MONTHLY REVIEW OF LITERATURE. 91 



Butler's sun's light. We wonder why the worthy clergyman persuaded 

 her to abjure waltzing, obliged as she was, by her calling, to be " clasped 

 and whirled about." But exercise is salutary; and, on the subject of 

 health, this young lady furnishes her own sex and ours with three or 

 four bravely candid notes. We could cry ** Bah !" but then her love of 

 learning of country regret for her happy, peaceful home ! her "joy in 

 flowers," her piety and benevolence ! we are disarmed. In all these 

 matters she is sincere : whether it was politic to give her work an air of 

 display, by permitting it to retain so very much about her German, 

 Italian, singing, sketching, stitching, dancing, and riding is another 

 question. 



If the trivial diurnal details were compressed, the lines of stars omitted, 



the Mr. s either distinguished one from the other, or left out, in toto 



the journal would really make one readable tome ; but then it would lose 

 its vrai-semblance. 



As it stands we have all the acts of France*, and some of them purpose- 

 less as those of her own Francis; yet, from the whole, we gain an edify- 

 ing insight into a somewhat peculiar character. 



Mrs. Jamieson opines that " Woman should plant the olive wherever 

 she goes;" and Tennyson, who sonnetized the erudite John Kemble, 

 junior, says * the Poet ' ought to be 



" Dower'd with the hate of hate, the scorn of scorn, the love of love." 



As lady and as bard, then, Mrs. Butler's ' own gods' condemn her, not 

 we. 



We have said that she does not altogether belt/ the Americans ; but she 

 should (if only to return the civility of Washington Irving) have confessed 

 that vulgar habits, loud shrill voices, and class-going hoydenism, may be 

 found in her darling Edinburgh uncouth accents in her well-beloved 

 Manchester. We could better tolerate satire from a long-secluded, refined, 

 morbidly sensitive, disappointed being 1 , than from a hardy, horse-whip- 

 ping denizen of green-rooms the kist of Keppel, the jostled of super- 

 numaries. Yet Mrs. Butler is full of aversions " likes every thing 

 better than men and women" "finds the society of her nearest con- 

 nexions a burden" by her own confession takes this "in dudgeon" 

 *' sulks" at that gave her audiences " cross " and "significant looks" 

 " nearly came to a blow-up with \\erfather" wishes one " at the devil" 

 to " knock down " a second, and throw the cup from which she " TEAD," 

 at a third <( dandles about," with sovereign contempt for punctuality 

 invades the sick, in their beds, to show them her dresses hates ap- 

 plause, and hates to miss it does a deal of crying and sleeping on the 

 floor longs for death runs fool-hardy risks and loses all self-command 

 at the presence of danger contrives to have her own way on all occa- 

 sions, and yet is never satisfied. 



Strange anomaly, as she would say, of high-flown theories and com- 

 mon-place practice! Although she does not depreciate the charms of 

 other women, indeed believes all their hearts like hers she cannot disguise 

 her personal vanity is satisfied with " poor Lawrence's" picture of her, 

 and with her resemblance to her " aunt Siddons" frequently says that 

 she " looked nice or pretty, and acted well " and, above all, believes it 

 possible for the musquitoes to injure the appearance of her arms ! Per- 

 haps she would have hailed Iheir visitation of her " poor dear father 

 good easy man!" as an improvement; for she complains against his 

 44 faintness of colouring in face and eye," (as if rouge and u ig could not 

 mend it,) " his weak voice, and corresponding intellectual deficiencies." 

 Was he thus free from affection's prejudices in her case? She calls Mr. 

 Wallack " very handsome !" On the whole, however, she justly appre- 

 ciates Charles Kemble's acting its courtly grace, scholarly reading, and 



