marked, that it would be improper in us to fay any more on that fubject. It is fufficient to obferve, that Mr.Chryfal, the hero and fuppofed author of the ftory, by coming into the poffeffion of various officers in both departments, has an opportunity of exhibiting scenes and actions which hiftorians and newswriters never knew, and had they known them they durft not have publish'd. His defcription of the conduct and fentiments of two noble brothers, the one a foldier, the other a feaman, proves that fince our review of his two former volumes, this author has beheld nature reflected by a true mirror. To unbend the mind of the reader from real incidents, the novelty of which confifts in the agreeable and uncommon manner of their being told, the author has, we think, very judiciously, thrown in feveral affecting incidents, which, though fictitious, give a relief to his living characters. In fhort, we think that the first book of the third volume before us is well worth the attention, not only of the public, but its governors.

In the fecond book of the fame volume; his defcription of a worthy British fubject, long refident in America, and defervedly honoured with diftin&tions and titles by his royal mafter, and who finds a lady wandering in the woods, who proves afterwards to be an Ephefian matron, is forced, unnatural, and improbable. We cannot approve of the unlimited, and indeed incredible, concubinage, in which the fame worthy commander indulges himself with his American women; and, admitting the fact to be true, it had better have been fuppreffed. We have nothing to object to Chryfal, while in cuftody of a certain patentee; and the adventure of the baboon is a good laughable circumftance, in the defcription of the more than infernal monaftery which he exhibits; tho' we are forry if any part of the scenes he prefents are real.

of

Common, or rather vulgar fame, does not at all juftify Mr. Guinea, in the account of the perfonage who is fuppofed to have hanged a poor wretch, while he was feeding him with the hopes of a pardon. His defcription of the beau, to whom, he was paid by a pawn-broker, is humorous, juft, and to be often found in life: we shall give a fpecimen of our author's manner and genius, in his account of this beau's way living; which, we think, is well painted, and fhews great knowledge of the world. Speaking of his receiving him from the pawn-broker, he fays, When this weighty tranfaction was concluded, he returned home, and changing his dress repaired to a coffee-houfe at the court-end of the town, where he talked over the news of the day with all the fignificant airs and importance of one in the fecret, confirming every word he faid with the authority of his couin, this lord, or his friend that

duke,

duke, till he carelessly out-ftayed all his engagements for fup. per, when a Welth-rabbit, and three penny worth of punch, made him amends for the want of a dinner, and he went home fatisfied.

Well as I was by this time acquainted with the inconfist. encies of human life, I could not help being struck with the contradiction between the external appearance, and domestic œconomy of my new mafter. The former was in all the elegance of taste and affluence, while the latter was regulated by the ftri&teft parfimony that nature could fupport. He lodged in a houfe, which opened into a genteel ftreet, and had a back door into a blind ailey, that ferved him whenever he chose to go out or come in incog. Here one room up three pair of ftairs (but the name of the street over-balanced that, and every other inconvenience) ferved him for every purpose of life, ia moft of which he miniftered to himself, undisturbed by the company of any one, but his hair-dreffer, laundrefs, and tayJor, at their appointed times. To all others he was constantly denied by the people of the houfe, who received all meffages for him, and returned proper anfwers. But the manner of his life will be beft defcribed by the hiftory of the one day, I was in his poffeffion, the business of every day being invariably the fame.

As he had fat up late, it was near noon when he arose, by which genteel indulgence he faved coals, for his fire was never lighted till after he was up. He then fallied out to breakfast in a tarnished laced frock, and his thick foled fhoes, read the papers in the coffee-house (too foon after breakfast to take any thing) and then walked a turn in the park, till it was time to dress for dinner, when he went home, and finding his stomach out of order from his last night's debauch, and his late breakfafting, he fent the maid of the houfe for a bafon of pea-foop from the cook's fhop to fettle it, by the time he had taken which, it was too late for him to think of going any where to dine, though he had feveral appointments with people of the first fashion. When this frugal meal was over, he fet about the real bufinefs of the day. He took out, and brushed his beft cloaths, fet his fhirt to the fire to air, put on his ftockings and fhoes, and then fitting down to his toilet, on which his washes, paints, tooth powders, and lip-falves were all placed in order, had just finished his face, when his hairdreffer came, one hour under whofe hands compleated him a firft rate beau.

When he had contemplated himself for fome time with pride of heart, and practifed his looks and gestures at the glafs, a chair was called, which carried him to a scene of equal mag7 nificence

nificence and confufion. From the brilliant appearance of the company, and the ease, and felf-complacency in all their looks, it thould have feemed that there was not one poor or unhappy perfon among them. But the cafe of my mafter had convinced me what little faith is to be given to appearances, as I also found upon a nearer view, that many of the gayest there were in no better a condition than he.

Having reconnoitred one another fufficiently to lay in a fund for remarks, and bandied about the common-cant-of compliments, the company fat down to cards, when the looks of many of them foon underwent a change. For prudential reafons my mafter always declined engaging in parties of this nature, but this night all his address could not excuse him. A lady, whom he had dreffed at for a confiderable time, happening to come late, unluckily wanted one, and seeing him idle would take no apology. He complied therefore with the best grace he could, and invoking fortune with more fervency than he had every prayed to heaven, cut in; when chancing to fall against her, her fuperior luck, or skill, aided not a little by his anxiety, foon ftripped him of every fhilling in his pocket, and fent him home in a penfive mood, to ftudy ways and means for raifing another supply; and on this occafion I followed the fmiles of fortune, and entered into the fervice of the winner.'

The picture and hiftory of the female gamefter, is agreeable and well told; and the colonel's hiftory entertaining. We cannot, however, omit obferving one improbability in the hif tory of our Guinea; and that is, his familiarity with authors, whom he has a most excellent knack at defcribing. The rake's adventures in the waggon, at the inn, and at his marriage, are defcribed with true humour.

We can however by no means approve of this manner of writing, which was first introduced into the English language by the authorefs of the Atalantis, to ftigmatize the whig adminiftration under queen Anne. The true fecret of its fuccefs lies in taking off some strong, noted, feature, which marks the perfon fo as not to be mistaken; and then the author is at liberty to tack to it every circumstance of infamy and falfhood, that can either gratify his own malice, or promote the fale of his work.

We beg leave to obferve, that to ridicule folly and to expofe guilt, require different talents. If Mr. Foote had added murder, poisoning, perjury, inceft, or the like crimes, to the characters of his Auctioneer, his major Sturgeon, or his Commiffary, the exhibitions of those would have been received by the public with contempt and deteftation; and we cannot help being of opinion, that the benefit which mankind receives

from

from the detection of fifty wicked characters, cannot compen. fate for the crime of traducing one worthy perfon.

VI. Original Poems on Several Subjects. In two Volumes. By William Stevenson, M. D. 12mo. Pr. 5s. Sewed. Hawes. Phabe, fave, novus ingreditur tua templa facerdos.

TH

HIS author has taken the laudable precaution to inform the public, in black letters, that his book is entered in Stationers hall according to act of parliament; a very neceffary declaration, in an age when good authors are so apt to be injured by the piracy of bookfellers and periodical compilers.

No lefs laudable and pious is our bard's dedication to his own father, which abounds with many warm expreffions of filial love, gratitude, and veneration.

In the preface, which is fenfible enough, we find one pleafant mistake, relating to our worthy friend Dr. Armstrong, whom our author mentions as an eminent phyfician and poet of the laft age.This is a fort of foretaste of pofthumous fame which few authors are indulged with during their natural

lives.

The advice which Dr. Stevenfon gives to the critics is not amifs, Were I authorised to prefcribe (fays he) when the critic fhould put on his spectacles, and eftimate the merit or demerit of my book, after dinner should be the precife period, when the mind has been (perhaps) delighted and amufed with agreeable company, and gently elevated with a glass of generous liquor.' As it is uncertain, however, when we may be indulged with a good dinner and a chearful glass, we have fat down to peruse these poems fresh and fafting, when the spirits are alert, and the judgment is unclouded by the fumes and vapours of indigestion.

:

In the first place then, we muft allow that in the first poem of this collection, intitled' Vertumnus, or the Progrefs of Spring, in fix books,' we find fome animated lines, and warm defcription at the fame time we cannot help faying, it is on the whole a crude piece, which might have been very well fpared, confidering that our author's countryman, Thomson, had already obliged the world with a philofophical poem of extraordinary merit on the fame fubject, from which, if we mistake not, Dr. Stevenson has freely borrowed.

We fhall not dwell on little errors or mistakes in the rhyme, cadence, or quantity of fyllables. Thefe are indeed owing to the Scotch manner of pronunciation; fuch as, fevere rhyming

to air.

Sounds

Sounds infinitely vary'd they practise,

Sink to the lute, or to the clarion rife.

Brooks foully fwoln by many a fordid rill,

The gross refufe of ev'ry flimy hill.

Inftances of the bathos are not unfrequent, e. g. fpeaking of winter ;

While a dark mift of vapours round him forms,
From every quarter gathers in his storms,
And locks up all his magazines of cold,
That late requir'd the mantle's thickeft fold:"

The faid winter

Speeds fullen to the north's congenial sky,
Where icy deferts meet his downcast eye;
Where barren tra&ts immenfe, to spring unknown,
With all the depths of wildness overgrown.'

We apprehend this laft couplet is a flat poetical contradiction; inasmuch as a place overgrown with all the depths of wildness, implies rather a luxuriancy of fpring than a want of" it; if there is not ftill another impropriety in representing defart overgrown with depths.

For flatnefs and anticlimax, take the following lines."

For one thing fome, fome for another call,

Ocean and fky, at unknown distance met,

Serene, seem to reproach their fails unfet.

We might swell this account with a great number of articles, but we have no pleasure in multiplying firictures; nevertheless, if every line was animated and correct, we fhould ftill complain that the poem was little else than

Verfus inopes rerum, nugæque canoræ,——

Where mere defcription holds the place of fenfe.

·

After the Progrefs of the Spring,' which takes up near one half of the first volume, we have an Ode to Spring,' and in fhort, fo many flowers, and plants, and fhrubs, and rainbows, zephyrs, ftreams, and azure fkies, that we are almoft fick of the poetical profufion. We have obferved that the Scotch bards in general, (and one in particular, who has been blind from his infancy) deal much in describing the vernal beauties of the year, which they paint with fuch a luxuriant pencil, that one would be apt to believe they trufted entirely to an imagination running riot in a cold, barren country, where they cannot regulate their fancy by the real exhibitions of nature. Perhaps, indeed, after a tedious and severe winter, such as one must endure in Scotland, the faint appearance of fpring produces a

double