The Sun.
London, England, 1842-08-02 00:00:00

FILISER'S MAGAZINE.

The author of an essay on the ",Characters of celebrated
Authors, Ancient and Modern," which stands first in the
present Number, while discussing the qualities of Poly-
bius as a historian, alludes incidentally to Xenophon, of
whom he remarks that "we always seem to taste the
honey of the Attic bee in his flowery page. Vehemence
and passion are unsuited to his gentle nature ; there is
sweetness even in his fire. It is the lightning tin the
aromatic shade ; perfume and flame intermingled." We
do not exactly understand the meaning of this last sen-
tence, or how it applies to the style of the " A nabasis" and
" Cyroixedia," but we suppose the essayist means to say
that Xenophon is deficient in strength, and that his man-
ner is uniformly placid and equable. Vigour is certainly
not his chief characteristic ; but he has occasional pas •
sages of uncommon spirit, as all must acknowledge who
have the slightest recollection of his episode of I'anthea,
which is quite as remarkable for its vigorous, as for its
pathetic qualities. There are some spirited touches,
too, in his account of the death of Cyrus ; and his well-
known allegory of the " Choice of Hercules," is as manly
in its style as in its sentiment. With young scholars
Xenophon is always a favourite, for the ease, the clear-
ness, and the unaffected simplicity of his style, which,
as Quintilian justly observes, " seems as though it had
been fashioned by the Graces themselves." Of Polvbius,
whom the Essayist praises with much animation, ne can
say nothing, for we do not happen to be acquainted with
his history. In the " Illustrations of Alirabeau,"
there is a eulogistic memoir of the father of the
famous leader of the French Revolution. The author
makes out his case with great ingenuity, and dis-
creetly deals in generalities, when alluding to the elder
Mirabeau's persecution of his scape-grace son, being well
aware, apparently, that thw subject will not admit of a
close investigation. The lett. e•de•eachet which the

father caused-to be issued against the son, is a proof of
his vindictive nature, the force of which no special plead-
ing can diminish. The " Two Victories" is a tale
founded on the first civil war in La Vendee, of which
Madame de '.la Roche jaquelin has written! such an inte-
resting account. The writer has not made so much of
his theme as might have been expected, considering the
materials he had to work with. " British Popular Vaga-
ries" describes in an arch, sarcastic manner, some of the
recent follies of which John Bull has been guilty—such
for iaitance, as his sudden admiration of the late _Rev.
Mr. Irving, without a why or a wherefore ; and his pre-
sent patronage of the hydropathic system and its pro-
fessors. Honest John generally makes an ass of him-
self, once every four or five years. Sometimes his folly
takes a moral turn, and then a Byron must be sacri-
ficed to it ; another time, nothing will catch his atten-
tion but some astounding quackery, and then a St.
John Long must be his idol. Now he is a Methodist,

and now a Pusepte ; to-day a Whig, to morrow a Tory;
but it is remarkable that he never fails, in his lucid inter-
vi,ls, to abuse all whom he has petted during his halluci-
nation. We quote front Nimrod's " Life and Times" a
graphic portrait of the late Bishop Butler, Head-master
of Shrewsbury School, and who was a contemporary
with Nimrod at Rugby :
‘‘ But a word touching Bishop Butler. I slept four years
in the same room with this learned man, when he was in the
upper school and I in the lower; but how he became so learned
I am unable to say, unless it were that he was what is called a
heaven-born genius at Rugby ; and, which I believe was the
case, read very hard at Cambridge, where he carried all before
him. I can only vay this, that as far as school-reading or
studying was concerned, an apparently idler fellow wino

_ .
scarcely be found at Rugby. In the first place he was a great
fisherman, in the season, which lasted three parts of the year
in the Avon, and a great reader of novels and plays. Hew
then did he acquire the reputation of being the best scholar in
the school; and how was it that ' Play for Butler' (1. e. a
whole holiday for the be-t exercise of the week) was oftener
proclaimed for him than for any other boy? I cannot answer
the question; but this I know, that awaking in the morning,
he bid me or sonic other boy fetch him half a sheet of paper;
and, taking a novel or book of plays—often Shakspeare, of
course—from under his pillow, he would write his exercise off-
hand; and which, whether in prose or in verse, Greek, Latin,
or English, was almost certain to be the best of the day. Then
I was given to understand that his proceedings at lesson were
mull after this form :—He would ask the place, say a portion
of a Greek play ; look out a few words-in the lexicon, shut the
book, take a novel out of his pocket, and await the chance of his
being called up. If he were called up, his author was beauti-
fully displayed by him ; and when others were up,' James
would often appeal to him for his interpretation of a passage.
In fact James was proud of his scholar, which he well might
have been.

" Alas ! there are no pictures without shades. Butler was
most unpopular in the school. In fact, partly because he was
the son of a small shopkeeper in the small but beautiful village
of Kenilworth, and at Rugby as a foundation boy; and partly
on account of his churlish temper, we of the same boarding-
hcuse voted him nothing better than a snob, and tT meanness
of his personal appearance gave a colour to our proceedings.
Never would he offer to do us a verse or two, or construe us
over; but be would sit with his elbow on his knee, and his
face resting on one hand and a book in the other, for hours to-
gether, and never open his mouth. My brother was near him
in the school, but I seldom heard them exchange a word ; and,
it will be remembered, a good deal of the boy appeared in the
man. When he first commenced schoolmaster, he thrashed
his boys so much as to injure the school, and indeed nothing
but his high literary reputation would have re-established its
good name.' He, however, wisely profited by the hint given
him by parents, that their children were not to be made vic-
tims of his spleen. The quern Jupiter odit pedagogum facit
was at this time verified ; for the master of Shrewsbury school
was then hated as much as he was afterwards liked by the ge-
nerality of his scholars, his conduct towards them having under-
gone a great change."