The Sun.
London, England, 1850-10-21 00:00:00

reviewer :

- - .
" How exquisite is the harmony, as well as the con
ception, of the following sentence! The close is music
itself:—' So much as moments are exceeded by eternity,
and the sighing of a man by the joys of an angel, and a
salutary frown by the light of God's countenance, a few
frowns by the infinite and eternal hallelujahs, so much
aro the sorrows of the godly to be undervalued in respect
of what is deposited for them in the treasures of eternity.
Their sorrows can die, but so cannot their joys. And if
the blessed martyrs and confessors were asked concern
ing their past sufferings and their present rest, and the
joys of their certain expectation, you should hear them
glory in nothing but in the mercies of God, and in the
cross of the Lord Jesus. Every chain is a ray of light,
and every prison is a palace, and every loss is the pur-
chase of a kingdom, and every affront in the cause of
God is an eternal honour, and every day of sorrow is a
thousand years of comfort, multiplied with a never
ceasing numeration,—days without night, joys without
sorrow, sanctity without sin, charity without stain, pos-
session without fear, society without envying, communi-
cation of joys without lessening; and they shall dwell in
a blessed country, where an enemy never entered, and
from whence a friend never went away.
One other paragraph we must transcribe from this
learned and intelligent contribution; and then briefly
refer to the remaining articles in the Edinburgh :
" The AnglceSaxons invaded Britain in 449, and in
something less than a century had conquered nearly as
much of the island as they ever conquered at all. They
retained their language uncorrupted—by no means
always the case with conquerors. As Gibbon expresses
it, ' a large army is but a small nationf 'the progress of
conquest is slow; and the victors, in time, are apt to
adopt, with some modifications, the language of the van-
quished. The Anglo-Saxons, however, partly extirpated
and partly expelled the ancient inhabitants, to such an
extent, that with comparatively few exceptions (as in the
case of great natural landmarks), even the names of
places were changed, and received Saxon appellations.
The word Kent (Cantium) is anhexception; nor is it
difficult to see why. The Anglo-Saxons did not make
their first appearance as invaders, but ostensibly to assist
the Britiih against the Northern marauders, the Picts
and Scots. It was some time before they assumed a
hostile posture. While yet allies they were entertained
in Kent, and they became accustomed themselves to call
that province by its name, before they proceeded to eject
the rightful owners. Not so with other portions of the
island, where they had never planted foot except as con-
querors, and to which, therefore, they naturally gave
new names."
A comprehensive chapter on the " United States,"
has been suggested by the recent volumes of Mr.
Alexander Mackay and Sir Charles Lyell, the re-
nowned geologist. In this paper will be found some
very curious information in reference to the fanati-
cism of New England, referring especially to the
Mormons and the Millerites. The wonderful spread
of Roman Catholicism in the valley of the Mississippi
is noticed, and the writer (disclaiming, while so do-
ing, " any shade of Protestant jealousy") speaks in
terms of admiration of the goodness and beneficence
of the Catholic missionaries. After sneering rather
sardonically at the faults and blemishes of the Yan-
kees, the reviewer exclaims with enthusiasm—
" But all Englishmen should remember this, that these
their brethren of the New World have sown the insti-
tutions of Alfred, and the language of Shakspere, broad
cast, from the Atlantic to the Pacific! that in the north-
eastern states at least, they have cherished and im-
proved upon the virtues of their lathers, and outgrown
many of their vices; that the slavery of the southern
states is a legacy from the parent land, and that ell the
ignorance and pauperism of New England is an overflow
from Europe!"
A rather gossipping paper follows on the " British
Museum Commission," in which the difficulties of
compiling a catalogue are thus ingeniously illustrated:
"One man might ent.e. the Rejected Addresses' un•
der Satire, another under Druri lane Theatre, a thi' d
under Parodies, a fourth and -r hintetiong, a filth under
Horace Smith, a sixth under James Smith, u seventh pot.-
: if seven cloguers were em-
sibly under Courtship w.i
ployed, it might depend upon which of the seven got this
book to do; and if four different editions happened to fail
to fiur different men, they might be distributed under
four different heeds."
As a sample of the absurdities committed occasionally
by the best cataloguers, we are told the subjoined
ludicrous anecdote of a literary blunder :
"In the sixteenth century lived G. J. Rheticus, well
known as the most laborious calculator of tables that
ever lived, and the friend and follower of Copernicus, a
worthy man, who bad nothing to do with beer or ale e-
cept to drink that modicum which would strengthentohris
without unfitting
slow and laborious calculations of sines. The Bodleian
him for going from his dinner
catalogue has him down for a treatise on beer ‘lthetious