The Sun.
London, England, 1858-01-25 00:00:00

Lady.
Hall

LITERATURE..

The Edinburgh Review. Longman ds Co.
This "potent, grave, and reverend seignor"
on tho bench of critical judgment exhibits its usual
amount of erudition and classical elegance. The
engrossing topic—" Prospects of the Indian
Empire ;" a learned expatiation on " Milman's
H s'ory of Latin Clinsiaitity ;" a paper on
"Scottish University R.-form ;" and a digest of
"Lot d 0 verstone on Metallic and Paper Currency,"
constitute somewhat heavy but able articles, which
are delightfully relieved by discourses on "Tom
Brown's School Days," "Memoirs of Bossuett"
and Hawker's "Literature of France." There is
considerable truth in the following, taken from the
remarks on " Tom Brown's School Days" :
" In ninety-nine cases out of a hundred, the ambition
to bo a man of genius, and to decline what so many idle
and vapouring minds consider the vulgar pursuits of
trading, professional or social life, is a silly and not •
very harmless fancy ; but in the hundredth ease the
refusal to admit the claim is nothing less than a public
crlamity ; for if it does not neutralise powers of incalcu-
lable importance to the happiness of mankind, it is only
too likely to g md them into rebellion against the whole
social fabric. * * * It would be hard to mention
any weightier responsibility than that which is involved
in the education of a peculiar boy. To treat the symp-
toms of what differs but little from disease as being
symptoms of genius, is almost certain to produce an
overweening vanity, fatal to the boy's futare capacity
for any of the careers of life ; whilst, on the other hand,
there are few more melanch•dy histories than those
which record the torture+ inflicted on youths whose
genius was mistaken fur disease. A mistake in the one
direction may convert a lazy dreamy lad into an emas-
culate coxcomb. A mistake in the other may lasts a
Cowper or Shelley into melancholy madness. These
are the exceptional cases, for which no general rule can
be laid down. Ali that can be done is to recognise the
fact, that sensibility often greatly needs vigorous cor-
rectives. What correctives are likely in any case to be
vigorous is natter of experiment ; but where there is
sufficient constitutional vigour in the subject, public
school life is often an admirable prescription."

The paper on the "Memoirs of Bossuet" is full
of interest ; but though painting in vivid colours
the genius of the orator, it shows us a somewhat
mournful contrast in the character of the man. It
is remarked, in speaking of his " Oraisous
Funt4bres," a class of compositions in which he
stands unrivalled, that " the inspiration of the
lyric poet, united with the deep voice of the histo-
rian, swells out in the noblest passages ; and
the poetry of Wranca can hardly produce
a page comparable to the diction of her
greatest writer in prose." The characters who then
were passing away from the stormy turmoils of
courts and factions, gave ample scope for the elo-
quence of the orator, whether in their personal
characteristics, the vicis,itudes of their lives, or the
incidents attending their deathbeds. His first
funeral oration was on Henrietta, the daughter ,
wife, and mother of kings; justly styled "ls reine
Malheureuse." His second " Oraison Funebre,"
strange to say, was for her daughter, another
Henrietta, the wife of M. D'Orleang, brother of
the Grand Mouarque, who died of poison is the
bloom of youth. And so on through a long cata-
logue of noble and illustrious names eminent for
birth, valour, or misf_uitune, down to his last dis-
course on the great Conde, a worthy termination
to his gorgeous " Oraisons." Those who prefer
political retrospections to literary essays will find
subject fur gratification in a paper on "The Adding-
ton and Pitt Administrations."

1 The Quarterly Review. Murray, Albemarle-street.
The "leader" in this number is on "The
difficulties of Railway Engineering," and conveys
a deal of attractive and edifying matter connected
with the subject, from James Brindley's great canal
schemes, to George Stephenson's greater achieve-
ment and victory over the swampy bog of Chat
Moss. Thousands of us know little cf the toil and
ingenuity which have been expended on the iron
road along which we fly in thoughtless enjoyment
of speed and comfort. It is, indeed, difficult to
form an adequate idea of the immense quantity of
earth, rock, and clay that has been picked, blasted,
shovelled, and wheeled by English navvies during
the last thirty years. "Of the 8,635 miles of rail-
way now constructed in Britain, about 70 miles
pass through tunnels, and more than 50 miles over
viaducts ; whilst of railway bridges there have been
built some 30,000, or far inore than all the bridge.
previously existing in England."
• An article on " The Historic Peerage" traces out
each title ever held by our lordly rulers from its
earliest date to its extinction, or its present pos-
sessor. Those who are prone to investigate the
ancient particulars of Howards, Percys, and Tal-
bots, may get an agreeable reading from it.
There is much of valuable philosophy and elevat-
ing sentiment in the paper which handles Rowell's
Essay on the " Beneficent Distribution of the
Sense of Pain." We give a short extraot :
' " Montaigne held cruelty to be the extreme of all
vices ;it is also one of the oeramonest. Humanity
seldom or ever shows itself in inferior dispositions, and
where it exists is readily destroyed. No unnatural taste
is so rapidly acquired as the taste for shedding blood.
There are few who are ignorant of the circumstance
which occurred at the execution of Thistlewood and his
fellow 'conspirators for treason. A. thrill of horror ran
through the crowd when the first head was severed front
its body, but so rapidly did the spectators become
accustomed to the sight that on the executioner accident-
ally letting the third head drop, there was a shout of
'Ah 1 butter-fingered r * * * * It is
told of Henry IV. of France that he twice whipped his
sun, afterwards Luis XIII., with his own hand—the
first time because he had taken such a dislike to a gentle-
man that his servile attendants could only appease him
by pretending to shoot with a pistol without ball the
object of his aversion ; the sec.md time for crushing the
bead of a sparrow. Though the just punishment he had
receive I was small in comparison with the unjust
punishment he had inflicted, his mother objeoted to this
discipline of her son. 'Pray to God,' replied
.Henry,
' that I may live, for when I am gone he will !II-treat
you.' The experience of the king had taught him that
cruelty seldom knows any distinctions, and that he who
begins by crushing the heads of sparrows in sport would
end by directing venom against the very breasts he had
sucked."
With many points of argument advanced in " The
Future Management of our Indian Empire," we
must beg leave to differ. Our estimation of the
Sepoys is many degrees lower than that which the
writer in the Quarterly expresses, and we fear our
desire for vengeance is not so mercifully modified.

The 2'ational Review. Chapman and Hall,
Piccadilly.
The opening article in this quarterly is on the
most absorbing subject at this moment—viz., " The
Principles of Indian Government." A deal of good
sense and plausible elucidation relative to the
terrible movements in the East are afforded, and
we have perused the paper with infinitely more
satisfaction arm we do the average of discussions
now put forth on the same theme. From all we
hear and read we are inclined to think that India
has been treated by us as a Pyrotechnic Ma-
nufactory on a large scale. We have
derived from it boundless and brilliant
and
letehd, uteotyoesthe
security
of
the ;daZZbutwe
eon uscations
sufficientofweah
enchantite
d t ouro
l)
s y gold-worshipping
the gunpowder which formed those bewildering
delights, until an " awful explosion" and "fright-
ful loss of life" awoke us to the perception of our
folly, and remorse for the consequences. The
governing policy of England seems to have been
curiously at fault of la' e, both as regards theoretical
knowledge and practical science. An article on
" George Sand" treats fully and impartially of the
writings and influence of that greatly gifted
woman ; and after a very able digest of her
power and productions, the conclusion is given
in these opinions :

" View her from whatever side we may, and judge of
her by whatever of her novels we may chance to light
On, we shall always leave her with mingled feelings of
admiration and regret. But if we look at her works u
a whole, and read several of them in succession, her cha-
racter, we think, will rise in our estimation, although
the works themselves lose interest by their prolixity,
their want of plot, and their surfeiting fullness of vague
theorising being thus forced on our notice. We catch
through them glimpses of a woman with many faults—
haste, rashness, morbid sentimentalism, and &pronoun
to indulge in a secondhand philosophy often caught up
from men inferior to herself—but still, in the main truth-
ful ; loving in a blind and capricious way what is good ;
indignant at the sophistries and the success of polished
vice and conventional virtue. If in the midst of the
display of her great intellectual gifts she sometimes
startles us by moral errors, she never shocks us by moral
depravity. The more we try her by a foreign standard,
and the better we appreciate the circumstances under
which she wrote, and the influences to which she was
exposed, the more gently and sparingly we shall censure
her."

" The Czar Nicholas" has a somewhat length)"
and somewhat partial commentary ; abed lengths
Monetary Crisis" is attempted to be exp in a
more lucid style than we often meet. Otherpapers
of interesting and enlightenin ten.denoy, render
the number most accePtable t° tike "nu"' table.