ART. IV.—Adeline Mowbray; or the Mother and Daughter: a Tale. In Three Volumes. By Mrs. OPIE. 8vo. NOVELS in former days were nothing but love stories, or works professing, often indeed falsely enough, to exhibit pictures of real life and manners. The importance that they have lately been allowed to usurp in the republic of letters, is at once a curious and an alarming symptom of the frivolity of the age. There was a time when a person wishing to inform himself in the higher branches of literature or philosophy, would have been obliged to undergo the labour of perusing dry crabbed treatises, written professedly on serious and important subjects. Now, happy revolution he may luxuriantly imbibe, in the tempting form of a novel, the beauties of history embellished with all the eloquence of fiction, encumbered by no dates, and perplexed with no documents. Through the same medium he may see the happy effects of a new scheme of education, illustrated by the example of children who were never born; or the advantages of a new system of morals displayed, or its evil consequences exposed, on the unexceptionable authority of characters that have never existed. The work before us undertakes to shew, from the example of miss Adeline Mowbray, that a young lady who ventures to ridicule and condemn the marriage-tie, will expose herself to insult; that if she consents, though from the purest motives imaginable, to live with a man as his mistress, she will assuredly be driven out of decent company; that her children, being illegitimate, will be destitute of the right of inheritance, and subject to a thousand affronts; and that she cannot do better, if deprived of her lover by death, than to accept the first legal protector that offers. From the adventures of the mother is taught, the folly of neglecting all the duties of life for the study of metaphysics and politics; the ill consequences attendant on a complete ignorance of the world in the mother of a grown up daughter; and the madness of a rich widow's falling in love with and marrying a profligate young Irishman overwhelmed with debt, from whom she forgets to demand a settle ment. It must be confessed that these great truths are sufficiently familiar; and in spite of the rage for experiment in moral conduct, which some years ago prevailed to a considerable extent, we hope there are few ladies "so to seek in virtue's lore," as to be inclined to put in practice the extravagances of poor Adeline. As for the faults and follies of her mother, we fear the causes of most of them are too deeply wrought into the constitution of the human race, to be removed by the united eloquence of all the moralists, novelists, and divines, who have ever written, preached, or taught. If, therefore, it was Mrs. Opie's wish, by the present work, to establish her name among the great guides of female conduct and promoters of practical wisdom, she has assuredly failed of her object; but if she has adopted the vehicle of system only for the sake of placing interesting characters in new and striking situations, contenting herself with the more appropriate task of amusing the fancy and touching the heart, she may certainly lay claim to a pretty large portion of applause. In drawing characters indeed we do not think she has been very successful, for both Adeline and her mother appear to us considerably out of nature; but there are situations and incidents of great effect. Glenmurray, the hero, is a most interesting being; and several well-imagined circumstances serve to set in a strong light the native benevolence and sensibility of his mind, triumphing first over the stoical pride of system, and afterwards over the fretful selfishness produced by lengthened sickness. The account of Adeline's meeting with the illegitimate child at Richmond is natural and striking, and the speech of the quaker over the body of the misguided Glenmurray is quite in character. There are other passages of considerable merit interspersed throughout, and some of deep pathos; but we should have been better pleased if the tale had ended with the death of the hero, before the odious Berrendale had appeared to put us out of love with husbands. ART. V.-The Life of a Lover, in a Series of Letters. By SOPHIA LEE. 6 vols. 12mo. ENGLISH novels of respectability are This passion is indeed frequently painted usually advantageously distinguished from in colours somewhat warm: it is reprethose of a neighbouring country, by the sented as inevitable, invincible, and formchaste and innocent nature of the passion ing not only the dearest charm, but the which it is their chief business to display. grand business of life. Whilst no legal impediment, however, is supposed to exist to the union of the parties, it is only in degree, not in kind, that such representations can be deemed improper; for an affection which, rightly placed and favoured by circumstances, has conducted thousands to happiness the most pure and exalted, can have nothing in its nature essentially vicious. It is therefore with great concern that we observe the name of a lady, well known in the literary world, appended to a tale, the theme of which is the loves of a virtuous young lady, and a married man. The interesting Cecilia only once meets at a theatre, and exchanges a few words with, the handsome lord Westbury, under the mistaken idea of his being a bachelor: yet, by this one interview, the foundation is laid of an attachment which neither reason, prudence, nor duty, have power to overcome. She refuses, but pardons, dishonourable offers from the man of her heart; and they mutually enter into pro-, mises of marriage in the event of the death of lady Westbury, who, though faithful to her husband, had caused and justified his alienation of affection, by her vanity, levity, selfishness and extravagance. When her death happens, however, his lordship, falsely suspecting the virtue of Cecilia, abandons her; and, in a fit of despair, she consents to become the wife, or rather nurse, of a sickly veteran. She soon becomes a widow, of course; an explanation ensues of course, and of course too, a marriage is the consequence. With these nuptials the novel ought naturally to have ended; but two or three volumies still remain behind, occupied chiefly with the intrigues-some not very decorous to relate of a profligate woman, and the artifices of a designing man, by whose machinations the happiness of the tender pair is continually mingled with jealousy and alarm. The constitution of the heroine gradually sinks under the effects of per turbation and inquietude; and, by a need less cruelty of the author, her death wraps in gloom the conclusion of the tale. It is difficult to perceive any moral end to be answered, by showing a lovely and amiable young creature rashly climbing along the brink of a precipice, and eventually arriving at the summit of felicity by a path so dangerous and irregular. The idea of requiring a novel to be an ethical treatise illustrated by examples, may not however pass current with the younger and gayer part of our readers, who will probably be more inclined to ask, "is it interesting?" than," is it edifying?" To such we answer, that part of the first volume, which feelingly sets forth the hardships and insults endured, and the dangers incurred, by a beautiful and welleducated young female, unfortunately doomed to a dependant situation, powerfully excited our sympathy; that some of the subsequent scenes of tenderness are not destitute of pathos; that original and judicious reflections are sometimes interspersed; but that the incidents are fre quently improbable, and still more confused than in our author's comedy, "the Chapter of Accidents;" that the story is tediously told in letters; and that the style, evidently borrowed from Richardson, is often quaint, and never graceful; that the character of the hero exhibits a strange mixture of the Lovelace and the Grandison, and that the attempts at hu mour are little successful. Finally, we cannot in conscience advise any of our gentle readers to proceed farther in their perusal than the death of the first lady Westbury; after which they may, in their own minds, bring the lovers together in a much more simple, concise, and satisfac tory manner, than has seemed good to miss Sophia Lee, whose fancy seems to have been not a little captivated by the imposing majesty of " a novel in six volumes." ART. VI.—The Mysterious Freebooter: a Romance. By FRANCIS LATHOM, Author of Men and Manners, &c. 4 vols. 8vo. THE author of Men and Manners is no interior novellist: nothing ought more to surprise than his unrivalled fertility: few authors have written so much, who repeat themselves so little: this is the privilege of those who draw less from precedent than from imagination, who study books little and nature much. Of the plan of a romance full of incident, it would be laborious to give the story in epitome; and would increase the reviewer's trouble only to diminish the reader's gratification. Suffice it to say, that terrorism is the dominant impression; that this is a production of the Radcliffe school, and perhaps the best domestic imitation which has yet appeared; and that it is full of interest, of invention, and of eloquence. The part least skilfully executed is the narrative of Elizabeth de Valois, which, if it does not contain particulars that she could not know, at least tells them as she would not relate. An useless machine is queen Elizabeth: the involution and evo lution of the whole might as easily, and more neatly, have been accomplished without as with her interposition. ART. VII.-The Duellists; or Men of Honour. A Story; calculated to shew the Folly, Extravagance, and Sin of Duelling. By WILLIAM LUCAS. 12mo. pp. 182. THE author has our best wishes that his arguments against duelling may operate efficaciously on those for whose benefit they were intended. Mr. Lucas would have done better to have translated the ART. VIII.-Canterbury Tales. ON the appearance of a fifth and final volume, it is rather too late to commence the criticism of a work: the public has had abundant time to appreciate the merits of miss Lee's Canterbury Tales; and the encouragement which has induced her to bring them to a close, testifies that the verdict has been in her favour. The pre eloquent and impressive letter, in which Julie dissuades St. Preux from a rencontre with lord Edward Bomston. This is a master-piece-not so the story of "the Duellists." Vol. 5. By HARRIET LEE. 8vo. sent volume will not be read with less interest than the preceding ones; the fertile imagination of the fair author gives no symptom of exhaustion: her pictures, if not taken from life, are such as life might possibly have presented; the drawing is free, and the colouring good. ART. IX.-The Pilgrim of the Cross; or Chronicles of Christabelle de Mowbray: an ancient Legend. By ELIZABETH HELME. 12mo. 4 vols. NOTWITHSTANDING the plentiful improbabilities which occur in this novel, a considerable interest is excited, and what is more, preserved to the last. The period of time in which the events are supposed to take place is that of the holy wars, and the scene is laid partly in Palestine, partly in England. To pourtray the manners and the costume of those remote times was a most hazardous undertaking: great allowances for this difficulty must be made on the part of the reader. He is not called upon, however, to grant a similar indulgence towards the numerous grammatical inaccuracies which disgrace these pages. We have given Mrs. Helme a hint on this subject before: we now give her a second and more serious caution, as we find that she has announced for publication a History of Scotland designed for the use of young persons. Mrs. Helms probably writes with a very rapid, as she certainly does with a very careless, pen. It is of the utmost importance to correct this negligence, if she undertakes to prepare books for the perusal of young per sons. The Pilgrim of the Cross, like every other production of this lady, is strictly moral: it enforces good precepts by example, punishing profligacy and rewarding virtue. ART. X.-Mental Recreations. Four Danish and German Tales: entitled Henry and Amelia; The Noble Suitor; Paladin; and the Young Dane. By the Author of a Tour in Zealand, &c. 12ino. pp. 158. THE last of the four was the only one we could read without yawning. ART. XI.-Belville House. 2 vols. 12mo. pp. 606. IF any unlucky wight should, by mistake, take up these volumes and read half a dozen pages, he will commiserate our misfortune in being compelled to read the whole of them. ART, XII.--The Adventures of Cooroo, a Natire of the Pellew Islands. By C. D. L. LAMBERT. 8vo. IT would be difficult to guess, and is not worth while to conjecture, why the hero of this piece is a "Pellew" (Pelew) islander; he might as well have come from the Atlantic as the Pacific Ocean. When captain Wilson quitted the hospi table territories of Abba Thule, one of his crew, named Blanchard, remained behind, and from recent accounts we know that he perished in battle. Mr. Lambert finds it convenient to suppose that, after the departure of the Oroolong, Blanchard attached himself to a young man of the name of Cooroo, who, at the death of his patron, attaches himself also to another youth of the name of Boolom. Venturing too far at sea, they are tossed about "three stormy days and stormy nights;" and, after a hundred hair-breadth 'capes, Cooroo is thrown on the coast of Spain. His simplicity and ignorance expose him to innumerable disasters; he comes to England, returns to Spain, is wrecked four or five times, tumbles down stairs four or five times to the great mirth of the reader, is seduced into brothels, but afterwards marries, and without doubt lived very happily afterwards. There is some low humour in this novel, which is an exhilarating change from the nauseous sentimental slang with which we have long been disgusted. Occasional satire on our manners, and our penal laws, is intermingled with the narrative. We suspect that, in the character of sir Warner Walsingham, Mr. Lambert has taken great freedom with some of the peculiarities of a respectable and well-educated gentleman, who died about a year and a half back at his seat at Walsingham-abbey, in Norfolk. Mr. Henry Lee Warner, the gentleman here alluded to, was a very humane and generous man, but of very singular cha racter: night he systematically converted into day, and day into night. He always rose in the evening, breakfasted at midnight, and dined at five or six in the morning: he dressed like an English gentleman of the century before the last; a goldlaced coat and waistcoat with deep slashworked sleeves, and richly embossed buttons; a deep chitterlin of rich yellow lace, curve-toed shoes, and oblong buckles. The story here related of his having helped the fellow whom he caught lopping his tree, to lay the wood on his back, is in all probability true, as Mr. Warner permitted the most impudent and injurious depredations imaginable of this sort. Being on a visit in Norfolk about three years ago, we passed by the seat of this gentleman, and saw timbers stripped of their branches within two hundred yards of his mansion. His extensive old woods and young plantations were alike undefended; and it was truly melancholy to behold a devastation thus detrimental to the community, as well as to the individual, committed with impunity from a false principle of humanity. It has been stated that, by these depreda tions, Mr. Warner sustained a loss of not less than twenty thousand pounds! Mr. Lambert would have made a more interesting character of sir Warner Walsingham, if he had drawn a true copy of the original, from which he took a few particular features. ART. XIII.-Memoirs of M. de Brinboc: containing some Views of English and Foreign Society. 3 vols. 12mo. A SHOT that is fired when the battle is over is waste of ammunition: the crimes and follies which are here satirized have, in a great measure we trust, passed away. History has presented us with revolutionary characters and incidents more striking than any here imagined; and the philosophy which assumes the omnipotence of mind over matter, and the perfectibility of man, as the basis of its dogmas, has been often ridiculed with more success than in the Memoirs of M. de Brinboc, CHAPTER XII. METAPHYSICS, PHILOLOGY, AND CRITICISM. THE only introductory observation that the present chapter admits of, relates to a mere matter of arrangement. It has appeared upon the whole to be most convenient to separate the metaphysical from the theological articles, and to form them into a distinct chapter, together with the most important of those which we have been accustomed to place among the miscellanies; by which our chapter of confusion will be diminished without, as we hope, perplexing the reader by adding one more to the subdivisions of the volume. ART. L-An Essay on the Principles of human Action: being an Argument in favour of the natural Disinterestedness of the human Mind: to which are added some Remarks on the Systems of Hartley and Helvetius. pp. 263. A PROPENSITY to push inquiry into the hidden causes of things, and to discover the most simple forms of being, is the leading characteristic of a philosophical mind: nor will the most profound learning or extensive information avail, to confer the title of philosopher upon any man, in whom this propensity is not found to exist. It may indeed be acquired by an early and close application to scientific subjects in general, more especially to the investigation of abstract principles. To reap any lasting benefit however from pursuits of this nature, much laborious and painful study is necessary. It is not every one who can converse fluently about cause and effect, matter and spirit, identity, the foundation of morals, and so forth, that merits the dignified appellation of philosopher. On the contrary, the most superficial sciolists, who never arrive at any thing like the comprehension of an abstract idea, or generic term, are observed to be most familiar in their allusions to these and similar questions; of the import of which they understand nothing and surely of all canting, the cant of such philosophy is the most disgusting. secret bye-way, to the knowledge of first principles. What have the French gained by attempting to popularize metaphysics? or what advantage have the youth of this country derived from reading systems formed upon the same plan, to the neglecting of Locke, Hartley, Tucker, and Reid? What has resulted from this compendious method of studying the most difficult subjects, but the puerile and absurd ambition to model governments and social institutions after schemes which can only be thought worthy of professors educated in the academy of Lagado? "Here shallow draughts intoxicate the brain, But drinking deeply sobers us again." We are not sorry that metaphysics are become unfashionable; that they are again accounted a dry study. For we shall now hope to see the ancient landmarks restored, and the line of demarcation strongly drawn, between such opinions as are purely speculative, and such as have a direct influence upon the business of real life. Then may we discuss the nature of Neither is there any royal road, or cause and effect, without fear of disturbing ANN. REY. VOL. IV. Uu |