to Ireland in general. To the hiftory, Mr. Ferrar has added An Effay on the Virtues of Castle-Connell Spa, on Water in general, and Cold-Bathing.' This fpa is a chalybeate; and, with regard to the use of its waters, the author has given the directions of Dr. Rutty, Short, and fome other medical writers.. The work will, we doubt not, prove particularly gratifying to the people of Limerick; and, from the variety of information which it contains, may not be an unacceptable morfel to the palate of antiquarians in remoter parts.

ART. VII. The Vifion of Columbus; a Poem, in Nine Books. By Joel Barlow, Efq. 12mo. 2s. 6d. fewed. Hartford, NewEngland, printed; London, reprinted for Dilly and Stockdale, 1787.

IT

T is the deep and ingenious reflection of Mr. Hume, that the high perfection of literature in what may be called its Augustan ages, has, in all nations, been the cause of its fubfequent decline. The public judgment inftructed, and the public tafte refined, by familiarity with the nobler efforts of the human mind, become difficult and faftidious. They no longer endure thofe irregular and unfinished productions, that announce the immaturity of a genius, which indulgence might have animated and invigorated.

A tacit comparison between fuch works, and the perfection and regularity of thofe, which they have been accustomed to admire, obtrudes itfelf on every mind, and is fatal to their effect. Readers forget that the approbation with which their ancestors received fuch productions, gave that spirit and confidence to their authors which qualified them for bolder flights; and that it is to this candour, or fimplicity, they owe those literary models which fix their tafte, and command their admiration. They forbear not from the ungrateful fneer nimium patienter • utrumque ne dicam ftultè mirati. Had Waller made his firft effays under Domitian or Trajan, Quintilian and Pliny would have smiled at his vain attempt to emulate Horatian elegance. His effufions would scarcely have detained the observation of the accomplished critic, or amused the leifure of the lettered magiftrate. But the English nation, in the reign of Charles, had yet tafted of no fweeter fong. They loathed not the ftrains of Waller and the praife which he received from Carey and Hyde, eventually contributed to delight their fucceffors, with the melody of Dryden and of Pope. If this theory of Mr. Hume be true, we cannot augur well of the fortunes of literature in America. Poffeffing a rich inheritance of letters, neither the creation of their own powers, nor the reward of their own toil, the ftandard works of

the parent country muft have their full effect in unnerving and depreffing the powers of the colonifts; they experience the influence, without being confoled by the memory of an Auguftan age of their own; and the literary glory of a nation, now alien to them, while it no longer lends them any radiance, obfcures the dawnings of their genius by the prevalence of its splendour. But though the existence and real tendency of a cause be afcertained, it by no means follows that its operation is either exclufive or irresistible. Counteracting circumftances, may vary, or prevent the effect; and political maxims are hitherto founded on too narrow a bafis, to confide in them as infallible. It is therefore fit, in the present cafe, that we fhould fufpend our judgment; that we fhould enter the school of experience, unbiafled by the plaufibility of speculation, and liften to the fong of the American muse.

The plan of the work before us, is conftructed, on the fuppofition that a benevolent genius confoled Columbus in his dungeon at Valladolid, by opening to him, in vifion, the future hiftory of the continent which he had discovered. After a rapid view of the grand and various fcenery of America, which is described with some energy and felicity by our author, he relates the foundation, ftate, and deftruction of the Mexican and Peruvian empires. The barbaric grandeur of Mexico, the benignant and patriarchal defpotifm of the Incas, the manners of the fierce and fimple tribes who wandered in the North, are undoubtedly admirable fubjects of poetry; but to have treated them adequately, demanded a clearness of difcrimination, and a richnefs of colouring, very different from that which is here difplayed. At the beginning of the third book we meet with an ingenious and chimerical differtation on the inftitutions of Mango Capac. The detection of the feveral fallacies by which he has amufed, and bewildered himself, is extremely obvious. The traditions of favage nations, are valuable only as records of manners, and cannot be admitted as evidence of historical facts. Laws are not folely formed by the fyftem of a legislator, but arife out of the exifting condition of fociety; and in rude times, there is neither any individual fo enlightened, as to conceive, nor any people fo docile, as to adopt, a code, which is to alter, or reform, their ufages and inftitutions. The author proceeds to foretell the happy confequences that arife from the diffufion of science and the extenfion of commerce; and in noticing the reformation, he draws a character of Luther, which is not an unfavourable fpecimen of the poem:

Columbus turned his view

Where round the regions other wonders drew;
Saw in the North a daring fage afcend,
And o'er his form a fable robe depend.

Z 2

The

t

The cowl conceal'd, his eye, his fearless head,
Like morning mist, a hovering cloud overfpread.
Above the gloom, defcending luftre beams,
And ftreaks the concave with Cerulean ftreams;
Sudden, the burfting cloud expands in light,
And heaven unfolding fills his raptur'd fight;
His changing robes in golden fplendour blaze,
Around his head a ftarry rainbow plays.
High in his hand a beam of glory burns,

And realms furrounding brighten as it turns.'

An European poet would have been content with putting a torch in the hands of the reformer. What recent optical difcoveries have been made in America we know not; but though, in Europe, we have been able to collect beams by a lens, we have not yet attained the art of grafping them in our hands. The fifth and fixth books contain a prophetic narration of the late war; which, in our opinion, is the most exceptionable part of the poem. Instead of the ornament and invention of a poet, we meet with the frigid fidelity of a chronicle, or a gazette. The choice of recent historical fubjects by Lucan, and Voltaire, has been juftly condemned. In the felection of remote events the facility of epic texture, the fervour of credulous enthusiasm, and the abfence of every diffonant emotion, are obtained by the ductility of tradition, the veneration of antiquity, and the oblivion of familiar circumftances. The portrait of Washington, in the following lines, is perhaps one of the best paffages in these two books:

The afcending chief adorn'd his fplendid feat,
Like Randolph enfign'd with a crown of ftate,
Where the green patriot bay, beheld with pride,
The hero's laurel fpringing by its fide,

His fword hung useless on his graceful thigh.
On Britain ftill he caft a filial eye!

But fovereign fortitude his vifage bore,

To meet their legions on the invaded fhore.'

The feventh book is occupied by a view of the progress of science in America; and the eye of Columbus is naturally attracted by the venerable electrician:

See on yon darkening height bold Franklin tread,
Heav'n's awful thunders rolling round his head;
Convolving clouds the billowy clouds deform,
And forky flames emblaze the blackening storm!
See the defcending ftreams around him burn,
Glance on his rod, and with his guidance turn.
He bids conflicting heavens their blafts expire,
Curbs the fierce blaze, and holds th' imprison'd fire.

In the eighth book the vifion is interrupted by the folicitude of Columbus to learn the caufe of the flow progress of fcience, and the variety of opinion in religion, of which the angel is made to offer the reafons. This is refumed and terminated in the ninth, by a view of the world in fome happy period of futurity, when the understanding fhall no longer be perplexed by uncertainty, nor the will feduced by evil; when focial peace and political harmon hall univerfally prevail among men. It is to this ftate, according, not to the poetical, but to the fober opinion of our author, for which he appeals to the authority of Dr. Price, and in fupport of which he produces feveral arguments, that fociety is tending.

Proud and illufive, though benevolent and foothing, fyftems, which in increafing corruption fee a progrefs towards purer virtue, and fondly embrace demonftration and truth or the precipice of fcepticifm. It is thus that imagination feeks relief from the urgent fenfe of human impotence and mifery; it is hence that the dogmas of the primeval happiness, degradation, and future greatnefs of mankind, have entered into the legends of every popular fuperftition, and the vifions of every fantaftic philfophy.

Of the work before us, as one of the earliest efforts of an emerging nation, were its faults more numerous and glaring than they are, it were ungenerous to fpeak with feverity. But, in truth, the Vifion of Columbus is not deftitute of merit. The conception is happy and magnificent; and though it rarely rifes to be great, it is often polished, harmonious, and neatly ornamented. The author has, in general, been more fuccefsful in description of natural objects, than in hiftory, character, or paffion. He has committed one fault, which, from its tendency to the corruption of our language, we ought not to omit remarking; it is, the licentious fabrication of words, of which cloudly, rewarble, &c. are examples. He has been feduced, in the latter part of the work, into a train of speculations which redeem not, by their depth or justice, the languor which they fhed over his poetry. The readers and admirers of poetry, will, probably in him, be displeased with the coldness of a philofopher; and the competent judges of philofophy, will affuredly discern in him, much of the fanciful and fuperficial views of a poet.

ART. VIII. Tranfactions of the Royal Irish Academy, 1787. 4to. 16s. 6d. boards. Dublin, printed by George Bonham for the Society. 1788.

VA

VARIOUS circumftances have contributed to retard, in Ireland, the progress of science and polite literature, which have been for many years fuccefsfully diffufing their influence over the other civilifed nations of Europe. Her connexion with England, though the means of national improvement, was attended with the effect of enticing away her men of genius to a country in which, as learning was more fashionable, its profeffors might be certain of enjoying more at ease the advantages of rational communication, and of receiving more ample encouragement; while her want of political importance likewife repreffed the exertions of ingenuity. Thefe caufes being, in a great measure, removed by her late emancipation, we may now expect to fee Ireland cultivating, along with industry and commerce, thofe elegant and useful arts which are the attendants of liberty and opulence. About the year 1782 was established the Society from which the Royal Irith Academy afterwards arofe. It confifted of an indefinite number of members, most of them belonging to the university, who at weekly meetings read eflays in turn. Anxious to make their labours redound to the honour and advantage of their country, they formed a plan more extenfive, and admitting fuch additional names only as might add dignity to their new inftitution, or by their publications had given fure ground to hope for advantage from their labours, became the founders of the Royal Irish Academy, of which his Majefty is patron, and the Earl of Charlemont prefident.

In the nature and arrangement of their tranfactions the members of this new Academy have followed the example of the Royal Society of Edinburgh. The first part of the volume is allotted to fcience; the fecond to polite literature; and the third to antiquities.

In the department of fcience, the firft article is an account of the obfervatory belonging to Trinity college, Dublin, by the Rev. H. Ufsher, D. D. fenior fellow of Trinity college, Dublin, F.R. S. and M. R.I.A. The defcription of this obfervatory is accompanied with a ground-plan and elevation. With respect to the ftructure, Dr. Ufsher juftly obferves that perfect stabibility, and convenient difpofition of the inftruments, form, in this cafe, the architect's great object; and a vain affectation of taste might militate against thefe effential qualities. In the erecting of an obfervatory the three principal points are, the

fituation,