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LITERA.TUR'.I.

•
Biographical and Critical !:s3ays. 2 vols. By A.
Hayward, Q. 0. Longman and Co.
Mr. Hayward has long been known and appre-
ciated as au able contributor to the "Edinburgh,"
" Quarterly," "North British," and other first-
class Reviews ; and many of our readers are,
doubtless, familiar with the articles reprinted in
these volumes. It is scarcely necessary to say, that
we cordially welcome them in their new firm, as
valuable additions to our library shelves; for the
masterly and lucid style in which the author min-
gles thefacts of interesting biography, with the com-
ments of sound criticism, is attractive alike to the
educated scholar and the one who merely "dips into
a book" for casual amusement. Mr. Hayward
gives us brief, but comprehensive, records of Sydney
Smith, Samuel Rogers, James Smith, Lord Ches-
terfield, Lord Eldon, The Countess Hahn-Hahn,
and numerous other celebrities connected with
Literature, whose characteristics and principles are
discussed with free and impartial treatment. Lord
Chesterfield's fall :cies and errors are judiciously
exposed, and his reputation for taste, elegance, and
refinement appears to bo mere superficial polish on
a very inferior sort of "Brummagem" moral metal.
His method of training his son evinced no great
depth of judgment, or acuteness of perception ;
and his endeavours to create a diamond out of a
pebble, was attended with just and salutary disap-
pointment. Mr. Hayward's opinion of the Ches-
terfieldian system of human cultivation is thus ex-
pressed—
It is clear, however, that his lordship fell into what
strikes us to be a great error regarding the attention to
be paid to natural character or genius, and the possi-
bility or prudence of controlling it. He has an unlimited
confidence in education ; he thinks that the human mind
and body may be trained to anything; that it is our
own fault if we do not obtain the supreme control of
our passions, the entire command of our faces, and the
complete mastery of our limbs ; that, if we will but take
teeing, we may possess most of the good qualities, and
avoid all the bad ; that we may be as learned, eloquent,
graceful, and agreeable as we please ; that any young
wan may take his degree in the art of pleasing as regu-
larly as in the classics, and become in duo course the
darling of the women and the envy of the men ; or,
without the least reference to natural aptitude, may
confidently set about making himself a courtier, a diplo-
matist, or an orator—in short, anything but a poet ;
which, possibly out of respect for the old maxim, is
allowed to form an exception to the theory. Yet some-
thing may be done even with poets. —" If Shakspeare's
genius had been cultivated, those beauties which we so
justly admire would have been undisguised by those ex-
travaganciee and that nonsense with which they are fre-
quently accompanied."
Acting on these principles, Lord Chesterfield devotes
his best energies, during a series of years, to the task of
qualifying young Stanhope to play the very part of all
others for which he was palpably unfit. A heavy-look-
ing, loutish lad, with good dispositions and a taste for
solid acquirements, is to be manufactured into an easy,
graceful man of faAhion ; to be endowed invita Minerva
with all the superficial accomplishments, and inoculated,
in his own despite, with all the lighter vices ; in the hope
(too often vain) that they will polish without hardening,
and be abandoned at the proper season for the graver
cares and higher duties of society. Lord Chesterfield
might just as well have told such a son to be six feet
high as to be eloquent, to have a Roman nose as to be
graceful, to write like Pope as to how like the Due de
Richelieu ; and we strongly suspect that the donkey
playing lap-clog, was a fair type of the neophyte in the
boudoir of la petite Blot, if indeed he ever got so far.
The tenacity wiih which the Earl clung to hie plan long
after every ene else bad seen its hopelessness, is won-
derful. The scales grew thicker and thicker, instead of
dropping from his eyes ; his son must and shall be a
modern Alcibiades ; all his old friends and former mis-
tresses are adjured to make him one; and by way, we
suppose, of putting the youth entirely at his ease, he is
expressly told that a hundred eyes are watching him
and that, if he eventually falls short of the ideal etan;
dard, he may lay his account with finding all fatherly
favour and affection at an end for ever.
The result is well known. The only one of his
father's favourite accomplishments which young Stan-
hope acquired and improved upon, was dissimulation ;
and the skill with which he managed to conceal his
private marriage during so many years, shows that ho
was no mean proficient in it. But we do not found our
judgment on the result. The scheme was absurd from
the beginning : the whole theory is radically wrong.
The poet Rogers receives all, if not something more,
than he has a right to. That he was felicitous in
rhythm, fastidious in phraseology, and correct in
style, we readily admit. That he possessed the vigour,
originality, and condensation essential to constitute
a " real poet," we strenuously deny. Poems that
are intended to endure the " wear and tear" of
ages, must have a portion of the strong, hempen
coil of Genius in their weaving, and not trust en-
tirely to the pretty, delicately-tinted silken fili-
ments of Fancy. There is much aptitude in these
remarks on his "Epistle to a Friend :"
The " Epistle" is a vehicle for conveying, after the
manner of Horace and (in parts) of Pope, the writer's
notions of social comfort and happiness, as influenced
by residence, furniture, books, pictures, and companion?,
—subjects on all of which he was admirably qualified te,
speak. His precepts are delivered in a series of grace-
ful couplets, and enforced by authorities collected in the
notes. Of course, he is all for moderation, simplicity,
and retirement,—what poet or poetaster is not l—with
about the same amount of practical earnestness as
Grattan, when he declared he could be content in a
small neat house, with cold meat, bread, and beer, and
plenty of claret; or as a couple from Alay Fair, who, when
they talk (,f love in a cottage, are dreaming of a cottage
like the dairy-house at Tayoeouth or Cashiobury. All
Rogers wanted, was to be able to enjoy every pleasure
or luxury he really cared about ; and as he did not care
about a numerous establishment or a large house, the
model villa to which he invites his friend is of retricted
dimensions—

" Here no state chambers in long line unfold,
Bright with broad mirrors, rough with fretted gold;
Yet modest ornament with use combined,
Attracts the eye to exercise the mind.
Small cheasngues
Who leads a life of otfoscbe".‘vthisafitecl
small space his home requires,
Partridgede s i desires."
es. '
iggtrikLike thePreefsbhterian divine who, after pray-
ingwould call a non
sequitur.Ti
that all the lady e manor's desires might be
virtu-
ous, —Rogers, after l.
gratified, judiciously.added, "provided they be virtu-
desires implied a aying down that a life of satisfied
~ contractedprovided they
sphere of action, should
have added
who complained they be limited." The spend-
thriftthere was no living in England
like a gentleman under f
have led a life of satisfiedo desired,
thousand a-year, would not
with small change of
scene, or small space to disportgeirign,
The Countess Hahn-Hahn,
;hose works, like
those of George Sand (Madame Dudevant),
moral doubt, with jectsfor
a
fre-
quently form the subjects
here very question of their
accompanying denunciations of
thoroughly
the writer'; is fairly digested, and evi-
dently4tphe does not understood. We are told that
says
syour hearts are desperately
us to
wicked, but she
1 instead of tellingthat they are desperately fickle;
she, expressly tole us obey their capricious impulses,
i inculcates the due dischargeto bridle them ; and she
as the best sedative for of the domestic duties
degreef
restlessness." It is pro-
bable that some
—'oprejudice may be dissi-
pated by Mr. FTaYwards declaration that "she is
just the sort of writer who in
carefully, to be aPPraciated '
"ust be read, and read
The sterling integrity and
brilliant talent of Syd-
ney Smith are vivid].) pourtrayed, in an article cal-
culated to stimulate the-
honourable ambition, and
elevate the intellect of
the
aspiring living; while it
renders a just tribute to the Wit a
gifted dead. The second
volume commences lengthy paper on
"American Orators and
Statesmen,"
in which, ex-
cellent writing and acute discrimination are pro-
minent. In connection with
an
an anecdote of
illustration of the
oratory of Daniel Webster,
Rowland Hill, which we Ivfind
believe to be less hack-
neyed than most of the stories relati •
ng to that ec-
centric preacher :
The late Rowland Hill understood human nature
well. His chapel having been infested by pickpockets,
he took occasion to remind the congre
whom mg l that there
was an all-seeing Providence, to all hearts are
; ,
open, and from wham no secrets were hid ' but lest,"
he added, " there may be any present who
are insensible
to such reflection', I beg leave to statethere are also
two Bow .street officers on the look-out.,,
" Journalism in France," and "Parisia
n Morals
and Manners," are equally instructive and enter-
taining, strongly tempting us to copious extracts,
did not want of space forbid the indulgence. E
deal of amusing information is afforded •in " Bri-
tish Field Sports ;" and a couple of paper
"Manners and Etiquette," and ~
The Art
on
t of
Dining," will find numerous and interested readers.
Earnestly recommending these volumes to the no-
tice of the readily:, public, we conclude our
notice
with a trait of the Great Napoleon,
showing up
the " lion" at " feeding time :
The habit of eating fast and carelessly is supposed to
have paralysed Napoleon on two of the 1110
occasions of his life—the battles of Borodino and Lgritica•
l
On each of these occasions he is known to have eiPsic
been
suffering from indigestion. Oa the third day of
too (as the German novelist Hoffman, who was in the
town, asserts), the Emperor's energies impaired
by the Were
effects of a shoulder of mutton stuffed with
onions.
There can be no doubt that Napoleon's irregularity as
to meals injured his health and shortened his W
The
general order to his household was to have '
cutlets and
roast chicken ready at all hours, night and day, and
it
was observed to the letter by his maitre-dltotel, Dun
who bad been a celebrated cook. In his more dignifiednd,
capacity, he contrived to fall in with the humours
ofhis
Imperial master, and, by so doing, to be of essential
use at critical emergencies, when an hour of prolonged
or a
flurry or irritation might have cost a province
throne. On one occasion, when matters had gone
wrong
in some quarter, Napoleon returned from the Conseil
d'Etat in one of his worst tempers and most discontentedaa
moods. A dejeuner ala fourciutte, comprising his
favourite dishes, was served up, and Napoleon, who
fasted since daybreak, took his seat. Bat he bad hardlyv
Alo m
swallowed a mouthful, when apparently 40 • oppor.