surpassed by some of his followers in diffuse brilliancy of
composition, and perhaps in the art of detaining the mind of the
reader in a state of feverish and anxious suspense through a
protracted and complicated narrative, more will yet remain with
him than the single merit of originality and invention. The
applause due to chastity of style--to a happy combination of
supernatural agency with human interest-to a tone of feudal
manners and language, sustained by characters strongly marked and
well discriminated,-and to unity of action, producing scenes
alternately of interest and grandeur,-the applause, in fine,
which cannot be denied to him who can excite the passions of fear
and pity must be awarded to the author of the Castle of Otranto."
(44)

"The Mysterious Mother," is a production of higher talent and
more powerful genius than any other which we owe to the pen of
Horace Walpole; though, from the nature of its subject, and the
sternness of its character, it is never likely to compete in
popularity with many of his other writings. The story is too
horrible almost for tragedy. It is, as Walpole himself
observes,"more truly horrid even than that of Oedipus." He took
it from a history which had been told him, and which he thus
relates: "I had heard, when very Young, that a gentlewoman, under
uncommon agonies of mind, had waited on Archbishop Tillotson, and
besought his counsel. Many years before, a damsel that served
her, had acquainted her that she was importuned by the
gentlewoman's son to grant him a private meeting. The mother
ordered the maiden to make the assignation, when, she said, she
would discover herself, and reprimand him for his criminal
passion: but, being hurried away by a much more criminal passion