312 
from noble and charitable pursuits, which hath 
increased the vanity and the expense of living, 
and propagated so much the more toil and specu- 
lation of every kind—this increase, I say, of the 
lust of the eye, within my own remembrance, is 
not to be reckoned up.—Take up a book of travels 
into foreign parts, of older date than fifty parts— 
for example, Burnett, or even Moore, or Coxe— 
and you find the religious, and moral, and social as- 
pect of men and things to have been what they 
chiefly reported ; but now what have ye but the 
description of lakes and waterfalls, of mountains, 
and avalanches of snow, of pictures and statues, 
interlarded with a gazing admiration of the abo- 
mination of the papacy, &c.—If I direct my at- 
tention to public entertainments, I can hardly keep 
my indignation within bounds. <A rout, a ball, a 
eonversazione for the exhibition of rarities and 
shows—to what do they amount but foolish spec- 
tacle? To speak, is out of the question—to dis- 
course, madness—to breathe, oft difficult enough. 
—And, again, if [turn to look at the character of 
our theatrical exhibitions, the same love of show— 
the same gratification of the sight— splendid 
seenery, wonderful machinery, which now will 
open to you the mouth of hell, now present you 
with airy congregations of the gods, and now with 
the mockery of a battle ; and, inshort, with every 
thing which addresseth the eye, which sparkles 
and flames, and flares, and thunders—an endless 
round of sights, signifying nothing—or if any 
thing, something very evil, &c. 
Sometimes the reader will find something 
approaching to humour :— 
Men speak of a sermon (says he) in the same 
language, and perhaps with the same gesture of 
the hand, smiting the body in the same place, with 
which they speak ofadinner—it did me good, Sir, 
i felt the better for it. 
Again :— 
Between the oppression of business and the op- 
pression of fashion, the tender, and delicate, and 
blessed abode of our natural affections, which our 
fathers called Home, hath been almost crushed to 
pieces, and the very word hath changed its mean- 
ing; so that af home now \signifies being sur- 
rounded with a multitude ; and not at home, al- 
most signifies being alone with your children. 
Of the common intercourse of man and 
wife, this is a very happy morsel, and the 
volume has many such:— 
To speak of one another with good-natured 
gaiety—to neglect one another with easy good 
breeding—to let one another go their several 
ways unchecked—to make sprightly allusions and 
sparkling witticisms on the relation of husband 
and wife—this, even this, is the present state of 
that everlasting covenant, &c, 
To do any thing like justice is, with our 
limits, quite impracticable—we have thought 
of Mr. Irving with contempt—he has won 
our respect. 
Biographical Magazine, No. IT. 1828. 
—The first number of this publication 
escaped us. We have glanced over the 
second, and venture to pronounce it a valu- 
able addition to our periodical literature. 
Something of the kind was evidently re- 
Monthly Review of Literature, 
[ Marcu, 
quisite to keep up with the current of mor- 
tality. Every body feels the defects of 
biographical dictionaries—their value is per- 
petually oozing away, and in afew years they 
become comparatively and painfully useless. 
Every year numbers pass off the stage, of 
whom it is desirable to know something 
more, and more authoratitively than can 
generally be learnt from the ordinary on 
dits that float in common conversation, of 
distinguished individuals. Their origin and 
connexions—the steps of their progress—the 
developement of their abilities—the growth 
of their reputation—the aids and friends they 
have made, and met with—the order and 
succession of their publications—all these 
matters are subjects of interest, and the 
earlier they can be obtained the more wel- 
come they are. A man’s death is the time 
when his merits are most minutely scanned 
—for his memory soon gets washed away by 
succeeding waves. Few things will be 
more acceptable than a register of this con- 
tinuous and cotemporaneous kind—well done 
or ill done. 
The specimens before us, however, are, 
some of them, very well done ; while others 
are conspicuously meagre—too much so to 
be of any use—Lemot, for instance, or 
Mark Noble. The personages are Mitford, 
the historian—Thiebault de Leveaux— 
Madame Guizot —Beethoven— Professor 
Jardine—Holloway, Rafaellé’s engraver— 
Lemot—Mark Noble—Dawbeny—Clive— 
Laplace—Clapperton, and Canning. All 
cannot, of course, be of equal interest—the 
editor must trust to the chapter of accidents ; 
but it is of no use to give obviously inade- 
quate accounts—he should wait for further 
information. The most agreeable article is 
Madame Guizot. By the way, it is sur- 
prising hew little is known in this country 
of this indefatigable and intelligent lady’s 
exertions—the Miss Edgeworth of France. 
Too much is made of Archdeacon Dawbeny, 
who was merely a polemic, and not a very 
successful one. Too much, also, we ven- 
ture to add, is made of Mr. Canning, 
of whose classical attainments it is quite 
sickening tohear, for obviously they amounted 
to nothing beyond an Eton school-boy’s 
flippancies ; and as to his claims as a states- 
man—as to any measures which may be 
regarded as personally fis—as to any dis- 
position he ever shewed to check corruption 
—as to any actual benefit conferred upon the 
country—as to any assistance contributed 
to useful reforms—the less his friends, old or 
new, say about him the better. He was a 
man of words—words! When shall* we 
have done with babbling ? 
al Pronouncing Dictionary; Whittaker, 
1829.—This, we confess, is entirely out of 
our beat. When we venture a dictum, we 
like to place it upon» some acknowledged 
basis. The matter of pronunciation has” 
none. In the little work before us, which 
is evidently very respectable, words are to 
