The Sun.
London, England, 1840-09-03 00:00:00

P, V V, Nri N
" I IN •

LITERATURE.

7.-" E TIIANES ANT ITS TRIBUTARIES.
2 Vols. Bentley, Leaden, 1840.
As a great portion of these volumes hive already
appeared in Bentley's Miscellany, and were spoken
of from time to as they came out, in our usual
notiec,s, we need not here expatiate at
allY length their merits or otherwise. Suffice it,
therefo:e,
to state, that they are penned in an
arni'Able and unaffected spirit ; are full of gossip ;
P.nd not sparingly interspersed with agreeable anec-
dotes. Some small research is also apparent in
them---chiefly, however, of such a nature as we
meet with in the Guide-books to Watering-places.
The author sets out by assuring us that he is going
" in search of tui3ciont and of health along the
banks of the Thames." Health he has no doubt
found in this excursion—at least wt. Dope so—but
We question much whether as r-,,gsrds " wisdom" his
search has been equally successful, for ce:tainly his
Present volumes,amus:m though they are,exhibit no
'ery remarkable tme'es of this quality. For instance,
his very first page he says, " man speaks of the
mother-eD-.th fromwhence he came, and whither he
rl
; but, after all, the honour of his maternity
- '°ng, to water." Now, if this be the ease, and
eater be really and truly man's mother, then it fol-
S as a necessary logical consequence, which—
unlike the steam-engines on the Eastern Counties
p r)eailway—cannot be overturned, that man must
either, a hippopotamus, a crocodile, or a fish ;
amid this, we suppose, is the reason why we r-_:/-re in
e habit of saying of one person, that he is a "loose
Ifish; and of another, that he is an " odd fish I" Our
author goes on to ask, " what should we be with-
water ?'' and like the late George the
„1, rd, answers the question himself as follows :
in We have only to imagine the condition of the
w
There Cs neither salt water nor fresh in all
et ex
wonderß that she looks so pale and
lo°,e..b°tent No
-;one as she sails 0.17—.10' the sky, and that
rs and poets, ignorant of her peculiar mi.for-
s'ne, have so often asked her the reason of her
rr°".." We are not aware that it is a common
-c'
Practicethe
with lovers and with poets to put questions
e moon, touching the state of her mind ; but
ith 't be so, they must be egregious asses, seeing
tLat--according to Herschel', who has ascertained
tie rate at which sound travels—they could not
et an answer to their question in less than two
°,llsand years Agair,, we are assured that
;(ill.-nseidon in the Greek, and Neptune in the
"'an mrtholc ranked among the benevolent
gh°ds'" ffar:aj.a's this from being the case,
these was no deity who was regarded
:4 , 7 :nore fear, awe, and distrust than this
1), I'l/4' Neptune, whose primary attribute was not
L'evelence but caprice, as Mr. Mackay must
koown, had he been at all versed in the classic
reaitnrs• From the above passages, it will, we
(l', he too manifest that, in his search after wis-
-011, our author has not been quite so successful
,s Could have been wished ; nevertheless, his work
an entertaining one ; and so kindly is the spirit
n which it is penned, that it is not without
reluctance that we have ventured on a quiet
at its occasional silliness of remark. We
;11U our R-dthor's next volume will be in poetry,
than
PrP;se• He is more at home in the former,
thn the latter capacity ; and in his " Hope of
y-
World," there were not a few passages worthy
'of Goldsmith.

TYTLER'S IIIS7'ORY OF SCOTLAND,
VoL. VII.
Tait, Edinburgh, 1840.
The present volume of the history of Scotland
enThraces the stirring period between the marriage
of Mary to Lord Darnlc,;, end the close of the civil
war in 1572—" a potion of our national annals,"
deformed by mitroversy, that there is scarcely a
,ainole event 'in it of any importance, which has not
been citif:dtioned, or distorted to suit the peculiar
view's of the antagonists or defenders of the Queen
of Scots." In order to arrive at as sound conclu-
,aions as possible, in judging of the character of
these events, Mr. Tytler has consulted a variety of
authentic documents, which were either unknown
t?, or had escaped the research of pieceding histo-
Z"; and by the aid of these valuable materials he
p,:i.teen enabled to throw new lights on many im-
to Show ''t facts in Scottish history ; and, in particular,
the that Elizabeth, Cecil, and the leaders of
ip ti r°testants, were all, more or less, implicated
murder of Rizzio. The volume, as may be
fuligined m the
period of which it treats, is
of stifrroring interest.

CHIVALRY AND CHARITY.
11 i• U. Knight. London, 1840.
81) Itol 3 little volume, which is published under the
Useful Pcriotendence of the Society for the Diffusion ofef
vah. Knowledge, we have the principles of chi-
bratY and charity illustrated in the lives of the cele-
leb "4 Bertrand du Guesclin, and the still more ce-
iated John Howard. The book is very light and
elit ertaining, and will be sure to be popular with
yo,,
ng people.