The Sun.
London, England, 1857-09-14 00:00:00

LITERATURE.

Farina, a Legend of Cologne. By Geo. Meredith,
Author of " The Shaving of Shagpat," &c.
Smith, Elder, and Co.
"The Shaving of Shagpat" was, as its readers
will remember, an oriental tale, distinguished by
its vivid originality and luxuriant imagination.
The present volume possessesmuch of the same cha-
racter, and the reader who delights in novelty will
ceitainly be gratified. It is a tale of German life
some centuries ago—of the wealthy and hospitable
Gottlieb Groschen, and his fair daughter Margarita, •
and his prim sister Lisbeth • of Farina, the dis-
tiller of essences ; of the bold Guy the Goshawk,
the stout English soldier ; of the outlaw -Baron
Werner and his lawless band, and similar charac-
ters. It may be easily be conjectured what a varied
drama the author's vigorous pen can evoke
from such materials, not to mention the
White Rose Club, Father Gregory, and Sathanas,
the Kaiser himself, and many lesser mortals. The
narrative occupies but a few days, but wonderful
are the adventures chronicled. The old merchant
has his life and property threatened, but escapes
uninjured. Tne fair Margarita is captured by Wer-
ner's band, and rescued by the bold Goshawk, the
devoted Farina, and a mysterious Water Lady.
Tho White Rose Club contrive to reader themselves
ridiculous. Farina gets into- a series of difficulties,
from all of which ha is happily extricated by his-
admirable invention ; and a happy wedding re-
joices the inhabitants of Cologne nearly as much as
the new discovery. The mere facts, however, give
no idea of the thorough adoption of German life and
legends which particularly distinguishes the book.
The very mysticism and disconnection of the parts
help to render it completeia this respect ; and no
inconsiderable degree" of talent is evinced by the
maintenance of its characteristic features. Taken as
what it professes to be, a legend of German life in
'olden days, it does the author great credit by its vivid
adaptation of national features. We are glad to
meet him again in this new path, in which he has
already taken some adventurous steps, and should
he proceed in the same style his success will no
doubt be commensurate with his abilities.

Autobiography of Lutfullah, a `llfoltainedan Gen-
tleman.. Edited by E. B. Eastwicke,
Smith and Elder.
This is a very curious and interesting volume
which commends itself to the attention of the
reader, both from the importance j ust now attached
to the real sentiments and opinions of the Mahome-
dan population of India, and from the singular cir-
cumstance of the author having written it in Eng-
lish. Ho gives an account of his life and adven-
tures, interspersed with sage reflections. He
entered various kinds of political service, and was
finally engaged as secretary and interpreter to Mir
Jafir Ali, an Indian prince, who visited England
to obtain some compensation from the East India
Company. The office of interpreter he was well
qualiticd to as by his abilities and perseverance
he had mastered sveral languages, and was familiar
with many European works. It is curious to meet
with quotations from English and Latin writers,
all of which, we are told by the editor, are of Lut-
fullah's own insertion. Here is his account of
his study of the English language while employed as
Minister to au English gentleman. the Bheel agent
at Natcha. "At night I enjoyed the good so&ety•F
Abbe Miyau, of whom I learned the English alpha-
b:tt, and enabled myself to make out the words
from clictonatieq, and road Hindustani and Persian
fluently in the Roman character. From this time
until the end of 1829 I never went to bed without
learning ten words of English by heart, and read-
ing a few pages of the eminent Dr. Gilchrist's
grammatical works with full attention by myself.
Thus, after the hard labour of full eight years, I
learnt English, the most difficult language in
the world." That his learning was not of a
superficial character is evidenced by the style and
grammar of this work. There are Orientalisms
and curious phrases, but much of it might have
been written by an Englishman, and it reflects the
highest cie lit on Lutfullah. On their way to Eu-
rope ho and his chief visited Mohamed Ali. Their
interview is thus described :
"We were conducted by a state officer, splendidly
dressed, to a spacious room at the northern corner, and
there we saw the old famous prince, Mohamed Ali Pasha,
plainly attired in a red Turkish cap and a blue cloth
coat descending to hie knees ; and then being introduced
to him, each of us touching his highness' right band with
his, kissed it, according to the Turkish form of compli-
ments, and then seated ourselves on the divan, in line to
the right of the old prince. Two pairs of valuable Cashmere
Shawls were then presented by Mir Jafir Ali Khan, and
were kindly accepted by his highness. Now three heads
and tongues were employed to interpret, i.e., I explained
my yourg master's expressions to Mr. ire ldie, in Eng-
lish, and Mr. Tibaldie to his highness' principal dra-
goman (or interpretei) in French, and the interpreter to
his highness in Turkish. The mutual compliments were
but very short, and then my young master began ad-
dressing himself to his highness in the usual flattering
mode of th© English princes. He observed that he had
always heard about the well-regulated good Govern-
ment wisely constituted and personally conducted by his
highness ; that he thanked heaven he bad now an
ocular demonstration of the same, and found that all he
bad heard was nothing but truth. To this the
.aoldl
Pasha replied, " Something is done, but a great enat
more remains to be done." After this, his h
Ighnossveprn-
several questions on the system of the Englishi
inent in India, which were duly replied
to
n elicit but
comprehensive answers.
was brought in, and being Thperecsoffeneteed then being ordered
to each of us, we,
rose a
Turkishturns,seip m
homage, age
kiss,ing our own hands to his highness,
as
we drank it in the same way t 3
an Englishmen drink his friend's health, and. then get-
ting our leave, returned home well satisfied with the in-
terview with an extraordinary man,
.who, although an
unlettered soldier once, yet had raised himself to the
iiummit of savareignty, like the European Cromwell and
BuonaParte and our own Haider and Ranjit."
His opinions and impressions of London life are
very amusing. Here m an account of his first
entry into the metropolis.
id In a few minutes, two nice carriages, drawn by
horses of gigantic make and lower, being brought near,
we got upinto them and drove into the far-famed City
of London. Street atter street and square after square
that we passed through for about three-quarters of an
hour, were all paved, clean and regular, thronged with
the bu-y inhabitants of both sexes, almost all the females
good looking, and the males well made and active. Pa-
laces of nobles and dukes are distinguished by their large
porticos and superior construction. In one. of the
overm I
saw two well-dressed men with ashes Trinkled
their heads, and thereby concluding that some death
might have occurred in the house, I told Mr. Scott,