For is the not fupremely-witty, gay. Though blockheads hence her yoke-make pity? Who knows, to charm the ravish'd fair, Who, when fome malady has spent her, Who never can to her prove cruel, Unless when he declines a duel. These all, if fortune makes them like, With equal charm of merit ftrike. Each thus, though pair'd like heav'n and hell, Whate'er his colour, fair or brown, Some plump-cheek'd justice of the quorum: His money landed, or in bank; Whate'er through life his cafual track is, If he can but commodious fix Not anxious more for wealth, than fame, (How well fhe on the fenfe has ftumbled!) Which fays, The proud man fhall be humbled.' His apoftrophe to the Reviewers in what he calls the Conclufion of his Satires, we take in good part, and with pleasure treat him as gently as we can, confiftent with that impartiality which we propofe as the rule of our conduct. The last part of the fecond volume is compofed of a ccllection of elegies and epitaphs, fome of which are unconscionably long, and others infipid enough. The elegy on the cutting down of an oak takes up no less than fixty-two pages.One of the leaft exceptionable is that to the memory of William Shenftone, Efq. To the Memory of William Shenstone, Efq; Quis defiderio fit pudor, aut modus Tam chari capitis? • Ye facred Pow❜rs of harmony! if fuch E'er put the fable robe of mourning on ; Nor fled a kindred fpirit to the fkies Lamented more by all the tuneful train! But him they vain implore, with streaming eyes, Ah! Ah! not for this, death with officious grasp Seiz'd the ftrung lyre that trembled in his hand, While to his breast his arms tenacious clasp, And angels round but half-confenting stand! Some radiant feraph's golden harp to tune, And echoes dwell upon the mournful tale! Few pow'rs of fong behind their Shenstone staid Shenstone ! with what inchanting voice he fung! How smooth, how chafte, how foft, his numbers flow! How on each note the ravish'd shepherds hung! How did their hearts dilate! their bofoms glow! For oft he fond deceiv'd the lengthen'd hours, To copy Nature, made immortal henceHow delicately love's all-gentle pow'rs Touch'd into life his nicely-feeling fenfe! How few, O nature, happily excel In thy prime gifts, fimplicity and cafe? If we the ear would captivate, or please. How little art imparts, when all fhe gives, Let Shenstone tell!-but ah! no Shenstone lives, To fummon them, Death's on kind meffage fent, Thus he, who grew immortal as he fung The blissful pair in Eden's happy clime; Rehearses now, with rapture on his tongue, To gods the wonders of his theme fublime. Thus, the remembrance all our grief renews, Britannia's boaft, her Shenftone, now no more! But nature means no triumphs o'er her fon, Shenftone ftill lives, while fhe herself furvives. On the whole, a commendable ftrain of virtue and religion runs through thefe poems. The author feems to be a good chriftian, and a moral man, and we doubt not, is an able phyfician; but we cannot in confcience allow him to be a great poet, nor admit him, according to his motto, as a confecrated flamen into the temple of Apollo. VII. Models of Converfation for Perfons of Polite Education. Şele&ed and Iranflated from the French of M. l'Abbé de Bellegarde. 8vo. Pr 45. THIS Millar.. THIS performance is by way of dialogue, which is carried on by thee friends, Arfennes, Ariftus, and Timanthes. The author's method is to lay down a fubject for converfation, and to illuftrate it by paffages from hiftory, efpecially that of France. The first converfation turns upon the disorders of the paffions, and, in our opinion; a very infipid converfation it is, and fuch as a fchool boy of the third form at Westminster would be flogged for, were he to prefent it as an exercise.. We fhould not be fo fevere in our cenfure could we difcover in it a fentiment that is either new in itfelf, or containing any thing above the level of the most vulgar writer, if he has common fenfe. That the reader may judge for himself, we shall select the first three fpecimens that occur in the book, and give the feparate opinions of the three prolocutors: It must be owned, fays Ariftus, addreffing himself to his two friends, that man poffeffes many foibles which need reformation: He is continually running headlong into the groffeft faults, when he füffers his paffions to get the afcendency over him. The greatest geniufes lofe themfelves, like other, men, when led by paffion; for it cafts a fhade over man, which eclipfes the light of his reafon. Hence proceed his caprices, his whimsical temper, his reftlefs difpofition, his doubts, his fickleness, his inconftancy, the refolutions which he forms one moment and abandons the next, and the many ill-concerted undertakings which are so often attended with fuch fatal confe quences. • Moft 'Most men are not ignorant of what you fay, replied Arfennes; they know very weli, by their own experience, the mischievous tricks which their pallions play them; but then they will not take fufficient care to defend themfelves from the furprizes of this domestic and dangerous enemy. The pat does not long engage their attention to what may happen; but, after fo, many times being caught in the faare, they are ever ready to run into it again. It is certain, continued Timanthes, that all thofe accidents, which render life fo unhappy, are occafioned by the irregularity of fome particular paflion. It is impoffible to take right measures for the fucceeding in any affair of confequence, whit the impreffions of a violent and outragious paffion are the guides we follow. At fuch a time, we have not cool blood enough about us, to look forwards to the fequel of a doubtful mater, in which we may have been too precipitately engaged.? We can fafely appeal to the most uninformed of our readers, whether any one of thofe three polite gentlemen (for fo they are characterized by the author) in the above specimens of their conversation, discover talents that can be deemed fuperior to vulgarity itself. The inftances from French authors to corroborate thofe notable obfervations, are of the fame kind. They are a collection of those straws that float upon the furface of history; and, indeed, if there is any merit in the work before us, it is the abbé's art in making them good for fomewhat, by difcovering a fubject to which they are applicable. This is, at least, like finding a wooden handle for a blade of very dull temper, and which, without the handle, must be entirely ufelefs. But that our reader may not fufpect us of being prejudiced against the abbe, we shall here give him the winding-up of this firft converfation, where we might reasonably expect fomething new and brilliant, but we are afraid he will find it terminate in the fame flat infipidity which introduced it: Truly, fays Ariftus, there is no very great difference betwixt a wild beast and a man in a violent paffion he is no longer himself, he makes no diftin&tion between friend or foe, his neighbours or a stranger: he obferves no decorum, but confounds all the relations of civil society; and there is ever fomething whimsical and extravagant throughout his conduct. What is still more unhappy, is, that he is not in a condition to be reduced to reafon, nor to be brought to listen to the good advices of his friends. For reafon and paffion are at eternal variance; and this is what makes the cure fo rare to be effe&ted.' The fecond converfation turns upon morality, and opens with K 4 the |