1824.] 
the foundation of language. This occupies 
his first chapter ; the snbject-matter of the 
Second treats of verbs; and the third 
concerns minor verbs, by grammarians 
called prepositions. The analyzation of 
language, and its principles and structure, 
is pursued with a steady and penetrating 
eye ; and distinctions are made, and dis- 
criminations suggested, the accuracy of 
which must strike the most careless 
feader, while their acuteness extorts the 
admiration of every one qualified to 
judge on the subject. But, nevertheless, 
amid a considerable mass of intelligent 
and useful observation, there is, we must 
in candour confess, no little degree of 
hair-splitting, no small number of varia- 
tions without differences, no few in- 
Stances that might be addnced to prove, 
that even in grammar, which we would 
call one of the exact sciences, it is possi- 
ble to look too close, to be more nice than 
wise, to bewilder the undersianding with 
what dranglitsmen call occult lines, and 
to draw untenable conclusions from illegi- 
timate premises. But these latter reflec- 
tions are uot made to deter our readers 
from perusing Mr. Fearn’s publication, 
brt rather to invite them to the task,—a 
task, from tlie performance of which they 
will not derive less pleasure than profit. 
The Tour in Germany, and some of the 
Southern Provinces of the Austrian Empire, 
in the Years 1820, 1821, 1822, which has 
lately issued from the press, is a work 
calculated to inform and entertain, ina 
high degrée, ali who are curious to under- 
stand the internal state and condition of 
those parts of the continent. Whether 
they desire to know the literary or the 
political situation of the countries to 
which these volumes invite their atten- 
tion, they will find ample matter of infor- 
mation, and such reflections on the aspect 
of their affairs, as will not fail to instruct 
and gratify their laudable curiosity. The 
intelligence respecting the state of the 
German universities, and the habits and 
manners of the Burschen, or college 
youths, is of a nature both to entertain 
andsurprize. In fact, so little are these gen- 
tlemen under the rule of their respective 
professors; and so much are they, in point 
of their general conduct, left to their own 
discretion, that they may be said to be 
governed by themselves, and to have no 
guides or conductors except their own 
inclinations, In their practices they are, 
by consequence, any thing but what the 
sons of the respectable orders of society, 
engaged in a course of academical studies, 
ought to be; and, in their manners, they 
are almost as louse and as vulgar as the 
youth of the lower orders, The descrip- 
tion of these students, their societies, their 
clanships, their eternal quarrels and jea- 
lousies, and their reailiness for a general 
unibn against any objectors to their pro- 
Literary and Critical Proémium. 
59 
ceedings, not excepting the government 
itself, constitnfes a considerable portion 
of this work ; but, nevertheless, it presents 
to our notice a variety of other matters, 
carries its readers through all the princi- 
pal parts of Germany; and, whether in 
politics ‘or literature, commerce or the 
arts, leaves few things untouched upon 
that are of sufficient importance to claim 
their attention. Ina word, no one, we 
are confident, will peruse the “ Tour in 
Germany,” and not lay down the volumes 
with feelings of obligation towards the in- 
genious and assiduous author, for the infor- 
mation and amusement he has derived 
from materials which have been turned to 
so pleasing and useful an account. 
Mr, Francis HoweEt, by his transla- 
tion of Theophrastus, has, in our opinion, 
conferred an obligation on the public, es- 
pecially that part of it attached to the 
pleasure produced by the dramatic art, as 
exercised by tlie philosophic enquirer into, 
and exhibitor of, character as it displays 
itself in temper and principle, rather than 
in action and enterprise. Viewed in this 
light, the characteristic descriptions left us 
by the successor of Aristotle, may be 
regarded as precious relics of antiquity. 
They are family pieces,—portraitures, we 
mean, of the great family of man, and can- 
not be viewed without convincing us of 
the stability of human nature. To survey 
them, is to discover that what the human 
race is now, it was in the time of the philo- 
sopher Mr. H. so faithfully and so accepta= 
bly presenis to us. Though the public 
has been accommodated with many ver- 
sions of Theophrastus, this is as positively 
the best as it is the last. Germany, Italy, 
and France, have had opportunities of 
reading him in their own respective lan- 
guages; but even the elegant and erudite 
Bruyere has not done that justice to the 
original text which we find in Mr. Howel’s 
translation. If his learning was too pro- 
found to permit his mistaking the Grecian, 
his fancy was too vivacious not to tempt 
him to occasionally indulge it at the ex- 
pense of his anthor; and to read his 
Theophrastus is, in some instances, to read 
the preceptor to the Duke of Burgundy. 
Without going any farther into the merits 
and value of the production here angli- 
cised, we may insist upon the service ren- 
dered to all English readers by the elegant 
and faithful style in which Mr. H. has ac- 
quitted himself in his eligible task, espe- 
cially by the clearness and perspicuily | 
he has given to some passages, by the 
abruptness and obscurity of which most of 
the former translators have been posed. 
Though Mr. Howel affects to attach little 
importance to the graphic illustrations, we , 
consider them as highly valuable in the. 
places they hold. As _plysiognomical 
symbols, they not only ornament the 
book, but elucidate the subject, and ad- 
vantageously 
