* * * * *


THE QUARTERLY REVIEW.


No. 81, of this truly excellent work had not reached us in time for the
close reading which it demands, and our "Notes" from it at present are
consequently few. The first in the number is a powerful paper on Dr.
Southey's _Colloquies on the Progress and Prospects of Society_--"a
beautiful book," says the reviewer, "full of wisdom and devotion--of
poetry and feeling; conceived altogether in the spirit of other times,
such as the wise men of our own day may scoff at, but such as Evelyn, or
Isaak Walton, or Herbert would have delighted to honour." The work is in
general too polemical and political for our pages; but we may hereafter
be tempted to carve out a few pastoral pictures of the delightful
country round Keswick, where Dr. Southey resides. The present Review
contains but few extracts to our purpose, and is rather a paper on the
spirit of the _Colloquies_, than analytical of their merits. We take,
for example, the following admirable passage on the progress of
religious indifference; in which we break off somewhat hastily,
premising that the reader will be induced to turn to the Review itself
for the remainder of the article:--

There was a time, since the worship of images, (and happy would it have
been if the religious habits of the country had thenceforth stood
fixed,) when appropriate texts adorned the walls of the dwelling-rooms,
and children received at night a father's blessing;--and "let us worship
God" was said with solemn air, by the head of the household; and