332 



MontU^ Review of Literature, 



[Skft. 



open it. In France he Is presented to Ma- 

 dame Maintenon and the khig, under the 

 auspices of Fleuri ; but, before any thing 

 can be done for him, the king dies. Luckily, 

 he rescues the regent from an awkward 

 scrape, into which his dissipation had led 

 him, becomes a favourite, and assists at the 

 petits soupers with the regent and his roues, 

 where the party cook their o^vn supper. 

 Employment is the count's object ; and he 

 is speedily dispatched to Russia on a special 

 mission, and has the good fortune to conci- 

 liate Peter, and partake of his rough hospi- 

 tahties, too. On his return, Du Bois' ugly 

 mistress falls in love with him, and, on Du 

 Bois resenting it, publicly affronts the 

 haughty minion. His dismissal became in- 

 evitable ; and he accordingly offers his ser- 

 vices to Peter, who immediately emjjloys 

 liim, in offices of confidence and profit. In 

 the Russian service he continues till Peter's 

 death, by which time he finds himself in 

 possession of great wealth, and solicits his 

 conge. At some German court, where he 

 had been residing, he gets involved in some 

 perplexing debates with a philosophical 

 atheist ; and, becoming shaken in his con- 

 victions on the subject of revelation, he re- 

 solves, as the best means of coming to a 

 sound and safe conclusion, to retire into 

 Italy, in the neighbourhood of some con- 

 vent, for the sake of books especially and 

 quiet, and consider the matter at leisure. 

 In this seclusion he discovers his younger 

 brotlier — whom he had understood to be 

 dead years before — in the shape of a hermit. 

 This miserable hennit— he did not recognize 

 the count— has a tale of horror to communicate. 

 Without knowing him, he makes Devereux 

 his confidant. He had been his brother's 

 rival — the murderer of his wife — the coad- 

 jutor of the Jesuit ! No sooner was the com- 

 munication made, than the hermit dies ; and 

 Devereux, armed with the proper docu- 

 nients, flies to England, impatient to see the 

 brother he had wronged by his suspicions, 

 and to seize and hang the Jesuit. The bro. 

 thcrs meet, and Devereux refuses to take 

 back the estates ; but, in the melee that fol- 

 lows, in an attempt to rescue the Jesuit, the 

 brother is killed; and the said estates, of 

 course, without further ido, fall into the 

 wealthy count's hands, who is now only 

 thirty-four, and will doubtless hve on to car- 

 ry us, in another three volumes, through a 

 considerable part of the century. 



One word stiU. The historical matter is 

 every where correctly and easily introdiiced, 

 and all according to the best existing evi- 

 dence. The scenes are generally well-ma- 

 naged, and the judgments, as our neigh- 

 bours would say, well motived. The whole 

 is, indeed, famihar to reading men, espe- 

 cially those who have any acquaintance with 

 Frendi and English memoirs, and literary 

 history. But, considering into whose hands 

 the book will fall — into many who know 

 , little of these matters — it must do good : it 

 must excite a taste for better things — for 



something like facts and realities, and the 

 neglect of idle fancies or fashionable foppery. 

 The performance, in short, is a very supe- 

 rior one, and places the author — a conspi- 

 cuous mark — at the head of his class ; and 

 that class is among the first. 



We wish we could quote a purpureus pan- 

 nus, in the beginning of the second volume, 

 relative to Spinosa, and man's entanglement 

 in the spider's-web of necessity. We can 

 only direct the reader's attention to it ; but 

 his must be a dull eye that does not catch it. 



The Anthology, by the Rev. J. D. 

 Parry ; 1829. This is planned for the 

 first specimen of a new annual, the object 

 and aim of whicli is to combine amusement 

 and instruction for young people from ten, 

 it seems, to fifteen, and calculated for a 

 reward book in schools. It consists wholly 

 of selections, and the editor claims nothing 

 but the merit of diligence and judgment — 

 of consulting, that is, nearly two hundred 

 volumes, and of rejecting not more than 

 half of them. The first fact attests his 

 diligence, and the last his judgment, if not 

 his liberality — for surely to find in every 

 second book he consulted something worth 

 reprinting, can never be the act of a very 

 stern censor. The articles are classed as 

 I. Ciuriosities in Zoology, Botany, &c. ; II. 

 Tales, Apologues and Anecdotes; III. 

 Voyages and Travels ; IV. Moral, Elegant, 

 and Jliscellaneous Extracts ; and V. Poe- 

 try ; with respect to which the editor ob- 

 serves, the natural history consists of 

 sketches of some curious foreign produc- 

 tions : tlie tales liave been taken principally 

 from the French, partly because the unex- 

 ceptionable writers of that nation seem to 

 possess a greater power over the taste and 

 feelings than any others, and also because 

 on a hasty survey, scarcely any could be 

 found in English sufficiently brief to suit the 

 space for which they were intended. And 

 as to the rest he has nothing particular to 

 say — nor have we, except to express our 

 wonder at finding an anecdote, given on 

 anonymous authority, of Judge Hale's con- 

 tempt of witches and witchcraft, in the teeth 

 of judicial and indisputable evidence to the 

 contrary. We may add another Uttle won- 

 derment of ours too, at finding, in thefom'th 

 division, the only extract from a living 

 author, to be one from Dr. Dibdin's sermon 

 on Joseph's fihal piety, the extreme poverty 

 of which might surely have screened it from 

 republication. The editor promises better 

 things next time ; and will probably — nay 

 we have no doubt, for he is obviously a man 

 of good taste — make good his promise. It 

 is a very nice httle book for schools. 



Waverley Novels, Vol. 3. ; 1829 — The 

 distinguishing feature in this new edition of 

 the Waverley Novels, are the Prefaces, 

 which the author is pledged to give, com- 

 municating particulars relative to the origin 

 and sources of the tales, and occasionally of 

 the characters. Guy Mamiering's preface— i 



