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property, in general, againit arbitrary invafion; more than this, it is a tribute due to degraded virtue, and the violated decency of national tafte. I fhall foon expect to fee the tremendous "Hiftory of Raw Head and Bloody Bones" in print, accompanied by a moft inftantaneous profufion of " Tales of Terror," in imitation of fo dreadful an original. Indeed; the "Egri Somnia" of Horace, that is to fay, the extravagancies of a fick imagination, could never be more properly applied than to thofe unnatural labours, which prefent us with nothing but fkeletons and distortions; and lead us to believe the universe itself, which we inhabit, to be no other than a great charnelhoufe, crowded with apparitions, hobgoblins, and spectres. Nay, human nature, on the whole, is a mere

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"Monftrum horrendum, informe, ingens, cui lumen ademptum.”

The defign is laudable; of the ability with which it is executed we shall enable our readers to form fome opinion, by laying a paffage or two before them.

Thee, now, let poignant pleafantry affail,

Thee, too tenacious of thy nurfe's tale;
Thee, Lervis, I devote to Satire's shrine;
Tho' pert facility, perhaps, is thine,
Thine quick conception, of the quainter kind,
And tafte, to trifles aukwardly inclin’d.
But why, to vice, beftow a pander screen ?
Why, with thy monstrous births, deform the scene?
Why, build on blockheads an inglorious fame?
Who merely guefs thy Merit, by thy
Who país no further judgment; when they fee,
'Thofe all-fufficient vouchers,-M* and P.
Go to as well grave John's funeral croak
Might ftrive t'impart the fpirit of a joke,
Or CLAREMONT perfonate the God of Wine,
CLAREMONT, who looks as he did never dine †,"
As thou, by fuch vile trick, afpire to raise

Name;

A fplendid monument of deathlefs praife!"

90

The Bard declares that he can read with pleasure the fabled griefs of a Dante or an Ariosto;

But, when thofe fatal fantafies pervert

The wayward fense, not meliorate the heart,
When the numb'd foul is steep'd in ftupid trance,
And ev'n the Scriptures dwindle to romance,
I curfe the madness of a guilty taste,

By thee, with more than vulgar glory, grac'd,
Avert my fondness, from fuch naufeous whims,
Preferring to Child Waters ‡, David's Hymns.
Like conj'rer's bag, how many a maniac's fcull,
Is with newts, toads, and afps, completely full!

130

"There is a moft marvellous fpell in the two, apparently, fimple letters, M. P. For M. P ftands for Member of Parliament, and P. M. for Paymafter." -Cornelius Agrippa, Jun..

+ Vide Spencer."

"A celebrated old ballad of that title.”

NO. XXXIV. VOL. VIII.

G g

Sure

Sure that the horrid medley will

go down,

He fpews his various garbage on the town,
'Till fprightly belles are frighten'd into fits,
And beaux, if bleft with any, lofe their wits."

He criticifes, with feverity, the dramatic production of his brother bard, ycleped the Castle Spectre, and, moreover, accufes him of plagiarism, foreign and domeftic.

"In pity I forbear, as carrion prey,

To taint my noftrils with thine hideous Play;
Where incident, and language, point and plot,
And all, but loathfome fpectacles forgot;

Draw-bridge, and dungeon, knight, and trufty fquire,

Squalid confumption, fpectre cloath'd in fire,
Illumin'd altars, and 'chimæras dire.'
Smit with the frenzy of a foreign race;
Who all their beauty in diftortion place;
Who couple contraries, with equal eafe,
As Taylors munch their cucumbers with peas;
Was't not enough to filch their flimfy ftyle,
But thou muft rob the Worthies of Our Ifle ?"

He thus fubftantiates his charge of plagiarifm.

"When ev'ry fenfe by pow'rful Sleep was feal'd,
And o'er the brain his poppy-dews prevail'd,
In my lone Study, lo! methought, I fat,
Grave as an Owl, and penfive as a Cat;
Before my fight, in pompous garment gay,
Fresh from the Prefs, thy" Tales of Wonder" lay
And much I gloated, with lafcivious eyes,
On its white form, gilt edge, and comely fize;
When, fudden, from the lab'ring fhelves around,
I heard, at first, a small, ftill, folemn found,
That louder wax'd anon and, now, I view'd,
Defcending from their cells, the motley brood,
An animated host of various hue;
Pale yellow, chefnut brown, cærulean blue,
And glowing red, as if inflam'd by rage;
All cover'd with the rev'rend duft of age!

150

240

-250

Fierce they approach'd, and (oh ! extremeft grief,)

Each from the stranger-volume tore a leaf,

Indignant tore; and while my anxious mind

Quick doubts involv'd, fcarce left a wreck behind ;'

Then, to their fev'ral feats, alertly fled,

Mutt'ring low curfes on thy fated head.

Curious to know, what lucubration rare

1260

Those vellum-vefted knaves would deign to spare,

Thy Tome, all tatter'd as it was, I took :

Good Heav'n*! how much unlike the former book!.

For they had pick'd the meat, but fpurn'd the bone,
And, only left thee, S-y's, and-Thy own.

"Quantum mutatus ab Illo!”

VIRG.

Pleas'd

Pleas'd by the civil cenfure of the joke,

I shook my fides with laughter, and awoke."

The ode is more fpirited and correct than the Bard's bag of Wonders, He condemns flippancy of abuse in other writers, and, yet in his own pert comments on the Author of the Pursuits of Literature he is not only flippant but unjuft. He magnifies his faults, and is blind to his merits. Whatever defects that writer may have difplayed, they are greatly counterbalanced by his beauties, and it is our ferious opinion, that he deferves the thanks of all friends to religion, morality, and focial order, in the defence of which he has exerted his ability with fuccefs.

In defcribing the qualifications of a man of virtue and independence, whom he reverences and admires, he introduces one; which we certainly have never confidered as a characteristic of either.

Who, from the plenteous ftore of knowledge, flings

"

On peasant's honour, or contempt on Kings.' From the conftruction of thefe lines the idea is conveyed that to honour pea fants or to defpife Kings, is a mark of virtue and independence. If he had really faid, what we hope he meant to fay, but what he certainly has not faid, that an honourable mind would honour virtue though found in a cottage, and hold vice in contempt though feated on a throne, every heart would have beat in unifon with the feeling, and every voice have re-echoed the fentiment. As it ftands, the latter part of it seems to reverse the fcriptural precept

HONOUR THE KING.

Unio five Lamentatio Hibernica Poema Macaronico-Latinum. And
an Ode
to Peter Pindar. 4to. Pp. 16. Is. Wright. London. 1801.
THIS whimfical medley has one great advantage over the notable produc-
tion of Dr. Geddes *, in the poffeffion of humour without falfehood. It ex-
hibits an odd mixture of Latin and English, interfperfed with fome fair
ftrokes of fatire and of wit. The invocation at the beginning will afford a
tolerable fpecimen of the poem.

"Vos, patriæ invoko pia numina, Nymphs of the Poddle†,
Vos Libertatis Pueri, cum Smock-alley Wenches,

Fifbwomen et Ferrymen, precor afpirate canenti;
Flebilibus mea Mufa modis miferabile carmen
Integrat, indignos mecum pityate dolores.

O, fi præteritos referat mihi Jupiter annos,
Qualis eram! magnum cum Grattanus ante fenatum
Lætus barranguabat Volunteeros, Militiamque,
Grandiloquens, verbifque fonoris Speechificabat.
"O, Patria, exclamans, Hibernia, maxima tellus,
"Lo, fperata diu clarè latèque triumphat

"Hâc quæfita manu Libertas! Do tibi Free-trade,
"Do majeftatem populo, populoque falutem.
"Credo equidem, haud fallor, tali pro munere noftrum

* See the Anti-Jacobin Review for February. P. 193.

"Poddle, vel Puddle, fic dictum â vicino flumine, quo magna pars Dublini perfæpe inundata eft. Hanc regionem habitant Liberty Boys, Decanus etiam atque Archi-epifcopuscum multis aliis."

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"Nomen

"Nomen n aftra ferent generi ferique nepotes,
"Et nati natorum, et qui nafcentur ab illis."

Quinpuaginta fimul nummorum millia grafpans,
Out-ftalkat, parvo cum corpore, juft like a Pigmy,
Quis tamen illius celeberrima gaudia noctis
Expediat verfu! quot Fire-works, quot Luminations,
Quam multæ ardenti fulgebant lampades cilà!

Vidit et obticuit cum murmure Liffius amnis;
Audivere Lacus fonitum, fhoutofque frequentes.
Ipfe etiam ripe confidens margine Dermot,
Conjuge cum Sheelah, audito fine fine tumultu,
Startat, et bungreyos, bawlantes undique Brattos
Deferit, inceptum fir-about, carofque potatoes-
Quos ego!* fed motam præftat componere mentem.
Scilicet, ah, mifero cruciantur pectora luctu,

O Socii, O Comites, Cromaboo, Macnevin, O'Connor!
Venit fumma dies et ineluctabile tempus
Hibernis; fuimus Patriots, fuit Erin, et ingens
Gloria Dublini; ferus omnia Pittus ad Anglos

Tranftulit-en noftrâ Britones dominantur in urbe."

The manner of that low dealer in Doggrel, who affumes the appellation of Peter Pindar, is not badly imitated in the following ode, annexed to the poem.

"Ode to Peter Pindar in his Own Way.

"ARGUMENT.-The Poet complaineth of Peter's odes-advifeth him to defift-compareth him to a Laureat and Miftrefs More-grumbleth in the gizzard against Royal Chat-talketh of Mifter Death, and Madame Schwel lenberg, of Gifford, and fallen Minifters-likeneth Peter to a penny Puff prophefieth no good to him, and compareth him to another Puff of a dif ferent flavour..

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"PETER, I've had of thee

ODE.

my Belly-full
Thy Odes and Epigrams give o'er,

Tame as a Laureat, and almoft as dull,
Gentle as Mistress More.

I'm fick of Courts and Royal Chat,

Of Kings and Queens-Ha! Ha! What! What!
Peter, 'tis very flat,

Since Mister Death, rude Porter, and all that,
'Gainft Madame Schwellenburgh hath shut the door.
Of Gifford I have had enough,

* " Quos ego, fed motos præftat componere fluctus."

"Venit fumma dies et ineluctabile tempus
Dardaniæ; fuimus Troes, fuit Ilium, et ingens.
Gloria Teucrorum; ferus omnia Jupiter Argos
Tranftulit-incenfâ Danai dominantur in urbe."

Eneid. Lib. 1.

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The two Princes of Perfia. Addreffed to Youth. By J. Porter. 12m0, 35. Crolby and Letterman. 1801.

THE

HE Princes, Omra and Behauder, are brothers, whofe characters, tho virtuous, form a contrast of meeknefs and impetuofity, and are refpectively corrected by the admonitions and inftruction of Sadi, their preceptor. The author informs us that, for the tales with which Sadi leffons the Princes," he is indebted to a philofopher of that name, who really composed, and recited them to the youth of Perfia, How" he "came by them," he has not obtained permiffion to repeat,"

The principal fubjects treated in this little volume are-Pride, Personal Defect, Vanity and Idlenefs, Ancestry, Juftice, and Mercy, Procrastina tion, Government, Credulity and Calumny, Honour, Death, Dignities. In his introduction, the author fays

"A celebrated Moralift has obferved, that he who fets out in life, with moral principles deeply fixed in his heart, though a deceiving and deceived world should neglect him, will find, in his heart, a fource of joy, which the world, with all its riches and honours, cannot bestow.

"Thus, holding religion as the bafis of that independence of mind, which is the beft guardian of virtue; on this rock I erect the morals of my book. I have drawn its principles from the greatest philofophers of the world, and from the fource of all truth, the Holy Scriptures."

A book, fo conftructed, claims our mite of approbation, and we recommend it to thofe who are folicitous for their offspring to profit by the dictates of virtue.

MISCELLANIES.

Qbservations on the Account of a Plan for the better Supplying the Cities of Edinburgh and Glasgow with Coals; by Henry Steuart, Esq. LL. D. F. R. S. and 4.S. E. By an Old Coal Master, Syo. Pr. 64. Hill, Edinburgh.

1800.

AD we not rashly promised in our review of the pamphlet to which arguments of both parties in this canal controversy, we should hardly have Gg3

deemed

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