The Sun.
London, England, 1849-06-05 00:00:00

SITAR PE' S LONDON MAGAZINE.

However much authors may doubt the avertion, it
is far more agreeable to us critics to commend than
to censure, hence we have observed with pleasure
the gradual improvement of Sharpe's London llfoga
zinc, which is now one of the very best of the lighter
periodicals. The June number contains a brief de-
scription of the narrow escape of two Indiamen frum
the perils of the Goodwin Sands, illustra4e.l by a
very be ititiful steel engraving, which represents " the
Mistininster and Claudine ashore near Margate;"
the old ballad of the " Cruel Sister," with one of
Corbould's fanciful illustrations, in which the incon-
stant Knight appeals like Macheath dividing his at-
tentions between the rival beauties; a continuation of

the very interesting. " History of a Household ;" and
the inimitable " Journal of Milton's Wife," as ad-
mirab!e an imitation in its way as the renowned Diary
of Air. Pips. Of a more iristructivr character are
" Stray Notes on the British Museum and its Lite-
rary Curiosities ;" " Science on the Glaciers ;" " The
Panorama of Pompeii ;" and some interesting reviews
on recently published memoirs and travels, " Prince
Rupert," " Adalbert of Prussia," " Central Austra-
lia," and others. From a very excellent tale, " Ren-
der to every Man his Due," we extract the following
truthful passage : _

" One of the brightest stars in our literary hemis-
phere has lately given us his view of the ' battle of life.'
It is full of those touches which mark the master-hand;
but it is not the battle of life, but at best a slight, though
spirited, skirmish at the outposts. The real battle of
life is fought over the poor man's hearthstone; and the
elements of the conflict are found in his struggles to make
his slender means supply the necessaries of life to his
dependent family—in the self-denial which abridges even
some of these, in order that a trifle may be saved to
give the minds of his little ones such culture as may
bring them up in the fear of God and man—in the pa-
tience with which he submits to still further privations,
as the wants of those cherished ones grow more nume-
rous, while no exertion that he can make will enlarge
his scanty means; but, on the contrary, the sinews that
are beginning to feel the approach of age, or, it may be,
are enfeebled by sickness, require a double effort to
perform their usual labour, and hint significantly of the
time when its recompense will be diminished—in his
strenuous exertions to ward off the approach of that
dreaded period which, nevertheless, comes on, slowly
but unerringly, like the tide to its mark—in the alter-
native faintings of spirit and renewals of hope; now
giving up all for lost, now taking courage and bracing
every energy for the conflict; and often wrestling at
once with poverty, with sickness, with bereavement,
with the ruin of his best prospects, with the oppressor's
wrong and the proud man's contumely, and worso than
them all, were their strenghth multiplied tenfold, with
the dark temptations to free himself from the crushing
hurthen by unhallowed means: to east off his integrity ;
to forfeit his good name among men; to avenge himself,
no matter at what cost, on that society which seems to
have cast him from its bosom as a 'viper, and would,
therefore, be but fitly repaid by the viper's sting. It is
in these circumstances, and such as these, that man
really and truly fights the battle of life: frequently con-
tending for existence in its most literal sense, and often
against fearful odds, till the last and most terrific strug-
gle of all, even that with death, closes the mighty con-
test. And if it has been fought in the spirit which be-
seems a good soldier of the cross, there beams on his
dying eyelids a vision of bright winged messengers_sent
to greet the faithful warrior with the wreath of triumph
and the palm of victory."