an early admission into this critical journal, was of course to be expected. "We are partial, we will confess (say these admirable moralists) to Miss Edgeworth; for we think the public very greatly indebted to her; and conceive, she has come nearer the true tone of moral instruction, than any other writer we are acquainted with !!!" Against the greater vices we may declaim from the pulpit or the press: or we may let it alone, exactly as we like best for no man practises them ignorantly; nor can we tell him more about their consequences than he knows already, and has determined to hazard. But the smaller vices, those which make up the profligacy of an individual and the corruption of a people, are committed by thousands front mere carelessness and vanity, or from example and mistaken opinions; and it is to the correction of these, or of such classes of them as have become epidemic in a society, that a moral writer may apply his exertions with some hopes of success. The first great point is, not to magnify their enormity, and not to be more angry than is permitted to be in real life: the next is, to appear perfectly well acquainted with the world, in which those things are transacted, and to view with perfect good humour all the indulgences and palliations that they meet with from those who witness and perform them, and then to attack them with ridicule instead of reprobation, to show how well they may be separated from all that is liberal and easy, and even from all that is brilliant and fantastic, and how much they detract from real comfort, and interfere with every scheme of happiness. It is a rash, and for the most part a vain attempt, to think of appealing to a man's conscience, against practices which are sanctioned by all around him, and in which he indulges without any distinct feeling of depravity. He will treat all such attempts as foolish preachments, proceeding from despicable ignorance of the world, or ascetic cant and hypocrisy. The only chance is, to attack him on the score of prudence or of pride, to show that the practices we mean to condemn are foolish and despicable; that they indicate want of talents, or of spirit; and that they are objects of derision and contempt to the more illustrious persons in society. To do this with success, we must neither be too rigorous nor too refined. If we talk either like scrupulous purists, or sentimental innocents, we shall be laughed at and neglected. We must assume a certain familiar and secular tone, and rather endeavour to show that we are more knowing, than that we are more virtuous than those we address. It is only in this way that we have a chance of being listened to; and if that great point can once be gained, it does appear to us, that by mixing our reasons and our ridicule in just proportion, by making our instances rapid and amusing, and concentrating our proofs into striking and interesting groups, we may produce a considerable effect upon the minds of all who are worth reforming, or give impressions, at least, which after experience may develope into salutary conviction. Now it is by assuming this tone, and applying herself to this method of instruction, that we think Miss Edgeworth has deserved well of the community." PP. 212, 213. Such is the philosophy of the Edgeworth school which we have exhibited without mutilation, lest we should be charged with No. 139. Vol. 32. April, 1809.

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a want of candour in our animadversions on it. There is a great deal of obscurity in the passage for which reason, also, we have given it entire. One thing, however, is plain-instead of recurring to those principles of conduct, to which Christianity uniformly refers us, and underived from which no good can come; the Edgeworths and their disciples have not scrupled to lay the foundation of morality in worldly prudence and in pride. In their creed, the doctrines of the Gospel are entirely put out of the question. But we affirm, that no sure and permanent advantage can ever flow to society from such a source -a fountain always turbid, sometimes dried up, and sometimes overflowing. He who avoids vice, merely from prudential motives, from a regard to character alone, and consequently a dread of degradation, has respect to himself-to himself only, as connected wih his fellow men: he has not regard to the will of God, or the sanctions of religion. It is true, a large part of mankind act under this influence. Nor is there any thing new in the precepts of Edgeworth. The minute philosophers of the Greeks taught the same doctrines; and some of the wiser Heathens, such as Socrates, Epictetus, Seneca, and Cicero, had so considerable a portion of "the wisdom which is from above," as to look with scorn on "the minute philosophers." At the present day, there are certain half-civilised Pagans, who have been for ages remarkable, and are still noted by travellers, for having reduced the sort of morality which the Edgeworths inculcate into practice. We allude to the people of Japan. So overwhelming is their sense of shame in consequence of having exposed themselves to ridicule by the commission of any one of "the smaller vices," that, to shun the eyes of their countrymen, they often take refuge in death. And what are the principles that actuate our more than half-civilised neighbours on the Continent, the paganised Christians of France? Individually, and as a nation, their thesis, as applied to morality, has been, "Scire tuam nihil est, nisi te scire hoc sciat alter." And the root from which all their actions spring, is Honour. Honour is the universal principle. It is "Honour

"Here passes current; paid from hand to hand,
It shifts in splendid traffic round the land:
From courts to camps, to cottages it strays,
And all are taught an avarice of praise:

They please, are pleas'd, they give to get esteem;
Till, seeming blest, they grow to what they seem.
But, while this softer art their bliss supplies,
It gives their follies also room to rise;
For praise, too dearly lov'd, or warmly sought,
Enfeebles all internal strength of thought;
And the weak soul, within itself unblest,
Leans for all pleasures on another's breast.
Hence ostentation, here, with tawdry art,
Pants for the vulgar praise which fools impart
Here Vanity assumes her pert grimace,
And trims her robes of frieze with copper lace:
Here beggar Pride defrauds her daily cheer,
To boast one splendid banquet once a year:

The mind still turns where shifting fashion draws,

Nor weighs the solid worth of self-applause."

Such were the French, as described by our charming minstrel : and such are the French still. Alas! what have been the fruits of this honour? Our "Traveller" could see rising from the bed of corruption various follies vanity, ostentation, pride. But had

he extended his views farther had he looked a little into futurity with prophetic as well as a poetical eye he might have seen originating, in the same polluted source, ambition, tyranny, murder, blasphemy, infidelity in short, vices in every shape, and death in all its horrors. Wherever, indeed, the code of the Edgeworths gains acceptance, it may operate for a time in keeping up the specious appearance of decency. But from a revolution in general opinions or fashions, a change of circumstances in the individuals, a new and trying situation, or on any violent emergency, what will become of this ephemeral code? Why, truly, it will dissolve into atoms. We call it ephemeral, for, at best, it is calculated only" to flutter through life's little day." It hath respect solely to this life, not to another state of existence it hath respect to man alone, not to " God, who trieth our hearts."

As the maxims of this school depend upon existing opinions, manners, and usages, so are they not only fluctuating, and temporary, but in a great measure local. For, let the pupils of Miss Edgeworth be transported to Persia or China, and they will find many of her lessons of very little practical use, and be forced to acknowledge, that a conduct which may here expose them to derision or contempt, may not, in their new situation, be condemned, as either foolish or despicable.

But let us come to particulars. By these general observations and strictures, we convey no very clear ideas of the subject; but with our antagonists, the Edinburgh critics, are throwing it into obscurity. "We may declaim against the greater vices (they say) or we may let it alone, exactly as we like best." So much for preaching but for the smaller vices, it is to the correction of these, that the moralist may apply his exertions with the hope of success; not, however, by appealing to the conscience, but by ridicule. Now what are the smaller vices? Those (they

say)" which make up the PROFLIGACY of an individual, and the CORRUPTION of a people!"-It should seem, then, that with such vices as make up the profligacy of an individual, and the corruption of a people, preaching (and of consequence the Gospel) has nothing to do. This is strange, indeed! For the saks of a little illustration, let us suppose the case of an individual, and observe him in his relative connexions of a country gentleman, for instance. In public and in private he preserves a fair character nay, he is esteemed and loved: and so much is he a man of honour, that his word (as the common expression is) might be taken for his bond.". Yet in his intercourse with the neighbouring borough towns,. of which he is a patron, he scruples not to bribe and corrupt his dependents by the lowest artifices. He is, however, a gentleman: he is an honourable man. In the ordinary commerce

of life he would abominate a liar: but, by his political manœuvres,
he draws hundreds into perjury. Here, then, is a case, in which
our antagonist would deem it vain to appeal to a man's con-
science;" since the practice of the individual whom we have ima-
gined is sanctioned by all around him, and “ he indulges in his
practice without any distinct feeling of depravity." In the suppo-
sition of this case, we have departed from our original train of ideas,
in order to give as fair an aspect to the argument of Miss Edge-
worth and her " partial" friends as we possibly can.
Yet very
little is to be made of the argument. Suppose this patron of the
borough were attacked on the score of prudence or of pride? And
suppose the censor so far prevailing, as to render him to himself
ridiculous, and to reclaim him from his error? Yet would the
principles on which the effect was produced be false. They are
of this world; and, as the world, are mutable.

"Manners with fortunes, humours turn with climes,
Tenets with books, and principles with lines.

Search, then,"

the Scriptures!

It is the Gospel, only, that goes to the root of all evil. It was the very intention of the Gospel to sweep away all worldly principles of conduct, and to substitute in their room those which will endure unto the end. He, who commits one sin, can never be deemed " guilty of all;" unless, in judging of guilt, recurrence be had to the MOTIVE of action. The Christian motive is, to PLEASE GOD. And the man, who deliberately commits one sin which God hath forbidden, can never, in abstaining from others, seek to please God. He is, therefore, guilty of all. On the grand motive, therefore, of pleasing God, we must act invariably, if we wish to be accounted the disciples of Christ. And in our whole moral deportment we must refer to our consciences, as informed by the light of Revelation, for an unerring rule of conduct. And if our hearts condemn us not, we may have confidence towards God. “ The modern philosophers" may act "from prudence, or from pride," that they may have glory of them, and "VERILY THEY HAVE THEIR REWARD. But, for the Christian, let him not have respect unto them, but unto "his Father who seeth in secret: and his father who seeth in secret, shall reward him openly." That it is time to stop short in what our critics would call a preachment, and what for any good it may operate on the minds or manners of the said critics, we may, we believe, pursue or "let alone, exactly as we like best.'

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Of the same school with the Edgeworths, is another favoured lady, who is now presented to our notice (vol. viii. 465)—we mean Mrs. Opie. Her" Simple Tales," in four volumes, are here the subject of criticism. "We owe some apology to Mrs. Opie (say these gentlemen) for omitting at the proper time to take notice of her beautiful story of the Mother and Daughter; the second volume of which is, perhaps, the most pathetic, and the most natural in its pathos of any fictitious narrative in the language." - This is high panegyric indeed! which is readily enough accounted for

Mrs. Opie is a philosophist !" This clue, once found, unravels all the rest!" When we, however, assert, that exclusively of Mrs. Opie's principles, and the exceptionable morality there insinuated, or rather exhibited and boldly taught, we were by no means delighted with the story of the Mother and Daughter, we may be suspected of a bias on the contrary side, from our Antijacobinical tenets. And it may be added, de gustibus non est disputandum. But if the book contain such beauties, we can only consider it as a greater evil. In proportion to its merits on the score of invention, or its power of awakening the sensibilities of the heart, we must lament its existency, and dread its pernicious effects. In confirmation of our opinion, we shall extract from a late publication entitled "The Family Picture" a note, in which the author censures a variety of female productions, and among the rest "the Mother and Daughter," not in a general and assertive manner, but in terms characteristic of the genius and tendency of the writings that are the subjects of animadversion. The author of the poem professes himself to be a country-gentleman, appealing to an old collegefriend, the Bishop of ****, on what he deems exceptionable in many parts of the education both of boys and girls. The lines to which the note we shall transcribe is appended, are as follows:-

And shall dame Science with her sees and saws
Chill the warm heart, or deaden self-applause?
Shall irksome tasks on youthful pleasures trench
A few familiar phrases of the French?

And Beauties' and Epitomes,' that wear
To feeble minds a fascinating air;

And dainty novels that each palate suit,

Pluck'd at noonday, tho' deem'd forbidden fruit, -
These are the blighting seesaws that destroy,

So pitiless, the buds of infant joy!"

Mrs.

On which the poet thus speaks in prose: "I have heard it observed, that the novels written by the female sex are, in general, pure in comparison with others, and may be read with safety. This position I strenuously deny. I think female authors betray a greater propensity to vice, though it be often shaded by a spurious delicacy. In the last age there were some, who, bold in vice, endeavoured, to immortalise their shame, by writing their own memoirs such were Philips, Pilkington, Vane. Mrs. Manly wrote the scandalous memoirs, called Atalantis, &c. &c. Centlivre and Behn are notorious for the indecency of their plays. Since that time, actresses and kept-mistresses have written histories of their own depravity. But perhaps Mrs. Wolstonecroft was the only female, who had ever the audacity to become a kept-mistress upon principle. Mrs. Opie (though not to be classed with any of the above writers) has now erred greatly in her Mother and Daughter.' She has drawn both her hero and heroine as amiable characters; and, exposing them to dangers and plunging them in distress, all in consequence of the vulgar prejudice that so absurdly operates against concubinage. She has endeavoured to excite our pity in their behalf, to interest our affections in their favour, and for their