the forests of Guiana, or the falls of in comparison of whom nine-tenths of Niagara: the persons hung in Newgate are pure and perfect. The profound dissimulation and wicked artifices of this diabolical person are painted with great energy and power of description. The party at whist made to take in Granby is very good, and that part of the story where Granby compels Tyrrel to refund what he has won of Courtenay is of first-rate dramatic excellence; and if any one wishes for a "Granby followed them with his eyes; and now, too full of happiness to be accessible to any feelings of jealousy or repining, after a short reverie of the purest satisfaction, he left the ball, and sallied out into the fresh cool air of a summer morningsuddenly passing from the red glare of lamplight, to the clear sober brightness of returning day. He walked cheerfully onward, refreshed and exhilarated by the air of morning, and interested with the scene around him. It was broad day-light, and he view-short and convincing proof of the ed the town under an aspect in which it is alike presented to the late retiring votary of pleasure, and to the early rising sons of business. He stopped on the pavement of Oxford Street, to contemplate the effect. The whole extent of that long vista, unclouded by the mid-day smoke, was distinctly visible to his eye at once. The houses shrunk to half their span, while the few visible spires of the adjacent churches seemed to rise less distant than before, gaily tipped with early sunshine, and much diminished in apparent size, but heightened in distinctness and in beauty. Had it not been for the cool grey tint which slightly mingled with every object, the brightness was almost that of noon. But the life, the bustle, the busy din, the flowing tide of human existence, were all wanting to complete the similitude. All was hushed and silent; and this mighty receptacle of human beings, which a few short hours would wake into active energy and motion, seemed like a city of the dead. "There was little to break this solemn illusion. Around were the monuments of human exertion, but the hands which formed them were no longer there. Few, if any, were the symptoms of life. No sounds were heard but the heavy creaking of a solitary waggon; the twittering of an occasional sparrow; the monotonous tone of the drowsy watchman; and the distant rattle of the retiring carriage, fading on the ear till it melted into silence; and the eye that searched for living objects fell on nothing but the grim great-coated guardian of the night, muffled up into an appearance of doubtful character between bear and man, and scarcely distinguishable, by the colour of his dress, from the brown flags along which he sauntered."-(pp. 297-299.) One of the most prominent characters of the book, and the best drawn, is that of Tyrrel, son of Lord Malton, a noble blackleg, a titled gamester, and a profound plotting villain -a man, powers of the writer of this novelto that scene we refer him. It shall be the taster of the cheese, and we are convinced it will sell the whole article. We are so much struck with it that we advise the author to consider seriously whether he could not write a good play. It is many years since a good play has been written. It is about time, judg ing from the common economy of nature, that a good dramatic writer should appear. We promise Mr. Lister sincerely, that the Edinburgh Review shall rapidly undeceive him if he mistake his talents: and that his delusion shall not last beyond the first tragedy or comedy. The picture at the exhibition is extremely well managed, and all the various love-tricks of attempting to appear indifferent, are, as well as we can remember, from the life. But it is thirty or forty years since we have been in love. The horror of an affectionate and dexterous mamma is a handsome young man without money; and the following lecture deserves to be committed to memory by all managing mothers, and repeated at proper intervals to the female progeny. don't wish you positively to avoid him. I "True, my love, but understand me. I would not go away, for instance, if I saw him coming, or even turn my head that I might not see him as he passed. That would be too broad and marked. People might notice it. It would look particular. We should never do anything that looks particular. No, I would answer him to me, and then pass on, just as you might civilly and composedly whenever he spoke in the case of anybody else. But I leave all this to your own tact and discretion, of which nobody has more for her age. I am sure you can enter into all these niceties, and that my observations will not be lost upon you. And now, my love, let me mention another thing. You must get over that little embarrassment which I see you show whenever you meet him. It was very natural and excusable the first time, considering our long acquaintance with him and the General: but we must make our conduct conform to circumstances; so try to get the better of this little flutter: it does not look well, and might be observed. There is no quality more valuable in a young person than self-possession. So you must keep down these blushes,' said she, patting her on the cheek, 'or I believe I must rouge you:-though it would be a thousand pities, with the pretty natural colour you have. But you must remember what I have been saying. Be more composed in your behaviour. Try to adopt the manner which I do. It may be difficult; but you see I contrive it, and I have known Mr. Granby a great deal longer than you have, Caroline."— (pp. 21, 22.) tion with which those features were lighted up? Let critics hesitate to pronounce her beautiful; at any rate they must allow her to be fascinating. Place her a perfect stranger in a crowded assembly, and she would first attract his eye; correcter beauties would pass unnoticed, and his first attention would be riveted by her. She was all brilliancy and effect; but it were hard to say she studied it; so little did her spontaneous, airy graces convey the impression of premeditated practice. She was a sparkling tissue of little affectations, which, however, appeared so interwoven with herself, that their seeming artlessness disarmed one's censure. Strip them away, and you destroyed at once the brilliant being that so much attracted you; and it thus became difficult to condemn what you felt unable, and, indeed, unwilling, to remove. With positive affectation, malevolence itself could rarely charge her; and prudish censure seldom exceeded the guarded limits of a dry remark, that Miss Darrell had a good deal of manner.' "Eclat she sought, and gained. Indeed, These principles are of the highest posed to desire it. But she required an she was both formed to gain it, and dispractical importance in an age when extensive sphere. A ball-room was her true the art of marrying daughters is arena: for she waltzed 'à ravir,' and could carried to the highest pitch of excel-talk enchantingly about nothing. She was lence, when love must be made to the devoted to fashion, and all its ficklenesses, young men of fortune, not only by the and went to the extreme whenever she Young lady, who must appear to be could do so consistently with grace. But dying for him, but by the father, she aspired to be a leader as well as a follower; seldom, if ever, adopted a mode that mother, aunts, cousins, tutor, game was unbecoming to herself, and dressed to keeper, and stable boy-assisted by suit the genius of her face."-(pp. 28, 29.) the parson of the parish, and, the churchwardens. If any of these fail, velist! If four or five men are in a Tremendous is the power of a noDives pouts, and the match is off. The merit of this writer is, that he room, and show a disposition to break catches delicate portraits which a less the peace, no human magistrate (not skilful artist would pass over, from than bind them over to keep the peace, even Mr. Justice Bayley) could do more not thinking the features sufficiently and commit them if they refused. But marked. We are struck, however, the writer of the novel stands with a with the resemblance, and are pleased pen in his hand, and can run any of with the conquest of difficulties remember to have seen such faces, down any one individual, and keep them through the body can knock and are sensible that they form an the others upon their legs; or, like the agreeable variety to the expression of last scene in the first tragedy written more marked and decided character. Nobody, for instance, can deny that he by a young man of genius, can put is acquainted with Miss Darrell. ----- we them all to death. Now, an author possessing such extraordinary privi "Miss Darrell was not strictly a beauty. leges, should not have allowed Mr. She had not, as was frequently observed by Tyrrel to strike Granby. This is ill her female friends, and unwillingly admitted by her male admirers, a single truly managed; particularly as Granby does good feature in her face. But who could not return the blow, or turn him out quarrel with the tout ensemble? who but of the house. Nobody should suffer must be dazzled with the graceful anima- his hero to have a black eye, or to be pulled by the nose. The Iliad would | Hamilton to have had recourse to never have come down to these times these means of making known his disif Agamemnon had given Achilles a coveries; since he may not have had box on the ear. We should have trembled for the Eneid if any Tyrian nobleman had kicked the pious Eneas, in the 4th book. Eneas may have deserved it; but he could not have founded the Roman Empire after so distressing an accident. friends whose names and authority might have attracted the notice of the public; but it is a misfortune to which his system has been subjected, and a difficulty which it has still to overcome. There is also a singular and somewhat ludicrous condition of giving warranted lessons; by which is meant, we presume, that the money is to be returned if the progress is not made. We should be curious to know how poor Mr. Hamilton would protect himself from some swindling scholars, who, having really learnt all that the 1. The Gospel of St. John, in Latin, adapted master professed to teach, should counto the Hamiltonian System, by an Analyterfeit the grossest ignorance of the tical and Interlineary Translation. Executed under the immediate Direction of Gospel of St. John, and refuse to James Hamilton. London. 1824. construe a single verse, or to pay a farthing. HAMILTON'S METHOD OF 2. The Gospel of St. John, adapted to the Hamiltonian System, by an Analytical Whether Mr. Hamilton's translations and Interlineary Translation from the are good or bad is not the question. Italian, with full Instructions for its The point to determine is, whether use, even by those who are wholly igno- very close interlineal translations are rant of the Language. For the Use of helps in learning a language? not Schools. By James Hamilton, Author of whether Mr. Hamilton has executed the Hamiltonian System. London. 1825. these translations faithfully and judiWe have nothing whatever to do with ciously. Whether Mr. Hamilton is or Mr. Hamilton personally. He may be is not the inventor of the system the wisest or the weakest of men; which bears his name, and what his most dexterous or most unsuccessful in claims to originality may be, are also the exhibition of his system; modest questions of very second-rate importand proper, or prurient and prepos-ance; but they merit a few obserterous in its commendation;-by none vations. That man is not the discoof these considerations is his system verer of any art who first says the itself affected. The proprietor of Ching's Lozenges must necessarily have recourse to a newspaper to rescue from oblivion the merit of his vermifuge medicines. In the same manner, the Amboyna toothpowder must depend upon the Herald and the Morning Post. Unfortunately, the system of Mr. Hamilton has been introduced to the world by the same means, and has exposed itself to those suspicions which hover over splendid discoveries of genius detailed in the daily papers, and sold in sealed boxes at an infinite diversity of prices-but with a perpetual inclusion of the stamp, and with an equitable discount for undelayed payment. It may have been necessary for Mr. thing; but he who says it so long, and so loud, and so clearly, that be compels mankind to hear him- the man who is so deeply impressed with the importance of the discovery, that he will take no denial: but, at the risk of fortune and fame, pushes through all opposition, and is determined that what he thinks he has discovered shall not perish for want of a fair trial. Other persons had noticed the effect of coal gas in producing light; but Winsor worried the town with bad English for three winters before he could attract any serious attention to his views. Many persons broke stone before Macadam; but Macadam felt the discovery more strongly, stated it more clearly, per severed in it with greater tenacity, il Verbo era appresso Dio, e il Verbo wielded his hammer, in short, with the Word was near to God, and the Word greater force then other men, and era Dio. finally succeeded in bringing his plan into general use. was God. "2. Dio. Questo era nel principio appresso Literal translations are not only not Per mezzo di lui tutte le cose furon "3. By means of him all the things were fatte: е senza di lui nulla fu fatto made: and without of him nothing was made di ciò, che è stata fatto. "4. a Custom-house officer would a barrel of gin. Mr. Hamilton, on the other hand, maintains, by books and lectures, that all boys ought to be allowed to work with literal translations, and that it is by far the best method of learning a language. If Mr. Hamilton's system is just, it is sad trifling to deny hisness, and the darknesses have not admitted In lui era la vita, e la vita In him was the life, and the life era la luce degli uomini: was the light of the men: claim to originality, by stating that The works upon this subject on this an extract: suppose principio era il Verbo, e In the beginning was the Word, and "5. E la luce splende tra le teneAnd the light shines among the darkbre, e le tenebre hanno non ammessa la. her. "6. Vi fu un uomo mandato da Dio There was a man sent by God che nomava si Giovanni. who did name himself John. Questi venne qual testimone, affin of to render testimony to the light, whence In this way Mr. Hamilton contends and the most irksome nature, and it is spared at a time of life the most averse to such labour; and so painful is this labour to many boys, that it forms an insuperable obstacle to their progress: they prefer to be flogged, or to be sent to sea. It is useless to say of any medicine that it is valuable, if it is so nauseous that the patient flings it away. You must give me, not the best medicine you have in your shop, but the best you can get me to take. sunny day, with a heap of unknown | noisy boys, and with a recollection that words before him to be turned into by sending to the neighbouring shop, English, before supper, by the help of he can obtain any quantity of unripe a ponderous dictionary alone. The gooseberries upon credit. Now, if this object in looking into a dictionary can statement be true, and if there are only be to exchange an unknown 10,000 words in the Gospel of St. John, sound for one that is known. Now it here are 160 hours employed in the seems indisputable, that the sooner this mere digital process of turning over exchange is made the better. The leaves! But in much less time than greater the number of such exchanges this, any boy of average quickness which can be made in a given time, might learn, by the Hamiltonian the greater is the progress, the more method, to construe the whole four abundant the copia verborum obtained Gospels, with the greatest accuracy by the scholar. Would it not be of and the most scrupulous correctness. advantage if the dictionary at once The interlineal translation, of course, opened at the required page, and if a spares the trouble and time of this meself-moving index at once pointed to chanical labour. Immediately under the requisite word? Is any advantage the Italian word is placed the English gained to the world by the time em- word. The unknown sound therefore ployed first in finding the letter P, and is instantly exchanged for one that is then in finding the three guiding let-known. The labour here spared is of ters PRI? This appears to us to be pure loss of time, justifiable only if it be inevitable and even after this is done, what an infinite multitude of difficulties are heaped at once upon the wretched beginner! Instead of being reserved for his greater skill and maturity in the language, he must employ himself in discovering in which of many senses which his dictionary presents the word is to be used; in considering the case of the substantive, and the syntaxical arrangement in which it is to be placed, and the relation it bears to other words. The loss of time in the merely mechanical part of the old plan is immense. We doubt very much, if an average boy, between ten and fourteen, will look out or find more than sixty words in an hour; we say nothing, at present, of the time employed in thinking of the meaning of each word when he has found it, but of the mere naked discovery of the word in the lexicon or dictionary. It must be remembered, we say an average boy-not what Master Evans, the show-boy, can do ; nor what Master Macarthy, the boy who is whipt every day can do ; but some boy between Macarthy and Evans and not what this medium boy can do while his mastigophorous superior is frowning over him, but what he actually does when left in the midst of We have hitherto been occupied with finding the word: we will now suppose, after running a dirty finger down many columns, and after many sighs and groans, that the word is found. We presume the little fellow working in the true orthodox manner, without any translation: he is in pursuit of the Greek word Baλe, and after a long chase, seizes it, as greedily as a bailiff possesses himself of a fugacious captain. But, alas! the vanity of human wishes!—the never-sufficiently. to-be-pitied stripling has scarcely congratulated himself upon his success, when he finds Baλw to contain the following meanings in Hederick's Lexicon:- 1. Jacio; 2. Jaculor; 3. Ferio; 4. Figo; 5. Saucio; 6. Attingo; 7. Projicio; 8. Emitto; 9. Profundo; 10. Pono; 11. Immitto; 12. Trado; 13. Committo; 14. Condo; 15. Edifico; 16. Verso; 17. Flecto. |