specific description and individual example. It does not habitually aspire at elevation, at grandiloquence, at pomposity; and, by this apparent easy negligence, it obtains a wider arc of oscillation, and can with less discrepancy descend to the comic or ascend to the sublime. Milton and Klopstock habitually assume the highest tone of diction which language admits : they have seldom resources in reserve when they wish to soar above their usual level of diction, but become affected, bloated, unintelligible. Milton's war of heaven is tame, and Klopstock's ascension is tedious: they have continually been on the stretch; and on great occasions they sink, as if unequal to their subject. Virgil and Tasso excel in the next degree of exaltation, and probably maintain the highest tone of style which is really prudent in the solemn epopoa*. Homer, Ariosto, and Camoëns, have chosen a humbler but more flexile manner, which can adapt itself without effort or disparagement to a greater diversity of emotion and incident; which is more capacious of variety, and more accommodating to circumstance. In this respect they have served as models to the author of Oberon, who describes with equal felicity a palace in uproar, or a ridiculous dance; the hostilities of a tournament, or the conflicts of conoupiscence. To the delineation of great passions, or the contrast of complex character, his subject did not invite: he is naturally equal to the tender and the beautiful; and no where disappoints the tiptoe expectation which he rouzes, His characters, if few, are consistent and distinct. His learned attention to the minutiae of costume, whether Gothic or Oriental, may encounter without shrinking the armed eye of even microscopic criticism. The adventures of heroes are by him brought home to the affairs of ordinary life, to the bosoms of commou men, and are thus secure of a sympathy coeternal with human nature. The busy life of his narrative, and the felicitous struc ture of his story, farther contribute to his unrelenting power of fascination. The reader clings to his book by a magnetism which a more sublime genius is often unable to emanate; and he returns to it with increased attraction. If there be an European poem likely to obtain, on perusal, the applause of eastern nations by its voluptuous beauties of imagery and magic magnificence of fancy, it is this.-In a good Persian translation, it would less surprise by its singularity than enrapture by its perfection. The late Mr. Sixt, of Canterbury, is said to have left an English version of this poem: if it be not better than the French translation printed at Berlin in 1784, there is no room to regret its having been withholden from the public.

*Pope's Iliad and Mickle's Lusiad adopt a higher pitch of tension than the style of the originals,

Акт.

ART. XXI. Mémoires Historiques, Généalogiques, &c. i. e. Historical, Genealogical, Political, and Military Memoirs of the House of GRANT, divided into several Branches, not only in Scotland, but in Normandy, Germany, Sweden, and Denmark. By CHARLES GRANT, Vicomte de VAUX, &c. 8vo. pp. 455. London, 1796. TH HE author of this work is descended from a family of Scottish extraction. The revolution, which placed the crown. of Scotland on the head of the valiant Bruce, occasioned the migration of his ancestors into France: but a revolution infinitely more terrible, says the Vicomte, has driven the present representative of the Normand Grants to seek a refuge in his primitive country. He was born in the island of Mauritius, where his father served in a military capacity, and has left memoirs relative to that important colony, which (we understand) will speedily be published by his son. Bred, like the rest of the French nobility, to the profession of arms, the present Vicomte appears to have acquired, previously to the revolution, considerable reputation as an officer of merit, and attained the rank of brigadier and marechal de camp. His political principles are not fundamentally different from the high aristocratical prejudices, which have actuated and overwhelmed the majority of his order: yet he had sufficient discernment to foresee the fatal consequences which followed the unseasonable assertion of their unpopular privileges, and recommended concession, at a period when concession might have postponed or prevented the destruction of many noble and now unfortunate families.

The Vicomte left France in 1790, though appointed commander of the National Guards of his canton; and being prevented by sickness from joining the army of the Prince de Condé, he was invited to London by Sir James Grant, the chief of his clan. The settlement of a colony of French emigrants in Canada first suggested itself to the Vicomte as an eligible retreat for himself and his countrymen, and lands were accordingly assigned to them by government: but, whether from a failure of pecuniary resources, or from a preference of military enterprise, that plan has never been carried into effect. Romain Grant, his son, who still enjoys the family estates in Normandy, has visited England since the expatriation of his father, with a view of tendering his services as a medium of intercourse with the rulers of France: but the offers of both father and son, says the Vicomte, have not perhaps been considered with the attention which they merited.

Since the arrival of the Vicomte DE VAUX in England, he has laudably employed his time in composing several publications, in which he offers his opinions on political, philosophical, and religious subjects; and on all these his notions are pecu

liar. The information which he had collected with a view to the Canadian settlement is, in our judgment, the most valuable part of his works, though interspersed with other matters of a more personal nature.

The publication to which we have now to call the attention. of our readers treats of the origin and history of a respectable and very numerous clan, in the northern part of our island, from which (as we have already stated) our author is descended. In the year 834, Alpin, king of Scotland, fell in an engagement with the Picts. His son Kennet succeeded him, with the surname of Mac (son of) Alpin, and the epithet of Grant or great. From this prince, therefore, and his brother Gregor, their descendants have retained the surnames of Macalpin and Macgregor. To the latter, the epithet of Grant continued to be annexed for several generations; till the posterity of Gregor Grant in 1164 began to be distinguished by the latter name only. From this statement, it must be inferred that not the chiefs only of those clans, but every individual composing them, are lineal descendants of antient Scottish princes:

"Et cum tempora temporibus præsentia confert

Prateritis; laudat fortunas sæpe parentis."

Lucret.

The filiation and marriages of the chief branches of the clan, both in Scotland and Normandy, are recorded with a prolixity of accuracy not very likely to interest beyond the circle of the family to which it relates; and the whole is accompanied with copies of original documents in proof of the pedigree, as far back as proof is possible, and much farther than is agreeable to the reader. A well executed portrait of the Vicomte is prefixed; and we hope that he will receive that patronage from the British public, which it is the object of his labours to acquire.

ART. XXII. Le Notte Romane al Sepolchro de' Scipioni, &c. i. e. The Roman Nights at the Tomb of the Scipios. New Edition. 12mo. Molini, Paris. 1797. Imported by Molini, London.

T
HIS elegant little work was composed by Count VERRI of
Milan, now resident at Rome, where it first appeared.
The author, who is held in much consideration for his acquire-
ments in general literature, is particularly conversant with
Greek and Roman history.

A few years since, the tombs of the Scipios were discovered, and this circumstance has given birth to the present performance. Attracted by curiosity, the author is supposed to have descended into this subterraneous abode, with a flambeau in his hand to enable him to read the inscriptions. While investi

gating

gating them, the wind deprived him of his guide by extinguishing the flambeau; and during his meditations, certain spectres arose, who conversed together on different subjects of Roman history, in the manner of LUCIAN, or rather of HURD.

Such is the outline of his plan, which he has executed with spirit and classical information; the sentiments are novel and just; and the purity of the language is not the author's least praise.

As we understand that an English translation is in the press, we shall defer particular observations on this entertaining work till that version appears: having indeed received this Paris edition too late for a minute examination.

ART. XXIII. Les Causes de la Revolution de France, &c. i.e. The Causes of the French Revolution, and the Efforts of the Nobility to check its Progress. By DE LATOCNAYE. 8vo. pp. 250.

7s. 6d. sewed. Printed at Edinburgh: De Boffe, London.

IN

N our xviith volume, p. 251, we noticed a Ramble through Great Britain, which contains a great part of the present work. The political and historical intelligence and observations, therein scattered and misarranged, are here brought together in a more convenient form, amplified, and rounded; and they will now constitute an useful manual for the future historian to consult. The author's Travels in England and in Ireland are in like manner to be revised, expanded, and republished. The account of the taking of the Bastille, of La Vendée, and of the conduct of the Prussians, may serve to correct some prevailing misrepresentations. As a specimen of the author's poetry, we shall transcribe a rondeau :

De Paris autrefois, les légers habitans,

Au plaisir, à l'amour, consacraient tout leur tems:
Etre aimable et gallant, c'était la seule affaire,
On se moquait par fois de messieurs les savans,
Et l'on connaissait tout dès-lors qu'on savait plaire,
Mais belas aujourdhui quels cruels changements,
Disputer, Lanterner, l'attirail de la guerre,
Porter sabre et fusils, sont les amusemens

De Paris.

• Qui ne sait d'Illion l'histoire sanguinaire ;

Pour venger un affront, le Grec après dix ans
De ses vastes débris enfin joncha la terre.

Louis est dans vos fers...... tremblez, lâches Brigands,

Les Français outragés ainsi pourraient bien faire

De Paris.

IN DE X

To the REMARKABLE PASSAGES in this Volume.

N. B. To find any particular Book, or Pamphlet, see the
Table of Contents, prefixed to the Volume.