1820.] Review of New Publications. comic writer, now at his ease, if he can by his wit or wits procure a capon or a fowl, should of course prefer the merrythought. N. B. The same kinds of food will also respectively agree with the two classes of actors. "An historian may indulge in carp, daube, and ale While History, with her companion, ale, Dried pears, and all sorts of pickles and ment. "To succeed as a counsellor, it is necessary to be as impudent as a highwayman's horse; and a choice slice of the haunch of the animal is named as a rare secret, especially if killed with a blunderbuss, and the master hung in chains. For readiness and repartee, a salt herring, with mustard and vinegar, just before the cause comes on, with a large glass of genuine Irish usquebaugh, of the yellow or brazen colour. All sharp sauces of cayenne, verjuice, and other acrimonious ingredients, are of exquisite utility, and all curries especially that of shark. "A young lord, destined to live at court, should chiefly feed on calf's head and whipped cream, or gooseberry-fool, according to the season. "A beau, young dog, or puppy, should learn to strut in Bond street, or Pall-mall, without any dinner; a practice which will be found to increase his emptiness. He may also suck the brains of geese, mixed with calf's foot jelly, or, when married, that of hart's-horn. For variety, he may eat the thighs of black beetles, butterflies minced, or other light food. The little flowering plant, called London- pride, may also be used in its season. "These hints will suffice, and the intelligent will extend them for the benefit of society and the perfectibility of man." Having now mentioned the objectionable parts, we must recommend Lesson the 13th, or, The Dutch Merchant; and the 42d, On Repairs; we particularly point out these two, because they are true Lessons, and ought to go by that title; and we venture to say, that, if the whole book had been written on the same plan, it would have been one of the best modern books on economy. We also recommend the Essay on Economy of High Life, called Lesson XV.; and the 30th, where an account is given of Flammel's supposed extraordinary fortune; likewise the 32d Essay, on Hesiod, which shows a great deal of erudition; as well as the 41st, on Laughing and Wit; but we cannot 437 give the same approbation to the abuse of Rousseau and Voltaire, which the Author has evidently introduced in the 31st Essay, with a view to impress his Reader, that he is a religious man: we give him, however, credit for his principles, which are perfectly consonant with our Established Church; and we hesitate not to say, that his book may safely be entrusted to all classes of Readers, who cannot fail finding it both useful and entertaining. 101. A Brief History of Christ's Hospital, from its Foundation by King Edward the Sixth, to the present Time. With a List of the Governors. 12mo. pp. 92. THIS entertaining little volume is the production of Mr. John Iliff Wilson, a grateful Scholar of this Royal, matchless, and most extensively useful Foundation. "The idea of publishing a separate History of Christ's Hospital' was first suggested by hearing an old School-fellow lament that, among all the accounts of national establishments and public buildings, nothing of a similar nature had been attempted; and that to ascertain any information, however trifling, it was necessary to refer to some History of London, or other voluminous work, where, after a tedious search, it generally appeared that the author did not enter into the subject with sufficient minuteness to give the information sought for; or that, if given, from not having been educated there, many errors had crept in, which none but those well acquainted with the Hospital could correct. "To remedy this inconvenience, was the intention of the Writer of this book:how far he has succeeded, he leaves his old school-fellows and others connected with the Hospital to determine; upon their indulgence he confidently relies; as he would never have presumed to obtrude himself on the notice of the publick, had any gentleman undertaken the subject who was capable of doing it justice. "The materials were principally furnished by the Report of the Education Committee of the House of Commons; and from the various Histories of London, which afforded the means of correcting some errors the authors had inadvertently fallen into; to which is added what local information a residence of five years and upwards afforded." Every species of information that can reasonably be desired will be found in Mr. Wilson's History; and a very interesting article shall be extracted. "King Charles the Second made a most important addition, by the foundation of a Mathematical School for the instruction of forty boys in navigation, and endowed it for seven years with 10007. and an annuity of 3707. 10s. payable out of the Exchequer for the special purpose of educating and placing out yearly ten boys in the sea-service. "These are the boys who were annually presented by the President to the King upon New Year's Day, when that festival was observed at Court, and afterwards upon the Queen's birth-day; but the practice was entirely discontinued from the commencement of his late Majesty's last lamentable illness. They wear a badge upon the left shoulder, the figures upon which represent Arithmetic, with a scroll in one hand, and the other placed upon a 102. The History of the Crusades, for the Recovery and Possession of the Holy Land. By Charles Mills. 2 vols. 8vo. Longman and Co. THE style of Gibbon, we think, upon analysis, to be turgid and pedantic. For instance, let us take the familiar process of shaving, and "The describe it in close imitation. unseemly excrescence of a biduan beard required the amputatory aid of the Tonsor. Unshavedus (such was the Barbar-ian name) in the soiled garb of the traveller, entered the shop of the useful artisan. An antient chair, decorated beyond the concomitant furniture, with the clean and graceful covering of a Tartan boy's head; Geometry with a triangle in check, accommodated with tempo her hand; and Astronomy with a quadrant in one hand and a sphere in the other. Round the plate is inscribed, Auspicio Caroli Secundi Regis, 1673.' The dye is kept in the Tower. "Five of these boys pass an examination before the Elder Brethren of the Trinity House every six months, previous to their entering their profession; and, in case King Charles's foundation should fail, Mr. Stone, a Governor, left a legacy for the maintenance of twelve boys, as a subordinate mathematical school, which, according to subsequent regulations, is made an introductory step to King Charles's foundation. "These boys are distinguished from King Charles's by wearing the badge upon the right shoulder, instead of the left, as worn by the others.-This foundation is called the Twelves on account of its number. "The establishment at Hertford, when full, contains upwards of 400, which, added to the establishment in London, makes upwards of 1150, including 80 girls; but there is no limitation as to the number, which varies according to the revenues of the Hospital." In the Title-page is a pretty vignette, printed in six different colours, of a Blue Coat Boy habited in the proper costume of the School; and the work is also embellished with a neat Engraving, on wood, of the Grammar School, "A handsome modern brick building, for which the Hospital is greatly indebted to the late Mr. Alderman Gill, who was many years Treasurer, and the immediate predecessor of the gentleman who has now for the space of twenty-two years so honourably filled that situation." For this accurate Drawing the Author is indebted to the pencil of Mr. Wells. rary rest the fidgety and impatient visitant. The professional loquacity of the operator was extinguished by the cold monosyllabic replies of a mind, principally ruminating upon the excessive charges of the last inn. The saponaceous froth was speedily extorted by a friction, which the chemical and ingenious compound was accustomed, from its desire of nuptial union with water, implicitly to obey. The snowy elevation of the summit of Caucasus soon cloathed the elevated chin. The animal stubble fell in ranks under the scythed hand of disciplined art, moving in graceful evolution; and the patriarchal manners of the East would have disdained the unmanly distinction of the refreshed European." We speak thus in limine, because Mr. Mills has written this book in the stile of Gibbon, against which, that it may not become a precedent, we beg to enter our protest; and to state at some length, what we conceive to be a suitable manner for Histories connected with the Middle Age. Froissart is, in our opinion, the standard. We want to see the prevalent manner and character of the day; of course, every one of the dramatis personæ should be in the acting; and this keeping of the pichabits of the age, as to speaking and ture should be as tenaciously observed as it is in Fielding's novels. We conceive it to be a merit in Mr. Fosbrooke's Monachism and Pilgri mage, that it is almost entirely founded, as to reflection, upon contemporary ideas. Now an adoption of the manner of Gibbon in the His tory 1820.] Review of New Publications. tory of the Crusades, however faithful it may be as to facts, must inevitably misrepresent motives, by the incongruous mixture of philosophical habits and principles, which were then utterly unknown. We We, however, honestly confess, that we think Saint Palaye alone could have executed a History of the Crusades in the manner of Froissart. It requires an extensive track of reading. We have seen Romances, professedly referring to the Middle-Age, correct as to the modes of living, but as to sentiments and ideas quite modern. This is an absurdity similar to that which has been remarked *, as common among artists. They represent ancient heroes with the physiognomical character of their own nation. Thus, a Chinese statue of Alexander would exhibit the countenance of a Mandarin in a tea-warehouse. form the same opinion of Histories of great events in the Middle-Ages, written in the modern philosophical form. We are further justified in so thinking, because in the age of the Crusades, mere Superstition was a road to honour and distinction, and a rigid Hermit had the influence of a Peer. Superstition neither regarded or knew those varieties of feeling and action which society, conducted under the influence of law and civilization, necessarily implies. In a barbarous state, force is a simple impulse, which may be useful when the social machine does not exceed the character of a plough, but violence is ruin to a clock, and, in such an advanced state of improvement in the engine, simple power merely forms the weight. Thus far we have spoken not from disrespect to Mr. Mills, who is acute and able, and always a good, and often a very elegant narrator, but from regret, that by adoption of such an incongruous model as Gibbon, he has injured himself and his work, through divesting it of an infinite portion of pleasing matter, in order to philosophize upon self-evident conclusions. The narratory history of the Crusades is founded upon simple principles. Military habits are abhorrent of rest and inaction; and the custom of travelling was universal. The error of the Crusaders was, that *By Dr. Clarke, we believe. Rev. 439 they made war upon the Eastern nations without magazines or stores, under the presumption that they should find the same resources as in Europe; and thus, acting in defiance of common sense, the expeditions were to the Saracens only a temporary irruption of locusts, who were SOOD swept away by a hurricane of famine. But this originated also in the charitable institutions and hospitable habits of the age. Even the poor set out for Jerusalem as they would now for York, with a bundle and a walking-stick, and succeeded in their object, because in manners and habits they assimilated orders of society who make long journies without expence, namely gipsies, if they were in companies, and beggars, if they were solitary; but the more general rule was to fasten themselves upon some rich pilgrim. In the conduct of the Crusades, there are only two grand principles of action, superstition and war: and in the narrative, there is only a tiresome identity of incident; a string of Gazette battles, almanack reading, repetition of weather and eclipses, portraits of the same man in different attitudes. This Mr. Mills cannot help. He has given us (in our opinion injudiciously) a useful, compressed, and well-concatenated narrative of events which every body wished to know, and, when known, are not worth remembering. The details of particular battles, such as those of Blenheim, Ramillies, and Waterloo; and in antient history of Leuctra and Cannæ, are, from the instructive lessons of the manœuvres, very interesting; but the combats of the Crusades are in the main, a mere tossing-up affair of heads or tails, kill or be killed; whence no other instruction is to be derived, than that of the old woman's caution to children," not to play with guns." We know that Mr. Mills's authorities, and they are proper for the subject (under his historical limitation) will not furnish episodes, like that of Nisus and Euryalus. They are, of course, dry monkish chroniclers; and though we dislike the stile a la Gibbon, and should have preferred that fine examplar, applicable to history of every sort, the stile of Xenophon in his Anabasis, if the subject was confined to a narrative of events, yet Mr. Mr. Mills, in his self-elected limitation, has high merit, in embodying a calendar, which he could not, under his plan diversify; and he most certainly, by an unintentional sacrifice, has filled up a chasm in our libraries ; that of having the events of the Crusades well narrated to us in a short compass; and, it is our duty to acquit him of any blame, for he thinks, through the prepossession of incompetent authorities as to the effects of the Crusades, that they had no operation upon the civilization of Europe. (See c. viii.) On this subject, however, we are at issue with Mr. Mills; but want of room compels us to defer our observations till our next. 103. (To be continued.) Sermons Doctrinal and Practical. By the Reverend T. F. Dibdin. (Concluded from p. 50.) WE now with pleasure resume our strictures upon this unostentatious, but animated volume of orthodox Discourses. Our previous remarks were confined to the Doctrinal part of these Sermons. We shall now notice the manner in which the Practical part is executed. Among the most striking, and ge nerally useful Discourses, is that entitled The Good and True of Heart." Of a more chastised and sober tone of colouring-but not less applicable to good, sound practical results, is the Discourse entitled "The Love of many shall wax cold." But perhaps of a still more persuasive, and powerfully written character is the concluding portion of the Discourse of "The Truth shall make you free." We heartily wish our limits would have permitted us to insert extracts from each of these three excellent Sermons. Perhaps the two Sermons-one upon YOUTH, and the other upon AGE are the best, as counterparts, in the volume. In giving a specimen of the former, we feel persuaded that we do our duty both to the Author and to the Publick. The passage here subjoined is illustrative of that part of the sermon which guards the Preacher's flock against a premature introduction of youth into the world. "To see a young person alive to a seuse of honour and of shame; guarded in his expressions, and still more so in his 'conduct; stung to the quick with vicious and loathsome discourse; prompt to hear the wise; slow to form an opinion, and still slower to pass judgment; silent, diffident, and only roused into action at the provoking language of folly and of sin— to see this-what is it, but to view one of the loveliest and most fascinating of all human pictures? What is it but to see a fellow-creature promising to be a glory to his Maker, and worthy of the DIVINE IMAGE in which he has been created!? My brethren, is such a sight common in the world? Or rather, is not the reverse of this picture a little more common? To see a young person flippant, passionate, and obstinate; quite inflated with vanity and pride; boasting merely of his parents wealth and consequence, while he is doing all in his power to render both contemptible: to see him eager to pursue what is dissipated, and vicious and extravagant-prompt to deliver his opinions unsolicited, and not always the most choice of language in the utterance of that opinion: - -to see all this, is, I fear, also sufficiently common; but it is not thereby the more to be commended. If the depraved customs of society countenance and encourage this, sure I am that is not encouraged by much higher authorities: by the language of Scripture in the word of God, and of his Son Jesus Christ our Lord. From this sacred fountain-head, a purer, a wiser, and a more awful doctrine is imparted: therein we are told to iet our yea be yea, and our way, may-and to keep ourselves unspotted from the world." Our limits forbid a further extract; or we should gladly have inserted the character of Old Age, as illustrated in the example of BARZILLAI. Thus have we paid our respects to Mr. Dibdin upon his first appearance in print, in the character of a Divine; and we hope that it will not be very long ere we shake hands with him upon his second appearance in the same character. Much cannot be gained by such publications-whether on the ground of fame or of profit: but there is a consideration beyond either of these, which cannot fail to stimulate an honest and ardent mind in the prosecutiou of his labour. There is the approbation of conscience-in not having hid our light under a bushel; or in not having wrapt our talent within a napkin to lie rusty and corroded in unproductive supineness. 104. Patronage, a Poem: an Imitation of the Seventh Satire of Juvenal. By Mandanis. 8vo. pp. 38. Souter. "Few Patrons of the Muse the Peerage boasts, But vaunts of versifying lords in hosts: Bit by the dire tarantula of song, The Satirist appears to have been unfortunate in his search after Patronage, having found only a single Nobleman to commend: “Holroyd, for mind a gen'rous ardour shows, [woes. Partakes its pleasures, and removes its Happy the poet, whose successful lays, From Holroyd's bounty, gathers more than praise." "Sheffield, self-pleased, on that Poet smiles, And every care and every fear exiles." 105. Memoires Secrets, ou Chronique de Paris.- Imprimée a Londres. Ouvrage periodique. Tome second, No. X. 800. 1817. Lyon, &c. WE cannot enter minutely into this work, without making our Review the vehicle of political party, and that French, by which our Readers would not in our opinion be at all edified. We do not, however, deny the literary merit of this book: for instance, take the indispensable connexion between a representative government and the liberty of the press; because, "The Representative Government is enlightened by public opinion, and is foundGENT. MAG. May, 1820. 441 ed upon it. The Chambers cannot know this opinion, if this opinion has no organ." "In a Representative Government there are two tribunals; that of the houses where the interests of the nation which judges the two Houses." are judged; and that of the Nation itself, "How can the Ministry and the Chambers know the public opinion, which forms the general will, if this opinion cannot be freely expressed?" 106. The Comforter. A Poem. 8vo. pp. 78. Taylor and Hessey. A serious poem of considerable merit, in blank verse, after the manner of "Young's Night Thoughts." 107. The Troller's Guide; a new and complete practical Treatise on the Art of Trolling, or Fishing for Jack and Pike; illustrated with numerous Cuts of Hooks, Baits, Tackles, &c. To which is added, the best method of baiting and laying lines for large Eels. By T. F. Salter, Author of The Angler's Guide." 12mo. pp. Tegg. 107. former Work of Mr. Salter, reviewed AN appropriate companion to the in our vol. LXXXVII. p. 346; and there is no doubt, but that many who have had some practice in the Art observations on the seasons and weaof Trolling, may find in this work ther proper for Trolling; how to cast the baited hook in search, and divers other matters connected with, and relative to Jack and Pike fishing worthy their notice and attention. This volume, like the former, is illustrated by a variety of ueat engravings on wood. 108. Domestic Scenes at Woodlands. A Tale. By a Lady. 12mo. pp. 164. Izzard. THIS detail of the every day occurrences in domestic life, may be safely added to the Library of Juvenile Readers. 109. Rural Employments; or, A Peep into Village Concerns; designed to instruct the Minds of Children; illustrated by numerous Copper-plates. By Mary Elliott. 12mo. pp. 72. W. Darton. THIS little volume is both instructive and amusing. The plates, if not elegant, are sufficiently good, and the designs well adapted to the subjects; which are, "The Village Schoolmistress;” “ Felling Timber;" "Wa tering |