THE REVIEWER'S TABLE.
I. Family LlbrarY—Plays of P. Massinger. 7. Address to the Members of Parliament 2. The Vale of Tempe, and other Poems. of Great Britain. By H. Berthold. By U. Newton, A.B. 8. Address of Earl Stanhope to the Me- B. Chronicles of a School-room. By Mrs. dico.Botanical Society. S. C. Hall. 9. The Last Days of Bishop IIeber. By 4. Frenchand EnglishDialogues.ByJ.F. G. Thomas Robinson, A.M. 5. Letter to the Public on the Necessity of W. Library of Entertaining Knowledge, Anatomical Pursuits. By Carden Vol.5, Purt2.—The Nov Zealanders. Thompson, M.D. la Dispassionate Appeal to the Legisla- S. Appeal to the Duke of Wellington, re- tore, tk.c. against Mr. Calcraft's Beer garding Anatomy.. By John 'Thom- Bill. son, M.D., Edinburgh.
1. Tnis• volume forms the first of the dramatic series of the Family LibraT. Its object is to familiarize the public with the elder drama- tists of England ; a class of writers for whose works it has been the fashion for twenty years to profess unbounded veneration, but of whom the majority, even of those who pass current as diligent readers, ktiow little more than the names. In the advertisement to the volume it is assumed, that this disinclination to the study of these mighty elders is to be ascribed to an unwillingness to come in contact with the coarseness that debases them. We are afraid that the supposi- tion is too flattering to our taste and morality ; but, at all events, we rejoice that the present edition will have a fair chance of popu- larity, by being purified from every thing that might in the original offend the fastidious. MASSINGERS claims to admiration are, we think, very considerably exaggerated by his biographer. There was little of poetry in his nature ; and in his sketches of character, there is a tendency to the extremes of mawkishness or distortion. He is distinguished by mat power ; but it is power historical or descrip- tive, rather than dramatic. The volume contains four plays, and is enriched by notes "critical and explanatory."
2. The introduction to the longest poem in this collection is a very pleasing but not senile imitation of the best parts of the Beatus iile of Iloaace and the Pollio of VIRGIL ; and the whole of the poem, and its companions, bespeak a superior mind. The versifi- cation is smooth and the language elegant ; and if we do meet with common thoughts and common images, we consider any repetition more tolerable than the straining after effect that is so common among the small poets of the day.
3. Mrs. HALL has chosen a framework for her stories, which ne- cessarily limits their character. They are put into the mouth of a Mrs. Ashburton, the ex-conductress of a boarding establishment ; and as Mrs. Ashburton could only receive young ladies, we have in the chronicles of her school-room a series of sketches of young ladies only. There is less variety and less depth in the pictures which the aged spinster exhibits, than in those which, in her own person, Mrs. HALL drew from her delightful village of Bannow. The chronicles have, however, great merit. There is a sketch of two sisters, twins, the one blind and the other dumb, which, if we could for a moment admit the existence of two beings so gifted and labouring at the same time under such physical defects, we should say was drawn with great skill and discrimination. There is also a fine portrait of .a little Quaker, gifted with all the quiet loveliness and meek temper, and subdued but not extinguished sensibility, that distinguish a sect whose educated uniformity is so terrible a libel on SPURZHEIM. And there is a capital tale of an Irish girl, Millicent O'Brien. As a whole, in short, we are well pleased with Mrs. HALL'S book : as an amusing and instructive present to a young lady, we should prefer it to most of the gaudy affairs that are got up at Christmas with that special view.
4. These Dialogues differ from all that we have seen, in giving the literal meaning of the French words, as well as the English phrase corresponding to them.
5. Dr. C. THOMPSON has written a clever and spirited pamphlet onei subject on which much ignorance and prejudice, we regret to say, are entertained by the people, and. encouraged and fostered by too • many of our contemporaries,—we mean the anatomical question. Dr. THOMPSON, who is an enthusiast in his art, pints out very forcibly the defects of Mr. WARBURTON'S bill ; and we admit these were not few : still, with all its defects, we could wish that the medical pro- fession were in possession of the advantages, imperfect as they are, that it was meant to secure for them. The grand difficulty is to effect a commencement of reform.
6. Dr. J. THOMSON'S appeal is of a very different complexion from his Sheffield namesake's. The worthy doctor is a lecturer on the prac- tice of physic ; and according to his views, the grand object of an enlightened government ought to be the compilation of an accurate pharmacopceia! He would put an end to all private dissectors, and have only three public dissectors in the kingdom, as there are two in Paris. Society, he says, if MT. WARBURTON'S bill were to pass, could draw but a feeble line between the butcher and the anatomist ; and therefore he recommends, that in future, young surgeons should, as a preparatory step to their serious studies, devote a year or two to the-cutting up of calves, or, as he calls it, zootomy !—Oh!
7. Mr.. BERTHOLD has here presented us with a page of diagrams and two pages of text, intended, as he says, to point out the true, straightforward, and natural path, by means of which the pinnacle of happiness may be obtained, (attained?) The straightforward path, so far as by the imperfect lights vouchsafed us in Mr. BER- THOLD'S two pages of instruction, is the establishment of a national bank, to pay 10 per cent, to the independent shareholders ; or to give posts, varying from 4000/. to 250/. per annum, to those who did not choose to accept of dividends. This bank is to issue notes of all values, from one thousand pounds to ten shillings ; the notes to be paid in produce. The said bank is to be accompanied by a commercial college, an agricultural college, and a hall of industry, accommodated for the reception of three thousand persons, receiving five shillings each per diem. We donelude with Mr. BERTHOLD—" It only requires the will of the nation and the adoption of this plan to Carry it into effect."
8. The address of Earl STANHOPE is highly creditable to his talents ; and the views which it opens of the sanative virtues of nu- merous plants, and the suggestions for the further prosecution of this interesting branch of the medical study, are extremely interesting.
9. This is a republication of a work with the same title, which ise sued from the Madras press a short time after the decease a the great and good man whose name it bears. It is from the pen of Mr. ROBINSON, Bishop HEBER'S Chaplain. There is less of the Bishop and more of his Chaplain in the text than we could have wished, al- though the little notices of the former, scanty as they are, are not without their value. In the appendix are copies of some curious letters from Bishop HEBER to the Syrian Bishop ATHANASIUS. They exhibit the most perfect imitations of Scripture style we ever happen to have net with ; and indeed, while perusing them, we could almost believe that we were reading a newly-discovered epistle of some one of the New Testament writers.
10. This number. is of the same diffuse, rambling character as the last. The author has the most literal associations !—RITTHERFORD, whose adventures he details, is about to describe a battle, and has the two parties marshalled, when night comes on, and a fire is required : off flies our author to describe the New Zealand plan, and all other plans, of procuring fire, ending with a figure from Von HUMBOLBT, of a Mexican priest in the act of kindling wood, at the termination of the quinquagesimal cycle ! Having incidentally mentioned a young Otaheitan, who settled in New Zealand, and adopted the rude fashions of the islanders—presto ! away he goes to Oatai and COWPER the poet ; and not content with this, we have a full-length portrait of Mr. Omme and may thank heaven we have not a biography of Sir JoenuA REYNOLDS, who painted it ! With all this galloping from one subject to another, there are many amusing anecdotes in the number, and its gossipy character will probably make it a favourite of the public.
11. The Dispassionate Appeal purports to be the work of a county magistrate ; we doubt its authenticity. Its better arguments; such as they are, have been embodied in the petition to Parliament by the licensed victuallers. We are told by the writer, that there is no such thing as a monopoly of publichouses—that their high value depends entirely on the extent of their business, their locality, and their 68.- racter. If this be the case, how can Mr. CALCRAFT'S bill injure them ? What does it deprive them of? After the same fashion, he tells us that there are at present in the kingdom four times more pub- licans than are wanted: why, then, should he anticipate an addition to their number ? what is it that produces alehouses, or any other houses, if it be not the wants of the public ? The appendix to the pamphlet contains some remarks on the whisky and rum duties, which we fully concur in, and which are in strange contrast with what goes helve them.
Previous page
