The Sun.
London, England, 1835-03-09 00:00:00

LITERATURE.

THE MUSICAL LIBRARY. 13.4 RT
WITH a SUPPLEMENT.
London : Charles Knight, Ludgate-street.
The high character of this very valuable work, es-
Pecially to all musical families of limited income, is
well sustained throughout these pages. We have here
some of the prettiest words in the language adapted
to some of the finest compositions of Handel, Mozart,
Rossini, Haydn, and other celebrated masters. The
great exertions made by Mr. Knight to extend the be-
nefit of cheap knowledge, and cheap and innocent
amusement to all classes, are deserving of the highest
praise.

HEINRICH STILLING. P ART 1.
London: Hamilton and Co. Paternoster-row, 1835.
This
work, the first part of which has been trans-
lated from the German by Mr. Jackson, of Herne
Rill, Surrey, has been pronounced a " literary curio-
sity," and so in truth it is to a British public. There
is nothing at all resembling it in our language ; so
that, at first, it appears extremely difficult to give any
°Pinion upon it, as far as regards its style and literary
Merits.
It is a myriad of times more quaint and
simple than Gesner's " Death of Abel," and " Bar-
clay's Apology for the Quakers" breathes not tliTough-
-43,ut an air of greater correctness and truth. Stilling's
'Life is extremely popular in Germany, and was first
Published at the suggestion of Goethe; but our opinion
Is, that it is too minute and gloomy in its details and
general character to suit the taste of the majority of
English readers. Besides, Stilling's childhood, ex-
b,°rdinary as it was, offers no example which could
followed in the education of other children. As
thee work is written in a most religious spirit, we can
"'ely recommend it to the notice of all parents and
guardians of youth. We are not ourselves among the
number of those who would put books of a gloomy
uescription into the hand of a child, however excellent
they
might be in every other respect.

MEMOIRS OF MIRABEA U.
131' iiratsF,LF, Ins FATHER, AND HIS ADOPTED CHILD.
In 9 Vols. London. Churion, Holles-street, 1835.
These Memoirs, chiefly compiled from private and
unpublished letters, records, and documents, in the pos-
session of the Mirabeau family, are given to the world,
Partly in compliance with the earnest wishes of the
extraordinary subject of them, and partly from a lau-
dable desire to correct some erroneous impressions which
had been made on the public mind respecting the cha-
racter, conduct, sentiments and sufferings of one of the
most remarkable men of modern times. The author,
or rather the compiler calls himself, in the IntrodUction,
the adopted child of Mirabeau, and intimates that lie
vasesigned from infancy to do justice to the memory of
re than parent ; but M. Dumont, in his " Recollec-
M° a" states that Lucas Montigny was a natural son of
raheau, and there are passages in this work which
:1114 seem to corroborate such a statement, albeit of
wo k eLcalsiderable importance. We have not seen this
wb in the original, and therefore we do not know
f "ether We ought to blame the writer or the translator
the 4t performing some of the finest promises made in
a IntrQUetiOn. We have, it is true, a pretty full
1.1.
-:°lint of the early part of Mirabeau's life, in extracts
14inll_letters of the Marquis to his brother the Bailli of
as 44,ueatt, and the latter's answers ; 'but of his career
in aabeau,
legislator and a statesman—the third point of view
11 which the writer promises to represent him—we find
Sot a single trace in these volumes. However, the work
ie valuable on many accounts :—ln the first place it
Preknts Mirabeau in a more favourable light than
any in which he hitherto stood before the public ; and
the next, because it does this without seeking to :ttipal-
those excesses and crimes of which he was really
p-04:43r, and without attempting to cast any worse im-
-"4ti°ns on the parental conduct of his stern, unfor-
'
~vdig father, than those which the defenders of his
tri
Zery lave laid to his charge.
of I: confess, notwithstanding the alleged innocence
4irt irabeau, and unnatural cruelty of his father, dur-
ie a course of unheard of persecution, which corn-
hi'leed with his son's birth, and only terminated with
°l7ll dftatli, that we see great cause to exonerate the
grquis from many of the heartless charges which
ti :e been preferredagainst him—taking into considera-
kill the family peculiarities, his own early impressions,
4 °Pinions prevalent in the days of his youth. The
hiParation Which took place, between the Marquis and
ths wife during
wee the childhood of his son, together with
t bickerings between this amiable couple for
kitlttY years previously, was not likely to increase the
Yo
httilliS'S fondness for his offspring ; especially as
all g Mirabeau mostly took part with his mother in
the family quarrels. We have no wish to screen
trit 1111 emery of the Marquis from a charge of parental
Et„ie;tY, of which happily the world furnishes few ex-
,hl34" ; but at the same time, it is but just that we
mici.llld submit to the public some of those reasons
ti6leh in our opinion, ought to be taken, not as ins-
(l4.ti"s, but as palliations of some part of his con-
lar'st\he Mirabeau family (we studiously omit particu-
of
t) eriginally from Florence, appear from the period
(iat.heir settlement in France to have reckoned pride,
beaillg, attachment to feudal institutions, and personal
the.utY, as the natural and inherent characteristics of
last' race. These prejudices, more especially the two
1,44 were engraves on the mind of the Marquis, who
the misfortune to be confirmed in all his foolish
i4,lPressjeos by the fame which he obtained as a writer
Fail:loilitical economy, and who mistook the compliments
hioo in consequence of his high rank, for conces-
te to his great talents and literary acquire
literary
iearnt!• The poetical proposition of Pope that a
tiletho.l.rntgaliiszian,dangerous thing," was well exemplified in
career of the Marquis, who succeeded in
of work b himself by the production of a number
fros as unreadable as they have remained unread
1,,: their first'appearance in print till the present day.
i‘vviatteention this for the purpose of sheaving that the
confirm possessed just a sufficiency of scholarship to
his
ancestors,
him in all the prejudices he had imbibed from
a 4,?cestors, but not enough of genius to penetrate
.pets:spel their illusiveness. He was vain of his own
44 :al appearance, which he always maintained had
%iit.e.r of nobleness in it ; proud of the commanding
vitt, of the Bailli of Mirabeau his brother; and gazed
i:eisuarielenetslituosrs.
iastic veneration on the stately portraits of
This will account for the shock which
iii • eceived from having a son born to him, who
hild m!ire resembled a monster than a; 'Jr that involuntary revulsion of feeling s whi hake