PEPYS- GREAT VALUE OF HIS BOOK. 511 : about him my informer being an eye-witness of his execution, and one who had heard what the seer said before." His lordship also mentions, that these visions were seen by blind people, as well as those who had sight, and adds, that there was a blind woman in this time who had the faculty in great perfection; and foretold many things that afterwards happened, as hundreds of living witnesses could attest. We have no time now to speculate on these singular legends-but, as curious mementos of the lubricity of human testimony, we think it right they should be once more brought into notice. And now we have done with Mr. Pepys. There is trash enough no doubt in his journal, trifling facts, and silly observations in abundance. But we can scarcely say that we wish it a page shorter; and are of opinion, that there is very little of it which does not help us to understand the character of his times, and his contemporaries, better than we should ever have done without it; and make us feel more assured that we comprehend the great historical events of the age, and the people who bore a part in them. Independent of instruction altogether too, there is no denying, that it is very entertaining thus to be transported into the very heart of a time so long gone by; and to be admitted into the domestic intimacy, as well as the public councils, of a man of great activity and circulation in the reign of Charles II. Reading this book, in short, seems to us to be quite as good as living with Mr. Samuel Pepys in his proper person, and though the court scandal may be detailed with more grace and vivacity in the Mémoires de Grammont, we have no doubt that even this part of his multifarious subject is treated with far greater fidelity and fairness in the work before us while it gives us more clear and undistorted glimpses into the true English life of the times-for the court was substantially foreign—than all the other memorials of them put together, that have come down to our own. The book is rather too dear and magnificent. But the editor's task we think excellently performed. The ample text is not incumbered with ostentatious commentaries. But very brief and useful notices are supplied of almost all the individuals who are mentioned; and an admirable and very minute index is subjoined, which methodises the immense miscellany- and places the vast chaos at our disposal. 513 (JULY, 1808.) A History of the early Part of the Reign of James the Second; with an Introductory Chapter. By the Right Honourable CHARLES JAMES FOX. To which is added an Appendix. 4to. pp. 340. Miller, London: 1808. If it be true that high expectation is almost always followed by disappointment, it is scarcely possible that the readers of Mr. Fox's history should not be disappointed. So great a statesman certainly has not appeared as an author since the time of Lord Clarendon; and, independent of the great space which he fills in the recent history of this country, and the admitted splendour of his general talents,—his known zeal for liberty, the fame of his eloquence, and his habitual study of every thing relating to the constitution, concurred to direct an extraordinary degree of attention to the work upon which he was known to be engaged, and to fix a standard of unattainable excellence for the trial of his first acknowledged production. The very circumstance of his not having published any considerable work during his life, and of his having died before bringing this to a conclusion, served to increase the general curiosity; and to accumulate upon this single fragment the interest of his whole literary existence. No human production, we suppose, could bear to be tried by such a test; and those who sit down to the perusal of the work before us, under the influence of such impressions, are very likely to rise disappointed. With those, however, who are at all on their guard against the delusive effect of these natural emotions, the result, we venture to predict, will be different; and for ourselves, we are happy to say, that we have not been disappointed at all; but, on the contrary, very greatly moved and delighted with the greater part of this singular volume. 514 FOX'S HISTORY—A FIT MEMORIAL OF THE AUTHOR, We do not think it has any great value as a history; nor is it very admirable as a piece of composition. It comprehends too short a period, and includes too few events, to add much to our knowledge of facts; and abounds too little with splendid passages to lay much hold on the imagination. The reflections which it contains, too, are generally more remarkable for their truth and simplicity, than for any great fineness or apparent profundity of thinking; and many opportunities are neglected, or rather purposely declined, of entering into large and general speculations. Notwithstanding all this, the work, we think, is invaluable; not only as a memorial of the high principles and gentle dispositions of its illustrious author, but as a record of those sentiments of true English constitutional independence, which seem to have been nearly forgotten in the bitterness and hazards of our more recent contentions. It is delightful as the picture of a character; and most instructive and opportune as a remembrancer of public duties: And we must be permitted to say a word or two upon each of these subjects. To those who know Mr. Fox only by the great outlines of his public history,—who know merely that he passed from the dissipations of too gay a youth into the tumults and cabals of a political life, and that his days were spent in contending about public measures, and in guiding or averting the tempests of faction, -the spirit of indulgent and tender feeling which pervades this book must appear very unaccountable. Those who live much in the world, even in a private station, commonly have their hearts a little hardened, and their moral sensibility a little impaired. But statesmen and practical politicians are, with justice, suspected of a still greater forgetfulness of mild impressions and honourable scruples. Coming necessarily into contact with great vices and great sufferings, they must gradually lose some of their horror for the first, and much of their compassion for the last. Constantly engaged in contention, they cease pretty generally to regard any human beings as AND OF HIS GENTLE AND AFFECTIONATE NATURE. 515 objects of sympathy or disinterested attachment; and, mixing much with the most corrupt part of mankind, naturally come to regard the species itself with indif ference, if not with contempt. All the softer feelings are apt to be worn off in the rough conflicts of factious hostility; and all the finer moralities to be effaced, by the constant contemplation of expediency, and the necessities of occasional compliance. Such is the common conception which we form of men who have lived the life of Mr. Fox; and such, in spite of the testimony of partial friends, is the impression which most private persons would have retained of him, if this volume had not come to convey a truer and a more engaging picture to the world at large, and to posterity. By far the most remarkable thing then, in this book, is the tone of indulgence and unfeigned philanthropy which prevails in every part of it;-a most amiable sensibility to all the kind and domestic affections, and a sort of soft-heartedness towards the sufferings of individuals, which seems hitherto to have been thought incompatible with the stern dignity of history. It cannot but strike us with something still more pleasing than surprise, to meet with traits of almost feminine tenderness in the sentiments of this veteran statesman; and a general character of charity towards all men, not only remote from the rancour of vulgar hostility, but purified in a great degree from the asperities of party contention. He expresses indeed, throughout, a high-minded contempt for what is base, and a thorough detestation for what is cruel: But yet is constantly led, by a sort of generous prejudice in favour of human nature, to admit all possible palliations for the conduct of the individual delinquent, and never attempts to shut him out from the benefit of those natural sympathies of which the bad as well as the good are occasionally the objects, from their fortune or situation. He has given a new character, we think, to history, by this soft and condescending concern for the feelings of individuals; and not only left a |