The Sun.
London, England, 1833-01-01 00:00:00

TAIT'S MAGAZINE.

This is the best number, in every respect, we
have yet seen of this Magazine. It is not
overlaid by politics, which, at this social season,
we can surely dispense with. " Sir R. Peel"
forms the subject of the first article, and
a more keen, caustic, unsparing analysis of
public character was never yet attempted.
Sir Robert is laid bare as with a scalping-
knife, bone—muscles—nerves—arteries, and
all " odd joints"—as Tristram Shandy phrases
it in his celebrated excommunication—not

a particle of the Right Hon. Baronet escapes
the searching hand of the dissector, who inflicts
on his victim a more terrible process than
was inflicted by I)an Phoebus on Marsyas.
" Cabin Conversazione" is a rough, Irish sketch
of character, not nithout power, and still less
exaggeration. " The Wishing-cap" is a conti-
nuation of a series of papers that appeared some
years since in the Examiner. It is from the
pen of Leigh Hunt, is sprightly and ingenious,
and abounds in minute touches of feeling.
Mr. Hunt gossips agreeably enough about his
cabinet of curiosities, which consist chiefly
of a collection of locks of hair cut from the
sconces of illustrious defuncts, poets, prose-
writers, and so forth. That many of his locks
are genuine, we doubt not, but he must allow
us to be sceptical on the subject of Swift's hair,
which Mr. Hunt describes in his usual vivid,
picturesque style, but by which we understand a
poetic definition of a horse-hair. Hazlitt's hair
is unquestionably genuine, for Mr. Hunt him-
self was his tonsor, as was also the case with his
friends Keates and Shelley. The article is a
light and amusing one. " The Achievements of
the Genius of Scott" is the finest compliment
that has yet been paid to the memory of this
illustrious author. ;As a piece of deep, thought-

ful, eloquent reasoning, we have met with no-
thing like it in any of the Magazines for years.
We subjoin a delightful specimen, but by no
means the rnost favourable, in this most acute
and deeply-felt essay :

" Let our moral philosophers (usefully employed though
they be in arranging and digesting the science, and en-
lightened in modifying, from time to time, the manifesta-
tions of its eternal principles)—let our moral philosophers
declare whether they expect their digests and expositions
to be eagerly listened to by the hundred thousand families,
collected, after their daily avocations, under the spell of
the northern enchanter ; whether they would look for
thumbed copies of their writings in workshops and count-
ing-houses, in the saloons of palaces, and under many a
pillow in boarding schools. Our Universities may purify
morals, and extend their influence as far as they can ; their
importance in this case runs a chance of being overlooked ;
for Scott is the president of a college where nations may
be numbered for individuals. Our clergy may he and di,
all that an established clergy can be and do; yet they will
not effect so much as the mighty lay preacher who has
gone out on the highways of the world, with cheerfulness
in his mien and benignity on his brow , unconscious, per-
haps, of the dignity of his office, but as much more
powerful in comparison with a stalled priesthood as the
troubadour of old—firing hearts wherever he went with
the love of glory—than the vowed monk. Our dissent-
ing preachers may obtain a hold on the hearts of their
people, and employ it to good purpose; but they cannot
send their voices east and west to wake up the echoes of
the world. Let all these classes unite in a missionary
scheme, and encompass the globe, and still Scott will teach
morals more effectually than them all. They will not
find audiences at every turn who will take to heart all they
say, and bear it in mind for ever; and if they attempt it
now, they will find that Scott has been before them every
where. He has preached truth, simplicity, benevolence,
and retribution in the spicy bowers of Ceylon, and in the
verandahs of Indian bungalores, and in the perfumed
dwellings of Persia, and among groups of settlers at the
Cape. and amidst the pinewoods and savannahs of the
western world, and in the vineyards of the Peninsula, and
among the ruins of Rome and the recesses of the Alps, and
the hamlets of France, and the cities of Germany, and the
palaces of Russian despots, and the homes of Polish
patriots. And all this in addition to what has been done
in his native kingdom, where he has exalted the tastes,
ameliorated the tempers, enriched the associations,
and exercised the intellects of millions. This is already
done in the short space of eighteen years ; a mere span in
comparison with the time that it is to be hoped our
language and literature will last. We may assume the
influence of Scott, as we have described it, to be just be-
ginning its course of a thousand years ; and now, what
class of moral teachers (except politicians, who are not too
ready to regard themselves in this light) will venture to
bring their influence into comparison with that of this
great lay preacher ?"