1831.] 



Domestic and Foreign. 



225 



sententiously, make campaigns short and 

 decisive. 



The Waverley Novels The Allot, 

 Vol. XX. The explanatory introduc- 

 tion is occupied not now in communicat- 

 ing any details as to the origin of the 

 " Abbot," or its object, or again, in ob- 

 viating and defending, as was the case 

 with the " Monastery ;" but with a state- 

 ment or suggestion of the motives, 

 which on its first appearance prompted 

 a speedier publication than usual. The 

 Monastery and the Abbot were but 

 parts of one subject, and of course less 

 time was spent in search of a new story. 

 But the author considering the Mon- 

 astery in some respects as a failure, 

 though he had no serious alarms of any 

 fatal or permanent effects upon his po- 

 pularity, thought it good policy to hasten 

 to fetch up his lee-way. Not to advance 

 was in some sort to recede, and he felt 

 it to be of some importance still to 

 shew by a fresh and more successful 

 effort, that the failure was rather the 

 effect of an ill-chosen subject than an 

 ill-managed story. He was not, as he 

 says, in his own happy way, one of 

 those, like fashionable publishers by the 

 way, who are willing to suppose the 

 brains of an author are a kind of milk 

 which will not stand above a single 

 creaming, and of course did not despair. 

 In sending the Abbot forth so soon 

 after the Monastery, as he did, he acted 

 like Bassanio, 



In my school days, when I had lost one shaft, 

 I shot another of the self-same flight, 

 The self-same way, with more advised watch, 

 To find the other forth. 



and he succeeded the scene between 

 Mary, Lindsey, Iluthven and Melville, 

 is equal to any thing ever painted 

 spun out as it is. We are right glad to 

 learn, that the profits of this progressing 

 edition have relieved the author from 

 his most vexatious embarrassments. 



Cabinet Cyclopaedia, Vol. XIV The 

 subject of this volume of the Cabinet 

 Cyclopaedia is a discourse on the study 

 of Natural Philosophy, and of all the 

 discourses, and there are scores of them, 

 on this especial topic, we know none 

 that can at all compete with Mr. Her- 

 schell's, for distinct views, specific 

 statements, and above all for easy and 

 appropriate illustration. Nothing so 

 intelligible or so accessible to the com- 

 mon sense of plain folks was to be anti- 

 cipated from agentleman who was before 

 known only except among his friends 

 for his excellent doings in the Encyclo- 

 paedia Metropolitana as a dry mathema- 

 tician, an observer of stars and calcula- 

 tor of positions. The advantages of the 

 study of physics are dwelt upon, not 

 forgetting, en passant, the self-gratifica- 



M.M.New Series. VOL. XI. No. 62. 



tion of the student principally on the 

 first division, as being applicable to the 

 practical purposes of life and influencing 

 the well-being and progress of society, 

 and moreover, as capable of being use- 

 fully prosecuted without any very pro- 

 found acquaintance with abstract science 

 the great bug-bear of all general and 

 gentle readers. The importance^ of 

 positive experience the great principle 

 and protection of physical science, and 

 the effect of adhering to rules built upon 

 it, constitute the second division , while 

 the third takes a survey of the distinct 

 branches of physics and their mutual 

 relations, bringing down the historv of 

 science to the latest period, for nothing 

 of any importance, in any branch, has 

 escaped his vigilant eye. The discourse 

 deserves, and will no doubt receive, the 

 fullest attention from numbers who are 

 new to the subjects. It is the most ex- 

 citing volume of the kind we ever met 

 with, and cannot fail of essentially pro- 

 moting the sovereignty of science, by 

 bringing new volunteers within its 

 realms. 



Constable's Miscellany. Conquest of 

 Peru, by Don T. De Trueba. The story 

 of the conquest of Peru is better told 

 than that of Mexico by the same writer, 

 and is indeed in itself a more extraor- 

 dinary tale, presenting more varied 

 materials a wider range a more com- 

 plicated struggle, to animate the exer- 

 tions of the historian. The interest is 

 made, we think, to turn too exclusively 

 upon the quarrels and wars of the Pi- 

 zarros with the Almagros. The con- 

 duct and condition of the Peruvians, 

 their manners and habits and tactics, are 

 all comparatively thrown in the back 

 ground. The elder Pizarro gets a little 

 white-washed ; and doubtless, though 

 an unlicked soldier, he exhibited quali- 

 ties, which must always command, how- 

 ever vilely directed, the admiration of 

 man perseverance in the teeth of the 

 most appalling obstacles, contempt of 

 peril and personal suffering, unconquer- 

 able firmness, readiness of expedient, 

 and unhesitating decision, in the execu- 

 tion of an object, which astounds by its 

 magnitude. The narrative is carried 

 on to the execution of Gonzalvo Pizar- 

 ro ; and certainly the most interesting 

 portion and the best executed is the pro- 

 gress of the wily priest Lagasca, who 

 accomplished the destruction of the Pi- 

 zarro faction, by means apparently so 

 utterly inadequate to so violent a con- 

 summation. The career of Lagasca is 

 unique in the annals of diplomatic craft 

 and insidious warfare. 



The Romance of History, France, by 

 Leilch Ritchie, 3 vols. 12wo. Mr. Ritchie 

 has thrown some spirit and variety 

 into Ms romances, and told them with 



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