Norrie Scion; or, Driven to Sea. By Mrs. George Coppice.
(Nimmo.)— At the close of her tale Mrs. Cupples gives a piece of advice to "would- be-heroes," to the effect that they had better take the advice of parents and guardians before they go to sea. This rather reminds us of the very feeble " morals " with which such dramatists as Wycherley, Congreve, and their crew were accustomed to wind up a very immoral play. Norrie Seton runs off to sea ; overcomes every difficulty marvellously, makes himself a general favourite, does a number of noble and brava things, returns home to be the idol of his family, and ultimately, as we are permitted to learn, makes a large fortune. Altogether, he achieves a most distinguished success. As his adventures are told with great spirit, and make a very interesting story, Mrs. Cupples must be very sanguine—much more sanguine than we are—about the willingness of the young to take advice, if she imagines that the 'precept' of her moral will be anything like so efficacious as the 'example' of her tale. Pope in his satires tells us, describing the rage for versifying
Poor Cornea sees his frantic wife elope, And curses wit and poetry and Pope."
We should not be surprised to learn that parents and guardians will lay some " rnnning-away " cases of a more innocent kind at Mrs. Cupples's door. Let us hope that the young gentlemen may fare equally with her hero.
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