The Sun.
London, England, 1860-12-21 00:00:00

The authoress gives the most thrilling andtouch•

ing accounts of the striking scenes with which she
meets in her pilgrimage. The description of the
Missionary Institute at Basle is most interesting,
and no one can help feeling a mingled sensation of
regret and admiration for those who are about to
set off and wander in peril and toil in unthankful-
ness to spread the kingdom of their Master and
make His name worshipped, from the rising. to the
setting of the sun. Thuse men may be mistaken
in their views very often, and sometimes might
better employ their energies at home, but the real
missionary spirit is a noble one. Among those
proceeding to the coast of Africa, the writer was
much struck by the thoughtful expression
of one of the young men, and to him she
thought the words of the missionary's call might
be appropriately applied. These words might, in
their beauty and splendour, be applied to many
scenes of life, and prove the ruling passion to many

children of earth with benefit to others and bless-•
ings to themselves. " Why live I here, the v!ws of
God are on me, and I may not stop to play with
shadows and pluck earthly flowers till I my work
have done and rendered my account ;" "and when
I come to stretch me for the last in unattended
agony, beneath the palm's green shade, it will be
sweet that I have toiled for other worlds than this."
These sentiments might arouse and animate many
pilgrims in their progress to a butter land, and urge
them to give a helping hand to others by their
advice, and, if not necessary to instruct them in the
vital truths of religion, they might teach them its
spirit in their lives of usefulness and love. The
second volume, on Italy, is more lively in its
details, but it is not so solemn and grand
as the pages on Switzerland. It is most
deserving of perusal, however, and many will be
edified by the record given of the interview with
the Pope ; on the whole, so charming a book of its
kind is not often met with, and the readers of this
country are greatly indebted to Mrs. Howitt for
rendering its beauties and wonders into their own
language. The translation reflects great credit on
its executor, and a boon is conferred on the litera-
ture of two nations by its skilful and successful
achievement. A better conclusion cannot be given
to a notice of these volumes than in the final words
on Italy, which will be responded to by every
patriotic mind, and which speaks the sentiments
and expresses the hopes of all who would behold
the children of Italy more worthy of the fame of
their glorious sires :
THE ITALIAN REGENERATION.

Yet, who does not praise the beauty. of Italy, in her
scenery, her cities, and her art ?—hut the people of Italy,
who praises thew ? ROW usual it is for foreigners to

speak of them with mistrustful reservation ! And yet
It seems to me that there has been quite too small a
recognition of their peculiar goodness and excellence.
Some one—l do not remember whom—has remarked
that when the Italian is kind and good, he is so in a
higher and more perfect degree than the man of any other
nation. And as with the grape, which at a certain period
of its ripeness is said to be nobly ripe—edel reif is the ex-
pression on the Rhine—so may it be said of the human
being of Italian blood, fully matured to goodness, he or she
is then nobly matured.' To strict conscientiousness,
noble-mindedness, earnestness, all the virtues which adorn
humanity, must then be added, refinement, beauty, a name-
less grace, which is more easily felt than described, and
which is like the flower and the perfume of the Italian in..
dividuality. I have seen and experienced this amongst the
Italian men, especially of the learned class—not the clergy
—in all the States of Italy where I have as yet been.
Social life, feelings, thoughts, receive thence, as it were, a
higher, clearer colouring, a deeper harmony. But when
that which now is peculiar to the few becomes peculiar to
the many, because this beautiful individuality is in the
depth of the Italian popular character—when religion and
the constitution of the States, popular life and domestic life,
folk's festivals like those of Switzerland, homes such as my
Swiss home by the living waters—unite to liberate this
peculiar yet fettered national beauty, then will Italy as-
suredly become that which one of its noblest sons prophe-
ti• ally beheld many centuries back, Common soil, daugh-
ter and mother of all lands alike, elect of the gods, to make
heaven more beautiful, to collect scattered mankind, to
soften the manners, to make a brotherhood of nations sepa-
rated by barbarous tongues, to give to all a human sociality
and amiability, and to become a common father .land to all
the Rations of the earth'
" But He who gave to the people the ability to supply
each other's wants, who called all to become members of
one great family, voices in one great harmony ;—who gave
to one and all of us, small human beings, his part and his
vocation in the common work ;—who gave us in it, infinite
treasure to husband for ourselves and for others, for all, for
the hour and for eternity ;—who gave us to enjoy the dew-
drop and the sun, the little bickering and the kiss of love
and fidelity unto death ;—let us labour for Him and rest in
Him. Him let us praise, and let us pray Him that His
kingdom may come

Nadalen Havering ; being Chapters in the History
of a Family. By the author of " The Verneys,"
&c. 3 vols. Hurst and Blackett.

This is rather a strange style of story, which
will doubtless find many admirers amongst those
who delight in the romantic and pathetic. Some
of the numerous personages who are introduced in
these pages are sketched in a most adroit manner,
and the composition of the work is in some pas-
sages most eloquent; as, for instance, in recording
the last days of the life of that mistaken enthusiast
the kvoeur -Annunciate. A more striking contrast
to this wild and misguided being can hardly be found
than that offered by the Lady of Hazlewood, the
gentle Alicia. She was a pattern in her short life
of a sweet and gentle woman, and in her early
death she exhibited trust and patience that gave
hope to her sorrowing friends, and left a ray of
light to gild her grave. Her memory lingered be-
hind as the sweet remembrance of the just "Alicia
speaking from het !grave, adjured the husband who
lamented her so to pass through this mortal vale,
and so to guide her young children's ways, that in
the Elysian fields of Heaven they might all eventu-
ally reassemble." Magdalen, the younger sister
and heroine of the first story, is a wild and excit-
able maiden, who went on in a rather imprudent
manner at first, but subsequent events taught her
wisdom, and she was at last almost a model for her
usefulness and kindness. In the second part of the
story, as so often occurs, the flush of beauty and
the glow of glory seem to be dimmed and paled by
the sinister chronicle of events that befall our early
hero and heroine. Few are the lives that survive
this destroying test and show us a bright meridian
to the smiling morn, or even a glittering sunset to
the stormy day of life. Magdalen and her husband
are sadly tried ; their three fair children are swept
away in a day, and their place is never filled again
by others. The latter portion of the tale is the best;
because the first division, though artistically narrated,
has for its chief aim and object one of those painful
and always exaggerated statements of religious
projects and delusive snares which add so much to
the thrilling interest of a romance, and lend such ,
terror to the plot of a drama, but which sober-
minded people do not care to dwell upon ; doubtless
there exist many young people who become con-
verts to other religions through their own weak and
maudlin fancies being worked upon by subtle
snares prepared by designing agents for their own
ends, or perhaps inspired by misguided zeal ; but
the cage as here represented is rather overdrawn.
The friends and relations of Rupert acted so ab-
surdly, and the young man himself was so
lamentably weak, that really they seemed to invite
the attacks of all enemies. The uncle should not
have introduced as tutor to the heir of so large an
estate any one of whose family and character he
had not the most minute details, while Rupert
himself seemed simply infatuated. Maud and
Muriel, in the second story, are very interesting
girls. Muriel is one of those superior beings who
are sometimes lent to the world to show in suffering
and sorrow some of the brightest and holiest attri-
butes of the Christian character, some of that
immortal nature that illuminates with a splendour
borrowed from on high. Many such have lived
through days of agony who have influenced others
in the road to right, and rendered more bright the
earth they found so thorny till they passed on rejoic-
ing to the heaven where their heavy pain should
endure no longer. Maud is a very strange creature,
full of the wildest impulses, and often moved to th e
rashest acts in consequence of her unstable mind ;
On the whole, there is a great variety of character
in these stories, and many striking events occur ;
although some portions of the narrative are exag-
gerated, there are passages in it of deep feeling and
occasionally of much eloquence. It can therefore
be recommended to those who seek an exciting
story full of incident and replete with adventure.

Turkish Life and Character. By Walter Thorn•
bury, author of " Life in Spain," &c., &c. Two
vols. Smith, Elder, and Co.
Mr. Thornbury, whose name is well known in
the literary world for works of various kinds,
has lately given us several lively volumes of travel.
The reader of his agreeable "Life in Spain" will
readily recall his vivid description of the sunny
streets of the Spanish cities, of the old romantic
traces of Moorish rule, and the initiation
which he gave us into the mysteries of wine
manufacture, which will hardly bear the light of
day,. even in Xeres or Oporto. The volumes
before us, like the preceding work, consist chiefly
of reprinted papers from " All the Year Round"
and other serials. The author tells us, how -
ever, that they were all written with a steadily
maintained harmony of purpose, and could not,
therefore, be judged of separately. They are all
written in Mr. Thornbury's peculiar style, in which
we must confess there is beginning to be something
of mannerism and flippancy. His smartness of
manner and vividness of description have been so
deservedly popular that we fear he has begun to
think the sound sense and accurate knowledge
which should underlie the sparkling surface to be but
secondary things; and the prevalent error of writing
too much tends greatly to the deterioration of the
most gifted and ready writers. " Turkish Life
and Character," like all Mr. Thornbury's works, is
full of ability and entertainment, but it is scarcely
the same order of writing which we found in
" Shakespeare's England" or " Art and Nature."
In his pleasant tour he had, he tells us,
two pieces of good fortune. He was a wit-
ness of the transplantation of the Circas-
sians from the Caucasus to Anatolia, and
he was present is Constantinople during
the discovery and repression of a great conspiracy
that threatened the life of the Sultan and the
convulsion of the Empire. Abdul Medjid finds
little favour in his sight ; and, indeed, he consi-
ders the whole system of Turkish dominion in
Europe to be tottering to its fall. Nicholas the
First's famous definition of the " Sick Man" is
readily adopted by Mr. Thornbury, who generally
employs the stronger definition of "the dying
man." The whole course of events in the East
he considers to be tending to one point—the de-
struction of the Ottoman Empire and the expul-
sion of the Turks from Europe. Since his return
from his travels, the catastrophes in Syria have
turned the public attention with unusual force in
that direction,and possiblydis the author suggests,the
volumes before us may gather a more tragic interest
from those dreadful events. They are full of
vivacity and life, giving us a series of photographs
of Turkish manners and customs, and though,
thanks to the experience of the Russian war, infor-
mation on these subjects is no longer deficient, yet
an animated picture of other countries is always
attractive and agreeable. Mr. Thornbury takes
us into the Turkish shops, and bids us note the
extortion practised in the gay bazaars of Constan-
tinople ; he saunters with us in the Valley of the
Sweet Waters, and watches the Eastern beauties
taking their one day's exercise in the week. He
bids us explore the horrors of the madhouses,
and the almost greater horrors of the prisons and
the galley-slaves. He shows us the quiet burial
grounds encircling the busy city, and devotes a
chapter to the pleasant fountains which minister to
the wants of the parched and weary traveller.
He lets us penetrate a Mosque, and makes us form
acquaintance with curious characters of all sorts,
from dancing and howling dervishes, to the street
dogs of Constantinople. Saint Sophia has a chapter
devoted to itself and a most interesting account is
given of that stately building.
We 'quote some
passages of this description.
ST SOPHIA. ' e, and the
" It is rather, then, from its sublimity of
S
richness of its pagan materials, that I looked with interest
on St. Sophia.
" I see before me a great building, not merely remark-
able for being 269 feet long, and 243 feet broad—Solomon
temple was only 110 feet long—but memorableo me as
replacing a temple that Constantine raised, and which
Justinian rebuilt. I see the work of 16 long years—of 100
architects, 100 masons, and 10,000 labourers. At least a,
million of Asiatic and European gold must have jpeelz