MONTHLY REVIEW OF LITERATURE. 119 



" vapid/* but he has prudently declined the pains of proving it. Had the 

 critic, indeed, pointed out any particular papers to which such a term ap- 

 plied, we could have been content upon the " De Gustibus" principle, but 

 he has not done so ; contenting himself, rather, we think, with the cry of 

 " sour grapes," so ingeniously consolatory to Monsieur Reynard, the Fox. 



In all matters, we beseech you, dear critic, if not to take the will for the 

 deed, at least to ascertain what the deed was to have been, whereto the will 

 has been brought. We do not think it a fair objection to a plum-pudding, 

 that it is not equal to roast beef. The creator of such delicacy had it not in 

 his or her mind to make it so. The benignant purveyor delights to know, 

 that " sufficient for the stomach is the pudding thereof." If an artist carves 

 a cherry-stone exquisitely, we do not think of comparing it with the Port- 

 land vase : and we would rather see a festoon of flowers, however wild, 

 gracefully wreathed together, than a would-be Milo, awkwardly and impo- 

 tently endeavouring to tear asunder some sapling oak, and finding himself in 

 a " cleft stick." 



The application of what we have thus written, is obvious enough. The 

 material of .which the present work is composed, is light and flimsy, we 

 grant ; but we rather admire the buoyancy the constitutional animal spi- 

 rits that national characteristic of the French, which can make something 

 out of little or nothing than object to their exercise upon such subjects. 



We know that we should look in vain for .the broad humour of Scarron,or 

 the extravagant wit of Rabelais what of that ? the spring is wholesome and 

 agreeable, nevertheless ; and if we cannot come at Burgundy or Hermitage, 

 we must even content ourselves with a cool bottle of Claret. 



The work is additionally interesting, as affording us a traveller's-eye view 

 of Paris, and the every-day scenes that delight and destroy " the natives." 

 We are especially pleased with " The Palais Royal," " The Ride in an Om- 

 nibus," " The Cabriolet Driver," " The History of a Hat," " The Parisian 

 at Sea," and, indeed, with many others. 



We hope that the Translator will be able to select for us a second series, 

 of equal merit with the first ; and we are quite certain that there is no one 

 more competent to transfuse the spirit, the vivacity, and the ease of the ori- 

 ginal into our language, than the gentleman to whom this work has been so 

 judiciously confided. 



OTTERBOURNB. BY THE AUTHOR OF DERWENTWATER. IN 3 VOLS. 

 LONDON. 1832. 



THIS work purports to be " a story of the English Marches ;" and is ac- 

 cordingly occupied with the border feuds of Percy and the Douglas's, until 

 the overthrow of the latter on the banks of the Otter. One Richard Fame- 

 ley, the son of a rich bailiff of Newcastle, and an esquire to " Hotspur," is 

 the hero of the story, which seems especially intended to shew, that merit 

 the merit of bravery need not, even in those times, despair of reward ; 

 since Richard Farneley, by almost supernatural exertions, and the exhibition 

 of the most undeniable superiority, in point of mental attainments, to all the 

 rest, succeeds, at length, in being created a knight by Harry Percy ; and in 

 gaining the hand of a fair lady, by whose aristocratical father, however, 

 (who could not write), he is compelled to sink the plebeian name of Farneley 

 for the more dignified cognomen of De Coupland. 



There seems a great deal of lurking satire in all this. The Author, while 

 he denounces the absurdity of these distinctions, existing, as they did so 

 strongly at that period, leads us involuntarily to turn our eyes to the nine- 

 teenth century, in which the march of intellect, the growth ' of science, the 

 diffusion of knowledge, and the Schoolmaster, have done so much. Alas ! 

 or, we should rather cry, Ha ! ha ! ha ! the same conventional preju- 



