318 Monthly Review of Literature. 



disappointment. A succession of gray hillocks, crowned by undulating and 

 monotonous crests, extended one behind the other as far as the eye could 

 reach. You could nearly have seen a large fly walking along their marginal 

 profiles, so sterile and bare of vegetation were they. 



" ' When I have passed some months in Edinburgh/ said Sir Walter, ' I 

 wish myself at home amongst my honest, simple, gray-tinted hills. In truth, 

 were I not to see our fogs at least once a year, I believe I should die/ 



" It is said the Lady Morgan rivals Sir Walter Scott. Truly she treats like 

 him on national subjects, but there is in the writings of that lively lady, 

 much more of love of approbation than of inhabitiveness. And we must 

 confess (however ungallant and unworthy of a French pen) that Lady Morgan 

 appears to be endowed with much less of national pride than of personal 

 vanity. She speaks with pleasure of the Irish, but it is, says a contemporary, 

 of an Irish girl, of whom she speaks particularly and constantly with enthu- 

 siasm : they add also, doubtless slanderously, that this Irish girl is herself! 

 So that Miss O'Halloran in O'Donnell, and the attractive Lady Clarence in 

 Florence M'Carthy, are simply full lengths of Lady Morgan, considerably 

 embellished by the Author. 

 * * * ***** 



The historical romances of Ireland are read, the romantic histories of Scot- 

 land arouse enthusiasm. Victor Hugo gives a reason for this fact. 



" ' The reason/ says he, ' is simple. Lady Morgan possesses the tact to 

 observe what she sees, memory to retain her observations, and management 

 enough to relate at the best moment that which she has remembered ; but 

 her science goes no farther. Thus her characters, sometimes well traced, 

 are not supported. Next to a trait which may strike you for its truth, because 

 she has copied it from nature, you find another offensive for its falsity, be- 

 cause she has invented it. Walter Scott, on the contrary, conceives a cha- 

 racter after having observed carefully a single indication ; he sees it in a 

 word and paints it the same ; his excellent judgment prevents him from erring, 

 and that which he creates is almost always as true as that which he observes. 

 When talent is carried to this point, it is more than talent ; we may there- 

 fore reduce the parallel to two words. Lady Morgan is a clever woman ; 

 Walter Seott a man of genius. 



We quit this work with sorrow, for it contains many admirable" 1 moral 

 sentiments and interesting sketches. It is well fitted for a drawing-room, 

 and deserves to be generally read and carefully studied. 



PERIODICAL LITERATURE. 

 The Carthusian. Taylor. 



THIS is the first number of a periodical apparently designed to afford a sort of 

 antithetical satire on the cheap literature of the day. It consists of the effu- 

 sions of the School Boys of Charterhouse, and is modestly charged half-a- 

 crown, being about half the size of the Monthly. If there be reading fools 

 enough to warrant the appearance of a second number, we are no prophets. 

 The unffledged contributors evince a healthy viridity emblematic of ex- 

 treme greenness in the world of letters. We recommend them to adhere to 

 penny buns and gingerbread for another couple of years at least. 



The Monk of Cimies. Darton and Son, Holborn Hill. 



THIS story is written with a view to expose the miseries and mischiefs incident 

 to the monastic state and the errors of Roman Catholicism. The exposure of 

 these errors is effected in the course of the biography of a Mr. Hethering- 

 ton, the? second son of an Irish nobleman. He, though from his violent 

 temper and profligate habits unfit for such a profession, is intended for the 



