lations, he now lives in the foggy and expensive London, where he participates in the afflictions of so many of his worthy and exiled countrymen.'

Kew Garden disappointed the Doctor, but the park' enchanted him, and the grounds of the Horticultural Society gave him unmixed pleasure, excepting that he regretted the impossibility of procuring in Germany the slender cast-iron framework employed to so much advantage in the construction of our stoves. Their cheapness, in particular, struck him. In England, where, he observes, every thing is six times as expensive as with us, the cost of these frames is no greater than would be, in Germany, the expense of wood work that would not last above a year'. The peaches, nectarines, plums, melons, ' grapes, and pine-apples,' produced by the Society, were among the finest he had ever seen, and induced him to mitigate his censure of the acid or insipid', though uncommonly fine-looking' fruitage of Covent Garden Market. Chelsea was tolerable; but the British Museum presented nothing that interested us at all!' The celebrated flower-market of London' appeared more remarkable for extent and quantity than for quality and selection. The Squares, with their light and elegant iron railing, their bright lawns, and their groupes of trees and flowering shrubs, delighted Dr. Schultes; nor was he less gratified with the splendid establishment of Mr. Loddiges, who is, as the Dr. carefully informs us, a German.

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Among the varieties which follow this narrative, occur some details respecting the preparation of what is usually termed 'Rice Paper', and which was, for a considerable time, taken for a modification of that substance, but which is now ascertained to be a native material. It has been found, or rather, the fact has been taken for granted, that, in a certain class of drawings, the surface is superior to that of paper, though we feel quite satisfied that the supposition is completely erroneous. In consequence of this peculiarity of structure and its reputed advantages, this article has been much in demand, and considerable curiosity has been excited respecting its real nature. It was, at first, imported in small squares. The earliest specimens were brought from China, about five-and-twenty years ago, by Dr. Livingstone. He presented some of them to an ingenious maker of artificial flowers, who found them admirably adapted to that kind of manufacture, and they became exceedingly fashionable. A groupe expressly made for the late Princess Charlotte of Wales, cost £70. It was, however, obvious on inspection, that the fine cellular tissue of the Rice Paper' had nothing in common with the processes of human dexterity; and the following extract from a letter written by General Hardwicke, will furnish a satisfactory explanation of its qualities and uses.

I am very glad that it is in my power to answer your inquiries about the plant which produces the substance known under the name of Rice Paper. It has very often interested me and gratified my curiosity, to remark to how many useful purposes it is applied by the natives of India. . . . It grows abundantly in the marshy plains of Bengal, and on the borders of Jeéls or extensive lakes, in every province between Calcutta and Hurdwar. The plant is perennial, of straggling, low growth, and seldom exceeds a diameter of two inches and a half in the stem. It is brought to the Calcutta bazaars in great quantities in a green state; and the thickest stems are cut into laminæ, from which the natives form artificial flowers and various fancy ornaments to decorate their shrines at Hindoo festivals. The Indians make hats of rice paper, by cementing together as many leaves as will produce the requisite thickness; in this way any kind of shape may be formed; and when covered with silk or cloth, the hats are strong and inconceivably light. It is an article of great use to fishermen ; it forms floats of the best description to their extensive nets. The slender stems of the plant are bundled into fascines about three feet long, and with one of these under his arm does every fisherman go out to his daily occupation. With his net on his shoulders, he proceeds to work without a boat, and stretches it in the deepest and most extensive lakes, supported with this buoyant faggot. You must observe, that the cutting of this material into leaves, or laminæ, is not performed by transverse sections of the stem, but made vertically round the stem. The most perfect stems are selected for this purpose; but I believe few are found sufficiently free from knots to produce a cutting of more than nine or ten inches in length.'

This Part closes with various illustrations of the botanical discoveries made during the late expedition under Captain Franklin, to the shores of the Arctic Sea, and with the commencement of a Sketch', by Mr. Drummond, of his laborious journeys among the Rocky Mountains and to the Columbia River.

Art. IV. The Correspondence and Diary of Philip Doddridge, D.D.; illustrative of various Particulars in his life hitherto unknown: with Notices of many of his Contemporaries; and a Sketch of the Ecclesiastical History of the Times in which he lived. Edited from the Original MSS. by his great Grandson, John Doddridge Humphreys, Esq. 2 Vols. 8vo. pp. xxxii, 1008. London, 1829. THIS publication was first brought under our notice by the

"London Literary Gazette"; and the manner in which it is there hailed and applauded, will best speak for the true character and tendency of the work, and save us the necessity of expatiating upon the discretion, piety, and honourable feeling by which its Editor has been actuated. We shall not be chargeable with any literary trespass in transcribing the following detached

sentences.

We know not when, if ever, we have perused two volumes of the description of these now before us, with more intense curiosity, amusement, and instruction: curiosity, in following the " amours (to use his own words, and in no improper sense) of a young and warm nonconformist clergyman; amusement, in witnessing the various scrapes into which his devotion to the fair sex brought the worthy preacher; and instruction, in studying his philosophical views of human nature, his frankness, his general love of his kind, and his mild and liberal religious tenets. The picture of such a man drawn by his own hand, in his letters on every occasion which could call forth his sentiments, opinions, and actions, is to us worth a thousand such lives as Job Orton, or even Dr. Kippis could write.. It may be true that the medley will seem an odd one; for the mixture of the amorous and the pious, of the flesh and the spirit, of the natural and the religious, of the earthly and the heavenly, is indeed as naïve and candid a piece of exposition as can well be imagined. . . . . . The world to this Dissenter, was a world of innocent recreation and lawful pleasure; he thought it no crime to enjoy the good things with which its maker has stored it; and he was neither guilty of the sourness of ascetic folly, nor of the worse guilt of that too common hypocrisy, so prevalent in his as well as in our times, which cloaks its pride under counterfeit sanctity, and covers its hidden indulgences under gloomy externals and rigid austerities.

It has been said, that Queen Elizabeth desired to see Falstaff in love; and though commanded by so potent a monarch, and performed by so immortal a poet, we are not sure that there is any thing in the fat knight's sordid passion, to be compared with the genuine amorousness of the Reverend Doctor Doddridge as painted by his own hand. It is rather a novelty to see how serious people manage in Literary Gazette, Sep. 26, 1829.

....

these light gambols.'

With the sentiments of the Reviewer we do not concern ourselves. It is perfectly natural, that these volumes should appear to him exceedingly amusing, as good as a play.' And yet, had not the individual who is thus shewn up been a sectarian and a saint, we feel persuaded that the good sense and good feeling of the Editor of the Literary Gazette would have revolted against the outrage committed upon a good man's memory; an outrage which reminds us of the reported conduct of Dean Swift's servant in making an exhibition of his master when in a state of idiocy, but he was a mercenary, not a descendant. But let us hear Mr. Doddridge Humphreys's own account of the design of the publication.

I confess myself not contented with the reputation he (Dr. Doddridge) has acquired as a theologian, and anxious that he should be better known as a man; that the perfect catholicism of his spirit should be apparent, and that the joyous urbanity of his disposition should be manifest. ... If, from a highly artificial state of society, spiritual pride broods like an incubus over the land; if a counterfeit sanctity impose unnecessary restrictions; if meek-eyed Piety be

loaded with the fetters of formality until her smile of innocent vivacity is exchanged for the frown of austerity, or sunk into the vacuity of unsocial indifference, then is the period arrived, when the influence of that manly faith which shines forth in the example of our forefathers, becomes most desirable. . . . . . May not a Christian blush, when on every side he hears the members of an influential party lauding each other with the term evangelical, until the plain man of upright intentions and humble hope in divine mercy, stands disregarded?"

Mr. Doddridge Humphreys blushes for the evangelicals. It is a good sign, when the power of blushing is not lost, although blushing for others is not always a sign of modesty. We thank this gentleman, however, for stating so distinctly, that his motive for thus exhuming his admirable ancestor, and exposing him in this fantastic guise, has been, to mortify the spiritual pride of the age, and to teach meek-eyed piety the lesson of a joyous 'urbanity.' Finding himself, a 'plain man of upright intentions,' disregarded by the evangelicals, he has hit upon an admirable mode of revenge,-that of dragging to light the early correspondence of his venerated relative, for the purpose of making it appear, that the Dr. was a joyous, amorous, liberal, and indulgent sort of personage, very different from what Mr. Orton represents him, and a perfect contrast to the evangelical Dissenters of the present day. For the gayety of expression' in some of the letters, the following apology is offered.

To those conversant with the domestic phraseology used in the early portion of the last century, as it appears in the familiar compositions of that date, the freedom of allusion to points of a delicate nature, occurring in this correspondence, will not excite surprise. Such readers will mentally refer to a variety of parallel passages in the Letters of Pope and other polished writers, and are perfectly aware that a still greater latitude was allowed in the colloquial intercourse of that period.' Vol. I. p. 94.

Dr. Doddridge and Pope! So then, the reader is to understand, that the private correspondence of the Author of the Rise and Progress of Religion, exhibits pretty much the same description of erotic gallantry as that of the Correspondent of Lady Mary Wortley Montague. We are happy to relieve our readers from the painful surprise this intimation must excite, by assuring them, that there is nothing in the Letters to warrant this disgraceful comparison. But Mr. Humphreys proceeds:

Perhaps it may be remarked, that, from persons devoted to the ministerial office, a more cool and guarded mode of expression may be expected. The opinion is not only fallacious, but of mischievous tendency. The check it would impose upon the mind, by keeping it in a state of cautious anxiety, and a consciousness of deception in the external appearance, are points incompatible with that simplicity of heart and integrity of conversation becoming the Christian character.' Vol. I. p. 95.

So far as this strange paragraph has any intelligible meaning, it would imply, that there is no medium or alternative between a sanctimonious hypocrisy and an unlicensed levity and freedom of manners. But it is not on behalf of the Author of these Letters, that Mr. Humphreys was called upon to apologize: he is not the man to defend the character of Dr. Doddridge, if it required vindication. The apology which is demanded, is due for the offence of publishing letters written in the confidence of friendship and the exuberance of youth, for the avowed purpose of rescuing the character of the reverend Writer from the odium of too great sanctity. The Correspondence commences at the year 1721, when young Doddridge had just entered upon his academical studies, and extends through the ensuing eight years; the letters, therefore, were all written between the ages of nineteen and seven and twenty. As might be expected, a very considerable difference is observable in the spirit and character of the first and the latter letters of the series. In the earlier letters, those especially addressed to his fair correspondents, we find displayed a boyish playfulness, an awkward gallantry, and a susceptibility of tender impressions, which never approach to either grossness or culpability, but not unfrequently border upon the ridiculous. The number of the young academic's female correspondents, maidenly and matronly, may itself provoke a smile; and the warmth of his friendship, as expressed in some of the letters, might be mistaken for the ardour of an exclusive passion. Then, in the assumed names of Clio and Hortensius, on the one hand, and the homely designation of Miss Kitty, &c. on the other, though agreeable enough to the fashions of the day, there is a puerile effect, which is not redeemed by any thing extraordinary or brilliant in either the matter or the composition of these epistles. In fact, no one would have thought them worth publishing, who had consulted either the Writer's reputation, or the interests of society. A sufficient idea may be formed of the complexion of this portion of the letters, from the titles of a few, as given in the Table of Contents.

To Miss Hannah Clark.

More amusing than important.

To his Sister, Mrs. Nettleton.
Affectionate and domestic.

To Miss Farrington.

Sportively assumes the filial relation, and with due gravity affects to entreat her advice on some singular points of etiquette; to which is subjoined a confession more frank than ears maternal are wont to receive.

To Miss Hannah Clark.

Female society, however charming, not quite compatible with academical studies; with a promise that her letters shall not survive him.

VOL. II.-N.S.

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