The Sun.
London, England, 1851-01-07 00:00:00

LITERATURE.

DHE CHILDREN'S OWN SU.VDAY BOOK
By Julia Corner. Longnians.
Miss Corner has long been deservedly, popular a'
the children's friend. It has been her especial pro-
vince to render learning not only an easy labour but
a pleasant pastime. Her graceful pen has invested
the dry facts and figures of history with the charu
and fascination of romance. Any one who is familial
with her elaborate but most comprehensive catechism
on the history of Europe will at once most emphati-
cally corroborate our assertion. In that invaluable
volume the histories of the various kingdoms of Eu
rope are severally and collectively set forth in a man-
ner sufficiently condensed to be easily remembered,
and sufficiently explicit to afford an opportunity for
the introduction of numerous incidental anecdotes,
whereby an additional interest is imparted to the nar-
rative, and its main facts are pleasantly interwoven
with one another. Few story b inks are more de
lightful than the school books of Miss Corner. Ths
young generation are now indekted to her industr3
for another and an equally valuable boon. " The
Children's Own Sunday Baok," is calculated most
admirably to supply a want much felt in the nursery
and school-room on a Sunday. Fearful of falling
into either extreme, the wise teacher sometimes hesi-
tates to award " admonitioa due," lest religion
become a toil instead of a pleasure, and, on
the other hand, fears to Pose the golden oppor-
tunity of speaking a word in season. The
middle path between either extreme has been happily
seized upon by Miss Corner. " The Children's Own
Sunday Book" relates some Bible story, or impresses
some good lesson, in such simple terms, and with
such loving tones, as irresistibly to fascinate the at-
tention and touch the hearts of its little readers—and
not of little readers only ; wise heads may with pro-
fit as well as pleasure bend over these simple pages.
Here they will perhaps learn many facts with which
they have been hitherto unacquainted ; and here, too,
they will meet with many a well-known truth, en-
forced with new and most impressive eloquence. Miss
Corner tells us that her objects in writing have been
threefold—" to instruct, to improve, and to amuse"—
in all of which objects, to judge from the evidence of
the book before us, we feel confident that she cannot
fail to meet with success.

" For the sake of variety," she adds, " I have at-
tempted to put into verse some of the most beautiful in-
cidents recorded in the Bible, because verse is always
attractive to young people, and easily fixes itself in the
memory. The moral lessons are founded on texts se-
lected from the Book of Proverbs and the New Testa-
ment, which I have endeavoured to treat in a manner
that may at once engage the attention of youthful
readers, and make a lasting impression on minds that
are easily impressed either for good or fur evil."
As an evidence of the very felicitous manner in which
this endeavour has been accomplished let us quote one
chapter on

THE PARABLES OF CHRIST.
"And he spake many things unto them in parables."
ST. MATTHEW, xiii. 3.

" Many of the most delightful lessons taught by Jesus
Christ to his disciples, and intended for the instruction
and guidance of all future generations, were in the form
of interesting stories. called parables; a parable being a
little narrative which has another meaning besides that
which is expressed, like the short stories usually called
fables.

"In some of these parables, the Saviour pointed out
our duty towards God; in others, he endeavoured to
teach us our duty towards our neighbours; but in read-
ing them we must always remember that the people to
whom they were addressed lived in a country where all
the usages were entirely different from those of the
Europeans, so that we constantly meet with allusions to
manners and customs that are strange to us, although
they were quite familiar to the auditors of the Divine
Teacher. For instance, we read of anointing people
with ointment, but we ale uld scarcely understand the
meaning of such a ceremony unless it had been ex-
plained to as that it was customary among the Jews, and
indeed, among most oriental nations, when a visitor
came to a house, for a servant to bring sweet-scented oil
or ointment in a vase or box of alabaster, and rub it
over his head and beard to give them an agreeable per-
fume; and this was looked upon as a mark of welcome
and respect. Some of these ointments were very costly;
.nd rich people spent large sums of money in such luxu-
ries, consequently the trade in oils and perfumes was
both extensive and lucrative. Again, in the parable of
the Ten Virgins the point of the story turns on the
marriage customs prevalent in the East, which are very
dfferent from those observed amongst us on such occa-
sions. The bride is always conducted in procession to
her new abode; and this ceremonial in the time of our
Saviour frequently took place at night, by torch light,
every one carrying a lamp or a torch to light the way,
and give the cavalcade a brilliant appearance. All the
friends and relatives of both parties are expected to at-
tend, and many of them, instead of going to the house
where the wedding party is assembled, join the procession
o❑ its way to the residence of the bridegroom, who thus
triumphantly carries home his wife from her father's
house to his own, where a great entertainment is pre-
pared for the whole company.
"In the story told by our Lord, the ten virgins are
suppos, d to be young friends of the bride who have been
invited to the wedding, and go out with their lamps
lighted to await the coming of the procession that they
may take their places in the joyous train; but as the
time of its setting forth was uncertain, and it would not
have been seemly to take a pirt in it without their lights,
five of the damsels had prudently taken a little oil with
them to trim the lamps in case of delay; but the others,
tboughth as and improvident, neglect,.d this precaution,
and the consequence was that their lamps went out; and
*bile they were running about to find a shop where
they might buy some oil to replenish them, the proof s-
sion passed by, and was joint(' by their wiser com-
panions. As soon as they had obtained a supply of oil,
and relighted their lamps, the careless maidens has-
tened to the bridegroom's house; but it was too late, for
the company had sat down to supper, and the doors were
closed, not to be opened again; for it was supposed that
all who bad been invited would take care to be in time,
and the servants were ordered to keep the doors shut

that no strangers might intrude themselves upon the
party.
" This parable was intended to show that we should
all take care to be ready whenever it shall please the
Almighty to summon us to his presence; for the time of
our existence is uncertain, and the young as well as the
old may be summoned from this world at any moment.
Let us, then, always try to do that which is right; let
us be careful not to neglect any duty that God has com-
manded us to perform, lest the gates of heaven should
be closed against us, as the doors of the bridegroom's
house were shut against the maidens, who, by their own
negligence, found themselves at the last moment without
the light that would have lighted them to the marriage
supper."
Tne chapters dedicated to an explanation of those
words so often on our lips from the cradle to the
tomb, and yet so imperfectly understood, and in con-
sequence FO little appreciated by many—the words of
the Lord's Prayer, are among the most interesting
and practically useful portions of this work.
In simple and familiar language the most
momentous truths and the sublimest wisdom

are here made plain to the understanding of
" babes and sucklings." Especially at this Christmas
season the friends of the young will do well to provide
for the pleasure and profit of their little friends by
placing in their hands this very attractive and most
excellent work.

MAGAZINES, Etc.—(CON TIN UED.
DUBLIN UNIVERSITY.
Antony Poplar commences the first year of the
half century with a copious and excellent number.
Jonathan Freke Slingsby deservedly leads the van,
and puts forth his easy strength in an exquisite
ballad on " The Old Year and the New," accompanied
by a mystic but beautiful German story, entitled
" The Bells of St. Bruno." The lay is worthy of
Tennyson, and the tale, to say the least, of Dickens.
Of two specimens of poetry by other hands, " The
Absentee," and an elegy 'yclept " The Rings," we
cannot say a great deal. The verse in the latter
flows with sufficient smoothness, but such rhymes as
" other" and " gather," " withered" and " gathered,"
" moment" and " raiment," " early" and " sorely,"
&c., are not to be endured by gods or men. " The
New Nation" is a highly interesting account of the
magical progress of affairs in California. It may
be conceived with what potency the auri
sacra fames sways the ascendant when we learn
that ships in the harbour have been deserted by
their captains and crews, that the Star and Califor
nian newspapers, published at San Francisco, ceased
appearing, as the whole staff, from the editor to the
errand-boy, had started for the " diggings," and
among the most active workers in the valley was the
" Attorney-General to the King of the Sandwich
Islands ! " Sir Francis Head's alarmist pamphlet is
attacked with great gusto and ability by a veteran
warrior, who writes with much energy and consider-
able clearsightedness, on the "Defenceless State of
Great Britain." A supplement to the curious series
of papers which have appeared in this magazine on
the subject of "Waren," is given under the head of
" Daimoniac Possession, Oracles, and Medical Thau-
maturgy in India," and strikingly illustrates the ex-
traordinary,subject-matter. In " Progress and Re-
trogression ' the recent works of Laing and Kay
on the social condition of the people in Europe are
analysd elaborately, and in a masterly spirit ; and a
short but pithy notice is given, in another part, of
Dr. Austen's Introductory Lecture on "the Roman
Civil Law." Alaurice Tierney has a famous chapter
devoted to the pranks and punishr.ent of a ruffian
styled the " The Town-major of Castlebar." In the
following sketch of Napper, 'randy how exactly is
unfortunate Smith O'Brien 's character bit off:—
"If you can conceive an empty, conceited mar, as
ignorant of war as of politics, rushing into a revolution
for the sake of a green uniform, and ready to convulse P
kingdom that he may he called a major-general; only
enthusiastic in his personal vanity, and wanting ever in
that heroic during which occasionally dignifies weak ca-
pacities (Ballingsrry to wit)—such is Napper Tandy."
"The Ghost Stories of Chapelizod," three in number,
are delightful—" The Sexton's Adventure," one of
the best dashed-off legends we have encountered (and
our readingin the supernatural department is respect-
able), and 'Washington Irving himself might be proud
of " The PPectte loyere." Let ;is have by all means