And t'other some lines he had made on a straw, or such a line as this; For either Jove he is terribly strong. p. 154. Apollo resolves on a visit to this netlier world, to give our modern poets a lesson or two;' And as nothing's here done now-a-days without eating, Tries what kind of a set he can muster worth treating.' The descent of the God is first noticed, and his person is thus de scribed : Imagine however, if shape there must be, A figure sublim'd above mortal degree, His limbs the perfection of elegant strength,- (For the God, you'll observe, like his statues was drest). His curls in a cluster, and then such a face, • The God then no sooner had taken the chair And rung for the landlord to order the fare,' than Arnold, Reynolds, Dibdin, Cherry, Cobb, and Diamond rush in, but are mistaken by Apollo for the waiters; next Spencer, Rogers, and Montgomery present themselves: but they are only invited to tea, and poor Crabbe is consigned to a chair in the kitchen. Mr. Hayley is so coldly received, that he chooses to be off; Mr. Gifford is better treated, but with such repulsive strictures that he is glad to leave the room: Mr. Walter Scott is bidden to sit down; yet the god is not very gracious; and Mr. S. must be not a little mortified to see a marked preference given to Campbell. To Moore, the deity offers his hand, and, while he excuses certain amatory effusions of this lyric bard, directs him in future to moralize his song: • And never should poet, so gifted and rare, Southey, Wordsworth, and Coleridge, with Croker and Peter H 3 And And listen to sounds, that with ecstacy burning Tom Moore's. But such as a poet might dream ere he din'd; Than their cheeks next the god blush'd a beautiful red. very men-servants grew handsome and tall, While a bundle of beams took the place of the mould, It can't be suppos'd I should think of repeating * A provincial name for Heart's-case. For poets,' he said, who would cherish their powers, From the portions of this poem which are here given, the reader will perceive that it is full of most playful imagination; and the notes, which occupy the bulk of the volume, contain a variety of strictures which may be read with profit by those persons who are the subjects of them. They are, however, often too keen to be pleasant but the most satirical strokes of a man of genius and discernment are of real value, and ought not to be contemptuously scouted. Mr. Hunt's notes may be considered as lectures for the modern school of poetry. The annexed translations have not equal merit with the orignal poem. Art. 18. The Vale of Guasco; or the Maid with seven Lovers. A Romance in Verse, in seven Cantos. 8vo. PP. 320. 12s. 6d. Boards. J. J. Stockdale. 1813. Though the present age be not so enlightened as some individuals are inclined to suppose, it has less taste for extravagant and improbable fictions than our forefathers manifested: so that romances, properly so called, are rather tolerated than relished. The nursery is not supplied with the trash which formerly found its way into it; and, when we arrive at manhood, we look for something better than fables which outrage common sense and could never have been realized in the history of man. When a tissue of impossibilities is formed into a narrative, the reader, however he may applaud the ingenuity of the poet, cannot be pleased with so gross an attempt to impose on his credulity, and replies in the language of Horace, Quodcunque ostendis mihi sic, incredulus odi. With feelings of this kind, we worked our way through the Vale of Guasco, and experienced little pleasure in the beginning, the middle, or the end of our journey. We followed the hero Courtenay from the banks of the Medway to the provinces of Chili and Peru; we were long kept in suspence respecting the Maid with seven Lovers; and it was not till the sixth canto, (p. 223.) when Courtenay falls in love with Recloma, and thus makes her a maid with eight Lovers, that we understood to what circumstance this part of the title referred. Like the poem intitled "The Missionary," (see our Review for April last,) a considerable portion of this Romance is borrowed from the history which constituted the subject of Ercilla's Spanish poem, the Araucana, and related the defeat of the Spaniards by the Chilians: but it surpasses all belief that an English emigrant (Courtenay), after a series of very improbable adventures, should not only obtain a settlement and family-connections among the Chilians, but be their General, and lead them to take vengeance on the Spaniards for their bloody outrages. The Romance ought to have been intitled Courtenay, since he is the leading and most interesting character; and Recloma, the maid with seven lovers, only comes in as an episode. We cannot spare time to follow him through his visions and adventures; nor shall we otherwise criticize the poetry in which his fictitious tale is told, than by observing that, if it be in general easy, and in some places forcible, it contains many defective rhymes. In the sixth canto, Courtenay, emerging from his retreat the Chilian wilds, recognizes Recloma, the Chilian fair beloved of old,' a mourner in a funeral procession. Let the poet recount this part of his romantic tale : • With cautious step, he reach'd a village near, A daughter still remain'd, that weeping fair, Should make some young predestined wretch their prize. • The tale with joy the dauntless Briton heard, "She's mine," he would have cried; but caution held He pray'd: but she denied, with accents kind, After the marriage, they are parted: he goes to lead the Chilians to victory over the Spaniards: but, in a subsequent attempt to assuage a mutiny among the Chilians, he is pierced by the brothers of a native whom he had killed; when at this juncture Recloma appears, to stab herself, and to fall on the body of her murdered husband. This is a tragical, but not a satisfying conclusion. When the hero and heroine are dispatched in such a hurry, it seems as if the poet did not know what to do with them. As the lady gives the secondary title to this romance, she should have been sooner introduced, and should have formed a more conspicuous figure on the canvas. RELIGIOUS. Art. 19. Christian Ethics; or Discourses on the Beatitudes, with some preliminary and subsequent Discourses. The whole designed to explain, recommend, or enforce the Duties of the Christian Life. By Thomas Wintle, B.D., Rector of Brightwell in Berkshire. 2 Vols. 8vo. pp. 540. 16s. Boards. Longman and Co. Some good reason ought to be assigned for adding to our present énormous heap of printed sermons. Merely the desire of doing good, or the persuasion that professing Christians require to be reminded of their duty, is not an adequate apology for the publication of plain discourses, which, however sensible, abound with explanations and exhortations that have been repeated times out of number. It is a stale and futile plea that the complexion of the times affords great occasion for discourses on the nature and practice of holiness; since, if the people will not read those which at present sollicit, their perusal on every side, it is not very probable that they will be attracted by new assortments of the same kind. Mr. Wintle, aware no doubt that his first reason for sending these sermons to the press would occasion a demur, offers another towards the conclusion of his preface, which is generally admitted to be valid, viz. Novelty. It is possible,' he says, that the systematic form in which the Beatitudes are here considered, which I conceive to be new, may not only tend to fix the truths and duties more deeply in the minds of ordinary readers, but may recommend the work to the philo sopher and man of science, or persons of superior understandings.' For ourselves, we are at a loss to see in what consists the novelty of form which these sermons are said to assume. They follow in the order of the texts, as they occur in the fifth chapter of St. Matthew; and |