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frolicked in a thousand vague directions, feems to have perceived his error when it was too late, and to have clofed his labours imperfectly. A prodigy is called in, and the ftory is cut fhort, becaufeno fpace is left for a natural termination!

To speak of Madoc as a work of art, it is defective in a very great degree. The firft object of a poet fhould be to gain belief; that is, to tell his story in fich a manner, that it may easily feem credible. But what could be the views of Mr. S.? What credit could he hope to obtain for his narrative? when he gave the well-known, authenticated adyentures of Cortes and Columbus to an imaginary, at least a doubtful character of the 12th century! Novelty, the fecond excellence of poetry, is here out of the question. We have the magnificence of Mexico, the bloody facrifices of the priests, the fplendour of Montezuma (Coanocotzin), the noble but unavailing courage of Guatimozin (Yahidthiton), the battles of Cortes, nay, the building of his brigantines, detailed with a minutenefs that fatigues the mind even to difguft. Quodcunque oftendis mihi fic, incredulus odi. In the elegant narrative of Robertfon, and yet more in the energetic and glowing defcription of Bernal Diaz, we follow the real conqueror of Mexico with trembling delight; we fee his perils, and are animated by the prodigies of valour exhibited on every fide; but when all thefe are attributed to a hero of romance, who lived three hundred years before they took place, we are flopped at every page by the evident juftice and abfurdity of the ftory. Mr. S. is no plagiarift: he borrows nothing from the poetical repofitories of his predeceffors; indeed, he has no apparent occafion for it, being abundantly rich in his own refources. We wish he would tax his fancy for the materials of a tale, and not build up, as in the forgotten Thalaba, and the prefent poem, an edifice from the fragments of a thousand different authors. This illegitimate fyftem of conftructing hiftorical, we must not fay, epic

It is to the praife of Mr. S. that he has fpoken with applaufe of this moft interefting and valuable writer, as given to us by Major Keating. "The true Hiftory of the Conqueft of Mexico" is indeed a delightful work, and the only account of that tranfaction on which we can rely; yet, because it appeared without any of thofe fcandalous puffs which difgrace our preffes, and teach our literati how to think, it mouldered on the fhelf!" See Brit. Crit. vol. xvii. p. 27, &c.

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poems,

poems, is attended with other inconveniences, which Mr. S. has not had the good fortune to obviate. We have the manners of Hoel Dha and David at the fame table; and the Indians of Torquemada and Prefident Jefferson confounded in the fame defcription!

Nothing is better known, than that the primitive Mexicans were a poor and defpicable horde of favages at the time of their migration; (the epoch of Madoc,) acquainted with few of the arts, and none of the elegancies of life; nor did they emerge from this ftate of barbarifm till many generations had paffed away; yet, in the poem, their cities, their temples, their palaces, their floating islands, their gods, and their priests, are those of their highest state of civilization and power, as exaggerated and embellished by the grofs partiality of Clavigero!

Nor is the author more happy in his hero than in his story. The pains and pleasures of Madoc can intereft no human being: he is a native of the World without Vice,” and has little in common with the inhabitants of this outcaft planet. Danger and difficulty fly at his approach; and the expedient to which Mr. S. has recourfe, to create a tempo. rary alarm for his fafety, has neither probability nor dig. nity to recommend it.

The followers of Madoc are no better difcriminated than himfelf: Cadwallon is a tame creature, and Caradoc the bard, who charmed us in the first part, and in whom we expected to find a new Tyrtæus, in the enfuing battles is mute and inglorious. The Indians are drawn with more skill; though even in them, the fhades of character are not very apparent, each individual being rather a virtue or a vice perfonified, than a human being judicioufly compounded of both; yet they command our refpect, and in many cafes our

admiration.

To the defects of the flory muft be added those of a lighter nature, which occur in the language, and which are too numerous to be altogether paffed over in filence. Of these, some originate in that wonderful facility with which the author is gifted. Mr. Southey cannot fay with Narciffus, that plenty has made him poor;-but it has unfortu nately made him negligent: hence the reader's good nature is too often abused with fuch doggrel as this:

"Now God forbid, quoth I: and God forbid,
Quoth he!" P. 29.

"And I, their leader, am not of the fons

Of the feeble!" P. 67, &c.

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Others seem to arife from that vitiated tafte, which we once feared was becoming epidemical, and which, while it elevated profe upon ftilts, thought no poetry genuine but fuch as crept along the ground, and lifped out its feeling in a language hitherto confined to the nursery:

"Good night, Goervyl,

Dear fifter mine, mine own dear mother's child!" P. 206.

This infantine puling grew up in oppofition to the bombaftic jargon fo fuccefsfully combated in the Baviad; and is doublefs the more tolerable evil of the two, as being lefs unintelligible. But the reverfe of wrong can fcarcely be right; and in this, as in ethics, the wife man will always prefer a juft medium.

To thefe may be added an overflowing of metre; not fuch as is found in our feeteft poets, where an unaccented fyllable at the clofe gives fulness, harmony, and effect to a line, but a bold violation of accent, rhythm, and every attribute of verse. From its frequent recurrence there can be no doubt of its being affected by the author as an excellence:

"The beautiful band of brethren that they were!" P. 5. "Hear me, thou Son of the Waters, will thou have me," &c.

This, perhaps, is a difeafe of the judgment; but what shall we denominate that paffion for coining new words, and new acceptations of words with which the poet is fo grievously afflicted!

"It torrents down."

"With purple flanded the dark blue deep."
"Whereto fhall that be likened, to what gem
Indiademed!" P. 73.

But of this enough. We do not reckon it among the faults of Madoc, that it has few metaphors, and still fewer poetical or mythological illuftrations. When introduced with judgment, they embellifh and invigorate a poem, but the example of Mr. S. fhows, that they can be omitted without inconvenience, and almoft without being miffed. We recollect but one, and that one is incorrect: it is at the clofe of the first book.

"So over ocean, through the moon-light waves,
Prince Madoc fail'd with all his company.

No nobler crew fill'd that heroic bark

Which bore the firft adventurers of the deep,

To feek the Golden Fleece on barbarous fhores." P. 184.

If

If we except Madoc, certainly not much injured by a comparison with Jafon, and Caradoc the Telamon, or if Mr. S. prefers it, the Orpheus of the expedition; the rest of the erew, a company of nameless adventurers, confounded in one general mafs, cannot be faid to vie in nobility with the heroes and demigods of the Argo.

What then are the merits of MADOC? They are many and great. It is no compliment to Mr. Southey to say, that he poffeffes an unrivalled command over the language of poetry. Eafe, elegance, grace, and facility are pecu liarly his own; and he pours forth his conceptions in a fweet and spontaneous flow of words, which a life of ftudy would enable few to obtain. He has befides the eye of a poet, and marks and defcribes the various appearances of nature with an accuracy that is worthy of all praife, and a feeling that is exquifitely delicious. Thus Madoc contains a thousand paflages that will be remembered and quoted with delight, when the trite and thread-bare ftory, on which it is founded, is configned to neglect or oblivion.

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Mr. S. has fo little to unlearn, and fo many requifites in his favour, to become the poet of a tale which his country fhall not willingly forget," that we are perhaps lefs inclined to overlook his failings than thofe of any other writer, and fome of our ftrictures may therefore bear the afpect of feverity. If he could be perfuaded to abate fomewhat of his fpeed, to ftop and arrange the materials of his own finding, to be lefs eafily fatisfied with his firft expreffions, to correct his difpofition to prolixity, and to allude to, or incidentally mention, his hiftorical facts, inftead of verfifying them at full length, he might, and indeed would, be ranked among the greatest poets of his age and country. Let him choose a national flory: Arthur and others, kings and patriots are before him, highly fufceptible of poetical ornament, and well worthy of his extraordinary powers. In truth, we cannot avoid obferving, that fome atonement is due to his country. The politics which influenced him in making France the burden of his fong, while that unhappy and guilty land was reeking with innocent blood, though long renounced, yet call for at leaft poetical expiation. A poet, Mr. S. will do well to recollect, is commonly a lover of his country. Homer and Virgil, and in later times, Taffo and Camoens, were genuine patriots; and their grateful countrymen dwelt on their works with higher pleafure and nobler feelings than the fimple admiration of their talents could ever afford.

ART.

ART. IV. A Dictionary of the Veterinary Art, containing all the modern Improvements; and including fo much of comparative Anatomy, Phyfiology, Materia Medica, Chemistry, Pharmacy, Natural Hiftory, &c. &c. as is connected with the Subject. The whole illuftrated with Copper-plates. By Thomas Boardman, Veterinary Surgeon to the 3d (or King's own) Regiment of Dragons. 4to. 21. 12s. 6d. Kearfley.

1805.

THE HE work before us, though called a Dictionary, is not confined to the mere definitions of the terms, or words ufed, but like James's, and other medical Dictionaries, contains full defcriptions of the feveral objects that appear to have a relation to the veterinarian art. Much learned inveftigation has been employed in endeavouring to discover whence the word veterinarius is derived, but without coming to any fatisfactory conclufion. Columella calls thofe, who are employed in curing the difeafes of cattle, veterinarii, in which fenfe it is conftantly ufed. In the fection treating, De vitiofis incrementis linguæ bovum, he fays, "Solent etiam faftidia cibo afferre vitiofa incrementa linguæ, quas ranas veterinarii vocant."

Among animals, the care of horses, in a particular manner, engroffes the attention of the Veterinarian, as from their numbers and their varied employment, they fall much oftener than others under his notice. Of other animals, as of the ox, the cow, the afs, the sheep, the goat, the dog, and a few others, this author fatisfies himfelf with giving fhort defcriptions, with general accounts of their habits and difeafes, and of the modes of treating them; but in the account of the horse, he is more particular and diffuse. After a general defcription of the animal, he gives the character of horfes as they are found in different countries. The Arabian, which has the preeminence; the Barb, faid never to grow old from their preferving their vigour to the laft; the Spanish, the German, &c. concluding with those of this country:

"The breed of which," he obferves, "is as mixed as that of its inhabitants;" "the frequent introduction of foreign horfes has given us a variety, that no fingle country can boast of; moft other countries produce only one kind, while ours, by a judicious mixture of the feveral fpecies, by the happy dif ference of our foils, and by our fuperior skill in management, may triumph over the rest of Europe, in having brought each quality of this noble animal to the highest perfection."

The

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