to the Demise of George IV. In Four Volumes. Vol. I. The Royal Family; the Pretenders and their Adherents; Churchmen; Dissenters; and Statesmen. Small 8vo. 1832. pp. 582. London, THE 'HE Annual Biography maintains its average character, as a convenient repository of fugitive memoirs of persons by right or by courtesy entitled to the appellation celebrated', who may have deceased during the previous year. The present volume contains thirty-one memoirs, and a biographical index comprising shorter notices of a greater number of individuals, many of them not less' celebrated than those whose lives are detailed at greater length. For example, Archdeacons Parkinson and Churton, James Hamper, and the Rev. Philip Taylor, whose memoirs adorn the present volume, were unquestionably very celebrated persons; yet, it may be thought that Archbishop Magee, Earl Mulgrave, Mr. Jodrell, and even Mr. Bragge Bathurst, who have only a niche in the index, were scarcely less prominent public characters. For this appearance of partiality or want of judgement in the selection of the subjects of the memoirs, it would not, however, be fair to hold the Editor entirely responsible; as he has no doubt been guided chiefly by the facility of obtaining available materials. Among the most distinguished names which occur in the contents of the present volume, are those of Henry Mackenzie; John Abernethy; Mrs. Siddons; the Rev. Robert Hall; Thomas Hope; William Roscoe; N. T. Carrington; James Northcote; and Lord Norbury. The memoir of the Rev. Robert Hall, who is very unnecessarily dignified with the title of D.D., is taken chiefly from the pages of the Imperial Magazine. It is not free from inaccuracy, but is substantially correct in the main facts. We refrain, however, from entering more particularly into the subject, till we have before us the accredited memoirs which will appear in the last volume of Mr. Hall's collected works. We shall avail ourselves of the biographical memoir of the Author of Anastasius, to lay before our readers some account of one of the most singular productions that ever issued from the press, but of which we have only read enough to enable us to appreciate the heroic perseverance of the individual who could qualify himself to give an analysis of such recondite absurdity. The learned Translator of the kindred productions of the Hindoo sages, of the Carma-mimansa, and the Brahma-mimansa, must have had scarcely a much more arduous task, Mr. Hope's English being very cognate to Sanscrit. We know not who is the literary 'friend" to whom we are indebted for the following analysis; but we tender him our best thanks. "The Essay on the Origin and Prospects of Man,' published posthumously, is only a preliminary portion of a work much more ex tensive, which Mr. Hope had long meditated, on Beauty; comprising. under that term, every species of attribute, physical and intellectual, of which the mere passive contemplation affords, through the channel of the senses, the exalted pleasures of which the cause is called beauty. How far this Essay will enhance the brilliant reputation of the author of "Anastasius," may be questioned; but no one, whose taste for abstruse disquisition may lead him through the three volumes of which it consists, will deny it to be the production of a mind of more than ordinary talents and acquirements. It is to be regretted that the difficulties incident to such discussion should be further increased by the adoption of a peculiar style, modelled on a theory which is announced and vindicated in the introduction: in fact, so foreign is it in its structure as to require continual translation into the English of which the vocabulary consists. "The fundamental principle of Mr. Hope's cosmogony is, that all things are generated by time and space:-to these succeed gravitation, centrifugal and centripetal; from which, as the principle of all aggregation and combination, arise the earliest modifications of electricity; namely, those which produce the force of cold, combination, and substance,-cold being the connecting link between mere force and positive substance. Substance, which at first is radiant, consolidates, according to the determining circumstances, into forms gaseous, liquid, and solid. From amorphous matter, by the action of electricity and cold, is produced crystallization; the highest and completest form of substances inorganic. By decombinations brought about by the agency of heat, and other recombinations, we ascend by a scale to substance organic and living, vegetable and animal ;-proving, contrary to the accepted belief, that, after the creation of inorganic matter, another distinct creation was necessary, in order to infuse into the former the principles of life; that in the very conditions of mere time and space, in the very first act of the creation, were already laid the seeds of its last and highest developements, not only vital, but sensitive and intellectual; and that it was impossible, when the former arose, the latter should not, in their turn, out of them have arisen. "These views, strange as they must appear, are developed in a most elaborate argument, supported by the resources of an imagination highly active, and aided by an extensive reference to authorities both ancient and modern, sacred as well as profane. This is not the place for more than the most rapid summary of a work, to do full justice to which would occupy a space much more considerable than we could, consistently with our general plan, devote to it ;-but the alleged natural history of man is too singular to be wholly passed over. When, it seems, in the progress of creation, the elements of organized substance, by successive combinations and decombinations, had arrived at a condition suited to the formation of beings, not only vital and sentient, but intellectual, these elements, meeting from opposite points by pressure, gradually accumulated and combined, until they resulted in man! This process going on simultaneously wherever the elements were to be found, it follows, that every part of the world so circumstanced was in a condition to produce its autocthones. The genus man thus comprises distinct species, each deriving from its own peculiar parent stock, discriminated one from the other by a comparative scale of excellence, both in physical and in intellectual capacity; the former, if not determining the latter, at least being its unerring index. Between these several races is a boundary, not only distinct and well defined, but impassable: so that a Caffre or a Samoyed could no more, by whatever pains in education or discipline, be elevated to the comprehension of European science, than the dullest of brutes be trained to the sagacity of the elephant. The cause of these differences Mr. Hope traces to certain circumstances in climate, soil, and situation; and he observes, that it is in those regions where Nature has been more than ordinarily bountiful to the inferior animals, that she has seemed most niggardly to man: for the elements, forestalled and exhausted by the combinations necessary for the formation of the former, were but scantily afforded in their concurrence for the formation of the latter. The country of the ourang outang and the elephant is at the same time the birthplace of the most degraded of the human species; and, on a comparison, it may fairly be called in doubt, whether, in that country, the advantage remain with the man, or with the brute: the former, it is true, is possessed of faculties of which the other is wholly deprived; but so imperfectly are they developed, as scarcely to be of any value, while he is greatly inferior in those physical qualities, and in the senses, they enjoy in common. "Of the original races, some, both of the highest and of the lowest species, have become extinct. The latter have perished and left no trace; but of the former, the records of ages of the remotest time indicate a people, cultivated in arts and manners, theists in religion; the first and most excellent of creation; whose stature, form, and longevity, attest an immeasurable superiority; and from whose wreck, mixed up with baser matter, was collected and preserved by tradition all that has since formed the basis and nucleus of civilisation. Such were the Bible Patriarchs before the flood-such the Titans of mythology-such the Præ-adamites of Arabian fable. Next in order of excellence must be placed the stock anciently inhabiting the country between the Euxine and Caspian, to the south; chiefly known by the colony which, under the name of Pelagians, Hellenes, and Dorians, settled in Greece, and the country along the coast of the Mediterranean adjacent. These were alike beautiful in form, and exquisite in faculty; by them was carried to rapid perfection all that is in art most rare, and in science most abstruse; and it is according as succeeding generations approach the purity of this race, that they will approximate to an excellence which, deteriorated as they are, they never can hope fully to attain. "Pursuing the analogy by which he has, from the simplest elements (elements not yet obvious to the senses, scarcely indeed to the imagination), traced the concatenation to shapeless masses, to crystallised substance, to organisation, to vitality,-till, in the latest and highest link, the diapason closes full in,-Mr. Hope follows the decombinations of this world, to other combinations in a more central and less imperfect sphere, in which they will be absorbed; forming there an entity comprehending all modifications, inanimate and animate, inorganised and organic, vegetable and animal, sentient and intellectual, from the first and simplest to the last and highest, on which it was founded. "Such are the speculations of a writer, long holding a distinguished place among the authors of the day, but in a department of literature so distinct from that which occupied his latter years, that few, in perusing them, would recognise the author of those works on art, and above all, of that splendid fiction by which Mr. Hope is chiefly known. In these metaphysical disquisitions there is strong internal evidence of an earnest and sincere pursuit of truth, and of amiable and benevolent feelings, which, however obnoxious Mr. Hope's paradoxes may be, cannot fail to conciliate and if his reasonings do not convince, they at least afford ingenious views, well followed up; and, to the few, materials for thinking."' pp. 260-3. : Materials for thinking! So does a Babylonian brick, or an inscription in the arrow-headed character. But these suggest reflections of a less melancholy kind. The first impression produced by inspecting Mr. Hope's volumes, is, that he intended them as a hoax upon the philosophic world. But this explanation of his design, the reader is forced to dismiss, and after trying at various solutions of the enigma, is led to give up the attempt to resolve the work into either its causes or its elements. We have been much interested with the brief and simple memoir of the amiable and gifted Author of "Dartmoor." It affords us a pleasing satisfaction to know, that to the favourable notice which Mr. Carrington's first publication received in our Journal, he considered himself materially indebted for the success it obtained; and the ingenuous gratitude with which he acknowledged as a favour what was an act of mere justice, evinced the modesty and sensibility of true genius. We shall do no injustice to his memory, by inserting the following warm effusion of his feelings. 'SIR, 'PLYMOUTH Dock, MAY 24, 1823. 'It was not until yesterday, that a friend informed me of the very favourable review of the Banks of Tamar in the Eclectic Review for May. The bookseller who used to supply me found the number for May missing in his parcel, and it was with some difficulty that to day I have succeeded in borrowing a number from Plymouth. Accept now, Sir, the overflowings of a grateful heart for your kind mention of my book-you have cheered the waning days of a life of uncommon toil and anxiety. That volume-the "Banks ", was composed under circumstances, such as I could NOT mention, and which would have appalled ninety-nine men out of a hundred. But you have amply repaid me for all. The Editor of the Telegraph Paper will, next week, copy the greater part of the Review of my Poem. The Editor of the Plymouth Magazine has also determined on the same course. The result of al this will be highly favourable to my interests: for notwithstanding the cheering reception which the Volume met from the local press, the sale has not extended beyond the Subscription. 'Once more, Sir, accept my most grateful acknowledgements. You are unknown, Sir, to me, but you have treated me with a gentlemanly kindness and a generosity which has made an impression never to be effaced. 'I am, Sir, Your much obliged and most obedient Servant, The EDITOR of the ECLECTIC REVIEW.' To receive-we do not say to deserve-such acknowledgements as these, are among a Reviewer's most rare and precious perquisites. The Georgian Era, is the title of a respectably executed series of short biographical notices, such as might well enough have gone towards the composition of a biographical dictionary. But in a work of that description, the Editor remarks, the memoirs ' of contemporaries, of fellow-countrymen, of associates in arms, in enterprise, or in policy, are, on account of the alphabetical arrangement, posited far apart; and the Compiler is therefore 'compelled to repeat at length the narrative of the public transactions in which they individually bore a share. In the present work, the lives are classified, by which means the necessity for repetition is in some degree avoided. All the lives have been rewritten; and every possible exertion, we are told, has been made to elucidate doubtful points, and to rectify the errors of preceding writers. So far as we have examined the articles, they sustain very fairly, with little exception, the Editor's fearless claim' to impartiality, and a laudable endeavour to secure accuracy. We cannot, however, say much in favour of the plan, the classification being far from unobjectionable in itself; and the selection is so defective as to require a clumsy appendix of minor articles. Nor can we approve of the insertion of living public characters it is alike unnecessary and unsatisfactory, invidious and offensive. What good reason can be assigned for inserting a memoir of Edward Irving in the main body of the work, and dismissing Dr. Chalmers to the end of the Appendix ? It is strange that the Editor's diligent inquiries should not have made him acquainted with the appointment of Dr. Chalmers to the Divinity Professorship in the University of Edinburgh. As a specimen of the articles, we take, almost at random, the concluding part of the memoir of the first Earl of Liverpool. The earl was a respectable politician, a neat speaker, an assiduous man of business, and an able expositor of international law; on which subject, he published several works. Of his last production, A Treatise on the Coins of the Realm, the Edinburgh Reviewers spoke in the following terms:-" It is pleasing to find one, who must necessarily have been bred among the exploded doctrines of the elder economists, shaking himself almost quite loose from their influence, at an advanced period of life; and betraying, while he resumes the fa |