No. IV. MRS. ANN RADCLIFFE. AMONG MONG the eminent Englishwomen who have contributed by their talents to the intellectual character of their country, the name of Mrs. Ann Radcliffe will always stand highly distinguished. Mrs. Radcliffe was a native of London, and was born on the 9th of July, 1764. By a communication which we shall annex to this brief memoir, it appears that her family and connections were of the most respectable description. Her maiden name was Ward. In her twenty-third year she married at Bath (where her parents then resided), William Radcliffe, Esq., a graduate of Oxford; and who, intending to pursue the profession of the law, kept several terms at one of the Inns of Court; but, changing his resolution, was never called to the bar. Mr. Radcliffe subsequently became the proprietor and editor of the English Chronicle. Soon after her marriage, the powers of Mrs. Radcliffe's mind began to develope themselves in the production of a series of romances, of which it is not too much to say that they rank with the best that have appeared in the English language. They have been translated into every European tongue; and have been everywhere read with enthusiastic delight. Of the peculiar character of Mrs. Radcliffe's works we cannot convey a more adequate notion than by quoting the following extracts from a prefatory introduction written by Mrs. Barbauld to "The Romance of the Forest," which, with "The Mysteries of Udolpho," was incorporated by that lady into her edition of THE BRITISH NOVELISTS: "Though every production which is good in its kind en Her which stand at the head of a class; and such are undoubtedly the novels of Mrs. Radcliffe; which exhibit a genius of no common stamp. She seems to scorn to move those passions which form the interest of common novels: she alarms the soul with terror; agitates it with suspense, prolonged and wrought up to the most intense feeling by mysterious hints and obscure intimations of unseen danger. The scenery of her tales is in "time-shook towers," vast uninhabited castles, winding staircases, long echoing aisles; or, if abroad, lonely heaths, gloomy forests, and abrupt precipices, the haunt of banditti; the canvass and the figures of Salvator Rosa. living characters correspond to the scenery: their wicked projects are dark, singular, atrocious. They are not of English growth; their guilt is tinged with a darker hue than that of the bad and profligate characters we see in the world about us; they seem almost to belong to an unearthly sphere of powerful mischief. But to the terror produced by the machinations of guilt, and the perception of danger, this writer has had the art to unite another, and possibly a stronger feeling. There is, perhaps, in every breast at all susceptible of the influence of imagination, the germ of a certain superstitious dread of the world unknown, which easily suggests the idea of commerce with it. Solitude, darkness, low-whispered sounds, obscure glimpses of objects, flitting forms, tend to raise in the mind that thrilling mysterious terror, which has for its object the "powers unseen, and mightier far than we." But these ideas are suggested only; for it is the peculiar management of this author, that though she gives, as it were, a glimpse of the world of terrible shadows, she yet stops short of any thing really supernatural: for all the strange and alarming circumstances brought forward in the narrative are explained in the winding up of the story by natural causes; but in the mean time the reader has felt their full impression. "The first production of this lady, in which her peculiar genius was strikingly developed, is The Romance of the Forrest,' and in some respects it is perhaps the best. It turns upon the amiable and unprotected girl, whose birth and fortunes have been involved in obscurity by crime and perfidy. The character of La Motte, the agent, is drawn with spirit. He is represented as weak and timid, gloomy and arbitrary in his family, drawn by extravagance into vice and atrocious actions, capable of remorse, but not capable of withstanding temptation. There is a scene between him and the more hardened Marquis, who is tempting him to commit murder, which has far more nature and truth than the admired scene between King John and Hubert, in which the writer's imagination has led him rather to represent the action to which the King is endeavouring to work his instrument, as it would be seen by a person who had a great horror of its guilt, than in the manner in which he ought to represent it in order to win him to his purpose: Did with his iron tongue, and brazen mouth, -if thou could'st see me without eyes, Hear me without thine ears, and make reply Without a tongue,'" &c. What must be the effect of such imagery but to infuse into the mind of Hubert that horror of the crime with which the spectator views the deed, and which it was the business, indeed, of Shakspeare to impress upon the mind of the spectator, but not of King John to impress upon Hubert? In the scene referred to, on the other hand, the Marquis, whose aim is to tempt La Motte to the commission of murder, begins by attempting to lower his sense of virtue, by representing it as the effect of prejudices imbibed in early youth, reminds him that in many countries the stiletto is resorted to without scruple; treats as trivial his former deviations from integrity; and, by lulling his conscience and awakening his cupidity, draws him to his purpose. "There are many situations in this novel which strike Dr. Hutton bequeathed his marble bust to the Philosophical Society of Newcastle. It is to be placed in their new and ́splendid Institution, where it will no doubt be long regarded with pride and veneration. He always manifested a laudable affection for his native place, of which he gave a proof soon after his retirement from Woolwich, by investing sums of money for the perpetual support of a school, &c. at Newcastle. His benevolence was extensive. To merit in distress, and more especially to the votaries of science, he was always a kind friend and benefactor. "Quando ullum invenient parem ?" His remains were interred in the family vault, at Charlton, in Kent; and his funeral was most respectably and numerously attended. Dr. Hutton was twice married: his surviving family consists of a son and two daughters. The former was educated at the Royal Military Academy, at an early age obtained a commission in the Royal Artillery, and is now a LieutenantGeneral in the army. General Hutton is a member of several learned societies, and was honoured, some years ago, with the degree of LL. D. by the Marischal College at Aberdeen. No. IV. MRS. ANN RADCLIFFE. AMONG the eminent Englishwomen who have contributed by their talents to the intellectual character of their country, the name of Mrs. Ann Radcliffe will always stand highly distinguished. Mrs. Radcliffe was a native of London, and was born on the 9th of July, 1764. By a communication which we shall annex to this brief memoir, it appears that her family and connections were of the most respectable description. Her maiden name was Ward. In her twenty-third year she married at Bath (where her parents then resided), William Radcliffe, Esq., a graduate of Oxford; and who, intending to pursue the profession of the law, kept several terms at one of the Inns of Court; but, changing his resolution, was never called to the bar. Mr. Radcliffe subsequently became the proprietor and editor of the English Chronicle. Soon after her marriage, the powers of Mrs. Radcliffe's mind began to develope themselves in the production of a series of romances, of which it is not too much to say that they rank with the best that have appeared in the English language. They have been translated into every European tongue; and have been everywhere read with enthusiastic delight. Of the peculiar character of Mrs. Radcliffe's works we cannot convey a more adequate notion than by quoting the following extracts from a prefatory introduction written by Mrs. Barbauld to "The Romance of the Forest," which, with "The Mysteries of Udolpho," was incorporated by that lady into her edition of THE BRITISH NOVELISTS: Though every production which is good in its kind en |