be inno-
cent, which was rarely the case, the torture which
had been inflicted was useless. The King's advo-
cate, Sir Adam Otterburn, who is the evil genius
of the tale, was a real character, and was Lord
Provost of Edinburgh and ambassador to England.
It is to be trusted that this Scottish nobleman was
not of the same disposition as the King's advocate
in these volumes.

Reply of the Professional Life Assurance Company
to the Attacks of its Assailants. Seaton.
Those who take an interest in Life Assurance
politics are well aware that for some time a sort of
warfare, not certainly internecine, yet bitter,
and, in some respects, indiscriminate and ill-
judged, has been going on of late between the
old and new Life Assurance Companies. The
Professional, as one of the most successful of the esta-
blishments which the progress of the public mind
with respect to Life Assurance has called into ex-
istence, has been subjected to very severe attacks on
the part of some of its assailants, and the pamph-
let before us is the reply of the company, through
the mouth of their actuary, Mr. Baylis. To enter
into a detailed review of Mr. Baylis's reasoning
would be more than our limits allow, and we must
therefore refer our readers to the pamphlet itself,
which, independently of the purpose for which it is
written, is of high value and, interest, from the
facts and statements which will be found in it with
respect to the general progress of Life Assurance in
this country. By these facts and figures, and by a
detailed exposition of the state of the case with re-
gard to the Professional, Mr. Baylis most satis-
factorily performs what he set out to do, and affords
a complete refutation of the imputations lately
levelled at the establishment which owes so much
to his energy and abilities. In so doing, Mr. Baylis
also elaborately vindicates the very extended view
which modern companies have taken of the powers
and capabilities of Assurance—and this part of his
book, will doubtless be most welcome to those who
are, as we confess ourselves, tyros in the science.
If the writer's views be correct, and we see no rea-
son to doubt them, fortified as they are by facts and
figures which seem indisputable, the new Assurance
it. is too late in the day to
Companies will turn out to. be the gratest social
blessing of the age, and with their assistance there
is nothing which providence. and economy may not
oii the
kln)yownloedge of their im-
portance benefitsHappilyof Life Assurance its
, apostles
means the least
ofunworthy—havehofi ManßwspaidYreaelistdhirasough the country ; but to
those who wish to study its capabilities and its uni-
versality of application, We
confidently recommend
the perusal of this pamphlet. e-

T uFe
sAdTaA;
nightsIr,TERMINATION.
the coroner, held an
PAayRneu,NNING MATCH.—On
inquest in St. Bartholomew's Hospital, on the body of
George Brown, aged 27. a wheelwright. Joseph Marsh
said that on Friday night last he and deceased were run-
ning a race in St. John-street, Clerkenwell, and the
latter, having gained some six or seven feet in advance
of witness, ran against a cab proceeding in a contrary
direction. The deceased was running with such speed
that he was unable to stop himself, and the consequence
was that he was knocked down by the vehicle and ren-
dered incapable of getting up. Witness ran to his assist-
ance, picked him up and took him to a surgeon's, where
he was examined, and a deep wound found in his chest.
He was placed on a stretcher and removed to the hos-
pital. By the Coroner—Should say that the cab was
proceeding at the rate of eight miles an hour, but the
speed deceased was going at was upwards of ten miles
an hour. The road was very wide, but at the spot
where the occurrence took place rather dark. The
deceased and witness were both perfectly sober,
although they had had a little to drink. Thomas
Newbury said that he saw the deceased fall, and
the shaft strike him on the breast, but he did not
see the vehicle pass over him. The deceased said that
it was all his own fault, and that the cabman was not to
blame. Daniel Brown said that be did not think there
was any blame attributablelto the cabman. Mr. G. W.
Callender, one of the house-surgeons, proved that the
deceased, when admitted, was suffering from an exten-
sive wound beneath the right collar-bone, and the breast-
bone was also fractured. He died from concussion of the
lungs, caused by the injury. The jury returned a yer•
diet of " Accidental death."