Which can your eyes with force refiftlefs arm,
Point ev'ry glance, and double ev'ry charm.
Ne'er may your skill fuch foreign arts employ,
To raise that paflion which they must deftroy :
Still let your skins, with native luftre, fhew
The white rofe, blended with its blushing foe;
Still let your hair, with unaffected grace,
In glofly ringlets decorate your face:

With powers like thefe can pomp and fplendor vie,
The fparkling di'mond, or the Tyrian dye :
When youth and beauty deck the blooming maid,
The purple fickens, and the dimonds fade.
Adorn'd with charms that ev'ry art despise,

Victorious Love exults, and triumphs in her eyes.'

Every part of this compofition is equally poetic, the defcriptions are elegant, and the numbers flowing. But, indeed, the fubjet is calculated to animate the moft frigid bard; and he who can touch it without feeling a poetical enthufiafm, ought to be expelled from all the fcenes of beauty, and the confines of Parnaffus..

16. Characters. An Epiftle. Infcribed to the Earl of Carlisle. By Francis Gentleman. 4to. Pr. s. 6d. Becket.

Moral portraits are now become too common to excite a reader's curiosity. Theophraftus, Bruyere, Butler, in profe; Pope, Young, and many others in verfe, have almoft exhaufted the fubject. In order, therefore, to gain the attention of the public, poets have exhibited the characters of perfons, who by their ftations, abilities, or conduct, have diftinguished themselves in the eye of the world. Mr. Gentleman, if we do not mistake his meaning, pretends to write upon this plan; for he affures us, No vifionary child of Fancy fhines,

But living pictures in his faithful lines,'

Yet all his characters are applicable not only to one perfon, but to ten thousand. The rake, the benevolent man, the mifer, the epicure, the ambitious courtier, the ftoic, the meraphysician, the fceptic, the enthufiaft, the pedagogue, &c. compofe this group of figures, among which the following is the moft diftinguifhed.

• Curs'd with a plumb, the fruit of famish'd years,
Plunder of orphan's cries, and widow's tears,

Avarus fee, amidst his golden ftore,
Worthip the shining god, and pray
for more;
Thirty as ocean, hungry as the grave,
To fears and wishes an eternal slave-

• Would you prefent to pity's melting fight,
A feeming butt of fortune's utmoft fpight;
This fon of ftarving opulence produce,
Shame of his kind humanity's abuse;
Upon his bloodless cheeks pale famine lies,
And glares a spectre in his haggard eyes;
Squalid and lank his hoary locks fall down,
From the chill circle of his hairless crown;
His care-worn front unnumber'd furrows mark,
Life feems declin'd to its expiring spark;
His ufelefs teeth have long forfook their feat,
And to his pocket made a fnug retreat;
His nofe most prominent, and aquiline,
Politely bends to meet the curved chin;
His palfied head a conftant motion feels,
One wither'd hand from t'other flyly steals;
His faplefs trunk, of more than common length,
His fpindle thanks devoid of needful ftrength;
And thread-bare garments pervious to the cold,
Conjoin'd, fuch perfect wretchednefs unfold,
That all muit own, who fuch a portrait fcan,
He's more a living skeleton, than man.

His wakeful eyes ne'er feel the balm of fleep,

But conftant miferable vigils keep;

The half-starved mouse which o'er his chamber crawls,
Alarms his heart till—murther !—thieves !—he bawls-
Each whispering breeze his anxious fpirit fhocks,

And feems a midnight robber bursting locks ;
The bird of fate, which flaps portentous wings,
Such are his fears, a peal of thunder rings ;
Not that his callous confcience is difmay'd,
More for his treasure than his foul afraid.

• Tormented thus with never- ceafing care,
He fpares to torture, and exifts to spare;
Denies to nature what the fimply craves,
And to himself becomes the worst of slaves ;
Pregnant with fears, a foe declared to hope,
At length he feeks contentment in a rope;
Fails a lean facrifice to darling pelf,

Concludes the thrifty fcene-and hangs himself."

17. The Tears of Twickenham. A Poem. 4to. Pr. ss. White.

This poem, though written in a ftyle which is tolerably harmonious, will be uninteresting to thofe who are not acquainted with the incident on which it is founded, and the merits of Mr. Hindley.

18. The

18. The Politician. A Poem. Addreffed to Mr. James Scott, Fellow of Trinity College,, Cambridge. By the Author of Juvenal's Satires imitated and adapted to the Times. 4to. Pr. is. 6d. Ridley.

We have more than once reviewed the works of this author, (fee vol. xv. p. 310. and vol. xvi. p. 385.) and allowed him all the merit that his best patron, if not blindly partial, can affign him. The performance before us contains but little of that pompofity which we animadverted on in his former productions; though we own we could wish for a greater diverfity both in his manner and verfification. In the latter, however, we think he errs on the fafe fide, and that the publick has a right to harmonious numbers; nor can we excufe harfhnefs under the title of freedom and variety. No good poet was ever flovenly by choice, and the liberties which the late great example of it (Churchill) took in that refpect were owing to hafte, and sometimes to intemperance. The frenzy of the public bought as faft as he wrote, and therefore he thought he could not write enough. A graceful variety is, however, an indifpenfable excellence in poetry, and, perhaps, the great mafters who have been the moft fuccessful in that respect, have found more trouble in attaining it than in giving the moft finished polish to their numbers. But to return to the poem before us: without entering into any private or public character the author either praises or cenfures, we think the following negative definition of a patriot well drawn, and has fomething in it like originality.

'Tis not the clamor of intemp'rate zeal,

A random ferment for the public weal;
'Tis not the madness of a harpy rout,

Who dainn all measures-when themselves are out;
"Tis not a boafting independent tribe,

Who roar their honour, while they grafp the bribe;
"Tis not a wretch, by titled patrons fed,
Abforb'd in int'reft, and by party led,

Led, like a flave, who, lost to ev'ry grace,
Creeps the meer fhadow of his mafter's face;

Looks with his eyes, and thinks, but with his thought,
Acts, at a nod, or scribbles—as he's taught.'

19. The Bookfellers. A Poem. 4to. Pr. 1s. 6d. Dell.

If any of our readers fhould have the odd fancy to grace his collection of poems with a complete pattern of bad writing, fcurrility, and dulnefs, we would recommend this performance to his purchase, which will doubtlefs more than answer his intention.

20. The Merry Miller: or, the Country-Man's Ramble to London, A Farce of Two Acts. 8vo. Pr. is, Davenhill.

This farce is too poor and infipid to bear either a reprefenta tion on the theatre, or a reading.

21. Genuine Memoirs of the Celebrated Miss Maria Brown. Exbibiting the Life of a Courtezan in the most Fashionable Scenes of Diffipation. Published by the Author of a W** of P**. In II Vols. 12mo. Pr. 6s. Allcock.

This is the history of a profest courtezan, in which there is scarcely an incident that, like the cloaths of her profeffion lent out by bawds, has not appeared on the backs of a hundred different fifters. But though there is not much originality in this performance, yet we cannot pronounce it to be void of merit in the execution. The ftile is eafy and clear, and the flections natural and unaffected: this is all that can, with impartiality, be faid in its favour, as the fecond volume must be particularly obnoxious to every chafte reader.

re

22. Reflections on Originality in Authors: Being Remarks on a Letter to Mr. Mason on the Marks of Imitation: In which the absurd Defects of that Performance are pointed out; and the abfolute uncertainty of Imitation in general is demonftrated in various Inftances: With a Word or Two on the Characters of Ben. Johnson and Pope. 8vo. Pr. 15. Horsfield.

This writer undertakes to prove, that the marks of imitation which the author of the Letter to Mr. Mason has pointed out, are fallacious and uncertain; that a bare coincidence of fentiment is not always the effect of imitation, but that there ought to be fome better proof, or real evidence: otherwise, he thinks, the originality of a good author fhould not be called in queftion. But, he fays, what is here advanced should not be conftrued to serve the purposes of fuch as are indifputably copiers, the imitators and small poets, whose works carry in themfelves genuine marks of the imbecility of the genius of their parents Their characters may go far towards affifting us in our discovery of their refources. For where verfifiers are notorioufly defective, as to their creative powers, where they are themselves fond of proclaiming their own borrowings, there any part of theirs, which has a real affinity to any thing to be met with in a preceding work, is justly liable to a fufpicion of being thence derived, confequently of being unoriginal.'

The fairest way of judging in this cafe is to examine every

writer by the fame criteria, and not to condemn the inferior poet without inconteftible proof; for it can never be justice to brand a man as a thief, because he is poor: let the marks of his thievery be produced. If one criterion is not fufficient, it is neceffary to examine a fecond, or a third; and if a plagiarifm is actually committed, it is hardly poffible but that more figns of it than one will appear to a difcerning eye. A concurrence of feveral circumftancès amounts to an indifputable proof: whereas one mark is often ambiguous, and general rules founded upon one mark are confequently not sufficient to authenticate a discovery.

This writer treats Ben. Johnfon and Mr. Pope with uncom mon freedom; representing them as plunderers of Parnaffus :

• Thieves of renown, and pilferers of fame.'

The former, he thinks, has very poor pretenfions to the high place he holds among the English bards, as there is no original manner to diftinguish him, and the tedious fameness vifible in his plots, indicates a defect of genius.

The writings of the latter, he fays, are a perfect cento, undique collatis membris. The poet generally points out his own imitations; fo that they appear, as Mr. Butler expreffes it, like a taylor's cushion of Mofaic work, made up of several scraps fewed together, ubi unus & alter affuitur pannus.'

We look upon Mr. Pope as a poet who adorned every fentiiment he adopted with a peculiar grace and dignity. In the following remarkable paffage he feems to have imitated Silius Italicus.

Self love but ferves the virtuous mind to wake,
As the fmall pebble itirs the peaceful lake;
The center mov'd, a circle ftrait fucceeds,
Another ftill, and ftill another spreads;

Friend, parent, neighbour, firft it will embrace;
His country next; and next all human race;
Wide and more wide, th'o'erflowings of the mind
Take ev'ry creature in, of ev'ry kind;

Earth fmiles around, with boundless bounty bleft,
And heav'n beholds its image in its breast.

Efay on Man, Ep. iv. 363.

Silius Italicus has introduced this fimile upon a different occation.

Signa reportandi crefcebat in agmine fervor,
Sic ubi perrumpit ftagnantem calculus undam,
Exiguos format per prima volumina gyros;
Mox tremulum vibrans motu glifcente liquorem

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