the success of which, in nearly approaching some of the excellencies of Miss Edgeworth, is by no means its only claim to esteem. The present volume is, properly speaking, a third address to the young on the principle of Self-cultivation, as formerly urged in one of the works above mentioned, and afterwards detailed, and amplified in the Advice to the Teens. It seems naturally enough to follow these two essays, by carrying out the observations contained in them to the delineation of character-that peculiar result, which, as is justly observed, "is of more value than luck, fortune, or even talent;" and it is marked with all that affectionate earnestness, and urgent though tender solicitude, which rendered those productions so engagingly and so impressively edifying. We confidently anticipate the concurrence of the reader in our favourable opinion, after he has perused a specimen of the work. The following passage is taken from Chapter II-"On acting upon principle."

"To set the importance of acting on fixed principles in a clearer light, let us glance at the careless and the steady; and see what is the probable consequence of plan and of no plan.

"If a youth acts under the giddiness and ignorance which youth imphies, without any care, or rule, or distinct object, his acting will be desultory. Now he will prefer this; now, like the butterfly, flit to that; attracted by something gayer, or promising speedier enjoyment. His aim may awhile be for honourable station, and he labours accordingly; then he fancies all is chance, and he will do as he can. He sees some persons have what he calls good luck; he thinks it in vain to try at any thing, especially if it appears to have difficulties in it, when perhaps, after all, he may never obtain it. Should he by constraint, or choice, be constant to his object, he will in all probability be fickle in the means he adopts to secure it. If the best means are not discerned, (and they will not, if not sought after,) there will be an oscillation of mind from some to others; a perpetual changing of measures; giving up perhaps such as really bid fairest for success, and adopting in their room modes which consideration would have reprobated. Time and opportunity are lost in such changing; and their loss will impel to the adopting of something which shall promise a shorter process, and quicker success; plunging again into disappointment. Nothing defeats even an estimable purpose, more than continually changing the means of carrying it into effect. The desultory seldom continue any one track long enough to catch their prey; and the feeling of not having yet succeeded, operates in such characters to make them again alter their mode, as chance, or fickleness, or fancied certainty, may direct. Well, if all exertions do not in a short time totally fail. The continuance of them would imply more firmness than can be supposed in the desultory character we are surveying. Soon fatigued, where the object is not specific, or where the means are as yet undiscovered; no wonder if it seem wise to a fool to abandon his enterprise, if he say it is all in vain. I shall never succeed,' is often the parent of failure. I will not try any more,' ensures disappointment. chance, and I am not in luck,' most commonly leads to disgrace. "Some principle to guide, would have avoided all this; but without a compass, it is not to be expected that any true course should be kept, or the rocks and quicksands cleared. Nothing but shipwreck can be anticipated. "Those exertions which are desultory in their nature, must be very un

It is all

certain in their effects. He who only guesses, will seldom guess right. He may even come comparatively near his object, but for want of some certain principle, may not discern how near he is; and may continue still as completely destitute, as if he were ever so far away. To know, is to be certain so far, even if our progress is small: but ignorance occasions uncertainty, even in the best situation. He who has no specific principle may happen to succeed in life; but his movements will be irregular, and that very circumstance will tend to defeat him.

Nothing perfect or exquisite can be hoped for in such a case. He who produces something good by mere knack, or happy hit, would have produced something much better had he perfectly understood what he was doing. Character which rises to mediocrity, might have attained to excellence. The blemishes which attach, might have been avoided with care or foresight: More substantial worth of sentiment, greater steadiness of conduct, a finer polish on the manners, would have been the result, had principle guided. One accidental blemish may leave a stain through life. One fit of carelessness may occasion a folly, which years of better conduct can scarcely efface. The sad recollection of such giddy or ignorant mistakes will embitter succeeding years; perhaps hinder from standing forward, where talent might have appeared to advantage, and where opportunity called. It may spread the mistiness of imperfection, in spite of every attempt or future polish."

There is great encouragement to virtuous exertion in the reflections contained in the Third Chapter-" On the importance of character." Take an example.

"Whatever may be the deficiencies under which we struggle, few of them but are in the power of character to obviate. The man of integrity need not relinquish any pursuit in despair, nor idly stand wishing for advantages which others possess. Let but his name be well connected with truth, and steadiness, principle, and upright conduct; he will find advantages coming unsought, and opportunities courting his attention. By no other method can he so certainly, perhaps so speedily, obtain the necessary end. By no way whatever can the advantages he attains be so permanently kept. Money, introduction, patronage, friendship; all refused to the unprincipled adventurer, all withheld from the unknown, or unstable; will be yielded as character becomes established; as years, and trials, and wellconducted exertions, evince that confidence may be safely placed, that promises may be relied on, that activities are sure, and that success may by such means be rendered highly probable.”

The last passage which we shall quote is from the concluding Chapter, viz. the VIII." On the influence of religion on character." It is a little quainter than Mr. Taylor's usual style, and, we must acknowledge, wants some polish to bring it up to the modern rate of composition; but whatever be its defects on the ground of taste, it has a powerful recommendation in the truth which it inculcates.

“The single word eternity communicates a grandeur to all the feelings, hopes, and joys of a religious man. Little expectations, little fears, generate low and little actions. But these diminutives have no place with him all whose calculations of profit and loss are made on an infinite scale. The mind of the most ambitious enlarges here. No need to weep like Alexander, because there are no more worlds to conquer; here the Christian soldier has full scope; and, while he fights for an immortal crown, he may

smile with pity on earthly conquerors. The merchant who deals in an extended manner, interchanging the commodities of distant nations, may despise the paitry trader of a retired village; but himself must bow before the humblest Christian; for his transactions are all beyond calculation valuable; his daily correspondence is with the world beyond the grave; his treasures are laid up where no thief can break through; his fortune is beyond arithmetic to estimate, and his remittances, full and satisfactory, secure him from want, and make him rich indeed. Such transactions, and such enjoyments, and such well-founded and large expectations, give a tone to a saint's feelings, and, exalting every principle of action, ennoble his character in a manner splendid and enduring."

ART. IV.—1. A complete Course of Lithography, containing clear and explicit Instructions in all the different Branches and Manners of that Art, accompanied by illustrative Specimens of Drawings; to which is prefixed, a History of Lithography from its origin to the present time. By ALOIS SENEFELDER. Translated from the German. 4to. Pp. 342. London, R. Ackermann. 1819.

2. A Manual of Lithography, or Memoir on the Lithographic Experiments made in Paris at the Royal School of Roads and Bridges. Translated from the French, by C. HULLMANDEL. 8vo. Pp. 138. London, Rodwell and Martin. 1820.

THE

HE art of engraving is far from affording the painter and the designer those facilities for the diffusion of their works which that of printing offers to the author, and the reason is sufficiently obvious. The language of writing can be copied and diffused with the utmost ease, while that of painting, depending for its effect on the nicest distinctions of figure and magnitude, is incapable of being extended by any process so purely mechanical. But this extreme facility on the one hand, and striking difficulty on the other, in the copying of these languages, must also occur in the process of printing, which is, in fact, but an expeditious method of copying. Hence the astonishing effects of printing when it was first applied to the diffusion of writings. Its application was here so easy and simple, that the art rose as if spontaneously to perfection; and the idea was scarcely almost suggested, when the whole of Europe felt the influence of the press. Block or type printing, however, was still too rude an invention for disseminating in the same manner the works of design. Even the nicer process of engraving, which was contrived about same time, and by successive improvements has now reached perhaps its utmost perfection, is still far from being so powerful or perfect an instrument for the purpose as could be wish

the

ed. Slow, tedious, and elaborate in its operations, it is above all defective in principle, as the impressions which it produces are all thrown off from what is at best but a copy of the original, worked too with infinite difficulty into the copper, and taken altogether under manifest disadvantages. This capital defect, inherent apparently in the original frame of the language of painting itself, seemed to admit of no remedy, when, about the close of the last century, Alois Senefelder conceived the happy idea of taking impressions of drawings, not from any engraved copy, but from the original design of the artist himself, and even from the very traces of his own pencil, executed on or transferred to a peculiar kind of stone. Such, then, is the art of Lithography, which thus opens a new and unbounded field to the painter, and, being founded on a superior principle, promises, if prosecuted with success, to diffuse the works of the pencil to an extent, and with a facility and perfection of which engraving is incapable. But this new art applies also with advantage to most of the other purposes of printing; and the process being of a nature intermediate between that of type-printing and engraving, combines in some measure the advantages of both. From the extreme facility of its operations, it possesses a decided superiority over engraving for most of the purposes for which the latter is at present employed, and promises to extend its uses to others, which, engraving, from its comparative expense, has not hitherto been able to reach, while it is fitted to supply, in many cases, the place of printing with advantage. For these different objects, indeed, it is already in extensive practice in various parts of the Continent; and although it may have hitherto produced nothing perhaps to be compared with fine line engraving in point of beauty and delicacy, yet the art being still but in its infancy, and resting on a principle never before brought into action, it is impossible at present to foresee how far the idea may be carried by subsequent improvements. Whether, therefore, we consider its extensive application to the purposes of common life, and to the general diffusion of knowledge; or above all, its singular power of impressing the stamp of originality on all its productions, the art of lithography is undoubtedly one of the finest and most curious, as it is likely to become one of the most important of inventions.

Though this art has been practised for twenty years in Germany, it is still but little known in this country, and as the process requires greater nicety and skill than that of ordinary printing or engraving, its progress in general has been much retarded for want of any work to detail with clearness its various operations. The principle indeed, like that of

pos

most other arts, is extremely simple and sufficiently understood, but the practice presents innumerable difficulties, and it is only after years of application and experience, and the most discouraging and repeated failures, that the beginner is at last enabled to surmount the obstacles with which his progress is beset. The above publications, however, from which we have drawn most of our information on the subject, will serve in a great measure to supply this defect. The first sesses no ordinary claims to the attention of the lithographer, being written by Senefelder himself, who is not only the undisputed inventor of this art, but has succeeded, by his ardour and ́unremitting application to its improvement, to which he devoted the greater part of his life, in carrying it to a high degree of perfection. It contains a vast mass of details on every part of lithography; and although the statements are occasionally obscure, and the descriptions perhaps too prolix, the work is on the whole well executed, and exhibits evidently the marks of no common talents and cultivation of mind." In the first part Senefelder has given an interesting account of the various steps by which he arrived at the discovery, and of the difficulties and embarrassing circumstances under which he laboured for a number of years in the establishment and promotion of his new art, all narrated with openness, and in a style of ease and simplicity that gives interest even to the minutest details. In the second part he discusses at length, and with great clearness, precision, and knowledge of his subject, all the various operations of the art, and the different modes of applying it. To those who have already made some progress in lithography this work must, on the whole, prove a valuable compendium. To the mere beginner, however, the Manual of Lithography, which also, so far as it goes, possesses very considerable merit, will perhaps be found more appropriate. The author was entrusted with the management of the lithographic press of the Royal School of the Roads and Bridges at Paris, and the present memoir exhibits the results of numerous experiments made at that establishment. It contains in small compass such directions as are sufficient to obtain success in the methods of lithography most generally in use, and by attending to which the author, according to his own statement, has produced specimens equal to any that have yet appeared. It is written with great neatness and perspicuity; and to the results of experience and observation the author has happily applied the light of principle to guide the lithographer in his nice and critical operations. "I was at first," says he in his introduction, " completely in the dark. M. Berigny received from a learned German several