ADVENTURES IN THE MOON, AND OTHER WORLDS. THIS work is
rather a rare avis— a volume of philosophical fiction. The subject matter is mostly the foibles and errors of human nature, and those dispositions which appear ridiculous or useful, accordingly as we view them with a cynico-stoical mind, or the judgment of a reasonable creature closely reflecting on his or- ganization and mortality. The forms into which the writer has cast his subjects are various, but none of them new ; being some- times in the almost obsolete shape of dialogue ; at others in that of letters from abstract creations, as Posterity or the Present Age; and then again in the framework of an allegory, or a narrative impossibly fictitious. As a production of pure literature, the volume is the ablest we have met with for some years. The man- ner is very elegant ; the composition finished and sustained throughout; and the style balanced with the exactest nicety, and studded with pleasant points. The book, however, though a learned and laboured imitation, is imitative after all. It is the production of a refined and able scholar, but of a mere scholar. Almost all the thoughts and sentiments are taken from books, or drawn from abstract speculation ; they consequently want the reality and warmth of that which is derived from an observation of actual life. The manner is copied from the most classical essayists of the last century ; the framework, though occasionally -extended, comes from the same factories; and the style, exquisite -as it is, considered merely as resrects expression, is a revival -of ADDISON and GOLDSMITH down even to their peculiar turns. In saying this, it is not meant to charge the writer with being a common imitator; quite the contrary. He exhibits the almost isolated critical example of a man of ability living a ith his pre- sdecessors till he has become one of them; and whilst the fact is curious, the moral it furnishes is useful; for such a course has produced the ghost of excellence, rather than excellence itself.
The longest and most varied piece in the volume is the "Ad- ventures in the Moon." After a little pleasant banter upon the different plans formerly suggested by prajectors to reach the moon, the author feigns that modern science has conquered the difficulty, and that he has arrived there in company with several others. The end of their journey to the moon is to recover various articles that have left them : for it is the writer's aim to follow out the text "that all things lost on earth are treasured there ;" where they appear not in substance, but only in semblance,—lost advice being syllabled by an "airy tongue" without the presence of the adviser, lost hopes being corked up in phials with the names of the owners and the nature of their losses affixed to them, and lost , fashions stalking about in their original out without wearers. The only exception appears to be in the ease of books, which seetn to figure in their native bulk ; and a numerous lot they are the greater part being lost to the earth in a longer or shorter time after their publication. As it may be well to know the kind of things met by the tourist in his rambles through the lunar sphere, we will enumerate some of the leading ones, besides those already mentioned,.—viz. lost spirits, lost vices, lost virtues, beauty, exhortations, fame, and time, besides good intentions that have perished before birth. and castle-buildings that proceeded no further than the brain of the builder. Of his ideas and his method of treating them, some ex- tracts will convey the best notion ; and we will take them, as much as may be, from such allusions to passing events as books or peri- odicals could furnish him with. This hit at the imitators of Scorr is neat and true ; it is not difficult to recognize the original of the Statesman; and the British Constitution is a touch of genuine humour worthy of his most renowned prototypes.
THE HISTORICAL NOVEL
Is another kind. In this composition the endeavour of the author is to show us the true genius and character of the remarkable persons who lived at the time of which he writes: thus, if it be recorded of a great man that he wore a hat with three feathers, you may be sure that he will wear a hat with three feathers in the novel. The author dresses him with a strict adherence to truth, and does not venture to omit a single button of history, or to introduce so much as a bit of lace that is fabulous ; every ornament he wears is attested by writers of acknowledged veracity—even his shoe-buckles are facts. sir Walter Scott having acquired great fame by historical romances, which repre- sent the thoughts and designs of uncommon men, has instigated others to em- broil themselves in the same undertaking ; but since the thoughts and designs of great men are not amongst their studies, their discernment being limited to that part of the human character which is called the dress, they have contented themselves with narratives of hats, cloaks, and other parts of apparel, in which their success cannot be disputed.
EMILOYMENT OF FLA VSIBLE BOB IN THE MOON.
I now saw a well-known English statesman, who had come here in search of his integrity, which he bad lost in the service of his country. Without it he had found himself quite disabled in the pursuit of his designs., being no longer eloquent in Parliament or dextrous in COUBC11 BRITISH coNsmuirosr.
As I left the library, I observed too men, who were likewise quitting it, each of them having a roll of parchment in his hand, about which they were engaged in a violent controversy. I found that they had come up to the moon in search of the British Constitution, which they agreed had long ago been lost. Each fancied that he had found it, and vehemently asserted that what he carried was the real constitution, and the parchment of the other a fiction. One of them triumphantly pointed to the date, asking whether that was not the time when the constitution flourished. The other deified that there had been any consfos tution in being at that time, and asserted that his own date was the true one. Neither of them would give up the pretensions of his parchment, and they parted in some eager; each of them being convinced that he had the British Constitution under his arm.
Let us turn to those abstractions, which being always true, may be called universal, or commonplace, according to the pleasure of the reader. In such topics, the literary ability of the writer gives him great advantages; as in these remarks on Belief.
Belief has, indeed, many advantages over truth; it serves equally well to stop inquiry and sat'sfy the curiosity which harasses mankind ; and It may be at- tained without the labour and search by which truth must be pursued, for it happens fortunately that it is as easy to believe as it is difficult to know. He, too, who follows truth with a life of meditation, can seldom arrive at any firm conviction, but is continually perplexed by doubt ; while the resolute believer is not disturbed in his tenets by the slightest distrust. Besides this, the truths that we can reach are but few, and the greatest part of nature is inaccessible to inquiry, while the knowledge of him who believes is unlimited; he finds no- thing obscure, but is admitted into all the secrets of the universe. This, too, must be considered, that he who, after great labour, fancies himself possessed of a truth, may, upon further discoveries, see his hypothesis taken from him; but the believer who has a resolute mind can by no art or reasoning be deprived of his belief. It is also a great evil of truth, that we must receive it as it is by nature and not as we would wish it to be. On the other hand, we have it in our power to believe whatever we desire; and in our plans of the universe may take care to admit nothing to our disadvantage. This flexible nature of belief
is well understood by those reasoners who, when they would refute a doctrine, consider it sufficient if they prove it to be pernicious ; whence, without hesita- tion, it is to be false. For the reasons! have assigned, my advice to all persons is, that they leave the perplexities of truth, and resort to belief, as of much greater ease, certainty, and serenity.
There are occasionally, however, better things even than these; a moral truth, deduced from reflective observation, that may be useful in calming the perturbed mind. Such is this remark in the "Answer from the Present Age to Posterity,' which has writ- ten him a letter.
UNREASONABLENESS OF GENIUS.
It is true that, through the multitude of undeserving persons who assail me, a man of real merit, if he be unknown to those who are in my confidence, is unable to gain access to my favour without patience and delay. But ability, with perseverance, is sure to succeed at last. Sometimes, however, an indig- nant man of genius, who has obtained my notice after many attemps, can hardly forgive me his long obscurity, and seeks revenge by satirical reflections on my sagacity. But men of genius are often too arbitrary in their expecta- tions. He who is conscious of superior endowments, but has not yet been able to manifest them, is incensed against the world because it has made no search for him; and he thinks that all men of sense ought to have been en- gaged in inquiring into his capacity. Though if he would consider how patiently he hiinsaf suffers the obscurity of others, having no design of under- taking such an examination into the faculties of all unknown men, he would hardly expect this eager inquiry to be made after himself.
If the reader should demur to the opinion we have passed upon the book, from the perusal of these passages, we may remind him that the rose-tree is not all flowers; or send him to the volume, and let him read some 150 pages continuously. Perhaps, after all, the chief error of the author is that of copying withaut fiJi discrimination : the men he imitates wrote only short papers _his principal prodamLiati is a long Am.
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