BOOKS.

ROBERT E. LANDOR'S FOUNTAIN OF ARETHUSA,* Tars work, by the brother of Walter Savage Landor, is a philosophical fiction, designed to test the conduct of modern society by the light of philosophy and reason; not the conduct, be it observed, of the profligate or the sceptical, but of the steady, grave, and moral pro- fessors of Christianity. In some points of view, British institutions and practices are dealt with so as to exhibit their practical mischiefs of philo- sophical absurdity,—such as the professional licences of the bar, or the law which requires unanimity from a jury. In other cases, the author intimates his knowledge that something may be said by the po- litical economist in favour of the " distribution of wealth " by a lavish or luxurious expenditure: but these points be puts aside. His object is to bring the conduct of professing Christians to the touchstone of those rules of Christianity which they profess to revere. This purpose, how- ever, is quite latent through a large part of the book, and not always present after it has been introduced. It is mixed up too, when entered upon, with much classical and historical learning, presented in a close and eloquent style, with great variety of persons, and some variety of in- cident and scenery.

Substantially, The Fountain of Arethusa is a series of dialogues of the dead and living ; but with story, variety, a nice observation of life and character, as well as a sound learning and a vigour of mind, to which the excellent "first Lord Lyttleton" cannot lay claim. The primum mo- bile of the story is a learned and rather singular bachelor named Antony Lugwardine, who retires on a moderate competence to Derbyshire after a youth spent under the tuition of an amiable German pedant, and a man- hood passed in the Levant as a confidential clerk to a rich mercantile uncle who disappoints him of the legacy for which he had slaved. In the neighbourhood of the Peak, Mr. Lugwardine forms an acquaintance with Bartholomew Horncastle, a Quaker after the strictest sect,—amiable, placid, pious, irreproachable, but somewhat given, like Norval's father, "to increase his store." On the property of Mr. Lugwardine there is a ca- rious cave with a pool of water ; in exploring it, he and his friend, a professional miner, stumble upon a vein of lead. Visions of riches float before their eyes ; a partnership is struck up ; a punt and provisions are provided to navigate the pool, and examine the extent and direction of the mineral, in order to purchase a neighbour's land at a common agri- cultural price, before he shall be aware of the riches below. In the eager- ness of preparation, they remove the props that supported the roof of the

passage ; the cave falls in ; and they are shut out from the upper world.

"As soon as the dust had ceased to suffocate us, we raised our lanterns, and would have rushed forth. Alas, the journey was short in that direction! With- out exchanging one word, we returned to our first position by the boat, and sat down. A hundred miners in a hundred months could not approach us. Jacob . Blizzard would conclude that we had been overwhelmed while standing upon the place so lately left by him, crushed beneath ten thousand tons at least. It would be like searching for two butterflies under a fallen pyramid. Mr. Miller, my father-in-law, who on the little Antonies' behalf must officiate as executor and trus- tee, was not silly enough to waste his time for no better purpose than the coroner's satisfaction. Exclusive of the two surviving Antomes, he had fifteen other children to think about. Buried I was already, without his intervention, as effectually, and under as many stones, as the eldest of the Pharaohs."

When the adventurers recover their minds, they determine to examine their prison, though hopeless of escape from it. They find the cave and pool much larger than they imagined : at the end of an hour they are in a current, which soon becomes a rapid, and hurries them on with irresist- ible force.

"There is no doubt that any one of the geological professors would have given both his ears for a passage with us: and yet, as far as the present exercise of his science might be concerned, the price would have proved too much. Here was no leisure for the selection of specimens; and, though we had one in our punt, no stopping-places for the hammer. A much better geologist than myself might have learnt as little. He must have possessed sharp eyes who could distinguish, in such a tumult and by such a light, porphyry from pudding-ston.—syenite from chalcedony—quartz or gneiss from grawacke of the third formation and mica slate. Some rocks were hurried by which dazzled us with the glitter of their crystals. We passed through a long grotto, loftily arched, that reflected even such feeble rays as those by which it was now illuminated for the first time, with almost insufferable splendour. Mr. Horncastle's countenance seemed to be on fire—all the colours of the rainbow, and ten thousand more, blazed every- where around us—and we both gasped for breath. Another minute consigned us to the darkness against which our torches and lanterns contended almost in vain, even for a few yards above or on either side. Then awful and prodigious shapes presented themselves, but so obscurely that, at last, they may have been no worse than the suggestions of fancy strongly inflamed. That cat-shaped head, with huge round ears larger than either the wheels or the tilt of a stage-waggon, and whiskers thicker than its shafts—that snake-like back-bone longer than Oxford Street, which the waters had exposed knot by knot, joint by joint—were they indeed remnants of organized life in the first formation, or the mere mockeries of fantastic nature? Under those vast caverns, which are discerned so far off by some sultry and sullen glare arising from themselves, do we behold fire without flame, not smoking but smouldering century after century? If so, there wants but the very probable misdirection of our stream toward that furnace, and then the earthquake, the volcano, the creation of a new island or two, the destruction of twenty cities."

Through scenes such as these the adventurers are hurried for more than " nine times the space that measures day and night to mortal men "; now dazzled by the sight of riches beyond the wildest dreams of avarice ; now anxious only for some rocky resting-place where they can slumber, one at a time; now preparing for death from starvation. At last, they are suddenly shot through the Fountain of Arethusa, into the Elysian Fields, slightly modified from those of classical story. There is a city, intended to represent old Rome, but far more splendid than Rome during the height of her greatness; there are the manes (somewhat less unsub- stantial than those of Virgil) of all the Romans who lived before the ad- vent of Christ ; the good and bad alike placed in delightful external cir- cumstances, but punished or rewarded by their own memory and the esti- • The Fountain of Arethusa. By Robert Eyre Landor, ILA., Author of "The Fawn of Sertorius," "The Impious Feast," &c. In two volumes. Published by Long- man and Co. ' motion of those around them. At a distance, though yet unvisited by Antony Lugwardine, are Greece, Egypt, Chaidea, and Persia ; appa- rently possessing the same external superiority over their mundane regions as the subterraneous Roman territory over Rome, and inhabited by all those individuals who, living before the Christian dispensation, were to be tried by the law of nature. Of course the advent of two living men, especially from the " penitus toto divisos orbe Britannos " causes no slight sensation among the shades; who have heard nothing of the upper world for eighteen hundred years. The broad brim, the Quaker garb, the placid demeanour yet resolute bear- ing of the portly Mr. Horncastle, (for he fancies he is at the residence of the Scarlet Lady and her barefooted friars, and steels himself to martyr- dom,) excite most attention; but the presence of both gives rise to inci- dents whose jocularity is saved from unseemliness by a dry and rather elevated humour. The two main subjects of interest are a variety of portraits of ancient great ones, with passing remarks on some of their doubtful actions ; and a series of discussions on British institutions and the British people, held between Mr. Lugwardine, who alone has the gift of tongues, and the tffite of the old Romans,—Aristotle and Alexander, who happen to be at subterranean Rome on a visit, assisting. Of course religion is a topic. Mr. Lugwardine expounds the fundamental moral obligations of the Christian religion; • but, as he lets out the cause of his pious companion's mishap, and dwells upon the industrialaud speculative virtues of the more serious part of his countrymen, his hosts compare the theory with the practice, and Antony is put to the question in a manner more searching than agreeable. The examinations are pursued at va- rious times, on various occasions : the following formal one may convey an idea of the method and manner of discussion.

"The ball on our return to it was filled with a much greater concourse than either time before, though only such patrician spectators occupied the principal places as could understand Greek. With, some anxiety I perceived significant changes in its arrangements, resembling the order and formality of a public court. Censer and Alexander sat side by side, each in a sort of large and wide armed chair or sella curnlis. Some relief arose from the observation that Alexander's countenance was become not only calm but joyous. Pointing at Mr. Horncastie, he congratulated the dictator thus= You must have approached much nearer to the setting sun than I did to the rising, when you discovered a nation of such men as this.' And, indeed, Mr. Homcastle deserved the admiration which he ex- cited; for the stateliness of his conscious superiority rose with the occasion.

• • •

" Cicero—We save so much of your time as would have been required to re- peat and exploit.' those elementary principles, which, however consistent in them- selves, appear irreconcileable with the practice of Christians. Our new guests have heard from us no partial or inaccurate report of laws given by a divine au- thority; laws consistent with wisdom, and designed for your present as well as your future good; laws plainly written with conditions annexed to them of happi- ness or misery; which, nevertheless, you violate rather contumaciously than care- lessly every day. To prevent confusion, it is determined that our farther inquiry shall be prosecuted by Aristotle, Atticus, and myself; the two judges interposing only for such additional information as they may need. You will suffer no em- barrassment from the captlbus subtleties of unfriendly pleaders ; our single care is to reach the truth ; the justest and the greatest among mankind must decide npon it. It will obviate future misapprehensions and evasions if I remind you that they are not your tempers and passions accidentally inflamed, of which we which you devote your time and thoughts, studiously, laboriously, and often dis- tastefully: of your deliberate choice and habitual preference, of the pursuits to for unless your nature differ greatly from ours, the accumulation of riches must be less pleasurable than the expenditure of them: they are collected that they may be dispersed. But your industry begins early, its eagerness lasts all life through; andT the expected fruits are the reclamations of reason, the re- proaches of conscience, and God's displeasure. In disregard of your peace, in despite of your religion, you will become rich. More money than you want, than you spend, than you think advantageous to your heirs, is coveted and saved. Or is it asked whether in Greece and Rome there were no misers? They are not your misers abont whom we inquire. Our religion said little on the subject to warn us and dissuade us; its obligations were nothing stronger than conjecture and probability. We had no written laws, no revealed promises, no divine teachers. "Lupwordise—Jf what I said could have suggested the belief that all Chris- tians are alike in this eagerness for wealth, or that their common Master is not gratefully reverenced by a countless host of disciples who study his laws only to obey them, I have misrepresented their sincerity and my own intention. "Cicero—You have said that the grave, the moral, the provident, and even the pions, are occupied till old age in collecting riches which they cannot want either for themselves or for their heirs; that the chief solicitude of a prudent Christian is the increase of his estate.

rdine—Our world is grown populous enough since you left it to oom- many classes even of the enlightened. I will confess that this eagerness lot gain characterizes if not the greater certainly the graver class. " Aristotle—Let us move methodically in this new science, and feel secure that we understand its rudiments. As soon as we have dismissed the richer Chris- tians, lain desirous to learn something of the poorer. " Atticus—Alexander has said that there can be none. It is more easy to understand how some may become rich than how any can remain poor. The Christian religion enjoins beneficence among its disciples, or what our guest calls charity. A Christian is compassionate toward the unhappy. He must be gra- cious as well as just, courteous as well as tolerant. He rejoices to augment the Creator's glory through the creature's happiness. He cannot think habitually on Use higher object of his love without some similar emotion toward the lower. Only the Christian may understand what this feeling signifies and through what obligations it is to him so powerful. He must share his bread with the hungry till it be consumed, or till none can continue to hunger. Every man, however unworthy or ungrateful, if he be also unhappy, is entitled to his compassion. "Aristotle—Our respect for your capacity is not increased by the dishonest adroitness with which you advance and recede, affirm and retract. Qualify or equivocate as you may please in such a community, while there is any wealth there can be no distress. Water will not more naturally descend to a lower level than its gold and silver."

In a work of fiction which is based on a physical impossibility, all ob- jections from physical laws must be waived. Human actors must not be stopped by "foul air," though its presence could be demonstrated ; nor ie any accumulation of riches even in the shape of solid rocks of precious stones to be censured, however improbable or impossible. The forests are not to dance, the rivers upwards rise ; but perhaps it is allowable that other planets should circle other suns. Yet an inherent coherency is to be required. When dealing with the past, history is not to be-vio- hted. We suspect Mr. Robert Landor considerably exaggerates the me- chanical knowledge (we do not say powers) of the ancients, at all events of the Greeks and Romans, when he carries Mr. Horncastle to the place where Archimedes and other mechanical philosophers still follow their mundane pursuits : the engineering section had better have been reserved for Egypt. About the broader or more obvious consistencies of character Mr. Landor is sufficiently careful. Cicero seizes the pith of legislative or institutional questions more readily than other inquirers, and in such cases may be less inclined to dwell upon mere moral evils. For example, he sees at once the use of a jury in acting as a rough popular safeguard against tyranny ; Cato dwells more upon the folly of expecting real unanimity, in difficult cases, from twelve untutored minds. Inconsist- ency of a rhetorical kind is not unfrequently found. The persons all speak too much in the same style, and something telling is often put into the mouth of a character who would not have been likely to speak it. After Mr. Lugwardine is fairly beaten in discussion, he frequently shows up the Britons while seeming to defend them. Cicero would hardly have spoken thus plainly about his own darling profession. " Cicero—This Antonius is either a feeble advocate for the advocates, or, as I much rather apprehend, a treacherous one. Why should he not say, as I did in the treatises to which Cato has referred, that we lie even more strenuously for our own reputation than for our clients' benefit. Let us not embarrass ourselves with elementary objections; but declare at once that eloquence is never so triumphant as when it deceives the cautious and confounds the just. What your advocates want in one way they must supply by another. Those who possess much elo- quence will lie as rhetoricians, scientifically ; those who possess but little or none at all must scatter their falsehoods with double energy and profusion, as the'only weapons at their disposal. The first step in our professional acquirements is that which raises us above diffidence; the second surmounts chime. I have heard M. Crassus .prove that a man had been dead more than six months by the man's own testimony. He taught his witness to deplore the inexorability of fate with outcries so clamorous and pathetic, that M. Crassus himself wept. By these means the witness saved a fine of fifty talents, which would have been exacted from him in his other capacity if still alive; and his patron gained a large silver lamp with five lights."

The peculiar source of interest in The Fountain of Arethusa is the exhibition of modern society from the mere philosophical or rational point of view ; but there is a good deal more in the work, which for some read- ers will possess greater attraction. The introductory part contains some nice delineation of character and pleasant description in England and Germany, marked with a quiet humour. The journey to the Elysian Fields is full of strange fantastic incidents and scenes, powerful though somewhat theatrical. There are learned, fanciful, and gorgeous descriptions of new Rome and its region : but the second source of pecu- liar interest is the graphic revival of ancient stories, or the sketches of ancient great men, which will remind the reader of the author's previous work The Fawn of Sertorius. This notice of M. Crassus combines the knowledge and the smartness of that book.

"You may not be ignorant of the proprietor, M. Crassus. He possessed more houses than any other man ever did, in the world above; and if we may count this as the twelfth, at least six to one in the present world. In both there has been the same rapid succession of them. At Rome he purchased no inconsi- derable proportion of the city and its violated Pomarium, not by streets only, but by wards, or, as we call them, regions. To render his bargains more expeditions and advantageous, he first secretly set them on fire. A much smaller sum than might otherwise have been demanded became sufficient to tempt the proprietor when his inheritance was in flames; and the tenant yielded hisngbt of occupation so much the more readily. Partly in the same manner did he extend his provincial estates. It was not difficult to convince a reluctant neighbour that he would, per- haps, find himself more pleasantly situated elsewhere, after his corn had been burnt, his horses and his oxen driven away, his servants claimed from him as fugitives, or his children as malefactors.

"No other citizen either in Rome or anywhere else, ever became half so rich. His last and greatest adventure was the only one, during more than sixty years, in which he proved to be unfortunate. Tempted by the gold of Selencia, he sacri- ficed a proconsular army, his country's honour, his own and his son's lives. But Crassus never designed unprofitable mischief. Me had none of that malice through which men are content to bruise or wound themselves if they may destroy some one else. On the contrary, he was cheerful, urbane, facetious, goodnatured, obliging. Whatever he could not keep, he would give away; his breath for in- stance' and his time. They cost him nothing, and he would help those for no- thing by their expenditure who at present might possess nothing. For accused persons, destitute of any other advocate, because they were poor or hated as well as guilty, he pleaded both eloquently and gratuitously. They might requite him, perhaps, at some future time. He possessed a great many thousand slaves, or whom he educated the more intelligent in such lucrative sciences as would en- hance twentyfold their prices. Thus they earned money for him as physicians, architects, sculptors, painters' rhetoricians, artificers; and for themselves also with which to purchase their liberty and manifest their gratitude. When thus set free, if they could offer to him only a silver lamp, a golden chalice, a tortoise- shell table, or an inlaid cabinet, nothing came amiss. A rich man thus gracious deserves to be thankfully approached when, instead of turning his shoulder upon your offering, he runs and meets it. These slaves throve the better for having served so provident a master. Criminals who were saved by his advocacy, his in- tercession, his power, could at least show a consciousness of their obligation, ..by distributing firebrands among old houses and ripe corn. Far from sparing of the public treasury, he would sign drafts upon its resources as a magistrate, both for his poorer and his more useful friends. In no other person have rapacity and good-nature been so pleasantly reconciled.

"The people will not suffer even his casual presence in Rome; but he is followed by freedmen whom he instructed, clients whom he defended, candidates whom he patronized, and criminals whom he saved."

Points of history are occasionally discussed, when any accident brings them up. Lugwardine, in company with .A.cilius, meets Julius Came, and the discourse turns upon him.

"Lugwardine—He must have, at least, as many recollections that one million of men were slain by his sword: another million chained as slaves and sold by his authority. Two millions of men count as ten millions of men, women' and chil- dren. Memory will acquit him, indeed, of much partiality in what he did: for he enslaved his own country as well as theirs, and slew his own countrymen not less unscrupulously.

" Acilins—Reaerve these reflections till we return, not for him and Alexander, but for Cicero and Aristotle. Even Cicero will now confess that Rome had been enslaved still earlier by a worse tyranny—by her venal magistrates, her factious populace, her ambitious senate—her unappeasable rapacity, profligacy, and irreli- glom Without virtue, liberty is impossible. "Leigwardine—This maxim (though loudly controverted every day by men who claim for themselves the preeminence as lovers of liberty, and woald extend, not only its privileges, but its powers, among the base, the ignorant, and the selfish) confers upon liberty its highest honour. Virtue generates it, nurses it, educate

it, endows it; or otherwise it must have been born from adultery, and bred as an impostor.

"Acilius—After Marius, Sylla, Catiline, Clodins, and Pompeius had been competitors for this sovereignty, nothing remained of the republic beside its forms. There was no other question for the people than from which master they could receive the largest wages. Cmsar knew himself to be the mildest as well as the strongest. As for the first million slaughtered, and the second million en- slaved by him—do you believe that these barbarians would have rested satisfied in their own country, or with each other's possessions? By any gentler restraint than war and conquest, could they have been kept on their side the Alps ? All nations and all factions among mankind partook of the same impatience. The poorer struggled to gain something, the richer to gain more. Whether civilized or uncivilized, like drunkards who have quarrelled at a festival, we were all fu- riously engaged in grasping at each other's throats and plucking off each other's chaplets. Queer would have restored order. The lion would have awed the wolves and frightened the foxes: yet it is another question whether he should have done this."

Although Robert Eyres Landor first became popularly celebrated, we believe, by his Fawn of Sertorius, yet his anonymous efforts in au- thorship preceded those of his brother, Walter Savage Landor, and were well known to his friends. Southey, in the 165th chapter of his Doctor, alluding to the genius of the two brothers, says that "perhaps there is no other instance of so strongly marked an intellectual family likeness." Mr. Robert Landor disavows the compliment, and seems to have avowed The Fawn of Sertorius chiefly because the authorship had been as- cribed to his brother. Sonthey's observation is true nevertheless; the resemblance is very great, even to vital power. The difference would seem to be in the qualities that produce early success ; and these, even where genius is really present, sometimes depend as much upon will, energy, industry, or some combination which men (ignorant of recondite causes) call luck, as upon purely mental faculties.

The Fountain of Areausa is not yet concluded. Mr. Lugwardine has got to attend an assembly of celebrities in Greece—a meeting, as it were, of the British Association; and he appears to promise himself a visit to the great Egyptian and Asiatic monarchies.