To the Editor of the Christian Observer. THE following communication may perhaps prove interesting to some of your readers; and therefore I take the liberty of sending it, for insertion in your excellent magazine. My own heart hath frequently been warmed, yea, I trust my zeal in the best of causes bath often received a stimulus, from your religious intelligence; and I most earnestly pray that your labours in general may be especially useful in stirring up a missionary spirit amongst the English clergy. Surely Britain might spare a few out of her goodly number, to instruct those nations that lie in total darkness; and, methinks, if her ministers could behold the gross and thick darkness of the heathen, their bowels would yearn over them, and they would long to confer upon them the glorious light and liberty of Christianity. May the Lord accelerate the approach of that happy period, when his truth shall cover the earth as the waters cover the sea; and when all shall know Him, from the least to the greatest! I am, &c.

J. ARMSTRONG,

(Chaplain to the Settlement.) Parsonage, Belize, Bay of Honduras, August 25th, 1812.

On Monday, the 20th of June last, his Majesty's superintendant, Lieut.Colonel Smyth, laid the foundationstone of a new church at Belize, in

the Bay of Honduras. This is not only the first episcopal, but the first protestant church, ever erected in Spanish America. May it be the first fruits of a plentiful and glorious harvest!

This settlement, which is known in England on account of its mahogany, is now become considerable by the wealth and respectability of its inhabitants. Its population may be estimated at about four or five thousand, including whites, free people of colour, and slaves. With respect to this last description, your readers, will be gratified by being informed, that in this settlement their condition is comfortable, and they certainly enjoy peculiar privileges. Their allowances are sufficient; and, exclusive of their right to the Lord's day, the labour of Saturday is allowed them; and if employed by their masters on that day, they are paid for it. As to their religious condition, they are permitted to attend divine service, and to enjoy all the privileges of a member of the English church. Many of them have received Christian baptism, (not indeed from myself, but from my predecessor); and it is with pleasure [ add concerning such, that they have conducted themselves with much propriety, and appear sensible of their obligations. May the glorious light of the Gospel shine into this people's hearts, and then, though. "called, being slaves, they will care not for it."

M

Edgeworth's Tales of Fashionable Life. Indeed, having noticed the three volumes of this work, publish

We have already, in some measure, explained our motive for introducing to the notice of our readers Miss

we only consider it as an act of consistency to attend the authoress through the present continuation of her undertaking.

We do not, however, mean to take

refuge under any questionable or ambiguous principle, in prosecuting an investigation of the works of this able and influential writer. We consider her productions sufficiently important to demand our attention as Christian Reviewers and should we, in that capacity, find in her pages matter for serious and even severe animadversion, we hope, on the other hand, always to be found among the most willing contributors to her literary fame; perhaps we may even add, among the qualified advocates of that style, under which she has chosen to convey her instructions to the world. We know, indeed, that amongst the gravest class of moralists the style of fiction, so ably adopted by our authoress, is much more apt to find unqualified condemnation than even partial toleration; and this inclines us to risk the imputation of tautology in again adverting to that subject, and to open our present, as we did our former, remarks on Miss Edgeworth's Tales, as well as our review of Cottage Sketches in our last number, by some similar, though more extended observations on works of fiction in general.

Works of fiction, we conceive, may be conveniently ranged under three classes: those which are made the vehicles solely of some particuJar doctrine or lesson of instruction, and derive all their interest from the specific and naked notion so intended to be conveyed: those, again, which, though they contain a specific and evident moral throughout, are yet worked up in a manner to please the imagination or touch the heart, independently of that moral: and those, finally, which, without any distinct or understood moral object, aim to interest the feelings and rouse the passions as their first design, and then introduce or not, as it happens, and with more or less care and felicity, some generally instructive lessons. This specification, though we acknowledge it not to be made entirely upon the rules of Aristotle, and therefore shall not

frighten our readers by fortifying it with quotations from that philosopher, will yet, we think, pretty well enable them to class any writers of fiction with which they may happen to be acquainted. They will easily recognise under the first class, not only many excellent productions of human genius, such as the ancient romances of Xenophon's Cyropædia and Plato's imaginary Republic, and the modern ones of More's Utopia, Fenelon's Telemachus, the Pilgrim's Progress of Bunyan, together, perhaps, with the whole minor race of fables and apologues; but also, amongst these last, they will recog nise productions of even a much higher order;-those which give the highest sanction, doubtless, to every thing framed on their model-the parables and allegories of the Divine Instructor of mankind. These sacred productions, indeed, cannot but be viewed as the most perfect instances on record of the use of fiction disjoined from all its bad properties: and we conceive their peculiar purity consists in the absolute and sole view, always distinguishable in them, of illustrating some grave and weighty truth: which truth it is that forms their chief beauty, and perhaps, generally speaking, their whole interest. Very different, in this respect, are the writers of the second class. Not, indeed, that we mean to deny to many of them, in various degrees and shades of approximation, the pure views and beneficial effects of the first; as we also acknowledge, in the pure and legitimate designs of the first class, many actual effects coincident with those of the second. Perhaps the allegory of the " Prodigal Son," whilst it is simply and solely intended to illustrate and enencourage the great act of genuine repentance, presents a series of the most affecting and heart-touching incidents to the imagination which are to be found in all the annals of sentiment.

The object of the second class may be generally, and indeed favourably,

stated, as being "to instruct by pleasing" as the more noble boast of the first is, "to please by instructing." Amongst this secondary class we easily discover almost all the noblest efforts of poetry, whether sacred or profane, which have been formed upon the best models. Those great productions, whether of the epopia or the drama, which have commanded the attention, and ruled and tyrannized over the passions of mankind, have, for the most part, and upon rule, had for their object the inculcation of some grand moral or political maxim, which stands out with more or less prominence through the whole piece. If the object, indeed, has been rather the developement of some particular character or trait of disposition, with its corresponding effects, either in the exaltation or depression of the individual possessing it, the case will not be found to be far different. An instance of this latter kind, where the exhibition of some passion, in all its bearings and effects, has been attempted more systematically, and, we may add, with more originality and success, than by any other a thor whom these late years have produced, is to be found in the series of Plays on the Passions by our able country-woman Miss Bailey. On this principle, also, many eminent prose works have been formed, which, if to be ranked in the class of novels at all, are doubtless in the very highest order of that denomination. But the great mass of this species of works of fiction, with a vast number of our plays, and many also very highly approved or applaud ed poetical pieces, belong to the third, which we must call the most vulgar and unworthy class, consisting of those whose primary and chief design is to address the imagination and interest the feelings of mankind, with little or no distinct view to their improvement, otherwise than by a general reference to some general principles of morality, introduced rather to save the charac

ter of the writer than to mend the character of the reader.

Of this last class it is not necessary we should speak particularly, because we are bold to say Miss Edgeworth does not belong to it: and we are as bold to say, that she will find her place without any difficulty in the second class. Her plan, particularly in the volumes to which we now confine our attention, is professedly to illustrate and confirm, either by example or by contrast, some important moral or political maxim; to which, indeed, the whole piece is in each case manifestly subservient, though calculated at the same time, by the artifice of the tale, to affect, and even in one instance strongly to work upon, the feelings of the reader.

The question then recurs, on what principle we call the attention of our readers to such works of fiction. And the foregoing classification will, we trust, in some measure serve to answer the question. It seems to be reduced to a question of degree, rather than of kind. Fiction in general we have seen to have been adopted for purposes of instruction on the highest authority. Fiction also, attended with circumstances artificially contrived to rouse and gratify the imagination, we see cannot wholly be discarded; unless, indeed, we remove our Homers, our Virgils, our Tassos, our Miltons, our Spensers, from the same shelf which we strip of tales, call them novels, romances, or even dramas, that, like the others, are intended to inculcate some great lesson. The grand question, therefore, really comes to this, to what degree may the imagination be operated upon before it receives injury? What are the lessons which may be inculcated by these artificial means? and when does the inculcation of them by such means become profitable to the reader? And to this we answer, the imagination is safe, so long as it is presented only with such innocent and obvious images as it

must sooner or later meet in the real walks of domestic and social life; or with such further ideal and fictitious imagery as shall tend to raise in it the legitimate exercise of pure passions towards worthy objects; provided always such exercise lead it not absolutely astray from the predominant moral of the piece, nor be erected into an actually independent source of pleasure to the mind, rather than admitted and felt only as subsidiary to its moral improvement. The lessons which may be inculcated by these artificial means are, in general, all such as may be legitimately and usefully offered to the understanding in their naked form and the inculcation of them, by the artifices of fiction, becomes profitable to the reader when the arguments, the motives, the grounds, the illustrations, by which they are enforced, are such as, being stripped of all fictitious ornaments and adscititious circumstances, will stand examination by the rigid touchstone of sound truth. These we presume to offer at a venture as a sort of canons, for the purpose of trying compositions confessedly resting on the basis of fiction. We propose them primarily to authors themselves; then, to readers, or to those whose task it is to preside over the reading of others; and, finally, to ourselves, as Christian Reviewers. Knowing the importance of every aid to the cause of real and substantial virtue; knowing how great an advantage belongs to a picture visibly pourtrayed, as it were, and subjected to the eye of the imagination, above the mere grave and moral saying, dully "let down through the channel of the intellectual ear; knowing also what authority we have for the use of fiction in the best of causes, and what an abuse of it in the worst of causes we are under the necessity of counteracting; we dare not wholly stigmatise its adoption as illegal, antichristian, or even inexpedient. But, on the other hand, knowing well those bad

uses to which it has been applied; knowing the tendencies and the tried effects of that great mass of poisonous material which loads the shelves of the circulating library, and the tables of the fair who frequent it; knowing the object, either avowed or apparent, of a vast majo rity of such writings-the acquisi tion of a temporary fame, or of a still more paltry and dishonest gain, or the mere overthrow, upon principle, of established morals, for the diabolical purpose of debasing and corrupting mankind to the level of the writer; -we are deeply anxious to establish some rigid test by which the merits, not of the class in general, but of each individual in it, may be duly appreciated; by which, in each case, the plan, the motive, the "heart's desire" of the writer may be distinctly brought forth to view, and carefully examined; by which it may be known how far he bas executed his design in the real tendencies of his work; how, in fact, he has discharged the most important trust that can be committed to social man; how he has wielded the most potent instrument of instruction or corruption; and how mingled the strongest nostrums that can be administered, either to strengthen or inflame, tranquillise or relax, the moral constitution of mankind. If we were called to specify the individual in modern times, who in our opinion has furnished the most unexceptionable instance of not only the safe and innoxious, but the eminently beneficial employment of this mighty engine of moral good or evil, we should have no hesitation in naming Mrs. H. More; for whatever be her comparative merits as a writer of fiction, and we ourselves are disposed to rate them highly, she has this peculiar praise, that she has happily illustrated every rule by which we would guard this hazardous species of composition from abuse, and consecrate it as a mean of advancing the glory of God, and the happiness of man.