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no little attention is paid to the respec-out some very ingenious suggestions tive claims on our regard, of a certain on the subject of names; and to per› number of names from which we in-sons who are at all curious in these tend to make a selection. Moses, for example, may be the name of a rich uncle, and there may be a probability of reaping some advantage from paying him the compliment. Why then do we hesitate? bic aisgistry to notezovor What's cinbal name? He, whom we christen Charles, (9) By any meaner name would thrive as well.

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Yetvis it funquestionably true, that we feel instinctively as much reluctcances ins fixing on an infant a name, whose sound is offensive to our ears or is associated in our minds with any thing paltry or ridiculous, as if we had really been appealed to by Mr. Shandy himself, with all the force of his argumentum ad hominem.

We seem to feel the importance of the privilege which we possess of designating an individual, and to prize it as a precious relic of that sovereign power which our ancestor, Adam, exercised over the whole creation. Nor is the value of this privilege a little enhanced by the hereditary nature of our surnames. Our baptismal authority is all which remains to us, and it behoves us to use it with solemnity and-discretion. As philosophers, we must acknowledge that this anxiety about a name is a weakness; and in our serious moods, we should treat the whole affair with perfect non-chalance. Yet must we not deny, that we should scarcely have been able at all times to subdue our vexation, if it had been our lot to answer to so disagreeable a name as Nicodemus; or that we should have felt some portion of the embarrassment of Mr. H. in the farce, if in soliciting a young lady to change her name (Belford or Beauchamp perhaps) for oursakes, we had no better to offer her fthan Hogsflesh. We have indeed, known instances of persons taking the liberty of altering their surnames, by a variation in their orthography, or by dropping, or cutting off an offensive consonant, or even a whole syllable; and we could amuse our readers with a pleasant tale of mishaps which befel a friend of ours, in consequence of such a transmutation of his personal identity. But we suppress our own 19 good things that we may make room

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for a few words on those of Mr. Brady. This gentleman is the author of a new translation of "Guzman D'Alfarache," which we reviewed in our number for April, 1821. He has collected, in the present little dissertation, several very useful scraps of information, and thrown

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matters, and come within the descrip tion given above, we heartily recommend the publication. The subject is treated with a very appropriate degree of sprightliness; and those, if there should be any, who do not edify by the perusal, will assuredly laugh. We do not know that we can give the reader a better idea of the book than is conveyed by it's motto, which we can as sure the reader is no delusion, mod In hoc est hoax Et quiz et joax With gravity for graver folks

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This work is written in the style of a scholar and a gentleman. The execution of it evinces ability, but which is surpassed by the practical usefulness of its plan. The author does not display that parade of antiquarian or historical research, or the affectation or superabundance of sensibility at the beauties of nature, with which books of this sort are, in general, só nauseously replete. In short, there is none of the art of book-making in this vovolume, but all is either useful or agreeable. The reader is carried from Paris to Toulon and Nice, through Rochepor, Avignon, and Nismes; and every thing worthy of his attention at the various places is succinctly pointed out with taste and judgment. The author's descriptions, particularly of the Alps and blue waters of the rapid Rhone, reflecting the lovely scenery of its banks, with the groups of white cattle, are enough to make those lament who are doomed to stay at home whilst those, who are about to travel in this direction, will find the present volume a useful companion; and travellers for pleasure, who are indifferent to the route they may take, may be induced to follow Mr. Hughes's steps, not only from the many advantages of the journey, but because this work will enable them to avoid imposition and inconvenience; and will, also, enable them, without further research or trouble, to direct their attention to whatever is deserving of notice, or calculated to afford them amusement and delight. There are numerous etchings in the book, some of which appear to us remarkably spirited and happy.

Select Passages from the Bible arranged under distinct heads, for the use of Schools and Families, By Alexander Adam. 12mo. pp. 500, 4s. 6d.

20 This is one of those works for which an author can claim no higher merit than taste in the selection, and judg ment in the arrangement; but which, notwithstanding, are of more real use to society than many of those imperish. able monuments of genius which have secured the applause and commanded the admiration of mankind. What dazzles is not always what improves: what surprizes is not that, with which we love to hold commerce in our softer and more retired moments. The great business of life is to become wise and virtuous. Wisdom provides for our happiness in this life, virtue in the next. The great advantage which the Bible possesses, over all other works, is, that it enables us to attain these two great objects. Those who imagine that the Bible has n no reference to our terrestrial happiness, and that its aim is solely to lift us to the contemplation of that felicity which awaits us hereafter, are greatly deceived. Whoever is guided by the moral and social precepts, which it inculcates, must be happy here as well as hereafter. With respect to those who maintain, that with regard to future happiness, we have no certainty; we have only to reply that, abstracted from the authority of the Bible, we have no certainty of the contrary; and, therefore, the Bible stands upon the same grounds as if the argument had never been advanced. It must, however, be confessed, that the Bible is not only too voluminous for children, but that it contains many things of which they might safely remain ignorant, until they attain a more advanced age. The perusal of the Bible by children is also productive of many other inconveniences, which, we think, are best described in the language of the compiler of the present work." It cannot be introduced into a class with advantage, until it can be read pretty fluently; and owing to the difficulty experienced by the learner, in pronouncing the proper names, it is, generally, among the last books read at school. This is the more to be regretted, as, at this advanced period of their instruction, children are chiefly engaged in prosecuting the subsequent branches of education, and, consequently, can afford but a smalĺ portion of their time in school to be employed in reading."

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the object of the present compilation.

To remedy t these inconveniences is

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The author commences with the first chapter in Genesis, and selects from it, and from every chapter in succession, what is not only best adapted to the capacities of youth, but also what is sufficient to make them acquainted with the principal historical events related in the Old Testament, omitting, however, all historical and genealogical registers." The extracts succeed each other, with few exceptions, in the same order in which they stand in the Scripture, so that the work may be considered the Scriptures in miniature. The exceptions, to which we allude, are met with in the Psalms and the Books of the Prophets," for the purpose of including," as the compiler observes in his preface, "as many as possible of the texts most endearingly interesting to Christians, from their affinity to the precepts of the Gospel, and from their prophetic allusion to the future blessedness of the righteous." To accomplish this view, the passages have been taken from the several books and so arranged, as to produce an unbroken relation or connexion of sentiment. Any further comments on the nature of the work would be superfluous. The author has not interfered with the text, and, consequently, our estimation of this work must be proportionate to our estimation of that from which it is selected.or which

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The Conversational Preceptor in French and English, consisting of useful Phrases, arranged under distinct heads, on a new and more simple plan than any hitherto attempted. By J. L. Mabire, to which are added amusing Dialogues, by B. M. Leblanc, pocket size, 6s. 6d. Half

bound.

There have been such various plans devised for teaching the French Language, that we are puzzled to know which deserves the preference. Those, who have time and patience to pursue a regular grammatical course of instruction, will infallibly a attain a competent knowledge of it, so far as respects reading, writing, and translation; but there are thousands, who merely want a selection of phrases on ordinary topics of general interest, to enable them to ask a few questions, and to answer them. The great advantages of the present work may be described in a few words. The phrases

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gio ed ai bus you doldw i bMemoirs of the Life and Trial of James Mackcoull. 8vo. 8s. 6d.

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The title of this work seems to us not altogether to accord with the work itself: the book would have been more appropriately named "Memoirs of James Mackcoul!, with a long, spunout, and technical report of his Trial, &c." To those, whose minds are not of the discriminative class, but who are fond of coarse and strong stimuli; to those, in short, who pore with delight over the Newgate Calendar, or who read with breathless expectation the adventures of Sixteen String Jack, these memoirs of James Mackcoull will afford considerable entertainment. We should perhaps have said, might have been made to afford; for at present they are so injudiciously spun out as to bar every thing like entertainment from their perusal by the lovers of adventure; and to check their inspection by those, who might wish to resort to the work for example or materials in the science or history of the human mind. There is a most noble art, which was unknown to the ancients as

the middle well as to the people of

not

ages-It had its rise, we believe, about the latter end of the last century, and has since reached a height beyond which we imagine it can never soar.-Our readers may perhaps by this time guess that we allude to the noble art of book-making, an art which the volume before us seems to have carried to the ne plus ultra of perfection. Here we have the adventures and trial of a highway-man, ot of so extraordinary a character but that every metropolis of Europe can, unfortunately, produce about his equal; and spun out to two hundred and when we see the life of and eighty-one thickly-printed octavo pages, with an appendix of about forty pages of type, equally condensed, we really, as reviewers, tremble for the fate of literature, and anticipate with terror the bulk, to which some future biographers may carry the memoirs of

man

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highway-men of after ages. Really, if the life of every petty marauder is to be honoured with a thick octavo vo lume, we suppose that a due ratio would give to our military heroes a fearful number of ponderous quartos, and an elaborate life of Wellington or Napoleon would monopolize the entire shop of a modern publisher. To be serious, these memoirs are so spun out as to defeat every object which the memoirs of such a character can answer. We believe, that in the book-trade, as in every other trade, honesty is the best policy.-Now, there is enough in the life of such a man as Mackcoull to make an interesting duodecimo, of about one hundred and fifty, or, at the utmost, two hundred pages; and in the volume before us, the lengthy report of Mackcoull's trial, with the spun-out pros and cons, upon a question, whether the wretch was the perpetrator of a murder which took place at Edinburgh, render the book dull and tedious in the extreme.-Mackcoull is the son of a respectable pocket-book maker of London; but, the mother being a profligate character, the children are badly brought up, and, finally, Mrs. Mackcoull with all her family, assume the various branches of the trade of robbery. The son, James, goes through the common adventures of a pickpocket and swindler, and exhibits all the opposite traits of cunning, caution, imprudence, generosity, selfishness, and profusion, cowardice, intrepidity, an and ferocity which appear to be inherent in those, who exhibit a natural penchant to the course of life of which we are writing. Finally, this James Mackcoull associates with the notorious Huffey GlasWhite and others, and robs gow bank of £20,000. He contrives, by the most selfish villany, to cheat his partners in guilt of part of their booty, and to escape the vengeance of the laws. He afterwards has the impudence to buy up bills of the bank he had

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with the very notes of Wand those

robbed the establishment,

bills being detained by the officers of the bank, he assumes the character of respectability, and brings actions for the recovery of these bills, ingeniously forging a story as well as a correspondence to su support his case. This plot leads to his own condemnation, and he dies in the jail of Edinburgh. Such is the outline of a life which the writer has contrived to spin through a thick octavo volume -forgetting the saying of a great author, that a great book is a great evil."

Poetical Essays. By A. J. Mason, 12mo. pp. 111. 8s. London, 1822.

Mr. Mason informs us, that these poems were the amusement of his leisure hours, and were not intended for the press, but were published in obedience to the wishes of his friends.All this, we have no doubt, is true, but it is very trite, and the world has long ago passed its unalterable verdict upon apologies of this sort.-The public has nothing to do with the compliments, which pass between an author and his friends. If the work be of merit, the advice to publish appears to the public impertinent; if it be the reverse, no advice can gain the book the approbation of the world, or shield the author from the charge of indiscretion. An author should do well to remember, that Dr. Johnson, in his prologue to Irene, boldly avowed, that

He scorn'd the mean address, the suppliant strain;

With merit needless, and without it, vain.

Mr. Mason, we have no doubt, has talents, but if not more sensible, we are, at least, more sincere than his friends, when we advise him to direct the powers of his mind to other subjects than poetry.

Moral Gallantry, with other Essays, by Sir G. Mackenzie, Advocate to King Charles II. and King James VII. Duodecimo, pp. 158. 5s. London.

Du

We believe that the republic of Letters very much resembles all other republics in two grand particulars, that of being very capricious, and that of being always upon extremes. ring the whole of last century, none of our early authors, except Shakspeare and Ben Johnson, could receive scarcely a plaudit from our countrymen. None were deserving of praise or even of attention but the writers of the reign of Queen Ann, that golden and Augustan age, as it was called, of English Literature. Now the tide sets another way, the reign of Elizabeth was the classic era of English letters, and we are to be told that Pope was not even a poet-that Swift was but a paltry satirist-Prior a mere versifier -and Addison nothing but the prince of the host of gentlemen, who write with ease. Every puny whipster now

throws a spear at Dr. Johnson, the Leviathan of his age. Reflecting upon all these vicissitudes of taste and extravagant fluctuations of opinion, we are by no means disposed to form our judgment upon any classification of our authors, or to consider them at all in groups, but on the contrary, to view them as links of one continuous chain, commencing with rare Ben Jonson and his fraternity, connected with the writers of Queen Ann by the intermediate links of Waller, Otway, Cowley, Milton, and Dryden. Friar Bacon, and Chaucer are separated from the great current of our literature, by a strong chain of darkness and ignorance, but from the reign of Elizabeth to the present day, there has been one continuous tide of genius and eminent ability. Without diminishing that veneration for the literati of Queen Ann's period, in which we were reared, we are alive to the richer and more natural beauties of our earlier writers, and we are glad when we see reprints of any of their works, convinced that the greatest acquisition will be made to the intellectual enjoyments of our countrymen, whenever they are made familiarly acquainted with our earlier writers, whom they are now taught to praise, but of whom, from the scarcity of their works, they are really igno rant. Sir George Mackenzie wrote in the reign of Charles II. and his successor James, when our literature had imbibed something of a tinge from the manners and morals of the continent : but living in Scotland, so far removed from the contagion, the writings of Mackenzie preserve the homely style and sterling merit of the age which had passed away.-The work now be fore us contains excellent reflections, and moral truths often illustrated by metaphors so natural and free from the strained invention and artful polish of mere modern literature, as to form a strong effect upon the reader from their novelty, as well as from their intrinsic beauty. The style is homely without being coarse; it is a homeli ness characteristic of the age, and is in itself a considerable beauty. We are glad to see the Moral Gallantry thus repeated, and we wish that the success of the publication, or at all events, some motive may induce literary per sons to give the present age the means of really being acquainted with the earlier writers of our country-The contemporaries of Sir George Mackenzie, or rather his predecessors.

bit,medet af vor FINE ARTS.

bug stern de esbiliremní sezona 15% ACHILLES.

A Statue erected in Hyde Park to the Duke of Wellington, &c. `

THE temporary palisado which surrounded the noble statue, recently erected in Hyde Park, having been, in the course of the last month, removed, and the whole thrown open to public view; we think it may gra tify our readers, and especially such of them as have not the opportunity of seeing this stupendous and ad mirable work of art, if we present them with a brief description of it, and add a few remarks connected with the subject.

The statue is placed on a gently rising mound in the Park, about a hundred and fifty yards from the Piccadilly-gate, at the fork produced by the separation of the road, branching off towards the Serpentine river from that leading to Grosvenor and Cumberland-gates. The body fronts Knightsbridge; but the head is directed, over the left shoulder, towards Apsley-house, the residence of the Duke of Wellington, The actual height of the statue exceeds eighteen feet; but as there is some inclination in the trunk, and still more in the lower extremities, it is probable, that if the figure were quite erect, it would not fall far short of twenty feet. It is placed upon a basement and plinth of Dartmoor grey granite, surmounted by a simple pedestal of beautiful red granite from Peterhead, near Aberdeen; and the whole, including the mound, which is to be guarded by a strong chevaux de frise, is about thirty-six feet above the level of the line of road. On the pedestal is the following inscription, in bronze letters :

"To Arthur, Duke of Wellington, and his Brave Companions in Arms, this Statue of Achilles, cast from Cannon tuken in the Battles of Salamanca, Vittoria, Toulouse, and Waterloo, is inscribed by their CountryWomen."

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Upon the base is the following

inscription:-

66 Placed on

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this Spot on the 18th day of June, 1822, by command of His Majesty George IV."

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nificent statue is composed, is not, The material, of which this mag however, exclusively the metal of cannon, which is too brittle to be used alone for that purpose. To twelve four-and-twenty pounders it was found necessary to add about a third of metal, of a more pliant and fusible kind; and the weight of the whole is supposed to be about thirty-three or thirty-four tons. It was cast under the active superintendance of Mr.WESTMACOTT, who has manifested the most consummate skill, in the way in which he has accomplished the undertaking; the arduous nature of which may be easily conceived, from the fact, that it is above sixteen hundred years, namely, in the time of SEVERUS,

since a cast of similar colossal size has been produced. As the attempt to cast it in a mass would have been attended with considerable risk, Mr. Westmacott cast the trunk and the

extremities separately; in doing. which, he was enabled to restore those parts of the surface of the oritime. By an ingenious and novel ginal, which had been corroded by mode of subsequently uniting the various parts of the cast by fusion, been avoided; and the whole posthe danger of future disjunction has sesses an appearance of high finish which is surprising, and entirely unprecedented in a work of such magnitude.

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Of the original, in marble, of which this bronze statue is a copy, the his tory is very obscure. It is, evi dently, a production of remote antiquity, and is generally, though

The victors in the Olympic Games on their return to their native towns, were admitted through a passage made in the walls, and not through the gates:It is a singular coincidence, that to admit this Statue, erected to the honor of the Duke of Wellington, into Hyde Park, it became necessary to make a breach in the wall, the usual entrances being found too narrow.

Eur. Mag. Vol. 82.

Ed.

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