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    tjer and tbe Baron de Gerando , this tale has passed through four or five editions . We venerate so much the benevolent aims of those excellent characters who , as members of society at large , and as associated in supporting many good institutions , have , it is hoped , done much for the benefit of France , that it is in no

    unfriendly spirit we would presume to find fault with one of their productions . We are inclined to think , however , that haste , vagueness , and a spirit of ostenta tious liberality , are likely in more cases than one to rob them of the proper fruits of benevolent exertion ; and that they rely too confidently upon their abstract intentions and the power of doing

    good which money and station in life have conferred upon them ; while they take too little pains to ascertain the real nature , the real wants , and the most effectual means of relieving the beings they wish to serve . The very terms of the invitation we have transcribed ,

    demonstrate this . What man , or what set of men , ever before dreamt of including so many and such different objects , and expected to have them satisfactorily and popularly treated in a book of the dimensions prescribed ? Again , when it comes to execution , what penetrating intellect - could look forward to the time

    when the shallow and common-place morality of Simon de Nantua should be thoroughly investigated , without some trembling ? These are dangerous subjects for superficial handling , and our " Library of Useful Knowledge" is teaching the wholesome lesson of present

    abstinence , while it prepares the mind to receive strong aliment hereafter . This , always supposing the previous blessing of a sound education , an education based on the foundation which God has laid , and proceeding at every step with an honest faithfulness towards the nature

    and revelation he has given ua , is the likely way to do good ; but because it is so , one is sorry to see a society of philanthropists closing their minds to what experience has so often taught , and calculating on the good effect of sending among the people a book which , if it serves any purpose at all , can only do so

    while childish and superficial argument is tolerated . * ' Have the people received it V * is a question we should like to have answered . Our English grown ehildien , we are persuaded , would reject the morsel with disgust . They are , indeed , too credulous , too ready to believe , all that is told them for Scripture ; but we honour that ready acknowledgment

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    of what is divine , that unquestioning self-condemnation which they are gene * rally ready to bestow on themselves , when conscience is appealed to , and a scriptural command produced . On the other hand , clever , conceited individuals , who have made their way in the world * and therefore profess to have discovered the only way of wisdom ; whose

    instructionand charity wound their best feelings , and whose morality is all of the selfish and interested kiud , will make no converts among them , and will be repulsed with * an indignation in which we cannot but participate . On this account , Pestalozzi's Tale of Leonard and Gertrude , were it a little abridged and altered on points foreign to our national habits ,

    would be , we think , eminently popular in this country . It would have been well had M . Jussieu enabled himself , like Pestalozzi , to say , " I have been careful never to set down my own opinions , instead of what I have seen and heard the people themselves feel , judge , say , arid attempt . " Whether , so

    experienced , he would have procured himself the approbation of his learned and refined judges , however , is doubtful ; and we greatly fear the abounding love of the artificial , which has taken place of true mental simplicity in France , might have presented obstacles to his success in a popular point of view ; but he would have earned himself much honour from

    an attempt to put morality and religion upon a more hopeful footing . Nothing can present to our minds a more complete contrast than the wordy exhortations of Simon de Nantua aud the simple , striking lessons of Leonard and

    Gertrude . In the latter , inward peace and happiness are inferred from perseverance in well-doing . In the former , every virtue has its price . Instead of a generous , lofty morality , which has Its foundation in love , we are brought down to the level of selfish calculation .

    Simon de Nantua himself , the hero of the French piece , is a character perfectly well adapted to the part he has to play . He is a travelling merchant , a knowing . man , one who has picked up a great deal of worldly wisdom , and thinks himself privileged to harangue the whole country on folly and superstition , on vaccination

    and education , on paying the taxes and on believing in ghosts , on loyalty and economy , industry aud slothfulness , drunkenness , gaming , and cruelty to animals . Nothing comes amiss to M . Simon ; and so successful is he , that , contrary to the experience of all preachers , whatever he tells the people ought

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    3 & ) 8 Critical Notices .

• Citation
  • Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), June 2, 1828, page 408, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2561/page/48/