The Sun.
London, England, 1844-07-18 00:00:00

LITERATURE.

FOREIGN and COLOiVIAL REVIEW, No., VII.

Smith and Elder, London,
_ 1844.
The most elaborate article in this Number is one
entitled ".Despotism and Democracy," in which
occurs the following just remark :—" There are un-
doubtedly moments, such as the, • present, whcm the
prevailing character is. indifference, we cannot call it
contentment ;-•-• when if men do not all agree upon
principles, they at least cease •to agitate them ; when
they lay aside their arms and pause to take .breatb.
But such cairn is ,delusive.; exhaustion leads to
leisure, and. leisure to redoubled energy. Nations,
like men, are ever moving forward to an unknown
future. The human mind and the elements of nature
are never entirely at rest." The Reviewer then pro-
ceeds to remark that " we are hurrying on either
towards a despotism or a.- democracy"—a very
' eomprehensive opinion which may safely be
hazarded of the political progress, not only of.
England, but of every country in Europe;
The Gospel before • the Age" is a notice,
much too panegyrical, of a work lately punished by the
Rev. Robert Montgomery, in which a passage is
Ilv)to41- as being prodigiously fine, which, to our
thinking, his nothing more than empty sounding born-.
Fmk, full ofalliterations, such as "noise and nonsense,"
"glare and glitter," and by no means wanting in
'broken metaphors. We know no author of the day
Who . has striven ,so hard, and- with so little success,
to7liecome a genuine poet .T" as the author of
."
." .Satan : lle is a strong
.Versiller;• and h familiar
with the rhetorical common-place§ of the art, but
of real imagination he possesses not one particle. In
the " New Spirit of the Age," Mr. Horne is treated
with more courtesy thin the critics. have yet shown
him, 'and the excellencies as'. well as the defects,
of his work are pointed out with candour and
discrimination. The ". Political Press of France"
gives an account of the present state of that
influential organ of public : opinion in Paris, which
Louis Phillippe, though not without considerable
difficulty, has contrived, if not altogether to silence, at
least to reduce to something like subordination. We
strongly suspect,. however, that in the end the French
Press will be too strong for the dynasty of the monarch
of the barriCachs. •

•
. . .
H IVIE3IOIRS *OF 'CONFUCIUS.
The flintily of Confucius, w'd a Still exists and
flou-ishes inViiina, may •he regard,d•• as probably the
moAt ancient and illustrious of which the records can be
traced,: since it can stow a de,.cent of more than:4,ooo
years; always more or less honourable from its first:
founder to the present time. keounts.Princes, Kings,
and Emperor; in its ranks; and nOtwithf-tanding the re-
volutions .whickhave more than. once_overwhelMed the
empire during the course of this long series of . years, it
has always enjoyed some hereditary title, to which
honorary distinctions have been added, so as to console
it in some-degree for the misfortunes of"the times.
Sie, up to whom the filthily has been traced with cer-
tainty„-himSelf descended from lloang-te, according to
the testimony of all historians. Towards the year 2257
8.C., he-was-placed in the Ministry by Shun, the imme-
diate 'successor of Yanu, who, one handred years before,
that 4s. to say, in the year 2357, had himself ascended
the throne, and, under whose reign-. happened that ter-
rible I inundation which made such dreadful . ravages
throughout the empire of China, .;Ile Was specially
charged with regidatin; the cereinonies and watching
Morals. Ilisintegrity, his wi:;dem,;-tind. his good -cons
duct altogether, -engaged his soyoeign- to recompense
him in a manner proportioned to-the important services
which he had rendered. the- State ; • he: presented hitri,
among other gifts, with the district of 'Shang in Ronan,
which was erected into a principalitf:-
'Thirteen of his descendants successively governed this
little .State, down to Ching-tang, ,#.l-iont the unanimous
voice, as well of the grandees aS. of the people and the:
feudatories, placed,. as it were, in despite of himself, at
the head of the empire, 1766 13.C..-:---Piddiny's .Chinese
Olio. •