Monlhh/ Review of Liieratnre, 



I^JULY, 



them. Few men, to be sure, are pro- 

 phets at home, but a writer usually en- 

 lists family vanity in his favour, and 

 papa's book will be read because some 

 credit is thought to be reflected on his 

 children. But here such things should 

 stop, and certainly not be printed and 

 published. Respectable as Mr. Ainslie's 

 book is, it adds nothing to the stock of in- 

 formation on the matter, and is there- 

 lore superfluous. The able " Writer of 

 the Signet" presumes too much on his 

 professional skill in describing the de- 

 tails of evidence, and considers himself 

 entitled to attention s])ecifically on this 

 ground. A little self-deception is the 

 commonest thing in the world ; and it 

 was no doubt easy for the author to be- 

 lieve that Paley and Chalmers would 

 have done better had they been lawyers 

 as well as divines. Certainly Mr. Ains- 

 lie has not exhibited his kf/al advantages 

 in a very favourable view ; and it is 

 pretty clear that sound sense and saga- 

 city, emjjloyed independently, must be 

 of more service in matters of this kind 

 than the acumen of the courts — where 

 men are engaged not in exhibiting truth, 

 but in detecting one set of errors and 

 establishing another. At all events 

 truth is not the object, but the carrying 

 of the cause. We ai'e quite satisfied 

 that much of the evidence which this 

 gentleman here admits and urges without 

 scruple, would have been rejected by 

 him in a court of justice, had he been 

 judge, juryman, attorney, or opposing 

 counsel. 



Comparing the state of religious sen- 

 timents among the heathens with those 

 of Jews and Christians, he quotes Agrip- 

 pa's declaration to the senate, " that the 

 Gods themselves must submit to fate," 

 as if such a declaration in such a place, 

 and on such an occasion, were to be 

 taken as the cool measure of his own 

 sentiments, or even of that of the ma- 

 jority of those who heard it. Pliny, 

 again, describing the consternation oc- 

 casioned by the explosions of Ve- 

 suvius, says, " they made people 

 think that gods and men were perishing 

 in one common ruin," as if this were any 

 thing but a rhetorical flourish, to be 

 matched by scores of passages of pre- 

 cisely similar import from half the chris- 

 tian poets extant, without impeaching 

 the spirituality of their conceptions. 



The Young Dnke, hy the Author of 

 "•' Vixsxun Grey;" 3 vols. \2mo. — Young 

 D'Israeli, already well known by his 

 Vivian Grey, is a very clever fellow, 

 who, with considerable knowledge, with 

 a sharp ej^e and ready wit, with a happy 

 tact at seizing the ludicrous and eccen- 

 tric, with great power of describing, 

 with abundance of language to paint not 

 only the visible, but the metaphysical, 



reasons, and generalizes and speculates, 

 as the whim takes him ; now like a phi- 

 losopher, and now, where we like him 

 better, like a poet, and now and then 

 also, must we say, like — a puppy ? The 

 new story is nothing — the virtue is all 

 in the manner — it is that of a Young 

 Duke, who, coming into possession of 

 prodigious wealth, accumulated by along 

 minority, dashes into all sorts of extra- 

 vagance — takes the lead wherever he goes 

 — successfully partakes of every folly, 

 and exhausts every source of pleasure, 

 till he gets hampered and embarrassed, 

 and is brought to consideration partly by 

 the difficulties into which he has thus 

 thrown himself, partly by the weariness 

 of his feelings, and partly by a pair of 

 bright eyes. There are few of the 

 scenes which are not recognizable by a 

 person familiar with London life ; every 

 where, such an one might siiy, the 

 author is alluding to so and so, or he has 

 such and such an one in his eye. Par- 

 ticular scenes are worked up with great 

 skill and force, and abused and ridiculed 

 as the author has been, we stake our 

 critical reputation upon the gaming 

 scene, beginning page (iC, vol. iii. which 

 cannot be dipt, and never, in its way, 

 was surpassed. We have no space for 

 the extract — it is a choice morsel. 



Spain in 1830, hy Henry D. Inglis, — 

 heretofore knoivn by the nom-de-guerre of 

 Derwcnt Co7iu-(iy, "2 vols. J5i'o.— Its supe- 

 riority as a book of travels is obvious at 

 the first glance, and we can assure the 

 reader he will reap much valuable in- 

 formation as to the actual condition of 

 Spain, both political and domestic. Mr. 

 Inglis is not content with merely record- 

 ing what chance throws in his way, nor 

 does he scamper over the coimtry jiost- 

 haste, but takes time — inquires, com- 

 pares, digests, and in the results com- 

 municates more real knowledge of Spain 

 in a few pages than many travellers in a 

 volume. The " Young American's" was 

 not a bad book, but will not bear com- 

 pai-ison with Mr. Inglis's ; and as to Sir 

 Arthur Brooke's, though written plea- 

 santly enough, it tells of little but his 

 personal adventures, which were scarcely 

 worth the telling. Except the north- 

 west of Spain, Mr. Inglis has visited all 

 the more remarkable parts of the coun- 

 try. Entering Spain from France, in 

 the month of !ftlay, he spent two or thi-ee 

 weeks first at Bilboa, and then proceeded 

 to JNIadrid, where he passed the summer, 

 making occasional excursions to the Es- 

 curial, Segovia, Toledo, &c. On the ap- 

 proach of autumn he set out for Cordova, 

 and visiting successively Seville, Xeres, 

 Cadiz, Gibraltar, JMalaga, Granada, 

 MjLircia, AUcant, Valentia, b}' the close 

 of the year reached Barcelona — Jinis char- 

 tceque vi<Bque — for there -he ends his tra- 



