1824.] 
easus, Perseus, Bellerophon, &c. and, 
as old as the Ark, according to Bryant, 
areresorted to by way of novelty ; and 
the crambe decies recocta of Charle- 
magne, Bbradamante, Amadis de Gaul, 
King Arthur, &c. is hashed up for 
the loathing palate of the public. The 
scribe of this article, whoever he may 
be, tells us such truths as that “ false 
rhymes are a blemish.” He might 
himself take a respectable canon of 
criticism from the medical proverb of 
** Physician cure yourself.” 
The fourth article is a flaming high- 
church fulmination, breathing fire and 
faggots against the heterodoxy of Mr. 
Belsham, and the heresy of the Unita- 
rian theory of man’s justification. ‘This 
ponderous article may suit the taste of 
some half-dozen shovel-hats; but the 
public, who care little for any ‘“‘justifi- 
cation” but that of getting money’s 
worth for their 6s. and who like 
printed “‘ good works” better than-bad, 
will gape over the first two pages. 
Such things will, if persisted in, be a 
millstone round the neck of the Quar- 
terly Review, and revenge Mr.Belsbam 
by sinking it irretrievably. Mr. Bel- 
sham excites great gall in the re- 
viewer, because he employs reason- 
ing on the writings of St. Paul 
according to the logical character 
they profess; they are reasonings, and 
therefore not inspirations. Implicit 
faith and reasoning have no relative 
connection. A definition of words is 
necessary before we engage in contro- 
versy. ‘‘We may pity the critic’s 
weakness,” to quote himself, ‘‘ but we 
need not waste our readers’ time nor 
our own, by any further examination” 
of his criticisms.” Laus Deo! 
The fifth article is a shallow review 
of the shallow researches of A. De 
fapell Brook, m.a. As the critical 
judge upon the bench candidly pleads 
guilty to partiality, namely, ‘ the 
friendly feeling we entertain towards 
our young traveller,” and as_ he is 
warned for the future not to take for 
fact what has altogether the appear- 
ance of fable, we suppose ‘‘ the pro- 
lixity and somewhat too credulous 
Jeaning of our young traveller to sto- 
ries about krakens, sea-serpents, and 
@utediluvian whales,” (Lord have mercy 
upon us!) need not go to a jury of the 
public. The parties may compro- 
mise out of court, and get the merman 
and mermaid for arbitrators. 
The Mal Aria, treated of in the sixth 
article, isan unpleasant subject for hig zh- 
Ria 
The Quarterly Review. 
31 
flying Tories and high churchmen to 
meddle with; but the newly con- 
verted radical reviewer of Albemarle- 
street girds up his loins to the task, and 
recommends a thorough reform in this 
“erying evil” to his holiness of 
Rome. Rome cannot do better than 
take our back-bone reformer’s advice; 
and, instead of being at length blotted 
out from her place among the nations 
by the miasmata of cowls and scarlet 
stockings, “ we shall find her rising in 
salubrity and political importance.” 
Cras eredemus, hodie nihi!. 
We hold ourselves excused from 
saying much about the seventh article, 
which is christened with the attractive 
name of Mexico. The very name sug- 
gests silver ingots, and associates itself 
with rich mines of adventurous re- 
search ; but, as the article is evidently 
an off-shoot from a forthcoming history 
of the laureate doctor, we would ra- 
ther plunge in medias res of the main 
vein; or, in other words, see the work 
in its complete state, with all its due 
appurienances of context, corol- 
lary, index, and annotation. It is 
heavy, but tolerably liberal; the capa- 
bilities of Mexico, as to population, 
productions, and mines, are fairly 
stated. Too gratuitous a credit is given 
to the intentions of Iturbide; but a 
creditable hope is expressed that such 
a substantial government may be 
established in that interesting country 
as may be at once beneficial to the 
inhabitants and to the whole civilized 
world. 
The eighth article is a review of the 
Private Correspondence of Cowper, which 
is certainly as excellent as it is stated 
to be by the critic, and deserves all the 
commendation he bestows upon it. 
The writer's remarks on the stimulus 
necessary to keep up the spiritual 
revelry of ‘comfortable experiences,” 
and his assignment of Cowper’s reli- 
gious madness to the exhaustion of 
mind which follows the overjading of 
the imagination, are correct and saga- 
cious; such fanatical experimentalists 
make the favor of heaven depend upon 
a weak stomach or a diseased liver. 
Abernethy’s pills would do them more 
good than the conventicle. 
Next we arrive at the ninth article, 
which is a thoroughgoing, plodding, 
good-intentioned, puff of Mr. Morier’s 
work. The tradc-wind is employed 
gloriously to impel the popularis aura. 
The narrative of Hajji Baba is 
thrown into a neat frame of ‘ perfect 
accordance” 
9 
