THE LITERARY GAZETTE; AND JOURNAL OF Belles Lettres, Arts, Sciences, etc. FOR THE YEAR 1819. COMPRISING ORIGINAL ESSAYS ON POLITE LITERATURE, THE ARTS AND SCIENCES; A REVIEW OF NEW PUBLICATIONS; POETRY; CRITICISMS ON THE FINE ARTS, THE DRAMA, &c. Biography; CORRESPONDENCE OF DISTINGUISHED PERSONS; ANECDOTES, JEUX D'ESPRIT, &c. SKETCHES OF SOCIETY AND MANNERS; PROCEEDINGS OF PUBLIC AND LITERARY SOCIETIES; POLITICAL SUMMARY, LITERARY INTELLIGENCE, &c. &c. LONDON: PRINTED BY WILLIAM POPLE, No. 67, Chancery Lane. PUBLISHED FOR THE PROPRIETORS, AT THE LITERARY GAZETTE OFFICE, STRAND SOLD ALSO BY BELL AND BRADFUTE, EDINBURGH; JOHN CUMMING, DUBLIN; AND ALL OTHER BOOKSELLERS, NEWSMEN, &c. 1819. AND Journal of Belles Lettres, Arts, Sciences, etc. This Journal is supplied Weekly, or Monthly, by the principal Booksellers and Newsmen throughout the Kingdom, but to those who may desire its immediate transmission, by post, we beg to recommend the LITERARY GAZETTE, printed on stamped paper, price One Shilling. No. 102. ADDRESS. SATURDAY, JANUARY 2, 1819. Ox the commencement of a new Neme, when from past success we presume to anticipate a large addithe of subscribers, it may be expedient ake a brief view of the origin and ts of this Publication, and of the employed to render it worthy of gratifying reception which it has penenced. Novel in its plan, and quently experimental in its nature, delightful for us to be able to state the kindness of its infant reception s to have grown into rooted favour has developed its character, as it becomes better knery and ls itself over the distant parts of tive land, the colonies and foreign nes, with a rapidity equal to the sanguine expectations of its con Literary Gazette, during the peod of two years, has given copious re2 of about four hundred new works, xtracts, so as to enable the public f a fair judgment upon each. original biographical memoirs at time, have also in its sguished persons, who have died ne have also appeared in its the hand no notice of consequence ted In Foreign literature and in-ting communications from CorreWals abroad, it has, we may coneady assert, surpassed any contempo of preceding miscellany: it has also a d and printed ctions from some of the first native multitude of con poets, philosophers, and other trated men now living. Determined to pursue the same career gence and impartiality which has dy been " a hope, in the language of a very Most affectionately thanking our many the arts, as a medium of much conse- ***THE LITERARY GAZETTE is regu larly published every SATURDAY MORNING, paper, to friends and relations abroad, unstamped paper, price only 8d. for the par ticular advantage of those who reside in booksellers throughout all the towns in the kingdom; and only in more remote is object receive situations, stantaneously than through the SO unprecedently rewarded, that we recommend the stamped 1s. Numbers. learning, science, and improve sional opportunities of receiving it. of the times. To this effect the Lastly-THE VOLUMES for EACH YEAR, from the commencement in 1817, may be had complete, with titles, indexes, &c. price 21. 2s. each, forming together authentic an rous interesting and instructive pro- hately and prominently under THE VOLUME for 1818 is now ready for a reporter, and not a Trust we may modestly express FUL IIL * D'Israeli. PRICE 8d. beg those who desire to complete their sets, that they will lose no time in transmitting their orders to their respective newsmen or booksellers, to prevent disappointment. Persons residing in the country are requested to give their orders to any newsman or bookseller in their own immediate neighbourhood, and to be explicit in regard to the title of our papers, as we have been honoured by a pretty close imitation. REVIEW OF NEW BOOKS. Memoir on the Ruins of Babylon. By Claudius James Rich, Esq. Resident for the Hon. East India Company at the Court of the Pasha of Bagdat. Third Edition. London, 1818. 8vo. pp. 67. SECOND MEMOIR, &c. By the Same. pp. 58. When the first edition of the former of these works was published three or four years ago, we were highly pleased with its contents. The study of antiquities and antiquarian researches has been too often with justice called dry; and yet when the object is worthy of a painful examination, when not only curiosite is gratified, but results important to the illustration of divine touch labour history of mankind, and even to the gathered, as the reward of such labours, it is not in the nature of things that such a subject, rightly investigated, can be either tedious or unentertaining. For these volumes we can truly vouch that they are altogether the reverse. Babylon attracts us by the very sound of its name, and all that is stupendous in the productions of human power, all that is venerable from age, all that is wonder ful for art and ingenuity, all that is interesting from the association of ideas, seem to be concentrated in an inquiry embracing that mighty city, its ancient prodigies and modern ruins. The first Memoir was originally published in an excellent Journal, conducted by Mr. Hammer, at Vienna, and entitled The Mines of the East, (Mines de l' Orient); and it will be necessary for us to take a concise view of its most memorable facts, and of the theory it maintains, before we proceed to the analysis of its successor. Mr. Rich's re sidence at Bagdat, afforded him the best of opportunities to explore the site of the Capital of the Assyrian Empire, now so lost amid the wreck of years, that even the place of its existence is a ques |