The latter of these objects it is supposed very fully to accomplish, but not the former; and many attempts have accordingly been made by subsequent surgeons to remedy the defects of the original instrument. These efforts, however, have not been very successful; and in some of them the main principle of the instrument is affected, and those very objects are counteracted for which it was originally invented. Not deterred by so many failures, Prof. Scarpa undertook to investigate the subject; and, endeavouring to compare the original instrument with the nature of the parts subject to oper ation, he conceives that he discovered its defects. These he supposes to arise from the excessive breadth of the director, particularly at the point; from a want of sufficient elevation in the cutting edge above the level of the groove of the staff; and from the uncertain inclination of the edge to the axis of the neck of the urethra and prostate gland.' We have then an exact description of the gorget, as altered according to these principles, and an account of the manner of operating with it. Nothing short of an actual trial of the improved instrument, under a variety of circumstances, can fully enable us to judge of its merits but the accurate manner in which it is described, and the minute directions given for its employment, will easily enable us to put it to the test of experience; and we doubt not that the zeal and liberality of some of our countrymen will soon give us an opportunity of forming a judgment on this point. Art. 28. Observations on Gas-Lights; being an impartial Inquiry concerning the Injurious Effects on the Health of the Commu nity, from the Use of Coal-Gas for Lighting the Metropolis, By Candidus. 8vo. 2s. Underwood. 1817. In this sensible and well written pamphlet, the author discusses the merits of the invention of Gas-lights; as well as the claims of the Company which has, to a certain extent, received the sanction of the Parliament by its incorporation. After some general remarks on the discovery of Coal-gas, (which, it is well known, was not made by the individual who afterward obtained a patent for its use,) it is stated that still it would not have secured the privileges assumed by this half-philosophical, half-trading association; therefore they applied to the legislature for a specific act of parliament, in order to secure to them the probable advantages arising from the inventions or discoveries of others!' 6 The author next examines at length the chemical nature of the coal-gas, with its effects on the atmosphere, and especially on the health of the individuals exposed to its influence; and he concludes, Ist, That for the purpose of lighting the streets, it is decidedly superior to oil-lamps. zdly, That in open shops, or other places where a free current of air may be permitted, so as to afford a perfect combustion of the and at the same time to ventilate the room, it is superior to gas, oil or tallow for stationary lights, though inapplicable for portable lights. 3dly, That for the interior of dwelling-houses, sitting-rooms, or audience-rooms of any kind, for the assemblage of a large number of persons, it is peculiarly unfit; both on account of a strong current of air being inadmissible in such places, and the gas, both before and after combustion, yielding noxious matter to the atmosphere of the room, and consequently greatly vitiating the air for the purposes of respiration.' With respect to the probable event of the Company's concerns, as a question of pecuniary advantage to the members, the author offers many considerations to prove that the benefits of the scheme have been much exaggerated; and that, unless very undue advantages are given to it by the legislature, it is not likely to fulfil the expectations of profit that have been held out. RELIGIOUS. Art. 29. Discourses, chiefly on Practical Subjects. By the late Rev. Newcome Cappe. Edited by Catharine Cappe. 125. Boards. Longman and Co. 6 8vo. We have borne testimony to the merits of various publications by the late respectable Mr. Cappe and by his venerable widow; and an addition to the collection is here submitted to religious readers by the latter, in compliance with what she considers as a duty to society, and as a faithful use of a talent committed to her care by the great Father and Lord of all. As posthumous writings, however, these sermons come into the world under the disadvantage of being unprepared to meet the public eye;" for, although we trace in many parts of them the eloquence of the author's former discourses, in too many instances we observe with regret their unfinished and unconnected state. The volume is intitled Discourses chiefly on Practical Subjects: but when, from the chapter of contents, we cite the subjects in the words in which they are prefixed to each discourse, our readers will judge how far they are chiefly practical. The great Importance of the Favour of God.. The hope of the Righteous in Death. On Christian Perfection. On the Parable of the Pearl and hidden Treasure. On the final Consequences of our present Conduct.' -On the Imperfection of our Knowledge concerning God.'' On the great Importance of the Public Ministry of Christ. Of these seven subjects, which are said to be chiefly practical, all except. two are naturally and almost necessarily doctrinal. In treating on 'Christian Perfection,' and ' On the Parable of the Pearl and hid den Treasure,' it may be supposed that these topics would lead to an explanation of practical duties, and the enforcement of prac tical virtue; and they have produced that effect in a greater degree than the other objects of discourse: but we have to remark on the want of arrangement, the confusion, the unlimited and undefined tendency, which prevail in these portions of the volume, in common with the rest of the work. The peculiar endeavour of him who addresses himself to a mixed multitude should be to simplify and arrange, with as much accuracy and precision as he can possibly exert; since, otherwise, he can seldom hope that his hearers will carry away with them much of the useful part of his instructions. 15 instructions. A singular command of language was certainly possessed by Mr. Cappe: but it is to be wished that he had exercised more powers of selection and discrimination, and had known. how to abridge the superfluities of style. Art. 30. Sermons, by Thomas Snell Jones, D.D., Minister of Lady Glenorchy's Chapel, Edinburgh. Published at the Desire of the Congregation. 8vo. pp. 520. 10s. 6d. Boards. Longman and Co. 1816. It appears that the author of this volume is a respectable dissenting clergyman, who has for thirty-seven years devoted his time and talents to the duties of the pastoral office in the city of Edinburgh; and that, in the prospect of the period when his ministry must cease,' the congregation, over whom he had been accustomed to preside, requested to have a volume of his discourses put into their hands, that they might give them to their chil dren, as a memorial of what they had heard. The sermons, which we now receive as specimens of Dr. Jones's usual style of discoursing, exhibit a more singular combination of faults and merits than we generally encounter in the same department of composition. Their principal excellence is to be found in the exalted strain of piety and devotion in which the author clothes his conceptions, and in the apparent earnestness and sincerity with which he addresses his audience: their style, also, is for the most part fervent and energetic; and the tone of his language is adapted to command the attention and animate the feelings. He makes frequent allusions to the histories both of the Old and the New Testament; and he possesses a certain facility of intermingling with his own the language and the sentiments of the inspired writers. Though, however, Dr. Jones's composition be forcible, it is not always pleasing. If his style be warm and vigorous, it is not by any means classically chaste: he is apt to dwell too long on one favourite idea; and, even when he has apparently taken leave of it, and has passed on to more novel materials, he is frequently found to recur to it again and again, and to present it to his readers in the very same exuberant language as before. A remarkable instance of this habit occurs in Sermon X. on the sacrifice of Isaac. All being prepared for the fatal deed, the purpose of the father and the situation of the son are thus described: 'He grasped the fatal knife; and, with the fullest purpose of his soul, accompanied with solemn thought, with devout affection, with pious language, with fervent prayer, and grateful praise, he was about to cut the throat, to divide the veins and arteries, to disembowel and dismember the body of his son, to place the bloody and mangled pieces on the fire, to reduce them to ashes, and to give them to the four winds of heaven.' This disemboweling' and dismembering,' we should observe, had just before occurred at p. 249. The idea, however, is much too fine to be kept long out of sight; and at page 259. we meet with it again, but united with an apostrophe so absurd and illtimed, that the ludicrous prevails over the solemn and the pathetic. The holy patriarch is thus again represented: Abraham • Abraham was himself to bind his son; and, O tremendous deed! to cut his throat, and to divide the veins and arteries; he himself was to disembowel and dismember the body of his son, and place the separated parts on the fire; he was to feed that fire, and fan that flame; and while the mangled limbs were consuming, he was to employ himself in solemn thought, in devout affections, in pious language, in fervent prayer, and grateful praise.' The miraculous deliverance of the innocent victim affords the author another opportunity for descanting in the same anatomical and chirurgical style on the bowels' and the members,'' the arteries and veins but we forbear, though he does not. 4 It will be sufficiently evident, we think, from the above short extracts, that the style of these sermons is by no means well adapted to the purpose of religious exhortation. To say that they are written altogether in the language of enthusiasm might per haps be too severe a censure: but the generality of them approximate so nearly to this tone as not to be intitled to a distinguished rank in the department of pulpit-oratory. We must also put our veto on such expressions as, cockle of folly, p. 112.; the loins of the mind, p. 502.; sinner repent, and a jubilee will take place, p. 324. The language of the author not only exceeds in meretricious ornament, but occasionally degenerates into the opposite extreme. He has a method, peculiar to himself, of illustrating his ideas by means of practical examples. Thus we have seen Isaac's re demption from the sacrifice represented by the actual re-union of the members, the return of the bowels to the abdomen, and the replacing of the veins and arteries; so also, when the author attempts, in Sermon XI., to describe the difference between the nature of men and that of angels, he effects this by a sum in multiplication: he states the height of a man to consist of so many feet, and, after having extended these feet into yards, miles, leagues, and degrees, we are told that we at last arrive at the idea of an angel! The volume is replete with these and other kinds of absurdity, and greatly needs the judicious but unsparing hand of revision. CORRESPONDENCE. The communication of H. B. L. seems to have been intended for some Magazine, and to have been directed to us by mistake. It shall be returned, if desired. Several additional offers have reached us of anonymous criticisms on new publications; which, again and again we repeat, will not be accepted by us. The public has long been assured that, in the Monthly Review, they never incur the danger of being misled by reading such reports of either the friends or the enemies of the author of any work. **The APPENDIX to our last Volume is published with the present Number, and contains various important articles of FOREIGN LITERATURE, with the General Title, Table of Contents, &c., THE MONTHLY REVIEW, For OCTOBER, 1817. ART. I. 2 Vols. France, by Lady Morgan. Second Edition. THE HE public has long been familiar with the sprightly performances of Lady Morgan, one of whose early productions, Ida of Athens, was noticed so far back as our fiftyeighth volume, when the fair author bore the name of Miss Owenson; and she has discovered such a happy fluency in the delineation of imaginary characters, that many persons, on hearing of her intention to give a portraiture of our Gallic neighbours, expected to receive it through the medium of a fictitious tale. If such an idea ever entered into her views, however, it must have been relinquished from her eagerness to anticipate other accounts of France, and from the consequent necessity of sending her labours to press by a specified period of the publishing season. I was obliged,' she says, 'to compose à trait de plume, and to send off the sheets, chapter by chapter, without the power of detecting repetitions.' That this haste was ill judged will soon be apparent from the extraordinary proportion of literary errata which we shall be under the necessity of pointing out: but, with all its drawbacks, we have no hesitation in pronouncing this book to be the most pleasant of the various compositions which have of late appeared on the subject of France. To say so much at the outset is no small concession, after all the perplexity that we have experienced from the total want of order, and from the trouble which we have unavoidably had in forming for ourselves a series of divisions, for the purpose of conveying our remarks in a clear and connected form. Though English readers are sufficiently acquainted with the political feelings of the French, their character in private life is materially different from that which either the reports of former travellers or our own early impressions led us to imagine. To estimate it properly, in fact, requires either a prolonged residence in the country or an unreserved intercourse with the people. Lady M.'s stay did not exceed six months, but she was well introduced; she saw the interior of a VOL. LXXXIV. number I |