1822.] 
overbearing, overwhelming influence of 
the crown, which makes the will of the 
sovereign, however ill-advised and ill- 
informed, every-thing, and the almost 
unanimous sentiments of the people, 
nothing. 
In his ensuing letter Lord B. gives 
us his famous delineation or idea of a 
patriot king, ‘the most uncommon,” 
as he hesitates not to say, “of all 
phenomena in the physical or moral 
world. Yet,” says the noble writer, 
‘we are willing to indulge the pleasing 
expectation.” This was not a mere 
compliment to Frederic the heir-appa- 
rent, than whom no prince was ever 
more solicitous to merit the appellation, 
and to convert the idea into a reality. 
—_—— 
For the Monthly Magazine. 
THE PHILOSOPHY OF CONTEM- 
PORARY CRITICISM. 
NO, XXI. 
The Quarterly Review, No. 51. 
HE first article in the number be- 
fore us is Martin Dobrizhoffer’s 
“* Account of the Abipones,’ a work 
originally composed in Latin forty 
years ago by.an Austrian jesuit, trans- 
lated by Mr- Southey, or his assistants 
we suspect, and certainly reviewed by 
the laureate, and published by Mr. 
Murray in three small octavos, at the 
enormous price of thirty-six shillings. 
We mention these facts to explain, in 
some degree, the appearance of such a 
publication in an English translation. 
The work itself, except the honest sim- 
plicity of the narrative, has scarcely a 
single recommendation: it is a verbose 
account of an obscure tribe of Ameri- 
cans, drawn up by a person with much 
less acumen than the generality of his 
order, credulous, and without the sci- 
ence which could alone give interest to 
the details with which two-thirds of the 
work is filled. The title in the original 
is, ‘‘ History of the Abipones, a Warlike 
People of Paraguay, their Cities, 
Rivers, Wild Beasts, Amphibious Ani- 
mals, Insects, Serpents, Birds, Fishes, 
Trees, Plants,” &c ; this has been judi- 
ciously abridged into the more taking 
form of ‘ An Account of the Abipones, 
an Equestrian People of Paraguay.” 
The first yolume is principally occupied 
with details of natural history, without 
any regard to scientific arrangement ; 
the second and third, with the old mis- 
sionary’s “‘ Journey to St. Jago,” his 
“Stay at St. Jago,” his “ Disastrous 
Return from St. Jago,” with a tedious 
account of his endeavours to convert 
The Philosophy of Contemporary Criticism, No. XX. 
411 
the Indians, whom he found, contrary 
to the experience of St. Paul, that faith 
enters by “‘the ear,” that, “‘ with the 
savages of Paraguay, it could only be 
thrust in by the mouth.” Dobrizkoffer 
did not commence his work till his 
sixty-sixth year, and died in 1791, 
having previously had the honour of 
diverting, with his garrulity, the tedium 
of that sage devotee Maria Theresa. 
So much for the work of which the 
Review is merely an abridgment, and 
does not afford materials for remark, 
except in the peculiar opinions ex- 
pressed by the writer on the expulsion 
of the jesuits, and the establishment of 
the independence of Spanish America. 
The first he appears to regret, and the 
last he thinks might have been effected 
“‘ without a struggle,” had the colonies 
only waited ‘the course of events in 
the mother country.” In this opinion 
we do not concur ; for we doubt, first, 
whether the liberty acquired by Old 
Spain would ever have been voluntarily 
conceded to her dependencies; and, 
secondly, we doubt whether the “‘course 
of events” adverted to, would have hap- 
pened had it not been from the exam- 
ple and impulse given to the mother 
country by her transatlantic posses- 
sions. 
The next subject is the “‘ Bishop of 
St. David’s Vindication of 1 John, v. 7,” 
in which some sage advice is given to 
the right reverend prelate, not to en- 
danger the whole by grasping at too 
much, especially as the genuineness of 
the disputed verse has been denied by 
Griesbach and Porson; is to be found 
only in one Greek manuscript, and 
that manuscript of the fifteenth or six- 
teenth century; and can be defended 
only on grounds that must impair the 
credit of the whole Scripture canon. 
Korzesur’s Voyage of Discovery 
forms the third subject, and is rather a 
querulous notice of the unfortunate 
navigator; unfortunate, we call him, 
because compelled to relinquish the 
most interesting object of his expedi- 
tion, from uncontrollable circumstances. 
The fears of the reviewer on the recent 
claim of Russia. to the whole north- 
west coast of America, from the fifty- 
sixth degree of latitude to the “extreme 
north,” appear without just foundation, 
as itis a mere paper pretension, illus- 
trating, it is true, the ambitious cha- 
racter of the northern autocrat, but not 
likely for some time to interfere with 
our commercial interests. 
In the next article, Memoirs of a Life 
passed 
