lor, and, as soon as he arrives, instead of contenting himself with lodgings or an hotel, takes a handsome villa at Southgate. That these little things are impossible, we do not say: but there is a beaten track of usage, in which all writers who undertake to represent the occurrences of ordinary life must be contented to tread. We are led to suspect, from these instances, that Mrs. Opie has viewed life with a negligent or unskilful eye, or has had insufficient opportunities of regarding it.

Other incongruities occur which are equally palpable. In a story, the date of which is immediately after the Revolution, a young lady not only studies Tasso, and retains nearly all his poetry in her memory, but actually understands botany; not the culling of simples which, in the reign of William III., constituted the whole of the science, but the classes of plants, lichens and mosses, &c. There should be a keeping in every picture of life; and the habits and pursuits of the personages should be modelled in conformity to the period to which they are assigned. Were Tasso and botany likely to be the familiar studies of a young lady at the age of sixteen in the middle of the seventeenth century? In another place, (vol. iv. p. 43.) the author's inattention makes her appear ignorant of the laws of nature, and she gives a young woman, aged thirty-three, a large family of grandchildren!

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An additional cause also has contributed to Mrs. Opie's failure in her present volumes. She does not always condescend to write English: a remark not implying simply that her diction is inelegant, but that it is vicious; such as is condemned by correct taste, and by universal convention banished from all tolerably good society. We must be permitted to remind the author of a few of these instances. A well-educated young lady cries out, Oh dear, yes! I hope so. Nay, I am sure so. Vol. i. p. 21. Instantly those speaking eyes lighted up with pleasure; meaning, we presume, were lighted up." P. 39.-A little farther on, we are treated with a pun. A nobleman, suspecting that his son's visit to the Isle of Wight had a matrimonial object, asks the young gentleman whether he had any particular views in his intended tour? whereupon, though living in the time of William III., nearly sixty years before the birth of Joe Miller, he thus facetiously replies: Yes, my Lord, I have: the views round Cowes in particular.'

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66

A very strange mysterious gentleman, in the first story, when he is putting his guest to bed, gives him a peremptory injunction, Should you hear aught unusual, do not be

alarmed,

alarmed, but turn and sleep again' an injunction which implies, we think, somewhat too much faith in the power of volition. We also learn a point in ecclesiastical law which is quite new to us, that there are various degrees of legitimacy. I now, in order to legitimate my child as much as possible, procured a licence, and we were married.' Sometimes, Mrs. Opie's phrase is borrowed from very humble life: It was months before Madeleine held up her head.' 266. • How worthy of love is that being who is fond of encouraging sources for thankfulness !' - To whom was he to address it (a letter). His heart said to Grace Fullarton; but his judgment, to her aunt; and the latter carried the day.' Vol. ii. p. 121. On one occasion, we are amused with a little confusion as to sex. At the end of a love-scene, Ronald could not desire a more explicit avowal, and he left her the happiest of men.' Confusion of persons also occurs in vol. iv. p. 15., where we read: Suffice that during the next ten years Mrs. Evelyn became the mother of two daughters and a son; that Mr. Evelyn's parents died when they (who?) had been married nine years,' &c. another place, our indignation against a negligent police is awakened by being told (vol. ii. p. 152.) that the road round Southgate is so much infested by robbers, that the chances of being attacked are very certain;' and in p. 167. we have a pretty little gallicism, Mr. and Mrs. Douglas bitterly lamenting the evasion of the wicked man;' meaning the escape of a robber.

In

The following sentence must surely be taken, word for word, from some of the little story-books which were formerly sold by Mr. Newberry: But when my father and mother were seated at the breakfast-table, and gave me some of the nice things set before them, I became less averse to their caresses, and before the day was over I consented to have one papa and two mammas; while Seymour assured me he thought my papa, though ill, very handsome, and like his own poor papa.' Vol. ii. p. 230.— In vol. iv. p. 264., the carriage of Sir Edward is found to be inconvenient as a chariot, though at p. 121. it is blazoned forth as a costly coach;" and the first sentence of that volume is thus inelegantly worded: If we were to take from the catalogue of miseries those which are merely the result of our own diseased imaginations, and the distorted or mistaken view which we take of circumstances and persons,' &c. Many of these objections may perhaps be termed trifles, but they shew the want of care with which the approbation of the public has here been sought.

REV. AUG. 1820.

C c

In

In addition to these sources of ennui, we are not much pleased by having to undergo an introduction not only to the principal persons in the tales, but to their grandfathers and grandmothers, whose adventures and loves are tediously recited. It is too much to have two generations of the Seymour and Pendarves families let loose on us at once; and we cannot describe the yawn which escaped us when, by way of preamble to a long story, we read the following sentence: • Introduction. My grandfather and the grandfather of Seymour Pendarves were brothers, and the younger sons,' &c. &c.

The task, however, which we are now reluctantly executing, must be closed. We have before observed how ill-bred it was to compare one lady with another; or we might have observed on the evident superiority of Miss Edgeworth's tales to those of Mrs. Opie. Miss E. pays a better compliment to the understandings of her friends who frequent the circulating libraries, than to write beneath them. Her diction is generally polished, always easy, and sometimes eloquent. She conforms to truth and nature; and, though we frequently meet with improbabilities, we find a perfect consistency in the manners of the persons by whose agency her story is conducted. Her delineation of character is skilful and accurate; in all their varieties of passion, of nation, and of disposition, they are true to themselves; and, which is more, they all conduce to illustrate some useful principle, and inculcate some momentous lesson.

In making these remarks on Mrs. Opie's present production, our countenances, if she could discern them, would be seen to be more "in sorrow than in anger." We wish to admonish, not to wound: but, if our admonition inflicts a wound, we trust that it will be salutary; that it will urge her to set a higher value on a reputation so fairly acquired by many of her former writings; and that, in consequence, she will not put it again to hazard by stories so indigested in their plans, so incorrect in their execution, and so little calculated to awaken our sympathy. We know that she has talents; and we must therefore earnestly entreat that, in her next publication, she will not excite a suspicion that they are impaired and blunted. Let her remember that the pathetic tales of The Father and Daughter and of Adeline Mowbray bear strong testimony to her powers: but that these will soon be forgotten, and with them the praise which was awarded to their author, if she perseveres in her contempt of public

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judgment,

judgment, by writing such stories as The Opposite Neigh

bour.'

We have not yet mentioned that various poetical effusions are interspersed in the volumes: but it is due to them to state their occurrence, and to remark that they are occasionally very pretty. We will do more, for we will quote one of them as a proof of their merit.

ART. IV. Memoirs of Richard Lovell Edgeworth, Esq.; begun by Himself, and concluded by his Daughter, Maria Edgeworth. 8vo. 2 Vols. 11. 10s. Boards. Hunter, &c. 1820.

WH HO among our readers, who in the literary or the educated world, is unacquainted with the name of Edgeworth, or uninterested in any publication that appears with its sanction? Often have our pages been graced by it, in recording the productions both of the father and the daughter; and truly, though with a mixture of regret, do we now welcome from the hands of the latter a biography of him to whom she owed existence, mind, and fame. Participating as the public has done in the beneficial use which she has made of the talents that he cultivated, corrected, and matured, they will unite also with us in a desire to contemplate the life of him from whom she derived them, and who has himself for so long a period held a place in literary annals by bearing a C c 2 share

share in literary toils. We shall have pleasure, then, in detailing the principal particulars here communicated to us, with as much circumstantiality as our other duties permit.

Richard Lovell Edgeworth was born at Bath in the year 1744, of a family which was antient and respectable, having settled in Ireland about the year 1583. One of his ancestors was raised by Queen Elizabeth to the see of Down and Connor; and John Edgeworth, who made an excursion to England with his lady, and contrived to run through all his ready money in London, was knighted by Charles II. Sir John, as he grew older, became more prudent, and pushed his fortune at court with some effect. Francis Edgeworth, called Protestant Frank from his attachment to the cause of the Revolution, was the eldest son of Sir John Edgeworth, and the grandfather of the subject of the present memoir. The son of Francis Edgeworth married the daughter of Samuel Lovell, a Welsh judge; and Richard Lovell Edgeworth was the third child of this marriage.

He was not very fortunate during his earliest years, having been nearly starved to death by two women, whose names he never afterward forgot, Nurse Self and Nurse Evil. When he was two or three years of age, he was carried by his father and mother to Edgeworth-Town, in the county of Longford. Of his infancy, Mr. E. has preserved some interesting anecdotes, which his memory appears to have retained with great but not unusual distinctness. The advanced time of life, at which he composed this memoir, may account for this singular accuracy; since it is a well-known fact that, while the recollection of more recent circumstances fades from the mind of age, the events of youth seem freshly revived in the memory. I remember,' he says, distinctly, several small circumstances which occurred before I was four years old. This I notice because the possibility of remembering at so early an age has been doubted.'

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The activity of mind, and the love of research, by which Mr. Edgeworth was so much distinguished, made their appearance very early. When he began to read the Old Testament, he dramatized in his mind the history of the creation, pitied Adam, was angry with Eve, and most cordially hated the Devil. Joseph was a great favourite with him, and his history continued for a long time to have an influence on his own conduct. The power of early circumstances, in determining the character of a man, is well exemplified in the anecdotes of Mr. Edgeworth's infancy: in a paroxysm of passion, he had flung a piece of iron at the head of his brother, which fortunately missed its aim; and the mild and sensible remon