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THE

DINBURGH REVIEW,

OR

CRITICAL JOURNAL:

FOR

DECEMBER 1826.... MARCH 1827.

TO BE CONTINUED QUARTERLY.

JUDEX DAMNATUR CUM NOCENS ABSOLVITUR.

PUBLIUS SYRUS.

VOL. XLV.

EDINBURGH:

Printed by the Heirs of D. Willison,

FOR LONGMAN, REES, ORME, BROWN AND GREEN, LONDON:

AND ADAM BLACK, EDINBURGH.

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THE

EDINBURGH REVIEW,

DECEMBER, 1826.

N°. LXXXIX.

ART. I. Memoirs of the Life of the Right Honourable Richard Brinsley Sheridan. By THOMAS MOORE. Fourth Edition, 2 vols. 8vo. London, Longman & Co. 1826.

WE

E are very glad to see this book-for the sake both of its readers and of its author. To the former, it is calculated to afford more entertainment and instruction than most publications of the present day; and on the latter, it must confer, we think, a new character, and a still higher station than has yet been assigned him, among the literary ornaments of the age. Mr Moore has been hitherto most known for the least valuable perhaps of his talents. He has passed, we suspect, with most people, for little better than a mere poet-a man of glittering fancy and sweet verse-with boundless stores of splendid images and glorious expressions, and infinite powers of gorgeous description or pungent satire. From all this it has been naturally concluded, that he must be deficient in sound judgment and practical sagacity-that he can have no rational views of men and business-no knowledge of affairsno sober or deliberate opinions on grave questions of policy. His genius, like that of savages, has been supposed fit only for works of mere ornament or mere offence-for the elaboration of plumes, necklaces and idols-or of sculptured javelins and winged and polished shafts-but incapable of being applied either to useful manufactures or scientific pursuits. Those who best know the individual must always have dissented, we believe, from this conclusion:-and it must also have been disputed by the comparatively small number who were as well acquainted with his prose-writings as with his poetry. But the matter, we apprehend, must now be conclusively settled by

VOL. XLV. No. 89.

A

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