With regard to poetic imperfection, for inftance, we may produce the following lines:

V. 33. With penfive contemplation fir'd !'

Who ever before heard of the mind being fired with penfive consemplation?

101. • What charming beauties ftrike your fight!' What reader will be charmed with fo glaring a pleonasm as this redundant epithet?

248. And various other forts befide

More pleonasm here!

To fay that a building is new is not very loco-defcriptive, any more than the epithet in the next quotation :

301. How green the fir-trees ftanding near !' The greenness of the firs does not, according to our taste, much improve the view of Penlan Manfion-house.'

We are now to take a view of Caermarthen Bridge:

· 436.

Which ferves to join each fever'd shore,
And waft the paffing trav'ler o'er.'

Here we have one of thofe improprieties which feem to indicate the writer's incomplete acquaintance with our language. What idea can we form of a traveller being wafted over a bridge? If fuch a mode of croffing a river ever occurred, it must have happened by the extraordinary operation of a prodigious high wind; or in confequence of the bridge being overflowed by a fudden and tremendous inundation!

Another reason for our thinking that Llangunnor-Hill should have been only printed in the Welsh language, is, that none but Welshmen can read and pronounce it: witness the following lines:

And Pen'ralltfawr amongst the rest.'
There Alt-y Gog appears in fight.'.
See white-wafh'd Dan-yr-Alt appear.'-
From Park-yr-Eglwys' brow defcend.
Thence Llwyn-y-Gwragedd hill appears.'
Till Erw Frau you flowly gain.'-

With many others, too tedious, indeed, to mention.

Although we could not overlook the glaring defects of this writer's verfification, we acknowlege, with pleasure, his merit in a higher reSpect. If his work cannot claim a comparison with the Cooper's Hill of Denham, the Windfor Foreft of Pope, or the Grongar Hill of Dyer; if he be not an excellent poet; he appears to be a very good man. We honour his piety, and we esteem his benevolence. He is the feeling advocate of the poor; and his humanity is amiably extended even to the brute creation. Among other paffages which have given rife to this remark, we were not the leaft pleafed with the compaffionate manner in which, after having glanced at the flinty hearts of our sportsmen, he laments the hard fate of the timid and inoffenfive Hare. With this proof of the poet's tenderness and sensibility, we shall conclude our remarks:

Thence Llwyn-y-Gwragedd Hill appears,
Where oft his hounds the huntsman cheers,
When early in the blushing morn,
He fweetly winds his bugle horn,
And cafts his dogs round yonder brakes,
To which the hare for fhelter makes,
Whene'er ftern winter's fhiv'ring storm
Requires a refuge fnug and warm.
Yet what avails this clofe retreat?
For then the hounds approach her feat,
Directed by the well-known trail,
And with loud notes her ears affail.
(Mufic to fportfmen ever dear,
Who love fuch harmony to hear,
But to the fearful panting hare,
Productive only of defpair!)

Yet though by foes encompafs'd round,
She cautious quits the dang'rous ground,
And flies o'er diftant hills and fields,
Till, wholly spent, her life fhe yields
With piteous fqueakings, which impart
No pleasure to the tender heart :
But fportsmen's hearts refemble fteel,
And rarely foft compaffion feel
For the four-footed timid race,
The harmless objects of the chace:
Thus the poor hare unpitied dies,
And useless are her piercing cries.'

Art. 33. The Golden Age, a Poetical Epiftle from Erafmus Dn, M.D. to Thomas Beddoes, M. D. 4to. 1s. Rivingtons. 1794. Some poet, of confiderable talents for ridicule, but of whofe identity we have no conception, has chofen for his prefent fubject whatever is new, fingular, or, in his apprehenfion, abfurd, in the philofophy of the Doctors Darwin and Beddoes. We are forry to fee the powers of fatire (an inftrument which may be usefully employed,) fo ill applied in the prefent inftance. If men of genius, of fancy, and of invention, had always been thus checked in their flights, they would never, perhaps, have foared to the fublime heights which they frequently attained; and the world might have been deprived of many an IMPORTANT, many a GLORIOUS difcovery !-If in their excurfions into the boundless regions of imagination, fuch men have fometimes failed of bringing home any thing of the high value or utility which they expected and fought, the disappointment was to themJelves, and the public fuftained no lofs. On the other hand, when in only one, out of many, aerial voyages of difcovery in fcience, they have returned laden with the GOLDEN FRUITS, how richly have mankind been benefited by the labours of thofe whom, perhaps, they once turned into ridicule, under the indifcriminating names of innovators or projectors? Thofe diftinguifhed adventurers, who, at their own expence and risk, thus nobly embark in the fervice of mankind, fhould never be obftructed. Why fhould we put an extinguither

tinguisher on the light of the human mind, instead of carefully trimming the lamp that is bounteously provided by Heaven for our guidance !

Art. 34. A Poetical Epiftle addressed to Mifs Wollstonecraft, occafioned by reading her celebrated Effay on the Rights of Woman, and her Hiftorical and moral View of the French Revolution. By John Henry Colls. 4to. is. Vernor, &c.

The main defign of this publication, if we mistake not, is to pave the way for a fubfcription to two vols. of poems, by the author, and Mr. William Dyke. Of the poetry of this last named writer, we have here no fample: but the epiftle to Mifs W. may be confidered as an ample fpecimen of the talents of Mr. Colls. In the dedication of this work he profeffes his very high admiration of the lady's abilities, but he diffents from her political principles, particularly respecting the French revolution. His verfes are not inelegant, but we fee nothing in the poem that we can extract, with any great appearance of advantage to the author.

Art. 35. Sonnets: By a Lady. 4to. PP. 24. 2s. 6d. Debrett.

1793.

The fonnet is not improperly claffed among the most difficult and artful of the fmaller poetical compofitions, as it requires the utmost accuracy, and a conclufion containing fome ingenious thought exhibited with peculiar neatnefs and felicity. If we could convict the compofitions before us of fome inaccuracies and violations of prescribed rules, we must also acknowlege that, on the whole, they are extremely pleafing; and we might extract feveral paffages from them which are replete with tender and refined fentiment, evidently the production of. an elegant and reflecting mind. Of thefe, we fhall transcribe only the following, to juftify our commendation :

From the Sonnet entitled the Yew-tree.

With eye ferene-a parent mark'd the spot
"And here, my child, when Nature's fine is paid"-
The words funk deep nor diftant was his lot,

For foon below thefe boughs I faw him laid.

• Scarce could revolving Spring one garland spare
To deck (all wet with tears) his much-lov'd tomb,

'Ere its fast-grated doors prepare

To give another mournful tenant room.'

These lines are too pathetic not to be felt by all who have shared in fimilar griefs.

The two following ftanzas, in the Sonnet entitled Change of Fortune, are truly defcriptive of the fordid paffions of a bafe world:

• Once fortune fmil'd-and plenty crown'd my board,
The cluft'ring vine obfcur'd the noon-tide glare,
My loaded trees fupply'd the winter's hoard,

And friends would flock my garden's fweets to share.
Revers'd the scene !-my native woods adieu !
No longer flowers bloom, or friends enquire ;.1
The fmooth civilities to fhew are due;

And cordial warmth with fortune's gifts expire.?
Ii4

From

From the Sonnet on the Sea.

To gain Hygeia's gifts-I fought the briny wave*,
The diftant view appall'd my trembling fight:
O how far lefs can hardy vet'rans brave

The ocean's ftorms, or 'tempt the mountains height.
Prais'd be that fate, our weaker fex decreed
Serene to glide life's narrow peaceful sphere:
To deck the bow'r-or tune the vocal reed,
On gentle streams a little bark to fleer.'

The praife of the critic is feldom unallayed; and, by the mind which is defirous of improvement, indifcriminate commendation is not to be wifhed. We confider the mind of the prefent writer as of this defcription. Regarding our court rather as a phyfical college than as an inquifitorial tribunal, he may look for fome falutary advice; and, as those who lay their cafe before the faculty are extremely diffatisfied if they refufe to prefcribe for them, hence concluding either that their cafe is defperate, or that they are deemed unworthy of attention, we fhall, in our phyfico-critical capacity, recommend to the mufe a few gentle alteratives, as all that her cafe requires.

In the 3d ftanza of the fonnet entitled the CHANGE OF FORTUNE claim is made to rhime to gain. In that entitled MORNING, the laft line of the 3d ftanza is profaic and inelegant :

And chearful fteal thro' life thy gifts without.

As we have before obferved that it is required of the fonnet to close with a peculiar grace, we must point out the conclufion to the fonnet on the pain of unpleasant converfation as very defective, as well as ungrammatical:

For reafon ever muft our fouls attach,

Her polish'd charms embellishes a thatch.'

Thefe imperfections, however, not being of fufficient number and magnitude to affect materially the general merit, we would present the fair writer with a fprig of laurel, and apply to her penfive and pathetic ftrains Milton's defcription of the nightingale's fong-Moft mufical,-moft melancholy."

Art. 36. Ode fur la Guerre. Par B. Frere Cherenfi, Auteur du Heros
Moderne, &c. 8vo. pp. 16.

The ode-writers of the French nation feem never to have studied any other master than Horace, and accordingly they have excelled in the frolicfome but never in the fublime ode. Allegorical perfonifications, with their regular claffical emblems, gods and goddeffes, from the Roman mythology, Victory and Mars, Peace and Ceres,parade in unvarying proceffion through their stanzas; which indeed often contain moral maxims neatly expreffed, and ingenious allufions. We by no means with to impute to the author before us an exceffive leaning to the hacknied manner of his nation: on the contrary, we have perufed his ode with as much gratification as we have ever re

Moy.

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ceived from the fimilar compofitions of J. B. Rouffeau; and we havo no doubt that it would be admired in Paris. The four lines

• D'un pole à l'autre que la foudre

Tonne & fracafe l'univers,
Et que fur les foleils en poudre

Le Chaos maitrife les airs, &c."

contain imagery highly fublime: and many others will be found of
great beauty. The poem is neatly printed, and is dedicated to Earl
Stanhope.

Art. 37.
The Adventures of Timothy Twig, Efq. in a Series of
Poetical Epiftles. By Jofeph Mofer, Author of Lucifer and Mam-
mon, Turkish Tales, &c. 12mo. 2 Vols. 7s. Boards. Williams.
1794.

Tay

Mr. Anftey fucceeded fo well in the application of the cantering kind of verfe, called by Grammarians Anapeftic, to the humorous exhibition of manners, that he has fince had a numerous train of imitators :-but it is much eafier to copy the verfification of the Bath Guide, than to borrow the lively vein of humour and pleasantry to which that poem has been chiefly indebted for its fuccefs. We cannot compliment Mr. Mofer with the praise of being a fuccessful rival of Mr. Anftey: but he writes fomething like Anfteyan verfe, with ease, and executes his defign of sketching the varieties of fashion and manner in dress, diet, public amusement, gaming, &c. with tolerable fuccefs. The hero, Tim. Twig, comes up to town, a raw and ftaring lad, and, after a courfe of experiments in the science of life, returns to his Welsh mountains, a goose stripped of his feathers.

Timothy, though the hero, is not the only perfon who figures in this tale; befides his man John, who is a very honeft fellow, we are introduced to Tim.'s mother, fifter, uncle, and coufin, and a pretty long string of friends and acquaintance. Some of the party talk fentimentally, and carry on a tender tale, in different kinds of verfe :-but, in proportion as the author becomes grave, the story is dull, and the reader haftens to return to his friend Tim.

NOVELS.

Art. 38. The Necromancer: or the Tale of the Black Foreft:
founded on Facts. Tranflated from the German of Lawrence
Flammenberg, by Peter Teuthold. 12mo. 2 Vols. 6s. fewed.
Lane. 1794

In the mind of man there is a predisposition to credulity, which too often renders the very means adopted as a remedy, a proximate cause of new disease. The Platonic idea of influencing dæmons or difembodied fpirits by human rites and adjurations, of learning fecret phanomena from their revelation, and of accomplishing by their intervention important purposes of this world, had scarcely been mentioned, much lefs credited, fince the time of the old Alchemifts and Roficrufians, until fome modern novelifts chofe once more to familiarize the fuperftition; partly in order to expofe it, and partly in order to extract from it new fources of the terrible. The opinion it

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felf