The Sun.
London, England, 1845-05-05 00:00:00

ROOD'S MAGAZINE.

This magazine improves as it advances. The pre-
sent Number is one of the most interesting we have
seen, yet amidst the numerous amusing contributions
we miss the animated productions of the Editor. We
cannot regard this work without a feeling of sorrow,
when we reflect that he, to whom we owe so many
I!appy hours and pleasing thoughts, should now lie
powerless on to bed of sickness, unable to exert
those brilliant talents with which he was wont, not
only to charm the fancy, but to touch the heart. The
magazine for April announced the mournful tidings
that the life of Thomas Hood was in the utmost
danger ; the present Number adds nothing to confirm
our fears, and from its silence we venture to hope that
our sad enticipatioes not be realized, and that
at some future day, however distant, we shall again
be cheered by the inspirations of his genius. The
other contributors have done their utmost to make us
forget his absence. The first subject is a continuation
of " the Tides of the Colonies," by Charles Rowcroft ;
it commences with a very interesting account of the
daring escape of some convicts from Van Diemen's
Land. "On the Picturesque" contains an instruc-
tive description of Etrusean Vases, and the Fine
Arts among the ancients. The " Sword of Zuniga"
is a legend of Hungary, founded on that romantic
theme, the wars of the Moors and Christians.
Chronicles of the Fleet is the introduction to a
series of tales relating to the unhappy inmates of that
once crowded prison. The following remarks prove
from experience that " 'lime" indeed " works
wonders ;

-
"' how vast and extraordinary have been the political
events even in our own time ! Two great revolutions
in France ; the capital of Austria twice occupied by the
victorious troops of a soldier of fortune, and saved from
dismemberment only by the propitiatory sacrifice of the
daughter of a line of kings ; Prussia twice conquered ;
Russia invaded, and her capital burnt to save it from
the occupation of the enemy ; Paris, the city of war-
riors, twice taken ; Portugal, Belgium, Greece, and the
whole of South America, revolutionised ; Spain re-
volutionised half a dozen times. To come nearer home :
our own country,' he continued, ' may be said to have
undergone two revolutions within the last sixteen years :
The admission of the Roman Catholics to parliamentary
and other rights,—a concession undisguisedly declared
by its Conservative proposers to be unavoidable to saw
the nation from civil war and dismemberment ; and the
Reform of Parliament in 1832, than which no more re-
markable revolution has taken place in history—the
triumph of the national will over the hereditary pos-
sessors of parliamentary power. We are too near to
the events,' he said, to understand fully their extent
or their results.'

" Do not forget,' said I, the social changes and im-
provements of the last few years—steam navigation and
railways; and take into account also the wonderful dif-
fusion of information which has taken place during the
last half century, in the multiplication of books, and
newspapers, and all sorts of cheap publications.'
" It is impossible,' said my friend, with much
earnestness, in considering all these political and social
advancements and developments, to come to any other
conclusion than this—that society is on the eve of some
greater change than has ever occurred on earth. The
spreading of information among the labouring classes,
and the wonderful facilities which exist for the diffusion
of knowledge, cannot fail, in a short time, to have a
prodigious effect on the masses. With the moral power
of intelligence ad.led to the physical power of numbers,
it would be idiotic fatuity to suppose that they would
consent to exist in the state of wretchedness in which
they now are;—then the change will come, but whether
by some means of social re-organisation which we
cannot yet clearly see, or by some terrible social and
political revolution, wilder and more devastating than
the world has ever witnessed, is beyond the reach of
human wisdom to divine.'

"The Fat Ox" is an amusing fable, illustrating the
state of the currency; the ox, while it was fed on
paper rags, increased daily in strength and beauty,
but when, through a fatal mistake, its food was
altered to gold and silver turnips, of which the whole
world did not contain enough for its support, the
change in fits condition was sudden and awful, the
once-fat ox suffering from want of food, had hardly
sufficient strength to support its undiminished burdens.
"The Press" is on the subject of the Duke of Wel-
lington's supposed illness, and his angry letter to the
Morning Post. Speaking on the subject of the re-
spect due to the Press, the writer observes :
"In these times it would be absurd to attempt to deny
the prodigious influence of the press on all classes of so-
ciety, from the highest to the lowest; that it has be-
come the daily mental sustenance of hundreds of thou-
sands; that it has power to set up or to pull down the
strongest Ministry. These are truths not to be denied ;
and those few who deny it with their tongues confess it
by their fears.
"It becomes a matter of the highest importance, there-
fore, that the controllers of this mighty engine of good
or ill should be of a class and of a character commensu-
rate with the high duties which they have to perform;
and it is clearly the duty and the interest of society to
assign to them that social position which is due to the
talents which are necessary for their vocation, and to
the influence which they exercise upon the minds of the
people. Anything that tends to degrade the conductors
of the press pollutes the source from which only truth
and virtuous thoughts should follow; and the mistaken
neglect of society re-acts on society itself with most per-
nicious effect."

" The Philosophy of Plagiarism " is an interesting
discussion in extenuation of this species of theft. After
alluding to the various authors from Virgil down..
wards, who have thought it no degradation to borrow
from the works of others, the writer comes to the con-
clusion that they only are to blame who blindly copy
others, without thinking for themselves. He admits
that it is lawful to seek materials from foreign
sources, but then it must only be for the purpose of
fashioning them anew.
" For it must never be forgotten that no man can be
original in the vulgar sense of originality ; no man can
draw solely from his own resources. • Sir,' said Dr.
Johnson, man can coin guineas only as he has gold.'
This is the point. Give the poet materials, he will
fashion them : give him rough gold, and he will
return you guineas. The greatest genius,' said
Goethe, will never be worth much if he pretends to
draw exclusively from his own resources.' What is
genius but the faculty of seizing and turning to account
every thing that strikes us ; of co-ordinating and
breathing life into all the materials that present them-
selves ; of taking here marble, there brass, and building
a lasting monument with them."