The Sun.
London, England, 1841-11-06 00:00:00

EVENING

LITERATUR:
A RUN THROUGH THE UN.

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2 Vols. Co&urn, London
The author of these volumes I, A
them in his preface, when he sapavys, h
consist of Letters " hastily and carelessly
written, and in a great measure occupied by the.
trivial subjects of an every-day tour over a
beaten track." A better idea could not be
formed of the character of their contents than is
contained in these words. The Letters are, in-
deed, for the most part, crude and careless, fly-
ing from theme to Theme—as the author flew
from place to place—with railway speed and
telling us nothing respectinc, the United States
that has not been told a hundred times already.
In vain have we searched for something fresh or
novel in the Letters. All is hacknied; though
it must be added, to the author's credit, that he
tells a truism, or describes a well-known scene,
in a pleasant, good-humoured manner. His
opinions, too, of the Americans are all of a con-
ciliatory nature. He appears to have been uni-
formly well treated by them, and in return is
resolved that they shall experience no other
than kindly treatment at his hands. As, how-
ever, his views are at best but superficial, and his
opportunity of forming correct estimates of men.
and things were extremely limited, we must be.
careful not to lay too much stress on his opi-
nions, especially when we find them at vari-
ance with those of more experienced American
travellers. The most amusing portion of his
work are his sketches of the Shakers—a curious-
religious sect, whose founder, it seems, it was
Anne Lee, an Englishwoman; she came from
the old country some years ago, and established
the first family at Niskayuna, near Albany.
The Shakers regard her as nearly equal to the
Saviour, or rather as a female Saviour; and as-
sert themselves to be the only persons on whom
the light of the Spirit has shone." If we mis-
take not, Captain Marryatt has given us some
piquant sketches of these comical fanatics, and
Mr. Buckingham has more than once made
mention of their vagaries. The New York
chambermaids, we are assured, are ladies of re-
markably chaste and delicate sensibilities. Their
virtue takes alarm at the slightest thing, and
though " they will condescend to make your
bed and clean your room during the time you
are at breakfast, yet neither love, nor money,
nor compassion either, will persuade one of these
American Dianas to enter your apartment at a
later hour of the day." This is the very sub-
lime of prudery, and to our less squeamish Eng-
lish chambermaids, must appear little less than.
miraculous. "I was vastly amused with this re-
finement," continues the author, " and asked
one of the chambermaids if she would do me
the favour to sew a button on the collar of a
shirt which I proffered to her. She started back
from the dilapidated vestment, dangled her two
hands from her wrists, locked aghast, and ut-
tering that universal word of American asto-
nishment ' Lawk 1' . turned away, and told me
she would send a man for the thing.'" These
volumes have come out just at a seasonable pe-
riod, when M'Leod's trial has attracted all eyes
to the United States. It is to this lucky contin-
gency that they will be chiefly indebted for
whatever popularity they may acquire ; for as a
work of reference and sound, carefully digested
opinion, they are nearly, if not quite, valueless.

ESSAY ON THE EVFLUENCE OF WELSH

TRADITION.

The prize of the Abergavenny Cyinreigyddion
Society was awarded to this Essay at the
Eisteddvod of 1840, and is now translated from
its original German form. It evinces much
laborious research, and works out some•clever
hypotheses. By assuming King Arthur as the
centre of the ancient national traditions_ of

Wales, Mr. Schulz shows that from this single
root, France, Germany, and Scandinavia have
been successively overspread and influenced by
the fables or historic shoots which have emanated
and branched off from it. In each of these
countries, the author adduces much learning to
prove that the most important part of their early
literature—the conventional life of chivalry and
the moral education of the nobles, was per-
vaded to a very extensive degree, and to a late
period, by elements whose origin was undeni-
ably and primitively Welsh.