of the latter of these requisites, and miss Portman's possession of the former, bring them forward as examples of the truth of the doctrine. An author cannot possibly do more service to society than by using every occasion, and trying every method, to bring this theory into practice, and to check that romantic folly of first love which daily turns the brain of some young novel-reader. But the matter should be handled with discretion. Miss Edgeworth is sensible that the means which are taken to produce certain effects upon the mind may have a tendency directly opposite to what is expected.' Why then does she overstrain the string, and propose a stoic as a pattern? for Belinda is as much a stoic as Zeno. She can love without passion, and transfers her affections from Mr. Hervey to Mr. Vincent, and from Mr. Vincent back again to Mr. Hervey, with as much sang froid as she would unhang her cloak from one peg and Lang it upon another. All the world have agreed that leve is a passion; and, when acting on a proper object, love with enthusiasm is the will of God and nature. With love as her stimulus, the tender female flies into the arms of her husband as pure as the sun-beams: divest her of this enthusiasm, and bid her look on marriage with the eye of reason only, and she will see sexual intercourse as its immediate consequence. Will this, or will it not, decrease her delicacy? Upen the whole, miss Edgeworth's literary fame is not benefited by the appearance of Belinda. Novel-writing does not seem to us to be her fort; for after all that she can say or wish to the contrary, the world will call Belinda a very novel, and will rank it with the productions of many a writer whose name does not appear in her advertisement. ART. 42.-St. Margaret's Cave; or the Nun's Story. An ancient Legend. By Elizabeth Helme. 4 Vols. 12mo. il. Is. Boards. Earle and Hemet. 1801. The young baron Fitzwalter marries Blanch Stanley against his father's consent; and so privately; that the old lord supposes them as living together without the ceremony having been performed. Blanch dies in child-bed of a daughter; and some time after her death young Fitzwalter is prevailed on to marry Edith Montford, whom his father had designed for his wife from the beginning. She also has a daughter by Fitzwalter, to whom the name of Isabel is given, as was that of Margaret to his daughter by Blanch Stanley. These two children are brought up together till the latter is in her ninth year and the former in her sixth, when Fitzwalter pays the solemn debt of nature. Edith, who believes Margaret to be illegiti mate, treats her as such, as does her second husband lord de Launcy; but by the unwearied endeavours of father Austin, her nurse Alice, and a youth named Leopold, she is established in her rights, and gets the estate of Fitzwalter. If the author were asked why, during the seven years that the baron and Edith were married, he did not prove to her the legitimacy of Margaret which he was continually denying, she would be puzzled for an answer; except it were that then her tale would have been ended. Upon the whole, however, the story is artfully, and in many places very affectingly, told, and will procure Mrs. Helme considerable credit among the readers of novels. Frar Austin proves in the end to be count Hoffman in a state of pe nance, and in the peasant Leopold is discovered his son ;-of course he must marry Margaret, or all had not ended in a wedding. His cousin Ferdinand, too, becomes the husband of Isabel. ART. 43.-Dorothea; or, a Ray of the new Light. 3 Vols. 12mo. 10s. 6d. served. Robinsons. 1801. To consider as an innovation every attempt to alter old systems would be madness and superstition in the highest degree. Without a spirit of investigation, although it may be sometimes wrongly exercised, long-established dogmas would continue to be believed, and long-established customs continue to be practised, in spite of the numberless absurdities in which they are enveloped. Modern philosophy has unquestionably done much to enlighten the understanding and to correct the ideas of mankind: but it is no less true that many of its pretended professors have carried certain wild maxims to an extravagant length. To take the needle and the rolling-pin out of the female hand, and to fill it with the fasces and the halbert, would be ridiculous, unless they and the men changed vocations; for somebody must mend stockings, and somebody must make pie-crust. The rights of woman, therefore, have been deservedly laughed at. Our author adds his mite to the ridicule, and in some places not unsuccessfully. ART. 44.-The Little Mountaineers of Auvergne; or, the Adventures of James and Georgette. Altered from the French, and adapted to the Perusal of Youth. 12mo. 4s. 6d. sewed. Vernor and Hood. 1801. This novel is said to be adapted to the perusal of youth; but we see no reason why it may not be perused by such full-grown babes as are fond of novel-reading; for it contains as much sense, and a great deal more nature, than is to be found in two-thirds of the books written for their own use and entertainment. MISCELLANEOUS LIST. ART. 45.-Adelphi. A Sketch of the Character, and an Account of the last Illness, of the late Rev. John Cowper, A. M. Sc. who finished bis Course with Foy, 20th March, 1770. Written by his Brother, the late William Cowper, Esq. of the Inner Temple. Faithfully transcribed from his original Manuscript by John Newton. 8vo. 15. Williams. 1802. Mr. John Cowper was a respectable worthy clergyman, fellow of a college, but not endued with the rapturous spirit of methodism; of course, when he visited his family, he was not permitted to officiate in family prayer. In September 1769, being in this ungracious state, he was seized with a dangerous illness, from which he recovered a little, but had a relapse on the 16th of February 1770. His brother visited him and prayed by him, but seemingly with little effect; till on Sunday the 10th of March he was blessed, according to the language of the methodists, with a sudden conversion. As he died about ten days afterwards, we have no opportunity of judging what effect this would have had upon his life and manners; but when we recollect the unhappy state of his brother for many years, we are not inclined to believe that this conversion would have been beneficial either to the deceased or the public. ART. 46.-An authentic Narrative of the Proceedings of his Majesty's The transactions recorded in this pamphlet are highly honourable to the British navy; and the bravery, discipline, and ardor of our sailors were never more conspicuous than in their victory over an enemy so vastly superior to them in every thing but courage and skill. The Narrative is well written; and should be added, by all those who are fond of naval exploits, to the transactions which have immortalised the names of Howe, Jervis, Nelson, Graves, and Duncan. ART. 47-Imposture exposed, in a few brief Remarks on the Irreli- The liberties taken by the Anti-Jacobin Reviewers justly vindicate the change which it is suggested in this pamphlet should be made in their title. The author wishes them to reject only two syllables, anti, and asserts that they will then present themselves to the public in their real character-of Jacobins. He asserts, moreover, that the Review is replete with slander and licentiousness; that it makes professions merely of defending the church, whilst it takes a pleasure in pouring out most rancorous abuse upon ecclesiastical dignitaries, that no one who has a wife, sister, or daughter in his family would suffer the Anti-Jacobin Review for August, 1801, to lie five minutes upon his table;' that it has been indignantly expelled without a dissentient voice from one of the principal offices under government;' that, in short, a summary definition might be given of the principles of these Reviewers, by saying their patriotism consists in abusing Bonaparte; their churchmanship in reviling the methodists; their religion in condemning infidels; and their consistency in always speaking highly of themselves.' These charges we leave to the meditation of the accused; and as the writer refers to places in their Review which justify his censure, the accusation is fairly before the public, which will approve or condemn every Review from its actions, not its professions. ART. 48.-Insecto-Theology; or, a Demonstration of the Being and Per- To wield the argument which derives the beings and perfections of the Deity from the particular consideration of any of his works requires a master's hand. We have seen, not without a secret horror, the most exaggerated commendations of Divine goodness for arrangements never made, and which, had they existed, would have entailed the greatest evils on mankind. Even the present author, who is full of superstition and credulity, adduces, as marks of a benevolent Providence, appearances which were only ideal. Any attempt of this kind should never proceed beyond the most general views; for in going farther we only scan the perfections of the Deity by our own limited and imperfect vision. We have reason to believe that every thing has been formed for the best purposes, because it is. In explaining the final causes, we engage in inextricable labyrinths, without a clue. In other respects this work is a very indifferent one. The facts are trifling, and often mistaken; the reasoning injudicious and inconclusive. Of Lesser we have no account; but the life of the minute and industrious Lyonet is related with minuteness and commenda tion somewhat too exuberant. ex ART. 49.-A Review of the Principles on which the Clergy are Ob. cluded from sitting in the House of Commons; with a few cursory servations on Residence: In a Letter to a Friend. 8vo. Reynolds. 1801. Is. Ed. person fol. This is a calm and temperate discussion of the question on the eligibility of a clergyman to a seat in the house of commons; and as such we recommend it to the very serious perusal of every member, of the legislature who in an unguarded moment gave his assent to a bill founded on no maxim of ancient law, and producing apparently an unnecessary innovation on the constitutional mode of representa, tion. It cannot be doubted that the legislative body has the power to exclude; and in the same manner that the lawyers were formerly, and the clergy and every person not having three hundred a-year are now prevented from a seat in the house of commons, a decree might be passed, that no person in the army or navy, no lowing the occupation of a farmer, merchant, or shop-keeper, should be eligible to a seat in parliament. But when a bill of exclusion is brought in, a natural curiosity is excited to know the grounds of the proposed exclusion; and when we find, after an inquiry on this ques tion, that a gentleman in orders was not only declared to be eligible, but did actually sit for a considerable time in parliament, without the least particle of objection from any member of the house, and that the new bill arose from the circumstance of a gentleman being elected, who on other accounts was obnoxious to some leading members, we cannot but wish that the advocates for this new exclusion would as calmly investigate the question as the author of the work before us has done, and afford us something, if it were only the shadow of a reason, for this new mode of conduct. The author states correctly the efforts made in the senate and the university of Cambridge to pe tition parliament against the bill, and which were overthrown by the act of a single individual, who, according to the constitution of that body, has the privilege of putting a veto upon every question Proposed to the senate; but we are surprised that the members of the university did not, in their private capacity, petition against measure, and disregard the veto of an individual gentleman, would have been better engaged in following their direction→ in imposing an imperious silence on their proceedings. CORRESPONDENCE. the ho than to the We have received the letter of Leunculus, but cannot inform him as progress of Jani's edition of Horace. Of Wicland's we could have given him a more accurate account. We have to acknowledge also a letter from Dr. Monturci, the contents of which strikingly resemble what he has already written on the subject. Had it reached us would have been noticed and replied to; but after so long a war of words, int Batter of so little interest, the doctor will pardon us if we decline continuing the controversy—at least, unless called upon as Reviewers of a formal publication. THE CRITICAL REVIEW. MARCH, 1802. ART. I.-Historical and Political Memoirs of the Reign of Lervis XVI. from his Marriage to his Death: founded on a Variety of authentic Documents, furnished to the Author, before the Revolution, by many eminent Statesmen and Ministers; and on the secret Papers discovered, after the 10th of August 1792, in the Closets of the King at Versailles and the Tuileries. By John Lewis Soulavie, the elder, &c. Translated from the French. Accompanied with explanatory Tables, and One Hundred and Thirteen Portraits. 6 Vols. 8vo. 21.8s. Boards. Robinsons. 1802. IF there be disadvantages attendant upon writing a history of our own times, and the author find it difficult to extricate himself from those prejudices and partialities in which the world around him is involved, there are also advantages which posterity can never possess. Many of the fleeting facts of the day, which develop in their truest light the characters of the most prominent personages meant to be described, if not seised at the moment of their appearance, will never be seised at all; and the future historian must be content to patch up an imperfect likeness from the broken and unconnected scraps of materials that may accidentally fall into his hands. If he do not present his contemporaries with a caricature, he will often present them with a portraiture which possesses no resemblance whatever-a vapid and inanimate corpse, devoid of interest, energy, or appropriation. The best historians of Greece and Rome are unquestionably those of their own times. Herodotus, Diodorus Siculus, and Livy, are all of them highly valuable compilers; their materials are ample, and for the most part well digested; and they have been industrious in the collection of historical evidence: but they possess not the authority of Xenophon or Cæsar, nor are they perused with an equal degree of impression. The virtue of impartiality is not so diffi cult of acquirement as it is often conceived to be; and it is, perhaps, one of the prejudices of the present day to contem plate it in such a view. If, in the courts of law, mankind may CRIT. REV. Vol. 34. March, 1802. |