We cannot take leave of The Magnolia' without yielding our thanks to the editor for the ability with which he has discharged the duties of his station. His own contributions are numerous, yet they are creditable to his taste as well as his genius; and the evidences of a mind fraught with education and a knowledge of correct models of composition, are not alone visible in the portions of the work which proceed from his own hand. The binding of 'The Magnolia' is fair and its typographical execution, we should not neglect to add, is unrivalled, and reflects the highest credit upon the well-known press of Messrs. G. F. HOPKINS AND SON.

"THE DOCTOR, ETC.' In two vols. 12mo. (Two volumes in one.) HARPER AND BROTHERS. Second Edition.

WE take up these volumes again, not for the purpose of regular criticism - for the character of the book sets that well nigh beyond possibility—but to institute a short investigation into their authorship. The reimpression of the two first volumes in England, the publication of a third volume, and the announcement of a fourth, together with the fact that one American edition has been exhausted, and that another has been demanded, indicate pretty decisively such a degree of interest in the work among the reading community of both countries, as to warrant an inquiry in regard to its source.

Excepting the letters of Junius, we do not remember any publication, in modern times, which has commanded, in any considerable degree, the popular attention, concerning which there has long been much doubt as to the author. Matthias, to the last hour of his life, denied any participation in the 'Pursuits of Literature,' but we imagine that there are few who entertain any doubts upon that subject. The claims of Scott to the title of Author of Waverley,' derived, in the popular estimation, very little additional force from his own formal acknowledgment at the Theatrical Fund Dinner. No one had the least hesitation about the matter before. Mr. Adolphus' admirable 'Letters to Richard Heber' established, from coincidences in thought, expression, and feeling, between the poems and the novels, that the writer of both was, beyond all question, the same. Bentley says, in respect to some phrase in one of Cicero's orations, Ego vero Ciceronem ita scripsisse Ciceroni ipsi affirmanti non crediderem ;' and we apprehend that most of those who read those letters, would have been inclined to say, in a similar spirit, ' If Scott were to say that Scott did not write 'Waverley,' I would not believe Scott himself.'

Upon the same principle, we are abundantly satisfied, after a cursory comparison of The Doctor' with the published writings of Robert Southey, that to that 'most book-ful of Laureates' is to be ascribed the paternity of the singular production before us. As we have heretofore, in these pages, expressed doubts in relation to this matter, we proceed to lay before the reader some of the facts upon which we ground our present opinion.

We are surprised that the name of Hartley Coleridge should have been mentioned among those of the possible authors. A very slight acquaintance with his 'Biographia Borealis' would have shown to any one such discordances of thinking between him and the author of The Doctor,' as to settle his pretensions at once. Hartley is an ardent whig, an admirer of the modern systems of education and politics, and a panegyrist of Brougham; while the other is a strenuous tory, a man thoroughly wrapt in the old forms of feeling, and at the opposite pole of sentiment, as to politics and the instruction of the people, from the ex-Lord Chancellor. Would Hartley 78

VOL. VIII.

،

Coleridge have written these passages, sneering at a father for whom it is evident, from his volumes of poems, that he bears such tender and profound affection? A metaphysician, or as some of my contemporaries would affect to say, a psychologist.' (Doctor, i., 76.) 'Is it Coleridge? The method indeed of the book might lead to such a suspicion- but then it is intelligible throughout.' (Doctor, ii., 86.) Would a bachelor have penned this sentence? A bachelor, a single man, an imperfect individual, half only of the whole being which, by the laws of nature and of Christian polity, it was intended that man should become?' (Doctor, ii., 61.) Or, on the other hand, would the author of The Doctor' a churchman, and a conservative, indeed, in whom there is no flinching- have expressed such opinions as are contained in these passages by Hartley Coleridge? We cannot but think that a yearly thanksgiving for the invention of printing might be very advantageously substituted for certain courtly services in the liturgy, which were always base and blasphemous, and are now utterly unmeaning.' (Biog. Borcalis, 131.) 'Greek was an innovation, and liable to the same plausible and prudential objections which apply to innovations in general. (Ibid., 344.) Or would this unknown - brimful and overflowing as he is with knowledge of the old English writers have had occasion to add in a note, after quoting a short sentence from Fuller: 'Such at least is Fuller's meaning and illustration. I am afraid I have not quoted his words exactly, for, to tell the truth, I know not in which of his works to look for them. But I recollect reading the sentiment in Lamb's Selections?' (Biog. Borealis, 322.) We apprehend that he who wrote 'The Doctor' is not in the habit of being indebted to Lamb's nor to any one else's 'selections' for his acquaintance with the old worthies. Is not this sentence more in keeping with the character of 'multo-scribbling' Southey, than with that of an author who has published only two very narrowly-circulated works? 'I have oftentimes had the happiness of seeing due commendations bestowed by gentle critics, unknown admirers, and partial friends upon my pen, which has been married to all amiable epithets; classical, fine, powerful, tender, touching, pathetic, strong, fanciful, daring, elegant, sublime, beautiful.' (Doctor, i., 39.) The following passage has no propriety as coming from Hartley Coleridge, whose excursions upon Pegassus have been in a very regular way, while it exactly and most felicitously describes the poetry of Southey, which is chiefly upon the wildest subjects and in the wildest measures. 'Tell me not of Pegassus! I have ridden him many a time; ✶✶ high and low, far and wide, round the earth, and about it, and over it, and under it. I know all his earth paces and his sky paces. I have tried him at a walk, at an amble, at a trot, at a canter, at a hand gallop, at a full gallop, and at full speed. I have proved him in the manége with single turns and the manége with double turns, his bounds, his curvets, his pirouettes, and his pistes, and his croupade, and his balstade, his gallop galliard, and his capriole.' (Doctor, i., 25-6) The writer of this book is manifestly a much older man, and a much more practised writer, than Southey's nephew, and accustomed to deliver his opinions with far greater authority than can attach to the sentiments of one so little known.

Mr. Southey has always been distinguished for an affected use of certain uncommon words, some obsolete, some new-coined; and there is scarcely one of these verbal peculiarities which does not occur very frequently in 'The Doctor.' Such are, the verb 'worsen,' (Southey's ' Essays,' i., 85.; ii., 23. ; ii., 237. ' Colloquies,' i., 46. ; i. 59.; i. 236.; ii. 273. The Doctor, ii., 142, 186.) the adjective' worser,' the noun 'dispatsey,' (Colloquies, i., 18. The Doctor, ii., 118.) and many others of a similar stamp. Southey, in his notes to the poem of 'Roderick,' (and elsewhere when he uses the word,) always writes' Mussulmen' as the plural of 'Mussulman,' instead of the correct and general expression, 'Mussulmans;' and we remember that when 'Roderick' appeared, this deviation was animadverted upon by the reviewers in the 'Christian

Observer.' As Southey, however, has continued the custom, we presume that he does it on conviction of its propriety. Now the author of 'The Doctor' adopts the same unusual fashion: The English might have been ' Mussulmen,' (Doctor, i., 198.) 'Remarks which are not intended for Mussulmen,' (Doctor, i., 92. Contents of the Interchapter.) Throughout the work, we find continued traces of Mr. Southey's personal feelings; in the high praise of the unpopular Walter Landor, and the despised Sir Egerton Brydges, both being the Laureate's particular friends, and the latter having scarcely ever been quoted by any body else: in the sneers against Lord Byron, Mr. Jeffrey, and others who have given him occasion of offence, and whom, like the ' portentous cub' of old, he has always pursued with scorn; for the warmest admirers of Mr. Southey must allow that, if he never forgets a friend, he never forgives an enemy. In the parliament of 1817, there sat a certain Mr. William Smith, who insulted Southey, by calling upon the attorney-general to prosecute him for publishing Wat Tyler,' and whose worthless carcass Southey hewed in pieces in a most terrific' Letter.' Who is there now, in all England, except the author of this letter, who would have retained recollection enough and feeling enough about this Mr. Smith, to have made him the object of the sneer which we find in the second volume of 'The Doctor?' And, what is remarkable, we find the same topic of reproach urged against him in Southey's ' letter' and in this book - the reproach of having the feelings of a dissenter:

Is it Smith? which of the Smiths? There The poem may possibly have been honored is Sidney, who is Joke Smith to the Edinburgh with a place in Mr. William Smith's library, as Review, and William, who is Motion Smith to it received the approbation of all the dissenting the dissenters, orthodox aud heterodox, in parlia-journals of the day. It is possible that their rement, having been elected to represent them- commendation may have induced him to favor to wit, the aforesaid dissenters by the citizens Joan of Arc' with a perusal.'- Southey's Letter of Norwich.' The Doctor, ii., 87.

to Smith

In the same chapter, where the author is speculating about the persons to whom his work will be attributed, we find this singular sentence about Porson: And Professor Porson, if he were not gone where his Greek is of no use to him, would accept credit for it, though he would not claim it.' (Doctor, ii., 85.) To explain this, it must be remembered that Southey, in conjunction with the late Mr. Coleridge, wrote a poem called 'The Devil's Walk,' which, while it was anonymous, Porson recited so frequently and mysteriously, that during his whole life he was supposed to be the author of it, and he never denied the honor: 'he accepted credit for it, though he would not claim it.'

Southey, in the early part of his career, went to London to study law, and, like most persons who do not study it profoundly, imbibed a most hearty hatred both for its theory and practice — a hatred which is constantly appearing in his writings, and which equally belongs to the author of 'The Doctor.'

'But no suggestions could ever have induced Daniel to choose for him the profession of the law. The very name of lawyer was to him a word of evil acceptation. He knew that laws were necessary evils; but he thought they were much greater evils thau there was any necessity that they should be; and believing this to be occasioned by those who were engaged in the trade of administering them, he looked upon lawyers as the greatest pests in the country.' — The Doctor, i., 136.

The most upright lawyer acquires a sort of Swiss conscience for professional use; to resist a rightful claim with all the devices of legal subtlety, and all the technicalities of legal craft: I know not how he who considers this to be his duty toward his client can reconcile it with his duty toward his neighbor.' —(The Doctor, ii., 60.) See the whole of page 60 and page 61.

You employ lawyers to express your meaning in a deed of conveyance, a marriage settle

'Law-craft, if not a twin fiend with priestcraft, is an imp of the same stock; and perhaps the worser devil of the two.'- Southey's Coloq., i., 108.

He who may wish to show with what absurd perversion the forms and technicalities of law are applied to obstruct the purposes of justice which they were designed to further, may find excellent examples in England.'-Colloquies, i., 8.

The worst grievance that exists the enormous expenses, the chicanery, and the ruinous delays of the law. - Essays, ii., 29.

We venture to ask whether it be absolutely necessary that so many loop-holes should be left for the escape of guilt? Whether the purposes of justice are not sacrificed to the technicalities of law, which is sacrificing the end to the means? and whether the weight which is allowed to flaws and informalities in the practice of our courts, and the importance which is attached to things so utterly insignificant in themselves, be a whit

ment, or a will; and they so smother it with words, so envelope it with technicalities, so bury it beneath redundancies of speech, that any meaning which is sought for may be picked out, to the confusion of that which you intended. You ask for justice, and you receive a nice distinction — a forced construction — a verbal criticism. By such means you are defeated and plundered in a civil cause; and in a criminal one, a slip of the pen in the indictment brings off the criminal scot free.' The Doctor, i., 181.

He goes on to give instances of criminals escaping by a verbal error in the indict

ment.

We subjoin other coincidences in opinion, and similarities in thought and expression:

'The auxiliaries must, have, and been, which enabled Whitaker, of Manchester, to write whole quartos of hypothetical history in the potential mood.' The Doctor, i., 28.

'Whether the children went to seek school or not, it was his wish that they should be taught their prayers, the creed, and the commandments, at home. These he thought were better learned at the mother's knees than from any other teacher.' The Doctor, ii., 186.

'The child should receive from her its first spiritual food, the milk of sound doctrine.' The Doctor, i., 186.

'But he had a wise heart, and the wisdom of the heart is worth all other wisdom.'- The Doctor, i., 62.

'A metaphysician **if he were at all master of his art babblative.'. -The Doctor, i., 76.

'The soporific sermons which closed the domestic religiosities of those melancholy days.' The Doctor, i., 69.

'Whitaker, the hypothetical historian of Manchester.'- Southey's Vindicia Ecclesia Anglicana,' 225.

'The rudiments of religion are best learned at our mother's knees.' Southey's Essays, ii., 144.

The habits of religion which a boy learns at his mother's knees.' — Southey's Colloquies, 294.

'Fed with the milk of sound doctrine.' Southey's Essays, ii., 143.

They must be fed with the milk of sound doctrine.' — ibid., 225.

"The richness of his mind, and the wisdom of his beart, for in the heart it is that true wisdom has its seat.' Vindicia, 6.

"The wisdom of the heart is wanting there.'Colloquies, ii., 264.

In the wisdom of the heart he was far beyond that age.'-Colloquies, i., 102.

'Professors of the arts babblative and scribblative. Colloquies, ii., 48.

-

'A feverish state of what may better be called religiosity than religion.' — Colloquies, ii., 102.

Both of our authors believe in ghosts, and there is some similarity in their mode of defining their belief:

'You believe then in apparitions,' said my visitor.

'Even so, sir. That such things should be, is probable a priori; and I cannot refuse assent to the strong evidence that such things are, nor to the common consent which has prevailed among all people, every where, in all ages.' - Colloquies, i., 11.

My serious belief amounts to this: that preternatural impressions are sometimes communicated for wise purposes; and that departed spirits are sometimes permitted to manifest themselves.' — Ibid., i., 11.

In strongly advocating the culture of bogs and waste lands, Southey and the author of 'The Doctor' agree:

--

'Give them employment in public works; bring The cultivation of bogs 'is the readiest way in the bogs into cultivation.' - Essays, ii., 442. which useful employment can be provided for the 'It will not always be the reproach of this king-industrious poor. And if the land so appropridom that large tracts of laud are lying waste while thousands are wanting employment, and tens of thousands owe their chief means of support to the poor rates.' Colloquies, ii., 274.

'Surely it is allowable to hope that whole districts will not always be suffered to lie waste while multitudes are in want of employment and bread.'-Essays, ii., p. 25. See also, ibid., i,, 113. ii., 29.

ated should produce nothing more than is required for the support of those employed in cultivating it, and who must otherwise be partly or wholly supported by the poor-rates, such cultivation would even then be profitable to the public.' The Doctor, i., 163.

Is it fitting that this should be, while there are fifteen millions of cultivable acres lying waste? Is it possible to conceive grosser improvidence in a nation, grosser folly, etc.' — ibid., i.g

162.

They accord, as well, in thinking that much may be done by individuals in relieving the grievance of the poor-laws: