EUROPEAN. 305 



Philip Sidney's Arcadia, is a pastoral romance, of great beauty ; 

 but Sir Thomas More's Utopia, describing an imaginary land of per- 

 fection, had a political object. Boyle's Parthenissa, and Mrs. Man- 

 ley's rftalantis, were perhaps the first English novels relating to the 

 fashionable life of their times. Richardson's novels, Pamela, Cla- 

 rissa Harlowe, and Sir Charles Grandison, are attempts to paint 

 perfection ; but have considerable merit. Fielding's novels, including 

 Tom Jones, and Smollet's novels, including Roderick Random, 

 portray scenes of common and low life with force, but too often 

 descend to vulgarity. Dr. Johnson's Rasselas, is a philosophical 

 tale ; and Goldsmith's Vicar of Wakejield, is natural and beautiful ; 

 one of the best works of its kind. Of Sterne's Tristram Shandy, 

 we think less favorably. Mrs. Radcliffe's novels, including the Mys- 

 teries of Udolpho, and the Italian, are chiefly tales of terror ; and 

 still worse are M. G. Lewis's Ambrosio or the Monk, Walker's 

 Three Spaniards, and Maturin's Melmoth or the Wanderer. Mrs. 

 Roche's novels are chiefly sentimental ; of which the best is perhaps 

 the Children of the Abbey. Miss Jane Porter's Thaddeus of War saw * 

 and Scottish Chiefs, are pleasing compositions ; perhaps superior to- 

 the Don Sebastian, and other novels, of Miss Anna Maria Porter, 

 her sister. Evelina, Camilla, and other novels by Miss Burney, 

 (Mrs. Darblay), and especially Miss Edgeworth's novels, including 

 Belinda, and Helen, are superior in style and sentiment. Mrs. 

 Holland's novels, including the Son of a Genius, are beautiful and 

 instructive. D'Israeli's Vivian Grey, and Young Duke ; Bulwer's 

 Devereux, Rienzi, and other novels ; and Marryat's Peter Simple, 

 Jacob Faithful, and other productions, are powerful descriptions, but 

 of doubtful tendency. Of James's novels, Darnley, Philip Augustus, 

 Richelieu, Attila and others, we think favorably ; but the great 

 novelist of our language is Sir Walter Scott ; of whose novels, more 

 than five-and-twenty in number, Guy Mannering, The Antiquary, 

 The Heart of Mid Lothian, and Ivanhoe, are among those which 

 we prefer. 



Of English essays, those found in Johnson's Rambler, and Idler; 

 in Addison's Spectator ; in Mackenzie's Mirror, and Lounger ; and 

 in Cumberland's Connoisseur, are among the more celebrated. The 

 letters of Lord Shaftsbury and Mr. Harris are philosophical treatises. 

 Those of Pope are rather pedantic ; those of Swift unaffected, but they 

 show his character in no favorable light. The letters of Bolingbroke, 

 of Dr. Arbuthnot, and of Bishop Atterbury, are said to be superior. 

 Cowper's letters are beautiful, and exhibit an attractive character. 

 As prominent British orators, we would name Chatham, Pitt, Fox, 

 Burke, and Sheridan among the statesmen ; and Knox, Tillotson, 

 Butler, Sherlock, Barrow, Heber, Hall, and Chalmers, among the 

 divines. 



4. Of Dutch Callography, which is limited in extent, and of 

 minor importance, we must speak very briefly. The first poets of 

 note, in the Dutch language, were Van Der Doos, (or Douza), who 

 wrote the Annals of Holland in verse ; and the Heinse, (or Heinsius, 

 father and son), who wrote however chiefly in the classic tongues. 

 The poems of Cats are said to be spirited and pious ; those of Van 

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