The Sun.
London, England, 1866-01-24 00:00:00

LIfERATURE.

Da. POET'S EIRENICON—as " Reviewed" in the
Weekly Register, has elicited from the learned
divine himself a couple of remarkable letters ad-
dressed to the editor of that weekly newspaper.
And to that same criticism of the Eirenicon in the
Weekly Register the public are indebted for the
eliciting of elucidatory letters respectively ad-
dressed to the Editor by Dr. Newman and
the Rev. Canon Oakeley. The controversy
that has thus arisen—provoked at its outset, if
we are to believe the publishers' advertise-
ments, by Archbishop Manning, to whose ar-
guments those put forth by Dr. Pusey in his
Eirenicon were understood to be, and in point of
fact were formally announced to be, the response—
the controversy, we would here say, in thus thicken-
ing and advancing, is assuming to itself every day a
wider interest and a larger importance. Recognising
which, we cannot but note with satisfaction the
issue in a collective and separate form (as an octavo
pamphlet of 36 pages) of the Weekly Register's Review
of the Eirenicon, together with Dr. Pusey's two
Letters to the Editor thereupon, followed up by
the letters addressed to the same gentleman respec-
tively by Dr. Newman and Canon Oakeley. It is a
brochure sufficiently important of its kind to be
worthy of preservation.

A SELECTION OF CHEAP SACRED MUSIC—
Published by Lambert and Company—in elegant
little fly-leaves (as they might almost be called) at
twopence or threepence each, demands from us a
passing glance and a casual word of commenda-
tion. Its character, its importance, its value,
charm and attraction, may be best indicated by the
enumeration of some among the titles noticeable in
it as a collection of sacred pieces from the hands of
various musical composers. Here, for example,
then, are—" The Soul's Refuge," a hymn composed
by Macfarren, for unison or four voices optionally.
Here, too, is Guilio Roberti's sacred part-song of
" Rest!" Jules Benedict's hymn "To Christ the
Prince of Peace !" Mrs. Hemans' lovely poem of
" Passing Away," set to music by Macfarren !
Mrs. Hemans' hymn of " Departure," set to music
by Molique ! Adelaide Procter's " Shadows of the
Evening Hours," set to music by the same com-
poser ; besides other charming melodies married
unto noble words, according to the Laureate's
phrase in The Princess.

THE GENTLEMAN'S MAGAZINE has certainly this
month made its appearance I?edivivus ! It is re-
juvenated. After a hundred and thirty-five years
existence, it blooms into life again, " as fresh as a
daisy." The inauguration of its 136th year, on
the Ist of January, 1866, with the initial number of
a New Series, shows that this most venerable among
all our monthly serials, is in truth another yet the
samo, or to give the familiar expression of Horace
in his own words, according to the device aptly
adopted by the Gentleman's Magazine under these new
auspices aliusque et idem ! It is an old friend with a
new face. It is No. I. of Vol. I. of a New Series
bearing upon the centre of its cover, in vivid memento
of its antiquity among our popular periodicals, a
little vignette sketch of St. John's Gate, Clerken-
well, the well known Residence of Cave, the Founder
of the Gentleman's Magazine—its founder as far back
as 1731, when its imprint was more literally announced
as No. I. of Vol. I. not of a New Series but of the
very earliest issue of the publication from the press.
Sylvanus Urban still affects to edit it now in 1866 as
then in 1731. "Le Roi est mort—Vive le RQi !"
The Editor of a public organ in one sense never
dies. Hence, therefore, it comes to pass that
although the projector of No. I. of Vol. I. in 1731
was one Mr. Cave, and although the projector of
No. I. of Vol. I. in 1866 is one Mr. Walford, they
no less than their organ may be considered in a man -
ner aliusque et idem—their editorial cognomen, conse-
quently, remains unaltered. It is even now as it was
then, Sylvanus Urban, who presides over the contents
of thepublication. Among the peculiarities noticeable
in the new series, is the prefixing to each of the de-
partments in which those contents are subdivided a
little scrap of Latin, by way of more or less appro-
priate motto. Another peculiarity—rather confusing
of its kind—is this, that the typography is arranged
now in single now in double columns—now
leaded, now unleaded, now set up in one fount,
now in another. That it is so, is to be regretted,
and all the more so seeing that having been thus
arranged in " number one " it can hardly be
altered. Otherwise the reissue of the work in its
new form demands our heartiest welcome and com-
mendation. It is worthy of its repute. It reflects
new credit upon the name and fame of Sylvanus
Urban. It has about it the solidity of a " Histori-
cal Review," and the refinement of one not unde-
serving of its earlier title, as emphatically " The
Gentleman's Magazine."

DIE llousmioLD, No, I.—(Groombridge and
Sons)—is the initial instalment of a sensible little
tR openny monthly, calculated to be very acceptable
in many a household, as a domestic miscellany
abounding in really useful information.

THE OMNIBUS. A Satire (so-called !)—Triibner
and Co.—if only by reason of one fearful couplet,
in which George IV.'s statue in Trafalgar Square
is spoken of gazing at the fountains—
" Like Divos, meeting Heaven's judicial ire,
Beholding water while he's feeling fire"—

(an inexact as well as an atrocious simile, by the
way—seeing that Holy Writ makes no mention
whatever of Dives " beholding water," but of simply
speaking of it, when he implores one drop at the
hands of Lazarus)—if only, we say, by reason of its
containing that one execrable couplet, we cast aside