the character of the majority of mankind, and from which the great mass of benefit or injury to those in whom they exist, or to others, proceeds. The circumstances which give birth to, or confirm a foible, are developed; the inconvenience, discomfort, or actual wretchedness that it produces, are drawn forth by the most natural means; and we are either taught and induced to shun it by a strong impression of its bad consequences; or, if it already exists in us, we are enabled to root it out, not by formal instructions, but by an example set before us, drawn so much to the life, that what has been done by it we never for a moment hesitate to believe is applicable to our case, and may be done by us.

But Miss Edgeworth's novels possess another high excellence; they teach us to know, not only outselves, and the weakness as well as strength of the human heart, but they place us in the midst of the world in which we live and must act, and thus enable us to gain knowledge and experience with little trouble, and with no risque. In this respect her novels are infinitely superior to those of Richardson, Smollet, Fielding, or Goldsmith; or, indeed, of any other author. Many of the characters of Richardson, Smollet, Fielding, and Goldsmith, are worn out; they were the characters of a certain age, and peculiar circumstances: and even those that are the characters of personages that must always exist, have so few prototypes in the world, that it is not probable we may ever meet with them. Whereas the characters of Miss Edgeworth's novels surround us; and though of common occurrence, yet she has selected none whom it must not be

for our advantage to become acquainted with before we enter on the world, either that we may guard against or imitate them.

In short, Miss Edgeworth's are practical novels: they teach better than any works of morality can do, the practice of those duties,—the performance of those actions, the display of that disposition and temper which, though lying below the high ground on which the moralist takes his station, are, nevertheless, of the utmost consequence to the comfort, dignity, usefulness, and happiness of life. The Spartans made their slaves drunk, in order that their children, by seeing the folly and crime which drunkenness produced, might avoid it. Miss Edgeworth exercises the same power over the personages of her novels, and for the same purpose; and as her genius enables her to breathe into them the breath of life, they cannot fail, in most cases, to fulfil completely her most wise and benevolent intention..

Historical novels are in general very stupid, and worse than useless performances; since, by blending truth and fiction, they pollute the one, and render the other uninteresting. It is no mean praise, therefore, of the author of Waverley, that in this, and several other of his fictitious narratives, he has completely steered clear of this objection. History does not descend to the display of individual character; and who is there that has not risen from the reading of an interesting portion of it, and does not long for, a close and minute exhibition of those personages that were the principal actors, as well as for an accurate delineation of the manners of the age. These are supplied in a most masterly way by the author of Waverley :

Waverley: but his genius has led him even beyond this. In these novels there are a greater number and variety of characters than perhaps are to be met with in any other fictitious narratives'; and they are all drawn so faithfully, each minute lineament is so evidently a copy from nature, that we are transported into a new world. The dramatic parts are perhaps the best: no sentiment or expression is uttered by any one personage that ought to have proceeded from another; or that is not highly characteristic of him from whom it does proceed. The author seems, at pleasure, to dismiss all consciousness of himself,-all his own feelings, associations, and forms of speech; and having, as it were, shaken off his own identity, to be

come, in turn, each of all his numerous and various personages. The same genius is conspicuous in the conception and relation of the incidents with which these works abound: they either call into full action the thoughts, feelings, passions, and all that constitute the peculiar characters of the personages; or they serve, by their own intrinsic and unborrowed excellence, to fill the mind of the reader with all the various emotions of which it is susceptible, at the command of the author. Such are his magical powers, that he can annihilate the world in which we live,

the objects by which we are surrounded, the thoughts that occupy our breast,-and replace them by a new creation of his own.

CHAPTER

H1

ITHERTO we have passed in review works in the différent departments of literature, which certainly do high credit to the present state of genius and information among us. There may be a want of those master-intellects which distinguished and adorned some of the previous periods of our Literary history: but on the other hand, the present age can boast of a great number and variety of authors who, though not of the highest rank or the rarest talents, may justly lay claim to a large portion of genius and information.

But it is otherwise with History: if a Briton were called upon by a foreigner to enter the lists with him, with respect to Historical writing of the present age, of classical reputation, we are much afraid he would be obliged to decline the challenge. After Hume, Robertson, and Gibbon, whom have we that we can bring forth as classical historians? There are, indeed, historians highly respectable for their diligent and laborious research; for the cool and unimpassioned impartiality that they display, even when engaged in relating events within the circle over which prejudice exerts her most powerful influence; and for their wise and judicious reflections, or the skill

and penetration by means of which they trace events to their causes, and point out the consequences of those events:-but in what historian since Hume, Robertson, and Gibbon, are these qualifications combined, in any high degree? and what historian, since them, joins to these qualifications the dignity, the grace, or the eloquence of style, by which these historians are distinguished.

It is foreign to our purpose fully to inquire into the circumstances which may have produced this dearth of historians in the present age: but some of them may be very briefly suggested. The want of proper subjects may perhaps be one cause. It is true, the history of Rome, up to the period when it receives such ample and eloquent illustratiou from Gibbon, is still untouched, in our language, by any historian worthy of such a rich and grand subject and even the history of Greece, though it has occupied the pens of Gillies and Mitford, cannot be deemed to have occupied a historian worthy of it. And to come nearer home: the history of our own Country, since the Revolution, certainly affords a subject capable and worthy of exercising the highest historical talents, without passing beyond the line when the recentness of the events might

render

render it difficult for the historian to write with impartiality, and at the same time with full and accurate information.

While, therefore, these subjects remain untouched by historians worthy of them, it cannot be said that our Country at present is without a classical historian, because subjects are wanting. Other causes must be sought and we should be disposed to say, that the genius of the present age (we do not mean the peculiar turn or fashion of the literature, but the talents, in the highest acceptation of the word) are not adapted to History. They are almost exclusively devoted to poetry in no other department of literature shall we find them of a very high order. There is, as we have before observed, in some of our present historians, an ample, share of laborious research,-of acute and judicious sifting of facts, -and even of profound insight into the characters of inen, and the causes and consequences of events, -and we may add, no great lack of that united penetration and comprehension of mind which enables a historian to draw from the circumstances and events he relates, or to confirm by them, principles of the highest importance, and of the closest application to all the branches of politics, in their most extended sense. But, to render them classical historians, worthy of being ranked with Hume, Robertson, and Gibbon, they ought to be embued with some of that exquisite genius which they possessed, and which, in the present age, seems so completely to have assumed the form of poetical genius as to leave a great deficiency in all other branches of literature.

If we are called upon to name

those authors who dignify and adorn the present age of British literature in the highest degree, what class of authors can we name, except poets, or those who are allied to poets by their most exquisite taste, impassioned eloquence, or high powers of invention? Genius, it appears to us, possesses but a small share of the domain of literature; there are but few parts of it, over which she can exert her power, or shed the magic of her influence. History, in the highest acceptation of the word, is certainly one of them: in proof of this, need we refer to the finest passages in Livy, Tacitus, Hume, Robertson, and Gibbon? But to repeat what we have already said, the genius of the present age in this Country is almost monopolized by poetry : though, therefore, we have historians highly respectable for most of the other qualifications necessary to constitute this class of authors, yet we have none who can rank in the highest order, because to these qualifications they do not add a sufficient portion of genius.

But there is another circumstance which may account for the fact: within these very few years, investigation into the various branches of political economy, statistics, and the principles of general politics, have deservedly assumed such a high degree of interest, that we doubt, whether any historian who did not satisfy the public expectation and wants in these respects, would become popular, or rank high, even if he endeavoured to compensate for their absence by the most splendid genius. Besides, more minute and scrupulous accuracy than Hume, or Robertson, and perhaps even Gibbon, exercised, are now required of an historian, in consequence

consequence of the very laborious attention and research, with which Antiquarian studies have latterly been carried on. Hence demands from a historian of the present age, on the part of the public, repel the man of genius from nearly all Historical topics.-We have thus endeavoured to account for an undisputed fact, viz.; that in the Historical department of literature, Britain at present ranks very low; and though we are not perfectly satisfied, that the explanation we have given will be deemed perfect, yet we certainly are of opinion, that it contains, at least, part of the cause of our present inferiority.

Biography requires very different talents from those which History demands. Indeed the most interesting and instructive species of Biography requires little of those who undertake to write it, but minute, full, and accurate information with respect to the person whose life is to be written. If a Historian is very minute, unless he can give to his minuteness that charm of the older Chronicles, with which Froissart, for example, has invested all he has recorded, he must be very tiresome; and even with that charm, he will be much more interesting and instructive to those who study individual characters, or the manners of the age, than to those who are desirous of drawing from History an insight into the causes which accelerate or retard the advancement of nations to power and happiness. But it is far otherwise with the Biographer; he cannot be too minute; if he indulges in general reflections, or contents himself with making his own sketch of the character of the object of his Biography, he may thus have greater opportunities of

displaying his talents, but he will not delight so much; he will not be even so useful and instructive.

The writers of Biography of the present age, seem to have been aware of this; for, with a few exceptions, they have discarded the formal style of Biography, and been anxious rather to exhibit their subject than themselves. When this is done with even a very moderate share of talent, but with a full command of materials (which in this species of writing, are much more useful than talents) Biography is indeed a high treat to all kind of readers; to those who take it up, as they would do a novel, merely to be amused; to those who wish to study human character; to those who are anxious to trace the earliest years, and become familiar with the every-day behaviour and actions. of him, whose works, or whose public conduct they have long regarded with high interest; and to those whose aim and object is still higher, who are desirous of investigating the causes and circumstances which create character, form genius, or give to it that direction, in which it afterwards appeared to delight and instruct mankind.

It is fortunate that Biography may be so written, without any great demands upon talent: hence it is of frequent occurrence among us, especially within the last half century. What a delightful book is Boswell's Life of Johnson; with how much ease and familiarity does it introduce us to his acquaintance: we enjoy it, we hear his conversation, without being annoyed or disgusted by the savageness of his manners, or repelled by his illiberal and virulent attacks. Who, that is familiar with the writing of that

great