The Sun.
London, England, 1860-06-07 00:00:00

reader. If the admiring letters of Kings,
Dukes, and Princes were only worthy of con-
temptuous critiscism, why preserve them and
forward them to his friend to read, and afterwards
publish P Was it from a wish to elevate himself
at the same time that he depreciated his titled cor-
respondents ? Remembering how much the world
owes to the author of " Cosmos," we would rather
have remained ignorant of these ungenial charac-
teristics. We would fain have believed that the
mighty intellect was accompanied by as large a
heart ; that the greatest general philosopher of our
time could appreciate and accept the homage ten-
dered him by less conspicuously gifted mortals, not
with the coldness of the cynic, but with the humility
of a truly great mind, owning its advance in the
steep ascent of knowledge above its fellows, but
recognising the distance that yet remained between
the loftiest achievement of human powers, and the
full development of the majestic laws of creation.
[n the preface to the third edition, published in
Germany, the editress answers at some length the
objections •which have been raised to the publica-
tion of these letters. She says of Humboldt—" It
was his wish that his convictions should not be
liable to be discussed. He had willed that the
picture of his mind should' go down to posterity
pure and unfalsified. A giant intellect, so fervently
venerated and acknowledged by his nation, that
the mere fact of his views being known on certain
questions may exert the most powerful and incal-
culable influence on' the people and its progress. It
was that very reason which made him wish that
the whole people should be granted access to the
workings of his innermost mind." That the reve-
lation of the Liberal sympathies and tendencies of
so great an authority may forward the develop-
ment of Liberal principles in Germany we heartily
wish.; and bad his political, literary, and social
views been alone expressed in these letters, they
would have been justifiably public property. How-
ever, as the translator observes, this vexed question
is one with which the English public has nothing
to do, and that they will readily avail themselves
of the opportunity of reading the volume before
us we have no doubt. The letters from such men
as Arago, Herschel, Sir Robert Peel, Metternich,
Victor Hugo, Manzoui, and Thiers, would alone
invest it with interest, independently of its own
individual attractions. One of the most interesting
letters in the volume is the following, which gives
Humboldt's own account of his magnificent work :

111; M 1 TO VARNHAGEN.

" BERLIN, Oct. 27, 1834.
" I am going to press with my work—the work of my
life. The mad fancy has seized me of representing in a
single work the whole material world—all that is known to
us as the phenomena of heavenly space and terrestrial life,
from the nebula) of stars to the geographical distribution of
mosses on granite rocks, and this in a work in which a lively
style shall at once interest and charm. Each great and
important principle, wherever it appears to lurk, is to be
mentioned in connection with facts. It must represent an
epoch in the mental development of man as regards his
knowledge of natty e. The prolegomena are nearly ready,
containing—The inaugural lecture entirely re-cast (I deli •
vered it viva voce, but dictated it the same day) ; the picture
of nature ; inducements to the pursuit of natural philo-
sophy i o be found in the spirit of the age, which are three-
fold-1. Poisie descriptive, and vivid pictures of scenery in
modern travels. 2. Landscape-painting, visible represen-
tations of exotic life—its origin—when it became a necessity
of life and a source of exquisite delight ; why the ancients,
with their desire to gratify the senses, could not have pos-
sessed it. 3. The vegetable kingdom, classification accord-
ing to the characteristics of the plants (not botanical garden
fashion), the history of the physical description of the
world; how the idea of the universe—of the connection be-
tween all phenomena, has been becoming clear to different
nations in the course of centuries. The prolegomena form the
mostimportant part of the work, and contain, first, the general
heads. They ore followed by, one special part comprehend-
ing the detail (I enclose part of a tabulated list) : —Space—
the physics of astronomy—the solid portion of the globe—
its interior and exterior—the electro-magnetiser of the in-
terior —Volcanism, i.e., the reaction of the interior of a
planet upon its surface—the arrangement of matter—a
short Geognosy—sea—atmosphere—climate—organic life
—distribution of plants—distribution of animals—races of
man—languages—and so on, to show that their physical
organisation (the articulation of sound) is governed by in-
telligence (the produce and manifestation of which is speech).
In the special part all statistical results, as exact as in La-
place's' Exposition du gystinne du Monde.' As these de-
tails are not capable of beiv.g treated from a literary point
of view, in the same way as the general combinations of
natural science, the pure facts will be stated in short sen-
tences, arranged almost tabularly, cm that the student, in a
few pages, may find under the head of Climate, Terrestial
Magnetism, &c., results, in a condensed fohn, which it
would take many years of study to acquire. -Uniformity
of style (i.e., harmony in the whole as a literary produc-
tion) wilt be attained by short introductions to each chap-
' ter in the special part. Ottfried Muller has followed this
plan with great success in his admirably-written work on
Archaeology.
" I wanted you, my dear friend to have from me perso-
nally a clear idea of my undertaking. I have not succeeded
in compressing the whole into one volume, and yet
it would have left the grandest impression in that
abbreviated form. Those two volumes will include
the whole. No foot-notes, bat notes at the end of each
chapter, which may be passed over, but contain sound
erudition and additional details. The whole is not what has
hitherto been commonly called' Physical Description of the
Earth,' as it comprises all created things—Heaven and
Earth. I began it in French fifteen years ago, and called
it Essai our la Physique du Monde.' In Germany I in-
tended at first to call it Buch von der Natur,' after those we
have in the midddle ages by Albertus Magnus. All these,
however, are too vague. My title at present at present is
Kosmos. Outlines of a description of the physical world,
by A. V. H. •, enlarged from Sketches of Lectures delivered
by him in 1827 and 1828. Cotta.' 1 wanted to add the
word Kosmos to force people indeed to call the book so, in
order to avoid their speaking of it as I-I's physical descrip-
tion of the earth, and so throwing it into the class of such
writers as Mitterfacher. Weltbe.schreibung (description of
the World), a term analogous tb lVeltgeschichte, (history of
the World), would, as an unusual word, be confoundded
with Erdbeschreibung, (history of the earth). I know that
Kosmos is very grand, and not without a certain tinge of
affectation ; but the title contains a striking word, meaning
both heaven and earth, and sten& in contrast to the' Gas,'
(that rather indifferent earthy book of Professor Zeune, a
true Erdbeschreibung). My brothet, too, is for the title
Kosmos;' I was long in doubt about it."

Christ in life ; Life in Christ. By S. C. I‘,l
Bellew. London, 1860. Chapman and Hall.
Bvo., pp. 397. (Second notice).
It has been well observed by a very eminent
critic that no oratory can be printed entire—that
every speaker, every preacher who is not absolutely
dull and phlegmatic says something far more
through his tones, or eye, or gestures than his
bare words can tell. True as this remark is in its
general beariug, it applies with particular force
to such a man as Mr. Bellew, who as a
preacher is perhaps unrivalled in all that
regards manner and the graces of oratory and
elocution, and dissevered from which the most
powerful passages and the noblest imagery lose
half their vitality and fore. To those who heard
all or any of the sermons in the volume before us
the power of association belongs, and in reading
them they will be enabled again to call up vividly
the remembrance of the voice, eye, and manner
which invested them with so great a charm. Those
who were hearers then will now become readers
with a far higher degree of gratification necessarily
than persons to whom these sermons are presented
for the first time. But still even the latter may
peruse them alike with pleasure and advantage, for
in all that Mr. Bellew writes there is a healthy
vigorous tone and a wide catholic spirit of love and
charity towards all men, that must find a respon-
sive echo in the breasts of all true-hearted Chris-
tians. As a striking proof of what we mean we would
refer the reader to the sermons respectively entitled
Friendship, Tenderness, Fidelity, Integrity, and
Brotherly Kindness and Charity. No man, we
apprehend, can read any of these discourses with-
out being strongly impressed with a sense of their
truth and beauty. From the last of the sermons
we have named we quote one passage which
forcibly struck us at the time we heard it :-
6, In ancient Rome a being stiod helpless and alone in
the midst of the great amphitheatre, surrounded by the
Senate, the patricians, the flower of the Roman youth, the
heroes anti the orators of the eternal city. Appeal he had
none, but he oised his hand aloft and cried—' I am a Ro-
man citizen,' ana straightway the assembled multitude rose
as one man, and the b lue vault above echoed the shout of
sympathy which like a Z'ation'a anthem rose to Heaven.
So should it be with us. Teo stranger, naked, hungry, and
destitute, may have no, appeal to make to us, while he stands
in the midst of the great theatre e.
f life, but when he lifts
his helpless and beseeching hands to us, he is a liar who
says, I love God, but love not thee asx.l'v brother also 1' "
Let me insist once more upon the unliin:: ted, unreserved
principle of this new commandment, that he who loveth
God loves his brother also. Christ says that to one of the
least of these, even a stranger, this debt of humanity is due.
Now, among Christians there is a very general principle of
endeavouring to do good ; but limiting the boundaries of
their charities to their pews and their churches, and those
with whom they have especial and particular sympathy.
To deny the inclination of the heart to benefit those whom
opinion, or circumstance, or affection place near us, would
be absurd. It would not be absurd only, but not so to act
would be wicked."
One of the sermons that we commend most
earnestly to the attention of the thoughtful inquirer
is that which bears as its title " Superstition and
Unbelief," and takes as its subject the parable of
Dives and Lazarus. The following passage, which
occurs towards its close, is well worth quotation :
" The evidence of our Saviour in this parable shows the
folly of superstitious belief. It proves to us that the agency
of the dead would be useless and insufficient to create true
religion in the heart, and to promote its conversion to God.
It is moral blasphemy to God to entertain such a supposi-
tion • for what would be its logical result, but the conks-
sion'that man, an inferior agent, and the mere creature of
God himself, by a revisitation of the world, could, through
the terrors and excitements of an unnatural agency, pro-
duce in the hearts of those living on earth, those convictions
regarding God, judgment, and eternity, which God himself,
the maker of man, the creator of the universe, the supreme
lawgiver, the great instructor, the divine enunciator of
whatever is naturally, reasonably, eternally requisite for
the conversion of the soul, had shown himself unequal to
effect by the practical failure of his own ordinances in pro-
ducing that desired result."
Of. a very different character, but equal excel-
lence, is the sermon entitled " Thoroughness."
What a noble simplicity is there in the following
words :
t, Whatever we have to do, let us do it well, let us do it
thoroughly, let us do it as if our hearts were in the work ;
no matter how commonplace, no matter how trivial, no
platter how minute. Whatever becomea religion should be