all hope of recalling attention to it. That the unknown author is a complete mafter of the powers and graces of poetry, from what we have feen, we cannot hesitate to pronounce; and have only to hope, that he will ere long give us fomething of a more permanent kind. The prefent sketch, for it is no more, is partly panegyrical and partly fatirical. We fhall take a fpecimen of the former kind, where the author celebrates Opie's picture of the young Rofcius, Burnell's of Milton dictating to his daughters, Owen's Sleeping Boy, and Hoppner's Portrait of Lady Mulgrave.

"But who 'mid youth's gay compeers fhall be clafs'd
*With him, whofe wondrous childhood feems in hafte,
To prefs on perfect manhood high career?
Ardent he grafps the Caledonian spear-

How brave-how beautiful' we fee him stand!
How nobly eloquent he lifts his hand,

And feems to fay, his eye whilft lightning fills,
Behold young Norval of the Grempian Hills !'"
"+Above, how fad the contrast! for behold
Great Milton blind, and defolate and old,
Yet proud his mien, tho' forrowful his lot,
As if he ftill difdain'd to "bate a jot"‡
Of heart or hope: "His looks on heav'n are fix'd,
With whofe fad fhade an holy light is mix'd,"
Whilft meek affection (his dark lyre unftrung)
Catches the flowing mufic from his tongue.

Hufh, hufh-a beauteous boy there fleeping lies,
His pipe and drum forgot, and clos'd his eyes.
A little turn, and mark how fair below ||,
The fmiling looks of female beauty glow;
How clear a ftrife of light and fhade is spread!
The face how touch'd with Nature's lovelieft red!
The eye, how eloquent, and yet most meek!
The glow fubdued, yet mantling on thy cheek!
Mulgrave! I mark, alone, thy beauteous face,
But all is nature, harmony, and grace!" P. 14.

The fatirical parts are equally fpirited; and there are alfo fome humourous touches in the notes. On the whole it is an effort of real genius, on a topic which muft inevitably lofe its chief intereft in a few weeks.

"Opie's inimitable picture of Young Rofcius." +"Milton dictating " Paradife Loft;" not specified, so much on account of its merit, as its poetical contraft."

See his fublime Sonnet to Skinner."

"A moft beautiful Picture by Owen of a Sleeping Boy."
"Lady Mulgrave, No. 21."

ART. 15.
Human Life, a Poem, in five Parts.
Cadell and Davies. 1806.

The plan of this little Poem is not bad. It is a view of hu man life in all its ftages; an interefling fubject, affuredly; but the execution does not rife above mediocrity. The author does not contrive to make the reader feel an intereft in the subject; and though we cannot produce very bad paffages from it, very fine ones are no lefs difficult to be found. After turning the pages again and again, to decide the preference, we are inclined to think the following ftanzas fome of the best in the poem.

"On MAN now Henry turns his prying fight,
On focial man, on means that civilize;
And faw, emerging from a long dark night
At laft, the great COMMERCIAL world arife.
"Power, fplendour, opulence, while yet he flood
And eyed the ftores from every part convey'd,
Now feem'd in fhips imported on the flood,
Now o'er the fields in gay profufion spread.

"The fea, with fleets from foreign climes, that bore
The wealth of nations to their distant home;
The land, with cities rifing on the fhore,

With many a fplendent arch, and fumptuous dome;
"The cultured plains, with pendent woods embrown'd,
Fair fmiling lawns, and opening walks between;
The garden, flowering on enchanted ground,
Here waved in fhades, there bright in vivid green.
"Thefe, Commerce, are thy gifts! A race refineɖ
By arts, and ruled by juft impartial laws;
Powerful, and rich; with one confenting mind,

All look to thee as to the fovereign caufe!" P. 98.

Yet these are nothing extraordinary; and if we confider them in union with what precedes and follows, we cannot fay, that they are either introduced with peculiar felicity of connection; or that they lead very happily to what follows.

The author profeffes to be "folicitous to throw his mite into the fcale of virtue," and fo far his undertaking is laudable; but he might perhaps have devised fome better means of ferving the fame caufe.

ART. 16. Vaccinia, on the Triumph of Beauty. 4to.

Oftell. 1806.

Is. 6d.

This is very well intended, but not remarkably worth com. mendation as a poetical compofition, The laft lines are the beft. P. 17.

"Ye

"Ye noble band, protectors of the fair,
Honour'd and aided by the RoYAL HEIR,
efforts, nor forfake your end;

Pursue your

The caufe is great, and must the world befriend.
Yours is no common, yours no trivial cafe,

DISEASE PREVENTING, AND PRESERVING FACE!
Then how important is your ardent task-
Inquire of Fathers, and of Mothers ask !
Appeal to parents, for 'tis they muft feel,
And their decifion will approve your zeal;
Your zeal united muft infure fuccefs,

And the Old Syftem cause no more distress;
But VACCINATION o'er each kingdom fpread,
And keep infection from the decent bed:
Applauding nations will record your fame,
AND BEAUTY TRIUMPH IN A JENNER'S NAME.
Worcester, Nov. 2, 1805.

T. P."

ART. 17. The Causes of the French Revolution; and the Science of governing an Empire: An Epic and Philofophical Poem. By George Sanon. 8vo. 134 pp. (15s. in Boards!) Highley. 1806.

"But I have read your poem through!

And what d'ye think of me?"

was the conclufion of an epigram, which we recollect having read, addressed to the author of "The Triumphs of Temper." With far more juftice might it be applied to the work before us; which, if it inculcated no other virtue, has given us a practical leffon of patience, which we shall not foon forget. Why the author has nick-named it an Epic Poem we cannot discover, unless he meant to imitate the derivation of Lucus, a non lucendo; since there is no ftory, nor any thing that can be called an action, contained in it; nor indeed have we obferved any paffage that explains the caufes of the French revolution. His hero (whom he calls Anfric) is accofted by fome goddefs or allegorical perfonage: (who or what he is, we are not told) fhe leads him through various pic. turefque fcenes, (indiftinctly, but fometimes not unpoetically defcribed) and entertains him with lectures on morality, the maxims of which are fo trite, and the language fo profaic, that the pupil who could listen to and retain one half of them, must have The metre feems intended for far greater docility than tafte. blank verfe; but a great proportion of the lines are not verses, and the language frequently is not English. The defcriptive paffages are, as we intimated, far more tolerable than the moral or philofophical, and led us at first to expect a poetical, if not a

philofophical work: but we were foon miferably difappointed. Yet this writer, in his preface, announces himself as rivalling, by his improvements in the "fcience of the human mind" and the “moru science," the discoveries of Newton in the natural world. But it is, perhaps, ufelefs to criticize that which will not be read. Should the author (who certainly does not stand ill with himself) object to our opinion, we know not to whom he could appeal. We will therefore extract, as a fpecimen, a paffage which he himfelf cites, with approbation, and which is certainly as free from faults as moft in the poem.

"Unbounded Liberty would crush a state ;
Reduce fociety to favage life;

And is the greatest for of man! 'Tis this,
When under no reftrictions of the laws,
That makes the favage dreadful; that incites
The vicious defpot to the horrid crimes
Which fill a nation with disease and want ;
That caus'd the focial compact to be made.
Confider then thyfelf, O man, to be
Not abfolutely free, becaufe the laws
Prohibit, for the public good, twelve deeds;
Not quite depriv'd of liberty, because
Each man may choose his own religious faith,
And pracfe all the virtues in the foul;
Not wretched that thy will is thus prescrib'd,
But happy in the glorious compact here,
To be retrain'd in what is hurtful; free
To do whatever tends to general blifs,
The object of fociety: a government
In due proportion as it gains this end,

Is excellent; and as it lofes, bad." P. 106.

It is but just to add, that the morality in this work is (with the exception of a paffage in p. 54, which feems to recommend duelling) unobjectionable, or at leaft harmlefs, which is fome merit in a writer who is enamoured of Voltaire and Rouffeau; the latter of whom he deems little lefs than divine.

ART. 18. Califta, or a Picture of Modern Life. A Poem, in Three Parts. By Luke Booker, LL.D. 4to. 2s. 6d. But. ton. 1805.

Califta is not altogether unworthy of praife, but it is written in an awkward fort of metre, and cannot claim much originality of conception. The following is a specimen.

"Lo, on its flowering banks, what myriads ftray,
And lo, how many fpread the untutor❜d fail:
See how they quit the fhore, elate and gay,
Their ftreamers idly floating in the gale;
But mark, O Youth, what fatal ftorms affail,

Mark,

Mark, and forbear to trust the treacherous wave,

Well will the Mufe have fung, if the one votary fave."

It must be obferved that the morality of this piece is unexcep tionably good.

ART. 19. Senfibility, with other Poems. By John Robinson 12mo. 3s. 6d. Cadell and Davies. 1806.

Thefe compofitions are diftinguished by a certain cafe and fim, plicity, but with regard to poctical conception and expreffion, cannot be claffed above mediocrity. We give a fpecimen.

THE LILY OF THE VALLEY.

"Fair modest flower that fhun'ft parade,
Whofe fweets all other fweets excel,
Oft have I fought thee in the fhade,
And watch'd thy flowly opening bell.
In life's fair morn, when I was bleft,
And fighed, like others, to be gay,
Pale flower, I plac'd thee at my breast,
And threw the blufhing rofe away.

Yet 'twas not hatred that did guide

My infant choice, and moved my scorn,
Methought the rofe feemed fwoln with pride,
While thou wert drooping and forlorn.

May Pity ever thus prevail,

And foftly all my foul incline
To liften to the plaintive tale,

And make the caufe of forrow mine.

And when I fce Misfortune shrink
'Neath cruel Pride's farcaftic rail,
I'll raife its drooping head and think
On thee, fweet Lily of the Vale."

DRAMATIC.

ART. 20. The Sultana, or the Jealous Queen. A Tragedy. By William Gardiner. 8vo. 26. 6d. Longman. 1806.

The author very modeftly tells us in his preface, that he does, not prefume to match his harp with Amphion, or with that of Orpheus, and will be quite fatisfied if his "lyre can quiver the luftrous rofe on Beauty's cheek, and throb with pleasure the dulcet bom of humanity."

Let him be fhaved and take hellebore.

NOVELS,