Retrospect of Domestic Liter ature—Miscellanies. 
tion as it received in its performance at 
the Lyceum. 
‘* Hector; a Tragedy in five Acts ;” 
by J. Cx. J. Luce pe Lanctvat, per- 
formed for the first tirne at the French 
Theatre in Paris, Feb. 1, 1809, translated 
by Mr. Maxern, though spirited and 
patriotic, seems still best adapted to the 
closet. 
MISCELLANIES. 
A more elegantly written, or a more 
spirited pamphiet, than the “Reply to the 
Calumnies of the Edinburgh Review 
against Oxford,” has rarely met our 
notice. It is divided into five chapters. 
The first treats *¢ of the Study of Aristo- 
tle, and Neglect of the Mathematics,” in 
the examination of an Analysis of La’ 
Placés Traité de Méchanique Céleste. 
Tn the second chapter,we have ihe ‘* Eix- 
amination of aCriticisin in the 28th 
Number of the Edinburgh Review, on 
Falconer’s edition of Strabo ;” in which 
the writer appears to have exerted no 
ordinary powers of criticism. ‘The third 
chapter contains “Remarks on an Article 
upon Edgeworth’s Professional Educati. 
on.” The fourth is devoted to the 
** Course of Studies pursued at Oxford:” 
and, inthe fifth, we have the author’s 
remarks on ‘* Plans of Education in 
general, and particularly of English 
; Education; Abuse of the term Utility ; 
Remarks on the Study of Political 
Economy and Moral Philosophy; of 
some Vulgar Errors respecting Oxford ; 
Conclusion.” To give any general idea 
of the numerous points examined in the 
different chapters, within the narrow 
limits of a Retrospect, would be impos- 
siole. It may be enough to say, thatihe 
reviewer of Strabo seems to be consi- 
dered as the most powerful opponent of 
Oxford. On the subject of Political 
Economy, the study of which has been 
so often noticed in the Edinburgh Re- 
view as neglected at Oxford, we shall 
present the replier’s principal remarks. 
‘© This (he observes) is, beyond a 
doubt, of all sciences relating to human 
interests, that in which the greatest 
progress has been made in modern times; 
and much honour is due to those writers 
who have let in light upon this hitherto 
obscure and unfrequented track. But 
the effect of novelty and discovery is to 
attract for a season’an undué proportion 
of public favour. Such appears to me to 
have been the mistake with ‘regard to 
Political Economy; and in many instan- 
ces, it has been a dangerous, if nota 
mischievous, mistake : fur the attamment 
635 
of this science seems almost to have 
supplanted all the other branches of 
knowledge requisite for a statesman, to . 
have often narrowed his views, and to 
have made him regard every public mea- 
sure simply in the relation it bears to 
national wealth. But this object, as 
ZI have already contended, and ever will 
contend, against the clamorous sciolists 
of the day, is not the prime business of 
true policy. However important and 
even necessary it may be, it is a subor- 
dinate and not a predominant concern in 
public affairs—not less than the manage-= 
ment and improvement of an estate in 
private life, is an inferior duty to the 
education of children, the maintenance 
of character, and the guidance of a 
house. 
** Still it cannot be disputed, that the 
science has a tendency, if rightly studied, — 
to enlarge the mind, and that it will 
enable a man to perform many of the 
relatiwe duties of lite, both public and 
private, more correctly. On this ac- 
count, the introduction of it into the lec- 
tures on Modern History has always 
apneared to me a great improvement; 
and the still farther extension of the 
same enquiry would, I am persuaded, be 
much improved. z 
Its great leading principles, how- 
ever, are soon acquired: the ordinary ~ 
reading of the day supplies them, And 
with the majority of students, the more 
accurate study and investigation of its 
theorems may well be reserved for those 
situations and occasions, in which many 
of them will be placed at some future 
season, and which afford ample time for 
the completion of such enquiries. When 
combined with practical exertions, and 
called forth by particular occasions, these 
studies gain a firmer hold, and are pur- 
sued with more eager interest. The 
mind shonld indeed be early disciplined 
and fitted for that work: but the work 
itself may be done when the time comes, 
«Tt isa folly to think that every thing 
which a man is to know must be taught 
him while young, as if he were to spring 
at once from college, and be intrusted 
with the immediate management of the 
world; as if ife had no intervals for exe 
tending knowledge; as if intellectual 
exercise, and the act of learning, were 
unbecominy the state of manhood. 
“With regard to this science in pare 
ticnlar, there are many points init which 
make me think it a fitter employment 
for the mind in an advauced period of 
life, than when the affections are young 
and 
