236 MONTHLY REVIEW OF LITERATURE. 



who cannot relish a joke is a barbarian, bad in heart, and destitute of every 

 fine and noble sentiment. 



The supernatural, it is our belief, can never be rendered familiar ; deprive 

 it of its mystery, and all interest in it is gone. The magician's wand the 

 mystic circle of the demon the witches' broom-stick (an heir-loom in all 

 wizard families of any standing and respectability) and all the solemn abra- 

 cadabra of sorcery, are indispensable adjuncts to, and promoters of, an in- 

 terest, which, without them, undoubtedly could not exist. A naturalized 

 witch would be of all things a being most absurd and contemptible : take 

 her from her moors, pare her nails, and employ sundry bars of soap upon 

 her, and at the best she will make but a bearable domestic ; the demon, after 

 the same fashion, from his early addiction to ignious pursuits, might pos- 

 sibly be converted into a tolerable cook; but in general these anomalous 

 species are irreducible to common and every-day action they must be left to 

 the wilds and woods, there to work their deadly purposes alone. 



The story of the ' Invisible Gentleman,' such as it is, and which might, 

 perhaps, have formed an entertaining paper in a Magaxine, runs thus. A 

 young gentleman acquires by the application of an ointment to his ears, the 

 marvellous power of rendering himself invisible at pleasure ; throughout, 

 however, those ears themselves, of frightful longitude, are fearfully conspi- 

 cuous. Much consternation ensues, therefore, among the family with which 

 he is residing, and divers and multifarious arrests, duellings, quarrels, up- 

 braidings, wonderings, regrets, and sorrowings, are the result ; for in his fits 

 of absence, when he shuffles off his mortal coil, he shifts himself so ill, and 

 contrives to exhibit feats so little becoming his state of invisibility, that he 

 gets little better than buffets for his pains. It should be mentioned, a pale- 

 faced stranger invests him with this power, who, afterwards, is introduced 

 to the reader as a fat yeoman, by name John Bull. Whether our author im- 

 plies here a political renovation of ' glorious John/ we know not, but cer- 

 tainly it is a ' consummation devoutly to be wished.' Of this materiel 

 we think something might have been made, but we are bound to say our 

 author has created but indifferent amusement from it. The other per- 

 sonages are drawn according to the best models of ' our old masters' models 

 which have flourished from time immemorial, and which again and again will 

 be inflicted upon us, so long as fine gentlemen continue to think scrawling 

 over a ream of paper pleasant pastime, and entitles them to the distinction 

 of ' literary characters.' A squire, a nabob, a brace of damsels, and a booby, 

 are the unfailing stock upon which your novelist sets up in trade, which, 

 with a reinforcement of old maids, bluestockings, illiterate porters, and 

 chamber-girls, do wonders ; the writer is straightway in in the mouths of 

 half the fops and duns in London. 



We now leave these volumes to the public ; admonishing the author to 

 avoid with scrupulous anxiety the flippancy and imbecility of style miscalled 

 ease, adopted by too many of our modern novelists. To make a great deal 

 out of nothing is very well for a man of genius, but the general writer had 

 far better provide himself with a sound plot, and thereby ensure interest, 

 than string together a series of chapters bearing little affinity to each other, 

 and possessing, moreover, no particular excellence to recommend them. 



THE LIBRARY OF ROMANCE : THE GHOST HUNTER AND HIS FAMILY. 



IT is to be expected that the public will welcome, no less than we our - 

 selves do, the promise that the present work holds out, which appears replete, 

 not only with absolute benefit, but with real mental enjoyment to both of us, 

 in, we hope, many forthcoming monthly volumes. 



We thank heartily, and in good earnest, Mr. Ritchie, as well for the 

 treat he proposes for us, as for the spirit he has shewn in attempting to break 



