The daily dispatch. [volume] (Richmond [Va.]) 1850-1884, 1854-05-30
HM0ND, VA:
TUESDAY MORNING, MAY so. 1854.
LITERATURE IN LONDON.

LITERATURE IN LONDON.
London correspondent of New York
paper gives some interesting literary intelli
genee FRONT the great British Metropolis. We
CLEAN some items A meeting has been held
in Edinburgh with view of paying fitting
tribute to the memory of Prof Wilson. Sa.
muel Rogers, the poet, and a contemporary au.
thor with Samuel Johnson is alive and pretty
well, Notwithstanding the newspaper rumor
that he was failing fast There have been
upwards of 1900 publications, good, bad and
Indifferent since the lst of January. M.
GuiZot gives second installment of his
work on the English Revolution 1t is call.
ed Life OF Oliver Cromwell" The publ
cation by Dickens of his "Hard Times in
Household Words" has increased the sale
OF that publication. but, it is thought, will not
be as profitable as if put forth in the custom
ary green leaves" Bulwer has deem deliv
erIng lectures on literary subjects. 1t is said
that ne is hunting up all the Clairvoyants
he can hear Of with the view of seeing what
they can see, and how far it is double seeing
Or double dealing. The fruits of his inves-
tigation will be given in his next novel. The
PLURALITY of w orlds' is said to have created
a great sensation. The author, said to be a
DIR. Whewell, attempts to demonstrate the
impossibility of the existence of life and spi-
rit in the worlds that roll around us. His
book takes opposite ground to the eloquent
speculations of Dr. Chalmers He AYERS
that
The earth is the sole point of creation-ce rtanly
OF the solar systemwherein life and pos.
sible No life and exist in the moon because
permar ent streaks seen in the dark that
fields or cities ara visble-because it appears crowd
ed with burned-out craters and because its atmos
phere does not refract light does. He says
Neptune is unnhabited because the light and heat
that reach it from the be feeble. Jupi-
ter is about the density of water and therefore
mere sphere ofwater: The glory of the heavenly
BODIES IS mere illusion and, all other sphere but
ours are too crude to be the homes s.ntient be.
lngs In point of fact our author believes the pni
verse TO be the mere st1rspanged b'nner that floats
above the world. What thoroug going Yankee he
would make"
Sir David Brewster, it is said, is writing a
reply to be called "More Worlds than One,
the Greed of the Philosopher and the Hope
of the Christian" If Sir David produces as
satisfactory work upon the subject as that
of DIR. Chalmers, he will add largely to his
own great fame.
Thomas Arid, an English poet of some pow
er, who knew Prof. Wilson well, has written
tribute to the great Scotchman, from which
the following passages are extracted:
He was singuary modest and even deferential
His estimates of life were severely practical; he was
not sanguipe; he not even hopeful enough Those
who approached the author of the Noctes in domes-
tic hfe expecting exchanges of bosterous ges, soon
found out their mistake. No writing for mere mo.
ney, no dabbng in the pettness of fame with this
great spirit, in its own negligent grandeur-mndest
quiet giigent because amid all the beauty aud oy
of this world it stood oing and ,condering on raster
shores than lie by the seas Of time"
Here a few remarks on the celebrated Noctes
Ambrosiana:
"in the Noctes' Christopher in his Sporting Jack
et &c., we have style of literature of totally ew
Glass; large and complete and unexpected dashed in
upon US at once, without any forerunning dawn. We
know of no other mind, in ancient nr modern times.
that could have given such outburst. Many OF
the elements, AID in equally rapid interchange and
ticnate and yearning solemnities a-wantiug Nor
in Shakespeare himself were the ever-minglin hues
OF pathos aud humor, beauty and terror, simmer in
their intermelting quickness do so invariably find
that reverenta of conscious spirit face to face
with mysteries of life and death, which in all Viii.
sons eusons even where the fun is most rotous ia
the pervading and prevailing element. This power
OF great mind rushing out all at once from its many
sides and ever strongest the side of moral thought
fuiness, might well give something new and
strange and unapproachable in literature"