The Sun.
London, England, 1867-12-02 00:00:00

great lady wrote the following letter to the then Pre-
sident of the Assembly :—" Citizen President,--I
am a handsome woman of 27. lam fire feet eight
inches high (about six feet English), and I weigh
200 kilogrammes. I request to be allowed to per-
sonify Liberty in the national fete which is about to
take place. I believe that nobody could figure with
greater advantage than myself in that solemnity."
I am not aware whether the lady's request was
granted. If not, perhaps it ought to have been, for
an allegorical personage of such a calibre must have
added weight to any ceremonial, and, tall as she
was, she must have excited high interest.

After a very calm, pleasant 'day yesterday, the
wind came on with fearful violence at night. It has
completed the work of stripping the trees of their
leaves, and, indeed, branches have been torn from
many of them. The weather is now stormy and
wintry, but not cold for the Ist of December.

LITERATURE.

Guild Court. By George MacDonald, M.A. 3

Vols. Hurst and Blackett.

It is always pleasant to listen to George
MacDonald. His narratives are interesting, and his
style is agreeable ; but, more than that, his books
are always full of thought and feeling. A poet at
heart, his simplest stories are, as it were, the out-
pourings of his own o►erflowing sympathy, and the
vehicle for the expression of his own original
thoughts. In the story of " Guild Court" these two
characteristics are especially discernible, while, as
a study of character, it is quite remarkable in its
way. As Professor Owen, pondering over dry

bones, discovers the mechanism of an actual
animal in what bad appeared to be an im-
possible monster, so George MacDonald, in
his spiritual anatomy, takes special interest in
laying bare the sabtlest workings of the heart, and
classifies the varies 'peculiarities of different orders
of intellect and intelligence. Thomas Worboise,
the hero (and very reluctant is the reader to regard
him as such) is singularly uninteresting. " Unstable
as water," he can, necessarily, excel in nothing.
" But half a villain and but half a knight," he
excites in our mind no strong emotion, not even the
shadow of a " sensation," unless it be one of dislike,
but even that is too strong a,term to describe the in-
difference with which we regard him. The author is
conscious of this, for, towards the close of the second
volume, he observes, parenthetically, " I flatter
myself that my reader is not very much interested
in Thomas. I confess, however, that I am now
girding up my loins with the express intention of
beginning to interest him if I can ;" and, then, ho
very truly adds, as a justification for such
an expectation, " When a worthless fellow
begins to meet with his deserts, then we begin

to be aware that, after ull, he is our own
flesh and bloo]. Our human heart begins to
feel just the least possible yearning towards him.
We hope he will be well trounced, but we become
capable of hoping that it may not bo lost upon him ;"
and, notwithstanding the incredulity with which at
first we disclaim the possibility, the reader does
become interested even in Thomas Worboise. The

two characters, however, which are the particular
objects of the author's attention are two children—
Mattie and Poppie ; two children as unlike each other
as it is possible for children to be, and each also
unlike the generality of children. Mattie is
clever and " old-fashioned," as the saying is, she is
the motherless daughter of a bookseller, and, left
much to herself with books for companions, she
indulges in mystical theories and speculations. She
is self-conscious and self-opinionated, argumenta-
tive and self-willed; in short, we should say a most
disagreeable child. Bred up in London, Matti° is
not only ignorant of the existence of country
attractions, but even dislikes flowers as
being useless and perishable. How Mattie,
being sent to the sea for her health, learns
by the side of the great ocean a better wisdom than
can be taught by books, the knowledge of her own
ignorance and insignificance is very forcibly and
beautifully described. Different from Mattie,
Poppie is a little neglected child of the streets—a
London 'Popsy, in fact, without home or parents.
The wild, furtive, untameable character of this
English savage, is (alas ! that it should be so) drawn
to the life. We must not dwell longer upon the
characters of Guild Court, but, before taking leave
of it, let us quote a passage which happily illustrates
the truthful thoughts which characterise the writings
of George MacDonald. The words are put into the
mouth of Mr. Fuller, a clergyman, who is evi-
dently himself the exponent of the thoughts and
feelings of the author.