mony fo inevitably fuggefting itfelf; a very inferior compofer to Haydn, poffefling any degree of genius, muft have made a grand affair of it. No wonder, therefore, that his genius and fcience thould have been able in the opening thus awefully to imprefs, and in the progrefs of the overture thus gaily to delight, the audience! firft, by that wild and complex diffonance which fublimely reprefents the tuinult of Chaos; and, when that tumult has by degrees fubfided, hould enchant our fenfes by the low, foft, fweet, and tremulous founds, which arife; inftrument after inftrument ftealing in, and exquifitely picturing on the ear the dawning, expanding, and gradually ftrengthening light, till fuddenly the fun blazes out by the inftant and rapid fortiffimo of the whole orchestra, and by the burst and canon exultation of the kettledrums. Not one of Handel's overtures fuggefted, or could properly allow of fo picturefque, fo dazzling an overture. But there ended, in this emulative attempt, all approach to the excellence of that peerless mafter. The recitatives and their accompaniments are almost entirely imitative of found and motion; and very inferior to all which HANDEL has given us in that style. How poor, in the CREATION, are the trains which represent the fongs of the lark and nightingale, compared to thofe of fimilar aim in L'Allegro and Il Penterofo! How inferior Haydn's plumy concert to that given by the prelude and accompaniments to "Huth ye pretty warbling choir," in Acis and Galatea! We find an attempt, in the CREATION, to reprefent the foaring of the majeftic eagle; but the ftrain is more defcriptive of the darting evolutions of the fwal low. The fongs are opera-airs, fweet and ornamented; but they breathe no devotion, they excite pity, they awake no terror; they have nothing to do with the paffions. The choruffes are all impetuous, fwift, and fimilar; burfts of harmony, kilful as to fcience, but unmeaning, compared with those of HANDEL. They have little dif criminated melody, and are deficient in contraft. No wonder that the words of this Oratorio, compofed in German, and literally tranflated into English, should be neither sense or grammar; and fhould make wicked work with MILTON: yet two of the lines are very poetic, thus; "With fofter beams, and milder light, steps on The filver Moon through filent night.” The correfponding air is one of the happieft efforts of the compofition. It was with increafed veneration for the powers of HANDEL, that we liftened, on the enfuing day, to the fublimities of the MESSIAI, expreffing, in turn, every varied paflion of the human foul; that we obferved the contrafted pathos and energy, ferenity and icorn, fweetness and dignity, fupplication and triumph, in the recitatives, and fongs, the duett, and chorufies of that ftupendous work of genius; that we found the decided air, that winds through the fugues of every feparate cliorus, lingering on the ear, and haunting the fancy through fucceffive days after the filence of the orchestra; that we liftened to an Hallelujah, and Amen, which ravifh the fpirit, and seem to pierce the vault of Heaven by their foncrous grandeur. 66 Haydn, great mafter though he be," finks eclipted, like Dryden, when, in his alteration of the play of the Tempeft, he puts on the armour of SHAKSPEARE. Mt. Mr. URBAN, WE Od. 1. E have beheld the triumph of Commerce in the completion of the Docks in the Ifle of Dogs: they are filled; and the Weft-India thipping ride within them fecure from tempelts and depredation. The annexed view (Plate 1.) fhews the excavation as it appeared in March, 1802, when the ponderous brick wall round it was nearly finished. Indulge me with an extract from "Londinium Redivivam," lately published, p. 10. "On the 12th day of July, 1800, the first stone of the Docks was laid by the Right Hon. William Pitt (then Chancellor of the Exchequer), in prefence of Earl Spencer, the Earl of Liverpool, Lord Loughborough, Mr. Dundas, and a joint committee of the merchants and common council. Mr. Pitt faid aloud, on placing the ftone: May this Dock and Canal prove an additional fupport to the trade, commerce, and profperity of the port and city of London, the emporium of the world! After which, medals of the prefent reign were depofited by the above lords, gentlemen, and the engineer. The banks were crowded with Apectators. When this great work is completed, how grand and interesting a fpectacle will it be, to view the men of war building in Perry's yard, inter mixed with the Eaft India Company's noble vellels on-fhore and afloat, with the docks and machines for equipping and rigging them, fo near the numbers of fine thips belonging to the Welt-India trade in capacious mooring! It will be a fcene for national exultation. May it ever continue fo!" J. P. M. Mr. URBAN, BY Aug. 29. OY the true friends of Clallic Literature the tranflation of Juvenal by Mr. Gifford will be confidered as a vaJuable work. A fubfcription was opened for it so long back as 1781, when it was promifed at the clofe of the year; but why the publication was for a while renounced, we are modeftly and inger uoufly told by the author in his Introduction, where the anecdotes of his life excite uncommon interest. His father was Edward Gifford, who, it feems, through life was wild and thoughtless. When at the grammarfchool at Exeter, he left it for the fea; and, though foon reclaimed from this fituation, made his efcape a fecond Gent. Mag. October, 1802. time, to wander in vagabond fociety. He was afterwards articled to a plumber and glazier, with whom he luckily fiaid long enough to learn the bufinefs; and, upon the death of his father, married, and fet up for himself. He continued in bufinels four or five years; when he was thoughtless enough to engage in a dangerous frolick, for which his companions were profecuted; and he once more fled to the fea, leav ing a pregnant wife with the feantieft refources, to feek refuge among her friends. His wife fled to her native place at Ashburton, in Devonshire, where our tranflator was born in April 1757. In 1764, his father, who had been at the fiege of the Havannah, returned, and fet up in bufinefs a fecond time; but, not having acquired wifdom by his misfortunes, his trade declined: he loved drink for the fake of fociety; and to this love he fell a martyr, dying of a decayed and ruined conftitution before he was 40." From his mother, whofe character was a firiking contrast to that of his father, our author evidently imbibed his carlieft love for letters, though his genius did not difcover itfert foon enough for her to witness. "She was," fays Mr. Gifford, "an excellent woman, bore my father's infirmities with patience and good Jumour, loved her children dearly, and died at laft exhafted with anxiety and grief, more on their account than on her own.” Mr. G. was now taken to the house of his godfather, who at first fent him to school, but in less than three months, fickening at the expence, would fain have engaged him in the drudgery of hufbandry. "I drove the plough," he fays, "for one day to gratify him; but I left it with a firm refolution to do fo no more, and, in defpite of his threats and proniifes, adhered to my determination. In this I was guided no lefs by neceflity than will. During my father's life, in attempting to clamber up a table, I had fallen backward, and drawn it after me: its edge fell upon my breaft; and I never recovered the effects of the blow, of which I was made extremely tenfible on any extraordinary occafion.” After other efcapes, our author reluctantly confemted to go on-board a coalier at Brixham when little more than 13. In this line of life, however, he did not continue very long, and was removed from it by an occurrence equally equally interefting and uncommon. Since he had lived at Brixham he had broken off all connexion with Ashburton: his brother, whofe fhort tale he relates in a most affecting manner, was too young for any kind of correfpondence; and his godfather, who had not only feized the laft fragment of Mrs. Gifford's property, but had configned her fon to wretchednefs, was by no means entitled to his gratitude or kind remembrance. "I lived, therefore, in a fort of fullen independence on all I had formerly known, and thought without regret of being abandoned hy every one to my fate. But I had not been overlooked. The women of Brixham, who travelled to Afhburton twice a week with fish, and who had known my parents, did not fee me without kind concern running about the beach in a kind of ragged jacket and troufers. They mentioned this to the people of Afhburton, and never without commiferating my change of condition. This tale, often repeated, awakened at length the pity of their auditors, and, as their next step, their refentment against the man who had reduced me to fuch a state of wretchednefs. In a large town this would have had little effect; but in a place like Ashburton, where every report fpeedily becomes the common property of all the inhabitants, it raised a murmur, which my godfather found himfelf either uble or unwilling to withstand; he therefore determined, as I have just obferved, to recall me; which he sould eafily do as I wanted tone months of 14, and confequently was not yet bound.” After the holidays, he again returned to fchool, where his rapid progrefs toon qualified him upon emergencies to aflift his water; and he had formed fome hopes of entering in that line himfelf; but his little plans were once more thwarted by his godfather, who placed him as an apprentice to a fhoe-maker. His defeription of his matter is a wellwrought picture. He was a noify narrow-minded Prefbyterian, whofe whole stock of religious information confifted in the arguments of a few painphlets, all written on one fide of the Exeter controversy; to which he added to cunning a ule of Fenning's Dictionary, that, as they with whom he argued underftood him lefs as they heard him longer, his polemic victory was ufually complete. With little kindness for his new trade, our author got forward with difficulty, and attempted poetry by accident. The reflection, however, that his apprenticeship was drawing to ward an end became his greatest comfort. In this humble and obfcure ftate, poor beyond the common lot, yet flattering his anibition with day-dreams which perhaps would never have been realized, he was found, in the 20th year of his age, by Mr. Wm. Cookefley. The lamentable doggrel, as Mr. G. terms it, which accident had at times produced for the aufement of his fhopmates, interefted the benevolence of this worthy man, who set onfoot a fubfcription for his relief, freed in from his apprenticeship, perfuaded his friends to renew their donations to keep him for a while at fchool, and at laft, by his exertions, procured for himn an exhibition at Exeter college, Oxford. Juvenal had been a favourite with Mr. Gifford at fchool, and the tenth Satire was tranflated as a holiday's talk. At college other Satires were tranflated; and Mr. Cookeiley, with the promife of his own allittance in the revilion, engaged him to publish a complete tranflation by fubfcription The first Satire, however, was not quite finished when it pleafed the Almighty to call Mr. Cookefley to himfelt. Mr. Gifford now became difpirited, and fhut up the work with feelings bordering on diftraction. He faw the neceflity, even if he could have proceeded, of a long and painful revifion, which would carry him far be Yond the period fixed for the appear ance of the work. Alarmed at the Thus have I endeavoured to communicate to the reader a portion of that pleasure I experienced in the perutd |