queftioning the captains, in what fhip we were to fail; and when we went on board, we found him and his fons there to take leave of us, which they did in the most affectionate manner; and, after they were gone, we found, in the ftate cabin, directed to me, every thing that could be useful or agreeable to us as fea-ftores for a long voyage. vol. III. p. 374-380. We fhall venture on another extract from this tale, of a more tragical defcription. The incorrigible procraftinator had had hist only fon unfuccefsfully inoculated for the fmall-pox. His wife urges him to have the operation repeated, and he replies "Undoubtedly, my dear; undoubtedly. But I think we had better have him vaccined. I am not fure, however; but I will afk Dr's opinion this day, and be guided by that. I fhall fee him at dinner; he has promifed to dine with us. Some accident prevented him from coming; and I thought of writing to him the next day, but afterward put it off-Lucy came again into my study, where he was fure to find me in the morning. "My dear," faid fhe," do you recollect that you defired me to defer inoculating our little boy till you could decide whether it be beft to inoculate him in the common way, or the vaccine?" "Yes, my dear, I recollect it perfectly well. I am much inclined to the vaccine. My friend, Mr L- has had all his children vaccined; and I juft wait to fee the effect. ” "Oh, my love," said Lucy, "do not wait any longer; for you know we run a terrible risk of his catching the fmall-pox every day, every hour. "We have run that rifk, and efcaped for thefe three years paft,' faid I;" and, in my opinion, the boy has had the fmall-pox. " دو "So Mr and Mrs Nun thought; and you fee what has happened. Remember our boy was inoculated by the fame man. I am fure, ever fince Mr Nun mentioned this, I never take little Bafil out to walk, I never fee him in a fhop, I never have him in the carriage with me, without being in terror. Yesterday, a woman came to the coach-door with a child in her arms, who had a breaking out on his face. I thought it was the fmall-pox; and was fo terrified that I had fcarcely trength or prefence of mind enough to draw up the glafs. Our little boy was leaning out of the door to give a halfpenny to the child. My God! if that child had the finall-pox! "My love," faid 1, do not alarm yourfelf fo terribly; the boy fhall be inoculated to-morrow.” "To-morrow! Oh, my dearest love, do not put it off till to-morrow, faid Lucy; "let him be inoculated to-day. "Well, my dear, only keep your mind easy, and he shall be inocutlated to-day, if poffible; furely you must know I love the boy as well as you do, and am as anxious about him as you can be. " "I am fure of it, my love," said Lucy. "I meant no reproach. But fince you have decided that the boy fhall be vaccined, let us Lend fend directly for the furgeon and have it done, and then he will be fafe." • She caught hold of the bell-cord to ring for a fervant-I stopped her. "No, my dear, don't ring, "faid. I; "for the men are both out. 1 have fent one to the library, for the new Letters on Education, and the other to the rational toy-fhop for fome things I want for the child. " "Then, if the fervants are out, I had better walk to the furgeon's and bring him back with me. "No, my dear, ” faid I; “ I must fee Mr L—'s children firfl. I am going out immediately; I will call upon them; they are healthy children; we can have the vaccine infection from them, and I will inoculate the boy myself. " Lucy fubmitted. I take a melancholy pleafure in doing her juftice, by recording every argument that the ufed, and every perfuafive word that the faid to me, upon this occafion. I am anxious to fhew that she was not in the least to blame. I alone am guilty! I alone ought to have been the fufferer. It will scarcely be believed-I can hardly believe it myself, that, after all Lucy faid to me, I delayed two hours, and stayed to finish making an extract from Rouffeau's Emilius before I fet out. When I arrived at Mr L-'s, the children were just gone out to take an airing, and I could not fee them. A few hours may fometimes make all the difference between health and fickness, happiness and mifery I put off till the next day the inoculation of my child! In the mean time, a coachman came to me to be hired. My boy was playing about the room, and, as I afterward collected, went clofe up to the man, and, while I was talking, flood examining a greyhound upon his buttons. I afked the coachman many queftious, and kept him for fome time in the room. Juft as I agreed to take him into my service, he faid he could not come to live with me till the next week, because one of his children was ill of the fmall-pox. Thefe words ftruck me to the heart. I had a dreadful prefentiment of what was to follow. I remember starting from my feat, and driving the man out of the houfe with violent menaces. My boy, poor innocent victim, followed, trying to pacify me, and holding me back by the fkirts of my coats. I caught him up in my arms. I could not kils him; I felt as if I was his murderer. 1 fet him down again: indeed I trembled fo violently that I could not hold him. The child ran for his mother. I cannot dwell on these things. day and the next week died in his P. 384-391. Our boy fickened the next mother's arms!' Vol. III. We would willingly make fonie extracts from the other tales we have specified; but we cannot find any, to which justice could be done, without quoting a larger paffage than our limits · will eafily admit. The Irish charcters, who are all admirably sketched, appear to us to be the most original perfonages in the book. Simon O'Dougherty, in the tale called Rofanna,' is excellent. That horror of vulgarity which is fo apt to infeft the wives and children of profperous fhopkeepers, is well expofed in the tales called the Manufacturers,' and 'Out of debt, out of danger.' The rewards of induftry are pleasingly displayed in ' Lame Jervas' and Rofanna;' and the tendency of good affections to lighten or to remedy every difafter, is prettily exemplified in the Contraft.' The Limerick Gloves, and the Will,' are the moft improbable and unintereiting ftories in the collection; and 'the Grateful Negro' has more of the extraordinary and romantic in it than feems fuitable to the tenor and defign of this publica tion. · We have fcarcely any other remarks to offer. The pathetic parts of these tales are in general the best written; and yet the language is uniformly adapted with the greateft felicity to the character and ftation of the parties concerned. We could not help fmiling at the partiality which has led Mifs Edgeworth to reprefent almost all her female characters in fo amiable and refpectable a light. There is not a tale, we believe, in which there is not fome wife or daughter who is generous and gentle, and prudent and cheerful: and almost all the men who behave properly owe most of their good actions to the influence and fuggeftions of these lovely monitreffes. If the pride of our fex would permit us, we might perhaps confefs, after all, that this reprefentation is not very far from the truth. We cannot take our leave of thefe volumes without reminding the faftidious part of our readers, that they were not written to challenge the criticism of scholars, or to gratify the taste of perfons of the highest accomplishments. They are not tried by a fair standard, unless the defign of writing them be kept conftantly in view and this defign appears to us to be fo laudably conceived, and fo ably pursued, as to entitle them to more confideration than is ufually beltowed on works of this defcription. ART. VII. Poems by George Richard's, M. A. late Fellow of Grich College. 2 vol. 8vo. Oxford and London. 1803 Tis now almoft twelve years, we believe, fince Mr Richards first prefented himfelf to the public as a candidate for poetical reputation; and from that time to the prefent, we do not remember to have heard much of his proceedings. The perufal of his early productions had left upon our minds the imprethon of luxuriant diction, confiderable brilliancy and richnefs of verfifica Y VOL. IV. NO. 8. tion, tion, and a ftyle of defcription fomewhat florid, magnificent and diffuse. As these were all indications of a genius which time was likely to mature into excellence, and which could scarcely fail to improve by age and cultivation, we turned to the perufal of the volumes now before us with a good deal of intereft, and with expectations that have not been completely realized. Mr Richards has not improved quite fo much by practice as we thought there was reafon to expect: he has loft fomething of his luxuriance, without gaining much in point of force or correctnefs; and his ftyle, though lefs declamatory, is not more natural than at his outfet: his vein of poetry certainly is not more original or abun dant; and if his tafte be fomewhat chafter, his language is more artificial and conftrained. With all these defects, however, these little volumes are ftill very respectable; they are evidently the productions of an elegant and cultivated mind; of one who has ftudied the claffical writers of antiquity with a just relish of their beauties, and learned, at the fame time, to estimate the fubftantial merits of our great English poets. If, in his own productions, he have oftener imitated than rivalled the excellences of thofe illuftrious models, and feldom given the reins to his imagination fo freely as the career of a poet requires, he has at leaft copied them with gracefulness and judgement, and not only avoided the hazards of prefumptucus competition, but the reproach of unworthy imitation. His genius perhaps is too much chaftifed and fubdued by that of the mafters upon whom he has formed himself; but it is faved, by their influence, from the extravagancies of the independants, and reflects a pleafing, if not a very lively image of fome of the most perfect productions of the human understanding. A confiderable number of paffages are borrowed with great felicity; and the language poffeffes, upon the whole, a degree of fweetnefs and elegance that ftamp ftill more clearly on the author the character of an accomplished scholar. The first volume contains two dramas, written on the model of the ancient Greek theatre, with chorufes and continuous fcenes; a ftyle of compofition, of which the Samfon Agonistes of Milton affords by far the justeft and the most striking example that modern literature can boaft of, though the feebler and more ornamented performances of Mafon have become more popular among the unlearned part of the community *. In imitation of Mason, Mr * Dr Sayer's Sketches of Northern Mythology deferve to be mentioned with diftinguifhed praife among productions of this kind: but the best imitation of the antient drama we have lately met with, is the Iphigenia in Tauris of Goethe, tranflated, we believe, by Mr Taylor of Norwich. We are not acquainted with the original. Mr Richards has attempted to give each of his plays a distinct and peculiar character. Odin is intended as a specimen of the wild, the fublime, and terrible; and is written, he informs us, as much as poffible in the manner of Afchylus. Emma is meant to exemplify the tender and pathetic, and was compofed, we imagine, upon the model of Euripides. We cannot fay that either of them comes very near the pattern; but the first is by far the best. The story is not very interefting. It proceeds upon the fupposition that Ödin was the chief of the Afæ, one of the rude nations between the Cafpian and Euxine feas, who yielded to the victorious arms of Pompey when he entered thefe regions in purfuit of Mithridates. This drama contains the account of the laft battle that was waged by the favage monarch in defence of his country; of his refolution to facrifice himself, with his whole tribe, after the defeat; and of his being diverted from that refolution by the appearance of a goddefs who directs him to migrate to the regions of the North, where he is deftined to be the founder of a mighty empire. There is nothing very new or very ftriking in the reprefentation which Mr Richards gives of the character and manners of those warlike barbarians; yet every thing is correctly imagined, and smoothly executed. There is a defcent to hell, and a human facrifice defcribed; and the women who form the chorus, abound in all thofe heroic and lofty fentiments which are said to have charcterised the females of these na tions. The mixture of feminine tenderness and weakness with this ftrain of magnanimity, is the most interesting circumstance perhaps in the whole drama, and affords a favourable specimen of Mr Richards' dramatical talents. We add the following paffages in illuftration: Balder, I dare To die: I fcorn the wretch, who could furvive Y 2 Vol. I. p. 22. 23. |