The Sun.
London, England, 1841-10-01 00:00:00

MORNING_ SITN

MAGAZINE DAY.
BLACK WOOD'S MAGAZINE.
One would almost imagine it impossible, at
this time of day, to
.say anything novel or inter-
esting on the subject of Homer; yet the Author
of " Homer and the Homeridze" has written a
-very ingenious and readable essay on this trite
theme. After some lively allusions to the famous
river Nile, the doubtfulness of whose source he
compares to the obscurity that hangs over the
great epic poet of old. Greece, he proceeds to
speak of the theory of Wolf, that the Homeric
poems were not the production of one, but of
Many minds ; and adds that this theory is still
upheld by several eminent European scholars.
How this may be, we know not ; but for our own
part, we cling to the orthodox faith, and hold
that the Iliad ant:, the Odyssy were the work of
one and the same individual. They could no
more have been a joint production, than " Ham-
let" or " Paradise Lost;"and it needs only to
read them with attention, and mark the cha-
racter of their descriptive touches, to see that such.
is the case. It is easy enough to imagine one
Romer ; but to imagine a dozen or more, all
imbued Ivith the same poetic spirit, and exhi-
'biting it in precis.* the same manner, is an
absurdity to be repudiated by all but. a German
Commentator, who, though he may possess pro-.
found learning, is apt to be a very wayward arta
fantastic critic. " Vanities in Verse" are by Mr.
Simmons. They are carefully and gracefully
penned, especially the poem on " liolycress
Abbey." " Ambition : a Farce" is rather a se-
rious affair—very unlike Mr. Horace Twiss's
tragedy of the " Carib Chief,"which is one of the
drollest farces we ever read. In. " England and
her European Allies" there is one sagacious re-
mark—namely, that " the most likely source
whence danger to England and. the other States
of Europe may arise, is France, in hee present
anomalous and unsettled condition." The state
of France is indeed just now as precarious as it
was previous to the Revolution of 1330. There
is a feverishness about her that indicates a very
disordered state of health, and no one can tell
low soon she may break out into open insurrec-
tion. The refusal of juries to convict on the
most flagrant libels on the Royal authority, is a
truly ominous symptom. Speaking of the Em-
Peror Nicholas, the author says that " in his
hublic capacity as a monarch, he has conducted
imself with so much enlightened humanity
and justice, that his alliance is a great honour to
whatever people possess it." The decimator of
Poland—the ruthless, inexorable tyrant, who, in
his thirst for vengeance, waged tear even against
helpless Polish infamy, is certainly an ally of
whose. " enlightened • humanity" a free country,
like England, has reason to he proud ! " Brielt
ton" is a lively rhymed squib, from which we
quote a few stanzas :
Ho, this is your summer
To meet a new-corner !
The sky's black enough to benight one.
:From Mondays to Mondays,
(Above all, all on Sundays,)
It pourS down its deluge on Brighton.
If I walk on the cliff
From the sea comes a whiff,
That whirls off my hat though a tight one ;
If I stroll through the strfets,
Every soul that ono meets
Looks like a drowned weasel, in Brighton.
If I stir in the day
I'm half buried in clay,
And, '-twixt sand, salt, and challen a white one ;
If I slip out at night,
Not a glimpse of gas-light
The tempests will suffer, in Brighton..
If I ride on the Downs
A hurricane frowns—
I'm off, 'tis quite useless to fight one ;
On one of those days
I fairly miss'd stays, .
And came by the life-boat to Brighton. •
For my dreams of gay gambols, -
My waterside rambles,
Serenades, promenades, to delight one ;
With an old telescone
In my window I mope,
From sunrise to sunset iu Brighton.
Then, as for the shows,
I see none hut wet clothes,
Umbrellas, and feces that fright one ;
Fat squires with lean daughters,
By salt and spa waters
All e.nne to be plump'd up in Brighton.
Pray, what's the Pavilion ?
An elephant's pillion,
A bungalow, (that name's the right one,)
So ashamed to be seen
That it's hid from the &eine—
It looks like the Bedlam of Brighton.
For concerts and balls
We have nothing but squalls,
Not even a raffle to bite one ;
Our songs are all psalms,
Our feasts are all qualms,
Our mirth is mourning at Brighton. _

" Three Nights in Berlin" is a passable prose
tale. The World ol'London" contains several
just, though nut very encouraging, reflections.
We have been struck with the -truth of this re-
mnark :—" if yun are a scholar, that is to say, a
poor scholar, go f'rom door to door among the
cabins of Ireland, where you will be received
with universal sympathy and respect; but of all
curses, avoid the cursed indignity you meet with
in London, where the ruffianism of -insolent and
'vulgar wealth, knows no restraint—no decency
•—no shame— and where every cad with his
pocket full of silver, is more respectable than
You, while his pocket is full. London is a trad-
ing-place, and if you come to London to live,
you must be a trader." Yet there are generous
virits, even in this trading metropolis, by whom
scholarship is treated " with honour due ;" but
these are chiefly to be found among the well-
educated members of the learned professions,
with whom the study of the ledger is not the sole
duty of- e:zistence. " Notes of Travel" rare
hastily but cleverly clashed off; and " Prospects
under the Peel Ministry" are just what might
bare been anticipated from the 'high Tory cha-
racter of Maga.

FRASER'S MAGAZINE.
In discussing" Sir Robert Peel's claim to the
confidence of the clergy "—a question which is
treated at considerable length in the Number
before us—the writer is of opinion that the time
lias arrived when the clergy ought to forgive the
Right Hon. Baronet for his apostacy on the Ca-
titulic question, and he among the foremost to
rally round him. That the parsons will rally

Touiid Sir Robert, there can be little or no
doubt; he has too many good things to give

_
away, and too much power in his hands, to be
neglecvid by them with impunity ; besides, he
is strk,,tly orthodox, and agrees with them in his
not;.ons as regards the Dissenters; nevertheless,
tlsough the clergy may support him, from politic
motives, to the utmost of their abilities, they
Ivill never, in their hearts, forgive him for his
conduct in 1820. The ‘' Great Hoggarty Dia-
:moud," is the continuation of an amusing narra-
tive, which was commenced last month in
Fraser. It is from the pea, of lqichal Angelo
Titmarsh—one of the liveliest periodical writers
of the day, who weilds a ready and vigorous pen,
and often reminds us of O'Deherty, whom he
:appears to be fond of imitating, though without
servility. An Essay "On Macbeth" will inte-
rest, despite the threadbare nature of the topic.
" Macbeth," says the writer, " is in every re-
spect the most dread drama that was ever yet
composed. Throughout it is addressed to the
intellect' and the senses•—never to the heart.
Terror and horror uniformly prevail over pity."
We do not altogether agree with this dictum,
for in one of the most remarkable scenes in the
play—that, we mean, where the usurper receives
-tidings of his death, and soliloquizes on his own
forlorn condition, without a friend on earth to
• . care for him, the appeal—and a most touching,
appeal it is—is exclusively to the heart. " Nol;.8
on the North What-d.'ye-callern Election"
Is sad
stuff. " Sir David Wilkie and 11'..,-- Friends"
• gives some particulars respeetig
portion of this distinguished - tle earlier
eainter's career. One
or two of the anecdotes :•,,.
Is
e entertaininc‘• enough,
and not a few are mere twaddle, as where
the writer assures is that Wilkie was nearly
going mad with, nervous excitement, in conse-
quence of I,:is' incessantly repeein
repeat in a humorous
Ceaplet, v;hich he found by chance in Peter-
Pi
,-, ndar i In the " T • . ouinal of an. Autumn in the
sdou-
.utrv" occur some ingenious critical r•-marks
Or
A the Poems of the Quaker, Green--- ti;aniw who
,was lately fallen into very uninaite4d Green was a poet of decidedly original neglect,
and possessed a vein of quaint humour, which
distinguished him from all the other writers of
, his day. His
felicity of expression, too, was re-
. lmarkable. In this respecthe was not surpassed,
even by Herrick
"Budget of a Blue-Jacket"
& a sketchy narra. tive of the Prince de Joinville's
sate voyage to St. Helena, whither, it may be
Teme
mhered he went, for the purpose
subjoin Napoleon's
the sketch
of
Longwood, at the time of the
party's arrival there : After havin
in appearancetgz
traversed a thicket of undervvood, as triste
the soil was arid, we arrived at Long-
the The
e same state huts which form:the entrance are in
Emperor arrived dilapidation as the day on which the
is a space of .about 8 etween these huts and the mansion
trees. Such as werooo feet, formerly planted with gum
have been either re
ianciently to the left of the road
wholly grubbed up. P red by pine-trees or have been
very low ground-tloor, t'hnngw°°d Mansion consists of a
dark, and humid. The' ° rooms of which are few, small,
less somewhat, thew h heir lugubrious aspect was doubt-
net much, mitigated when they