ART. IX. 1. Remarks on the Report of the Select Committee of the House of Commons on the Poor-Laws. By J. 2. Observations on the Circumstances which Influence the Condition of the Labouring Classes of Society. X. 1. Substance of the Speech of the Right Honourable Lord Grenville, in the House of Lords, November 30th, 1819, on the Marquis of Lansdown's Motion, That a Select Committee be appointed to inquire into the State of the Country, and, more particular- ly, into the Distresses and Discontents prevalent in the Manufacturing Districts, and the Execution of the Laws with respect to the numerous Meetings 2. The Substance of the Speech of the Right Honour- able W. C. Plunket, in the House of Commons, on XI. Œuvres Completes de Demosthene et d'Eschine, en Grec et en Français. Traduction de L'Abbé Au- ger, de l'Academie des Inscriptions et Belles Let- tres de Paris. Revue et corrigée par J. Planche, The Life of the Right Honourable John Philpot Cur- ran, late Master of the Rolls in Ireland. Son, William Henry Curran, Barrister-at-Law Anecdotes, Observations, and Characters of Books and Men. Collected from the Conversation of Mr Pope, and other eminent Persons of his time: By the Rev. Joseph Spence. Now first published from the Ori- Observations on the Injurious Consequences of the Restrictions upon Foreign Commerce. By a Mem- 1. A General History of Music, from the Earliest Times to the Present: Comprising the Lives of Emi- nent Composers and Musical Writers. The whole accompanied with Notes and Observations, Critical and Illustrative. By Thomas Busby, Mus. Doc. 2. The Lives of Haydn and Mozart. In a Series of Letters. Translated from the French of L. H. C. 3. Remarks on the Present State of Musical Instruc- 4. The Thorough Bass Primer, By J. F. Burrowes The Rise and Progress of the City of Glasgow, com- prising an Account of its Public Buildings, Chari- ties, and other Concerns. By James Cleland An Appeal from the Judgments of Great Britain re- specting the United States of America. Part First. Containing an Historical Outline of their Merits and Wrongs as Colonies, and Strictures on the Calumnies of British Writers. By Robert Walsh, Esq. 1. Franz Bopp über das Conjugations System der San- skritsprache in vergleichung mit jenem der Grie- chischen, Lateinischen, Persischen et Germanischen sprache; nebst episoden des Ramayan et Mahabha- rat in genauen metrischen ubersetzungen aus dem original texte, et einigen abschnitten aus dem Vedás. 2, Nalus, Carmen Sanscriticum e Mahábhárato, edidit, ART. VIII. A Description of the Western Islands of Scotland, including the Isle of Man, comprising an Account of their Geological Structure; with Remarks on IX. A Guide to the Electors of Great Britain upon the Accession of a New King, and the immediate X. 1. Plan d'Education pour les Enfans Pauvres, de près les deux Méthodes combinées de Bell et de Lancaster. Par le Comte Alexandre de Laborde. 2. L'Enseignement Mutuel; ou Histoire de l'Intro- duction et de la Propagation de cette Méthode, par les Soins du Dr Bell de J. Lancaster, et d'au- tres, &c. Traduit de l'Allemand de Joseph Ha 3. Nouveau Systéme d'Education et d'Enseigne- ment; ou l'Enseignement Mutuel, appliqué aux Langues, aux Sciences, et aux Arts. Par M. 4. Progrès des Ecoles d'Enseignement Mutuel en France et dans l'Etranger. Par Mr Jomard, l'un des Secrétaires de la Societé pour l'Enseignement 5. Compte rendu des Travaux de la Societé pour THE EDINBURGH REVIEW, JANUARY, 1820. No. LXV. ART. I. 1. Ivanhoe. A Romance. By the AUTHOR OF WA `VERLEY,' &c. 3 vols. Edinburgh, Constable & Co. 2. The Novels and Tales of the Author of Waverley; comprising Waverley, Guy Mannering, Antiquary, Rob Roy, Tales of My Landlord, First, Second, and Third Series; New Edition, with a copious Glossary. Edinburgh, Constable & Co. 1820. SINCE INCE the time when Shakespeare wrote his thirty-eight plays in the brief space of his early manhood-besides acting in them, and drinking and living idly with the other actors-and then went carelessly to the country, and lived out his days, a little more idly, and apparently unconscious of having done any thing at all extraordinary-there has been no such prodigy of fertility as the anonymous author before us. In the period of little more than five years, he has founded a new school of invention; and established and endowed it with nearly thirty volumes of the most animated and original composition that have enriched English literature for a century-volumes that have cast sensibly into the shade all contemporary prose, and even all recent poetry-(except perhaps that inspired by the Geniusor the Demon, of Byron)-and, by their force of colouring and depth of feeling-by their variety, vivacity, magical facility, and living presentment of character, have rendered conceivable to this later age the miracles of the Mighty Dramatist. Shakespeare, to be sure, is more purely original; but it should not be forgotten, that, in his time, there was much less to borrow -and that he too has drawn freely and largely from the sources that were open to him; at least for his fable and graver sentiment; for his wit and humour, as well as his poetry, are always his In our times, all the higher walks of literature have been so long and so often trodden, that it is scarcely possible to keep VOL. XXXIII. NO. 65. own. A out of the footsteps of some of our precursors; and the antients, it is well known, have stolen all our bright thoughts--and not only visibly beset all the patent approaches to glory-but swarm in such ambushed multitudes behind, that when we think we have gone fairly beyond their plagiarisms, and honestly worked out an original excellence of our own, up starts some deep-read antiquary, and makes it out, much to his own satisfaction, that heaven knows how many of these busy bodies have been beforehand with us, both in the genus and the species of our invention. The author before us is certainly in less danger from such detections, than any other we have ever met with; but, even in him, the traces of imitation are obvious and abundant; and it is impossible, therefore, to give him the same credit for absolute originality as those earlier writers, who, having no successful author to imitate, were obliged to copy directly from nature. In naming him along with Shakespeare, we meant still less to say that he was to be put on a level with him as to the richness and sweetness of his fancy, or that living vein of pure and lofty poetry which flows with such abundance through every part of his composition. On that level no other writer has ever stood, or will ever stand-though we do think that there is fancy and poetry enough in these contemporary pages, if not to justify the comparison we have ventured to suggest, at least to save it, for the first time for two hundred years, from being altogether ridiculous. In saying even this, however, we wish to observe, that we have in view the prodigious variety and facility of the modern writer-at least as much as the quality of his se veral productions. The variety stands out on the face of each of them; and the facility is attested, as in the case of Shakespeare himself, both by the inimitable freedom and happy carelessness of the style in which they are executed, and by the matchless rapidity with which they have been lavished on the public. Such an author would really require a review to himself— and one too of swifter than quarterly recurrence; and accordingly, we have long since acknowledged our inability to keep up with him, and fairly renounced the task of keeping a regular account of his successive publications; contenting ourselves with greeting him now and then in the pauses of his brilliant career, and casting, when we do meet, a hurried glance over the wide field he has traversed since we met before. We gave it formerly, we think, as our reason for thus passing over, without special notice, some of the most remarkable productions of the age, that they were in fact too remarkable to need any notice of ours-1 that they were as soon, and as extensively read, as we could hope our account of them to beand that in reality all the world thought just what we were in |