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monly called a life of pleasure, much in the manner of Young, strongly delineated.

Whom call we gay? that honor has been long
The boast of mere pretenders to the name.
The innocent are gay-the lark is gay
That dries his feathers faturate with dew
Beneath the rofy cloud, while yet the beams
Of day-fpring overshoot his humble nett.
The pealant too, a witnefs of his fong,
Himself a fongfter, is as gay as he.

But fave me from the gaiety of those

Whose head-aches nail them to a noon-day bed,
And fave me too from theirs whofe haggard eyes
Flash desperation, and betray their pangs
For property ftripp'd off by cruel chance;
From gaiety that fills the bones with pain,

The mouth with blafphemy, the heart with woe.'

Our innate defire of novelty is then confidered, and the expediency of changing the fcene proved, as objects, though not fo beautiful in themselves as those we have been long accustomed to, will please by being lefs familiar. The inclofures of the valley; the rock that hides the fea-mew in his hollow clefts;' the common overgrown with fern ;' the haunt of a melancholy maiden crazed with love, are next exhibited. An affembly of gypfies is introduced, and their manners described. This leads the author to pass fome encomiums on a civilized ftate, which he looks upon as equally conducive to happiness and virtue. He expreffes his compaffion for the islanders in the South Sea, particularly Omiah, whose fituation, as it appears to the author, when reftored to his own country, is well imagined. But, though he allows a civilized ftate to promote virtue, he remarks that great cities are inimical to it. He beftows fome encomiums on London; but concludes the book with arraigning its effeminacy of manners, its feve rity in punishing petty offenders, and shameful lenity towards thofe of fuperior rank.

From the sketch we have given of the first book, an idea may be formed of the manner in which the others are conducted. The fubject-matter is fometimes ferious, and fometimes comic. The tranfitions are in many places happily contrived in others, too abrupt and defultory. Sometimes our author fhews himself rather too much the laudatur temporis alti, Our follies and vices are fufficiently numerous, but those of our forefathers, if we judge from the writers of their days, were little or nothing inferior. We are cenfured for wearing

⚫ habits costlier than Lucullus wore.'

Our

Our mutability in fashions is justly ridiculed; but our modes of dress are not, in general, remarkably costly. Our ancef tors flowing wigs, in the reign of good queen Anne, was probably a more expenfive and abfurd fashion than any in modern days. In another place, our author having expressed his ftrong attachment to his native country, his participation of its joys and forrows, obferves,

'And I can feel

Thy follies too, and with a just disdain
Frown at effeminates, whofe very looks
Reflect dishonour on the land I love.

How, in the name of foldiership and fenfe,
Should England profper when fuch things, as fmooth-
And tender as a girl, all effenced o'er

2 With odors, and as profligate as sweet,

Who fell their laurel for a myrtle wreath,

And love when they should fight; when fuch as these
Prefume to lay their hand upon the ark

Of her magnificent and awful caufe?

Time was when it was praife and boaft enough
In ev'ry clime, and travel where we might,
That we were born her children. Praife enough
To fill th' ambition of a private man,

That Chatham's language was his mother tongue, And Wolfe's great name compatriot with his own." We confider this reflection on our military gentlemen as too pointed, if not unjuft; particularly if he means to intimate that our public misfortunes are owing to their misconduct. To a deficiency, indeed, of Wolfes and Chathams, to the diffenfions of commanders, to internal divifions, and latterly to the fuperior force of our enemies, the ill-fuccefs of the late unfortunate war might juftly be attributed : during the continuance of which, we apprehend, no officers ever bore fatigue with greater patience, or encountered danger with more, refolution than our's. If the charge of effeminacy against them while at home be allowed, the zeal and fortitude they manifefted while abroad fhould have exempted them from unqualified cenfure.-If fome few of Mr. Cowper's fatiric obfervations are trite and threadbare, the generality are no lefs justly conceived than forcibly expreffed. In proof of which, though numbers might be adduced, we fhall felect a paffage that ftigmatizes a well-known divinity quack; whofe public addreffes to the clergy imply the meaneft opinion of, and convey the greatest infult to their order, it poffibly ever expe rienced.

• But hark-the doctor's voice-faft wedg'd between
Two empyrics he flands, and with fwoln cheeks

Inspires

Infpires the news, his trumpet. Keener far
Than all invective is his bold harrangue,
While through that public organ of report
He hails the clergy; and defying fhame,
Announces to the world his own and theirs.
He teaches thofe to read, whom schools difmifs'd,
And colleges untaught; fells accent, tone,
And emphafis in fcore, and gives to pray'r
Th' adagio and andante it demands.

He grinds divinity of other days

Down into modern ufe; transforms old print
To zig-zag manufcript, and cheats the eyes
Of gall'ry critics by a thousand arts.—

Are there who purchase of the doctor's ware!

Oh name it not in Gath ;-it cannot be,

That grave and learn'd clerks fhould need fuch aid.
He doubtless is in fport, and does but droll,

Affuming thus a rank unknown before,

Grand caterer and dry- nurse of the church.'

Our author's excellency, in faithfully delineating the scenes of nature, has been already mentioned. A ftriking inftance of it is to be found in his 'defcription of a winter's morning. The objects are brought immediately before our view: and the village cur, with which we shall clofe our extract, is peculiarly excellent, and painted from the life.

''Tis morning; and the fun with ruddy orb
Afcending fires the horizon. While the clouds
That crowd away before the driving wind,
More ardent as the disk emerges more,

His flanting ray

Refemble most some city in a blaze,
Seen through the leaflefs wood.
Slides ineffectual down the fnowy vale,
And tinging all with his own rofy hue,
From ev'ry herb and ev'ry fpiry blade.
Stretches a length of fhadow o'er the field.
Mine, fpindling into longitude immense,
In fpite of gravity and fage remark
That I myself am but a fleeting shade,
Provokes me to a fmile. With eye afkance
I view the mufcular proportioned limb
Transform'd to a lean fhank. The fhapeless pair
As they defigned to mock me, at my fide
Take step for step, and as I near approach
The cottage, walk along the plaifter'd wall
Prepoft'rous fight! the legs without the man."
The verdure of the plain lies buried deep
Beneath the dazzling deluge, and the bents
And coarfer grafs upfpearing o'er the reft,
Of late unfightly and unseen, now shine

Con

Confpicuous, and in bright apparel clad
And fledged with icy feathers, nod fuperb.
The cattle mourn in corners, where the fence
Screens them, and seem half petrified to sleep
In unrecumbent sadness. There they wait
Their wonted fodder, not like hung'ring man
Fretful if unfupplied, but filent, meek,

And patient of the flow-pac'd fwain's delay.
He from the ftack carves out th' accustomed load,
Deep-plunging and again deep plunging oft
His broad keen knife into the folid mafs.
Smooth as a wall the upright remnant stands,
With fuch undeviating and even force
He fevers it away. No needlefs care,
Left ftorms fhould overfet the leaning pile
Deciduous, or its own unbalanced weight.
Forth goes the woodman, leaving unconcerned
The chearful haunts of man, to wield the axe
And drive the wedge in yonder foreft drear,
From morn to eve his folitary task.

Shaggy and lean and fhrew'd, with pointed ears
And tail cropp'd fhort, half lurcher and half cur
His dog attends him. Clofe behind his heel
Now creeps he flow, and now with many a frisk
Wide-fcampering fnatches up the drifted fnow
With iv'ry teeth, or ploughs it with his fnout;
Then shakes his powder'd coat and barks for joy.'

What follows, for feveral pages of the fame kind, poffeffes equal merit; but we refrain from tranfcribing any farther. It is but justice, however, to obferve, before we conclude our review of this poem, that the religious and moral reflections with which it abounds, though fometimes the diction is not sufficiently elevated, in general poffefs the acuteness and depth of Young, and are often expreffed with the energy of Shakspeare. The Epiftle to Mr. Hill exposes the falfe pretenders to friendship, and concludes with a handfome compliment to that gentleman. In the poem entitled Tirocinium, we meet with fome fevere ftrictures on the mode of education in our public fchools; and we fear the author's cenfure is too juftly founded. The facetious ballad of John Gilpin, concludes the volume, and is too well-known to need our recommendation.

A General Synopfis of Birds. Vol. III. 4to. 21. 12s. 6d. in Boards. Leigh and Sotheby.

OUR

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UR attentive and industrious author has now completed his defign, viz. of giving a concife account of all the birds hitherto known; yet, as information conftantly accu

7

mulates

mulates in this enterprifing age, we are promifed, what muft have long fince become neceffary, an Appendix. Mr. Latham's former conduct convinces us, that the additions which have claimed his attention, will deferve our's; for he is as much fuperior to the profeffed book-maker as his work exceeds the crude compilations which we have fometimes received under the title of Natural Hiftories. In our fifty-fourth and fifty-seventh volumes, we gave fome account of his plan, and specimens of his execution. The volume before us contains the grallæ, and the anseres of Linnæus, described with the fame care, and etched with the fame precifion. Mr. Latham fpeaks with diffidence of the execution of the etchings, which are his own; but, as they are exact reprefentations, and the attitudes not deficient either in accuracy or spirit, they contain all that we' ought to defire. If he had done more, in our opinion his fuccefs would have been lefs complete. The colouring is alfo juft; but it is not always carefully laid on; for when etchings of this kind are properly coloured, they are the truest reprefentations of nature. This is the whole fecret of the effect of those beautiful views of Switzerland and the Glaciers, now publishing with fo much deferved applaufe on the continent.

This volume contains the order ftruthius,' compofed of the dodo, didus Linnæi, from the galline; the oftrich and the caffowary, (ftruthio, camelus, and cafuarius, of Linnæus.) The gralla and anferes of Linnæus are comprehended under the clafs of water-birds, and divided into, firft, thofe with cloven feet; fecondly, pinnated feet; and thirdly, web feet.

There is no department in natural hiftory, where we find more changes from the established fyftem of Linnæus than in birds. They arife partly from the many new difcoveries, and partly from the attention of natural hiftorians being more fixed on other fyftems befides that of the Swede: on the con trary, the united diligence of botanists has been almost exclufively employed in perfecting the fexual arrangement. This uncertainty, perhaps caprice, has occafioned great varieties; and, while they are more important in the orders of the gralle and anferes, they are alfo more numerous on account of the many additions to the fpecies, from the obfervations of later, voyagers. This laft volume, as well as the Arctic Zoology, is a very fatisfactory account of the kinds of birds which occurred to captain Cook and his companions: perhaps it is more fatisfactory than the work juft mentioned, because it is confined' by no imaginary limits, and comprehends every degree of la titude in each hemifphere.

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