rather vanity, of human reason; an inordinate love of the world; an unwillingness in the lovers of pleasure to read those scriptures which would condemn their licentious habits; a thoughtless indolence and indifference. Each of these heads forms the subject of a separate discussion. That the author, in speaking of the love of the world, does not wish to debar men from innocent enjoyments may be plainly perceived from the following passage:

I would wish not to be misunderstood, or to be deemed a presumptuous and ascetic censurer of worldly customs, or to be considered as a Pharisaical pretender to extraordinary purity, but the language of Scripture it is my duty to speak boldly, and interpret liberally. Some modern writers on moral and religious subjects, whose works generally display extraordinary merit, have, in my opinion, drawn the cords of restraint tighter than the Scripture warrants, and have therefore rendered their otherwise valuable writings less useful and less impressive. The object of all reproof is to promote the amendment of the reproved; we are not to terrify, but to allure. The mode of argument should be suited to the condition of those whom we address; we should, like St. Paul, be "all things to all men," in hopes that, by any means, we may convert them to the faith.

From the tenor of the works to which I have above alluded, men might be led to think that it is necessary to live in absolute seclusion and retirement from the world, in order to their serving God. This idea was the origin of Monastic Institutions. All writers on religious subjects should surely be careful not to lead persons to think that they cannot attend to the duties of religion, and at the same time enjoy the innocent and allowable comforts which the world is capable of affording. This would be a palpable misconception of our Saviour's precepts, and a confused perversion of the plain meaning of Scripture. We

came into this world to enjoy the comforts of it, suited to our different stations, and to bestow comfort on others; but we did not come into this world to follow the vicious customs of it, and to serve it. We were born to serve God, and to pray to him to bestow his blessing upon us. He knoweth all the things which we have need of. We are, therefore, to "seek first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness, and all these things shall be added unto us.” Here is the rule, by which we should all be guided; but how common is the error of seeking only for worldly advantages, and living as it were without God in the world! This is the true meaning of the asser tion, that an inordinate love of the world prevents a true knowledge of religion. Those who look only to the world for their happiness, who never consider God as the giver of every blessing, whose conduct is never guided by a desire of pleasing him, cannot possibly entertain a just sense of religion; and the fact is, they never think of it at all. Those persons, and those only, live as God intended we should live, who make religion the guide of every action, and who yet cheerfully and gratefully enjoy the social intercourse of their station, and use the world without abusing it. pp. 19-22.

The author objects to the sentiments expressed by Pope in his Essay on Man, and considers this composition as having been formed, against his own better judgment, from a plan given him in prose by his distinguished patron, Lord Bolingbroke. The two following couplets are particularly noticed as erroneous in principles:

For modes of faith let senseless zealots fight; [right. His can't be wrong whose life is in the Know then this truth, enough for man to know:

Virtue alone is happiness below.

Having concluded the address to his children, Mr. Powlett proceeds to a dissertation on miracles and

prophecy. Concerning the latter we are presented with an abridgment of Mr. Faber's work, which it will therefore be needless here to notice.

The author next addresses himself to different sectaries : more especially to the Unitarians, whom with the Calvinists, he looks upon as the most dangerous enemies of the true faith, and to those who style themselves Evangelical Ministers. We shall conclude these remarks with an extract from the commencement of this address, and the table of contents.

With a mind deeply regretting the extent of schismatical opinions, and fully impressed with the conviction of the pernicious effect this dissension has on the minds of the uninformed mass of the people, I think it indispensabie not to pass over the subject of Sectaries in a treatise of this nature. Wishing to see religious liberty florish as well as civil, because I consider a free exercise of opinion, provided that peace be maintained, most consonant with common sense, most congenial with the spirit of our constitution, and, above all, most consistent with the genuine spirit of Christianity, I yet cannot but lament that we are not "of one heart and of one mind.”

I am fully convinced that, if this unanimity, so much to be desired, were practicable in a world compounded of jarring interests and contrariety of jealous opinions, it could only be effected by strength of reasoning and irresistible argument. Persecution may irritate, may embitter, may inflame, but never can produce conviction. One circumstance admits of no dispute; that there can be but one true religion, and only one right interpretation of the Scriptures. If the Members of the Church of England have discovered that right interpretation, those, who dissent from their tenets, must be wrong. However the various sects may consider that, without being ac

But

countable to their fellow-creatures, they are at liberty to entertain their own peculiar opinions, they must allow that they are answerable to their Maker, if they do not "search the Scriptures" with a sincere desire to know the truth, and with a pious intention of believing the doctrines revealed in the Sacred Volume. Before any man undertakes the important inquiry, he must lay aside all worldlymindedness, and intellectual pride, he must bring his understanding to the inquiry in an humble and spiritual manner, he must lift his reason up to his Maker's Word, and not presume to bring down the ways of God to the standard of his limited faculties. as I am now addressing myself more especially to Sectaries, I beg leave to add, they must be certain they are not induced by a spirit of opposition to an Established Church, by no feelings of jealousy, but that they conscientiously and unbiassed by worldly considerations, refuse their assent to the doctrines contained in our Articles. mild Spirit of the church of England bears them no ill-will; we lament their errors and the mischiefs which they produce; but it is but reasonable that they should not be allowed to climb up into the sheepfold by their own way, instead of entering in by Christ, who declares himself to be the only door by which they should enter, and we still more lament that such unauthorised and erroneous Ministers should lead away mistaken flocks from the true en trance of the Christian fold. pp. 231-234.

CONTENTS..

The

Preface-General and familiar Address to the Author's Children on the Subject of Religion-Dissertation on Miracles and Prophecy-Dissertation on Sectaries, but more especially an Appeal to Unitarians, and to those who style them. selves Evangelical Ministers-An Ap pendix; containing a Statement of the Heads of the late Bishop Horne's Ser

mons.

OVID'S METAMORPHOSES, translated by THOMAS ORGER. With the original Latin Text. Vol. the First. Svo. pp. 282. London, Sherwood. Pr. 10s.

This volume contains a translation of the first seven books of Ovid's Metamorphoses. The author's plan is to continue publishing a Number once every quarter, till the whole translation is complete. His idea of the task he has undertaken is set forth in the following Preface.

"The maxim, that none but a Poet should translate a Poet, has probably operated to the exclusion of some good English versions, and certainly to the introduction of some bad ones. A man, who has acquired no previous poetical fame, is not very eager to sport upon a manor where every critic he meets is prepared to question his qualification : and on the other hand, the lawful heirs of Parnassus (with reverence be it spoken) do not always execute translations with the attentive skill which the public is entitled to expect. It is indeed a sort of drudgery for which they have little relish; the performance is generally the result of a stipulated price, and, like other contract work, is ill calculated to stand the test of time. The elegant Poet, whose Metamorphoses I now with deference submit to the English reader in a new version, was translated about the year 1710, by Sir Samuel Garth, in conjunction with Dryden, Addison, and other Bards of that Augustan period. In that translation the great name of Dryden was wisely placed in the van. Notwithstanding the standard of revolt raised by Swift in his Battle of the Books, the event demonstrates, that no rival

Bard ventured to break a lance with so formidable an opponent. The lapse of a century has since introduced a race of writers who have polished English verse to higher excellence. Many rhymes, which the great masters of the art, in the reign of Queen Anne, adopted without scruple, would not now pass muster in the columns of a monthly magazine. From this general observation Sir Samuel Garth's work offers one eminent exception; and by a strange fatality, he who was the best calculated to do justice to the terse elegance and amatory beauties of Ovid. has contented himself, and disappointed his readers, with the version of a single Metamorphosis. If all Garth's coadjutors had executed their task as Pope executed his in the fable of Dryöpè, I should have closed the volume with a mixed feeling of pleasure and despair, and have left the labor of future translation to more adventurous pens. I am now led to speak a few words concerning myself; and upon such a subject they cannot be too few. I have translated Ovid literally, where I could do so with justice to him and to myself: but when I have met with an idiom or an expression, which, if literally rendered, would have converted a Roman beauty into an English burlesque, I have parodied, rather than translated my author; aiming, as far as my confined powers extend, to be

True to his sense, but truer to his fame. The chief end of poetry, like that of Ovid, being to give pleasure, all low images and degrading expressions should be uniformly shunned. Ovid, too, is above all Roman writers the Poet of antithesis; this trait, whosoever presents him to the English reader, should scrupulously endeavour to retain, as well

as to preserve that sustained spirit of Poetry, to want which is to want every thing. I will only add, that at a period so fertile in poetical excellence of every description, it may excite surprise, that to translate a Poet of so much celebrity, has devolved upon a man of no celebrity at all; and who possibly has mistaken admiration of his author's beauties in the original, for ability to do justice to those beauties in a translation."

Book I. contains an account of the Creation of Heaven and Earth from Chaos-The Formation of Man-The Golden Age-The Silver Age The Brazen Age-The Iron Age-The General Depravity of Mankind-The Giant's WarAssembly of the Gods convoked by Jupiter-Lycaon transformed to a Wolf-Jupiter's resolution to destroy the World-The DelugeDeucalion and Pyrrha-The World re-peopled with Human Beings-And with Animals-The Serpent Python destroyed by Apollo. Daphne transformed to a LaurelJö transformed to a Heifer-Transformation of Syrinx-Death of Argus-His Eyes transferred to the Peacock's Tail-lö restored to Human Shape Story of Clymene and her Son Phaëton.

The work opens thus:

Of bodies varying in their shape and hue, Old forms forsaking and assuming new, I sing. Ye Gods, by whom the change was wrought, [born thought, Inspire my song, and guide each heavenWhile thus I trace the long, laborious

No orient sun-beam usher'd in the morn, No circling moon renew'd her blunted horn; [care Earth had not yet by heaven's paternal Upheld her balanc'd orb in ambient air, Nor buoyant ocean stretch'd on every side [tide.

From shore to distant shore his billowy Earth, water, air, maintain'd a mingled reign,

"Twas baseless earth, unnavigable main, And darken'd ether. Each forsook its form To combat in one desolating storm. While heat with cold maintain'd a du. bious fight, [light,

The moist, the dry, the heavy and the Knew no restraint, but in confusion hurl'd, Vex'd with rude storms the elemental world.

Jove to the mass a better nature gave, Divided earth from air, and land from

wave;

From flagging mists a finer essence drew, To deck th' etherial arch with liquid blue; Then pois'd the whole, bade jarring discord cease,

And bound the parted elements in peace.
Fire, as a purer spirit, upward driven,
Shone 'midst the stars and deck'd the
convex heaven.

Elate to fill the interval of space,
Air follow'd next in lightness as in place.
Earth in the scale assum'd a lower state,
Less pure in substance and more dense
in weight;

While water, last in station as in birth, Embraced with humid zone the solid earth.

The Second Book opens with a magnificent Description of the Palace of the Sun. It then proceeds to state the Fall of Phaëton, &c. &c.

In the Third Book Ovid's talent of description is seen to high advantage in his beautiful stories of Echo and Narcissus. Mr. Orger's version of the former is as follows: Narcissus now the hunter's sport pursues i Echo beholds, and kindles while she views;

Herself unseen, pursues with fond desire; And feels at each approach a brighter fire. So, tipp'd with sulphur, torches dart

their rays,

Touch'd by a spark so kindle in a blaze. Oft would she strive his pity to beseech With mild intreaties and persuasive speech,

By chance Narcissus in a lonely place Had distanc'd all his followers in the chace. Who's there? exclaim'd the youth, the amorous fair

[There, Caught his last accent, and repeated, Amaz'd, he casts his eyes the hills around, And cries, come hither-she returns the sound.

Again he stopp'd, again he thought to find Some fellow sportsman in the vale behind. Whither so fast? he cried-she caught the strain,

And every word sent back to him again. Once more he listens to the vocal cheat, And cries, again deluded, Here we meet: Th' inviting note her soul with transport fills,

[hills.

And Here we meet, resounded from the Swift from the copse enamor'd Echo sprung, [hung; Embrac'd his neck, and on his bosom He struggling said, Thy rude embrace

remove,

Death be my portion ere I yield to love-
I yield to love, rejected Echo cries,
And to her green recess indignant flies;
Where, hid in caves, the solitary maid
Conceals her crimson blushes in the shade.
Yet love remains, his darts her bosom
goad,
[rode.
And gnawing cares the sleepless fair cor-
Her waning body sickens in despair,
Till all its juices dissipate in air;
Her voice alone survives; her fleshless
bones

Cling to the rocks, and harden into stones;
The phantom flits the hills and mountains
round,
[sound.
Heard, but not seen, a disembodied

Book IV. contains the Invocation to Bacchus-The Story of Pyramus and Thisbe-The Detection of Mars and Venus-The Story of Leucothoë and the Sun-Clytiè changed to a Sunflower-The Union of Salmacis and Hermaphroditus-Alcithoë and her Sisters transformed to BatsJuno's Descent into Hell-Ino and Melicerta transformed to Marine Deities-The Transformation of the Theban Matrons-Cadmus and his Queen transformed to Serpents

The Story of Perseus-He changes Atlas to a Mountain-And rescues Andromeda from a Sea MonsterHistory of Medusa's Head.

Our classical readers will not be displeased at our quoting from the original the prayer of Venus to Neptune.

At Venus immeritæ neptis miserata la bores, [aquarum, Sic patruo blandita suo est: O numen Proxima cui cœlo cessit, Neptune, po [meorum, Magna quidem posco: sed tu miserere Jactari quos cernis in Ionio immenso: Et Dîs adde tuis. Aliqua et mihi gratia ponto est, [fundo

testas:

Si tamen in dio quondam concreta proSpuma fui, Graiumque manet mihi no men ab iila.

rendam

Annuit oranti Neptunus; et abstulit illis Quod mortale fuit; majestatemque ve [novavit Imposuit; nomenque simul · faciemque Leucothoëque Deum cum matre Palæmona dixit.

This passage is thus rendered by Mr. O.

From heaven Idalia's Goddess sigh'd to trace [race, The various sorrows of her earth-born And thus, with eyes that beam'd celestial love, [Jove: Woo'd the stern brother of her father O Monarch of the main! to whom is giv'n [in heaven, Power next in rank to him who reigns Great is the boon I covet, haste to free Yon wretched outcasts from th' Ionian

sea;

[keep,

Or let them near thy throne their station
And rule in scaly Demigods the deep:
Some claim I hold, some influence o'er
the waves,
[craves,
And Neptune sure may grant what Venus
Since from thy sparkling foam Idalia's
dame
[name.
Deriv'd her being, and the Greeks her
Neptune consents; but ere he bids them
shine,

Mortal no more, in majesty divine,
New names on both he hastens to confer,
And him Palæmon calls, Leucothoë her.

The Fifth Book is chiefly occupied with the Song of the Muses. !