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ART. XIX. The Sizar: a Rhapsody. To be completed in 50 folio Volumes. 12mo. Pp. 158. Rivington, London. 1799.

WE have received a fmall volume bearing this title, accompanied with a letter, dated St. John's College, Cambridge. The letter, and the book, appear to us equally unintelligible; and all that we can discover of the author's meaning is, that he is very angry with the courfe of education at prefent prevailing in that Univerfity. Whether the point he wishes to accomplish, namely, to pay lefs attention to algebra and geometry, is likely to be effected by such labours as thofe before us, we will not take upon us to determine, but will leave it to be fettled by that authority to whom it more properly belongs, the caput of his Alma Mater. We will ret fatisfied. with addreffing him in his own words:"Your humble fervant, Mr. Rhapfodift-fo you take it for granted that you are a poet, or a Tristram Shandy, or fome fuch fentimental gentleman or other-My dear Sir, Ne vanis credite verbis." (P. 85.) If this writer will believe us, he is neither the one nor the other; and we would recommend to him the confideration of one of his own mottos: "No man ever made an ill figure in life who understood his own talents, nor a good one who mistook them." To his determination denounced, of "fbooting folly as it flies, and wherever it flies," (P. 112.) we have nothing to oppofe, but the friendly caution, beware of fuicide.

THE REVIEWERS REVIEWED.

ART. I. Memoirs of Emma Courtney. By Mary Hays. 12mo. 2 vols. Price 6s, Robinfons, London. 1796.

ART. II. The Victim of Prejudice. A Novel. By Mary Hays. 12mo. 2 vols. Price 6s. Johnfon, London. 1799.

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'MMA_Courtney," the firft of these productions, ap

of April, 1797, thus fpeaks of it:

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"Thefe memoirs rife beyond the clafs of vulgar novels, which afpire only to divert the unoccupied mind by occafional illufion from an irksome attention to the daily occurrences and trivial incidents of

real life."

Meaning, as we fuppofe, to praife this attempt of the "fair writer" to find other employment for the female mind, than that which nature, fituation, and fex, have defigned it.

"This author," they proceed attempts the folution of a moral problem which is eminently important, viz. Whether it be prudent

In minds of a fuperior mould, whether it will bring to them a greater ba'ance of happinefs, in the whole account, to exempt themfelves from the common delicacies and hypocrifies of life, and, on all occafions, to give vent to their wildeft feelings with confcientious fincerity, or patiently to fubmit to the incumbent mountains of circumftances, without one volcanic effort to shatter the oppressive load

into ruin."

Setting afide this flang of modern philofophy, the plain question is-Whether it is moft for the advantage of fociety that women fhould be fo brought up as to make them dutiful daughters, affectionate wives, tender mothers, and good Chriftians, or, by a corrupt and vicious fyftem of education, fit them for revolutionary agents, for heroines, for Staels, for Talliens, for Stones, fetting afide all the decencies, the foft nefs, the gentlenefs, of the female character, and enjoying indifcriminately every envied privilege of man?

The aim of this novel is to claim for the female fex the rights of the latter character. The heroine for fuch fhe is literally meant to be, is, even in early years, defcribed

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as active, blythfome, bounding, fporting, romping, light, gay, alert, and full of glee, as offending all the pious ladies at church by her gamefome tricks."

She is next pourtrayed in ftill ftronger terms:

"My defires were impetuous, and brooked no delay; my affections were warm, and my temper irafcible; oppofition would always make me vehement, and coercion irritated me to violence....never but once do I recollect having received a blow, but the boiling rage, the cruel tempeft, the deadly vengeance it excited in my mind, I now remember with fhuddering.""

An excellent beginning this, and fully calculated to produce the fruit intended. The next advance of her mind is effected by the perufal of Plutarch :-

"I went down into the dining-room, my mind pervaded with republican ardour, my fentiments elevated by a high-toned philofs thy, and my bofom glowing with the virtues of patriotifm."

Does not this out-Helen even the wife or mistress of Stone? Not lefs alive does the appear to have been to the fofter affections--let her speak for herself:

"In the courfe of my refearches the Heloife of Rouleau fell into my hands-ah! with what tranfport, with what enthusiasm, did I perufe this dangerous, enchanting work! How fhall I paint the fenfations that were excited in my mind The pleasure I experi. enced approached the limits of pain--it was tumult-all the ardour of my character was excited."

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That

That the mind here difplayed should run into errors of no inferior enormity, was naturally to be expected, and, of courfe, we all along find her difdaining all thofe holy restraints which the wifdom and virtue of ages have efteemed neceffary for the controul of human paffions. But, left we should be fuppofed prejudiced against her, we will quote her own fentiments on fome important points:—

"The wildeft fpeculations are lefs mifchievous than the torpid ftate of error. He who tamely refigns his understanding to the guidance of another, finks, at once, from the dignity of a rational being, to a mechanical puppet, moved, at pleafure, on the wires of the artful operator. Impofition is the principle and support of every varied defcription of tyranny, whether civil or ecclefiaftical, moral or mental; its baneful confequence is to degrade both him who is imposed on, and him who impofes-obedience is a word which ought never to have had exiftente," &c. &c.

What ftuff is here!-but a little more, and we have done with the filthy labour:

"To the profeffion my objections are ftill more ferious; the ftudy of the law is the ftudy of chicanery-the church is the fchool of hypocrify and ufurpation!-you could only enter the Univerfities by a moral degradation, that must check the freedom and contaminate the purity of the mind, and, entangling it in an inexplicable maze of error and contradiction, poisoning virtue at its fource,"

&c. &c.

On the fubject of female chastity fhe is confitent with herself, in her defence for offering her honour to a man who avoided her. "Individuality of affection," the fays, "conftitutes chastity" or, in other words, the miftrefs is, in all refpects, as honourable as the wife, provided the hath but one lover. If fuch a fentiment does not ftrike at the root of every thing that is virtuous, that is praife-worthy, that is valuable, in the female character, we are at a lofs to discover by what wickednefs they are to fall.

The tale of this novel is not at variance with the opinions we have extracted. That it is in all points reprehenfible, in the highest degree, would be doubted by none, but the Monthly Reviewers, and their liberal fellow-labourers. Their concluding remark upon it is worthy of them :-

"Many remarkable and feveral excellent reflections [precious guardians of a nation's literature] are interfperfed, and the whole displays great intellectual powers. There are alfo fentiments which are open to attack, [indeed!] and opinions which require ferious dif cuffion; but we leave every reader to form his or her own judge

ment."

Had

Had the tendency of this novel been favourable to virtue, honour, religion, morality, the liberality of thefe critics would have been lefs confpicuous. But we have already beftowed, perhaps, too much notice on this performance. We muft now fpeak to this lady's fecond production, namely, "The Victim of Prejudice"-of what prejudice?-the old ftory: A young lady, of at leaft equal ardour in the caufe of liberty and of love as even Emma herfelf, is reftrained by fome few limits which the world has thought proper to fix to certain unruly paffions. The heroine of the tale, "Mary," [we are fick of Mary,] is educated according to the plan of Rouleau: no check, no controul; freedom of enquiry, and extravagance of hope, however dangerous, and however fallacious, are the prevailing features of this performance; the fame indifcriminating and mifchievous cenfure of every thing fociety has hitherto deemed facred, and neceflary to its exiftence, is here most lavishly displayed.-In the dishonour, as we old fashioned moralifts thould call it, of "Mary," there is fomething like an imitation of Clariffa; but how unlike to the original!-In conformity to the general fpirit of this authorefs, and her party, (for that he is of the party her quotations from Godwin, Holcroft, Mary Wollstonecraft, Helvetius, Rouleau, &c. most clearly evince,) religion is utterly, and with zealous care, excluded from her writings. The pious addreffes of Clariffa to her Creator, affect the heart of the reader with the moft delightful and grateful fenfations; while the furious declamation of "Mary" to the God of nature, and the God of reason, excite no fentiment but difguit.

The event of this ftory is fuch as might be expected from its title: Mary, after a furdy oppofition to the best opinions and practices of the world, finks in the unequal conteft; and, while fuffering under the effects of her extravagant defires, thus laments her fate :

"Almighty nature, [is this like Clariffa?] myfterious are thy decrees the vigorous promife of my youth has failed: the victim of a barbarous prejudice, [namely, that he was not allowed to marry the fon of a man of high rank, ] fociety has cait me out from its bofom."

Again, in conclusion :—

"Ignorance and defpotifm, combating frailty with cruelty, may go on to propofe partial reform in one invariable melancholy round; reafon derides the weak effort; while the fabric of fuperftition and crime, extending its broad bafis, mocks the toil of the vifionary projector."

To

To the very last fhe is true to her principles.-Our opinion of these two novels is now clearly known, and we have faid more of them than their intrinfic merit could poflibly entitle them to expect. We have noticed them merely to guard the female world against the mischievoufnefs of their tendency, left the venom of the fhaft fhould be mistaken for the vigour of the bow."-As usefulness feems to be the watchword of this author and her friends, we will tell her how the may be much more ufeful than the can poffibly make herself by devoting her time to literary labours-to your distaff, Mary, to your diftaff-On the Style of her writings it is needlefs to remark; who flays to admire the workmanship of a dagger wrenched from the hand of an affaffin?

SIR,

To the Editor of the Anti-Jacobin Review and Magazine.

N your review of Meff, Wilberforce, &c. &c. (No. V. Pp. 550—

Io oblerve you have lightly noticed the claini, fet up by the Illuminizers of the prefent day, to fuperior learning and witdom, To the public, who are no lefs concerned in this claim than the Illuminizers themfelves, I take the liberty of offering a few obfervations on this fubject, through the medium of your impartial Review. Thefe Illuminizers firit fet up a claim to fuperior learning and wifdom in behalf of the prefent age; they, then, with a becoming modefty, peculiar to illumiuifin, give us to understand, either directly or indirectly, that this fuperiority is almoft exclufively their own, or evidently in their favour. This is more particularly the cafe in fubjects of religious controverfy, and facred criticifim; and with Grietbach's edition of the New Teftament, which, I fuppofe, is to be the Ithuricl's fear of illuminifin, they are to illuftrate every thing, and leave not a fingle corner dark or obfcure. On the fubject of the fuperior learning and wifdom of the prefent age, I fhall be brief; as you have already anticipated me. (See No. I. Pp. 112, 113.) I can readily agree with any illuminizing philofopher whatever, that the prefent age is confpicusully eminent for found wifdom, deep learning, and extenfive fcience, and that it furpafles, perhaps, every other that preceded it; nor, indeed, is this a matter of firprize, fince we have had the experience of all former ages as a foundation whereon to erect our fuperftructure, to enlarge, and to extend, our improvements. This circumftance, however, inftead of caufing us to triumph in our fuperiority, to boaft of it, and to arrogate the whole merit of it to eurfelves, ought rather to humble us in our own eyes, and make us thankful for the advantages we have derived from paft experience; this circumftance, inftead of leading us to make a comparison of ourfelves with "them of old time," (a comparison particularly odious and invidious, fince we owe them a debt of obligation which we can never repay,) inftead of leading us to draw that com

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