1825.] 
THE PHILOSOPHY OF CONTEM- 
PORARY CRITICISM. No. xtvin. 
A RT. X. (of the Westminster Review) 
(A —* Basni J. A. Krilova. Fables de 
M, Kriloff. 2 Vols, Paris,’ we shall 
pass over as of little interest ; nor shall 
we dwell upon Art. XL (Memoirs 
of the Affairs of Europe, from the 
Feace of Utrecht) further than to 
say that,.although this article has much 
more the form and semblance of a re- 
view of the publication in question, than 
that upon which we have dwelt; and, 
indeed, than the generality of the arti- 
cles in what are now called Reviews,— 
we cannot but regard it as treating the 
noble author with somewhat more of 
radical austerity than is consonant with 
the genuine spirit of the philosophy of 
criticism ; and as rating much lower than 
its merits the intellect manifested in 
the composition. Our opinion upon 
these memoirs has been already very 
freely given, in the leading article of our 
‘Supplement to the 58th vol. of the M.M. 
‘published in January last; and we re- 
main uamoved in our opinion, that 
_though, as might be expected, the biasses 
‘of Whiggism (that is to say of a high- 
toned aristocratical republicanism) are 
eccasionally conspicuous, there is, at the 
“same time, niuch liberal principle aad 
just sentiment mingled with this ‘party- 
feeling ; and that, in point of talent, it 
sustains throughout the tone of no or- 
-dinary mind. 
_. Art. XII. on The Articles in the Edin- 
burgh Review, relating to Parliamentary 
Reform, is a spirited specimen of con- 
‘troversial disquisition ; and ably exposes 
the jesuitical sophistry and inconsistency 
of that Whig Journal, and of the Whigs 
in general, upon a subject so intricate 
and perplexing to outs that would be in; 
and to patriots who would be popular 
without doing any thing, efficiently, for 
the people; and who, when they talk of 
removing corruptions and extending suf- 
frage, mean ouly transferring noinina- 
tions and extending the influence of 
particular families over the classes they 
think they have a title to control. 
On the concluding Art. XIII. Quarter- 
ty Review—On the Articles on Greek 
Literature, we could wish to expatiate 
more freely ; but we have only space to 
say that the misrepresentations of facts 
connected with this subject, and of the 
morals, sentiments and science of the 
philosophers of Greece, for the “ pur- 
pose of exciting hatred and uncharita- 
le feelings,” and the zeal with which 
Montuty Mac. No. 416. 
Parliamentary Reform.— Greek Literature. 
the Quarterly Reviewers “ suspend all ¥ nin present Day; toget 
2a 
329 
ordinary rules, remove all common re- 
straints, and set aside all forms, that 
they may overwhelm with unmerited 
obloquy the Athenian democracy,” are 
ably exposed and justly castigated ; 
that those literary factionists, who 
carry the baneful and demoralizing 
spirit of bigoted party prejudice even 
into the very temple and sanctuary of 
classical erudition, are left to the alter- 
native of pleading ignorance of the sub- 
jects upon which they have so scurri- 
lously written, or remaining under the 
sentence of purposed misrepreser.tation, 
We return to the 63d Number of the 
Quarterly Review, which we are free 
to own, according to the present sys- 
tem of Essaying instead of Reviewing, 
is not barren either of information or 
amusement: nor do we quarrel with 
the proportion that must be set down 
to the latter account. The amuse- 
ments and the elegancies of literature 
have their utilities, as well as its mat- 
ters of fact and its abstractions: nor are 
we quite sure that voyages and travels, 
poetry and polite literature are, in rea- 
son’s scale, much less estimable, than 
some of those disquisitions that assume 
amore solemn aspect. Much of what 
is called strict science, and even of ex- 
perimental philosophy, is but the toy 
and plaything of grown children, who 
think themselves very wisely and bene- 
ficently employed, because they look 
grave over their amusements. It was 
not ill-said by Walking Stewart—that 
* ne who discovered a potato deserved 
a planet for his reward, and he who 
discovers a planet deserves a potato 
for his.” But as we cannot always be 
potato-hunting, perhaps he who adds 
to the stock of brilliant ideasis as use- 
fully employed, as he who makes addi- 
tious to a catalogue of stars; and 
it may sometimes be quite as well to 
be botanizing or chasing butterflies on 
Parnassus, as on Hampstead Heath, or 
in the shrubberies of the Horticultural 
Society.. If we accord not, therefore, 
with the principles of the Quarterly 
Reviewers, we shall not, on that ac- 
count, quarrel with their taste. They 
begin, however, with a subject upon 
which it is not very easy for, them to 
avoid shewing the worst side of their 
character. ; 
“ Art. I.—l. An Abstract of the Annual 
Reports and Correspondence of the So- 
ciely for promoting Christian Knowledge, 
from/the Commencement of its Conngrion 
withthe East-India Missions, A.D, 1709, 
ér “with ‘the 
Charges 
