1830.] Affairs in General. 327 



inclined to abandon the pleasure of getting vinous at his hand; and that 

 if our baker had satisfied his rational-material portion, (which men of old 

 called soul, but which later and wiser men know to be medulla, modified 

 with gin and water,) that three-fifths of pipe clay, and one of marble 

 dust to one of wheaten flour, make the most legitimate loaf, not the 

 subtlest metaphysics, from Hume to Maculloch, could prevent us from 

 calling him a rogue. 



But such prejudices, ferocious and unphilosophical as they may be, by 

 no means leads us to the length of doubting that " innocent little men 

 and women," as Cumberland used to call boys and girls, may be much 

 benefited by books suited to their years. We acknowledge that we 

 read all kinds of things that we are Helluones librorum, perfect Maglia- 

 bechis true De Bures ; and yet among the various volumes that have 

 fallen in our way for assisting the early mind on its path to vigour, taste, 

 and intelligence, we have seen nothing superior to the little volume, 

 published by Harris, and named " Stories for Short Students, or Little 

 Lore for Little People," by the Rev. Edward Mangin, A. M. 



'" Having had boys of my own," says the author, " to teach and to 

 amuse, my lessons are chiefly such as I thought would best suit them. I 

 have .endeavoured to find, or to invent, narratives of a brief and striking 

 description, and to tell my stories in the most simple words that pre- 

 sented themselves, to avoid perplexing my young reader by too many 

 circumstances in each tale, and to abstain from comment ; so as in general 

 to leave children at liberty to exercise the mind by drawing natural and 

 obvious conclusions for themselves." This we think an excellent con- 

 ception, and fully agree with the author, " that there is no act which 

 contributes more to the cultivation of the growing faculties." 



The stories are nearly forty, and are all striking, from the force of their 

 incidents, and the simplicity of their style. Some of them are new to us, 

 as the anecdotes of Colonel Caillaud, and the French General Lally, the 

 village feeling for General Wolfe's mother, &c. &c., and are admirably 

 told ; with that true skill which belongs to a master of narration. But the 

 author's name was a sufficient sanction for the value of any work pro- 

 ceeding from his pen. The " Essay on Light reading" is well known as 

 one of the most graceful and interesting performances of its kind in the 

 language. But we must hope to see Mr. Mangin also remembering that 

 there are wants in the mature, which it is only for manly and accom- 

 plished minds like his own to supply, and that the public would be gra- 

 tified by seeing him turn some part of his literature and knowledge of 

 life to higher objects than the construction of even these admirable little 

 narratives. 



The present volume is embellished with a considerable number of 

 pretty and expressive engravings, and it altogether forms one of the most 

 attractive additions to the Young Library. On one or two points we 

 differ with him. We cannot believe Shakspeare to have painted 

 Richard the Third blacker than he deserved, to make his court to 

 Elizabeth ; for Richard was, undoubtedly, an usurper, a tyrant, and a 

 murderer, whether his back were straight or crooked. Shakspeare, too, 

 did not live " decently with his wife and daughters for some years after 

 quitting the stage," but seems to have quarrelled with his wife, and 

 died within two years. As to Washington, he was a great man, but a 

 rebel, and a violator of his oath to the king. The resistance of America 

 wa s unjustifiable in conscience. He died, not " a little after sixty," but 



