The Sun.
London, England, 1849-09-18 00:00:00

LITERATURE.
SLATER' S SHILLING SERIES.
Another excellent publication in the form of
monthly volumes has recently been issued from the
establishment of Mr. Slattr, to which we cordially
offer our meed of commendation. Four of the

latest volumes are peculiarly deserving of at-
tention. Or.e of them is the commence-

went of a cheap translation of the admirable
fictions of Frederika Brewer, the Swedish

novelist—a lady who is, as a writer, what
Mademoiselle Jenny Lind is, as a songstress.
Within a portable compass we have here her "Minor
Tales," a book which has tended not the least to
spread her celebrity. These "Minor Tales" consist
of six stories or sketches—the `'Twins," "Axel

and Anna," the "Solitary One," the "Con-
soler," " Stockholm Suppers," and " Hopes."
These graceful little compositions are already
so generally known, and their merits so ge-
nerally appreciated,that nothing remains for us to do
beyond the mere announcement of their re-publication.
Another of the present series comprises, within a
similar space, the " Orations, Lectures, and Addresses"
of Ralph Waldo Emerson, the Carlyle of America.
" Man Thinking ;" "An Address ;" " Literary
Ethics ;" the "Method of Nature ;" " Man the
Reformer;" the " Young American ;" and a speech
delivered on the anniversary of the " Emancipation of
the Negroes ;" are contained in this remarkable
volume. No one who has ever perused them need be
informed how bold are the arguments, how quaint is
the style, how inimitable are the illustrations,
or how generous is the philosophy of this
extu.ordinary and original author. Mr. Emerson
has secured for himself the attention of every reflec-
tive mind even though he may provoke against him-
self the opposition of the majority of Chthtians by
the audacity of his logio. The gis tof his ethical belief is
this am God; you are God; the intelligence of
every man is a portion of the Divinity ! He himself
has never expressed this view so explicitly, but that
we maintain, and nothing less than that, is the gist of
his creed. Hence we are diametrically opposed to
him; yet, antagonistic though we be, we listen to him
respectfully, because of the earnestness with which
he evidently searches after the truth, 2nl the rever-
ence with which he speaks of the Omnipotent
God. To learn the boldness of his articulations we
need only listen to him when he says that " the
natural philosophy that now is, is only the first
gropings of its gigantic hand." His independence of
tnought is sufficiently shown in that declaration—" I
had botter,never see a hook than to (?) be warped by

its attraction clean out of my own orbit, and made
satellite instead of a system. If it be asked what are
the feelings of Emerson in reference to Religion—
hear him talk of the " religious sentiment" in the
abstract—" It is a mountain air. It is the embalmer
of the world. It is myrrh and storax, and chlorine
and rosemary. It makes the sky and the hills
sublime; and the silent song of the stars is it." Here
again is an indication of the current of his philosophy
—" In the divine order intellect is primary • nature,
secondary—it is the memory of the mind. That which
once existed as pure law, has now taken body as
nature. It existed already in the mind in solution :
now it has been precipitated, and the bright sediment
is the world." To us that is an odd but beautiful
definition of creation. Of the dignity of human
nature in his consideration, here is a token :—" An
individual man is a fruit ich it cost all the fore•
going ages to form and ripen. He is strong not to
do, but to live ; not in his arms, but in his
heart ; not as an agent, but as a fact."
Of the duties of manhood he speaks thus:—" What
are the thoughts we utter but the reason of our inear•
nation; to utter these thoughts we took flesh, mis-
sionaries of the everlasting word which will be
spoken." Do we wish to give an instance of the
felicity of his metaphors or illustrative expressions P
Here is one, where he speaks of " the locomotive and
steamboat, like enormous shuttles, shooting every
day across the thousand various threads of national
descent and employment, and binding them fast in
one web." Again, referring to the necessity of the
agricultural cultivation of the American continent,
he says " This great savage country should be
furrowed by the plough and combed by the harrow."
Without transcribing one other sentence, we feel
satisfied we have quoted enough to demonstiate the
singularly original and powerful character of the
intellect of Mr. Emerson. Another distinguished
American is the author of the two remaining volumes
now under consideration—the poet and novelist,
Professor Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. Besides
the tale called "Kavanagh," we have before us a
reprint of his well-known poetical romance of
"Evangeline." Written in exquisite hexameters, this
story cannot fail to charm the mind by its
grace, and to move the heart by its inculcation of
the principles of love and gentleness. Faultless the
poem is not, but fraught with beauty it is. The hero
is admirably depicted—with a face,
" like the face of the morning,
Gladdening the earth with its light and ripening thought
into action."
Noble is his lamentation over the miseries of the
world, as it exists at present, where
"Daily injustice is done, and might is the right of the
strongest !"
What an exquisite picture is that sketched by him in
five lines, where he depicts Evangeline and her be"
,rothed

in the twilight gloom of a window's embrasure,
Sat the lovers, and whispered together, heho!ding the

moon rise
Over the pallid sea, and the Silvery mist of the

meadow-e.
Silently one by ene, in the infinite meadows of heaven,
Blossom' d the lovely stars, the forget-me-noisy' the angels."

here are two golden verses. One on affection—
" Talk not of wasted affection ; aff.ctiou never ws,s
waited."

The other as follows :
" Sorrow and silence are strong, and patient endurance is
godlike."
Another thought of subtle meaning runs thus—
" Feeling is deep and still ; and the word that floats on
the surface
Is as the tossing buoy, that betrays where the anchor is
hidden."
Speaking of Evangeline as she wandered in the dark
through a garden, he says very daintily—
" Nearer and round about her, the manifold flowers of
the garden
1), ur'd cut their souls in odours, that were their prayers
and confessions
Unto the night, as it went its way, a silent Carthusian."
Another of Longfellow's strange and fantastic de-
lineations is that of the forest, where—
" Over them vast and high extended the cope of a cedar,
Swinging from its great brms the trumpet-flower and the
grape-vine,
Hung their ladder of ropes aloft like the ladder of Jacob,
On whose pendulous stairs the angels ascending, de-
scending,
Were the swift humming-birds that flitted from blossom
to blossom."
So odd, singular, and occasionally grotesque is
" Evangeline —a poem sometimes charmingly
rhythmical, at others deplorably common-place and
prosaic—but
throughout marred by its careless and
uncertain volubility.

TESTIMONIAL
TO THE HUNGARIAN REFUGEES.

THE HUNGARIAN NATION COUNTS ON THE SYMPATHY
OF EVERY NATION WHICH LOVES RIGHT AND Ll-
BERTY."—Kossuth's Protest against Russian Inte?ten-

tion.

Subscriptions may be sent to the Widowing bankers:—
Messrs. Coutts and Co.
Messrs. Drummond.

Messrs. Smith, Payne, and Smith ;
or to any one of the members of tho committee formed
to carry out the Testimonial.
***All further Post-office orders to be made payable toMurdo
Young, Esq., at the Money Order Office, Strand.
Subscriptions already received ...

g1,09i

MANsION-EOUSE.—Yesterday. evening the Lord
Mayor had the honour of entertaining at dinner a party
of private friends connected with the City of London.
Covers were laid for 50.
NEWPORT, ISLE or WIGHT.—CGINS FOUND,
A most curious and interesting discovery of coins of the
14th century was made on Saturday morning last, by
the workmen employed in erecting some buildings at the
back of the premises of Messrs. Perress and Dallimore,
drapers, of Iligh-street. They consist principally of
the pennics of the reigns of Edward 1., 11. and 111., of
the mints of London, Canterbury, York, 11.,
Ber-
wick, Newcastle, Lincoln, St Edmund's, Bristol, Dublin,
and Waterford, intermixed with many of the reign of
Alexander of Scotland. About 2,500 are in the pos-
session of Mr. Perress, and it is known that very many
more were taken by the workmen, previously to his be-
coming aware of the discovery. So large a hoard o f
coin, of one period, has not before been discovered in
the island, and is equalled only by that brought to light
some few years since at Buritor, in this county, and
which consisted exclusively of pennies of the Conqueror.
From the circumstance that all the coins now found
are immediately anterior to the time of King Richard
11., the period of the deposit may not unreasonably be
referred to the burning of Newport by the French in the
second year of the reign of that monarch.-11ampshire
A dvertiser.
SHOCKING SUICIDE nT A CLERGYMAN.—COnai-
derable excitement has prevailed in the village of Mal-
vern during the past week, in consequence of the Rev.
Peter Ball, a visitor, lodging at .11tr. Nash's, Castle
house, havin,, cut his throat. The rev. gentleman, who
Ras about fifty years of age, and had been visiting Mal-
vern for some months past, committed the rash act in his
bed-room on Tuesday week, in the presence of his lady,
who, in endeavouring t 9 prevent him, had her hands cut.
lie was immediately e.ttendefl by Mr. 'West, surgeon,
under whose care ho lingered until Monday morning,
when he expired. At the time of his committing the
rash act Mr. Hall was under medical treatment.—Bristot
j Journal.