Art. 27. Love Letters to my Wife; written in 1789. Woodhouse. Vol. I. Symonds, &c. Crown 8vo. pp. 169. By James 48. Boards. Ridentur mala qui componunt carmina: verùm Gaudent scribentes, et se venerantur. Poets, indeed, are generally on such good terms with themselves, that, if their vanity be not gratified by praise, they are sure to attribute their disappointment to a want cither of taste or of good nature in the reader. Mr. Woodhouse," supremely blest in his Muse," may be disposed to call in question our judgment, when we pronounce that his Love Letters to his Wife, however affectionate they may be, and however unexceptionable in their tendency, are deficient in those requisites which distinguish and give a fascinating charm to the "To touch and re-touch," says genuine productions of the Muse. Cowper," is the secret of almost all good writing, especially in verse. Had Mr. W. ever learnt this art, he would have appeared with more credit before the public than he can now reasonably expect to obtain: for what critic, or even what man of ordinary taste in poetry, can admire such lines as these? Dear Hannah ; Tho' to thee 'tis nothing rare That I pronounce I'm fond, and thou art fair-' But what has Wealth to boast? or high Degree? Dear Hannah ! Now I'll prosecute my theme • What wretched traffic for immortal Souls! All wish his laxest Law in fullest force, A knot, A knot, we wish, nor Time, nor Death to sever, This is very loving and charming to "Dear Hannah :" but we suspect that the wicked reader will smile; if he does not, he has a "power of face" which we do not possess. Art. 28. The Suicide: with other Poems. By the Rev. Charles 1803. Juries, summoned by Coroners to decide in cases of self-murder, are generally prompted, by motives of tenderness, to ascribe the rash act to lunacy, or mental derangement. No doubt, instances frequently occur in which there can be no question of the equity of such verdicts but exceptions may and ought to be made to this general rule. Some suicides act with such deliberation, and appear to be influenced by such principles, that the violence which they commit on themselves must be attributed, not so much to deranged, as to perverted, reason. On this gnd only can arguments against the commission of this crime be expected to produce any good effect; for the supposition of its being the result of lunacy precludes all expostulation. Suicide has its advocates; and since their reasoning has, in certain cases, been avowed in justification of the deed, it is kind to present to men who are struggling with adversity, an antidote against the poison of these writers. Mr. Ethelston has recourse to his muse in arguing with the unfortunate against the crime of self-slaughter; and the poem, which occupies the foremost station in the volume before us, is said to have been occasioned by reading "The Sorrows of Werter;" a publication in which suicide is palliated and defended. To counteract the baneful effects of this popular work, the author endeavours to develope and expose the principles and practices in which criminal suicide originates.-As we cannot follow him through the several parts of his poem, we shall give one specimen by which the qualities of his muse, and his ability in repressing vice, may be fairly appreciated: 'I knew a man who, in a cursed hour, Woe most heart-rending, which no words can tell; They mark'd him early as their destin'd prey; Mo-y. Did they exhaust th' exhilarating toast, And woods and forests, barns, and stacks of grain; That shews its glitt'ring vane on yon proud hill, Their country's boast: Some in the senate shone; He heaves a deep-felt groan; and lo! DESPAIR A sleepless wife and children hear the sound, And lo! a father and a husband bath'd in gore.' Blank verse requires a certain majesty of diction, and is debased by low and vulgar expressions. Mr. E. has not been sufficiently at tentive tentive in guarding his Muse from this "Stygian pool." All full to stop a gap', and the first passage marked with italics in the extract, will justify our remark. He is also unnecessarily pleonastic; for when he has told us that manors, tenements, and farms, were lost,' he might have spared his Muse the trouble of adding that freehold, copyhold, and leasehold were gone.' This is the ordeal of heroism," as a line of blank verse, cannot, by any management, be made to read with euphony. The second poem in this collection is a tribute to the memory of the philanthropic Howard; whose hand is said to be a Bethesda to mankind. In other places, also, Mr. E. has recourse to the good old book for illustration. Thus, speaking of the contagion of the Yellow Fever, he has this aukward couplet and bad rhime, The subtle and contaminated breeze Swells the deep Golgotha, like Gideon's fleece ;' and of the removal of the small-pox by the introduction of the Vaccine, he says, 6 Long had man trembl'd at his hateful name, Till Moses wav'd his rod, and Jenner came.' We do not perceive the propriety of detailing the melancholy story of Ivan in this poem. It is a strange jump from grief for the loss of a lovely wife, to horror at the murder of a young unfortunate Russian prince. If Ladies were Reviewers, they would excuse some defects in Mr. E. on account of the following couplet: Oh woman, man's best treasure here below, The Ode, which closes the volume, has already been mentioned in Art. 29. Nuga Poetica. By F. Sayers, M. D. 8vo. 2S. Cadell and Davies. Both humour and poetical talents are exhibited in these Nuga. The poem of Theseus and Ariadne has considerable merit; and the other pieces will be read with pleasure. In the Jilted Lover,' page 31. whom is improperly made the nominative case to was. Art. 30. Ad Edvardum Jenner, M. D. Carmen Alcaicum, Auctore On the model, and in imitation of the turn of expression in the odes Mo-y. Mans Do the other containing Instructions for the Practice. By John Ring. 4to. Is. 6d. Murray. A neat and well-written paraphrase rather than translation of the Latin ode. The thoughts are here dilated and expanded; and Mr. Ring enlarges, and sometimes improves, on the original, by his own additional reflections, and by the elegant turn which he gives to the sentiments of his author. RELIGIOUS. Man Art. 32. Lucifer, Gog, and Bonaparte; and the Issue of the present We are informed in the introduction, that the intent of the publi gation before us is to excite men to hearken to the voice of Revelation and Reason; to trace the Corsican Tyrant in prophecy, through his different stages of power; to identify his person; to shew that his efforts in aspiring towards universal dominion are vain and delusive, and will finally terminate in the utter destruction of the Antichristian Powers and his usurped Empire; and that the British Nation, notwithstanding the secret plottings of its internal enemies, and the boasted threats of its inveterate foes, will be preserved as a place of refuge for the people of God, and rise amidst "the wreck of kingdoms and the crush of empires," with unrivalled splendour-the wonder and admiration of the world!' That Napoleon was meant under the appellation of Apollyon in Rev. ix. was a former discovery, (who that attends to the similarity of sound in the two names can have any doubt of the fact!) and the additional light now thrown on dark prophecies is so very consolatory for the British nation, that it would be unpatriotic to attempt an appeal to reason against the ingenuity and riddle-solving facility of this commentator. An hieroglyphic describing the state of Great Britain and the Continent of Europe for 1804, calculated for the window of a print shop, is given as a frontispiece. Moy. Art. 33. An Address to the Society of Friends, commonly called Quakers, claim |