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it is not advifeable to break unneceffarily into the analogy of the words in -ic. Catholic is indeed an allowed exception, but apoftolic is not; and many who read it apoftolic in that place, call it apoftólic when it occurs elfewhere.'

Critique. So lately as when Pope wrote, this word was not diftinguished by the accent from crític:

But you with pleasure own your errors paft,

And make each day a critique on the lait. Eff. on Crit. 1. 570. Alfo, Not that my quill to critiques was confin'd.

Johnfon does not even diftinguish these two words by the orthography, but spells both critick; which is furely a fault, confidering that they are now pronounced, as well as accented, differently.

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That loft, he keeps his chamber, reads essays.

B. Johnson, Epigr. xii. Yet modeftly he does his work furvey, And calls a finish'd poem an effay. Dryden, Verses to Ld. Rofc. Happy the author whofe correct essáy

Repairs fo well our old Horatian way. Rofc. Eff. on Tran. Verse. Fruitless our hopes, tho' pious our effays. Smith.

Johnfon fays," the accent is used on either fyllable." But I believe the accent here exemplified is now perfectly obsolete.' Perfume, both verb and fubftantive:

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Than in the perfum'd chambers of the great. 2 Hen. IV. A&t iii. Three April perfumes in three hot Junes burn'd. Shaks. Søn. 104. And in fome perfumes there is more delight. Ib. 130.

But in the following paffage we find the accent of the verb placed as it now is ufed:

The canker blooms have full as deep a dye

As the perfumed tincture of the rofes. Shakfp. Sonnet 54.
And the fubftantive is fo ufed by Milton:

Now gentle gales

Fanning their odoriferous wings, difpenfe
Native perfumes, and whifper whence they ftole
Those balmy spoils. Par. Loft, iv. 158,"

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This is only a fhort fpecimen of our author's lift, which is curious and ufeful, and perhaps the first of the kind that has been attempted.

Though we may probably differ from this learned writer in fome points which he has difcuffed in this treatise, yet we freely applaud his performance in general, as calculated to do eminent fervice to English literature, by exhibiting a greater variety of critical obfervations on the pronunciation of our language, than we have met with in any former publication.

Eleanora

1

Eleanora: from the Sorrows of Werter. A Tale.

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Small 8vo. 55. fewed. Robinson.

2 Vols.

'HERE is no work more captivating than the Sorrows of Werter. Its warm animated language, the strong expreffive feelings of a heart torn with anguish, and of refolution weakened by diftrefs, allures with irrefiftible power; with a power which we fear has fometimes led the reader of a congenial foul to a fimilar fate. On these and many other accounts, it is poison to a mind diseased; and may contribute with the proud man's contumelies,' or the pangs of defpifed love,' to hurry a despairing wretch to the extreme verge. The volumes before us feem to be defigned as an antidote to the poifon; but, like other antidotes, may come too late they are certainly not dangerous; and they poffefs a power of attraction by the fame means, and in a degree little inferior, to the Sorrows of Werter.

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The story is founded on a fhort fentence in the latter work: Werter, before his acquaintance with Charlotte, was attached to Julia; and her fifter Leonora fips of the intoxicating draught, under the guife of friendship. Fatal delufion! but though so often fatal, the phantom continues to allure and to betray. The unfortunate Leonora carries the wound in her heart, and it rankles amidst the gaieties of a court, and the fplendours of a midnight ball. Werter is fuppofed culpable in cherishing this fond delufion; but he leaves her without an explanation. He retires to the fatal spot, where he fees Charlotte, and finishes his love only with his life. The event is communicated to Leonora, and fnaps the thread, already weakened by the continuance of a violent, but hopeless, paffion.

This is a fhort outline of the novel, which is related with much address, and an intimate acquaintance with the human heart. It is an interesting story; and the Episode of Bertha and Conrade, and the little Hiftory of Claude and Isabella, are extremely beautiful. We think we perceive a moral, which we wish had been more pointedly infifted on. Men are often faulty in appearing particularly attentive, without designing to become lovers; and on the other hand women are often too credulous. There is an attractive power which frequently hurries us beyond ourselves: it is a momentary delirium, a temporary intoxication, which, though in itself a fault if purfued, in the more ferious moments, would lead to a crime more dangerous than the mode of conduct so generally ftigmatized as dishonourable. In the fituation of Leonora, the attentions of Werter were defenfible; and the ought to have reflected, that her paffion began before the death of Julia. May this guard some fond female against a too eafy belief!

As we can extract the following pleafing allegory, with little violence to the ftory, we shall infert it as a specimen.

How many happy hours have we paffed in this bowerhours never to be recalled-with what winged speed ye flew ! -and now every leaf spoke to my heart.-The difpofition of the boughs, which hung neglected, or only caught up here and there by the tendrils of a vine which had made its way through the lattice-had fomething fo mournful, fo pathetically touching in their appearance, that I could not withstand the fenfations they raised in me. I was overpowered by the weight of my afflictions-why is it that forrow takes fuch strong hold upon me? Is' calamity to be my guide through life?—I am not naturally of a melancholy turn; there was a time when chearfulness danced before me-Hope was on my right-hand and Contentment on my left. I gave myself up to their protection-we rushed giddily after our conductrefs.― Through what flowery paths fhe led us! whatever we faw was worthy of our attention, every trifle amufed us. At the altar of Religion we bowed our heads, our hearts hailed her as our fuperior patronefs-we offered gratefully our vows at her thrine. She received our facrifices, and fmiled on us with that benignity which can exalt the human heart to such a pitch of fublimity. My friend, we met with Love; he feduced Chearfulness from us, and he supplied her place ;-at first we fcarcely perceived the change; but we had not wandered long, when the boy grew captious.-Hope trembled and turned pale. She faw, and warned me of my danger: Love struck at her, and he fled. Contentment vanished. I would have followed, but with artful, with flowery bands he detained me. How foft, how gentle, he was then to me ;-but foon, what a tyrant did he become! What would I not have given to have broken my fetters !-yet now-that Despair has driven him from my heart-am I more at ease?—I am convinced we know not what is beft for us, and our part is only to fubmit with refignation to the events which the Most High shall judge we are capable of fupporting.'

MONTHLY CATALOGUE.

POETR

Y.

The Difbanded Subaltern: an Epifile from the Camp at Lenham. Second Edition. Is. 6d. Flexney.

WE gave fome account of this very pleafing performance in volume lvi. page 148. It is now enlarged and improved.

Rational

Rational Amufements, being a Collection of Original Mifcellanies, 8vo. 15. 6d.

Earle.

This is one of thofe milk and water productions of which little can be faid, either good or bad: we meet with nothing ftrikingly defective, much less particularly beautiful. Being confequently very ill calculated to afford food for criticifm, we fhall difmifs it without farther notice.

The Paphiad; or, Kenfington-Gardens. 4to. 15. 6d. Harlowe. The principal defign of this poem is to praise the duchess of Devonshire, to whom it is dedicated. The author firft introduces us to the aerial attendants of Venus, who are fummoned to appear before their mistress at the Paphian court. The following defcription of the bower, the goddefs, and those attendants will, we apprehend, please the reader, notwithstanding the construction of the verbs in fome of the concluding lines is not ftrictly grammatical.

In the fweet fhade of Paphos' fragrant wood,
A fecret bower of cluster'd myrtles flood:
Acrofs the dome two breathing woodbines twine;
The rofe, the jeffamine, their effence join
To feaft the fenfe; here, fpringing ever new,,
The modeft lily, and the violet blew :
All Flora's beauties grac'd the facred grove,
Where gentle Venus held the court of Love.

High on a throne, of beaten roses made,
The fmiling queen her airy troops furvey'd :
Clofe by her fide the blooming Graces food,
Her form with wonder, and with envy view'd;
Though fair each maid, her beauty, beaming far,
Flash'd like a planet o'er each meaner star.
A flowery wreath her golden ringlets grac'd,
The myftic ceftus bound her taper waist;
Each charm, just shaded by the purple veft,
Through the thin veil tranfparent flood confeft;
And fo contriv'd, that what might feem conceal'd,
Shone ftill the more luxuriantly reveal'd.

Beneath a fhade her iv'ry chariot stood;

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With pureft gold the burnish'd axle glow'd;
Loofe, and unharnefs'd, flew the milk white doves,
Sport in the air, or wanton with the Loves.

The little archer by his mother fat:

His guards attend in all the pomp of state;
Gay on the vines their golden quivers hung,
Untipt their arrows, and their bows unftrung.'

Venus informs her court, that fince the time when Paris beftowed on her the golden apple, her votaries had confidered her in a very improper light, as the tutelary divinity of luft, not of virtuous love: that, to vindicate her character, and convince

them

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them of the contrary, fhe was determined to depute a LIVING belle as her vicegerent below.

She fhall prefide o'er every mortal feene,
And fix her standard as the Paphian queen :
Let her my graces, pleafures, fmiles retain ;
The humble virtues too fhall fwell her train.
She must have rank; be noble in her birth;
(The world, we know, contemns untitled worth :)
She fhall affuage this rage of lust below;

Each, to be fair, muit then be virtuous too.'

To execute this defign the proposes an expedition to Ken. fington-gardens. She and her fuite accordingly take their invifible ftand under a large tree, and Venus defcribes the character of the British beauties as they pafs in review before them. Some are cenfured, but the generality highly, and the duchefs, fuperabundantly praifed. Venus declares, that her charms, had she made her appearance on mount Ida, would have exceeded thofe of all the three contending goddeffes united; and that her virtues would have reclaimed Paris, and ⚫ faved the fate of Troy.' The prize is accordingly bestowed on her, and the celestial powers fummoned to attend the 'new-made deity,' of whom we are just afterwards told that

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The conclufion, indeed, of this poem is not equal to its beginning, which, though not always correct, is elegant and pleafingly fanciful. When the Graces and Loves affemble round the duchess, the image, instead of being beautiful, is truly ludicrous.

None want a place for each a beauty found;
Fearless they circle, and adhere around.
A fmile in rapture plays about her face,
Whilft to her bofom fteals a tempting grace:
She gathers numbers as the moves along,
And in herself becomes a moving throng.
(All this unfeen by every mortal eye,
For Paphian acts are all a mystery.)'

The following vindication of the duchefs against the toothlefs prudes,' who are fuppofed to have arraigned her conduct, ftands in the fame predicament.

Know then, ye fputtering, fpiteful, cattifh race,

That envy ever brings its own disgrace:

If from her height fhe ftoop'd in freedom's caufe,
Her patriot zeal deferv'd a world's applaufe;
Nor meanly dare her character to scan:
Know-Liberty fhe lov'd-not Carlo Chan.'

The introduction of the burlefque title Carlo Chan, turns to jeft the defence that feems to have been very seriously intended.

Pictu

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