developement of the
story, as the principal object of their attention; and that in
entangling and unravelling the plot, in combining the incidents which
compose it, and even in depicting the characters, they sought for
assistance chiefly in the writings of their predecessors. Baldness, and
uniformity, and inanity are the inevitable results of this slovenly and
unintellectual proceeding. The volume which this author has studied is
the great book of Nature. He has gone abroad into the world in quest of
what the world will certainly and abundantly supply, but what a man of
great discrimination alone will find, and a man of the very highest
genius will alone depict after he has discovered it. The characters of
Shakespeare are not more exclusively human, not more perfectly men and
women as they live and move, than those of this mysterious author. It is
from this circumstance that, as we have already observed, many of his
personages are supposed to be sketched from real life. He must have
mixed much and variously in the society of his native country; his
studies must have familiarized him to systems of manners now forgotten;
and thus the persons of his drama, though in truth the creatures of his
own imagination, convey the impression of individuals who we are
persuaded must exist, or are evoked from their graves in all their
original freshness, entire in their lineaments, and perfect in all the
minute peculiarities of dress and demeanour.

* * * * *

Admitting, however, that these portraits are sketched with spirit and
effect, two questions arise of much more importance than any thing
affecting the merits of the novels--namely, whether it is safe or
prudent to imitate, in a fictitious narrative, and often with a view to
a ludicrous effect, the scriptural style of the zealots of the
seventeenth century; and secondly, whether the recusant presbyterians,
collectively considered, do not carry too reverential and sacred a
character to be treated by an unknown author with such insolent
familiarity.

On the first subject, we frankly own we have great hesitation. It is
scarcely possible to ascribe scriptural expressions to hypocritical or
extravagant characters without some risk of mischief, because it will be
apt to create an habitual association between the expression and the
ludicrous manner in which it is used, unfavourable to the reverence due
to the sacred text. And it is no defence to state t