[In the excerpt below, the critic comments on Piozzi's Retrospection, finding fault with her grammar and her lack of a "regular series of dates. "]

Cicero somewhere observes—Historia quoque modo scripta delectat, " "History, in whatever manner it is written, gives delight." And this sentiment Mrs. Piozzi has adopted to the most extensive latitude, in the amusing medley she has compiled, chiefly, as she professes, "for the benefit of young beginners." For we defy the most learned Critic to decide, to what class of literature this pretty piece of female patch-work belongs.

The title, however, is admirably suited both to the portrait and to the performance, as they look backward to things that once had an existence, but of which scarce a shadow of resemblance now remains. The portrait is not what was once the gay, the sprightly, the admired Mrs. Thrale, nor yet the maturer features of Signora Piozzi, as they were viewed by the writer at Bath in the year 1787; to be sure, some allowance must be made for thirteen years of health-impairing lucubrations; for the wide range she has taken through the fields of ancient and modern literature, in order to cull the sweets from its various flowers, to fill the present hive of industry, could not have been executed, by day-light alone, within that space. Yet, after every allowance for the depredations of time, we cannot discover in the plate before us the likeness of anything, but of a cunning looking woman, with enormous large eyes and nose, wrapt up in a non descript¹ dress.

The work itself is subject to the same animadversion—facts half related, and in many instances left so unfinished, that they cannot possibly afford either information or instruction to young readers—anecdotes breaking off the thread of history, intruded without order or connexion; interlarded with scraps of poetry, the very accusation she brings against other compilers—"History," says she, "is voluminous; and fashionable extracts are so perpetually separated from each other by verses, or by essays, that they leave little trace of information upon the mind: a natural consequence and manifest disadvantage attendant upon all selections, where no one thing having any reference to another thing, each loses much of its effect by standing completely insulated from all the rest." Preface, page vii. Such is the character given by this Lady of some of her contemporary writers: and they, in their turn perhaps, having travelled through her compilation, "stretched to two quarto volumes"—we use her own words—will retort, that, like a careful housewife, who keeps by her strings of dried orange and lemon peels, to give a zest to her culinary compositions, so has she hoarded up shreds of poetry, to entwine with the annals of the Roman Emperors, and the religious contests of the early Christians. Take for instance the following passages in the narrative of the transactions of Constantine the Great:

"Under Imperial protection now rose up, on every side, majestic edifices, that vied in all exterior ornament with pagan temples, dedicated to tutelary saints beside, as they were to subordinate divinities. Saints who had sung their hymns in hollow catacombs, or, wandering houseless among barbarous nations, had disseminated with diligence that faith they were prepared to die for, propagating the most dangerous of all truths from the most disinterested of all motives. Among these Kebius, son to a Duke of Cornwall, and pupil to Hilary, Bishop of Poictiers, is thought to have given the name of Hilary Point to a protuberance of rock near Holyhead, in Anglesea, still called Caergybi by the Welch inhabitants, meaning the camp, or castle, or residence, of Kebius. These taught a strenuous rejection of Arianism in the North, spite of all courtly terrors—but other snares from that hour compassed Christianity around, and the Seducer took another method:

"For Satan now is wiser than of yore, And tempts by making rich, not making poor."

We leave the reader to judge if these lines are relevant in any respect to the preceding subject; and we can assure him, they bear no affinity to any thing that follows—for in the space of half a page more, she jumps into a discussion upon the asbestos or linum vivum said to have been Jesus's swaddling bands; and displays the most profound erudition upon this, as upon all other occasions, by quoting the authors of various nations and languages, with whose names (and works no doubt) she is familiarly acquainted. In a word, female vanity never set itself forth more conspicuously, nor more absurdly, than in the assumption of universal knowledge which runs through the whole compilation.

We have two remaining defects to point out, before we attempt to balance the account by stating its merits more amply. The first is, a desertion of the elements of English grammar, the more unpardonable, as she may thereby mislead the young people she intends to inform and instruct; it cannot be from her caro sposo that she has learnt this eccentric affectation, for the Italian language will not allow the omission of a single article prefixed to their nouns—No, the learned Lady is so attached to the Latin tongue as to introduce fragments of Latin sentences in every part of her Retrospection; and as the cases of Latin nouns are distinguished by their terminations instead of articles, she has thought proper to omit the definite and indefinite articles the and a in various English sentences in the body of her work, yet, in the table of contents, she preserves them: we confess ourselves unable to account for this innovation, on any rational ground, more especially as she was the pupil of that accurate grammarian and critic, the late Dr. Samuel Johnson. In justification of our censure, we quote a few of the many passages in question.

"It was he who threw the beautiful bridge over Danube"—Why not over the Danube, or rather the river Danube, for the benefit of young beginners. See . "Nor were his successors (of Commodus) ephemeron Monarchs, likely to support the dignity of that dominion which dropt from the hands of five or six pretenders in course," instead of in the course, "of only eight months," p. 57. "In time," for in the time, "of Augustus Caesar," p. 58. The same liberties are taken with the articles a and an.

The second striking defect is, the want of a regular series of dates, essentially necessary for the same class of readers. Can it be supposed that young beginners are so versed in chronology, which Lord Chesterfield justly calls "one of the eyes of history," as to be able to arrange and connect events related in a desultory manner, and interrupted by verses and other foreign digressions, for the long space of forty or fifty years. A few marginal dates would have elucidated her historic facts. We therefore earnestly recommend this improvement in a new edition, which we also recommend to be printed in small octavo or duodecimo volumes: in that form, they will bid fair to supplant those trifling and injurious publications with which our circulating libraries abound, since they will be as conveniently carried under a cloak, or in the pocket, by our ever-reading females. Pompous quartos serve very well as ornamental furniture in a Nobleman's splendid library, but are ill adapted to volatile youth, who take up and lay down a book with the same careless facility as they change a coat, or a dress.

Lastly, the following analysis of the work, as given by our Author in her preface, being a translation of the French miotto to the title-page, supports the propriety of our advice—for fragments are much lighter to carry about from place to place, from the townhouse to the villa or cottage, than massy edifices—"This work, I grant you, is at best a fragment; but what else shall we find in the most finished labours of man? The biography of one particular Sovereign is a mere fragment, broken off from his own Dynasty. The revolutions of a peculiar State form but a larger fragment: one piece, one page, torn from the great book, the general account of mankind; which is itself, at last, no other than one species, one genus rather, among those uncounted millions that animate and people the earth, air, and water, of our terraqueous globe. That globe a fragment too, a trifling spot, of which the most exact and faithful narration would be found but a short chapter in the grand history, the universal volume of our Creator's works, containing the changes and chances of systems without number, rolling in illimitable space, at distances not to be judged of by humanity."

Notes

¹ We are not fond of destroying the uniformity of a work by the unnecessary introduction of Italic characters; but our Author having introduced them very profusely, we think it but fair, in reviewing her volumes, to follow her example.