MONTHLY REVIEW OF LITERATURE AND ART. C91 



have no counterbalance to the indelicacy of their parts, but the vein 

 of drollery in which they are told. To elevate the mind, to enlarge 

 the understanding, to improve the heart, " to leave no line that dying he would 

 wish to blot" all the nobler and higher attributes! of an author, as far even 

 as they are to be attained in lighter works like these, if not beyond his ca- 

 pability, are'not at least' within his aim. The praise of a humourist is all 

 that he desires. That the author is capable of deep-thinking, is proved by 

 the following extract, a beautiful though single instance throughout his 

 work : 



"How dangerous, how foolish, how presumptuous, is it in adults to sup- 



?ose that they can read the thoughts and feelings of those of a tender age ! 

 low often has this presumption on their part been the ruin of a young 

 mind, which, if truly estimated and duly fostered, would have blossomed 

 and produced good fruit ! The blush of honest indignation is as dark as 

 the blush of guilt, and the paleness of concentrated courage as marked as 

 that of fear; the firmness of conscious innocence is but too often mistaken 

 as the effrontery of hardened vice ; and the tear springing from a source of 

 injury, the tongue tied from the oppression of a wounded heart, the trem- 

 bling and agitation of the little frame convulsed with emotion have often 

 and often been ascribed, by prejudging and self-opiniated witnesses, to the 

 very opposite passions to those which have produced them. Youth should 

 never be judged harshly ; and even when judged correctly should it be in 

 an evil course, may always be reclaimed ; those who decide otherwise, 

 and leave it to drift about the world, have to answer for the cast-away." 



In nobleness of sentiment in propriety of feeling, and morality of con- 

 duct, the author of " Will Watch," as exhibited in his work, is immea- 

 surably above his rival. In humour he is but little inferior it is true we 

 have not the laughable episodes of the others yarns ; but the interest of the 

 story, and excitement of the incidents more than amply compensate. As a 

 fair specimen of the work, we insert the following extract: 



DESTRUCTION OF A SLAVE-SHIP. To windward in the East, the deep 

 blue of the sky had begun to be broken by the faintest tinge of light, while 

 before its pale silvery line of grey the herald of the day's approach the 

 stars seemed counselling the night to withdraw, and, like true sycophants 

 of royalty, to shew their queen by their example the path to retreat. In 

 the middle of this dim gleam I beheld a dark pyramidal mass uprearing 

 itself. It was the seventy-four in chase of the slaver on board which Will 

 Watch and I were captured. With the most beautiful effect which it is 

 possible to conceive, a sudden gleam of flame bursting from its base, 

 seemed to spread itself over the whole space of sea and sky; the plunging 

 of a shot about half a mile to windward, and the heavy sullen sound suc- 

 ceeding, announced that our pursuer had commenced firing. Looking on 

 the instant towards the quarter-deck, to see how this summons would be 

 received by Mackay, the captain of the slaver, I saw him standing by the 

 wheel with upturned eyes, momentarily expecting to see some of his spars 

 go overboard, or it might have been ransacking that receptacle and engen- 

 derer of guilty thoughts the brain, for some new resource against ap- 

 proaching fate. If thus employed, it was in vain. His ship had been beaten 

 on her best point of sailing. For a quarter of an hour after the first gun, no 

 further notice was taken of us than by her continuing to bear gradually 

 down. At the end of this time, one two three successive flashes again 

 lit up the scene around us with uncommon grandeur and beauty. Nor was 

 that all the flash was succeeded by a sudden tear and crack went some 

 of the canvas aloft, rending into strips I looked up: a ball had passed 

 through the leach of the weather-fore-topmast-studding sail, and the wind 



