ART. IX. Anna St. Ives: a Novel. By Thomas Holcroft. 12mo. 7 Vols. 11. 15. fewed. Shepperfon and Reynolds. 1792. IMPROBABILITY on the one fide, and tritenefs on the other,

are the Scylla and Charybdis of novelifts. To fall into the latter, and to perifh in oblivion, is the certain fate of feeble minds, deftitute of that native vigour which is the parent of originality. To be borne away by the former is not unfrequently the misfortune of writers, whofe fancy is not fteadily kept under the direction of good fenfe and a correct tafte. It is easy to perceive which of these errors is most pardonable. A ftill current of ordinary incident and trivial fentiment can only lull the reader to repose, and bear away the writer to fome quiet recefs in the temple of Dullness: but the genius, which fometimes takes an extravagant flight, is capable of making delightful excurfions into the regions of fiction. To convict a writer of occafionally overftepping the bounds of nature, if it be a reflection on his judgment, is at the fame time a compliment to his talents. We may therefore be allowed, without fear of offending the very fenfible author of this novel, or its numerous admirers, to give it as our opinion concerning the principal character of his piece, that, though it may merit the praife of originality, it is liable to critical cenfure as a violation of probability.

Anna St. Ives, in her leading features, is a child of imagination, of which we may venture to affert that no archetype exifts in nature.-A young lady, with high and rigid notions of propriety, taking a young man, the fon of her father's gardener, as a kind of fentimental friend and favourite, on a journey to London and Paris;-giving fuch encouragement to his hopes as authorized him to say that, to the end of time he fhould perfift in thinking her his by right;'-declaring, that as the ought, she loves him infinitely;'-and, in the burst of paffion, fealing her love with a kifs, in which the purity of the will fanctified the extravagance of the act ;'-and notwithftanding all this, under the notion of controuling the paffions, and of living for the cause of virtue, relinquishing the connection which promifed entire felicity, and admitting the addresses of a young man of brilliant talents, of libertine principles and manners, the brother of her female friend, with the romantic defign of correcting his errors, and of restoring his mind to its true ftation;-inviting her philofophical friend, whom she has refused to marry, to affift her in executing her project ;—in unfufpecting fimplicity communicating her defign to her new lover, and catechifing him concerning his power and inclination to conform to her fyftem:-after promifing him marriage, laying open

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to him the whole ftory of her former attachment, not excepting even the circumftance of the kiss, as an inftructive leffon of morality;-entering into philofophical conferences with him concerning the progrefs of mind toward perfection, and the different order of things which must inevitably be the refult, till, at laft, fhe concedes, that, in a perfect ftate of fociety, no domestic appropriation can subsist; and, while the admires his candour and force of thinking, does not perceive that he has been laying a fnare for her ruin ;-and, without difcovering her danger, perfifting in this philofophical reverie to the inftant in which the hypocrite unmasks, and, on the principles which fhe has admitted, demands, as an act of justice, the rights of an husband :—all this is fo remote from every thing which we obferve in real life, that we must pronounce it highly improbable, if not wholly unnatural. In the romantic character of Anna St. Ives, there is, however, much to admire. As a fpecimen of her noble fentiments, we fhall copy the catechifm by which the examines Clifton, to difcover whether his mind be capable of an alliance with her opinions and fentiments:

You expect one kind of happiness, I another. Can they coalefce? You imagine you have a right to attend your appetites, and purfue your pleafures. I hope to fee my hufband forgetting himfelf, or rather placing felf-gratification in the pursuit of univerfal good, deaf to the calls of paffion, willing to encounter adverfity, reproof, nay death, the champion of truth, and the unrelenting enemy of error.

I think, Madam, I dare do all that can be required of me.

I know your courage is high. I know too that courage is one of the first and most effential qualities of mind. Yet perhaps I might and ought to doubt, nay to afk, whether you dare do many things?

What is it, Madam, that I dare not do?

Dare you receive a blow, or fuffer yourself falfely to be called liar, or coward, without feeking revenge, or what honour calls fatisfaction? Dare you think the fervant that cleans your shoes is your equal, unless not fo wife or good a man; and your fuperior, if wifer and better? Dare you fuppofe mind has no fex, and that woman is not by nature the inferior of man ?

• Madam

Nay, nay, no compliments; I will not be interrupted-Dare you think that riches, rank, and power, are ufurpations; and that wisdom and virtue only can claim diftin&tion? Dare you make it the business of your whole life to overturn these prejudices, and to promote among mankind that fpirit of univerfal benevolence which fhall render them all equals, all brothers, all ftripped of their artificial and falfe wants, all participating the labour requifite to produce the neceffaries of life, and all combining in one univerfal effort of mind, for the progrefs of knowledge, the destruction of error, and the fpreading of eternal truth?

• There

There is fuch energy, Madam, in all you fay, that while I listen to you, I dare do any thing, dare promife any thing.'

Though we cannot allow the character of the principal heroine of the piece to be drawn from nature, we readily admit moft of the other characters to be natural; and we think the author entitled to great praife for the diftinctnefs with which they are conceived, and for the fpirit and energy with which they are expreffed. Henley, the philofophical favourite of Anna, is a character of high merit and dignity; in which, noble principles, delicate fenfibility, commanding talents, invincible fortitude, and unbounded generofity, are happily combined. Clifton, the fubject of Anna's reforming plan,-though, in the latter part of the ftory, his character degenerates into the most abandoned depravity,-yet, at a more early period, difplays a brilliancy of fancy, and a gaiety of humour, which are highly amufing. Of this character, we shall give a fpecimen from a letter to his fifter Louifa, in which he fuppofes himself moulded after her romantic ideas:

I am obliged to lay down my pen with laughing at the idea of Mifs Louifa's brother, fuppofing him to be exactly of her modelling. I think I fee him appear before her; the feated in ftate, on a chair raised on four treffels and two old doors, like a ftrolling actress mimicking a queen in a barn! He dreffed in black, his hair fmugly curled; his face and his fhoes fhining; his white handkerchief in his right hand; a prayer book, or the morals of Epictetus in his left; not interlarding bis difcourfe with French and Italian phrafes, but ready with a good rumbling mouthful of old Greek, which he had compofed, I mean compiled, for the purpose! Then, having advanced one leg, wiped his mouth, put his left hand in his breeches pocket, clenched his right, and raifed his arm, he begins his learned differtation on well-digested principles, ardent defire of truth, inceffant fruggles to shake off prejudices, and forth are chanted, in nafal twang and tragic recitative, his emanations of foul, bursts of thought, and flashes of genius!

But you would not be fatirical. Gentle, modeft maiden! And furely it becomes the tutored brother to imitate this kind forbearance. My faculties were always lively? And I must pardon you, if you expect too much? Upon my foul, this is highly comic! Expect too much! And there is danger then that I should not equal your expectations?-Prithee, my good girl, jingle the keys of your harpfichord, and be quiet. Pore over your fine folio receipt book, and appease your thirst after knowledge. Satisfy your longing defire to do good, by making jellies, conferves, and caraway cakes. Pot pippins, brew rafpberry wine, and candy orange chips. Study burns, bruifes, and balfams. Diftil furfeit, colic, and wormwood water. Conco&t hiera-picra, rhubarb beer, and oil of charity; and fympathize over fprains, whitloes, and broken fhins. Get a charm to cure the ague, and render yourfelf renowned. Spin, few, and knit. Collect your lamentable rabble around you, dole out your REV. JUNE 1792. charities,

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charities, liften to a full chorus of bleffings, and take your feat among the faints.

You fee, child, I can give advice as well as yourself; aye and I will beftow it moft plentifully, if you happen to have any defire after more. I hate to be ungrateful; you fhall have no opportunity to utter your mufty maxim upon me-" That the fin of ingratitude is worfe than the fin of witchcraft." You fhall have weight for weight, measure for measure, chicken; aye, my market woman, and a lumping pennyworth. Brotherly for fifterly effufions!'

The inferior characters are well drawn: but we have too much of old Abimelech Henley's vulgar abfurdities.

In the midst of the bufinefs of the ftory, the author finds occafions of introducing moral fentiments and philofophical obfervations. Many fuch are interfperfed through the letters of Anna and Henley. From thofe of the former to Louisa, the following paffage may ferve as a fpecimen. Anna, regretting that he made a lefs rapid progrefs than fhe wished in her favourite project, indulges her romantic turn in the following reflection:

The march of knowledge is flow, impeded as it is by the almoft impenetrable forefts and moraffes of error. Ages have paffed away, in labours to bring fome of the moft fimple of moral truths to light, which fill remain overclouded and obfcure. How far is the world, at prefent, from being convinced that it is not only poffible, but perfectly practicable, and highly natural, for men to affociate with moft fraternal union, happiness, peace, and virtue, were but all diftinction of rank and riches wholly abolished; were all the falfe wants of luxury, which are the neceffary offspring of individual property, cut off; were all equally obliged to labour for the wants of nature, and for nothing more; and were they all afterward to unite, and to employ the remainder of their time, which would then be ample, in the promotion of art and science, and in the fearch of wisdom and truth!

The few arts that would then remain would be grand; not frivolous, not the efforts of cunning, not the proftitution of genius in diftrefs, to flatter the vanity of infolent wealth and power, or the depraved tafle of an ill-judging multitude; but energies of mind, uniting all the charms of fancy with all the fevere beauties of confiftent truth.

Is it not lamentable to be obliged to doubt whether there be a hundred people in all England, who, were they to read fuch a letter as this, would not immediately laugh at the abfurd reveries of the writer?-But let them look round, and deny, if they can, that the prefent wretched fyftem, of each providing for himself instead of the whole for the whole, does not infpire fufpicion, fear, difputes, quarrels, mutual contempt, and hatred. Instead of nations, or rather of the whole world, uniting to produce one great effect, the perfection and good of all, each family is itfelf a state; bound to the rest by intereft and cunning, but feparated by the very fame paffions, and a thousand others; living together under a kind of truce,

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truce, but continually ready to break out into open war; continually jealous of each other; continually on the defenfive, becaufe continually dreading an attack; ever ready to ufurp on the rights of others, and perpetually entangled in the most wretched contentions, concerning what all would neglect, if not defpife, did not the errors of this felfifh fyftem give value to what is in itself worthless.'

The incidents of this performance are, on the whole, well contrived, and arranged fo as to keep awake the reader's attention. The narrative, though long, is never tedious but, toward the clofe, the circumftances of diftrefs and horror are too minutely detailed. The catastrophe would have been more fatisfactory, if Clifton had fallen a facrifice to his vices; his foul plot against Henley and Anna fuppofed a depravity of heart, which left no room for repentance.

In fine, though we think this novel by no means free from defects, it has originality and excellencies which will not fail to enfure its fuccefs; and of thefe, in our opinion, the principal is, that each character has its appropriate fentiments and peculiar language, marked with that diverfity which genius alone can produce.

** Mrs. Gunning's Novel will appear in our next Review.

ART. X. Medical Facts and Obfervations. Volume the Firft. 8vo. pp. 224. 35. 6d. Boards. Johnson. 1791.

THIS work is introduced to the public by its editor, Dr. Simmons, in the following words:

The prefent collection of facts and obfervations is intended as a fequel to the London Medical journal. The indulgent manner in which that work was received by the public, and the numerous and valuable communications with which the editor was favoured by his correfpondents, induced him to perfevere in bringing it out, at ftated quarterly periods, much longer than well fuited his other avocations. But that mode of publication having at length been attended with great inconvenience, both to his profeffional engagements and to the deliberate management of the work, he became defirous of conducting his future labours in a way more convenient and fatisfactory to himself.

He was aware, that, by making fuch an alteration in the plan of the Journal as might enable him to continue it at his leifure, he fhould retain the advantages which an established work might be expected to have over a new undertaking; but the refpe&t he owed to his readers (many of whom might, perhaps, have confidered any farther change in the mode of publication as too great a deviation from his original plan) induced him rather to bring the London Medical Journal to a conclufion, and to begin a new Collection, the arrangement of which, fo far as fhould relate to the periods of publication, might be better adapted to his other avocations.

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