The Sun.
London, England, 1856-06-13 00:00:00

LITERATURE.

History of Europe from 1815 to 1852: from the
Fail of Napoleon to the Accession of Louis Na-
poleon. By Sir Archibald Alison, Bart., D.C.L.
Vol. V. Blackwood and Sons.
Another volume will bring Sir Archibald to the
completion of his extraordinary undertaking.
Twenty large octavos (library edition) will then re-
main, from that time forth, ranged in perpetuity
upon the national bookshelves, as the magnificent
contribution made by Alison to our treasures of
historic literature. Nineteen of those volumes are
already in our possession. Nineteen volumes—
symmetrical and comprehensive, eloquent and pic-
turesque—comprising the annals of the European
Family of Nations from the first outbreak of the
French Revolution in 1789 down to a period im-
mediately contemporaneous! Fourteen dedicated to
the earlier and more laborious enterprise, that of
recording the events succeeding the grand political
" mindquake " which brought the last century to
an end with such au astounding disruption at once
of social order and of kingly government, down to
the termination of the first Napoleonic Empire
with the exile of the greatest man of modern times
to a remote and miserable rock in the Atlantic.
Five already devoted to the supplementary project
by which Sir Archibald boldly resolved upon con-
, tinuina the chain of events down to a date, compa-
ratively speaking, but as yesterday in the annals of
the E uropeanpopulation. Another volume—asabove
intimated will bring to a close this voluminous and
eminently remarkable publication. The penulti-
mate octavo of the score—but just now submitted
to our scrutiny—carries us onward in the current of
European history, so far as England is concerned,
down to 1834, so far as France is concerned down
to 1837, so far as Turkey, Greece, and Egypt are
concerned down to 1841, so far as Germany is con-
cerned down to 1848. The particular portion of
the work devoted to the historical fortunes of Great
Britain closing with the downfall of Lord Grey's
Administration I That referring to France, to the
failure of Count Mole's Government I That relat-
ing to the more eastern countries, to the signing of
the treaty of Adrianople ! That bearing upon the
progress of the Germanic Confederation, to the last
great epoch of revolutionary convulsions when de-
mocracy unfurled for one illusive interval the
black-red-and-gold tricolor of an united Father-
land ! Associated with this last-mentioned divi-
sion of the great composite history of Sir Archi-
bald Alison is a very masterly section (chapter
xxviii.) comprising a resume of the situation of Ger-
many during the first half of the present century.
At the outet of this really charming and most
attractive series of succinct and epitomised criticisms
upon most of the great writers of Germany from
Giiethe and Schiller to Grillparzer and Freiligrath
it is ingeniously remarked by Alison, in extenua-
tion apparently of the imitative character first ob-
servable in German, as in every other new-born,
literature that—" the Greeks themselves gifted
beyond any other people that ever existed with
original genius, copied in the outset from the Per-
sians and Egyptians," adding, " the marbles of
Lycia and ecEgina preceded the Parthenon." Al-
though strictly speaking the "national " literature
of Germany did not, as Sir Archibald himself ob-
serves, commence in any recognisable form until
about the middle of the eighteenth century, Ger-
many, as he previously takes occasion to intimate,
assumed, immediately upon the revival of letters,
an honourable rank both in the exact sciences and
in scholarship. It was the land, remember, which
gave to the world the art of printing and the dis-
covery of gunpowder ! It was the country of Sea-
liger and Erasmus, and, as such, one of very con-
siderable importance in the records of philology !
It was the home of Kepler and 'of Leibnitz—of
Leibnitz who was the competitor of Newton, and
of Kepler who was the rival of Galileo—Leibnitz
the Crichton of Natural Philosophy, and Kepler,
that wonderful Kepler, who could boast without
profanity, because so truthfully and so sublimely,
" I may well be a century without a reader, since
God Almighty has 'ken six thousand years without
an observer !" Germany, moreover, has more of
those elder claims upon the intellectual honour and
gratitude of humanity in the circumstance that
Tycho Brahe was among the number of her sons,
and that to Thorn, in Prussian Poland, appertains
the glory of having given birth to Copernicus.
Notwithstanding all which, German Genius Pro-
per, or, otherwise to express it, National, did not
virtually arise until, as Sir Archibald Alison re-
marks, somewhere about midway in the last cen-
tury. Then first in point of time, in regard to
the Drama, came. Lessing—and in regard to Art,
came Winkelman. Afterwards a mightier genius
appeared in Wieland, whose " Oberon" seemed to
bring him into comparison with Ariosto, whose
" Don Sylvio" combined, says our author, " the
delicate satire of I' Don Quixote' with the imagery
of the Arabian Nights,' " and who presented to
the gaze of the world a picture, "sometimes too
seductive,",of the age of Cyrus the younger, of
Aspasia, and of Alcibiades. A little later arose
" the greatest writer of Germany," that wonder-
working Goethe, whose name is brought by Alison
very strangely into juxtaposition with those of
Homer and Shakspere—and Sir Walter Scott and
Cervantes ! Hardly too much, however, could
well be uttered in homage of the colossal and
many-sided (rid seitig) Genius to whom mankind
are indebted for the grotesque drama of " Faust,"
for the sensuous romance of " Werther," for the
metaphysical biography of " 'Wilhelm Meister,"
for " Egmont," fur " Tasso," for " Ipheginia," for
the exquisite idyl of "Herman and Dorothea," and
for his own poetic-autobiography. Second to Goethe
came Schiller—second both in the time of his
advent and in the grasp of his intellect. Schiller,
now the lyrist, now the dramatist, now the an-
nalist, but always the Poet. Elopstock has due
regard paid to him by our critic-historian—whose
admiration for his capacity does not preclude him,
however, from declaring that the " Messiah" is
heavy reading enough,' and for this reason, that it
is altogether too much in nubibus ! Reference
follows immediately afterwards to the most na-
tional, if not the most varied, of all the poets of
Germany, according to Sir Archibald's opinion—
Oehlenschlager. Another of the same school, Grill-
parzer, is described as "not less national in his
feelings or graphic in his descriptions, though more
modified by the ideas of Southern Europe and the
literature of antiquity." En avant ! cries Alison
to Frederick Salom, author of " Der Sohn der
Waldniss." A bas ! saith he to the shade of
Kotzebue—whose celebrity he regards as chiefly the
result of mere theatrical effect and pantomime.
As the direct antithesis of the last-mentioned,
Werner is then particularised as a dramatist of
very rare accomplishments—though one rather
fitted for perusal in the closet than for representa-
tion upon the sta,ge, and this from his total indif-
ference to anything at all like coups de theatre.
The Teutonic .iEsop Tieck seems to be regarded by
our author with mingled sentiments of surprise and
amazement, as a writer with a veritably real, though
strictly fabulous, reputation ! Korner, on the
other hand, is earnestly eulogised as the genuine
" Tyrt:eus of Fatherland." Burger's powers as a
balladrnonger, Freiligrath's cosmopolitan lyrics,
Uhland's strictly domestic or home-pictures, luck-
&ids amatory euphuisms, liedwitz with his eigh-
teen editions of the "Amaranth," Kinkel with his
fairy tale of "Margaret "—each is rendered the
theme of appropriate and, for the most part, of
appreciative commendation. Then comes a com-
prehensive survey of the chief prose writers
of Germany beginning with Niebuhr, that
arch-sceptic among historians ! lieeren, with
his annals of the Assyrians, the Persians, the
Egyptians, and the Carthagenians ; Miller with
his history of Switzerland ; Von _Hammer with his
records of the rise and development of Turkey ;
herder with his disquisitions on the "Poetry of
the Jews," and upon the " Philosophy of History ;"
Schlosser, in some sort himself the rival of Alison,
as the annalist of Europe during the recent and
the present century ; Schlegel with his ingenious
aesthetics and Clausewitz with his military prelec-
tions—all pass before us, one by one in stately pro-
cession. The German novelists follow--the Coun-
tess Hahn-Hahn, the bijou among whose writings
seems to be, in Sir Archibald's estimation, her
little volume " Ave Maria ; " Bak/ander, remind-
ing one, says Alison, of Dickens by his pathetic
power and graphic descriptions, and of Bulwer " in
the evolving of his story when to all appearance
hopelessly complicated ;" Andersen the fairy-story-
teller ; and to crown all Richter, Jean Paul Rich-
ter, in regard to whose manifold productions, sug-
gests the Historian of Europe—" A work of the
size of Bacon's 'Essays, containing a selection of
his observations and apophthegms, would be of the
highest interest, and, like the maxims of Laroche-
foucauld, acquire a universal reputation." A hint,
we take it, not unworthy of the attention of Mr.
Bohn, and one we would earnestly commend to
his consideration. Already we have tarried so
long over this most interesting disquisition, by Sir
Archibald Alison upon, the genius of Germany,
that we are precluded from any detailed analysis of
the subsequent reference made by our author to
the philosophic powers of that realm of
thought as revealed in Kant, Fichte, Jacobi,
and Schelling—or to its artistic powers as displayed
by Kiss, Danneker, and Thorwaldsen—or to its mu-
sical powers as manifested magnificently in the
melodious outpourings of the master minds of
Beethoven,Mozart, Haydn, Handel, Spolrr, Gliick,
acid Mendelssohn ! The nature of the historical
portions of the volume under review, we have al-
ready briefly btit sufficiently indicated. Their
perusal will prove them to be, in many particulars,
as captivating as a poem, and as enthralling as a
romance. Incidents of an extraordinary character
are net wanting to lend, a churn to the xkarratiye ;

and those incidents are many of them related with
a thrilling and picturesque eloquence worthy of
one whose muse is the muse of the Scroll and the
Trumpet. In regard to Germany, there are the
assassination of the diplomatic poet Kotzebue, the
death of Frederick William 111. of Prussia, the
death of Francis I. of Austria, contemporary sove-
reigns, the latter the father-in-law, of Napoleon
Iu regard to France there are the revolt of the
Cloister of St. Meri (June, 1832), the death of the
Duke de Reichstadt, the death of Lafayette, ana
the rise of Larnartine ! In regard to England.
the popular agitation about reform, the popular
ovation of Lord Brougham, the popular assault on
the Duke of 'Wellington. And so on. The volume
seizes upon our attention at its commencement, and
allows it to wane scarcely for an instant throughout,
turning page after page to the 689th, at which it
terminates. Already therefore—seeing that but
one other volume has to follow—we may offer our
congratulations to Sir Archibald Alison upon the
proximate realisation of the magnificent and beau-
tiful day-dream of his ambition, that of recording,
in twenty substantial octavos, the annals of the
most momentous epoch in the world's history since
the dawn of Christianity.

Veiled Hearts. A Novel. By the Author of "The
Wife's Trials." 3 vols. Hurst and Blackett.
This story describes the minutiae of domestic life,
exemplifying the harassing vexations, the thousand
annoyances, and the wearing anxieties that are its
greatest troubles. Mystery is shown as one of the
chief evils. It is not often that any family can
trace among its chronicles such depth of duplieith
or such eventful circumstances as were to be seen
in the circles here introduced to our notice, but
the principle is the same, and the characters are
likely to belong to the actions a consummation
not always attained in the details of a plot. Gerald
Blaymore is the picture of what a weak vacillating
disposition may become. He had no evil inters'
tions, but he perpetrated more harm than mall
ill-disposed could have effected. He captivated eo
within the sphere of his society, and then,
without considering the consequences, he her "
ried himself and them to ruin. Even 11!
' his conduct with regard to Minnie he was Ow
heartless in the real and true acceptation of the
term, although he deserved to be called so. it
offered a striking instance of the truth that " E/L:
is wrought by want of thought, as well as by wan'
of heart." Although really the least sinful of the
three, Edith displayed more faults of temper and
real deficiencies in right feeling and sentiment, that
the three others. Minnie, roused at last by the
cruel neglect she experienced, contrived to support
herself. Gerald did feel the stings of remorse and
the pangs of conscience, but Edith seemed imPer"
vious to all but herself and her own wounded
pride and offended dignity. Her sad life and We-
lancholy death were proofs that she had not led an
existence that fulfilled any end or answered ant
purpose. The only person she really cared for wan
Gerald, after her own fashion, and that was selfish
in the extreme. The most pleasing part of
the story is that which relates to Margaret,
or " Maggy," as she was called generally. Sh,e_il
a sweet and gentle character, yet truthful and fires
when occasion demanded. However, as it is her,
childhood that is principally described, she is 1113,"
so prominent a feature in the narrative as Edith
and Minnie. Percy Rochedale is full of promise
in his spirit and generosity ; like Margaret, holt"
ever, he is in early youth, and therefore more is
shadowed than shown. No one can doubt that the
future of their careers will be very different to that
of their relations, for they had principle to be their
guide, instead of passion to be their influence, at
they shunned the allurements of fancy, while in
all sincerity they walked in the light of reason'
The Clevelands are excellent persons, and fa 01;
what good may be done with moderate means, 1;
their possessors follow the dictates of their kin'
hearts and upright minds. Miss Dunsford fur"
nishes an example of the harm of bringing UP
young persons too strictly, and thus preventing
them from learning life in its true colours, till they
rush heedlessly into all sorts of temptations, to varl
the monotony of their days, when once freed front
restraint. On the whole, " Veiled Hearts" is a
fair specimen of what mieery can be occasioned by -
want of sympathy, and the absence of self-control•
It dwells on many painful scenes which are the re-
sults of human faults, more than the consequences
of the dispensations of Providence. It shows the
sufferings thus occasioned to be the bitterest to en-
dure, and it describes the painful feelings with.
genuine simplicity, an earnestness, and truthful
uess that render them doubly effective.

BOOKS ON THE WAR.
Ismeer. I. Vol. James Madden. An Epitome of
the War, by Shirley Hibbard. James Black-
wood. A History of the Turks, by J. Gilchrist.
J. Blackwood. The Camp Club, edited by Car
tain Curling. Skeet. Life in the Trenches, by
M ijor Whitworth Porter. Longman.
Though the war has now ceased, the narratives
and histories relating to it have not apparently lost
their interest. Several volumes have recently been
issued on various topics, all of them in some WI
connected with the recent events in the East'
Though there has been no scarcity of books of his;
tory, travel, and narrative since the opening
hostilities, independently of more political visalk!,l
there would seem to remain something to be said
by those who have taken a part in those events
which excited so much attention at the time, and •
have now become a matter of history. The first °f
these is on a subject which is sure to arouse the
interest of its readers, being a narrative of the ail
department which did not excite public indigna-
tion by its tardiness and mismanagement. jt is
entitled " Tsmeer, or Smyrna and its British -11%
pital in 1855, by a Lady." The author is one tl`
the band of volunteers who went to Smyrna in the
spring of 1855, and she gives us a very interesting
record of her experiences. There is nothing 130. f„
hips that the reader has not heard of before r -
some form or another, but the little details of dally
life in the hospital and the narratives of the suffer.:
ing soldiers have not lost their interest with thet
novelty. It is written in a simple and straight'
forward manner. There are some verses 'written'
by the patients, which, considering the cirentui
stances, are really meritorious. "An Epitorne of
the War from its Outbreak to its Close" is a book °
a different description and of a political character'
It takes a review of " the historical, geographieai;',,
and political facts of the whole case, and an analysis
of the strategy and acts of the belligerent power 7,
and of the elements of the Peace." Those Wile
wish to take a complete review of the wit°
eventful period, uninfluenced by party Preie;
dices, will find a clear, concise, and intelligen_
narrative in the work before us, where the author
does not intrude his opinions on the reader, h°
contents himself with recording facts. " A 141
tory of the Turks," by John Gilchrist, is a book
offering considerable attractions to those who de
sire to acquaint themselves with the chief events
of Turkish annals without the trouble of pertun°4
a dry or lengthy history. The author's design'
informs us in the preface, has been to give e... 1131-
pendious information as well as to produce a re t.'
able book. In few histories, he remarks, is im;
ascent to power and the subsequent decline P- -
easily marked, and in few histories are there Illwr„,
romantic and poetic elements to give vividueo°
and interest to its records. It is in a single volume
in clear type, and carries the history fronc,tf:
time of Othman down to the siege of Kars. 'ln
Camp Club in the Crimea is a collection
Stories from the Tent and Trenches," which, tb.;
' say the truth, have very little connection with the
camp, and might easily have a more appropriate
if a less captivating title ; nevertheless it contains
an amusing collection for the lovers of the humeP.
ous, and will no doubt furnish entertainment
some among its readers. "Life in the Trenches' ~
1.,
a work of a higher class. It is from the pen ,
Major in the Royal Engineers, and gives a eb°`ci
and simple record of what he saw and suffer '
before Sebastopol. The publication of his vie_re
has, he tells us, been delayed, as while the siegf
was still continuing he feared the publication °£
his narrative might be injudicious. Now,, h°!„,i
ever, that the siege and the war have terronlerol
together, the objection is removed, and he 4`-,
furnished the public with some new and interesting
details, which have the attraction of authenticity
He hasi carefully refrained, however, frl
expressing any opinion on the managenien
of the war, as he considers it unbecoming
in a soldier to criticise the conduct of his superiors.
However, the reader may draw his own inference;
though the writer has acted up to his ideas
of military duty and written with great circuresP: i,
tion. The style is simple and soldierlike, anclpn
apology at the beginning that his hand has been
taught to wield a sword and not a pen, is not like,l..
to be required by the reader. The minor detells
from the pen of au eye-witness are peculiarly valubae
ble, as they have hitherto generally related t
more active life in the camp and the battles, the:.
fore the record of the humbler, but not less
portant, toils in the trenches are not without some.
novelty as well as interest.

THE INDIGENT BLIND SOCIETY.—Yesterday th© 21,1:
nual meeting of the above institution was held at
London Coffee-house, Ludgate-hill ; Lord Radstock 111
the chair. The report stated that the inmates core-
prised 76 males and 77 females, all of whom were earl
ployed in acquiring such knowledge of some eeefu
trade as would enable them hereafter to earn a liveli-
hood, or at least save them from becoming entire bur'
dens to their friends. The proceeds of goods sold to
the public and received for the use of the house exceeded
during the past year 1,1001. The receipts for the year
had been 5,7111. and the expenditure 8,859/. The
port was adopted.

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