The Sun.
London, England, 1847-05-17 00:00:00

LITERATURE

THE PARLOUR LIBRARY. IV). lIL WOOD
LEIGHTON. By Mary .lowitt.
Caring not only for the intrinsic value of their
periodical but for the general mriet: of the publica-
ken, the proprietors of the " Parlotr Library" have
here followed up the romances of Careton and Dumas
with the simple, homely, and tho•oughly English
fiction by Mary Howitt. " Wooc Leighton" has
long since become familiar to the lasers of this species
of literature, and with many " Wool Leighton" has
inland
scenery a favourite. As a portraitire of the
scenery of still beautiful and still nerry England it
is singularly agreeable. We remenber an American
author has somewhere said that
v who are now
living are the true ancients—not tie people of cen-
turies bygone. Hence may this country be called,
with more reason now-a-days, ban it was in the
kip
of Elizabeth—" Merry Old Ingland," for it is
many a score of years older now tlan it was then, and,
we trust, a very great deal wiser bi experience. Merry
Old England then let it continue to be called,
and Merry Old England it is shown to be, by Mary
Howitt, in her story of " Wcod Leighton ; or, a
"Year in the Country." In the very commencement
of " Pickwick," Charles Dickens described the as-
pect of the good old city of Rochester, and he judi-
ciously selected that spot for description at the outset
of his career in authorship, because, we believe, the
good old city of Rochester was his birthplace, or, at
the least, was a locality intimately blended with the
associations of his boyhood. nary Howitt, doubt-
less, selected " Wood Leighton' from a somewhat
similar motive, for around the place which is depicted
under the soubriquet of " Wood Leighton," are en-
twined most of her childish recollections. With the
exception of a little over-colouring and exaggeration,
as for example in the delineation of the house, or
rather palace of the Nabob General Dubois, the tale
is clever and natural.

CO WPER'S WORKS. Vol. I. Edited by the Rev.
T. S. Grinishawe.
The superiority of these collected writings of
William Cowper, both in prose and poetry, over the
collection formerly published, has been admirably
and significantly expressed by the avidity with which
the previous edition was purchased. We are especi-
ally gratified, therefore, that the intelligent editor has
again undertaken the revision of the work in a cheap
and popular edition of this character. We are no
idolators of the genius of William Cowper ; we con-
fess our incapacity, indeed, to recognise any genius
whatever in his poetical compositions ; but we reve-
rence the name of William Cowper notwithstanding ;
we see in him a pure and lofty, and richly cultivated
intellect—an exquisite and almost feminine sensibility
—a good and enthusiastic Christian. His verses,
moreover, though tame and wearisome to us, are the
limpid outpourings of an unblemished heart ; they
are occasionally adorned with the graces of a felicitous
diction, and are invariably inculcations of a sound
morality. Besides this, Cowper has the indisputable
credit of having ushered in a new and healthy school
in metrical literature. As he himself exclaims—
" Give me the line that ploughs its stately course
Like a proud swan, conquering the stream by force;
That, like some cottage beauty, strikes the heart,
Quite unindebted to the tricks of art.
When Labour and when Dulness, club in hand,
Like the two figures at St. Dunstan's stand,
Beating alternately, in measured time,
The clockwork tintinnabulum of rhyme,
Exact and regular the sounds will be ;
But such mere quarter strokes are not for me !"
It is solely as an epistolary writer that Cowper is to us
delightful reading. His letters are scarcely surpassed
by the most elegant and accomplished correspondents
in the language; and in this department Cowper may
be classed with his brother bard Gray, with Lord
Chesterfield, and even with Horace Walpole. Speak-
ing of the letters of Cowper, it was observed by
Robert Hall that "to an air of inimitable grace and
carelessness, they unite a high degree of correctness,
such as could result only from the clearest intellect,
combined with the most finished taste." More than
two hundred of these admirable letters are comprised
in this edition than were originally contained in the
celebrated life by Hayley. On this account, therefore,
as well as on account of its extraordinary cheapness
and extreme elegance, the present issue must command
a large circulation.

HISTORY OF EUROPE. Vol. V. By Archibald

Alison.

Clearness and animation are acknowledged to be
the prevailing characteristics of Mr. Alison's history.
At this particular point in the narrative, those quali-
ties are more than ever requisite, and happily, too, they.
are more than ever perceptible. Perhaps the sublimest
spectacle witnessed in the last seven centuries was that
of the youthful and beleagured republic of France
rising proudly and predominantly through the dark-
ness of its internal anarchy, and its external strifes—
led on from victory to victory, over the greatest gene-
rals of Christendom, under the banners of a youth,
who scarcely a dozen months before had been sub-
sisting on the charities of his comrade Junot in one
of the most miserable bye streets of Paris. The fifth
volume contains the account of the immortal campaign
of Italy in 1796, when General Bonaparte at once
rose from obscurity into a renown that floated over
Europe, over the ocean, to the most remote regions of
America and Polynesia.

MURRAY'S HOME and COLONIAL LIBRARY.

No. XLV. Sketches of German Life. Part 11:
The conclusion of these scrambling and confused
sketches, is as miserably imbued with prejudice as
the commencement. Sir Alexander Duff Gordon
has transferred the original by Varnhagen Von Ense
into agreeable English ; but in doing so, he has pre-
sented to England a partizan writer—a being
whom
few can have sympathy. A history written by
partizan is nothing better than the die of a medal-
lion; iti furnishes materials from which future nar-
rators may compile more valuable and enduring
with
works. Among such materials must be classed these
sketches of what is called the war of Liberationin
Germany.

TIIE CHRISTIAN IN PALESTINE. Part XII.
It were impossible to exaggerate the interest with which
this periodical inspires in
us on each successive appear-
since. Mr. W. H. Bartlett has selected the different scenes
in the Holy Land, with the discrimination of an artist
and the precautions of a Poet influenced by the genius
of Christianity. He has here pourtrayed the " r?oi of
Hezekiah," a pool as mystic in its solitary limpidity as
in its biblical associations ; a
most reverent village ; the interior of the magnificent
look-
ing towards the indistinct hills of "WellJu daeta:
"Greek Church at Bethlehem," a spot sanctified as the
region of the
Nativity. ; and a view of " Ramleh,"
as possible.
evidently taken to render this publication as little un-
azEavreerth;:artheaits
worthy of its theme