MONTHLY REVIEW OF LITERATURE AND ART. 



however the laudable disinterestedness of Messrs. Smith and Elder shall 

 tempt him to accede to these generous, and oft-repeated proposals, them- 

 selves to run every hazard, still we advise him to publish it in parts, at once 

 and cotemporaneously at all the dealers, rather in a useful article of domestic 

 economy, which is produced of milk, and usually sold at cheesemongers, 

 or, whichever he pleases, at the several trunkmakers in the kingdom ; then 

 we warrant him as wide a circulation, and as complete, as the most ambitious 

 bard could desire. 



ENCYCLOPEDIA BRITTANNICA, No. XLII. 



" L'art defaire un livre est un metier comme defaire une pendule," says La 

 Bruyere, and verily the experience of the present age justifies the observation 

 of the French Moralist. We have the XLII. Number of the Encyclopedia 

 Britannica before us, a work which, as a whole, we hope will do honour to the 

 present age, is in portions rather faulty. ThepresentNumber has evidentmarks 

 of hasty compilation. Thus in speaking of the diamond, the writer of that 

 article says, that in Brazils, it is confined to the district of Serra do Frio 

 which is a palpable error ; diamond districts exist in almost every province 

 of the empire ; but which are not allowed to be worked, lest the exuberant 

 produce should cause a diminution in the value of the precious gems. The 

 article is written by some person who has not taken sufficient pains t master 

 his subject. 



ENGLAND IN 1833. BY BARON D'HAUSSEZ, EX-MINISTER OF MARINE 



UNDER CHARLES X. BENTLEY. LONDON. 



This is a work a la Trollope ; consequently destitute of truth, sense, or 

 decency. The author is a twaddling old coxcomb. 



THE INCARNATION, AND OTHER POEMS. BY THOMAS RAGG. 



" This little Poem on the Incarnation," says the Author, in his preface, 

 " though in itself perfectly entire, is but in reality the tenth book of a Poem 

 in twelve books, on the Deity. We have read with deep attention and great 

 satisfaction Mr. Ragg's Poem, particularly as we understand his situation in 

 life to be simply that of a mechanic. Mr. Ragg did well to apprise us of the 

 nature of his calling, for although, undoubtedly, there are passages on which 

 the eye of criticism may rest, and many, such a work we never should have 

 imagined even most distantly to have been the production of a man in the 

 honourable but humble capacity of a working subordinate. 



The garden of poesy has become, unhappily, of late, little more than a blank 

 sterile wild ; produced as much we believe by the sharp hands of disfavour, 

 as by any radical poverty and meanness in the soil, which it may inherently 

 possess. Mr. Ragg will pardon us if, more experienced in the craggy ways 

 and walks of literature, we presume to be his monitor, and to caution him 

 most earnestly against raising up prospective shadows of future comfort or 

 benefit from the cultivation of the centennial flower of verse. Is he discon- 

 tent with the situation in which fortune has placed him ? Let him apply 

 sedulously and cheerfully that excellent sense, dignified by religious feeling 

 which is manifested throughout his work, to the promotion of any scheme in 

 the active world, for his own advancement, which his own intelligence can 

 suggest to him. We will not, even though it should excite a momentary 

 thrill of satisfaction in the heart of the object of such ungenerous duplicity 

 too surely to be succeeded by the sickening reaction of disappointment and 

 bitterness of soul we will not flatter him into hopes that he can ever gain 

 public advantage from the prosecution of his present undertaking. At the 

 same time that we wish most heartily that his present little work, written 

 with a correctness that might do honour to many with far superior advan- 

 tages, and in a spirit of piety and devotion honourable to all, may not escape 



