The Sun.
London, England, 1847-10-13 00:00:00

THE MIRROR.

The novel of "Paul Pevensey," of which we have four
additional chapters in the present number, is a work
which the world will not willingly let die. It is
years since a novel has appeared so perfect in all re-
spects as Paul Pevensey. The descriptions are beau-
tiful exceedingly, the diction is eloquent, the dialogue
appropriate, and the incidents striking, without being
improbable. The author's great forte, however, is in
the conception and delineation of character. Paul him-
self, Wilkinson, the showman, and his wife and
attendants, are all living, moving, breathing, human
beings, not as is too often the case mere lay figures.
It is, however, in the character of Kate Pevensey, that
the originality and genius of the author are most
cleverly manifested. A woman of great natural
powers, but of uncultivated intellect, brought up as a
labourer in a coal mine, Kate Pevensey meets with a
gentleman of education, who is attraced by her per-
sonal charms. Seduced by his refinement and edu-
cation, she falls a victim to his arts. He deserts her,
and she gives birth to a son. She indulges in the
hope of meeting him again, or at least of hearing
from him, and she determines to learn to read. For
this purpose she applies to the daughter of the clergy-
man of the parish for assistance, and becomes an
accomplished scholar, one able to read and
admire and appreciate Shakspere, and yet obliged to
earn her subsistence by working in a coal mine,
feeling keenly the disgust which every cultivated
mind must feel at being brought into constant and
close contact with the persons with whom she must
daily mix in such an avocation. We look with great
interest to the development of the character of Kate
Pevensey. Our author has studied the subject of
education, and his incidental observations thereon are
worthy of serious consideration.

" All the world now talks of education, but few think
of making silence and solitude an element of it, or of
enriching the youthful mind with those associations
which familiarity with external nature in her gentlest
and quietest moods is calculated to create. Nothing,
however, can be more wholesome or strengthening than
playing freely on the lap of our great mother when we
are engaged in the search after ideas. By so doing we
acquire a taste for the vast and the infinite, and escape
being absorbed by those frivolous amusements, or those
worldly habits, which are too apt to sway the minds of
those who are brought up exclusively in towns. Not
that we think meanly of the habitations of man, or of
that ocean of life and intelligence which rolls through
cities, for by this also we may profit; but that it is better
the soul should conceive its offspring in tranquillity,
wherever it may afterwards bring forth.
" Paul Pevensey, at any rate, was compelled by cir-
cumstances to build up the first stratum of his know-
ledge with out of-door materials. What he had learned
in the pits we already know. He had, since his acquaint-
ance with the Wilkinsons, acquired many ideas of a
different class from woods and streams, from corn-fields
and new-mown hay, from moonlight walks in forests,
from mountain rills, from grassy springs and lakes, and
the infinite variety of sunrises and sunsets. Something,
too, he had observed of the habits of animals, and of
the virtues and vices of men, for among the showman's
attendants were fellows of all sorts; and the frequenting
of markets and fairs opened up a prolific field of study,
in the manners and incidents of vulgar life. To this
must be added the experience of Tom Link, whose ima-
gination had been imbued with the colours of the East,
and who delighted in interesting and astonishing his
pupil by the most exciting and extravagant descriptions
of what he had himself witnessed or heard."

Is not this a more useful education than can be learned
in schools ? This passage alone is sufficient to prove
that the author of Paul Pevensey is no common man.
Mr. Percy St. John continues his novel of " Cecilia
Armand," and Mr. John Oxenford gives us some
exquisite translations from Jean Paul. We have a
curious collection of alliterative aphorisms, by B.
Barnett, and an admirable review of Mr. St. John's
work on the Eastern Archipelago. This is the best
number of the Mirror which has yet appeared.

THE MAN IN 7HE MOON. Edited by Albert

Smith and Angus B. Reach.
From an excellent quiz on the " Folk Lore," so
pompously paraded in the Athenceum, we extract the
following on " Smoke :"

"In some of the suburbs of the metropolis a singular
practice prevails. Youths, generally under years of dis-
cretion, set out, towards dusk, on an expedition which
leads them to the obscure haunt of a female, usually of
the Hebrew race. With winks and other symbols, con-
veyed with aid of a patois peculiar to the individuals,
they express their meaning, and from the female they
receive several little brown rolls, of a disagreeable smell.
Lighting these at one end, the ignorant boys will suck
them during a whole evening, believing two strange
things—first, that the rolls in question come from a dis-
tant country, instead of au adjacent cabbage garden ;
and, secondly, that those who thus suck them appear
manly and dignified."

The illustrations to this number are as usual ex-
cellent.

7'HE PATRICIAN. Edited by John Burke, Esq.
The trial of Spencer Cowper, brother of Lord
Chancellor Cowper, for the murder of Miss Stout, a
Quaker lady, is perhaps one of the most interesting
trials ever recorded. The subsequent career of Mr.
Spencer Cowper (who was acquitted) renders this
trial still more interesting. He subsequently entered
Parliament, and eventually became one of the Justices
of the Court of Common Pleas. This is the only
instance on record of the elevation to the Bench of
any person who bad been tried for murder. He was
the grandfather of Cowper, the poet. The series
entitled " Deaths of the Sovereigns of England," is
concluded in this number; and "The Clubs of Lon-
don" are continued. The author gives us the history
of clubs from the Kit-Cat to the Beef-steak. We
have also several interesting fragments of familylis-
tory in this number of the Patrician.