The Sun.
London, England, 1860-12-06 00:00:00

chapter on human life in various phases of society.
At times lively, at others serious, it is written in
an earnest tone, and breathes a lefty spirit, while
it holds up to just ridicule those who make them-
selves conspicuous by their follies. At the same
time the writer observes that while some are absurd
the greater number of single women in England
are of great advantage to society. It is true that
those who are the comforts of many a home
and the kind watchers over the poor and needy
will be passed over, while many will criticise these
who are in any way remarkable in absurd attempts
at juvenility, and extraordinary notions of wo-
men's rights or wrongs. The cause is thus ably
taken up :
What nuns and Sisters of Charity do abroad, our old
maids do in England ; and I am not joking when I say,
that old maidism is a greater boon to this country than is
generally supposed. For every one who is a gossip, a match-
maker, or a pedant, there are half-a-dozen who are good
honest workers in the right direction. It is with our old
maids that so much remains. None others can undertake
the care of our hospitals, the reclamation of those wretched
women whose very existence brings a shudder to the
Christian, and the proper training of the daughters of
our poor. None others, therefore, can properly replace the
conventual establishments of the Continent. The prison,
the workshop, the reformatory, the hospital, and the back-
slums, all want women to bring them• round, gentle female
influence to recall there to God; and there are none more
fitted to the task than old maids. While, therefore, I
glory in this British Institution, so appropriate to a Pro-
testant country, I would, in the humblest spirit of which an
old bachelor is capable, suggest to all our old maids, what-
ever their age, to give up morbidness, blighted recollections,
fast fancies, idle monotony, intense love of gaiety, devotion
to curates, high or low, and even their scientific pursuits ;
and since the primary office of woman, as wife and mother,
is beyond their reach, to take cheerfully and heartily to the
next best work, the effusion of that gentle spirit with which
the Maker has gifted the better half of our race—decidedly
the better half, I say it, though an old bachelor. Jael,
Judith, Boadicea, Joan of Arc, and Charlotte Corday, may
be very grand scenic specimens of womankind, but they are
unlovable. Let old maids make Tabitha—good, kind,
gentle Tabitha, who worked her fingers for the widow ands
the orphan—their patron saint, and call themselves, not
their cats, by her quaintname.

" Shan Buie" is a very strange sketch, which exem-
plifies a curious life, and is in every way characteris-
tic of Ireland. " Old Paris "is an account of the
memorable points that deserve attention in the old
parts of the town. It is a sketch that will be of
service to many, and affords information not always
to be obtained. " Notes on New Books" contains
a smart summary of some recent publications, and
altogether this month's number presents much to
attract the reader.

Fraser's Magazine.
It is with feelings of deep regret that the nume-
rous readers of Fraser will turn to the brief paper
in this number headed "In Memoriam," which

pays a mournful tribute of affectionate respect to
the memory of its able and accomplished editor.
It redounds to the credit of author and publisher,
contributor and editor, when such kindly and
genial feeling exists between them ; and the public
at large will readily acknowledge, when they recall
the variety and excellence which has, of late years,
delighted them in the pages of Regina that the loss
to periodical literature is one not easily replaced.
The magazine before us, however, shows no dimi-
nution of interest or ability, but contains many

excellent papers. The first is from the pen Of
A. K. H. 8., whose admirable essays have long
since attained the wide-spread popularity they
deserve. The article before us bears the curious

title, " Concerning Screws : being Thoughts on the
Practical Service of Imperfect Means; a Consola-
tory Essay." It begins with the assertion that
almost every man is what, if he were a horse, would
be called a screw, that is to say, a being in whose
mental, moral, or physical constitution there is
some unsoundness. It is of course with the
deficiencies apparent in the two former conditions
that the writer before us deals, and the reader,
familiar with his style, may readily imagine with
what shrewd sense, what keen perception, what
pleasant humour and kindly sympathy he treats
his subject. It is, as he calls it, a consolatory essay,
and though he stoutly maintains the truth of the
axiom he starts with, still he bids us bear in mind
how much good, honest, and even noble work is
accomplished by " screws." Although, as he can-
didly assures us, " there are human beings whom,
to manage into doing the simplest and
most obvious duty, needs the tact of a
diplomatist, combined with the skill of a
driver of refractory pigs ; " yet he
brings forward compensatory reflections. " Just
as a horse which is lame and broken-winded, may
be made to get creditably through a wonderful
amount of labour, so may a man, low-spirited,
foolish, prejudiced, ill-tempered, soured and
wretched, be enabled to turn off a great deal of
work for which the world may be the better." The
passage in which he cites the names of illustrious
" screws," from James Watt to the great Napoleon,
is one of the best in the essay. The instances,
general and particular, of individuals and classes
which he afterwards adduces, contain portraits
whose prototypes, we apprehend, can be discovered
in most circles. The true and kindly moral which
lie draws from these reflections, is the necessity of
gentle management and forbearance with ourselves
and with others. "If a young horse," says our
moralist," has a tendency to shy, how carefully the
trainer seeks to win him away from the habit. But
if a poor little boy has a nasty temper, you may
find his mother taking the greatest pains to irri-
tate that temper." On one point, however, we
cannot coincide with his theory. He says that
often in the case of great geniuses it is because of
their unsoundness they have done their great
things. "In poetry, and in all imaginative writing,
we look for beauty, not for sense ; and we all
know that what is properly disease and unsound-
ness, sometimes adds to beauty." We trust few
readers will subscribe to a theory so derogatory
to the noblest of the arts, so directly contrary to
all rational experience. We might as well say
that the grotesque figures in an Egyptian temple
were as worthy models for the painter as the
canvas showing the wonderful precision of Michael
Angelo's anatomical science. The gorgeous
colouring cannot redeem the falsehood to truth
and nature, and no affluence of imagery, no elo-
quence of words will serve the turn of the
poet alone and unaided. It is because he
deals with the great realities common to us all,
because he awakens the touch of nature which
makes the whole world kin, that he is a poet, and
in proportion as he is false to that vocation, unsound
and unreal in his sentiments and sympathies,, he
falls short of the perfection of his art. Leaving
this delightful paper we come to the conclusion of
" Gryll Grange," in which the troubles of the vari-
ous lovers are brought to a happy termination. The
reader, however, has not been painfully anxious
on their account, as most of their perplexities were
of their own manufacture, and in no way con-
nected with want of fortune, hard-hearted parents,
relentless guardians, or any other old-fashioned
difficulties. The plot of the story, indeed, is of the
slightest character, and only serves as a connect-
ing link for the witty and sparkling conversation,
replete with classical quotation and reference.
Shirley contributes an able and thoughtful paper
upon Ruskin 's last volume. He makes a careful
analysis of Mr. Ruskin's capabilities and achieve
ments, and discusses the objects which the great
art critic proposes to himself, and the directions in
which his strength seems most to lie. The writer
before us considers that his great success is, " that
he has translated into words the wordless beauty
of skies and leaves and streams." His failure the
critic asserts to be in the character of theorist.
The want of logical precision, and the readinesi
with which he surrenders himself to the Wl'
pre ssions of the moment, are ranked among hie
chief defects. Nevertheless, the critic renders the
tribute of enthusiastic admiration to the dreamy
beauty of style or passionate earnestness of decla-
mation with which Mr. Ruskin clothes ideas and
theories, sometimes grandly original, often splen-
didly unsound. The article before us shows all the
writer's wonted ability, and the passage on
success and failure has in it much truth and
justice. An interesting paper entitled " Re-
collections of Ceylon" gives us an account of
a visit to the pearl fishery. of Aripo, in the
spring of last year. The fisheries always take
place in the lull of calm weather, between the ter-
mination of the north-east and commencement of
the south-west monsoons, and the paper before n 8
gives numerous though somewhat disenchanting
details of the method of gaining the gem of the
sea. Alas for the romance of poets ! we are
shown the divers as stout, healthy men, and the
pearls, themselves, so often cited as the emblems or
purity and loveliness, in most unpleasant circuin"
stances. The seaboard for some distance
down the coast is raised several feet 10
height by the accumulated oyster shells of
ages. The oysters are divided into four equal lot e:
three of which are claimed by the Government, an
a
the other allotted to the divers as their reward.
This share is generally sold at once by them by
auction in lots of a thousand, the buyer taking ille
chance of the number or quality. of the pearls. The
singular and unsatisfactory life of the English
opium eater is the subject of a brief and sensibly
written paper. It is a painful record of talent el
a high order, combined with a peculiarity of ine.iitt
and physical constitution, no less fatal to the. in "4
vidual welfare of its. unhappy owner, than iniani.,l,,
to his prospects cf lite.rary. success. Dr. TyndeiLli;
recent valuable contribution to the Alpine Cluo
forms the subject of au able paper, written by °es..
who is evidently well qualified to discuss the
tions which arise from it. The various and o'of
flicting theories respecting the movement
an
glaciers are analysed and considered ; 11
the writer is solicitous to bestow 11.13f100,
where honour is due by awarding the dltt_iteino r
tion of discovery or experiment to villeme