We wish Mr. Shee would not use the epithet 'kindless," and some others like it; at least not more than once. This our toleration may, perhaps, allow to a favourite word, however foolish. Every book has some darling absurdity in expression. It is very well when an author is not all over tremblingly alive,' like the prolific ladies of the Minerva Press.

NOVELS.

ART. 30. Can We doubt it? or, The genuine History of Two Families of Norwich. By Charlotte Bournon-Malarme, Member of the Academy of Arcades at Rome. Translated from the French, by Mrs. VillaReal Gooch. 3 vols. small 8vo. 10s. 6d. Crosby. 1804.

Lulled into security by each successive interval between the productions of Mrs. Gooch, the public just begins to hope it never shall behold her name in print again, when the last of the Villa-Reals' suddenly resumes the pen, destroys all our pleasing expectations of having bidden her a last adieu, and obtrudes some fresh absurdity upon her unwilling readers. Often have we been tempted to wish (never more strongly than in reading the works of Mrs. Villa-Real Gooch) that the limbo of vanity were a real habitation for the monster-breeding authors of the age; or that in some fairy paradise they might give vent to the crudities of their imaginations, obtain subsistence and applause, nor any longer annoy with their nonsense the plain matter-of-fact citizens of the world in the common occupations of this sublunary life. Happy would be the flight of these poetasters, play-mongers, and novelists, for the daughters and apprentices of industrious tradesmen! Happy for the rising generation in our religious and learned seminaries! Happy above all for us, the whippers-in of the literary pack, if none but the true-bed sons of inspiration, aided by laborious study, were engaged in the pursuit of science, and the cultivation of the liberal arts! But alas! we are condemned to pluck the bramble and the rose together; to separate their intertwisted leaves; to consume the one in the fire of angry criticism, and to draw forth with a judicious hand the lurking beauties of the other. So latent, so refined, so imperceptible to our ordinary senses are the beauties of Mrs. Gooch's language (for she is only answerable, as she informs us, for the translation of the present work), that we must content ourselves with pointing out the defects only these are gross and palpable. The most prominent is the accumulation of unnecessary words; occasioned perhaps by a laudable desire of correctly rendering the little happinesses of the French original; possibly, indeed, by a natural wish of lengthening out the story into three volumes. Next to the quantity of Mrs. Gooch's words, we have to object to their quality, which is of the most inferior order. Her style is feeble, unimpassioned, and inelegant; void of ornament, yet not perspicuous.

With regard to the tale itself, which professes to be a genuine history, we have only to observe, that the marvellousness of its incidents gives the lie to the title-page; and that such outrages as are here related to have been offered with impunity to a noble family, should have been committed in this country and of late years, we are certain is most improbable; and we believe, notwithstanding the wholesale assertions of Charlotte Bournon-Malarme, member of the academy of Arcades at Rome, retailed by Mrs. Villa-Real Gouch, authoress of that genuine history, the Memoirs of her own 'Life,'-setting aside, we say, the evidence of these twin Arcadians,

most untrue.

+

MISCELLANIES.

ART. 31. Anecdotes of Eminent Persons; comprising also many literary Fragments, Biographical Sketches, Dialogues, Letters, Characters, &c. in Prose and Verse. 2 vols. 8vo. 148. Lackington. 1805.

When the following collection (says the editor) was first suggested, it was intended that it should consist entirely of original matter, arranged under certain heads; so that at least, it would have some title to order and novelty; but a severe fit of sickness, which befel the collector, put an end to a plan that in all probability would have had some claim on the approbation of the reader.".

With such an advertisement, we were surprised at the effrontery which could obtrude upon the public eight hundred pages of mat, ter, which had already appeared in many different shapes; in anecdotes, in Anas, in Olla-podridas, and under a thousand other nonsensical denominations.

Whatever tends to instruct and entertain, assume what garb it may, we have much satisfaction in recommending; but is the public, already inundated with a deluge of absurdities, to pay twelve or fourteen shillings to the cheapest bookseller in the world' for the perusal of what they have repeatedly read before, because his col tor forsooth has had a fit of illness? We are extremely sorry for indisposition in any case; but the public were not clamorous for the work before us; and they would have waited patiently for the collector's recovery. A lamer excuse for a bad boek we never saw; and whether it be true or false, it is a barefaced imposition upon the public, and one of those wretched expedients too fre quently adopted, to foist upon the world a publication, of the demerits of which the editor cannot but be conscious..

a

• We are informed (page 1) that one part of the original design is still adhered to; the insertion of such papers as tend to promote virtue and the love of our country. This is very laudable design; but we cannot imagine such stories as the Romance of Thomas Sainvitty;' 'the two uncles and two nephews;' ' stealing dead bodies;' or 'the lines by Dr. Charlton; with numberless others, too tedious to particularise, conducive either to improvement in virtue or patriotism. We guard our readers against the purchase of this book.

1

ART. 32.-An English Spelling Book, with Reading Lessons adapt ed to the Capacities of Children; in three Parts, calculated to advance the Learners by natural and easy Gradations, and to teach Orthography and Pronunciation together. By Lindley Murray. 8vo. 15. 6d. Darton and Harvey. 1805.

Mr. Murray, whom we have had so frequent occasion to commend, does not disdain the humblest yet most irksome office in the scholastic department, we mean that of the Abecedarian; he accordingly has composed one of the best elementary books for children in the English language, with the exception of the last fifty pages, which appear to us to be beyond the capacity of infancy.

CORRESPONDENCE.

WE presume that the manuscript dedication prefixed by Dr. Montucci to his Treatise on Chinese Literature, was not intended for

We refer him to our advertisement, which he will find on the cover of the last two numbers of the Critical Review.

Dr. Jenkin's publication arrived so late, that it was quite out of our power to comply with his request.

We received a very civil letter from Mr Bagley. His meritorious exertions through life deserve infinite praise. It gives us great pleasure to find that his pupils have found that benefit from his late work which we, from dullness probably, not from inattention, confess ourselves unable to derive. When the next publication, of which he makes mention, is submitted to us, he may depend upon its being treated with candour, and we hope it will be in our power to give a more favourable account of it than we did of his last. We take this opportunity of hinting, that the Latin substantive cor makes cor in the accusative case : Φωνᾶντα συνετοισιν.

In reply to 'A Friend of Mr. Mawman's, and One of the Writers in British Purity,' we observe, that if the hints contained in the first page of his letter were intended for us, he is quite out of the secret; if for our predecessors, or any other review, they are needless; there is no possibility of our falling into the error alluded to, inasmuch as in our case there is no proprietary bookseller, the Critical Review being the sole and exclusive property of one individual. With regard to the other part of his letter, we are astonished that he should have expected us to apply any expedient to lift off the unfair extinguisher which has been placed upon his work.' To attempt to satisfy all the authors who have been ag aggrieved by the severity, just or unjust, of our predecessors, would obviously be an endless task. In the threatened appeal to the public we have no interest, as our responsibility did not commence till the first day of February last.

We are much gratified by the renewed attention of A Lover of Truth, and will cause an answer to be left for him at Mr. Mawman's, with the above superscription.

ART. I.-Voyage dans les quatre principales Işles, &c. Travels in the four principal Islands of the African Seas, undertaken by order of the French Government in the VIIIth and IXth Years of the Republic (1801 and 1802). By B. G. M. Bory de St. Vincent, Officer of the Staff, Chief Naturalist on board the Corvette 'the Naturalist, in the Expedition of Discovery. With a Collection of fifty-eight Plates, from Designs taken on the Spot by the Author. 3 Vols. 8vo. Paris. 1804. Imported by De Conchy.

oceans.

THE age of geographical discoveries seems fast approaching to a close. Already all the considerable points have been completely ascertained. There are certainly no new continents to explore; and the utmost by which the vanity of a navigator can hope to illustrate his name, is the discovery of some petty islets in the vast spaces of the Pacific and Southern If we except the impenetrable regions around the poles, almost every part of the aqueous surface of our globe has been traversed. What still remains to be done for completing our knowledge of the earth, is more entitled to the name of topography than geography. To ascertain the position and bearings of capes, inlets, harbours, and coasts, is still an object of immense practical utility. But though we may be thus said to be tolerably well acquainted with the great and striking features of the globe which we inhabit, there remain other points not so well known, yet of great interest and curiosity. Innumerable animal, vegetable, and mineral bodies, are every where distributed. The observation of these, and the discovery of new genera and species, form an important object of scientific research.

Animated by the brilliant success of maritime expeditions sent out by this country, the nations on the continent have eagerly rushed to share the advantages and the honour. But, from the causes now detailed, it is clear that the chance of success has progressively diminished. The French governments have, at different times, fitted out expeditions of this kind; and Bonaparte, soon after his accession to consular authority, dispatched two corvettes, the Naturaliste and the Geographe, with an equipment of stores, instruments, and savans, for the purpose of exploring regions hitherto not perfectly investigated. It will be seen, however, that, whether from the parsimony of the government, or the depredations of its agents, the expedition was in no very enviable state. Only six months provisions were laid in for the use of the learned men; at the end of which period they were unexpectedly called upon, in a foreign country, to provide for themselves. Baudin, the commodore, moreover, seems to have felt very little enthusiasm for science, and none at all for the scientific men, whom he treated with very little ceremony, and commonly styled les savans inutiles dont l'Institut avoit surchargé l'expédition.' 'This man commanded at one time a merchant vessel, and seems to have brought the ideas of his old trade into his new one. The British navy would have felt such an appointment an insult.

M. Bory, the author of these volumes, is of the military profession.. He quitted the army of the west, through love of the sciences, to accompany this expedition. The corvettes sailed from Havre-de-Grace on the 26th Vendemaire, (1801) and arrived at Teneriffe without meeting any thing very remarkable, except that the national feelings of M. Bory seem to have been rather discomposed by the presumption of the captain of a British frigate, who was unpolite enough to inspect their passports.

On their arrival at Teneriffe, our author began, with enthusiasm, his botanical and zoological examination; in which he had considerable success. Most of the animal and vegetable productions of that island are, however, well known, and already described. But M. Bory has been able to render his descriptions interesting to the lover of natural science, by uniting the precision of the Linnæan language with the more attractive details of the habits and economy of the objects of his researches. He observes the small pretensions which the Canaries have to the appellation of the Fortunate Islands;" and cannot refrain from guessing whether these islands are not the remnants of a powerful country, and the ancient witnesses of the glory of a fortunate people, whose name we hardly (very hardly!) know, and of a people who cultivated