The Sun.
London, England, 1842-02-28 00:00:00

LITERATURE

TRANSLATIONS FROM THE GERMAN.

Murray, London, 1842.
In this neat little volume we have translations,
both in prose and verse, from- some of the most
eminent German authors of modern times, among
whom Jean Paul figures conspicuously. The fol-
lowing passage occurs in this ingenious, though
somewhat fantastic thinker's Essay on Habitual
Cheerfulness. It is a sensible idea, well expressed :
" Excessive grief is the heart's suicide ; as the self-
murdererer is, in Silesia, buried with his face to the
ground, so he, who indulges in excessive grief, lies
with his face turned earthwards, instead of lifting it,
as he ought, to the heaven of the past, the present,
and the future." The versions from Uhland's Poems
are spiritedly rendered, especially the stanzas entitled
" Dante's Love."

SIR WALTER SCOTT'S LIFE OF NAPO-
LEON.—Part VIII.
Cadell, Edinburgh, 1842.
Sir Walter Scott's Life of the French Empror is
brought to a close in this part, which forms a porticn
of the second volume of the author's prose wort s.
As usual, it is got up with exceeding neatness.

WAVERLEY NOVELS.—VoI. 111., Part 2.
Cadet!, Edinburgh, 1842.
The whole of Kenilworth is comprised in the part
before us, which contains one illustration, represent-
ing the well-known interview between Tressilian and
Wayland Smith, at midnight, on a wild Berkshire
heath. The tale is also published in a duodecimo
form at the same price, four shillings.

LA FONTAINE'S FABLES.
Smith, London, 1842.
This is a translation from the French of La Fun-
taine, executed by a young American gentleman,
named Wright, and introduced by a preface on the
subject of the old fabulists, and also by a memoir of
La Fontaine. The version is accurate and spirited,
but much of the archness and easy, delicate humour
of the original is, as might be expected, perfectly
intransferable.

ICARAH ICAPLAN.-3 Vols.
Bentley, London, 1842.
The scene of this story is laid in the East—partly
in Persia, and partly in Koordistan ; and the prin-
cipal personage, from whom it derives its name, Karah
Kaplan, is a fierce, successful Koordish chief, who, in
attempting a surprise on the camp of the Shah of
Persia, is shot by his own father, who, up to that
disastrous moment, was unconscious of his paternity.
The adventures of this turbulent chieftain, who is
half soldier, half brigand, form the most conspicuous
—and we may add, the most interesting—portions of
the story,.wliich possesse..., this recommendation—no
slight one, by the bye—that it is the production of a
writer, the Hon. Charles Stuart Saville, who has
himself been a traveller among the wild regions he
describes, and shows a perfect familiarity with their
manners and customs. By way of relief to the
sterner and more energetic incidents, a love story is
introduced, the hero and heroine of which are Feridoon,
a young Persian adventurer, and Zorayda, the daughter
of one of the inferior nobles of the country. Feridoon
is spiritedly enough pourtrayed ; but Zorayda is more
like an English, than a Persian girl. Her con-
versation, the turn of her mind, the staidness of her
feelings, and sober strength of her judgment, remind
us of the simple, clever home-bred English female,
and throughout the delineation of her chara?ter, we
cannot dispossess ourselves of this idea. The tale is
pcssably written, in point of language, and from tke
startling nature of some of its incidents, we " guess"
--as Jonathan would say.,--that it will be converted
into an excellent melodrama.

THE LATE MR- ARCHIBALD
MEN ZIES, F.L.S.
This eminent botanist, who has just departed this
life, at the venerable age of eighty-eight, was born at
the beginning of the year 1754, and in his earlier
days led a life of enterprise and hazard. He was
originally brought up to the medical profession, and
first occupied himself in London with the town
practice that came before him, which was, we be-
lieve, lucrative and good. Tired at length, however,
his occupations at home, he grew desirous of throw,
ing himself, in his capacity of surgeon, among the
various private expeditions on the part of merchants,
which were then fitting out in great numbers, and
engaging in the very excellent branch of commerce
which had then sprung up, in the shape of the fur-
trade, which at this period gave employment to no
less than twenty sail of ships and vessels, fitted out
by the European States, as well as other adventurers
who thronged from the Asiatic, Chinese, and Ameri-
can shores.
The skill and management which Mr. Menzies
displayed in the first fur expedition upon which he
was employed, caused him to come under the notice
of the celebrated Captain George Vancouver, who had
saileybwith_Cantain Cook in the autumn of 1771, and
led to the destruction of Captain Oa in 1780, was
destined to become the commander of that navigator's
ship, the Discovery, and to follow in his steps, by at-
tempting to carry out the -designs which had been
so unhappily frustrated by the events at Owhyhee.
It was to this expedition that Mr. Menzie's attached
himself, and Captain Vancouver appears to have held
him so much in estimation, that while in the preface
to his "Voyage of Discovery," he omits to mention
many more elderly and approved officers of the ex-
pedition, he especially devotes a space to comme-
morate the services of his able collaborateur, Mr.
Menzies, and the friendship which he felt towards him.
" It was with infinite satisfaction," says the enthu-
siastic old circumnavigator of the globe, alluding to
the fittings out and arrangements which were filling
up the various scientific departments of the expedi-
tion, " that I saw, among the officers and young gen-
tlemen of the quarter-deck, some who, with little in-
struction would soon be enabled to construct charts,
take plans of bays and harbours, draw landscapes,
and make faithful portraits of the headlands, coasts,
and countries we might discover.
"Botany, however, was an object of scientific in-
quiry with which no one of us was much acquainted ;
but as, in expeditions of a similar nature, the most
valuable opportunities had been afforded for adding
to the general stock of botanical information, Mr.
Archibald Menzies, a surgeon in the Royal Navy,
who had before visited the Pacific Ocean in one of
the vessels employed in the fur trade, was appointed
for the specific purpose of making such researches.
For the purpose of preserving such new or uncom-
mon plants as he might deem worthy of a place
amongst his Majesty's most valuable collection of
exotics at Kew a glazed frame was erected on the
after-part of the quarter-dock, for the reception of
those he might have an opportunity of collecting:'
Mr. Menzies accordingly accompanied the expedi-
tion appointed by Lord Grenville, then Secretary of
State, during a period of five years, through the
various regions which Captain Vancouver explored.
The collections of rare, and, in a multitude of cases,
unknown plants, which he gathered in the islands of
the North Pacific and North Atlantic Oceans, were
truly valuable in their genera and species. The
Cape of Good Hope, New Holland, the Sandwich
Islands, more particularly Nootka Sound and its
adjacent shores, Port Jackson, the Columbia River,
the American coast from Fitzhugh's Sound to Cape
Decision, and from Monterrey to the Southern
Coast, the Gallipago Islands, and Valparaiso—all
contributed, in some shape or other, to furnish
him with that rich and invaluable collection
of land and maritime plants, which has since
formed the finest addition to - the treasures of the
vegetable kingdom preserved atliew, and, so greatly
enriched the cabinets of our first botanical institu-
tions. Mr. Menzies saw himself with the whole of
his precious freight on the twentieth day of October,
1795, safe in the Thames, on the return of the
ex-
pedition, during which excellent health so far pre-
vailed, that only one marine died of illness, the other
three that were lost being drowned by accident, t:nd
one poisoned by eating muscles.
During his later days, Mr. Menzie's spent the
greater part of his time in following his favourite
pursuit,he w,a.ams oinng
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Monday last at Nantes. Two men were fighting near a guard,
A tragical scene was enacted in the evening of
house, when some of the soldiers turned out to separate them and
disperse the crowd. One of the combatants in his blind rage
rushed on the bayonet of one of the soldiers, and immediately fell
dead on the grcued, having previously killed his first adversary by
stabbing him with a pair of cornpasses• No real blame can be at,
ti ihuted to the soldier, but he is rimier arrest, and will Le tried by a
Court.martial.
A letter has been received from Colonel Dennie, of
her Majesty's 13th Light Infantry, datel Jellahabad, the sth
of December, 1841, from which we are g'ad to learn that tho
force under General Sale was not then so dangerously placed
as the public were at first led to imagine. They had so far re-
on
French theAmbassa ore' f'
o his
stored the fortifications as to render the town secure against any
attack on the part of the Affghans. They were well supplied
12t1-1
with ammunition and provisions, and confidently expteted to be
relieved early in the month of January.
eveninginc:tmanrti,e,r,ithwdhesopaletcfhteMs ntritdhe the
Government, was stopped when a league and a half from that ca.
pital by six armed brigands, who, having made the courier alight,
and the postilion dismount, compelled them to lie with their faces
on the ground while the robbers rifled them and the carriage of
everything that could be found, including money to a considerable
amount. They were about to carry off the valise containing the
despatches, but the courier, by his coolness and resolution, though
at the risk of his life, induced the brigands to open it to as( ertain
that it contained nothing of value, and then deliver it up to him. ,
The Ukase of the Emperor of Russia, which allows
the annual sums necessary for the support of the clergy and the two
convents in the westan provinces of the empire, is one of the most
important that have been issued for many years from the Emperor' '
Cab.net. By this law the priests are only public functionaries. A
soon as the Government pays the clergy it tnakea them depend-
ent
on it.