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Art. 24. Rose Cecil, a Novel. In Three Volumes. 10s. 6d. Lane. 1797.
The heroine of this story is indeed a charming woman; and the hero of it (for so we account Willoughby) is worthy of her. When a novel has no manifest bad tendency, we are unwilling to disclose any, which the author perhaps was far from intending. Yet we must say, that the mutual passion betwixt a young married woman and her admirer, playmates in their infancy, however innocent may be their conduct; and their final union and happiness, at the death of her husband, who is much older than herself; - do not hold forth a lesson quite so instructive as we could wish. Many errors in point of style must be forgiven in works of this kind; otherwise, very few of them would be wholly occupied in passing sentences of condemnation. But false spelling, and some other faults equally bad, cannot claim indulgence in any writings whatever. The frequent recurrence of such words as irradicate, stimula, insignias, &c. show the ignorance of the writer, or the negligence of the printer.
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