If this work fhould be favourably received, two other volumes of the fame kind will foon make their appearance. That the defired fuccefs will attend fo ufeful a publication, we have little doubt.

POETRY.

Blank Verfe, by Charles Lloyd and Charles Lamb. 12mo. 25. 6d. Arch. 1798.

It is not likely that a collection of verses, all in the fame metre, and with little variety of subject, should become popular. By the mob of readers, therefore, these poems will be little regarded; but they will become dear to fuch as have felt the evils of life and known the confolations of Christianity; and they will be treasured in the memory of those who are capable of understanding the excellence of poetry.

The characteristics of Mr. Lloyd's poems are well expreffed in

his motto.

To paint the finest features of the mind,

And to moft fubtle and mysterious things

Give colour, ftrength, and motion.' AKENSIDE.

Of his Melancholy Man and of his Sonnets, this is the grand merit; and this is one of the excellencies of his Edmund Oliver. In the prefent volume we discover the fame powers; and they appear with particular advantage in the lines defcriptive of a mifanthrope.

Scarce arriv'd

At manhood, foon as he began to feel,
He felt what injury and injuftice are,
And bitter difappointment. He no friend
Poffefs'd; yet had a bosom that might own
All the varieties of focial joy,

From meekeft pity, to the expanfive fwell
Of warm benevolence; from paffion's throe,
To the holier interchange of kindred fouls!
How has he struggled with the instinctive love
That led him to embrace his fellow men,
And bind them to his breaft! I only knew
The ruins of his mind; yet have I seen
The fmother'd tear for paffing wretchedness!
I've feen the faint flush, and the pulse of pity,
Working on his poor cheek, e'en while he forc'd
The unnatural laugh of hard indifference

To cope with nature's pleadings! Oh, my God!
I have e'en heard him, with moft ftrange perversion,
Brag that weak man was fashion'd by his Maker
To live a lonely, uncompanion'd thing;

That he was felf-sufficient; that the smile
Of fweet affection was a very cheat,
And love's beft energies impertinence :
While ever on his favourite household dog
He look'd fuch meanings of a hollow heart,
His rebel eye exprefs'd fuch fad mifgivings,
That all he fpake fell flat upon the ear
Self-contradicted.' P. 43.

The lines to the memory of Mrs. Godwin are a high tribute of respect, as the author avows a complete diffent from her, with regard to almost all her moral fpeculations. We are far from approving her opinions refpecting marriage; and we do not agree with Mr. Lloyd when he afferts that her pofthumous works, far from convincing him that the mifery and oppreffion peculiar to women arife out of the partial laws and inftitutions of fociety,' appear little less throughout than an indirect panegyric on the inftitutions which he wishes to abolish.

We could have wished that both these authors had paid more attention to harmony. A feebleness of phrase, and a laxity of verfification, are frequently difcoverable.

Mr. Lamb defcribes no longer, as in his first productions,

• Vain loves and wanderings with a fair-hair'd maid.' His prefent pieces imply paft fufferings and prefent refignation. The following extract is by no means faultlefs: it would have been better without the lines printed in Italics; but we fhould pity the man who could read the paffage, and not share the feelings that pervade it.

A heavy lot hath he, most wretched man!
Who lives the last of all his family.
He looks around him, and his eye discerns
The face of the stranger, and his heart is fick.

Man of the world, what canft thou do for him?

Wealth is a burden, which he could not bear ;

Mirth a strange crime, the which he dares not act ;

And wine no cordial, but a bitter cup.

For wounds like his Chrift is the only cure,

And gofpel promifes are his by right,

For thefe were given to the poor in heart.

Go, preach thou to him of a world to come,

Where friends fhall meet, and know each other's face.

Say lefs than this, and fay it to the winds.' P. 85.

Thefe poets have done wifely in explaining their religious opinions, left, as they retain the phrafeology of Calvinism, they might be supposed to have imbibed its tenets. To those who read for

CRIT. REV. VOL. XXIV. Od. 1798.

R

mere amusement we do not recommend this little volume; but we recommend it to those who can derive delight from contemplating the finest features of the mind,' and from feeing the beft feelings of our nature expreffed with earnestness and ardour.

Sentimental Poems, on the most remarkable and interefting Events of the French Revolution. Dedicated to his Serene Highness the Prince of Condé, by a foreign Officer, and tranflated by an English Nobleman. 8vo. Hookham. 1798.

We know what we may expect when an emigrant officer fentimentalifes upon the French revolution. The following extract will fhow that he is at least a better poet than prophet.

• Ye brave warriors! whofe oft-tried heroifm ennobles the tranfport which fires my breaft! Magnanimous defenders of Gallia's throne! hafte to difplay your awful banners! A Condé is to command!-Hear it, ye traitors, and tremble!-A Condé !.... He hath faid, it, and facred is his word!--A king and queen, betray ed!... infulted! . . . enflaved!-Fired is the hero's foul to release the royal captives! to restore the cenfer, the fceptre, and the fword, to the facred hands that held them!

Ardent art thou, O generous prince, to run the great career of glory!. Soon wilt thou give the fignal for exterminating those mifcreants, who feize on the treafures of king and of subject! let loose on France the fury Difcord; fhed the blood of the best of its nobles; and fill its moft diftant dominions with terror, devastation, and death !

Now, while they riot in fuccefsful guilt, let mourning and death surprise them! Let them know, if an outraged Bourbon defer the vengeful blow, it is only to render it more dreadfully fatal! Suffer not a mistaken patriotifm to arreft thy uplifted arm. Strike thy enemies, and thou wilt fave thy country! The daftard fhuns his foe; the hero encounters and conquers! Behold, on a raging fea, the gallant companions of thy former toils! How fearlessly they brave the roaring waves! Ah, let them not perifh; but generoufly affift their noble efforts!

་་

As the immortal gods, around the walls of Troy, ruled the headlong fury of conflicting hofts; fo wilt thou, illuftrious prince, guide the impetuous valour of the peers of France! Fired by thy ardent fpirit, as heroes they will triumph, or as heroes they will fall!

1

Dangers intimidate little minds, but embolden great ones. The wicked dread death'; the miferable invoke it; but the brave defy it! Thy intrepid followers, O prince! led on by thee and glory, will ftrew the field with death! The nobles of France are trangers to fear. From the bofom of pleasure they fly into the midst of peril; the favourites, by turns, of Venus and of Mars!

Come thou alfo, bright ornament of the Bourbon race! Graceful as Adonis, yet dauntless as the god of war!.... Come, gallant prince!... draw thy fword, and point the way to glory! ... King... Country... Religion call us! One fpirit animates every heart, and nerves every arm !-Tremble, ye rebels; your reign is no more!

• Behold, now, ye illuftrious descendants of mighty monarchs! ... Behold those infidel parricides proftrate in the dust !... Behold the deluded people returning to their former allegiance; and liberty with monarchy difpenfing to France the bleflings of protection, plenty, and joy!' P. 99.

Elegies and other small Poems, by Matilda Betham. 12mo. 35, 6d. Boards. Longman. 1798.

IN A LETTER TO A. R. C. ON HER WISHING TO BE CALLED
ANNA.

Forgive me, if I wound your ear,
By calling of you Nancy,

Which is the name of my fweet friend,
The other's but her fancy.

Ah dearest girl! how could your mind
The ftrange diftinction frame?
The whimfical, unjuft caprice,
Which robs you of your name,

Nancy agrees with what we fee,
A being wild and airy ;
Gay as a nymph of Flora's train,
Fantastic as a fairy.

But Anna's of a different kind,
A melancholy maid;
Boafting a fentimental foul,

In folemn pomp array'd.

Oh ne'er will I forfake the found,
So artlefs and fo free!

Be what you will with all mankind,

But Nancy ftill with me.' P. 22.

These lines may serve as a specimen of this little volume. The vulgarifm in the first stanza occurs again in p. 35. • Shunning of the dawn.' Mifs Betham fucceeds better in these light pieces than in more ferious poems. She has the common fault of young poets -tritenefs of epithet,

Extracts from the Works of the most celebrated Italian Poets. With Tranflations by admired English Authors. 8vo. Ss. Boards. Rivingtons. 1798.

This volume will be useful to thofe who are studying the Italian language. The selections are, in general, fuch as may be approved.

More Ghofts!

NOVEL S, &c.

By the Wife of an Officer, Author of the Irish Heiress. 3 Vols. 12mo. 10s. 6d. fewed. Lane, 1798.

More Ghofts would have been fuperfluous in the present state of novel-writing, had not the author of this work conjured up her ghofts with a view of diffipating the horrors, lately excited in the tender breast of many a boarding-school mifs, by the more artful and terrific dealers in the article. The ghofts in this piece are rather cunning than terrible; and they add confiderably to our entertainment. The characters are more analogous to thofe of real life, than the faultlefs monsters which are indebted to imagination only for a temporary existence; and their adventures lead, by eafy and natural means, to many juft reflections on the errors of education and the irregularity of the paffions. As this production is offered to the public by a widow, who hopes to render her pen fubfervient to the fupport of herself and her offspring, thofe who are in queft of the amufement which novels afford, will not, we hope, be inattentive to a claim that will yield them a gratification of a fuperior kind. Duffeldorf; or, the Fratricide.

A Romance.

Mackenzie. 3 Vols. 12mo. 10s. 6d. fewed.

By Anna Maria
Lane. 1798.

With regard to the incidents of this romance, the writer imitates thofe of Mrs. Radcliffe; but he is far from being equal to that lady in this branch of compofition. It feems to be agreed that thofe who write on the horrific plan must employ the fame inftruments-cruel German counts, each with two wives-old caftlesprivate doors-flling pannels-banditti-affaffins-ghofts,

&c.

We have often had occafion to cenfure the abfurd and incorrect language of novels in general; and from fuch cenfure this romance is not exempt.

Palmira and Ermance. A Novel. By Mrs. Meeke, Author of Count St. Blancard. 3 Vols. 12mo. 10s. 6d. fewed. Lane. 1797.

Innocent entertainment, without any fixed purpofe of the moral kind, appears to be the object of this novel. The characters, principally thofe of France under the old government, are drawn with fpirit. The dialogue is lively; and the incidents of the first and fecond volumes are interefting. The character of a fop, partly on the English and partly on the French plan, is well fuftained, and is expofed to juft contempt. In the third volume, the story is unne