66 A STRIKING SIMILE. Chloe, a jilt, while in her prime 66 CHAIN OF GOVERNMENT. When Beelzebub firft to make mischief began, "" THE ODDS. The bright bewitching Fanny's eyes Ah, what a dreadful girl are you, "TO A CALUMNIATOR. With induftry I fpread your praise, "ON APICIUS WOUNDED IN OLD AGE BY LOVE. Hoary Apicius, like Sicilia's mount, Tho' Winter veils its venerable front, 66 THE COLT'S TOOTH. When Dorcas in years fought young Strephon to wed, It was faid, fhe had got a colt's tooth in her head; "ON A YOUNG LADY WHO TOO FREQUENTLY EXCLAIMED 66 THE DEVIL.". See round her lips the ready devils fly, Mix with her words, and bask beneath her eye, ART. Mawman. ART. 15. The Pleasures of Love; a Poem, by John Stewart, Elg. Second Edition. 12mo. 117 PP. 6s. 1806. The author of this Poem might, perhaps, have been a good Poet, if Darwin had never exifted; but he is fo fteeped in Darwinian affectation, and the faccharine fuavities of that monotonous measure, that his compofition frequently appears like a burlesque of his prototype. It is Mr. Higgins, of St. Mary Axe, in all his glory. In every paffage we have fuch lines as, "Flush'd the full blade, his mellow beauties fhed." P. 2. "Roll the blue eye, and poise the finewy hand." P. 3. "Paint the blanch'd cheek, or point the rayless eye." F. 4. With a copious recurrence of Pope's favourite cadence; of which the Darwinians always make more than a legitimate use; "Load every fea, and burnish every fhore." P. 3. The fublime unintelligibility of the opening is truly Dar winian. "O'er heav'n's high arch the infant hours unfold From filver urns their balmy fhowers effufe, Now peep the fmiles, the vermeil dimples dawn, Now, binged on pearl, the turns, in bright display, Whofe genial blufh bids new creations fpring, And warm with life, their natal anthem fing." P. 1. After "the infant hours have thus unfolded the orient morn, and bathed her filk cheeks from filver urns," then, of course, follows a fimile; in which, by an inverted effort, the real cre. ation of nature is lowered, by comparing it with the mock creation of a painter. But whether the first lines mean the first origin of morning, and of the world, or are only a full dreffed' defcription of any morning, in gold, filver, filk, and pearl, we are not quite certain. It seems, however, to be the former, as, foon after we have the "new fun," and the warm clay new moulded into human forms. The author's profe is, if poffible, ftill more affected than his verfe, and refembles the beautiful incomprehenfibility of his namefake, John Stewart, ycleped the traveller; if haply this be not the fame perfon turned Poet. "In the fubfequent Poem" his Profpectus fays, "A love is fpoken of as illicit. Courtefy exacts O 3 this this title from the offspring of habit." Be not alarmed, reader, the author only means, that the term is not ftrong enough; he would have it called criminal; forgetting, perhaps, that il licit means unlawful, which is much the fame as criminal. Soon after, he calls the defire of deliberate revenge, "a majestic impulfe." Yet, ftrange to fay, he is a moral, and by no means an irreligious Poet. The libertine, who, from the title of "the Pleafures of Love," expects any thing to fuit his licentious tafte, will be completely difappointed. Should he be able to comprehend it at all, he will fee the materials of good moral poetry fpoiled by affectation. DRAMATIC. ART. 16. The Invifible Girl; a Piece in One A&t, as performed at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane. ward Hook, Author of the Soldier's Is. 6d. Baldwin. 1806. Written by Theodore Ed- From the title of this little piece one fhould fuppofe fome deception, fimilar to that which has lately been exhibited in London under the fame name, to be the principal fubject of it. But this is by no means the cafe. A young lady, indeed, fays a few fhort words, and fings two fongs behind the fcenes; but her nonappearance on the ftage feems to be merely accidental. The only character that may be faid to talk is a captain, whofe volubility is fuch that no other perfon can get beyond a fingle fyllable. The idea of this talker is taken from a little French piece called Le Babillard, of which the author of this drama had feen an ac-count in the newspapers; and he has followed the conceit with fome spirit and humour. His hero perfonates two characters, and in both, as well as in his own perfon, engroffes the whole converfation; till the plot concludes, apparently according to his wifhes, but without a complete word of affent from the other parties. This whimfical idea is fuitable only to a farce, and feems better calculated for a Parifian than a London audience. But the principal, or rather the only character, in the hands of the performer who reprefented it (Mr. Bannister), could not fail of ensuring fuccefs to the piece. NOVELS. ART. 17. The Eventful Marriage: A Tale, in Four Volumes. By the Author of "Count di Noviny," and " Monckton." 8vo. 18s. Crosby. 1806. A tragical narrative of amours, plots, murders, and maffacres, betwixt the Spaniards and Morefcoes. We cannot recommend thefe volumes as a fuitable amusement for perfons who have any reverence reverence for the holy fcriptures; which are here continually profaned by ludicrous applications of the most folemn paffages contained in them. Perhaps, the volumes will not on this account be unacceptable to fome agricultural fcribblers, who have lately come before us; and who are here far furpaffed in profane. nefs, and almoft rivalled in prolixity. MEDICINE. ART. 18. On Epilepfy, and the Ufe of the Vifcus Quercinus, or Miletoe of the Oak, in the Cure of that Difeafe. By Henry Frafer, M.D. 12mo. 96 pp. 2s. 6d. Highley, Fleet Street. 1806. This author, having made ufe of the mifletoe, in the cure of epilepfy, in a few cafes with fuccefs, is defirous of imparting his experience to the public, in the hope that gentlemen in a more extended practice, and to whom cafes of epilepfy may occur more frequently than they have, or are likely to fall to his fhare, may be induced to give the remedy a trial. His defign therefore being fimply to introduce the mifletoe to the notice of his brethren, he avoids, he says, entering upon the theory of the difeafe, becaufe," as he rationally obferves, p. 4, "that any thing advanced upon this part of the fubject, must be in a great measure hypothetical, and from the acknowledged difficulty of the inquiry, moft probably would not be more fatisfactory than that given by far abler men, who have travelled over the fame ground before." But afterwards, forgetting this wife refolution, he enters into an elaborate examination into the feat, cause and nature of epilepfy, and in the courfe of the difcuffion, he cites a greater number of authors than we ever remember to have feen collected together in fo fmall a work; the titles of the books referred to filling nearly two thirds of the pages employed on this part of the fubject. We fhould not perhaps have noticed this, but as the author concludes by giving his own theory, or opinion of the nature of an epileptic paroxyfm, we thought it neceffary to lay that before our readers. "We confider," Dr. F. fays, p. 16, "the real state or condition of the nervous energy of the brain, during an epileptic paroxyfm, to be collapfe." What is meant by this, to us unintelligible piece of jargon, we fhall not pretend to divine; but fure we are, that the author would have done better to keep to the path he had chalked out for himself, than to have ventured on one in which fo many had failed before him, and in which he has certainly not been more fuccefsful than his predeceffors. Quitting this part of the fubject, the author proceeds to give an account of the remedies employed in the cure of the epilepfy. The principal of these are, the root of the wild valerian, afafœtida, opium, the flores çardamines, the ftrammonium, the 04 leaves leaves and flowers of the orange tree, and the cuprum am.. moniacum. Each of thefe medicines has had its patrons and admirers, and they have all of them relieved, and fometimes cured the patients to whom they were administered; but as they all much oftener fail in producing any material advantage, the author was induced, he does not tell us by what accident, or cir cumftance, to make use of the misletoe. He has given the medicine to eleven patients, afflicted fome in a greater, fome in a lefs degree with epilepfy: nine of them, he fays, p. 89, were radically cured; one of them died, and one received no benefit. "It is however but juftice to obferve," he adds, p. 89," that although the mifletoe was administered, in confequence of my advice, and according to my direction in the laft mentioned cafe, yet not having feen the patient, I cannot fpeak of the particular circumstances of the cafe; and it is aifo proper to ftate, that by far the greater part of the misletoe which was employed in this cafe, was not the vifcus quercinus, but mifletoe collected from the apple tree." If however the misletoe, (collected from whatever tree, for we fhall make it at the leaft probable, that is a matter of no importance) will cure nine epileptic patients out of eleven, there was little need of offering an apology. It will then be allowed to approach the nearest to a fpecific medicine, of any thing that has been difcovered fince the Peruvian bark was introduced into Europe. We cannot pass over this part, without expreffing our fatisfaction that the author has not fatigued his readers with a minute detail of the symptoms of each of the cafes, and the progrefs of the cures, which is fo much the practice. He has given the age of each of the patients, the time they had been affected with the complaint, the quantity of the medicine taken, and the time confumed in effecting the cures, which are all the circumftances neceffary to be known, to appreciate the value of the drug. The defeription of the plant he has copied verbatim from Dr. Woodville's Medical Botany, but he has omitted two paffages, with which Dr. W. concludes his account of the properties of the plant, though it is probable, that thefe paffages first fuggefted to him the idea of inftituting his experiments. We will lay them before our readers, who will thence be enabled to judge how far we are right in our conjecture. "The vifcus quernus," Dr. Woodville fays, Med. Bot. v. 4. p. 151, "obtained great reputation for the cure of epilepfy; and a cafe of this difcafe, or a woman of quality, in which it proved remarkably fucccfsful, is mentioned by Boyle. Some years afterwards, its ufe was ftrongly recommended in various convulfive diforders by Colbach, who has related feveral inftances of its good effects. He adminiftered it in fubftance in dofes of half a dram, or a dram of the wood or leaves, or an infusion of an ounce,' "This author," Dr. W. continues, "was fol lowed |