460 MONTHLY REVIEW OF LITERATURE AND ART. 



but we can venture to assert that no author ever did exist whose estimate 

 of himself were he sincere would be found to be so much below the po- 

 sition in which the world had placed him, as this of our author. 



The Miscellanies, which are more than usually miscellaneous, include 

 poetry and prose a little novel, in Gait's own style several dramatic 

 pieces a short history of the seven years' war in Germany, and many 

 smaller essays ; all exhibiting that restless and energetic character of mind 

 which some have pronounced to be the invariable attendant, if not the pe- 

 culiar characteristic, of genius. 



We cannot close our notice of these volumes without expressing our 

 earnest hope, that the excellent and able author may yet live for many 

 years to delight the world with his extraordinary talents, which, exercised 

 in his own way, are altogether unique. 



ENGLISH SCENES AND ENGLISH CIVILIZATION, OR SKETCHES AND 

 TRAITS IN THE NINETEENTH CENTURY, 3 VOLS. 8vo. LONDON, 

 1834. 



We much regret that the accomplished author of these volumes was in- 

 duced to invent so clumsy a machinery for the conveyance of his opinions 

 upon men, manners, and literature, as the one he has fabricated. He has 

 evidently not the slightest dramatic power ; and yet he has called into 

 buckram existence a set of beings, the like of which were never seen before. 

 Our author's characters consist of the gentry of an opulent country neigh- 

 bourhood many of whom, being in close intimacy, meet to talk in a de- 

 sultory and rambling manner of books and men, and this, that, and the 

 other and every thing in the world and all that and all to very little 

 purpose. The worst of it is, that sometimes, when he would be justly 

 severe upon the paltry exclusiveness and the arrogant pretensions of some 

 of the second-rate, monied gentry, he transfers his strictures to the mouths 

 of his favourite characters, who forthwith begin to lay bare the whole pal- 

 triness and baseness of this spirit, in a style so exceedingly con-amore, as to 

 impress us with a feeling of their own tittle-tattle littleness and love of 

 scandal. 



The author says in his preface " This desultory work consists chiefly 

 of scenes and conversations, or mere sketches of people and things as they 

 commonly are. Its figures have no extraordinary relievo ; and, for the 

 most part, its details, whatever their truth and interest, are not meant to 

 go far into the depths of human nature, or to dwell on any of those pro- 

 founder passions which originate overwhelming events." 



We wish the author had tried his hand at a volume of essays, in which 

 the same materials, apart from the machinery, might have been popularly 

 presented ; or that he had followed the example of Mr. Landor (whom we 

 are glad to perceive he has taste to appreciate), and given us "Imaginary 

 Conversations" with this difference, that they should be merely dramatic 

 inform, and not consist of characters which, we fear, our author would be 

 unable to manage. 



In the present volume our author's personages not only do not possess 

 extraordinary relievo, but are indebted to him for an extraordinary family 

 likeness; a result which must be always expected, when a writer employs 

 several characters merely as vocal vehicles for the enunciation of his own 

 opinions. And yet, after all, there is no ordinary degree of merit in these 

 volumes; and there are many who will feel not only much amused, but 

 greatly instructed, by their perusal. 



