The Sun.
London, England, 1861-04-29 00:00:00

LITERATURE,

All for the Best • a Story of Quiet Life. 3 vole.
Hurst and Blackett.
This is a story of domestic life which does not
detail any very remarkable events, but tells is an
effective manner the record of home joys and sor-
rows which influence so powerfully the course of
human existence. The two sisters, who principally
engage our attention, are different in disposition,
but both estimable. Mabel is an excitable and
enthusiastic girl, who is always restlessly endea-
vouring to do something grand, and tormenting
herself and others by her vague speculations and
unsortled habits. The diary which she keeps
illustrates in a forcible style her various
phases of mind and the devious turnings
she took before she arrived at a happy
stage of progress. Maud's history is far more simple
in its short sad tenour. She was one of those gentle
gracious beings who are occasionally met with in
the dark paths of sad mortality, as if to show us
how bright and beautiful human nature can become.
She was the guiding influence of the house, though
she was much younger than Mabel. She was en-
gaged to Stephen Roden shortly after the commence-
ment of the story. He was agent to a duke in the
neighbourhood, and was a man in every way
fitted for Maud, from his high principle and kind
heart. For a few short months all went happily'
with them, and then—
" As they descended, following hope,
Thore sat the shadow feared of man."
A fatal accident on the railway terminated
Stephen's life, a few weeks before their wedding-
day, and Maud was left on the threshold of exis-
tence to sorrow over the heaviest calamity that could
befall her. The passages that record this era of her
life are very beautifully written, and convey in an
earnest spirit the depths of the affliction and the
Christian faith with which she was enabled to meet
it. As Maud wandered over the garden, and by
the woodlands of her home, she was, after the
first bitter agony had been past, able to look
calmly around her, and, ami I the smiling beauty
of the summer luxuriance which surrounded her,
to look through nature up to nature's God. "She
would never say goodbye to Stephen any more.
Henceforth there would be no parting between
them ; never more, indeed, to hold any speech with
him of years on earth to come ; but not the less
truly hers, in all present and coming times, chosen
perhaps by his father, and her father to be one of
those ministering spirits who do always keep watch,
and guard over the children of the kingdom.'
Farther on it is told us how she loved to dwell on
" the pleasant words of Stephen, the last she had
ever heard him speak, " After all, Maud, it is only'
a little while." It was thus through this
burning baptism of tears, and afterwards across
this kingly threshold of hope, that Maud
Harcourt passed from girlhood to womanhood."
The events of Mabel's career were very different,
but by degrees we find her learning patience and
imbibing hope in her experience of life, and when
she records this passage in her diary she was nearly
following the footsteps of her sister Maud, "But,
after all, it is only a little while, the weariness will
be past by and bye. There will be nothing of this
to think of, to murmur over, in that glorious coming
time, when in the great eternity we shall awake
and find it day.'" She was married soon after
Maud's trial, as she wished nothing to be different
on her account, and Maud was left to perform her
duties, more than ever appearing as an angel
spirit doing goad to all around her. The motto of
the book is a very beautiful one, " So He bringeth
them to the haven where they would be." In
its earthly sense Maud had long ago reached
it, in a heart at peace within, but Mabel was
some time before she had passed the rough
waves on which she was tossing when we first
beheld her. It was some years before Maud was
taken to the real haven where only cai the spirit
rest, where .the waves of this troublesome world
have been left for ever. The description of Maud's
death is a touching scene, replete with calm and
sommnity. At the beginning of her trouble we
were told that " she was able to look forth clearly'
and steadily unto the land that is very far off," and
this happy gift of vision did not desert her at the
last. There are one or two well described indivi-
duals met with in these pages, as, for instance, Mrs.
Tresilis and Miss Gabbatis. The former in her
beauty and her loveliness forms a melancholy object
of interest, and it is a relief to learn that she soon
sunk to rest and found her grave close to the shores
of that sea she so loved. Miss Gabbatis is a
good specimen of a village gossip, but she is a
very harmless one, and all look forward to her
visits with pleasure. This story of a Quiet Life
may contain more useful information and convey
more desirable hints than many grander and more
demonstrative works. It tells of the simplest occur-
rences in an impressive manner, and the great
lessons of life and death are only to be learned in
solitude and reflection. The author has had at
heart to teach all readers how to look for quiet
in the stormy scenes of a world at strife, and
where the haven lies in which the weary voyagers
may look for peace when—

The storms are weathered and the ocean crossed."

The last scene of Maud's life is thus described :-
-or., aud fur the last time, ere it was given to her
again for ever there came that far-back little golden year of
hope—the hope that had changed the current of her whole
life, and whose loss ha,s worked for her such Roble compen-
sation. It came to her in its earthly likeness for just one
more loving look, and she said farewell to it very quietly,
knowing that it would be only a little while before she saw
it again transfigured into heavenly beauty, hers for ever,
standing in the light of the new world the shadows of this
one passed away, and she remembered only the joy. Draw-
ing so near, step by step, to the eternal gates, where no
thought of sadness might find leave to enter, the angel of
sorrow that had accompanied her through all these years
let fall his garb of mourning, and she beheld him as.one of
the shining ones. What need, then, for the glory to come
down upon her face as she thought of these things ; and
then bending over her, Miss Nunby saw that the light upon
her face was given there by the lingering sunlight only. It
was all over, the "little while" so long waited for. so
patiently endured, was come at last. Stephen and Maud
would never have to part any more now, never any more at
all, And so He bringeth them unto the haven where they
would be.' "

THE WEATHER.

METEOROLOGICAL REPORTS.

This Day, 1
between 8 and B. IE. M. I D. F. C.
.r. S.
9 a.m.
I
_....- ---
Nairn
30'10 44 40 W.S.W. 3 7 c. F,
Aberdeen
Leith
Berwick 30 22 49 44 W.S.W. 1 1 b. 3
Ardrossan.... 3021 46 44 W.S.W. 3 6 o. I 3
Poi it sh .... 30' '3 48 46 W. 3 3 b. 3
Shields
Galway 30 30 50 47 N.E. 2 4 o. 1
Searborough .. 36. 8j 45 41 N. 3 3 b. *
Liverpool.... 30.25 46 39 N. 1 2 c. 1
Valentia
Queenstown._ 3027 t 0 49 N. 4 5 o. 2
Yarmouth 3O 15 44 43 N. 4 6 O. 4
London 3o'lB 45 41 N.N.W. 2 8 c. I
Cover 3o':3 :47 43 N.E. 5 3 c .
Portsmouth :30* 3 50 .9 W. 5 5 m.
Portland
Plymouth_
I
Penzance
5 52 151 1 N.E. 1 7 b. i

EXPLANATION.—B. Barometer, corrected and reduced
to 32 deg at mean sea level ; each 10 feet of vertical rise
causing. about 1-100th of an inch diminution,. and each 10
deg above 32 deg causing nearly 3-100ths increase. E.
Exposed thermometer in shade. M. Moistened bulb (for
Evaporation
magnetic).an and dew-point).
Force (I to D i 2Direction of wind (true.—
_estimated). C. Cloud
Ito 9). I. Initials :---b blue sky; c., clouds (detached) ;
t., fog.; h,, hail; 1., lightning; In, misty (hazy) , 0.,
overcast (dull) ; r., rain ; a., snow ; t., thunder. A letter
repeated augments—am, r,r., WWI Mint S. 594 dittiirb"
AllVe (1 t 9 9).