AND Sournal of Belles Lettres, Arts, Sciences, etc. This Journal is supplied Weekly, or Monthly, by the principal Booksellers and Newsmen throughout the Kingdom: but to those who may desire No. 190. SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 9, 1820. REVIEW OF NEW BOOKS. Recollections and Reflections, Personal may be expected when -Old age looks out deal, under the names of Back-stairs, and PRICE 8d. his new purchase, he could not help ex- "Non equidem invideo, miror magis.' "The Princess Dowager of Wales wished her son to be a king, such as she had been educated to believe a king ought to be; viz. a king after the model of a Duke of Saxe Gotha; and this was the object of that les-political character, he, and his cousin Wilson which she was continually inculeating to liam Burke, embarked in a speculation in him, George, be King." But I do not see India Stock. They prevailed on many of any reason for believing that there was any their friends to join them, among others, on original intention of forming an interior Ca- Earl Verney, who fell a victim to this conbinet. I believe that the plan of the interior nexion. They used much solicitation with Cabinet grew out of circuinstances which af- Sir Joshua Reynolds to join them, but he terwards arose. The first wish was, that was dissuaded from it by Anthony Chamier, the Earl of Bute should be advanced to be for which Anthony Chamier, as he told me Prime Minister; and while he was Minister, himself, was never forgiven by the Burkes. there was certainly no desire to form an in- This speculation was at first extremely sucterior Cabinet. Most probably the interior cessful, but at last it failed. William Burke, Cabinet arose on his retirement from office. and Lord Verney, were announced as the When the Earl of Bute was made Secretary defaulters; and Edward Burke's name was of State for the Northern Department, he concealed. William Burke was sent to Iufound in that office Mr. Charles Jenkinson dia, and a situation at the Court of the Ra a man of family, though in the inferior situ- jah of Tanjore obtained for him. Other adation of a volunteer clerk. The Earl of vantages in India were also obtained for this Bute discovered this gentleman's abilities; gentleman. and when he was made first Lord of the Treasury, removed Mr. Jenkinson with him to his new office, and made him Secretary of the Treasury. When the Earl of Bute resigned, Mr. Jenkinson was the channel through which confidential communications were conveyed from the King to the Princess Dowager and the Earl of Bute; and this was most probably the origin of the interior Cabinet." And garrulous, recounts the feats of youth. The author is an ancient gentleman of se-by-si, resident at Thoulouse; his father was a physician at the court of George II. end, having himself sat in three Parliaments, he imagined that he had materials easy for a volume, to enlighten the present generation, respecting the doings of the last. is claim is, however, rather moderately supported; for though there will be found some intelligence, and some sound views, in his lucubrations, he broaches so many wild theories, repeats the same things so very of ten, contradicts himself so frequently, and "When the Coalition came into power, is so lavish of imputations on every unfortuMr. Burke saw that much strength might be nate individual honoured by his notice, that acquired for his party, by the seizure of Inhe presents us, upon the whole, but a crude dia patronage. With this view Charles Fox mass of inconsistencies, and a sweeping libel was employed to bring in the India Bill, geupon humanity. Not only every monarch nerally known by the name of Fox's India and minister, but every man and woman, Bill. But I am firmly persuaded that Mr. Fox whom he recognizes, for three quarters of a had nothing to do with the formation of this century, appear in the vizards of rogues, or Bill. It was prepared by Mr. Edmund the caps of fools. There is nevertheless Burke, whose only asist in it was Mr. some curious information in these pages, and We quote a passage relating to the cele-Pigot, afterwards Sir Arthur Pigot. Mr. several facts (if they can be depended upon) brated Edmund Burke, whom Mr. N. seems Lee, at that time Attorney General, and Sir of considerable importance. For example, to love but little. James Mansfield, at that time Solicitor Geic is asserted, by this zealous Foxite, that "At the time when Burke was selected toneral, both assured me, that they never saw Mr. Pitt was unwillingly forced into the war be the private Secretary to the Marquis of against the French Revolution, by the great Rockingham, he was an author in the service Whig families, instigated by Burke; and, ma of Mr. Dodsley, the bookseller; he had deed, very cogent reasons are given in cor- coaducted for that gentleman the Annual roboration of this statement. But we will leave Register, a work of considerable reputation Mr. Nichols' political reflections on French, and merit, first established in the year 1758; Spanish, and American revolutions, on agri- and I believe that it was conducted under culture and commerce, on the Pope and par- the direction of Mr. Burke to a very late peties, on German Governments and Indian af- riod of his life. The political knowledge of fairs, to those who love that species of specula- Mr. Burke might be considered almost as an tion, contenting ourselves with extracting Encyclopædia: every man who approached half a dozen of his anecdotes, which possess him received instruction from his stores; the more agreeable property of being likely and his failings (for failings he had) were not to amuse our readers. We shall just pre-visible at that time; perhaps they did not mise, in order to mark our reprehension of it, that the terms in which he speaks of our late king, are very unbecoming, as well as foolishly at war with his own expressed opinions. He seems also to attach more consequence to Burke than ever Burke in reality possessed ;-in short, his free language is hardly one remove from the slander of the dead, from the throne to the footstool. The following is his story of the origin of an inAuence of which we have all heard a great the Bill, until it was printed for the use of the House of Commons. They doubted whether Charles Fox himself had seen the Bill, before the essential parts of it had been completely arranged by Mr. Burke. Lord North certainly did not see it until the Bill was completed; and when it was shown him, he said with his usual pleasantry and sagacity, that he thought it a good receipt to knock up an administration.' 6 YOL. IV. then exist; perhaps they grew up in the pro- The subjoined is a pleasanter story, to account for Mr. Francis's hostility to Warren Hastings and his friends. "Mr. Francis was a man of considerable abilities. He was a very superior classical scholar; and he was capable of laborious application. Strong resentment was a leading feature in his character. I have heard him avow, this sentiment more openly and more explicitly than I ever heard any other man avow it in the whole course of my life. I have heard him say publicly in the House of Commons, Sir Elijah Impey is not fit to sit in judgment on any matter where I am interested, nor am I fit to sit in judgment on information which we may have omitted to lay before them. him.' A relation of the ground of this ill him to Paris, where he married her; and will may be amusing. Mrs. Le Grand, the thus the insult, which wife of a gentleman in the Civil Service in from alr. Francis, and this lady received the loss of reputa- "This is my opinion (no matter what it is Bengal, was admired for her beauty, for the tion, which was, perhaps unjustly, the con- about) while resident in France, on the 7th sweetness of her temper, and for her fasci- sequence of that insult, eventually elevated of March, 1820. In the town which I now nating accomplishments. She attracted the her to the rank of Princess of Benevento. inhabit, the house formerly occupied by the attention of Mr. Francis. This gentleman, The following are also curiousInquisition has been purchased for the use by means of a rope-ladder, got into her "George II. had always publicly kept a of the Missionaries; and it is well known, apartment in the night. After he had re-mistress; most certainly with the know- that a body of men, under the name of secrèts, mained there about three-quarters of an ledge of the Queen; and it was generally are still kept in the same town and its neighhour, there was an alarm; and Mr. Fran- believed that his mistresses were chosen by the bourhood. Probably they are not so numecis came down from the lady's apartment by Queen. I believe Mr. Walpole is right when rous as they were in 1815. They were then the rope-ladder, at the foot of which he was he says, that the Queen was the woman who uncontrollable. They openly murdered Geseized by Mr. Le Grand's servants. An ac- had the strongest hold of his affections. Ineral Ramel, the Commander of the King's tion was brought by Mr. Le Grand against recollect a circumstance mentioned to me by forces in this town. I believe other GeneMr. Francis, in the Supreme Court of Jus- my father, which is a proof of this asser- rals in the service of Louis XVIII. experienctice in Calcutta. The judges in that court tion. The morning after the King's death, ed the same fate in other parts of France." assess the damages in civil actions, without my father and Sir Edward Wilmot, who the intervention of a jury. The gentlemen were the only two King's physicans then in who at that time filled this situation, were town, received an order to be present at the Sir Elijah Impey, Chief Justice, Sir Robert opening of the body, and to report their opiChambers, and Mr. Justice Hyde. I was nion as to the causes of his Majesty's death. intimate with the first and the third from A paper of directions left by the King, as to the manner in which his body should be treated, &c., was produced; and in that paper he had directed, that the coffin should be so constructed, that one side of it might be drawn out. The coffin in which the body of Queen Caroline was placed had been constructed in a similar manner; and his Majesty directed, that one side of each coffin should be drawn out, so that the two bodies might be in one coffin. I believe these directions were very exactly observed. We must recommend a good chapter on the decline of talent in our law-courts; it is the cleverest part of the work, and, we are sorry to say, much to the disadvantage both of the present bench and bar. Portraits of Illustrious Personages of early life; having lived with them on the Western Circuit. On the trial of this cause, Sir Robert Chambers thought, that as no criminality had been proved, no damages should be given. But he afterwards proposed to give thirty thousand Rupees, which are worth about three thousand pounds sterling Mr. Justice Hyde was for giving a hundred thousand rupees. I believe, that Mr. Justice Hyde was as upright a judge as ever sat on Since the illustrious portraits of Houany bench; but he had an implacable hatred braken, we are not aware of any similar to those, who indulged in the crime imputed George II., while Electoral Prince of work of equal magnitude and impor to Mr. Francis. Sir Elijah Impey was of Hanover, had served in the Duke of Marl-tance with the present; and excellent opinion, that although no criminal inter- borough's army, and had given distinguished course had been proved, yet that the wrong proofs of personal courage: but I believe as many of the heads in the former done by Mr. Francis to Mr. Le Grand in that this was the only military qualification magnificent publication were, there was entering his wife's apartment in the night, which he possessed. He had neither litera- an inequality in the general execution, and thereby destroying her reputation, ought ture nor taste, but a strong sense of deco- which certainly does not exist to the to be compensated with liberal damages. rum. I will mention a little anecdote as a detriment of this undertaking. The He thought the sum of thirty thousand ru- proof of this. The Duke of Richmond of uniformity of style in the engravings pees, proposed by Sir Robert Chambers, that day was one of the King's chief compa- before us, and the care and correctness too small; and that proposed by Mr. Hyde, nions. A Doctor of Divinity of the Duke's observable in their finish, render them of a hundred thousand, too large. He there- acquaintance, eminently learned, had acfore suggested a middle course, of fifty quired a knack of imitating the caterwawl- peculiarly worthy of public regard and of thousand rupees. This proposal was acqui-ings of a cat. The Duke had no taste for the attention of men of taste. The mode, esced in by his two colleagues. When Sir his friend's learning; but he took great plea- a mixture of the chalk and line, exElijah Impey was delivering the judgment of sure in hearing him imitate the cat. He had cellent in itself for the purposes of chathe Court, my late friend, Mr. Justice Hyde, often talked to the King of this uncommon racteristic expression in the countecould not conceal his eager zeal on the sub- talent which his friend possessed, and had nances and perfect representation of ject; and when Sir Elijah named the sum of pressed his Majesty to allow him to place costume and draperies, has been as jufifty thousand rupees, Mr. Justice Hyde, to this gentleman behind his chair, one day at the amusement of the bystanders, called out, dinnner, that he might himself judge of his diciously employed as admirably perSiccas, brother Impey; which are worth extraordinary power of imitation. The King formed; and the result is, the proeleven per cent. more than the current ru- at last consented; and this learned man was duction of the most brilliant and strikpees. Perhaps this story may not be thought one day placed behind the King's chair, while ing effect, in clearness, tone, and depth worthy of relation but it gave occasion to he was at dinner. The King was for some of colour, that animosity, which Mr. Francis publicly time amused with his various imitations; he As however we shall have many ocavowed against Sir Elijah Impey; and the at last turned round to see the gentleman,casions to introduce our opinions recriminal charge afterwards brought against when he received a bow from a gentleman full him in the House of Commons, was the of dressed in canonicals, The King was so shock-specting the graphic merits of this spring of that animosity. I will follow up ed at the sight, that he could not refrain from superb collection, as we proceed with this anecdote by mentioning the conse- saying to the Duke of Richmond, Do take those local details which it is our intenquences of the action brought by Mr. Le him away: I cannot bear buffoonery from a tion to submit to our readers, we shall Grand. The lady was divorced: sh was man in such a dress.' If this may not be now rather look to the grand outline obliged to throw herself under the protec-mentioned as a proof of the King's good taste, than to particular parts. After laying tion of Mr. Francis for subsistence. After a a foundation of this kind, we shall find short time she left him, and went to England. In London she fell into the company of M. much, both in the letter press and in the Talleyrand Perigord. Captivated by her plates, worthy of more particular notice. charms, he prevailed on her to accompany The exhibition just closed at the British : it may at least serve to show that he had a strong sense of decorum." We annex but one paragraph more; and, as it contains a reference to the author, our readers may apply to him (post-paid) for any Gallery, has familiarized us with a considerable number of the paintings, whence Mr. Lodge has taken his copies; and it would have been desirable to bring his volumes under review, at the period when the comparison between their ornaments and the originals might so readily have been instituted. But besides that our weekly sheet was too limited to admit of two Essays of any length upon the Arts in the same numbers, (consistently with our plan of giving as much variety as we can to each,) we postponed our determination, in the hope that the last part (XX.) would have appeared, and put it in our power to take the complete series into view at once. These reasons for and against having respectively lost and gained force, we deem it advisable to delay our remarks on Mr. Lodge no longer; and the fresh recollection of the splended Exhibition to which we have alluded, and to which, we believe, this publication led the way, will materially assist and improve the spirit of our criticism. and is deserving of, public patronage for tus C, consisting of private letters, speeches The bounds allotted for this design are 20 parts, each containing 6 portraits of distinguished individuals, of British birth, who died previous to the year 1700; and it is but justice to state, that all the impression which could be anticipated from an admirable union of literary biography and engraved portrait, has been achieved to the full extent of the author's promise. He has indeed acquitted himself most ably and satisfactorily in both branches; and we are sure it will be felt, that his exertions have raised a splendid monument to departed greatness-a tribute to the dead, a stimulus to the living, and an honour to the arts of England. We have perused the biographics with as much interest as we have looked at the plates with admiration; and we know not when we have experienced a stronger influence than their combination has exercised over our minds. Part II, contains Charles Brandon, Duke of Suffolk, Walter Devereux, Earl of Essex, Thomas Howard, Earl of Suffolk, Sir Kenelm Digby, Queen Jane Seymour, and Cardinal Allen; the first two and the last painted by unknown artists, and the three others by Zucchero, Vandyke, and Holbein. From this part we shall select only one passage, a letter of the Earl of Essex to the Lord Treasurer Burghley, previous to his setting out on his expedition to Ireland. It possesses considerable interest, and is a fair specimen of the manners at the Court of Elizabeth, as well as of the style of the times. "May it please your L. Part I. which was published in April 1814, contains Sir Philip Sidney, (by Sir Yesterday I was at the Courte, and dyd Antonio More,) William first Lord Paget, take my leave of Her Matie. She hath signed (by Holbein,) Queen Catherine Par, (by the all my books, and I am departed from her same,) Henry Howard Earl of Northampton, Matie wt. verie good words, and promyse of (by Zucchero,) Thomas Radclyffe, 3d Earl her favour and furtherance of this enterof Sussex, (by Sir A. More,) and Sir prize. Uppon the taking of my leave, she Thomas Bodley, (by Cornelius Jansen). Of told me that she had two speciall things to these personages, the lives are generally too advise me of; the one, that I should have well known to sanction our devoting much consideracion of the Irishe there, whiche she space to extract; we shall therefore say thought had become her disobedient subnothing of the renowned Sidney, of the sixthjects, rather because they have not byn wife of the uxorious blue-beard Henry, of defended from the force of the Scotts then the able statesman Radclyffe, or of the cele- for any other cause. Her Matie's opinion brated founder of the Bodleian Library. Nor was, that uppon my comyng, they wold yeld indeed shall we repeat more of the founder themselves good subjects, and therefore of the Uxbridge and Anglesey peerage, wyshed them to be well used. To this, my than that he was born in London in 1506, L, I answered, that I determyned to deale where his father was Serjeant of Mace to the so wth them, as I should fynd beste for her Corporation. The young William was no-service when I came there; and, for the ticed by Gardiner, Bishsop of Winchester, present, I could not saye what is beste to and by him educated and recommended to be done; but this her Matie shold be sure public employment, at a court where merit of; that I wold not imbrue my hands wh was more sure of advancement, than perhaps more blud then the necessitie of the cause it ever was at a court before, or has been requireth. The other special matter was, since. that I should not seeke too hastily to bring people that hathe byn trayned in another religion from that wch they have been brought uppe in. To this, I answered, that, for the present, I thought it was best to lerne them to know their aliegence to her Matie, and to yeld her their due obedience; and after they had lerned that, they wold be easily brought to be of good religion. Muche more speches besids passed betweene her Matie and me, whiche were of no greate importance, and therefore I wryte them not to yo' L. The title of the work sufficiently indicates its plan; which is, to give an exact copy of the portraits of the most illustrious personages of British History, engraved with the strictest attention to excellence of execution and faithfulness of similitude, from the finest and most authentic pictures which are extant of them. To obtain this distinction, one course alone secins to have been adopted throughout; for, as portraits of the illustrious personages of our country, have in general descended with titles and estates to their posterity, and are consequently to be found principally in the galleries of the ancient nobility, or in the 'national collections; we find every portrait to have been executed from authorities of this nature, which are at once sources of the highest authenticity, and productions of the most exquisite art. Thus, we perceive portraits of the Howards, to have been contributed from the Norfolk Gallery; those of the Russels, by the Duke of Bedford; of the Hamiltons, whose loyalty so long upheld the royal cause in Scotland at the period of the Rebellion, from the palace of their noble descendants, at Hamilton; and of the historian of this turbulent period and companion in exile of our second Charles, from the collection of his descendant, the present The Earl of Northampton is vindicated by Earl of Clarendon. The episcopal palace at Mr. Lodge, from the charge of being privy Lambeth and the British Museum, have con- to Sir Thomas Overbury's murder. He was tributed portraits of three of the most dis- the builder of Northampton House, Charing tinguished primates that ever upheld the Cross, afterwards Suffolk, and now NorthProtestant faith-Archbishops Warham, umberland House, where he died in 1563. Cranmer, and Laud. From Oxford we Among the writings of this acute man, find portraits of Thomas Bodley and of besides those which he published, are "two Cardinal Wolsey, engraved from the ori-Treatises to justify Female Government;" the ginal pictures, which are preserved in the magnificent establishments of which they were the respective founders: in short, this work is a costly proof of the extent to which private enterprize may be carried in this country, when it depends upon, We observe 23 of Lodge's portraits, are from pictures in this exhibition; and several of the same individuals, but from portraits by other hands. one in the Harleian, the other in the Bod- "I am, my L. depted from the court, wh many good and fayre promises of diverse, but of the pformance of them I know what assurance I may make. I repose my onlie truste uppon your L. Your honourable dealing wt me, both in this, and at all times before, bathe byn suche as hath bound me 1573. [Sequent Parts in our following Nos.] Prometheus Unbound; a Lyrical Drama, in four acts, with other Poems. By Percy Bysshe Shelley. London, 1820, 8vo, pp. 222. These may seem harsh terms; but it | been simply to familiarise the highly refined is our bounden duty rather to stem such imagination of the more select classes of poa tide of literary folly and corruption, etical readers with beautiful idealisms of than to promote its flooding over the moral excellence"-such, to wit, as the preference of damnation with certain beings, to country. It is for the advantage of beatitude with others! sterling productions, to discountenance counterfeits, and moral feeling, as well as taste, inexorably condemns the stupid trash of this delirious dreamer. But, in justice to him, and to ourselves, we shall cite his performance. But of this preface, more than enough :we turn to Prometheus Unbound; humbly conceiving that this punning title-page is the soothest in the book-as no one can ever think him worth binding. ever to be at your L'. commandement. And so I rest, and humbly take my leave of yor L. From Duresme House, this xxth of Julie, At your L'. commandement. 66 W. Essex." The Earl of Suffolk here is the discoverer of the memorable gun-powder treason. His portrait is remarkable for its small hat and feathers, resembling the highland bonnet. Cardinal Allen, was the zealous defender of the Roman faith during the reign of Elizabeth. About 1563, when driven out of The dramatis impersona are Prometheus, England in consequence of his writings and Jupiter, Demogorgon, the Earth, the Ocean, There is a preface, nearly as mystical and Apollo, Mercury, Hercules, Asia, Panthea, success in converting proselytes, he went to Douay, where, on an academy recently esta- mysterious as the drama, which states Mr. lone, the phantasm of Jupiter, the Spirit of blished, he raised the college since so ceShelley's ideas in bad prose, and prepares us, the Earth, Spirits of the Hours, other Spirits lebrated for the education of British Ro-by its unintelligibility, for the aggravated ab- of all sorts and sizes, Echoes, substantial and manists, and which subsisted till the French surdity which follows. Speaking of his obliga-spiritual, Fawns, Furies, Voices, and other Revolution dispersed its inmates, and con- is impossible that any one who inhabits the that Prometheus, after being three thousand tion to contemporary writings, he says, It monstrous personifications. The plot is, verted their academie retreat into a military hospital. It is now, we believe, a manu- stand in the foremost ranks of our own, can cendancy, and restores happiness to the same age, with such writers as those who years tormented by Jupiter, obtains the asfactory. conscientiously assure himself, that his lan-earth-redeunt Suturnia regna. We shall guage and tone of thought may not have not follow the long accounts of the hero's been modified by the study of the produc- tortures, nor the longer rhapsodies about tions of those extraordinary intellects." [Mr. the blissful effects of his restoration; but S. may rest assured, that neither his lan- produce a few of the brilliant emanations of guage, nor tone of thought, is modified by the mind modified on the study of extraordithe study of productions of extraordinary in-nary intellects. The play opens with a tellects, in the age which he inhabits, or in speech of several pages, very argutely deliIt has been said, that none ought to any other.] He adds, "It is true, that, not vered by Signior Prometheus, from an icy attempt to criticise that which they do the spirit of their genius, but the forms in rock in the Indian Caucacus, to which he is not understand; and we beg to be con- which it has manifested itself, are due less" nailed" by chains of " burning cold." He sidered as the acknowledged transgres- to the peculiarities of their own minds, than invokes all the elements, seriatim, to inform sors of this rule, in the observations to the peculiarity of the moral and intellec-him what it was he originally said against which we venture to offer on Prome-tual condition of the minds among which Jupiter to provoke his ire; and, among the they have been produced. Thus, a number resttheus Unbound. After a very diligent of writers possess the form, whilst they want and careful perusal, reading many pas- the spirit of those whom, it is alledged, they sages over and over again, in the hopes imitate; because the former is the endowthat the reward of our perseverance ment of the age in which they live, and the would be to comprehend what the wri- latter must be the uncommunicated lightenter meant, we are compelled to confess, ing of their own mind." We have, upon hothat they remained to us inflexibly un-nour, quoted verbatim and though we have tried to construe these two periods at intelligible, and are so to the present least seven times, we avow that we cannot the chief secret of Mr. Shelley's poetry; This first extract will let our readers into hour, when it is our duty to explain discern their drift. Neither can we col-which is merely opposition of words, phrases, them pro bono publico. This is a per-lect the import of the following general axi- and sentiments, so violent as to be utter nonplexing state for reviewers to be placed om, or paradox.-" As to imitation, poetry sense: ex. gr. the vibration of stagnant in; and all we can do is to extract is a mimetic art. It creates, but it creates springs, and their creeping shuddering;some of these refractory combinations of by combination and representation." What the swift moveless (i. e. motionless) whirlwords, the most of which are known to kind of creation the creation by representa- winds, on poised wings, which hung mute the English language, and submit them tion is, puzzles us grievously. But Mr. over a hushed abyss as thunder louder than Shelley, no doubt, knows his own meaning; their own!! In the same strain, Prometheus, to the ingenuity of our readers, especi- and, according to honest Sancho Panza, who ought to have been called Sphynx, when ally of such as are conversant with that is enough." In his next edition, answered in a whisper, says, those interesting compositions which therefore, we shall be glad of a more distinct Tis scarce like sound: it tingles thro' the frame grace certain periodicals, under the ti- definition than this- A poet is the combin-As lightning tingles, hovering ere it strike. tles of enigmas, rebuses, charades, and ed product of such internal powers as modify the nature of others; and of such external Common bards would have thought the riddles. To them Mr. Shelley's poem fluences as excite and sustain these pow-tingling was felt when it struck, and not bemay be what it is not to us (Davus sum ers; he is not one but both." We fear our fore,-when it was hovering too, of all non Edipus)-explicable; and their so-readers will imagine we are vulgarly quiz- things for lightening to be guilty of! A lutions shall, as is usual, be thankfully zing; but we assure them, that these identi-melancholy voice" now enters into the received. To our apprehensions, Pro-cal words are to be found at page xiii. In dialogue, and turns out to be "the Earth." metheus is little else but absolute rav- the next page, Mr. S. speaks more plainly of Melancholy Voice" tells a melancholy stoing; and were we not assured to the himself; and plumply, though profanely, ry, about the timecontrary, we should take it for granted declares, "For my part, I had rather be that the author was lunaticdamned with Plato and Lord Bacon, than -as his principles are ludicrously wicked, and his man! how he moves concern and pity, to suto heaven with Paley and Malthus."-Poor poetry a mélange of nonsense, cockney-persede the feelings of contempt and disgust. ism, poverty, and pedantry. But such as he is, his "object has hitherto : go Ye icy Springs, stagnant with wrinkling frost, When plague had fallen on man, and beast, and worm She also advises her son Prometheus to So the revenge use a spell,— Of the Supreme may sweep thro' vacant shades, Mr. Shelley's fallen buildings, having still gates to them! Then the Furies are sent to give the sturdy Titan a cast of their office; and they hold as odd a colloquy with him, as ever we read. · The first tells him, Dost imagine We will but laugh into thy lidless eyes? Here in seventeen lines, we have no fewer which is exactly, in our opinion, the cart than seven positive colours, and nearly as creating the horse; the sign creating the many shades; not to insist upon the ever-inn; the effect creating the cause. No wonlasting confusion of this rainbow landscape, der that when such a master gave lessons in with white stars quivering in the orange astronomy, he did it thus— light, beyond purple mountains; of fading aves, and clouds made of burning threads, which unravel in the pale air; of cloudlike snow through which roseate sun-light also quivers, and sea-green plumes winnowing crimson dawn. Surely, the author looks at nature through a prism instead of spectacles. Next to his colorofic powers, we may rank the author's talent for manufacturing And the third, more funnily inclined than lanous compounds." Ecce signum, of a her worthy sisters Thou think'st we will live thro' thee not Mist. He taught the implicated orbits woven Of the wide-wandering stars; and how the sun This, Promethean, beats all the systems of astronomy with which we are acquainted: "vil-Shakespeare, it was said, "exhausted worlds and then imagined new;" but he never imagined aught so new as this. Newton was a wonderful philosopher; but, for the view of the heavenly bodies, Shelley double distances him. And not merely in the preceding, but in the following improved edition of his astronomical notions, he describes Beneath is a wide plain of billowy mist, The soul which burns within, that we will dwell Beside it, like a vain loud multitude Vexing the self-content of wisest menThis is a pozer! and only paralleled by the speech of the "Sixth Spirit," of a lot of these beings, which arrive after the Furies. She, for these spirits are feminine, says, Ah, sister desolation is a delicate thing; It walks not on the earth, it floats not on the air, But treads with silent footsteps, and fans with silent wing The tender hopes which in their hearts the best and gentlest bear; Who, soothed to false repose by the fanning plumes above, And the music-stirring motion of its soft and Dream visions of aerial joy, and call the monster And wake, and find the shadow pain. excess. The glimpses of meaning which we have here, are soon smothered by contradictory terms and metaphor carried to There is another part of Mr. Shelley's art of poetry, which deserves notice; it is his fancy, that by bestowing colouring epithets on every thing he mentions, he thereby renders his diction and descriptions vividly poetical. Some of this will appear hereafter; but we shall select one passage, as illustra tive of the ridiculous extent to which the folly is wrought. Asia is longing for her sister's annual visit; and after talking of Spring clothing with golden clouds the desert of life, she goes on: This is the season, this the day, the hour; mine, Too long desired, too long delaying, come! crawl! The point of one white star is quivering still 'Tis lost! and thro' yon peaks of cloudlike snow The roseate sun-light quivers: hear I not Satiates the listening wind, continuous, vast, Awful as silence. This is really like Sir Sidny Smith's plan to teach morality to Musselmans by scraps of the Koran in Kaleidoscopes-only that each scrap has a meaning; Mr. Shelley's lines none. We now come to a part which quite throws Milton into the shade, with his "darkness visible;" and as Mr. Shelley professes to admire that poet, we cannot but suspect that he prides himself on having out-done him. Only listen to Panthea's description of Demogorgon. This lady, whose mind is evidently unsettled, exclaims, I see a mighty darkness Filling the seat of power, and rays of gloom A sphere, which is as many thousand spheres, Did ever the walls of Bedlam display more When our worthy old pagan acquaintance, An eagle so caught in some bursting cloud We yield ourselves, miserable hum-drum and Romans. mains: Prometheus, according to Mr. Percy Bysshe Shelly Gave man speech, and speech created thought arms; many-folded mountains; a lake-surrounding flute; veiled lightening asleep (as well as hovering); unbewailing flowers; odour-faded blooms; semi-vital worms; less air; unerasing waves; unpavilioned windless pools, windless abodes, and windskies; rivetted wounds; and void abysms, are parcel of the Babylonish jargon which |