offensive interruptions to the current of the narration. They must be collected and arranged at different times and in separate portions; they require often great exertion of research in the collection, and the design and value of them would be lost were they to be frittered down so as to be adjusted, and fitted into the line of the history. Some of the best historians, both ancient and modern, aware of this, have accordingly employed separate chapters, or appendixes on special subjects, and dissertations. Such are those of Polybius, and such is the celebrated book of Tacitus on the manners of the Germans. Dr. Robertson's Proofs and Illustrations, annexed to his General View of the State of Europe, which precedes his history of Charles V. is of the same nature. They form an account of the institutions and customs of the times, which it was of importance to record, but which the writer could not incorporate with the body of the history.

It is certainly true, that we have no history of France, either in French or English, so full and so continued, from the commencement of the monarchy, to nearly the present times, as that which Dr. Ranken has already published to the end of the reign of Lewis XIV. A.D. 1715, and which another volume, or perhaps two, may carry forward to the death of Lewis XVI. There we think he should terminate his work, and add an index to it, which seems absolutely necessary for finding readily the numerous and important subjects scattered over the several books and chapters. When he has completed this great and laborious undertaking, which we hope he may be favoured in health and strength to accomplish in due time, Dr. Ranken, we doubt not, will receive his abundant reward in the approbation of such as read books to be instructed, and estimate in authors, as in men, the uniform display of a sound judgment, and the utmost purity of feeling and purpose. The public taste has of late been so much accustomed to food of the most highly seasoned description, that the plain good old-fashioned simplicity of Dr. Ranken's style may not perhaps be regarded with so much favour as it would have received some fifty years ago. For ourselves, we love the style for its very simplicity, and are not ashamed to say so. We are happy in paying this merited compliment to one of the last of that fine old school of Scottish clergymen, among whom it was not thought incompatible with the most severe and zealous discharge of their professional duties, to devote hours and years of elegant exertion to this and some other not less important branches of literary enterprise,

ART. IV.-Elementa Lingua Græcæ; novis, plerumque, regu lis tradita; brevitate sua memoriæ facilibus. Pars Prima, complectens Partes Orationis Declinabiles, ad finem usque verborum regularium, et analogiam duas in unam syllabas contrahendi, ex ipsa vocalium natura deductam, et regulis universalibus traditam. Studio JACOBI MOOR, LL.D. in Academia Glasguensi Litt. Gr. Prof. Partem posteriorem, notasque adjecit GULJELMUS NEILSON, S.T.D. in Academia Belfastiensi, L.L. Heb. et Gr. Prof. 8vo. Stirling & Slade, Edinburgh; and G. & W. B. Whittaker, Lond. 1820. Pp. 225. DR. MOOR, it is justly acknowledged, stands in the very highest rank among the authors who have presented treatises on Greek Grammar to the public. His "Elements" of that language have been universally admired and widely circulated. As this work, however, was left in an unfinished state at his death, several attempts have been made to complete and improve it, so as to render it generally useful. Of the productions now alluded to, some have been executed with considerable skill and success, but none, we think, more so than the one now before us, by Dr. Neilson, already well known to the public as the author of " Greek Exercises," &c. Every Greck student must certainly feel particularly well pleased with the observations on the dif serent dialects at the beginning of the book, and their exemplification at full length afterwards, both in nouns and verbs. The table of anomalous verbs is very ingeniously arranged, and cannot fail to be serviceable. His observations on the syntax are very concise, more so, perhaps, especially on the prepositions, than some could have wished. Enough, however, we believe, is given to enable the student, by a little industry, to find his way himself; and, when in the hands of an able teacher, who can furnish abundance of examples, the brevity of the precepts will probably not be much complained of. The rules of prosody seem quite sufficient to answer all the purposes intended in an elementary book, and in the notes, which are copious enough, without being unnecessarily numerous, Dr. Neilson combines neatness and precision with conciseness, and displays an accurate knowledge of the genius and principles of the Greek language. Besides the errata pointed out, we could see indicativi for infinitivi, at the bottom of page 90; ȧyugiw for agyugiw, at the top of page 176. But certainly the work may be said to be correctly printed, and the general appearance is certainly agreeable, which is more than can be affirmed of some Greek grammars we could name.

On the whole, therefore, we do not hesitate to give it as our judgment, that this is the completest and most useful edition of Moor's Elements that has yet appeared, and as such, we recom mend it to the attention of students and instructors of youth in the Greek language.

ART. V.-1. The Monastery, a Romance, by the Author of "Waverley;" in 3 vols.

2. The Abbot, being the sequel of the Monastery, in 3 vols. Edinburgh, Constable & Co. 1820.

MOST whimsically, sometimes, do extremes meet. While the authors of mean literary productions experience the greatest uniformity of neglect from almost all the critical journals, the unknown writer of what are denominated the Scotch Novels, begins to be passed by, by the reviewers, just because of his unparalleled excellence. It is a thankless task to detail or abridge what, in its original and superior form, is known to every reader of the English language; and if criticism be expected, it is a course as hopeless to bring to its tribunal a genius who has so long defied and ultimately almost superseded it. If, nevertheless, a critical journal be destined to live as a record of the important literature of its period, it would scarcely be more a blank in the history of England to omit the Reformation or the Revolution, than in that journal to leave the fact unrecorded, that an unheard-of number of the ablest works of fancy of that or any other age, at the rate of nearly two per annum, came from the pen of the highly gifted author of Waverley.

Although we ourselves omitted the Monastery at the time, we did so on the strength of an intimation, that the Abbot was to follow as a sequel; and of the two, as one whole, we shall now proceed to give at least a critical opinion, as we have hitherto done of all the productions of the same author which have come forth since the commencement of our labours. Considering an abstract of the story of either novel altogether superfluous, we shall rest our observations on the foundation of the reader's presumed familiarity with both narratives. We farther feel, that what appears to us to be a just and fair opinion of these two works should be no longer withheld, inasmuch as we do think they have been judged unfavourably, with a precipitance against which we have long wished to raise our voice. Comparing them with all other novels not written by the same author, we hesitate not to place them in the foremost rank of fictitious composition; a rank which would have established the name of any other author among those of the first novellists in the language. But it is another thing to compare the author with himself. Doing this, we as unhesitatingly say, that he has given to the world several compositions of an average superiority to that of either the Monastery or the Abbot. These came, a little mal-a-propos,

immediately after one magnificent effort of genius, with which they will certainly not bear comparison,-we mean Ivanhoe. Besides inferiority in merit to that splendid epopee, they have another and special relative disadvantage, inasmuch as they unadvisedly call us back from a new field of excitement, into which we had followed the adventurous author with unqualified enthusiasm. The scenes, the manners, the histories, the chivalries of England had just burst upon us. Our delighted imaginations had been regaled with an exquisite novelty, and a new direction had been given to our desires. No banquet any where else was likely to feed the newly created longing; in short, we were neither, for a time, disposed nor prepared to go back from England to Scotland, even for a bribe like Waverley itself. Let any one embark in an extensive continental tourhis affairs settled at home for a long absence-passports obtained, and credit negotiated," France, with all her vines," and gay lilied fields," actually entered,-the wonders, the associations of her singular capital enjoyed,-Lyons and Geneva anticipated, the sublime of Switzerland, and all the glories of Italy in perspective yet beyond,-perhaps Greece itself in hope ;-if the elated traveller be, suddenly, and without being consulted, relanded in England or Scotland, in vain you tell him of Cheltenham, Leamington, Tunbridge;-not less in vain of the lakes and mountains of Perthshire, grouse-shooting, salmonkilling, deer-stalking,-his heart and imagination are on the Continent, and no excursion, nor sojourn, nor employment, merely British, can, at that time, have charms for him. This objection to the two last Scottish novels might, no doubt, have been obviated, by a different chronological arrangement in giving them and the English romance to the world. But that that arrangement was not adopted, is itself fair matter of stricture; and we think will go far to account for that undeniable comparative indifference with which the works before us have been received; and the prevalent unceremonious manner in which they are spoken of. When we impute to them an inferiority in a limited degree to several, perhaps to most of the previous works of the same author, we go as far as a fair and enlightened criticism warrants. We cannot enforce the virtue of gratitude to a literary benefactor, of the rank of even the author of Waverley; but we must enter our protest against that unwarranted judgment, which condemns the Monastery and the Abbot altogether. We speak of these works as a whole, and estimate the sum of their merits and imperfections, when we would place them somewhat lower than some of their predecessors. Their defects appear to us to be more in magnitude than number;

but, few as they are, they are a heavy counterpoise even to beauties, which, taken abstractly, are fully up to the pitch of the highest and happiest efforts of the author's genius. In fewer words, we would say that the Abbot and the Monastery contain some of the best and of the worst ever yet written by this marvellous genius.

The historical period in the Monastery and the Abbot is well chosen. In the Tales of my Landlord, the author had given a striking view of the sufferings of the Scottish people under the unfeeling persecutions of the reign of Charles II.; with many a fine touch of pathos in the picture of their heroism, and of humour in that of their eccentricities and extravagancies. But the previous period of the Reformation offered a no less poetical field, with all that was likely, by such a genius, to be imagined of character and incident, at that crisis when the mighty system of the Romish Church fell around her proud and gorgeous ministers, reft of their temples, palaces, and domains, and turned out to beggary. Melrose, as a scene for this drama, was not likely to be passed over. No person of feeling has seen its magnificent ruins, or the portrait of its former glory in The Lay, without the most pleasing emotions. It was by far the best endowed and most fordly monastery in Scotland; and was well selected for a description of monastic economy, as well in its better times as in its decline,-for a dramatic exhibition of its priesthood in their glory, and in their fall. We protest against the quaint appellation of Kennaquhair being substituted for the fascinating name of Melrose, so obviously meant- Nor do we see any reason for a substitution for Melrose any more than for Holyrood or Edinburgh; to which are given their proper names. In both novels, Melrose is the scene of an interesting part; but the Monastery is chiefly conversant with it, and shines most where it is so. Never was this author more happy in the exercise of his talent of realizing. He makes us actually present,-at once familiar with the ancient internal, the former every day of what is now an ivy-covered ruin. We shall never enter its venerable walls without seeing before us, in imagination, the fat, good, easy Lord Abbot Boniface, with his important air of helplessness, in all the perplexity of post after post, dispatch on dispatch, from the privy council or the primate-yielding, yet seeming not to yield, to the wiser head and firmer character of the Sub-Prior Eustace-never omitting a warm recommendation of the Sub-Prior to the highest possible preferment elsewhere,-much approving a well-shot buck, and loving a haunch of venison. Eustace, too, will stand before us in all his learning, suavity, and gentlemanlike address, and in his heroism for the old, to him the true faith. The inferior