The Sun.
London, England, 1815-09-07 00:00:00

(yo. XC JL)

Rei•ollections of Ray, Erighaed, oral .4 it,: Ira, with Esscryi
era rgrims .s•talritets ix .tVrirali and Lier'airer.'. By F. A.

DE C!SATkAI-;:i:IAN.D. vols.; Pp.. .572: H. CuPatirn, Con-.

cioit-sn cet

Tl 2 lOyaky of entitles
hint Co some respect awl attention :—a§ far as thii
pact itf iiis cliaractei- !,;;iieS;. we regahi }lint itit
At prriSent n e havti only to cle:(1.

with him in his literary eapacity, So that we
shall Meddle.Wilh nothing- tuuie, but pkinly and
impartially speak our mind, shortly as to the
nerd nature of his works; and More in detail as
to the volnines now before us.

Plainly, then*, M. CnATEAnnitiAND, as an an 7

their, is no favourite of ours., We dislike him,
because we Think him an affected jeclainier,
member of that Cla§s of French writers who have
sprung up since the days of RotTsse.tiy, and pro.•
(limed More nonsense in the shape of vaponring
sentimentality than our fathers could have dreamt
of ;: and shetvti More bad iaste and less judgment
during the comparatively short time they have
flourished than is to be fOund in the AVhole mass
of the literary productions of all the Ittithoi!.s whci
wrote befo're their day.

The tilost prcintinent and cl6racteriStic faults
which hare disgusted us with. M. CH ATEAUBH rAN6
aic, first his affectation. This disfigures almost
every page written by him Which we haVe read
and it destroys the efforts of an iniagination sci
powerful, that if Ft were propttrly regulated and:
chastened by the exercise of the other intellectual
faculties in theitt dile vigour, it would itnpart
Illation and delight. His next &eat fault is a Want
or perversion of judgment. Some silly notions
about ,simplicity, and nature, and sentiments, arni
imprestions, have so completely posS .ssed his.
mind, that every good thought
,is destroyed be—'

fore it can be fortried or arran.geil ; or if, by a

rare,chance it escapes this, it is by and In'e spread,
out, and worn down to something so miserably.
trite or incoherent, that we shut the book in de—

chair, after our common sense has been tired out
with rant and
,absurdity.-I-Of his bad taste, anti
personal and national vanity, there is also
perms
petual cause to complain.—llls observaiionS are
s!iallow and circumscribed, while his remarks are.
any thing rother than shrewd.—is for facts, they
are things with which he meddles very sparingly:
tbey are far beneath his notice. But we muss;
pass to the woLlt above-named. • •

It is not easy to understand from the perusal
of the book, what can have induced M, Chateau=
briand to choose the title ‘lkhich is prefixed to it
His descriptions are for the most part very pool-
and imperfect, his observations so vague, ntnt
his style so verbose; that we cannot help think-‘'
ins, that, in composing this work, he has, for
the greater part, been more indebted for hip rt
collections to some other of his mental faeultieg

than his int:awry.
Italy is the first country which he atteniiiis td.
describe. Hi's' account of Elwin; -and its. eh-.'

virous is, in our Opinion, the most pleasing part
of the first volume, just because it is the most
,descriptive. Digressions and canting specula-
tiOns on matters of taste occur leis frequently in
what he Las written under the head of " Italy,''

except in the. latter part, which contains his visit
to .Mont Blanc. Here he enters into a disci's—.

sion on mountains, and pug,e after page contains.
most del(!!ctable specimens of the absurd.. We.
must give an. example of the worthy gentleman's-
rhodomontade on this subject.—Aster a number

of pages; 'in which he is of opinion that moun-
tains, though tolerable at a distance, are neither

grand nor sublime when e,;atnined more cleisely
atter a great many explanations which are all

contradictory, and elucidations which only in—
crease, the confusion Of ideas, we meet with the

following passage :-
- " But to arrive finally at my peculiar opinion
as to mountains) will observe that as there can
be no beautiful landscape without a mountainous
horizon, so there is no place calculated fOr ati
Agreeable residence, and ati landsopc which it
satisfactory to the eye And heart, Where a lefi-
ciency of space and air exists: Still the idea of

great sublimity is attache() to mountainous views;
and-tVith great justice; aS far as regards the gran -
deur .of objects ; but if it be proved that this
grandene, though real hi its effects is nut pro-
perly perceived by the senses; what hew mei of
the sublimity ?"—p. 64.
• What a coulurok's question How enviable th 6
faculty of being sensible iliac objects are.not grand,
while the grandeur is imperceptible to the senses
But we really suspect, that discussion
momitains, poor NECHATEAUBRIAND gut 1010 tiit:
clouds; and we fear those reader§ (vbos.e
letts are not, bewildered ii, the nikt,%t;ill apc
to think that he has wriiten very obscurely.At aoti:eit place i,lking of Mount V
n esuvius,

he says :
; " it n.ould semi tli t this voicand has no very
reinuediaLle cifect upon tL e Nisiturso which cows-

kilms 'me in the idea T some time since formed
Ilamely, that grand objects and grand subjects
•are less . capable of giving birth to great ideas
than is generally stipposed ; for their 'grandeur
being evident, all that is added beyond this fact,
becomes mere repetition. The " nascetut (nasei,
Itur%) ridiculus nine! is true of all mountains." -
Brit it is with the author's recollections 6f Eng-
land that we have most .fault to find, in conse-
wience'perhaps of being better able to detect his
errors on this subject than on any other in the
volumes under notice.

A ~neat part a the recollections of England is
.occup-ied in abasing SrlAttrisPEAttE. The admira-
tion of his plays. is looked npon by onv 111311 of
menlory as a signal mark (>1 national barbarity.—
aded if the account which he gives of the

literary taste of 'our nation► were true, tl►ere could
'belittle 'to redeem us from a, state of actual bar-

barism except. that admiration of SHAtESPEARE,
nt which the PrenchmAn is so tnuch shocked. Ac-
cording, to him, POPE, DRYDEN, and ALL.Tott are
'entirely neglected in England.
"The Spectator is almost forgotten, and Lottz.v.
is seldom mentioned,
,being th,ongbt a feeble vi-
ionary. None hut pro!essed philosophers read
BACoN. SIIAKESPEANE alone preserves his im-
pet i3l influencer which is easily accounted for by

the following tact :
" I was one night at Covent-Garden Theatre,
which takes its name, as is generally known, from
an ancient Convent on the scite of which it is
built. A well dressed man seated himself near tree,
and asked soon afterWards.where he was?-1 looked
at him with astonishment and answered, in Co-
vent-Garden," A pretty garden . indeed ex-
clahned he, bursting into a fit of laughter, and
presenting to me a bottle of rum. It was a sailor,
who; accidentally passed this way as he came
from the city, just at the time the performance
was commencing, and having observed the pres-
sure- of the crowd at the entrance of the Theatre,
badpaitl his money, and entered the House with-
out knowing what he was to) see.
" How should the English have a Theatre to
he termed supportable, when the pit is copposed
of judges recently arrived from Bengal and the
coast of Guinea, who do not even know where
they are ? S4AKESPEARE may reign eternally in
such a Nation, Ste." ,

What ale ‘ve to think of a man tvho accounts,
for Abe admiration of Sit ticESPEARE front his meet-
ing; a drunk sailor in the Theatre ? Perhaps M.
CHATEAUURIAND was in the One- Shilling Gal-
lery.
Possibly it might have occurred to any Writer
less presumptuous, that there was some risk as
Avefl fis impudence- in the ti4plimited abuse of an
author in a foreign language, who had stood the
test of ages, and, been almost idolized by all
classes of his own country. But Mr. C. takes
upon, hi►uself to decide ex cathedra—a.. d;•elare
the immortd SHAKESPEARE to be " Batharian,"
and treating of h s gienius, with reference co tlee
age in which he lived, !ilys of him, that he " was
pethaps superinr to 1,0PE7 )C VEGA, but he can by
nn•nieans be compared with CA It NI ER and HA R-
DY, who, at that time lisped in numbers among us,
taid uttered the first occents of the French dielpa-

7)7.?;te ! ! !"

;Mtitit'ul pOlvtrS ! SHAKESPEARE, GA►tNIER. awl
HAR-wire ever thought of mentioning their
I•st+nrs together heft'ire ? ‘ Grant us patience just
1-lelvt:u ! Of all ►he rants vthich are canted in
this cantina; world, thOti,,,,fli the Cant Of hypocrisy
may be the worst, the cant of criticism is the

most tormenting.'
lint the bard of Avon betonged to a higher or-
der of beings, and we are mit Si'prized that his
glories are too bright for the gazeof such at critic
as Mr. CHATEXUBI4I,II,4 n. or that tOe confined op-
tics of a Frcrchman should be Lovable to compre-
hend the mighty sphere of moire in which our
inspired SHAKFsPEARE revol►•ed. Anti even had
tae heen competent to appteciatc the chmacter lie
sr> boldly concb•rons, nothing lit:Cluny could have
lice!, expected from a pen whose conchisions arc
so regardless of tact in their premises as to say
that the British audience is iii extitsies. with the
Starred Apothecary in Hamlet, and that " Eng-
land wus but little known" till Vovrat RE brought
it into notice by•his writings ! ! No wonder
that Mr. C.'s opinion should lie worthleSs, and
that in his critical blows he should resemble Tutu
Thumb, who

Made the Giants first,
And then—he kilkit'ern

But we have dwelt enough on these puny as-
staultS upon the immortal llnainatist, who has dis-
played greater genius than all the Poets of France
put together.
V. Cu ATEAURItIANDIS critical' remarks on some
our classics are eqnally- poor ; and of his t-zeol-
leii,,t,s of England as a Nv hole, it is impossible
to speak favohrably ; his observations are shal-
low, and his I..lngnage so childishly declamatory,
as to be, unworthy the 'dente Of a school-boy.
if rhe ecollections of America have the same
character.—Concerning the second volume which
.consists of Essays on literary subjects, we shall
say nothing at' present, because we have only
read one of them; but before we conclude give
one instance d the silly national vanity of the
author, who, talking of the French character,
s,ys e do every thing by genius arid
.inspifation :7—and another of one of, the very
few va,ssil of the hood; worth extracting
The English Clergy," says he, " are learned,.
hospitable a ndgeurrOU3. They love-their coon -
try and exert their powelfill erv,tc.es in sup-
hurt
yeligiMN ditre-
port cat the hews.,
French etni;;:rant clergy
renCeS, they received the
with truly Cisristian ch trity. The= 'University of
Oxford printed, at its trspense, and distributed
kfrati.s to our poor priests; tt pew Latin Testa-
tnent. according to the lloni'an version, ;with thesis!
.morels For the MSC of the Catholic Clergy evile4
On aceinurt of their religiun:—Nuthhig could 'be
rtorc-atiiicate or allecting."