The Sun.
London, England, 1856-02-12 00:00:00

AUSTRIA.

A letter from Vienna of the 7th, in the Allgsbor9
Gazette, says :—" Austria continues disarming hat
frontiers nearest Russia. On the sth, two specia!
trains brought here from Cracow a number agog,
pieces • yesterday the pontoon materiel arrived:
The reduction of the army is being effected wallet°,
interruption, and at the market of Malzleingdori
yesterday a considerable number of artillery and
cavalry horses were sold." Another letter freg
the satite city and of the same date, in the PO
Gazette of 'Frankfort, says :—" The Hungaris!
officer Turr, who has been so much talked about
lately, did not obtain his pardon until after he bad
,been tried by the court-martial of Carlsburg, and
condemned to death. Immediately on bis pardfil
being granted, he was set at liberty."

The Memorial des Pyrenees states that Que°ll/
Isabella has named General Bosquet grandee 0
Spain of the first class.

LITERATURE.

Nodes A mbrosiance.

Vol. 111 By Pro Moor

Wilson. Blackwood and Sons.
Eight more Noctes are comprised in , this Ode
tional instalment of the selected writings, of Pro'
fessor Wilson—a volume bringing us down from-the
June of 1830 to the November of 1832. And over'
whelming us as we advance in its perusal with the
usual avalanche of wit, and wisdom, and poetry
and humour, and satire, and : philosophy. Th°
daring of the professor's slashing, lashing, crash'
ing, dashing criticism upon everything and ever,"
body, just as themes happened at the Ole
to come within reach of his tremendous crutcb,
is rendered by this new volume of the
.collectif•
reprint of these. N oct6, if that be possible, more thou
ever apparent. Fancy nowadays—only just falai
for a moment—while the third and fourth Tolunt6l
of his great History have just passed through
first edition of some thirty thousand copies (f°
begin with I), while almost everyone is lamentio4
his recent withdrawal from the representation
EdinbUrgh as a calamity to the House of Common!'
while his .Essays are constantly selling in three sl;
multineous editions, and while his "Lays of Aneis,n
Rome " are among the household words of 0n
lettered Englishman—fancy, we say, North Oa
Tickler, and the Shepherd, jeering, sneering, 3n,.
fleering at Thomas Babington Macaulay—undj;
what epithets ? As " the creature 1" As ~
small malignant !" As " a prig !" As "dishonest'
As " a bairn As "a Bumph !" As " a pric„
b
ma-dainty reviewer !" Pelting him boldly With f
the like dead cats, brick-bats, and rotten eggs °f
rhetoric. So trenchant, rash, and audaciouS were
the thrusts made of old by the knights-errant
Blackwood—the terrible triumvirate of the 11:
nowned anti formidable Noctes Ambrosiance.
more brilliant example of their exquisite and sum.'
appreciativeness of whatever is either sublime Or
beautiful, for which appreciativeness the genius °,
"'
Professor Wilson was pre-eminently distinguished
among the more illustrious critics of his generation,
could hardly be instanced than the following
terly illustration by Tickler of Milton's matchlw
description of. Death, at the gates of Pandemonium'
Here is the renowned passage, itself transcribe et
batim from the celestial epic. We all 01°"
it by heart--but here it is (for the clearer den2°l2;
stration of the.aptness of Tickler's commentaries)
nevertheless.

"The other Shape,
If Shape it might be called, that shape had none
Distinguishable in member, joint or limh ;
Or substance might be called that shadow seemed,
For each seemed either ; black it stood as Night,
Fierce as ten Furies, terrible as Hell,
And shook a dreadful dart ; what seemed its head
The likeness of a kingly crown had on.
Satan was. now at hand—"
And here follows the inimitable commentary placal
by John Wilson in the mouth of—
" Tickle'. (taking North's crutch under his arm and 1011'
Wing the voice, gesture, and manner of the 'old man ‘o°.
quent").—ln this sublime passage the power of Imagiu!i
tion is at its height. 'This Being, who, nt the gates
hell, offers combat to Satan, has not even yet been name
as if the poet were so lost in the emotion aecompau9l%
the sight of the phantom he had himself conjured up, ths •
even a very name hail not risen yet for what was so unsub'
stantial. He scarcely dares to call it by the vague taro'
' Shape ;' but as soon as he does so, qualifies even that sr
preach to substantiality, by saying, if Shape it might
called, which shape had none distinguishabl©' or ' du,.
stance might be called that shadow seemed.' Then he sal
that still farther feeling - of unreality—`each seeuleA
either,' that is, substance seemed shadow, shadow stolid'''.
substance. Thus uncertain in its horror to his ey'o°
' black it seemed as night ;' not utter darkness, but singe
thing black and grim, ' darkness visible— fierce—not as,:
Fury—fur that would be something too definite, since the
iniego of a fury is of something conceived to exist—but
fierce as ten furies, au expression in which all individus'.
lity is lost, and nothing conveyed to the mini but. an idiot
of aggregated and accumulated fierceness. Terrible at
hell' is still more vague, and purposely so, or rather 00.
under the power .of the emotion ; yet in all this obscuriti:
uusubstantiality, and shadowiness, it shook a dreadful
dart (observe how much effect is in that word it), soda."
thing not described by any quality, as of size or shape, 141"
merely dreadful'—how, why, or in what dreadful, W.
know not; while this motion of its weapon directs the
mind to look on the Shape that brandishes it, 1
and le ! 0,6!
which seemed. its head—not its head but that which "
that fury-haunted and infernal darkness seemed its head--
the likenesa—not the reality—but the likeness of a kingly
crown had on ! Poetry alone could give such an linagiu':
tion as this—fur painting would at once of necessity give
outlines, features, realities, which, however enveloped in
obscurity, would be fatal to the fearful effect, and emboat,
too sensibly the here almost unembodied attributes of alit
seeming, shadowy, threatening, scarcely-existieg, yet nett
terrific Impersonation !"

Enough. After that single extract from the Node'
it were idle to discant upon their manifold grace°
whether of critical acumen or of conversational 01'3:
(pence. The collective work is in itself a perfect
repertory of wit and wisdom : abounding in token!
of the most delicate sensibility and of the WO"
boisterous exhilaration. A masterpiece in truth
to be read alternately with tears of tenderness and
shouts of laughter. The miraculous evidence, i 1
short, of animal spirits the most hilarious and ,
intellectual powers the most vigorous and the molt
comprehensive.

The Martins. No. XV. By Charles Lever. ,
Young Nelligan so wins glory with his fiat brie'
that ho astonishes the big-wigs and becomes all at
once the pride of Oughterard. Probably we shall
have him M.P. for the borough after all in the road
of Jack Massingbred. Meanwhile poor Mary Mar"
tin is threatened by Lady Dorothy with exclusi°ll,
from her old home in the great house of Cr°
Martin. Her uncle still lying paralysed in Paris,
and her father (evide*tly) turning up in the perso°
of the mysterious stranger named Barry, lingering
about the family place doing deeds of beneeelenee;
Mr. Herman Merl, after looking with eyes 05
rapine upon the estate on which ho has so forrui'
dable a lien, is scared from the west of Ireland b 1
one or two startling occurrences—frightened by I
pistol-shot fired by Mary Martin, and threatened
with a duel thrust upon him by Tom Magenuiel.
These occurrences grow, by the way, out I
perhaps the only animated incident yet 0,7
counted in the history of. " The Martins,"
namely of 'the incursion into Cro' Martin of the
said Magennis in quest of Joan who has run awaY,
from him on the demise of her old grandfather •
Mr. Lever enlivens the present number of his nevi
serial story, moreover, with a humorous deseriptio°
of Skinny Crowe's discomfiture when Herman
Merl depreciates one after another the vaunitui
treasures of artmlecorating the walls of the gretb
drawing-room of Cro' Martin. "Oh dear, od
dear ! Did I ever hear the like of this !" cries the
poor painter as he . finds a both dwindling
a Woeffel, and a Mores collapsing into a Jansen'
and a Salvator Rosa dropping down into a 1110111-
lens. A little wore and we should have had SinuDY
introducing his boottnaker to the tailor of Mr. 11";
man Merl—but for the opportune interruptionoL
Magennis's housebreaking invasion of Cro' Martini;
With the ignominious flight of the Jew gamble
from Galway the number before us terminates.