public attention to the injudicious and too common mode of treatment, which can only pafs uncenfured, when it efcapes obfervation. On a subject so extensive and difficult, a complete work cannot be expected from the unaflifted efforts of any new inquir er: We are therefore inclined to make an indulgent allowance for the imperfect execution of many parts of Dr Pinel's Effay, and to entertain hopes of farther information from his diligence and difcernment.

ART. XVII. Delphine. By Madame de Stael-Holstein. London. Mawman. 6 vol. 12mo.

THIS "HIS dismal trash, which has nearly dislocated the jaws of every critic among us with gaping, has fo alarmed Bonaparte, that he has feized the whole impreffion, fent Madame de Stael out of Paris, and, for aught we know, fleeps in a nightcap of fteel, and dagger proof blankets. To us it appears rather an attack against the Ten Commandments, than the government of Bonaparte, and calculated not so much to enforce the rights of the Bourbons, as the benefits of adultery, murder, and a great number of other vices, which have been fomehow or other ftrangely neglected in this country, and too much fo (according to the apparent opinion of Madame de Stael) even in France.

It happens, however, fortunately enough, that her book is as dull as it could have been if her intentions had been good; for wit, dexterity, and the pleafant energies of the mind, feldom rank themselves on the fide of virtue and focial order; while vice is fpiritual, eloquent and alert, ever choice in expreflion, happy in allufion, and judicious in arrangement.

The story is fimply this.-Delphine, a rich young widow, prefents her coufin Matilda de Vernon with a confiderable eftate, in order to enable her to marry Leonce Mondeville. To this action fhe is excited by the arts and the intrigues of Madame de Vernon, an hackneyed Parifian lady, who hopes, by this marriage, to be able to discharge her numerous and prefling debts. Leonce, who, like all other heroes of novels, has fine limbs, and fine qualities, comes to Paris-diflikes Matilda-falls in love with Delphine, Delphine with him; and they are upon the eve of jilting poor Matilda, when, from fome falfe reports fpread abroad refpecting the character of Delphine (which are aggravated by her own imprudences, and by the artifices of Madame Vernon), Leonce, not in a fit of honefty, but of revenge, marries the lady whom he came to marry. Soon after, Madame de Vernon dies discovers the artifices by which she had prevented the union of Leonce and Delphine-and then, after this catastrophe, which ought to have terminated the novel, come two long volumes of

complaint

complaint and defpair. Delphine becomes a nun-runs away from the nunnery with Leonce, who is taken by fome French foldiers, upon the fuppofition that he has been ferving in the French emigrant army againft his country-is fhot, and upon his dead body falls Delphine as dead as he.

Making every allowance for reading this book in a tranflation, and in a very bad tranflation, we cannot but deem it a heavy performance. The incidents are vulgar; the characters vulgar too, except thofe of Delphine and Madame de Vernon. Madame de Stael has not the artifice to hide what is coming. In traveling through a flat country, or a flat book, we see our road before us for half the diftance we are going. There are no agreeable finuofities, and no fpeculation whether we are to afcend next, or defcend; what new fight we are to enjoy, or to which fide we are to bend. Leonce is robbed and half murdered; the apothecary of the place is certain he will not live: we were abfolutely certain that he would live, and could predict to an hour the time of his recovery. In the fame manner, we could have prophesied every event of the book a whole volume before its occurrence.

This novel is a perfect Alexandrian. The two last volumes are redundant, and drag their wounded length: It should certainly have terminated where the interest ceases, at the death of Madame de Vernon; but, instead of this, the scene-shifters come and pick up the dead bodies, wafh the ftage, fweep it, and do every thing which the timely fall of the curtain should have excluded from the fight, and left to the imagination of the audience. We humbly apprehend, that young gentlemen do not in general make their tutors the confidants of their paffion; at least we can find no rule of that kind laid down either by Mifs Hamilton or Mifs Edgeworth, in their treatifes on education. The tutor of Leonce is Mr Barton, a grave old gentleman, in a peruke and fnuff-coloured clothes. Instead of writing to this folemn perfonage about second caufes, the ten categories, and the eternal fitnefs of things, the young lover raves to him, for whole pages, about the white neck and auburn hair of his Delphine; and, thame to tell! the liquorish old pedagogue feems to think thefe amorous ebullitions the pleafanteft fort of writing in ufum Delphini that he has yet met with. By altering one word, and making only one falfe quantity *, we fhall change the rule of Horace to

Nec febris interfit nifi dignus vindicè nodus
Inciderit. '.

Delphine

Perhaps a fault, of all others, which the English are leaft difpofed to pardon. A young man who, on a public occafion, makes a falle quantity at the outfet of life, can feldom or never get over it.

Delphine and Leonce have eight very bad typhus fevers between them, befides hamoptoe, hemorrhage, deliquium animi, fingultus, byfteria, and faminei ululatus, or fcreams innumerable. Now, that there fhould be a reasonable allowance of ficknefs in every novel, we are willing to admit, and will cheerfully permit the heroine to be once given over, and at the point of death; but we cannot confent, that the intereft which ought to be excited by the feelings of the mind fhould be transferred to the sufferings of the body, and a crifis of perspiration be subjected for a crisis of paffion. Let us fee difficulties overcome, if our approbation is required; we cannot grant it to fuch cheap and fterile artifices as thefe.

--

The characters in this novel are all faid to be drawn from real life; and the perfons for whom they are intended are loudly whispered at Paris. Most of them we have forgotten; but Delphine is faid to be intended for the authorefs, and Madame de Vernon (by a flight sexual metamorphofis) for Talleyrand, minifter of the French republic for foreign affairs. As this lady (once the friend of the authorefs) may probably exercise a confiderable influence over the deftinies of this country, we fhall endeavour to make our readers a little better acquainted with her; but we must first remind them, that fhe was once a bishop, a higher dignity in the church than was ever attained by any of her fex fince the days of Pope Joan; and that though the fwindles Delphine out of her estate with a confiderable degree of addrefs, her dexterity fometimes fails her, as in the memorable inftance of the American commiffioners. Madame de Stacl gives the following defcription of this paftoral metropolitan female:

Though fhe is at leaft forty, fhe ftill appears charming even among the young and beautiful of her own fex. The palenefs of her complexion, the flight relaxation of her features, indicate the languor of indifpofition, and not the decay of years; the eafy negligence of her drefs accords with this impreffion. Every one concludes, that when her health is recovered, and the dreffes with more care, she must be completely beautiful this change, however, never happens, but it is always expected; and that is fufficient to make the imagination ftill add fome. thing more to the natural effect of her charms.' Vol. I. p. 41.

Nothing can be more execrable than the manner in which this book is tranflated. The bookfeller has employed one of our countrymen for that purpose, who appears to have been very lately caught. The contrast between the paffionate exclamations of Madame de Stael, and the barbarous vulgarities of poor Sawney, produces a mighty ludicrous effect. One of the heroes, a man

of

of high faftidious temper, exclaims, in a letter to Delphine, I cannot endure this Paris, I have met with ever so many people whom my foul abhors.' And the accomplished and enraptured Leonce terminates one of his letters thus: Adieu! adieu! my dearest Del phine. I will give you a call to-morrow.' We doubt if GrubStreet ever imported from Caledonia a more abominable tranfla

tor.

We admit the character of Madame de Vernon to be drawn with confiderable skill. There are occafional traits of eloquence and pathos in this novel, and very many of those observations upon manners and character, which are totally out of the reach of all who have not lived long in the world, and obferved it well.

The immorality of any book (in our estimation) is to be determined by the general impreffions it leaves on thofe minds, whose principles, not yet offified, are capable of affording a less powerful defence to its influence. The most dangerous effect that any fictitious character can produce, is when two or three of its popular vices are varnished over with every thing that is captivating and gracious in the exterior, and ennobled by affociation with splendid virtues: this apology will be more fure of its effect, if the faults are not against nature, but against fociety. The averfion to murder and cruelty could not perhaps be fo overcome; but a regard to the fanctity of marriage vows, to the facred and fenfitive delicacy of the female character, and to numberless reftrictions important to the well-being of our fpecies, may easily be relaxed by this fubtle and voluptuous confufion of good and evil. It is in vain to say the fable evinces, in the last act, that vice is productive of mifery. We may decorate a villain with graces and felicities for nine volumes, and hang him in the last page. This is not teaching virtue, but gilding the gallows, and railing up fplendid affociations in favour of being hanged. In fuch an union of the aimable and the vicious. (efpecially if the vices are fuch, to the commiflion of which there is no want of natural disposition), the vice will not degrade the man, but the man will ennoble the vice. We fhall with, to be him whom we admire, in fpite of his vices, and, if the novel be well written, even in confequence of his vices. There exifts, through the whole of this novel, a fhow of exquifite fenfibility to the evils which individuals fuffer by the inflexible rules of virtue prefcribe by fociety, and an eager difpofition to apologize for particular tranfgreffion. Such doctrine is not confined to Madame de Stael; an Arcadian cant is gaining fast upon Spartan

gravity;

gravity; and the happiness diffused, and the beautiful order established in fociety, by this unbending discipline, is wholly fwallowed up in compaflion for the unfortunate and interesting individual. Either the exceptions or the rule muft be given up: Every highwayman who thrufts his piftol into a chaife window, has met with unforeseen misfortunes; and every loose matron who flies into the arms of her Greville, was compelled to marry an old man whom she detefted, by an avaricious, and unfeeling fa ther. The paffions want not accelerating, but retarding machinery. This fatal and foolish fophiftry has power enough over every heart, not to need the aid of fine compofition, and wellcontrived incident-auxiliaries which Madame de Stael intended to bring forward in the cause, though she has fortunately not fucceeded.

M. de Serbellone is received as a guest into the house of M. d'Ervins, whofe wife he debauches as a recompense for his hofpitality. Is it poffible to be difgufted with ingratitude and injuftice, when united to fuch an affemblage of talents and vir tues as this man of paper poffeffes? Was there ever a more delightful fafcinating adulterefs than Madame d'Ervins is intended to be? or a povero cornuto lefs capable of exciting compaffion than her husband? The morality of all this is the old morality of Farquhar, Vanburgh, and Congreve,-that every witty man may tranfgrefs the feventh commandment, which was never meant for the protection of hufbands who labour under the incapacity of making repartees. In Matilda, religion is always as unamiable as diffimulation is graceful in Madame de Vernon, and imprudence generous in Delphine. This faid Delphine, with her fine auburn hair, and her beautiful blue or green eyes, (we forget which), cheats her coufin Matilda out of her lover, alienates the affections of her husband, and keeps a fort of affignation house for Serbellone and his chere amie, juftifying herfelf by the most touching complaints against the rigour of the world, and ufing the customary phrafes, union of fouls, married in the eye of heaven, &c. &c. &c. and fuch like diction, the types of which Mr Lane of the Minerva Prefs very prudently keeps ready composed, in order to facilitate the printing of the Adventures of Captain C and Mifs F, and other interesting stories, of which he the faid inimitable Mr Lane of the Minerva Press well knows these fentiments must make a part. Another perilous abfurdity which this useful production tends to cherish, is the common notion, that contempt of rule and order is a proof of greatness of mind. Delphine is everywhere a great fpirit ftruggling with the fhackles impofed upon her in com

mon