POETRY.

Art. 45. An Elegiac Ode to the Memory of Sir Joshua Reynolds, late Prefident of the Royal Academy. By the Rev. John White. house, Curate of Houghton-Conqueft, Bedfordshire. 4to. 2s. Cadell.

Confidering the peculiarly intimate connection now fubfifting between painting and poetry, it was to be expected that Sir Joshua Reynolds would foon obtain the meed of fome melodious ftrain. Mr. Whitehoufe's elegiac tribute to the memory of this moft celebrated painter, is written in a manner which evinces the affistance that Poetry and her fifter art can render to each other. With confiderable fpirit, feveral of Sir Joshua's principal pictures are defcribed; after which, the painter is thus apoftrophized;

Hail, Reynolds, to thy juft defign,

The grace, the grandeur of thy line!
Whofe daring energy of foul,

Juft glanc'd on parts, to catch the whole.
The many-coloured Mufe whofe power
Prefided o'er thy natal hour,

On thee, with partial fondness fmiled;
And laid thee oft in holy trance,

And bade Perfection's train advance,

And breathed around thy head her visions wild.

Thy rapt ear drank the lore the taught,

Her hues divine thy pencil caught,

With her thou oft with mufing step haft ftrayed,

Or with the fhadowy tribes of fairy fiction played.'

His diftinguished genius as a portrait-painter is thus justly delineated:

In Nature's living femblance fair,

As if her very self was there,

The faithful PORTRAIT long shall stand
A witness of the Mafter's hand;
Who knew, with fkill fublime, to trace
Expreffion's foul, and Beauty's grace;
The undaunted Warrior's fix'd regard,
The Sage, the Patriot, and the Bard,
Youth's vivid blush, impaffion'd, warm,
And Innocence in Childhood's form.
Paffing the common bounds of Art,
Each Character his pencil took;
Delineated the air, the look,

And imaged to the eye the language of the heart;

To diftant times tranfmitting down

Those whom most Albion boasts to own,

The honoured fons of Science, Valour, Worth,
Patrons of human kind, and ornaments of earth.'

To the dead, could they hear it, fuch well-deferved praife would, no doubt, be highly grateful,

Mo-y. Art.

Art. 46. Poetical Thoughts, and Views, on the Banks of the Wear. By Percival Stockdale. 4to. 2s. 6d. Clarke, Bond-ftreet.

1792.

Supremely bleft the poet in his Mufe!-So Mr. Percival Stockdale feems to be. Under the various misfortunes and difcouraging circumftances which have marked his life, he derives folace from the fmiles of the Mufe, and deems nothing on earth more glorious than poetical genius, except the virtues of a Socrates and a Cato.' We congratulate him on being able to say,

A feeling mind, though oft deprefs'd with pains,
Hath feiz'd bright moments for poetic ftrains;
Shut out a world, diftreffing and diftrefs'd,
In it's own orb, it's own Elyfium, bleft.'

He complains that poverty fhould fo generally attach itself to poetry: but, according to his account of the poetic race, they are furely much better qualified for enduring poverty, than any of the unprivileged and unendowed multitude;

And did not Bards peculiar tranfports know,
How "could" they "fuffer being here below!"
To them a ftrange myfterious frame is giv'n,
Too fine for earth, not pure enough for heav'n;
Plac'd betwixt angels, in the middle way,
And common mafles of enlivened clay;
The true, the ardent votaries of the Mufe,

To mind from matter fublimate their views.'

Mr. Stockdale, whom we muft rank among the femi-angelic votaries of the Nine, pours forth his fong beneath the claffic WEAR's romantic fhades,' and exhibits, in eafy verfe, his thoughts, and views, and encomiums *. His poetry derives a fombre caft from his misfortunes; and we, who admire his independent fpirit, the manliness with which he acknowleges his errors, and his perfevering exertions, hope that every part of the following prayer will be an1wered:

• Maker of heaven, and earth!-of human kind!
Of Universe the Parent, Source of Mind!
Hence may my eye expunge the faults of youth,
Devoted firmly to the caufe of truth!

Not to thofe truths alone, which lead to fame,
To write ftrong verfe; to argue; to declaim;
But to that truth, by which, in life we fhew
Thy beauteous moral government, below.

Thefe are lavished on feveral perfons, but Lord L- is not one of the praised. P. Pindar would not have been more fevere on this nobleman than is Mr. Stockdale. He fays,

For, fure, Omnifcient Heaven the life approves

Fye, fye, Mr. Stockdale! Calamny is not fatire. Lord Lmay have his failings, but he has his virtues too.

That

That government, by whofe benign controul,
We keep the body fubject to the foul;
Beneath whofe power, our happiness is wrought
By virtuous action and exalted thought.

May I, by temp'rance live exempt from pain,
And health, vivacity and glory gain."
And while the Mufe's pure, ethereal ray,
My night illumines and adorns my day;
And while the focial hour, propitious, blends
A few felect and literary friends,

Or by the influence of the virtuous fair,
Breathes through my verfes a diviner air,
Content fhall foothe me.'-

We must object to the omiffion of the fmalleft word for the fake of the poetry; we cannot therefore approve Of Universe, for Of the Universe, which is not the way to write ftrong verfe.' This poem is not correctly printed; and we request Mr. Stockdale to confider whether he could not have chofen a better title.

25.

Mo-y. Art. 47. An Epifle of Condolence and Exhortation, addreffed to General Gunning. By Benjamin Banter, Efq. To which is added, An Elegy written before the Ruins of the Pantheon, fhortly after the Burning of that itately Edifice. 4to. Pp. 26. Stalker, &c. 1792. Why will B. Banter condefcend to be a poetical scavenger and night-man, to rake in the dirty kennel, and to make the car of the Mufes a vehicle for filth and indecency? Surely, Benjamin, thou couldst have employed thy felf better than in doing into verfe a crim. con. trial, and in tracing Gen. Gunning's Sportive footsteps to a taylor's bed. Because "an hoary lecher" has won to his palfied arms a blooming dame, thou takeft occafion to say,

Such is the tafte in this enlighten'd age

Such now in love is the prevailing rage,
That in each fex the old attract the young;
The darts of Cupid from grey hairs have sprung;
The leering fnuffy dame, almoft threescore,
Enchants the gallant youth of twenty-four.
While old debilitated debauchees

The youthful fprightly nymphs can charm and pleafe.' For the honour of the ladies and gentlemen of Great Britain, we pronounce this a libel. They continue to make diftinctions where there are differences.

If in the epiftle, B. B. gives to the age a bad taste,-in the Elegy on the Ruins of the Pantheon, he, for the fake of obtaining a thime to roof, gives Veftris a hoof. Mo-y.

Art 48. A New Tranflation of Telemachus, in English Verfe. By Gibbons Bagnal, A. M. Vicar of Home-Lacy, Herefordshire. 8vo. 2 Vols. 12s. fewed. Printed at Hereford; and fold by Stalker, London. 1791. This work has been published in periodical numbers; and of the firft number fome account appeared in the 15th vol. of our Review,

4

p. 82,

As nothing feems neceffary to be now added to the
p. 82, &c.
account there given, let it fuffice that we here inform the public,
that Mr. Bagnal has at length completed his undertaking.

Art. 49. Winter, or Howard in the Shades; an Elegy, addreffed to
Humanity. To which is added, an Ode to Eternity. By George
8vo. pp. 23.
Pafmore, Schoolmaster at Kensington.

Bourne. 1792.

6d.

Mr. Pafmore's intentions appear to be good: but we can fay little in favour of his poetry.

Art. 50. The Female Geniad, a Poem, infcribed to Mrs. Crefpigny. By Elizabeth Ogilvy Benger, of Portsmouth, written at the Age of Thirteen. 4to. pp. 55. 3s. Hookham. 1791.

Forbid it, all ye powers prefiding over polite criticifm, that we fhould attempt to crush a female bard just bursting from the shell, by applying, to fo juvenile a poem, the ftrictures of a fevere and corrected taste. The poem before us is a proof of genius in the author, and evinces what the celebrated Dr. Johnson would have called "the latent poffibilities of excellence:" but Mifs Benger's friends, by whom it is faid to have been corrected, fhould have known that it was not fufficiently finifhed for publication. She will allow us to inform her, that, though Nature beftows genius, art and diligence must give perfection; that poetry fhould always, by tranfpofition, make good profe; and that a poem, like a statue, should, to give exquifite pleasure, be finished to a hair.

IRELAND.

Moo-y.

Art. 51. A short Account of the Affairs of Ireland, during the Years 1783, 1784, and Part of 1785. In a Letter from a Clergyman in Ireland to his Friend in America. 8vo. pp.82. 2s. Debrett. 1792. The political state of Ireland, during the period of this narrative, was pregnant with interefting events: the principal circumftances of which are here related with every appearance of impartiality. Among other public tranfactions, of which an account is given in this letter, are, the quarrel between Mr. Grattan and Mr. Flood; the military affembly at Dungannon; the grand national convention of volunteer delegates held in Dublin; the fubfequent national congrefs, the ftruggles of the Irish nation in thefe meetings to obtain a reformation in parliament; and the endeavours of certain perfons to procure for the Irish catholics the right of voting at elections. The writer of this account appears to be capable of continuing an agreeable sketch of Irish affairs to the prefent time.

POLITICS and POLICE.

Art. 52. A Protest against T. Paine's Rights of Man; addressed to
-, in confequence of
the Members of the Book Society of
the Vote of their Committee for including the above Work in a
Lift of new Publications refolved to be purchased for the Use of
IS. Longman. 1792.
the Society. 8vo. PP. 37.
Mere declamation! written, however, in fimpler and better
language, and in rather more civil terms, than declamation fometimes
fumed,
is:but whatever tone, or appearance of argument, may be af

fumed, there never can be any real argument where there is fo much prepoffeffion in favour of our own opinions. This writer would not, if he could have had his will, have fuffered the Members of his Book Club to judge as well as himself, and to form their own fentiments of Mr. Paine's work. They muft take his ipfe dixit; and yet he calls himself a real friend to fair and candid difcuffion! Oh! but the difquifitions of Mr. Paine are by no means of a fpeculative kind. Under the mafk of difcution, they really point to action-they lead to turbulence and general commotion-they are the efforts of an incendiary aiming at confiagration-they are grofsly and deftructively vicious and immoral, tending to withdraw the refpect which both reafon and religion prefcribe as due to the ruling powers.'

That is, this gentleman thinks fo: but is it therefore so absolutely certain, that nobody must examine nor inquire any farther? It cannot be denied, that many perfons of fair character and good abilities have warmly praifed Mr. Paine's book; and the majority of this very committee, (who, we are told, would spurn at the idea of introducing an immoral and diffolute work to the Society, and would fcorn to aflift in propagating the deteftable schemes of an incendiary,) have given their votes for purchafing the Rights of Man. From all this, a modeft man would have inferred that he might poffibly be mistaken; and that the work might not be fo very bad and immoral as he fuppofed. If, after reviewing his fentiments, he ftill continued in the fame mind, and thought himfelf obliged to defend his opinion, he would probably deem it more decent to defcend to particulars, and calmly to inveftigate fome specific point, than to deal thus in vague and general terms, and peremptory

affertions.

We have faid thus much on this Proteft, not because we think it deferving of any great notice, nor for the fake of the protester merely, but rather for the ufe of declamatory authors in general, who are a numerous clafs. We wish them to recollect, practically, what few of them are hardy enough to deny in theory, that a man may think differently from themfelves, on any point of politics or religion, without being, for that reafon, a fcoundrel. Why may not an American prefer a republic, or a Turk like defpotifm better than a mixed monarchy ? or why may not either of them recommend to other nations what he himself thinks right and good, without being ftigmatized as a vicious and immoral incendiary? Pear. Art. 53. Curfory Remarks on Paine's Rights of Man. 8vo. 6d. Partons. 1792.

A plague take them! Why will thefe fcribblers force us to read what is never read by any body but ourselves? D: Art. 54. An Anfwer to the Second Part of Rights of Man. In Two Letters to the Author. 8vo. pp. 60. 15. Rivingtons. 1792. What is here faid on the general principles of government does not appear to us to be of any great importance. The author's obfervations on commerce and finance feem more deferving of notice. Thefe laft are at least equal in value to Mr. Paine's remarks on the

fame