Pagina-afbeeldingen
PDF
ePub
[ocr errors]

Wallenstein. He the more fortunate! yea, he hath finish'd!

For him there is no longer any future

His life is bright-bright without spot it was
And cannot cease to be. No ominous hour
Knocks at his door with tidings of mis-hap.
Far off is he, above desire and fear;

No more submitted to the change and chance
Of the unsteady planets. O'tis well

With him! but who knows what the coming hour

Veil'd in thick darkness brings for us!

• Countess.

-Thou speakest

Of Piccolomini. What was his death?

The courier had just left thee, as I came. (Wallenstein by a motion of his hand makes signs to her to be silent.)

Turn not thine eyes upon the backward view,
Let us look forward into sunny days.

Welcome with joyous heart the victory,

Forget what it has cost thee. Not to day,

For the first time, thy friend was to thee dead;

To thee he died, when first he parted from thee.

Wallenstein. This anguish will be wearied down, I know;

What pang is permanent with man? From th' highest,

As from the vilest thing of every day

He learns to wean himself: for the strong hours
Conquer him. Yet I feel what I have lost

In him. The bloom is vanish'd from

my

life.

For O! he stood beside me, like my youth,
Transform'd for me the real to a dream,
Cloathing the palpable and the familiar
With golden exhalations of the dawn.
Whatever fortunes wait my future toils,
The beautiful is vanish'd-and returns not.'

We own that the comparison of the crescent to a sickle does not convey a very delightful idea to our mind: nor do the expressions in the remainder of the sentence assimilate with this metaphor.

We have allowed an unusual length to this article, because we think that Mr. Coleridge is by far the most rational partizan of the German theatre whose labours have come under our notice; and because we are glad to see any thing void of absurdity and extravagance from an author whose bold genius has so completely defied all rules.

ART. III. Memoirs relative to Egypt, written in that Country during the Campaigns of General Bonaparte, in the Years 1798 and 1799, by the learned and scientific Men who accompanied the French Expedition. Published in Paris by Authority. 8vo. pp. 460. 8s. 6d. Boards. Phillips. 1800.

LEVATED as the public expectation has been respecting the literary and scientific fruits of the French expedition 'to

K 2

Egypt,

Egypt, we are inclined to believe that the present volume of memoirs, though it is not barren of interest, will be perused with some feeling of disappointment. Whether that disappointment will arise from the extravagance of hope too inordinate for gratification, from a deficiency of effort on the part of the French, or from the impossibility of collecting in that invaded country much new matter for observation, time must discover. Considering the number of philosophic and professional men who accompanied Bonaparte into Egypt, little would appear to have been effected, if this volume were to be the whole account of their exertions and discoveries*. A more detailed and splendid work may in due time appear; and perhaps the present Memoirs are exhibited, ad interim, to allay the public curiosity. We do not call in question the authenticity of this publication; yet that it was in some measure an European manufacture might be inferred from the Report on the Oases, in which (at p. 349) Mr. Brown's Travels are mentioned as then in the English presst: not to remark that the report of M. Ripault on this subject is rather a history from books respecting these fertile islands in the sandy wastes, than any new information communicated by a recent observer. We are told that the Memoir of Ripault contains a number of useful observations supported by solid reasonings: but we are not informed what these observations and reasonings are; nor in what respects the choice of the Institute has been justified.

We find a Memoir relative to an optical phænomenon, known among the French mariners by the name of Mirage; and which the translator tells us (p. 5.) is usually denominated by the English navigators a fog-bank: but we should doubt whether this kind of fog-bank be at all similar to the Mirage. This phænomenon is exhibited by the sandy plains of Asia and Africa, when heated by the sun; and it displays to the eager eyes of the thirsty traveller, plains apparently covered with water, which gradually vanishes as the tantalized wanderer approaches. It is well described and scientifically explained in the present work: but we are not indebted to the French philosophers for the knowlege of its existence in Egypt and the circumjacent regions: since, though no author is here quoted, it is mentioned in the Koran, chap. xxiv.-by Diodorus Siculus, 1. iii.Quintus Curtius, 1. vii. c. 5.-Dr. Shaw's Travels, quarto, p. 439.-Dr. Hyde, Annot. in Peritsol, &c.1

The motto, O quantum est in verbis inane! may be prefixed to Denon's discourse on his return from Upper Egypt, which *Since this was written, we have heard of other publications from this source.

+ How could this have been known to the Institute in Egypt? concludes

concludes the volume. It appears to tell much, while in fact it tells little or nothing; as will be evident from the most interesting paragraph which it contains:

Ι

[ocr errors]

We approached Thebes-Thebes, the very name of which excites the recollection of great ideas. As if it had been possible that it could escape me, I delineated it at as great a distance as I could per, ceive it; and as I made this design, I indulged the hope, that you would one day participate the sentiment by which I was animated. We were obliged to traverse it rapidly, and scarcely had I viewed it a moment, when I was forced to quit it.

There was a colossus which could only be measured by the eye, and by the astonishment which it occasioned. On the right were embowelled and sculptured mountains; on the left, temples, which, at more than a league's distance, appeared like other rocks; and, palaces, like other temples, from which I was snatched. I turned round mechanically to seek for the hundred gates, a poetic expression, by which Homer intended to paint, in a single word, this superb city, loading the earth with the weight of its porticoes, and so large, that Egypt could scarcely contain its extent. Seven journies have not satisfied the curiosity excited by the first; and it was not before the fourth, that I reached the other bank of the river.'

If M. Denon has made seven journies to these stupendous monuments of antiquity, why does he content himself with merely relating his first and most unsatisfactory vifit?

Allowing, however, the incompetency of this publication to satisfy the curiosity of those who are anxious for new and ample information, relative to the antiquities and present state of Egypt, it must yet be admitted that it contains a quantity of instructive matter; and that it may in general be very thankfully received. Most of the subjects treated in these papers relate to the arts, and to natural history. We have Memoirs on the manufacture of gun-powder-on Pompey's pillar-on the wing of the ostrich-on the Arabian horses-on the prevailing Ŏphthalmia of Egypt-on a new species of Nymphæaon the colours of the sea-on the dying of cotton and flax, by means of the Carthamus-on the Lake Menzaleh-on the Tanitique branch of the Nile-on the valley of Natron-on the topography of the Dry River; on the Coptic monasteries (an amusing paper)-on the Djeouaby Arabs, and the Bedouins on the dying properties of the Hhenne-on processes for correcting the defects of particular kinds of steel and cast iron (a paper which has no reference to the Egyptian expedition)-on the use of oil in the plague-on the geogra

* See some account of these monasteries and their inhabitants, extracted from Sonnini's Travels in Egypt, in M. R. vol. xxx. N.S. P. 124, &c,

K3

phical

phical position of Alexandria, and on the direction, variation, and dip of the magnetic needle-on the slime of the Nile-on the Fountain of Moses, &c.

This enumeration of the contents is a sufficient intimation of the kind of amusement which may be expected from this volume.. The subjects discussed may have afforded some employment to the French literati who accompanied Bonaparte to Egypt: but, as they have explored, under peculiar advan tages, a country hitherto imperfectly known, on account of the dangers and difficulties to which the researches of European travellers have been exposed, we may reasonably expect a more particular description of the antiquities and present state of Egypt than has hitherto been exhibited.

The language of this work is sometimes pompous, as when we read of the water of a well being at its maximum of eleva tion; and sometimes incorrect, as when mention is made of plowing in directions perpendicular to each other.' Do these improprieties attach to the translator, or are they the faults of the original?

ART. IV. A General View of the Agriculture in the County of Perth: with Observations on the Means of its Improvement. By James Robertson, D D. Minister at Callander in the County of Perth. . Drawn up for the Consideration of the Board of Agriculture and Internal Improvement. 8vo. jun. and Davies. 1799. PP. 575. 8s. Boards. Cadell

As s the several Reports of Counties drawn up for the consideration of the Board of Agriculture have come be fore us, we have noticed with pleasure the commendable attention which is paid, in all parts, to the agricultural improvement of our "sea-girt isle ;" and we congratulate the country. at large, on the ability usually displayed by those gentlemen who have undertaken general views of particular districts. The county of Perth has been fortunate in its reporter. Dr. Ro bertson appears to have taken peculiar pains with his subject; he writes, he assures us, without bias or prejudice, unawed by fear, and unsolicitous of adulation ;' and he seems, on the whole, to state facts with that fairness which cannot but incline us to respect his testimony. We are reminded, in the preface, that this work is a compilation partly from Mr. Marshall's Report of the central Highlands, Mr. Donaldson's of the Carse of Gowrie, and a Report of the Southern Districts, by the author, and partly from a new Survey of the Provinces, which had not former y been explored; together with Remarks transmitted to the Board in consequence of these Reports.' Previously

Previously to our giving, as we have done in former instances, an abstract of some of the leading particulars contained in this View of Perthshire, we shall amuse our readers with Dr. R.'s encomium on agriculture in general:

Of all the branches of natural philosophy, we know, that is the most important, which investigates the causes of the fertility of the earth, in producing sustenance for the human kind. Others may be more splendid; but this is the most useful. The knowledge of the, causes and cure of diseases, incident to man, may claim the second place. Mechanics promote our convenience and safety in various respects; navigation, as founded on astronomy, facilitates our intercourse with distant nations. These and other branches of this won derful system of the providence of the Creator, minister to our com fort, merit our attention and claim our gratitude; but agriculture alone feeds the lamp of life, and enables us to be capable of that gratitude, which is due to the Author of our being and of our wellbeing. She alone traces the footsteps of nature, and seconds her efforts, in providing us with food to eat and raiment to put on. She, is the parent of society, and the nursing mother, to whose breasts we all cling, and in whose lap we are reared. She has made the desert a fruitful field; she has planted grain where forests grew; she clothes our land with grass for cattle and with the herb for the use of man. She fills our houses with plenty, our hearts with gladness, and puts into our hands the staff of life.'

The county of Perth is estimated to contain, in round num bers, 5000 square miles; which amount to 3,200,000 acres of Scots measure, or 4,068,640 English acres; and the mildness of its climate we are desired to infer from the following circumstances; that barley has been reaped in good order, nine weeks after it was sown; that sown grass has been in rick, on the 15th of May, O. S.; and on the 29th of the same month, six Scots pints of strawberries have been gathered in the open garden. Its soil is various.-Its mineral productions are coal, slate, lime, and free-stone; of which latter there was an excellent quarry at Kingoodie, where blocks were raised 50 feet in length, 16 broad, and 3 thick: but the act for imposing a duty on stone carried coast-ward, in 1794, has caused the work performed at this quarry to decline. Mention is also made of a valuable clay, superior in quality, for pottery and glass-house purposes, to that of Stourbridge in Worcestershire.-In the chapter on the State of Property, we are informed that a great proportion of the county is freehold; and that there are few,

J

* Are these facts, which may have taken place on particularly fa voured spots, fair specimens of the general climature? Perhaps not, for at p. 61. the Doctor speaks of the sterile soil and inhospitable climate of North Britain.'

[blocks in formation]
« VorigeDoorgaan »