Изображения страниц
PDF
EPUB

fact is declared to be the purpose of his work. But he would appear in the sequel to have entirely overlooked this promised object, for there is not the shadow of a proof subsequently adduced to maintain his position.

Nor is it easy to conjecture upon what foundation his arrangement is really intended to be built. We can only conclude negatively which of the usual hypotheses on the subject he has discarded. It is clear that he does not believe in the influence of race or blood, since he observes (p. 367) that the study of the origins of the tribes and nations may at first sight appear capable of throwing light on the more permanent diversities of national character, but this is an erroneous supposition.' So also he must reject the influence of climate, since he would trace the existence of the same character in the Carthaginians and the Irish, in the Corinthians and the English, in the Egyptians and the Swiss, in the Hindoos and the Germans, in the Persians and the Scotch Lowlanders, in the Spartan and the Russian. Again, all these examples may show that he can attribute no influence to the modifications of government, political institutions, religion, or any of the endless differences in the state of civil communities. For what can be more opposite than the constitution of society among all the several pairs of nations here adduced as displaying precisely the same generic character? Neither, phrenologist though he be, has he even any where attempted to prove a similar developement of the organs of the skull in the people whose character he has chosen to identify.

Here then, at a single blow, the most unskilful reasoner, who should use the author's own weapons, might knock his system to atoms. If the physiology of human charater is dependent neither upon race-nor climate-nor civil and religious institutions-nor physical construction-nor upon any intelligible combination of these accidents, upon what then shall it depend? The author's classification has no better ground to stand upon than his own capricious and fantastical imagination, and it might seem almost a waste of words to refute it by elaborate argument.

If the author had taken for the groundwork of his plan the consideration of the varieties of the human species, and examined the dependence of human character upon race, variously modified by the conditions of civilization, his proceeding would at least have been consistent and intelligible. And he certainly need not have wanted some very grave reasons for adopting it. Take only the familiar example of the Gypsies and the Jews, and observe the marked peculiarities of character which separate these two people from all others. Spread over Europe and over the world, yet confined by their way of life, their choice, and the dislike of the nations among whom they dwell, to marriages in their own tribes, these two races have respectively preserved (and especially the latter) a distinctive character, moral as well as physical, which can never be

mistaken. Or bring the illustration within the circle of our own domestic lives; and can any man doubt, in his own kindred and in his several acquaintances, the existence of an hereditary and distinctive family character? This indeed is more or less strongly marked in individuals: it is modified and influenced by education, profession, and vicissitudes of fortune, and partially smothered and distorted by a thousand accidents of life; yet it almost always betrays itself in some common feature of mind, as in some general resemblance of countenance.

But our author does not appear to have at all considered his subject in this relation to race; nor does his book even display the slightest acquaintance with previous researches into this part of its philosophy. Thus, for example, he would seem to know nothing of the very plausible attempt of Blumenbach, which almost all later physiologists have adopted, to distribute mankind into five great varieties of the species:-the Caucasian, Mongolian, Ethiopian, American, and Malay. Nor has he in general laid any stress upon the more recent and certain derivation of various nations from a common stock; and where he has (in direct contradiction to his theory at p. 367, already quoted) partially attempted to trace the influence of this descent, his success has been so indifferent as merely to betray his ignorance, and to leave us no room for regret that the inquiry has been spared from his farther interference.

The great error of this author has been that he would create a system at all hazards; and having once resolved on the work, he has striven, probably without being conscious of it, to bend and distort every material to furnish its proportions. Hence, like all system-mongers, and especially in speculative questions, he has run into a thousand absolute contradictions and absurd mistakes; and accordingly he has produced only a ponderous tome of error, where he might have amused the world by a lively and really curious inquiry into the causes of the varieties in national character.

Our notions of what such a little essay should offer, will be explained in a very few words. We have expressed our doubt whether the rational investigation of the subject would ever lead to universal and systematic conclusions; it might, however, be an object to collect as many facts as possible, to arrange, and to class them. But then, whatever could be effected with certainty, must be accomplished by induction alone. Why is this a truth which such speculators as the writer before us can never be made to comprehend? By induction, if by any method, we shall safely convert facts into conclusions; and where, in speculative questions, this system of philosophizing fails us, we may be assured that we are groping in the dark.

If we designed an inquiry into the physiology of human cha racter, we should commence by examining the influence of race, and should be contented with ascending to a period far less remote than that which is implied in the primary classification of Blu

menbach, in order that we might in the same proportion receive more certain assistance from history. We should also desire to apply our investigation to a much greater variety of races than he has enumerated, by taking the subdivisions at later periods of their branching off from the original stock: for we are convinced that the modifications of national character are far greater than five, or even twelve. Having studied the division of races, and endea voured to classify them under their modern aspects, we should next apply ourselves to discover the similar and opposite effects which climate, mixture with other races, institutions, and various accidents of position, moral and geographical, have had upon each. Where these effects should be found generally to coincide, the result would be highly interesting, and bring us near to determine some of the laws by which the formation of national character is regulated. For, that national character does exist as a distinction of one set of men from another, we suppose no person will doubt; and that the laws of the moral world are no more guided by capricious accident, than the operations of nature, will equally be admitted for undeniable truth.

Such comparisons as we have proposed with relation to race, descent, climate, position, historical fortune, and present condition in various nations, would offer a fund of most interesting study; it would demand the exertion of much historical research, and the application of reflection and judgment; and, even if it should fail to establish conclusions as positive as might be desirable on the causes of diversity in national character, the investigation would still equally be pregnant with instruction and interest to the general student, the moralist, and the statesman.

ART. VI. Gaston de Blondeville; or, The Court of Henry III. keeping Festival in Ardenne; a Romance. St. Alban's Abbey, a Metrical Tale; with some Poetical Pieces. By Anne Radcliffe. To which is prefixed a Memoir of the Author, with extracts from her Journals, 4 Vols., 8vo. 17. 188. London. Colburn. 1826.

It seems now to be pretty generally admitted that authors, who in their life-time attracted more than an ordinary share of admiration, should be considered as licensed to accumulate their inferior productions for the purposes of posthumous fame. Friends may thus soothe the poignancy of grief, and gratify the ardour of affection, by preserving those gleanings of the mental harvest, and by presenting them to the world, accompanied by highly-coloured panegyrics upon departed genius. The public are expected to lend, at least, an indulgent attention to the accents of a voice which is not likely to be heard again, and speaks to us, as it were, from the grave; and the critic is rebuked if, in the exercise of his severer office, he forgets what is due to private feeling, and judges of the

literary bequests of the dead, by the same standard which he would apply to the works of the living.

We must, nevertheless, take the liberty to say, that if the au thenticity of the posthumous writings now before us had not been placed beyond all doubt, we should have hesitated to believe that they had proceeded from the author of "The Mysteries of Udolpho." They consist of some extracts from her journals, of a romance which occupies a volume and a half, and a metrical tale, together with a multitude of minor poems, which fill up nearly two volumes; and though we do not deny that amongst these various compositions some traces may be discovered of that imagination, which wrought such wondrous charms amid the Pyrennees and Appenines, yet we fearlessly pronounce them, on the whole, as unworthy of the source from which they sprung, and rather an injury than a monument to the memory of Mrs. Radcliffe.

"

The memoir of her life and writings, which was written, we understand, by a barrister of great promise in his profession, is the most valuable portion of the publication. It briefly sums up the incidents of her quiet, happy, and secluded life; and, like all such pieces of biography, is framed in a strain of unvarying eulogy. Mr. Radcliffe provided the materials, and, from motives of delicacy, which are perfectly excusable, he, of course, exhibited only those general traits which might lead posterity to form the most favourable opinion of her character. In all the great essentials of life we believe it to be spotless, Mrs. Radcliffe appears to have been an attentive wife, a strict economist in her household affairs, and contented with those refined enjoyments of the mind which rendered her independent of society. Not having been blessed with a family she wanted those natural impulses which open the heart of a parent, and connect her, through her offspring, with the living interests of the community at large. Some of her peculiarities are very slightly glanced at. But it is not difficult to see that after she won the proud steeps of fame, it became her principal study to preserve herself from the most remote admission of rivalship. We are told that she disdained to be looked upon even as a successful author, but we are also told that unsolicited and genuine praise of her writings afforded her pleasure to her latest hour. There is no mode of reconciling these inconsistencies, unless we suppose that Mrs. Radcliffe exacted a greater degree of homage than she could expect to find in the every-day intercourse of the world, and that she found it only in fame which reached her from a distance. She wrapped herself up in that mystery of authorship which, in her early days, was much more feared and respected than in these intelligent and bustling times, when the most accomplished minds find no inconvenience in mingling the enjoyments of the world with those of literature, and the most sincere simplicity and benevolence of character with talents of the highest order.

There is one part of Mrs. Radcliffe's life upon which we should

have abstained from offering a single remark, if a passage in the memoir had not made it incumbent on us to say a word or two in our own vindication. In a former number of this journal,* after pointing out an error as to a date in Sir Walter Scott's memoir of that lady, we stated, from authority upon which we had every reason to rely, that "she died in a state of mental desolation not to be described." It was no part of our object to wound the feelings of any of her surviving friends, particularly not of Mr. Radcliffe, for whom we entertain great respect. But the fact formed a part of the literary history of the country, and, if our information were correct, we saw no reason why it should be suppressed. Not content, however, with denying its truth, Mr. Radcliffe, or some person by his authority, charged us, in the public prints, with impropriety in making such a statement, and that charge is repeated in a document drawn up and signed by Dr. Scudamore, and inserted in the memoir now before us. That we may not be accused of garbling it we shall here present the whole of that document to the reader.

"Mrs. Radcliffe had been for several years subject to severe catarrhal coughs, and also was occasionally afflicted with asthma.

"In March, 1822, she was ill with inflammation of the lungs, and for a considerable time remained much indisposed. With the summer season and change of air, she regained a tolerable state of health.

"In the early part of January, 1823, in consequence of exposure to cold, she was again attacked with inflammation of the lungs, and much more severely than before. Active treatment was immediately adopted, but without the desired relief; and the symptoms soon assumed a most dangerous character. At the end of three weeks, however, and contrary to all expectation, the inflammation of the lungs was overcome; and the amendment was so decided, as to present a slight prospect of recovery.

"Alas! our hopes were soon disappointed. Suddenly, in the very moment of seeming calm from the previous violence of disease, a new inflammation seized the membranes of the brain. The enfeebled frame could not resist this fresh assault: so rapid in their course were the violent symptoms, that medical treatment proved wholly unavailing.

"In the space of three days death closed the melancholy scene.

"In this manner, at the age of fifty-nine, society was deprived of a most amiable and valuable member, and literature one of its brightest ornaments.

"The foregoing statement will, I hope, afford all the explanation, which can be required, of the nature of Mrs. Radcliffe's illness. During the whole continuance of the inflammation of the lungs, the mind was per fect in its reasoning powers, and became disturbed only on the last two or three days, as a natural consequence of the inflammation affecting the membranes of the brain.

Previously to the last illness, and at all times, Mrs. Radcliffe enjoyed a remarkably cheerful state of mind; and no one was farther removed

* Page 269, vol. cviii., former series.

« ПредыдущаяПродолжить »