1822.] The Philosophy of Contemporary Criticism, No. XXV. 
basins with jetteaux, or spouting foun- 
tains. When the skin is well impreg- 
nated with the vapour, a servant rubs 
it with a hairy glove over his hand: 
this exertion is succeeded by repose 
on soft, smooth cushions, with coffee 
and sherbet for a repast. 
There are public baths for the women, 
and on such occasions the range and 
scope of their recreations are more 
expanded, becoming so many substi- 
tutes for promenades and festivals. 
Here they communicate their senti- 
ments, schemes, troubles; display 
their jewels, ornaments of finery, rich 
and gay attire; tell confidential se- 
erets, &c. In these occurrences their 
feelings are warmly excited ; and it is 
thus they console themselves for the 
degrading treatment to which they are 
subjected. 
——— 
For the Monthly Magazine. 
THE PHILOSOPHY OF CONTEM- 
PORARY CRITICISM. 
NO. XXV. 
Retrospective Review, No. 11. 
T is with much pleasure that we 
observe this useful publication 
supporting with spirit and ability the 
respectable station it has attained; 
and continuing to discriminate, with 
the judgment it has hitherto shewn in 
the selection of its subjects, between 
such portions of our elder literature as 
have, from various causes, fallen into 
unmerited neglect, and such as owe 
their obscurity to their own intrinsic 
worthlessness. This point it is not 
always very easy to hit; nor to say 
when it is worth while to draw a hun- 
dred ‘‘frailties from their dread 
abode,’ for the sake of a few scatter- 
ed beauties. We think that, on the 
whole, this nice task is discharged 
with great tact and discretion, and 
that the Review pursues its retrogres- 
sive path with no little felicity, be- 
tween authors of merit, who are fami- 
liar with the public, and those who 
haye sunk too low ever to mount 
once more “‘amongst the swans of 
Thames.” 
To those who are at all acquainted 
with the labours of Daniel Defoe, 
and if his pages are opened they are 
sure to be perused, the first article 
will appear to be almost as uncalled 
for as a critique upon our old friend 
Robinson Crusoe. But, however sin- 
ular it may appear to the admirers of 
efoe, it is nevertheless true, that the 
bulk of his works, although full of the 
223 
peculiar genius which rendered that 
tale so universally popular, are almost 
a dead letter to the general reader. 
The History of the Great Plague in 
London in the year 1665, professedly 
written by a citizen who lived the 
whole time in London, is precisely one 
of those topics which Defoe delighted 
to handle; and in this, as in all his 
other pieces, he has so amalgamated 
fiction with fact, and so artfully sup- 
plied the deficiencies of information 
from the stores of his own fancy, as to 
produce a picture of rivetling interest 
and dreadful effect. The propriety of 
this kind of romance-writing may be 
fairly questioned; and the critique 
contains some very just observations 
on the subject. But it is almost im- 
possible, in reading this History, to 
believe Defoe to be any other than a 
faithful chronicler; and, indeed, on 
this subject, even his exuberant fancy 
might range at large within the limits 
of its real horrors. The extracts 
given us here are very interesting, and 
must induce those who are not already 
acquainted with it to refer to the origi- 
nalwork. In the next number we are 
promised a general review of this dis- 
ease, considered in a literary and his- 
torical point of view. 
We next meet with a pleasing arti- 
cle on the Poetical Literature of Spain, 
from the same pen, to which this Re- 
view is indebted for several excellent 
communications of a similar nature. 
The researches of the critic are here 
directed to Spanish poetry previous to 
the fifteenth century; and, highly as 
we appreciate his industry and talents, 
which have developed and adorned 
these rude memorials, we cannot but 
be of opinion with himself, that it 
would be impossible to master the 
works of those ages, “but for some 
object of criticism or historical re- 
search.” To the examination of the 
Moorish or Arabic school of poetry, 
which the writer proposes to under- 
take in a separate paper, we may look 
for more favourable specimens of Spa- 
nish genius than are here afforded. 
The versions, to which the originals 
are subjoined, are very happily exe- 
cuted. 
Dr. Cupwortn’s Intellectual System 
of the Universe, wherein all the reason 
and philosophy of Atheism is confuted, 
and its impossibility demonstrated, Se. 
next passes under review; but the 
work is too voluminous to admit of 
more than a broken and _ partial 
glimpse 
