ART. XXXII-The Public and Private Life of the Ancient Greeks. BY HEINRICH HASE, Ph. D. Translated from the German. London: Murray.

1836.

THERE is no work in the English language, and we venture to say nor in any other, which at all comes up or near to the one before us, as a compendious introduction on the subject of Grecian Antiquities. To juvenile, and also to general readers, it will be a book of no ordinary value and attractions; for its accuracy and the interesting character of its details are equally remarkable. The Germans, as is well known, are the most indefatigable and successful of all modern investigators of ancient literature, and this work draws largely from their voluminous discoveries in the various departments into which the life, the civil institutions, and the national peculiarities of the most refined people in ancient times naturally divide themselves. In short, it embodies the riches, in an engaging form and style, of voluminous productions by the Germans, but which are also generally of a character repulsive to all but the erudite and the most studious. Besides the scholar-like accuracy of this performance, its contents, we have said, are singularly curious and interesting. The human mind loves to penetrate into the every-day life of a great man, and reverts to it with far more sympathy than to his public deeds, which may blazon the page of history. Not less earnestly do we regard the manners and life of an ancient community or nation such as the Greeks, whose renown is not only imperishable, but constantly enlarging, or at least becoming more sublimated-a nation whose genius has transfused its mellowing and elevating spirit among every civilized people of later times.

We can best, in a short space, recommend the present work, by resorting to itself for a specimen; and the page at which we open affords an instance of another way in which such a publication may be appreciated, viz. by showing to the Christian reader the extraordinary inferiority of the refined Greeks, to those who enjoy the effulgency of the Gospel. The extract runs thus:-"The female citizens of Athens were reared in such rigid restraints of traditional usage, that their resigned submission to these antiquated forms is matter of no surprise. They grew up, guarded by bolts and bars, in a seclusion almost equal to that of an eastern harem. The house door was the threshold of the forbidden world to an honourable matron; and, to the maidens, it was fastened by a lock or seal which was loosened with the greatest solemnity on days of high festival, when they walked in procession with decorous step and downcast eyes. In this retreat they were kept that they might not see, or hear, or ask, things unbecoming for them to know. Their youth was passed in the occupations of spinning and weaving, management of the female slaves, and the baking of bread.

"Nor did these privations of their early years receive the smallest compensation in after life, from the pleasures of freedom and social intercourse. The early marriage into which they were often forced, was generally dictated by family considerations or pecuniary interests; frequently, as in the case of heiresses, by legal obligation. In a connexion in which speaking in company was esteemed a sort of indecorum; in which, to be absolutely unobserved was, according to Thucydides, the highest of all mèrits, and unconditional submission to the will or the caprice of their husbands, the first duty of woman, the decent virtues of a housewife, must neces

sarily have been the only ones which could be regarded with respect. Where, under such circumstances, any one of those talents that cheer and embellish existence, unfolded itself, it must have been the irrepressible offspring of nature, not the foster-child of education. We should, therefore, seek in vain among the matrons of Athens for poetesses, and women celebrated for intellectual endowments, like the female disciples of Pythagora. The same remark, indeed, applies generally to the states of Ionic extraction, so long as the ancient domestic constitution of society subsisted. The Athenian women seem to have wanted even the first elements of intellectual culture-reading and writing. Yet in spite of all restraints, internal and external, to which they were subject, they possessed the same exclusive and absolute power over the early training of the stronger and rougher sex, which, in Sparta, was delegated to Laconian mothers.

"If it be asked, what were the advantages enjoyed by Athenian women as a compensation for such oppressive restraints? we can find no other than the inviolate respect paid to personal dignity, the civil rights, and the religious festivals of women."

ART. XXXIII.-Adventures in the North of Europe, Illustrative of the Poetry and Philosophy of Travel. By E. W. LANDER, Esq. Šaunders and Otley.

In these elegant and unpretending volumes there is a great deal of useful as well as amusing reading. There is not a little of originality also, in the plan of the work; at the same time, the field trodden is in a great measure new. Stockholm, Copenhagen, Bergen, and the surrounding countries are rarely visited by tourists. Mr. Lander has here, however, laid much of them open to us, calling up the riches of his poetic muse, to record and illustrate the majestic scenery which his eye scanned in the course of his pedestrian travel, and making the condition of the people whom he encountered in his erratic, but various, and sometimes affecting experience, the theme of sound reflections as to the relative advantages of different habits and institutions that exist in different countries. Together with the outpourings of a refined poetic fancy, and a number of sagacious, yet engaging lessons in philosophy, these volumes come in a guise which confers upon them the attractions of a chaste fiction; for the author, to lend pathos to the spirit of his information, supposes the traveller to be a clergyman, who takes this method of obtaining relief to a heart sorely crushed by domestic affliction. Few volumes, indeed, have lately passed through our hands, which we can so heartily recommend as the two before us.

ABT. XXXIV.-The Gossip's Week. By the Author of "Slight Reminiscences.' With Wood-cuts, from Original Designs. 2 vols. London: Longman & Co. 1836.

THESE Tales, which occupy eight talking days, are of a superior order.. They no doubt picture to us scenes and feelings that are never con-secutively realized by any individuals, or society of individuals. Still they are calculated to exert a refining influence, and to impress valuable ideas upon the mind. The Tales are, in truth, not merely the offspring of an elegant fancy, but there is a breathing of soul in them, and a picVOL. II. (1836) no. iv.

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turesque colouring thrown over them, which satisfy the reader that they contain unaffected copies of an original mode of reflection, and grouping of things together. Whoever reads the work once, will, with an increasing delight, resort to it many times afterwards. The wood-cuts are beautiful, some of them extremely so.

ART. XXXV.-Evils of the State of Ireland-their Causes; and their Remedy-A Poor Law. By JOHN REVANS. London: Hatchard. 1836. MR. REVANS has held the office of Secretary to the Poor Law Inquiry for England and Wales, which led to the Amendment Act, in 1834; and subsequently that of Secretary to the Poor Inquiry Commission in Ireland. He has therefore had perhaps unexampled opportunities of forming a just opinion upon the comparative evils or advantages of Poor Laws for the latter country. We cannot, however, agree with him in thinking that their introduction into Ireland, though the measure may be necessary for the immediate relief of the people, is to to be regarded as a permanent and sovereign remedy. At best, Poor Laws are but a necessary evil; and, exposed as they are to mal-administration, they not unfrequently have aggravated that which they were intended to cure. The author's parallels and conclusions drawn from other countries, appear to us not unfrequently to be illogical or inapplicable. Have Poor Laws been of such benefit to England as Mr. Revans asserts, when he says, "that with them the English people have become the most comfortable in Europe?" May it not be said, that the prosperity of this country has grown up in spite of Poor Laws, rather than in harmony with them? This publication, nevertheless, merits the most serious consideration. Like other reports and publications resulting from the Poor Inquiry Commission in Ireland, it discloses the most appalling and sickening pictures of destitution. Imagination falls far short of the reality.

ART. XXXVI.-Literary Remains of the late William Hazlitt; with a Notice of his Life. By his Son. 2 vols. London: Saunders & Otley. THESE Volumes consist of metaphysical, political, and literary essays, some of which are old acquaintances, and others which might otherwise have perished, had they been allowed to lie concealed in the pages of such ephemeral publications as periodicals must necessarily be. Besides a biographical notice of Hazlitt, by his Son, which is highly creditable to the writer's taste, as well as to his modesty, there are "some thoughts on the genius of William Hazlitt, by the author of Eugene Aram;" and "Thoughts by Serjeant Talfourd." A few interesting letters, and a fine head, indicating the peculiar temperament of the man, enrich the publication.

The character, genius, and literary Remains of Hazlitt, merited the pains that have been bestowed upon this work. He has never yet been properly appreciated or understood. Neither can we say, that the sketch of his Life, presented by his son, will supply the void. It is more than probable that the most ingenious and laboured biography would have failed in tracing and analysing the subtle labyrinths of his irritable and phantastic mind. If so, an unambitious outline of the prominent events in the history of such a person, and a judicious selection from his writings, seem to be the best portrait that could be furnished of him; and this is what is done in these volumes.

INDEX

TO THE

SECOND VOLUME OF THE MONTHLY REVIEW, FOR 1836.

Animal economy, waste and repair of the, Bans, number of, proclaimed in one church
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