Imatges de pàgina
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fome views, but they do not prevent our being enlightened and cheered with his fplendor and warmth.

If there is any one trait by which Dr. Johnson's mind can be difcriminated, it is a gigantic vigour. In information and in talte he was excelled; but what he feriously attempted he executed with that masterly original boldness, which leaves us to regret his indolence, that he exerted himself only in the moment when his powers were wanting, and relapfed again into his literary idlene fs. Yet, with all his faults, he has perhaps never been equalled; with all his irregularities and blemishes, he will probably never be excelled.

Vancenza; or, the Dangers of Credulity. By Mrs. Robinson. 2 Vols. Small 8vo. 5s. Bell. 1792.

MR

RS. Robinfon's eager, partial, and injudicious friends, have mifled and injured her; nor are we wholly free from the inconveniencies which they have occafioned. The merits of Vancenza have fo often met our eyes; it has been fo often ftyled excellent, admirable; the world has been fo frequently called on to confirm this fuffrage with their plaudits, that we dare not hint a fault, or befitate diflike What we difapprove, we must speak of plainly, and, if our gal lantry is called in queftion, the blame will fall on thofe who have compelled us to be explicit. After this introduction we need not fay that we think this novel unworthy of the high reputation of its author, a reputation the fource of which it is not our prefent bufinefs to examine.

In eftimating the merits of Vancenza, it is not necessary, with all the formality of an Ariftarchus, to lay down rules for the conduct of an epopeia of the familiar kind. It is enough that the plot be artfully involved and naturally unra velled, while each part co-operates to produce the event. In reality, nothing extraneous fhould be introduced, and each trifling epifode fhould be remotely connected with the cataftrophe. This, however, is a rule which muft occafionally be difpenfed with. Ornaments are often required in fuch works, and they cannot always be parts of one whole; nor should we have objected that the pilgrim's story, in the fecond volume of the novel before us, was an ifolated appendage, if the flight eft contrivance had not been fufficient to have connected it with the principal event, and to have explained the only part in which the denouement feems too artificial;-we mean the removal of the pictures to difcover the fatal pannel. Thefe are fuppofed to have hung there for many years, nor was it within the circle of expected contingencies, that they fhould be re

moved in the life-time of Elvira: fo that the whole of the history might be loft for ever, the prince Almanza might have married his fifter, and their innocent progeny never known the crimes to which they owed their birth. In other refpects the story is conducted with skill.

To the adventitious ornaments our cenfure must be chiefly directed. The language is in general highly and poetically laboured. It is refined into obfcurity; and perfpicuity of defcription is often facrificed to a flowing period. There are many inftances where, but from the future pages, it is difficult to difcover the events in the blaze of defcription: a particular one now lies before us in the affaffination of the count of Vancenza. The old obfervation may be well applied to Mrs. Robinfon if you intended the language to be profe, it is too poetical; if to be poetry, it is very faulty. But to the proof.

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After paffing an hour in reftlefs rumination, the bread beams of light, penetrating through his curtains, roufed him from his lethargy of thought: he ftarted from his pillow feverish and dejected, and, fcarcely knowing whither he bent his way, paffed through the long gallery which opened to the terrace facing the lake. The fun diffufed its moft fplendid glories over the grateful bofom of the humid earth the wild fowl hovering over the glit tering water, fweeping its lucid furface with their variegated wings; the foft mufic of the mountain breezes; the hollow found of falling calcades; the diftant precipice ftill hiding its blue head amidst the fevering clouds that floated in feathery folds before the breath of morning; the flocks and herds bounding and frisking along the verdant openings on the fide of the valley; the intermingling notes of woodland melody prefented a picture fo exquifitely fublime, that Del Vero, fafcinated with delight, forgot for a moment even the graces of Elvira.'

We need not point out that fome of these epithets are unneceffary, fome inconfiftent, and fome improper. In the next paffage that we fhall felect, we find the earth decorated with gems: this may be; but thefe gems are alfo enamelled; nor are they in their ufual fituations. If we fuppofe too, that the gems fo enamelled may be flowers, we muft not imagine that they grow in the ufual way: the enamelled gems at Vancenza are fhook from the wings of fummer, the wings are perfumed, and fummer blushes: while the flowers are gems, the corn is of gold, the hills flope, and a vineyard is neither yellow nor black, but tawny. The whole, however, is too luxuriant for analyfis.

It was in that delighful feafon of the year, when nature dif plays

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plays her richest foliage, and decorates the earth with a thoufand enamelled gems, fhook from the perfumed wings of bluthing fummer; the birds attuned their throats to the wild melodies of love and the face of the creation glowed with exulting beauty; the vale was covered with fheaves of golden grain; and the fides of the floping hills concealed by the rich mantle of the tawny vineyard: they paffed through groves of citron and myrtle, intermingling with thick clusters of pomegranates, forming a perpetual alcove, through which the rays of the fun could fcarcely penetrate! As evening advanced, the grey fhadows of twilight ftole over the valley; while the burning orb, retiring to its we tern canopy, caft a crimson luftre over the acute 1ummits of the diftant mountains."

Some of the metaphors are ludicrous or incorrect. The manners of the Spanish beauties, when compared with those of Elvira, fink into contempt as the twinkling of the glowworm fades before the orient day.' Again: 'true merit defies the honeyed tongue of flattery, as the diamond mocks the fire of the confuming crucible.' Thefe are not folitary inftances; yet we ought to add, that the metaphors are fometimes animated, fometimes elegant-Chastity expofed to the breath of flander is like the waxen model placed in the rays of a meridian fun by degrees it lofes its fineft traits, till at length it becomes an infipid mass of useless deformity.' Again: Here he turned afide to wipe away the involuntary tear wrung from his bursting heart by the hard grafp of unrelent ing confcience.'

Mrs. Robinfon's partiality for the ornamented language of poetry has led her alfo to employ it improperly, as in the fol lowing paffage.

When the hand that writes, and the heart that dictates these lines, are freezing on the dreary pallet of the grave; when the faint traces of my forrows fhall fade before the obliterating wing of time; perchance fome kindred eye may drop the last commi ferating tear, and wash out the remembrance of my woes for

ever.'

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Polished and figurative language like this is the production of a mind at eafe; and the parage we have quoted is written in a moment of the most poignant agony, at a time when the tears flowing, had, in a great degree, defaced the manufcript, and the paffage was, on that account, with difficulty decyphered.' Elvira, at the age of fifteen, is described as in the noon of cultivated youth; and we find, in these volumes, the true criterion, we have formerly noticed, of a female pen, the indifcriminate use of the epithet 'fine.' No'milliner's apprentice

fcrawls

fcrawls a love-fcene without introducing her hero as a man of fine fenfe, fine accomplishments, as well as fine eyes. Mrs. Robinfon fhould have avoided it; but he has fine pallions,

a fine sense of honour,' 'fine accomplishments,' &c. The female author is confpicuous in other circumstances. After the death of the heroine, the ftays to tell us that prince Almanza was chief mourner; at the revival of Almanza from his infenfibility, into which he had fallen in confequence of the accident in hunting the wild boar, he addreffes Elvira with all the rapture of Aimwell, declaring himself in elyfium and the object of his attention an angel: this we fuppofe the ladies may confider as quite in nature;' but we are too old to join in the opinion.

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There are fome other errors perhaps more important, if the young ladies, in their rapid glances over thefe enchanting volumes, can be for a moment fuppofed capable of imbibing information.-In the beginning of the fecond volume, we have a defcription of an almost Lapland winter in Spain, while the more tender plants are placed in the fame spot. We know that fnow fometimes falls even in this climate; and that, on the mountains, it is permanent. But fuch violent ftorms in the vallies which defend the citrons are scarcely ever seen. The Spanish ladies, in general, are reprefented as courting admiration, inftead of the fecluded modefty, or more natural referve, with which travellers have decorated them. Indeed the ladies, if we except the marchionefs and Elvira, are of our metropolis; and the heroes differ but in titles from fashionable Englishmen. There is one circumftance which we have profeffed always to treat with indignation- viz. every attempt to glofs over the follics of popery, or to represent its abfurdities as facred. The pilgrim does penance for crimes. He had stolen a young woman from a convent, and, in his own defence, killed her brother. The latter could not be a crime is it for the former then that Confcience wrings the tear from his bursting heart?' The crime is their's who, from motives of avarice or ambition, could counteract the defigns of providence by the feclufion of helplefs, reluctant, females. If our cafuiftry has any credit, we do not hesitate in declaring, that the refcuing one of thefe is an action that might atone for many fins : but we forget-we are relapfing into one of the tenets of the religion we have reprobated.

We have hinted at the principal faults which occur to our notice in this work, and they are fuch as we think confirm the opinion given in the beginning of this article. It is with reluctance that we have engaged in this difquifition; but whatever may be the fplendor of a name, we have never fcrupled offer

ing our opinion. The public will ultimately decide, and to their fupreme tribunal we leave the decifion, fcarcely appre hending that the judgment will be reversed.

Philofophical Tranfactions of the Royal Society of London, Vol.
LXXXI. for the Year 1791. Part II.
Elmfley. 1791.

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4to. 75. 6d.

UR former delay we endeavour to compenfate, by quickly noticing this fecond part of the volume of laft year, which is at leaft more bulky, and in many respects more important than the firft.

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Art. VIII. On the Rate of Travelling, as performed by Camels; and its Application, as a Scale, to the Purposes of Geography. By J. Rennell, Efq. F. R. S.-If the camel is with propriety called the fhip of the defert,' major Rennell's dif quifition may be ftyled an attempt to difcover the longitude by land. This patient animal fteps, it feems, with remarkable exactnefs; and, in places where means of measuring time and diftances are unknown, it is of confequence to come near the latter by approximations of this kind. Of the internal parts. of Africa we know little; but, if the plan we fuggefted in reviewing the Proceedings of the African Affociation had been executed, it would have been no very difficult matter to have afcertained, with tolerable accuracy, by means of celestial ob fervations, the fituation of fome places, which would have corrected and affifted the mode of menfuration propofed in the article before us. In the Arabian Defert there are three fpots whofe precife fituation has been accurately afcertained, viz. Aleppo, Bagdat, and Bufforah: from thefe our author calculates with the affiftance of different Journals.-We must, as ufural, give the refult. The mean rate of a loaded camel's travelling appears to be 2.478 British miles an hour; general. ly fpeaking about 2; and, with the help of a watch and a com pafs, the distance and bearing, as appears from Mr. Carmichael's experiment, who fucceeded very well with only a pocket compafs, may be traced with confiderable accuracy. The mean of the heavy caravan's day's journey was 7 hours 27 minutes; the mean of the light caravan's progrefs 8 hours 52 minutes. This estimation is taken from the whole time: the optional day's journey feems to be 7 51", and 9h 8" refpectively; the diftance about 20 or 22 miles each day. If the halts be reckoned, about a mile and a half must be deducted, or one halt to 12 travelling days.

The diftance, afcertained by the ftep of the camel, is fomewhat different: the mean number of steps in 20 hours (we take the mean between Mr. Holford's and Mr. Carmichael's experiments) was 2175, which give the number of miles per

hour

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