428 
* for its distresses.. A great deal of edifying 
discourse is exehanged between these ladies ; 
and Isabel is so influenced by her adviser, 
(Miss Delmond’s) representations, who as- 
sures her that te accept Mr. Leslie under 
present circumstances would be an absolute 
breach of. the commandment, that, sore 
against her heart’s persuasions, she renoun- 
ces him,—hopelessly, decidedly—and never 
after, for one moment, ceases to repent of 
the renunciation. 
Miss Delmond has a nephew—an evan- 
gelical clergyman of the establishment— 
beautiful, eloquent, and—a saint. Him at 
this conjuncture, when Isabel’s thwarted 
emotions were, as Miss Delmond fondly 
imagined, most susceptible of a new im- 
pression, she introduces to, her young 
friend: and a rapid intimacy follows. The 
youth, head and ears in love—with her 
soul—labours incessantly after its conver- 
sion;—she, cool as a melon all the time, 
but rather pleased by his assiduities. She 
tires, however, at last, and escapes from 
both Miss Delmond and her nephew, 
éontraty to their jomt warnings, by a Lon- 
don visit; plunges into society — meets 
with Leslie again—but finds him evidently 
no longer her’s; and in addition to this 
witlieting truth, sees him pursued by a 
scheming mother and daughter, who at 
the same time pursue herself with relent- 
less malice. 
Desperate beneath her unreduced pas- 
sion, jealousy, and disappointment, she is 
suddenly recalled home by her uncle’s 
death; and naturally falls anew into the ever- 
extended arms. of the evangelicals. The 
nephew makes a successful move for him- 
self at this period of Isabel’s renewed con- 
flicts, and is accepted. They are on the 
point of marriage; when he discovers, 
through Isabel’s own precipitancy, that she 
is actually the writer of a successful tra- 
gedy, now in the full flow of nightly repre- 
sentation. To his remonstrances she pours 
back contempt: to his arguments she re- 
torts arguments, whetted by exultation at 
her own success, and pique, and suspicion, 
and indignation at his disapproval. They 
separate 3—he flies to Africa, to preach and 
die—she to London, to fame, wealth, and 
adulation. She marries; and is thrown 
again into Leslie’s soc ‘iety : but not before 
_her thorough conviction of his want of 
principle had quenched the Jast spark of 
love in her breast. The world, however, 
had not forgotten old times and follies— 
had not forgotten the persevering manner, 
in which she once had exhibited her-pre- 
dileetion for him; nor had he forgotten her 
former and more ‘early renunciation of him- 
self—revenge, i in its own good time, he had 
no objection to take, and become the in- 
strument of her abasement hereafter. They. ,and*whippi ng 
were one morning accidentally alone—he 
had been renewing adyances, occasionally . 
made before—he had taken her hand-——and 
while she was preparing a sentence. calcu- 
Monthly Review of Literature, 
[Ocr. 
lated to stifle his expectation for ever, a 
Lady Barrymore, a very dear friend of 
Isabel’s, enters—confusion and awkward- 
ness ensue, and-Isabel’s character is done 
up for life! Her husband, although he 
says he gives entire credence to her de- 
clarations of innocence, thinks they had 
better separate for the present—her ‘best 
friends write word how grieved. they are, 
but they lie under their husbands’. com- 
mands not to visit her until some explana- 
tion has taken place, and kindly remind 
her of her own former intolerance towards 
others. 
Back, for the last time, she posts to the 
country. Bereft of all interest in life from 
the annihilation of her worldly hopes, she 
gives herself up to religion—much to Miss 
Delmond’s joy: who thinks that now 
alone, by the extinction of every other 
prospect, is she in a safe way to the throne 
of Omnipotence: 
Truth, a Novel, 3 vols. 8vo. 1826.—We 
have been deluged of late with evangelical 
and orthodox novels. We like neither one 
nor the other. Here we have, as might 
be expected, an infidel one, ineuleating the 
doctrines of deism, which we dislike as 
much as the other, and on the same prin- 
ciple. It is not giving our judgment fair 
play; it is treacherously entrapping our 
assents. These ure subjects for the under- 
standing merely ; but in tales of this kind, 
the individual whose opinions are to be 
recommended and enforced, must ‘be ‘in- 
vested with every attribute that ean charm 
the imagination’and win our approbation ; 
our affections are’ thus at once enlisted 
blindly on the side of the seductive cham- 
pion. We do not. say, thatthe most 
agreeable and valuable qualities are incom- 
patible with eccentric, or even dangerous 
sentiments; but the aim and object should 
not be to beguile us into assent, but. to 
permit us to examine the soundness of 
opinions, and those opinions — therefore 
should not be sedulously associated with 
what inevitably seizes upon the heart, and 
biasses and for ever binds .us to its convic- 
tions. Now here is a Jady—we know her 
from ehildhood—young and beautiful, mo- 
dest and ingenuous, firm and faithful, with 
an affectionate heart and a powerful intel- 
lect—cultivated and accomplished—quali- 
ties, on which we all fondly dwell, and 
which naturally prepossess; and reading 
novels, as most of us habitually do, with 
little activity of vigilance, we readily chime 
in with opinions, which, when more on 
our guard, would be sure to startle us;,and 
find ourselves insensibly assenting to conclu- 
sions, without discussing veryimatzowly the 
premises. Unhappily, her m 
ronian severities , ear], 
ra go Ba and: 
restrictions, are indissolubly associated in 
her infant mind; indignation Renee 
reasoning powers. prematurely ;. ‘the wbi 
describes cruelties, and eruislties: Ap 
