by circumstances, in which he may conceive himself, by some possibility, to be engaged. The diction, also, is against the effect of the work being foreign to the æra to which it is adapted, and not analogous to modern forms of speech. The object was to adopt the pure English idiom "Words that wise Bacon, or great Raleigh spake :" but this cast of language is not uniformly kept up, even in the colloquial parts of the work, where alone it is attempted; and being rejected in the narrative for the modern idiom, an incongruity of style is produced, unpleasant in itself, and destructive of that illusion, which gives to the past the air of the present. Notwithstanding these faults, however, this novel is a work of super-eminent talent, and mighty power. Of all the author's productions, it is the most glittering, spirited, and busy; and we may add, most learned also; since it manifests a deep research into English antiquarianism; an accurate knowledge of the costume of the Saxon and feudal ages; and a familiarity, quite surprising, with the domestic habits of people and times which are now nearly forgotten. The situations and descriptions are all interesting and animated: the dialogues appropriate and well supported: and the characters, if not rigid copies of beings which have once existed, carry with them the most satisfactory air of resemblance. Richard, without dispute, is the real hero of the story; with all the hardihood of body and mind, complexional generosity, impetuosity in action, and recklessness of consequences, ascribed to him by historians: contrasted with whose life and vigour, the nominal hero, Ivanhoe, makes but a dull and uninteresting figure. The same unfavourable impression of "the "Lady Rowena" is produced by the opposition of Rebecca's character to that of the high-born Saxon damsel. There is something generally insipid in Cedric's ward; and the air of haughtiness and reserve thrown around her renders her particularly repelling. But the Jewess is a sketch of unrivalled excellence : she is the beau ideal of all that is great, and good, and fair, in female nature: and though, perhaps, too "faultless" to have ever been seen by the world in actual existence, may be con sidered as a striking, though adorned representation of that sex, which combines firmness with feeling, energy with endurance, and delicacy with tenderness, in a degree exclusively its own. Wambauses his folly like a “stalking horse, and under the presentation "of that shoots his wit:" it must be acknowledged, that his quiver is not abundantly provided with this intellectual weapon; but the deficiency is largely made up, by some fine touches of feeling, and traits of noble principle, which occasionally burst forth from his fantastic but honest nature. Gurth is a rough diamond; and an excellent copy of what we may fairly suppose the Anglo-Saxon serf of the 12th century to have actually been and the pride of the higher ecclesiastics, and the insolence, ignorance, and licentiousness of the Norman Barons, are described with great spirit, and in perfect conformity to the recorded accounts of that distant age. Were we required to point out those parts of the work, which, in our judgment, evince the greatest talent, we should refer to the scene between Richard and Friar Tuck, at the cell of "the "clerk of Copmanhurst," as affording an example of the happiest humour; to that between Rebecca and Ivanhoe, in the Castle of Torquilstone, during the progress of the assault, as inspiring the most breathless impatience; and to the trial of the fair Jewess, as most impregnated with pathos and interest.. HISTORICAL ILLUSTRATIONS. THE Conquest of our country by the Normans must be acknowledged (however paradoxical the suggestion may appear to be) to have been an event of great advantage to England. The condition of our island, at the time of its occurrence, political, moral, and intellectual, was deplorable; and, destitute of the means of renovation from within, required some external application, to restore the spirit, and energy, and virtues of a people, which, however conspicuously they might have shone in earlier times, were now nearly extinguished. "At that period," says a very enlightened modern historian, "the Anglo-Saxons, originally the fiercest nation of the predatory North, had become changed into a submissive "and unwarlike people, by the united influ 66 66 ences of property and luxury, of a great "landed aristocracy, and a richly endowed "hierarchy. But their condition was rather degeneracy than civilization. Their sove"reigns were men of feeble minds; their "nobles, factious and effeminate; the clergy, 66 66 66 66 corrupt and ignorant; the people, servile "and depressed. All the venerated forms of "the Saxon institutions existed, but their spirit had evaporated. They had still their wittena-gemote; their eorles, ealdermen, thegns, and gerefas; their gilds and borhs, their shire-gemots, hundreds, tythings, and "wapentakes; their payments to their lords "were fixed and definite; their burghs were increasing in population; their freedmen were multiplying; and their lands were subject to "the ferd, or military expedition, an effective obligation for the national defence. 66 66 66 But, "amid all these means of prosperity, an intel"lectual torpidity had, since the days of Ath el |