The principal part of this little work contains the arguments of the author to prove, that Laura was in reality never married. Yet it was remarkable that Laura de Sade fhould have died on the fame year with the Laura of Petrarch, and that the tomb of the latter fhould have been in the fame chapel with that of the former. We ought, however, to add, that the plague was epidemic in that year, and more than one Laura may be fuppofed to have died of it; as well as that the chapel feems not to have been appropriated to the house of Sade only. On the other hand, Petrarch always gloried in his affection as a merit rather than a crime: it was never confidered, even in the fuppofed converfation with St. Auguftin, where every argument is employed to weán him from it, as an improper attachment: he seems to have had at times accefs to his miftrefs; to have received fome little encouragements, the flender food on which love is fometimes fupported, and we never hear of a jealous husband, or of an indifcreet familiarity.

The laft argument advanced by the author in the Mémoires (viz. Memoires pour la Vie de Petrarque), which he gives as in a manner conclufive upon this point, is the explanation of the in word pths. Having candidly enough acknowledged that all the preceding arguments amount only to conjectures, the author might certainly have included the laft, with equal propriety, under the fame denomination. His interpretation of the word ptbs, partubus, is certainly nothing more than a conjec ture; to fupport which we have only his own opinion, and that of meffrs. Caperonnier, Boudot, and Bejot, of the king's library. But, in oppofition to their opinion, we have that of all the editors of the works of Petrarch. It will not be denied that the earlieft of thefe editors, who lived at no great distance of time from the age of Petrarch, were much better able to read the manufcripts of that age, and to interpret their abbreviations, than the critics of the eighteenth century. But with regard to this abbreviation, the author of the Mémoires is far from afferting that all the manufcripts of Petrarch contain the words fo written, or that those which he mentions are the most ancient. He mentions only two; fo that we may reasonably conclude that all the other manufcripts, of which the author's zeal upon this fubject would lead him to examine a great number, must bear the word written at full length, perturbationibus; and many of thefe were, perhaps, prior in date to those which he mentions. Even of thofe two, it is probable, from their coincidence in fo uncommon an abbreviation, that the one must have been copied from the other. At the best, therefore, the argument comes to this point: among all the ancient manufcripts of the Dialogues of Petrarch, there are two which write the word ptbs, the reft write at full length, perturbationibus. Be

fore

fore any conjectural interpretation of this word, different from the other manufcripts, can be allowed, it muft, in the first place, be proved that these two manufcripts are the most ancient of all; and that the reft have only given interpretations of the contraction: but this is not attempted; and the chance that these manufcripts are not the most ancient, is in the proportion of two to all the other manufcripts of the fame work exifting; perhaps two hundred.'

We think thefe, added to the other arguments, entirely decifive; and we shall agree with the author that

The arguments produced by the author of the Mémoires, are totally infufficient to fupport his hypothefis; which is still further difcredited, if not directly confuted, by the internal evidence arising from the works of the poet himself.'

The Sonnets are tranflated with confiderable elegance. The author has only selected the forty-eighth, one hundred and thirty-fecond, two hundred and twelfth, two hundred and fifty-first, two hundred and fixtieth, two hundred and fixtyfirft, and the two hundred and feventieth. We fhall transcribe the one hundred and thirty fecond.

Hor, che'l ciel, e la terra, e'l vento tace, &c.
'Tis now the hour when midnight filence reigns
O'er earth and fea, and whifp'ring zephyr dies
Within his rocky cell, and Morpheus chains

Each beast that roams the wood, and bird that wings the
Ikies.

• More bleft those rangers of the earth and air,

Whom night a while relieves from toil and pain:
Condemn'd to tears, and fighs, and wafting care,
To me the circling fun defcends in vain!

Ah me! that mingling miferies and joys,
Too near allied, from one fad fountain flow;
The magic hand that comforts and annoys,

Can hope and fell defpair, and life and death bestow

Too great the blifs to find in death relief,

Fate has not yet fill'd up the measure of my grief.'

Ifaiah verfified. By George Butt, Cler. A. M. 8vo. 5s. in Boards.

Cadell.

HE prefatory addefs opens with a fhort, but warm encomium

Lowth's Prelections: warm, however, and animated as it is, we prefume not to arraign its juftice, though we venture to con demn the high-flown panegyric on poetry which immediately follows it.

• Such,

'Such, many years pafled, was the character given of Isaiah in one of the most confummate works of criticifm: an important work indeed, whether we confider its fubferviency to religion, the fupremeft object of human concern, or its reference to poetry, that highest energy of human intellect, that noblest and loveliest expreflion of human fentiment and passion, that Jaft perfection of human language, that fureft embalmer of wifdom for all ages, that art for ever dignified by the practice of the holy prophets, and by the folemn fančtion of the divine fpirit itself; in a few words, that art which can (if any can) alone give us the moft perfect and attractive image of virtue, and with a fort of God-like faculty spread before us a fairer order of things, and create (as it were) a new heaven and a new earth to raife our drooping fpirits."

We believe the author would find fome difficulty in proving that the prophets always expreffed themselves poetically, and in explaining to our fatisfaction how the art itself has obtained the fanction of the divine Spirit. The latter affertion is an abfurdity: the former, if we understand him right, a mistake. If he means, that because the prophets ufed in general a poetic ftyle, that therefore fomething facred is annexed to the nature of poetry, the idea is puerile. It might be proved that there is fomething noble and divine in profe, and equally fubfervient to religion, by the fame argument; for Chriit fpoke, and his apostles wrote, without any artificial arrangement of words, or modulation of numbers. In regard to what follows, in the Preface, we heartily concur with the author in the praises bestowed on Dr. Lowth, but do not equally agree with him in other matters; not fo much that we controvert his positions, as that we really do not comprehend them. What connection, for inftance, can we find, or what meaning collect, from the following ill-forted fentences? The whole chain of argumentation, if we may call it fo, feems compofed of broken links of heterogeneous materials.

The literary taste of a people muft in part be imputed to fiterary principles, and in this refpect we are right or wrong not only from what we commonly do, but from what we commonly read, from the habit of our fpeculations as well as actions. To be prejudiced, is a difpofition to which one is fubject more than is ufually fufpected, and therefore we too much admire as well as defpife the works of antiquity, overlooking the gains as well as loffes of time. It is God-like in many inftances to be pleafed with variety, for variety characterises the works as well as word of God. We too often condemn as wrong what we fhould rather fay we diflike, and we thence form theories to justify prejudice, and to rivet infirmity on the mind, instead of fuch as would increafe its ftrength, enlarge its fympathy with whatever excellency, and difpofe it to encourage the advancement of laudable things. The works of men, that are now no more, and which are come down to us

5

precious

precious from the fiery fearching of many ages, affuredly demand the stamp of praife from the prefent times.'

We are forry to observe that, in too many other places where the author aims at being argumentative, he becomes abftrufe ; and where he attempts an elevation of ftyle, he degenerates into bombaft. As a fpecimen of his poetical abilities we shall give his verfion of the feven firft verfes of the fifty-third chapter, which contains the remarkable prediction of our Saviour's humble appearance on earth, and is probably as interesting and pathetic a paffage as any in the prophecies of Ifaiah.

Who (fhall he fay) hath our report receiv'd ?
And unto whom from heav'n hath been reveal'd
Jehovah's arm? Behold by mortal eyes
Low from the ground he feem'd a fhoot to rife
Tender, ill-rooted in a barren earth,
Yea of a mean prefentment from his birth.
In him nor air nor form majestic move
Rev'rence, nor all-attractive beauty love.
Defpis'd, and to rejecting fcorn a prey,
As one that had not where his head to lay,
Held in th' account of poverty's worst state
As fhame-funk, woe-begone, and defolate;
A man indeed of fuch fupremeft. grief
As feem'd to human fight beyond relief.
He was defpis'd, he was upon our scorn
Caft, yet our frailties all hath kindly borne.
But though our forrows have his burthen been,
Still in our fcorn as juftly stricken feen
As troubled by God's felf and fmitten, we
With cruel cenfure point calamity.
Yet not for his offences but our own
He with his forrows pays our fin's vast loan;
For us is wounded, his benign intent
Our peace to purchase with nis punishment,
And with his bruifes heal us, from our way
Wand'ring afide as careless theep aftray.
Thence hath Jehovah made on him to fall
The fin-wrought fentence hatt'ning on us all,
And from us all exacted, but his grace
Pow'rful came in impleaded in our place.
Then as the lamb approaching flaughter's hand,
And as the sheep before the fheerer stand
Mute, unrefifting, thus from rev'rence meek
This gen'rous victim deems it blame to fpeak,
And yielding filent to the folemn law

Deigns on his head our mortal doom to draw.'

The fenfe is here fufficiently dilated; but, we apprehend, the fpirt and pathos of the original proportionably diminished. In

fore

fome places Mr. Butt has wrote in a more fpirited manner, and confequently fucceeded better; and we would recommend to him in any future compofition, not to be fo poetical in his profe, and to be lefs profaic in his verse.

Abelard to Eloifa: an Epifle. With a new Account of their Lives, and References to their Original Correfpondence. Small 8vo. 6d. Dilly.

1

THI
HIS Epiftle, or rather the sketch of it, appeared in a small
poetical collection, of which we gave fome account, vol.
Ivii. p. 5. It is now altered and confiderably enlarged. We then
took notice that the author, confidered as an imitator, not a
rival, of Pope, appeared in a respectable light;' and we ob-
ferve, with pleafure, that the prefent poem approaches ftill
nearer to that author's in grace and harmony. As our first opi-
nion was given without any quotation to establish its justice,
we fhall fubmit the following in vindication of our fentiments.
The first lines allude to the abbey of St. Gildas, in Britanny,
from whence Abelard's epiftles are faid to be written. The
concluding ones, which defcribe his former affection as re-
kindled at the name of Eloifa, mixed with the enthufiaftic fen-
timents his fituation would moft naturally be fuppofed to pro
duce, are truly beautiful.

Miftaking man! who thinks in fhades to find
The charms that lull the long-impaffion'd mind;
Or dreams the cloifter'd cell alone fecure
From common woes that all his race endure.

Ye naked hills, unblefs'd by nature's care!
Ye vales, unconscious of the labouring share,
Stretch'd many a league, whence iffuing to the day
The fhaggy tenant feeks a diftant prey!
Unfightly cliffs, within whofe cavern'd fides
Her talon'd young the fcreaming vulture hides!
Ye feas, that round yon rocky-cinctur'd tower
With leepless fury vex the midnight hour!
In your defpite an abfent world retains
Her joyless flaves in fublunary chains,
Or grofs debauch, and fullen floth combine,
To check remorfe, and quench the ray divine.
For as the maniac, in his fordid cell,

Will oft on fancy'd thrones and fceptres dwell;
So these fad exiles from the focial kind
As falfely rate the toys they left behind.

In vain remonftrance lends her feeble aid,
They fcorn the doctrine, and the guide upbraid.
"And dare that hand affume the paftor's rod ?
Behold the frontlefs delegate of God!
In other climes thy forward zeal be shown,
And preach where Abelard is yet unknown;

Or.