298 



Monthli/ Review of Liteiitture, 



[March, 



have on that subject will materially assist 

 him. 



The Rival Crusoex. — Amusing and in- 

 structive tales for children are very scarce : 

 a considerable number of those published 

 are either written in an inferior style, or 

 contain principles which no parent or 

 teacher would wish to inculcate. This 

 volume consists of three tales, •' The 

 Rival CrusoGS ;" " A Voj'age to Nor- 

 way ;" and " The Fisherman's Cottage:" 

 the first of them is incomparably the best, 

 and delineates, with considerable know- 

 ledge of the operations of the human mind, 

 the evil effects resultin_g from arrogant and 

 resentful feehngs, though allied to a kind 

 disposition. The heroes are Lord Robert 

 Summers, and Philip Harley, a villager, 

 who was pressed, at the instigation of Lord 

 Robert's father, on a false representation 

 of his son's. 'This villager is drafted on 

 board the Diomede, in which ship Lord 

 Robert is a lieutenant. The tyranny of 

 the officer, and the high spu'it of the op- 

 pressed villager, afford an opportunity for a 

 disjilay of character, by no means common, 

 and wliich is veiy well portrayed. The 

 villager suffers the most humiliating punish- 

 ments, and is once so exasperated as to 

 strike his ojipressor, and is consequently 

 put into irons to take his trial. The sliip 

 falls in with two of the enemy's sliips of 

 equal force, and, though victorious, was so 

 roughly handled as to become a perfect 

 wreck. When near an island in the Pa- 

 cific, Lord Robert goes in a boat, in which 

 Harley pulled an oar, to try and reach the 

 island and obtain some fresh water. The 

 boat is lost and all hands drowned, except- 

 ing Lord Robert and Harley : they meet 

 on the following day. The whole of this 

 scene is so well narrated, that it belongs to 

 a class beyond that in which this volume is 

 destined to be placed. The conduct of 

 these two when left on tlie desert island 

 is well managed, and must amuse and in- 

 struct. Their subsequent reconciliation is 

 also well told, and so wrought up as to be 

 calculated to make a deep impression on 

 the youthful reader. The style of this tale 

 is decidedly superior to that found in most 

 works of imagination of far higher preten- 

 sions. The naval part will do well enough 

 for those unaccustomed to nautical affairs, 

 but is sadly defective where it attempts the 

 most. The ship, when near the island, 

 should have been described to windward, 

 and just escaping from being wrecked on 

 a lee-shore ; then the hoisting out of the 

 other boats, &c., would have been probable ; 

 and the captain (who should have had any 

 other epithet than " noble" — Jack adrift, 

 and without a shot in the locker, always 

 addresses one with " noble captain") might 

 have attempted to lay to under the lee of 

 the island. Swift has been tenfold more 

 ridiculous in his attempts at nautical de- 

 scription, and tells us of a ship, commanded 

 by Captain Lemuel Guiliver, gouig about 



" on the lanyard of the whipstaff," which 

 means as much as if he had assin-ed us that 

 she went about in his grandmother's stays. 

 Tlie other tales are far more common- 

 place, and yet instructive, and possessing 

 some amusement. 



The name is a dangerous one — who has 

 ever rivalled Robinson Crusoe? It does 

 not even now read like a fiction. No one 

 should call their books Rival Crusoes— or 

 Bunyans, or Farmers (on the learning 

 of Siiakspeare), or Dunning's (on the 

 Rights of Juries), or Jonathan Edwardses 

 (on Free Will), or Burtons; because 

 these, and one or two more, have either 

 settled the subjects on which they wrote, 

 or have so completely maintained their 

 pre-eminence over all competitors, as to 

 leave successful rivalrj' a forlorn hope. We 

 earnestly recommend the book as a useful 

 and instructive addition to the juvenile 

 library. 



The Mayic Bing, by Fuedf.rick Baron" 

 De La Motte Fouque. — The rights of 

 kings, the degree of freedom which com- 

 munities of men should enjoy and main- 

 tain, the improvement of laws, the diffu- 

 sion of knowledge, and all the high and 

 spirit-stirring intellectual inquiries the vas- 

 sals of the house of Hapsburgh may not 

 enjoy. What is the consequence ? In- 

 stead of looking forward — instead of en- 

 deavouring to keep pace with the mighty 

 progress of knowledge, and to work their 

 literature up to a i)arallel with it, they 

 dive into musty records, gloiy in forming 

 their taste on the models of the Edda and 

 ^^olllspa, and all the northern tribe of 

 romancers and chroniclers that followed that 

 barbaric train. 



The work before us is of that family. 

 The general characteristic of these writers 

 were inexliaustible changes of the same 

 fanciful or traditional ideas of magic ; an 

 imceasing repetition of ktiights, armour, 

 toui.'ays, battles, bniises, and brutality : 

 accoimts of castles, forests, and beautiful 

 damsels. To vary these accounts, certainly, 

 requires a great deal of fancy, but no pow- 

 erful efforts of imagination. To narrate 

 short stories of enchanted castles, or for- 

 lorn damsels rescued from oppressors — to 

 describe mirrors which reflect the future, 

 and beings who command the world of 

 spirits, does not require much intellect, 

 and but little knowledge. These were the 

 efforts of men when information was in 

 embiyo. Of what earthly use can it be to 

 string volumes of such baby-stuff together ? 

 Though we do not think very highly of the 

 current literature of the day, and still less 

 of the style in which it is written, we do 

 think, that even our misses, just returned 

 from Teleraaque, and the art of japanning 

 the lids of work-boxes, require literary 

 amusement of a higher stamp than the 

 works of this German Baron. If the Ger- 

 mans admire such narratives, well and 

 good ; let them continue to write and ad- 



