10G MONTHLY REVIEW OF LITERATURE AND ART. 



those distinguishing traits of individuality upon which Mr. Walker so 

 learnedly descants, though we by no means deny his premises or his 

 inferences, which are supported with much ingenuity, not to say 

 ability. But we contend that our author makes no allowance for the 

 influence of circumstances in the formation of national character, 

 which, in our opinion, is an oversight that considerably militates 

 against the force of his arguments. There are two papers in this 

 volume which would redound to the honour of any writer in the 

 kingdom, however elevated : one on the character of the French, and 

 the other a comparison of the Romans of the present day with the 

 Romans of old. The first is a very searching scrutiny into the 

 fashionable foibles of our sprightly neighbours, which our country- 

 men, and more particularly our countrywomen, are so absurdly ambi- 

 tious of rivalling. The second is a truly powerful and philosophical 

 disquisition upon the splendid villanies of the ancient Romans (who 

 have ever been held up to the youth of the modern world as prodigies 

 of virtue, albeit they were the most thorough-going scoundrels in 

 the universe), and the despicable vices of the priest-ridden Italians. 

 Comparisons are proverbially odious ; but though we do not say it in 

 an inviduous sense, Mr. Walker is one of the very few Scotch writers 

 who are free from the " caw-me-caw-thee" mania of seeing nothing 

 but heroism north of the Tweed. We have already recorded our 

 dissent from his reasoning on the popular character of British sub- 

 jects, but we must say that his observations on the virtues and vices 

 of each county are characterized by the greatest fairnesss and impar- 

 tiality. " Physiognomy" is a very elegantly got up volume unique 

 and appropriate handsomely illustrated, and in every respect a sin- 

 gularly valuable book. The reading of it has afforded us much 

 pleasure, and, as a set-off for the gratification, we heartily recommend 

 it to the attentive perusal of our readers. 



LIBRARY OF ROMANCE. SMITH, ELDER & Co. 

 THE twelfth volume of this favourite series of fiction is entitled 

 " The Jesuit," being a translation from the German of Spindle. The 

 disciples of Loyola, at no time in particularly good odour with the 

 people of any country, were about the beginning of the eighteenth 

 century under more than ordinary disfavour in most parts of the Con- 

 tinent; and the volume under notice is an exposition of the subtleties 

 of a portion of their order, located in a leading mercantile town of the 

 empire, to keep alive the almost expiring embers of that spirit which 

 those wilely doctors have never been slow to turn to their own ag- 

 grandisement. The story has the merit of being undisfigured by 

 those prodigious demands on our credibility which German writers in 

 this line are so prone to make. We have none of those irreconcilable 

 blendings of earthly and unearthly agencies which this school of 

 romancers make such a point of in the development of their plots ; and 

 although in " The Jesuit" there are sundry " singular coincidences," 

 as the gentlemen of the newspapers say, we are not on that account 

 induced to attribute to the author an excess of that description of 

 narration bordering on the barely possible. Portions of the exhibition 



