fear would turn out incurable. Upon reflection, however, we are now inclined to recal this sentiment. The vices and illusions of fashionable life are, for the most part, merely the vices and illusions of human nature-presented sometimes in their most conspicuous, and almost always in their most seductive form; and even where they are not merely fostered and embellished, but actually generated in that exalted region, it is very well known that they drop upon the place beneath,' and are speedily propagated and diffused into the world below. To expose them, therefore, in this their original and proudest sphere, is not only to purify the stream at its source, but to counteract their pernicious influence precisely where it is most formidable and extensive. To point out the miseries of those infinite and laborious pursuits in which persons who pretend to be fashionable consume their days, would be but an unprofitable task; while nobody could be found who would admit that they belonged to the class of pretenders; and all that remained therefore was to show, that the pursuits themselves were preposterous; and inflicted the same miseries upon the unquestioned leaders of fashion, as upon the humblest of their followers. For this task, too, Miss Edgeworth possessed certain advantages of which it would have been equally unnatural and unfortunate for her readers, if she had not sought to avail herself.

We have said, that the hints by which we may be enabled to correct those errors of opinion which so frequently derange the whole scheme of life, must be given by one whose authority is liable to no serious dispute. Persons of fashion, therefore, and pretenders to fashion, will never derive any considerable benefit from all the edifying essays and apologues that superannuated governesses and preceptors may indite for their reformation;nor from the volumes of sermons which learned divines may put forth for the amendment of the age; nor the ingenious discourses which philosophers may publish, from the love of fame, money, or mankind. Their feeling as to all such monitors is, that they know nothing at all about the matter, and have nothing to do with personages so much above them; and so they laugh at their prosing and presumption—and throw them aside, with a mingled sense of contempt and indignation. Now, Miss Edgeworth happens fortunately to be born in the condition of a lady,-familiar from early life with the fashionable world, and liable to no suspicion of having become an author from any other motives than those she has been pleased to assign.

But it is by no means enough that we should be on a footing, in point of rank, with those to whom we are moved to address our instructions. It is necessary that we should also have some

relish for the pleasures we accuse them of overrating, and some pretensions to the glory we ask them to despise. If a man, without stomach or palate, takes it into his head to lecture against the pleasures of the table-or an old maid against flirtationor a miser against extravagance, they may say as many wise and just things as they please-but they may be sure that they will either be laughed at, or not listened to; and that all their dissuasives will be set down to the score of mere ignorance or envy. In the very same way, a man or woman who is obviously without talents to shine or please in fashionable life, may utter any quantity of striking truths as to its folly or unsatisfactoriness, without ever commanding the attention of one of its votaries. The inference is so ready, and so consolatory-that all those wise reflections are the fruit of disappointment and mortification that they want to reduce all the world to their own dull level-and to deprive others of gratifications which they are themselves incapable of tasting. The judgment of Miss Edgeworth, however, we think, is not in any very imminent danger of being disabled by this ingenious imputation; and if we were to select any one of the traits that are indicated by her writings as peculiarly characteristic, and peculiarly entitled to praise, we should specify the singular force of judgment and self-denial, which has enabled her to resist the temptation of being the most brilliant and fashionable writer of her day, in order to be the most useful and instructive.

The writer who conceived the characters, and reported the conversations of Lady Delacour-Lady Geraldine-and Lady Dashfort (to take but these three out of her copious dramatis persona), certainly need not be afraid of being excelled by any of her contemporaries, in that faithful but flattering representation of the spoken language of persons of wit and politeness of the present day-in that light and graceful tone of raillery and argument and in that gift of sportive but cutting medisance, which is sure to command such unbounded success in those circles, where success is supposed to be most difficult, and most desirable. With the consciousness of such rare qualifications, we do think it required no ordinary degree of fortitude to withstand the temptation of being the flattering delineator of fashionable manners, instead of their enlightened corrector; and to prefer the chance of amending the age in which she lived, to the certainty of enjoying its applauses. Miss Edgeworth, however, is entitled to the praise of this magnanimity;—for not only has she abstained from dressing any of her favourites in this glittering drapery, but she has uniformly exhibited it in such a way as to mark its subordination to the natural graces it is sometimes allowed to eclipse, and to point out the defects it

still more frequently conceals. It is a very rare talent, certainly, to be able to delineate both solid virtues and captivating accomplishments with the same force and fidelity;-but it is a still rarer exercise of that talent, to render the former both more amiable and more attractive than the latter and, without depriving wit and vivacity of any of their advantages, to win not only our affections, but our admiration away from them, to the less dazzling qualities of the heart and the understanding. By what resources Miss Edgeworth is enabled to perform this feat, we leave our readers to discover, from the perusal of her writings; of which it is our business to present them with a slen der account, and a scanty sample.

These three new volumes contain but three stories;-the first filling exactly a volume, the second half a volume, and the last no less than a volume and a half. The first, which is entitled 'Vivian,' is intended to show not only into what absurdities, but into what guilt and wretchedness a person, otherways estimable, may be brought by that 'infirmity of purpose' which renders him incapable of resisting the solicitations of others,of saying No, in short, on proper occasions. The moral, perhaps, is brought a little too constantly forward; and a little more exaggeration is admitted into the construction of the story, than Miss Edgeworth generally employs;-but it is full of characters and incidents and good sense, like all her other productions. The mere outline is as follows.

Vivian is a young man of good family, fortune, talents, and dispositions, the only child of an amiable widow, who spoils and over-educates him at home,-teaches him to depend entirely upon her will,-and then sends him to the university to acquire steadiness of character. Here he fortunately falls in with a tutor who has that, along with all other human excellencies; and, forming an ardent friendship with him, becomes so far sensible of his own infirmity, as to determine to get the better of it, and to do nothing at the request of any person, but especially of his mother, without satisfying himself that it was right. When his studies are finished, he comes home to his country seat; where the first mark of his independence is to fall in love with a most amiable young lady, whose family and fortune, however, do not correspond with his mother's ambitious views for him. His importunity, however, and Miss Sidney's merit, at last overcome her repugnance; and the match is nearly settled, when he allows himself to be persuaded by a certain Lord Glistonbury in the neighbourhood, first to transform his comfortable mansion into a gothic castle, and then to stand for the county on the independent interest. Both projects are attended with monstrous expense-but they succeed; and Vivian is VOL. I. New Series.

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built up in turrets and battlements, and returned by a narrow majority to parliament. This last piece of success forces him to go to town before the lawyers can complete the marriage settlements; and here the attentions of Lord Glistonbury, and the agremens of his house, lead him to spend so much of his time there, that it is universally reported that he is to marry his eldest daughter; and he is in great danger of being prevailed upon to verify this rumour, when he is drawn into a sort of Platonic intrigue with a beautiful Mrs. Wharton, whose husband treats her with great neglect, and who chuses to confide to Vivian the secret of her domestic misery. While he is resolving every day to break off this dangerous connexion, he happens to send one of the sentimental epistles intended for the disconsolate matron, by mistake, to Miss Sidney-who instantly renounces him with great dignity. He has the grace to take a fever on the occasion; but no sooner gets well, than he thinks it necessary to go and satisfy Mrs. Wharton of the impropriety of their intercourse; the result of which laudable attempt is, that he elopes with her to the Continent, where he has very soon the satisfaction of learning, that the whole affair is merely the denouement of a profligate concert between her and her husband— the one intending to get a large sum of damages, and the other to get a rich husband in her penitent seducer. He then comes back to En. land, and goes down to Glistonbury castle, when he speedily falls in love with his Lordship's youngest daughter, a very beautiful, romantic, and extraordinary young lady—who refuses him because she is in love with his former tutor-and by whom she is in her turn refused, because he is in love with Miss Sidney. Vivian then finds, that the eldest daughter is in love with him; and, considering that his former attentions give her a sort of claim upon his honour, is easily persuaded to marry her; which he accordingly does, to the great satisfaction of the whole family. Not being very comfortable at home, he now makes a figure in parliament; and is beginning to find considerable consolation in patriotism and popular glory-when his fatherin-law is unfortunately offered a Marquisate by the ministry, upon condition of his changing sides; and is so earnest and persevering in his solicitations to his son-in-law to perform the same simple evolution, that poor Vivian is at last induced to comply;

-when he is insulted, among others, by his old friend Mr. Wharton, to whom he sends a challenge, and is shot dead by him at the first fire.

The chief fault of this story is, that the reader cares little about the hero; and ceases to feel either respect or interest for him, the moment he detaches himself from Miss Sidney. The ladies of the Glistonbury family, too, are a good deal caricatured; and we

rather think Miss Edgeworth overrates our progress both in personal and in political profligacy, when she supposes it possible that such a man as Wharton could be received in any society after the exposure of his infamy in regard to his wife; or that even an old politician, like Lord Glistonbury, could openly pass from the patriotic to the ministerial side, without any sort of pretext for the conversion, except the promise of a marquisate. The great merit of the tale, on the other hand, consists in the skill and perverted ingenuity with which the author has made her hero find apologies and good reasons indeed for his versatility on almost every occasion; and the address with which she has represented him as rejecting at other times the most reasonable and affectionate advice-just in order to show that he had a will and understanding of his own, and was not to be led or governed like an infant. The subordinate characters, too, with which the volume abounds, are drawn, for the most part, with the utmost force and vivacity. That of Lord Glistonbury is original, we think, in fiction; though most of our fashionable readers must have met with something very like it in real life. It is that of a talking conceited nobleman, with some memory and some vivacity, but very little principle, judgment or understanding; who goes on with an incessant chatter of borrowed sense and original nonsensé; delighted to hear himself talk, and mistaking his paltry maxims and insufferable volubility for eloquence and knowledge of the world. His debut, however, will make him far better understood than any description of ours. It is on occasion of Vivian introducing his own tutor to him, as willing to undertake the education of his son and heir; on which his Lordship is pleased to observe

"Mr. Russell will, I am perfectly persuaded, make Lidhurst every thing we can desire; an honour to his country, an ornament to his family It is my decided opinion, that man is but a bundle of habits; and it's my maxim, that education is second nature-first, indeed, in many cases. For, except that I am staggered about original genins, I own I conceive. with Hartley, that early impressions and associations are all in all. his vibrations and vibratiuncles are quite satisfactory. But what I particularly wish for Lidhurst, sir, is, that he should be trained as soon as possible into a statesman. Mr. Vivian, I presume, you mean to follow up public business, and no doubt will make a figure. So I prophecy-and I am used to these things. And from Lidhurst, too, under similar tuition, I may with reason expect miracles-'hope to hear him thundering in the house of commons in a few years 'confess 'am not quite so impatient to have the young dog in the house of incurables; for you know he could not be there without being in my shoes, which I have not done with yet-ha! ha! ha!-Each in his turn, my boy!-In the mean time, lady Mary, shall we join the ladies yonder, on the terrace.