The Sun.
London, England, 1850-12-24 00:00:00

HOW LAWYERS GO TO HEAVEN.

" There is a pleasant story of a lawyer, who, being
refused entrance into heaven by St. Peter, contrived to
throw his hat inside the door; and then, being permitted
by the kind saint to go in and fetch it, took advantage
of the laWr's fixture as doorkeeper, to refuse to come
back again."
What a beautiful thought, too, is that on

THE SUN.

"No mystery in creation need sadden us, as long as
we believe nothing of the invisible world interior to
what the visible proclaims. Life and geniality predo-
minate; death is brief; pain fugitive; beauty universal;
order paramount and everlasting. What a shame to
know that the sun, the greatest visible object in our
universe, combines equal gentleness with power, and
does us nothing but good, and at the same time to dare
to think worse of its Maker."

How deliciously comic, again, that definition of the
" bagpipes"—" An air played on the bagpipes, with
that detestable, monstrous drone of theirs for the bass,
is like a tune tied to a post." Marken to his
glorious panegyric on Bacon in a prose epigram—
" If," says he, "I were asked to describe Bacon as
briefly as I could, I should say that he was the libera-
tor of the hands of knowledge." Among the different
celebrities passed under somewhat the same epigram
matic treatment, we recognize those of Cicero and
Waller, Handel and Montaigne, Raphael and Alxeen as.
Handel he calls " the Jupiter of music ;" Voltaire

" the god a cleverness ;" .otway "the poet of sen-
sual pathos." Added to the miscellaneous table-talk
formirg the principal portion of the volume, are a
dialogue between Pope and Swift, and a colloquy in
which the former is the principal interlocutor—both
after the fashion of those " imaginary conversations"
which have been rendered popular by the skill of
Savage Landor. These, however, with all Landor's
skill, have a genial tone about them which that heavy,
deep-mouthed Bceotian could never hope to evidence.
The volume before us must be commended to all
lovers of literary excellence as a work in all respects
worthy of Leigh Hunt, worthy of him who has
taken as the purpose of his weekly miscellany the cul-
tivation of the Memorable, the Progressive, and the
Beautiful.

PILGRIMAGES TO ENGLISH SHRINES.

By Mrs. S. C. Hall.
An elegant contribution to the table of the library,
the boudoir, or the drawing-room, written by Mrs.
S. C. Hall and illustrated by F. W. Fairholt, must
ssuredly be welcomed as a treasure of letters at
Christmas. The contents of the hook under conside-
ration will be remembered by all who have scanned
the pages of the Art Journal, they having been for
the most part previously issued in instalments through
the pages of that splendid and meritorious publica-
tion. From month to month, as those different instal-
ments appeared, we took occasion to mention them as
deserving of the highest eulogium both for their
literary and artistic merit, but, bove all, for their an-
tiquarian research. Among the different shrines
visited in the course of these delightful: pilgrimages
none,have been uninvested with interest, most of them
have been in the highest degree attractive, and
several have been utterly exhausted to all other curi-
ous arclimdlogists. Not a stone of any import
relating to any of the birthplaces or burial•places of
the personages passed under review is forgotten either
by the author or her attendant limner. Accompa-
nied by them we travel about England in all ima-
ginable directions, now entering the printing-office
of Caxton, now the abode of Marvel, now the dwell-
ing of Barry, now the studio of Gainsborough, meet-
ing in one quarter with the ghost of Hannah More

and in another with the shade of Hsmpden. Occa-
sionally in turning over the !eaves of the volume we
light upon some delineation, for the accuracy of
which we ourselves could personally vouch, seeing
that the localities survive also in our own recollec-
tion. As a testimony of this we would direct espe-
cial attention to the woodcuts adorning Airs. S. C.
Hall's charming paper upon "Chatterton." The old
munirnent room has been sketched by Mr.
Fairholt with admirable exactitude—also the
tomb of Canynge—and we might say doubtless
each of the other exquisite embellishments. The
notion of the work, if we remember rightly, has been
already carried out in the " Homes and Haunts"
penned by William Howitt, a delightful and intel-
ligent compilation. In the present volume the most
prominent mistake is, to our thinking, the absence of
all order in the selection of the shrines to which the
author and artist make their pilgrimage. The sub-
jects, indeed, would appear to have been chosen hap-
hazird, and hence, IA hen collected into a volume,
seem to be rather scrambled than grouped together.
This may be recognised at a glance, when we remark
that Gray is placed cheek- by•jowl with Sir Thomas
Gresham, John Kyrie with: Gainsborough, and Dr.
Watts with Barry. As far as the display of sympathies
is concerned, it must be confessed that those are eclectic
enough in all conscience, but their eclecticism
amounts, in the end, to something little short
if confusion, contradiction, and bewilderment.
As is is, v, e can sclreely bring ourselves to enter any
exception whatever to a book so fascinating in its
idea and its treatment. All faults of arrangement are
forgotten in admiration at the skill with which Mrs.
Hall and Mr. Fairholt have woven together their evi-
dences of homage for departed greatness. These
" wanderings of a pen and pencil" are somewhat
more to the purpose than others adventured upon ra-
ther earlier by Alfred Crowquill and his companion,
and in the whole volume we observe an enthusiasm
and an earnestness such as perforce elicit from us
words of the most cordial commendation.

ELIZA COOK'S JOURNAL. No. LXXXVI.
A Chriitmls number of this popular miscellany,
with four capital effusions by Eliza Cook herself, ap-
propriate to the season in their character, is surely
another boon from the printing-press in these lounging
times of holiday. Foremost among the charms of the
number are three more poems re-issued from the
editor's collected writings, and these three her songs
of " Christmas Holly," and " Christmas Tide," and
" Winter is Here." Added to which we have soma
exhilarating verses bight "Home for the Holidays,"
from which we transcribe the following :
" Thank goodness, we shan't have to study and stammer,
From nine till ten, over that nasty French Grammar;
Lectures and classes, and lessons, are done,
And now we'll have nothing but frolic aud fun;
Home for the Holidays, here we go;
But this Fast train is really exceedingly slow!
" We shall have sport when Christmas comes,
When 'snap-dragon' burns our finger and thumbs;
We'll have the Polka they taught us last,
And make the blind fiddler play it fast;
We'll hang mistletoe over our dear little cousins,
And pull them beneath it, and kiss them by dozens;
We shall have games at Blind-man's Butl;'
And noise and laughter, and romping enough;
We'll crown the plum-pudding with bunches of bay,
And roast all the chesnuts that come in our way;
And when Twelfth-night falls, we'll have such a cake,
That as we stand rout.d it the table shall quike;
We'll draw King and Queen„ and be happy together,
And dance old Sir Rogtd with hearts like a feather;
Home for the Holidays, here we go;
But this Fast train is really exceedingly slow!"
Prose contributions of a no less appropriate and
seasonable kind are comprised in the Christmas num-
ber of Eliza Cook's Journal. _First among these let
us mention, "A Christmas Memory." " The Footfall
of Winter,",with its delightful quotations from Spenser
and Chatterton and Southey, will be read with
zest ; as also the brave lines by John Critchley Prince
on Christmas. Besides these, there are also contained
in the number before us a story called " The Blind
Man's Guide," some " Diamond Dust," and a second
chapter of the tale, entitled fif,er its heroine, " Alice
Vaughan." To all holiday folks of either sex, of old
and young, we commend the portion here particu-
larised of this favourite periodical.