must, have been the ruinous conse- in the index expurgatorius even of quences to themselves of their own accommodating moralists, and to projects. In the instance of the be found, I presume, in no decent party immediately arraigned, what- family, -let us pause at the name ever be the modification of his of Goldsmith. Of the Vicar of -offence, it is sufficient that its Wakefield, it is sufficient to ob origin is politically corrupt, that in serve, that from its details of obseits nature there inheres a tendency lete manners, deficiency of senti -to increase with dark and malig- ment, and general homeliness, it is nant rapidity, and that its ultimate least likely to injure those who are uncontrouled result must be a re- least likely to read it; I mean volutionary explosion. It is, there young persons, and especially fore, falsely kind to shelter the young women of delicate romantic defendant under the refinements of super sensitive minds; who ceran adulterated candour, by urging, tainly will never descend into the as I anticipate, will be advanced on dull profound of The Primroses while the other side, that the prisoner they can soar with Mathilde. In fact, has merely indulged a little inno- sir, these are the readers to whom cuous, though liberal speculation an indulgence in novels is a draught in political science;- -for, gen- of moral hemlock. One has no tlemen, we must revert to the trembling solicitude for students of principle of this pamphlet, mark either sex, whose souls are insusnot merely its phrases, but its prac- ceptible of impassioned emotion. tical bearings; and a verdict must-In passing on to the guarded name be founded on the consideration of Richardson, you will allow me that the very principle which to transfer some degree of the breathes through its pages (even severity which will, I suppose, be supposing them to contain no pa- imputed to me by his protectors, ragraph directly of a seditious cha- to the author of the following en racter, and formally constituting a lightened criticism. "Vice (for libel,) is essentially hostile to the vice is necessary to be shewn) monarchy and established constitu- should always disgust; nor should tion of this empire."Is there the graces of gaiety, or the dignity any difficulty, sir, in applying this of courage, be so united with it as method to the example of Novels? to reconcile it to the mind. Wher We are not to estimate by weight ever it appears, it should raise and measure the respective quanti- hatred by the malignity of its practies of mischief in certain given tices, and contempt by the meanbooks, by way of ascertaining, with ness of its stratagems; for while it the accuracy of Shylock, how much is supported by either parts or mischief may safely be circulated, spirit, it will seldom be heartily (which, by the way, is a very comic abhorred." If these observations, solecism), but must make the honest by Johnson, be just, and they ap and Christian inquiry, Has this pear unanswerable, Richardson's performance the fair impress of Lovelace, for example, is a characinnocence and utility ?ter which ought never to have been drawn. In the graces of gaiety and the dignity of courage, in liberality without profusion, in perseverance and address, he every where appears the first of men'; and that honour with which he protects the virtue of his Rosebud, if any instruction is to be drawn from it, can only lead the admirers of Richardson to believe, that an And, after all, what is the tangible amelioration, so frequently pleaded, of the more modern novel? This inquiry should be very seriously answered before the alleged improvement is made a plea for their perusal. In a cursory review of a few of the standard British novelists, passing by Fielding, Smollett, and Sterne, as registered other Clarissa might be perfectly hers! with power to adorn all that 64 safe, were she to throw herself up. on the honour of another Lovelace. Yet in the composition of this splendid character there is not one principle upon which confidence can securely rest; and Lovelace, while he is admired by the youth of · both sexes, and escapes the contempt of mankind at large, must excite in the breast of a Christian moralist, sentiments of abhorrence and detestation. A French critic, speaking of this character, says, By turns I could embrace and fight with Lovelace. His pride, his gaiety, his drollery, charm and amuse me; his genius confounds and makes me smile; his wickedness astonishes and enrages me; but at the same time I admire as much as I detest him." Surely this is not the character which ought to be presented to the inexperienced and ardent mind *.-Yet Richard son, in sooth, is the writer "who taught the passions to move at the command of virtue !" The numerous productions of Charlotte Smith are generally characterised (as far as dim remembrance enables me to describe them), by an honourable sense of what the world usually understands by propriety. Combined with this they contain a fair average amount of passion, adventure, heroism, and heroineism, mixed up, in her earlier performances, with democracy; and decorated with taste, talent, and a competent knowledge of living manners. Mrs. Radcliff's romances far surpass all works of her school, in brilliancy, in commanding vigour of genius, in delicacy and depth of feeling, and in the varied beauties of an original, splendid, and inexhausti'ble imagination. Indeed, the writings of this authoress form a class of their own. To adopt the exclamation of a former writer in your pages, "What a pencil is The above criticism appears in the Encyclopædia Britannica. Art. Novel. The context mayberead with advantage. is elegant, and darken all that is awful!*-and, let me add, to fascinate beyond all names of fascination, any young mind, too ignorant of life's serious realities, and, pursuing and pursued, by the magic illusions of romance. Yet, with all the dangerous charms of this unrivalled artist, nothing is combined of a nature properly im moral; unless the enchantment diffused over her works, tends to enfeeble and subdue the soul, and by such deliquescence to demoralize it; and this it surely does, if it impel the main currents of passion towards points from which all the discipline of domestic instruction, and the influence of domestic example, is, in a thousand instances, vainly employed to divert them. from It may be a hopeless attempt to restrain our sons at the great schools and universities, touching either the best or worst among established works of fiction; as every schoolboy and gownsman may command any thing with money, and may read trash of every description, without the inspection of father or tutor. But where sons and daughters (particularly the latter) remain under the tutelary supervision of parents, it is at least possible for the heads of the family to proscribe, within their "visible, diurnal sphere," exceptionable books. In thus referring to the exercise of domestic authority, it is of high consequence to inquire, by what anomaly in the prevalent system of education and general economy of families, Christian mothers can passively allow their daughters to range at will among the degenerate literature of the times. The sterling value of the national character, as it shines in private and home life, and as opposed to the habits of obtrusion and display of the continental fashionables, will be perpetuated *Christian Observer for 1803, p. 115. (if perpetuated at all) in a most to be laid upon the table, nem. diss. controuling degree, by the women by the literary legislature of the of this island; and specifically by empire; and speedily domesticated those who, in an age splendid in in the majority of the strictest female intellect, and generally private circles. Hoc fonte derivata favourable to its farther develop- clades! A long procession of roment, give colour to the literature mances in rhyme followed. They of their country. I trust that as were bought, read, idolized; but yet, the native good sense, sim- were beginning to wane at the applicity, frankness, delicacy, and proaches of criticism and satiety, innocence of British females, has when the meteor-star of Lord lost none of its lustre, though ex- Byron arose in the horizon; and posed to the corroding action of in the progress of its swift and continental manners. What may radiant ascent quickly diverted, bereafter be lost by repeated and astonished, and fixed the public daring exposure to the Freuch attention. It was not, however, atmosphere, I cannot calculate. I foreseen by the governors of ream conscious that the hardest and ligious families, that when, but most polished gem may be ren- twelve years since, they sanctioned dered opaque, and even crushed the circulation of The Lay, the or consumed; and without suggest- entrance of the domestic library ing a more direct analogy, I own was opened for the admission of its myself to be too deeply interested compeers, successors, and imitain the preservation and yet higher tors, with a large retinue of the elevation of the character already fashionable authors of modern litepossesed by my countrywomen, rature". It was not foreseen, not to be aware that in proportion among a thousand collateral conas novels, compiled on either side sequences, that even the musical of the water, constitute the favour- collections of their daughters would ite reading of the daughters of be decorated by such compilations Britain, in that proportion the dig- as have since found admission. nity and purity of those makers of This is a tangible illustration of the our manners and happiness will moral lassitude and too secularized sink into the elegant degradation state of the Christian world. At of the goddesses of Paris. There the same time, how unconscious of still exists a broad interval between the evil veiled beneath its decorated the characters of the rival countries. surface are those young personsA complete nationality exhibits it- not indeed in all instances-whose self both in their virtues and their voice and speech are suffered to crimes. Among ourselves, good- add to their master's compositions ness is more real with less preten- a new and living potency! sion; and vice does not habitually embarrass itself to be mistaken for innocence. In France, it is precisely the reverse. It is a soil fruitful in Lovelaces; admired on their surface, and detested when examined. The influence of our indegenous novels is exasperated by a circumstance yet to be mentioned; namely, that we have not only prose but metrical performances of this kind. Walter Scott led the way in the Lay of the Last Minstrel; a poem which was received and ordered If novels, which are indebted to no extrinsic sources of fascination for their effect, are, as I have endeavoured to prove, highly baneful to the rising generation, how greatly I may be accused of inaccurate chronology in assigning the above date, as the period when the first inundation of indiscriminate reading diffused itself over the stricter order of families. It might be more correct to say, that the waters had been gradually rising for many previous years, and gained their flood-height about the time specified in my remarks. so must be the kind of poetry to which I allude, when thus accompanied with music, and every other circumstance that can give it access to the youthful heart! The more I reflect upon the sub. ject, the more deeply I become con vinced that the whole system of reading, now under discussion, is indefensible on any manly or Chris tian grounds; and that, if persisted in for many years longer, it will tend, more than any thing else, tó break down that barrier which ought to separate the recreations of a religious family from those of the unthinking world. (To be concluded in our next.) REVIEW OF NEW PUBLICATIONS. THE name of Mr. Faber is well known to the public, as that of a distinguished scholar and an eminent divine. Whether his researches have always been of a kind best calculated to enlighten the world, and to do justice to himself, may perhaps admit of a question: and for ourselves we confess, that we are never so happy to meet him as in the walks of Christian theology. The ability and learning which he has display⚫ed in elucidating many dark and intricate subjects, cannot, at any rate, be misemployed in the illus tration and enforcement of those great truths which are more immediately connected with his profession: and although we had not been favoured with his Treatise on the Holy Spirit, we should still have anticipated much both of instruction and improvement from such a dedication of his time and labours. The volume of sermons, of which we propose now to give some account, is evidently the production of no common mind. It comprises many subjects of high importance; and they are handled, in general, with such a Christian spirit, with such force of argument, and such correctness of language and of taste, that few persons, wẹ presume, who are competent to follow the reasoning, will take up the work without giving it an entire perusal. These sermons are not, in the usual sense of the words, either practical or popular: wè are inclined to place them in the same class with Bishop Horsley's. They are addressed to men of thought and reflection: and we have seldom met with discourses better suited to convince the rea souing gainsayer, and to confirm the intelligent believer in his most holy faith. In the following pages we shall confine ourselves chiefly to the humble but useful task of affording a brief view of Mr. Fa ber's manner and line of argument in the prosecution of his several subjects. The first sermon is on the uni versal Profitableness of Scripture: and its object is to shew in what way the Scripture is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correes tion, for instruction in righteous ness. This discourse is, perhaps, better adapted than any other in the volume to an ordinary congregation: it was delivered as a colla tion sermon at Stockton upon Tees; and the preacher very properly takes occasion in it to state both the doctrines and the practice which he should feel himself bound in conscience to inculcate. In dis cussing the subject of doctrine, Mr. Faber shews briefly from the Arti cles, which he had that day read before the congregation, the truths which are taught in Scripture, and which are peculiarly profitable for man in his present state: such as original sin; salvation by faith; the necessity of Divine grace, that we may have a good will, and working with us when we have it; justification through the merits of Christ by faith, and not for our own works or deservings; holiness of life; adoption into the family of God; and the readiness of the Father of Mercies to give his Spirit to them that ask him. After explaining, in the next place, how the Scripture is profitable for reproof by its warnings and denun ciations, and shewing how incumbent it is upon the minister of Christ not to handle the word of God deceitfully, or to cry Peace, when there is no peace, he proceeds to illustrate the term correction. By this word, in conformity with the Greek, he understands the setting us right in our opinions, whether those opinions respect principles or practice. "Without the Bible, all our sentiments of God and religion are radically false: it is the office of Scripture to correct those sentiments. And, even with the Bible in our hands, it is astonishing what erroneous opinions are frequently entertained with regard both to doctrine and practice: it is the office of Scrip: ture to correct all such mistakes." p. 13. He takes, as instances, the following particulars. Some have maintained that because we are dead in trespasses and sins, and have no power to help ourselves, it is vain for us to attempt to repent and turn to God. Others have gone into the opposite error, and have argued, that because Scripture commands us to perform such and such duties, we are of course able to perform them in our own strength. Others have become Antinomians, and have madly de eried all good works as mere servile legality, because the Bible teaches us, that we are justified solely by grace through, faith, and not for our own works and deservings. In all these respects, Mr. Faber shews the excellence of the Scriptures as profitable for correetion; and proves that such errors could not prevail, if men were willing to take the word of Gqď in plainness and simplicity. The manner in which the Scrip ture instructs us in righteousness requires, as our author justly ob serves, many sermons for a full discussion. He is contented in this discourse with a general view of it; and refers his hearers to the opening of our Lord's Sermon on the Mount, and to St. Paul's account, in the fifth chapter to the Galatians, of the works of the flesh, and the fruits of the Spirit;-the first delineating the character of the true Israelite; the second proving further what manner of persons we ought to be in all holy conversation and godliness. The Sermon concludes with a brief but impressive address to the congregation to pray for themselves, and for those also who watch for their souls; that hereafter they may be their pastor's joy and crown of rejoicing in the presence of our Lord Jesus Christ at his coming. The title of the second sermon is, "God's Justice exemplified in the Atonement of Christ; " the text Rom. iii. 23—26. The perfect justice of God is here stated to be the very basis of Christianity: and upon the exist ence of this attribute is built the whole of St. Paul's argument in his Epistle to the Romans. Mr. Faber reasons upon the subject in the following manner:— Any exertion of justice presup poses the existence of some knowa law or standard of right or wrong, to which actions may be referred. If the actions come not within the cognizance of the law, the man is innocent: if they be of a contrary des scription, he is guilty, and punish ment must follow. He may not have broken every enactment; but |