40 



Monthly Review oj Literature, 



QUARTERLY'S TRANSLATION. 



Stately was she, as the mountain pine-tree ; 

 White and rosy-colour intermingled 

 Were her cheeks, as she had kissed the dawning ; 

 Dark and flashing, like two noble jewels, 

 Were her eyes, and over them were eye-brows, 

 Thin and black, like leeches from the fountain; 

 Dark the lashes too ; although the ringlets 

 Hung above in clusters rich and golden. 

 Softer were her eyelids than the pinions 

 Of the swallow, on the breeze reposing; 

 Sweeter were the maiden's lips than honey ; 

 White her teeth, as pearls in ocean ripened; 

 White her breasts, two little panting wild doves ; 

 Soft her speaking, as the wild dove's murmur ; 

 Bright her smiling, as the burst of sunshine, &c. 



The words in italics of the Quarterly's 

 translation are not, says Mr. Bowring, to be 

 found in the original which, we think, 

 though we know nothing ourselves of the 

 original, can scarcely be doubted no body 

 indeed will doubt about it. 



The Cabinet Lawyer, or a Popular Di- 

 gest of the Laws of England; 1827. This 

 is a very useful publication ; and a second 

 edition, in so very short a space, shews the 

 public have found it out. The truth is, no^ 

 thing in this department was more wanted. 

 The only book pretending to a popular view 

 of the subject is Blackstone's ; and the nu- 

 merous changes that have been brought 

 about within the last fifty years have ren- 

 dered it almost useless, and in many in- 

 stances worse misleading ; and then the 

 way in which his defects are supplied, by 

 the notes of successive editors, is any thing 

 but satisfactory. It is indeed exceedingly 

 tiresome to be reading a long-winded state- 

 ment, and when you have struggled to the 

 end of it, to be told in a note which re- 

 quires a microscope to get at that tout 

 cela est change. The publication before 

 us, therefore, is extremely welcome and 

 welcome not only from supplying the defi- 

 ciencies of others, but from its own excel- 

 lencies. It is a vigorous and unineumbered 

 statement of the subject a competent di- 

 gest, compressed to a tangible size, without 

 confusion or obscurity. * Every man should 

 know as much of law as may enable him to 

 keep himself out of it;' and here he may get 

 it, and get it, agreeably. There is no non- 

 sdnse in the book none of the idle reasons 

 for things, of which Blackstoue is full. For 

 surely, with many excellencies, he was much 

 of an old woman ; and almost incapable-^- 

 from whatever cause of distinguishing be- 

 tween what was, and what ought to be. 



The work is advantageously divided into 

 six parts, embracing^ successively the Con- 

 stitution ; tha administration of justice ; per- 

 sons and classes; property and its incidents ; 

 civil injuries ; and crimes and misdemeanors 

 with a very useful appendix, under the 

 title of a dictionary of law terms, acts of 

 parliament, and judicial matters, which could 

 not, says the author, be properly incorpo- 

 rated into the body of the work, yet neces- 



sary to comprise an entire digest of the 

 laws of England. In this department, too, 

 is condensed a great variety of recent sta- 

 tutes, a knowledge of which is more or less 

 essential to every person, especially the acts 

 relative to the post-office, assessed taxes, 

 turnpikes, stamps, excise, navigation and 

 commerce, marriages, bread, and other sub- 

 jects, correct information on which can hardly 

 be any where procured in a collective form, 

 and never without considerable care and in- 

 convenience. The second edition has con- 

 siderable improvements. 



Falkland ; 1827. We take up the pen to 

 speak of Falkland with that deep interest in 

 the future literary destiny of its author, 

 which youthful genius naturally awakens in 

 our minds. Would that the subject were 

 other thun it is ; and that the writer, with 

 his high gifts, had not been tempted by en- 

 thusiasm, and the consciousness of power, 

 into an elaborate delineation of the workings 

 of unholy passion, through all its descending 

 gradations, from the excitement, which lifts 

 the mind transiently above the common 

 crowd, only to plunge its infatuated victim 

 irrecoverably below it. He takes his motto 

 from La Nouvelle Eloise; and he tells the 

 tale of the seduction of a married woman's 

 affections, and the final triumph over her 

 virtue, we will not say in imitation exactly 

 of the man whom he has evidently taken as 

 his tutor, but in the self-same spirit which 

 stirred that mighty master's bosom. The 

 book is of less dimensions than Rousseau's, 

 and unquestionably inferior in execution; 

 but what it lacks, it lacks in detail, in the 

 skill to be derived only from years and prac- 

 tice, rather than the more essential and un- 

 acquirable talents, or a thorough good-will 

 for accomplishing a work equally mischie- 

 vous with that of his great prototype. 



It is to be lamented, and not lightly, but 

 deeply lamented we say not this as words of 

 course 3hat with abilities such as are here 

 indicated, the author should not pursue the 

 suffrages of the wise and good, instead of a 

 species of bastard fame, to which age, and 

 maturity, and virtue can never give their 

 approbation. Let him be sure, that con- 

 tempt for the opinions of the better part of 

 his fellows pretty distinctly announced in 

 his preface will only precipitate him into 

 imprudencies, that will, first or last, work 

 him nothing but bitterness. 



Practical Hints on Light and Shade in 

 Painting, illustrated by Examples from 

 the Italian, Flemish, and Dutch Schools, 

 by John Burnet. 4to. This is an excellent 

 text-book both for the professor of the art 

 of painting, and for those who make a know- 

 ledge of its principles part of a liberal edu- 

 cation ; indeed, we have never met with any 

 thing that can be compared with it for the 

 mass of information it contains on the sub- 

 ject it pretends to elucidate. The " Hints'' 

 are clear, concise, and nervous ; and the 

 illustrations are chosen with the greatest 



