70 Literary and Critical Proémium. 
not quite so skilfully constrneted, nor 
rendered so interesting, as in some of Miss 
P.’s earlier productions. In those re- 
spects, we certainly prefer the “ Knights 
of St. John.” The scene of Roche-Blanche 
is laid in France, during the time of the 
great Conde, and a considerable portion of 
the tale is occupied’ with an account, of 
the efforts made by the Hugonots to free 
themselves from the grievous persecutions 
of the Catholics. ‘The hero, Clarence 
Willoughby, is a young Englishman, who 
enters into the service of the Bourbon 
princes, and becomes involved in the 
plots and schemes of the Hugonots, 
Aigline de Venzeles, the heroine, has little 
to distinguish her trom the crowd of la- 
dies who fill the prominent part in every 
novel. Adhemar de Bourbon is a fine 
and spirited sketch of that mixed kiad of 
character, in which we sometimes find the 
highest and the meanest qualities united. 
As decided friends to the free discussion 
of religious topics, we have turned over 
the pages of A Vindication of the Character 
and Writings of the Hon, Emanuel Sweden- 
borg, by RopeRT HINDMARSH, minister of 
the New Jerusalem Chapel in Manchester. 
This curious picce of polemical divinity is 
written with ability and acuteness, and 
displays an extensive and intimate acquain- 
tauce with scriptural learning, which we 
are surprised to find connected with what 
appears to us, speaking with the humility 
becoming an imperfect investigation of the 
baron’s pretensions, to be the extreme 
boundary line of innocent credulity. 
Whilst we cannot but thus confess our 
want of faith in the singular system so ably 
advocated by Mr. Hindmarsh, we should 
be sorry by any expression of our opinions 
either to wound his feelings, or to prevent 
any one from giving his creed a fair and 
unprejudiced examination. The Sweden- 
borgian scheme, indeed, has in ita degree 
of charity and benevolence which renders 
it very attractive to men of benign disposi- 
tions, and the ingenuity with which its de- 
tails are made out, is, it we may use so light 
an epithet, in the highest degree entertain- 
ing. The principal result of the baron’s 
revelations is to familiarize us with the 
spirttual world, which he represents to be 
in every respect a counterpart of the pre- 
sent state of existence; there being, in 
heaven, administrations, offices, employ- 
ments, and trades, ecclesiastical, civil, and 
domestic ; marriages, births, and transitions 
to other stages of being. There is some 
shew of reason, if not of orthodoxy, in 
this ; and we rather lean to the interpreta- 
tion of the baron, when he considers that 
hell is formed by self-love and the love of 
the world, and heaven by the exercise of 
the kd affections. For the solution of 
many extraordinary dogmas of this teacher, 
the reader will apply himself with great 
advantage to Mr. Hindmarsh’s treatise, 
[Aug. 1, 
which expounds and defends the most 
disputable passages with great adroitness 
and success. That the Lord appears in 
heaven ds a sun before the right eye, and 
as a moon before the left; that Dutchmen 
live on one side of the street in heaven, 
and their wives on the other; that tables 
are established in heaven for bursting iu ex- 
plosions on those who lay too much stress on 
faith; and that married people quarrel in the 
other world even to fighting, ave proposi- 
tions which are at first view startling, but 
from which Mr. Hindmarsh does not 
shrink, and to which he labours with great 
skill to reconcile us. With all the excep- 
tions, however, to which this religious sys- 
tem seems tous to lie open, we cannot but 
give it and its professors credit for the true 
Christian mildness of its principles, and 
assign it a place in our estimation, far 
above that possessed by gloomier and more 
narrow-minded creeds, 
Amongst the many amusing specimens of 
auto-biography with which the literature 
of modern Europe is enriched, there is, 
perhaps, none more curious and interesting 
than the memoirs of the celebrated artist 
Benvenuto Cellini, the contemporary of 
Michael-Angelo, and one of the most sin- 
gular characters that have ever been deve- 
loped, even by the ardent skies of Italy. 
His life, which was translated into English 
by Dr. Nugent towards the middle of the 
last century, was a valuable addition to our 
biographical literature, exhibiting, as it 
did, a very entertaining picture of the 
State of the arts, letters, and manners, at 
the time when the author wrote. But 
perhaps the most interesting portions of 
the volume are those which present a view 
of the personal character of Cellini himself; 
and, it must be admitted, from some of the 
incidents which he recounts, that he has 
acted the part of his own biographer with 
very laudable impartiality. An edition of 
the works of Benvenuto Cellini was pub- 
lished a few years since abroad; and, in 
the present volumes, the notes with which 
the learned commentator enriched the 
memoirs, have been translated, and a por- 
trait of the artist is given, The title of 
the work is as follows: Memoirs of Benve- 
nuto Cellini, edited, with Notes from the last 
Milan edition, by Tuomas Roscoe, Esa, 
in 2 vols. 
Amongst the many new periodical publi- 
cations with which the town continues to 
be deluged, we notice one which seems, 
by its singularity, to lay some claim to 
attention—we mean The Council of Ten. 
We are thus early in noticing the appear- 
ance of this work, which has just reached a 
second number, because we were fearful, 
that, if we ventured to delay, the whole 
council would be hurried to the “tomb of 
all the Capulets,” before we made our re- 
marks upon them. In fact, unless some 
great alteration take place in the style 
3 and 
——EE 
