were put to the press, and that they are printed to relieve the distresses of a numerous family. We mention these circumstances rather as motives for interest than as claims for indulgence, since the compo sitions display a correctness of taste which is seldom found in juvenile attempts, and many of the descriptive passages are very picturesque. In the Distracted Mother,' we find a mixed expression of wild anguish and tender recollection which is natural and touching; the Address to the Evening Star, written in Shetland,' will excite sympathy for the fair recluse who so ingenuously avows her desire of visiting less dreary scenes than those to which she is confined in her native island. These lines may serve as a specimen :

Bright Traveller of yon blue expanse,
Throwing thro' clouds thy silvery glance,
The dewy evening to adorn,

Say, on what shore shall I

appear,

When thou, as wheels the rolling year,

Shalt usher in the morn?

Still must these barren plains and hills,
These rugged rocks and scanty rills,
My narrow prospect bound?

Must I, where Nature's bounteous hand
Doth every rural charm command,

Say, must I ne'er be found?

Still on these plains, where scantly spread,
The modest daisy lifts its head,

Or lurks amid the broom,

Still with pall'd eye view o'er again
Thin scatter'd on the stony plain
The primrose scarcely bloom?

Oft Fancy wanders many a mile
O'er scenes where Nature loves to smile,
And scatters charms around,

Where rocky mounts on mounts arise,
Whose tow'ring summits kiss the skies,
With leafy forests crown'd.

Or where the dreadful cataracts roar,
Or where the smiling valley o'er
The rolling rivers glide;

Or where the lake expands to view,
Reflecting on its bosom blue,
The mountain's woody side.

• Still must this ocean's liquid round
My dreary prospects ever bound,
On Fancy's wings while borne
My weary soul delights to roam
To other lands, another home,
Nor wishes to return?

and

Art.

Art. 14.

Ovid's Metamorphoses, translated by Thomas Orger. With the Original Latin Text. 8vo. Is. 6d. Sherwood and

Co. 1811.

We have here the first number of a projected series of translated books of the Metamorphoses, which are to be published quarterly. In a short preface, the author takes some notice of Garth's, or, as it was called, Dryden's Ovid; and he says that, if all Garth's coadjutors had performed their tasks like Pope, in the fable of Dryope, he should have closed the volume with a mixed feeling of pleasure and despair, and have left the labour of future translation to more adventurous pens.' Of his own work he adds, I have translated Ovid literally, where I could do so with justice to him and to myself; but when I have met with an idiom or expression, which if literally rendered would have converted a Roman beauty into an English burlesque, I have parodied' (paraphrased, we suppose, was intended) • rather than translated my author; aiming, as far my confined powers extend, to be

"True to his sense, but truer to his fame."

This is all very well: but, in his opinion

"Of Dryden's Ovid's Metamorphoses,"

:

(as Fielding poetically mentions that work) we think that Mr. Orger is not a little biassed by that prevailing disposition to decry the merits of our more early translators from the classics, which is so natural in a translating age. Doubtless, even the Augustan age of Anne had much to learn in point of correct versification. Pope has since established a standard of melody, from which we cannot deviate with impunity but, in Dryden's happier moments, even Pope, we think, does not snatch the palm of harmony from his great instructor; nor is either Addison or Garth to be despised. For purity and elegance of expression, indeed, they are worthy of being studied by many of our contemporaries; or, if this point be not conceded to us, a chastity of taste, and a natural and simple manner, (free from rudeness and vulgarity on the one hand, as from a vicious and gaudy profusion of ornament on the other,) may surely be learned from the study and imitation of these versifiers. However this may be, although Addison be for ever accused of wanting nerve and vigour as a poet, yet we are assured that passages may be found in Ovid as rendered by him, and the other inferior workmen in this joint concern, which challenge a comparison with the best efforts of any succeeding translators.

We by no means wish to discourage Mr. Orger in the task which he has rather auspiciously begun. He is, we think, elegant and harmonious but his verse has too great a monotony of cadence. It is formed, in short, too closely on the model of those melodious couplets which seldom vary their rhythm; which are musical, indeed, but are apt to tire with their music by the perpetual recurrence of the same pauses. We cannot too often remind the poets of the present day that harmony consists

-"in many a winding bout Of linked sweetness, long drawn out.”

REV. DEC. 1811.

Ff

With

With respect to fidelity of interpretation, Mr. Orger has adhered rather closely to his original: but, when he talks of having translated Ovid literally, almost in any passage, he forgets the country of the poet whom he wishes to anglicize. Could such an object be accomplished, it would be undesirable. Give us the spirit of the antients, and let the grave possess their body. It us enjoy their thoughts; and not vainly attempt to force the idica of a classical language into that of a Gothic tongue.

We select the following passage as an instance of more varied versification than is the general characteristic of this specimen. That part which relates the "sorrow in heaven," for the destruction of mankind by the deluge, (a passage whence Milton has borrowed one of his noblest thoughts, though it must be confessed that he "invades the antients like a conqueror,") attracted us by its subject: but the author has not there been so fortunate as in the subjoined:

• Ere earth and ocean started into birth,
Or heav'n o'er-canopied the sea and earth,
A sable curtain darken'd Nature's frame,*
A shapeless mass, and Chaos was it's name.
A sordid heap, discordant to the sight,
Of future elements yet hid in night :
No orient sun-beam usher'd in the morn,
No circling moon renew'd her blusted horn;
Earth had not yet by heaven's paternal care
Upheld her balanc'd orb in ambient air,
Nor buoyant ocean stretch'd on every side,
From shore to distant shore his billowy tide,
Earth, water, air, maintain❜d a mingled reign,
'Twas baseless earth, unnavigable main,
And darken'd ether. Each forsook its form
To combat in one desolating storm.
While heat with cold maintain'd a dubious fight,
The moist, the dry, the heavy and the light
Knew no restraint, but in confusion hurl'd,
Vex'd with rude storms the elemental world.
Jove to the mass a better nature gave,
Divided earth from air, and land from wave;
From flagging mists a finer essence drew,
To deck th' etherial arch with liquid blue;
Then pois'd the whole, bade jarring discord cease,
And bound the parted elements in peace.

Fire, as a purer spirit, upward driven,

Shone midst the stars and deck'd the convex heaven,

Elate to fill the interval of space,

Air followed next in lightness as in place.

Earth in the scale assumed a lower state,

Less pure in substance and more dense in weight;

"Unus erat toto Naturæ vultus in orbe." We have selected this as

a specimen of literal translation. Rev.

While water, last in station as in birth,

Embraced with humid zone the solid earth.'

Advising Mr. Orger to polish every passage of his translation with the same care which he has bestowed on the preceding, we wish him success in his undertaking, aud bid him adieu.

Art. 15. Modern Persecution. A Poem, in Three Cantos. By the Author of the Age of Frivolity. 12mo. Is. 6d. Williams. A warm advocate for the Methodists, and a dry reprover of the low malignity which in some cases has been displayed against them, appears in this pamphlet ; which, if not written in the spirit of poetry, is fraught with humour. The author endeavours to laugh Modern Persecution out of countenance, and to make those persons ashamed of themselves who have tried to repress Methodism by violent means. He instances the prosecution of Kent, the Berkshire Farmer, and laughs at the sage doctrine laid down by the magistrates. The argument of the second canto, with a short extract from it, will shew the style and character of this jeu d'esprit :

The want of an Inquisition deplored· some men volunteer in this service-how to silence a preacher, as in the case of Baxter by Judge Jeffries-the usefulness of spies and informers-the reverend justice of the peace Kent argues to no purpose-finding of heretics like finding witches the case brought into court Kent convicted on the old conventicle act-fined £20 for praying with his neighbours — the justice of the decision arguments to prove that praying is teaching examples praying and teaching worse than Sunday Schools them bad things.'

"Since Kent had prayed, and there were five to hear,
"This praying plainly preaching must appear,
"In his own house, unsanction’d, unordain'd,
"He did the deed, and priestly acts prophan'd;
"By Act Conventicle, he without fail
"Must therefore pay the fine, or go to jail."

This wise decision seal'd th' enthusiast's fate,

And Reading register'd the triumph great.
What zealous Churchman but must plainly see,
The sacred justice of this sage decree?
Nor let enthusiasts cry in discontent,

He neither knew what pray'r or preaching meant.
Not Sedgwick's self could form, as warmth arose,
From nice deduction more appropriate close.

But lest some rashly this decision blame,
The reasoning muse shall shew they are the same:
She might go further, for there are who say,
Some parsons never preach but when they pray;
That pure good gospel in the desk they read,
The sacred word, and apostolic creed;
Then having finish'd pray'rs, mount up on high,
And all the doctrine of the desk deny.

Thus reading pray'rs, they truth unwitting teach,
But in the pulpit neither pray nor preach

Ffz

some

all of

The

The poem finishes with the answer, put into verse, of the French merchants to Colbert, who offered to assist their trade by his interference :

We ask, said they, of benefits but one,

And that is kindly let us all alone.'

Art. 16. Original Poetry, consisting of fugitive Pieces by a Lady lately deceased, and Miscellaneous Poems by several Authors. 8vo. 5s. Boards. Crosby and Co. 1811.

The editor of these poems regrets that the collection is not more extensive, and appears to entertain a high opinion of its merits. We must, however, observe that excellence in poetry is the power of appealing to the noblest feelings of the human mind in the most energetic and abiding manner, and that we find no traces of this power in the volume before us. The paraphrases on some of the psalms are less sublime than the originals; and the addresses to Friendship, Melancholy, Sincerity, &c. are pious, but neither new nor impressive. Some passages are mere imitations from other writers, and the following description is evidently borrowed from Milton :

The silent peaceful vale

Where sweet Derwent murmuring flows,
Where the hawthorn scented blows,

Or shepherd tells his tale.'

Art. 17. Poems on various Subjects, including a Poem on the Edu. cation of the Poor; an Indian Tale; and the Offering of Isaac, a Sacred Drama. Crown 8vo. pp. 244. 8s. Boards. Longman and Co.

1811.

It is certainly paying a book a bad compliment to ask why it was written; and the author of these poems begins by declaring that he will answer no such question. His lines are smooth, but some of his opinions are rather enthusiastic; thus, we cannot agree with him at p. 18. in thinking that

6

Earth will be hushed in universal peace,'

and the arrival of the Millennium be accelerated, by the success of Mr. Lancaster's method of education; nor can we clearly see how, if Cato had been a Christian,

Rome still had stood by Cato's dauntless plea,

And all the nations of the earth been free.'

We cannot praise the attempt at blank-verse in a sacred drama, where Caleb says

My wife and children

Fell, as I fear, all pale in ghastly death

Without a friend to soothe the final pangs of death ;'

and Isaac, to comfort him,' exclaims

• Soon shalt thou see your children and your wife.'

Nevertheless, we give this writer full credit for the wish which he expresses, to advance the cause of religion and morality.

Art.