1829.] 



Domestic and Foreign. 



569 



side only. The history of Greece also, in 

 the heroic and classic ages (why does he add 

 the word classic ?), particiilarly the Argo- 

 nauts, and tlie lives of Hercules and 

 Theseus, to which allusion is perpetually 

 made in the poets, and which are strangely 

 omitted, or but slightly glanced at in the 

 common histories ; this is also supplied. 

 The story of the Greek states in the south 

 of Italy, and the successors of Alexander, 

 furnish other neglected topics for the ancient 

 portion ; and the modern part is usefiiUy 

 occupied with sketches of the feudal system, 

 chivalry, the crusades, and especially Bri- 

 tish India, and a glance at the British con- 

 stitution and a few statesmen, lawyers, 

 poets, &c. The whole very well executed. 



The Life and Remains of Wilmot War- 

 wick, edited by his friend Henry Vernon, 

 Vol. II. 1829.— Wilmot Warwick's faithful 

 executor has furnished half-a-dozen more 

 tales or sketches, all of them distinguishable 

 from the common run of things apparently 

 of tlie same class, by their being delivered 

 in a tone of good and considerate feeling, 

 prompted by a desire to enforce cheerfiil and 

 charitable impressions, to mitigate severe 

 constructions, and stir up inquiry relative to 

 habitual and indiscriminating judgments. 

 The tales of Julia and Sternhurst are the 

 more remarkable. The first is simply that 

 of two ladies, the one about forty, the other 

 twenty, the younger calling the elder aunt, 

 who take lodgings in the neighbourhood of 

 Cheltenham, where, being by themselves, 

 they are subjected, by the busy malice and 

 busier tongue of a lady patroness of the 

 place, to unfavourable constructions, for 

 w^hich it finally appears there was no founda- 

 tion. The elder lady had sympathized with 

 the sorrows of a victim to the arts of one 

 with whom she was herself on the point of 

 marriage, and brought up the child as her 

 own daughter. The little sketch is intro- 

 duced by some sharp and sarcastic remarks 

 on the severity of the ladies towards the 

 frail ones of their own sex, and their strange 

 indulgence to the libertines of the other. 

 The severity of married women is imputed 

 chiefly to want of consideration ; while the 

 spinster's might be justifiable if directed 

 towards the really offending party. But in 

 fact they confound vice with its victims. 



Surely the present ecouomy of morals in Eng- 

 land is bad. Looking at women as the guardians 

 of propriety (which they profess to be), we cannot 

 btitobserve by how great a loss of chiirity and hu- 

 mility the state of rectitude is maintained. Tliey 

 save pound-note* (that is, they keep them «;i- 

 changcii) and squander pounds' worth of pence. 

 No dualit much purity is preserved ; but by what 

 allowances for scandal in women, and for liber- 

 tinism in men I 



The present system is one of delicacy. Ladies 

 are to be keenly scrutinizing in the ways of 

 " naughty women," and to exhibit a delightfully 

 ignorant simplicity in respect to the naughty ways 

 of men. The policy of this it requires no very 

 great sagacity to discover. Were spijisteis avow- 



M.M. 2^ew Series VoL.VIII.No. 47- 



edly aware of man's Improprieties, tliey would 

 only prove by their leniency thereto, as compared 

 with their severity towards the failings of their 

 sex, that, however badly they might think of 

 a woman without virtue, they meditated still 

 more fearfully on the possibility of their remaining 

 without husbands; and, therefore, in respect to the 

 gentlemen, are content to make the best of a bad 

 helpmate. Candour, however, would, after all^ 

 prove the right policy. If women must scrutinize^ 

 let them demand from every wooer an account 

 of his bachelorship. Let them look after the 

 virtue of men, and their own virtue will take care 

 of itself. Let them also be careful lest their 

 aversion to improprifty be considered analogous 

 to canine madness, which causes in the sufferer an 

 abhorrence for that in the want of which the 

 disease originated. 



The tale of Julia shews a female may be 

 liberal without loss of honour, and indul- 

 gence reclaim a young offender. That of 

 Steinhurst is a tale of adultery, and the 

 object, not to recommend restoration, more 

 germanorum — ]Mrs. Haller to wit — but re- 

 moval without public exposure, gentleness 

 instead of severity, and forgiveness for viru- 

 lence. In a distant retreat, the bewitched, 

 but in consequence of gentle treatment, the 

 repentant woman, instead of flying to her 

 seducer's arms, lives a life of seclusion and 

 propriety ; and the hu.sband dying in a few 

 years, and convinced of his wife's reforma- 

 tion, bequeaths her his forgiveness, and 

 even the guardianship of her own children. 



Family Library, Vol. VI. History of 



the Jews, 2 vols., 1829 In this second 



volume, Mr. Jlilman conducts his animated 

 narrative through the captivity of the Jews — 

 their re-settlement in Palestine — the inva- 

 sions of Alexander, and his successors, both 

 in Egypt and Syria — the achievements of 

 the IMaccabees — the reigns of the Herods, 

 and the successions of Roman governor,s — 

 the rebellions and massacres, unparalleled 

 on so small an arena in any other part of 

 the world — the tumults excited by Simon 

 without, and by John within, the walls of 

 Jerusalem, down to the period when Titus, 

 on the accession of his father to the impe- 

 rial purple, was dispatched to take the capi- 

 tal, and complete the subjugation of the 

 country. Tlie story is, of necessity, un- 

 equal in point of detail — a mixture of the 

 scanty and abundant, varying of course with 

 the supply of materials, and the author is, 

 in consequence, occasionally tempted to 

 compensate the meagreness of some por- 

 tions, by amplifying others, when more cir- 

 cumstantial information is attainable. The 

 effect of this is an alternation of unsatisfac- 

 torincss and satiety ; and we are siure the 

 performances of Josephus and John of 

 Gischala might have been clipped considera- 

 bly, to the great relief of the reader. Va- 

 nity led Josejilms to dilate beyond the oc- 

 casion, and doubtless to magnify. 



We observe a very unworthy attempt, in 

 a cotcmporary publication, to depreciate Mr. 

 Milman's work, by describing it as being 

 4 D 



