and heart. He rose from his seat and walked across the room he halted and looked at Andrew; he then seemed to turn his thoughts inwardly, and again he paused. "Tell Mr. Mordaunt, at last he said, "to come to me.' The trial-scene of the Gypsies, though highly improbable, and wholly inconsistent with the forms and usages of English judicature, is an episode which has considerable effect, and evinces the writer's powers of acuteness, eloquence, and pathos. His powers of fertility, too, are again and already evinced by the recent appearance of a new volume, intitled "The Provost."-It may, perhaps, be well soon to commit his pen to prison. ART. X. Echoism; a Poem. 8vo. pp. 257. Sherwood and Co. 1821. WE E have here a re-print, with additions, of a poetical satire which was published some years since under the title of Canting," and reviewed in the M. R. in the course of 1815. The author now quotes the greatest portion of the article in question, and among other passages the following: "So much good sense pervades the production of this easy satirist, and his strictures are so happily diversified, that we freely forgive him his negligences." Be it so, at his first appearance: but, when he comes forwards again, and declares that he could not so easily forgive himself the negligences alluded to, and was therefore induced to make such alterations, abridgments, and additions, as he considered essential to render the poem more worthy the notice, and consequently more deserving the approbation of a liberal public;' when the author, we say, thus appears in the character of the correct and fastidious reviser of his former inaccurate publication, we must beg leave to alter our own style of criticism with the altered claims of the poet; and to deny that applause to an amended work, which we accorded to the negligent happiness of a clever though careless effort. The fact is that much good sense may certainly be found in this book, and that is high praise: but, when it is considered as the matured fruit of the author's lucubrations, and as having received the final polish of his critical file, it seems feeble and imperfect, compared to what it ought to be. For instance; Phrase, if indefinite, is of no use, Or, being false, is language's abuse: Thy Thy attributes are simple, mild, and plain; What most men talk of, but what few e'er reach, Thou, COMMON SENSE! whether from earth or heaven,→→→ No praise I ask invoke no power but thine. - How know we Truth? What sometimes takes that name Is but the weak response of idle Fame, Whose sounds, when Reason ascertains their force, This is all very true; nay, so saturated with truth that it might give the poem the character of Truism, as well as the title of Echoism:' but does it bear the least sign, or symptom, of poetry? If we place it by the side of any passage in any satirical poem of Pope, there is no touchstone, no Lapis Lydius whatever, that will sooner discover counterfeit gold than that which we have mentioned will detect real prose. It is unpleasant to say that, as we advance in the work, we find no improvement: but in fact we think it illus trates the observation that, as there are stones of too frail a texture to take a polish, so there are literary productions which will pass in the rough but are rejected in the smooth; and we are really of opinion that the passage which we quoted some years ago, concerning "the Smiths and the Jacksons," is still by far the best in the book. We are glad to be able to vary the strain of censure with occasional applause, such as the following couplet deserves : Joyous, though mute, each subject-horde appears; The author makes frequent attacks on the dullness of classical composition, and evidently sets up for a genius above all rule. This has become so stale a trick, and is so constantly played played off in every species of modern performance, that it can deceive neither man nor woman, nor youth nor child, any longer. The Echoist takes a lofty flight of this description: High Tragedy is Farce, the broadest sort, If only serious meant, and not as sport: Farce, Tragic, Epic, all one rank may gain; All degrees of difficulty, all discrimination between the dif ferent powers of the mind, are lost in such lines as the above. Yet well may there be this flippant frothiness in the text, when the notes (even those which are warned by their subject to be clear and distinct) exhibit such a failure as the author's attempted distinction between wit and humor; in which, (for the first time, we should hope,) he gives humor the higher character, and exemplifies wit by South's pun of matrimony being a matter of money! This he calls epigrammatic wit, as opposed to wit when it signifies the 'intellects.' The remarks on the alterations in some passages in Pope's poems, made in different editions, are copied from Johnson's life of Pope, without acknowlegement: but how different is the spirit in which the great biographer of the poets mentions these variations, from that in which the present author censures them! The latter would have us believe that they arose entirely from regard to sound or melody, without any attention to the sense; while Johnson's more liberal reflection is the following: "To such oversights will the most vigorous mind be liable, when it is employed at once upon argument and poetry." We do not recollect to have seen it remarked that the final alteration of "Addison" into "Atticus," in the celebrated passage in Pope's Epistle to Arbuthnot, not only of itself indicates the softened spirit of the satirist, but that the change of the previous word into "weep" is a strong confirmation of that pleasing idea. - We are eager, on the first opportunity, to do justice to the present author's praiseworthy observations; and the feeling which dictated the ensuing remarks is very commendable: It is universally acknowledged that Lord Bacon was one of the wisest" and "brightest" of men; but is it possible that he could also be one of the "meanest?" Before this position is granted, (on the credit of a poetical antithesis,) ought not the truth of of it, for the honor of human nature, to be fully ascertained? Has the character of this gigantic genius (Bacon) ever been done adequate justice to, free of all bias from reading the misrepresentations of his enemies, political and philosophical? Perhaps not. The decisions of courts are sometimes erroneous: posterity, however, should know the truth, and nothing but the truth.' This is a subject on which we should rejoice to see something certainly established, if it were favorable to our great philosopher: but, at all events, the truth, be it ever so painful, should be known beyond a question, if that now be possible. The quotation from Lord Moira's speech to the College at Calcutta is a very eloquent passage: but where has the Echoist learned his own extravagant metaphors? He talks of the invigorating sunshine of extensive fertilizing jurisprudence' !!! ART. XI. A View of the Restoration of the Helvetic Confederacy; Co. 1821. IN N the bosom of the Helvetian Alps was a small republic, which, in order to maintain its antient liberty, ventured to struggle against a neighbour greatly its superior in force. Neither extent of territory nor military force, nor influence over the destinies of the world, fell to the lot of this people : but their misfortunes, their virtues, and their courage, have rendered them interesting, worthy of the pen of the historian, and deserving the contemplation of the philosopher. The history of the memorable struggle of a handful of brave men, roused by the unprincipled invasion of an ambitious despot to resist his veteran battalions, who were rendered doubly formidable by their numbers and by their victories over the most warlike troops in Europe, must, indeed, excite the sympathy of every generous mind. As Leonidas shrank not from the fate which, he foresaw, awaited him and his little band at Thermopylæ *, so did the immortal Aloys * Leonidas desired his troops to get a hearty dinner, for they had a long journey to take; they would have to travel to the other world before they supped. Aloys Reding, in like manner, encouraged his small heroic band by plainly telling them, on the eve of an engagement, that certain death awaited them; and two men, in the name of the rest, were appointed to shake hands with Reding, as a pledge of fidelity in life and in death. (See Zschokke's History of the Invasion of Swisserland by the French.) Reding, Reding, on the heights of Morgarten, fearlessly resist the myriads of the modern Xerxes. Mr. Planta carried down his History of the Helvetic Confederacy, which has long obtained a standard-reputation, to its dissolution in 1798. That work having passed through two editions, and a third being required, it was desirable to continue the narrative to the period of the Restoration of the republic, in 1815; for which purpose, he tells us, he has procured abundance of documents: but, reflecting that this proceeding would injure the proprietors of the former editions by depreciating their copies, he has, from a sense of honor which is highly laudable, published this supplement separately; enabling them to complete their sets, and at the same time affording to readers at large an opportunity of becoming acquainted with the incidents that brought about the restoration. These few pages present, 1st, a summary of the distressful incidents that, for twenty years, kept the country in a state bordering on anarchy; and, 2dly, a statement of the deliberations and final conclusions of the congress of Vienna, in order to restore its tranquillity and independence: the issue of which was that a constitution has been established, and sanctioned by the guarantee of the principal powers of Europe. The cantons, jealous of each other, and after a number of abortive attempts being unable to raise the edifice of a constitution for themselves, agreed on the perilous experiment of soliciting the assistance of the congress of potentates at Vienna to construct one for them. If it be an edifice suited to their wants and wishes, wind-tight and water-tight, strongly built, secure, and affording accommodation to each without injury to any, most heartily do we hope that they may long continue to inhabit it in prosperity and peace; and far be it from us to lessen the merit of this single commendable action of the Holy Alliance, which is the more conspicuous if it stands alone. The number of cantons is now increased from nineteen to twenty-two, and each has its own peculiar form of government but the deliberations of the Helvetic Diet, assembled at Zurich in March, 1815, produced that Act of Union, intitled the Federal Compact, which is now become the fundamental code of the confederacy. The Supreme Federal Tribunal or Diet cannot exercise any positive authority or jurisdiction in religious matters; and whatever influence it may occasionally be called upon to exercise must depend entirely on the feelings and circumstances of the moment. • The |