over the pamphlet, the title of which is prefixed to this paper. As to the work before us, however, and the college of which it gives the history, we shall pass them by in perfect silence; for which wary conduct, we have not merely the example of more experienced reviewers, but we have sufficient strong reasons of our own to authorize us. We are well aware that let us speak on the subject as we may, either praise or censure are sure to make us enemies. The learned college would never forgive us if we presumed to find fault, and should we dare to praise, we have all the rest of the medical world upon our backs; even if avoiding Scylla on the right, and Charybdis on the left, might we not run on a shoal more formidable than either? The maxim medio tutissimus ibis will not save us. We do not pretend to decide when doctors disagree. Besides, physicians are dangerous enemies; we cannot tell when our lives may be at their mercy. We stand in awe of pills and syringes, patent draughts and pulvis jacobi; of insidious cathartics and secret sudorifics. Gallipots and phials, lancets and amputating knives, present themselves in deadly array, and the portentous pestle and mortar even now clang in our affrighted ears. Quitting the lofty tone, therefore, of reviewers, we most humbly beg pardon for whatever they may have seen amiss in this article. Ye mighty masters of the healing art, spare us-bring us your aid when fevers burn; when colics wring, and gout and rheumatism gnaw, and we in return will spare you though you may lay yourselves open and become vulnerable at every pore, we will not attack you. Though you be divided among yourselves, we will not attempt to unite you by giving you a common enemy.

R.

VOL. II. 2D ED.

40

SPIRIT OF MAGAZINES.

BRITISH LITERATURE.

[From the Edinburgh Review of Mad. de Staël.]

WE come now to the literature of the North-by which name Mad. de Staël designates the literature of England and Germany, and on which she passes an encomium which we scarcely expect from a native of the South. She startles us a little, indeed, when she sets off with a dashing parallel between Homer and Ossian; and proceeds to say that the peculiar character of the northern literature has all been derived from that patriarch of the Celts, in the same way as that of the south of Europe may be ultimately traced back to the genius of Homer. It is certainly rather against this hypothesis, that the said Ossian bas only been known to the readers and writers of the North for about forty years from the present day, and has not been held in especial reverence with those who have most distinguished themselves in that short period. However, we shall suppose that Mad. de Staël means only, that the style of Ossian reunites the peculiarities that distinguish the northern school of letters, and may be supposed to exhibit them such as they were before the introduction of the classical and southern models. We rather think she is right in saying that there is a radical difference in the taste and genius of the two regions; and that there is more melancholy, more tenderness, more deep feeling and fixed and lofty passion, engendered among the clouds and mountains of the North, than upon the summer seas or beneath the perfumed groves of the South. The causes of the difference are not perhaps so satisfactorily stated.

Mad. de Sta 1 gives the first place to the climate.

Les réveries des poètes peuvent enfanter des objets extraordinaires; mais les impressions d'habitude se retrouvent nécessairement dans tout ce que l'on compose. Eviter le souvenir de ces impressions, ce seroit perdre le plus grand des avantages, celui de peindre ce qu'on a soi-même éprouvé. Les poètes du midi mêlent sans cesse l'image de la fraîcheur, de bois touffus, des ruisseaux limpides à tous les sentimens de la vie. Ils ne se retracent pas même les jouissances du cœur, sans y mêler l'idée de l'ombre

bienfaisante, qui doit les préserver des brûlantes ardeurs du soleil. Cette nature si vive qui les environne, excite en eux plus de mouvemens que de pensées. C'est à tort, ce me semble, qu'on a dit que les passions étoient plus violentes dans le midi que dans le nord. On y voit plus d'intérêts divers, mais moins d'intensité dans une même pensée; or c'est la fixité qui produit les miracles de la passion et de la volonté. Les peuples du nord sont moins occupès des plaisirs que de la douleur; et leur imagination n'en est que plus féconde. Le spectacle de la nature agit fortement sur eux; et elle agit, comme elle se montre dans leurs climats, toujours sombre et nébuleuse." P. 254, 255.

Another characteristic is the hereditary independence of the northern tribes-arising partly from their scattered population and inaccessible retreats, and partly from the physical force and hardihood which their way of life, and the exertions requisite to procure subsistence in those regions, necessarily produced. Their religious creed, too, even before their conversion to christianity, was less fantastic, and more capable of leading to heroic emotions than that of the southern nations. The respect and tenderness with which they always regarded their women, is another cause (or effect) of the peculiarity of their national character; and, lastly, their general adoption of the protestant faith has tended to confirm that character. For our own part, we are inclined to ascribe more weight to the last circumstance than to all the others that have been mentioned; and that not merely from the better education which it is the genius of protestantism to bestow on the lower orders, but from the necessary effect of the universal study of the scriptures which it enjoins. A very great proportion of the protestant population of Europe is familiarly acquainted with the bible; and there are many who are acquainted with scarcely any other book. Now, the bible is not only full of lessons of patience, and humility, and compassion, but abounds with a gloomy and awful poetry, which cannot fail to make a powerful impression on minds that are not exposed to any other, and receive this under the persuasion of its divine origin. The peculiar character, therefore, which Mad. de Staël has ascribed to the people of the North in general, will now be found, we believe, to belong only to such of them as profess the reformed religion; and to be discernible in all the communities that maintain that profession, without much regard to the degree of latitude which they inhabit, though at the same time it is undeniable, that its general adoption in the North must be explained by some of the more general causes which we have shortly indicated above.

The great fault which the French impute to the writers of the North, is want of taste and politeness. They generally admit

that they have genius; but contend that they do not know how to use it; while their partisans maintain, that what is called want of taste is merely excess of genius, and independence of pedantic rules and authorities. Mad. de Staël, though admitting the transcendent merits of some of the English writers, takes part, upon the whole, against them in this controversy; and, after professing her unqualified preference of a piece compounded of great blemishes and great beauties, compared with one free of faults, but distinguished by little excellence, proceeds very wisely to remark, that it would be still better if the great faults were corrected-and that it is but a bad species of independence which manifests itself by being occasionally offensive: and then she attacks Shakspeare, as usual, for interspersing so many puerilities, and absurdities, and grossièretés, with his sublime and pathetic passages.

Now, there is no denying that a poem would be better without faults; and that judicious painters use shades only to set off their pictures, and not blots. But there are two little remarks to be made. In the first place, if it be true that an extreme horror at faults is usually found to exclude a variety of beauties, and that a poet can scarcely ever attain the higher excellencies of his art, without some degree of that rash and headlong confidence which naturally gives rise to blemishes and excesses, it may not be quite so absurd to hold, that this temperament and disposition, with all its hazards, deserves encouragement, and to speak with indulgence of faults that are symptomatic of great beauties.There is a primitive fertility of soil that naturally throws out weeds along with the matchless crops which it alone can bear; and we might reasonably grudge to reduce its vigour for the sake of purifying its produce. There are certain savage virtues that can scarcely exist in perfection in a state of complete civilization; and, as specimens, at least, we may wish to preserve, and be allowed to admire them, with all their exceptionable accomplishments. It is easy to say that there is no necessary connexion between the faults and the beauties of our great dramatist; but the fact is, that since men have become afraid of falling into his faults, no one has approached to his beauties; and we have already endeavoured, on more than one occasion,* to explain the grounds of this connexion. But our second remark is, that it is not quite fair to represent the controversy as arising altogether from the excessive and undue indulgence of the English for the admitted faults of their favourite authors, and their persisting to idolize Shakspeare, in spite of his buffooneries, ex

* See our remarks on Franklin, vol. VIII. p. 329, &c.; and on Burns, vol. XIII. p. 250, &c.

travagancies, and bombast. We admit that he has those faults; and, as they are faults, that he would be better without them: but there are many things which the French call faults, which we consider as beauties. And here, we suspect, the dispute does not admit of any settlement, because both parties, if they are really sincere in their opinion, and understand the subject of discussion, may very well be right, and for that very reason incapable of coming to any agreement. We consider taste to mean merely the faculty of receiving pleasure from beauty; and, so far as relates to the person receiving that pleasure, we apprehend it to admit of little doubt, that the best taste is that which enables him to receive the greatest quantity of pleasure from the greatest number of things. With regard to the author again, or artist of any other description, who pretends to bestow the pleasure, his object, of course, should be, to give as much, and to as many persons, as possible; and especially to those who, from their rank and education, are likely to regulate the judgment of the remainder. It is his business, therefore, to ascertain what does please the greater part of such persons, and to fashion his productions according to the rules of taste which may be deduced from that discovery. Now, we humbly conceive it to be a complete and final justification for the whole body of the English nation, who understand French as well as English, and yet prefer Shakspeare to Racine, just to state, modestly and firmly, the fact of that preference; and to declare, that their habits and tempers, and studies and occupations, have been such as to make them receive far greater pleasure from the more varied imagery -the more flexible tone-the closer imitation of nature-the more rapid succession of incident, and vehement bursts of passion of the English author, than from the unvarying majestythe elaborate argument and epigrammatic poetry of the French dramatist. For the taste of the nation at large we really cannot conceive that any other apology can be necessary; and though it might be very desirable that they should agree with their neighbours upon this point as well as upon many others, we can scarcely imagine any upon which their disagreement could be attended with less inconvenience. For the authors, again, that have the misfortune not to be so much admired by the adjoining nations as by their own countrymen, we can only suggest, that this is a very common misfortune; and that, as they wrote in the language of their country, and will probably be always most read within its limits, it was not perhaps altogether unwise or unpardonable in them to accommodate themselves to the taste which was there established.

Mad. de Staël has a separate chapter upon Shakspeare; in which she gives him full credit for originality, and for having