Abbildungen der Seite
PDF
EPUB

with the moft august and fublime ceremony, of Mister Benjamin Weft's Knighthood.

Redeunt Saturnia Regna!"

As a fpecimen of the manner in which the proceffion is here cele
brated, we prefent our readers with the first two ftanzas:
Sol, put thee on thy beft gold wig to-day;
Let rude DECEMBER be the gentle MAY;

Chain'd be the tempefts, and well bung'd the rain;
Nor lét a fog his fullen twilight fspread,

As lately dark'ning bade us think the head

Of fome HIGH-TITLED MAN was cleft in twain.
Yes, yes, let MORN look down with fmiling pride,
And fmile on roaft, and boil'd, and bak'd, and fry'd,
And grill'd, and devill'd, gums of GENIUS greeting;
Smile too upon the Academic Men,

Refpectables indeed! who, nine in ten,

Well as of painting, know the art of eating.'

Art. 41. Carmen Seculare: An Ode, inscribed to the Prefident and Members of the Royal Academy. By a Mufe more loyal than Peter Pindar's. 8vo. Is. 6d. Faulder. 1794.

Whatever fuperiority of loyalty may be claimed, with refpect to Peter Pindar, by the author of thefe complimentary verfes, he will not, we apprehend, be allowed much precedence on account of his wit.

It has been faid that " authors, before they write fhould read." There is alfo requifite another previous qualification: they fhould gain fome knowlege of grammar; which would fave their works from the difgrace of fuch lines as

And know, the glory thou acquires'

Strange as it may feem, this illegitimate line prefents itself five times to our view in this unfortunate production of the Muse of Loyalty; as it makes a part of the repeated burthen of the fong:

And, know, the glory thou acquires,

Adds luftre to thy country's name!'

The readers of the poem, which we here difmifs, will find little difficulty in determining how much the performance of this rival of the fame of Peter Pindar will add to the luftre of the ROYAL ACADEMY. Art. 42. Poems: Confilting of" Modern Manners"-" Aurelia," "The Curate," and other Pieces. By the Rev. Samuel Hoole, A. M. 8vo. 2 Vols., 6s. Boards. Dodley. 1790.

This collection ought to have met with an earlier notice in our Review, and fuch was intended: but an accident, by which the volumes were lot, occafioned the delay.-We call it a collection, because the principal poems, amounting to far the greater part of the contents of thefe two volumes, originally appeared in feparate publications."Modern Manners," which makes nearly the whole of the firft volume, was first printed in 1782, and was reviewed, and commended, in the 66th vol. of our work. Aurelia," another of Mr. Hoole's poetical productions, (1783) of nearly equal extent, was the fubject of an article in our 69th, and was then praised by us for the fprightlinefs and ingenuity of the fatire with which it was fraught. Of "Edward,

"Edward, or the Curate," another of the larger poems reprinted in this edition, an account will be found in M. R. vol. lxxviii. p. 242. It is a tale, of the melancholy caft; in which, as we obferved, the poet has imitated the fimplicity of Spenfer, without adopting his obfolete phrafeology: to which, however, Mr. H. feems, in a few inftances, in fome of the poems, to be rather more inclined than may be altogether pleafing to a modern ear, unaccustomed to the ne and fró of Q. Elizabeth's time.

To the above larger poems are now added (never before published,' as the title-pages of the two volumes inform us,) à number of fmaller pieces,. of various merit, fome grave, others of a ludicrous turn. From thefe we will felect, as a fpecimen of the writer's more pleasant vein, the following ANSWER to an invitation to dine in company with three ladies, who were called THE GRACES.'

To me with the Graces on Sunday to dine,
A kind and polite invitation you give;
I'll gladly partake of your mutton and wine,

If my flock will but do me the favour to live.
Yet mutton, I fear, is not food for the GRACES,
Tho' poets fuch viands with rapture furvey,
And at mere mortal wine they will make but wry faces,
And rife from their clouds with a head-ach next day.
Then get fome Ambrofia (how kind they will take it!)
With Nectar, unmix'd, from the good folks above;
And CUPID can fend you (he knows how to make it)
A flice of cold pudding to fettle our love.
His arrows, they tell us, with pure gold are headed,
But fuch idle tales there's nor gumption, nor good in;
I'm told by a matron, who thrice has been wedded,

LOVE tips his belt darts with a piece of cold pudding.' Art. 43. Ode for the Encania, held at Oxford, July 1793, for the Reception of his Grace the Duke of Portland, Chancellor of the University. By R. Holmes, D. D. Prof. of Poetry. 4to. Is. Payne. This academical ode is certainly not unworthy of a profeffor of poetry. If we were to point out any fault, we should say that it is perhaps too highly laboured; and that hence it is fometimes obfcure. The first strophe and antistrophe will enable the learned reader to judge.

STROPHE I.

In wildering terror, hopeless of repofe,

Thy fons, O Science, fled their Gothic foes;
Fell Slander's curfe profan'd their blameless name,
And bigot Hate his fignal-trumpet blew :

Then Spoil, dire fiend, their fimple domes o'erthrew,
And hurl'd their treasures to the wafting flame.
One tranfient joy Imperial CHARLES fupplied:
"Turn, fugitives of hope," the monarch cried;
"Behold yon lilied marge of filver SEINE!
"Be there your fix'd inviolable fane."
Ah! no; Neglect, pale spectre, haunted there,
And dash'd their rifing hope in new despair.

[ocr errors]

ANTIS TROPHE I.
How fafe a reft from Rapine's idiot hand,
Shrines how majestick in how fair a land,

Thy call, Great ALFRED, to the wanderers gave !
In balm of bliss they bath'd each heart-felt wound,
And kiss'd with rapture's lip the facred ground,
Where Isis winds her laurel-fhaded wave.
Here their neglected harps again were ftrung,
Here loud their fhouts of grateful triumph rung;
Hence, in a fullen age of lingering night,
Clear broke the beam of Learning's orient light;
Through the dead darknefs fhot the quickening ray,
And wak'd the morn of life's refulgent day.'

We will now copy the laft Epode, which is excellent; abating one or two epithets, fuch as Fancy, Nature's wayward child-traceless art' nor do we much like the foul of toil.

EPODE III.

Thus, PORTLAND, thus, beneath thy guardian-care,
Hope's op'ning bloom shall spread fupremely fair.
Here fhall the wakeful foul of toil purfue,
Untir'd, each noble aim of triumph new:
Here glowing thought, by foft'ring spirits fann'd,
Shall burft to flame, and rife o'er all the land :
Enthufiaft Fancy, Nature's wayward child,
With traceless art fhall temper raptures wild,
And start enchanting in divine excefs:

Here genius, from pure Learning's living rill,
Spirit of richest virtue fhall diftil,

And livelier tint his many-colour'd drefs.

From Britain's world, from Britain's patron throne,
O'er OXFORD ftill affection's eye fhall bend;

Shall fee her, juft to each protecting friend,
Beam on his name the luftre of her own.'

Ged..s.

Art. 44. Lines on the Murder of the Queen of France, with Admonition to the infant King, Louis XVII. Being a Sequel to " The Tribute of an Humble Mufe *." By W. T. Fitzgerald, Efq. 4to. Is. Hookham. 1794.

If the tender fympathies of the heart were alone fufficient for the accomplishment of a good poem, Mr. F. cannot fail of fuccefs when he courts the Elegiac Mufe; efpecially if he be confcious that he is "not" already" free from faults," -" Nor yet too vain to mend."

MISCELLANEOUS.

Art. 45. Memoirs of Science and the Arts. Or, an Abridgment of the Tranfactions published by the principal learned and economical Societies established in Europe, Afia, and America. Vol. I. 4to. pp. 554. 19 Plates. 11. 15. Boards. Faulder, &c. 1793. The purpofe of this publication is to give fuch an abridgment of all thofe works which periodically appear in various parts of the literary world, under the name of Memoirs or Tranfactions of Societies, as

* See M, Rev. April 1793, P. 457.

may

may fully ferve the purpose of informing the reader of every thing new with respect to fcience or the arts which they contain. To thofe who are acquainted with the number and importance of fuch works, and the difficulty of procuring them, the defign will appear a very ufeful one; and, as far as we have examined it, the execution is adequate to the purpose Plates are copied when they are neceffary for illuftration. The conductors apologize for the fmall number of foreign works which they have been able to give in this volume, as well as for the changes that they have made in their plan; which was at first that of monthly numbers. They mean in future to print two half-yearly parts, compofing an annual volume. The works here abridged are, the Afaiic Researches, Vol. i, and ii. the Memoirs of the Bath Agriculture Society, of the Bruffels Acad. of Sciences and Belles Lettres, vol. i. of the Manchester Literary and Philofoph. Society, vol. iv. the Philofoph. Tranfact. of the R. Society of London, for 1792, and p.i. of 1793; Tranfact. of the Linnean Society, vol. i.-of the Royal Irish Academy, for 1787, 88, 89, 90; of the Royal Society of Edinburgh, vol. i, and ii. of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland, vol. i. of the Society for the Encouragement of the Arts, &c. vol. x. of the Society of Natural Hiftory in Paris, vol. i. p. i. and the Proceedings of the African Affociation, vol. i.

ᎪᎥ . Art. 46. A Letter to Dr. Moore, on his Defence of British Humanity, against the Calumny of a Member of the French Convention. 8vo. 1s. Owen. 1794.

This writer warmly objects to a paffage in Dr. M.'s journal, vol. ii. wherein the Doctor relates his converfation* with a member of the Convention; in which the latter retaliated on the British and Irish nations the general charge of cruelty which Dr. M. in the freedom of debate had brought against the French: appealing, in fupport of his charge, to the atrocities and maffacres which have fo dreadfully abounded in that country, within the laft four years.

The letter-writer apprehends that, although Dr. M. very prudently gave up the argument, on French ground, with an opponent who was mafter of an hundred guillotines,' yet fomething more should have been faid in a journal defigned for the perufal of his own countrymen. This deficiency he here undertakes to fupply by the evidence of facts collected from the best hiftorical records; all tending to prove that the balance of the account of general humanity, as here stated be tween Great Britain and France, is, indeed, fo greatly in favour of the former, as fully to juftify the refentment which he has fhewn in this zealous vindication of the infulted honour of his country.'

In the course of this research into the chronicles of inhumanity, we see such a shocking exhibition of horrors, as may well give the reader a difgut even to the historical pages from which the inftances are extracted; and which may seem to juftify, most completely, Dr. Johnson's fevere reflection on hiftory itself, when (in confefiing and defending his general neglect of that clafs of literature,) he uttered this memorable declaration" I take no delight in perusing the annals of BLOOD!"

See Rev. for the prefent month, p. 171.

CORRE

CORRESPONDENCE.

We have been favoured with a letter from Capt. Bradley, re fpecting our obfervations at p. 260 of our Review for last November, relative to the charts of Norfolk Island, and in explanation of the points of which we complained. We there faid that two maps had been given, in the publications relative to Botany Bay, as unlike to each other as two fuch things could poffibly be, and yet that Capt. Bradley's name ftood to both; that the firit correfponded, in the most material circumflances, very exactly with Capt. Cook's map,-but that we fhould, nevertheless, have been difpofed to give the preference to the latter of the two, as being a revifion of thofe which had preceded it, if the verbal defcriptions of Captains Hunter and King had not difagreed with it in fome effential points: as things were, we hefitated; and we are perfuaded that Capt, Bradley would have done the fame if he had been in our place, and with only the fame degree of information before him. By Capt. B.'s letter, however, our doubts are entirely removed. The map which he has politely fent to us, the product of his actual furvey of Norfolk Island in 1790, bears every internal mark of accuracy; and his account of the fteps, which he took to obtain materials for conftructing it, fhews that confidence may be placed in it by those whofe bufinets may lead them to vifit the place.

Capt. Bradley informs us that he knows no more of the former map, which was published under his name, than that he traced three copies of it for Governor Phillip, from a sketch which the Governor had in his poffeffion; without knowing by whom the sketch was made, or whether it was good or bad, as he (Capt. Bradley) had then never seen Norfolk Island; and that the latter, which appears in Capt. Hunter's Voyage, is from the actual furvey which Capt. B. made in 1790, but is an imperfect copy, inafmuch as that a third ifland, more than a mile in extent, and lying from S. to S. S. E. from Sydney Bay, and between three and four miles diftant, is omitted; though, as Capt. B. obferves, (and, we think, justly,) that ifland is a very material part of the furvey, because it affords confiderable shelter to fhips clearing their cargoes in Sydney Bay.

+++ We have received, with pleasure, the obliging letter from the Female Society, figned by the lady who officiates as Secretary; and we shall be happy if any thing that we have faid may contribute to the advancenrent of their benevolent designs.

It is not in our power to inform A. A. in which work M. De. Saulfure mentions his having employed the evolution of oxygen gas as a photometer, (see our laft Appendix, p. 526.) as we recited that fact only from M. Jacquin's notice of it: neither have we the latter gentleman's book at hand to confult.

$1$ T.H. is just received; too late for farther attention to it.

In the laft Appendix, INDEX, Art. Bengal, the page should be 134; and in the Art. Zouch, the page fhould be 117.-In the Review for January, p.5. 1. 26. for certainty,' r. certainly.

[ocr errors]
[ocr errors]

0.122. l. 10 fr. bott. for 1791. r. 1771.

« ZurückWeiter »