Not thus nobility, with worth conjoin'd,
It's luftre fpreads, and leaves a track behind.
The gifts of Fortune in a good man's power,
Are but the friendlefs wretch's certain dower;
They raise the languid, wipe Affliction's tear-
Such, noble Marlborough! fhine thy bounties here.
Thrice happy man! whom rural honours please,
The charms of science, and the sweets of ease.
Bleft with a Ruffel's love, in whom combine
The fplendid virtues of her noble line;
Bleft with an offspring, lovely as the day
That opes the rofy morn of gentle May;
You hear, unmov'd, Ambition's founding call,
Mark her steep progrefs, and avoid her fall:
State's gilded trappings to the vain you leave,
Nor court the plaudits which the bold receive.
With genius warm'd, with independence bleft,
Your's are the joys, which virtue loves to tafte;
The close-drawn ties, the friend, the father knows,
The heartfelt bliss from mutual love that flows;
The generous glow benevolence awakes,
When cherish'd merit bleffes, and partakes.'

Petrarch to Laura, a Poetical Epiftle. By Mr. C. James. 4to. 2s. 6d. Baldwin.

This little piece refembles in its principal outlines, though the characters of the parties were very different, that of Eloifa to Abelard. It is alike defcriptive of a feeling mind, agitated with contending paffions. We meet with the fame smoothness of numbers, vivid colours, and warmth of expreffion. But the author is no plagiarift, The following note is annexed to a defcriptive paffage, hardly confiftent with the caftigated refinements of Platonic love.

I have borrowed thefe lines from a fragment written by myfelf two years ago. All the other parts of the poem have been completed in fix fucceffive mornings.'

The mifer who stole his own oats was blameable, because he cheated his horfes for whom they were purchased: fo would the author be, had he adopted any lines of his own in a former publication, as they had become the property of the public; but fuch a felf-robbery as the prefent required no acknowledgment. If intended as an apology, it was needlefs; if defigned for information, trifling. As to the other part of the note we may observe, that whatever reputation he may think to gain for his facility of compofition, he lofes as much in not taking proper time to correct his poem, and make it more worthy of the public acceptance. But though fome paffages might be improved, it is not in general incorrect. Mr. James likewife tells us, that he is not confcious of having borrowed a fingle expreffion from any poet. Should a fimilitude be found, either in fentiment or word, I can fafely fay it came unlooked for."

6

Bold

Bold as the affertion feems to be, we give him credit for it, as we can trace no more refemblance between him and other writers than fome common modes of expreffion, which to those who treat on fimilar fubjects must be * unavoidable. The following lines, and in general they are equally good, will not be unacceptable to the reader.

Clofe to Vauclufe, and neighb'ring on my cot,
Romantic nature spreads a friendly grot.
Beyond the reach of tumult's bustling crew,
By rocks o'erhung, and perilous to view;
Dark as my foul, the difmal hollow lies,
Disjoin'd from earth, and ftranger to the skies;
For not a ray can pierce the gloomy round:
There echo refts, nor wakes to human found.
The whiftling winds, that tear the skirted sky,
Here lose their rage and into murmurs die;
While Sorgia's rills in trickling horror creep,
And kindly prompt my aking eyes to weep.
Down my wan cheek the tear of anguish flows,
And lends a mournful refpite to my woes.

There may'st thou view, what havoc charms like thine
Inceffant make, and add one figh to mine:

Nor could't thou, callous to the tend'reft flame,
See pain and fickness waste a lover's frame,
And not relieve the tortures of despair,
By one kind look-perhaps by one soft tear.
There, in fucceffive agonies, I prove
Reflection's horrors, and the pangs of love,
Vain is each hope, foreboding reafon cries;
Vain are thy tears and more than human fighs.
Rous'd by diftrefs, I foar to op'ning heav'n,
Plead for each crime, and find each crime forgiv❜n:
Conviction beams, and arm'd in ev'ry part,

I rife to tear thee from my ftruggling heart.'

A Hermit's Tale: recorded by his own Hand, and found in his Cell. 4to. 25. Cadell.

The Recefs, or Tale of other Times, did credit to mifs Lee's feelings and genius; the prefent is equally lamentable in its catastrophe, but in all other refpects totally different. Not because one is written in profe and one in verfe, for of the two, the metrical story is the leaft poetical. But, let the following lines, and there are many fuch, prove the wonderful diffimi litude,

Each fwain I bade renounce his crook ;

Each fwain obey'd my voice;

The ravagers we foon o'ertook,

And left them not a choice.

The eighth line, page 13, is, however, borrowed; but we cannot condemn the author for a fingle plagiarism, being well convinced, that memory is often mistaken for invention.

• No

No parle did either party ufe,
Impell'd by fierce disdain ;

One fought as men who'd all to lose,
The other to regain.

Day faintly purpled o'er the sky
When the fell fight began;
But ere our stubborn foes would fly,
The fun his course had ran.

Thus we retriev'd our fleecy store,
So late bewail'd as loft,

And feem'd, I'ween, to love them more,
For all the blows they cost.

• Not Richard's felf his warriors led

More proudly o'er the deep,
Than I for Aran's paftures fped,
Surrounded by my sheep.'

The Fallen Cottage, a Poem. By T. C. Rickman. 4to. 25 6d. Printed for the Author.

Rough and inelegant as too many lines in this poem undoubtedly are, it difplays frequent gleams of genius, and af fords fome picturefque delineations, chiefly of the ferio-comic kind, not unlike, fed longo intervallo, to what we have met with in Mr. Cowper's Tak; fuch as the hereditary great chair, that defcended, like Agamemnon's fceptre, from father to fon; the chearful groupe gathered round the wintry fire; and their tranfition from mirth to melancholy.

Oft' their talk

On difmal ftories fell, difaft'rous chances,
Murders and ghofts, and apparitions,
And the long train of frightful prodigies.

Appall'd they fat, and whilft they heard the tale
Of horror, all around was paleness seen,

And deep attention. "White as milk it came !,
And glided with the swiftnefs of a dart,

Along the lone dark lane." Another told,

" Of headless trunks that flood where three roads met,
Then chang'd to mastiffs, then were men again."
And oh! more dreadful! "How at midnight hour,
Strange phantoms drew the curtain." Thus they rais'd
Ideal terrors. E'en now my fancy paints

The fear-contracted circle, gazing oft',
As fomething ftalk'd behind. Off'times the fire
Corrected thefe wild fancies; though he form'd
From ancient tales a system for himself,
That half-admitted of fuch ftrange conceits.
His mate the while, all earneft to their talk,
Inmix'd her story, whilft fhe caft a look
Subordinate, to fee how look'd her lord;

For

For to her own, his judgment was a law,

And what he credited with her was truth.'

This is a juft, if not 'fo highly coloured a picture of nature, as ever Teniers drew. Addifon, with the fame Cervantic gravity, defcribes a fimilar fcene in the Spectator, from whence probably the author took the hint. The idea contained in the following lines is truly beautiful.

A youth, perhaps, fat liftening in fome nook,
Juft in his fchool-boy years, and as he drew
Into his foul the monsters of the night,
His labouring breaft created images
Great and terrific, fuch as fhake the foul,
And to the bottom harrow up our nature.
Perchance in fuch a school great Avon's fon
First felt the fovereign impulfe ftrike his foul,
Which, by degrees expanding, led the bard.
Of fanciful invention prodigal,

To all those wonders of his tragic mufe
That please in wildness.'

The efforts of untutored genius are infinitely preferable to correct and flowing numbers, devoid of fpirit and invention, and reflect no difcredit on the numerous and refpectable lift of fubfcribers prefixed to the present work.

Strictures on Adair's Bath Medical Cautions. By S. Freeman, M. D. Et Chemifta Frater de Cruce rofafcea. 8vo. 25. 6d. Sold by the Author.

Without the enterprifing difpofition of count Caglioftro, we muft own that we had rather swallow a dofe of Dr. Freeman's medicine than read another of his pamphlets. He has shown himfelf to be ignorant and illiterate; he has confeffed himself to have been a farrier and a blacksmith; he has himself eftablished the greater part of Dr. Adair's affertions relating to him. One indeed we muft except, for his honour: Dr. Adair had mentioned that he had left his wife and children to the parish. They were left, it feems, with his wife's family, and he has fupported them ever fince, though in no great affuence. Now for a fpecimen of his style.

He, who from an opinion of himself, without knowing the powers of other men, is very liable to error-and the character or good name of ingenious perfons, was ever blafted by illnatured felf-conceited poifon; but the very fumes, upon a certainty, fometime afterwards, burft the heart of the calumniator; whilft the fhafts of malice fly in vain, with little or no danger, to men of merit. To propagate fcandal, requires neither talents, labour, nor courage, but a heart of the blackeit hue.'

:

His learning may be partly understood by his calling himself chymifta frater de cruce rofacea. An alchemist knows the meaning of it; but our author does not pretend to alchemy: he feems to have taken up a title likely to make the unlearned stare.” We have more reafon to believe this, becaufe every Latin word in this pamphlet is either mis-fpelt or mif-applied; and, though this title occurs two or three times, the fpelling is never right: we fhall, however, felect a fhort fpecimen of this kind.

The art of phyfic was built upon chance, natural instinct, or unforeseen events; which was afterwards improved (firft by memory; or the recollection of what fuccefs had attended it from long experience) by thofe who, at that time, studied or practifed medicine, which were Herodotus, Strabo, Pliny, the Affyrians, Babylonians, Chaldeans, and the ancient Magi: hence the art spread itself according to Homer, in his Odyffes, and Diodorus Siculus, into Egypt, and from thence to Greece.'

We have once before had occafion to comment on our author's abfurdity; but he has now reached the top of the scale: he cannot expofe his ignorance more.

Phyfiological Conjectures concerning certain Functions of the Human Oeconomy in the Fatus and the Adult. By James Rymer. 800. 15. 6d. Evans.

We cannot implicitly follow our author, and recommend his Conjectures, because we do not always understand his meaning. Sometimes he is certainly wrong, and frequently unintelligible. The laft paragraph of his work is the beft; and we shall felect it, adding only, that, for ardent fpirit,' we would fubftitute good old Jamaica rum.

I am induced to believe that a beverage most falutary in any state of the ftomach is a mixture of vegetable acid, as lemon juice, water, fugar, and ardent fpirit. Of the latter juft fo much as will not produce any degree of intoxication. The juice of one large lemon, one ounce of fugar, fix ounces of water, and one ource of ardent fpirit, may form the mixture.?

Bravo, Mr. Rymer! our whole corps join in the approbation; and it is unanimously refolved, that the office of punchmaker fhall be conferred on no one, till you have fignified, in proper form, your refufal of it.

Short Directions for the Management of Infants. By T. Mantell, Surgeon. Small 8vo. 25. Becket.

The Directions are indeed fhort; and the only advantage which we can perceive in the publication is to collect a few plain rules in a portable form. They are felected from the moft approved authors, whofe names Mr. Mantell is often folicitous to point out, when the rule is fupported by common fenfe and conftant fuccefs. We fhall preferve the following note; but we believe the difference arifes from the increased health of all the inhabitants of large towns, in confequence of various

changes,