to make her his miftrefs! She now rejects him, and gives her hand to the eftimable Howard, for whom he felt the most tender friendship, who had wifhed to make her his wife, and the fharer of his fortune, when fhe was unfriended and un known! The work finishes by doing practical juftice to the various characters that are introduced to exemplify the world as it is, who may have excited an intereft in the bofom of the readers. It concludes with a moral drawn from the events of the ftory, that cannot be too often inculcated, that in the moments of our most severe inflictions, we thould NEVER DESPAIR! ART. VIII. The Falfe Friend: a Domeftic Story. By Mary Robinson, Author of Walfingham, &c. &c. in four Vols. About 330 pages each. Price 16s. Longman. London. 1799. WE E have already delivered our opinion concerning the literary talents of this writer, and alfo on the direction which fhe has frequently chofen to give to her abilities. We find nothing in this performance that tends to change our judgement. We obferved, in our review of Walfingham, that while fhe confined herself to an exhibition of the furface of life the was not without fuccefs; but that when the attempted to dive into moral and political caufes, fhe went far beyond her depth. We alfo remarked, that the excelled much more in defcribing feeling than intellect. The novel before us has confirmed us in the notion that we formed, that from Mrs. Robinson we may expect pathetic defcriptions much more confidently than either virtuous inculcation, humorous painting, found reafoning, or juft reflection. Her favourite characters are the creatures of fentimental refinement; and that fenfibility not being fortified by moral principle, and enlightened by a clear and difcriminating understanding, leads them' frequently to the most unwarrantable actions. The author delights in prefenting fituations, in which paffion, efpecially the paffion of love, triumphs over virtue and reafon. Though far from denying that fuch circumftances frequently occur in real life, we cannot fee that to hold them frequently up to public view can answer any good purpose. Neither do we think that those are, by any means, the characters most worthy of imitation which allow exceffive fcope to fenfibility. Senfibility is a quality of doubtful advantage to the poffeffor; it may be inftrumental to benevolence and to happiness, but leads to vice and mifery as foon as it becomes the master inftead of being the fervant of reafon and confcience. That which Mrs. Robinfon prefents may be called a morbid fenfibility; a constitution, or ftate of mind, rarely to be found among the virtuous and wife. If we once open a door to feeling as the excufe of every action which it may produce, we may bid farewell to morality, to order, and to every thing valuable in fociety. Mary Wollstonecraft could plead her feelings in juftification of her concubinage and her attempted fuicide. Moft females who began their career in the fame way, and who may have afterwards arrived at a more advanced ftage of profligacy, might plead their feelings as a juftification of their conduct. We doubt not, that even Newgate has confiderable fupplies from the victims of fenfibility; or, in other words, from those who are propelled by prefent impulfe instead of being guided by duty. Perfectly coinciding with Mrs. Robinson, that fentiment, to a certain degree, is neceffary to virtue and to happinefs, we cannot help thinking that the, very probably without intending it, inculcates fenfibility much further than is beneficial, and fo far as would be hurtful to its votaries. We allow that the reprefents goodness in a just and amiable light; but her writings tend to foften and enervate the mind. Thefe ftrictures apply to the tendency of Mrs. Robinson's writings; thofe that thall follow refpect her invention. In all her fables the author fhews herself to poffefs a lively imagination, but by no means habitually fubjected to the controul of judgement. She delights in the marvellous, and is very deficient in the probable. Marvellous writing, indeed, is much eafier than imitation of nature; confequently is commonly reforted to by thofe who wish to reprefent men and manners, without the power or opportunity of previous examination. Paradoxes in pretended philofophy, and extravagancies in fiction, arife most frequently from the want of knowledge and of genius. The giants of Amadis of Gaul, the ghosts of modern manufacturers of novels and plays, require infinitely lefs ability than Gil Blas and Tom Jones; than Sophia and Cecilia. We critics, therefore, think ourfelves not uncandid when we afcribe unnatural and improbable fictions to the want of power to produce the natural and the probable. The following is the ftory of the Falfe Friend:-Gertrude St. Leger has been educated in Ireland as the orphan ward of Lord Denmore; at feventeen, brought over to the house of her guardian, a married man. The fine feelings of the young lady are fo much affected by the kindness, and alfo the countenance and figure of my Lord, that the falls defperately in love with him; an effufion of fentiment by no means relished by my lady, especially as the finds her husband very much attached to this fentimental Mifs. My lady, to balance accounts, allows her feelings to operate in favour of a handfome parfon; the elopes. A third lady, it feems, has the fame fort of feelings, but is divided in her affections; one half of which belongs to my Lord, and the other half to the parfon. Thus Mifs Cecil is, at once, the rival of the fentimental Mifs as the lover of his Lordship, and the rival of her Ladyfhip as the lover of his reverence. She perfuades Gertrude to elope; why, we do not clearly perceive: Mifs, however, foon returns, and finds Lady Denmore dead, and my Lord gone to the country to give directions for her interinent: when, ftrange to tell! Gertrude entering into the room in which the corpfe lay, drops the candle; in her confufion breaks the ftring of a harp, which makes fuch a crush as to rouze the dead Lady, who is reftored to life, and elopes a fecond time with the Reverend Mr. Treville, when the dies in good earnest. Mifs Gertrude is (unjuftly) believed an acceffary to her death; and, though confcious of her innocence, difappears, to avoid a profecution, and the supposed anger of Lord Denmore. After many hair-breadth ejcapes and perplexities, the detail and reafons of which we could not always comprehend, fhe is again brought back to Lord Denmore's house and favourable opinion. It now comes to light, that Gertrude, a fuppofed poor dependent, is heiress of a countless fortune. Sir William St. Leger returns from India, and acknowledges her to be his daughter, born, after his departure, at Denmore Caltle, her mother having been configed to the care of his Lordship. Sir William, underflanding from Gertrude, that there is a mutual affection between her and my Lord, intends to make all parties happy; but, en difcuffing the fubject with Denmore, finds that Denmore s love to Gertrude was that of one who could not be her husband; for that he (Denmore) had been A FALSE FRIEND to Sir William, feduced the affections of his wife, and was actually Gertrude's father! Sir William and he fight, Denmore is killed, Gertrude dies of grief. While thefe matters were going on among the principal perfonages, the inferior characters were not idle. The clergyman firft-named, Treville, afterwards (for an eftate) Somerton, having caused the death of one unmarried lady, and one married lady, elopes with a second married lady, is, with his fair friend, drowned in failing from Yarmouth (perhaps the writer meant Falmouth,) to Lifbon. There are five elopements, various rencounters, duels, and fuicides; feven are killed (including thofe thofe drowned;) but the number of wounded and prisoners is not proportionably great, the former being only three, the latter five. The catastrophe, as the reader will perceive, is very tragical, more fo, indeed, than that of any performance that we have read fince our perufal of the melancholy Hiftory of Tom Thumb, when the father, lover, mistress, and friends: HUNCAMUNCA, KING ARTHUR, Doodle Foodle, and TOM THUMB HIMSELF, are all fubdued by relentless death. Amidst her tragedy the author does not forget her politics. A very worthlefs Peer (Lord Arcot) is introduced as a fpecimen of the peerage in general; as the very worthlefs clergyman, Somerton, is reprefented as a fample of the Clergy. Though we cannot coincide in the reasoning, that because there are wicked Lords, or Clergymen, the majority of thofe orders are bad, yet we think it not unnatural for the author to have concluded them fo,. as, perhaps, thofe Peers, or Churchmen, whom he might have an opportunity of intimately knowing, were not the beft and moft exemplary of mankind. As novel reading is fo very general, we wish that fpecies of writing were much more frequently undertaken by perfons DISPOSED and ABLE to render it the vehicle of fenfe, knowledge, and just principles of politics and morality. POETRY. ART. IX. The Epiphany. A Seatonian Prize Poem. By Wm. Bolland, M. A. of Trinity College, Cambridge. Deighton, Cambridge; Rivingtons and Hatchard, London. 1799. THIS is one of thofe rare effufions of the modern muse, in which the power of poetry is fuccefsfully employed in the fervice of religion. The compofition is rich, animated, and nervous, and appears highly deferving of the academic honours and diftinction to which the public is indebted for its perufal. The fentiments and the language reflect equal credit on the author, and we could, with pleafure, prefent our readers with various and very favourable fpecimens of both, but we think it would be a fpecies of injuftice to Mr. Bolland to make many or large extracts from a work which extends to fo few pages. We fhall, therefore, content ourfelves with the felection of a fingle paffage, perfuaded that it will induce those to. have immediate recourfe to the original, who prefer the claffic purity, the dignified devotion, and the chafte fublimity, of Milton, to the meretricious meretricious ornaments, quaint perfonifications, and wanton puerili ties of Darwin. We have made choice of the following lines, not because they are fuperior to many others in the poem, but because the author has ingeniously contrived to introduce in them a merited compliment to our gallant countrymen, to which we are proud to give this additional currency "'Tis not the tinfell'd robe of No, 'tis that inward worth, which paffing fhew That breathes its hallow'd influence o'er the heart, There are two or three typographical errors, but they are scarcely worth noticing. POLITICS. ART. IX. The Speech of Lord Minto, in the House of Peers, April 11, 1799, on a Motion for an Addrefs to His Majesty, to communicate the Refolutions of the two Houses of Parliament, refpecting an Union between Great Britain and Ireland. 8vo. Pp. 153. Price 2s. 6d. Stockdale, London. 1799. THIS HIS is a printed fpeech of Lord Minto, made April 11, 1799, upon the queftion of the Union with Ireland, where that important measure is treated in a manner fuitable to his Lordship's known |