own poetry, not less has he in return been disgraced by the miserable mimicry of modern sonnetteers, who conceive that the flowers of Italian poetry are but an anomalous bundle of harsh concetti, whining sentimentality, and harmonious nonsense. The best modern poets of Italy itself have generally avoided this fatal misconception, and have adopted a manliness of style, which is of itself the severest satire upon those ill-judging pedants, who propose to themselves the Italian poets of the fourteenth and fifteenth century as models of imitation. Algarotti, that universal genius, who united the most discriminating taste to the most profound knowledge of Italian literature, and displayed in his own poetry the judgment which he so successfully displayed in his criticisms upon others, has reprehended with much severity the pedantry of those who have so industriously copied the errors and concerts of Petrarca, and appear happy to partake in his failings rather than in his fire. To substitute affected expressions, overstrained conceits, and unmeaning ornament, in the place of manly vigour, native brilliancy, and unalloyed elegance, is to throw into circulation a species of false coin, which is never adopted but as a last resource, and is never introduced but when the real specie can be no longer supplied. We shall not say that all the English sonnets in this vast collection are subjected to this censure; some indeed are written in the best taste, and according to the truest models of the Italian school; but we can fairly assert, that it would have been as well, if by far the greatest proportion of the whole had not been written, and better if they had not been published. Nothwithstanding, however, all their faults, these volumes are not without considerable merit. Mr. Lofft has evidently paid the greatest attention to this department of literature, and is a man of much scholarship and information. Many parts of his preface are both useful and good; and with his short biographical memoirs of those who have excelled in this species of composition, we were highly gratified. We know of no author who has collected so much information within so small a compass. Had Mr. Lofft contented himself with two volumes instead of five, and reduced his centenaries to one third of their number, giving us two hundred of the finest specimens of the Italian sonnet, and dividing the remainder between the finest translations and the best original sonnets in the English language, (omitting his own ;) had he reduced his preface also to one third of its present compass, and cropped all its adscititious flowers which coutribute neither to its ornament nor to its utility, the publication before us would have had as fair claims to the attention of the public as any which we could name in this neglected department of literature. Mr. Lofft complains of the ridicule and contempt with which the school of the Italian sonnet has been so universally treated. There are very few, we confess, who have learning enough either to understand or appreciate its real beauties; while there are many who have taste enough to feel disgust at the pedantic affectation and frivolous absurdity of its pretended patrons. The SONNET has suffered far more from its friends than its enemies. We cannot conclude this article without noticing the elegant and sentimental title which Mr. L. has affixed to his work, LAURA, and the reasons which he assigns for its adoption. "I have nam'd the Selection LAURA: in affectionate and respectful remembrance of Petrarch, and of that mysterious Passion to which we owe that the Sonnet has such celebrity; and to which, in a great measure, we are indebted for the Taste and Refinement form'd and diffus'd by his delicate and cultivated Genius, by whose peculiar amenity, purity, tenderness, calm and disgraceful elevation, the Style, the Poetry, the Sentiments and the Manners of ITALY, and progressively of EUROPE, have been so happily influenc'd. "A fartier Consideration had its share in determining the Choice of the Name: which is, that many Female Poets have grac'd this elegant Department of Poetry: many of whose beautiful productions will be found in these volumes." Vol. I. Pref. P. ii. Happy are Petrarca and Mr. Lofft in their several LAURAS. Our author and his mysterious mistress we also shall bear in affectionate and respectful remembrance, taking leave of him in the words of Mercutio; "O flesh! flesh! how art thou fishified. Now is he for the numbers that Petrarch flowed in.-LAURA to his lady was but a kitchen wench: marry, she had a better love to be-rhime her." ORIGINAL. BIOGRAPHICAL MEMOIR OF DAVID RAMSAY, M. D. [Communicated for the Analectic Magazine.] DAVID RAMSAY was born in Lancaster county, Pennsylva nia, on the 2d day of April, 1749. He was the youngest child of James Ramsay, a respectable farmer, who had emigrated from Ireland at an early age, and by the cultivation of his farm, with his own hands, provided the means of subsistence and education for a numerous family. He was a man of intelligence and piety, and early sowed the seeds of knowledge and religion in the minds of his children. He lived to reap the fruit of his labours, and to see his offspring grow up around him, ornaments of society, and props of his declining years. The early impressions which the care of this excellent parent made on the mind of Dr. Ramsay, were never erased, either by the progress of time, the bustle of business, or the cares of the world. He constantly entertained and expressed the highest veneration for the sacred volume, and in his last will, written by his own hand five months before his death, when committing his soul to his maker, he takes occasion to call the bible "the best of books." It was connected with all his tenderest recollections; it had been the companion of his childhood, and, through his whole life, his guide, and friend, and comforter. He always cherished the fondest attachment for the place of his nativity, and dwelt with pecu. liar pleasure on the little incidents of his childhood. Dr. Ram. say had the misfortune to lose an amiable and excellent mother very early in life, but that loss was in some measure repaired by his father, who took uncommon pains to give him the best education that could be then obtained in this country. It is somewhat extraordinary, that a man in such circumstances as his father then was, should so far depart from the ordinary practice of persons in his condition of life, as to give to each of his three |