ever, omitted in that of the fecond. We then gave it as our opinion (Rev. vol. lxxvii, p. 79.), that this little work proceeded not from the pen of that ingenious gentleman; and we are not induced, from the continuation of the ftory, here prefented to us, to change it..B. Art. 19. Memoirs of the Mifs Holmfbys. By Sarah Emma Spencer. 12mo. 2 Vols. 5 s. fewed. Smith. 1788. I do not regret having an opportunity of faying fomething of myfelf; which will, I prefume, difpofe every humane and candid reader to excufe fome of the faults of the following pages. I have had but an humble education.-I may truly add, that I have not a friend in the world who would take the trouble of correcting thefe epiftles: they therefore appear juft as they fell from my pen. They were written by the bed-fide of a fick hufband, who has no other fupport than what my writings will produce.' Author's Preface. Such a ftory would affuredly caufe the pen to drop from the hand of the most severe and rigorous critic. But the writer ftands not in need of the indulgence which fhe folicits. Her Novel is generally interefting. There is a happy contraft of character in it; and the more prominent features of virtue and vice are depicted with confiderable skill and judgment. A.B. Art. 20. Ofwald Caftle; or Memoirs, of Lady Sophia Woodville, 12mo. 2 Vols. 6s. fewed. Hookham. 1788. Character and incident, the principa!, and indubitable requifites in novel-writing are not to be found in this performance. The elegant and the tender, however, are happily blended in it. It is, in short, a very pretty love-ftory; a ftory from which our women may learn, as in a mirrour, to deck themfelves with the jewels of virtue and morality-the brightest which they can poffibly wear. A.B. Art. 21. Phæbe; or diftreffed Innocence. 12mo. 2 Vols. 5 s. fewed. Stalker. Every fable or ftory," fays the Stagyrite, must have a beginning, a middle, and an end." The author of the prefent performance, however, feems to be of opinion that there is no neceffity for fuch formalities. What a jumble of abfurdity is here!" Chaos is come again." A.B. Art. 22. The Illufions of Sentiment. 12mo. 2s. fewed. Axtell. Trifling and frothy. Ifabella de Montmorency, the heroine of the Tale, informs us that fhe is inured to tranfcribe her moft trivial thoughts'. We are very forry to hear it, and fincerely with her fome better employment. A.B. Art. 23. Helena. By a Lady of Diftin&tion. 12mo. 2 s. 6 d. fewed. • Helena, a Novel, by a Lady of diftin&tion.' No! faid we, mentally*, on a perufal of it, this is not the production of a woman of Said he mentally.'-This expreffion occurs in the prefent and alfo in three or four other Novels, which have, within the last twelve months, fallen into our hands. From this, and other fingu jarities, we fuppofe them to be the productions of one and the fame pen. fashion. 1 fashion. But let not this remark operate to the prejudice of the 66 Look pale, and all December tafte no swine. Juv. Sat. I. But this obfervation refpecting the prefent writer is founded only in conjecture, and judging from the rapidity with which the appears write; we fhall be glad to find ourfelves mistaken in the matter. MISCELLANEOUS. A.B. Art. 24. A Series of Letters. By the Author of Clarinda Cathcart*; Alicia Montaguet; and the Comedy of Sir Harry Gaylove 1. 12mo. 2 Vols. 6s. fewed. Elliot. 1788. We refer in the note below to the opinions which we gave of these feparate publications before we knew of their affinity, or of their common parent, who, in an advertisement to the prefent volumes, figns herself Jean Marifhall, and dates from Edinburgh. We believe this Lady profeffes fome branches of education, either publicly or privately, and the expreffes herself with eafe and freedom on the feveral points which now have employed her attention. In one of her letters fhe gives the public her literary hiftory, a hiftory more amufing to the reader than to the anxious writer. The high expecttations of inexperience, and the fevere mortifications of difappointment, are however by no means unufual with literary adventurers ; with whom notwithstanding the world is always fufficiently fupplied; and however this Lady may have fuffered, it does not appear that she is yet difheartened, having, from the circumstances related, met with more private confolation than many of her unfortunate competitors for literary emoluments. Thefe letters were written to one of her young pupils, after he had left her; and they treat of a variety of fubjects, moral, political, and religious; and though the wanders too far from home in the latter, the makes many judicious obfervations on education and morals in all, however, the evidently forms too high expectations from the fuccefs of proper tuition, and proper measures; far higher than the untractableness of human difpofitions, and the counteraction of the human paffions, will warrant. Judging from her general good fenfe, we were much difappointed at her apology for daubing the human face with artificial colours; which we cannot fuffer to * See Rev. vol. xxxiii. p. 405. † Rev. vol. xxxvii. p. 76. Rev. vol. xlviii. p. 72. pafs pafs without difapprobation. It is contained in the following paffage written to her pupil, then in Switzerland; At the wedding to which you was invited, although unacquainted with the parties, you fay you was much hurt at feeing the Ladies ftanding in a group, the bridegroom in the midst of them, with a rouge-box in one hand, and with the other, painting the Ladies cheeks, fingle and married. You could not help exclaiming,-O tempora! O mores!-Now, my dear friend, in my opinion it would have been much more agreeable to your natural difpofition of pleasing, to have enjoyed the humour of the company; and if [it be] cuftomary for the men in Switzerland to paint an inch thick, to have without fcruple followed their example. For my part, I fee no more harm in putting rouge on the face, than in powdering the hair, only fo far as it is done with an intention to deceive and even in this refpect, I am not very clear about it; for if it is allowable to cover any defect of nature, or improve it by art, why not the complexion?" Becaufe, though both may be equally prepofterous, abstracted from the obligations of that tyrant, fashion, the latter is more injurious than the former, and deftroys prematurely what it was meant to improve. Even if it had not this evil tendency, is one bad habit, an act of grofs deception, to juftify another? If so, the authority grows ftronger as we advance, and difdains all limitation! We little expected to find a lady fo`capable of advifing in other points of conduct, fo egregioufly duped by a depraved cuftom, that we did not think had travelled fo far North. We have yet another point to fettle with Mrs. Marishall, and that is, the merit of Novel-writing as a vehicle of inftruction; which the ftrenuously afferts. I am clearly of opinion that novels have inspired a thousand young people with principles of honour and moral rectitude, for one they ever hurt.' Sorry as we are to difpute her judgment, we are as clearly of a contrary opinion. In proportion as fentiment is fubftituted for adventures, or adventures lead to fentiment, the ftory grows infipid, and fuch Novels are rejected as bad. Novel-readers do not read for inftruction, but for amufement; that kind of amusement which abftracts their attention from their own homely concerns, and carries them into the flowery regions of imagination, whence they return with reluctance to their own family affairs and connections; which their familiarity with their ideal acquaintance leads them to defpife, as unfuitable to their new ideas of fenfibility; and a defire to realize fome of thofe pleafing visions, too often tempts them into improper affociations, and to wrong fteps. Let the feducing fcenes, to vulgar minds, in the Beggar's Opera decide the question. If an haberdasher's powdered daughter takes every opportunity to teal from behind her father's counter up to her own room, to study the adventures of Jenny and Jemmy Jeffamy; if every petty gentleman's daughter difdains the imputation of attending to domeftic concerns, to bridle forth a Mifs Byron, we need not wonder at matrimonial difappointments, nor to find prudent young men fhrink from venturing, where the chances are fo greatly against them. If the the merchant's clerk, instead of fixing his mind fteadily to traffic, and to pofting his accounts, diffipates his ideas, by tracing the amours of Captain A. and Lady B. or the Covent Garden frolics of Colonel C. his morals will be as much difordered as his books: and should Mrs. Marifhall plead that the does not write for the low mechanical ranks of mankind; yet, if the obligation which Novel-writers are under to render their fictions agreeable, does no good to the fuperior claffes in life, and, which is of much more importance, distracts the attention and perverts the judgment of the lower orders in fociety,--the casual advantage they may afford to thofe few whofe principles are not to be fhaken, cannot balance the extenfive difadvantage done to thofe whofe paffions make a wrong application of equivocal leffons! But manners are now fo far relaxed, that these antiquated notions will only be relifhed by the few: for even the prudent Mrs. Marifhall, who, as we have fhown, allows her fex to improve their complexions by paint, confiders domeftic duties as only fervile concerns below the attention of a wife, where they can be paid for; of course, fo far as fuch fentiments operate, they will be paid for oftener than they can be fafely afforded. Such doctrine is at least unprofitable. Noo. Art. 25. Important Facts and Opinions relative to the King; faithfully collected from the Examination of the Royal Physicians, and clearly arranged under general Heads. 4to. 1 s. Ridgeway. 1789. The principal parts of the examination of the phyficians are here felected, and as the title-page expreffes it, arranged under general heads. The plan is doubtless a good one; and admitting it to have been impartially executed, this compilement may fave the reader of the original report great labour in collecting and judging of the facts. R......m. Art. 26. A Poftfcript to Mrs. Stewart's Cafe. 4to. 6d. See our laft Month's Review, p. 82. Mrs. Stewart, otherwife Rudd, continues her spirited invectives against Lord Rawdon (once hier benefactor), as the interceptor of that public benevolence, to which the apprehends herfelf to have a peculiar claim, as a woman of birth and family t, reduced to extreme diftrefs. She alfo takes fome notice of certain paragraphs which had appeared in the new fpapers concerning her; and the still reproaches her enemies, in terms of the moft fovereign contempt. Some other perfons of diftinction are also attacked in this pamphlet. Art. 27. M. Nekar's Report to his moft Chriftian Majefty in Council, announcing important Changes in the French Government. Tranflated from the French. Svo. pp. 47. 1 s. 6d. Debrett. 1789. It is impoffible to perufe this admirable addrefs to the King of France, without being filled with the highest admiration of the wif * Either an English or a Scots merchant; for the heads of both are too much diverted from the low attentions on which their welfare depends. † See our account of her cafe, as above referred to. dom dom and patriotic virtue of the excellent minifter, to whofe inftrumentality France will, in all probability, be for ever indebted (becaufe the can never fully repay him) for that reformation in government, which feems to be happily advancing, with gradual fteps, but determined purpose: fo that the time, perhaps, is at no great diftance, when that emancipated nation will no longer hear, with abject fubmiflion, her GRAND MONARQUE afferting "The right divine of Kings to-govern wrong." POLITICA L. Art. 28. A Letter to John Horne Tooke, Efq. occafioned by his Two PAIR OF PORTRAITS, and other late Publications. 8vo. pp. 100. 2 s. Stalker. 1789. We must rank this epiftolary performance among the most diftinguifhed of thofe productions which have appeared in oppofition to the party that hath taken the field under the banners of him who was once styled the man of the people: a title which now seems to have changed fides. This well-informed writer, apprehends that the PORTRAITS drawn by Mr. Tooke, have been too much contracted; that they have been exhibited to the world without thofe elaborate and finishing touches which the pencil of fuch a mafter can give to every feature; that they are only fketches in miniature; and that, of course, they muft fail of producing all that general effect which the times require. He therefore advifes his very ingenious correfpondent to enlarge his canvafs, and to give us the four perfons, in their full proportion, as large as the life. The materials,' fays he, are more than can be crowded into the narrow limits which you feem to have prefcribed to yourself. What you have executed has done much good, but more is in your power. Give us, with that strength of coTouring of which you are mafter, your Two PAIR OF PORTRAITS over again. Begin with the Right Hon. Henry Fox, and the Right Hon. William Pitt. Thofe were the names which thirty years ago kept the public mind in agitation, and they are at this hour the names that engage the attention of the whole community. The fituations in which the two former ftood, as well with regard to the nation as to each other, may be traced; their conduct in thofe fituations may be diftin&ly marked; and it will not be incurious to point out the lines of refemblance in the characters and conduct of their defcendants. Such hints as have occurred to me, I fhall offer to your confideration.' With this view, the writer prefents to his friend, in order as he expreffes it, to point out to him a general outline,' A PAIR OF PORTRAITS, as drawn by the masterly hand of the late Earl of Chefterfield. Thefe pictures are certainly well painted, and they are generally deemed good resemblances; though perhaps that of Mr. For the account given by us, of Mr. H. T.'s two Pair of Portraits, fee Review for Auguft 1788, page 175. The author profeffes to have copied them from Flexney's publication in 1777. Our readers will find the portrait of Mr. Pirt at length, in the Review, vol. lvi. p. 293. |