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ART. IX. The Garden; or, The Art of laying out Grounds. Tranflated from the French of the Abbé de Lille. Small 8vo. 4s. Cadell. London, 1789.

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IT is fcarcely poffible for the English critic, whose amor patria is extended to the literary fame of his country, to be more highly gratified than by this poem of the Abbé de Lille, and the reputation it has defervedly obtained in France. Low and degraded as uninquifitive prejudice may deem the present poetic genius of our ifle, we find that a neighbouring kingdom, celebrated for its refinement, and remarkable for the delicacy of its critical judgment, is fo far from confidering the British Parnaffus as a barren wilderness, that, as from the pieria of the most revered antiquity, their favourite authors tranfplant, with eager induftry, thofe treasures of beauty and of art, with a view to immortalife their names among their admiring countrymen.. The affiftance which M. de Lille has fo copioufly received from Gray, from Shenftone, Mason, and Thomson, as well as from Pope, Milton, and others, he has not, however, been grateful enough to acknowledge; on the contrary, in his introduction, he boldly claims a garland where fhall be found no foreign ornament. This is the more remarkable as the very title of his poem is an imitation of Mafon; and befides whole pages copied from Gray, and innumerable imitations of Pope, &c. Les Jardins' poffeffes but little of didactic merit which is not to be found in The English Garden.' The Abbé does not very frequently favour us with any thing new in the preceptive way; and fome of thofe rules which are introduced into this poem without the authority of Mr. Mafon, and perhaps all which controvert his principles, tend only to prove that France is ftill behind us in tafte and the chafte fimplicity of nature. proof of this, besides dashing the raging fountain to the skies, we might quote many other paffages of the work before us. Neither are the precepts in this work fo various or determinate as those which may be adduced from its British rival; while at the fame time (though the poems differ but little in length) it does not difplay equal embellishment. This perhaps is partly owing to the different conduct of the authors. The Abbé pursuing a plan lefs regular, naturally became more excurfive and diffufe, and was confequently in danger of fuffering many precepts to escape which the claffical arrangement of Mr. Mason happily availed himself of. Much alfo is to be attributed to the declamatory genius, or (if we may hazard the expreffion) the playful loquacity of Gallic fancy.

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The present performance is nevertheless worthy of perufal; not only for the opportunity it gives of comparing the fentiments of two rival countries in an obvious point of view, but also for the intrinfic merit of the two performances.

The tranflator profeffes to make a free tranflation; and he has, with judgment, omitted fome conceits which did no credit to their author. If the idea of the two currents running a race, and difputing the doubting prize,' with fome other reprehenfible paffages, had been also rejected, perhaps the reader of taste would not have lamented the lofs. The language is flowing and poetical, the verfification generally eafy and melodious, and the paufes are regulated with an equal attention to smoothness and variety; neither is the harmony interrupted with unpleasant triplets. The punctuation is incorrect, and fometimes we meet with mere apologies for rhime, as fcene and feen, confole and foul, fevere and revere, &c. These are not rhimes but echoes; and the following are neither verse nor profe:

And,

• Art then the rebel nature may fubdue,

But the to grandeur must his triumph owe.'

• The paths whofe happy guidance we pursue
Should ornament the profpects which they shew,' &c.
We are alfo at times prefented with profaic lines:

• Which e'en the awe-ftruck hand of time doth spare.
The eye a vaft extent of lake would trace,
Yet now and then it afks a refting-place.'

Alas! I've never rov'd thofe vales among,
Where Virgil whilom tun'd his facred fong;
But by the bard I fwear, and lay fublime,
I'll go! O'er Alps on Alps oppos'd I'll climb,
Full of his name, with all his frenzy fir'd,
And there I'll read the firains thofe fcenes infpir'd.”

We fhall quote alfo the exordium :

Now fpring returns, and o'er the dewy vale,
While ev'ry bloffom breathes to ev'ry gale;
And many a bird on many a budding spray
Warbles refponfive each to other's lay;
While others wake the fhriller trump of fame
To deathlefs deeds of high heroic name;
Bid conqueft drive along the walks of war
Her fteeds of thunder, and her crimson car:
Or call up Atreus and the brother guest
To all the horrors of the fatal feaft;

Say,

Say, Who may touch aright the rural reed?
Aye, well I ween, or on the flow'ry mead,
< Or up the funny hill, or 'neath the grove,
That fmiles with happy hope, or happier love:
There are, who fondly feel the vernal hour
When Flora fmiles; there are from bloomy bow'r,
Who love to look at Nature's various flore,
As ftill enchanting art with sweetest lore,
Winding o'er hill and dale, o'er mound and mead,
Difplays the flow'rs and turf, the waves and fhade.'

The 12th and 13th lines are imitations of Gray; but for thefe M. de Lille only is accountable.

We give the following lines as a fpecimen of the perform

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Bleak whiftling robs the grove, and ftrews the vale,
While oft, who ftrays beneath in penfive mood,
Starts at the leaf that ruftles from the wood.
But ah! my foul enjoys the dying year,

I drop the fadly fympathifing tear

When nature mourns; and in my woe-worn heart,
When memory probes fome wound with double fmart,
Oh! how I love the with'ring wafte to tread,
When all the verdure of the year is fled!
Adieu! O folly, mirth, and glee adieu!
Come, melancholy come, nor let me rue
Thy fpirit fad, but foft; nor in the shroud
Of fpleen ftill kerchieft in a gloomy cloud,
But half-unveil'd, as oft th' autumnal day
Sheds on the vaporous air a fofter ray,
Penfive thy mien, mild thy dejected air,

And glift'ning in each eye the starting tear.

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The romantic defcriptions which the third book contains are particularly delightful; and the episode of Petrarch and Laura, with which it concludes, is pathetic.

This publication, though, upon the whole, not correct, is elegant and pleasing.

ART. X. Miferio's Vifion; a Poem. 4to. Is. Norwich printed. Baldwin, London. No Date.

SOMEBODY, we know not who, is introduced we know not how, defcribing a place without a name, we know not where, as a fecond Eden;'

-Sea, land, and sky confpire

To paint this fpot for all the world t'admire :
Yet not thefe fcenes proclaim the reign of bliss.'

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The author, however, a few lines further on, flatly contradicts this, and tells us

• This happy country round

Seems Eden all, feems all enchanted ground;'

and paints the inhabitants in the full enjoyment of all they can defire. This unknown and nameless perfonage amazed,' we fuppofe at fo uncommon a state of things, afks

• What bounteous hand

Sow'd joys and plenty over all the land."

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Miferio, all reply.' He wishes to fee this glorious man;' and his abode being pointed out to him, he tells us hither ftraight I ran.' But, contrary to his expectation, and ours too, he finds him a moft wretched melancholy wight, incapable of any enjoyment, because Amelia's gone away;'-do not miftake him, reader, as we did; he does not mean eloped, but gone to her long home. He then tells his vifitor how happy he and his Amelia were, how they ufed to play with Poll and Chloe (the parrot and lapdog), and how he used to lead her to hear the billows roar 'midft drawling ftones;' with many other things equally grave and pathetic. At laft, having finished his would-be interefting ftory, he begs the ftranger to weep for ⚫ pity o'er his widow'd life.' At that moment he is struck dumb with aftonishment and terror by a dreadful earthquake, accompanied by thunder and lightning. In the midst of this elementary convulfion, the vifitor displays a pair of wings, and is converted into a very fplendid angel, He gives Miferio very good advice; tells him to learn patience,' and fear God; and, having executed his commiffion, returns to heaven:

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The angel spoke, and back like lightning flies,

Shoots paft the blinded fun, and flames along the skies.' The reader all this time does not fufpect that he has been reading a dream; but fo it is, for the author immediately after fays, • Miferio trembling wakes in wild amaze'Twas all a dream.'

The intelligent public will fee by this analyfis how miferably defective the author is in the conftruction of his story; the diction is equally faulty. Now and then, amidst every species of bad compofition, fomething like poetry appears; of this kind is the couplet we laft quoted; the fun blinded by the fuperior blaze of the heavenly meffenger is a thought that would not dif grace the most genuine votary of the mufes.

ART

ART. XI. Henry and Acafto; a Moral Tale.
Hill; with a Preface by Sir Richard Hill.
London, 1789.

By the Rev. Brian Small 8vo.

PERSONS of a melancholy temper have generally a difpofition to religion, love, and to poetry. These three accomplishments, for the most part, centre in the fame perfon; the lover is poetical, the poet is amorous, and the faint both; witness the pfalmift David. Perhaps, upon a chemical analysis of the mind, it would be found that religious, poetical, and amorous enthusiasm are but different directions of the fame principle; as the object of all is confeffedly the fame, an invifible and ideal beauty, which Nature hath not thought proper to realife in this fublunary world, and which is the mere creation of the mind in which it refides. These three expanfions of the mind, devotion, fentimental love, and poetry, constitute the purest and most rapturous pleasures of life, and are only expofed to one mortification, that human nature cannot fupport them for any length of time. The expreffions of them too, in writing or difcourfe, furnish the most agreeable morfels of literary entertainment. Madame Guion's fhort way, her torrents, and her Commentary on the Song of Solomon; Rouffeau's Eloife, and Thomson's Seasons, present an entertainment of the fame kind, and are equally pleafing to an elegant tafte. Unfortunately, however, the most precious works of nature as well as of art are frequently counterfeited; and in the currency of the literary world there are at least ten counterfeits for one fterling coin. Whether the work before us belongs to the former or the latter defcription will appear from the fequel.

After fome vague and trite defcriptions of rural scenes, in which there is an equal regard fhewn to grammar, propriety, and poetry, our author tells us that a certain old gentlewoman called Autumna

• Had nine times fpread her golden store
[Anglice, that nine years had revolved]
Since pious Anna felt a mother's throes,
And the first light on Henry's head arofe.'

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The epithet pious, annexed to Anna in confequence of her amours, will furprise those critics who admire the propriety of Virgil, who, though he generally diftinguifhes his hero by the appellation of the pious Eneas,' reduces him to Dux Trojanus' when he met with Dido in a cave to celebrate the myfteries of Venus. But if fuch critics attend to the analogy that we have pointed out between religion and love, they will fee the propriety of this epithet.

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