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

seoutor ?

A poltoeman said the prosecutor was not present, and
that the pr:s' nEr's friends had settled the matter.
Mr. Selfe would not allow justice to be defeated. He
directed a summons t) be issued fcr the attendance of
the F ailu r, and remanded the prisoner till Saturday.

, LITERATURE.

The ,Sketch ,?.r. By the Rev. J. Eagles, A.M.
1 Vol. Blackwood.

This voluin consists of a series of papers origin-
ally published in &ackunod's Magazine, full of
art criticisms, and offering the greatest attractions
to the amateur painter. The author, the late
Rev. J. E tgles, was himself an accomplish, d
artist, as well as an enthusiastic lover of nature.
His papers are full of suggestions of great practi-
cal value 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 lie 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
ha 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
Where shall the moonbeams light ?
For him who bade them stay,
With hand of power and might—
Upon the Painter's grave.
Where the stormy pageants rice,
The harmless lightning fly
Where the magician lies
That fixed them in the sky—
Before the Painter's grave.
Where shall the flow'rets shed
Sweet odours ! 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 hairs 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 !
Upon the Painter's grave ?"
Together the two painters wander among some of
the beautiful scenery of rural England, wisely dis-
coursing ou 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, tho same idea that Campbell expresses in
his beautiful lines on the rainbow, when he says—
" When Science from Creation's face
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 au enthu-
siast in his own particular study as the painter or
poet in his. Their superficial knowledge of botani-
cal or geologicial 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 ill 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
better omitted or retained, and how a careful ar-
rangement of the object will best preserve the
spirit of the scene—yet few appreciate so 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 :
" If 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; sue this is thoroughly the case with the
sketcher. o fields of beauty open to him at every
step he advances ; he lays up new acquirements, and all
of them come to him with delight. It should be our
happiness, net our la.rnentation, that Art is long, Life
is short'—' Arc longs, -Vita brevis '—forsurely we would
not wish the pursuit to end bof ore
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 Hesiol, 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 purl eyes,
And perfect witness of all judging Joys.'
Where is the fountain head of all Harmony I—what is
Art ?—what is Music ;—what Poetry ? Are they only
seen, heard, and felt here ? 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 virtuous, 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 abhorrent 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 fur which life is worth anything. It would
make the biography of the brightest genius but an elon-
gated tombstone. I am 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 au 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 on clas-
sical subjects, and on the topics of the day. Ho
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 much gratification from its
perusal, if the claims of nature and art are not
wholly indifferent to them.

On the Treatment Johnhe Insane without lifechanica
Restraints. By Conolly, M.D. 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
for
has
presented before him a picture of the Asylum
the Insane as they flourished in their brutality and
iniquity in times past, of the difficulties with which
the advocates of the principle of
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 they resent day. The contrast is
sufficiently striking, d must be contemplated by
the author, who has done so much to promote this
improved treatment, with the deepest satisfaction.
Indeed, Dr. Conolly confesses as much, and in