Spouting and frisking. Turning and twisting Around and around, Collecting, disjecting With endless rebound; Smiting and fighting, A sight to delight in ; Confounding, astounding, Dizzing and deafening the ear with its sound. Receding and speeding, And shocking and rocking, And whizzing and hissing, And whitening and brightening, And quivering and shivering, And hitting and splitting, And shining and twining, And rattling and battling, And shaking and quaking, And foaming and roaming, And thundering and floundering, And falling and brawling and sprawling, And clattering and battering and shattering, And gleaming and streaming and steaming and beaming, THE REVIEW. "We belong to the unpopular family of Tell-truths, and would not flatter Apollo for his Lyre."-ROB ROY. 66 THE PIONEERS, OR THE SOURCES OF THE SUSQUEHANNA, A descriptive Tale. By the author of " The Spy." 3 vols. 12mo. London, Murray, 1823. In our review of Bracebridge Hall, we took occasion to notice the Spy. We regarded it as a production of very high merit by far the best of the multitudes which have been put forth on the model, and in imitation, of the Great Unknown. When we say, however, model of the Waverley that the Spy is written on the novels-we would by no means be understood to signify that the imitation is servile or even close. It is a vivid and spirited representation of manners, scenery, and romantic events-and thence, must necessarily in some degree resemble the most spirited and vivid representations of such things that ever were given to the world. There are, indeed, some parts of the Spy, which would be no discredit to the pen of even the author of Waverley. The character of Lawton, original as it is, and admirably sustained thoughout, is a creation of no ordinary power. When we use the term 'admirably sustained throughout,' we mean to give much more than common praise for we hold it to be a very rare thing to see a character preserved through five acts, or three volumes, in perfect keeping and harmony. Minor artists frequently give a formal and elaborate description at the beginning, which in the sequel is forgotten, if not contradicted; and without which our ideas of the character portrayed would be to the last degree vague, and imperfect. It is the master-hand only, which gives no catalogue of qualities; but, by a succession of rapid touches, makes actions and words place the doer and speaker before you. This is done to a very peculiar extent in the character of which we speak—and we cite it more particularly from its being (with the exception, perhaps, of the negro, who is, we conclude, a local transcript) the most original in the book. It is the more so, we think, from the very circumstance that in broad outline the conception is by no means a new one. It is the completely novel form into which used materials are thrown, together with the minute and delicate, yet rapid and apparently unstudied, shadings, that gives to Lawton so individual and original an aspect. In less skilful hands, he would have been either a mere ruffian, or the bluff good-humoured soldier, which are both so common;-but this author has softened his boldness-even fierceness-and his terrible bodily power, with so much jovial humour, and kind-heartedness-and has thrown so much of romance into his daring and desperate exploits, that he has produced the very beau-idéal of a condottiere of modern times-a guerilla chief of English warfare. The Surgeon is a most amusing piece of fantastic sketching; while the Spy himself possesses all the interest without any of the novelism of mystery. The skill, too, with which the great Washington is introduced is very admirable. It needs, indeed, very great skill to touch upon such ground at all in America ;-for we have been told that an attempt once made to bring the character of Washington on the stage, was received with an indignation, and even horror, little short, as our informant said, of what would have been felt at a proposal similarly to personify the Saviour of mankind. But it is not in character alone that this work asserts |