hope, he was of all men most miferable." He loved praise when it was brought to him, but was too proud to feek for it. He was fomewhat fufceptible of flattery. As he was general and unconfined in his fludies, he cannot be confidered as mafter of any one particular science; but he had accumulated a vast and various collection of learning and knowlege, which was to arranged in his mind, as to be ever in readiness to be brought forth. His fuperiority over other learned men confifted chiefly in what may be called the art of thinking, the art of using his mind; a certain continual power of feizing the uteful fubftance of all that he knew, and exhibiting it in a clear and forcible manner; fo that knowlege which we often fee to be no better than lumber in men of dull underftandings, was, in him, true, evident, and actual wisdom. His moral precepts are practical, for they are drawn from an intimate acquaintance with human nature. His maxims carry conviction; for they are founded on the basis of common fenfe. His mind was fo full of imagery, that he might have been perpetually a poet; yet it is remarkable, that however rich his profe is, in that refpect, the poetical pieces which he wrote were in general not fo, but rather strong fentiments, and acute obfervation, conveyed in good verfe, particularly in heroic couplets. Though ufually grave and even careful in his deportment, he poffeffed uncommon and peculiar powers of wit and humour; he frequently indulged himfelf in colloquial pleafantry; and the heartiest merriment was often enjoyed in his company with this great advantage, that it was entirely free from any poisonous tincture of vice or impiety; it was falutary to those who Thared in it. He had accustomed himself to fuch accuracy in his common converfation, that he, at all times, delivered himself with a force, and elegant choice of expreffion, the effect of which was aided by his having a loud voice, and a flow deliberate utterance. He united a moft logical head with a moft fertile imagination, which gave him an extraordinary advantage in arguing; for he could reafon clofe or wide, as he faw beft for the moment. Exulting in his intellectual ftrength and dexterity, he could, when he pleated, be the greateft fophift that ever contended in the lifts of declamation; and from a spirit of contradiction, and a delight in thewing his powers, he would often maintain the wrong fide with equal warmth and ingenuity; fo that when there was an audience, his real opinions could feldom be gathered from his talk; though, when he was in company with a fingle friend, he would difcufs a fubject with ge. nuine fairness. But he was too confcientious to make error perma nent, and pernicious, by deliberately writing it; and in all his numerous works he earnestly inculcated what appeared to him to be the truth. His piety was conftant, and was the ruling principle of his conduct; and the more we confider his character, we fhall be the more difpofed to regard him with admiration and reverence.' * Who that is confcious of having acted commendably, can poffibly be indifferent to the praife which laudable intention and good conduc deserve; and which is as much the juft reward of men, of whatever kind, as money is in compentation for labour? REV. MAY 1792. G - Such Such is Mr. B.'s pourtraiture of this truly extraordinary man! the drawing of which we confider as fufficiently accurate, and the colouring as very little overcharged, or heightened; although a favourable likenefs was, perhaps, (as we have already intimated, in the out-fet of the prefent article,) in fome degree intended-as far, we mean to fay, as might feem confiftent with the truth of refemblance,—and no farther. On the whole, we cannot but confider the great ORIGINAL as really a wonderful and highly eftimable character! As for the inelegance of his perfon, and the general boifteroufnefs of his manner, when not in his pleafant moods and fofter moments,-these are, comparatively, in our opinion, circumftances of fo little account, that we fhall conclude with repeating what was once admirably faid of him, by the late Dr. Horne, bishop of Norwich, and here recorded by our biographer:-" To reject wisdom, because the perfon of him who communicates it is uncouth, and his manners are inelegant;-what is it, but to throw away a pine-apple, and affign for a reafon, the roughness of its coat?" G. THE ART. XII. The Romance of the Foreft: interfperfed with fome Pieces of Poetry. By Mrs. Radcliffe, Authorefs of "The Sicilian Romance," &c. 3 Vols. 12mo. gs. fewed. Hookham. 1791. HE days of chivalry and romance being (ALAS! as Mr. Burke fays,) for ever paft, we must hear no more of enchanted forefts and caftles, giants, dragons, walls of fire, and other monftrous and prodigious things;"-yet still forests and caffles remain, and it is ftill within the province of fiction, without overstepping the limits of nature, to make use of them for the purpofe of creating furprife. By the aid of an inventive genius, much may ftill be done, even in this philofophical age, to fill the fancy with marvellous images, and to quell the foul with grateful terrors." In this way, the authorefs of the Romance of the Foreft is no mean performer. We have not been able to follow her through the rapid fucceffion of woody glens, tufted battlements, long-drawn aifles, and foattered fragments of ancient grandeur, without exclaiming, cast "How these antique towers and vacant courts Chill the fufpended foul, till expectation Wears the face of fear!" The principal perfonage of the romance, Adeline, is a highlyinterefting character, whom the writer conducts through a leries of alarming fituations, and hair-breadth efcapes, in which * Who quotes the words from the Olla Podrida, a work noticed in our Review, vol. lxxx. p. 135. the The has very skilfully contrived to hold the reader's curiofity continually in fufpenfe, and at the fame time to keep his feelings in a ftate of perpetual agitation. Through the whole of the first two volumes, all is bufinefs, hazard, and alarm. Several characters, marked with different degrees of folly or criminality, are drawn with bold and decifive strokes; and thefe are contrafted with others, whofe amiable qualities relieve the horrors of the fcene, and render the picture, on the whole, pleafing. In the third volume, after Adeline has been toft on the ftormy fea of misfortune, with scarcely a moment's refpite, when her spirit is almost broken down with diftrefs, fhe finds a calm retreat, in which the enjoys a long interval of sweet repofe, and of which the reader gladly partakes; till at length new scenes of furprize, distress, and joy, are opened; through which it is impoffible for a reader, not totally devoid of fenfibility, to accompany her without ftrong emotions. As a very confiderable part of the merit of this work confists in the happy manner in which the authorefs has concealed the termination of the plot till the laft éclairciffement, we shall not deprive our readers of the pleasure which they will derive from the first perufal, by drawing an outline of the story. We shall only fay, that we have feldom met with a fiction which has more forcibly fixed the attention, or more agreeably interested the feelings, throughout the whole narrative. As a fpecimen of Mrs. R.'s profe ftyle, which is natural and eafy, and (except two or three overlights,) very correct, we fhall give her defcription of the character and fituation of a worthy clergyman and his family: In the village of Leloncourt, celebrated for its picturefque fituation at the foot of the Savoy Alps, lived Arnaud La Luc, a clergyman, defcended from an ancient family of France, whofe decayed fortunes occafioned them to feek a retreat in Switzerland, in an age when the violence of civil commotion feldom fpared the conquered. He was minifter of the village, and equally loved for the piety and benevolence of the Chriftian as refpected for the dignity and elevation of the philofopher. His was the philofophy of nature, directed by common fenfe. He defpifed the jargon of the modern fchools and the brilliant abfurdities of fyftems, which have dazzled without enlightening, and guided without convincing, their difciples. His mind was penetrating; his views extenfive; and his fyftems, like his religion, were fimple, rational, and fublime. The people of his parish looked up to him as to a father; for while his precepts directed their minds, his example touched their hearts. In early youth La Luc loft a wife, whom he tenderly loved. This event threw a tincture of foft and interefting melancholy over his character, which remained when time had mellowed the remembrance that occafioned it. Philofophy had ftrengthened, not hard G 2 ened, ened, his heart: it enabled him to refift the preffure of affliction, rather than to overcome it. Calamity taught him to feel with peculiar fympathy the dif treffes of others. His income from the parish was fmall, and what remained from the divided and reduced eftates of his ancestors did not much increafe it; but though he could not always relieve the neceffities of the indigent, his tender pity and holy converfation feldom failed in adminiftering confolation to the mental fofferer. On thefe occafions the fweet and exquifite emotions of his heart have often induced him to fay, that could the voluptuary be once fenfible of these feelings, he would never after forego "the luxury of doing good."-" Ignorance of true pleafure," he would fay, more frequently than temptation to that which is falfe, leads to vice." 66 La Luc had one fon and a daughter, who were too young, when their mother died, to lament their lofs. He loved them with peculiar tenderness, as the children of her whom he never ceased to deplore; and it was for fome time his fole amufement to obferve the gradual unfolding of their infant minds, and to bend them to virtue. His was the deep and filent forrow of the heart; his complaints he never obtruded upon others; and very feldom did he even mention his wife. His grief was too facred for the eye of the vulgar. Often he retired to the deep folitude of the mountains, and amid their folemn and tremendous fcenery would brood over the remembrance of times paft, and refign himself to the luxury of grief. On his return from thefe little excurfions he was always more placid and contented. A fweet tranquillity, which arofe almoft to happiness, was diffufed over his mind, and his manners were more than ufually benevolent. As he gazed on his children, and fondly kiffed them, a tear would fometimes fteal into his eye, but it was a tear of tender regret, unmingled with the darker qualities of forrow, and was most precious to his heart. On the death of his wife he received into his houfe a maiden fifter, a fenfible, worthy woman, who was deeply interested in the happiness of her brother. Her affectionate attention and judicious conduct anticipated the effect of time in foftening the poignancy of his diftrefs, and her unremitted care of his children, while it proved the goodness of her own heart, attracted her more closely to his. It was with inexpreffible pleafure that he traced in the infant features of Clara the refemblance of her mother. The fame gentlenefs of manner and the fame fweetness of difpofition foon difplayed themselves; and as fhe grew up her actions frequently reminded him fo ftrongly of his loft wife as to fix him in reveries, which abforbed all his foul. 6 Engaged in the duties of his parish, the education of his children, and in philofophic refearch, his years paffed in tranquillity. The tender melancholy with which affliction had tinctured his mind was, by long indulgence, become dear to him, and he would not have relinquished it for the brightest dream of airy happiness. When any paffing incident difturbed him, he retired for confolation to the idea of her he fo faithfully loved, and yielding to a gentle, and what the world would call a romantic fadnefs, gradually realfumed his compofure. This was the fecret luxury to which he withdrew from temporary difappointment-the folitary enjoyment which diffipated the cloud of care, and blunted the fling of vexation-which elevated his mind above this world, and opened to his view the fublimity of another. The fpot he now inhabited, the furrounding scenery, the romantic beauties of the neighbouring walks, were dear to La Luc, for they had once been loved by Clara; they had been the scenes of her tendernefs and of his happiness. His chateau ftood on the borders of a fmall lake that was almost environed by mountains of ftupendous height, which, fhooting into a variety of grotefque forms, compofed a fcenery fingularly folemn and fublime. Dark woods, intermixed with bold projections of rock, fometimes barren, and fometimes covered with the purple bloom of wild flowers, impended over the lake, and were feen in the clear mirror of its waters. The wild and Alpine heights which rofe above were either crowned with perpetual fnows, or exhibited tremendous crags and maffes of folid rock, whofe appearance was continually changing as the rays of light were variously reflected on their furface, and whofe fummits were often wrapt in impenetrable mifts. Some cottages and hamlets, fcattered on the margin of the lake, or feated in picturefque points of view on the rocks above, were the only objects that reminded the beholder of humanity. On the fide of the lake, nearly oppofite to the chateau, the mountains receded, and a long chain of Alps was feen ftretching in perspective. Their innumerable tints and fhades, fome veiled in blue mifts, fome tinged with rich purple, and others glittering in partial light, gave luxurious and magical colouring to the scene. The chateau was not large, but it was convenient, and was characterised by an air of elegant fimplicity and good order. The entrance was a fmall hall, which, opening by a glafs door into the garden, afforded a view of the lake, with the magnificent scenery exhibited on its borders. On the left of the hall was La Luc's tudy, where he ufually paffed his mornings; and adjoining was a fmall room fitted up with chymical apparatus, aftronomical inftruments, and other implements of fcience. On the right was the family parlour, and behind it a room which belonged exclufively to Madame La Luc. Here were deposited various medicines and botanical diftillations, together with the apparatus for preparing them. From this room the whole village was liberally fupplied with phyfical comfort; for it was the pride of Madame to believe herfelf fkilful in relieving the diforders of her neighbours. Behind the chateau rote a tuft of pines, and in front a gentle declivity, covered with verdure and flowers, extended to the lake, whofe waters flowed even with the grafs, and gave freshness to the acacias that waved over its furface. Flowering fhrubs, intermingled with mountain afh, cypress, and ever-green oak, marked the bound. ary of the garden.' From the original verfes interfperfed through the work, we can only allow room for the following highly poetical lines: |