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Division of Time. With copious Indexes, and a Map of the Post Roads through the whole 103 Departments. Translated from a new Work, pullished at Paris by Command of the Directors-General of the Post-Office. To which are added the Roads of Italy and Spain. Small 8vo. pp. 212.

TO announce the publication of this work is sufficient: the ample title page explains its contents, and we have no doubt that it will be found extremely serviceable to English travellers in France, Italy, or Spain. A neat map of the French republic is annexed, in which the post-roads are laid down.

ART. LXIV. A Practical Guide, during a Journey from London to Paris; with a correct Description of all the Objects deserving of Notice in the French Metropolis. Illustrated with Maps and useful Tables.

The second edition corrected. 12mo.
PP. 224.

AS this little work has already come to a second edition, any recommendation which we can give to it is, perhaps, superfluous. It would be unjust to the editor, however, not to acknowledge that he has spared no pains to collect, from various quarters, whatever information relative to Paris, its places of amusement, its hospitals, gardens, libraries, museums, public buildings, manufactories, restaurateurs, &c. &c. which can be serviceable to an Englishman. The plan of Paris, and the map of

France, which are annexed to this volume, are neatly executed.

ART. LXV. An Essay on Abstinence
from Food as a Moral Duty. By JOSEPH
RITSON. 8vo.
Pp. 236.

THE stupid absurdity of this book is a sufficiently efficacious antidote to the mis chief that it might otherwise have been productive of. We should else have thought it our duty to expose the singu lar derangement of our author, who can eagerly search out, and receive with implicit credit, every thing that he finds in the Pagan authors of Greece and Rome, and is only incredulous with regard to his Bible. He believes mankind to be nothing but a variety of the OranOtang, deteriorated by feeding upon flesh. He considers animal food as an unnatural, unwholesome, and unneces sary diet, the cause of cruelty and ferocity, of human sacrifices, and of canibalism; and looks upon the whole animal creation as a "system for the express purpose of preying upon each other, and for their mutual misery and destruction." This libel upon man and his Maker, is also made the vehicle of a new mode of spelling, which, when the author is a little more practised in, so as to become tolerably consistent, may entitle him to rank with Mr. Elphinston, and the grammarian of North America, Neah Webster,

CHAPTER XI.

NOVELS AND ROMANCES.

ALTHOUGH it is an essential part of our plan to give an account of all the productions of British literature that have been published during the last year, yet there are clearly some which we may be justified in omitting, on account of their furnishing no proper subjects of criticism. This is particularly the case with the innumerable volumes of novels and romances that are continually issuing from the press, in uninterrupted succession, to supply the demand of our boarding schools and libraries, the direct and inevitable tendency of which is, to debilitate the minds, and loosen the morals, of our youth of both sexes. But as the readers of novels form so large and important a class of the community, this mode of writing has been made of late the vehicle of some animated, and we believe not unsuccessful attacks on the civil and ecclesiastical constitution of the country. The institution of marriage has been blasphemed, as a narrow and unjust monopoly; female chastity has been undermined; the natural affections have been weakened, under the miserable pretence of inculcating universal and impossible, instead of partial and practicable benevolence; the high spirit of patriotic enthusiasm has been palsied, and political institutions, long tried and long revered, have been represented as radically mischievous, and incapable of being ameliorated. To counterbalance the pernicious effects of these works, some able writers have had recourse to the composition of novels of an opposite tendency, and we are happy to find have displayed equal skill, and excited equal interest, in the defence, as others have in the violation of the laws of morality, and the dictates of sound sense. In this honourable career Mrs. West has eminently distinguished herself; and among the novels of the past year, her " Infidel Father" is entitled not merely to the first place, but to a superiority, which is not even approached by any of the rest.

ART. I. The Infidel Father. By the Author of "A Tale of the Times," "A Gossip's Story," &c. 3 Vols. About 864 Pages.

THE "Gossip's Story," and "Tale of the Times," fixed Mrs. West in a high rank of novel writers; and the work be. fore us demonstrates the author to possess still greater abilities than her former productions had called into action.

An introductory address manifests a just sense of the value of public approbation, for which she has been a successful candidate, with a very mo

dest estimate of the literary efforts which have earned such a powerful sanction.

"Before," she says, "I address my readers with the quaint familiarity of a fictitious character, let me, in my own person, gratefully acknowledge the candid treatment that my former works have received from the public. On this head I could be diffuse; but I will only briefly observe, that though

their approbation may have been bestowed on more deserving candidates, none ever were more truly solicitous to earn the meed of honest praise. Fearful of forfeiting the good opinion of my patrons, it is with real anxiety that I again appear, at what I feel to be an awful tribunal. All my reasons for thus frequently troubling the world with my reflections, need not be divulged; but one motive, though it favours of egotism, I will not conceal. The rage for novels does not descrease; and, though I by no means think them the best vehicles for the words of sound doctrine;' yet, while the enemies of our church and state continue to pour their poison into unwary ears, through this channel, it behoves the friends of our establishments, to convey an antidote by the same course; especially as those who are most likely to be infected by false principles, will not search for a refutation of thein in profound and scientific compositions."

Our author proceeds to the scope of the present work.

"

"The particular design," she says, of the present work, is to show the superiority which religious principle possesses, when compared with a sense of honour, moral fitness, or a love of general applause. The story is confessedly subordinate to this aim; and those who dislike it will observe, that the argumentative part is not affected by the faults of the narrative. The episodical characters have a use, besides relieving the sombrous hue of the principal personages. I wish they may be considered as an overcharged picture of the vanity, extravagance, and self-importance, that have for some years infected the middle classes of society, threatening destruction to the sound sense, decent propriety, and manly virtues, of this most important portion of the community."

The Infidel Father shows the different effects which procced from a religious and a deistical education. The following are the outlines of the fable. The Earl of Glanville having passed his juve. nile years in pursuits which the Christian code by no means sanctioned, instead of relinquishing the practice, renounced the rules by which it was condemned, and at forty was an infidel, with all the de. lusive reflection of false philosophy, while his manners and conduct were framed according to the model which the paternal affection of the Earl of Chesterfield has recommended to his

son.

Between forty-five and fifty his lordship married, and his mind being perturbed with gloomy retrospections, domestic felicity was not the consequence. The issue of the nuptials was a daughter,

who proved intelligent, and endowed with strong and ardent feelings, and á her mother left this young lady, at an The death of very agreeable person. early age, under the sole direction of her father. Constant in general infidelity, his lordship varied his particular system with the mode of impiety that happened to be most in vogue. Formerly the votary of Hume, Voltaire, and Rousseau, he of late was become the disciple of the modern regenerators, male and female, of human society.

Lord Glanville was a member of a political party, and proposed to strengthen his interests by marrying his daughter to a very powerful nobleman, in the same interest; but the young lady herself had cast the eyes of affection on a retainer to the nobleman in question. On this subject my lord found reason to regret that he had instructed his daugh ter to despise established rules, and to follow her own inclinations, whichso ever way they might happen to lead. But another obstacle arose to the completion of the family compact between the two political partizans.

Glanville, before he was twenty years of age, had made great progress in the seduction of credulous beauty. Among the objects of his pursuit, and the sup posed victims of his artifices was Sophia Aubrey, of Oxford. On this young lady he, through the assistance of a tutor, imposed, by a marriage which he conceived unlawful, and soon after de serted her who had trusted to his honour. Shame and grief deprived Sophia of her reason. Her brother, an officer in the army, demanded redress, and fell in an encounter with his lordship. Sophia, now mother of a son, found refuge with Mr. Brudenel, a clergyman, where she remained till she died. The son arriv ing at the years of manhood, became a soldier, and married Miss Brudenel, the daughter of his benefactor. He fell young in the service of his country, leaving an infant daughter, to whom he gave his mother's name Sophia. O'Faughn, who had been the agent of Lord Glanville in his conceived imposition upon Sophia Aubrey, had really procured a legal licence, and an estab lished clergyman, and the marriage had been performed with all the proper so lemnities; and the Glanville estate be ing entailed, young Sophia, the granddaughter of the earl, was thus the heir of

the fortune. O'Faughn's motive had been to command the earl's purse, but after many years were elapsed, Glanville becoming less apprehensive of disclosure, was more tardy than formerly in an swering the drafts of his worthy minister, and on one occasion reproached him with extravagance. Enraged at this return to his application, Mr. O'Faughn unfolded the whole circumstances to Mr. Brudenel, the maternal grandfather of young Sophia; this gentleman soon found sufficient testimony and other evidence for the fact, and applied to Lord Glanville to acknowledge his grand-daughter and heir. That nobleman tried to elude this application, but finding his artifices unavailing, at length received her, and at the same time published the illegitimacy of his daughter Caroline, with whose mother his marriage, of course, was void, and he now destined his grand-daughter to be the wife of the nobleman whom he had proposed for Caroline.

Caroline possessed, through her moher, a fortune of about forty thousand pounds, which she determined to bestow on Raymond, a profligate adventurer. Her father was inimical to the connection, but the opinions which, under his direction, she had imbibed, taught her the absurdity of filial duty. Sophia received from Mr. Brudenel a totally different education, and was a genuine Christian. Thus imbued, without having superior talents to Caroline, she had infinitely superior practical wisdom; and without having more ardent sensibility, very far surpassed her in the feelings and habits of virtue. Sophia saw the natural excellences of Caroline, and could not help regarding her with warm friendship, while she regretted the defects that sprung from a pernicious education. She very strongly cautioned her against listening to Raymond, but her remonstrances were unavailing, and the marriage was concluded. Earl Glan. ville was implacable to this conduct of his daughter, which originated in his own lessons. Thinking now only of his grand-daughter, he became very urgent for her marriage with his political friend, the Marquis of Montolieu. Sophia, before her aggrandizement, had gained the affections of an accomplished and estimable young nobleman, and was not insensible to his love; she, therefore, positively refused the Marquis Mcnto

lieu, who having taken a great fancy to the charms of the Glanville property, persevered in his addresses, hoping that the authority of her father would procure her compliance. The Marquis was also a votary of libertinism, and while he assailed the grand-daughter of his friend with one species of love, he applied to his daughter by another. Caroline had become entirely disgusted with her husband, and the Marquis, by the connivance of that husband, endeavoured to win her affections, and not without success. In such sentiments he could meet no obstacles from her principles, but had to encounter difficulties in her pride. To remove this obstruction, he persuaded her that his intention was to procure for her a divorce, that she might become his wife: she at length yielded, found herself completely deceived, could not bear the degrading situation, and deeming suicide the only remedy for such evils, she resolved to lay violent hands on herself, but taking a hasty review of her education and life, she readily traced her misfortunes to the infidel father. She determined to wring his heart, by committing the deed in his presence, rushed into his apartment, and stabbed herself at his feet.

Callous as Glanville was, so dreadful a catastrophe tore up his conscience, and in a few days he followed to the grave the child whom his lessons had driven to destruction. The christian Sophia, now mistress of the Glanville estate, employed her fortune in promoting the happiness, the religious and moral improvement of all who were within the sphere of her influence, and agrees to give her hand to the deserving youth who had long possessed her heart.

Besides the principal train of events, there is also an underplot, not unskil fully interwoven, and intended, by adventures of a comic cast, to relieve the deep shades of the chief narrative. Here, however, the reader of taste will occasionally be disgusted with vulgar farce, instead of humour, and will find how much easier it is to succeed in a work of fancy, than in the delineation of real manners. But the author herself professes to have made the literary character of her work subservient to the inculcation of the important moral, that a religious and principled education is the only sure basis of virtuous conduct and peice of mind. By this test, therefore

let these volumes be tried, and we are persuaded that Mrs. West will be universally considered as having been em

played, during the composition of them, honourably for herself, and beneficially for the public.

ART. II. Letters of a Solitary Wanderer; containing Narratives of various Descrip tion. By CHARLOTTE SMITH. Vols. 4 and 5. 12mo.

HAD these volumes contained only the conclusion of a novel, begun in the three preceding ones, we might have contented ourselves with a simple announcement, which, joined to the well known name of the author, would have been sufficient to excite the curiosity of the public, but the present work contains, as the title informs us, various narratives, slightly connected by a general frame, and three of them are completely included in the volumes before us; of these, therefore, we are called upon to - give an opinion. The genuine strokes of feeling, and lively tints of fancy, which embellish the style of Mrs. S. might lend an attraction to adventures in themselves uninteresting; we should still listen with pleasure to the writer, though the hero and heroine were incapable of moving our sympathy; in these tales, however, we are not put to the trial. The characters possess much interest, and some share of that novelty of which the situations, founded as they are upon the wonderful and striking revolutions of the age, have so much. It is true that we are surprised by some of

those singular rencounters, those almost miraculous combinations of fortuitous events, those flights of sentiment, and exertions of knight-errantry, which, amid many probable circumstances, and natural characters, invariably tinge, with an air of romance, even the most skilful attempts to delineate real life and manners, by fancy characters and fictitious adventures; but these objections the readers of novels must long have been in the habit of overlooking. In a writer of the eminence of Mrs. S. we stop to no tice defects of grammar, and slight inaccuracies, which we should not deign to remark in authors of inferior note. Such are an preceding the h aspirate, as

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an hope," ""an Helen," &c. the accusative case of the pronoun used instead of the nominative, as, "her imperious mas ter whom she thought violated the laws," "him whom she wished might be autho rized;" and sometimes the nominative instead of the accusative, as "bim among them who I took for the superior;" and a few sentences the conclusions of which appear to have forgotten their beginnings.

ART. III. Memoirs of a Family in Swisserland, founded on Facts. 4 Vols. 12mo. HOW large a superstructure of fiction has been built on this foundation of facts, we are not informed: and were not truth itself sometimes improbable, we should conclude it to have had little share in forming the romantic plan of the work before us.

In style this novel is at least equal to the common run, though the ostentatious tumidity of the descriptions of nature with which it abounds, sometimes provokes a smile; and the laboured re, finements of sentiment at which it aims, destroy all appearance of reality in the conversations and narratives. The epistolary form which our author has adopted, he is unable to manage with

grace; his characters all write in the same style, and in all it appears unna tural. Still, however, the work is not destitute of interest; and as it perfectly coincides with the most popular systems in religion and politics, as it contains strong passages on the danger of indulg ing jealous suspicions, and the impiety of suicide, and is chargeable with no other moral objection than that common to all novels, a tendency to exalt the ima❤ gination and inflame the passions, thus rendering common life tasteless, and more solid books insipid-we may venture to recommend it to circulating li braries, and sentimental readers.

ART. IV. Tules of Superstition and Chivalry. 12mo. pp. 144.

IT is not one of the least objections the imagery of them is essentially mon against these fashionable fictions, that strous. Hollow winds, clay-cold hands,

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