The Sun.
London, England, 1842-03-01 00:00:00

iTAGAZINE DAY.

BLACKWOOD'S MAGAZINE.
Though there is no lack of erudition in the essay
on the " Pagan Oracles," which leads off the present
Number, yet there is a vagueness and mistiness about
it, which is any thing but inviting to the general
reader. The author does not keep his theme suffi-
-1 ciently in view, but is constantly wandering ffom it.
his ablest passages are the introductory ones, wherein
he casually alludes to the Greek and Latin Fathers of
the early Christian Church, of whom he justly ob-
serves, they were the elite of their own age, but not
in advance of it. They, like all their contemporaries,
were besieged by errors, ancient, traditional, invete-
rate ; and accidentally, from one cause special to
themselves, they were not merely liable to error, but
usually prone to error. The Emperor Julian—of
whom miso a passing mention is made—is much too
.harshly dealt with, for though he was not the hero
and sage that Gibbon, in his avowed admiration, has
made it appear that he was, yet he certainly was not
" a malicious and unprincipled liar," for, at least, he
is entitled to the merit of having acted from convic-
tion. There is much truth in this remark respecting
the famous Grecian Oracle :—" Prudence it was, and
state-policy, not the power of Christianity, which
gave the final shock to the grander functions of the
Delphic Oracle. In the new condition of the Roman

power, there was a perpetual pet;l, lost an oracle so
potent as that of Delphi, should absolutely create re-
bellions, by first suggesting, hopes to men in high
commands." In the " Notes on the Fishers of the
Scotch East Coast," we recognise the pen of a lively
and forcible descriptive writer. Ilerci is a vivid sketch
of the interior of a Scottish fisherman's cottage :
Let us enter one of their villages—one of their cottages. The
outside of every row of the low-walled cottages is festooned on
ropes with jackets, petticoats, and bright-pattetaed handker-
chiefs, or else these articles dry peacefully on the thatch.
Oc-
casionally haulins, tipped with hooks, are seen; or creels or
marlins, clustered round a pale, which overtops even the
wooden hag or .chimney itself. The men are at sea, many
women away disposing of th ••ir fish, and only nursing mothers,
and happy, noisy, playful, and dirty children enliven the scene.
A solitary sullied scagul, or a scrolls (cormorant), a huge 1,..ey
creature, three feet long, 'with wing clipped, a captive, struts
with a solemn half-happy pride about the mussel mid-
dens, or wades through the gutters, or approaches
the edge of the undulating wave, which rushes gently
up to kiss the smooth sand-beach. Enter one of their cot-
tages. The floor is earthen; but being Saturday afternoon,
i► neatly sanded over, r:om the door inwards to the hearth.
There is no passage. The cottage consists of two rooms, a
" but and a ben." At. the fsr end from the door, the turf fire

is burning on a hearth of brcks, awl the smoke ascends past the
couples out at a hole in the roof. As the evening is approaching,
the fish on hakes (wooden triangles, with nails for hooks),
which, during the day, hung outside the walls to dry, are now
su pended on them inside. In one corner a few deal boards are
nailed, so as to make a bed for children above, and a place for
fuel below. A wooden cradle is opposite. The seats are fir
stools and chairs, and the little round turning-up table is of the
same material, and all are as clean and white as snow. Oars,
wicker baskets, and creels and nets, are placed on the couples.
Let a regArd for Finnan paddies invest these details with in-

terest and respect; for, from such a scene, and such auenvi-
ronment, do they pass on their way to make up that feast for
the gods-1 Scotch breakfast. The evening darkens in, and
the " eruisie," a small iron lamp, is lit up. A patriarchal
family assembles, including sometimes four generations. Let a
reverence for the great domestic drama of every-day life, of
which these humble details make up the scene, stir the imagi-
nation to realize them all—the grandam with her grandchild
upon her knee—the nursing mother, the toiling faker, the
children gazing at their elders studiously—the little fellow
asleep on the net on the door, and the small light struggling
with the smoke to display all. I will look at the Claudes and
the Titians in your pictured drawing-room another time. It is
a poor place, but you cannot till your palace with more interest-
ing things than it sees—births, deaths, marriages2-life.
Of the fishwomen on the eastern coast of Scotland,
we are told that they are all married young, and that
an old maid is scarcely known among them. " Sel-
dom," adds the writer, " are their marriages un-
happy. Prostitution is hardly known.] Occasionally
the first child comes very soon; but generally the
women are chaste." We have been pleased with the
following anecdote :—" In the spring of last yevr the
traveller was shown the entire clothing of two sea-
men, who hail been cast ashore and decently in-
terred on.the spot. The clothes - lay exactly as they
had been taken off the bodies, the braces still hooked
to the back-buttons, the boots and everything were
good. Yet the neighbouring poor ha -I left them
scrupulously untouched!. A boat, wh;cli, has once
cost a life,. is never , again used by a Buchan fisher ;
it is drawn up on a lonely par of the beach unt'l it
rots, or is destroyed by the first storm that reaches
it." " Caleb Stulwlv" is an- entertaining story, the.
scene of which is laid in Cambridge. The sketch of
the gouty Vice-Chancellor, .who, after- delivering a
devout and eloquent homily on Christianity, "damns"
his listener fora; " young villain" because he happens.
accidentally to break the bell-rope, is highly charac-
teristic. The "Portraits of. Versailles" is sufficiently
explained by its title. The writer's lamentations,
however, for the loss of the ,"glorious times of Ver-
sailles," are sheer cant. What Frenchman, with his
country's interest at heart, could possibly sigh fur the
restoration of such times—when dissipation and reek-

less extravagance were esteemed virtues, and passive
obedience was the fashion of the day ? Thank God,
times like these are past for ever, in France as wen
as in England! The "Prussian Monarchy" is, a re-
view of an amusing work lately published, entitled,
" Frederick the Great, and his Times." The "North-
ern Circuit" is cleym:sh, which is as much as we can
say in its praise. The "World of London" justly
satirizes the Cockneys for thei, inordinate puston
for shows and processions. The " New Houses of Par-
liament" contains several judicious observations on the
law of design.