getic feeling, with painful timidity, is described in an interesting manner : ، Yet were there times, the timid, bashful look, And air retir'd his face and form forsook, When no fear damp'd his young soul's ardent flame, And warm and fast the flowing language came, Came from his heart, whilst nature's ecstacies Spoke in his voice and darted from his eyes Then beam'd his spirit forth without disguise. Oh! there are moments in life's earlier days, Whilst yet the heart is cheer'd by hope's bright rays, When-breaking through the gloom around it cast Th' enthusiast mind-all reckless of the past, Surrounded by the self-created light Upon this world of woe, o'erlook its And frame its scenes exactly to the will, Deeming the earth a paradise of blissVisions too happy for a world like this!" The following paragraph, pp. 43, 44, is full of nature and tenderness: "Who has not felt a pang, or dropp'd a tear, On leaving scenes which time has render'd dear, Where-day by day beheld for many years Each well-known object like a friend appears? The heart, when once familiar with *them, clings With fond idolatry to lifeless things. A walk, a prospect, mountain, stream, or tree, Which passing strangers undelighted And think the Sabbath o'er-their duties done, Till shines another Sabbath's tedious sun, He sought the hut obscure, and lonely cot, Where sorrow droops neglected and forgot, Where sickness pines in some secluded cell, And want and age-sad pain!-with mis'ry dwell: By these he pray'd-to these his arms were giv'n, Their minds he sooth'd with words in- And thus diffus'd thro' dark misfor- We hope the reception which the public will give this poem, will induce the author to fulfile the conditional Review.-Rosamond.-The Life of Voltaire. engagement made in his modest pre face, to continue the history of “The Country Minister." ART. III.—Rosamond, a Sequel to Early Lessons. By Maria Edgeworth. In Two Volumes. 18mo. pp. 260 and 272. Hunter. 1821. To those who are acquainted with Miss Edgeworth's writings, we need merely announce the publication of this little work: Miss Edgeworth is one of the few authors who win additional esteem and admiration every time they claim the attention of the public. Her books for children, whilst they afford the most delightful amusement to the juvenile reader, are a more improving study for the parent than the most gravely-written systems of education; for they shew the instructor how to trace each feeling of the pupil, and, with ever-vigilant and judicious benevolence, to rectify the errors and fix the virtues of the impressible mind. Rosamond, whose character is drawn in so interesting a manner in the "Early Lessons," is brought before us in the " Sequel," at that period of life which is full of danger to the learner, and which requires to be guarded with the most painful solicitude by the teacher-when the playful simplicity of childhood is succeeded by an anxiety to please and to be admired. "It is the object of this book," says the author, (and no author is, perhaps, so successful in promoting this object as Miss Edgeworth,) to give young people, in addition to their moral and religious principles, some knowledge and controul of their own minds in seeming trifles, and in all those lesser observances on which the greater virtues often remotely, but necessarily depend." ART. IV.-The Life of Voltaire, with Interesting Particulars respecting his Death, and Anecdotes and Characters of his Contemporaries. By Frank Hall Standish, Esq. Svo. Andrews, New Bond Street. 1821. E know nothing of the author of this volume, and, therefore, cannot be suspected in this critique of personal feelings. We confess that VOL. XVII. 49 we were attracted by the specious title which it bears, desirous too of extended information concerning the writings and character of a man, so excessively lauded by his friends, and so vulgarly and indiscriminately decried by his enemies. So far we have not been disappointed. The author appears to have resorted to the proper sources, and in general to have expressed the result of his research, if not in very accurate English, yet in a lively and animated style, and, we have no reason to doubt, with corresponding fidelity. As friends, however, to the public, and at the same the best friends to the author himself, we cannot refrain from expressing our decided and serious opinion of the spirit of inhumanity, levity, and even indecency, which shews itself in this fashionable volume. Our author, or any other man, is, we conceive, justified by right, if not by law, in defending his opinions, even if they happen to coincide with those of Voltaire. Truth can never be injured by fair reasoning and candid examination; and of truth we are the professed and devoted admirers. But neither he nor any other is justified in spreading a moral contagion throughout the sphere of his literary influence. The only legitimate object in publiand cation, is to do good to others; honour and honesty, not to say religion, command a man, conscious of levity and indecency, to refrain from polluting the sacred fountains of the muses. We were prepared, by an early paragraph, to estimate rather lowly the value which the author attaches to the Reformation from Popery: "Much blood was shed in a cause, the advantages of which, except in some political instances, connected with the advancement of learning, have scarcely recompensed for the horrors of its introduction."-P. 4. A heart so apparently gifted with acute sensibility, one would scarcely expect to dictate the following sentence, at the conclusion of a paragraph concerning the Heathen persecutions: "In Lipsius he [the reader] will find (chapter vi.) a droll picture of a man impaled. The stake introduced through the rectum, and coming out of the mouth, while the legs are in the grotesque attitudes of dancing!!"-Note, p. 14. Perhaps it was not inconsistent in a writer who could affirm, (p. 7,) that chance appears to be invariably and inconceivably connected with the most important occurrences, and (p. 109) while we bend to the rod of fate, we must hesitate to what divinity to ascribe the attributes of our existence,-to appear as the eulogist of Heathenism, in Cato's self-murder, and to advance the extraordinary, paradoxical and unchristian sentiment "The confiscation of a proscribed man's property is absurd; for there are few who wish to live after being deprived both of their honour and their fortune: if he be a philosopher and a man of courage he will deprive himself of life: and if a theologian, and not deficient in resolution, he will do the same."-P. 369. We have noticed instances of the most shameful indecency in this volume, which render it totally unfit for the perusal of a virtuous person, and unbecoming the eye of modesty to behold; with the references to which we shall not defile our pages. The author appears as ignorant of theological literature, as of the disposition and mind of a theologian. The confounding of Wollaston with Woolston, and Tyndal with Tindal, (p. 131,) is disgraceful in an English author. We see not how an Unbeliever or an Atheist can with this author consistently describe Voltaire as "unparalleled," nor can we conceive, with Duvernet, (p. 379,) why Freethinkers should be delighted at the last words of this celebrated genius:-" When the Clergyman said, Do you acknowledge the divinity of Jesus Christ ?" a question which we should have used of the divinity of the Gospel, Voltaire replied, For the love of God do not mention that man's name;"" the accuracy of which our author, with his prejudices in favour of the dying poet, admits; and which, if we truly understand its import, indicates a temper most dreadful at that hour, upon every hypothesis of futurity. Would that it indicated some feelings of compunction, for the unsatisfactory and superficial manner, to give it no harsher title, with which he had treated the Christian religion. We refuse not to Voltaire the credit of much benevolence of disposition, and we are grateful for his efforts in regard to Toleration; but we lament his unbelief, which arose from vanity and want of examination; and think we perceive in him just those follies and vices which the spirit of Jesus would have tended to correct. We cannot dismiss this volume without acknowledging that the author, in one or two passages of his work, appears to write like a Christian. We wish that the sentiments contained in these may become the real sentiments of his heart; for if his work should reach a second edition, he has much to change and revise before he can contemplate his undertaking with virtuous satisfaction. M. CRITICAL NOTICES OF NEW BOOKS. confer a favour upon the public by printing a second edition in a form more accessible to the bulk of political readers. The character of Earl Waldegrave is thus described by the pen of conjugal affection : "He died of the small-pox, aged 48. These were his years in number; what they were in wisdom, hardly belongs to time. The universal respect paid to him while he lived, and the universal lamentation at his death, are ample testimonies of a character not easily to be paralleled. He was for many years the Critical Notices. chosen friend and favourite of a king, who was a judge of men, yet never that king's minister, though a man of business, knowledge and learning, beyond most of his contemporaries; but ambition visited him not, and contentment filled his hours. Appealed to for his arbitration by various contending parties in the State upon the highest differences, his judgment always tempered their dissensions, while his own principles, which were the freedom of the people and the maintenance of the laws, remained steadfast and unshaken, and his influence unimpaired, though exercised through a long series of struggles, that served as foils to his disinterested virtue. The constancy and firmness of his mind were proof against every trial but the distresses of mankind; and therein he was a rock with many springs, and his generosity was as the waters that flow from it, nourishing the plains beneath. He was wise in the first degree of wisdom, master of a powerful and delicate wit, had a ready conception, and as quick parts as any man that ever lived, and never lost his wisdom in his wit, nor his coolness by provocations. He smiled at things that drive other men to anger, he was a stranger to resentment, not to injuries; those feared him most that loved him, yet he was revered by all; for he was as true a friend as ever bore that name, and as generous an enemy as ever bad man tried. He was in all things undisturbed, modest, placid and humane. To him broad day-light and the commerce of the world were as easy as the night and solitude. To him the return of night and solitude must have been a season of ever blest reflection. To him this now deep night must, through the merits of his Redeemer, Jesus Christ, be everlast ing peace and joy. "O death, thy sting is to the living! O grave, thy victory is over the unburied! the wife-the child-the friend-that is left behind. "Thus saith the widow of this incomparable man, his once most happy wife, now the faithful remembrancer of all his virtues, Maria Countess Dowager of Waldegrave, who inscribes this tablet to his beloved memory."-Pref. pp. xx. xxi. The following portrait of Geo. II., possesses such great verisimilitude that it will probably be allowed by every reader to be taken, as it professes, from the life. "The King is in his 75th year; but temperance and an excellent constitution have hitherto preserved him from many of the infirmities of old age. 51 "He has a good understanding, though not of the first class; and has a clear insight into men and things, within a certain compass. He is accused by his ministers of being hasty and passionate when any measure is proposed which he does not approve of; though within the compass of my own observation, I have known few persons of high rank who could bear contradiction better, provided the intention was apparently good, and the manner decent. "When any thing disagreeable passes in the closet, when any of his ministers happen to displease him, it cannot long remain a secret; for his countenance can never dissemble: but to those servants who attend his person, and do not disturb him with frequent solicitations, he is ever gracious and affable. "Even in the early part of life he was fond of business; at present, it is become almost his only amusement. He has more knowledge of foreign affairs than most of his ministers, and has good general notions of the consitution, strength and interest of this country; but being past thirty when the Hanover succession took place, and having since experienced the violence of party, the injustice of popular clamour, the corruption of parliaments and the selfish motives of pretended patriots, it is not surprising that he should have contracted some prejudices in favour of those governments where the royal authority is under less restraint. "Yet prudence has so far prevailed over these prejudices, that they have never influenced his conduct. On the contrary, many laws have been enacted in favour of public liberty; and in the course of a long reign, there has not been a single attempt to extend the prerogative of the crown beyond its proper limits. "He has as much personal bravery as any man, though his political courage seems somewhat problematical: however it is a fault on the right side; for had he always been as firm and undaunted in the closet as he shewed himself at Oudenarde and Dettingen, he might not have proved quite so good a king in this limited monarchy. "In the drawing-room, he is gracious and polite to the ladies, and remarkably cheerful and familiar with those who are handsome, or with the few of his old acquaintance who were beauties in his younger days. "His conversation is very proper for a tête-à-tête: he then talks freely on most subjects, and very much to the purpose; but he cannot discourse with the same ease, nor has he the faculty of laying aside the king in a larger company; not even in those parties of pleasure which are composed of his most intimate acquaintance. "His servants are never disturbed with any unnecessary waiting; for he is regular in all his motions to the greatest exactness, except on particular occasions, when he outruns his own orders and expects those who are to attend him before the time of his appointment. This may easily be accounted for: he has a restless mind which requires constant exercise; his affairs are not sufficient to fill up the day; his amusements are without variety, and have lost their relish; he becomes fretful and uneasy, merely for want of employment; and presses forward to meet the succeeding hour before it arrives. "Too great attention to money seems to be his capital failing; however, he is always just, and sometimes charitable, though seldom generous; but when we consider how rarely the liberality of princes is directed to the proper object, being usually bestowed on a rapacious mistress or an unworthy favourite, want of generosity, though it still continues a blot, ceases at least to be a vice of the first magnitude. "Upon the whole, he has some qualities of a great prince, many of a good one, none which are essentially bad; and I am thoroughly convinced that, hereafter, when time shall have wore away those specks and blemishes which sully the brightest characters, and from which no man is totally exempt, he will be numbered amongst those patriot kings, under whose government the people have enjoyed the greatest happiness." Pp. 4-7. While the late King, George III., was living, it would not have been decorous to lay before the world the picture of his early character by his Governor; for this reason the manuscript was kept within the family of the writer until Death had consigned that monarch to the care of History. What he was as a man, all the world knows; it appears from Earl Waldegrave's sketch of his youth, that his character soon disclosed itself, and underwent little or no change from time. Princes little think, while they are surrounded only by smiling faces, that the eyes of their courtiers are watching their actions, words and even looks, to give evidence for or against them before the solemn tribunal of posterity. "The Prince of Wales is entering into his twenty-first year, and it would be unfair to decide upon his character in the early stages of life, when there is so much time for improvement. His parts, though not excellent, will be found very tolerable, if ever they are properly exercised. He is strictly honest, but wants that frank and open behaviour which makes honesty appear amiable. When he had a very scanty allowance, it was one of his favourite maxims that men should be just before they are generous: his income is now very considerably augmented, but his generosity has not increased in equal proportion. His religion is free from all hypocrisy, but is not of the most charitable sort; he has rather too much attention to the sins of his neighbour. He has spirit, but not of the active kind, and does not want resolution, but it is mixed with too much obstinacy. He has a great command of his passions, and will seldom do wrong, except when he mistakes wrong for right, but as often as this shall happen it will be difficult to undeceive him, because he is uncommonly indolent, and has strong prejudices. His want of application and aversion to business would be far less dangerous, was he eager in the pursuit of pleasure; for the transition from pleasure to business, is both shorter and easier than from a state of total inaction. He has a kind of unhappiness in his temper which, if not conquered before it has taken too deep a root, will be a source of frequent anxiety. Whenever he is displeased, his anger does not break out with heat and violence; but he becomes sullen and silent, and retires to his closet; not to compose his mind by study or contemplation, but merely to indulge the melancholy enjoyment of his own ill-humour. Even when the fit is ended, unfavourable symptoms return which indicate that on certain occasions his Royal Highness has too correct a memory. "Though I have mentioned his good and bad qualities, without flattery, and without aggravation, allowances should still be made, on account of his youth, and his bad education: for though the Bishop of Peterborough, now Bishop of Salisbury, the preceptor; Mr. Stone, the sub-governor, and Mr. Scott, the subpreceptor, were men of sense, men of had but little weight and influence. The learning, and worthy, good men, they mother and the nursery always prevailed. "During the course of the last year there has, indeed, been some alteration; the authority of the nursery has gradually declined, and the Earl of Bute by the assistance of the mother, has now the entire confidence. But whether this |