The Sun.
London, England, 1846-06-08 00:00:00

LOIRE' S EDINBURGH MAGAZINE.

" Lowe's Review," we opine, would have been a much
more applicable and significant title to this periodical,
as the major portion of its contents partake more of the
critical character than of the didactic. And we must
candidly assure its editor that in this distribution of
articles he does not act very judiciously, the original
essays or disquisitions contained in the number for
June being of considerable ability, while the criticisms
are, on the average, feeble and flippant to a painful
extent. " Sir Tristram and Sir Galahad" is a very
agreeable reminiscence of the chivalric era; the con-
traibuotion on "John Knox " possesses an interest quite
manyi wnno;v
ewhile d "
aStoalrittluindge andrefl
e. Intercourse
Tk" cfoonrtaeixns.
a myrrl eh,i
"Thinking
ge upon solitude
f an y re
;lee;
of brotherly heart,`yet trey haaven le:s sit. havee
solitude. Lonely
n'e beenb, menfte n
by necessity of nature, they have in perfected love;
Whoever strenuously seeks
escsolidctiitvuedne:
they have been social solitaries.
to live spiritually, will need and desire
and to these he will be sometimes drawn, sometimes
Within him he will find a wild, pathle_ssovehs,illwitiut country,'
within him, also, pleasant and sacred
flower-garlanded, and dropping honey. He will have both
griefs and joys. True thought has ever its pains and throes,
but there will be often the dull agony that cannot think.:
There will be sometimes a composed peace of mind, when
truth will reveal itself in its two-fold solemnity, as to one
floating on a still sea Heaven is disclosed, alternately as a fir-
mament of star-garnished darkness, and as a firmament of
radiant, invigorating sunshine. But there will also be times
of fear, when a horror of great loneliness overspreads the heart
as a storm-darkness on a sultry day, and when winds of thought
whisper no more sweetly as the voices of angels, but sound
strangely, like the distant cry and wailing of evil spirits
drawing nearer. Loneliness may be indeed a bitter and
chilling imprisonment—a bondage in 'darkness that may be
felt'—an Egyptian bondage, in Egyptian darkness. Many a
man who has loved his times of solitariness as the evening
twilight, when that twilight has deepened into a continuing
night, has cried unto God, and said—' My Father, I am afraid
in this great darkness. Where art Thou g' There cannot
be right action without thoughtful solitude, but there
cannot be a blessed solitude without right action; neither
has power of itself, they are joined of God."'
" When, then, we retire from the outward, we go not into
an unillumined darkness; the light of our own spirit is, in its
brightness, more and more revealed to us, and we are
wholly filled with its steady shining. But within us, we have
not only a country, to walk in which we need light, but, as it
were, a dwelling-house with chambers; and, having ?..with-
drawn from the world, and kindled a lamp in some quiet
chamber, earthly noises may be to us as winter rains patter-
ing drearily againt the closed casement of our spirit, whilst
we sit within, cheered with the light of our thoughts, and
warmed with the fire of our musings. It is then that
to our heart speaks the sun small voice' of God. No man
hears this, if ever surrounded with the tumult and contradic-
tion of other voices. This sacred voice speaks not to us alone
new things, but often thrills us with its utterance of things
well known. Then, specially if it be ours to represent truth
to our brethren, the spirit of searching comes upon us. If
truth believed be not in silence pondered, there is danger that
we get a defiled conscience—knowing that we seek to make
others feel what we feel not ourselves, and affirm that to be
obligatory upon all men which has not full control over us.
As our nutward life widens, our inward one must deepen."
In all this there may be something mysterious, but
reason and our innate emotion tell us that it contains
nothing absolutely chimericaL As a specimen of the
flimsy style of reviewing introduced in this Magazine,
we may be allowed especially, to instance the one upon
the " New Timon." It is of course, allowable for
every one to form a different opinion as to the
merits of a particular poem, the more so,
as some poetical productions address themselves in a
peculiar manner to the idiosyncracy of some individuals,
and consequently find no sympathy from readers of a
perfectly opposite idiosyncracy. We are not, therefore,
cavilling at the fact of that Edinburgh critic finding
little more than ordinary neatness in the remarkable
work which he has failed in appreciating, much as we
are astonished at the indifference with which he regards
it. It is the manner he has adopted for the expression
of his disappointment to which we object—how shall we
designate that manner ? The dictionary supplies us
with no epithet precisely applicable to it, excepting of a
coarse and vulgar kind. We shall not, therefore, at-
tempt its definition, We will allow% the reader to judge
of the elegant style and refined feelings visible through-
out the criticism in question by a quotation. What
does he think, then, of a man presuming to understand a
poetical idealism, who writes such a sentence as the fol-
lowing :
" After Daniel O'Connell then passes Lord Stanley ; but as
we do not care for Lord Stanley so much as the poet does,
we will take the opportunity to blow our nose ; and by the time we
lave returned our handkerchief to our pocket, some other notable
will be passing."

What delicacy of sentiment I What a capacity for
reciprocating the purest emotions of the human heart !
Bah 1 It only serves to remind one of the adage
" throwing pearls to swine." The treatment of this
anonymous poem in other quarters, while in substance it
has shown the diversity of opinion, has also in many
instances disclosed the degradation of humanity. We
say again—the degradation of humanity—for these sages
in nature and books have absolutely maligned the "New
Timon" as a poem of an immoral tendency. Surely,
after that, we should have little hesitation in
wagering that these men would see an indelicacy
in the naked figures of Canova's Graces, would
vilify as licentious the divine purity of the
recumbent Ariadne, and would look only with
lascivious eyes upon the Venus de Medici. Out
upon such literary prudes ! They turn from a block of
white and unsullied marble, thinking it flawed and
spotted, because they look through cracked spectacles
grimmed with smoke.

" The blue sky seems flecked with blood ;
The sunshine on the floor looks black ;"
cries Beatrice, in the " Cenci :" Let these sticklers for
propriety take those words as, their motto. They can
scarcely discover one more appropriate.

THE KNIGHT OF GWYNNE. No. VL, By
Charles Lever.

We must acknowledge ourselves chagrined at the
hurried manner in which Mr. Lever finishes off the
episode of Gleeson's departure : after so much dramatic
preparation in the preceding chapters—after mustering
all the wrath of the elements and painting the commence-
ment of a pursuit by Bagenal Daly, which promised such
scenes of excitement in the channel, the matter is quietly
dropped by the return of the pursuer with the intelli-
gence of the suicide of the pursued. Nevertheless, our
disappointment in one regard is compensated by our
satisfaction in another. The love passages between
Helen Darcy and Forester, are most tenderly and truth-
fully pourtrayed. Apropos of the latter, his lady-mother
writes him one scrap of inimitable advice; she warns
him, if he would render himself agreeable in society, to
abstain from telling anecdotes. There is not in
truth a more incorrigible nuisance in :private life
than your professed anecdote-monger ; and we would
ourselves prefer the infliction of hearing the stereotyped
edition of " Joe Miller's Jest Book" recited, from the
title-page down to the finis, rather than undergo a single
hours' tete-a-tete with any conversationalist of this des-
cription. Besides monopolising the time and at-
tention of everybody else upon subjects of intense fri-
volity, these social delinquents, instead of entertaining,
are guilty of the most inexcusable egoism. Written
anecdotes, like those introduced by Charles Lever, are
allowable enough, seeing that they can readily be
" skipped" (as young ladies have it) whenever the
reader is disinclined for their perusal. From the
destruction impending the generous-hearted Knight of
Gwynne we anticipate no little entertainment. Mr.
Lever possesses such a mastery over the conventional
details of a fiction, and writes with such a spontaneous
glitter, that he cannot fail of sustaining his popularity.

KNIGHTS WEEKLY VOLUME.
Vols. C., CL, and CIL

The variety of literary materials employed in this
admirable series is extraordinary ; and considerable
taste is displayed in the alternation of the different sub-
jects introduced. For example, in the three volumes
under consideration, we have a fanciful and not unlovely
hypothesis about " Flowers and their Associations," by
Anne Pratt ; then we have some animated letters de-
scriptive of " The Backwoods of Canada," embellished
with a multiplicity of woodcuts ; and, finally, the eighth
volume of the " Cabinet Portrait Gallery of British
Worthies," comprising biographies and engraved like-
nesses of Sir Mathew Hale, Andrew Marvell, Isaac
Barrow, Thomas Hobbes, Samuel Butler, and Lord
William Russell. Whatever the partiality may arise
from, we confess to an estimation for the last-
mentioned volume. The memoirs are agreeably
succinct, while they, likewise afford many interest-
ing particulars of some amongst the more remark-
able characters. Of these particulars, the most curious,
are unquestionably those appertaining to the domestic
habits of the illustrious Hobbes—Hobbes of Malmesbury.
Aubrey's account of his habits, is especially entertain-
ing,ereet and through it we fellow the old philosopher, erect
in body, and steadfast in the retention oxfis
his wisdom,
His
through the daily course habitual to h
scanty breakfast ; his sturdy walkds
and expelling moisture ; his mineid.
ay
d slumbers ; his
meals ; his solitary dinner ;
his
stobacco (" rare, devilish,
foris promotinge heat
smoking ten or twelve pipes walks, between
damned tobacco !"
awake in bed, and singing
of memory, swimming before
as Robert
cßohueretroi nlyh
taot h
himself t) ; h isaltamyiindg.
night ; all these • r
the
er
ereisleioninnaasnwdearffesacd7ll.briimngagboacokf uthp(emsaoguer. imaginations
Conveying
so much useful information,eetin
in so popular and so ac-
cessible a form, Charles Knight's Weekly
publications. de-
serves t o about the most

THE CABINET HISTORY OF ENGLAND.

Vol. XVII.

Under the management of the same singularly enter-
prising publisher, who, as accredited publisher to the
Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge, and as
editor of Shakspere, has acquired for himself such a dis-
tinguished position in the world of contemporary letters,
this pocket history for the people proceeds prosperously.
In abreviating the corresponding passages in his original
composition, the Pictorial History of England, Mr,
Charles MacFarlane has generally evinced discrimina-
tion in selecting the points for erasure, and has alto-

gether compiled a very useful inductive work to English
history.

POLITICAL DICTIONARY. • Part XIII.
Mr. Knight again performs a service for the benefit
of the public generally ; and, at a moment when poli-
tics are more universally studied among the populace
than possibly at any anterior period of our annals, s
work of more practical utility than an accurate " Poli-
tical Dictionary " could hardly have been divined. Not
only are the mere technicalities unravelled, but its more
abstruse phases are dealt with and expounded : as, for
instance, in the present section of the work, the articles
on " Roman Law," and the " Sessions." What has
hitherto baffled the apprehension of many, will, with
the assistance of this " Political Dictionary," be com-
prehensible to all.

THE PATENT JOURIVAL. No. I.
A neatly arranged brochure for the convenience of
inventors, illustrated with engravings, and at a reasonble
price. In this

" -- patent age of new inventions,
For killing bodies and for saving souls,"
as Byron styled the nineteenth century, we presume
such a periodical will not lack patronage.

THE PENNY MAGAZINE.
It is with pleasure we perceive that this old favourite
has improved, not merely in dimensions, but in its lite-
rature. The articles, for one thing, are more diversified,
and are written in a more sparkling and readable man-
ner than heretofore. Besides which, the illustrations,
though scarcely so numerous, are infinitely superior both
in design and in workmanship, The three enigmas,
drawn by William Harvey, are dainty tokens of the
pictorial character of his imagination. " Historical
Scenes" are excellently written ; and the little article
headed " Robinson Crusoe," will be perused with inte-
rest by every one who retains any school-boy recollec-
tions, since it appears, from that article, that the name
of Defoe's renowned voyager is still very prevalent in
Essex. From the flourishing appearance of the Penny
Magazine, we are almost tempted to imagine that the
editor has discovered for it the elixir of life: it bears the
aspect of a literary Rosecrucian.

I n a fm former notice na o tpi cueb wi
eea
thi ao
nv e
OLD ENGLAND'S WORTHIES. Part V.
advantages
en-
lightenment of the multitude. By holding out to the
offultlyhisco
nmde commented
theon the
present generation the more remarkable personages of
a past generation, not only is experience gleaned through
books with impunity to ourselves, but a flame of emula-
tion is kindled within our bosoms likely to incite us to the
avoidance of bad and the achievement of good. Our
fancies are moreover developed by the appeals made to
them by such narratives ; and our minds are brought
into operation upon the skeletons of the mental opera-
tions of the illustrious dead—namely their lives. Those
we conceive to be the peculiar advantages of biography,
as a part of education. What instructive lessons, for
example, are there not to be collected from the per-
formances sad the vicissitudes of such beings as Eliza-
beth, Shakespere, Raleigh, Camden, Bacon, and Ben
Jonson, whose d memoirs occupy the present number
of " Old Englan 's Worthies?"

THE PICTORIAL GALLEICY OF ARTS.

Part XVIII.

What with a profusion of clever woodcuts and a mass
of explanatory letter-press, part seventeen, makes alto-
gether a goodly show ; a moment's examination of the
pages will, however, convince any one that it has like-
wise something " that passes show." It is entirely of an
architectural character this month, and the style in
which that art is treated is a strange combination of
elaborateness and simplicity. When completed, the
book will be the choicest cullings from many other
sources : it will be, in itself, the condensation of a whole
library.

OXFORD AND CAMBRIDGE REVIEW
The most interesting article in the present number is
on the "Present State of Greece." The author is
evidently very well informed on the subject, and is per-
fectly aware of the intrigues of M. Piscatory and of the
utter want of principle in his tool and agent, Coletti, to
whose keeping the destinies of this unhappy country are
for the present committed. An article on M. Michelet
is, as might have been predicated, a furious and most
unjust attack upon that talented writer ; even as s
swindler fears and hates a policeman, so does a Jesuit
fear and bate M. Michelet ; and the extravagant eulo-
gium of Dr. Pusey, with which this article opens suf-
ficiently marks the author as, if not actually a Jesuit,
yet as something very nearly approaching to one.
From the series of papers on " Garman Political Poets"
we extract the following spirited version of a poem by
Freiligrath—

Contrasting the present King of Prussia with Frederic
the Great—the man of good intentions with the man of re-
solute action ; and though it seems to us by no means pro-
bable that the hero would have done the work the poet gives
him to do, the whole character of Frederic is apprehended in
Germany so differently from our notion of him, that there is
little to surprise us in this view of it.

A SCENE IN ELYSIUM.
The scene took place in paradise some little while ago,
Old Fritz jumped up and rubbed his hands at what he saw
below ;
He struck his sword-hilt angrily, and, striding up and down,
At last met Blucher and Von Stein, but did not cease to frown.

To Zeithen and to Winterfelt he beckoned to come near,
And Gneisenau approached with them the royal words to hear ;
And Keith, the doughty Scot, came up, Schwerin and Scharn-
horst too,
And many a name of warrior fame from Prussia old and new.

Tben with an uneelestial oath to all around he said,—

" It just has struck me I am dead—yes, sirs, entirely dead
Why am I not now back again at Potsdam and licrlin ?
Would it not be a time for me—say, Scharnhorst and
Schwerin?

"How I would seize and manage it! no more as autocrat;
No, no, my friends, another time, another task than that;
Too bright was once the light my name shed on my fellow-men,
For me to be in thought and will the man that I was then.

"No, all that I have done and worked by precept and example,
(The glories of thirteen, methinks, are no unworthy sample;)
Should but the broad foundation be on which with joy to raise
The strong and high state •edifice of present better days.

"Days that will not in patience stand with treason seated by,
Days, that no longer can endure the liar and the lie ;
A time that will not live on words, however smooth they be,
A time that must breathe out at last, breathe deep, and utter
free.

" That German people! 'so deceived, and no one there to

right them -
Their rights by traitors filched away, and no one there to
fight them 1
No one to claim the due, or send the debtors to Gehenna;
No one to tread with manly heel on Carlsbad and Vienna.

" I'd burst the diplomatic net that holds the fools in awe !
An open German parliament, a single German law!
And everywhere the free free word as spoken and as writ,
As God is true, and I a King, I would accomplish it.

" 'Twould be a thunderboltl—what then ?—a year or two of

storm ;
And the crooked would fall straight—confusion yield to form ;
Blow after blow should do the deed; I could because I would ;-
-A king may well defy the kings, when for his people's good.
" And then, the tempest past, my land would glisten in the
sun,
A strong and free new Germany—a Germany made one;
With one bright iris spreading earth, from shame and sorrow
freed,
A prince's and a people's league—a German league indeed.

" The People is a noble stream, and he who, wisely brave
Can cast his clear untroubled glance within the rolling wave
In jubilee is raised and borne triumphant to his goal,
But merciless the waters rush o'er every craven I
sou_ :

"'Twonld hold me up—Would bear me on—say, Blucher,
would it not ?
A more than ever people's king. how enviable a lot
And then to rest bewept and blest by all the brave and good
. . . . The fine old warriors bowed assent, and cried, "Yes,
sire, you would."
The paper is signed "R. M. M.," and we presume is
from the pen of Mr. Monckton Milnes. Lord John
Manners contributes a ballad on thefall omfatthgheienKrpi.rneigsAehnitis
Templars, and wo have a glorious paper on the " Con-
vivial Entertainments of the Greeks," reminding us
strongly of the rollicking style of poor
together there is much pleasant reading in
number of the Oxford and Cambridge.

THE CONNOISSEUR.
Though recently commenced, this journal of the fine
arts breathes a healthy tone ; it is independent in its
mode of thinking, and has no conventional enthusiasm.
We will quote one passage from a criticism on tho
Royal Academy exhibition, which we think conveys a
very happily-worded definition of the style of literature
peculiar to our own generation. It is as follows
The age we live in has gradually estranged itself from
what is called classical antiquity, in which the natural ac-
tions of mankind were disguised under the phraseology of
pompous diction. It has become exigeant for exactness. In
literature detail is the one thing needful. Modern readers
are deaf to mere unauthenticated opinion in others;
the and
de-
mand sufficiency of well-attested circumstance to enable
pe-
te su
r eas ,re
no
longer accepted. Facts, circumstances,
iav e all relationship with
culiarities, costumes and texture,,
construction of opinions for themselVe.;.etaiTish,efocari
work that shall be popular.
the necessary attributes of a
the
the sneers and lat in spite of manufactured
these qualities t
compilation of Greek and Latin—the true
literateur—the .
teeth of
the very his scorn, has
These desideratums make. charm of Dickens; and it is
University article—and.
wait
signal a departure from the beaten track of classical dul-
already elevated him above Walter Scott, who was himself
so
descriptive detail isalways •
derived from
actual observation, by an organisation peculiarly fitted for
detecting those delicate minutiae that indicate the natural
characteristics of men and things; while that of Scott, is
often merely a transcript of the image raised in his mind by
dul-
ness. Dickens's
the description of others, filled up—admirably filled up-I-by
invention or adaptation. The one, to our posterity, will
afford documentary evidence of the social condition of our
period. The other will, wish few exceptions, and those re-
ferring to localities of confined interest, be merely clever and
entertaining productions of an uncommon mind.
These opinions we cordially believe to be just and
accurate. As a romancer Scott is unequalled ; as a
painter of the social life of his contemporaries, Charles
Dickens is immeasurably above Scott and ever other
man that ever existed. Sneer as we may at his man-
nerisms—scoff as we may at his false punctuation (and
such-like solar-spots)—that is his position as an author,
and will continue his position as an author centuries
after the malcontents are lapped in oblivion. The portrait
of Madame Castellan, which forms the frontispiece, is
life-like and characteristic of the songstress.

THE MUSICAL .HERALD. Part L
A weekly and monthly publication, very likely to
take a permanent stand amongst our periodicals. Our
opinion rests on two grounds—firstly, the excellence
and cheapness of the work; and, secondly, that it Lag
no precise rival. Glees, and duets, and cavatinas, and
waltzes, are printed clearly, with a choice interpolation
of literary pieces—such as critiques, biographies, musi-
cal anecdotes, and so forth. Among timral rather