Several Spilfbury's publication. We can really find no other method of efti mating its worth than that of literally weighing it. The paper indeed on which this very fmall and coflly production is printed, though fuffi-, ciently coarfe and brown, might honeftly, between man and man, be worth about two-pence halfpenny, when it came out, pure and undefiled, from the hands of the manufacturer. But the compiler and printer have had the addrefs, on its paffing through their hands, to reduce it to wafte paper; in which ftate it will scarce fetch a farthing. It weighs, cover and all, under four ounces. We now find ourselves fairly arrived at the very bathos of medical authorship and reviewing; and fhall take our leave, for this month, of this new mode of criticifm: not however through the want of proper fubjects for the fcales and weights. At this very instant our helves groan under the increafing load.. B-y. Art. 24. The Tears of Genius. Occafioned by the Death of Dr. . Goldfmith. By Courtney Melmoth. 4to. I s. 6 d. Becket, 1774. POETICA L. In lamenting the death of Dr. Goldsmith, Mr. C. M. has been led to contemplate likewife the fate of others;' for, he adds, within a few years our literary loffes have been fatally multiplied, and many of the most valuable members have been fuddenly lopped off from science and fociety.' The Tears of Genius, therefore, are fhed not for Dr. G. only, but And now, my lov'd SHENSTONE, for thee, Thoa fairest refemblance of me, Dear elegant Bard of the plain. For thee will I pour the fad lay, That shall echo the thickets among; And weep as I muse on the day, ་ That rabb'd the poor fwains of thy song, Full gentle, and fweet was the note And NATURE was polish'd by ART. There are five more ftanzas facred to the memory of this pleafing writer; but the three we have given may fuffice for a fpecimen. The Author has precluded all criticifm by affuring his readers, that this mifcellaneous poem was begun and finifhed within a few hours after the news reached him that Dr. Goldsmith was dead.' This may ferve to excufe any little defects in the performance; but if it be thought that another apology might be wanted for fending the piece in fo much hurry to the prefs, the Poet replies, that it was done to prevent the occafion which produced the elegy from losing the frength of the impreffion by delay. For, alas, adds he, the traces of forrow, forrow, for the lofs of the learned, are foon worn out by the tumults of life.' This is very true; but the observation will not apply more peculiarly to the learned than to other men: perhaps lefs; for the memories of the learned and ingenious are preferved in their works, while others leave nothing behind them to make mankind regret their departure. Art. 25. Sophronia and Hilario; an Elegy. Elegy. By Charles Crawford, Efq; Author of the Dissertation on the Phædon of Plato. 4to. 1 s. 6d. Becket., 1774. If Mr. Crawford intended this poem as an effay toward discountenancing the foolish and butcherly cuftóm of duelling, he is to be commended for his defign. Of his poetry our Readers will judge from the following specimen : To the appointed place both punctual went, The ground was meafur'd, and the fight began; "Come on (he faid) come on, thou damned thing!" E'en when he deem'd the victory his own, The blood ran guthing from the gaping part:- His friend, the murd'rer with his fword approach'd, His arm the weapon to that bosom sent, "Thanks to my noble friend! (he fmiling faid) Dd 4 Thus Thus when the Theban and as WOLFE of late, No more they dreaded the chill ftroke of Fate; Nor at th' approach of death while conqu'ring griev'd. This is not the most pleafing poem of the kind that we ever perufed but we forbear; not being ambitious of the honour of having our names joined with thofe venerable ones of antiquity, which this fweet-blooded gentleman has treated with fuch extraordinary marks of reverence in his Differtation on Plato, &c. See Review, vol. xlix, P. 437. Art. 26. Poems by Mr. Fenton, 4to. 6s. Kearly. 1774. Robfon. 1774. 2 s. 6 d. fewed, Mr. Jerningham's prefatory advertisement informs his readers that the favourable reception thefe poems met with, as they feparately appeared, has induced him to collect them into a little volume, and prefent them, with fome emendations, to the Public; and he hopes that the indulgence which firit attended them, will not forfake them in their prefent appearance.' We are always pleafed with the modefty and becoming diffidence with which this ingenious Writer adds his literary mite, as he expreffes it, to the treasure of English poetry.' Of the true value of that mite, we have frequently given our impartial eftimate; and fhall only now give a lift of the pieces contained in the prefent edition of his works, viz. The Magdalens--Yarico to Incle-The Nun-The Deferter-B Latte-Matilda-The Swedish Curate-The Funeral of Arabert— and a few fmaller pieces; moft of which, if not all, feem to be now first published: the laft, entitled The Nunnery, in imitation of Mr. Gray's Elegy, is concluded, in courfe, by The Epitaph; in which the Author has thus, very properly, glanced at his own poetical character; By Death's ftern hand untimely fnatch'd away, A youth unknown to fame these vaults infold . In the advertisement above-quoted, Mr. J. takes notice, that out of respect to the public opinion, he has excluded fome poems from this collection, choofing rather to fubmit to the voice of his cotemporaries, than make a prefumptuous appeal to pofterity.' How &different this from the conduct of fome more felf-fufficient bards, who have feemed rather inclined to bully the Public into an approbation of their writings! The word is thus, in our copy, fo faintly printed, that we are in fome doubt whether the Author did not write lay. PHIL O PHILOSOPHICA L. Art. 28. An Effay on Electricity; containing a Series of Experi ments introductory to the Study of that Science. 8vo. 3 s. Briftol printed, and fold by Becker in London. 1773. This compendium is well drawn up, and will be of use to thofe who wish to be initiated into the principles of electricity, and to acquire a knowledge of the principal experiments that have been made in this branch of fcience; fome of which likewise are here agreeably enough diverfified. The Effay is enlarged by various obfervations on medical electricity, and still more by the hiftories of the feveral cures that have been performed by means of the electrical apparatus; col lected from the different writers who have treated this fubject. B. DRAMATIC. Art. 29. Codrus, a Tragedy. 8vo. I s. 6d. Johnfon. 1774. The Author of this Tragedy, in a very fenfible prefatory letter, informs us, that it was not intended for the ftage. It breathes, however, the genuine fpirit of Liberty and Virtue, and for the fake of thofe honeft old principles, which we remember to have heard fome-, thing about many years ago, we can with pleasure pass over a few de fects of compofition. 1 Art. 30. Henry and Emma, a new Poetical Interlude, altered from Prior's Nut-brown Maid, with Additions, and a new Air and Chorus, (the Mufic by Dr. Arne) as performed on Wednesday, April 13, 1774, at the Theatre Royal in Covent Garden, for the Benefit of Mrs. Hartley. 8vo. 6d. Davies. Hardly any skill could alter Prior's Nut-brown Maid, fo as to atone to the Audience, or to the Reader, for the regret which they would feel at the omiffion of any of its beautiful and pathetic paffages. MISCELLANEOUS. W. Art. 31. The Roman Hiftory, in a Series of Letters from a Nobleman to his Son. 12mo. 6s. Snagg. A few years ago, we had a pocket hiftory of England, in Letters from a Nobleman to his Son, or fome title fimilar to this; it was not inelegantly written; and as the plan was well adapted for the instruction and entertainment of young Gentlemen, the work was favourably received; and it has, confeffedly,' given rife to the present performance: The Roman Hiftorians, fays the Editor, have been time immemorial, read in our schools, in detached pieces, and in such a manner as could give neither entertainment nor inftruction to the perfons who perused them. Here the Author has laid before the Reader the leading facts, and drawn fuch conclufions from them, as muft make a lafting impreffion on the memory of every person who perufes it. Virtue is delineated in its most amiable characters, and vice fo as to deter the rifing generation from becoming its votaries.' There is no queftion but that abftracts of this kind, written in an eafy, familiar style, and illuftrated with suitable reflections, will prove both agreeable and useful to young readers; and that while they are engaged, perhaps, merely in the fearch of amufement, (of which they will find an almost inexhauftible ftore in the Roman Hiftory) History) they will, at the fame time, as our Editor obferves, acquire knowledge of things of the utmost importance.' This history is, for the most part, written in a familiar and pleas ing ftrain; but it is unequal, frequently inaccurate in the details, and generally fo incorrectly printed, that there is much left for the Editor to do, in a fecond edition. Of the Writer's inaccuracy, fingle fpecimen may fuffice, as well as a greater number, which we have noted in the course of our perufal. Speaking of the memorable eruption of Mount Vefuvius, which, happened in the reign of the Emperor Titus, the Writer mentions the death of the great Pliny, in the following terms: Pliny, the Author of the Natural Hiftory, loft his life on this memorable occafion, for a curiofity peculiar to himfelf, having led him too near the mouth of the Volcano, he was swallowed up and devoured in the flames.” Would not any reader, not previously informed of the real circumftances of the fact, conclude, from this account of it, that Pliny had, in fome measure, voluntarily fhared the fate of Empedocles, and that he had actually perithed in the very Crater from whence the fames iffued? Whereas the truth is, that this celebrated obferver of ature was not on the, mountain, nor even within feveral miles of it, at the time of the eruption; that his curiofity, fatal as it proved; led him no nearer to it than Stabia, and that he died by fuffocation, at the fea fide, in the neighbourhood of that town, as he was endeavouring to escape from thence to his fhips. The circumftance is thus related by his nephew: 'He fell down dead; fuffocated, as F conjecture, by fome grofs and noxious vapour, having always had weak lungs, and frequently fubject to a difficulty of breathing. As foon as it was light again-his body was found intire, and without any mks of violence upon it, exactly in the fame pofture that he fell, and looking more like a man afleep than dead. This was three days after he fell; two of his fervants were with him at the time of this melancholy accident. Notwithstanding the little defects of a work probably compiled in hafte, (for Noblemen as well as Plebeian writers may have cogent reafons for fast-writing) we can recommend this compilement as an agreeable and useful introduction to a more intimate knowledge of the rife, progrefs, revolutions, and declenfion of the greatest Empire that ever fubfifted upon earth:-the history of which, however, as was faid on a fimilar † occafion, "has been so often written, both in ancient and modern languages, that it would be imposture to pretend to new difcoveries, or to offer any thing which other works of he fame kind have not given." Art. 32. A Journal of a Voyage to the South Seas, in his Majefty's Ship the Endeavour, faithfully transcribed from the Papers of Sydney Parkinson, &c. Folio. 11. 5s. Boards. Richardfon. 1773. This performance is compiled from certain manufcripts of the late Mr. Parkinson, Draughtsman to Mr. Banks, in his late expedition • Melmoth's Tranflation of Pliny's Letters. + Vid. our account of Goldfmith's Roman Hiftory, Rev. vol. xli. R. 183.. round |