23 JUNE 1838, Page 20

On the Revival of Literature, is an essay that gained

a prize from some literary society ; with which honour the writer might have rested satisfied. His work is rather a hash made up from a variety of authors, than a whole emanating from his own mind. Neither does he seem to have a distinct idea of his subject : he deals as touch with the history of events and mechanical inven- tions as with that of literary productions; and his style, moreover, is imitative and ambitious—a copy of' GIBBON, or rather of' the later French historians. As a set-off to these crudities, we may say that the essay contains a succinct survey of the early literature of Spain and Italy and a characteristic sketch of that of the Troubadours and Norman romancers.