THE

ECLECTIC REVIEW,

FOR JUNE, 1818.

Art. 1. Memoirs of the late Mrs. Elizabeth Hamilton. With a Selection from her Correspondence, and other unpublished Writings. By Miss Benger, 2 vols. cr. 8vo. pp. 688. Price 11. 1s. 1818.

AMONG the distinguished female writers whose successful

exertions in almost every branch of literature, will form so striking a circumstance in the annals of the present reign, Eliza- · beth Hamilton occupies no subordinate rank, and to her, perhaps, may be awarded the praise of having sustained the character of the instructress, with the most correctly intuitive judgement, and the most winning benevolence. There can be no room for hesitation in ranking her productions with the most useful, as well as the most pleasing of those works, to which mothers and daughters are so much indebted for the improvement that has taken place in systems of female education, and for the revolution which has to a great extent been effected, in the taste of the reading public. No writer deserves better of her country-women, for having assiduously laboured to extend the reign of the philosophy of good sense. Without making any very lofty pretensions to genius, she possessed a mind naturally observant, reflective, and vigorous in no ordinary degree; and the circumstances of her early life, were highly favourable to the formation of those independent habits of thinking, which laid the foundation of her intellectual superiority. There is a simplicity of character, as well as a tone of kindness, pervading her writings, which bespeaks the purity and kindliness of the motives by which her exertions were uniformly prompted. Her instructions always seem dictated by the feelings of a friend who wishes to do her readers a service. Literary reputation was sought or valued by her, only as a means of usefulness; and no female author was ever, as it should seem, less infected with the vanity of authorship. "At the time that I first became acquainted with Mrs. Hamilton,' writes an intimate friend of hers, a female literary character 'was a sort of phenomenon in Scotland. It was, therefore, Vol. IX. N.S. 2 R

'most fortunate for the interests of her sex, that when an autho'ress did appear amongst us, she should be one whose kind heart and unpretending manners should set the sneers of pre'judice at defiance.' Cheerfulness, good sense and good humour, her obvious characteristics, soon reconciled every one to the 'literary lady.' Whatever be the ultimate fate of her productions, none have better merited the popularity which they have enjoyed, by their seasonable usefulness; and the well earned fame which they purchased for their Author, is of the most enviable kind. We receive this invitation to learn the particulars of the history of her character, less as critics than as friends; and those who, with these feelings of affectionate interest, open the present volumes, will not be disappointed in the perusal. They are the most elegant and the most acceptable tribute which friendship could pay to the memory of one so highly worthy of being long remembered.

It will be regretted, that the 'Biographical Fragment,' begun by Mrs. Hamilton herself, which, had it been carried on, would have formed the most interesting portion of these volumes, supplies no information with regard to her personal history. It contains, however, a brief and affecting tale of the short-lived matrimonial happiness of her parents, which was terminated by the death of Mr. Hamilton, in the prime of life, in 1759, the year after the birth of their daughter Elizabeth. We wish that the following testimony to his worth, extracted from a letter addressed by Mrs. Hamilton to his sister, had not left it so very doubtful, whether a belief in the only revealed means of future happiness, entered into the composition of his character.

"My great consolation is, that I am sure he is happy, if the best of tempers, the most unbounded benevolence of heart, the most sincere desire to do good and be useful in the world;-if the constant exercise of the best affections can entitle any one to happiness in another state, then he is happy."

In consequence of this melancholy bereavement, Mrs. Hamilton was induced to consent to the dismemberment of her family, and Elizabeth, when only six years of age, was surrendered to the care of her excellent relatives, Mr. and Mrs. Marshall. The portrait which is given of these her adopted parents, is extremely pleasing. Mr. Marshall was very inferior by birth to his lady, who boasted of being of the stock whence all the branches of the Hamilton family that have been ennobled in these kingdoms, in France, and in Germany, have sprung. In Scotland, the pride of birth is of all prejudices the most predominant, and of all prejudices it is, perhaps, the most difficult to subdue. It was not without a severe struggle, that this lady, who had been always taught to consider it as a dignified and heroic sentiment, obtained the conquest over herself, so far as to become reconciled to an

alliance with the son of a peasant. Mr. Marshall had, however, received an education superior to his birth. To him, Mrs. Hamilton remarks, might well be applied what Burns has said of an Ayr'shire friend, that "be held his patent of nobility direct from "Almighty God." In the two and thirty years during which they were united, never did the heart of Mrs. Marshall experience ' even a momentary pang of vexation, sorrow, or regret.'

Mr. Marshall resided in a solitary mansion near Stirling, where Elizabeth spent two years, not in learning tasks, but in receiving more instructive lessons from nature; fortunately she had a playmate of the other sex, by whose example she was stimulated to feats of hardihood and enterprize, and, happy to escape restraint, she readily joined her companion in fording the burns in summer, or sliding over their frozen surface in winter. Mrs. Marshall, though sensible and accom plished, was no metaphysician; yet, in sanctioning these innocent pastimes, she realised all that has been suggested by an enlightened and eloquent philosopher on the subject of elementary education.

"When nature is allowed free scope," says Dugald Stewart," the "curiosity, during early youth, is alive to every external object, and "to every external occurrence. Whenever a child contracts a dis"relish for those amusements suited to its age, the best of all educa❝tion is lost, which nature has prepared amidst the active sports and "hazardous adventures of childhood. It is from these alone that we "can acquire, not only that force of character which is suited to the more arduous situations of life, but that complete and prompt com"mand of attention to things external, without which the highest " endowments of the understanding, however they may fit a man for "the solitary speculations of the closet, are but of little use in the practice of affairs, or for enabling him to profit by his personal ex"perience."*

Nothing is, indeed, more striking than the influence which this happy childhood had upon Miss Hamilton's future charac ter. Imagination, which these scenes contributed so powerfully to develop and to cherish, was to her, through life, a source of cheerfulness, and its connexion with the sensibilities of the heart, she was well capable of advocating from her own experience. The danger attending its morbid predominance in the character,

Mrs. Hamilton never read this passage without referring to her own happy childhood. Destined in the prime of life to become the victim of a cruel disease, she retained, through many succeeding years of suffering and languor, the quick perception, the elastic spirit, the prompt decision, she had been permitted to acquire from the rural dissipation of her childhood. To her last moments the pupil and the lover of nature, the aspect of a beautiful country seemed to restore her to the energies of youth. When labouring under infirmity, her selfpossession was not suspended; the active spirit invigorated the feeble frame; and she was often seen, with lame feet, but courageous steps, descending such declivities as few ladies, in the full possession of health and strength, would have attempted.

which in fact can arise only from its exclusive cultivation, and from the consequent neglect of the other powers, is not perhaps greater than that which is the result of an opposite defect.

By most of the pious people and pious writers,' says Miss Hamil ton, that I have met with, the imagination is treated as a sort of evil spirit, that must be exorcised and laid at rest; but in my opinion it is very impious, and surely very ungrateful, thus to treat the first of blessings, without which, judgment will be but a sour old maid, producing nothing. Let us marry them, and we shall do better; for it is evident neither of them was meant for the single state.'

I sincerely believe that the great disadvantage of living in a crowd, is the check it puts upon the free excursions of imagination."

In books, however, even at this early age, she had learned to find a substitute for a playmate.

Her first hero was Wallace, with whom she became enamoured, by learning to recite Blind Henry's Lays. Two or three of Shakspeare's historical plays came in her way; the history of England followed. She happened to meet with Ogilvie's translation of Homer's Iliad, and soon learnt to idolize Achilles, and almost to dream of Hector.'

At nine years of age, Elizabeth was sent to board, from Monday to Saturday, with a female friend at Stirling, for the purpose of attending a day-school under Mr. Manson. Here she applied with much assiduity, to writing, geography, and the use of the globes, to which, the ensuing year, were added, French, drawing, and music. It was a frequent subject of regret to her, in after life, that instead of devoting so much time to these accomplishments, she had not been allowed to learn the classics under so competent an instructer. On Saturday, the arrival of old Lochaber, the horse which was to convey her back to her home, was hailed with all the vivacity of youthful delight. Sunday is represented as having been a day of tasks, a mode of religious instruction which Mrs. Hamilton, in the following remarks, seems to speak of as both injudicious and inefficient.

Often,' she says, did my dear and amiable instructress listen with mingled solicitude and delight, to my senseless, though accurate, recitation of passages, which excited in her mind a train of ideas very different from those raised in mine. Had she stopped here, had she contented herself, as many do, with this one mode of religious instruction, it is probable that the importance of religious principle would now have appeared to me in a very different light.'

It is, however, by no means clear, that because no immediate effect, of the nature of improvement, might attend the getting these lessons by heart, Miss Hamilton derived no advantage from the elements of religious knowledge which she thus passively imbibed. She was herself far from being of opinion that the memory ought never, during childhood, to be exercised upon words,

of the meaning of which the child had no distinct ideas. On the contrary, she justly remarks, that such words are afterwards 'to be made use of; they are the tools with which the mind is, at a future period, to work.' It is very true, that the cultiva tion of this mechanical species of memory,-that branch of memory which relates to mere perceptions, will have little or no influence in expanding the powers of the mind; but it is allowed to have its use in subservience to other important objects of education, and it certainly does not cease to be of advantage, when religious instruction, instead of the rules of grammar, is made the subject of the lesson. What is thus acquired by rote, does not as yet partake of the nature of knowledge, and if the religious education of the child is confined to this one mode of 'instruction,' it may possibly never come into use as the materials of knowledge; but where other modes are not neglected, the development of the faculties will be attended by the quickening of these merely recollected perceptions, into intelligent ideas; and the mind will eagerly catch at the gradually discovered meaning of the terms which have been indelibly impressed upon the memory, and which, on account of their indefiniteness, the more easily connected themselves with the first indistinct feelings of awe and veneration. A judicious choice of the composi tions to be thus committed to memory, will, indeed, secure the promotion of both these objects,-the acquirement of terms and that of ideas; and it is by no means necessary that what children get by heart, should be dictated to them in the shape of lessons or tasks. A child of quick perception, will easily be brought to take pleasure in the spontaneous retention and recitation of compositions, which he can as yet but very imperfectly comprehend. The importance of religious principle' must, we are well persuaded, be taught by very different methods of instruction, but from the number of those methods, sermons do not appear, so far as we can find, to have been designedly excluded by any remarks of Miss Hamilton, and we cannot but lament that her biographer should have thought proper to insinuate such an opinion as her own. It would seem from the incautious manner-for we are unwilling to consider it as designed-in which Miss Benger expresses herself, that an attendance on public worship, constituted the alloy of the Sundays which Elizabeth enjoyed to spend with these excellent people. She herself makes no such complaint; and the exception implied in the remark of her biographer, that 'exclusive of tasks and sermons, unsuited 'to the taste and capacity of childhood, religion assumed in this 'family a most engaging aspect,' does not appear to be warranted by the fact, any more than it is justified by propriety.

6

Mr. Marshall attended an Episcopal chapel; his wife conformed to the Kirk; and to their hospitable roof, it is said, the