384 Novels by the Author of Headlong Hail. [Aprit, 
an appeal to the baser passions of humanity. All that would furnish 
others with food for quiet thought, and gentle commiseration, is, with 
Swift, made a matter for laughter and derision; we actually do not, 
throughout his voluminous works, remember one single remark suggested 
by good nature, or put forth in a spirit of humanity. His very smile is 
a scowl; his laughter the hysteric utterance of a rancorous and disap- 
pointed mind. Arbuthnot, on the contrary, is, as we before observed, a 
writer of the most social character ; his humour is natural, unforced, 
conversational ; and, though his allegory be at times a thought confused, 
yet his jests are universally intelligible. His sketch of Sister Peg can 
never be mistaken, or forgotten. 
We have mentioned these three great writers as being the most re- 
markable in modern days for their powers of satirical allegory ; and 
contenting ourselves with remarking that a few other, though inferior 
specimens of this quality of mind, may occasionally be met with in the 
pages of Steele and Addison, (more especially in the former’s Tatler) we 
come, without further preface, to the consideration of the tale before us, 
« Melincourt ;” a tale which possesses something of the extravagant in- 
vention of Rabelais, something of the stern sarcasm of Swift, and a great 
deal of the lively humour of Arbuthnot. The incidents of this novel are, 
like all the other of Mr. Peacock’s works, trifling ; being, in fact, mere 
pegs on which to hang up and support his own peculiar theories. Such, 
however, as they are, we feel it our duty to detail them. Anthelia 
Melincourt is an amiable, intelligent young lady—an orphan, an heiress, 
and the owner of Melincourt Castle, a fine estate, situated in the county 
of Westmoreland. Of course, under these circumstances, she is an ob- 
ject of great consideration, and equally a matter of course is it, as our 
author takes care to inform us, that among the number of her visitors 
are to be found Irishmen of various grades and habits, but all equally 
well matched on the score of excessive impudence. At the time the 
story commences, Melincourt Castle is filled with company who have 
just arrived, the majority from London, and some few from the neigh- 
bouring lakes. These, for the most part, are mere pedantic curiosities ; 
but there is one redeeming character among them; a Mr. Sylvan 
Forester, a high-minded, poetic enthusiast, fond of the practice of virtue 
for its own sake, of learning, for a similar reason—a man, in short, who 
is manifestly intended as a type of Mr. Peacock’s notions of perfeetion. 
Among this gentleman’s peculiarities is a passionate admiration of human 
nature in its wildest and most untutored condition ; a peculiarity which 
he carries to such an excess that, following up the well-known notion of 
Lord Monboddo, that “all men were originally monkeys, but that in 
process of time they wore out their tails,” he, with some difficulty, pro- 
cures an ourang-outang whom he educates, d-la-mode, and for whom he 
procures a baronetcy, under the appropriate title of Sir Ouran Haut-ton, 
and subsequently a rotten borough, the important and highly-disinterested 
borough of One Vote. Accompanied by this original, Mr. Forster makes 
his appearance at Melincourt, in the neighbourhood of which his own 
estate of Red Rose Abbey is situated ; is, of course, favourably received, 
inspires Anthelia with a strong interest in his favor, and after releasing 
her from an imprisonment to which she has been subjected by the offi- 
cious perseverance of one of her suitors, Lord Anophel Achthar, is finally 
rewarded with her hand and fortune. Such are the master features of 
a tale, which, though it extends to three volumes, is replete with arch 
