The Sun.
London, England, 1840-03-23 00:00:00

LIFE AND LET7ERS OF CICERO.

Mozon, London, 1840.
It is idle at this time of day to enter into any length-
ened analysis of the character of Dr. Middleton's
Life of Cicero," for the book has long since taken its
proper station in literature, and is justly appreciated by
classical scholars as one of the most learned and intelli-
gent pieces of biography in the language. Yet, vast as
is the reach of the Doctor's information, and unwearied
as is the diligence, combined with ripe and ready
Powers of judgment, that he has evinced in his arduous
task, his work is open to this objection—namely, that
Where it affects to be critical, it is not merely vague and
'meagre, but shallow, and deficient in original thinking.
It throws no new or vivid lights on the subject of
Cicero's peculiarities as a writer and an orator, but
merely repeats the current common-places of the last
elghteen hundred and fifty years. Thus, in instituting
a parallel between him and Demosthenes, the Doctor
Says :---" The genius, the capacity, the style and manner
of them both were much the same ; their eloquence of
that great, sublime, and comprehensive kind, which dig-
nified every subject, and gave it all the force and beauty
Of which it was capable ; it was that roundness of speak-
"mg where there was nothing either redundant or defi-
cient ; nothing either to be added or retrenched ; their
perfections were in all points so transcendent and
Yet so similar, that the critics are not agreed on
which side to give the preference." Now, it' we
except that happy phrase " roundness of speaking"—
which, however characteristic of the Roman,
i$ certainly not so of the Greek orator—nothing can well
be poorer than this criticism ; for, to say nothing of its
want of apt and pertinent meaning, the hypothesis with
"Inch it sets out, is false. In the first place, "the style
and manner" of Demosthenes and Cicero are so far from
being "much the same," that they arc essentially differ-
ent. The former loved concentration, the latter ampli-
fication, The one pushed boldly forward to his mark,
allowing himself to be diverted from it by no intervening
object ; the other was fond of halting and looking about
"HT. Cicero embellished his arguments with all the aids
which a lively fancy, and inexhaustible resources of lan-
guage, could supply ; Demosthenes gave them in all their
stern and naked vigour. The general character of the
Roman's eloquence was grace ; that of the Greek's
energy. The former was sparing of epithets ; the other,
prodigal in his use of them. Demosthenes was full of
variety, and even negligent, in ' the construction of his
sentences ; Cic.ro, careful, harmonious, and too often
monotonous, in his cadences, originating in his love of
sounding polysyllabical terminations. To sav—as Doc-
tor Middleton has said—that their eloquence was
great, sublime, and comprehensive," is to say nothing
more than may be observed with equal truth of Chat-
ham, Burke, Fox—indeed of every superior orator. We
may urge the same objection against the Doctor's
phrase " transcendent," which, in a critical sense, is de-
void of distinctive meaning. In a far shrewder spirit
does the learned biographer speak of the writers
who succeeded Cicero. Here, his criticism is
as acute as it is appropriate. " These men,"
he tel:s us, " affected a minute and fastidious
correctness, pointed sentences, short and concise pe-
riods without a syllable to spare in them, as if the per-
fection of oratory consisted in a frugality of words, and
in crowding our sentiments into the narrowest compass."
Sallust was one of the chief patrons of this school, and
constantly affected an abrupt, sententious, and elliptical
style, studying point on every occasion, no matter at
what cost to clearness and distinctness of meaning. Yet,
despite the Doctor's sneer, we cannot consent to give
up this clever historian, more especially when we bear
to mind his subtle and forcible character of Catiline, and
his picturesque account of his death on the field of
battle. Dr. Middleton, we perceive, makes no men-
ttonof Cicero's vanit%, which was great, nor of his
courage, which was doubtful ; but represents him
throughout as one of the noblest patriots, and most
Immaculate of men, that ever existed, reminding us, by
such uniform panegyric, of Old Gifford, who, in his
Life of Ben Jonson," has indulged in a similar strain
of excessive eulogium. In closing this hasty notice of
One of the most learned biographical works in the lan-
guage, we cannot omit thanking Mr. Moxon for the
;.neop and commodious form in which he has re-pub-
"shed it. These elegant one-volume editions of our
standard authors do the spirited publisher infinite credit,
and,, are calculated to work a most beneficial change in
the literary tastes of the day.

THE WIDOW MARRIED.-3 Vols.
CoMuni, London, 1840.
The greater portion of this tale has already made its
ill,ropearance from time to time in the pages of the
New Monthly Magazine," and been made the subject
of several passing notices in The Sun. It is by no
means equal to the authoress's " Widow Barnaby,"
either in the disposition of incident, or the development
of character. There is far too much of caricature in
it, especially where Mrs. Trollope describes her
heroine's presentation at the Court of St. James's, the
details of which grossly violate probability. The entire
character, too, of the aristocratic old maid, Lady Susan
Deemed, is defaced by the same blemish. Nor can we
say much in praise of the manner in which the plot is
unravelled, which is clumsily and hastily managed, as
if the authoress were beginning to weary of her subject,
and were glad to get to an end with it. Still the tale
will be read with pleasure, if only for the sake of the
brawny, shrewd, unscrupulous " Widow," whose dia-
logues are always characteristic, and replete with food
for laughter. The illustrations by Buss, arc, generally
speaking, clever, but would have been much improved,
had a little more comic spirit been thrown into them.

MANNERS AND CUSTOMS OF TILE NEW
ZEALANDERS.-2 roLs.
Madden, London, 1840.
Mr. Polack—to whom we are indebted for these
volumes—has been a long time resident in New Zea-
land, and his opinions, consequently, are deserving of
every consideration. So far as we are enabled to form
a notion on the subject, he writes in a perfectly un-
biassed spirit, and neither underrates nor overrates the
advantages which the country holds out to British set-
tlers. In point of climate, it is, he assures us, unitn-
Peachahle ; the soil, too, with some exceptions, is
good ; but the majority of the natives are still in a sad
state of barbarism, the horrid practice of cannibalism
being not yet extinct among them. In particular, they
have a great taste for hakci heads—an ugly fancy, which
we trust will have the effect of keeping our Scottish
settlers constantly on the alert, for it would be exceed-
ingly embarrassing if they were to wake one fine morn-
ing, and find their heads " done to a nicety" in a New
Zealand oven ! We can conceive no situation more
Painful, or provocative of dismal reflections. After
entering at some length into a variety of details re-
sPeCting the religious rites of the New Zealanders, Mr.
oLech proceeds to describe their marriage cere-
monies, some of which are curio s enough. He tells
us that
0_" In marriages resulting from betrothal the inclination
thetef female is rarely consulted
and, despite any aversion
a may conceive against her future spouse, she
must sub-
mit. Alany females at the age of five rears have been af-
fianced to some old men rather fitted tofill the relationship
of great grandparents than lovers
inion • •et on arriving at a
age suitable to native cp,
Place. In some instsnects the lady has
Whose agility has outstripped or set
at defiancel that of the
old pan,,,i on ;
0 but though unable
chase after such Gretna Green alliances, y to pursue the
thC espousals 3 have takenn
eloped with a lover,
l
n
aeftimile.....means and rank

has armed a host in his service of relatives and retainers.
On the parties being discovered, each receives a sound
castigation, if the lover be of rank ; but should he belong
to an inferior family, he is either robbed of all he may
possess, or murdered ; the old discarded lover then takes
the lady, without being particularly annoyed at the trick
played upon his honour."

_
Wives do not appear to rank higher in the social
scale among the New Zealanders, than they did among
the old Romans, who—we have the authority of Gibbon
for saying so--used to consider tbem as mere articles of
furniture. Mr. Polack continues as follows :
" The general and approved form of marriage is
extremely simple ; when the proposed union takes place,
the lover conducts the lady to his hut, and the wife,
thus introduced into her house, never quits it but as mis-
tress of the place. The property of her husband be-
comes equally her own, and the same feeling of mutual
intercourse follows this primitive ceremony as among ci-
vilized people. The most singular part of the cere-
mony follows ; the marriage is no sooner consummated
than a party of friends, nearest in relation to both
husband and wife, attack the hut, rob the place of every
moveable article, and often leave the inmates nearly per-
sonally naked. A sound drubbing is also bestowed or.
both parties."
This " drubbing " is, of course, intended as a mark
of respect, and reminds us of a humorous scene in
Voltaire's Candide, where he represents the great Shah
of Persia as being so particularly delighted with the
conduct of one of his Ministers, that, in token of ap-
probation, he knocks him down at a public levee,
" whereat," adds the novelist, " all the courtiers were
like to die of envy." The New Zealand women have,
it seems, a great horror of polygamy, and discourage
the practice in their husbands as much as they possibly
can, sometimes using remonstrances, sometimes me-
naces, and frequently, where these fail, their fists ; so
that—adds our author---," many of the Chiefs have at
length discovered that one wife is more than sufficient."
Ghosts and hobgoblins are very common throughout
the country, in consequence of which a native never
passes a burial-ground without a shudder, however brave
he may be in war. Mr. Polack relates one or two
ghost-stories, but they are wholly wanting in interest,
and have not even the rich—we might almost add, the
redeeming—absurdity of our own Cock-lane apparition
in which old Sam Johnson was so firm a believer.
Speaking of their wars, we arc told that

" A thousand persons have been known to be killed on the
spot, most of whom were deliberately tievoured by the vic-
tors, who force the captured slaves also to partake of the
bodies of their murdered relatives and companions t The
gluttony of the victors has been such, that numbers have
sunk under the horrible debauch, unable to recover from
their brutal orgies. On the battle field it is scarcely pos-
sible to distinguish friend from foe, as the limbs become
so much mangled, heads dissevered, &c., that it becomes
impossible to distinguish individuals of either party; neither
sex is spared, and infants and children are alike barba-
rously devoured by the insatiate monsters."
This must be very encouraging to British settlers ; it
is but fair, however, to add that cannibalism is by no
means so fashionable as it once was in New Zealand, a
frequent intercourse with Europeans having tended
considerably to the refinement and amelioration of
the manners of the savages. They are now, it appears,
more anxious to show off as men of business than as
warriors ; and who knows but that in process of time,
they may come to possess the keenness and fox-like
cunning of a London stock-broker ! Mr. Polack gives
some entertaining- particulars respecting the luxuriant
forests of New Zealand, and closes his work with an
appendix full of geological and zoological information.

THE COUNTESS. Three Vols.
Bentley, London, 1840.
In grace and lightness of touch, and still more in
the force and spirit of its dialogue, this tale reminds us
of one of the best of Paul de Kock. But here all re-
semblance ceases, for in the characters of its two prin-
cipal personages, the Countess and the young English-
man, Claude Wyndham, there is a loftiness and dignity
of conception not to be found in the clever, ad captan-
thiin fictions of the French novelist. Our lighter lite-
rature has teemed of late with such perverse exhibi-
tions of low, degraded humanity—has been so sedulously
devoted to the delineation of thieves, ruffians, and
ragamuffins of all sorts—that a tale like the one before
'is comes on us quite like a surprize, and we give it
hearty welcome accordingly. The author's object is to
point out the fol.y—not to say the madness of duelling,
and this he does through the instrumentality of his
hero, Claude Wyndham—a youth of undoubted cou-
rage, moral as well as physical, chivalrous principles and
high accomplishments ; but who having started on his
career with a determination never to accept a challenge,
no matter how ()Teat be the provocation, is involved in
a variety of the most trying predicaments, from which
he finally extricates himself, though not without dif-
ficulty ; and has the satisfaction in the end of finding
his character fully appreciated, and himself rewarded by
the hand of Ida, the daughter of the Prussian Count
Carolan. Among the minor personages of the story,
may be mentioned the family of the Digbys—vulgar,
travelling English people, whose oddities are hit off
with much comic humour, and the young roue, Lord
Elkington, whose vices, however, are rather too much
exaggerated. But the one great feature of the story
is the character of Claude Wyndham, which is brought
out in all its phates with infinite skill, and inculcates i‘
most beneficial moral. As a sample of the author's
talent for description, we subjoin this sketch :
" At length the darkness of night begadta grow less
black, and the stars by their " ineffectual fires" showed
" the matin to be near." The endless plains, which form
the principal scenery between Hamburg and Berlin, be-
came more visible. A grey light fell coldly in through the
whirleddhCial
daa puy dedeta
tabweedimethnlotroaetnbhselecavt.ntiisolofi
carriage windows, promising to Madame Wharton and
u Inigd theeh r,w hlhiigocuhhstestshaeopfpveetahhreiecdibe,lawacnkads
sometimes sleepy ,
w
heads obtruded themselves, cased in
inaosgeebtetosao:iyfnt.htvhiroe of each other than they
night-caps, from the windows. Then the early peasants
were seen on the road, going cheerfully to their toil, till
at length the dusky shadows were fairly put to flight from
the sombre earth and now brightening heavens. Shafts
of fire shot up from the east through the clouds, which,
aroused by these heralds, seemed to awake and bestir
themselves at the appearance of the sun. The cold night-
mists rose from their resting-places in the wide heaths and
dank hollows, uncurtaining the silent and almost desert
plains, which, even monotonous as they were, had in the
eyes of Claude a certain inexpressible beauty, stretching off
into azure distance like the ocean. At length, reddening
and brightening as he advanced, the sun rose above the
sombre circle which had so long hailed his coming, and
shed a rosy radiance over the scene."

OLYMPIC THEATRE.—After the Ladies Club,
which, by the bye, under the able chairwomanship of Mrs.
Stirling, still proves as attractive as ever, a new burletta, from
the pen of Mr. Bernard, was produced, entitled, The Happiest
Man Alive. We hardly know how to describe this piece. The
bill calls it a burletta, but it appears to be rather a mixture of
excellent comedy and broad farce, with a little dash of tra-
gedy. The plot, which is founded on a story called " The
Reverses," published, we believe, a few years ago, in one of
the periodicals of the day, is founded on the moral lesson
taught to a young man of fashion, who believes, in consequence
of his possessing a fortuno of 80,000/., a mistress devotedly
attached to him, and a faithful friend, that he is the " happiest
man alive." A lawyer, however, decamps with his money ;
he rushes to his friend for advice, and to his mistress for conso-
lation; but both, for excellent reasons, are out of the MIN'.
Imagining that they are deserting him in his misfortune,
the " happiest man alive" determines to commit suicide, when
he is fortunately stopped by the intervention of his faithful
friend, who has pursued the fugitive attorney, and has suc-
ceeded in obtaining the restoration of his lost fortune. His
mistress, too, accounts for her absence, in a plea which no
court of love could reject, namely, an intercession with an
aunt in her lover's behalf, and the piece is made to conclude
with the hero declaring his penitence, Lis unshaken faith in love
and friendship, and that he is then in reality the "happiest man
alive." The character of Charles Euston, " the happiest
man," was capitally played by Mr. F. Vining. The piece was
eminently successful, and was announced for repetition every
night without a dissentient voice.

-We regret to learn that the world of science has
sustained a heavy loss in the death, at Bremen, of the cele-
brated astronomer Olbers, at the advanced age of eighty-one.
He was a member of most of the European learned societies,
and the author of many important contributions to the progress
of modern astronomy. Letters from Alexandria mention like-
wise the death of the well-known French engineer, M. Le-
feyre, travelling correspondent to the Museum of Natural His-
tory in Paris. He died at Mohammed-Ali-Polis, in S:enaar, in
October last—having gone thither commissioned by, the Egyp-
tian Government to search for the metallic mines supposed to
exist in Senaar. While busy with these obituary records, we
may mention the death, at Paris, of Doctor Biett, head physi-
cian to the Hospital of Saint Louis, and a person of great emi-
nence in his profession, for all the qualities which can render
its members the benefactors of their kind. His courage and de-
votion in the fearful times of the cholera will be long remem-
bered ; and having, by his unwearied humanity and generous
sacrifices, worn out his constitution, and laid himself an a
death-bed, at the age of fifty-six—surrounded by the most dis-
tinguished of his professional brethren, he made his own disease
a valuable study for their use, predicting the day and hour of
its final struggle—and died, amid the most intense sufferings,
with the calmness of a stoic and the hopes of a martyr.
Athencrion.

PUBLIC AMUSEMENTS.—In that anbarras
de riehrsses v‘hieli prevails in our metropolis in regard to
public amusements, it is not to be wondered at that our country
friends slusuld so often puzzle themselves and their entertainers
by the pithy question, " Where shall we go to-day?"—and
how often is it that " Echo answers—Where ?" This difficulty
is at length very pleasantly remedied by a little volume, en-
titled " Colburn's Kalendar of Amusements," the design of
which is to set forth a sort of rota/vire aisonnee of the public
amusements of both town and country, for every day in the
year—in fact, an Every•clay Book of Sports, Pleasures, and
Pastimes. The idea is an exceedingly happy one, and the re-
sult can scarcely fail to command extensive popularity. The
small price at which this attractive volume is published (53. (3(1.
bound, and illustrated by R. Cruikshank) must tend to place
it in every one's hands.
MARRIAGE IN HIGH LIFE.—OrI Wednesda
last, at St. Ann's Church (Dublin), Charles Le
Poer Trench,y Esq., second son of the lion. and Rev. the late Archdeacon of
Ardagh, the nephew to the late Earl of Clancarty, was united
to his cousin, Alin Fanny Trench, fourth daughter of the late
Lord Archbishop of Tuam.
SERIOUS ILLNESS OF LORD LYNDHURST.
It is with extreme regret we hear of the alarming indisposition
of Lord Lyndhurst. His Lordship was taken unwell on Toes-
day, and kept getting worse until Thursday night, when fears
were entertained that the Noble and Learned Lord would not
survive the night through, but at two yesterday morning the
disease took a favourable turn, and his Lordship has since been
getting better. It is an inflammation of the chest from which
his Lordship is suffering. At a late hour last evening the Noble
Lord was pronounced considerably better by his medical at-
tendants, who hold out hopes of., a speedy recovery.
Her Majesty's ship Conway proceeds in the
course of a few days to the Burmese and Tenasserim coast._
Calcutta Englishman, Sept, 18.