ART. VIII. `Oriental Tales. Tranflated into English Verfes By J. Hoppner, Efq. R. A. Crown 8vo. 123 pp. 7s. Hatchard. 1805. IT T is confoling, amidst the unavoidable obftacles of war, to fee the fine arts making efforts to emerge, under the protection of a flrong and flourishing government; like plants, which under the fhelter of a noble building, grow in fecurity, while all without is torn by ftorms, or chilled by frofts. As it is the general cultivation of the mind which can alone raise any art to its perfection, it appears to us particularly important that English artists are beginning to fignalize themfelves in literary productions; not that we would have them too much divide their attention between their own art and that of writing, but because the ftudies which guide the pen are likely alfo to give claffical correctnefs to the fancy of the painter. Thinking in this manner, it cannot be doubted that we must approve the following paffage in Mr. Hoppner's Preface, adding only that, though he may have no prefent intention to appear again as an author, we by no means with or advise him to form any refolution against it. Salvator Rofa fhone equally as painter and as a poet. "Let it not however", he says, "be inferred from this, that I have the flightest intention of ever making my appearance before the public again as a poet. I have too great a reverence for this art to fuppofe that I may attain, at my leifure, what men with greater advantages have not been able to acquire after the most diligent ftudy. My object in publishing these trifles was rather to prove my love than difplay my fkill and when I am called upon to fhew" fome vanity of mine art", it fhall be in a mode in which I have a more legitimate claim to attention and public favour. If it be urged that this demonstration of attachment to excellence out of my peculiar line of ftudy was unne ceffary, I reply that I cannot think fo. Every thing that artists may hope to achieve with the view of raifing themselves in the just estimation of a public, fo little difpofed in their favour, fhould be attempted. The general opinion entertained of the extent of our acquifitions is fufficiently indicated in the judgment paffed upon Sir Joshua Reynolds's Lectures: for, fince they cannot be styled clumfy performances, the honour of having written them has been awarded to others, not only against the evidence of common sense, but of men of the highest refpectability, who had ample means of better information." P. v. Mr. H. then adverts, and, in our opinion, with great propriety, to the manner in which our annual exhibitions are received: for true it is, that for the fake of affuming a moft contemptible. pretence to connoiffeurship, the great majority of fpectators 2 affect affect to condemn in the grofs thofe performances, not one of which they are able in the flighteft degree to appreciate, much lefs to criticize. We have often felt afhamed and angry to hear those perfons dogmatically condemn the works of very ingenious men, whom we knew to be poffeffed of no fingle principle of judgment belonging to the art. There is no cloke for ignorance fo impenetrable as general condemnation; but they who dare to put it on ought, if we could prevail, at once to be fet afide as incompetent to deliver any opinion. Mr. H. hesitates not, as a connoiffeur, to declare the prefent French fchool of painting greatly inferior to the English; and though he may be confidered as interested in the queftion, yet when a man of reputation ventures fo to declare himself, it may be prefumed that his opinion has been well weighed. Certainly if the minute reprefentation of ftill life, fuch as clothes, furniture, and other incidental parts of a picture, which he objects to a celebrated female artist, be a prevalent manner in that school, there can be no doubt that it ought to be condemed, as perfectly repugnant to good taste. We refpect to the Tales, we have read them with great plea fure. In an easy ftyle of poetical narrative, often enlivened by incidental strokes of original reflection, this author has verfified eight Tales; feveral of them well known, but all rendered pleafing, and in fome measure new, by the mode of narration. They are taken, as he acknowledges in the Preface, from various books. The firft, fecond, fourth, and fixth, from the Tooti Nameh, or Tales of the Parrot; the third from one related in the fecond volume of Mr. Beloe's Mifcellanies; the fifth from the Heetopades; and the feventh and eighth from the Fabliaux of Le Grand, transferring the fcenery to the East for the fake of uniformity. The first Tale, of the Afs and the Stag, we had feen and admired, when anonymoufly printed in the Pic-Nic. It is told with great humour. The determined resolution of the afs to fing, in fpite of the remonftrances of his companion upon the danger of it, is extremely laughable; and reminds us of fome adventures we have occafionally had with authors. The picture of the long-earned fongfter is very characteristic. "Impatience ftung the warbler's foul, Like other tales of a fimilar ftamp, fome of these bear rather hard upon the fair fex; for these the author makes a kind of apology, which confpires with the Tales themfelves to prove, that his attacks are rather jocular than malicious. We would, however, have omitted the fifth Tale. The last Tale is on the fubject of the Mock Doctor, which has been dramatized in French by Moliere, and in English by a tranflator or imitator of him; but the latter part is not in the drama; and it is told here with fo much humour, that we refort to it by choice, as a further fpecimen of the Tales. The Doctor, in order to get rid of a large collection of importunate patients prescribes, that the one whofe cafe was moft defperate fhould be burnt, and taken in powder by the reft. The effect is immediate. "Thefe healing words pronounc'd, they pry In each one's cafe with anxious eye. "Who, I?" dear Doctor," you're deceiv'd; Felt half fo full of health as now." Who late had crawl'd, now nimbly run, Demanded, "Art thou heal'd?"—" You guess." Another came," And thou ?"-" Yes, yes!" And ftill, as through the doors they push'd, Sciatica on Palfy rush'd. The halt unpropp'd their hafte betray; E'en blindnets, fomehow, gropes her way; In fine, fo sopelefs none were found, Not even thofe in wedlock bound, But deem'd a life difeas'd, unha'low'd, Better than being in powders fwallow'd." P. 125. Mr. Mr. Hoppner, though not a profeffed poet, does not often err in the management of his language or verfification; he is indeed, on the whole, extremely correct. In p. 4, however, he has overlooked two fucceffive couplets with the fame rhyme; and in p. 72, fomething of a similar overfight appears. In p. 92, the word héterodox has rather a heterodox accent, on the fecond fyllable; but we will not dwell upon fuch minutiæ, of which we could not greatly increase the lift, if we were to fearch with fcrupulous care. In the fkill of compofition fomething might be allowed, and little or no allowance is wanted; in the graces of it much is happily achieved, which they who only know the application of the author to his own. art could not reasonably have expected. ART. IX. Letters on Silefia, written during a Tour through that Country, in the Years 1800, 1801. By His Excellency John Quincy Adams, then Minifter Plenipotentiary from the United States to the Court of Berlin; and fince a Member of the American Senate. In Two Parts. Part I. containing a Journal of a Tour through Silefia, performed in the latter Part of 1800, by Mr. Adams; in which the Topography, the Agriculture, Manufactures, and Commerce, and the Morals and Manners of the People of that Dutchy are accurately defcribed. Part II. containing a complete geographical, statistical, and hiftorical Account of Silefia; together with a Detail of its political Conftitution, military, civil, and ecclefiaftical Eftablifhments, Seminaries of Education, Literature, and learned Men. Embellished with a new Map. 8vo. 387 pp. 8s. Budd. 1804. SILESIA has not often fallen in the track of modern travellers; and, as this volume is accompanied by a neat, and apparently correct Map, it fills up an interval which cannot be confidered as wholly unimportant. Indeed it may feem rather furprising, that this region, which has been the theatre of fo many important events, the object of contention between the molt powerful fovereigns, and the scene of so many fanguinary contefts, has not been a more frequent object of the traveller's curiofity. The prefent publi cation is in the form of Letters, from the eldest fon of Mr. Adams, formerly Prefident of the United States of America. U BRIT. CRIT. VOL, XXV. MARCH, 1805. The The The writer was at the time in the refpectable character of Minifter Plenipotentiary from America to the Court of Berlin, and has fince become a Member of the American Senate. It may fafely be afferted of this book, that it contains a faithful picture of the province of Silefia, its topography, agriculture, manufactures, commerce, morals, and manners. reader will alfo find a circumftantial detail of its political, military, civil, and ecclefiaftical conflitution. Mr. Adams proceeded from Berlin to Franckfort on the Oder, and thence through Lufatia to Sprotau, Hirfchberg, Breflau, and again back through the heart of the country to Drefden. At Bunzlau is a great manufactory of pottery; but the fill greater curiofity were the two individuals, who are thus defcribed. "But the greatest curiofities of Bunzlau are two mechanical geniuses by the name of Jacob, and of Hüttig, a carpenter, and a weaver, who are next-door neighbours to each other. The firft has made a machine, in which, by the means of certain clock-work, a number of puppets, about fix inches high, are made to move upon a kind of stage, so as to reprefent in feveral fucceffive fcenes the paffion of Jefus Chrift. The firft exhibits him in the garden at prayer, while the three apoftles are fleeping at a distance. In the last he is fhewn dead in the fepulchre, guarded by two Roman foldiers. The intervening fcenes reprefent the treachery of Judas, the examination of Jefus before Caiaphas, the dialogue between Pilate and the Jews concerning him, the denial of Peter, the fcourging, and the crucifixion. It is all accompanied by a mournful dirge of mufic; and the maker, by way of explanation, repeats the paffages of Scripture which relate the events he has undertaken to fhew. I never faw a ftronger proof of the strength of the impreffion of objects, which are brought immediately home to the fenfes. I have heard and read more than one eloquent fermon upon the paffion; but I confefs, none of their moft laboured efforts at the pathetic ever touched my heart with one half the force of this puppethow. The traitor's kifs, the blow ftruck by the high priest's fervant, the fcourging, the nailing to the crofs, the fpunge of vinegar, every indignity offered, and every pain inflicted, occafioned a fenfation, when thus made perceptible to the eye, which I had never felt at mere defcription. "Hüttig the weaver, with an equal, or fuperior mechanical genius, has applied it in a different manner, and devoted it to geographical, aftronomical, and historical purfuits. In the intervals of his leifure from the common weaver's work, which affords him fubfiftence, he has become a very learned man. The walls of his rooms are covered with maps and drawings of his own, reprefenting, here the course of the Oder, with all the towns and villages through which it runs ; there the mountains of Switzerland, and thofe of Silefia, over both of which he has travelled in perfon. In one 100m he has two very large tables, one raifed above the other; on one of them he has ranged all the towns and remarkable places of Germany, and, on the other, of all Europe; |