Of these species the only one which we fhall notice, is the fenfus extentionis acrior. This is feated in the mufcles; and the states of it are particularly defcribed, under the terms titillatio, pruritus, and dolor urens. Thefe, in Dr. Darwin's opinion, differ chiefly in degree. The feats of the feelings, however, are not the fame: the first is certainly confined to the tuperficial nerves, the second to the fuperficial veffels, and the third is feated in the skin and fubjacent parts.

(To be continued.)

The Young Philofopher: a Novel. By Charlotte Smith. 4 Vols. 12mo. 16s. Boards. Cadell and Davies. 1798.

FEW writers have laboured more indefatigably, or with greater fuccefs, than Mrs. Smith, in this popular fpecies of compofition. The readers of novels confider her almost as an old friend; and the recollection of Ethelinde, Delmond, the Old Manor-Houfe, and Celeftina, may predispose them to be pleafed with a new production from the hand that has so often delighted them. If there be a kind of family likeness in her heroines, we do not wish to fee the character altered, as we can hardly expect it to be improved, Her ftories do not agitate like the myfterious horrors of Mrs. Radcliffe; they do not divert like the lively caricatures of Mrs. D'Arblay; but, more true to nature than either, they awaken that gentle and increafing intereft which excites our feelings to the point of pleasure, not beyond it.

The prefent taie appears under a promifing title; but, fays Mrs. Smith,

I fufpect that in many inftances my hero forgets his pretenfions, and has no claim to the character of a philofopher; that however will prove only that the title of my book is a mifnomer ; the book itself will be no worfe.' Vol. i. P. iv.

The character of George Delmont is thus given by his maiden aunt, an old methodistical malicious woman, by whose fondness for detraction many of the diftreffes in the ftory are ⚫ccafioned.

"When he was a child he feemed to have a very great capacity

-There was nothing, fir," faid fhe, "that ftruck the child, that he did not immediately afk questions about it-questions indeed very extraordinary for his age; and he would never be content without fome answer that appeared to him reasonable.-I own I thought from this defire of enquiry that he would be a very learned and great man."

The doctor was not quite fure that an acute enquirer was the likelieft to make a very great man, in Mrs. Crewkherne's acceptation of the word.It was not an objection, however, that he was difpofed to make-and he continued to liften with great attention.-

"And for my own part," he went on to fay; " for my own part, I had the highest hopes of him, till his mother when he was about five years old, and ought to have gone to a grammar school, took it into her head to keep him at home and instruct him herself -Then I forefaw that he would be ruined-for inftead of the ufual way of bringing up children, fhe had the most unaccountable notions of her own!--and it was fo uneafy to her to have her eldest son, now captain Delmont, fent to a school to prepare him for Eton, that the late lord Caftledanes and her husband colonel Delmont, who neither of them ever contradicted her, fuffered her to keep this boy till he was eleven years old with her-and fo, I know not by what fort of reading indeed, for I never was confulted, fhe made him a philofopher, it feems, in baby clothes! and my little master had a fet of opinions of his own, which he never was flogged out of, as he ought to have been, at Eton-So instead of now proceeding to make his fortune by following a profeffion, you fee the confequence !-Here he is, at twenty-one, calling himfelf a farmer, and determined to be nothing more. This little bit of an eftate-a paltry scrap of earth of not an hundred acres, is to confine his ambition, becaufe, forfooth, he is a philofopher!

Grant me patience!—to think, Dr. Winflow, that a young man who might be any thing fhould fo throw himself away !—A farmer indeed! which any of our clowns can be !---He!· -a young man of his family, of his connections, who might be any thing-but indeed my good fir, if it were not that I well know every one predeftined to their lot, and that all is ordered for the beft, I fhould have many an hour of concern for this family.' Voj, i, p. 32.

But the conduct of the mother, and the early fentiments which the inftilled into George Delmont, deferve to be more fairly reprefented than by Mrs. Crewkherne.

Mrs. Delmont ventured to ftrip from the gaudy pictures that are daubed with vermilion and leaf gold, to excite emulative ambition in childhood, their paint and their gilding, and he had reafon, long before death fnatched her from this dearest object of her maternal love, to hope that her youngest fon might be one day

fomething better than either a general or an admiral-the benefactor inftead of the fuccessful deftroyer of his fellow men.

Delmont had at a very early age acquired a more general and correct knowledge of hiftory than is ufually obtained; and his mother had accustomed him, when he read the lives, to give a fummary account of his idea of the characters of those who figure in the annals of nations, decorated with crowns and fceptres, or who have otherwife been the curfes or the bleffings of the people over whom they ufurped power, or by whom they were entrusted with it.

Much (alas how much) of this retrospection was painful to the generous feelings of his heart; and often had he been tempted to afk, wherefore heaven gave a portion of its delegated authority to fuch hateful or contemptible beings as had infulted its creatures, and deformed its works, under the title of "the lords anointed," or fome other impofing appellation through which the wretched people fubmitted to be trod to duft?

'Mrs. Delmont had fometimes found it neceffary to check the indig nation of her infant politician; who, after he was nine or ten years old, never voluntarily fat down to read pages that seemed almost exclufively the annals of fraud and murder, of selfish ambition, or wicked policy, involving millions in mifery for the gratification of a few.

But there were characters in more remote history, which he contemplated with very different fenfations-He read of the elder Brutus avenging the injured honour of a Roman matron on the infolent and cruel family of Tarquin, and cementing the structure of the infant republic, of which he thus laid the foundation, with blood dearer than that which circulated in his own veins. He read of the Gracchi dying in the nobleft conflict, contending for the rights of humanity against the felfifh ufurpations of the rich-He contemplated the younger Brutus deploring the friend, while he devoted to death the tyrant that would have enflaved his countryHe faw Cato dying by his own hand, rather than survive its freedom-Thefe and fome other fuch characters seemed to electrify the young ftudent; his eyes flashed fire, his heart beat, and the glorious examples of virtuous patriotifm appeared to raise his fpecies. in his estimation, which he had fometimes thought so degraded by its endurance of oppreffion, that he felt afhamed of belonging to it.' Vol. i. p. 87.

Mrs. Glenmorris, whofe husband is refident in America, appears in England with her daughter Medora, to affert by law the claim of that young lady to the moiety of a confiderable fortune. Glenmorris himself is reprefented as a man of thofe fimple republican principles which were once characteristic of the Americans. His previous hiftory, as related by his wife to Delmont, occupies nearly the whole of the fecond

volume. We cannot but confider this as a great fault in the work. Such an interruption to the courfe of the ftory difappoints the reader; and the effect is always unpleafant. The ftory itfelf, however, is very interefting; and though the events are romantically ftrange, they do not exceed probabi lity.

The fimple unadulterated virtues of Medora engage the affections of Delmont; and his love is what we rarely obferve in novels-a manly and rational attachment. We will not deprive our readers of the pleasure which they will find in following the ftory, by sketching the fubfequent fortunes of the young philofopher.

One part of Delmont's conduct is, we think, not only inconfiftent with the title of the book, but with the character of the man. His brother requests him to give fecurity for a fum, nearly equal to the whole of what he poffeffes: the character of the brother is well delineated in their converfation upon this fubject.

Why what ufe," faid Adolphus, "haft thou, my honeft George, for money? Thou art a philofopher, and bore with admirable compofure to fee the family title and family estate made over, by the act of dotard, to a couple of brats that, I'll anfwer for it, have no more claim to them by blood than the children of my coachman. You could philofophize then, I remember, and reprefented, in the mightiness of your wifdom, to my father and to me, that we had no right to complain. Befides, you are a practi cal farmer, you know, and great in the first beft métier of man, agriculture. While God fpeeds the plough,' you can never want money, and I dare fay you have already got a drawer full of canvas bags ftuffed with guineas; I am perfuaded of this; because, had it not been fo, you would have taken to fome profeffion that might have given you an income, or you would have married. Why, I hear you refused a devilish fine woman with fifty thousand pounds? Prythee, if it is not too late, George, make her over to me. I always think, fo far, your fine highflying notions of liberty are right enough; that I would have every man live as he will, and with whom he will, whether he mutters over a few mufty words, or dares to appropriate fome fair one to himself without them, all's right, and your ideas of freedom don't go beyond mine; but when a foolish fellow refufes to mumble over these said nonfenfical words for fear he fhould lofe his liberty, I laugh at him. What a bourgeoife idea! Tell me George, faith now, was it fuch a notion that made thee coy to the fifty thousand pounder? Was thy morality-Morality, I recollect, is thy cant; was it that which told thee, and if thou marriedft the heirefs, thou must give up thy little American, thy fafcinating yankey?"

Well as George Delmont had formerly known his brother's

manner, he had been fo long unused to it, and this attack on such an occafion was fo extraordinary, that he knew not immediately. how to parry it. At length collecting himself, and remembering that it was the fon of a mother he had adored, his brother, who thus infulted him, he answered-That as to money, his not having entered into any profeffion, for which he thought himself not oblig ed to account to any one, was the very reason why he was likely to want money. ་་ Farming, major Delmont," faid he, "never attracted me by the lucrative profpects it offered, but because I hoped to keep myfelf independent by it; and if it was in my nature to retort upon you, I fhould fay, that I have done better to engage the little I had in any honeft way of making its intereft, than to lose it, as I am afraid you have done, among sharpers."

"Oh! no," replied the major with aftonishing fang froid, "devil take me if I have loft a guinea among the Greeks, as you fuppofe; it has been all among ourselves; honeft fellows who never do any thing but fight, or play, or love, or drink, and who are as poor as church mice; for example, I have taken up fifteen hundred pounds, for which I expect you to join me in fecurity, to pay Jemmy Winfly, as honeft a lad as ever lived. The whole regiment knows that he won it fairly. As for the other two thoufand, it is difperfed round the world, and will find its way back to me fome day or other; and you know that when I touch the pitiful legacy of that old dupe, our late uncle, which I shall make Gorges pay me before I leave London, this may be paid. But, George, you don't answer, methinks, about these bonnes fortunes of yours? If you have really refigned the banker's golden daughter, is your philofophy fhip difinterested enough to give a letter of recommendation to your elder brother? Eh, George? On that condition I will not infift on going to Upwood, and being introduced to thy little humming bird from Maffachusets.. Nay, never look fo gloomy and grave, Georgy, but anfwer."

"I have determined to keep my temper, major Delmont," anfwered the younger brother.

"There you are right," interrupted the elder.

"And to do you all the fervice in my power," added he.

"Right again," exclaimed the major.

"And you shall not find that to this paltry raillery you facrifice the brotherly offices, which if, as a brother, I owe you, I would more readily pay you as a friend."

"It is all the fame why you do them, if you do but do them fpeedily," faid the major, coldly; "fo let me know at what hour this evening we fhall meet; for I have promifed to bring my furety in the course of the day, and am to have the fifteen hundred tomorrow. So you wont make over your heiress to me?-Why, you blockhead, if I can get her you will be made whole again, and I'll do something handsome to help the next feftivity of thy harveft fupper, or for the goflips at the chriftening of my little AnCRIT. REV. VOL. XXIV, Sept. 1798.

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