The Sun.
London, England, 1848-12-12 00:00:00

COLBURN'S STANDARD LIBRARY.—Me

oirs of Chateaubriand. Written by Binzvell. Part I.
Latterly a new.description of periodical literature
has eprung into existence. The more ephemeral
monthly publications have been replaced by works of
a more durable character. And in this novel depart-
ment of literature the most eminent publishers in the
United Kingdom are making a noble competition.
It has been, on many preceding occasions, our agree-
able duty to weigh in the balance of criticism the
results of this generous rivalry; and in the majority
of instances, as good fortune would have it, we have
only found reason to utter our opinions in the lan-
guage of commendation. In this manner we have at
intervals alluded to the progress of Mr. Murray's

Home and Colonial Library, of Mr. Bohn's Standard
Library, of Mr. Bogue's European Library (latterly,
we believe, dropped), of Mr. Burns' Select Library,

of Air. Knight's Monthly and Weekly Volumes (sut-.)-
sequently published by ..Ur. Cox), of Mr. 13entley's
Standard' Novels, and of Mr. Uulburn's Standard

Novels. Within the last few weeks two important

acquisitions have been made to these adininble
productions. Mr. Bentley and Mr. Colburn
have simultaneously entered upon a new field
of enterprise by severally ushering into the
world of letters a Standard Library of singular lite-
rary merit, of great typographical beauty, and of ex-
traordinary cheapness. Like the serial of Mr. Bent-
ley, that issued from the establishment of Mr. Colburn
appears in monthly books, the price of each volume
being half a-crown. Notwithstanding the excellence
which has marked the periodical works which have
preceded the present publication, the Standard Li-
brary of Mr. Colburn need not shrink from any
comparison. Its debut is brilliant, and gives promise
of acquiring a very distinguished reputation. Perhaps
in the whole range of literature, a more felicitous
selection could not have been made for a composition
inaugurative of any periodical than that which has
been here made by Mr. Colburn—a translation from
the celebrated " D'Outre Tombe" of M. de Chateau-
briand. This version, which evidences a very laud-

able care in giving not only the precise meaning, but
even the idiomatic turns of rhetoric peculiar to the

great author of the " Genie du Christianisme," will be
completed, according to announcement, in ten parts,
the successive appearance of which we shall watch

for with vigilant interest.
Chateaubriand was the conqueror of Voltaire. That
is his glory. That is the true secret of his renown.
That is the assurance of his immortality as a writer—
an immortality which will gain him at once the admi-
ration and reverence of posterity. Chateaubriand was
the conqueror of Voltaire. Towards the close of the
eighteenth century Voltaire laid the might of his sa-
crilegious intellect upon the vast and awful fane of
Religion. Everything that was holy he scoffed ;
everything that was consecrated by the homage of
ages he levelled with the thunderbolts of his sar-
donic and defiant genius. He found many of the
ramparts of the Church weakened by corruption, and
many of the soldiers of the Church enervated by li-
centiousness. He availed himself of that opportunity
with the most sublime audacity and the most incom-
parablet For sixty years he poured
of his infidel philosophy,
orth
the
discharges perseverance.
and by their force alone he succeeded at
last in pulling down into ruins the grand

structure of Christianity. • The glory of —Chit-
teaubriand is this, that he found religion a byeword
and he made it a name of honour, he plucked the
. _

. .
sacerdotal robe from the mire and showed that it was

unsullied either by the foul aspersions of unbelievers,
or by the blood and crimes of the Revolution. Chris-

tianity was broken to pieces by the "Dictionaire
Philosophique"—it was reconstructed by the " Genie
du Christianisme." As the French Editor of the
posthumous Autobiography has happily expressed it
—"Chateaubriand appears in the nineteenth century
as the counterpoise of Voltaire in the eighteenth."
Elsewhere he observes that Shakspere was a god
speaking the language of men Chateaubriand a
man speaking the language of the gods. "He stood
alone in the age—he was the honest man—he was
the great man : his name filled literature and
flooded it with a golden light." As a journalist,
he was the first who, in the columns of the
Conservateur, " unmuzzled the press, muzzled
by Napoleon." As a statesman he occupies a singu-
larly intermediate position. "In politics, M. de
Lafayette begot Chateaubriand, and Chateaubriand
begot M. de Lamartine." The autobiography of such
a man—from the depths of the tomb—is a revelation
more solemn than that of a Delphici Oracle. We
listen and hold our breath. The portion comprised
in the part before us is descriptive of Chateaubriand's
I existence, from the day of his birth at St. Melo, Sept.
4, 1768, down to his residence in Paris, fr0m,1787 to
1789. As tokens of the eloquence of these extraordi-
nary memoirs we transcribe the following :

SETTING OP THE NOON AT SEA.

" Constitut,cl by God arbitress of the deep, the moon
has her wanes, htT vapours, her rays, her eclipses, like
the sun; but, unlike him, she retires not solitary—a
cortege of brilliant stars accompanies her to rest. In
pr ,portion as, on my native shores, she gradually de-
scends the sky, she increases its silence, which she com-
municates to the seu; soon she sinks to the horizon, in-
tersects it, shows only the halt of her countenance over-
come by sleep, she gently inclines, and then disappears
in the soft swelling of the waves. The starry retinue of
this queen, before plunging to follow her, seam to stop
suspended on the crested waves to wish their last good
night. The moon has no -sooner sunk to rest, than a
stiff breeze springs up and effaces the image of the con-
stellations, as the lamps of the festal hall are extin-
guished when the queen of the least has withdrawn her
shining presence." -