THE

ECLECTIC REVIEW,

For OCTOBER, 1811.

Art.

I. Letters of Anna Seward, written between the years 1784 and 1807, in six Volumes. Pp. 2550. Price 31. 3s. Constable and Co. Edinburgh. Longman and Co. 1811.

ONE of the most innocent and exquisite pleasures of

this life, is that of hearing from an absent friend. When we are suddenly reminded, by a letter, of one who is dear to us, and see our name in the well known hand, a flush of delight pervades the whole frame, the heart beats with expectation while the seal is opening, and goes forth in full benevolence to meet the heart of the writer in the perusal. An epistolary correspondence between intimate and endeared friends is a spiritual communion, in which minds alone seem to mingle, and, unembarrassed by the presence of the body, converse with a freedom, a fervour, and an eloquence, rarely excited, and perhaps never so felicitously indulged, in personal intercourse. Hence, the chief charm of a letter, if we may so apply the term, is its individuality, as a messenger from one whom we love, sent expressly on an errand of kindness to ourselves. The consciousness that it was written to him and for him, gives the receiver of a letter a permanent interest in its existence, as well as in its contents: to him therefore it becomes an object of affection: and no second person, though he may sympathise with that feeling, can enter into it with the same enjoyment. It follows, that by far the greater part of letters, most welcomed and esteemed by those to whom they are addressed, would be read with indifference by all besides; for the familiar correspondence of very few, even among the great and the gifted, can be so lively, touching, and original, as to afford universal pleasure. Of late it has VOL. VII. 4 Α

been common to publish, rather voluminously, the letters of eminent persons deceased; and it is not invidious to say, that, in most instances, a few specimens would have been more acceptable than the whole. Several British authors have been so indiscreet as to publish their own private letters; but we do not recollect one who ever advanced his reputation, by a breach of trust towards his nearest friends-for such we must call the publication of temporary and spontaneous effusions of friendship, addressed to the bosom feelings of individuals, and only incidentally interesting to others within the circle of their mutual affections: the case is widely different, where they were in the habit of writing essays on set subjects to their corres pondents, which might as well have been directed to one as another.

In letter-writing, when the heart is earnestly engaged, the first thoughts in the first words are the best. The ideas that rise, and thicken as they rise, in a mind full and overflowing with its subject, voluntarily embody themselves in language the most easy and natural;-yet are they so delicate and evanescent, that, unless caught in their first forms, they lose their character and distinctness, blend with each other, and, from being strikingly simple in succession, become inextricably complex in association, on account of their multiplicity and affinity. The thoughts that occur in letter-writing, will not stay to be questioned. They must be taken at their word, or instantly dismissed. He who once hesitates among them becomes bewildered, and must either resolutely disengage himself, by darting right forward through the multitude to recover the freedom of his pen, or must patiently select, arrange, and array them; -when, whatever may be the merits of his composition, it will want the ineffable charm of a familiar epistle.

As the sweetest sensation communicable by a letter can only be once enjoyed, and that by the person alone to whom it is addressed, the readers of these volumes will not be disappointed to miss it here. They will, however, expect much of that sympathetic pleasure which is derived from remote or kindred interest in the characters and subjects, in perusing the correspondence of so admired a female as Miss Seward, with many of the most amiable and exalted private and literary persons of the age; and, unless their expectations be very unreasonable, we may venture to promise them considerable gratification.-The series commences when she had already reached middle life, and is continued through a period of three and twenty years.

In reading these volumes, it will be well to be prepared

with some knowledge of the state of the writer's affections, at different stages. For in all correspondence, however formal or restricted, where the heart has any room to move, the affections will breathe forth sometimes; and in the pages before us, though principally devoted to literature and politics, their influence is frequently and fervently felt. From hints and acknowledgments in these letters we learn, that, when she was young and beautiful, the fair author had sundry suitors, to one of whom she seems to have been more partial and constant than he proved to her. But this untoward circumstance had no peculiarly baneful effect on the tranquillity of her future life. Love in the form of passion is scarcely perceptible in Miss Seward's writings; but love in the form of affection constitutes their chief grace-The feelings of an elder sister and a youthful mother were blended in her attachment to Honora Sneyd, the bosom companion of her happiest years, whom she did not cease to love, when unkindness had alienated her in her married state, nor to deplore, in language of the warmest tenderness, after her death. In truth, Miss Seward has rendered Honora so engaging, that every reader must become like herself the friend, or like Major André the lover, of this unfortunate beauty.-Long after the loss of Honora Sneyd, the filial piety of Miss Seward was exercised in "rocking the cradle of declining age," which she did, for many years, with unwearied and endearing fidelity towards a venerable father, who, by the slow decay at once of mind and body, dwindled into second childhood, and be-' came the nurseling of his daughter. That reader has neither the feelings of a parent or a child, who can plain that Miss Seward has preserved too many allusions to this distressing theme, in the letters which she has here bequeathed to the public.-From childhood she had cherish.. ed a friendship, peculiarly frank and intimate, with Mr. Saville, a Vicar Choral of Litchfield Cathedral, a man of eminent talents as a singer, of cultivated mind, and liberal manners. This friend remained with her nearly to the last, to remind her of all she had known, and loved, and lost, "when youth and years were flown." From the decease of her father, her attachment to Mr. Saville becomes more conspicuous in her correspondence; and the expressions of it are frequently so romantic, that we cannot wonder the meddling world should surmise, that it exceeded the metaphysical bounds of Platonism. To this she only once, and then very delicately, alludes in a letter written after his death. Indeed she could scarcely complain of winking whispering slanders against herself, when she could signifi

com

cantly glance at there being something peculiar in the friend-
ship subsisting between Cowper and Mrs. Unwin. Surely
the melancholy situation of that admirable but most un-
fortunate man, not only justified, but consecrated the self-
denying offices of maternal tenderness, performed for him
by that excellent and heroic woman.
In like manner we
are willing to believe, that the familiar and confidential in-
tercourse which existed between Mr. Saville and Miss Seward,
might be sanctioned by their relative situation, their long
tried worth, and irreproachable conduct. We should not
have touched upon this nice point, had not the style of
many passages in these letters, referring to Mr. Saville,
been so ardently wrought, that shrewd and sneering sus-
picions will inevitably be thrown out by self-complacent
readers, who love to trace the frailties of human nature in
characters more ingenuous than their own, and to lay sin
at the door where it was never admitted into the house.
These were the principal objects of Miss Seward's affec-
tions during her long life; and accordingly those parts of her
correspondence in which Honora Sneyd, her father, or Mr.
Saville are mentioned, are always impressive, for they come
"Warm from the heart, and faithful to its fires."

The letters before us are addressed to a great number of persons, of both sexes, of various rank and merit, and standing in every imaginable degree of estimation with the writer herself, from the most fervent friendship to cerémonious indifference. The subjects are chiefly literary, including much amusing criticism on contemporary poets,descriptive, delineating scenery in her summer excursions,political, abounding with laboured phillipics against the war, the Jacobins, and Mr. Pitt,-and sometimes religious, displaying more spleen than charity, and dwelling far more on what she hated than what she loved in the profession of Christianity. The names of her correspondents are generally prefixed to the letters; but occasionally the initials only are given, apparently from delicacy to the persons themselves; a delicacy which might very well have been spared, since we are, in almost every instance, led to suspect who they were, by some happy inadvertence of allusion in the sequel, which points the censure or the ridicule against them more severely, because they are exposed more conspicuously, by being betrayed in their concealment. Want of candour and generosity towards her friends (waiving the question whether these letters were reserved for publication with their consent) cannot often, however, be charged upon Miss Seward-who really seems to have been un