The Sun.
London, England, 1861-10-11 00:00:00

LITERATURE.

Notice to Quit. By W .G. Wills, author of " Life's
Foreshadowings." 3 vols. Hurst and Blackett.
This is a superior work, that reveals a consider-
able knowledge of character and gains on the at-
tention by its forcible delineations and vivid illus-
trations. The chief point on which the story turns
is powerfully related, and the reader cannot but be
impressed with the manner in which the events are
described. There is interspersed throughout these
pages much emphatic writing; here we find a cir-
cumstance that is told in a sentence, and again
some striking feature of character is made manifest
at once in the dialogues recorded. John Brom is
a very peculiar style of man, not at all calculated
to attract esteem, but one sure to get on in the
world. He is clever, pushing, and unscrupulous.
It is interesting to note how two such diverse cha-
racters as he and James Heath first approximated
and then separated. Neither the one nor the
other was worthy of regard : of the two Heath had
the advantage, but he was too vacillating. In fact,
there is no one in the book that one really likes.
Its heroes and heroines are very aptly described
in their several styles; but they are not the gold
dust of humanity by any means. Ellen Tern is
a strange creature. Her bringing up was remark-
able in its isolation, and it affected her subsequent
life by imbuing her mind with morbid ideas, and
rendering her unfit to mix in general society from
her peculiar notions, One of the most impressive
passages in the story is that from which it takes
its name, the danger that hung over the strong
and self-reliant man John Brom. He thought
himself secure for long years, till his hopes were
rudely shattered and his mind harrassed by the
torturing news that ever after haunted him, j
till time fulfilled the threat that had
appalled him at its first mention. He had
been desiied to insure his life, and in accord-
ance with the suggestion he went to arrange
accordingly. The destroying spirit of his peace
met him in the shape of a most ruthless doctor
employed by the office who informed him as plainly
as words could tell that his life was hanging on a
thread as he laboured under a disease of the heart,
that was of a most dangerous class, and that a year
or two was the utmost he could have to live. The
effect upon him was overpowering in the greatest
degree. " It took some fortitude to recall his scared
senses, and focus them on the dread thought wl'ch
when dropping upon the mind inghastly hints, un-
mans the stoutest. There have been merciful gra-
dations, there have been glimpses of the bony hand
behind the veil; many a memento mori which
gently familiarises shrinking nature. But for him,
in youth, in strength, in glory, the veil is rent, and
the gaping spectre exposed within a touch."
For some time Mr. Brom was awed by
the ,dread announcement, and kept him-
self in retirement, his spirits gradually were
revived, and he hurried from the place, resolved to
drown thought in a whirl of excitement ; and thus,
by immersing himself in this world's most stirring
pursuits, to shut out the remembrance that he might
instantly be summoned to another world, of which
he could realise nothing but dread. His end was
very terrible at last, for he died as he was perpe-
trating an imposture, by declaring himself the
author of Heath's play. It was a strange sort of
compact that they had made between them, and it
was one that, unsuitable in life, was doubly awful
in death. Mr. Brom had risen to make his bow
to the audience as the author of the admired and
successful piece, when the long-expected and
dreaded summons went forth, and the soul ex-
changed worlds while the plaudits of the public
were ringing in his ears. The following passage
gives a most impressive picture of the scene :

That obeisance is not made to theihouse, good people.
Observe it among your acclamations. It is still and solemn
—arms outstretched even as a Persian adoring the sun ;
nay, like a limp marionette whose cord is loosed. His ear
seems dull to this demonstration, ye multitude, or else his
thanks are borne on that vivid gush down the crimson
cushion. In St. Paul's, the great recline as still and
solemn, a peck or so of dust remaining of them ; could ye
rouse them with your cries to their olden grandeur from the
bathos of death. Ye are nought—your applause passes
over him as will presently a graveyard wind. He will not
arise. Hush ! can your plaudits turn the rushing planets ?
can human fame stream one spark of light thrJugh eternal
space ? Hush I
There fell a strange troubled stillness over that multi-
tude. Wreathed beauty—lordly and dandified manhood—
the clouds of heads above and below stared and murmured,
aghast—Ho will not arise I
Heard ye the call of God, ye multitudes ! summoning a
human soul from amid its pride—its pomp—its sin. Saw
ye the hand! God's hand has been amongst ye as pal-
pably as when it flowed in grim Hebrew athwart the wall.
Hush! a mother's shriek. This is the tragedy of the
night, indeed ; but ye were not bidden to this. Again, the
cry from a mother's riven heart. Has your actress of the
night ever caught that thrill of agony ?
Hurry away to your homes, ye multitudes, in your
strange, troubled stillness : ye have seen an act rehearsed
which each and all of ye must once play, as yo melt away
with your frivolous generation; pray that when ye pass,
it may not be thus with you ; better in obloquy and ter-.
turo—better rotting by inches, than thus on the very billow
of earthly fame.
Away I what follows is private, sacred, awful ! They
are moving It. Its dread salutation
„to the summons of
God is done.

It was a sad end to an enterprising man like John
Brom that he should depart with a lie on his lips
as it were. He left this world with false renown
encircling him, and our last thoughts of him are
painful ones. This description of his terror of death
is given very truthfully, and doubtless there are
many more around us in the pride of life who would
be like him in their horror if such an announcement
were made to them. They look on death as a far-off
calamity in the vale of years beneath, with which
they need not now spoil their plans and sadden their
1 lives, but to receive a " Notice to Quit?' is more than
their philosophy can brook of their patience with-
stand. Ellen does not win our sympathy at all;
she was of a kind nature, but she was so morbid in
1 her notions that she seemed to undermine the effects
of her good intentions. After the death of Brom
she married Heath. The conclusion of the work is
tame in comparison with the earlier part
and especially the middle of the last volume. Had
the narrative ceased at the death of John Brom it
might have been better, as the description is so
powerful that the rest falls tame as an afterthought.
Whether right or wrong, he is the hero, and with
him the interest of the piece dies out. The reader
will hardly coincide with the validity of Ellen's
argument when she persuaded her husband to
relinquish writing. It is quite contrary to the
doctrine of employing and improving the talents
entrusted to our care, which, beyond and above the
opinion of the wisest of mortals, bears the stamp of
Divine approval, and is the inculcation recorded in
the most sacred of writings. Because of the infini-
tude of creation Ellen urged that Heath should
regard his doings as petty, mean, and valueless,
forgetting that nothing is valueless in the eyes of
Him who sees the sparrows fall, nothing poor
or contemptible that affects the welfare of
his creatures. Those who, like Heath, possessed
shining abilities, ought to improve them to the
utmost of their powers. Let them influence others
in. the pursuit of good, and thus benefit themselves
and all around them now, and perhaps generations
that shall spring up when they are sleeping in the
dust shall be glorious witnesses to the fruit of their
labours when the Lord of the Harvest shall gather
in the grain. This work is sure to impress by its
powerful descriptions, as well as from its impressive
scenes and its knowledge of human nature. " Notice
to Quit" is replete with incident, and stored with
anecdotes. Besides the thread of the narrative, there
is attractive interest in the relations given of
the introduction of railways. Therefore it can be
confidently recommended to the notice of readers,
and they will find ample scope in its exciting pages
for the, employment of their faculties of divination
and reflection, while the moral that is hidden in
its recital is one that can never be too forcibly im-
pressed on the minds, and recalled to the memory
of the dwellers on earth. "In the midst of life we
are in death."

East and West, or Ones upon a Tims. By J.
Frazer Corkran. 3 vols. Hurst and Blackett.
The -scene of this work is laid chiefly in Spital-
fields, and the " time" selected for the opening of
the story is that of the change which produced
such desolation among the hanflioom weavers. The
introduction of machinery was truly as the writer
observes, "The coming of a giant upon the earth to
do the work of man by other and more powerful
means, but exacting the iuevitable price of present
sacrifice, which every great change entails."
We are not shown the change itself, but we
see its effects in the altered prospects of
a young couple who had married in the better
times. A number of characters are introduced
among whom it is difficult to select the hero and
heroine, but the story seems to be intended to ex-
press opinions and feelings, and to show individual
peculiarities rather than to tell a direct talc. In-
deed a want of concentration is one of its principal
faults ; the interest is not sufficiently centred on
one group, and the effect would have been better
had the author given greater prominence to a few
chief figures, instead of dispersing the reader's
attention among so many of equal importance. The
history of Edward Lush is extremely sad. He is
the only son of a rich banker, and has been subject
from youth to attacks of morbid melancholy. The
only person who can rouse him from these is the
beautiful and gifted daughter of his old nurse. It
is not surprising, therefore, that he loves his bene-
factress, and, 'during his father's absence,
marries her. His father is enraged, declares
his son to be insane, and commits him to
a private asylum, and bribes the young wif e'd
idered
mother to agree to the marriage being
null, as the parties were under age, _h_ce,o,nusn_f°oritnn;
nate wife enters the service of a tapezr.l.Y. going
abroad, leafing her child with her meta