To rejoice in an air from corruption. fo free,

As the Gas, my good Sirs, juft emitted by me.

"I am forry, indeed, that a friend in the groupe, here,

After exhilaration complain'd of a stupor;

And that be, in her leffons, for fucklings fo clever,

Refembled fo much an exhaufted receiver.

"Yet, soon shall this potent Nepenthe, I trust, My poor fellow-creatures exalt from the duft; Inspirit the weary, and banish Ennui,

And rouse from his languor the frail debauchee;
Give mufcular power to the palfied and grey,
Nor let trouble turn an old man into clay.'

"Perhaps, in my hands, it may shortly preclude
The use or of raiment, of fleep, or of food;
And in me, with loud plaudits, the people shall own
A discovery to fhame the Philosopher's Stone;
When, as my rare luxury to tafte, I exhort all,

I fhew what a ninny man is, to be mortal.

"What are ye, Roficrufians! indeed, with your riches, If throwing away his light thin pair of breeches,'

Thy volatile pupil each country can cross over,

Lefs cumber'd with rags than the *fhipwreck'd philofopher;
If the flumber fo fleeting, my fellows may need here,

Difcredit mattraffes, or couches of Eider;

If the food I create for the palate and paunch
Debar the fond with for a flice of the haunch,
The gluttons on rich calipashes that revel,
And the foup-meagre cottagers bring to a level;
Discovering the groffness of eating, much fhame in,
Quick diffipate every alarm from a famine;
And, as I dispense my pure Gas through the nation,
The corn-bufinefs render, a mere speculation !"

[ALL drink again; and dance and fing.]
“Then hail, happy days! when the high and the low,
All nourish'd alike, from this air-hofpitality,
Shall together with Gas-born benevolence glow,

And prove, that true blifs muft arife from equality. "When Britons and Gauls! ye fhall revel and fing, Light, lighter than Goffamers twinkle and glance; Here, thridding a maze, and there link'd in a ring, And scarcely touch earth, as ye kindle the dance: "When, finer and finer as waxes your nature; Each atom terrene fhall fly off from your bodies,

Each particle grofs; and, all purified matter,

Ye fhall fmell of Ambrofia or Gas,† like a goddess:

6

*"Who yet triumphed in the reflexion: Omnia mea mecum porto. 1 "Divinum vertice odorem fpiravere.'

"Till mounting, as if in balloons, to the sky,

While pleasure with novel sensations shall strike y',
Through the regions of Gas fhall ye flutter and fly,
A Mercury each man, and each woman a Psyche!"

SIR,

TO THE EDITOR.

AVING feen, in one of the newfpapers, a paragraph ftating that the Bishop of London had feen and approved the fermon preached by the Lord Mayor's Chaplain at St. Pauls on the late Fast Day, I can take upon myself to contradict the latter part of that affertion. The fact, as I am affured, is that his Lordship faw a tranfcript of the fermon; that he said it was not fo offenfive as he had heard it reprefented, but he expreffed his difapprobation of fome paffages in it; and exacted an abfolute promise from the chaplain that he would, in future, abstain from every thing political in his fermons; on which condition only, he permitted him to preach the next turn to which he had before been appointed.

VERAX.

N. B. We have heard it confidently afferted, that the manufcript, Sermon laid before the Bishop of London, differed materially from the Sermon that was preached at St. Pauls; and if this be the cafe, which we are ftrongly difpofed to believe, it is not furprizing that his Lordship should not have found it so offenfive as it had been reprefented to him. Editor.

SIR,

TO THE EDITOR.

THE THE unparalleled filthinefs of imagination and expreffion, which defiles the compofitions of the foi-disant Peter Pindar, is well known and generally execrated. The caufe of his difgufting propenfity is not commonly understood. I therefore beg leave to lay before your readers the origin of this writer's fondnefs, not for the "fublime and beautiful," but for "the beastly.”

Peter was but two days old,

When his nurse, old Cornish Dinah,

Let the ill-ftarr'd bantling tumble
Into vafe of Cloacina.

Peter was in fuch a pickle,

No one e'er could get him clean;

Though they rubb'd him, mopp'd, and fcrubb'd him,

Ev'ry effort vain has been.

The foul fumes at his immerfion

Straight afcended to his brain;

There they form'd a dirty puddle,
Never to be cleans'd again.

The

The impurity he fell in

Oozes at his fingers' ends :

Hence it comes, that all his writing
Ev'ry thing offenfive blends.

Thus his thoughts, by filth infected,
Tainted all his converfation:
From his lips flows nought, but lewdness,
Blafphemy, and defamation.

Nor could Time his foulness leffen;
Still his odour's ftrong and rank:
Such was the taint which he contracted,
Each day he liv'd, the more he ftank.
From fuch a wretch, his Theban title
The public voice indignant takes:
No longer Peter Pindar call him,
His true name is-The walking Jakes.

ANTI-SORDES.

DIRGE TO P. PR.

To Fair Fidele's, &c.

O'er Peter's lone deserted tomb;

'shalt wither'd hags and wizards ftrew

Each pois'nous herb of deadlieft bloom,
And rifle all the ftores of woe;
There kindred ghofts shall oft appear,
To fill with fhrieks the guilty grove,
And fiends of death affemble here,

To hail the Rhymer whom they love:
Gaunt blafphemy fhall there be seen,

And flander lead her mighty band;
Pale terror ftart with frenzied mien,
And murth'rous drops diftain the land.

The raven oft with boding found,

Shall croak to midnight's louring fhade ;--
And pois'nous dews be fhower'd around,
To blaft the fod where thou art laid.

When Atheists fap religion's throne,
And faction lights the fires of hell;
Midft a loft country's dying groan,
The fhudd'ring thought on thee fhall dwell.
Each fcene of guilt fhall thee restore,
To thee each impious jeft be paid;
Accurs'd, till virtue charm no more;
And fpurn'd, till fcorn herself be dead,

W

THE

120

To our Readers, Correfpondents, &c.

THE fummary of politics is once more poftponed, on account of the ferious indifpofition of the Editor. He cannot, however, fuffer another Month to elapfe without fervently joining in the grateful thanks offered up by his loyal countrymen to Divine Providence for his gracious interpofition, in refcuing the life of their beloved Sovereign from the atrocious attempt of a defperate affaffin. All comments, however, on that attempt, would, at this time, be highly improper, as they would have a tendency to create a prejudice unfavourable to the impartial administration of juftice. It is on this ground that we wish to fee the reprehenfible practice of the daily prints in publishing the proceedings at the different offices of polices wholly fuppreffed; as it tends to make men prejudge, on ex parte evidence, those culprits on whofe fate they may afterwards be called upon to decide as jurymen.

TO OUR READERS.

WE had intended to enlarge, in a Preface to our Fifth Volume, on the State of Literature in Germany; but, on reflection, we deemed it moft eligible, and moft fatisfactory to our readers, to give the Letters of our Correfpondent at full length. We accordingly have given, in our Appendix, the firft of his Letters, and, in our next Number, we propofe to give a fecond which we have already received. The infertion of this Letter precluded the neceffity of a Preface.

TO CORRESPONDENTS.

C. D. E's atack upon us for our presumption in questioning the in. fallibility of Dr. Paley requires more notice than we had an opportunity of bestowing on it in this Number. But in our next we propose to break a lance with our affailant.

Our tefty Correfpondent, who writes from Chefter, and who is equally difpleafed with Sermons and Trish Politics, is requested, in future, to pay the poftage of his letters, or they will be returned to the Poft-office.

We have received the valuable little Book fent us by "A Chriftian," of which we mean to take early notice. But as there is no Title-page to it, where is the public to find it? ...

The Letter from an English Gentleman at Weimar to Profeffor Boettiger, (calling on him to retract his falfe and calumnious abuse of Mr. Windham, Profeffor Robifon, and the English nation in general) tranfmitted to us by S. R. fhall certainly appear in our next. only regret that Mr. Walker has not inflicted a much feverer chastise, ment on this illuminated Citizen.

The Communication of I. S is intended for early infertion,

We

ANTI-JACOBIN

Review and Magazine;

&c. &c. &c.

For JUNE, 1800.

POTERO SCRIPTA TUA MAGIS PROBARE, LAUDARE, QUANTO ILLA TARDIUS CAUTIUSQUE.

PLIN. EPIST.

ORIGINAL CRITICISM.

ART. I. Munimenta Antiqua; or Obfervations on Antient Cafiles. (Concluded from P. 45.)

AVING in our last treated Mr. King with fome severity, however juft in itself, and however mingled with high compliments, we think it an act of neceflary fairness, to point out particulars in which we confider him as excelling even beyond the ordinary standard of excellence. We fhall, therefore, turn to his incidental illustrations of antient authors, and his incidental elucidations of Sacred Scripture, made with a view to British monuments, either real or fuppofed. But we fhall begin with the latter, and then proceed with the former; prefenting our readers with one or more citations under each, that they may fee both his manner and his matter fully.

"That great ftones ftanding upright," Mr. King tells us, "were in the most antient times placed occafionally in groups, formed of feveral ftanding together, merely by way of memorial; and having their numbers conformable to fome particular circumftances relating to the people who placed them, or to the occafion on which they were erected, feems to appear from what we read even in the first informations we have in the world, concerning the hiftory of the Ifraelites: some of whose methods of recording great events were, perhaps, permitted

NO. XXIV. VOL. VI.

K