For is the not fupremely-witty,

gay.

Though blockheads hence her yoke-make pity?
Who can her beauties half difplay?
Blithe, courteous, young, polite, and
What further would ambition crave?
Come then, and buy the charming flave.
Whether her fuitor whig or tory,
To our fair maid's a trifling story.
Whether a Methodist, or Quaker,
He (ev'ry Sunday) ferves his Maker;
With look demure, or prieftly quirk,
Obeys the high church, or the kirk.
Whether, with three-tail'd wig, or bag,
Some learn'd jurisprudential wag;
Who nobly faves, when fools unlock it,
His client's fortune-in his pocket.
Whether a doctor of renown,
Sweeping in facerdotal gown;

Who knows, to charm the ravish'd fair,
All arts and sciences but-pray'r:
Or, as nice qualms ne'er overstock'd her,
A very downright carnal doctor;

Who, when fome malady has spent her,
From death can fave her to torment her.
But chief the likes, to tell the truth,
A dear, dear military youth;

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,
Becomes the other's parallel.

Whate'er his colour, fair or brown,
With carriage up, or carriage down;
Whether a coxcomb, fop, or cit,
With, or quite deftitute of, wit;
A boor, in fox chace garments clad,
Or court-fpark, perfectly well bred :
Whether a patriot of renown,
In rolls of parliament fet down;
Or that fierce vindicator morum,

Some plump-cheek'd justice of the quorum:
In fine, whate'er his birth or rank,

His money landed, or in bank;

Whate'er through life his cafual track is,
A rake in theory, or in practice;

If he can but commodious fix
Our charmer in a coach and fix,
Such, if but phyfically man,
Comes up to Zephalinda's plan:
And juftly too; for marriage, fure,
Is not Love's, but Ambition's cure.
Nor rafhly Zephalinda blame,

Not anxious more for wealth, than fame,
Who fame's pursuit so far would carry,
As to be wretched, that is, marry.
Say, why the rich man fhe affects,
And nobly merit poor neglects.
Thus, to evince her fterling wit,
She greatly dotes on facred writ;
Would have its fayings all fulfill'd,
And all its precepts deep inftill'd;
Concern'd, that confecrated book
Should be for pert romance forfook;

(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 ;
Now, when no gen'rous eye can weep too much,
Now fhed the plaintive tear, for Shenstone's gone.

Nor fled a kindred fpirit to the fkies

Lamented more by all the tuneful train!

But him they vain implore, with streaming eyes,
To animate his gentle form again!

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!
Ah! not for this, the early, fudden call,

Some radiant feraph's golden harp to tune,
While humbly he his own on earth let fall,
But ah! humanity ftill thinks too soon!
For Shenstone gone, while filence mufes round,
Hear the fad genius of each grove bewail!
Villas return the melancholy found,

And echoes dwell upon the mournful tale!
Sad murmurs waft it down the gurgling brook!
Sad zephyrs figh it through the conscious fhade!
To heav'n when he his blissful journey took,

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?
Thy careless elegance becomes us well,

If we the ear would captivate, or please.
Say, whence the labour'd strains neglected flow,
Tho' haughty learning boafts each splended line?
Hence, would the felf-proud critic deign to know,
Beyond thy teft, O Nature! we refine.

How little art imparts, when all fhe gives,
Vainly to rival him by thee infpir'd,

Let Shenstone tell!-but ah! no Shenstone lives,
Elle angels mourn a bard from heav'n retir'd!
Heav'n claims its bards, a laurel-circled throng,
A few revolving funs to mortals lent;
From earth, if haply tarrying there too long,

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,
While we a Pope or Addifon deplore;
Thus mouros in elegiac verfe the muse

Britannia's boaft, her Shenftone, now no more!

But nature means no triumphs o'er her fon,
For not unkind the earth of him deprives ;
Let then no more our tears officious run,

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