to the most finished draughts of the greatest writers.  In comedy, in tragedy, Miss Burney alike excels.  And the union of them both in the Vauxhall scene of the death of Harrel ranks among the first efforts of human genius.  Of consequence we may safely pronounce that the reputation of this lady is by no means dependent upon fashion or caprice, but will last as long as there is understanding to discern, and taste to relish the beauties of fiction.

It must be acknowledged that her defects are scarcely less conspicuous than her excellencies.  In her underplots she generally miscarries.  We can trace nothing of Miss Burney in the stories of Macartney, Albany, and the Hills.  Her comedy sometimes deviates into farce.  The character of Briggs in particular, though it very successfully excites our laughter, certainly deforms a work, which in its principal constituents ranks in the very highest species of composition.  Her style is often affected, and in the serious is sometimes so laboured and figurative, as to cost the reader a very strict attention to discover the meaning, without perfectly repaying his trouble.  These faults are most conspicuous in Cecilia, which upon the whole we esteem by much her greatest performance.  In Evelina she wrote more from inartificial nature.  And we are happy to observe in the present publication, that the masculine sense, by which Miss Burney is distinguished, has raised her almost wholly above these little errors.  The style of Louisa is more polished than that of Evelina, and more consonant to true taste than that of Cecilia.

The principal story of Louisa, like that of Cecilia, is very simple, but adorned with a thousand beautiful episodes.  As the great action of the latter is Cecilia’s sacrifice of fortune to a virtuous and laudable attachment, so that of the former is the sacrifice of rank, in the marriage of the heroine to a young man of the most distinguished merit, but neither conspicuous by birth, nor favoured by fortune.  The event, romantic and inconsistent with the manners of polished society as it may appear, is introduced by such a train of incidents, that it is impossible not to commend and admire the conduct of the heroine.

Her character is that of inflexible vivacity and wit, accompanied with a spice of coquetry and affectation.  And though this line of portrait seemed exhausted by Congreve and Richardson, we will venture to pronounce Louisa a perfect original.  It is impossible to describe such a character in the abstract without recollecting Millamant and Lady G. But in reading this most agreeable novel, you scarcely think of either.  As there is no imitation, so there are not two expressions in the work, that can lead from one to the other.  Louisa is more amiable than the former, and more delicate and feminine than the latter.