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MONTHLY REVIEW OF LITERATURE AND ART. 



THE OLD MAIDEN'S TALISMAN, AND OTHER STRANGE TALES. BY 

 THE AUTHOR OF CHARTLEY, THE FATALIST, &c; &c. 3 VOLS., 

 POST 8vo. BULL AND CHURTON. 



THERE are in the whole of this author's productions a masculine 

 vigour of thought and expression, and a freedom and joyous confi- 

 dence of style, mat are to us as new and refreshing as they are piquant. 

 He is evidently no stranger to the world and its ways Cockaigne is 

 his peculiar kingdom, and a rich revenue of whim, fun, and oddity 

 does he draw therefrom. He seldom ventures into the chilling and 

 stilted regions of highflown sentiment, although the principal tale 

 before us contains ample evidence that he can, when he pleases, deli- 

 neate the softer and more refined subtleties of the human heart but 

 Thalia is his goddess, and in her he takes great delight. We can 

 safely recommend all those who relish, in these ticklish times, a 

 hearty laugh (which is worth something), forthwith to betake them- 

 selves to the serious perusal of these volumes. We seldom read novels 

 throughout now-a-days, for we wax old, and Scott is dead ; but there 

 is an irresistable something in the pages before us a laughter-loving 

 sprite, which dances from leaf to leaf, like Will-o'-the-wisp, until it 

 fairly swamps us in the unwelcome wind up "Finis;" we felt 

 inclined to say with honest Caliban 



<e More ! give me more ! this is divine !" 



And, truly, the oftener the author of ft Chartley" renews the plea- 

 sure they will derive from " The Old Maiden's Talisman," the better 

 for his admirers which are, or ought to be, all admirers of sound 

 literature. 



THE NEW SHORT-HAND STANDARD. BY THOMAS MOAT.. 



MR. Moat has devoted much time and ability to a most ardous un- 

 dertaking, and we are glad to bear testimony to the complete success 

 which has crowned his exertions. The compilation of a new work 

 on short-hand, and that too with only two-thirds of the characters 

 hitherto used by the most accomplished stenographers of the day is 

 deserving the warmest commendation. The author in explaining his 

 reasons for his labourous undertaking says 



" Having 1 had our attention drawn to the study of short-hand writing, at 

 a very early period in life, and finding the system hy which we were 

 taught (Mr. Byrom's), what we then conceived in many points defective, 

 it has atorded the pleasurable amusement of upwards of five and thirty 

 years in revising the apparent errors and inconsistencies of that system ; 

 and in searching in, and collecting from, every other treatise that we could 

 meet with (having in our possession upwards of sixty different publications 

 on the art which is, perhaps, as large a collection as is to be found in any 

 private library), we have ample means of investigation, and have been 

 furnished with every opportunity of approaching somewhat nearer to the 

 attainment of the desideratum of perfection, which may lead to a standard, 

 than has hitherto been produced. 



" Ample, however, as those means have been, we have found much ob- 

 jectionable in every system all capable of improvement; and that, in or- 

 der to aim perfection, it was absolutely necessary to move independantly of 

 all, and to create a new system." 



