The Sun.
London, England, 1850-06-10 00:00:00

JUN E 10, 1850.

LITERATURE.

ELEMENTARY SKETCRES OF MORAL
PIULacY ),P V. th,7 I,l^ IN.. 5.;.1(77,•:1

Afer coesiderable hesitation k:;.bit
" Sketches of Moral Philosophy," by our modern
Democritus, have been published fir the satisfaction
of the reading community. hitherto they had Len
merely printed for private circulation, with a view to
gratify the curiosity of those friends of the deceased
wit, who could not fail to be interested in discovering
the character of his earlier investigations, and in esti-
mating the condition of his more youthful intellect.
A consideration, however, at the same time of the
fragmentary and elementary nature of the papers
themselves, appeared until very recently to preclude
them from general publication. Happily for
the public at large, the obstacles . pre-
viously imagined to exist to their appearance
in the form of a substantial volume have gradually
disappeared, and the ultimate intention of their editor
to submit them to the candid opinion of the corn
munity was confirmed by a letter written by the late
Lord Jeffrey only three days prior to that fatal illness
which terminated in his dissolution. Having pre-
viously recommended the suppression of these Ele-
mentary Sketches on Moral Philosophy (as fa- as
the public were concerned), that illustrious and vene-
rable critic hastened at length to correct an error
of judgment which became apparent to himself on
more mature reflection. "I am now satisfied," he
wrote on the 18th of last January, " that in w hat I
then said [namely, when previously applied to
for advice as to the scheme of publication]
I did great and grievous injustice to the
merit of these lectures." The underlines or

italics are copied from the original document as
printed at the commencement of the present volume.
Encouraged, therefore, by the cordial recommenda-
_

tions of one of the soundest critics of the age, the
MSS. were at last permitted to pass through the
press, that Rubicon of Literature. As at once the
first and the last of the effusions of the late Sydney
Smith's brilliant and cultivated intellect—the first, or
almost the first, in conception, the last, we fear the
last, in publication—the volume must prove singularly
welcome to the mass of English readers. These sketches
consist of twenty-seven lectures on moral philosophy,
lectures of a very elementary character, delivered (lu-
ring the years 1804, 1805, and 1806, at the Royal
Institution. Five out of the twenty-seven are
incomplete, comprising only fragmentary portions of
the original ; these will be the more regretted, seeing
that they bear reference to the powers of external
perception, to memory, to imagination, to reason, and
to judgment. Notwithstanding, however, the disjointed
aspect of the sketches, and their scrupulously and
professedly introductory character, it is quite impos-
sible to remain blind to the symmetry of intention
which combines them all together. After tracing
with peculiar and agreeable lucidity the history of
moral philosophy, the lecture touches upon the va-
rious themes already enumerated, and, each in its ap-
propriate place, considers the nature of conception, of
the faculties of animals, the active powers of the
mind, the evil affections, the benevolent af-
fections, the passions, the desires, habit, surprise,
novelty, variety. " Best beautiful," however, among
all his definitions, we doubt not will be considered
those in which he traces out with the subtlest dis-'
tinctions the mobile and variable characteristics of
taste,"of the sublime and of the beautiful. Nor can
we doubt but that the majority of the readers of the
volume will turn at once on opening it to the tenth
and eleventh lectures, wherein Peter Plymley deli-
neates those siamese twins of the imagination, Wit
and Humour. To hear a great master of the witty
and the humorous, in his more serious and meditative
moments, defining the nature of those brilliant and
bewitching faculties, indicating the method
of their manifestation, and affording exam-
ples of their most felicitous appearance,
must always be a subject for curious and delightful
contemplation. This is why it is impossible not to
linger over those ingenious but most insufficient defini-

tions of wit given by Dr. Barrow, by Congreve, by
Cowley, by Dryden, by Locke, by Addison, by Lord
Karnes, and by Dr. Johnson—men either Bitty in
themselves or capable of appreciating wit in others to
a degree, seldom surpassed by ancient or modern cul-
tivators of literature. Unsatisfactory and insufficient
as their explanations of the nature of wit are, those
afforded us by the Rev. Sydney Smith are scarcely
less so; for it needs no very elaborate reasoning to
demonstrate that the whole nature of wit is not com-
prised in the definition that it consists in the
"discovery of a relation between ideas which
excite surprise," even with the express pro•
visos that it must excite no feelings either of
the sublime or of the beautiful. If, however,

the witty lecturer is incapable of pointing
out precisely the exact lineaments of wit, he is won-
derfully well qualified to afford instances of its hap-
piest exhibitions. This fact is easily recognised
when he tells us, with a perceptible chuckle of appre-
ciation, that Louis XIV. was exceedingly molested
by the solicitations of a general officer at the levee,
and cried out, loud enough to be overheard, " That
gentleman is the most troublesome officer in the
whole army," and that the instant reply was, " Your
Majesty's enemies have said the same thing
more than once!" Or, again, when he delecta
us with the following anecdote :—" A gentleman at
Paris, who lived very unhappily with his wife, used,
for twenty years together, to pass his evenings
at the house of another lady, mho was
very agreeable, and drew together a pleasant
society. His wife died; and his friends all
advised him to marry the lady in whose society he
had found so much pleasure. He said, no, he certainly
should not, for that if he married her he should not
know where to spend his evenings !" Puns, most
felicitously termed by our author "the wit of words,"
are treated slightingly enough by him. Yet he tells
us a capital one too, by way of compensating his over
depreciation. " Miss Hamilton," says he, "in her
book on education, mentions the instance of a boy so
very neglectful, that he could never be brought to
read the word patriarchs; but whenever he met with
it he always pronounced it partridges. A friend of

the writer observed to her that it' could hardly be
considered as a mere piece of negligence, for
it appeared to him that the boy, in calling
them partridges, was making game of the
patriarchs." Of bulls also we obtain the subjoined
exquisite specimen A gentleman in speaking of a
nobleman's wife, of great rank and fortune, lamented
very much that she had no children. A medical
gentleman who was present observed, that to have no
children was a great misfortune, but he thought be
had remarked it was hereditary in some families."
As a superb example of irony we are by no means
surprised to find the whole of the " Dedication" o.f
the famous pamphlet Killing no Murder quoted in
extenso. How wittily Sydney Smith writes upon the
subject of wit may be perceived from a glance at his
splendid definition of a sarcasm. " A true sarcasm,"
says he, "is like a sword-stick,--it appears, at
first sight, to be much more innocent than
it really is, till, all of a sudden, there leaps some-
thing out of it—sharp, and deadly, and incisive—
which snakes you tremble and recoil." Altogether, the
book before us, numbering 424 pages octavo, is the most
reflected, if it is not in all respects the most brilliant
effusion of a very genial and accomplished intellect.
As such, and as a sort of literary legacy to the popu-
lation, the volume will be welcomed eagerly by the
lovers of our metaphysical literature.

HARRISON AINSWORTH'S ROMANCES.
Vol. VIII.—OId Saint Paul's. Vol. I.
A compact reprint of this powerful story of the
Fire and Plague is commenced in the eighth volume
of the works of Mr. Ainsworth now in course of
republication. Another volume will complete the
narrative of " Old Saint Paul's," and thereby con-
dense within a very reasonable and portable compass
the fiction first issued in weekly chapters in the Sun-
day Times. After the enthralling and romantic his-
tory by Defoe, himself one of the greatest writers of
fiction in the language, it was rather a daring thought
on the part of our novelist to adventure upon the
delineation of those scenes of horror and desolation.
Yet, with the success which might haVe been antici-
pated from the outset, Mr. Aiosworth depicts in
vivid colours the twofold calamity which befell the
capital of England during the licentious reign of
Charles the Second. Grouping round the ancient
edifice which once occupied the site at present filled
by Sir Christopher Wren's masterpiece—the fantastic
figures of Parravicin and Pillichody, of Maurice
Wyvil and Captain Disbrowe, of Leonard Blaize and
Amabel Bloundell—the romancist has conjured up a
striking picture of London soon after the Restoration.
Having associated manifold interests with the great
palatial residences of the British sovereigns, with
Windsor Castle, and St. James's, and the lower of
London, it was but appropriate that Mr. Ainsworth
should celebrate the vanished glories of the metropo-
litan cathedral. This he has done ; and the tale of
" Old Saint Paul's" forms an appropriate and charac-
teristic portion of his collected writings. As such, as
an addition to the riches of our historical romantic li-
terature, it will be peculiarly welcome to the thou-
sands who have repaid in popularity the pleasures
derived by them from the outpourings of his imagi-
nation.

PRINCE ALBERT'S VISIT to SCOTLAND.—We
(Scottish Pass) understand that intimation of an official
character has been received, stating the intention of Prince
Albeit to visit Fort George on the occasion of his visit to
Scotland this summer. It is expected that his Royal High-
ness will inspect the fine regiment (Prince Albert's Own)
now quartered there, about the end of August.
AFOTHECARIES'-BALL.—Names of gentlemen who
passed their examination in the science and practice of medi-
cine, and received certificates to practise ou Thursday, the
6th of June, lEso:—Francis Philip Cupiss, Diss, Norfolk;
Charles Willitxu Morriss, Cheltenham; Henry Forester,
Bideford, Devon; Joseph Hutchinson Hammond, Bredting-
Iton Quay, York; Joseph Briggs, -AsliboUrne; Derbysliike ;
Hugh G'eorge, Chepstow, Monmouth.

FINE ARTS.
THE' _BRITISH INSTITUTION.

Tbi:= ryirr ."J ". 7.;,17,1 cx'ihith,n of rein tiegs
01,3 i by r'tx,se let dem artists wt:o
ar, riidy ci.z.z;t,,i,:% us upeLe,.l to pub ic ea:hi-ulna! ion.
tin Saturday we had the gratification of attending the
private view of the collection. Fifty contributors,
emulating the liberality of our most gracious Sove-
reign, have aided in adorning the walls of the institu-
tion this year with 171 works of art of various merit,
end sometimes of extraordinary excellence. Alto-
gether, the gallery, this season, appears to be about
equally rich in specimens of the modern and of the ancient
schools of painting. Here our attention is arrested by a
portrait from the brush of Hogarth ; here by one
from the hand cif Holbein. In one direction we turn
to a brilliant interior by Jan Steen ; in another to a
domestic scene by Sir David Wilkie . Now we pause
before a pastoral landscape by Cuyp, now before a
woodland scene by Gainsborough. We glance alter-
nately from the works of Sir William Beechey to
those of Sir Peter Paul Rubens, from Titian to :Li-
verse ege, from Vandyck to Lely, from Guido to Wil-
son ; and so on through Callcot, and Collins, and
Stuart Newton, and others of the moderns; and
so on through Paul Potter and Vaneyck, and Tinto:
retto, and Dorninichino, and Guercino, and Velaz
quez, and Rembrandt, and Ruysdael, and Carracci,
and Corregio, and Carlo Dolce, and Albano, and
Sny dens, and Murillo, and Vandevelde, and the rest
of the ancient masters. With such varied works
emulating each other at every step, it would be
strange indeed if the visitors to the British Insti-
tution derived from their labours neither pleasure
nor instruction. At present it is altogether
impossible to enter into an analysis of a col-
lection so peculiarly rich as the one now exhi-
biting in Pall-mall, especially after a single visit and
one inadequate stroll through the apartments.
Several of the paintings on the walls are of unde-
niable authenticity, but several also appear to us to
be very questionably attributed. No. 38, for
example, entitled " A Virgin and Child," is clearly
and palpably the emanation of the great genius
to which it is attributed. Carlo Dolce's is that infant
so tranquil in the enjoyment of its galactic repast,
Carlo Dolce's that virgin beautiful in the glow of her
maternal tenderness. No. 129, on the contrary, ap-
pears to us to be rather doubtfuly attributed to the
great Leonardo da Vinci—the three children of the
Gaddi Family being scarcely of that bewitching as-
pect that might be supposed to tax the ability of that
haughty intelle.:t which itself selected its patron
among the Princes of the Roman peninsula. Even
before he left Florence to enter the service
of Ludovico, the Regent of Milan, even
before his artistic capacities had grown up beyond
the cramping rules of Perugino—we cannot con-
ceive the possibility of the great Leonardo having
produced any picture so hard, so flat, so uncomely,
so characterised alone by a cautious and painstaking
mediocrity. No. 142 is a grand specimen of Rubens,
illustrating the torments of " Prometheus." No.
57, " Figures at a Repast," is, without ques-
tion, the finest specimen of Jan Steen we have ever
had the gratification of beholding. No. 88. " The
Breakfast." and No, 92, " The Penny Wedding,"
both by Sir David Wilkie, indicate the first and the
second stage of his artistic development. No. 90,
" Hunting the Deer," may be well turned to as
a felicitous indication of the power of Snyders in
productions of that character. Other works pen-
cilled out as peculiarly noticeable in our copy of the
catalogue, demand a reference at our hands; but we
are reluctantly compelled to content ourselves just
now with a general commendation of the
collection ; advising all lovers of art to
visit more than once this season the galle-
ries of thn British Institution. At the private
view on Saturday, among other distinguished persons
present, were the Earl of Wicklow, the Earl of Hare-
wood, the Earl St. Germans, the Chevalier Bunsen,
the Earl of Falmouth, Lord James Stuart, Lady
Dunmore, Lady Clinton, Sir R. H. Inglis, Bart.,
Countess of Pembroke, Sir Horace Seymour, Lady
Gordon, Sir Charles Coote, Bart., Lord Charles
Townshend, Lord and Lady Colborne, Lady E
Villiers, Viscount Mahon, Dr. Waagen, M. Passe-
vent, Prince Castelcicala, Count Reventlow, Earl
Fitzwilliam, the Ladies Proby, Right Hon. J. C.
Herries, Sir Charles Burrell, Bart., Sir J. P. Boileau,
Bart., Hon. Edmund Phipps, Lord Kinnaird, W.
Sloane Stanley, Esq., Thomas Baring, Esq., Henry
Baring, Esq., Colonel Clitherow, Lord Overstone,
Lord Sudeley, Major-General Sir W. Herries, Rev.
John Sanford, Lord Hobart, Colonel Bailie, Baron
de Beust, Earl Granville, Sir Robert Price, Bart.,
Lord Badstock.