concerned. The following is the manner in which Gren fpeaks of it: Concentrated nitric acid acts upon powdered rofin very powerfully, and nitrous gas is evolved; but the running together of the rofin into lumps, makes its complete folution in nitric acid extremely difficult.'

To his predeceffors in the laborious task of compilation, Dr Thomfon feldom makes any acknowledgment, although we think it would have been but juft, to have mentioned in the preface his obligations to them, efpecially to Fourcroy, from whom he has often borrowed largely. In fome inftances, an author of this defcription is quoted for a particular fact, although the whole paffage be borrowed from him. A very flagrant example of this kind occurs in vol. IV. p. 129, when Brochant is quoted in fuch a manner as to make it appear that nothing but the enumeration of Werner's claffes is taken from him, whereas the whole chapter, Of compound minerals, extending to twenty-five pages, is an abridged tranflation of Brochant, with the addition of three analyfes by Dr Kennedy and M. Klaproth, and one obfervation by the author.

Upon the whole, notwithstanding the numerous errors which we have difcovered, or believe we have difcovered, in this work, they are much more than counterbalanced by its general merits. The immenfe quantity of chemical information which it contains, is highly creditable both to the abilities and the induftry of the author; and if, in a future edition, he will reftrain a little his propenfity to premature generalization, and free his numerical expreffions from the numberlefs errors which now render it imFollible to trust to any of his calculations with fecurity, we have no doubt that it will continue to maintain its reputation as the best repofitory of chemical knowledge that has yet been offered to the public.

If any of our readers fhould be inclined to object, that the general tone of the preceding obfervations does not accord very harmoniously with this concluding eulogium, or to accufe us of having specified little more than the defects of a work of fuch unqueftionable merit, we would beg leave to remind them, that Dr Thomfon is neither humble nor obfcure enough to fland in need of recommendation or encouragement from us. The public has already done ample juftice to his talents; and he is himself perfectly aware of the extent of his claims on their favour. In this fituation, while it is almoft unneceffary to proclaim his merits, it becomes of the greateft confequence to point out his mistakes and imperfections. Under the fanction of fo great an authority, crrors are propagated with a very mischievous rapidity, and the auther himiclf is apt to become prefumptuous and precipitate, when no one is to be found who will admonish Lim of his failures

and

and faults. Notwithstanding the freedom of our remarks, we doubt if any of Dr Thomfon's readers have a higher fenfe than we have of the value of this publication; the perufal of which we very earnestly recommend to every ftudent of chemistry.

ART. X. Specimens of the Early English Poets: To which is prefixed, An Hiflorical Sketch of the Rife and Progrefs of the Englif Portry and Language. By George Ellis Efq. The Third Edition, Corrected. 3 vol. 8vo.

THE HE first edition of this interefting work appeared in 1790, comprising in one volume many of the moft beautiful fmall poems which had appeared during the fixteenth and feventeenth centuries. The plan was certainly worthy of being enlarged; and accordingly, in the fecond edition, published about a year ago, and rapidly difpofed of, as well as in that which is now before us, it has received fuch confiderable additions, that the work has increased to thrice the original fize; and Mr Ellis has established his claim to the character of an original author, as well as to that of a judicious collector and editor of the forgotten poems of antiquity. The first volume contains the preliminary historical sketch of the rife and progrefs of English poetry and language; the fecond and third are occupied by thofe fpecimens which give name to the whole. We shall endeavour fucceflively to analyse the contents, and examine the merits, of these two divisions of the work.

It is obvious to every one who has ftudied our language, whe ther in profe or poetry, that a luminous hiftory of its rife and progrefs muft neceffarily involve more curious topics of difcuffion than a fimilar work upon any other European language. This opinion has not its fource in national partiality, but is dictated by the very peculiar circumftances under which the English language was formed. The other European tongues, fuch at leaft as have been adapted to the purposes of literature, may be divided into two grand claffes-those which are derived from the Teutonic, and thofe which are formed upon the Latin. In the former clafs, we find the German, the Norfe, the Swedish, the Danish, and the Low-Dutch, all of which, in words and conftruction, are dialects of the Teutonick, and preferve the general character of

K 4

We do not mention the dialects founded on the Celtic and Slavonic languages, because they have not been used in literary compofition; nevertheless, the fame obfervation applies to them as to the others; they have each their derivation from a fingle mother-root, and are not, like the English, a compounded or mingled language.

an

of their common fource, although enriched and improved by terms of art or of fcience adopted from the learned languages, or from those of other kingdoms of civilized Europe. The fecond clafs comprehends the Italian, the Spanish, and the French in all its branches. It is true, the last of these has, in modern times, owing to the number of French writers in every clafs and upon every fubject, departed farther from its original than the two others; but still the ground-work is the Latin; and the more nearly any fpecimen approaches to it, it may be fafely concluded to be the more amcient; for, in truth, we know no other rule for afcertaining the antiquity of any particular piece in the Romanz language, than by its greater or flighter refemblance to the speech of the ancient Romans, from which it derives its name. Thus every language of civilized Europe is formed of a uniform pattern and texture, either upon the Teutonick, or upon the Latin. But the fame chance which has peopled Britain with fuch a variety of tribes and nations, that we are at a lofs to conceive how they fhould have met upon the fame spot-and that, comparatively, a fmall one has decreed that the language of Locke and of Shakefpeare fhould claim no peculiar affinity to either of these grand fources of European fpeech; and that if, on the one hand, its conformation and conftruction be founded on a dialect of the Teutonick, the greater number of its vocables fhould, on the other, be derived from the Romanz, or corrupted Latin of the Normans. It is interefting to obferve how long these languages, uncongenial in themfelves, and derived from fources widely different, continued to exift feparately, and to be spoken respectively by the Anglo-Norman conquerors and the vanquifhed Anglo-Saxons. It is ftill more interefling to obferve how, after having long flowed each in its separate channel, they at length united and formed a middle dialect, which, though employed at firft for the mere purpose of convenience and mutual intercourse betwixt the two nations, at length fuperfeded the individual fpeech of both, and became the apt record of poetry and of philofophy.

The hiftory of poetry is intimately connected with that of language. Authors in the infancy of compofition, like Pope in that of life, may be faid to lifp in numbers.' Hiftory, religion, morality, whatever tends to agitate or to footh the paffions, is, during the ealier ftages of fociety, celebrated in verfe. This may be partly owing to the eafe with which poetry is retained. upon the memory, in thofe ruder ages, when written monuments, if they at all exift, are not calculated to promote general information; and it may be partly owing to that innate love of fong, and fenfibility to the charms of flowing numbers, which is diftinguishable even among the most favage people. But, what

ever be the cause, the effect is moft certain; the early works of all nations have been written in verfe, and the hiftory of their poetry is the hiftory of the language itself. It therefore feems furprifing, that, where the fubject is interefting in a peculiar as well as in a general point of view, a distinct and connected history of our poetry, and of the language in which it is written, fhould fo long have been a defideratum in English literature; and the wonder becomes greater when we recollect, that an attempt to fupply the deficiency was long fince made by a perfon who feemed to unite every quality neceffary for the task.

The late Mr Warton, with a poetical enthusiasm which converted toil into pleasure, and gilded, to himself and his readers, the dreary fubjects of antiquarian lore, and with a capacity of labour apparently inconfiftent with his more brilliant powers, has produced a work of great fize, and, partially fpeaking, of great intereft, from the perufal of which we rife, our fancy delighted with beautiful imagery, and with the happy analyfis of ancient tale and fong, but certainly with very vague ideas of the history of English poetry. The error feems to lye in a total neglect of plan and fyftem; for, delighted with every interefting topic which occurred, the hiftorical poet purfued it to its utmost verge, without confidering that thefe digreffions, however beautiful and interesting in themfelves, abftracted alike his own attention, and that of the reader, from the profeffed purpose of his book. Accordingly, Warton's hiftory of English poetry has remained, and will always remain, an immenfe common-place book of memoirs to ferve for fuch an history. No antiquary can open it, without drawing information from a mine which, though dark, is inexhaustible in its treasures; nor will he who reads merely for amufement ever fhut it for lack of attaining his end; while both may probably regret the defultory excursions of an author, who wanted only fyftem, and a more rigid attention to minute accuracy, to have perfected the great taik he has left incomplete. It is therefore with no little pleafure that we fee a man of taste and talents advance to fupply the deficiency in fo intereft, ing a branch of our learning; a talk, to which Johnfon was unequal through ignorance of our poetical antiquities, and in which Warton failed, perhaps, because he was too deeply enamoured of them. This is the arduous attempt of Mr Ellis; and it remains to inquire how he has executed it.

The elemental part of the English language, that from which it derives, not indeed the greater proportion of its words, but the rules of its grammar and conftruction, is the Anglo-Saxon; and Mr Ellis has dedicated his first chapter to make the English reader acquainted with it. The example of their poetry, which he has chofen to exhibit, is the famous war-fong in praife of Athelftane's

Athelftane's victory in the battle of Brunenburgh; an engage. ment which checked for ever the victorious progrefs of the Picts and Scots, and limited their reign to the northern part of Britain. We cannot, from this poem, nor indeed from any other remnant of Anglo-Saxon poetry, determine what were the rules of their verfe. Rhime they had none; their rythm seems to have been uncertain; and perhaps their whole poetry confifted in the adaptation of the words to fome fimple tune; although Mr Ellis feems inclined to think, with Mr Tyrwhitt, that the verfe of the Saxons was only diftinguished from their profe by a greater pomp of diction, and a more stately kind of march." To this fpecimen of Saxon poetry, Mr Ellis has subjoined a tranflation of it into the English of the age of Chaucer, which we recommend to our readers as one of the best executed imitations that we have ever met with. It was written by a friend of Mr Ellis (Mr Frere, if we mistake not) while at Eton fchool, and ftruck us with fo much furprife, that we are obliged to extract a paffage, at the risk of interrupting our account of Mr Ellis's plan, to juftify the extent of our panegyric.

The Mercians fought 1 underfond,

There was gamen of the hond.
Alle that with Aulof hir way hom
Over the feas in the fchippes wom,
And the five fonnes of the kynge,
Fel mid dint of fword-fightinge.
His feven erlis died alfo;

Mony Scottes were killed tho,

The Normannes for their mighty bost
Went home with a lytyl hoft.

In Dacie of that gaming
Mony wemen hir hondis wring.
The Normannes paffed that rivere,
Mid hevy hart and sorry chere.
The brothers to Weffex yode,
Leving the crowen and the tode,
Hawkes, doggis and wolves, tho
Egles and mony other mo,
With the dede men for their mede,
On hir corfes for to fede.

Sen the Saxonis first come

In fchippes over the fea-fome,

Of the yeres that ben for gone

Greater bataile was never none.

This appears to us an exquifite imitation of the antiquated English poetry; not depending on an accumulation of hard words,