The Sun.
London, England, 1838-01-09 00:00:00

LITERATURE.

FOREIGN QUARTERLY REVIEW.
Black and Armstrong, London, 1838.
A periodical ever welcome, for it is sure to contain, at
least, two or three articles abounding in interest, on matte:;
relative to Continental literature. The gem of the Vteent
Number is a notice of " Knebel's Posthumous Works and
Correspondence," which includes also a 'brief biographical
sketch of a quiet, learned, and. 'auafrected German writer,
who died, in the year 1834, at the advanced age of ninety.
Knebel, who was originally in the Prussian army, in the
service of Frederick the Great, retired on the death of that
mortaTch to Weimer, where he was appointed tutor to the
Grand Duke's son—a situation which brought him ac•
nnainted with many of the leading authors of Germany, by
whom he was deservedly respected, though, beyond the !ite-
rarycircles, his name was wholly unknown. Knebel's greatest
work—that for which he is now most. celebrated—is his
translation of Lucretius, which the Reviewer assures us,
tu many instances, surpasses the original. We quote the
sketch of his literary character :
" As a philosopher Knebel is worthy of deep study, and not the
less so, that he never puts his opinions into-a system. A meditative
inan with a good stock of common sense, who had also seen a great
ideal of the world, and lived in the enjoyment of health and quietness
for ninety long years, with nothing else to do than to think, must
needs have thought no small quantity of sense in his day. lie had
some peculiar opinions ; but his peculiarities were rather negative
than positive, and did not in the least disturb the general clearness
and soundness of his judgment. As a poet, Knebel belongs to the
calm, clear Greek school, which has lately become so unfashionable,
hut which we prize so highly. That mistiness of feeling and wateri.
loess of sentiment so characteristic of the romantic school in Germany,
finds no home in this pure region. Knebel is as far from romance as
Goethe; and indeed there is in his productions much of the spirit and
character of Goethe's best minor poems. The same calm, self-
sustaining wisdom, and the same mild breath of cheerful kindliness is
characteristic of both. Both Goethe and Herder had a high opinion of
Knebel's poems ; and if they do not live after many that arc now
Buttering through fifth, sixth, and seventh editions, futurity will not
have paid her debt to the present. As to the execution, they are
harmonious and tasteful. Calm simplicity is their leading character;
and this simplicity is never disturbed by the ornamental adjunct of
rhyme."

We have marked in italics one or two grammatical inac-
curacies in the above extract, which show much haste and
slovenliness. In the essay headed " Popular Elementary
Instruction," we find some curious details respecting the
system of education now going forward in Lombardy and
some other of the Italian States. "Of the whole number
of children," observes the Reviewer, " between the ages of
six and twelve years in Lombardy, the proportion which
frequents the schools differs in the various provinces. It
appears that on an average of the whole, 680 in every
thousand boys of the proper age frequent the public schools,
and 428 in every thousand girls. The deficiency in the
attendance of the girls is in part accounted for, by the more
numerous private establishments for their education." We
had no notion that education was so general in Lombardy
it would seem, however, by the foregoing extract, that it/ is
far in advance of England in this respect—a fact which
ought to cover us with shame, especially as we are so
incessantly boasting of the surprising beneficial effects that
" the march of mind" is daily producing among us!
" Early German Comic Romances," is a very amusing es-
say, and details the freaks of some of the roguish heroes of
these old tales, who remind us, in the fertility of their in-
vention, and the utter recklessness of their whimsical
knaveries, of those infinitely diverting scamps, the Spanish
rogues. Churchmen have always been favourite subjects
for waggery among all nations ; and accordingly we find
that a parson figures among the prominent rogues of one
these early German romances. " The Constitution of
Hanover," takes up the cudgels in favour of King Ernest,
who, in the Reviewer's opinion, has acted throughout with
moderation. The article is cautiously expressed, and con-
cludes by a request that its readers will wait the result of
" the deliberations of the States," before they vonture to
form an opinion, as Englishmen know as yet little or no-
thing of the true nature of the Ilanoverian question. Of
the remaining articles, the most elaborate and instructive
is the one entitled, " Mineralogical Travels in the Ural and
Altai Mountains."

ILLUSTRATED FAMILY BIBLE.
Smith and Elder, London, 1838.
We have just seen the first Number of a new Family
Bible, which is embellished in the most careful and beaUC-
ful style ; and contains copious explanatory notes, and
marginal references from the pen of the late John Brown,
Minister of Haddington. The work, considering the
handsome manner in which it is got up, is singularly cheap
is price, and is published in the convenient form of Nurn-
hers. The type in which it is printed is distinct and legi-
ble, and may be read by weak, or old eyes, without the
aid of spectacles.

THE WORKS OF JEREMY BENTHAM.
Now first collected, under Me superintendance of his Executor,
Jon .v BOWRING. Part 1.
Edinburgh, William Tait, 1838.
The publication of a complete edition of Bentham's
Works is an undertaking which calls for the sympathy, the
support, and the gratitude of that class of Reformers whose
inquiries and labours are directed to the improvement, and
consequent consolidation, of whatever is radically good in
our social institutions. 'We question if the world ever pro-
duced a benefactor of the human species who so exten-
sively influenced the opinions of the age in which he lived,
in a manner so indirect, as Jeremy Bentham. Living for
many years in a state of nearly utter seclusion in the ob-
scurest part of a rather disreputable neighbourhood in
Westminster, and only known as the author of works which
all had heard of, but of which not one in ten thousand had
ever read a page, Europe re-echoed his opinions with scarcely
a consciousness that she bad ever heard them. The fact
was that the fountains of knowledge opened by Bentham
fed the reservoirs from which most of the political writers
of his day drew those supplies which the bulk of mankind
regarded as wholly and exclusively the property of their
respective social oracle. Bentham cared not who bor-
rowed his opinions, or whether they were taken with, or
without acknowledgment, provided they were well received
by those for whose happiness they were first promulgated.
He was content to make the world wiser and better, without
troubling himself about the estimate at which it might erro-
neously be at first led to value his services. The founda-
tion of his fame he knew to be too sure to give himself any
concern about the appropriation of his labours by unscrupu-
lous c :ntemporaries who, to prevent as much as they could
any exposure of their thefts, never omitted an occasion of
representing his works as little better than a mass of ill-di-
gested unintelligibly jargon. But the time is conic when
Bentham shall have justice done to his memory ; and
though it must be acknowledged that he wrote verbosely
and almost unintelligibly upon many subjects, we know of
no author who exceeded him in clearness of conception,
lucidness of arrangement, and transparency of style, in the
composition of those works which ase destined to hand his
name down to the veneration of posterity. Like the first
discoverers in science, Bentham found himself under the
necessity of inventing a number of terms to express the
names of things not previously known, and also the relation
in which he designed them to stand to each other ; but a
little attention to his own carefully logical definitions of
them in the order in which they first occur will render their
meaning familier to readers of the most moderate capacity.
The alleges! difficulties in the study of Bentham's embodi-
ment of his principles and thoughts will vanish with the
first effort to overcome them.
The edition, of which the first Part is now before us,
promises to be a very handsome one. It is beautifully
printed in double columns in a small but clear type, and
On very good paper. Still the price seems to us too high
--the more especially as the class of persons who would be
Most desirous of obtaining Bentham's Works, cannot well
afford the outlay °Nine shillings at a time in the purchase
of part of a book. The better way, in our opinion, would
be to publish it in Monthly Numbers at half-a-crown, and
double Numbers, at five shillings each—a method quite as
convenient for the wealthiest purchasers as that which Tait
has adopted. The portrait of Bentham, which faces the
title-page of this edition of .his works, is from an excellent
likeness of him by Piekersgill. The engraving of the heal
is very fairly executed.
R.

VIE TY, FINANCIAL, STATISTICAL, and
COMMERCIAL, of the EMPIRE of BRAZIL.
By J.. 1. STUDY:.

London
.I_l7-'ffinghain Wilson, 1838.
British statesmen,' merchants, and political economists
win find this work worthy of their notice. Its object is to
4110 W that our trade with the Brazilian Empire might be
increased to an almost infinite extent, with great profit to
ourselves, and advantage—social, political, and commer-
'al--to the whole of the inhabitants of South America.
arile author's arguments, many of which are very ingenious,
e founded on the evidence of facts, supplied by a mass of

aothattlitnis sYhifeb it must have cost him much time
anet trouble to collect and arrange in the }`acid foktAi is
which they ',eta given in these pages., fill'C fnilOWlng extract
will elucidate more 00303' iZhail our space will enable us to
tbo titilloitiance of the subject of a volume from which
it•
mass of valuable mercantile information Yi,; Act teed :
"At a time when British (wirer-FA, is extending itself to
many more dtateett evt.tUi'triFs, and when new fields are daily
required for employment of the accumulating capital of
thte thattiants of England, it has appeared to the writer that
a few statistical notices, on so extensive, fertile, well-situated,
salubrious, and, it may now be justly added, well-governed
coun'ry as Brazil, might be received with some interest, par-
ticularly when accompanied by tabular and official documents,
which will be found in this work, corroborative of his premises.
" From these documents it aid be perceived that the annual
imports of British produce and manufactures into Brazil are
considerably more than one-third the amount imported, in
ordinary times, into the United Sates; equal to the whole
amount imported into the British East India possessions, in-
cluding Ceylon ; and equal to the amount imported into
Russia, Prussia, Norway, Denmark, Sweden, and France
combined ; and considerably exceeding the amount of all the
republics of South America. together; doubling that of all
Africa, including Mauritius and St. Helen's; whilst so fertile is
the soil, and so favourable the climate ofßrazil, that labour
alone is required for the extension of its agricultural exports,
and its corresponding imports of manufactures to an unlittited
extent.

" The population of Brazil receives daily accessions by emi-
gration from both of the kingdoms of the troubled peninsula,
and no inconsiderable addition from Germany, Italy and
France. Its wealth and intelligence increase at a more than
ordinary ratio, by means of its numerous splendid ports, which
bring its population into daily intercourse nith the nations of
all the world : and from its climate being so mild, and the
productions of its soil so various and so valuable, and so easily
reared, that not the slightest inducement exists for manufac-
turing pursuits, it is no doubt destined to become more im-
portant to England as a market for sale of manufactured
goods, and purchase of raw materials, than any other part of
the globe.

"The documents on finan:•ial topics are front aithentic
sources, and were translated by the author in the full conviction
that none so important and interesting have been presented to
to the Eng:ish public for a considerable time, or conveying so
accurzte a knowledge of the present financial and monetary
position of Brazil."

THE CATHOLIC DIRECTORY FOR 183e.il

Simpkin and Marshall.
No Roman Catholic should be without this work to
whom a knowledge of the state of the Hierarchy of that
Church in every part of the United Kingdom is not a
matter of indifference. It contains lists of the churches,
charities, schools, officiating prelates and priests, in Eng-
land and Scotland, and of the parochial clergy and curates
in Ireland. The cost is so trifling that we hardly know
how it can be published without loss. Its embellishments
consist of portraits of Cardinal Weld and Dr. Wiseman.