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the revenue of which will certainly be hardly sufficient to defray the expense of the establishments kept up there. The agriculture of Ceylon is, in fact, in such an imperfect state, and the natives have so little availed themselves of its natural fertility, that great part of the provisions necessary for its support are imported from Bengal.

missing for above a week, was discovered in this very inconvenient situation. The dominions of the King of Candia are partly defended by leeches, which abound in the woods, and from which our soldiers suffered in the most dreadful manner. The Ceylonese, in compensation for their animated plagues, are endowed with two vegetable Ceylon produces the elephant, the blessings, the cocoa-nut tree and the buffalo, tiger, elk, wild-hog, rabbit, hare, talipot tree. The latter affords a proflying-fox, and musk-rat. Many articles digious leaf, impenetrable to sun or are rendered entirely useless by the smell rain, and large enough to shelter ten of musk, which this latter animal com- men. It is a natural umbrella, and is municates in merely running over them. of as eminent service in that country as Mr. Percival asserts (and the fact has a great-coat tree would be in this. A been confirmed to us by the most re-leaf of the talipot tree is a tent to the spectable authority), that if it even pass soldier, a parasol to the traveller, and a over a bottle of wine, however well book to the scholar.* The cocoa tree corked and sealed up, the wine becomes affords bread, milk, oil, wine, spirits, so strongly tainted with musk, that it vinegar, yeast, sugar, cloth, paper, huts, cannot be used; and a whole cask may and ships. be rendered useless in the same manner. Among the great variety of birds, we were struck with Mr. Percival's account of the honey-bird, into whose body the soul of a common informer appears to have migrated. It makes a loud and shrill noise, to attract the notice of anybody whom it may perceive; and thus inducing him to follow the course it points out, leads him to the tree where the bees have concealed their treasure; after the apiary has been robbed, this feathered scoundrel gleans his reward from the hive. The list of Ceylonese snakes is hideous; and we become reconciled to the crude and cloudy land in which we live, from reflecting, that the indiscriminate activity of the sun generates what is loathsome, as well as what is lovely; that the asp reposes under the rose; and the scorpion crawls under the fragrant flower, and the luscious fruit.

The usual stories are repeated here, of the immense size and voracious appetite of a certain species of serpent. The best history of this kind we ever remember to have read, was of a serpent

We could with great pleasure proceed to give a further abstract of this very agreeable and interesting publication, which we very strongly recommend to the public. It is written with great modesty, entirely without pretensions, and abounds with curious and important information. Mr. Percival will accept our best thanks for the amusement he has afforded us. When we can praise with such justice, we are always happy to do it; and regret that the rigid and independent honesty which we have made the very basis of our literary undertaking should so frequently compel us to speak of the authors who come before us, in a style so different from that in which we have vindicated the merits of Mr. Percival.

DELPHINE. (E. REVIEW, 1803.)
Delphine. By Madame de Staël Holstein.

London. Mawman. 6 vols. 12mo.
THIS dismal trash, which has nearly
dislocated the jaws of every critic
Bonaparte, that he has seized the whole
among us with gaping, has so alarmed
impression, sent Madame de Staël out
of Paris, and, for aught we know,

killed near one of our settlements, in
the East Indies; in whose body they
found the chaplain of the garrison, all
in black, the Rev. Mr. - - ―, (somebody
or other, whose name we have for-
gotten,) and who, after having been Ceylon.

All books are written upon it in

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sleeps in a nightcap of steel, and dagger-proof blankets. To us it appears rather an attack upon the Ten Commandments, than the government of Bonaparte, and calculated not so much to enforce the rights of the Bourbons, as the benefits of adultery, murder, and a great number of other vices, which have been somehow or other strangely neglected in this country, and too much so (according to the apparent opinion of Madame de Staël) even in France.

It happens, however, fortunately enough, that her book is as dull as it could have been if her intentions had been good; for wit, dexterity, and the pleasant energies of the mind, seldom rank themselves on the side of virtue and social order; while vice is spi ritual, eloquent, and alert, ever choice in expression, happy in allusion, and judicious in arrangement.

position that he has been serving in the French emigrant army against his country-is shot, and upon his dead body falls Delphine, as dead as he.

Making every allowance for reading this book in a translation, and in a very bad translation, we cannot but deem it a heavy performance. The incidents are vulgar; the characters vulgar too, except those of Delphine and Madame de Vernon. Madame de Staël has not the artifice to hide what is coming. In travelling through a flat country, or a flat book, we see our road before us for half the distance we are going. There are no agreeable sinuosities, and no speculations whether we are to ascend next, or descend; what new sight we are to enjoy, or to which side we are to bend. Leonce is robbed and half murdered; the apo thecary of the place is certain he will not live; we were absolutely certain that he would live, and could predict to an hour the time of his recovery. In the same manner we could have prophesied every event of the book a whole volume before its occurrence.

The story is simply this.-Delphine, a rich young widow, presents her cousin Matilda de Vernon with a considerable estate, in order to enable her to marry Leonce Mondeville. To this action she is excited by the arts and the in- This novel is a perfect Alexandrian. trigues of Madame de Vernon, an The last two volumes are redundant, hackneyed Parisian lady, who hopes, and drag their wounded length: it by this marriage, to be able to discharge should certainly have terminated where her numerous and pressing debts. the interest ceases, at the death of Leonce, who, like all other heroes of Madame de Vernon; but, instead of novels, has fine limbs, and fine qualities, this, the scene-shifters come and pick comes to Paris-dislikes Matilda- up the dead bodies, wash the stage, falls in love with Delphine, Delphine sweep it, and do everything which the with him; and they are upon the eve timely fall of the curtain should have of jilting poor Matilda, when, from excluded from the sight, and left to some false reports spread abroad re- the imagination of the audience. We speeting the character of Delphine humbly apprehend, that young gentle(which are aggravated by her own im- men do not in general make their prudences, and by the artifices of tutors the confidants of their passion; Madame de Vernon), Leonce, not in a at least we can find no rule of that fit of honesty, but of revenge, marries kind laid down either by Miss the lady whom he came to marry. Hamilton or Miss Edgeworth, in their Soon after, Madame de Vernon dies- treatises on education. The tutor of discovers the artifices by which she had Leonce is Mr. Barton, a grave old prevented the union of Leonce and gentleman, in a peruke and snuffDelphine—and then, after this catas-coloured clothes. Instead of writing trophe, which ought to have terminated to this solemn personage about second the novel, come two long volumes of causes, the ten categories, and the complaint and despair. Delphine becomes a nun-runs away from the nunnery with Leonce, who is taken by some French soldiers, upon the sup

eternal fitness of things, the young lover raves to him, for whole pages, about the white neck and auburn hair of his Delphine; and, shame to tell!

the liquorish old pedagogue seems to think these amorous ebullitions the pleasantest sort of writing in usum Delphini that he has yet met with. By altering one word, and making only one false quantity*, we shall change the rule of Horace to

of address, her dexterity sometimes fails her, as in the memorable instance of the American commissioners. Madame de Staël gives the following description of this pastoral metropolitan female:

"Nec febris intersit nisi dignus vindice appears charming even among the young

nodus

Inciderit.'

Delphine and Leonce have eight very bad typhus fevers between them, besides hæmoptoe, hemorrhage, deliquium animi, singultus, hysteria, and foeminei ululatus, or screams innumerable. Now, that there should be a reasonable allowance of sickness in every novel, we are willing to admit, and will cheerfully permit the heroine to be once given over, and at the point of death; but we cannot consent that the interest which ought to be excited by the feelings of the mind should be transferred to the sufferings of the body, and a crisis of perspiration be substituted for a crisis of passion. Let us see difficulties overcome, if our approbation is required; we cannot grant it to such cheap and sterile artifices as these.

The characters in this novel are all said to be drawn from real life; and

the persons for whom they are intended are loudly whispered at Paris. Most of them we have forgotten; but Del. phine is said to be intended for the authoress, and Madame de Vernon (by a slight sexual metamorphosis) for Talleyrand, minister of the French republic for foreign affairs. As this lady (once the friend of the authoress) may probably exercise a considerable influence over the destinies of this

country, we shall endeavour to make our readers a little better acquainted with her; but we must first remind them that she was once a bishop, a higher dignity in the church than was ever attained by any of her sex since the days of Pope Joan; and that though she swindles Delphine out of her estate with a considerable degree

Perhaps a fault of all others which the English are least disposed to pardon. A young man, who, on a public occasion, makes a false quantity at the outset of life, can seldom or never get over it.

"Though she is at least forty, she still and beautiful of her own sex. The paleness of her complexion, the slight relaxation of her features, indicate the languor of indisposition, and not the decay of years; the easy negligence of her dress accords with this impression. Every one concludes, that when her health is recovered, and she dresses with more care, she must be completely beautiful: this change, however, never happens, but it is always expected; and that is sufficient to make the imagination still add something more to the natural effect of her charms.” — (Vol. i. p. 21.)

the

the manner in which this book is transNothing can be more execrable than lated. The bookseller has employed one of our countrymen for that purpose, who appears to have been very lately caught. The contrast between passionate exclamations of Madame de Staël, and the barbarous vulgarities of poor Sawney, produces a mighty ludicrous effect. One of the heroes, a man of high fastidious temper, exclaims in a letter to Delphine, "I cannot endure this Paris; I have met with ever so many people whom my soul abhors." the accomplished and enraptured Le

And

We

once terminates one of his letters thus: "Adieu! Adieu! my dearest Delphine. doubt if Grub Street ever imported I will give you a call to-morrow.' from Caledonia a more abominable

translator.

We admit the character of Madame

de Vernon to be drawn with considerable skill. There are occasional traits of eloquence and pathos in this novel, and very many of those observations upon manners and character which are totally out of the reach of all who have not lived long in the world, and observed it well.

The immorality of any book (in our estimation) is to be determined by the general impressions it leaves on those minds, whose principles, not yet ossified, are capable of affording a less powerful

tarding machinery. This fatal and foolish sophistry has power enough over every heart, not to need the aid of fine composition, and well-contrived incidentauxiliaries which Madame de Staël intended to bring forward in the cause, though she has fortunately not succeeded.

defence to its influence. The most | old man whom she detested, by an dangerous effect that any fictitious avaricious and unfeeling father. The character can produce, is when two or passions want not accelerating, but rethree of its popular vices are varnished over with everything that is captivating and gracious in the exterior, and ennobled by association with splendid virtnes this apology will be more sure of its effect, if the faults are not against nature, but against society. The averson to murder and cruelty could not perhaps be so overcome; but a regard M. de Serbellone is received as a to the sanctity of marriage vows, to the guest into the house of M. d'Ervins, sacred and sensitive delicacy of the whose wife he debauches as a recomfemale character, and to numberless pense for his hospitality. Is it possible restrictions important to the well-being to be disgusted with ingratitude and of our species, may easily be relaxed by injustice, when united to such an asthis subtle and voluptuous confusion of semblage of talents and virtues as this good and evil. It is in vain to say the man of paper possesses? Was there fable evinces, in the last act, that vice ever a more delightful fascinating adulis productive of misery. We may de- teress than Madame d'Ervins is intended corate a villain with graces and felicities to be? or a povero cornuto less capable for nine volumes, and hang him in the of exciting compassion than her huslast page. This is not teaching virtue, band? The morality of all this is the old but gilding the gallows, and raising up morality of Farquhar, Vanbrugh, and splendid associations in favour of being Congreve-that every witty man may hanged. In such an union of the transgress the seventh commandment, arable and the vicious (especially if which was never meant for the protecthe vices are such to the commission tion of husbands who labour under the of which there is no want of natural incapacity of making repartees. In disposition), the vice will not degrade Matilda, religion is always as unamiable the man, but the man will ennoble the as dissimulation is graceful in Madame vice. We shall wish to be him we ad- de Vernon, and imprudence generous in mire, in spite of his vices, and, if the Delphine. This said Delphine, with novel be well written, even in conse- her fine auburn hair, and her beautiful quence of his vice. There exists, blue or green eyes (we forget which), through the whole of this novel, a show cheats her cousin Matilda out of her of exquisite sensibility to the evils which lover, alienates the affections of her individuals suffer by the inflexible rules husband, and keeps a sort of assignation of virtue prescribed by society, and an house for Serbellone and his chère amie, eager disposition to apologise for par- justifying herself by the most touching ticular transgressions. Such doctrine complaints against the rigour of the is not confined to Madame de Staël; world, and using the customary phrases, an Arcadian cant is gaining fast upon union of souls, married in the eye of Spartan gravity; and the happiness heaven, &c. &c. &c., and such like dicdiffused, and the beautiful order estab-tion, the types of which Mr. Lane of lished in society, by this unbending the Minerva Press very prudently keeps discipline, is wholly swallowed up in ready composed, in order to facilitate compassion for the unfortunate and in- the printing of the Adventures of Capteresting individual. Either the ex-tain C and Miss F, and other ceptions or the rule must be given up: every highwayman who thrusts his pistol into a chaise window has met with unforeseen misfortunes; and every loose matron who flies into the arms of her Greville was compelled to marry an

interesting stories, of which he, the said inimitable Mr. Lane of the Minerva Press, well knows these sentiments must make a part. Another perilous absurdity which this useful production tends to cherish is the common notion,

that contempt of rule and order is a little, nor too much; is alive to its interests, without being insensible to those of the community at large; and treats of those points where his previous habits might render a little intemperance venial, as well as probable, with the most perfect good humour and moderation.

The

proof of greatness of mind. Delphine is everywhere a great spirit, struggling with the shackles imposed upon her in common with the little world around her; and it is managed so, that her contempt of restrictions shall always appear to flow from the extent, variety, and splendour of her talents. vulgarity of this heroism ought in some degree to diminish its value. Mr. Colquhoun, in his Police of the Metropolis, reckons up about 40,000 heroines of this species, most of whom, we dare to say, have at one time or another reasoned like the sentimental Delphine about the judgments of the world.

THOUGHTS ON THE RESI-
DENCE OF THE CLERGY.

As exceptions to the general and indisputable principle of residence, Dr. Sturges urges the smallness of some livings; the probability that their incumbents be engaged in the task of education, or in ecclesiastical duty, in situations where their talents may be more appropriately and importantly employed. Dr. Sturges is also of opinion, that the power of enforcing residence, under certain limits, should be invested in the bishops; and that the acts prohibiting the clergy to hold or cultivate land should be in a great measure repealed.

To conclude-Our general opinion of this book is, that it is calculated to shed a mild lustre over adultery; by gentle and convenient gradation, to destroy the modesty and the caution of women; to facilitate the acquisition of easy vices, and encumber the diffi- We sincerely hope that the two culty of virtue. What a wretched quali-cases suggested by Dr. Sturges, of the fication of this censure to add, that the clergyman who may keep a school, or badness of the principles is alone cor- be engaged in the duty of some parish rected by the badness of the style, and not his own, will be attended to in the that this celebrated lady would have construction of the approaching bill, been very guilty, if she had not been and admitted as pleas for non-resivery dull! dence. It certainly is better that a clergyman should do the duty of his own benefice, rather than of any other. But the injury done to the community is not commensurate with the vexation imposed upon the individual. Such a measure is either too harsh, not to become obsolete; or, by harassing the clergy with a very severe restriction, to gain a very disproportionate good THIS pamphlet is the production of a to the community, would bring the progentleman who has acquired a right to fession into disrepute, and have a tenteach the duties of the clerical cha-dency to introduce a class of men into racter by fulfilling them; and who has the Church, of less liberal manners, exercised that right, in the present instance, with honour to himself, and benefit to the public. From the particular character of understanding evinced in this work we should conceive Dr. Sturges to possess a very powerful claim to be heard on all questions referrible to the decision of practical good sense. He has availed himself of his experience to observe; and of his observation to judge well he neither loves his profession too

(E. REVIEW, 1803.)

Thoughts on the Residence of the Clergy

By John Sturges, LL.D.

education, and connection; points of the utmost importance, in our present state of religion and wealth. Nothing has enabled men to do wrong with impunity, so much, as the extreme severity of the penalties with which the law has threatened them. The only method to insure success to the bill for enforcing ecclesiastical residence, is to consult the convenience of the clergy in its construction, as far as is possibly consistent with the object desired, and

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