that earthly passion had been entirely swallowed up in the heavenly sentiment.

The whole narrative involves in it a sweeping condemnation of that innovating rule of the Romanist Church which hurried into crime an ill-fated pair, who might have been virtuous and respected but for the vice-prolific canon enjoining the celibacy of the priesthood.

Although M. de Courson allows, with Origen, that the teachers of a revealed religion, both in Britain and Brittany, were "real Christian Druids," he struggles hard to prove that Druidism in no shape can be traced in this district of France, since it became, not merely Christian, but Roman Catholic to boot. His praise is high for the inhabitants of this yet, in some degree, semi-civilised province, who, when threatened with death by the ambulatory commissioners of the French Revolution, made no other reply than-" Make haste to guillotine us, that we may ascend to heaven in three days;" and they merit a great portion of all the encomium that our Breton author has lavished on them. But patient endurance under adversity, and contented indifference for all change of circumstances and manner of living, may arise from other sources than exalted ones. Love of country, patient endurance of every species of adversity, and a calm meeting with the angel of death at the striking of the inevitable hour, are worthy of all praise; but when the virtues. so lauded are paraded as distinguishing the "catholic" Breton from the "heretic" Englishman, they are so lauded at the expense of truth and under the impulse of a vain and foolish. malignity. The author himself exhibits what the scriptural teaching of Popery is, by gravely supposing that the expression made by a German traveller concerning the inhabitants of Brittany-viz., "there are giants here even in these days"-was so made in allusion to Napoleon: he has not the slightest idea, apparently at least, that the allusion may have been to the words of Scripture, "there were giants in those days;" and, by a false foot-note reference, he as good as tells his readers that it is not. His apparent ignorance of Scripture and his positive hatred of England are nearly on a level. The amount of ignorance and the quality of hatred are not uncommon in French writers who condescend to instruct the world. It is not three months since one of the naval historians of France, having occasion to speak of Nelson visiting the ships of the Copenhagen squadron in his "gig," gravely explained to his readers, in order to excite their scorn for the great admiral, that a "gig" was a one-horse chaise: one of those incontestable truths which misapplication metamorphoses into rank lies.

Divisions of rank exist even among the most miserable of the Breton classes. The privileged artizans of the Celtic tribes, the smiths, the farriers, and the workers in iron, still occupy the most distinguished position in Brittany. To be a miller is to be a knave in grain, while the tailor is looked upon with that degree of contempt which has been attached to his calling since he first drew needle like a woman. We doubt, however, if these distinctions be peculiar to Brittany. They are, we think, common to all nations. The early records at least of every country will show that strength always take precedence of dexterity. It is only civilization that places the man-milliner above the mason, and the wielder of the anvilhammer below the plumassier.

We are glad to find that, among our cousins of Brittany, the word union is unknown, while that of parish is almost equivalent to home. The Communists, who are the Socialists of France, have effected no conversions in Britanny

"The Utopia of Socialism has been realized ages ago, thanks to the all-powerful influence of Christianity! Does a family of agriculturists desire to lay in its supply of linen? They announce that a spinning will take place on an appointed evening. At the time and locality named, all the neighbours go armed with their distaff and wheel; the flax is distributed to the women, and they set to work amid the singing of old Breton ballads. The following day before sunset the provision of thread is made at a small cost to the mistress of the house. A few basons' (a Breton word) of oaten gruel, pancakes of flour, and a little milk compose all the food required by the spinners......At the termination of high mass, on Sundays, the crier ascends the steps of the cross in the cemetery, and announces to the inhabitants of the parish that on a certain day a great carrying' at Lessuir's of the village of Kerselie, or at Nedelek's at Plouesee will take place. Were three hundred carts necessary, the appointed hour would see them at the door of the man who needed their help. The wood or the stone would be carted, carried, and unloaded in the turning of a hand. During this time mountains of pancakes, and earthen vessels charged with bacon and potatoes, are placed by the mistress of the farm and by her servants upon tables formed out of long planks. As soon as the work is accomplished, the workmen meet; the repast forthwith commences; the cider sparkles in the glasses; jokes cross each other, and raillery replies to raillery. And then the biniou is heard, and the universal joy is forthwith at its utmost height. Men and women, youths and maids, old age and childhood mingle in the dance. The musicians, mounted upon barrels, are breathless with blowing the liveliest and the most esteemed of the national airs; the beggars of the parish, without whom no festival would be complete, give their brazen throats to the traditional songs of their country; and the whole parish is in an intoxication of joy. But the sun dips

below the horizon. At the voice of an elder the dance ceases; and the festival terminates as it had begun, by a De profundis for the repose of the soul of the deceased relations of the entertainer."

This is, in most parts, pretty, true, and picturesque. Truth, indeed, M. de Courson almost assumes to be a Breton peculiarity. We doubt, however, if he possess it at all times himself. Thus he deliberately tells his readers that "it is in vain that the British Government has employed all its power (s'est efforcé) to annihilate the idiom of Taliessein in Wales. The bibles of Cambria are not in English but in Breton: twelve or fifteen journals or reviews are published in the latter language." As regards the British Government, at least, the first portion of the above paragraph is a wilful falsehood, the second only half true, and the concluding assertion a risible mistake.

The

Finally, while a modern tourist in Brittany may derive much advantage from the previous study of M. de Courson's pages, a very short experience of travelling will serve to convince him that these pages are not without their errors; and, above all, that whatever degree of religious spirituality may characterise the singular and ancient people of this province, Popery has neither succeeded in abolishing all the superstitions of the Druids, nor been without alacrity in introducing her own. Druidical remains at Carace and Lokmariaker are regarded with other sentiments than those of mere admiration, perhaps respect, which are paid in this country to Stonehenge and the circle at Amesbury. The pilgrimages to fountains are still made with reference to some Undine, or spirit of the stream, by whose divine influence the waters are rendered salubrious; and the generating power is still acknowledged to reside in those mysterious blocks of stone against which the childless Breton's wife rubs her breasts at night, in order to gain the honours of maternity. The Breton calendar, again, is half occupied by Celtic saints with names "un-in-one-breath-utterable," and whose canonization dates from ancient days when yet the Papal power was not, and whose place in the hearts and the prayers of the people Popes have not ventured to disturb. Nay, even the remnants of heathenism have survived through the Druidical teaching of Unity and the Christian instruction of the Trinity. Near Baud the figure of the Gallic Isis of Quinipily was worshipped with foul, pagan, rites down to the middle of the seventeenth century; and this granite Venus is still the object of the superstitious veneration of the ignorant. The miracle-working Virgin at Avenieres is a type of the change, which, to say the least of it, Romanism allows. The church at Folgoat is in

debted for half its sanctity, in the eyes of its Breton congregation, to the legend by which they are gravely informed that John de Montfort erected it in obedience to an intimation from the Virgin, who had caused lilies to grow upon the spot, the petals of which were inscribed with her holy name. At Quimperle the so-called "Catholic" customs observed at the grave of St. Gurlot are hardly less absurd than some of those that were wont to be practised in the days of the Odinic mythology. In full confidence of the saint's concurrence, rheumatic Bretons may be seen thrusting their arms through a hole in the tombstone as a specific for their pains. Thus is one superstition merely changed for its substitute. Nor indeed in some parts of Britanny has even so much as this been effected by the "ameliorating influences" of the Popish priesthood. At the church of St. Jean du Doigt, the two systems may be said to come into collision. In that church the preserved finger of the Baptist, or of the Evangelist, we really forget to which it is said to belong, exercises its peculiar potency; while in the chapel hard by, young girls make propitiatory offerings to the Virgin, by adopting the ancient Gaulish custom of cutting off their hair, and suspending the dissevered tresses before the figure of the "goddess" whose favour is thus strangely sought.

But in spite of all these things, upon which M. de Courson is profoundly silent, the author claims great honours due to the Romish Church for what she has effected in Brittany, and makes abundant promise of what she will yet effect. Judging from the time she has taken to extirpate Druidism, the promised morrow for the establishment of truth is, we fear, far distant.

Quam longe cras istud! Ubi est, aut unde petendum?

ART. VII.-The Life of the Rev. Joseph Blanco White, written by himself: with portions of his Correspondence. Edited by JOHN HAMILTON THOM. In 3 Vols. 8vo. London. 1845.

THIS book, which we are about to introduce to our readers, is a specimen of the only way in which biography can be truly written. It is divided into three parts, two of which were drawn up by Mr. White himself. The first is a narrative of his life up to 1826, in a series of letters to Archbishop Whately, including the years between 1775 and 1826. The second part is what he terms "A Sketch of my Mind in England." The third part was compiled from his journals, the note-books

in which he recorded reflections on his reading, such portions of his correspondence as were accessible, and chance entries in pocket-books and almanacks; and the editor of these documents is understood to have been his bosom friend. Admitting, then, the competency and sincerity of the writer and editor, more could not be required for constructing a perfect piece of history; for, after all, none can write the history of another's life. Even a trivial action can hardly be described with perfect accuracy by a lookeron, and still less can the motives which led to it be authoritatively assigned; but without these, biography is little more profitable than romance. It is a poor satisfaction to have read the history of the performances of a man's arms, and legs, and eyes, and ears (which is about the total of much of our biography), without being made a spectator of that which alone moved these puppets of the soul; and no less useless is it to have a record of debateable opinions, unless we are made acquainted with their origin and their influence upon the individual's own mental state. It is this bare anatomy which constitutes the value, and we may add danger, of these remarkable volumes. Had they been made up of the materials which constitute the fabric of so many of our biographies, such as that Mr. Blanco White was born in Spain, brought up a Roman Catholic, became an infidel, an atheist, then a believer in Christianity, then a clergyman of the English Church, and then a Unitarian, with the usual sprinkling of pungent anecdotes, imaginary conversations, studied letters, scraps of scandal, &c., we should have confidently predicted for the book the usual fate of such solemn trifles. But as we are bound to say that this work is altogether out of such classes, so we must predict for it a different destiny. It possesses all the dignity of earnestness and high intelligence in furnishing us with a rare opportunity of studying a human mind of no ordinary character. We had hesitated whether our duty to the Church would not be fulfilled by passing over in silence a work in which there is so much poison; but we concluded that, at all risks, we ought to enter our protest in detail against its daring conclusions, that the opinions of nearly all thinkers upon the dogmas of the New Testament are false, lest the silence of a journal set up for the defence of Christianity and the Anglican Church might be misconstrued.

Mr. Blanco White, though born in Spain, was descended from an Irish family, his grandfather having been sent abroad from Dublin to Seville to avoid the penal laws against Roman Catholics. His father inherited the business of a flourishing merchant at Seville, to which, when but eight years of age, the subject of this history was required to attend. Personal objec