DomesiJc and Foreign. 



1829.] 



two or three years, by the relenting pois- 

 sarde, who had saved her from the hands 

 of her bloody companions, but not from the 

 f,Tipe of a lingering disease. Circumstances 

 now thicken — at first they tell against poor 

 Clarina, and Rybrent renounces her ; bul, 

 ultuiiately, aU of coiurse comes out clear, and 

 Claverham perishes abroad in some miser- 

 able manner, and Kybrent and Clarina are 

 united, <SlC. — but Agatha does not come to 

 life again. 



Stewart's Stories from the History of 

 Scotland; 1829 — air. Stewart, of Douglas, 

 is much and favourably known as an ac- 

 tive compiler of juvenile books ; and we 

 liave besides a volume of sermons now lying 

 by us, " M'ritten not to extend his literary 

 fame," he says, " but to obviate an invi- 

 dious conclusion, drawn by some charitable 

 persons — that he must have been too much 

 engrossed by profane pursuits to find leisure 

 for the discharge of his clerical duties, or 

 the study of theology." This amiable con- 

 clusion comes no longer from the Assem- 

 lly ; Mr. S. might, like Home, write a 

 tragedy if he pleased, and no longer, like 

 him, be in danger of being unfrocked. But 

 in the multiplicity and variety of his pub- 

 lications, J\lr. IS. has a,t last, with little 

 felicity, we fear it wiU be thought, come in 

 conflict and competition with the leviathan 

 of his country. His Scotch Stories must 

 inevitably endure tlie comparison, v/hich 

 few men would willingly encounter ; but 

 the author is not to be regarded as pro- 

 voking the comjiarison, for Ids was the first 

 publication. The volume before us is a 

 second and enlarged edition, in the preface 

 to which, the author expresses the relief he 

 felt on discovering the competition was not 

 so close as he had at first di'eadcd. Though 

 simUar, his plan in some respects differs. 

 His object is to give detached stories, 

 without trouljling himseU" with any other 

 connexion than that of mere chronological 

 succession ; while Sir "Walter has linked his 

 fules together, so as to form a continued 

 history. Mr. S. again has adliered rigidly 

 to historical truth, as a moral obligation, in 

 a book destined for the instruction of chil- 

 dren ; v.hereas Sir W. has often indulged 

 his love of romance, and declined not to 

 mix up, in his own fascinating manner, the 

 apocrypha of tradition with the established 

 facts of canonical history. Sir. S., more- 

 over, has adapted his narratives to the com- 

 prehension, he thinks, of the youngest 

 reader, while Sir W. abandoned that at- 

 tempt, because he found tliat a style con- 

 biderably more elevated was more interest- 

 ing to his juvenile reader. The author,^ in 

 short, with recovered courage, and some 

 complacency, concludes — " His little book 

 is more, what it was intended to be, a com- 

 panion to Mr. Crokcr's admirable Stories 

 from English History :" and adds, " as the 

 test of success — tlie preference has been 

 given to his stories, in many instances, by 

 children of the age for whicli they were de- 



10.3 



signed." Mr. S.'s last stories are — Shaqie's 

 Blurder, and the Battle of Bothwell Bridge. 

 A second volume will bring events to 1745. 



Life of Alexander the Great, by the 

 Iici\ J. Williams, Vicar of Lampeter ; 

 \{V2.'.f — This constitutes the third volume 

 oti^Iurray's well-conceived Family Library, 

 and is incomparably the best life — the most 

 careful and correct estimate of Alexander's 

 aciiievernents we have. The writer is a scho- 

 lar — a ripe and good one ; and, like Mit- 

 ford, has gone to the original sources, that 

 is, the nearest to the original extant, for 

 his materials, and has exercised a sound 

 judgment in the use of them. The sources 

 to whicii we allude are not cotemporary 

 ones — tliese have long since disappeared — 

 nor do we know what degree precisely of 

 authority to assign to them. The circum- 

 stances of the writers are all unknown to 

 us. Singularly enough, tliey are all nearly 

 of the same period, and that from four to 

 five centuries after the times of Alexander. 

 Judging from internal evidence, the signs 

 and marks which indicate respect for truth 

 and industry of research, the superiority is 

 obviously due to Arrian and Sttabo — to the 

 first particularly, whose professed aim was 

 to dispel the cloud of falsehood and absur- 

 dity v.hieh hung upon his hero's story. 

 Upon Arrian accordingly, Mr. AV'iUiams 

 mainly, or rather almost exclusively, relies 

 — rejecting for the most part the stories 

 which Plutarch, Athena;us, and Curtius, 

 have put forth, though these writers are 

 not fairly classed together. Plutarch and 

 AtheuKiis \/cre mere anecdote-mongers, 

 and of course neitlier scrupulous nor dis- 

 criminating ; but Curtius vvrote the history 

 in detail, and is no otherwise inferior, in 

 point of credibility, than as a flashy de- 

 claimer must always be to a sober narrator. 

 He had the same authorities before him as 

 Arrian, and v/as only misled by the meteors 

 of his own undisciplined imagination. Of 

 tl'.ese autliorities, Aristobulus and Ptolemy, 

 both tV.3 companions of ^Vlexander — the for- 

 mer has the character of an extravagant eu- 

 logist. Of both, in Curtius and Arrian, we 

 have probably the pith, and have only to 

 choose between them by the rules of com- 

 mon sense. Arrian, in relating a report, 

 wiiich he neither adopts nor rejects, ob- 

 serves, and the sentiment has been repeat- 

 ed a thousand times — " If it be true (the 

 story refers to Alexander's reported visit to 

 Darien's wife and daughters, in company 

 with his friend Hephsstion, whom the 

 queen mistook for himself, and whom he 

 termed his other-self) I praise Alexander 

 for his compassionate kindness to the prin- 

 cesses, and the affection and respect shown 

 by him to his friend ; and if it be not true, 

 I praise liim for his general character, 

 which made writers conclude that such ac- 

 tions and speeches would, if ascribed to 

 Alexander, appear probable." Scores of 

 stories are fiying about of eminent indivi- 

 duals, wliidi, if not true, liavc souictliing of 



