106 Monthly Review of Literature. 



being furnished as his excuse. He however compensates his readers for their 

 disappointment, by strongly recommending them to go and visit the same them- 

 selves. 



We had hoped that the absurd Anglo-gallic mode of writing was almost out of 

 fashion, but Mr. Liddiard does his best to perpetuate it. Every page presents most 

 wearisome specimens of these conceits. Here is one out of a hundred. " Upon 

 retiring early, that J might start a la bonne heure in the morning, to my chambre a 

 coucher, I rang the bell and shouted for the fille de chambre^ to obtain a little Veau 

 chaude" &c. 



A few extracts of delectable poetry, from a volume of poems by the same author, 

 are interspersed; which he takes care to inform us often enough, are published by 

 Messrs. Saunders and Otley. The plates are fair besides a chart, and deserve all 

 praise. 



SERMONS- BY THE REV. HOBART GAUNTER, B. D. 



Domestic Chaplain to the Earl of Thanet, and Curate of St. Paul's (late Portland) 

 Chapel, St. Marylebone. London: E. BULL, and J. G. & F. RIVINGTON. 1832. 



To write a volume of good sermons is no easy task. A fine voice, an impressive 

 manner, and a few occasional striking passages might, from the pulpit, give effect 

 to a sermon which, when submitted to the test of meditation in the closet, would be 

 found wanting in every essential point. It requires then a power beyond what is 

 generally understood by fine preaching, to convey religious instruction in a written 

 form, so that it shall penetrate into the heart by the mere force of truth and of 

 reason. We have been much pleased with the volume before us. There is a mild 

 earnestness in Mr. Caunter's style, a force of conviction, with here and there a 

 burst of dignified eloquence, which render this book a fit companion for every 

 father of a family who would instruct his children in Christian morality arid the 

 true doctrines of the gospel. 



Among these sermons are some which deserve distinguished notice, not only from 

 their merits of style and argument, but from the novel manner in which the subjects 

 have been handled. We allude to the first on the Trinity. No. 2, Death the 

 wages of sin; 5, On evil speaking; 7 and 8, The rich man and Lazarus; 12, Why 

 Christ addressed the unbelieving Jews in parables ; and several others. 



The DEMOCRAT ; A TALE. The HUGONOT; A TALE. 3 Vols. BULL. 



IF these tales are, as we believe them to be, a first production and, as we still 

 farther believe, from a female pen they must be regarded as the fruits of a mind 

 richly endowed and cultivated, and promising, from its maturer development, per- 

 formances of no common degree of excellence. 



The chief aim of the writer is to combine religious instruction with the amuse- 

 ment of fiction. This is not so much apparent in the tales now presented, which, 

 we are told, were written some years ago, as in the well-written preface prefixed to 

 them ; from which we gather the writer's serious and conscientious sentiments upon 

 the practicability and propriety of such a union ; and from which, also, we infer, 

 that the future efforts of the same pen will be devoted to the illustration of the 

 truth of the writer's opinion, and to the amalgamation of religion and romance. 



In all this there is a great, and, we think, palpable mistake so palpable, that we 

 need not stay to point it out. A mind so deeply imbued with earnest and devo- 

 tional feeling as that of the author of these tales, will only be convinced of the 

 fallacy into which it has fallen by a trial or two, that will simply cramp and con- 

 fine its powers for a time, without accomplishing the grand object of its desire. 

 Our author, however, is not a person to write any thing that is not well worth a 

 perusal ; and where there happens to be a failure, it will arise, not from a lack of 

 talent or enthusiasm, but simply from the misdirection they have taken. The powers 

 here indicated, and the ardour and sincerity which mark their application, must be 

 undeniably acknowledged. 



