Pagina-afbeeldingen
PDF
ePub

understandings. For, as it has been well obferved, their minds, like weak ftomachs, will not bear the more folid food, and are unable to digeft the graver advices and feverer rules of religious or philofophical inftruction.-But we cannot convey the eulogium of this fpecies of writing in fitter terms than those made ufe of by the ingenious Author of the Sentimental Fables now before us.

Fable, fays he, from the earlieft ages, has appeared to the greatest and wifeft of men the most eligible of all vehicles to convey inftruction. No fpecies of writing is perufed with more avidity, or is more capable of furnishing rational pleasure, of improving the understanding, refining the tafte, polishing the manners, and forming the heart.

• The intention of the Author of these new Fables is to inculcate the most liberal and exalted fentiments, to pourtray virtue in the most amiable and ftriking light, to ftrip vice of her allur ing blandifhments, paint her in her natural deformity, and point out the inextricable difficulties in which her deluded votaries must be neceffarily involved.

He has laboured to couch the preceptive fentiments in pithy and expreffive terms, to adorn them with the elegance of lan guage and harmonicus verfification, and at the fame time, to render them fufficiently obvious, has endeavoured to express them in the moft cafy, flowing and intelligible ftyle.

He has attempted to affect the heart by ftrongly exciting the paffions, and to gain over the judgment by connecting them with their proper objects; nor reluctantly indulged the sportings of fancy, or neglected the embellishments of wit, to captivate the gay, the young, and the polite, particularly the fofter fex, for whofe ufe and amusement moft of thefe Fables were invented.'

As a fpecimen of the Author's talents for this fpecies of writing we have felected his 21ft Fable, entitled the Dove and the Ant, and addreffed To a Compaffionate Lady.'

Is there an eye that never flows
From fympathy of other's woes?
Is there an ear that ftill doth fail
To tingle at a mournful tale?
When fcenes of fore distress are nigh,
Hard is the heart that checks a figh.

If with neglect, or with disdain
We look on mifery, grief, or pain;
Or can fupprefs the rifing groan,
For every fuffering not our own:
In human fhapes fuch fouls that dwell,
A hedge-hog's form would fuit as well.
By fympathifing with diftrefs,
We fhall not find our comforts lefs;

For

For with the anguish 'twill impart
A pleasure to the feeling heart.
How fweet the joys, the peace, and reft
That reign in every tender breast!
The meanest in diftrefs, the wife
Will freely ferve, and not defpife.

A lab'ring Ant, who half a league
Had drag'd his load with vaft fatigue,
As trailing from a diftant barn
A huge prodigious grain of corn;
Tottering, beneath the burthen bent,
Diffolv'd in fweat, his ftrength quite spent ;
As many a weary step he took,
Along the margin of a brook,

He homeward trudg'd through thick and thin,
But mifs'd a step and tumbled in:
The dafhing waves around him fly,
And foam and thunder to the sky.
So have I feen the planks that bear
Britannia's eager fons to war,
Rufh from the stocks with fury down,
To distant view a falling town,
Lash the hoarfe waves and ftem the tide,
And o'er the billows proudly ride.

He toil'd, and, with unequal ftrife,
Panted, and ftruggled hard for life:
The waves come booming o'er his head,
His powers are gone, his hopes are fled;
He flounces, plunges, ftrives in vain,
He finks, then ring, floats again;
Refifts the ftream, and holds his breath,
Defpairs of help, and waits for death.

When lo! a Dove, with pity mov'd,
"For every living thing the lov'd,"
Beheld, with deep concern opprefs'd,
The honeft ruftic thus diftrefs'd;
Juft where the faw him gafping lie,
She pluck'd a twig, and drop'd it nigh.
He mounts like failor on an oar,

Securely perch'd, and reach'd the fhore;'
Then fhook his limbs, and rais'd his head,
And thus to his deliverer faid:

To one unask'd, who could bestow,
Such fervice, more than thanks I owe;
Receive, devoid of skill or art,
Th' effufion of a grateful heart:
You may partake of all I hoard,
Sure of a welcome at my board.

The gentle Dove, with fmiles replies,
And meekness beaming from her eyes:

The

The higheft joys on earth we find,
Spring from a tender feeling mind;
The foft fenfations rifing there,
Repay with intereft all our care:
Where kindnefs is to others thown,
Imparting blifs, we form our own.
Sweet is the infelt joy that flows
From kind relief of other's woes;
'The boom that with pity burns,
Blefs'd in itself, wants no returns.

She spoke and, mounting, fpreads her wings,
And wheels aloft in airy rings,

Seeking the well known fhady grove,
To nurse her young and blefs her love.
• When winter's fnows deform'd the year,
And food was scarce, the froft fevere,
The grateful Ant, who had with pain
Amafs'd a monstrous load of grain;
And as the Dove might want, he thought,
To find his benefactor, fought.

Long had he rov'd the foreft round,
Before the gentle Dove he found;
At diftance feen, too far to hear
His voice; a fportfman much too near,
With lifted tube, and levelling eye,
The fatal lead prepar'd to fly;
The trigger juft began to move,
His aim was pointed at the Dove.

• With horror ftruck, the Ant beheld;

By gratitude and love impell'd,
He mounts, and to his ankle clings,
With all his force the fowler flings,
That moment was his piece difcharg'd;
He farts, mifs'd aim; the Dove's enlarg'd.
'Pleas'd with the thought of fervice done,
The man's revenge he tries to fhun;
In hafte the flying Dove purfa'd,
As wand'ring through the leaflefs wood;
Till fettling on a tree he finds her,
And of their mutual help reminds her.
We wifely act, my worthy friend,
Says he, when we affiftance lend ;
And when for that the meaneft call,
The joy refulting is not all;
Its prudent too, there's none fo low
To whom we may not favours owe :
Freedom, and life itfelf oft fprings
From fmall and defpicable things.
He that is wife will ne'er refufe
Others with tenderness to afe:
Whene'er we lend to others aid,
We furely fhall be well repaid.'

The

The foregoing very pleafing Fable*, will give our Readers no unfavourable opinion of either the Mufe or the heart of the Writer.

ART. IX. The Tour of Holland, Dutch Brabant, the Auftrian Nether lands, and Part of France; in which is included a Defcription of Paris and its Environs. 12mo. 3 s. Kearney. 1772.

THESE travels are related in a series of letters to a friend,

who with fome difficulty appears to have obtained the Author's confent to their being made public; but, though the Writer declares his perfuafion that they will neither be of benefit to his readers, or to himself, we apprehend they will prove a very agreeable amufement to thofe who perufe them. He writes in a free, eafy, epiftolary manner, and gives an entertaining and instructive account of a variety of objects in the towns and countries through which he paffed.

Before he leaves his own country, he bestows a few encomiums on Harwich, as the worst of all poffible places, and attended with a farther inconvenience, on account of the fhoal of fcoundrels who pick your pockets with impunity. We were first attacked, fays he, by a clerk for thirteen fhillings and fixpence each, for which he generously gave us a piece of paper, which he called a permit, and which was of no other ufe bus for a Dutchman to light his pipe with. He told me in answer to my inquiry into the nature of his demand, that he was rather thick of hearing; I thought his reafon conclufive, and we paid him his fees immediately. The officers of the cuftoms then infifted on their fees for tumbling our clothes and deranging our trunks, and for what they call fufferance, which is "to permit a man to take out of the kingdom, what the laws have not prohibited."

Amidst the feveral particulars which this volume affords, it is difficult to determine what parts to make choice of for the amufement of our Readers, and to afft them in forming their judgment concerning the work. However, paling by much greater objects, fomething concerning which is often read or heard of, we fhall first tranfcribe the fhort account that is given of Broek, not very diftant from Sardam in North Holland.

The most picturefque village, fays this Writer, perhaps in the world. It is chiefly inhabited by bankers and infurers. The houfes are of fluted boards, painted in different colours, agreeable to the tafte of the refpective owners. The roofs are of glazed tiles, and the gardens which are before every door, are laid out in parterres of various forms and colours by the affift

Its outline will be found in Dodley's Collection of Fables; but Our Author has wrought it into a more finished picture of benevo lence and gratitude.

ance

ance of fhells, pieces of brick, marbles, glafs beads, &c. a few trees are planted before every houfe at the extremity of thefe little gardens, which are cut into form. The streets are paved with brick, on which neither carriages, nor cattle are fuffered, and they are as clean as a lady's drawing room. Nothing can be conceived neater than that beautiful little place, nor more extravagant than the charges at the inn. Some boiled perch and three bottles of rhenifh, which is about ten-pence a bottle, cost us a guinea.'

Among fome general reflections upon Holland, this Author has the following remark: I have feen enough to confirm me in the juftnefs of Sir William Temple's opinion, who fpeaking of it, if my memory misleads me not, fays, that it is a country where the earth is better than the air, and profit more in requeft than honour; where there is more fenfe than wit, more good nature than good humour, and more wealth than pleafure. Where a man would chufe rather to travel, than to live; fhall find more things to obferve, than to defire; and more perfons to esteem, than to love.'

Some regulations in the police of Amfterdam he thinks would be well worthy of imitation in London: in the former city he obferves, you never meet a watchman alone; two always walk together, by which means they add ftrength as well as give courage to each other.--There alfo is an admirable custom to prevent the spreading of fire, by giving almoft an immediate alarm. On the top of four churches fituated at four different quarters of the city, watchmen are fixed for the whole night, who are obliged to found a trumpet every half hour, as a signal of their being awake, and on their duty. On the breaking out of a fire the alarm bell is rung, the watchmen are collected and are at the spot in a moment. Of what infinite fervice would a plan fomewhat fimilar to this be in our metropolis!'

As to the neatnefs of their houses and cleanliness of their towns for which the Dutch have been fo greatly famed, and justly applauded, our Author allows them but little merit, because he apprehends it arifes from the neceffity of their fituation: but he admires their induftry, and the manner in which, amidst a concurrence of caufes, their republic has rifen to make fuch a figure in Europe: It is wonderful, he remarks, that in a country without a ftone or a pebble, there fhould be ftone edifices the most magnificent; without forests, or an oak tree, (two little woods excepted) the Dutch navy is the fecond in the world; without arable land, they fupply half Europe with corn; and with a tract of country, scarce larger than an English county, they can raife men and money to make themselves of importance in the eyes of the first power in Christendom.'

Among the cities in the Auftrian Netherlands, Bruffels apFears to be the most pleafing to this traveller. We have stayed

here,

« VorigeDoorgaan »