156 
“the festivities in Pandemonium, in the first 
chapter, we could wish that our: space 
eould admit'a free selection.. We must be 
content witha specimen or two: from: the 
allegorical pageant which’ succeeds the dra- 
matic:representations. ed 
The scene-was a wild and dreary spot. In a dar 
cavern sat Metaphysics, in the shape of an Egyptian 
mummy; whose eyes were fixed upon five glittering 
words, which flitted continually backwards and for- 
wards, and at each change had a different import. 
The: mummy ceased not to follow them with its 
stony eyes ; while in a corner stood a little roguish 
devil, who incessantly blew bubbles of air into its 
face. Pride, the amanuensis of Metaphysics, gather- 
ed’ them up as they fell, pressed the air out, and 
kneaded them into hypotheses..”—** Then came for- 
ward Morality, a fine female form, hooded ina veil, 
which, chamelion-like, sported all colours. She 
held Virtue and Vice by the hands, anddanced a trio 
with them. For music, a naked savage played upon 
an oaten pipe, an European philosopher scraped the 
fiddle, while an Asiatic beat the drum.”’—‘‘ Next 
appeared Poetry, in the form of a lovely naked 
woman. She danced with Sensuality a figurative 
lascivious dance, to which Imagination played the 
flute d’amour.”—‘‘ History then advanced upon the 
stage. Before her went Fame, witha long ‘brazen 
trumpet. — She danced with Slavery, — Falsehood 
took the trumpet from the mouth of Fame, and 
tuned it to the dance; and Flattery pointed out the 
figures: Then appeared Medicine and Quack- 
ery; they danced a minuet, to which Death 
clinked the music with a purse of gold.”—** Juris- 
prudence, a sleek rosy-faced dame, fed with fees, 
and hung about with commentaries, coughed 
through a tedious solo, and Chicanery played the 
bass-viol.”—* Policy descended from the car, and 
danced with Theology a pas des deux, to which 
Cunning, Ambition and Tyranny played on soft- 
tinkling instruments.” 
We recommend this subject to the ballet 
master of tle Opera-house. Compare this 
with the passage, towards the end of the 
last chapter, in which Leviathan stands 
revealed to Faustus in all his terrors, and 
no doubt will remain of the potency and 
wide range of the author’s imagination, 
from the satiric and ludicrous to the terrific 
and sublime. 
“*Hestood before him. His eyes glowed like full- 
laden thunder-clouds, which reflect the rays of the 
descending sun. The noise of his breath was like 
the rushing of the tempest-blast. The earth groaned 
beneath his iron feet. The storm rustled in his hair, 
which waved round his head like the tail round the 
threatening comet. Faustus lay before him like a 
worm; for the horrible sight had deprived him of 
his senses and his strength. The devil uttered a con- 
temptuous laugh, which hissed over the surface of the 
earth’; and, seizing the trembling being, he tore him 
to pieces, as a capricious boy would tear an insect. 
He strewed the bloody members, with fury and dis- 
gust, about the field, and plunged with the soul into 
the depths of hell.” 
Absenteeism. By Lavy Morean. - 8vo. 
—This volume, of 160 pages, has been 
published before in a magazine ; and’ the 
reason assigned for reprinting it in another 
shape, is, the continued demand for 'the 
numbers in which it appeared. That such 
should be the ease is not improbable—the 
pen being known from which the essay 
Monthly Review of Literature, 
[Sept. 1, 
flowed ; but authors are not always equal 
to themselves—the work has no interest 
commensurate with the reputation of ‘the 
writer—no' locality, not ‘ever the enthu- 
siasm; “which generally: attaches itself to 
the» relation’ of Irish» wrongs. It-has a 
mere book-making’ physiognomy, ‘whose 
most striking attractions are the names of 
a celebrated author and a celebrated pub- 
lisher in the title-page. That it) might 
pass muster, in detached parts, among the 
miscellaneous varieties of a periodical 
work, we do not deny, and that the 
knowledge that it was Lady Morgan’s 
might excite curiosity is equally probable : 
for who is he whose expectations would 
not be excited by such an announcement? 
but we should be slow to believe that’ Lady 
Morgan would herself be desirous of its 
being reprinted in a more authentic shape. 
Her wonted fertility must have been very 
unexpectedly exhausted, when it became 
necessary to glean, from a novel of secon- 
dary order, the greater part of the informa- 
tion which these pages convey. We allude 
to.a novel in three volumes, “ Fhomas 
Fitzgerald,” ‘which we noticed in our 
number for May last \(p.’ 359); most ‘of 
the notes of which work, and many of the 
incidents, are here brought forward to swell 
out 160 pages, which, though adorned with 
the name of Lady Morgan, we cannot hold 
it necessary to enter into a critical exami- 
nation of, but will just give her a hint, 
that a work should possess the best attrac- 
tions of her native merits, that would atone 
for her capricious admixture of foreign 
phraseology. We have no objection to 
French as French, and have a high re- 
spect for the science and literature of our 
neighbours: but we have a language of our 
own, fully competent to all the purposes of 
expressing, with grace and energy, al] our 
own ideas: and genuine taste cannot but 
be offended by the affectation of English 
frenchified. We trust the time is not 
remote, when even our boarding-school 
Misses will keep the two languages. dis- 
tinct; and though they may speak both 
with equal fluency, will take care not to 
speak them both together. But) Lady 
Morgan’s sentences seem to us sometimes 
to represent a sort of quadruple alliance of 
English, French and Italian. She is 
never at a loss for a word, for, from which- 
ever language occurs, she slips it m, and 
the phrase is complete. If not understood, 
the fault, of course, is in the ignorance of 
the reader, who, if he had known .as many 
languages as the writer, would, at least, 
have found her meaning. For instance, 
in the work now before us—in mentioning 
a legend respecting O‘Rourke, . who; was 
said to have been murdered by the orders 
of Queen Elizabeth, because he. dared::to 
hint to that princess, that he suspected it 
was herself who honoured, himwith the 
private. visitsat midnight to whieh he) was 
subjected : she says that “‘ though the ca- 
tastrophe 
