462 MONTHLY REVIEW OF LITERATURE AND ART. 



man does. * * * Look at him but not with a gorgon's eye in all 

 their bright and beautiful light ; cease to revile and calumniate him ; have 

 the courage and the grace to cherish and imitate him ; adopt him as your best 

 model; and again we exhort you, for your own sakes, to do likewise." 



Good Mr. Candide, for our own sakes we had really better do no such 

 thing. We humbly submit that the genius of our country is but ill suited 

 to such amiable exhibitions. Any heroic attempt to imitate one of your 

 " perfect specimens" might be rewarded by a three months' sojourn in the 

 tread-mill. 



We have always felt for the distresses of the Irish people, and have 

 urged their rights to the best of our ability ; it is, therefore, with great 

 regret we see such intemperate and absurd effusions, and we would 

 entreat such as the author of the " Tales" to leave their cause in the hauds 

 of their more discreet and more talented advocates. 



MIRIAM COFFIN, OR THE WHALE FISHERMEN. 3 VOLS. WHIT- 

 TAKER AND Co. 



In the little tale before us, entitled " Miriam Coffin," we are happy to 

 find none of those misapplications of sea-terms so common with Ameri- 

 can novelists, particularly Cooper, who abound with techinal inaccuracies. 

 The pictures of sea and sailors are generally speaking, vivid, and place be- 

 fore the reader the action or person. The story itself contains but little in- 

 terest, from its want of truth and nature, we have no restless, ceaseless 

 energy in the plot, so necessary to keep the imagination awake. It must 

 rest its claims for praise, chiefly upon the insight it affords us into the man- 

 ners of the early settlers, in what is now a colony of some importance. This, 



and the account it gives us of the youthful days of Sir I Coffin, is the 



extent of its interest. We must, however, decidedly object to anything 

 that tends to enervate the minds of youth, and hold out an inducement to 

 credit absurd superstitions. In Miriam Coffin, some itinerant impostor is 

 made to prophesy the death of two young men at a particular time, and, in 

 a particular manner. At the conclusion of the tale we find her prophecies 

 are verified to the letter. This shows the very worst possible taste in an 

 author whose tale is " founded on fact." 



DES DEVOIRS DES HOMMES, DISCOURS A UN JEUNE HOMME. 

 PAR SYLVIO PELLICO. TRADUIT EN FRANAIS PAR N. A. AR- 

 EATI, PROFESSEUR DE LITERATURE MODERNE AU COLLEGE DE 

 WINCHESTER. PARIS: CHEZ MADAME VEUVE MARIE NIXON, 

 QUAI CONTI. 1834. 



It is quite delightful to turn from the dangerous mysticism of such books 

 as the " Paroles d'un Croyant," to the little volume before us, and not the 

 less so, as it must shew, even to the intolerant and incredulous, that the 

 true sentiments of liberty are those of practical conservative religion and 

 morality. Silvio Pellico, the author of this treatise, is a martyr to freedom. 

 Mr. Areatti has rendered to society an important service by his very elegant 

 and spirited translation of this little work. It ought to be in the hands of 

 all classes of readers. The Pope might take it for his text-book; and from 

 it the Archbishop of Canterbury might compile his homilies. Italian being 

 comparatively little read, it might have remained to a certain degree un- 

 known, but having been translated, and so translated, into the most uni- 

 versal language in the world, it must become a standard manual of mora- 

 lity. Mr. Areatti deserves the best thanks of the rising generation, to whom 

 it is addressed, and amongst whom it must be widely circulated. By his 

 own more immediate pupils, to whom it is dedicated, it will be duly and 



