Monthly Review of Literature. 105 



We could justify a very high opinion of Mr. Cunningham's genius by many 

 extracts, for which we have no space; we must content ourselves, therefore, with 

 recording a hearty admiration of his poem, which we have read witli delight, and 

 which we recommend every body to peruse likewise. Truly, Allan Cunningham's 

 is no " stone-cutter's verse," but the authentic inspiration of the Muse herself. 



BEAUTIES OF THE REV. GEORGE CRABBE. LONDON : EFFJNGHAM WILSON. 1832. 

 THIS little volume has been, we are given to understand, suppressed, and we 

 therefore say nothing of the taste exercised in the selection of passages from the 

 various poems of Crabbe. It was thought rather hard upon Mr. Murray that he, 

 who has lost considerably by the purchase of the several copyrights, should be 

 forestalled in the scanty harvest to be derived from a publication of extracts and 

 selections from the author. 



AN INDIAN TALE, AND OTHER POEMS. BY B. GOUGH. EFFINGHAM WILSON. 



1832. 



WERE we disposed to be merciless, or savagely playful, or think we could find 

 materials for the gratification of our humour in 'this small volume, we should be 

 not altogether inexcusable, inasmuch as there is a tolerable list of subscribers to 

 the work, sufficient to pay the expenses of its publication; and a man has no right 

 to expect to make money in these times. Strange to say, our ill-humour w'as aug- 

 mented by a deprecatory passage in the preface. The author implores mercy on 

 this plea, that, " though conscious that the work exhibits numerous faults, still it 

 should never be forgotten, that everything of human origin is more or less liable to 

 a similar imputation." Was ever anything more hopelessly absurd? We are 

 bound in justice to say, that an amiable spirit pervades the poetry contained in the 

 volume, and that some of the main pieces are not destitute of fancy, or con- 

 temptible in execution. 



But we have read it all before a thousand times. Oh ! for one original thought 

 to every score volumes of Poetry ! 



FLOWERS OF FABLE, WITH 150 ENGRAVINGS ON WOOD. LONDON : VIZETELLY, 



BRANSTON, & Co. 1832. 



THIS is a very admirable selection of Fables, not only from English, but from 

 several foreign authors, now brought together for the first time, and forming an 

 excellent and valuable present to youth. We wish however that the editor had some- 

 times, instead of furnishing original translations, availed himself of version ready at 

 hand. It will be sufficient to mention one. " The Vine," by Herder, has been very 

 elegantly rendered into prose, by Mr. William Taylor, of Norwich, and is much 

 superior to the translation here given. The wood-cuts are exquisitely engraved, 

 and the volume is got up with all the elegance arid tact for which the publishers 

 are so justly celebrated. 



A THREE MONTHS' TOUR IN SWITZERLAND AND FRANCE. BY THE REV. 

 W. LIDDIARD. LONDON : SMITH, ELDER, & Co. 1832. 



WE cannot conceive the motive which induces our reverend author to publish 

 a Three Months' Tour in France and Switzerland, undertaken so long ago as 1827. 

 We have seldom had the misfortune of meeting with a traveller so little fitted for 

 the task he has undertaken. Our adventurous traveller is scarcely an hour without 

 meeting with some of his own countrymen, and generally contrives to fix his lodg- 

 ings daily at the hour of dinner. He is, moreover, perpetually whining about the 

 misery of being " a solitary wanderer in a strange land," and stuff of this nature, 

 for which a sentimental schoolboy would deserve an exemplary castigation. 



Half of our author's volume might as easily have been written in his own study 

 as on board a packet, or in a foreign inn ; relating, as it does, in no way to the 

 matter in hand more nearly than the digressions of Shandy. He appears also to 

 have been singularly unfortunate, having been unable to visit many of the 

 sublimest objects of Swiss scenery, "by reason of some strange fatality his com- 

 panions not going that way, his extreme hurry, or some equally satisfactory reason 



