glo-American nephew or niece.--Come, come, don't monopolize -You have made your election for the new world-put me, my dear boy, in a way to enjoy the old one." Vol. iii. P. 9. That George Delmont, who had fufficient philofophy to follow his own feelings and opinions in defiance of thofe of the world, should almoft beggar himfelf to fupply the wants of his brother, an unprincipled man of fashion, is furely very inconfiftent. The real diftreffes of a friend or relative might have been made to furnish motives ftrong enough for fuch conduct, and Delmont might have been fo compelled to impoverish himself by good and juft feelings; but it is a childith and criminal weaknefs in him to rifque his little fortune and happi nefs merely to afford a temporary refource to a profligate. The Cecilia and Camilla of Mrs. d'Arblay diftrefs themfelves by a fimilar conduct; but the conduct which accords with the timidity of their fex, is ridiculous in a man accuftomed to think justly, and to act with manly decifion. We obferve another fault in the ftory, and it is a fault prominent in fome of the other novels of this lady. Being her felf a fufferer by law, perhaps by profeffional chicanery and injuftice, fhe has again introduced diftreffes from the prolific fource of law; and her lawyers are again defcribed as equally contemptible and wicked. We are forry that Mrs. Smith fhould degrade her productions by perfonal fatire; for fuch, the preface informs us, this is. I have made thefe drawings' (the fays) a little like people of that fort whom I have feen, certain that nothing I could imagine would be fo correct, when legal collufion and profeffional oppreflion were to be reprefented.' Thefe drawings we muft confider as caricatures ; and most readers, we believe, will with with us that the authorefs had written lefs under the influence of refentment. 6 Mrs. Smith declares against the conclufion that he thinks either like Glenmorris or Armitage, or any other of her perfonages; and those who think differently will, we hope, confider, that, as fhe cannot hold the opinions of all her heroes, her private fentiments may as probably be thofe of the Banished Man as thofe of the Young Philofopher. Yet, we think, fhe has argued too well for the philofopher to expect candour from the advocates for exifting abuses. Some of the opraions of Glenmorris are obfervable in the following extract. "If I have thofe I love with me," faid Glenmorris, "is not every part of the globe equally my country? And has not this, which you are pleafed to call my native land, thrown me from her bofom when I might have ferved her? Did the leave me any choice between imprifonment and flight? Now, averfe from the means by which political power and influence can be obtained, and without a fortune to live but in continual pecuniary difficulties,. why fhould I ask an afylum of this haughty mother country for my declining days? If fuch things were done in the green leaf, what fhall be done in the dry ?" "Have a care my good friend," faid Armitage, when he was once talking in this manner," have a care, left you yield in all this to a falfe pride, to a pride utterly unworthy of a mind like your's. You feel yourself out of your place in England, because you have not power, or great affluence (which in fact is power); but is not that a fenfation a little bordering on the fentiment, "Better to reign in hell than ferve in heaven." "No," replied Glenmorris, "I have no defire to reign any where; but I do not love to be in a country where I am made to pay very dear for advantages which exift not but in idea. I do not love to live where I see a frightful contraft between luxury and wretchednefs; where I muft daily witnefs injuftice I cannot reprefs, and mifery I cannot relieve. In America, you say, Í must abándon fociety, and starve my understanding. I deny it, however. The great book of nature is open before me, and poor must be his taste who cannot find in it a more noble study than that of fophif ticated minds, which we call fociety here, where at every step we take fomething appears to fhock or difguft us; where all greatness of character seems loft; and where, if we defire to study human nature unadulterated by inhuman prejudices, we act nearly as the painter would do, who fhould turn from the ftudy of the exquifitely fimple Grecian statue to debauch his eyes with the fpectacle of court figures in hoops and perriwigs. In this country, my dear Armitage, as you know very well, we do not value," le vrai bean," which being tranflated, feems to me to mean, "the great-fimple " no, we appreciate moral excellence by fuccefs, by fortune, which gives fashion, and. imputes perfection (a temporary one indeed, but which ftill anfwers all their purposes) to the mere puppets of a season. I will not talk to you about politics, because you are among the moderates and quietifts; you endure all things, you hope all things, you believe all things. Now I, who do not love enduring much, who have little to hope, and ...” "And, who believe nothing," interrupted Armitage. "Oh! pardon me," rejoined Glenmorris," I believe a vast deal; but we will not talk of that; not that we should differ in the great principles of our actions, and all the reft is mere verbal wrangling, a difference in terms rather than things. While you can be tolerably happy yourself, my dear friend, in this country, or believe that you can do good to its people, it is very fit you fhould ftay; for me who, footh to fay, am not happy in it myself, and despair of being of any ufe in promoting, beyond a very nar row circle indeed, the happiness of others, the neceffity of my remaining is by no means fo evident. You agree with me, that true philanthropy does not confift in loving John, and Thomas, and George, and James, because they are our brothers, our coufins, our neighbours, our countrymen, but in benevolence to the whole human race; if that be true, let me afk you whether I can be thoroughly contented here, where I fee that the miferies inflicted by the focial compact greatly exceed the happiness derived from it; where I obferve an artificial polifh, glaring but fallacious on one fide, and on the other real and bitter wretchedness; where for a great part of the year my ears are every week fhocked by the cries of hawkers, informing who has been dragged to execution; and where, to come directly home, it is at the mercy of any rascal, to whom I have given an opportunity of cheating me of ten pounds, to fwear a debt against me, and carry me to the abodes of horror, where the malefactor groans in irons, the debtor languishes in de fpair. Is or is not this picture true? and if it be, can I love to live in fuch a country only because I drew my first breath in a remote corner of it? No, dear Armitage, if Delmont will not fail me, if he will let me for a little while at least have my Medora in my adopted country, if, notwithstanding his advantages here, he has, as I believe, manliness enough to say, All countries that the eye of heaven vifits, Are to a wife man homes and happy havens, we will once more cross the Atlantic, and I will try to teach him, that wherever a thinking man enjoys the most uninterrupted domestic felicity, and fees his fpecies the most content, that is his country." Vol. iv. P. 390. Some few pieces of poetry are inferted in thefe volumes. We shall extract one, which will not derogate from the fame of the writer. • The fairest flowers are gone! -for tempests fell, Mifcellaneous Sketches: or, Hints for Effays. By Arthur Browne, Efq. Fellow of Trinity College, Dublin. 2 Vols. 8vo. 75. Robinsons. 1798. UNDER this modeft title we have found a confiderable portion of good fenfe and juft criticifm. Temperate in his opinions, the author neither approves of hafty innovations, nor gives his fanction to old abuses: he advances his fentiments upon every fubject with moderation, and fupports them with ability. On fome of the more important effays we fhall offer fome remarks. Mr. Browne replies to the arguments of Adam Smith, • Gibbon, and Vicefimus Knox, against a college education; but he argues from the difcipline of Dublin, and little of what he has advanced can be applied to our English universities. We thould be happy to enumerate, among the benefits of college education, habits of study, regular divifion of time, habits of difcipline and obedience, of early rifing, of early retirement in the evening, diligence, labour, virtuous emulation, and fuch like? ་ We should be happy alfo to discover the advantage derivable from the fimplicity and uniformity of college commons, in abftracting the youth from the luxury of his domestic board;' and to dwell upon the more obvious advantages, the private inftruction of the tutor and the public lecture by the profeffor: but we know what are the habits acquired at an English university; and there would be little merit in irony Lo obvious. The great queftion, and we believe Mr. Browne will agree with us in esteeming it the most important, is, whether the morals of our youth are likely to be improved or corrupted at these feminaries. The affociation of fo many young men, in the most critical stage of life, muft neceffarily produce evils which cannot be overbalanced by the poffibility of virtuous emulation. In the multitude of ftudents there will be fewer of those who thould be imitated than of those of an oppofite defcription. Young men, as they regard only the prefent, are more frequently feduced into vice than fchooled by its confequences. The contagion of vice is more rapid than the influence of virtue. The question, whether the world will ever relapse into barbarifm, is, we think, decided haftily and erroneously. My own opinion' (fays Mr. Browne) always has been, that the present state of illumination and refinement will be fucceeded by fecond darkness and Cimmerian night, equally gloomy with the cloud raised by the crush of the Roman empire. The reply of those to whom the idea was fuggested uniformly has been, impoffi ble; the art of printing renders fuch fears groundless. I answer 1 the art of printing itself may become exclufively the engine of wickedness, of vice, of folly, of irreligion. If the fashion or madnefs of the times fhould produce a relifh for corrupted food, we may be filled with writings to fatiety, yet fwallow nothing but poifon; what infinite mifchief has the prefs produced in our own days? In France the vehicle of every crime, it has been made the eafy propagator of blafphemy, of maffacre, of anarchy. Whether it fall finally be a bleffing or a curfe muft depend on the taste of mankind, and if that tafte be vitiated, and feeds upon venom, the more it confumes the fooner will we perifh.' Vol. i. p. 48. The reafon why my opinion has been thought improbable or impoffible is this, that as it is faid, no inftance has occurred of a nation reducing itself to barbarism; Rome was over-run by barbarous but foreign fwarms. I will not reply merely to the fact by faying, that Rome had before that period made fuch retrograde way to anti-civilization, but I will add alfo, that the world is young; we have feen perhaps little of the poffible extravagancies of human nature and their wild effects: France in its wild deliriums has astonifhed the world; they may be outdone by fome more outrageous fever, which may finally end in the extinction of light and life. Human nature, infolent and prefuming in its own ftrength, fpurning the aids of divine revelation, and even of ancient learning, may relapfe after convulfions into lethargy, and till the impoffibility of fuch events be proved by fome better argument than the invention of printing, I fhall ever, from the data afforded by the hiftory. of modern times believe their probability. The age of pretended felf-fufficient reafon will become the age of abfurdity; irreligion will fubvert all government, and anarchy lead to barbarism.' Vol. i. P. 51. Much evil undoubtedly has enfued-and much, it is to be. feared, will enfue-from the induftrious diffemination of principles falfe in themfelves, and dangerous in their confequences. But all error must be tranfitory; and truth, however calumniated, howeyer perfecuted, muft ultimately be victorious. This, which experience and reafon render probable, has been made certain by revelation. From the earliest periods, the state of mankind has been improving, though flowly, and at times almost imperceptibly. Rome indeed, in its glory, prefents to us a magnificent fpectacle, hitherto unparalleled: but, beyond the boundaries of the empire, the nations were barbarous and unenlightened, yet fufficiently advanced from the favage ftate to be numerous and formidable. When thefe barbarians had overthrown the Roman empire, prepared for ruin by its own corruptions, a melancholy period followed, during which mankind appear to have relapfed into ignorance. This however was not the cafe. The barbarians |