had to the endless toil of analyses, whose refults muft vary in every fpecimen. Thefe maffes cannot conftitute fpecies, though they form rocks of a particular fort; and that term feems to be the most applicable to them, as well as to thefe conventional fpecies depending on particular and unphilofophical confiderations which artifts have lavishly invented. It feems obvious, that the adoption of the ftrict rules of investigation here recommended, would operate moft beneficially in aiding the progrefs of mineralogy, and in facilitating the acquifition of what is already known. The attention, instead of being unprofitably directed to frivolous minutie, would be centred on a few grand effentials, the acquifition of which would not merely ferve to form mineralogical diftinctions, but to convey an important knowledge of the nature of the substance, by enforcing attention to its phyfical properties. Mineralogy would be fimplified by the rejection of unneceffary fpecies, and by the fubdivifion of fuch as were incongruously comprehenfive. The fubjection of all unknown fubftances to rigorous examination, would either afcertain their union with a fpecies already known, or legitimate their claims to forming a separate fpecies. Geology would become an effential branch of knowledge; fo that no mere mineralogift of the cabinet could exift. The chaos of improper appellations would in time be done away; and mineralogy, thus fimplified and extended, would become more acceflble, comprehenfive, and important. In this fhort abstract, we have not exactly followed the arrangement of the original work, nor have we entered into the collateral difcuffions which appeared not intimately connected with the fubject, or to be of little confequence in its confideration. We have not followed Dolomieu in his attempt to fix the meaning of certain words he employs, becaufe they only apply to those minutia, into the difcuffion of which our limits do not permit us to enter; and we here confined our endeavours to laying before our readers the fcope and the ftrength of his argument. Though we might complain that, in this work, Dolomieu has fometimes been tedious, and fometimes frivolous, and that he has too often reforted to the inaccuracy of metaphorical illuftration, we confider his object as completely and decifively eftablished; and we venture to hope, that no future fabricator of a fyftem of mineralogy will forget, that each species is capable of the most rigorous definition; that genera are to be formed from fpecies, and not fpecies from genera; that the imperfections of individual fpecimens ought never to conftitute fpecies; and that fuch maffes as, by the mutability of their compofition, or variability of their characters, cannot be conftantly referred to any definite T4 definite fpecies, are not to be intruded into systematic mineralogy at all, but are to be transferred to their geological relations. After fo mafterly an expofition of the capabilities of this fcience, no indulgence, we think, fhould be fhown to thofe whofe weaknefs or perversion of intellect fhall hereafter allow them to neglect or abandon the ftraight line which the illuftrious hand of Dolomieu has traced, and thus retard, by retrograde or erring movements, the march of that fcience they pretend to ad vance. ART. IV. The Georgics of Virgil. Tranflated into English verfe by William Sotheby Efq. THE HE author of this tranflation has defervedly the character of a refined and elegant fcholar. He is known to the public by numerous productions, but principally by the tranflation of Wieland's Oberon; a charming poem, in the perufal of which we forget the fober and fceptical criticifm of the age in which we live, and willingly indulge to a modern writer that licenfe of wild and extravagant fiction which has been ufually confined to the fpecious miracles of antiquity.* He has now ventured on a bolder task, in clothing with an English drefs the moft perfect, though not the loftieft monument of Roman art and genius. No writer has rivalled Virgil in the charms of his diction, or the elaborate beauty of his phrafeology: and the poem before us is Virgil's moft abfolute and complete performance. It contains no carclefs paffages, by improving which a tranflator may hope to atone for inferiority, where his original is diftinguifhed by unufual delicacy or vigour. There is here no current of narration, which, by interefting the reader in the progrefs of events, may prevent him from obferving very carefully the finifling and feli city of the expreflion. Thefe, from the very nature of the cafe, muft generally evaporate in the transfufion from one language into another. Mr Sotheby, however, has difcharged his arduous undertaking with great and unufual fuccefs. He has run the fame * It does not feem to be generally known, in this country, that the Oberon of Wieland is itself a tranflation from an old French Romance, entitled, Sir Huon of Bourdeaux. The German poet has improved and decorated the fable with much ingenuity, but its groundwork is not altered. The ornaments, too, of the romance and of the poem, are ufually fimilar. M. Petit de la Croix is faid to have been largely indebted to the fame book in his Perfian Tales. The romance feems not to be of a date prior to the invention of printing, fame race with fome of the first and most celebrated worthies of English poetry, and he has manifeftly distanced his competitors. He will not thank us for indifcriminate approbation; and his pretenfions, even in the attempt to tranflate the Georgics, are fo extremely high, that he muft excufe us, if at any time we may feem faftidious in pointing out what we think defects in its execution. One objection, in limine, we feel ourfelves called upon to make, to the Darwinian modulation with which Mr Sotheby's verfification is infected. Of this tendency in the author we were not apprifed till we entered upon the prefent work. His Oberon, by which he was principally known to us before, is written in the stanza metre, to which the falfe decorations which Dr Darwin has introduced into the common iambic meafure, are not to be cafily transferred. They are ornaments which can scarcely be worn but with a particular habit. We think ourselves fortunate that, at entering upon Mr Sotheby's verfion of the Georgies, we had no previous knowledge of his connexion with this fchool of writing. Such an impreflion would have excited in us fo violent a prejudice againft the man who could think of violating the matron-like fimplicity of the Mantuan bard, with glittering and meretricious graces, that we could hardly have reduced ourselves to the temperament of impartial judges; and in our indignation at the deferters from genuine Englifh, we fhould not perhaps have been able to difcover that, though Mr Sotheby had made feveral excurfions into the enemy's country, and, in fome instances, imbibed their manners, and acquired their complexion, yet that at the bottom he was a native ftill, and redeemed his delinquency by masy and unfophifticated excellences. The reader, however, will not doubt but that we can fubftantiate our charge of Darwinianifin, after he has perufed the fol lowing paffages. B. II. 323. Ver adeò frondi nemorum, &c. is thus translated : Spring comes, new bad the field, the flow'r, the grove Earth fwells, and claims the genial feeds of love : Æther, great lord of life, his wings extends, And on the bosom of his bride defcends, Birds on their branches hymeneals fing, IV. IV. 30. Hac circum cafiæ, &c. There all her fweets let favoury exhale, The injur'd fwarms with rage infatiate glow, Die on the wound, and leave their stings behind.' This laft paffage is happily rendered; but we are inclined to fufpect that the tranflator fancied the bees of Virgil to have ranged in gardens particularly dedicated to botany; that they were protected by aerial powers hovering round,' who pointed their ftings, and animated their tiny bands' to vengeance. A literal uninjured tranfmiflion of fentiment from a dead into a living language is generally impoffible. Adherence to the letter, where it enervates the fpirit, is the most unpardonable infidelity: and a certain degree of licenfe, in confideration of the difficulty attending on his office, is allowed to the poetical tranflator; as, in diplomacy, confiderable difcretionary powers are vested in the ambaffador at a diftant court. A poet has authority entrusted to him, to complete a picture of which, the outlines only are fuggefted by his original; and, while he preferves the character of the landscape, to vary the light and fhade with which it is invefted. But this licenfe, which is never to be used rafhly, is always dangerous in the application. It requires a taste more than ufually accurate, a thorough perception of that mind, the fcope and lineaments of which are to be expreffed, and a kindred fpirit. It is carried, perhaps, to its greatest allowable extent, where Dryden, in his tranflation of the 12th Eneid, having described Iuturna precipitating herself into the river Tiber, from the effect of a phrenzied and forrowful defpair, adds, with happy audacity to the defcription of Virgil, that celebrated line, And her laft fobs came bubbling up in air. We could point out many inftances in which Mr Sotheby has ufed the fame bold freedom with felicity. To the defcription of the manner in which the bees recruit their wafting numbers, is added, with great happiness, in the tranflation before us, the feafon of the year when the hive may moft poetically be supposed to acquire this fabled acceffion to its citizens. B. IV. v. 255. of the tranflation, By iuftinet led, at spring-tide's genial hour, They gather all the race from herb and flower. ' So also, B. II. 149. Hic ver affiduum atque alienis menfibus aftas, is converted, with great tafte, into a defcription more vivid and particular, And winter wears a wreath of fummer flowers. ' We do not think it fair to attribute the whole merit of these elegancies to the rhyme; though rhyme, probably, is as often the connecting caufe of poetical invention, as the bond by which it is constrained. We attribute great merit to Mr Sotheby for the translation of these paffages; but we have to complain, that though he is to be commended for having often varied, judiciously, the drapery, he has alfo often violated the coftume of Viril. The celebrated lines, B. I. 328. Ipfe pater media nirborum in note, &c. are rendered by Dryden with great fpirit. The prefent translation has the merit of more flately verification, and greater fidelity. The Thunderer, thron'd in clouds, with darkness crown'd, The beats are fled earth rocks from pole to pole, : Fear walks the world, and bows th' attonith'd foul: Jove rives with fiery bolt Ceraunia's brow, Or Athos blazing 'mid eternal fnow.’ It is to be regretted that, after having executed the reft fo well, the tranflator fhould have deviated from his original, for the purpose of introducing fo quaint an antithefis as this, between the cold fnow and the hot thunderbolt which blazed on Athos. Had he been bufied with the fnowy mantle, the icy beard, and the rivers which trickle down the chin of Atlas in the fourth Eneid, we would have excufed a fimilar addition to the picture, but here every thing is grand and fimple. with This blazing amid fnow' belongs, indeed, partly to a vitiated mode of expreflion, to which Mr Sotheby is partial. Book II. line 82. of the tranflation, we have toils that never tire, out any perceivable reafon why they should not produce the ufual effect of toil: Book I. 114. Tr. The chill north blifters as it blows: I. 378. Tr., and again IV. 645. Tr. The river freezes as it flows: I. 94. Tr. The vetch and lupine Bow'd to the gale, and rattled as it blew :' Book IV. Book IV. 305. Why should Virgil's Zephyris primùm impellentibus undis,' be tranflated, -when firft young zephyr laves III. 49 His fportive pinions in the vernal waves.' Seu quis Olympiaca miratus præmia palma. Does fame for Pifa's palm the courfer rear?' 6 In thefe, and in other paffages, why fhould metaphorical agency be introduced where Virgil, the great mafter of proprietics, ufes the language of fimple precept? A fimilar admixture of injudicious circumstances, or affected expreffion, is a blemish to this work in many of its most interest ing |