merits; but to imitate imperfection, and study to write worse than education has enabled us to write, is an abfurdity, which even fashion, we truft, will not long be able to protect. Having made these observations on the mechanifm of this poem, which we hope may have a tendency to prevent other mistaken attempts of the fame kind, we proceed to examine the conduct and management of it, in the ftyle which has been adopted. We confefs, that having heard much praise bestowed upon the whole compofition, long before we obtained a copy of it, we opened it with hopes that have by no means been realized in the perufal. That the fair writer has poetical talents, of confiderable vigour, we are not inclined to deny; but we fay with regret, that hitherto they are so far obfcured by a deficiency in tafte and judgment, that they are far from producing their due effect. She is too fond, mifled perhaps by great authority, of prodigies and preternatural events, and in her narrative often obfcure, through abruptnefs. The appearance of the strange footh layer (or Warlock) to Wallace is a ftriking inftance of the one, and the wound received by Edward in his tent of the other. How fuch a prophet could exift, is never made out in the firft cafe, nor is it very clear in the fecond, that the king was wounded by a kick from his own horfe. The following inftance will alfo evince, among others which might be taken, that the author is not always fenfible that the licences of her measure may lead to the ridiculous, inflead of the folemn. "Now Durham! St. John defend thy pride, Baffet has deaftly hit the pafs, And ftands with his men on the hoftile fide. Now, Bishop! call on thy friends in heaven, For well I ween thy proud array, By fome dark imp of Satan driv'n, "Already they ftand on the treacherous brink, One step, and they hide their heads for ever! To rife to life and daylight never! Oh! fatal, rafh and erring speed! Even now, elate in pride they ftood, Now, o'er their heads grows the flimy weed Now o'er their perish'd forms rolls ruin's inky flood!" P.133. To pass by other faults, the jingle of ever and never, taken from a trivial ballad in a foolish drama, goes to the very an tipodes tipodes of all dignity. Yet we would gladly fhow, what is ftrictly the truth, that with no kind of hoftile feeling to. wards the author, we make these remarks. The following paffage is one of very many which prove of what things fhe will be capable when her judgment shall be matured: "Oh! thou Omnipotent! whofe ways Man's daring optics trace in vain! Who dare, with doubting heart arraign, Tho' ftorms and clouds obfcure, the wisdom of thy reign! "Yes, it is come! That paufe of dread, Men's faultering footsteps, as they tread There is an hour, whofe preffure cold It is not when the battle-ftorm -The furies bid to the repaft! Oh! from the cradle to the tomb, Comes there no hour fo fraught with gloom, As that ere nations meet, to feal each other's doom." P.121. Qf Of a female who can write thus, we cannot but entertain the higheft hopes. But the must discard modern compounds, the fpawn of affectation, fuch as "death-dew, death-fire,' &c. and, if poffible, avoid all imitation. Depending on her own genius, and defpifing tricks, she will do well. ART. V. Geological Travels. By J. A. De Luc, F.R.S. Vol. I. Travels in the North of Europe, containing Obfervations on fome Parts of the Coafts of the Baltic and the North Sea. Tranflated from the French Manufcript. Illuftrated with a Map and Drawings. 8vo. 407 pp. Rivingtons. 12s. 1810. IVE VE have never had occafion to notice the works of this venerable philofopher, but we have particularly dwelt on the indefatigable and praife-worthy folicitude he has evinced, to decide every thing relating to the fubject of geology by a reference to facts. To thefe he conftantly appeals, and to these he wishes conftantly to call the attention of all other theorists. His travels have not been undertaken merely for the fake of procuring data for his own hypothefes, but for the fake of bringing to that irresistible teft the hypotheses of others. The book before us is but a first volume of an unfinished work, and therefore we fhall not be expected to be very diffufe in our remarks upon it. It has immediate reference to a former recent publication noticed in our 35th Vol. p. 497, and entitled An Elementary Treatife on Geology. The main drift of M. De Luc's researches, as is well known, is to prove the small antiquity of our Continents, particularly in oppofition to thofe who contend for an immenfe antiquity, not as the refult of their own phyfical refearches, but rather as the refult of their fanciful hypothefes. In many of the latter, particularly the Huttonian, there is the parade of a reference to vifible phænomena, but M. De Luc has, we think, in many inftances, clearly proved, that fuch phænomena have either been mifunderflood by the learned theorist himself, or that there are abundance of other phænomena to be found, which effectually overfet the conclufions he has formed. In the prefent work, the geological facts that bear a relation to the ftate of our Continents at their birth, and to the causes which have acted on them fince that time, are arranged under feveral diftin&t heads, to the number of twenty-feven in all, fome of which are of more obvious importance than others, others, but all of them, undoubtedly, of great moment to decide the points in difpute between M. De Luc and the Huttonians. It is exceedingly curious, merely to be put in poffeffion of the facts and phænomena neceflary to be examined for these purposes; as they ferve to fhow how critical, and how philofophical an eye is requifite, in order to entitle a perfon to determine with any fort of authority, the events which have taken place, or may reafonably be fuppofed to have taken place in the body of the earth. The fall and rush of water, for inftance, may eafily be fuppofed to have occafioned some of the boldeft features on the face of the earth, but the fallacy of fuch fuppofitions may, by many circumstances, be demonftrated, when we seek to verify the fact by local observations. Many of these events feem clearly to have been affumed by other theorists, not only without fufficient data to fupport them, but in plain contradiction to, and defiance of, exifting phænomena. Befides the diftinct heads to which this work is reduced, as mentioned before, M, De Luc gives us a ftill fhorter fummary of his views at page 110, which we shall transcribe: his obfervations, he tells us, will be calculated to prove the four following points. "I. The catastrophes of which evident marks are impreffed on the mafs of our Continents, by the vallies among mountains, the cavities of lakes, and the difturbed fituation of the ftrata in the irregular skirts of thefe Continents, took place at different pe riods, while our prefent land ftill conftituted the bed of the fea. II. The birth of these Continents was produced by the fubfidence of others, over which the fea flowed, abandoning its antient bed. "III. Since that great revolusion on our globe, the level of the fea has never changed. "IV. From the known operations of caufes of every clafs upon these Continents fince their birth, it is certain that they cannot have existed a great many ages." These are the pofitions by which M. De Luc undertakes to fatisfy every unprejudiced obferver, that we are not authorised by geological monuments to difcard, as fome have pretended, the only written hiftory of the earth and of mankind which now exists. To ftate the facts adduced by M. De Luc with any tolerable effect, would be to transcribe the whole book. It is impoffible to enter into the detail of his very curious remarks; to have a proper idea of them, it is as neceffary to confult the book itfelf, as it is alfo neceffary to vifit the fame places places to verify the actual facts. We can only fay, that the extreme care and indefatigable industry of M. De Luc, in fo very advanced a ftage of life, have greatly excited our af tonishment, and muft ferve to convince every one of the warmth of his zeal, in upholding the great caufe he undertakes to vindicate. We fhall wait with impatience for the further continuation and completion of his refearches. It is not proper, however, to conclude our review without giving fome fketch of the particular tour and researches recorded in this volume. The author fets out from Berlin, the capital of the Pruffian dominions, and proceeds through Brandenburg, and the Dutchies of Mecklenburg, Holftein, and Schelfwig, to Hufum. In this tour are many lakes, and fome portion of fea-coaft; and the author's object is to fhow, from a moft minute examination of both, what has been the probable caufe, course, and progrefs of exifting phænomena. The blocks of Granite, and other fubftances, to be found on the borders of the fea, he concludes, not to have been transported thither by the flow of rivers from the Continents, as the Huttonians would maintain, but to have fallen into the fea, in confequence only of the degradation of the cliffs which originally contained them. This is an important point to be fettled, in regard to the Huttonian hypothefis of the excavation of vallies. These blocks, inftead of being found at the mouths of vallies, which should be the cafe, according to the Huttonian theory are, on the contrary, almost univerfally found under cliffs. M. De Luc produces very ftrong facts alfo, to prove that it is a notion altogether fanciful, that the level of the Baltic has been gradually lowering. His obfervations to this effect, made in the Island of Poel, near Wismar, in the Dutchy of Mecklenburg are certainly very curious, and richly demand the closest attention of geologifts. Indeed M. De Luc feems to us to have fucceeded completely in collecting facts, which plainly contradict the action and effects affigned by the Huttonians, to the waters of the fea and of the Continent; and which, inftead of appearing to have been the fole causes of the excavations, and bold features of the face of the globe, feem evidently to have been contributing, during a certain feries of years, to foften and 'efface the original irregularities. The whole purport of the learned author's remarks is indeed to this effect, though conftantly with a view allo to corroborate his general affertion, with refpect to the operation of exifting caufes, namely, that in many moft effential points, the courfe and duration of fuch operations, are still fo plainly to be traced, as to enable the naturalift to allign a pro. bable |