The Sun.
London, England, 1860-05-30 00:00:00

LITE'.RATUBE.

Mary Bertrand. By Francis Meredith. 3 vols.
Hurst and Blackett.
This is a very pleasing story, that is gracefully
narrated, and can hardly fail to give satisfaction.
Claude, the hero, is a very fine character, and dis-
plays many superior qualities as he approaches
manhood. Mary Bertrand is a charming delinea-
tion • and altogether, with her vivacity, grace, and
intelligence, forms one of those delightful por-
traitures that from time to time irradiate the
pages of fiction, and which are the more attrac-
tive from the consciousness that in real life such
treasures exist, though they may be few and far
between. There is not much plot in the story,
and the interest consists in the skill exhibited
by the sketches of the numerous persons who
figure in its course. Philip Grey is a superior
man, who was an honour to the exalted position
he was called to fill, but who, in our first ac-
quaintance with him in a humble sphere, dis-
played those bright and shining attributes which
render a man totally independent of rank to give
him dignity, or of wealth to gain him power.
He was of excellent service to those placed under
his care, and thus his temporary poverty was a
source of satisfaction to many, for in after years,
when he was established in his rich inheritance,
the effects of his labours would be seen in many
a distant home, and blessed by the families whose
sons he had trained up in those lessons of wis-
dom more precious than the richest stores of
knowledge ever garnered in academic walls.
Flora Dashwood is a lively girl, whose sparkling
manners impart a gaiety to the story. She is a
decided contrast to Mary ; but she was well-inten-
tioned, with all her vehemence and excitement of
manner, that led strangers to suppose her indif-
ferent and careless. Mary, in her calm grace,
shone to advantage beside her showy companion,
though she was in poverty and loneliness, and
Miss Dashwood is truly described as " radiant
with the consciousness of beauty, wealth, rank,
talents, all that can make prosperous the journey
to the grave." The various members of the Hamil-
ton family, Colonel Norton, and his sons, are well
depicted ; and, on the whole, this is a very agree-
able book. Some of the scenes at the beginninr,
are very well described; and Mr. Bertrand, the
father of Mary, is interesting from his melancholy
position. This novel has every prospect of being
a general favourite.

Christ in Life : Life in Christ. By J. C. 11
Bellew. London : Chapman and Hall. Octavo,
pp. 397. 1860.
If we were asked to characterise Mr. Bellew's
sermons by one word, we should say emphatically
it is that of manliness. In all that he writes or
says there is an outspoken frankness which spurns
alike concealment and disguise, whieh looks neither
to the right hand nor the left, but goes straight home
to the mark it aims at, careless of all consequences
and heedless of all results, so long as the plain
honest truth be declared and good effected. But
when we say that manliness is the distinguishing
feature of these sermons, we are far from implying
by that term any spirit of sternness or narrow-
minded exclusiveness. Sin maybe condemned and
rebuked in the strongest terms, and its unfailing
consequences painted in the most vivid colours,
but not thus does he pass sentence of condemnation
on the sinner. Crime may be denounced, but not
the criminal ;—him Mr. Bellew addresses in the
language of gentleness and brotherly kindness,
convinced that no man, who is worthy of the name,
was ever yet frightened into real religion, and that
the spirit of love and charity to all is that which
should animate the ministers of Him who has de-
clared that " the bruised reed He will not break,
and the smoking flax He will not quench." The
new volume of Mr. Bellew's sermons by its title
conveys the nature of its contents. The aspect of
the Saviour's character, exhibited by the various
incidents which marked his earthly career, is that
which is meant by the first part of the title, " Christ
in Life ;" while the aspect of the Christian's life as
he consecrates the events and occupations of the
world to a " Life in Christ" is what is intended
by the second. The columns of a news-
paper are no fitting sphere for the dis-
cussion of religious differences or controverted
doctrines, and in the quotations we are about to
make from the volume before us, we shall take
care to select such as cannot by any possibility give
offence to men of any creed, however sensitive and
fastidious. Where there are so many beauties in
language and sentiment, it is very difficult to make
selections, and deprived of the vitality lent them
by the charm of voice, eye, and manner when de-
livered, even the most vigorous and impassioned
sentences materially suffer. But even with this
drawback who cannot but be struck with the
truth and beauty of the following quotations. The
first is from the sermon on New Year's Eve. " How
strange it appears that the higher the creature in
the social scale, the more susceptible he is of being
affected by external causes—the loftier in ths
ranges of creation and the greater the dependence
of his organs upon one another ! It seems as
though God had resolved that the nearer his
creatures approached to his own nature the more
susceptible they should be to every accident and
influence of earth, thereby being liable through the
slightest causes to be removed from the scenes of
animal life. Man is the nearest approach to God,
and accordingly we find it physically true that he
possesses less tenacity of life than any other living
thing. There are creatures possessed of life which
enjoy the elements of the world for centuries. In
the lower ranges of creation there are several
species
of animal life which, dissevered and muti-
lated, will not only survive, but in their disunited
members separate life will flourish, and nature will
not only repair her injuries, but complete in the
parts the constitution that once belonged to the
whole. As we rise in the scale of animal life and
as it were the earth becomes less earthy so the frame
of the creature becomes more susceptible to external
influence and injury, until at length we arrive at
the paragon of all, and find the animal man linked
to the external world with a cord so finely con-
structed that he is affected by the smallest external
circumstances. The accident over which the reptile
triumphs brings him death, the fierce wind on
which the eagle spreads his pinions wide, and out-
lives for generations with scarce a feather ruffled,
cuts off the life of him who is the monarch of the
eagle and the brute." One of the sermons that has
struck us most is that for Easter-day, on the text—
"We wait for light" (Isaiah lix. 9) ; but it is one
that, from its continuous train of thought and
beauty of illustration, affords less opportunity for
separate quotation, without each detached passage
suffering materially from the absence of the con-
text than any other. We may, however, with less
scruple, make one or two quotations from the dis-
course which bears for its title, "The Mutable and
the Immutable." "I am speaking now of truths as
magnificent as any that have ever occupied the
speculations of philosophers ; of truths which, in
the days of Bacon or of Newton, were unestablished,
and, I think I may say, were very dimly appre-
hended, but which the science of later times has
incontrovertibly established, so that to some ears
it may sound like a familiar saying,
when I speak
of the certain and perpetual changes of all creation
and of their being referable to unchanging laws ;
whereas I am in reality advancing a truth of such
magnitude, that it is only within the last century
that science has apprehended it, tend within
the last half century embraced it. It would
be out of place were I now to enter into any con-
secutive examination of the discoveries of those
various sciences to which I have referred, and
whieh singly and collectively produce evidences of
• the fact. I might show how, in astronomy, the
nebulous theory has established the scientific accu-
racy of the declaration of the gaviour, how planets
and reforming; what in-
aexrehLorsittiibnluealply;oftiouremtii,negness,
what brilliant bUCCCS-
sion3 characterise the changes and decays in the
husbandry of the heavens. I might, for the sake
of illustration, refer to the extraordinary revelations
which the pursuits of geology and anatomy have
made. The one has exhibited the inorganic changes
of the globe, the other the simultaneous organic.
In combination they have shown that in different
organic strata of the earth there have been diffe-
rent stages of animal organisation, so that while on
passing away to be
the earth one strata has been