The Sun.
London, England, 1858-02-03 00:00:00

LITERATURE.

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What is a Zird ?
sßy M. Wright, pp. 321.

Jarrolii w and Sons.

" The Observing Eye Series"—are the words
we find printed at the top of the title-page.. Aud
" What may be The Observing Eye Series?"
will ask the uninitiated. Briefly, but very ear-
nestly, we reply to that query—A series to wiiieh
with our whole he: we wish a cordial Gothr eed.
It is a series of little volumes written by a lady—
the fruits of lectures delivered by her to a school of
children, and those children, the poorest nurslings
of charity, the human waifs and strays of society
gathered together under the rcoftree of the first home

they have ever known, and nurtured there, mindjand
body, by Christian Benevolence. The first of these
charming little volumes—designed originally by
their gifted and genial-hearted authoress for the
Poor Schools of the very poorest—has nevertheless
I —thanks to the Observing Eye of our gracious
Queen herself, found its way already into the
hands of the Royal children. It consisted
simply of a series of familiar letters, on an
apparently. uninviting topic (for the minds of poor
charsty children) Lamely, the three dower divisions
of animal life—Radiated, Articulated, and Mollus-
cuous. Yet out of th's seemingly unpromising
theme whit stores of interesting curiosities were j
there not dragged to light by the magnetic point of j
that keen and luminous pen—about Sponges, about
Corals, about Star Fishes, about Worms, Insect,
Lobster and Shell-making Creatures! Ere, again,
in another exquisite little volume, embellished
with a profusion of illustrative woodcuts like its
predecessor, is a companion book relating to all
that is alluring in Ornithology. ''Whpat is a
Bird?" asks Mrs. John Wright of the poor School
Children. And in her ready answer to her own
inquiry, she tells them of the forms of bards, of their
instincts, and of their use in Creation. Nothing
Tossibly can be more winning than the style in
which our authoress conveys her meaning to her
hearers in the first instance, and now that her MSS.
have been transferred by the ronpositors' skill into
goodly specimens of typography to her readers—
to be counted in time, we hope and believe,
by thousands upon thousands. The first pecu-
liarities of birds on which Mrs. Wright expa-
tiates are the beak and the wings, the claws, the
breast-bone, and the merry thought. Afterwards
she groups them into the five principal divisi
Birds of the Air, as eagles, hawks, owls, and vul-
tures ; Birds of the Trees, as rooks, sparrows,
finches, and black-birds; Birds of the Ground, as
game and poultry; Birds of the Mud, otherwise
waders, as herons, snipes, and flamingoes ; and,
finally, Birds of the Water, otl er kvise swimmers,
or rather floaters, as the soft-beaked, web-f icte !
duck, swan, gull, and albatross. Then comes her
delightful disquisition upon a problem, with the
attempted solution of which one of the greatest
intellects now living once deligl t Al itself—the pro-
blem of the liue dividing Instinct from Re ...son,
upon the drawing of which subtle line of demar-
cation Lord Brougham boldly adventured. Where,
we should like to know, are the school urchin who
would not greedily drink in the wonders which are
next related by this dear friend of school-boys and
school-girls in regard to birds' nests and the eggs
inside them ? The basket-work nests, the nests lined
with woven hair and wool, the pendant nests,
the flat nests, the mud nests—here they all are
clustered thickly among the leaves of tbis wise and
entertaining volume—as thickly as in the hedge-
rows at February ! Then the eggs—warm and
cosy as in the nests, not strung together brittle and
empty upon the robber's straw ! What a parti-
coloured heap of bfauty they make to be sure—
here sprinkled over these graceful pages ! The
pure white egg of the owl, of the kingfisher, of the
sand-maetin, of the woodpecker. The greenish
eggs picked over with brown, of the 'pies, of the
crows, of the ravens. The greyish, bluish, rreenish,
yellowish eggs of the waders. The speckled eggs
of the perching birds in all their infinite varieties.
Why, the book in truth is, for little children, as
charming as a fairy tale, and as instructive as a
treatise upon natural philosophy.

The Morals of Mayfair. A Novel. 3 vols.
Hurst and Blackett.
This is in some respects a peculiar story ; while
dwelling on the gaudy and glittering details of
fashionable life, we are made sensible of an under-
current of feeling of a very different class to ti at
whiA is uppermost. The chronicles of these cad
careers are narrated by one who admires not the
existence he so eloquently describes, and who has
perceived the dross and alloy that so deteriorate
and itetract from the beauty and excellence that
sparkles in the scenes emphatically denominated
the world. Philip Earnsclitte is a character tha. is
very ably drawn iu its light and shade, its bright-`
ness and its blackness. He was rarely endowed
by Fortune, and singularly gifted by Genius ; but
these glorious donations of heaven and earth were
worse than valueless to one who neglected to use
them aright. It is true, in his defence, that he
was unfortunately situated in some things ; but
still he did not listen to the warnings of his
conscience, in an important and eventful crisis.
By this fatal blunder he cast a blight over the
existence of one whom he idolised, and left for
himself through the long vista of the years of
the future " the bitterness of remorse." The
truths so forcitsly enunciated, the sufferings
described in such glowing language, mule
striking by their likeness to truth and nature,
might well deer the trilling and. reckless from
their precipitous paths. Had Philip possessed
better advisers, or not been surrounded by such a
set, he might have become a noble and exalted
character. He required influence to direct him ;
his was not that intrinsic worth which can stand
alone, which comes out the brighter from the
cloud, the purer from its contact with temptation.
Marguerite is a sweet disposition, but her nature
also needed strength. She hal a disadvantage of
a contrary sort to that of Philip to contend with
in her education. It was too limited in scope,
and she did not tee enough of the world.
Her father should not have reared in such complete
solitude a gentle young creature who would here-
after have to mix in the strife and struggle of a
dangerous scene. The two beings whom au adverse
fate threw together too early or tco late never ap-
pear before us to such advantage as when wander-
ing in th.., wilds of Brittany. Something really
good in Philip, despite his errors, seemed to be in
unison with the majesty of Nature's solitudes, and
the superior taste of Marguerite vindicated itself in
spite of her unschooled mind and provincial retire-
ment, in her immediate recognition of her guest's
qualities, and her appreciation of his worth. It is
sad to reflect that this smiling episode in their
lives was short as the gleam of the short-lived
summer which is followed by the long winter of
tie north. The succeeding passages are descril ed
with great skill ; if they are displeasing in some
parts; they are but too likely to be the conse-
quence if ignorance such as Marguerite's, and of
selfishness such as Philip's. Many persons flit before
the reader in this episode of a fashionable existence,
who are all shadowed forth in an impressive wan-
ner ; and therefore this work will attract notice,
inasmuch as it contains some graphic details of life
in many of its most notable phases ; it bears a re-
cord of some of the most powerful passions that cair
affect humanity, and it may satisfy the scrupulous
by its gloomy finality, wherein wo behold the he-
roine consigned, in the flower of youth and beauty,
to an untimely grave, and the hero, in the prime of
manhood, heedless of his high position in the
world, unmindful of his splendid talents, from the
want of a guiding principle of right, whose vital
and saving influence would have imparted strength
to the fainting spirit of the lovely girl, and shed
beauty on the darkened path of the sufiermg
man.

.......—.
Estimates of some E)iglishmen, and Seotchmen, By
Walter Bagehot. Chapman and Hall.
- This volume consists of a series of critical and
biographical essays, chi‘fly reprinted from the
National Review, a quarterly that has frequently
been distinguished by the ability of its articles.
The contents of the work before us do not detract
from its character. They display an extensive
acquaintance with modern literature, considerable
power of style, and generally speaking :sense and
moderation. The subjects are attractive. They
inclade the names of Cowper, Gibbon, Butler,
with' l ''
e thea -
Shelley, Hartley Coleridge, and even Sha I rt,
regard, d as an individual, commencing
first Edinburgh reviewers and closing with Sir R.
Peel and Mr. Macaulay.
As a critic, the authtr is
fair and unprejudiced
asalatltwriter his style is clear
and able. A trifling,
fleffect—the lengdi ofsome
of the sentences, an error
oecasionally mars its
easily avoided. It is a work
to gratify every intelligentwhich will t e cer .ain
and which reflects and cultivated reader,
much credit on the
ability of the writer. j udgment and

The Comprehensive History of England. Part; 5

and 6. Blackie and-Son. Edinburgh.
This is a valuable and interesting work, and
when completed will rank high among the instruc-
Oro histories of England. It endeavour,: to give
not merely the military and dynastic history of
Great'Britain, but to trace its civil, religious, in
tellectual, and so dal progress, from an epodi of
which little is generally known but the succession
of kings and the feats of the sword. It is written
in a clear and interesting style, and embellished
with a great number of engravings. As a full and
compendious history is always far Intro interesting