THE MONK OF OIMIES.
THE object of this book is to inculcate the fallacy of looking for salvation to "good works," and the absolute necessity of re]) ing on justification by faith alone, us well as to prove the doctrine of original sin, or the innate depravity of man,—and certainly the hero is as depraved a rascal as imagination can well fancy or ex- perience form. Ile is born of a noble family ; brought up in child- hood by his father, a strait-laced but respectable Dean of the Church, and trained in youth by his uncle, a man who is described as a model of humanity—the beau ideal of a pious, learned, elegant divine, bating his darkness on the question of" innate depravity." Yet, Ns ith all these advantages, Edward Etherington, the future monk, begins his career of mean-spirited and miserable vice. At an early age he displays a low jealousy. and most impudent • self-possession. Intended for the church, he indulges in all sorts of college debauchery : whilst reading for orders at home, he se- duces, it' we rightly understand what we read, the only child of a widow, and attends the deathbed of his victim, without any such "compunctious visitings " as to produce an alteration in his con- duct; and he enters the church for interested motives whilst doubting certain of its dogmas. His next step is to carry on a flirtation with two sisters at the same time, and, having been shaken in his belief in Protestantism, to persuade one of them to elope with him to the Continent. This precious scheme fails, through the interference of his brother, in despite of the assist- ance of some Catholic priest into whose hands Mr. Edward has fallen: he proceeds to the Continent, takes the vows of the priest- hood, and (we conclude) breaks them ; allows a monk, suspected -of an intercourse with nuns, tube condemned to death in his stead; .and commits a variety of other enormities, till compelled to fly the convent, to avoid the webs of a more accomplished scoundrel than himself. Proceeding to Cimies in disguise, he attains a high reputation for sanctity, by his self-imposed penances ; but learn- ing, through an accidental confession, the arts by which he was sauced into the Catholic church, his mind is opened, he becomes regenerate, and this fag-end "of the flesh and the Devil" is now :preaching the truths of Protestantism to the seven millions. Such is a very rough outline of the career of the Reverend 'Edward Etheringtozi ; which is filled up by doctrinal argu-
ments, debates on questions respecting some of the differences be- tween the Churches of England and Rome, many minute exhibi- tions of baseness on the part of the hero, and dark enough pictures of the character of Catholic churchmen, and not very flattering ones of some in the Protestant Establishment. These attacks, however, are not our affair; it is the part of the priesthood to de- fend the temple and one another. But we must beg to assure Mrs. SHERWOOD, that more acquaintance with logic and criticism than
she possesses is necessary to any one who-would write a novel te illustrate even the last of the difficult points she has taken up, To draw a scoundrel in grain, is not to prove the "innate de., pravity " of man. The tendency of the human heart to wicked, ness can only be shown by contriving a story, and subjecting the characters to an ordeal, under which the average numbers of per. sons would exhibit a preference to the sinful path. But so far from the average number of persons displaying any thing like the de- pravity of Mrs. SHERWOOD'S "saint made out of an old sinner," they not only stand where he fell, but even bear up against far greater difficulties. Humanly speaking, however, the Monk of Cimies had no peculiar difficulties at all. Sin did not even lie in his way ; he went in search of it. The true career for such a disposition so circumstanced, would have been to have made him cut the church and turn infidel ; but then, his "new birth" would have been lost, for he was not a critical subject for regeneration by grace.
The work is finished in composition, throughout. It is generally tedious, on account of the doctrinal disquisitions, femininely handled, which stop the narrative; and there is much that seems forced and unnatural in the scenes abroad, especially in the con- vent scenes. Some of the earlier passages, however, are done with life-like truth and strength. Mrs. SHERWOOD has obviously seen something of High Churchmen. This is a tauch of satire, though the writer, we believe, was quite unconscious of U-
M* father's pride was, on the contrary, somewhat modified : he was cond. ous that it was not altogether right ; and there were occasions, I have no doubt, in which he could not reconcile it even with his own dark views of Chris. tianity. But his prejudices were excessively strong ; and they so affected his creed, that without being aware of it, there was scarcely a 'loci' ins which he held which was not more or less tainted with Popery,—or, in other words, with that principle which gives man a place of spiritual authority over the souls of men, as I shall have occasion to make manifest in the sequel of any history. But there is often much external decency in the arrangement of proud families; and in this respect my father's family was a pattern, both at the deanery and at a noble living in the country, where we spent many months in the year.
Our servants were orderly, our liveries clerical. My father read prayers to Isis family morning and evening ; nay mother attended divine service every day appointed in the rubric ; and we were catechized once a year, in the country, with other children of the parish, in the presence of all the congregation,—a piece of condescension much thought of amongst our poor neighbours. My mother caused her housekeeper to make soup for the pour; and my father read a sermon every Sunday evening to his family ; and I believe was generally well spoken of, as a man who did honour to the cloth, though I doubt much whether he was beloved.
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