The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1844-11-12 00:00:00

iLtteraturr

POETRY.

MAY YOU DIE AMONG YOUR KINDRED.

BY MRS. ABDY.
(From the Church of England Magazine.)

" How much is expressed by the form of oriental benediction,
' May you die among your kindred :' "—GREENWOOD.
"May you die among your kindred;" may you rest your part-
ing gaze
On the loved familiar faces of your young and happy days :
May the voices whose kind greeting to your infancy was dear
Pour loving!y, while life declines, their music In your ear.

•
"May you die among your kindred;" may the friends you love
the b st,
List to your fainting accents, and receive your last request,
Read your unuttered wishes on your changeful features dwell,
And mingled sighs of sorrow with your faltering faint farewell,

"May you die among your kindred ;" may your peaceful grave
be made
In the quiet, cool recesses of the churchyard's hallowed shade;
There may your loved ones wander at the silent close of day,
Fair buds and fragrant blossoms on the verdant turf to lay.

'Tis a tender benediction ; yet methinks it lacks the power
To cast a true serenity o'er life's last solemn hour.
Ye whom I love, I may not thus love's Christian Tart fulfil;
List, while I ask for you a boots more dear, more precious still.

So may you die that, though afar from all your cherished ties,
Though strangers hear your dying words and close your dying
• eyes,
Ye shall net know desertion, since your Saviour shall he near,
'To fill your fainting spirit with the " love that casts out fear,"

So may you die, so willingly submit your soul to God,
That evermore your kindred, as they tread the path you trod,
May picture your existence on a far off heavenly shore,
And speak of you as one not " lost," but oniy " gone before."

So may yon die that, when your death to pious friends is known,
Each shall devoutly, meekly wish such lot may he their own :
Not heeding if you died in want, in exile, or in pain,
But feeling that you died in faith, and thus " t. die is gain."
St. John's Rectory, Southwark.

COMFORT.

(BY ELIZABETH B. BARRETT.)
" Speak low to me, my Saviour—low and sweet
From out the halle ujshs, sweet and low,
st I should fear and fall, and miss thee so
Who art not miss'd by any that entreat.
Speak to me as to Mary at thy feet—
And if no precious gums my- hands bestow,
Let my tears drop lice amber, while I go
In reach of thy divinest voice complete
In humanest affection—thus, in sooth
To lose the sense of losing ! As a child,
Whose song bird seeks the wood for evermore,
Is sung to in its stead by mother's mouth'
Till, sinking on her bi-east, love-reconciled
He sleeps the faster that he wept before."

NOTICES.

Blackwood's Magazine.
The number for the present month is replete with arti-
cles of deep interest to the reader of the sound and argu-
mentative, as well as to those who delight in the literary
and amusing. On the mortifying issue of the Irish State
trials there is a clever and learned paper, showing that
both in reason and in common law the traversers ought
not to have escaped the punishment due to their offences ;
but the writer imputes no unworthy motives to those few
members of the House of Lords who so hastily pro-
nounced the opinions of the judges who were called to ad-
vise them to be " elf arly erroneous." "My College
Friend" is a light and pleasing exposition of College life
—yet to be concluded. " The Tombless Man," a poetical
drama, by Delta, has all the vigour and depth of mind so
often exhibited by that writer. It is an extraordinary
picture which he draws, of a succession of visions of
sepulchral desolation and horror, with occasional touches
of the sublime, but ending in an escapement of the sole
narrator,

To sights and sounds familiar—to the birds
Singing alone—and the bright vale beneath,
With cottages and trees—and the blue sky—
And the glad waters murmuring to the sun."
An exposition of socialism, under the head " French So-
cialists," is, we think, a masterly view of all those utopian
and debasing systems of communities in common. The
" Memoirs of a Statesman" are continued, with unabated
powers of description and knowledge of character—in-
cluding the dreadful siege of Valenciennes, during the
French revolutionary wars. There is a long review of
recently published " Poems, by Elizabeth Barrett," with
numerous extracts. Some of the pieces are certainly
very beautiful; but we think the reviewer has shown a
degree of partiality to others which their merits scarcely
warrant. We admit the lady to have great poetical
powers. but scarcely fewer faults, especially in diction,
which last she may be the less inclined to amend, when
they are treated with reproval so delicate. The review of
" Lamartine's Travels" wilt be read with much gratifica-
tion. The extracts are extremely beautiful and graphic,
and a tone of generous feeling and moral reflections per-
vade the whole. We furnished some extracts from this
number of Blackwood in our last publication, and others
will be found in the literary page of our present sheet•

Dublin University Magazine. Curry, Dublin.
The present number of this magazine fully sustains its
usual high standard of merit. Amongst the articles of a
purely literary character, Glimpses in the Mountains-
-2," is a beautiful piece of poetical extrPvagance, and
well worthy of perusal. The most important article in
the number, however, is the article headed " The National
System of Education and the Established Church," in
which we have placed before us the present critical posi-
tion of the education question in Ireland. We have given
elsewhere some extracts from this article which will show
the spirit in which it is written; and we recommend its
attentive perusal to all who are interested in the important
question of which it treats.

The Muminaled Magazine. London : No. 2, Crane-

court, Fleet-street.
The present number commences the fourth volume, and
is under a new editorship, Mr. Douglas Jerrold having
retired from his position as editor. We certainly cannot
discern, so far, any falling off either in literary matter or
illustrations. On the contrary, some new contributors
have been added, and several valuable articles from their
pen grace this month's publication. The poetical contents
are especially excellent.

Fraser's Magazine.
_London: G. W. Nickisson, 215,

Regent-street.
Fraser this month contains a number of more than
usually lively articles, amongst which we may particularise
" A fine day at Stratford-upon-Avon," " The Smiths,"
and the conclusion of "The State Murder." The paper
entitled " Hints on the Modern Governess System" con-
tains some excellent and just strictures upon the unwor-
thy treatment to which that useful and deserving class of
females are subjected, and should be read in every family
of which the governess is a member.

The Medical Times. No. 263-266. Carpae, Essex-
street, London. 4to. A weekly medical journal.
This periodical of medical science was wanted in the
profession of the healing art, or it could not have risen so
rapidly into favour as it appears to have done, even though
its talent in editorial and original matter be great, which,
as far as we can presume to judge of such matters, is most
undoubtedly the case. Of course we are not competent
to discuss the full merits of a periodical on departmental
science—this must long ago have been judged by those
who are capable of estimating its deserts ; and also its
demerits, if there be any—prominent ones they can hardly
be, though, when tested by " subtler fires" than ours,
some caput mortuum of rubbish may be detected in its
containing vessel—very possibly. The articles seem to be
full of interesting and new matter; its reports of distin-
guished medical bodies—its valuable groups of cases—its
record of series of lectures by some of the most eminent
physicians and surgeons—its bibliographical and gossip
corners—its reviews—its leading articles, temperate yet
energetic—all must render it a publication worthy of large
support, we should infer, by the republic of medicine. ,
We venture no more ; but close with an extract from its I
leader of October 12, which has reference to present
times, and present things, and the present place, which
must be gratifying to the medical practitioners of our
town, as alluding to an aggregate meeting they held to
memorialize Sir J. Graham on his new bill of medical
reform :—" The most important meetings we have had,
appear to have been those of Gloucester, Worcester,
Leeds, Norwich, Birmingham, and Liverpool, some of
the largest towns in the empire. In Birmingham and
Liverpool, the very proper precaution was adopted of
discussing in committee the clauses of :the bill seriatim,
before pronouncing on them an opinion in public meeting.
'Our readers are acquainted with the result : the report of
the Liverpool meeting, this day published, shows how
entirely the opinions we so early expressed on this mea-
sure, are the opinions of some of the most enlightened
practitioners in the empire. We own to a strong hope
that a short time will reveal the profession acting in a si-
milarly cautious manner, speaking in a similarly judicious
way, and equally unanimous in giving the bill a general
support, while enforcing on it the great improvements
that are on all hands admitted as essential." We are
glad to find that our respected townsmen have won for
themselves such a highly creditable position—to have dis-
cussed temperately, and therefore wisely, legislational
measures touching directly their own professional inter-
ests, argues a state of most respectable mental, and, above
all, moral attainments; and in so doing, we repeat, and
that advisedly, when their own rights are to them con-
cerned, in the first place, and the public health, in the
next, renders them an example to our senators themselves,
whose principles often swerve before the brazen face of
expediency, or become too frequently obedient to that
ventriloquist, self-interest, whose projected voice in the
distance often spoils all.

Punch.—Part 40.
Continues to pour forth his inexhaustible wit and drol-
lery, and, in his own felicitous style, to convey many a
useful moral lesson. The loss of this periodical would be
an event to call for a national mourning.

Chambers' Edinburgh Journal.—Part 10.
The new series of this popular publication is very much
superior in the value and variety of its literary contents to
those which have preceded it. We observe in it contribu-
tions from several popular writers, amongst whom we may
mention Miss Camilla Toulmin, who has presented us
with a very beautiful tale of " The Neglected Child."