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hole lines from a brother, without acknowlegement, he, fhould proceed a little farther, and carry off his Spirit too. Why do things by halves?" The charming fwan of Chichester seems to be no ftranger to our author: fat verbum.

Art. 38. The Farmer's Son ; a moral Tale. By the Rev. P. P. M.A. 4to. 15. Dilly. 1795.

The good intentions of the author, and the moral tendency of this little poem, ought to exempt it from the feverity of criticism; particularly as Mr. P. feems to be more defirous of obtaining the character of a good man, than that of an excellent poet. It is profeffedly and evidently an imitation of Mr. Anftey's Farmer's Daughter, (fee Review for September,) but of far inferior merit.

Art. 39. The Summer's Day; with Night and Death: Poems. By a Gentleman of Covent Garden Theatre. 12mo. pp. 63. The Price not mentioned. Lubbock, Rathbone Place. To these poems an invocation is prefixed, the fingularity of which may poffibly amufe the reader :

1795.

Come rofy Virtue, in bright Truth's defence;
Come foftly fmiling white rob'd Innocence;
Come sweet Perfuafion with thy filver Gift;
Come Genius bright my agile thoughts uplift;
Come mild Contentment, and approach me near;
Come thou Benevolence, and drop a tear!
Come powerful Mufic, aid unpolish'd lays;
Come facred Reafon teach me every phrase;
Come feeling Nature, to the heart imprefs;
Come fweet Simplicity i'the fimpleft dress;
Come angel Softnefs, with the Mufe's bow!;
Come bleft Humanity with guileless foul;

Come Charity with orphan's fhelt'ring wing;
Come lenient Judgment, mark the notes I fing;
Come Youth and let me paufe thy vernal face;
Come filver Age, with thy well schooling Grace;
Come meek-eyed Patience join the rural dance;
Come Modefty with trembling fteps advance;
Come Gratitude, whofe memory never lags;
Come thriftless Honeity, welcome tho' in rags;
Come Piety amid a chosen band;

Come Temperance bring Religion in thy hand;
Come foft Expreffion, emulate thine eye;
Come Sympathy, and heave the gen'rous figh;
Come Memory, and roufe me from my dream;
Come guardian Angels waft me to my theme.'

From these lines we fear that no favourable opinion could be formed of the author's poetical talents; and we are forry to obferve that his blank verfe is more exceptionable than his rhyme.

We have been frequently difgufted, in reviewing the compofitions of modern poets, with gigantic images, mixed metaphors, and inflated expreflion,-but we fcarcely recollect in any poem fuch a total deriliction

of Truth and Nature, as in the work before us. Of this the reader
may be enabled to form fome conception by the following extract:
He had a daughter, fair as opening dawn;
Am'ranth immarceffible! fweeteft of fweets!
Rofes and lilies blended in her cheeks!
Loveliest of the lovely-foftly fupine!
The form of Venus, chaften'd by Dian's brow!
Dame Nature when he undertook the work,
From every fair inhabitant above,
Borrow'd a gift, to fend a wonder here,
Perfect- and paragon her own bright image!
Oh! for an angel's pen profufely foft,

Agile to lavish on the charming maid,
Praises-fuch as religion gives to faints,
And drawing her fweet picture from my mind,
Strike mortals wonder-fmacking of heaven's felf!
Painful rapture-proceed we to our tale?'

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We would advise the author to confider that, although Mr. Addifon obferves that the unintelligible ftyle is frequently fuccefsful in love, it has not yet been recommended by any critic as the proper language

of poetry.

Art. 40. Elegy on the Death of Mr. Thomas Tuppen, fon of the late
Rev. Mr. Tuppen of Bath; to which are added, The Folly and
Madness of War, and other poetical Pieces. By S. Whitchurch.
Matthews.
pp. 20. The Price not printed.

4to.

This elegy contains the common reflections on the uncertainty of life, and the mutability of all fublunary things; and a detail of the virtues of the deceased, with his confequent deification, or rather transformation into a guardian angel. Of the verfification, the fol lowing ftanzas may ferve as a specimen :

• Lamented Tuppen, though the Mufe may weep,
And unavailing forrow ftrike the lyre,

Still thou unconscious in the grave must sleep-
Thy bofom glows not with poetic fire!"

• Chafte Liberty, "fair daughter of the skies,"
No more fhall charm thy patriotic breaft;
Alike to thee, who conquers, or who dies,
The proud oppreffor, or the poor oppreft.
Though fortune fmil'd not on the orphan youth,
Though neither wealth or titles deck'd his birth,
He lov'd his neighbour, he rever'd the truth,

And where's a nobler character on earth?'

The

The fucceeding poem is on the folly and madnefs of war, ingenious author of Jofeph Andrews ridicules Colley Cibber for his ignorance, or affected fimplicity, in fuppofing that there was no fuch paffion as envy in the human breast: we are almost inclined to fufpect

• It may seem a trivial objection, but furely the introduction of such a name as this, in elegiac verfe, has an unfortunate effect.

that

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that our humane and well-intentioned bard forgot that ever an inordinate ambition, and an infatiable thirst of dominion, prevailed in the hearts of kings, when he wrote the following ftanzas:

Ah! why do cannons, o'er the frighted main,
Their curs'd deftructive entrails thund'ring pour!
Ah! why, to fill a wretched world with flain,
Do fwords and bayonets, and spears devour?
Ah! why do murderous chiefs, ycleped brave,
Delight in carnage, and the battle's rage,
Since fell difeafes hurry to the grave,
Victims of every rank, and every age?

Ah! why do emperors and potent kings,
To war's fad butchery their fubjects train ;
Since death, without them, has ten thousand stings,
To give the fympathetic bofom pain?'

The Farewel to the year 1794 contains an enumeration of the miferies of war, and of the tragical events of the year, written nearly in the fame languid ftrain. The epitaph to the memory of an amiable and accomplished female is chiefly remarkable for the following line

And weep-till thou canst weep no more,' on which we prefume not to make any comment.

Art. 41. Sonnets and other Poems. By Samuel Egerton Brydges, Efq. A new Edition. 12mo. pp. 113. 3s. 6d. Boards. Whites. 1795. The obfervations which we made on this author's poetical talents, in reviewing the first edition of this work, (vol. lxxiii. p. 391,) are confirmed by a perufal of it in its enlarged ftate, viz. that he poffeffes a confiderable share of fancy and fome powers of verfification; though his manner is often stiff, and not quite free from affectation. The following fonnet, fuppofed to be written by Woodville at his caftle of Grafton, (fee a novel entitled Mary de Clifford,) may be confidered as one of the beft in the collection:

• Ye mould'ring towers, these waters deep furround,
That, age fucceeding age, the foreft-hades
Of yon romantic wilds have proudly crown'd!
The voice of revelry no more invades

Your dreary courts; nor yet with tuneful found
Do royal Edwards* woo the Aonian maids

To melt the fair, who on their fuit have frown'd:
But, fhook by time and fate, your glory fades.

No more fhall beauty with her winning eyes
Brighten your balls, and o'er your feafts prefide;
But fad and lonely, while your mafter flies
O'er foreign lands his forrows to divide ;

Silence shall reign along your chearless walls,
Save when difturb'd by nightly fpirits' calls.'

We do not think that the author is particularly fortunate in his tranflations of the three odes from Horace, nor in his verfification of the fongs of the fix bards from Offian.

*Alluding to Edward IV.'s courtship of Elizabeth Woodville at that place.

Ii 4

Art.

Art. 42. A Collection of Hymns and Pfalms, for public and private Worship. Selected and prepared by Dr. Kippis, Dr. Rees, Rev., T. Jervis, and Rev. T. Morgan. 12mo. PP. 512. 3s. Boards. Robinsons, &c. 1795.

Where a publication of this kind is the joint production of four perfons, it cannot be expected to be fo uniform as if it proceeded folely from the judgment of one: but any deficiency of uniformity is amply made up by the copiousness of this felection, which contains nearly feven hundred pieces. It cannot be expected that we should enter on a minute critical examination of all, nor indeed of any, of these numerous compofitions. In looking them through, we have feen much to praise and little to which we can object; an ingenious correfpondent, however, has pointed out to us an inftance, in which the zeal of the compilers has overcome their judgment, in an alteration of a pfalm by Dr. Watts (the 415th of the prefent felection). The original is a verfion of part of the xith chapter of Matthew, in which the poet, after having given us the complete fenfe of the paffage in the first three ftanzas, concludes with the apoftrophe, "Jefus, we come at thy command," &c. Instead of this, however, the prefent compilers have fubftituted "Great God! we come;" &c. thus by the change of perfon entirely altering the fentiment of the hymn, and along with it the propriety of the application; meeknefs and lowlinefs of mind being human virtues, and not divine attributes.

This useful felection is enriched by a number of original compofitions, one of which, the 686th, we shall quote:

"While founds of war are heard around,
And death and ruin ftrew the ground;
To thee we look, on thee we call,
The Parent and the Lord of all.

Thou, who haft ftamp'd on human kind
The image of a heav'n-born mind,
And in a father's wide embrace
Haft cherish'd all the kindred race;

O fee, with what infatiate rage!
Thy fons their impious battles wage;
How spreads deftruction like a flood,
And brothers fhed their brothers' blood!
See guilty paffions fpring to birth,
And deeds of hell deform the earth;
While righteoufnefs and justice mourn,
And love and pity droop forlorn.

Great GOD! whofe pow'rful hand can bind
The raging waves, the furious wind,

O bid the human tempeft cease,

And hufh the madd'ning world to peace.

With rev'rence may each hoftile land
Hear and obey that high command,
Thy Son's bleft errand from above,

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My creatures, live in mutual love!"?

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MECHANICS, &c.

Art. 43. Obfervations on the Ventilation of Rooms; on the Conftruction of Chimneys; and on Garden Stoves; principally collected from the Papers left by the late John Whitehurst, F. R. S. 4to. PP. 52. 3s. 6d. fewed. Bent. 1794.

For the communication of this pofthumous piece of a valuable and ingenious member of fociety, the public ftands indebted to Dr. Willan, Mr. Whitehurst had finished a work on the fubject, but it was deftroyed, and never replaced. The editor was therefore at pains to prepare the prefent publication from loofe memorandums and hints dropped in converfation. It was due from us to the utility of these remarks to have noticed them earlier: but it is in the character of the times for political altercation to fhove afide useful science.

The tract itself is fimple, elementary, and circumftantial. It has few pages in which references are not made to an accompanying fet of figures. As defcription without this aid is apt to be obfcure, we fhall forbear extracting or abridging any part :- but we think that both artificers and perfons, troubled with that proverbial plague of life, a fmcaky chimney, will thank us for recommending the pamphlet itself to their notice. The editor befpeaks indulgence: but we feel it our duty to commend him for extricating and arranging the ideas of our late worthy and very ingenious acquaintance*.

MEDICAL, &c.

Art. 44. Directions for warm and cold Sea-bathing; with Obfervations on their Application and Effects in different Difeafes. By Thomas Reid, M. D. F. A. S. 8vo. pp. 75. 35. fewed. Cadell, jun. and Davies. 1795.

Few literary publications are more contemptible than the common run of watering-place medical pamphlets. In general, they confist of a heap of crude conjectures, unfupported by a fingle well-afcertained fact; and most of them appear to be written with fordid views. If nothing fubftantial can be adduced in favour of the water, fpecious infinuations are employed to work on the credulity of the uninformed visitants, Some of this clafs are mere quack bills to advertise the authors and the place. From thefe cenfures we are inclined to except only a very few, in which a refpectable talent for chemical refearch has appeared: but among thefe few we readily place the prefent pamphlet. Were we to difcufs it fentence by fentence, we fhould raife objections to fome of Dr. Reid's opinions and practices-particularly to his fafting vomits in chlorofis: but, confining ourselves to his immediate fubject, and to a general opinion, we may obferve, with great truth,, that he excites no falfe expectations from fea-bathing, and that his directions are in moft cafes proper, and in none likely to be productive of hazard to the patient.

As an example of objectionable reafonings, we adduce the following: This degree of warmth'-90-100- probably acts on the fyitem as a fedative, but not fo as to debilitate. It has appeared to me

* Mr.W. was bred a clock-maker; and no perfon was better acquainted with the principles of mechanics.

principally

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