The Sun.
London, England, 1845-06-09 00:00:00

MAGAZINES-.{CONTINUED).

F.RASE fr S MAGAZINE.
°Wagers appears to be in a most deplorable state of
mind-et present. The splendid month which has just
gone, the opening June, with all its flowers and green
hares, and iicheat verdure, cheering alike the inhabitants
of the lowly cottage and the gorgeous palace, have no
eharms for him ; he rejects every delight that affects
ordinary minds, and resolves to be the most determined
misanthropist in existence. It is a curious fact too, de-
serving notice, because it shows the nature of the dis-
temper, that he does not vent his rage on enemies, he
does not single out a Radical, or a Whig, or a Liberal,
or sits Anti-Corn-law or a Maynooth advocate, but
attacks his beet friends, men who have fought with him
ki the good cause, or have become converts. If a com-
mission ds &Justice inquirendo were appointed to inves-
'4o9 the cause of this singular phenomenon he would
not have the slightest chance of a favourable verdict.
Dr. Hessians is gone, but Dr. Monro, we believe, is still
s exigence, and the evidence of this mad doctor and
11Yr. Lawrence would carry conviction to the mind of the
most sobstinate juryman. To begin with Sir George
Murray, A staunch Conservative and a most distin-
guished officer, who has brought out a work on the great
Duke of Marlborough. Fraser treats it with the ut-
Imo* contempt. He charges the compiler with imposing
oa the public spurious documents, and urges as one
swoon for the assumption that they are written in
/french, a language of which Marlborough " was not
sitfficiently master to keep up a correspondence in it, or
, 'lndeed to express himself upon paper with any degree of
aoentsley through that medium," though every reader of
history knows that le bed Anglais studied the art of war
under riurenne, spent no little time of his life in France,
end sit Tied on long wars in countries where a knowledge
of the French language was absolutely necessary to ar-
range even the most common operations. Anether
complaint is that Sir George Murray has not translated
time letters, presetting, therefore, a work totally unin-
telligible Ile English offcers. The whole work, in fact,
Is bad. It professes important ends, but "we must con-
fuse," says the writer, " that according to our poor judg-
ment they hare not :.een gained at all. The letters now
- on oar table throsellao new light upon any of the great
toansaetions which ave their own character to the
reiri‘ind times of Queen Anne." So much for Sir
6eorge Murray. The next friend attacked is Lord
Brougham, and his attempt to write the lives of Voltaire
and Rousseau and other men that he had never seen, is
viewed as the most daring presumption, " What business,
.in Heaven's name, had he to write tile lives of Voltaire
and Rousseau? Voltaire died sixty-seven or sixty-eight
years ago, in the eighty-fifth year of his age, pretty
ameh about the time that Lord Brougham was born, and.
Sousseau died sixty -seven years and eleven months ago,
when the name of Brougham, as a literary character,
had never been heard of." So that, if Brougham was
arrogant in writing the lives of men who were in ex-
istence at his birth, what must be said of Johnson, who
wrote the lives of Cowley and Denham and Rochester
and A/Tilton, and of another biographer called Middleton,
who presumed to write the life of a Roman who died
before' the Christian era? The evidence of Dr. Haslani
on this point would have been very alarming for the
friends of the " unfortunate subject of inquiry."
D'lartieli, of course, had no chance of escape during the
fit. That distinguished writer maintains all the high
doctrines of Toryism—he stands up as manfully as
Fraser for Church and King, not forgetting the people—
she beat friends of Regina—he is more Tory than
Murray or Brougham, and is therefore more bitterly
assailed. His very look, and air, and gait excite the
patient to madness. " Look at him in the streets, was
she-re ever such an appearance of a man—such an sir of
alt that i 3 extraordinary in the human animal? And so
ate is everywhere else. Does any man, woman, or child
is Viregland, believe that Mr. Benjamin Disraeli wastes
one various thought on anything animate or inanimate in
sreation, except himself." If this woul I not have decided
the meet sceptical marl doctor, what would ? Critics
in their sober senses discuss the merits of a book,
point out its faul's or its beauties. but never descend
to personalities, and we hare even been greatly shocked,
when reading reports of pr.•ceedings at Gray's Inn
enZee-house, to find the gentlemen of the press so
fear tiebeeaniii,e themselves as to de crib:; the air and
giit of the unfortunate patient, the length of his none
the colour of his eyes, and the peculiarities which
ciliseinguished him from his judge; on the bench,
hue drive the practice me), be excused. In re
eiewing a work it is instiff rable, and can be ac-
aourted for only on th . plea la hieh we have hu-
rneneJy set forth. There is, fortunately, n) political
streele in the Number, ler the place usually occupied
by chat api.endage is devoted to a treatise by tor
esteemed acquaintance, Merger Rettler, wimse dis-
sertations en Horace have delighted every classical
reader. An extract from it, therefore, will riot be nu-
aeceptable It is a treatise on the Italian Opera, and is
written in a style suited to the subject. After describing
the " bevies of beauties" to be seen by the wandering
eve, flitting from box to box, i',lorgan thus paints the
other sex, among whom he includes the Great Duke and
Br aminondae :
. " The contemplation, too, of the older men present,
upon whom Age has conferred some of its monumental
pomp, and great achievements, civil or military, have
made the peculiar care of hisw)ry, is sot without deepest
interest. There, for example, tranquilly reposes the
OzeAT DETER in his seat, drinking in the spirit of sweet
sounds, until they have flooded heart and brain ; and
those, the haughty and the soaring, are bah soothed into
a resteiusion of gentle bliss. There you look upon the
one end only human head to which an English gentleman
-bows in deferential homage, apartfrom conventional forms
feel conventional propriety, in an onierly state; the one,
gad ouV one, to which the heart and mind bow in the
unfeigned acknowledgment of superiority, with the out-
ward inclination of the brow—the supremacy which
104tchlese glory, prevailing intellect, and wisest courage,
combined with indomitable will, can alone confer upon
mortale ; you bow to him as the generous Greek of every
district loved to do to Epominondas, the sole hero of
antiptity, whose might and whose moderation qualify
bias to ste (I forth with the Duke in comparison, for the
eternal 1 ton of renown to those wile love their country.
il 'The sits the iron man, serene and tranquil ; the
mighty conqueror, of whom it might be 5 L 8 truly said as
of the gentle Epaminondas, ' Victory followed him as his
shadow.' To me the picture is as touching as that by
David of 4 Napoleon Sleeping ;' made heart-howl' to 1
-every visionary eye by the lofty and glowing versee of
my friend Simmons ; for I can believe that in such it
scene, and under such circumstances, the Duke's thought
would wing its way back to the passages of his child-
hood, and that his heart would feel his father's spirit was
hovering sear. Surely there is nothing fantastical,
nothing forced in such an association of ideas ! The
illustrious warrior could not, it is true, say, like Milton,
of his father and himself,—
" ‘Dividuumqtee deum genitor querque tenenaus; "