tions occur.

They fought, they fell,-ye sons of fame,
You blush not for your country's shame;
Could not your deeds and victor name

Redeem her holy solitudes?
What echoing plain, what mountain hoar,
Heard not your storm of battle roar?
That trump is hush'd-to sound no more,
That led the free to victory!

Yet, Freedom, o'er thy lost abode,
Which many a godlike foot hath trode,
What heart shall trace thy trophied road,

Nor burn to venge thy destiny!

By a British Muse of still higher celebrity numerous contribuWe are tempted to pass over many of luminous excellence, for the sake of giving an extract from a beautiful and most interesting adieu to that fairy palace,' which the fair authoress so sweetly depicted in her poem of Langollen Vale.

6

A FAREWELL

To the Seat of the Right Honorable Lady Eleanor Butler and Miss Ponsonby, in Llangollen Vale, Denbighshire, 1802.

By ANNA SEWARD.

O Cambrian Tempe! oft with transport hail'd,
Y I leave thee now, as I did ever leave

Thee, and thy peerless Mistresses ;—with heart,
Where lively gratitude, and fond regret
For mastery strive, and still the mastery gain
Alternate. Oft renew'd must be the strife
When far from this lov'd region, and from all
That now its ancient witchery revives;
Revives, with spells more potent erst than knew
Your white-rob'd druids on their Deva's bank
Aweful to frame; when the loud, mystic song,
And louder clang of their unnumber'd harps
Drown'd e'en the river's thunder, where she throws
All, all her waters in one rocky chasm,
Narrow, but fathomless; and goads them on,
Roaring and foaming; while Llangollen's steeps
Rebellow to the noise.- -Ye, who now frame
Your talismans resistless, O! receive,

Ye mild Enchantresses, my warm adieu!

Time, that for me has pass'd, full many a year,
On broad and withering pinion, may have quench'd
By the rude wafture of his dusky wing,

Fancy's clear fires ;---Enthusiasm may waste
In her own fruitless energies, and pine,

Vainly may pine, for the exhausted powers
Of bankrupt language; bankrupt of the skill
To please, with varied praise, the taste, made coy
By riot of encomium; but yet,

The benediction of increasing love,

Bless'd Pair, receive, with no ungracious ear!
When first your Eden in this peerless vale
Stole on these eyes, its solemn graces first
Seiz'd on my wondering senses, to their wish
The Muse of landscape came, and to my hand
Her pallet, glowing in ideal hues,

With smiles extended. Straight my trembling pen
Eager I dipt, and not unfaithful rose

Some features of the scene ;-yet, even then,
In friendship's primal hours, my soul perceiv'd
Feelings, that more defied expression's force
To speak them truly, than to paint the charms
Of that transcendant spot; its mountains vast,
Here pale and barren, and there dark the woods;
Yon mural rocks, whose surface aye defies
All change of seasons; though they deign to yield,
At intervals, their grey and wannish hue;
Purpling to orient suns, and catching oft
The occidental amber; sylvan glades,

Bright fields and shadowy lawn, whose concave soft
No beam of noon can pierce;-the shelter'd seat,
By mossy pillars propt, on the last verge
Of a lone, clamoring brook, that down its slope
And craggy bed swift struggles; for the stones,
Pointed and huge, ceaseless impede and vex
Its passage to the base of that rude bank,
Which rises opposite this shelter'd seat,

And instant rises. Dark the bank, and rude,

But not inflexible. Its craggy sides

No longer spurn, as they had often spurn'd

The mountain shrubs and trees. They feel, at length,
Their twisted roots into the fissures strike,
Meandring far. So do they fearless bend

Their green heads o'er the chaf'd and brawling stream,
Round the huge stones swift eddying. Fearless now,
Conscious of deepen'd root, e'en when loud rains,
Heavy and vast, have, mid the tempest's roar,
O'erwhelming fallen; and when the madden'd brook
No longer meets from tranquil, human eye
The gaze contemplative. &c."

We regret that our limits allow us not to insert the remainder :. but many of our readers will certainly have recourse to the volume itself, when we inform them that, with the names of Miss Seward, Miss Bannerman, Miss Stewart, Miss Pearson, and Miss Watts, in this poetic association, the editor has to boast.of Messrs. Preston, Boyd, Brydges, Canning, Leftly, Swift, Stevens, Richards, Darwin, Moore, Carlyle, Bloomfield, Holloway, Dimond, Case, Mant, Brown, Courtier, Spencer, Good, Mitford, and Reginald Heber. A Sermon preached before the Royal York Mary-le-bone Volunteers, at the Consecration of their Colours, in Brunswick Chapel, St. Mary-le-bone, on Tuesday, the 18th of October, 1803. By the Rev. George Saxby Penfold, Chaplain to the Corps. 4to. London. Printed for the Corps.

THIS very appropriate address has been printed at the request of the auditory before whom it was delivered. Such testimonials to the ability of those who minister in the sanctuaries of our holy religion, are equally honourable to the preacher and to his congregation; while they serve to extend the salutary effect of such pious persuasives to the reader, as well as to the hearer.

Mr. Penfold has taken his text from the second book of Samuel, chap. x. ver. 12. "Be of good courage, and let us play the men for our people, and for the cities of our God; and the Lord do that which seemeth him good." His sermon opens thus impressivel:

"When I look around me, and behold the numerous band of associated brethren I am about to address---when I consider the glorious cause in which they are engaged---the loyalty, alacrity, and zeal, with which they have voluntarily and solemnly pledged themselves to defend that cause---the cause of their King, their Country, and their GOD!---when I reflect on that genuine spirit of piety, which has prompted their present attendance within these sacred walls---when I behold those standards, now reverently presented before the altar, which they will soon be raised to defend; I cannot but congratulate a meeting, which, grateful to our country, is also, we humbly trust, acceptable in the sight of our Maker, whose holy word assures us, that such are the best means for invoking his blessing upon our efforts. If,' say the sacred scriptures, thy people go out to battle against their enemies, and shall pray unto the Lord toward the city which thou hast chosen, and toward the house built for thy name; then hear thou in Heaven their prayer and their supplication, and maintain their cause!"*

"In imitation of a custom thus sanctioned by every principle of reason and religion, we this day present ourselves and our banners before the God of our fathers, in the sanctuary where he, in a more especial manner, vouchsafes to dwell, In the awful presence of the majesty of Heaven, we are then now assembled ! humbly, fervently, and devoutly, to implore the assissance of his outstretched arm, against the efforts of an enemy of no common kind---an enemy, who is

* 1st Kings, chap. viii. ver. 44, 45.

bound by no obligation of virtue; no feeling of humanity; an enemy, who scatters desolation and ruin around him, with unheard of success. Elated by his success over other nations; confiding, like Sennacherib of old, in his own strength, and on the multitude of his host, he has once more set his battle in array against us; and, by one great effort, he hopes, but, we trust, vainly hopes, to conquer this land of freedom; to overthrow that venerable fabric which the united wisdom of successive ages has reared; which has long been, and still remains, the admiration of the world; which our ancestors bled to support, and which we will die to maintain."

Mr. P. proceeds to explain to the patriotic defenders of their country, the nature of those duties they have undertaken, and exhorts them faithfully, conscientiously, and manfully, to discharge them. The following paragraph deserves to be perused by every volunteer in our United Kingdom.

"The duties which you are solemnly pledged to perform, are highly arduous and important; infinitely more so than may at first sight appear. Hitherto you have, as independent members of the community, as masters of families, or as fathers of children, been accustomed to issue your commands to others. From the moment you enrolled your names in a military corps, you became subject yourselves to discipline and command; the slightest inattention or neglect of which may expose you, your companions in arms, and eventually your country, to ruin and disgrace. Strict attention and prompt obedience are therefore your first and principal duties. Above all, permit me, in the most earnest manner, to conjure you to banish from your minds all envious jealousies; to avoid all party dissensions; all speculative arguments; whether on politics or religion. Are you not brethren, united in one common cause, pledged to defend one common country, religion, and GOD."

The conclusion is striking and sublime: but we have not room for more. Mr. Penfold has long been celebrated as an eloquent preacher, and this discourse will deservedly extend his fame. The crowded congregations, however, which his chapel weekly exhibits, form the noblest panegyric on his ministerial character.

The Life of Tobias Smollett, M. D. with critical Observations on his Works; by Robert Anderson, M. D. The fourth Edition. 8vo. 7s. Edinburgh, Mundell; London, Longman and Rees. 1803.

AN advertisement informs us, that this life was originally prefixed to the poetical works of Smollett, in the general edition of the works of the British poets, printed at Edinburgh in 1794. It was afterwards prefixed to a collection of his miscellaneous works, printed in 1796, considerably enlarged; and reprinted in a new edition of that collection, in 1800, farther enlarged by the additional information which an intervening collection of his works, and subsequent researches, supplied. In committing it, a fourth time, to the press,

an opportunty has been found of correcting some mistakes, and supplying some deficiencies."

This life forms so excellent a specimen of what Dr. Anderson would effect, were he to favour the public with an enlarged and a detached edition of his lives of the British poets, that we are convinced every reader will join us in- wishing he would proceed to perfect a series of poetical biography, which he so ably began; but which he was restricted, by the plan of his publisher, from pursuing to the extent that his judgment and his information would have warranted. We were much pleased to observe, in the Poetical Register for 1802, that Mr. Boyd, the spirited translator of Dante, had so warmly commended Dr. Anderson's edition of the British poets, and so honourably appreciated "the critical merit of the editor, the influence of general knowledge, and particularly of the refined entertainment which those volumes afford; in aiding the cause of virtue, &c." and we would follow up the commendation of that gentleman, with urging Dr. A. to rouse the Heliconian train," by his varied descant on the lays of his "banded minstrels," while he unveils those latent beauties

"Hid by malignant critics' lore,

66

Or ne'er by mole-ey'd stupor seen.*"

A Biographical Dictionary of the celebrated Women of every Age and Country. By Matilda Betham. 12mo. pp. 774. common; 12s. fine Paper. Crosby. 1804.

7s.

In the year 1801, Mrs. Betham "put forth proposals for publishing a general dictionary of women, in four volumes, octavo. But this intention had not been long announced, before advertisements appeared of another work being in the press, under a similar title. Not meaning to run a race with any other author, Mrs. B. desisted for a while from her undertaking. But when, upon the publication of that work, she found it to be rather a selection of historical extracts, than a digested compilation of female biography, she resumed her original idea of publishing, although upon a more contracted scale, than was before designed."

Of the "Female Biography" adverted to by Mrs. Betham, we have had occasion to express our sentiments, and we reflect on that work with additional dissatisfaction, since we find it has so materially contracted the limits of the present. Still, however, the volume before us appears to have very superior claims to the patronage of the public, from the variety of authorities which have been consulted, from the comprehensive catalogue of names which it * See Poetical Register, p. 137.

+ See the M. Mirror for June 1803