6? CRITICAL NOTICES OF NEW PUBLICATIONS. 



There is a melancholy tone in the following observations which 

 is peculiarly indicative of the author's general frame of mind when 

 not stirred up by any peculiar excitement. 



*• But no author can surely anticipate where he shall please or displease. He 

 can do no more than seek for truth, without looking to the right or left. 

 Folly, and flattery, and falsehood, will he discovered and laid bare, though they 

 may gratify ihe momentary appetite of the multitude. He who pursues his 

 mournful path undauntedly amid storms, and chills, and blights, will awaken 

 some sympathy and some good wishes. Whatever disperses the mists of the 

 mind gives some amusement and cheer of spirit. We can accompany a recluse 

 sage in his fate, and in our imagination sit M'ith him in his solitude, and par- 

 take his melancholy reflections, his complaints, and his regrets. We are 

 soothed by finding that wisdom and talent are sometimes as weak and helpless 

 as ourselves ; and that the haughty frown of genius cannot throw off adversity, 

 and insult, and neglect." 



Genius and abilities, Sir Egerton Brydges justly contends, are 

 given as lights to the world, not merely as auxiliaries to man's own 

 individual aggrandizement. 



*'The intellectual powers of man are not given merely for self : they are not 

 intended to aid his own cunning, and craft, and intrigues, and conspiracies, 

 and enrichment. They will do nothing for these base purposes. The instinct 

 of a tiger, a vulture, or a fox, will do better. Genius and abilities are given as 

 lamps to the world, not to self. I cannot contain my indignation at those vile 

 wretches who contend that a man cannot have sound abilities if they have not 

 taught him to play the part of his own personal interests well." 



Something will be expected, perhaps, in the shape of critical 

 disquisition. There never was a publication issued from the press 

 that could withstand the rigid test of searching criticism. To 

 assert, therefore, that Sir Egerton Brydges as a writer is faultless, 

 would be an impeachment on our judgment. In some parts there 

 is an inaccuracy of style, a pompous verbosity, which is less par- 

 donable in a practised than an inexperienced writer, and there are 

 also interspersed occasionally some verbal negligences. Taken as 

 a whole, however, it would be unjust to withhold the praise of ner- 

 vous and elegant language — and the construction of the sentences 

 in general is singularly felicitous. Objections and powerful objec- 

 tions there are as a literary composition against that interminable 

 recurrence of egotistic phraseology which pervades all its pages — 

 but it may be fairly asked how a writer of autobiography can avoid 

 a defect of this description ? He professedly sets out with the 

 intention of recording his own actions and feelings, and this there- 

 fore is the fault of the subject, not the composition. There are a 

 few sonnets, of which our limited space will not allow us to give a 

 specimen — but these are absorbed in the more extensive interest of 

 the times, opinions, and contemporaries of the writer. Altogether 

 this work cannot fail to excite the attention and gratification of the 

 gentleman and scholar, as well as the general reader. 



" History of British Costume ,•"— forming part of the Library of 

 Entertaining Knowledge. By J. R. Planche. Charles Knight, 

 Ludgate Street. 18134, 



