The Sun.
London, England, 1827-07-26 00:00:00

WIPENOI

lIIIIMIE

at ; the poor enthusiast that spent his life on a
pillar, or she who gives her tawny skin to be
needled and flowered as if it were an insensible
garment ; each and all display a spirit that is
stronger than sense—a power that laughs at
pain—a soul that tyrannizes over the flesh, as if
it were something alien and of another nature.
Nor do 1 doubt that nian—ay, and soft trem-
bling woman also—may exult in agony, and re-
joice with the joy of victory upon the rack. Do
we not see the vilest malefactors jest with the
gallows, and make merry with the lash
Mountebanks and bedlamites would gash them-
selves for gain : Drunkards oftimes for mere
sport or bravado. What toil, what privation, are
not men daily imposing upon themselves for a
trifling wager, and the praise of fools ? Need
we refer to the gladiators of old—poor slaves,
whom courage greater than all the boasted
achievements of Curii and Dentati could not
rescue from contempt ; who, (to use the words
of the great Jeremy,) " when they were exposed
naked to each other's swords, and were to cut
each other's souls away in portions of flesh, as if
their forms had been as divisible as the life of
worms,—they did not sigh or groan ; it was a
shame to decline the blow, but according to the
just measures of art. The women that saw the
wound shriek out ; and he that receives it holds
his peace. He did not only stand bravely, but
will also fall so ; and when he was down, scorned
to shrink his head, when the insolent conqueror
came to lift it from his shoulders : and yet this
man, in his first design, aimed only at liberty and
the reputation of a good fencer ; and when he
sank down, he saw he could only receive the
honour of a brave man,—the noise whereof he
shall never hear, when his ashes are crammed
into his narrow urn." Holy Dying, eh. iii.
sect. 4. And can virtue be weaker than vanity ?
Shall he " whom the truth makes free," be more
coward than a stage-playing slave ? Shall the
hope of immortality in heaven—the applause of j
God and angels—the beauty of holiness—shall
these l6ss avail to hearten the children of light,
than the clamour of a theatre, or the shout of a
rabble, or the envy of a ball-room,----the poor
praise of a delicate hue and slender form, or the
devilish renown of impenitent villainy, which
have fortified the nerves of the frailest, or the
worst of worldlings—of fantastic females, of half-
brutified savages, of miserable buffoons, and har-
dened ruffians at the gibbet ?

(TO BE CONTINUED.)

ARCHIBALD CONSTABLE, ESQ.

We are concerned to learn that Mr. Constable,
our late eminent publisher, who had for some time
suffered severely under a dropsical complaint, ex-
'red suddenly, at his house in Park-place, on the
afternoon of Saturday. It is now somewhat more
than thirty years since Mr. Constable began to at-
tract the notice of the learned of this city by his
knowledge of rare books, particularly of those con-
nected with the early literature of Scotland; and,
several years before his name became known to the
world as a considerable publisher, he bad succeeded
as well by the amenity of his manners, as by his
professional intelligence and activity, in rendering
his shop the favourite resort of all the more curious
and aspiring spirits of the place. His views, how-
ever, were never limited to the collection of literary
rarities,•or to a merchandise confined to the existing
materials of literature. He had always longed to
become instrumental in adding something of import-
ance to the stock of knowledge, and to enrol his
name in the list of the more liberal and enterprising
publishers of the day. Edinburgh fortunately 'pos-
sessed the means of gratifying this laudable ambi-
tion ; and he as fortunately appeared at a period
when, without such a man, her native genius might
hare been hampered In its flights, or damped and
circumscribed in the ardour and range of its aspiring
exertions.

His fame as a publisher commenced with the appear-
elicit of the Edinburgh Review, which he had the ho-
nourofslahering into the world ; anti he long ministered
to its success and its glory by a deportment towards 1
its conductors and authors as discreet and respectful
as it was manly and liberal. Sonic years after the
first appearance of this celebrated journal, he became
the proprietor of another national work—The En-
cyclopadia Britannica, for which he paid a price
that excited the surprise of some of the more timid
of his brethren, but which was amply warranted by
measures and results which his superior intelligence
and sagacity had enabled him to plan and foresee.
\\Then that important work became the property of
his house, the printing of its fifth edition was too
ler advanced to admit of any material improvements;
but Constable saw very clearly that these were
largely reqttiF.sd, in order to place it on a level with the
knowledge, the warits, and the spirit of the age ; and
hence he devised the pseptet of that Supplement
which has added so much to its vaiee and celebrity.
Many doubts as to the expediency of a supple-
mental publication upon so extensive a scale, were,
we believe, expressed by those who pretended to
experience and skill in such undertakings; but Mr.
Constable's anticipations were folly realised by the
signal success of this favourite design. During the
progress of those works, his house was still further
aggrandised by the publication of the writings of
Mr. Dugald Stewart and Sir Walter Scott—the
one bearing the most illustrious name in the serious,
as the other does in the lighter branches of our
national literature. His intercourse with the latter
was mswb more intimate, varied, and extensive, and
in many respects more remarkable, than was ever
before exemplified between author and publisher.—
The publication, first of the highly popular poems,
and utterly of the still more popul novels of that
extraordinary genius, raised his house to the acme
of its fame. Tbc author of Waverley has himself
borne honourable teatireeny, in the introduction
to one of his novels, to Nr, Constable's , me-
rits; and we are satisfied, that what he thus
proclaimed in the prolegomena of a work of
fiction, he would repeat, if the opportunity
shall occur, with perfect sincerity, and perhaps
greater force, in a work of truth. How it happened,
that with all the, splendid success so beneficial and
honourable to our literature, whirl' attended Mr.
Constable's undertakings, his publishing career
should have closed so disastrously, we are not very
able, nor much disposed at present to inquire. We
firmly believe- that he proceeded onwards to that
close, void of any apprehension of such an issue, and
wholly unconscious of its near approach. He had
just completed the plan of the Afiseellany, which
bears his name, and was busied, seemingly, with
well-founded hopes, in sanguine calculations of the
returns which it would bring to his house. Its pub-
lication did not take place till after the failure of that
establishment ; and we are happy to think that its
subsequent success furnished some solace for his mis-
fortunes, us well as some alleviation of his bodily
sufferings his final undertaking thus proving to be
his last and orgy means of support. We are not
writing a full or elaborate character. We have only
detailed a few particulars, calcutated to justify the
sentiments of grateful respect which we entertain
for his memory, ae. by far the most eminent publisher
that ever Scotland produf.!ed.—Caledonian Mercury.

On Wedneoay a worthies; -fellow, 10i.o had
committed some depresttion in Paisley, was traced to
Glasgow, where he took refug:: is a work-shop. Seeing
himself closely pursued, and just as the officers ,vere going
to lay hold of him, ha sprung to an open window beside
him, and threw himself oat, but instead of letting himself
fall, as was supposed, ho hung by the ]edging. The pur-
suers, thinking they had nothing to do but to pick tip his
mangled remains, ran to the back of the house ; but he was
no where to be seen—for the rogue proving an adept in
his calling, no sooner found his manoeuvre succeed, than
he threw himself in again, bolted down stairs, and got Clear
off,•-.Glasgow Chir. iClr!