The Sun.
London, England, 1831-01-17 00:00:00

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LITERATURE.

WESTMINSTER REVIEW, No. XXVII.
LONDON, 1831.

If not the most eloquent or classical, or lite-
rary, this is beyond question the most useful,
practical, and spirited of our Quarterly Reviews.
It is full of bone and muscle, and exhibits all the
symptoms of energetic manhood. Hercules
should have been its Editor. To the coarse,
homely power of Cobbett it adds at times the
epigrammatic point, the stinging invective, of
Junius. The Editor wields his pen as the son
of Alcmxna wielded his club. There is no cant
or make. believe in his remarks—unless it be in
his somewhat vulgar depreciation of classical ac-
quirements—the truth is spoken bluntly and
without reserve. The present number is in
every respect a superior one, first as regards the
nature of its subjects, and secondly its fashion of
treating them. The analysis of that able work
Webster's American Dictionary, is a masterly one,
and displays infinite philological research. It is
penned in the strictest spirit of impartiality.
The remarks on Johnson's Dictionary, which
naturally precede it, are not to be gainsayed

" The prejudice in favour of Dr. Johnsen has been of
long standing ; and it operates as an injurious check upo❑
the enterprise of those who are willing to devote them-
selves to the unprofitable pursuits of the philologists. Many
causes have contributed to produce it ; and not the least
efficient of these is the extraordinary merit, and the at- 1
tractive character of the work itself. Not but that every
person, who has made even but small edvances in the
ct iticel study of the English language, has been sensible to
its many and great deficiencies as a dictionary : not but
that every person who resorts to it fur etymologies, or for
assistance when be meets with obscure passages in our
early writers, has found reaso❑ for dieappointtnent. or
have the critical students its cur language forborne to call '
the public attention to the fact. 'fooke is too severe.
Johnson'e merit ought not to be denied him ; but his
Dictionary is the &nest imperfect and faulty, anti the least
valuable, of any of his productions : and that share of
merit which it possesses, makes it by so much the more
hurtful.' (Purley, i. 223.) 'Of all publications,' says
Mr. Mason, in the Preface to his large Supplement,
perhaps no one can be mentioned, where scrupulous
exactness should be more peculiarly observed, than in a
Dictionary. Yet Johnson's abounds with inaccuracies, as
much as any English book whatsoever, written by a scholar.
Demonstrating this in the present place may be considered
wholly unnecessary, since so great a portion of those articles '
which form the ensuing vocabulary, contain in themselves
incontestible proofs of the assertion,. Nor need these
manifest defects at all be wondered at, in one who took
every opportunity of t.etifying a dislike to his task, and
complaining of it as a dredgery ; whereas to those that
are intent upon their employment, and attached to lite-
rary iuvest gation—labor ipse roluptas:—Theue judg-
ments are too severe ; but hear the more sober judgment
of gentler mind,. ' However valuable in other respects,'
says Mr. Boucher, in the Prospectus of his Thesaurus of
Archaical Terms, ' Dr. Johnson's Dictionary confeseedly
is, his warmest admirers cannot deny it to be still incom-
plete, as leaving unexplained many good and significant
words, only because they happen to have fallen into disuse ;
notwithstanding their being yet epeken by a large portion
of the community, and still found in authors on whose
works the nation has long rested ne ordinary portion of its
high literary fame.' Mr. Coleridge thus speaks : 'Of this
celebrated Dictionary I will venture to remark once for all,
that I shield suspect the man of a narrow disposition who
should speak of it without respect and gratitude, as a
most instructive and entertaluing book, and hitherto, un-
fortunately, an indispensable book; but I confess that I
should be surprised at hearing from a philosophic and
thorough scholar any but very qualified praises of it as a
Dictionary. lam not now alluding to the number of
genuine words emitted; for this is (and perhaps to a
greater extent), true, as Mr. Wakefield has noticed, of
our best Greek Lexicons, and this too, after the successive
labours of so many giants in learning. I refer at present
both to omissions and commissions of a more important
nature.'"

The character of George the Fourth, though
drawn with no flattering pencil, is yet as true to
life as one of Hogarth's prints. The writer as-
sumes nothing—distorts nothing—takes nothing
for granted—but from certain well-known public
acts of his late Majesty deduces certain inferences,
which it is wholly impossible to deny or con-
trovert. George the Fourth is DOW matter of
history. The day of prejudice is over with him ;
flattery has no more to gain by concealing, nor
honesty to lose, by declaring the truth ; his
public acts, therefore, both as a man and as a
monarch, may as justly be canvassed as
those of Louis the Fifteenth. Claiming this
privilege as his natural right, the writer
discusses the character of his late Ma-
jesty with as much spirit and acumen as old
Clarendon displayed in the portraits of his fa-
vourite heroes. Strange what a difference one
week, nay, one little hour, makes in the divinity
that " (loth hedge a King!" Something more
than man this day, something infinitely less the
next, the Sovereign loses his omnipotence with
as much rapidity as the wind shifts its quarter. To-
day the voice of truth respecting him is scarcely
heard above a whisper ; to-morrow it breaks
forth with the sound of thunder. The grave

makes all the difference, and either elevates or
reduces him to his proper level as an historical
character. " Maxwell" is a favourable, but
somewhat superficial notice, of Mr. Theodore
Hook's last novel, in which a few slight but dis-
criminating remarks are hazarded. otrAe-subject
of that gentleman's powers of mind. " Cob-
bett's Tour in Italy" commends the agricultural
merits of the author, though we must confess
we think them wholly out of place in Italy. i
Who thinks of Rome and the plough's tail at
the same time? Who, in wandering along the
banks of the Arno, or gazing on the splendours
of Florence, or luxuriating in the enchanted
region of Tivoli, would dream for an instant
of the spade, the harrow, the cart-horse,
or the farm yard ? Yet Mr. Cobbett journies
through the classic land of Italy with these recol-
lections uppermost in his mind. The farm
predominates in every thing that he sees and
describes—his prejudices are all robed in a
smock-frock. He expatiates on the fertility of
the country surrounding Florence—as Nichol
Jarvie commented on the Highlands—with a
regret that it is not turned to better account.
" Machine-breaking" is a sound, practical article
worthy to be read and diligently pondered by
all classes of the community. " Tennyson's
Poems" display much philosophical and—an
unusual thing with the " Westminster Review"—
even poetic ability. The young poet is appre-
ciated as he deserves. He is as full of promise
as the spring. Time and perseverance are alone
wanting to enable him to scale the heights of Par.
nassus. At present he is merely culling flowers
at the foot of the sacred mount. " European Re-
volution" is penned in a lofty, generous tone. of
thought. The duties of Europe as respect
Poland are ably pointed out, and the profligacy
of the Lite war of legitimacy exposed in one terse
sentence pregnant with truth and justice. The
remaining articles we must dismiss with the
remark that if they are not above, neither are they
below mediocrity.