The Sun.
London, England, 1848-11-07 00:00:00

CHAMBERS'S EDINBURGH JOURNAL.

Chambers' is too well known to require comment
and most certainly too well appreciated to need com-
mendation. It is enough for us to say that the No-
vember number is as good as its predecessors. Its
contents present the ordinary melange of the inte-
resting, the agreeable, and the instructive. An
article on " Great Men," one of those truthful and
instructive papers which form the most valuable cha-
racteristic of Chambers', concludes with the follow-
ing suggestive observations:—
" The world may be captious, neglectful ; much
grievous wrong may sometimes ID: a consequence of un-
worthy jealousies; but, on the whole, a man's chief
enemy is himself. When Horace Vernet suffered the
indignity of having his pictures refused admittance to an
exhibition in the Louvre, did he fly into a passion, and
go and kill himself as an ill-used man? No. Without
muttering a word of complaint, he exhibited his pro-
ductions elsewhere, and lived to be at the head of the
French school of painting—a lesson worth taking by
others besides artists. We repeat an advice formerly

offered—NEVEß COMPLAIN: the world flits fm
Rf-
used men. Go on, true soul! faint not in, dairg the
work before thee; but do it quietly, and 1e:(49 the rest
to Him who overshadows us with the wirlis t,f Provi-
dence! Remember that the mall oppressiltuis of coteries
are but transient, and act with slight effect":Qta the truly
great—great in sentiment as well as intell4C.' We are
each of us on trial, and it conscious of rectitude, need
not fear the verdict of the tribunal."

The most attractive paper in the present number of
Chambers' is a little tale by Leitch Ritchie, called
" Quaker Love," an exquisite little tale, fraught with
a deep interest and natural pathos, rendered peculiarly
powerful by the simple and unpretending manner of
the narrative.

ME TROPOLI7 AN.
In addition to its ordinary quantum of ficti-
tious tales and light poems, the Metropo-
litan for November contains an inter( sfing
abstract of the " Life of Lord Chancellor
Hardwicke," and an able t.nd attractive criticism upon
American Poetry, and more eEp-xially Longfellow's
poems. The magazine is also adorned with a b.?auti-
ful steel engraving of the American poet. One of the
poems here given as a specimen of Longfellow's
writings is so admirable in its style,. :Ind so elevating
its tendency, that we cannot retrain from trans-
ferring it to our columns, although many of cur
readers are no doubt already familiar with It is
a tale, however, that will bear twice telling. "We
doubt not," says the writer of the criticism in the
Metropolitan, "that this poem has inspired marly a
youthful heart with high hopes and indomitable
resolves. To the man also of little faith, sinking
beneath the waves of life, it is fitted to come as an
inspiration and celestial voice."

A PSALM OF LIFE.

WHAT THE HEART OF THE YOUNG MAN SAID TO THE

PSALMIST.
Tell me not, in mournful numbers,
Life is but an empty dream!
For the soul is dead that slumbers,
And things are not what they seem.
Life is real! Life is earnest!
And the grave is not its goal;
Dust thou art, to dust returnest,
Was not spoken of the soul.
Not enjoyment, and not sorrow,
Is our destined end or way;
But to set, that each to-morrow
Find us farther than to-day.
Art is long, and Time is fleeting,
And our hearts, though stout and brave,
Still, like muffled drums, are beating
Funeral marches to the grave.
In the world's broad field of battle,
In the bivouac of Lite,
Be not like dumb, driven cattle!
Be a hero in the strife!
Trust no Future, howe'er pleasant!
Let the dead Past bury its dead!
Act—act in the living Present!
Heart within, and God o'erhead!
Lives of great men all remind us
We can make our lives sublime,
And, departing, leave behind us
Footprints in the sands of time—
Footprints, that perhaps another,
Sailing o'er lite's solemn main,
A forlorn and shipwrecked brother,
Seeing, shall take heart again.
Let us, then, be up and doing,
With a heart for any fate:
Still achieving, still pursuing,
Learn to labour and to wait.

MISCELLANEOUS.

In its first article, one on the " Anglo-French
Mediation in Italy," the Eclectic Review very truth-
fully, and at the present moment very appropriately,
remarks—" It may be politic in the adversaries of
freedom to affect supreme scorn for revolutionary
governments, and the most unbounded confidence in
the return of things to their old condition. They are
very far from being sincere. They tremble while
they mock and insult, and pray for nothing so ear-
nestly as that the experiment of democracy may
prove a failure. Liberty is infectious, so that the most
firmly rooted despotism will be unable to maintain itself
if surrounded by free states." Again, after, according
to a theory of his own, attributing the liberal Move-
ment in Italyto the influence and example of England,
this writer justly observes—" Nations act and react
upon each other, and the beneficial influence we are
now exerting beyond the Alps is only a tardy repay-
ment of the benefits we formerly received from the
republics of the middle ages." The Farmers' Maga-
zine, by some most astonishing accident, contains a
portrait of Surplice, the winner of the Derby !
for what cause the high-bred racer comes into the
Farmers Magazine we are quite unable to surmise.
The engraving will, however, we doubt not, be as
welcome to the readers of this periodical as the por-
trait of any "short-horn" upon record. The Sport-
ing Magazine contains a representation of "Twilight
and Wyandotte," and " After the Gallop," in which
latter engraving clouds of smoke seem to be issuing
from the nostrils of the wearied horses. Sharpe 's
London Magazine is gradually but visibly improving
Mrs. S. C. Hall and Miss Pardoe are among the con-
tributors, and the editor continues his new tale in a
style worthy of the author of " Frank Fairlegh."
"Eton" forms the subject of the new number
of The Land we Live in, which is ernbel•
lished with a very beautiful engraving of the
" distant spires and antique towers" of Eton
College. Gavarni in London contains as usual three
illustrations—" Fancy " The Potato-can,"
and "The Foreign Gentleman in London," of
which the " Potato-can "is infinitely the best.
Glad as we are to meet with any new work by
Thomas Miller, we are grieved to find what promises
to be an agreeable serial, called by such a name as
The Mysteries of London, a name which is
thoroughly hacknied, and the associations of which
are by no means agreeable. However, if a rose by
any other 'name :may smell as sweet, perhaps the
floral freshness of Thomas Miller's style may be
undimmed by the uncongenial- subject which it has
pleased him to associate with it. This remains to be
seen on a further development of his work. The
Drawing-Room Magazine contains some pictorial and
pen-and-ink work-patterns, and a few light tales and
poems calculated to please the inmates of the boudoir.
Very different are the contents of the Repertory
.of
Invention. Its very beautifully engraved plates
display "calculating machines," " improved steel
pens," " modes of suspending windows," and
" pressing flour," &c., &c. The Colonial Church
Chronicle contains some very suggestive " Hints on
Catechisms." The Patent Journal bears a very close
resemblance to the Repertory of Inventions. The
Musical Treasury for N ovember contains " Rossini's
Overture to La Gazza's Ladra' " " Gildron's March,"
and a humorous song of " The Spider and the Fly,"
sung by Mr. Henry Russell.

The second (or October) number of Albert Smith's
Poppleton Legacy has been sent to us by the pub-
lisher, instead of the third (or November) number.

NEW MUSIC.

OUR COUNTRY ANT) OUR QUEEN. A pa-
triotic Song. Composed by J. 0. Altmann, written by
J. ()Elver, Esq.

This loyal effusion has bean sung by Messrs.
Phillips, Leffler, and S. Smith. The melody is full
of energy, and the accompaniment well arranged.

THE EMIGRANT'S FAREWELL. Ballad. Corn-
posed by J. 0. Altmann, written by J. 011iver, Esq.
A flowing melody in B flat; the accompaniment
is facile, and, from the popular style in which it is
composed, we predict complete success for the com-
poser, and a numerous sale at the publisher's.

NORrTH MAVOURNEEN.
Ballad composed by Allmann in the Irish style,
simple and pretty. The poetry of this ballad is also
by J. 011iver, Esq. All lovers of Irish melodies will
be sure to purchase this characteristeric production.