In these latter days, however, one change has taken place which tends to redress the balance. The resource of the needle was as open to love-lorn woman in the fourteenth century as it is at present; but there is one resource-that of reading, which was not; and it is our belief that the women of the present age have the advantage in this particular, not only over the women of preceding generations, but over the men of their own. We believe that there are at present far more men than women who are not readers, and that many men are driven to read chiefly because, for the sake of conversing with women, they find it necessary to make themselves acquainted with the books which are their topics. As to the kind and quality of this female reading, we have every disposition to preserve a courteous silence; but speaking of the extent, we have no hesitation in saying that the average of female reading has outgrown the average of male.

If the light remark, to which we have been taking an exception, be not altogether correct, there are many in these volumes more seriously made, which are just and pregnant, and afford evidence of a thoughtful insight into the feelings and ways of mankind.

6

'Whether I shall ever succeed in being useful, is, I fear, very doubtful,' says Dacre; but I have determined not to be idle. A lonely man, like me, cannot afford to despise himself?

In these few words how much is said, and how much more is suggested, concerning some of the best uses of adversity!

Before we quit the subject, we ought to observe, that there is a faultlessness in point of taste, and an ease and lightness of style in this novel, which are well suited to represent the agreeable gracefulness of the society in which its scenes are laid. The characters are numerous and life-like, and, without being violently contrasted, are diversified and stand in free relief from each other; and there is a knowledge of the component parts of society in high life, and an insight into the working of that complex machine, which could only be the result of an acute and discriminating faculty of observation, exercised upon the largest specimen of a society-say rather of a cluster of interpenetrated societies-which the world affords, the metropolitan society of England; those of its circles, that is, which are considered to constitute what is commonly called 'good society'-ista colluvies vitiorum!

The Two OLD MEN'S TALES' are likewise by a Lady; though, after much controversy, the belief seems to have prevailed, almost universally, that the book was masculine. These stories are of a totally different class and design from those which have been so plentifully produced of late years-the representation of

manners

manners being here merely incidental, the representation of feelings essential and predominant. The authoress has courage enough and a sufficiently ardent imagination to plunge deep into romance, with the assurance that a glowing fancy and the energy of passion will carry her through all difficulties. The romantic colouring does not consist in the manners, customs, and costume of either of her stories being other than those of the age we live in; but is thrown over them by the representation of highly-wrought sensibilities and of tragic or extraordinary events. Upon us the impression of these tales was such as we recollect to have received from the novels which we stole and secretly read in the days of our boyhood; we found them interesting and affecting to a degree which made us begin again to think that the serious occupations of life were weary, stale, flat, and unprofitable, compared with that of reading novels. With that power by which a writer can reach the heart of a reader, it is plain that this authoress is eminently endowed.

For the rest, her characters are few and distinct, her conceptions, though free, compact; and there is a clear decisiveness of purpose in the conduct of her narratives, which makes the reader feel that there is nothing for him to do but to go along with her. As to style there is some want of art, but none of vigour; devices are prodigally employed, which practice and consideration would teach her to employ sparingly; but this is evidently not from any defect of resources, but because she has not been led to perceive that certain favourite forms of rhetorical or colloquial phraseology (that of emphasis by iteration, for instance) require to be taken care of, with a view to preserve their force and freshness. But these faults are few and immaterial; they would hardly be perceived on the first perusal; and the novel which obtains a second must have merits by which any such faults of style are amply redeemed.

ART. XI.-Origines Biblicæ; or Researches on Primeval History. By Charles Tilstone Beke. London. 1834.

THE

HE author of this volume has, we doubt not, wrought himself into a serious belief in the truth of his theories; nor, considering the suspended state of biblical learning, as concerns the Old Testament, in this country, are we at all surprised that they should have made some impression upon the reading public.' But we must express our own honest conviction that, where these subjects have been more fully investigated, and command more interest among scholars, if Mr. Beke should obtain a hearing, he is little likely to acquire converts. The system

of

of our author is altogether subversive of the established notions of early, indeed of later Scriptural geography. As a religious question, this is unimportant. Though we acknowledge our unwillingness to dissever the very remarkable connexion which has always appeared to us to subsist between the earliest profane history, or tradition, particularly that of ancient Egypt, with the sacred records, we trust that we have no prejudice which may not be wrested from us by the strong arm of truth; and we should be ready to surrender this deep-rooted feeling to solid and sufficient argument. On such subjects we can apprehend no danger from the freest inquiry, or even the most paradoxical novelty of opinion. It is purely a question of the interpretation (we wish this distinction were constantly kept in view during the discussion of such matters), not of the authority of the sacred writings; an examination into the real meaning, not into the credibility of the sacred writer. To those who have read the work of Mr. Beke, this declaration would be quite unnecessary: we have made it in order to guard him in limine from being the victim of that jealous sensitiveness which trembles at the slightest departure from the prevailing opinion, even on points totally disconnected with religious doctrine; and to disclaim, on our own part, the slightest participation in these illiberal and unworthy arts of controversy. He asserts, and the whole tone of his volume confirms, his sincere reverence for the sacred writings, to the truth and authority of which he is persuaded that he is rendering valuable service by his own new, and, as it seems to us, fantastic arrangement of the early geography of the world. His views concerning the inspiration of the Scriptures, although he believes the Book of Genesis to have been compiled, in part, from pre-existing documents, might satisfy the most rigid orthodoxy; and he disclaims with great earnestness not merely all connexion with, but even all knowledge of the Rationalist School of Germany.

Now we may respect the prudent timidity with which Mr. Beke has scrupled to venture his faith in the inspiration of the Scriptures in such dangerous society-yet we cannot but think that he would have conducted his argument, if indeed he had written his book at all, much more to the satisfaction of well-informed and scholarlike readers, if he had enlarged the sphere of his reading in that quarter. We do not urge Milton's bold and characteristic argument, not merely for unlicensed printing, but for the indiscriminate reading of all works, whatever their tendency: I cannot praise a fugitive and cloistered virtue, unexercised and unbreathed, that never sallies out and sees her adversary, but slinks out of the race, where the immortal garland is to be run for, not without dust and heat.' Still for an author, and an

author

author on a subject of pure erudition, to refuse all communion with one great class of writers who have discussed the subjects on which he treats with most penetrating sagacity, with unwearied diligence, with the full command of all the sources of information, and an intimate acquaintance not with one but with the whole family of Eastern languages, because their theological system is erroneous or imperfect, betrays a pusillanimity of faith somewhat mistrustful of the power and stability of divine truth. Nor is there less ignorance than timidity in this indiscriminate proscription of German biblical learning. If the cautious inquirer will scruple to commune with Bauer or with Eichhorn—if he denies himself the rich treasures of the one great philological and critical commentary on the Old Testament, that of Rosenmullerthe writings of Michaelis, however in some respects more free and curious than suits our present rigid tone of writing on such subjects, might have been consulted by the most diffident and scrupulous Christian writer. To such an inquiry the 'Spicilegium Geographiæ exteræ Hebræorum post Bochartum,' with the Epistles of J. Reinhold Forster, is indispensable. From the more learned German writers Mr. Beke would have derived another most essential advantage; he would have seen the necessity of a much more profound and laborious preparation for such a work, of more copious and general reading, of a more critical and extensive acquaintance with the genius and the structure of the Eastern languages. We are constrained to observe, that on many important points, vitally connected with his whole system, he has contented himself with very hasty and second-hand information. His learning is too much that of modern compilations, and derived from the elementary books with which our recent literature swarms. He has seldom consulted, and still more seldom deliberately investigated, the original authorities. The whole theory of hieroglyphic interpretation, as commenced by Dr. Young, followed out with such apparently brilliant success by Champollion, by his scholar Rosellini, by our own countrymen Messrs. Burton and Wilkinson, and which involves the whole of his extraordinary hypothesis of the situation of the Scriptural Mitzraim, is dismissed by Mr. Beke with a reference to one single English reviewal of M. Klaproth's hostile essay. That every opinion of M. Klaproth deserves the most serious consideration,—that all his doubts as to the reality and extent of the modern discoveries demand the most patient hearing, we fully admit; but among the claims which the system of phonetic interpretation advances upon our attention, by no means the least remarkable is the manner in which the monumental history of Egypt, which it traces, harmonizes with and illustrates the history of the Old Tes

tament.

tament. Mr. Beke may intend to discuss these matters at greater length, and with more profound inquiry, in a second volume; but we must fairly warn him, that unless he succeeds, not merely in detecting inaccuracies and contradictions among the hieroglyphic interpreters a task by no means difficult as respects a writer so much too rapid and brilliant for the laborious career of antiquarianship as Champollion himself-but in disproving-in utterly razing to the ground-the whole series of facts developed in that most curious volume, the Monumenti Storici' of Rosellini, he will still find us hardened unbelievers. To Rosellini's work we shall probably, before long, direct our readers' attention; in the mean time we cannot but suspect that Mr. Beke will find it difficult to elude the very curious coincidences between the words and titles decyphered in the least doubtful hieroglyphic inscriptions, and those in the Hebrew text: he will find more serious impediments than he has contemplated, to the establishment of his original indeed, but in our opinion monstrous, hypothesis of a new kingdom of the Mitzraim in the barren and waterless desert between the two arms of the Red Sea, and occupying the space between Egypt and Palestine.

The following statement of Mr. Beke comprehends the chief points in which he differs materially from the earlier writers on the Geography of the Old Testament. The Jews, according to our author-and, no doubt, so far he is in the right-during the later distracted periods of their kingdom, and the Babylonian captivity, with their reverence for the sacred volume, had lost much of their knowledge of its true meaning. At this time (he broadly says) the geographical information of the Israelites must, like all other knowledge retained by them, have been reduced to the lowest ebb.' On the return from the captivity, when the vigour of the ancient religion revived, and the study of their Scriptures became more zealous and profound, the Jews

'Assumed the authority of determining the sites of the countries and places which were so interesting to them, as recorded in or connected with their national history. In doing so they were aided, no doubt, in many instances by the natural localities, by architectural remains, and by other distinguishing marks; but in the far greater number of cases they must have been left to their own deductions from the Sacred Writings; which deductions would have been founded, in great measure, upon the perverted and erroneous notions of history and geography which they had either acquired in the countries of their captivity, or adopted from the Egyptians and Greeks with whom they were now brought into immediate contact.

The following remarkable instances of this process of error may be adduced to illustrate the position thus asserted:-The national vanity of the Babylonians having led them, by a corruption and per

version