The Sun.
London, England, 1846-07-30 00:00:00

VIRGINIA.

Oh father, oh friendship, oh fatherly favour,
Whose dulcet words so sweetly do savour,
On knees I beseeche thee to graunt my request,
In all things according as lyketh thee best.
Thou knowest, 0 my father, if I be once spotted,
My name and my kindred then forth wilbe blotted :
And if thou, my father, should die for my cause
The world would accompt me gilty in cause.
Then rather, deare father, if it be thy pleasure,
Graunt me the death, than keepe I my treasure,
My lampe, my light, my lyfe undefiled,
And so may Judge Apius of flesh be beguiled.
This upon my knees with humble beheste,
Graunt me, 0 father, my instant requeste.
This is the more curious, as it is more than probable
that M. Latour is utterly ignorant of the existence of
the play in question.
Our remarks on this play have already extended to
such a length that we feel compelled, however re-
luctantly, to bring them to a close. M. Latour has
produced a tragedy which may be considered as a com-
bination of the beauties of the classical and the romantic
schools, possessing the regularity of the first without its
trammels (the unity of place, for instance, is frequently
violated, but always to good dramatic purpose), and the
spirit of the latter without its improbabilities. Virginie
is a great dramatic poem, yet it is not the greatest that
M. Latour will produce; it is the mere first-fruits of an
abundant harvest, not the harvest itself.

SECOND LOVE, and Other Tales. 3 Vols.
Remarkable promise is given in these volumes, and
we shall confidently anticipate much future develop-
ment of his powers from the author. If, in publishing
tales of a moderate length, he were desirous of testing
his capacities for the production of an ordinary-sized
novel, we must acknowledge that, while such a pro-
ceeding was so far judicious, it was by no means neces-
sary from any intrinsic poverty of material in any one
of these fictions. What is usually frittered out into
the everlasting length of three volumes is here condensed
into one-third the space. We can, therefore, after a
peru'al of these compositions, congratulate the lovers of
what is sometimes erroneously called light literature
upon the appearance of a new aspirant for their favour,
Who shows himself possessed of more than the abso-
lutely necessary qualifications. " Second Love" is a
charming story, fraught with very considerable dra-
matic interest, and luring the reader on, chapter after
chapter, by its fascination. Its very commencement
arouses the curiosity. and as the plot becomes more
entangled and intricate the imagination is proportionably
enkindled. Floriana, the heroine, is exquisitely de-
lineated, and from the moment when she is first intro-
duced, leaning against the balcony of a cottage in the
Tyrol, to the denouement of the story, the sympathy of
the peruser is concentrated upon herself. The simple
gist of the novelette is as follows :—A roué, named
Gaston d'Alby, who is aware that by marrying Floriana
he would ensure to himself the title and revenues of a
dukedom which he has wrongfully assumed to himself,
obtains her affections under the disguise of a travelling
artist. Anxious, however, on reflection, to obtain the
more sordid prize without eucnmbering himself with a
woman, for whom his fondness is merely a subterfuge
and a pretence, he engages a strolling gipsey to steal
the title-deeds to the coveted possession, to burn the
dwelling-house in which his inamorata is located, and to
commit divers other atrocities. The protector of Flo-
riano is burnt to death in the cottage, and Gaston, con-
vinced that the papers are destroyed in the conflagration,
returns exultingly to Paris. Here, however, he is fol-
lowed by the heroine ; the latter passes through a num-
ber of vicissitudes ; Latzi, the gipsey, " turns up" again
as a rider at Franconi's equestrian circus ; the all-
important papers are found to be in his possession, and a
variety of powerful scenes is the consequence, each
circumstance disclosing still further the duplicity and
villainy of Gaston, the reckless determination of Latzi,
the purity and the devotedness of. Floriana. After the
catastrophe, in which these facts are developed to the
comprehension of all the persons concerned, the " Second
Love" is unfolded in the love of the heroine for a young
Englishman, named Albert Walsingbam. It is singular
how much intense interest is evolved from this simple
plot ; the fiction is most skilfully contrived, and the in-
cidents are delineated with very considerable vigour.
The scene in Franconi's amphitheatre is admirable.
Venda, the mother of Latzi, although an original, calls
to our recollection the Witch of Vesuvius in Zanoni."
" Pauvrette" is also a tale of peculiar power, telling of
the malice of a Quadroon, who, to revenge himself upon
the heroine for having rejected his affection, causes her
eyesight to be extinguished by a negro woman. In this
instance, however, the interest is of a painful and re,
pulsive character, and hence we conceive the fiction to
be inferior to its predecessor. The Maiden's Chamber"
is, on the contrary, an agreeable story throughout; and
this in despite of the blustering rascality of Lieutenant
Vidal and the secret villainy of Jerome Sainval. In the
character of Gabriel Maas, the treasure-seeker, the
author has without any absolute plagiarism, reminded his
reader of the famous Edie Ochiltree of Scott's " Anti-
quary :" they are " alike but yet dissimilar." There is
much brilliancy of description in these volumes, and the
composition altogether is sparkling and fluent. Some-
times, however, especially in the last story, there are
evidences of immaturity, such as a turgescence in the
language ; for example, in the third volume, page 74,
instead of saying that Vidal swore lustily because he
was drunk, the author says, that the pith of Vidal's
exclamation was " thus rudely overloaded with an exube-
rance of figurative adjurations," This failing is, however,
but s.,ldom visible ; and in dismissing the present work,
we can do so with cordial commendation, as a triad of
very delightful tales.

THE LATIN TYRO'S GUIDE. By Geo. Jackson.
Alt ingenious little work is this " Latin Tyro's Guide."
It has a novelty and simplicity in its arrangement
with which, at first glance, we were surprised,
and with which, after a careful examination,
we are satisfied. The book promises to impress
the first principles of the construction of the
Latin language upon the mind of the student more in-
delibly than any other elementary system within our im-
mediate recollection. A group of nouns substantive, in
the five declensions, are ready prepared, to be either
committed to the memory or to be declined, or both, at
ill. The same may be remarked also cf the nouns
~djective, the four conjugations, the deponent verbs, and
the irregular verbs. With the compactness of the table
of pronouns just filling a page and a half—we are par-
ticularly pleased. Altogether the book is nothing less
than " the Latin Grammar made easy."

A LETTER TO THE yEv CECIL WRAY.

_
By Thomas William Marshall.
The writer of this pamphlet writes consistently and
clearly. We cannot, however, concede to the arguments
by which he endeavours to prove the unstable position of
the reverend gentleman to whom they are addressed.
Even the minutest point in ethics is too vast to be
settled to satisfaction in the compass of a single epistle;
and to our opinion it seems that such brochures ehQuld
be restricted to mere questions of discipline, 4s the great