572 MONTHLY REVIEW OF LITERATURE. 



plea that history is too general and comprehensive a study to be practically 

 efficient by the same means, which are open and devoted to biography. His 

 book, we conceive, demanded no such apology. Biography can stand upon its 

 own claims and merits without leaning against the vast pedestal of history for 

 its support. 



We read biography because, as Mr. Coleridge well and truly says, " it tends 

 to keep the eye of man upon his own heart, upon the sphere of his immediate 

 duties, of those duties, where his affections are to be exercised and regulated, 

 and which, considering man as a person, consider him as sentient, intelligent, 

 moral and immortal/' 



The lives comprised in the first part, now before us, are those of Andrew 

 Marvell of the famous Dr. Bentley of Lord Fairfax, and of the celebrated 

 James, Earl of Derby. 



We do not know when we have read a book which we so much like as the 

 present The author has treated the lives of these great men strictly according 

 to their deserts ; with eloquence, impartiality and thorough fairness. 



Tn spite of a tory leaning or bias, which we might fairly have presupposed 

 that he had inherited from his father, we find that he has been just to Marvell 

 and to Fairfax. Nor has he attempted, as some indiscriminate and uncandid 

 admirers have done, to gloss over the great demerits the shameful and sorry 

 and lamentable meannesses of the still great Dr. Bentley. For our own parts 

 liberals though we confess ourselves to be we can applaud and admire the 

 generous, the heroic loyalty of the Earl of Derby ; and it will, indeed, be an ill 

 time for England, when qualities like these, and spirits such as these, no longer 

 find a hearty sympathy and a fervent response from her countrymen. 



We are sure that Mr. Hartley Coleridge's work must, or ought to be, popular. 



MEMOIR OF THE LATE CAPTAIN PETER HEYWOOD. BY EDWARD TAGART. 



LONDON : 1832. 



To some people, chiefly those of the naval profession, the life of Captain 

 Hey wood will be thought interesting ; by the general reader we fear that it will 

 not be so considered. 



Captain Heywood was a midshipman on board the Bounty, at the period of 

 the mutiny, and although not really or criminally implicated, was brought, with 

 others, to a court martial, found guilty, and sentenced to death ; but was recom- 

 mended to mercy. He afterwards re-entered the navy, and by gradual promo- 

 tion, the fruit of honourable desert, arrived to the rank of captain. 



That Captain Heywood was a most deserving and meritorious officer, and a 

 highly estimable man, there cannot be the least doubt ; we fear, however, that 

 his peculiar services and merits are too little known, to render a memoir of him 

 either profitable to the author, or important to the public. 



We must protest against the bad taste of the author, in reprinting the charac- 

 ter of Agricola as drawn by Tacitus, and supposing that an " interesting and 

 striking resemblance is to be traced" between it and the character of Captain 

 Heywood. 



Such an exhibition is only calculated to excite ridicule, and to provoke com- 

 parisons that are any thing but agreeable to dwell upon. We have, most of us, 

 a nose upon our face, and in that particular may be said to resemble Agricola. 



1 

 BECKET, AND OTHER POEMS. LONDON : 1832. 



The days of poetry, like those of chivalry, are no more ; and the hapless 

 wight who ventures upon his Pegasus, now-a-days, is looked upon as a literary 

 Quixote who has gone forth to tilt at windmills and to destroy puppets for the 

 especial honour and glory of a visionary Dulcinea. We are quite convinced that 

 this volume will never be popular, and equally sure that had it been published 

 a few years ago, it would, at least, have been received with respect and grati- 

 tude, if not rewarded with praise and profit. 



