from the experience of the spectator, that he feels the grounds of his
approbation and blame to be in a great measure conjectural. The
_romance_, such as we generally have seen it, resembles a Gothic
window-piece, where monarchs and bishops exhibit the symbols of their
dignity, and saints hold out their palm branches, and grotesque monsters
in blue and gold pursue one another through the intricacies of a
never-ending scroll, splendid in colouring, but childish in composition,
and imitating nothing in nature but a mass of drapery and jewels thrown
over the commonest outlines of the human figure. The works of the
_comedian_, in their least interesting forms, are Dutch paintings and
caricatures: in their best, they are like Wilkie's earlier pictures,
accurate imitations of pleasing, but familiar objects--admirable as works
of art, but addressed rather to the judgment than to the imagination.

* * * * *


ENGLISH WOMEN.


Nothing could be more easy than to prove, in the reflected light of our
literature, that from the period of our Revolution to the present time,
the education of women has improved among us, as much, at least, as that
of men. Unquestionably that advancement has been greater within the last
fifty years, than during any previous period of equal length; and it may
even be doubted whether the modern rage of our fair countrywomen for
universal acquirement has not already been carried to a height injurious
to the attainment of excellence in the more important branches of
literary information.