tion might indulge itself to madness! In every room the portrait of warrior or statesman decorated the walls, and frowned in vain upon his degenerate successor. To such a scene did Lord Forester retire. But not alone': solitude was too dreary for him. He brought with him his companions, both male and female; the associates of his profligacy; the fomenters of his dissolute orgies. Music, during his abode here, made the roof of the old hall ring with its echoes; and the noisy merriment of wine banished the awful silence that generally prevailed here. But all could not drown the uneasiness that had now taken possession of his mind. He could not bear to be left a moment alone; in some of the rooms through which he was often necessitated to pass, no efforts could conceal his tremblings, and the pallidness of his countenance; he dreaded the return of night, and often waked from his sleep with the most horrible shrieks at some image which appeared to haunt him. These perturbations, the woman with whom he cohabited, and who had obtained a great, and indeed unhappy influence over him, could yet by no means appease. She was a woman of too much intrigue and sagacity not to feel alarmed at this state of her protector's mind, which she termed a contemptible weakness, and endeavoured by raillery, remonstrance, and argument to dissi. pate.' This species of Half-poetical prose seems now, by a sort of prescription, to have become the standard-language of novels. If it has more flowers than fruit, we must acknowlege that there are fewer weeds than usual in this production. ART. IX. The Voyage Home from the Cape of Good Hope, with other Poems, relating to the Cape, and Notes. By H. W. Tytler, M.D. 4to. pp. 73. 5s. Hatchard. Ε EVE VERY circumstance worthy of remark, that occurred in a voyage from the Cape of Good Hope to Portsmouth, is here narrated in easy, but not very elegant nor correct verse, The albatross pursuing the albacore, and the albacore chasing the flying fish, are made the subject of two stanzas, and exhibited as emblems of the human race but birds preying on fishes, and one kind of fish living on another kind, cannot be adduced as very exact symbols of man's hostility to man.The luminous appearance of the ocean at night, the view of the ocean at sun-rise-the spouting of the Whale-St. Helena -turtles and noddies and boobies on Ascension isle-the Nautilus- calm-catching of sharks-Ceremonies on crossing the Line-western breeze-the sad fate of the Captain-Scilly Isles-Portland race-the Isle of Wight and Portsmouthform the main incidents. In the course of this poetical narrative, Dr. Tytler does not forget his friends, at the head of which Fer. list stands Mr. Penn, of Stoke Park, on whom is bestowed the warmest tribute of affectionate commendation. We shall quote, as a specimen of this marine ballad, the stanzas descriptive of the amusement of the sailors on crossing the At length beneath the Line we come, The sailors drop the hook, the chain; Then each, exerting his whole strength, The deck he lashes with his tail, Then, panting, gasps for breath; But, as they come in diff'rent shape, In the best govern'd state.' It might be in vain to make remarks on tame expressions, incorrect language, and bad rhymes; since Dr. T., happily returned to his native country, probably cares not a fig for the critics and their strictures. For his own sake, however, we wish that he had been more attentive to his poetical reputation but, as he seems to be indifferent to it himself, we shall not attempt to apply the hand of correction; leaving his own prose to apologize for his own verse, and to express his feelings as an author: Thus, my good Readers, after you have so kindly accompanied me in my Voyage, short in description, but long in reality; and, after having brought your worthy selves, upon paper, and myself, in fact, from the Cape, to my dearly beloved, and unparalleled native country of Great Britain-If I have, in any wise, been to you an instructive, or entertaining companion, I shall thank my own good fortune. If, on the contrary, any of you should hoot, and abuse my little work; and write, or say to your acquaintances, that it is a mere rhapsody of nonsense, and too expensive at even a single perusal, I do most heartily forgive you; and shall attribute your unfavourable opinion, opinion, not to any sort of emulation, envy, want of taste, of reading, or learning in yourselves; but entirely to that incorrigible, and unpardonable fault of all bad poets; namely, want of genius in the author.-And now, having treated you with an entertainment, such as it is, I bid you, for the present, farewell: Hoping you will allow me to conclude, in the following words of Horace; at once, so descriptive of my various infirmities, occasioned by fatigues undergone, in the service of my king, and country, both by sea, and land; and that, not in destroying, but in preserving the lives of my fellow-creatures; and so expressive of my ardent wishes, to pass the remainder of my days, in the renowned capital of old England, or its delightful vicinity; or, at any rate, in my beloved country of Great. Britain: Tibur, Argao positum colono, Sit meæ sedes utinam senectæ ; Unde, si Parc prohibent inique; Flumen, et regnata, petam, Laconi Rura Phalanto.' Being arrived not only in the Land of Good Hope but of good enjoyment, perhaps Dr. Tytler may find leisure to improve his poetical taste; in which case, he will perceive the defects of this first-fruit of his Muse. ART. X. An English Harmony of the Four Evangelists, generally disposed after the Manner of the Greek of William Newcome, Archbishop of Armaghi. Svo. pp. 490. 75. 6d. W. Phillips. THE HE editor of this volume, after some remarks on the utility of harmonies, proceeds to observe that the most serious objection to this mode of distributing the gospel history is that, by contrasting the minute particulars of a general relation of circumstances, a partial disagreement or seeming inconsistency is in various instances observed.' He then assures us that these difficulties are generally explained and obviated by the notes at the end of this work; though he allows that Some may have escaped his notice, and that others have been left in the state in which they were found, from a fear of attempting to illustrate by conjecture, the records of the most interesting and important work ever delivered to mankind." He thinks that many sufficient reasons might be advanced to explain why these occur: but he regarded it as impossible to enter into an investigation comprehending so great an extent of inquiry, within the limits prescribed for his preface; and therefore he contents himself with quoting the judgment of the Mo-y. the learned prelate, whose plan he professes to follow.-«The result of my thoughts and enquiries is, that every genuine proposition in Scripture, whether doctrinal or historical, contains a truth when it is rightly understood; that the evangelists. conceived alike of the facts related by them, but sometimes place them in different lights, and make a selection from different circumstances accompanying them, and that their seeming variations would instantly vanish were the history known to us in its precise order and in all its circumstances." We do not fully concur in this writer's opinion, when he considers it as a principal objection to harmonies that they discover the disagreement or seeming contrarieties of the writers to whom they relate; since from an observation of this kind an attempt to harmonize originated; and the design of this labour is to reconcile the apparent inconsistencies, and to lessen or remove difficulties of such a nature which have already occurred. Yet we perfectly agree with him that a testimony to the genuineness of gospel-history arises from incongruities which are observed, namely, that the Evangelists did not write in concert ;' and we also greatly approve the remark which he introduces from (if we may now term him so) a late author :"Truth, like honesty, often neglects appearances: hypocrisy and imposture are always guarded: and, as from these seeming discordancies in their accounts, we may conclude they did not write in concert; so, from their agreeing in the principal and most material facts, we may infer that they wrote after the truth." With respect to the duration of our Lord's ministry, the editor implicitly follows the opinion adopted by Archbishop Newcome, that it extended to three years or longer; and he also preserves the archbishop's division of time. Some alterations have been made, we are told, in the disposition of the text; which, it is hoped, are generally to advantage, yet so inconsiderable, that to enumerate them has been thought unnecessary.' About thirty-six pages of notes are added to the whole, as they are furnished by commentators, or gathered from collections and abridgments frequently presented to the public: many or most of them are pertinent and useful. We shall satisfy ourselves in offering the last of them to the notice of our readers; not that it is new, but it may yet be acceptable. • John xxi. 25. And there are also many other things which Jesus did, the which, if they should be wrillen every one, I suppose, that even the world itself could not contain the books that should be written. The construction of this verse, in our present translation, is fully justified in adducing from the Old Testament expressions of equal latitude. REV. MAY, 1804. See E See Exodus, iii. 8. Judges, vii. 12. 1 Kings, x. 27, &c. and which are not unusual in the magnificent luxuriance of an oriental style, though rarely occurring in the simple artless narrations of the apostles. This text may, nevertheless, be considered in a sense somewhat different. The same evangelist (John) frequently uses the word world in a general sense, to denote its inhabitants, ch. viii. 26. and in other places, as ch. xv. 18. expressive of wicked and unbelieving men. The Greek word gew, here translated, contain, is not only used in that sense, but when applied to the mind, denotes the reception and understanding of any thing, and in Matt. xix. 11, 12. and Philemon 15, is rendered by this construction. By adopting these observations, the text reads to this purport, "I am persuaded the world itself would not receive the books that should be written;" (Doddridge's Translation.)-Whitby, Chandler, Harwood, with many others, have supported this construction, under the idea of greater propriety of application. In addition to whose opinion, it may be observed, that in this day, under the more extended diffusion of evangelical truth, the same disposition of undervaluing, and in no small degree, rejecting these sacred records, seems lamentably prevalent, and bears strong testimony to the justness of John's assertion.' Perhaps, however, it may be sufficient to regard the expression as a very strong hyperbole, which the writer employs concerning facts that he knew to be so amazing, so prodigious, and so numerous; and we find that the Jewish phraseology is not entirely destitute of modes of speech which have somewhat of a similar appearance. ART. XI. Memoirs of the Life of the Rt. Hon. Sir John Eardley Hi. ART. XII. Notes of Opinions and Judgements delivered in different timents, |