1823.]

REVIEW. Atkinson's Key to the Latin Language.

in their situation, or Sir Sidney Smith was never in the Temple, Opposite reasoning merely means this. Here is an exceedingly able, and an exceedingly dangerous man; I use him illiberally, if from respect for the former qualities I do not allow him the exercise of the latter. The irritability of the Exile occasioned nothing but quarrelling among all the parties concerned, and made things worse. He had acknowledged Louis XVIII. only as Count de Lisle in all the Courts of Europe, and required repeated banishment of him and his family from protection, but was himself exceedingly ill used when his own Imperial Title was denied to him. With regard to Sir Hudson Lowe, Napoleon was certainly the aggressor, nor could any man of honour go cap in hand to him after such behaviour, if under any circumstances such conduct would have been prudent. We wish for Sir H's own sake, that, (under admission of Mr. O'Meara's statements) he had exhibited more of the Philosopher; but he was not a Quaker, was of free military manners, and brutally insulted, without any means of redress as an Officer and a Gentleman, and he must have been more than man, had he restrained his expressions of indig nation; moreover, as Buonaparte required what was utterly impossible, viz. a servile compliance with all his requests, however under the circumstances unreasonable, the situation of Sir Hudson was rendered artificially arduous and distressing.

This is our view of the subject. The Pamphlet before us is an attack upon the Quarterly Review for its severe treatment of Mr. O'Meara. We shall not lend our aid to protracting the memory of Buonaparte, and blame those who do, because we think it fanning the embers of faction; and as to Mr. O'Meara, so freely and unreservedly has he spoken of persons, that we do not see how he can ex

pect any other consequences than those which have ensued.

10. A Key to the Latin Language, embracing the double object of speedily qualifying Students to make Latin into English, and English into Latin; and peculiarly useful to Young Gentlemen who have neglected or forgotten their Juvenile Instructions. By John Atkinson. 8vo. pp. 102. Lackington and Co.

53

A VERY useful book for adults; but we must beg to guard our readers against the modern quackery of pretending that a man can become a Latin Scholar in a short time. The Grammar of any language may be soon got up, and translations be made by means of a Dictionary; but the power of opening a Classick, and construing it off, at sight, is not to be obtained without having acquired the copia verborum, very properly taught in infancy, when no other faculty, but memory, is susceptible of action, and the mind and age are not mature enough for professional studies. Arithmetic sufficient for ninety-nine persons out of a hundred, may be acquired, together with Latin, before the age of apprenticeship, and the error is limitation of children to reading, writing, and summing only. The rules in p. 91. seq. of this book, we consider very useful and good: but the only means of becoming perfect Latinists, and insuring a copia verborum speedily, is the constant practice of making Latin verses.

11. Essays on the formation and publication of opinions, and on other subjects. Crown 8vo. pp. 284. Hunter.

FROM what we know of modern

Phrenology and Physiology, the period is probably not far distant when (the association of ideas excepted) all the metaphysical science of Locke, Reid, &c. will turn out to be an actual non-entity. The work before us is intended, we think, as an anguis in herba, to advocate an unlimited licence of propagating opinions, as if opinions were not converted into absolute actions, when expressed in certain forms and with certain intentions, and it were possible to permit unlimited li berty of action, for one is just as reasonable as the other. Though the Author does not always exercise sufficient caution against common-place and truisms, yet he has excellent passages, and the whole chapter of practical and speculative ability is good: on the contrary, that of the causes and consequences of individual character is a mere tedious started query a trite upon fact, viz. " that the qualities of the mind are hereditary, which they could not be, unless they depended, like our other qualities, upon corporeal conditions," a position admirably illustrated by reference to the Cæsar family in

Gre

54

REVIEW.Essays on Opinions, The Priest.

Gregory's Conspectus of Theoretic
Medicine.

We shall extract the following addition to Stuart's explanation, why Philosophers are not men of business. "To this may be added, that the Philosopher can feel little interest in many of those events which occasion fervent emotion in the minds of ordinary people: and since to feel an interest in any thing is to have the ideas excited, and the imagination awakened, his conversation will frequently fail in vivacity, because his feelings are not roused by a number of inconsiderable circumstances, about which others are vividly affected." p. 274.

12. The Priest. 3 vols. 12mo. Baldwin and Co.

IMAGINATION forms the essence of Poetry, yet, with the exception of a few striking instances, it has greatly advanced in Novel-writing, and been grossly neglected by the tuneful tribe. The consequence is, that in the efforts of young beginners, we have whole pages of insipid lines, and common-place, or metaphysical ideas, because the Authors are ignorant that such matter ought only to be exhibited by striking figures, the method which can alone distinguish Verse from Essay. If a man was to show a plain unadorned meadow for a modern landscape garden, he would be laughed at; yet this error daily occurs in Poetry, for it must be Poetry, because it is in measure, which is just as rational as that any wine must be Champagne, because it is put into a Champagne bottle. Now, as Dramatists often refer to novels for their plots, so we would recommend Poets to numerous novels for exquisite flights of fancy, and very beautiful figures: and to none more than the work before us, which is unquestionably a book of no common merit. Its texture is of cloth of gold, the embroidery of exquisite execution, and the jewellery as brilliant as the evening star. The moral of the Novel is founded upon the sad effects of religious bigotry. A Protestant Earl marries a Popish devotee. They have a son and a daughter. The former is surreptitiously conveyed away to a College of Jesuists, in order to be immutably cast, like a statue, in a Catholick form; but the thing is so overdone, that he has no earthly will but for Canonization. This removal abroad, and mode of Education, was planned by the Priest

[July,

(Father Valerius) for the ostensible purpose of restoring him a rigid Catholick to the Countess, and he was to return, incognito, and not avow himself till a favourable moment occurred of converting his father. The real motive of the Priest was, however, to marry the youth to a daughter of his, a girl of infinite talent, accomplishment, and beauty, living in the family, disguised as the Countess's Page, and denominated Philip Altham. The son returns under the name of Lewen, to fill the office of secretary to his noble father: and here commences the fine working of the plot, which turns upon the intercourse between the Son and the Page. The character and conduct of the latter are delineated with inimitable genius, nor does the interest cease to increase, as the story proceeds. Her tenderness is so exquisitely displayed; her wit, live liness, and talents, sparkle so richly; her devotedness is so complete; that she is an actual Psyche, mistaking, under the cruel punishments of Venus, a Bishop for the arch and smiling god, "Who frames with mirth a gay fantastic round."

in

born marble of his religious character, After very nearly vitrifying the stubby her beauty, she finds that his passions have been deprived of all elasticity, and that instead of matrimony, he recommends, like an unfortunate Abelard, an Eloisa destination short, advises her to turn Nun. This the disappointed fair one rejects with indignation, and in the insanity of her misery stabs him, and then herself. This is the main of the Tragedy, and how supreme a manner it is worked up, can only be known by reading the book. But against the denouement we enter our solemn protest. In the language of the original (ii. 260) neath the sun! she might have been "nought fairer was to be found bethe very pride, and the joy, and the hope, and the life" of her beloved.

The work abounds with grand passages. We select the following.

"Oh! by our Lady, she is a peerless creature! so wondrous sweet, so tender, so paleness and in her roseate glow of comtouching, so kind, so lovely alike in her plexion, that one would have imagined young Joy would have been enamoured of her, and have made her his continual home. But not so. Sorrow contests his empire there, and, I suspect, more than half divides it. Had you seen her, as I did, with the

gay

1823.]

REVIEW.The Priest.-Other Times."

way,

55

that

gay throng to-day, you had thought her who, in the middle ages, visited the the pale pensive Angel of Pity, just de tomb of the Saviour. The hostility scended from Heaven, whilst the dew and of the Saracens to the Christian rethe light of the sky still beamed on her. ligion, if not caused, was sustained My eyes never left her, and I saw the tears by the dissolute conduct of those who sparkle in hers, when none else did; and I saw them gem her long lashes, like dew-zealous votaries. The pilgrimages were put themselves forward as its most drops sparkling on a dark leaf by the moonlight. And then she became pale as alabaster; and when my Lord turned to speak to her, a glow suffused her cheek under his glance, willing to spare him by so lovely and duteous and kind a deception. I like that variableness of complexion in woman, it is the eloquence of the soul; it is a transparent veil of the thoughts, through which they show all lovely and pure, as they may be, as they must be; for that transparent veil of alternate blushes and paleness never enveloped ought but purity; it seems to me of such exquisite texture, woven by angels, and spread by them over a kindred spirit, that no demon could imitate it in the service of guilt-his workmanship would look clumsy and gross, and be instantly de

tected." ii. 41.

There are numerous passages full as fine as this; and the work deserves to be placed, though of different character, upon the same shelf with the Scotch Novels. But we must remind the Author of the poor fellow in the water, calling out for help "I will be drowned, nobody shall help me;" for we see would frequently used instead of should; e. g. in ii. p. 3, &c.

18. Other Times; or, the Monks of Leadenhall. By the Author of the "Lollards," &c.

THIS Romance exhibits, in a welltold tale, some excellent sketches of the manners and customs of our an

cestors, with curious views of London as it was in the time of Henry the Eighth.

The Tale begins with the description of a pilgrimage to the shrine of Thomas à Becket, of Canterbury, where we are introduced to the chief characters. The observances of Translationday, the 7th of July, on which day it was customary to raise the bones of Becket from the tomb, and display them to the Monks and Pilgrims, are not a little remarkable. The mirth, jollity, and uproar, which the author describes, would seem out of their places in a solemn pilgrimage; but unfortunately for the reputation of our species, we know that similar disorders were common among those

in fact the fairs and revels of that pe-
riod. On this subject we cannot now
dilate; but remarking by the
with scenes of a descriptive and co-
mic character, we find in "Other
Times," many of a tragic cast, from
which we cannot present our readers
with extracts, without impairing the
effect of the Romance; we shall con-
tent ourselves with giving the follow-
ing account of Old St. Paul's Church,
as a specimen of the singular pictures
of antiquity which embellish the

work.

"There was then a public way through the body of the Church, which was very much frequented in the latter part of the day. Those who repaired thither did so not from feelings of devotion, but to walk and lounge, to talk of polities and business, and plan the pleasures of the night. The pressure was commonly so great on the Walks of Paul's,' that but few females ventured there, such excepted whose object it was to entertain the dissipated of the

other sex.

"Here, those who ventured to criticise the measures of Government (a body greatly inferior in number to those who in that way now occupy themselves), failed not to repair to catch the current reports of the day. Here came the trader to meet his mercantile friend; and here came the dandy of the sixteenth century, to exhibit to the or merriment of the admiration, envy, crowd, the newest fashions. The entrances and various parts of the walls were covered with numerous placards, describing the wants and wishes of those by whom they were placed there; the commodities they had to sell, or the feats they were competent to

perform. That they disfigured a splendid edifice might have been objected to them by those who deserved not censure for being over fastidious; but this was not regarded, and to say the truth, merited not to be regarded as of moment, when set against the important accommodation afforded to all classes of the community by this sort of general advertiser. The Royal Exchange had not then been erected; theatrical saloons had not been imagined, the diurnal press had not been called into existence; and it will therefore excite little surprise that this, or that any place in London, should have been generally in the crowded state which caused the walks of Paul's to be called the land's epitome,' or the lesser

56

REVIEW. Dr. Booker's Sermon.

isle of Great Britain,' which so oddly combined the attraction of an exchange, a playhouse, and a daily newspaper."

14. A Sermon preached in the Parish Church of Dudley, on the Sunday after Interment of the late Right Honourable William Viscount Dudley and Ward. By Luke Booker, LL. D. Vicar. Dudley, 22 pp. 12mo. FROM the appropriate text of Job xxix. 11, 12, and 13, the good Vicar of Dudley preached an excellent Sermon on the much-lamented death of his patron and friend, the late Viscount Dudley, and which he has printed at the earnest request of his hearers. This able Discourse will enable us to enlarge on the charity of this amiable Nobleman, as recorded in our Magazine for May, p. 466.

to you.

[July,

that mankind in all ages might be moved, by so illustrious an instance of generosity and compassion, "to go and do likewise." But, as the generous Almoner of Heaven who now engages our thoughts, never wished his left hand to know the good which his right hand wrought, I shall forbear to select, out of the numerous instances of his humane munificence with which I am acquainted, any one act of this kind. To you, my hearers, it is unnecessary. Of many you have heard; though, perhaps, not of such gratifying moment as some I could reveal To ourselves his liberality was unbounded, regarding both the living and the dead: the living, in promoting whatever might contribute to our comfort, nay even to our gratification; for who adorned, with almost unequalled beauty, for our enjoyment, not his own, the On precincts of yonder ancient castle? expressing to him how much we feel the obligation, he benignly said, "I hope, by inducing the inhabitants to walk there, it will conduce to their health as well as to their pleasure."-Who largely contributed towards the erection of this sanctuary, and afforded space, in the other, for the children of charity?-Who gave the contiguous ground for the burial of our dead, that their ashes might rest in peace, while lying, as his own now repose, till that awful morning All come, "when all that are in the grave shall hear the voice of the Son of God, and come forth;" when the ponderous tombs shall be broken, and the sea also shall cast out her dead? Then will he stand at the right hand of the Redeemer-Judge; and may we there stand with him, to hear this gladdening invitation: "Come, ye blessed of my Father! inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world."

"Did I content myself by expressing my own gratitude to our departed Friend, every individual within these sacred walls would rise up in accusation against me; for, who is there here, who, among the thousands of this parish,-nay, I may ask, who is there, in the thickly-peopled district that surrounds the tomb where he now sleeps, that has not a grateful feeling of his beneficence. All classes venerated him. classes were benefited by him: the wealthy, by beholding in him what a wealthy Steward of God should be: the necessitous, by partaking of his munificence. He was the rich man's model, and the poor man's friend. Aged workmen, when their strength failed them, and the days of their usefulness were passed, did not, as too often is the case, devolve to the cold charity of a parish, but were his pensioners of comfort. Disconsolate widows, whose wedded partners had died in his service, in him found a husband: orphans in him found a parent. "He was a father to the poor. The blessing of him that was ready to perish came upon him; and caused the widow's heart to sing for joy." Many such now hear me; and their hearts speak in lamentation for their loss!

"Nor did our Parish and District limit the streams of his beneficence. It flowed, in a princely expansive tide, through life's valley of tears, to gladden with comfort human misery, wherever a proper appeal was made to his compassion; and although the extent of his charities will not be known till that day "when every work will be brought into judgment, with every secret thing, whether it be good or whether it be evil;" yet several interesting cases I could relate, which would not more delight your hearts than improve them; as the knowledge of such acts is teaching humanity by example. Thus He, with whose spirit they are accordant, particularized the conduct of the good Samaritan,

"But Parochial and Individual munificence bounded not the native nobleness of his spirit. In more than warm wishes, it expanded in generous deeds to bless, to save his Country. Whenever danger_threatened either it or its King, his loyalty was not satisfied with verbal demonstrations of attachment; but by furnishing for their defence the sinews of martial strength, he gave convincing proof of his patriotic desire and determination to live or perish with them. Sensible of the value of the civil and religious privileges which, under Divine Providence, his country enjoys, he deemed no price too high, no sacrifice too costly to preserve them. Those proud privileges it was his ardent wish to see flourish unimpaired in his own days, and his fervent prayer that they might be perpetuated till the end of Time. An admirer of real Liberty himself, he so much desired others to possess it uncontaminated by Licentiousness, or unfettered by Despotism, that once, when importuned to allow his weighty influence to be used in controlling the civil freedom

of

REVIEW. Miscellaneous Reviews.