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ART.

X.-1. Selections from the Papers of Lord

Metcalfe, late
Governor-General of India, etc., etc. Edited by J.
W. KAYE, Author of the "Life of Lord Metcalfe," etc.
London: 1855.

2. Allen's Indian Mail; or, Register of Intelligence from
British and Foreign India, etc., etc. July, 1857.
3. The Homeward Mail, from India, China, and the
East. July, 1857.

4. The Mutinies in the East Indies. Papers presented
to both Houses of Parliament by command of her
Majesty. July, 1857,

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254

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THE

NORTH BRITISH REVIEW.

AUGUST, 1857.

ART. I.-Bacon's Essays, with Annotations. WHATELY, D.D., Archbishop of Dublin. 8vo, pp. 517.

By RICHARD London, 1856.

a

AFTER the novelists, and after Mr Macaulay, Archbishop Whately is, perhaps, the English writer of the nineteenth century who has been most read. Between his first and his last publication forty-six years have passed, during few of which, perhaps during none, has his pen been unemployed. The mere catalogue of his works fills six pages. Several of them have reached tenth edition-one a fourteenth; many are text-books in our universities and schools, and, from the elementary nature of their subjects-from their containing the rudiments of most of the mental sciences and of the mental arts-they have exercised, and continue to exercise, more influence over the opinions and over the moral and intellectual habits of those who are now actively engaged in public and in professional life, than can be attributed to the labours of any other living author.

And yet, when we attempted, in 1844, almost at the commencement of our career, to give a general view of his works, we had to remark, that a writer so widely popular had been almost ignored by the periodical critics. "He has been scarcely mentioned," we then said, "by any of the prouder and more august arbiters of destiny, and journalists of humbler pretensions have been slow to notice his publications." 1

With one or two remarkable exceptions, this is still generally true. It may be accounted for, partly by the nature of the studies to which Archbishop Whately has mainly devoted himself, and partly by the manner in which he has executed his task. Neither his material nor his workmanship is such as critics like to meddle with. Theology, morals, and metaphysics, are the tritest portions of human knowledge. During thousands 'North British Review, vol. i., p. 489.

VOL. XXVII. NO. LIII.

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