On

any given period. It would start at once into old age, and would leave behind it the literature of an entire generation-the twenty or thirty years consumed in its progress through the press. the other hand, it cannot be denied that, if completed, it will be the foundation of all future works of the same kind; and, to judge from the volume before us, it will be unrivalled in extent and accuracy, not in this country only, but in Europe. May he who has signed the preface live long enough to render the justice which he promises to those who will have assisted him to complete that gigantic undertaking; but we fear. The French began a catalogue of the printed books in the Bibliothèque du Roi so early as 1739. In three years three volumes, containing the faculty of Theology, were published: at the end of eight years more came two volumes comprising the Belles-lettres—(what are the Belles-lettres?)-and, after three more years, there appeared a single volume of Jurisprudence. With this volume, now just ninety years old, ended the attempts of the French librarians to publish a catalogue of the Bibliothèque du Roi. In 1761, Audiffredi began an alphabetical catalogue of the fine library, which, in the year 1700, Cardinal Girolamo Casanate bequeathed to the Dominican convent della Minerva at Rome. In the year 1788, twenty-seven years after the first, was the fourth volume published, which ends with the letter K. The catalogue still remains, and in all probability will remain, unfinished: it is, for its extent, the best which exists. At the head of this article we have named the first volume of the catalogue of the Neapolitan Library: ten years have passed away, and it remains tomus primus et unicus. We know not if a second volume be even in contemplation. These are significant precedents.

ART. II.-The Lady of the Manor. Being a Series of Conversations on the Subject of Confirmation, intended for the Use of the Middle and Higher Ranks of Young Females. By Mrs. Sherwood. 7 vols. Fourth edition. London, 1842.

THE

HE work now before us, as far as outward structure is concerned, demands no particular comment. The system of illustrating moral or religious precepts by tales and fables was as little new in the days of Æsop, as it is superannuated in our own; while the Divine example has demonstrated that, even in the inculcation of the most momentous truths, this system is the most intelligible and acceptable to human nature. Doubtless, we shall be told that it was this reflection, and this alone, which prompted Mrs. Sherwood to the task, and supported her through

the

the toil of inditing the seven volumes, or two thousand one hundred and sixty-five closely-printed pages, which, somewhat to the inconvenience of her readers, constitute the grosser and material part of her spiritual elaborations. The lady's motives, however, are of little consequence-were all the motives of all the writers of the present day to be taken into consideration, the critics would be the real victims-though what those can possibly be which have sustained her readers through four editions of such a work is another question, and one well worth the inquiry. Not that we by any means assume the interest or apathy of the public as a sure standard of a book's merits: we know that too often they are perfectly regardless of good writing, culpably callous to good tendencies, and profoundly indifferent to the best of intentions; but it is seldom, as in the present case, that they are so amiable as entirely to dispense with all three-and that without so much as the vitiated gratification of unwholesome excitement in exchange. For it is one of the most striking features of this work, that though the writer, by way of preparing the minds of young ladies for the exercise of all the Christian virtues, deals profusely in descriptions of the worst vices of mankind, her most heinous enormities are so utterly untrue to nature, as to restrict their power of interest, or chance of credence, solely to those who are alike immature in years and judgment. Nor can the species of infatuation, which has thus carried down four editions of a very dull and very expensive work, be otherwise accounted for, than by the fact of its being addressed to a numerous and wealthy community, who, in their zeal for the promotion of what they believe to be true religion, and in their encouragement of all who volunteer as labourers in what they hold to be the true vineyard, are excessively and unjustifiably remiss in their scrutiny of the services rendered.

In speaking of a body of professing Christians, who, believing that the province of preaching is the great end of the ministry, and that the preaching of the whole Gospel is alone to be found in the pulpits of their own ministers, have styled themselves Evangelical Christians, we are doubly bound to observe respect and consideration: not only for the sake of that religion which, however injudiciously, they advocate, and for the many bright examples of Christian excellence which adorn their community, but because their errors are imputable to a period of laxity in the Established Church, while their errors and excellences together have had no small influence, under the Divine blessing, in rousing her from the same. And in mentioning them as a distinct body, however we may question the heartiness of their adherence, we are far from implying their actual separation from the Establishment. Indeed, a stronger proof of their identity with the moderate

Puritans

Puritans of the early ages of the Reformation cannot be adduced, than the fact of their remaining, like them, in outward communion with the church, though, like them, they apparently seek to compromise with their consciences, by avoiding in social life, as far as possible, all communion with the general body of Church people. And it is curious to observe how accurately the resemblance may in every way be traced-for no closer description of the present Evangelical body is needed than that which Lord Bacon has bequeathed us, who, describing the moderate Puritans of his times, says that, Although they have not cut themselves off from the body and communion of the Church, yet do they affect certain cognizances and differences wherein they seek to correspond among themselves, and to be separate from others. First, they have impropriated to themselves the names of zealous, sincere, and reformed, as if all others were cold minglers of holy things, and profane, and friends of abuses-yea, be a man endued with great virtues, and fruitful in good works, yet, if he concur not with them, they term him, in derogation, a civil and moral man, and compare him to Socrates, or some other heathen philosopher Then they preach conceits apt to breed in men rather weak opinions and perplexed despairs, than filial and true repentance. Another point of inconvenience is to entitle the people to hear controversies and all kinds of doctrine. They say no part of the counsel of God is to be suppressed or defrauded, so that the difference which the apostle maketh between milk and strong meat is confounded, and his precept that the weak be not admitted into questions and controversies findeth no place. But most of all is to be suspected, as a seed of further inconvenience, their manner of handling the Scriptures, for-while they seek express Scripture for everything, and that they have in a manner deprived themselves and the Church of a special help, by embasing the authority of the Fathers-they resort to naked examples, conceited inferences, and forced allusions, such as do mine into all certainty of religion. Another extremity is the excessive magnifying of that which, though it be a principal and most holy institution, yet hath its limits, as all things else have. We see, wherever in a manner they find in the Scriptures the Word spoken of, they expound it as of preaching.'*

Such is the wide spread of so-called Evangelical habits and opinions, that there are few who, either in their public attendance on divine worship, or in their private family connexions, will not be able to perceive the perfect parallel presented in this sumAnd while the general resemblance is thus obvious, their points of difference, it may be observed, are merely incidental to * See 'An Advertisement touching the Controversies of the Church of England.'

mary.

the

the spirit of the age, and consist in that increased liberty of private interpretation, and unbounded facility in its expression, which we suspect it never entered into the heart of a good old Puritan to contemplate-or desire. Upon the whole, the number and circulation of Evangelical works are so extensive, that their writers and readers may be well excused for thinking, as we are aware they do, a much greater share of public interest to be engrossed by them than is really the case. It is more or less natural in every party to suppose that their own concerns occupy exclusive attention, and truly there is none which can appeal to a greater amount of typographical labour in extenuation of this supposition. They possess, in fact, a complete and distinct literature of their own, issued by booksellers and publishers of their own-comprising not only every ingenious degree and denomination of religious writing, from the voluminous biography, diary, letters, and remains of a departed member, sold at ten shillings a volume, to the significantly-titled tract, circulated at three-pence per dozen, but furnished out with newspapers, magazines, reviews, and every other modern device for the propagation of knowledge or amusement. Had the explanation and diffusion of their tenets been committed exclusively to those individuals whose writings in the cause can only induce regret that so much piety, industry, and talent should not have been more soundly directed, no exception, unless on a few minor doctrinal points, could possibly have been taken: but, abandoned as they are now to the mercy of every vulgar dabbler in religion-directed at Christians of all ages, and by Christians of all ages-tampered with alike by lay-man, laywoman, and lay-child,—it is nowise surprising that the name of 'a religious book' should, with all sober Christians, have become rather a signal for suspicion than a promise of edification, and that a quantity of injudicious and irreverent trash should have resulted, of which the volumes now in question may be taken as an average specimen. In our censure, therefore, of the work before us, we are under the conviction of rendering a service no less to this very community, than to the cause of good sense, morality, and decency; for they must be deplorably blind to all, who conceive that The Lady of the Manor' can lend real support to any system from which these qualities are not excluded.

6

Objections, we are aware, are raised by well-intentioned people against passing censure on a system in which so much that is true is included; which, were the truth less in amount, or lower in importance, might be more justly admitted. For it is only in proportion to the truth that is in them that any errors are worth the combating, since, without it, or the semblance of it, they may with perfect safety be let alone. But religion will be always found

to

to suffer more from the interference of ignorant and hot-headed friends, than from the attacks of real enemies; inasmuch as all the blunders of the former are identified with the cause, and any opposition to them is construed as against that. From them, it is true, there is nothing to be apprehended on the score of natural feelings being twisted to appear against religion, but very much on the score of religion being strained to appear against natural feelings; which, as far as her interests are concerned, is much the more mischievous position of the two. There is so much also in Scripture, as read by those who have a particular theory of their own to make out, which gives apparent authority to these views, that, for most, a text has become what the respect of Christians, and the perversity of man, have equally combined to make it, the means of silencing, though not of removing, an objection.

While, therefore, we endeavour to analyse both the work before us, and the system in which it could pass current, we shall be careful, as far as possible, not to recur to Scripture either for defence or illustration. For, believing that the most prominent extravagances of this party are mainly attributable to an absence of that common sense in matters of religion which we know to be indispensable in all secular affairs, it would defeat our own argument if an application of the same did not suffice to refute them. Nor do we want more than the volumes before us to admonish us that the facility with which a scrap of Scripture may be hooked on to every dogma is no proof of the just position of the one, or the true import of the other. As Mrs. Sherwood also deals less in the doctrinal opinions than in the social prejudices of her party-undertakes to guide their conduct more than their creed-our intentions may be easier carried out.

The real aim of this work is to draw young ladies within the Evangelical fold-the ostensible one, to prepare them for the solemn rite of confirmation—the duties they are to undertake, and the temptations they are to encounter, being illustrated in a series of tales, which may be said to have curiously combined the sentimental taste and style of certain English novels of the last century, with the morale of the French ones of the present day; the odd effect of this ingenious compound being heightened by copious quotations from Scripture, and long extempore prayers. In the absence of any preface, we are left in the dark as to the reasons which prevailed on Mrs. Sherwood to dedicate so much of her time to the rite of confirmation in particular, in preference to availing herself of the many excellent works already existing on the subject-none of which, it is true, at all resemble hers. We are therefore at once introduced to the Lady of the Manor'—an elderly gentlewoman endued with every grace and

virtue,