The Sun.
London, England, 1856-09-04 00:00:00

LITERATURE.

The Sketcher. By the Rev. J. Eagles, A.M.
1 Vol. Blackwood.

This volunr consists of a series of papers origin-
ally published in Blackwood's Magazine, full of
art criticisms, and offering the greatest attractions
to the amateur painter. The author, the late
Rev. J. E igles, was himself an accomplished
artist, as well as an enthusiastic lover of nature.
His papers are full of suggestions of great practi-
cal ♦alue to the student, and the criticisms on the
different styles of some of the old painters are evi-
dently the opinions of one who has deeply studied
the subjects he discusses. His descriptions of
scenery, and his directions for the selection of a
spot for a sketch, will be very interesting to the
landscape painter. The first half of the volume
is occupied with the author's own meditations and
remarks ; but in the latter part he introduces a
companion under the name of Pictor, with whom
he has many pleasant conversations. The reader
gains by this addition, for numerous graceful and
musical scraps of verse are introduced as the
production of Pictor. The following is a
sample :

" THE PAINTER'S GRAVE.
Where shall the sunbeams play I
Where shall the moonbeams light I
For him who bade them stay,
With hand of power and might—
Upon the Painter's grave.
Where the stormy pageants rise,
The harmless lightning fly I
Where the magician lies
That fixed them in the sky—
Before the Painter's grave.
Where shall the flow'rets shed
Sweet odours 1 O'er his earth
Who from their lowly bed
Gave them immortal birth—
Upon the Painter's grave.
Where shall the aged rest,
And own one friend he found,
That thought grey ha'rs were best,
And age like holy ground?
Upon the Painter's grave.
Where shall the maiden meek,
Whose beauty would not die,
Go lean her pen-ive check,
Or look with gentle eye I
Upon the Painter's grave I"
Together the two painters wander among some of
the beautiful scenery of rural England, wisely dis-
coursing on the various landscapes that present
themselves to their view, and mingling imagina-
tion and criticism, fact and fancy, in a very fasci-
nating manner. One point, however, in which
both of them agree, is open to dispute. They de-
cry any attempt at scientific knowledge, which the
author appears to regard with a mixture of con-
tempt and indignation, as though it destroyed all
taste for the picturesque, and offered nothing in
its place but a string of hard names. He shares,
in fact, the same idea that Campbell expresses in
his beautiful lines ou the rainbow, when he says—
" When Science from Creation's faca
Enchantment's veil withdraws ;
What lovely visions yield their place
To cold material laws."
However eloquently this feeling may be expressed

it is one that the philosopher will -be hardly dis-
posed to tolerate. He who devotes himself to a
laborious research into the hidden laws that govern
the world around us is probably as great an enthu-
siast in his own particular study as the painter or
poet in his. Their superficial knowledge of botani-
cal or geological terms may indeed produce an un-
imaginative pedant, but it is to be questioned if
one who would rest satisfied with such limited in-
formation would at any time have proved a very
ardent worshipper of Nature—the harmony and
beauty of the governing laws of natural science,
the wonderful completeness of the minutest parts
of that marvellous governance without which not
even a sparrow falls. The author himself proves
indirectly how little an acquaintance with funda-
mental principles need mar the imaginative enjoy-
ment of a cultivated mind, for he enters into the
minutest principles of his favourite art ; he tries
experiments ih mixing his colours, he studies
the effects of light and shade—nay, he houses
in the most beautiful localities, to select which
would be the most suitable and effective position
for taking a sketch what hills or trees would be
bettor omitted or retained, and how a careful ar-
rangement of the object will best preserve the
spirit of the scene—yet few appreciate s ) highly all
the charms of a beautful view, or could feel so
quickly all its imaginative associations. The fol-
lowing passage from the earlier pages of the work
shows what au elevated view he takes of his favou-
rite pursuit, and how well he expresses the feeling
of all true artists :

" Ii in any way I pretend to instruct, it is that I may
learn ; for that is but a poor art or science which is soon
mastered. The advantage of a true pursuit is, that it
never ends; and this is thoroughly the case with the
sketcher. New fields of beauty open to him at every
step he advances ; he lays up ne v acquirements, and all
of them come to him with delight. It should be our
happiness, not our lamentation, that Art is long, Life
is short'—' Ars longs, Vita brevis'—for surely we would
not wish the pursuit to end before life, nor with it; we
might be pardoned rather for the belief that whatever
is good will never end. Why did Cato in extreme age
learn Greek, but that he looked to converse with Homer
and Hesiod, and Pindar, in the meadows of asphodel
beyond the Styx It is the instinct of taste to believe

itself immortal. It is, if not a positive virtue, akin to
all the virtues, and they die not. It is showered down
to us as the fruit of that plant' which Milton asserts
grows not on mortal soil,'—
' But lives and spreads aloft by those pureeyes,
And perfect witness of all-judging Jove.'.
Where is the fountain head of al Harmony ?—what is
Art ?—what is Music '•—what Poetry ? Are they only
hereseen, heard, and felt ere ? What are they, and the
genius that interprets them, but gifts falling on earth
unperceived as the dews of heaven—as from a divine
and infinite storehouse ? It is some such belief that
gives perpetuity to study ; it sanctifies innocent and im-
proving, because vie.uous, amusement. He who has it,
walks the hills and valleys with an elastic step, elated
with the dignity of duty, and happy in his thankfulness.
"It is important that every one who has a pursuit
which is justified to his conscience, should have a per-
suasion of this its perpetuity, and of its progression to-
wards a better excellence. There was a hopeful signifi-
cance in the fabulous heathen invention of the golden
chain connecting heaven and earth. It is abhcrrent to
our instincts to believe that any of the links that make
together the chain of human perfection (and Taste,
which is the perception of beauty, truth, and every
virtue, is a link), will be suddenly snapped, and all con-
nection broken, and for ever. It cannot be. The
notion would take from life its energy, its charm, and
every object for which life is worth anything. It would
make the biography of the brightest genius but an elon-
gated tombstone. lam persuaded that there never was a
sketcher who at some time or other—nay, many times,
when his sense of the beauty of the scene before him and
his work were growing together—has not had such
thoughts pass through his mind. They naturally, there-
fore, and fitly, belong to the preface of the following
attempt." _ _ .

The author is described, in an introductory me-
moir, as having been an artist of great ability as
well as a connoisseur. He was for many years a
contributor to the pages of Blackwood's Magazine.
The papers bearing the title of " The Sketcher"
appeared many years ago, but he remained among
its most esteemed contributors to the last. His
latest article was the review of " Once upon a
Time," by Charles Knight. As well as these pa-
pers on Art, he was in the habit of writing ou clas-
sical subjects, and on the topics of the day. He
lived a retired life, though his abilities were highly
prized among his immediate circle of friends. At
one time he was curate to the Rev. Sydney Smith.
All interested in the study of the beautiful, and of
which he was such a devoted admirer, will find
pleasure and profit in this volume, while those
with a lesser share of the taste and talents of its
author will derive lunch gratification from its
perusal, if the claims of nature and art are not
wholly indifferent to them.

On the Treatment of the Insane without Afechanica
Restraints. By John Conolly, J.D.N Smith,
Elder, and Co.
A deeply interesting work on a subject which
naturally enough has long engaged the attention
of the humane and benevolent. The reader has
presented before him a picture of the Asylums for
the Insane as they flourished in their brutality and
iniquity in times past, of the difficulties with which
the advocates of the. principle of abstinence from
mechanical restraints have had to contend, of the
progress they have made, and the improved mode
of treatment, generally speaking, adopted in most
of the asylums of the present day. The contrast is
sufficiently striking, and must be contemplated by
the author, who has done so much to promote this
improved treatment, with the deepest satisfaction.
Indeed, Dr. Conolly confesacs as much, and in
proof of his continued anxiety to have the good
\work furthered we find him offering a number of
suggestions whereby the management of public
asylums may be improved. The various objections
made to the principle with which be is identified,
wemay add, are ably combatted and illustrations
dreg from the experience of medical mom both at

home and abroad contribute largely to the esta.
blishment of his views as embracing the true prin-
ciples of successful treatment. The following ex-
tract- will show how asylums were conducted in the
"good old days :"
"Secrecy bad long been the protection of the oMeers.
The physicians administered medicines of which the na-
ture was concealed. Visitors were, as much as possible„
excluded. Toe committee of managers were equally ar-
r igant and ign-irant. Every abuse reign:ll uncontrolled.
The poorer patients were half starved. There was, no
classification within doors or without. Cleanliness and
ventilation were disregarded. Numbers of patients were
huddled together in small day•rJom4. Some slept three
in a bed. The use of chains seems to,have been very
general. The actual disappearance of many patients was
never accounted for ; and some ware supposed to have
been killed. In reporting the number of deaths, several
—sometimes 100 out of 300—Were taken from the list of
dead, and placed in the list of cured. A general system
of dishonesty and peculation prevailed. The physician
was dishonest; the steward falsified his accounts and
burnt his books ; and the matron, a worthy coadjutor,
made a profit on the articles purchased by her for the use
of the house."

Having shown the progress made in the practice of
non-restraint in public asylums, Dr. CJnolly re-
marks :

"But the example set in them has forced some degree
of reform into every institution for insane persons, hoe.
ever private. Even in workhouses, although still deft&
cient in the proper means of treating the many recent
cases almost unavoidably sent to them, the principles of
treatment are better- understood than formerly, so that
the number of furious cases brought into the county
asylums is probably less than it used to be. The old
method of at once, and indiscriminately, fastening down
every troublesome patient, made many frantic who are
now preserved from that dreadful aggravation of their
malady, and preserved by the kindness and judgment of
the medical officers of parish unions. The very great
improvement in private asylums has been mainly pro.
moted by the indefatigable industry of the Commis-
sioners in Lunacy during the last ten years ' • but some
of the improvement, it is bat just to say, has been spon-
taneous on the part of the proprietors of the most re•
spectable of such establishments, men of high character
and education, and not without a considerable sacrifice
of money. It is yet to be regretted that licences cannot
in all cases be restricted to persons so qualified and die.
posed ; an.l that the mbst 'specious appearances, includ-
ing prompt and wonderful unfastenings and dressings of
the astonished patients, are too successfully emp'oyed to
make the inspection of the Commis-;inners futile. As too
many of the private asylums are still deficient in the
means of non-restraint, and either superintended or
visited by medical men who have taken no pains to ac-
quaint themselves with the practice of large asylums, I
have never ventured to say that mechanical restraints
can be wholly abolished in them. It occasions, there.
fore, no great surprise to find that the managers of only
thirty-seven private asylums, out of eighty-four from
which returns were made to the Commissioners, had
contrived to conduct their houses without mechanical
restraints when the Eighth Report was published. There
is too much reason to fear that, in the faurty-four other
private asylums from which no returns were made, the
discreet silence proves the preservation of most of the
old abuses."

There is, it will be seen, need for closer inspection,
as well as fur more discretion, in granting licences to
insure proper treatment for such of our unfortunate
fellow-creatures as, by the violation of natural
laws, or a mysterious Providence, are deprive! of
the blessed gift of reason.

Prelatico Presbyterianism. By the Rev. Richard
Dill, A.M. Dublin : M‘Glashan and Gill.

The author of this work would appear to be one
of those right•miuded men who will not wink nor
connive at abuses in the Church, however great
the hazard of "impracticability"—that, we believe,
is the modern word for straightforwardness—and
who accordingly have to suffer for it. Left exe-
cutor to the bequest of a Mrs. M-igee, for a Pres-
byterian College, Mr. DIU, it is his state-
ment not ours, was plied with all sorts of cajollery
and appliances of coercion to abandon his trust,
but plied in vain. Now, having contended suc-
cessfully for the proper application of the trust,
we find him 'defending himself against certain
alleged calumnies embodied in the minutes of the
Presbyterian Assembly. Into the particulars of
these it is not necessary we should enter. Those
who feel interested in th© case will buy the book,
in which they will further find an exposure and
denunciation of the prelatic tendencies of certain
dominant members of the Presbyterian Church in
Leland.

A. Descriptive Dictionary of the Tndi'zn, Islands
and Adjacent Countries. By John Crawford,
F.R.S. Bradbury and Evans.
In the compass of a crown octavo volume those
who are desirous to become acquainted with the
history, products, &c., of these interesting islands
and the countries adjacent, will find au ample and
well arranged store of useful information. Some
years ago the author published a descriptive ac-
count, which, instead of re-publishing, he has
thrown into the present form, adding thereto all
the information he has acquired since that period.
The wisdom of this measure is apparent at a glance,
for the reader has but to turn to a particular letter
t,) obtain what otherwise would occasion him some
d:3gree of research, null perhap 4, in addition, a
feeling of apprehension at the apparent inigriitude
of his task to discover. An excellent !nip accom-
panies the work, and contributes to its sterling
value.

The Military ol•jamisation, Administration of
Franc. By Thomas Jams Tir3A3ray. Thos.

Cantley Newby.
The second, and we suppole, concluding volume
of a work on the above subjdct, the materials for
which have been drawn, we are told, from official
and other authentic sources of information. The
generally recognised necessity for reform in our
military system r2nders a reliable description of
the way in which military affairs are administered
by our warlike neighbours desirable, and so far as
we can judge the volume before us may be de-
pended upon for furnishing the required informa-
tion in a lucid and methodical manner.

GUARDS' DINNER ABSENTEES.

(From Punch.)

Various significant absences were observe .I at the
dinner to the Guards in the Surrey-gardens. Some of
these might have been less sarcastically remarked upon,
had the committee thought proper to read the notes of
ap logy which were transmitted from certain distin-
guished quarters. We have:been favoured with copies
of some of the documents in question, and print then as
a mere matter of justice :
" Lord Cardigan presents his compliments to Mr.
Sams, and very much regrets that a round of public d in-
ners, given to himself by his dependents, will prevent
his dining with the Guards on Monday, and exhibiting
to them the coat and inexpressibles in which be had the
pleasure of winning the battle of B.llaklava. But hie
Lordship sends the spurs which he use:l during his re-
turn from that exploit, and not even one of the carpere
at his laurels will be able to deny that those articles
have undergone hard service.
" P.S.—He wonders that Mr. Satre 's good taste will
allow him to keep in his window the picture of such a
person as Lord Lucan."

" The Earl of Lucan has received Mr. Sams's circular,
and begs to intimate that he shall not attend the dinner
to the Guards. The practice of making an undue fuse
hcut the private soldier, who, in doing his best, merely
does that which he is hired to do, appears.to Lord Lucan
to be highly detrimental to the interests of the service.
Besile3, the Ear! has to confidence in the committee,
who appear to be chiefly members of an inferior class of
society, and he has no guarantee that distespectial
toasts, ralccting on thole who P-,e supposed to have
caused the unavo.dahle tni•brtunce of the late war, may
not be introduced. The Lord Mayor may be a respect-
able man, but real lords ought tot to be asked to asso-
ciate with annuals.

" P.S.—He is surprised that Mr. Sams should deco..
rate (?) the corner of St. James's-street with a likeness
of such an individual as Lord Cardigan."

"Mr. Filder's compliments to Mr. Same, and certainly
will not come to the dinner which it is proposed to give
to the Guards. He believes that the affair will end disas-
trously, as it is most preposterous to believe that provi-
tion can be made for supplying 2,000 men with meat,
chink, and tobacco for a whole evening at eo short a
notice as one month. He would suggest the Postpone-
ment of the dinner until the summer of 1858, by which
time the committee might, if they availed themselves of
Mr. Filder's assistance, be able to make the necessary
arrangements. But he must decline being party to any
ill-considered attempt, as the comfort of British soldiers
ought not to be risked in the hands of incompetency."

, A CLOUD OF GNATS. —Galignanz records a singular
phenomenon which occurred on Saturday at Saint Pons
(Allier). At about six o'clock in the evening, atter
vet), 'fine day, the sky became suddenly obscured aul a
cloud of gnats alighted on the town. The walls and
roofs of the houses, and the pavement._ of the streets, wt re,
it is said, covered with the insects as with a thick black
dust. The inhabitants, too, were attacked by the gnats
and suffered a good deal from their bites. Not a few of
the insects, it is alleged, not content with attacking
people in the hands and feet, penetrated through their
clothes and bit them severely.
A letter from Constantinople, of the 21st, in the
Semaphore of Marseilles, says
" The council of Tanzimat continues to occupy itself
with the question of railways, but thus far has decided
nothing. The railway from Smyrna to Aidin was about
to be C
ected to an English company represented by a
Mr. Wilkins, but the company sought to impose the con-
dition that it should have the preference for the railway
from Constantinople. to Adrianople and Belgrade, and all
at once a Greek, M. Zarifi, deposited an offer for the
railway of Adrianople of 1,500,000/, sterlinglesv
ps
etrhioadn.
what the English company. demanded, with desit of
caution-money of 50,0001., to be abandoned in the event
of the line not being terminated wit a given
His offer has caused the concession to be again suit.'
pended, eknd it is not known when it will be decided.';