The Sun.
London, England, 1844-02-01 00:00:00

HOOD'S MAGAZINE.

This Magazine ovens with a poem from the pen,
we presume, of the Editor, in which occur some beau-
tiful touches of feeling. It is, however, too much
an echo of the "- Song of the Shirt," but we can
readily overlook this fault in consideration of the
valuable moral it inculcates. The sukect of the
poem is - the " Lady's Dream," and it describes a
young female of rank and fashion who falls asleep,
and in her dreams is visited by the ghosts of those
wretched, hard-worked females who have worn away
their lives in toiling night and day to furnish her,
and others in her situation, with splendid apparel.
We quote the closing passages of this vision. The
lady herself is supposed to be relating it, and thus
gives vent to- her tardy remorse
" Of the hearts that daily break,
Of the tears that hourly fall,
. Of the many, many troubles of life,
• That grieve this earthly ball—
Disease and Hunger, and Pain and Want,
But now I dreamt of them all !
" For the blind and the cripple were there, _
And the babe that pined for bread,
And the houseless man, and the widow poor
Who begged—to bury the dead;
The naked, alas, that I might have clad,
The famished I might have fed !
" The sorrow I might have soothed,
-And the unregarded tears ;
For many a thronging shape was there,
From long forgotten years,
Aye, even the poor rejected Moor,
ilco rais'd my childish fears
" Each pleading look, that long ago
I scann'd with a heedless eye, .
Each face was gazing as plainly there,
As when I passed it ; - •
Woe, 'woe for sae if the past should be
Thus present when I die.!
, • ".No need of sulphureous lake,
No need of fiery coal,
But only that crowd of human kind •
Who wanted pity and dole—
In everlasting retrospect— •
Will wring my sinful soul!
"Alas ! I have walked through life
• Too heedless where I trod ;
Nay, helping to trample my fellow worm,
And fill the burial sod:—
Forgetting that even the sparrow falls
Not unmark'd of God!
"I drank the richest draughts;
And ate whatever is good—
Fish, and flesh, and fowl, and fruit,
Supplied my hungry mood;
But never remembered the wretched ones
That starve for want of food!
"I dressed as the noble dress,
In cloth of silver and gold.,
BW,
Turlirtthnihhlleaenislt
n.eilofukxruony,enlzralsld Imsas
e,
faonl
dd
;c os t y fins,
withomer remembered
winter's
eathihlddra,tlssh
nee:
ahonlredatak.
read
!limbs
And yet it never was in my soul
To play so ill a part :
But evil is wrought by want of Thought.
As well as want of Heart ."
She clasp'd her fervent hands,
And the tears began to stream •
Large, and bitter, and fast they fell,
Remorse was so extreme;
And yet, oh yet, that many a Dame
Would dream the Lady's Dream !

The lines which we have marked in Italic convey
an impressive moral truth. The " Strange Student"
is a somewhat fantastic story, and relates to the suicide
of an imaginative young man who falls a victim to his
own high-wrought fancies. The story is not ill-
written, but there is nothing in it that calls for par-
ticular remark. " Nature and Art consists of a cor-
respondence between two individuals, one of whom had
gained a prize in the Art-Union Lottery, and describes
the annoyance to which he was subjected owing -to - his-
acq uisition of that prize. The correspondence is divert-
ing, and quizzes picture-lotteries in a very whimsical and
good-uaturedinanner. The" Installatiou" is a storp the

scene of which is laid in Oxford, at the time when
the Duke of Wellington was installed Chancellor of
that Uriivfifsity. lie narrative is skilfully sustained.
throughout. " A Word for Bores" is a defence
these unhappy individuals, and is more ingenious.
than successful. " The Struggle for Fame" contains
some sound advice, albeit in rhyme, to a young
aspirant after celebrity. The poem is one that can
hardly fail to please from the ease and grace of the
versification. Of the few remaining articles the best
is a notice of " Gautier's Travels in Spain,"