The Sun.
London, England, 1856-02-07 00:00:00

tenderly pencilled in one sweet and graceful
stanza—

The quiet ripple of hqr smile
Revealed the peaceful
The mellow moonlight of her eyes
Her sympathies refined ;
And when she spoke, the audible charm, •
Was Beauty for the blind.
O.oasionally in the melodious versification there is,
all unconsciously no doubt to the author, the
vibration of au old familiar strain. As where
(p. 18)

All his heart's history,
All his thought's mystery—

is the echo of

Mad from life's history,
Glad to death's mystery, 1;e—
ilk Hood's exquisite " Bridge of Sighs." Or again,
as where (p. 83)—

And cursed, in my deep, deep agony,
The gold for which I'd slain
A. life that all the gold in the world
Could ne'er bring back again—
chimes upon the memory in the closing syllables
like the iteration of Tennyson's lamentation—
Break, break, break,
At the foot of thy crags, 0 sea !
But the tender grace of a day that is dead
Will never come back to me.
Repeatedly we have reason to regret a violation of
grammar as distressing as the ellipse of a participle
—for the sake, obviously, of smoothing the words
" trippingly to the tongue" in the glib hurry of a
merely rhythmical arrangthnent. " Tradition itself
has forgot them" (p. ,114)--" The Pharaohs
are forgot" (p. 219) —" That civil discord might
have broke" (p. 226) are flaws not to be passed by
entirely sub silentio. Even though it be but mo-
wincing with a wry face,
Hp wincing
or at the sourness of
bwa
rep cannotebi
b g
olfi eal
an unripe gooseberry. Nov and then we come
asmealittatrihely;
upon a charming little " touch of nature" in the
incidental descriptions. As when it is written
(during the account of the Parson's sermon against
Mammon worship)—
So vast the silence as he spoke,
You might have heard the grass
Rustle and wave to the fitful winds,
And the bee in haste to pass,
Sounding a trump like a martial 'call
On a clarion of brass.
You might have heard the sparrow cheep
Mid the yew-berries, juicy red,
And the long rank aettles singing a dirge
Over the nameless dead.
A noble sentiment rings out through the music of
that simple utterance— _

The form of the worship
Is rind on the bole,
The fruit of religion
Is Love in the soul.
Several of the minor poems appended to the
" Lump of Gold," and forming, in truth, the prin-
cipal part of Dr. Macka7's new volume of poetry,
are remarkable for their freshness of feeling and
the tender melody of their intonations. One,
written at Venice in the April of 1855 (from which
piece, indeed, our last extract has been taken), is
entitled "The Festival of St. Marc." Another,
dated from Vienna, in the same month of last year,
celebrates " The Old Magdalen of St. Stephan's."
An effusion, by the way,- in which a Catholic de-
votee is made to sing as we would wager no Catho-
lic devotee would ever dream of singing—.
Oh, Mary ! hear me when I speak ;
Oh, Virgin Mary, Angelmilue :
without any reminiscence whatever of the prophetic
" omnes generationes beata me dicent." Another
poem, coming immediately afterwards, and appa-
rently written in Paris as long ago as 1853, a poem
entitled " The Column of Luzor," talks of Louis
Philippe, of all men in the wide world, as "the
Great King"—an adjective so applied altogether
passing ear comprehension. Here it is that we find
our author writing—
Speak home to their business std passions,
as by a repetition, of the famous phrase " coining
home to their business and bosoms," a phrase
which the readers of 1 ote,3 a,nd Oteries may be in-
terested to learn, originally occurs in Lord Vera-
lam's preface to his immortal " Essays." In the
fugitive piece called " Panic at the Bourse," wo
cannot but recognise through the lines—

Then a stifled rumbling,
Then a crash and fall,—
Down comes Babel tumbling,
Dome and towers and all :
a recollection of the close of the nursery song
" Hushaby Baby"—

When the tree rocks
The cradle will fall—
Down comes baby
Cradle and all.
As in the two stanzas headed " Returning Mes-
sengers," it would be difficult not to detect* para-
phrase of the wise old sailor's axiom, that " Curses,
like Mother Cary's chickens, come home to roost."
The verses " Ou the Portrait ..ot Queen Victoria,"
are written throughout in the courtly spirit of a
Laureate, warmed into enthusiasm by potations of
Malmsey and crowned with an odoriferous chaplet
of golden pieces and bay leaves intermingled. As
the lines " Man to Man " are penned from first to
last, there is no other way of exproming it in the
true spirit of—Charles Mackay. Answer if it be
not so—the nervous opening syllables !

Stand up, man ! stand !
God's over. all.
Why do you cringe to me,
Why do you bend the knee,
And creep, and fawn, and crawl ?
Stand up, man ! stand !
With which manly, moving adjuration ringing in
his memory, the reader of " The Lump of Geld,
and other Poems" may, as in the happiest mood
and at the aptest moment, close for awhile this new
volume by Charles Mackay—a volume, be sure !
not by any moans to be closed for over afterwards
—but meanwhile, in the intervals of perusal, to be
deposited, as snob a " Lump of Gold ' deserves to
be, among our book-treasures, as another nugget of
literature.

THE NIGHTINGALE TESTIMONIAL.

A meeting of the promoters of the Nightingale fund
was held in Edinburgh on Mon lay, under the presidency
of Sir John 141'Neill, surrounded by a number of emi-
nent citizens of Elitiburgh. On taking the chair, S:r
John 11P.Neill took occseion to advert to the fanciful
notions that had been circulated in order to check public
sympathy in behalf of the contemplated testimonial.
The following were among the remarks which he made
upon this subject :—" Statements have gone forth attri-
buting Miss Nightingale as belonging to
almost iimaigfriable denomination of Christians.
o seers
e dre y s cbn
The truth I believe to be, that Protestant in her opi-
nions, firm in her Protestant belief, she is yet of
too large and catholic a mind to regard mere sec-
tarian differences, or to attach much importance t•
forms. I believe that she is capable of acting with
persons of every denomination who are influenced
by pious and Christian motives. And she has
proved it. The task which she undertook was one of ex-
treme difficulty ; the persons who were placed under her
directions belonged to different countries and to differ-
ent faiths—some were Episcopalians, some were Pres.
byterians, and some were Roman Catholics. By the
force of her genius, and the liberal and catholic stamp
of her views, she has been able to fuse that heteroge-
neous Jesse into one coma en body, acting cordially
together for the accomplishment of one good work. Her
own opinions are not recently formed ; long before this
w.r was thought if while it was yet doubtful whether
any such institution as we are now proposing to insti-
tute should be formed in England, Miss Nightingale
had prepared herself, by careful study in Germany, for
the task which she had proposed to herself, even in
her yoath—a life of usefulness, following at a humble
distance, as far as human frailty would permit, the
example of Him who went about doing good, and
healing the sick. (Applause.) At an early age she
proceeded to Germany, and in the Protestant institu-
tions of Prussia acquired the iestruction in attendance
on the sick which at that time there were no means of
acquiring in England. On her return a pamphlet was
anonymously published, but well understood to have
been written by her, from which I will quote a single
passage. It is the conclusion :--` Shall the Roman Ca-
tholic Church do all the work ? Has not the Protestant
the same Lord, who accepted the services not only of
men, but also of women ? The harvest is ripe. Where
are the sick and the poor wanting ! Let those women
of England, who sit in busy idleness, look at Germany.
There are your sisters all at cork, Christ in their midst.
Let Him not say, I bare called my English hand
maidens, but they would not answer. I stood a
their doors and knocked, but they would not open.
These were the sentiments which she bad enter-
tained for years before the call of her country car-
ried her to the East. I feel satisfied of this, that Miss
Nightingale is herself too settled in berreligious opinions,
too firm and too earnest in her purpoee, to permit her
efforts, which are intended for the welfare of her species
and the service of her God, to be narrowod and degraded
to any sectarian or party purpose whatever. I may say
that, in all the conversations I have .had with Miss
Nightingale—and they have been many—l have never
yet heard her propose or suggest .anything which, if
practicable, was not desirable ; and & have never heard
a vain or thoughtless proposal from, her, but, on the
contrary, her mind appears to me to• be distinguished
by a strong practical sense, which regulates all she does."
Among those who afterwards addse used the meeting
was Bishop Terrot, who said that, eve e x if he considered
Miss Nightingale as sebiawatical or hers qical in her opi-
nions, he should not alloW that to be a reason why the
country should not express its gratitude for, the good
she has done.

NARROW ESCAPE OF THE RECORDER.- —ln the New
Court yesterday, a man, named Gem •ge Tillon, was
convicted of burglary and sentenced by t he Recorder to
six years' penal servitude. The fellow, on hearing the
sentence, drew from hie pocket a large lui •np of coal, and
threw it, with the greatest force and pr, 'cieion, at the
bead of the learned gentleman. - Fortunately the Re-
corder escaped the intended injury. The prisoners are
for the future to be, searched before bein ,laced in the
419.1 c,