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idea is lost, or looks impoverished, amidst the wealth with which it is surrounded. This not only injuries the idea, but mars the truth of his characters. It is the fault even of Sir Epicure Mammon's splendid visions. There is nothing savouring of luxury which the Roman writers have put upon record, that he does not treat us with. A true epicure would have had a more select taste, we think, and have contented himself with fewer delicacies. At all events, he would not have placed all things upon a level; for that shews that he had a true relish for none. He who appreciates wines, likes the best wines, which are few. He who really loves the sex,' loves but one woman,-at a time.

"Jonson's great strength lay in satire, and in his power of depicting manners. As a censor of morals, as a corrector of the vices and follies of his age, he deserves especial remark. At those times, he seems really in earnest. He forgets his learning and his books, and sends forth his indignation or his contempt in condensed and vigorous sentences. The invectives which some of his characters lavish on others, are models in their way. The hate or scorn which they exhibit is intense. Nothing can exceed the abuse, except the recrimination. There is no title or epithet wanting, which the dictionary of the vulgar tongue presents: there is no sparing, no relenting; neither delicacy nor remorse. If the accusation is like some biting acid, the retort is the actual cautery.

"As moral satires, or as histories, putting upon record the manners and humours of the age in which he lived, Jonson's plays are extremely valuable. But we cannot prevail upon ourselves to entertain great respect for his (mere) dramatic talent. For his characters do not represent men and women, with the medley of vices and virtues common to human nature about them; but each is the personification of some one single humour, and no more. There is no fluctuation-no variety or relief in them. His people speak with a malice prepense. They utter by rote what is set down for them, every one pursuing one leading idea from beginning to end, and taking his cue evidently from the prompting of the poet. They speak nothing spontaneously. The original design of each character is pursued so rigidly, that, let what will happen, the one single humour is ever uppermost, always the same in point of force, the same in its mode of demonstration; instead of being operated on by circumstances, increased or weakened, hurried or delayed, or turned aside, as the case may require.

Taking them, however, for what they are, they possess great merit. They have nothing to do with the passions, and do not contain the elements of the higher Drama. But as abstractions, or personifications of humours, his people are in excellent keeping. They are full of wit, good sense, and shrewd observation; and exhibit the masculine character of the Author, his learning, his industry, and his perseverance, (not to say inveteracy of purpose) to perfection.

"If Jonson intended, as we will presume, to describe manners, to em body humours, and to scatter his wit and indignation upon the vices and follies of the world around him, he has succeeded in his design. And it would be unjust indeed to try him by a rule that does not apply to his particular case, or to insist that he is wanting in those excellences that he never sought to attain. In his own way he need not fear comparison with any one. It is only when his admirers lift him up, unwisely, to the

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height of Shakspeare, that he falls, and seems for a moment to lose his real stature and elevation.

"In enumerating the claims of Jonson upon the admiration of his countrymen, it should not be forgotten that he was creator of the MASQUE,' or the improver of it to such a degree as almost to entitle him to the honours of an inventor. No one has approached him in this respect. No one ever mingled the grotesque and the elegant so well, in these now obsolete amusements. Ben's mind had a gentle and graceful, as well as a rugged aspect. Besides the satire and humour, and strong common sense with which his works abound, there are in them frequent references to what is beautiful in nature-refined and delicate fanciessongs, moving to music-learned, remote allusions, that take us from the ignorant present,' into those regions of dim antiquity in which the Poet sought his inspiration. He is never tired with referring to Greek and Roman story, to

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"Sage Nestor's counsels, and Ulysses' slights,
Tydides' fortitude, as Homer wrought them
In his immortal phant'sie, for examples
Of the heroic virtue."

ART. XXIV.-Till's Almanacs, &c. for 1839.

We have on the dying of former years been perplexed how to deal in a compact space with Mr. Tilt's multitudinous and multifarious race of Almanacs; but never before did he so confound and astonish us by means of variety, beauty, and utility. Here they are in all shapes, sizes, and hues, at rates counting from single pence to shillings. Not only are there sheets for the wall, leaves for the desks, and circulars for the crown of the hat; but there are Sunday Almanacs, Pocket Almanacs, "Useful," "National," "Paragon Almanacs," &c., some with arabesque borders, others richly emblazoned, and all of them astonishingly full of information suitable to their individual titles. Some century hence it will, we have no doubt, be deemed one of the most interesting of antiquarian researches and accumulation, these same annual publications; especially as people are almost universally regardless of them the moment they have run the circuit of the year. The progress of almanac making, since the change of the stamp duties, in regard to them, down only to the commencement of 1839, has already become a curious chapter in the history of modern literature.

We have also received Oliver and Boyd's "Penny" and "Threepenny" Almanacs, than which none are more useful upon a similar scale. For the North they are unrivalled.

ART. XXV.

1.-Rudiments of the Latin Language. By the REV. W. FOSTER, A.M. London: Whittaker. 1838.

2.-Rudiments of the Greek Language. By the Same.

THE student who desires to derive the greatest possible benefit from either of these school-books, must possess and ponder both; and then they will reciprocally explain and teach one another. Our reasons for speaking thus will be best conveyed in Mr. Foster's own words, at the beginning of

his Preface to the Rudiments of the Greek. "Upon commencing," says he," the Greek Grammar, it is desirable that the student, who has made some progress in Latin, should find that the knowledge he has already acquired is of direct assistance to him. To effect this, the author has endeavoured to make the Grammars of the Greek and Latin Languages as similar to each other as possible-by observing the same arrangement throughout-by giving, where it could be done, parallel examples in the nouns, verbs, &c. and by expressing the rules of the Syntax in precisely the same words."

In regard to languages which bear such a close affinity to one another as exists in the case of those under consideration, there are obvious advantages connected with this method. Such as, not merely that of lessening the labour of the teacher, but the far more important one-viz., that of giving early and interesting lessons in the study of comparative and universal grammar. Mr. Foster, who is head master of St. Paul's School. Southsea, has no doubt discovered the advantages of such an arrangement and treatment in the course of his experience.

In both grammars, Mr. F. has introduced certain deviations from the ordinary rules usually adopted in such elementary works as regards conjugations, tenses, declensions, &c.; with reference to those alterations, which admit of discussions of a more intricate kind than we can here enter into, we can only say that we are not prepared to pronounce him in error; while, on the other hand, it has long appeared to us, that there is much of ancient prejudice exemplified in the majority of grammars of the dead languages, that cannot bear up against anything like rigid investigation and clear analysis.

ART. XXVI.—The Coronation. A Poem, in Six Cantos. By C. G. SHARPLEY, B.A. London: printed for the Author. 1838. We gather from the preface that the very loyal and highly delighted author of these Cantos wooed the poetic muse at an early age, till severer efforts of a professional character obliged him to relinquish the day-dreams of youth, and the hope of " winning some leaves of the laurels of Parnassus." The time at length came, however, when during the leisure occasioned by a tedious attack of rheumatism, Poetry became a relaxation, the accession of our youthful Queen presenting itself as an animating theme for about two hundred and sixty octavo pages of verse, and affording an opportunity for a goodly list of subscribers, royal, noble and gentle, to testify their patriotism and joy, as well as their satisfaction at the manner in which the author has acquitted himself. The work, in fact, is dedicated by permission to the Duchess of Kent.

We cannot say, now, that the Coronation mania has subsided and people have had time to come to their senses, that Mr. Sharpley's Cantos warm our feelings so completely as they might have done on a certain day. It must be confessed, at the same time, that there is no lack of earnestness, in the performance, so that the details are often minute, literal, and inventorial to an amusing degree. We shall quote two or three verses, after having been conducted to Westminster Abbey, from which the trim of the Poet may be understood :

"In the northern Transept beauty arms
A host of the fair with all her charms;
As lovely as flowers in spring's parterre,
When shaken by breezes that scent the air,
And seem, as in mirthful joyance gay,
To laugh in the face of the golden day.
Ah Sarem,* thou well might'st turn and gaze,
To see such a constellation blaze;
And own thy beauty ripening sun,

By the Isles of the West was far out done.
All velvet the kirtle's crimson glow,

That graces the Titled Fair;

Open and sloped from the girdle below,
To show the white uudercoat there.
Backward the mantle of crimson is flung,
And low are its tasselled cordons hung,
Pure in the bordering miniver,

But spotted the cape with ermine fur;
And broader those ermine rows we see

And longer the train, for each higher degree."

The Poet is in raptures with all who are titled, and with the trappings of state. He invites the reader's attention, thus, among many other ecstatic.praises :

"If honour wait on noble birth,-
Behold the noblest sons of earth:
If learning veneration claim,-
Behold the sons of lettered fame:
If genius, there are souls, whose fire
Breathes in the page, or o'er the lyre:
If wisdom, there is ripened thought,
With all the lore of ages fraught,
Or does the freeborn bosom glow
Towards those whose guide is honour's star,
To bear out fame and arms afar ?—

Behold the brave, who quelled the foe,
And waded deep through crimson war.
Hither have thronged both peer and page,

And dame and damsel in robe of state;
The soldier gay, and the senator sage,

And heralds, in antique weeds to wait;

Through the world was temple e'er filled with a crowd
Of such beauties bright, and such titles proud ?"

The author intimates that he has a facility in the art of versification; but this is not always an enviable talent. Yet what is more to the purpose, the publication, it is hinted, has been a remunerating concern. Still we cannot advise him to risk his interests upon a similar scale at any future period; for it is not to be supposed that special circumstances will ever prove so propitious to the venture; and we doubt not he might, even when the victim of a tantalizing and painful complaint, be much better employed than in stringing doggerel rhymes together.

*The Turkish Ambassador.

ART. XXVII.—Guides to Trade and Guides to Service. London: Knight. 1838.

THE series of industrial Guide-Books which are in the course of publication by Mr. Knight, are intended to prepare young persons for the choice of an occupation, by instructing them in the peculiar duties, and as far as requisite, in the technical details of the various departments of Service or Trade in which they are likely to be engaged as they advance in life; that is to say, to give such a general knowledge of the occupations which the mass of the people are called upon to follow, as may prepare the young for the proper discharge of their duties, and systematize much of the practical information which the adult has now, in most cases, to learn without a Guide. Such is the professed object of these publications. Now, from the specimens which we have seen, as well as upon abstract principles, we are of opinion that by a Guide to a particular Trade, such as that of a " Printer," a good deal of general information may be imparted, though, as regards the manual department of the business, the activity and the accuracy of the eye, the dexterity and expedition of the fingers, nothing but practice and habit will materially avail. With regard, however, to the Guides to Service, such as that to the "Maid of All Work," we suspect no very extensive degree of benefit or good will attend such sorts of instruction.

In the first place, -the persons who, with few exceptions, enter into the situation mentioned in this country, begin in early life, and are not in a condition to betake themselves to the study and reading of such directories as these Guides; neither are they likely to have their attention ever called to them by their poor parents, who look upon the kind of service in question but as a last resort, and not as a particular, regular, systematized profession, which any one would think of adopting voluntarily.

In the second place,-after the maid has been fairly installed, she has either too much to do, and is too much chagrined to think of studying the principles and details of "All-Work" in books, and, as if for future eminence, in an unwelcome department; or, if she be favourably situated, she looks to be promoted, and is too well pleased with the system which she and her mistress pursue, to listen to mere caterers of stale rules and stale anecdotes with which these Guides are stored.

In the third place, there is really something offensive and insulting in the very tendering of gratuitous advice by persons in a superior station of life to those who cannot better theirs, or rise to an equal level with the directors. There is necessarily involved or felt, that an impertinent tone of dictation is indulged.

The truth is, that in the artificial state of European society, and particularly as regards servants, the feelings and manners which long ago obtained as to vassalage, serfdom, and bondage, have not to this day been eradicated; while jealousy on the one hand and tyranny on the other widely prevail. Who, in this case, is the strongest? Who the most to blame? which the party for whom Mr. Knight should publish Guide-Books? The proper answer will at once present itself: let him try his hand and advice upon the right party.

What! do we mean to argue that there should be no distinction of ranks, and stations, and functions; that all should be masters; that none should be in servitude; or rather, do we suppose that such an equality can ever exist, while human nature is what it is? By no means;-but we mean

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