The Sun.
London, England, 1840-10-01 00:00:00

THE sUN, LONDON, TI-IURSDA Y, OCTOBER 1. 1840.

thing he thoroughly agreed with me, viz. in disliking
common literary society, by comparison with that of
people less pretending, left more to the impulses of
.their natural unchecked feelings, and entertaining op--
mons less modelled upon what they read. One ebu!-
lition of his own native disposition was, however, not
very amiable. Near Charing-cross, a poor bouseless
female vagrant came up to us and asked charity. Now, it
was in no respect surprising to me that Mr. Irving should
refuse to give her anything, knowing that so many ex-
cellent people systematically set their faces against
street alms; and a man, the most kind-hearted in the
world, whose resources are limited, may very reasonably
prefer throwing whatever he has at his disposal into the
channels of we-organized charitable institutions. Not,
therefore, the refusal, but the manner of the refusal, it
was which surprised me. Mr. Irving shook off the
poor shivering suppliant, whose manner was timid and
dejected, with a roughness that weuld have better be-
come a parish beadle towards a stout masterful beggar,
ccunterfelting the popular character of a 'shipwrecked
mariner. Yet lam far from thinking, or wishing to in-
sinuate, that Edward Irving was deficient in benignity:,
" Tytler's History of Scotland" is a clever notice
of one of the cleverest works of the day. " Violet
Hamilton" continues to be carried on with spirit.
It is an excellent tale of its class, but that is not of
the highest. " Scenes Abroad and Thoughts at
Home," are by Mr. Symons ; and we find in them
an interesting account of the social condition of the
Swiss peasantry, of whom the writer speaks in the
warmest terms of admiration. Altogether, the
Number is a very fair average one.

MONTHLY CHRONICLE.

discussed in this Number, and with a temperance
that is not often brought to their discussion. The
writer justly observes that " neither Chartist agita-
tors nor Social missionaries can be put down by
education, or by law ; they can only be artested
in their progress by striking at the roots of that po-
pular discontent to which they owe all their success
and all their influence." Chartism, and that still
greater nuisance, Socialism, do indeed originate in
popular discontent—and who can wonder at such
discontent, when he takes into consideration the
enormous tax laid upon that staff of life, bread ?
Repeal the Corn-laws, and you strike from the
hands of the working-classes their most efficient
weapon of annoyance; continue the monopoly, and
day by day you increase their power, and strengthen
their disposition, to work mischief. The " Legend
of Count Egmont's Bridal " is a poem, founded on
a German tradition, from the pen of the Hon. Mrs.
Osborne. It is smoothly versifiM. " Persian
Reminiscences" are rambling and anecdotical.
" Psychological Medicine" contains some odd
reasoning respecting the materiality of the mind.
" Shadows" is a more thoughtful poem than we
generally meet with in Magazines. We extract a
few of the stanzas :
There are shadows around us every where,
They crowd on the view unbidden ;
Some to the outward eve appear,
Some in the mind are hidden ;
But the shadows of sight and the shadows of thought
The living man regardcth not.
A shade we cast in the bright sunbeam,
A shade in the lake's clear mirror,
And shadowy forms in the moon's pale gleam
Have stricken the.soul with terror ;
But they are not the shades which shall happy be
In the land which no mortal eye can see.
•
The shadows seen by the outward eye
With the outward eye shall perish,
But the forms which the deathless mind Joth spy,
That mind shall for ever cherish ;
Uniadieg shall be the shadow's lot
Which is cast on that which fadeth not.
For not while the substance before us stands
Alone the shadow lasted!,
Each form we have seen in other lands
On the mind-its semblance casteth ;
We may roam afar to a foreign shore,
But the shade abideth evermore.
And cft as of distant ones we tell,
To whom fate may ne'er restore us,
Their imaged limns by sudden spell
Are c4njurcd up before as ;
But we test by the touch of bodily things,
And we call them shadowy visionings.
The hand that grasps shall be cold in clay,
• And fled that bodily token,
But the mind that beholds shall live for aye
With its magic powers unbroken ;
And these spirit forms shall be present there
As living men to the body were.

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