he doctrine that every natural impulse is to be
indulged. Rousseau was an enthusiast and a sentimentalist; he was a man
of the exquisite organization of genius, and there are many passages in
his writings which are colored with a half-voluptuous, half-devotional
glow; but it seems to us a plain confusion of very obvious moral
distinctions to represent such a man as imbued with the spirit of
religion.

One of the most animated of Mr. Bancroft's chapters is the eighth, on
the course of opinion in England, in which we have glimpses of Wilkes,
of Barre, of Wedderburn, of Lord North, of Burke, and an elaborate
character of Fox. This last is a happy specimen of Mr. Bancroft's
peculiar style of portrait-drawing. The merits and defects of the
subject are presented in a series of pointed and aphoristic sentences;
and the likeness is gained, as in a portrait of Rembrandt, by the
powerful contrast and proximity of lights and shadows. Virtues and vices
stand side by side, like the black and white squares of a chess-board.
Brilliant as the execution is, the man Charles James Fox seems to us
reproduced with more distinctness and individuality in the easier,
simpler, more flowing sentences of Lord Brougham. Mr. Bancroft's sketch
has something of the coldness as well as the sharp outline of
bas-relief. And strange to say, considering Fox's love of liberty, his
love of America, and his hatred of slavery, the historian of liberty and
democracy seems hardly to have done him justice. In the summary of the
contents of the chapters prefixed to the volume, he unreservedly writes
down "Fox not a great man," and such is the impression which the text
leaves on the mind; but if Fox was not a great man, to whom in the
sphere of government and politics can that praise be accorded?

In his Preface to this volume, Mr. Bancroft informs us that one more
volume will complete the American Revolution, including the negotiations
for peace in 1782; and that for this the materials are collected and
arranged, and that it will be completed and published without any
unnecessary delay. This volume will bring into the field Spain, France,
and Great Britain, as well as the United States, and, from the nature of
the subject it presents, will undoubtedly be so treated by Mr. Bancroft
as to be not inferior in interest or value to any of its predecessors.

_Griffith Gaunt; or Jealousy_. By CHARLES READE. With
Illustrations. Boston: Ticknor and Fields.

In discus