In turning over, the other day, the pages of "Grimm's Correspondence," a book to which every lover of literature must always recur with delight, we chanced upon the following notice of one of Madame de Staël's earliest productions, if not her very earliest, and which is not included in her published works. It is always curious to observe the first buddings and indications of a mighty genius, and equally so to turn to the expression of contemporary opinions and prognostics, when we have all the subsequent facts in our possession. It is, as we have said elsewhere, one of the peculiar gifts of M. de Grimm, to forstall, in nearly every instance, the judgment of posterity. In other critical writers we often find entertainment from the discrepancy between the prophecy and the result; but this very rarely happens with him. With reference to Madame de Staël, he has from the first spoken of her in the highest terms, even in the notice of the very early attempt which we subjoin. It is, as will be seen, of a comedy. It is strange that Madame de Staël has written so little that is comic, for her powers in that way were really great,—a fact which would not exactly be imagined from her graver works. In several brilliant instances, of late years, humour, seriousness, and pathos have been alternate in the same work; but Madame de Staël has never varied the two latter with the flashes of her wit. Very few tokens of it, indeed, exist, except in the little comedies, composed solely for family representation, which are published among her posthumous works. But these are excellent. Some passages in "Le Capitaine Kernadec," remind us of Molière. The notice, of which we have been speaking, is as follows. It is dated in 1778. "Pendant que M. Necker fait des arrêts qui le cou vrent de gloire, et qui rendront son administration éternellement chère à la France; pendant que Madame Necker renonce à toutes les douceurs de la société pour consacrer ses soins à l'établissement d'un nouvel hospice de charité; leur fille, un enfant de douze ans *, mais qui annonce déjà des talens au dessus de son âge, s'amuse à composer de petites comédies dans le goût des demi-drames de M. de Saint-Marc. Elle vient d'en faire une en deux actes, intitulée Les Inconvéniens de la Vie de Paris, qui n'est pas seulement fort étonnante à son âge, mais qui a paru même fort supérieure à tous ses modèles. C'est une mère qui a deux filles, l'une élevée dans la simplicité de la vie champêtre, l'autre dans tous les grands airs de la capitale. Cette dernière est sa favorite, grâce à son esprit et à sa gentillese; mais le malheur où cette mère se trouve réduite par la perte d'un procès considérable lui fait voir bientôt laquelle des deux méritait le mieux son estime et sa tendresse. Les scènes de ce petit drame sont bien liées, les caractères soutenus, et le développement de l'intrigue plein de naturel et d'intérêt. M. Marmontel qui l'a vu représentée dans le salon de Saint Ouen † par l'auteur et sa petite société, en a été touché jusqu'aux larmes." We take from the same copious stores, the following mot, which we consider very happy :-" Un homme fort accoutumé a mentir racontait une nouvelle." Je parie contre," dit M. Martin. "Vous auriez tort," dit à son oreille son voisin," rien n'est plus vrai." "Eh bien, si c'est vrai, pourquoi le dit il?" * She was not more than ten years old. THE REVIEW. "We belong to the unpopular family of Tell-truths, and would not flatter Apollo for his Lyre."-ROB ROY. Sacred Literature, comprising a Review of the Principles of Composition laid down by the late Robert Lowth, D.D., Lord Bishop of London, in his Prælections and Isaiah, and an Application of the Principles so reviewed to the Illustration of the New Testament, in a Series of Critical Observations on the Style and Structure of that Sacred Volume, by the Reverend JOHN JEBB, (now Lord Bishop of Limerick). London, Cadell and Davies. It would be neither instructive nor amusing to detail the various conceptions of the writers on the structure of Hebrew poetry, from the days of Josephus to the age of Origen, and thence to Scaliger, Boecler, and the impostor Meibomius, since confusion and obscurity in each succeeding age seem to have more closely enveloped the subject, so that the waning light of tradition was unable to lend a ray by which the clue to the mystery could be discovered. Three individuals, at periods not very distant from each other, gave the key which opened to the learned world the treasures which were thought to be irrecoverably lost. The first of these was the younger Buxtorf; the next Schottgen; and the last the revered Bishop Lowth. The former of these in the Mantissa Dissertationum annexed to his edition of the book Cosri, is considered by Dr. Jebb, as having stated that which may be deemed the "technical basis" of Dr. Lowth's system; Schottgen is said to have distinctly |