In the tale of Use and Abuse, the author wishes
to exhibit infidelity and religion opposed .to one another, with the final defeat of infidelity and the triumph of faith. Such a task is difficult; but with every allowance for the difficulty, Use and Abuse cannot be pronounced other than a failure. Too much is attempted ; too little is done. The author carries the reader to Arabia Turkey in Asia, gonstantinople, England, Italy, and Greece ; be embodies the spirit of unbelief in a Byronic sort of per- sonage called Arabyn; of faith in a hermit-like individual hight Raymond, with powers still greater than those of Arabyn. After all this machinery is procured and set in motion, the only aim of Arabyn is to convert a Mr. Stanley to infidelity and get him cheated at cards ; and to marry "a fortune," with the view of procuring supplies, and making a sceptic of his wife. In all these projects Arabyn is baffled by Raymond ; and the infidel, after being an indirect cause of his sister's poisoning herself, becomes deranged, and dies in a Grecian madhouse. The style is like the matter—very much in "King Cambyses' vein."
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