JHJ MONTHLY REVIEW OF LITERATURE. 



return to act one more season here, for the advantage of her estimable 

 parents ; but she did no such thing : we trusted that, as she could now 

 aftbrd to live in dignified retirement, she would cease to write : there 

 again we were mistaken : it made us angry. We say not this from the 

 jealousy which some (called) men cherish against popular female talent ; 

 were we capable of envying any lady, it would not be Mrs. Pierce 

 Butler ; though, if to astonish has been the aim of her life, she is, as 

 she hath ever been, unaccountably fortunate. The common cry now 

 seems, * 4 We should wonder at such a book from any young, well- 

 educated woman, but from her!" "And why?" we would ask. Let 

 us examine this Journal, which merits no such amaze from either friends 

 or foes. 



If it at all surprised us, it was agreeably, as confirming some of our 

 opinions on its writer's disposition, and much improving others. Mrs. 

 Butler's notions, mental and moral, are, generally speaking, more liberal 

 than we expected, though far less original. She has read and heard 

 many fine things, which she journalises as her own: this at least shows 

 that she understands and feels them. Her imagination, too, is vivid, and 

 her verbiage glittering nay, bordering on the graphic style, which she 

 disapproves: but her reiterated descriptions tire one rather; and her 

 de Stael-ish obscurities perplex. She calls the political existence of 

 America " a momentous experiment." Surely our little Tory must have 

 sat at the feet of that great Gamaliel, the late Lord Londonderry. She 

 says too, whatever she may mean, " that actual reality is away from the 

 purpose of works of art." Also, " Jf truth be truth, to the end of 

 reckoning, why, that share of her, if any, which I possess, must endure, 

 when recorded, as long as truth endures!" 



This is indeed " to judge the future by the past ; " for the truths Mrs. 

 Butler puts forth, " if any," as she says, are very venerable ; yet we 

 should like some of her " rhapsodies," if they did not make her more 

 familiar language appear so indefensibly vulgar. The barbarisms in 

 which she indulges are such as no well-bred woman should print ; even 

 to write them betrays an habitual coarseness of mind perhaps obtruded 

 to decrease our awe of her greatness. The " vile phrases" to which we 

 allude are, like her pet quotations, constantly recurring in her con- 

 fessedly bad prose. True, she apologises " in very choice Italian," for the 

 carelessness natural to spontaneous effusions ; but if her pages were not 

 written for the press, they ought, at least, to have been made fit for it, 

 not deformed by such expressions as the following: "fell to got at 

 went and took bang like mad slithering about bundled ourselves in 

 regular row horrid mess tydying my room all up with me bother 

 potter I spit at it walloped snivel they licked us beaten hollow 



it rained cats and dogs we came across Mr. rode to the tune of 



so many miles by that same token Go it ! with a vengeance by all 

 manner of means only time to swallow a mouthful gulped it down 

 was done up glorious little England, from which this bragging, big baby 

 was born a small piece of mutiny I cottoned to him. I acted like a 

 wretch blackguard twaddle set my foot in the discussion foul non- 

 sense got very sick. The manager's wife and another woman were in 

 the box, which was his a cheating woman a heathen price our sur- 

 roundings jostle scramble break one's neck lies a turnippy-look- 



ing man that odious Mr. a man of the name of Hacket I would 



not care if the devil drove a hurricane at our backs all this blessed day 

 stitching for dear life the plagues of Egypt were a joke to them 

 cantankerous devilish red slashes he was glued to my side stuck to 

 my skirts humbug ;" but enough, and more than enough ; we will not 

 weary our readers quite so much as, we have been wearied not to be 

 spiteful and enumerate one halfibe spots that temper the. glory of Mrs. 



