PART II.]

Turns truth to falsehood, falsehood into truth,

By virtue of the Babylonian's tooth." BUTLER'S Remains, i. 225.

The interference of Metaphysicks with Religion, is however the more especia! bearing of the book before us; and that a more empirical quack never meddled with medicine, than this impostor with religion, is self-evident. Physicks are a real science, but Metaphysicks are the mere construction put upon physical subjects by a particular person. In short, it seems, that our incapability of comprehending the laws of our Being, was one instigating cause of Revelation; and he who sets up to prove it unfounded, takes upon himself to determine the possible actions of God, and in the words of our author (p. 261), " to build up another Babel to storm the heavens."

Before we proceed to that part of the work from which we shall extract, we beg to enter our protest against the jargon of Kant being made " part and parcel" of sound philosophy, because we believe that it is nothing more than a nomenclature of sesquipedalia verba, founded upon a mere truism, viz. that we cannot think but according to the modes and forms which Nature has prescribed; i. e. we cannot walk, but upon our legs, nor see, but with our eyes.

The basis of the Kantian system is this:

"The mind only perceives and thinks upon the objects that are without, according to a certain law, or rather certain laws, existing within itself; and which laws may or may not be, as far as human nature has the power of judging, wholly independent of the objects themselves." P. 181.

The inferences deducible from this truism, are however very important. They inform us that we are able to understand nothing except so far as concerns ourselves; and, of course, cannot see the real intention of nature in created objects, further than that limited boundary.

We think our Author peculiarly felicitous in his illustrations of the principles of "animal or mortal life," and the "thinking power," as in themselves separate and distinct. P. 127.

"Life exists in the vegetable kingdom clearly apart from the thinking power: the same sort of life, too, is seen to exist in

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several parts of the animal frame, in those, for instance, which are void of sensation, as the sinews, nails, &c.; these have the tone of life, for they have a power of resisting certain chemical agencies, while so living, which ceases when vitality is removed." P. 127.

The fœtus in utero, which is animated, but does not think, is another happy illustration, used by our author. He then proceeds to attack the strong fortress of the materialists, viz. that the decease of the animal frame, by powers of mind cease to exist upon showing that the said fortress is a mere

the

house of cards:

"The thinking power, it is true, seems never to take its residence in any body, except while it is in that state which is fitted for its agency. But this is all which ean be said; and though our breath is thus connected with this thinking power, yet thinking is not breathing; a man can hold his breath at will, but cannot stop his power of thinking-his consciousness of existence is not to be dismissed even for an instant, by any exertion of his will." P. 130.

The physical truth seems to be, that both animation and the thinking principle are divine elementary properties, which, as being divine, are indestructible by man, for though we may destroy instruments of sound, we cannot law of nature. destroy sound itself, nor any one known

Some positions of our Author, we feel inclined to doubt, viz. that no similarity is observable between the external object creating an impression on the mind, and the internal impression itself (p. 136). From the experiments made in optics, upon the retina of the eye, this remark is not just with regard to visible subjects; and it has been mooted whether it is possible to have an abstract idea of an object, without the intrusion of a representation of it. The dispute however is of no moment, for the well-known instance of a shadow proves that there. may

be, notwithstanding the Hybernicism, existence without actual being. It appears from Dr. Hibbert's admirable work upon apparitions, that the exhibition and exercise of the thinking principle are only affected by organs, not the principle itself, which seems to be unassailable.

Mr. James is a strong and well-informed writer; and his work does him much credit.

120. Characters

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120. Characters omitted in Crabbe's Parish Register, with other Tales. By Alexander Balfour, Author of " Contemplation," &c. 12mo. pp. 277.

METAPHYSICS are the bane of poetry; and it is astonishing that numerous as are the writers of it, none of them seem to know the cause of their failure. Poetry, however, is as intimately connected with imagination, as music is with sound, and expresses itself by figurative representation, like the Orientals and nations in infancy, where abstract ideas are not yet formed into science; and all this is reasonable, for poetry is only the painting of matters of beauty, sublimity, and emotion, as they exist in Nature; in short, poetry is the picturesque of language. It must have effect, or it is good for nothing. Half the poetry which is written, is however nothing more than naked dreary common.

Mr. Balfour, though upon the whole so gloomy as almost to invite misanthropisin, avoids metaphysical prosing, and gives us only natural sentiment properly expressed by sensible images, and of course we sympathize with him. Speaking of the pregnant wife of a Sailor killed in battle, which unfortunate female upon receiving the news of his death, died with the shock after bringing forth a posthumous son, Mr. Balfour says,

By stranger's hands his mother's shroud

was drest;

[rest And strangers bare her to her house of Untimely nipt, in youth and beauty's bloom, No tear of sorrow trickling on her tomb; No dimpling smile suffus'd the cheek of joy, No bosom glow'd and bless'd the orphan boy;

No father's love for him this sprinkling sought, [brought; By strangers to this hallow'd fountain

No mother near, the sacred vows to share, Her heart responding to the pastor's prayer, The child more helpless than the creeping

worm,

Is left alone to meet life's blighting storm." P. 10. Favourable as is our opinion of Mr. Balfour's style of writing poetry, we really do not like the subjects. They are often disgusting in se-Chandler's shops (p. 158)-Old Maids having bastards by beardless boys (p. 122), &c. It is the rule of the Abbé du Bos, that nothing revolting should be a part of poetry. A man cannot exhibit a bloody head, just cut off, in a Tragedy.

[xer.

121. A Letter to the Right Hon. Sir Charles Long, on the Improvements proposed and now carrying on in the Western Part of London. 8vo. pp. 37.

THE great increase of the Metropolis and the Watering-places is to be ascribed to the enormous enlargement of monied capital and income, independent of territorial revenue. Hundreds of fundholders, mortgagees, annuitants, pensioners, merchants, &c. &c. and hosts of tradesmen, to supply their wants, buy or occupy_houses in town, and from August to November, migrate to the watering-places, or make tours. The country gentlemen, with some exceptions, on the contrary, have given up town-houses, and only reside in London for a very few weeks at hotels, or in furnished dwellings. The late long war, and the national debt, in short, appear to us to have been the main agents of thus extra-peopling the places in question, because the said war and debt have created thirty millions more annual income, the greater part of which is spent within the sound of Bow bells.

With new buildings improvement ought of course to be connected; and, as to the best plan of a crowded city, we have a capital model in Bath. But in that place did not exist the grand impediments which prevail in London, viz. the previous destruction of existing property at enormous expence. "London," as our author says, (p. 6), "is so destitute of fine buildings, ornamental gates, &c. that, from its wide, dusty, un-avenued approaches, it has more the air of a vast overgrown town, than of a magnificent city." In none of the fine buildings until we short, it is plain, that we discover advance into the heart of the town,

and there they are smothered.

London, in fact, has no outside front; and, to show it off, the proper places for its magnificent buildings would be the banks of the river on both sides, the habitations of individuals, streets of houses, &c. being thrown back in the North-side of the Strand. The shores would then be lined with palaces, and have the same aspect, as it has, where Somerset and the Custom-houses now embellish it. That this would be the grandest possible improvement, because it would include the river and bridges in the view, is, in our judgment, undeniable. Wherefore instead of moving decora

PART II.]

tive buildings to the Mews (as our author proposes, p. 26), we would place them on a line with the Adelphi, fill the bank between Blackfriars and the Custom-house, with Halls of the City Companies, conneat wharfs with the Thames by arched tunnels, and hide the yards behind the buildings on the bank; make subterraneous railways to the Custom-house; make Thames-street a Bond-street for city beaux; in short, do many other things, perfectly feasible no doubt, for what is not so to joint-stock companies? who, however, we sadly fear, must go to the Devil to deal with him for the means of executing their projects; at all events ultimately to stay with him, either in remuneration of his aid, or in punishment for swindling.

A great part of London (say the newspapers) is however to be butchered for a certainty, and to be cut out into handsome joints, not steaks and chops, of which it has already too many in the form of streets, courts, and lanes. We beg the projectors not to forget removal of the markets to recesses behind thoroughfares.

An improvement of facility, recommended by our author, is judicious, viz. conversion of the grass-plot round the canal in St. James's-park into an elegant shrubbery or ornamented park. P. 14.

He also reprobates four palaces within the space of a mile, enough only for a single one, viz. Carlton and Buckingham Houses, St. James's and Yorkplace. In point of fact, Kensington alone presented sufficient domain for the palace of the Sovereign. There are space, insulation, wood and water, ready-made, and (we believe) the capability of a fine frontage, as a finish of Hyde-park, without sufficient vicinity to be annoying.

Two great evils, the insufficiency of the Strand and Thames - street for thoroughfares, ought to be removed. Our author observes (p. 20), that owing to the bend of the river being convex on the Middlesex side, and only concave on the other, a very convenient road to the City might be made on the Surrey bank, and much nearer, because it would only be the chord of the arc, formed by the river. At present the Strand and Thames-street are barely wide enough for the shadows of the objects, which try to pass them, because shadows may yield to pressure,

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THE tale of the supposed league of Faustus with the Devil has given rise to many a romance, and has been several times dramatised, and received with applause on our own boards; but in every case the original tale has been so perverted, as to be hardly recognized.

This volume, as the title page imports, is "translated from the German," but who was the German author we are not informed; though we are told that a bad French translation was published soon after the appearance of the original German. The latter was adorned with excellent engravings, a specimen of which, illustrating the account of the Corporation feast, forms the frontispiece of this English version, and is well executed.

But we must proceed to the "Life." The ambitious Faustus imagining that the study of the sciences was the nearest way to honour and reputation, discovered the art of printing. This discovery being received with lukewarmness, he was reduced almost to beggary and starvation. To avert the horrors of such a situation, he travelled from Mayence to Frankfort to sell one of his Latin Bibles to the magistracy. At this time Mayence was greatly agitated in consequence of the dreams of Father Gethart, a Dominican Monk, respecting the lovely nun Clara, niece of the Archbishop. Meeting with disappointment at Frankfort, Faustus determined upon entering into a league with Satan, and, according to custom, drew the horrid circle. On this day his Majesty gave a grand route, the particulars of which are finely detailed. The Prince's table was supplied with the luxuries of the souls of "two popes, a conqueror, a celebrated philosopher, and a recently canonized saint;" whilst the

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mean and vulgar herd" were fain to content themselves with the common food, lately arrived from the French and German armies. After

dinner,

dinner, as usual, the Chairman makes a speech, and informs his guests of the occasion of the festival. In this Satanic speech, his infernal Majesty prophesied that the invention of printing would create sects, and by raising the heat of the sectaries, tend to dispatch a few more souls to the shades below. From this specimen, we have no very high opinion of this royal prophet's talents, for though the invention of printing has given rise to numerous sects, it has been a blessing rather than a curse. Instead of feeding the cannibals of his Satanic Majesty's "wide domain," it has prevented man from falling into that degrading ignorance and bigotry which was the source of all previous evils.

Having sprung out of the circle, and exclaimed "I am thy Lord," Faustus resolved to fill the cup of pleasure, and command the fulfilment of his wishes. The senate of Frankfort hearing of the splendid visit of the Devil (who they thought "a secret envoy of his Imperial Majesty") to Faustus, came to the resolution of purchasing the Bible of Faustus, previously refused, and invited them to a dinner at the Mayor's house. It was now Faustus's turn to act the hero; and accordingly to make the City a present of the Bible on galling conditions. See p. 57.

At page 59 the Devil (Leviathan) owns that he had never seen the ugly people of Frankfort equalled, except by "the inhabitants of an English town, when dressed in their Sunday's best; envy, malice, curiosity, and avarice, said he, are here and there the sole springs of action, and both places are governed by a pitiful mercantile spirit, which prevents them from being grandly wicked or nobly virtuous." We suspect that these invidious remarks upon the good people of Norwich, are the unnecessary interpolations of the translator, as his preface is dated at Norwich;-but we trust not.

Having previous to the feast seduced the Mayoress, upon promise of a title to her husband; a very ludicrous farce, acted by way of revenge, was planned by Leviathan at the instigation of Faustus. The frontispiece is an excellent illustration of this "Corporation Feast." After this adventure they journey to Mayence, and the Devil contrives that Faustus should seduce the lovely Clara previously mentioned.

The Devil then led Faustus through

a series of adventures, at different places, of the most disgusting description, the latter sometimes acting the hero, murderer, and seducer. There is scarcely a crime in the whole calendar not mentioned in these volumes, either as committed by Faustus, or of which he was an eye-witness. At France he was present at the assassination of the Duc de Berri, and the barbarous and cruel execution of the rich Duc de Nemours. Of the latter event we have the following pathetic

account.

"The tyrannic King had given orders that the Duke's children should be placed

under the scaffold, so that the blood of their father might drop through the boards upon their white robes. The cries which the wretched parent uttered at the moment his darlings were torn from him, struck terror to the hearts of all around. Tristan alone, who was the executioner, and the King's most intimate friend, looked on with perfect coolness, and felt the sharpness of the axe. groans of the unhappy parent would exFaustus imagined that the cite heaven to avenge outraged humanity. He lifted up his tearful eyes towards the bright blue sky, which seemed to smile upon the horrid scene. For a moment he felt himself strongly tempted to command the Devil to rescue the Duke from the hands of the executioner, but his troubled and agitated mind was incapable of coming to any resolution. The Duke fell upon his knees, he heard the shrieks and lamenta

tions of his children, who were beneath the

scaffold; his own infamous death no longer occupied his mind; he felt, for the last time, and felt only, for these uufortunates; big tears hung in his eyes-his lips trembled the executioner gave the fatal blow— and the boiling blood of the father trickled down upon the trembling children. Bathed with paternal gore, they were then led upon the scaffold. They were shown the livid headless trunk, were made to kiss it, and then reconducted to their prison, where they were chained up against the damp wall, so that whenever they took repose the whole weight of their bodies rested on the galling fetters. To increase their misery, their teeth were torn out from time

to time."