this may be, the address in question, if it must have a model, resembles a cento from Pope, and our other genuine poets, more than any modern original. "Up leap'd the Muses," indeed, is too close and literal a translation of the avoparar of Homer. "Up rose the King of men with speed," has more dignity.

The succeeding addresses, by Momus Medlar, Esq.* are very inferior to the imitations. There is little human merit in a mere horselaugh; and yet it is impossible to be so "stubborn as to resist all tendency to laughter," (according to Johnson's charge against Swift,) when we read such a chorus as the following, in the burlesque on the play of The Stranger, who is introduced

"With his sentimentalibus lachrymæ roar 'em,
And pathos and bathos delightful to see,

And chop and change ribs a-la-mode Germanorum,
And high diddle ho diddle, pop tweedle dee."

"The Theatre," by the Rev. G. Crabbe, does ample justice to the subject and the author. It contains some lines, indeed, which again remind us of Dr. Darwin instead of their supposed writer: but the story of the loss of Pat Jennings's hat, which drops from the upper into the lower gallery, for plain vulgar flatness of idea and expression, is unequalled even by the choicest specimens in the "Borough," or the "Tales." Why will an author, who abounds in beautiful passages, voluntarily degrade his poetical character, by a false estimate of the merit of being quite homespun and natural, or by the most culpable carelesness of style?—either, in short, by some absurd theory, or by the idlest practice? Why destroy all the delusion, all the beau ideal of poetry, by mixing with some of its most charming efforts such a tame tissue of low thoughts and prosaic expressions? Why be content to lose the world. for a poor-house?

"Pat Jennings in the upper gallery sat,
But leaning forward, Jennings lost his hat;
Down from the gallery the beaver flew,
And spurned the one, to settle in the two.
How shall he act? Pay at the gallery door

Two shillings for what cost when new but four?
Now, while his fears anticipate a thief,

John Mullins whispers, take my handkerchief.

Thank you, cries Pat, but one won't make a line;

Take mine, cried Wilson, and, cried Stokes, take mine.

From this nom de guerre, we conclude one or both of these authors to have written that great dramatic work, entitled "The Highgate Tunnel," and some others of a similar nature.

A motley cable soon Pat Jennings ties,
Where Spitalfields with real India vies,
Like Iris' bow, down darts the painted hue,

Starred, striped and spotted, yellow, red, and blue,
Old calico, torn silk, and muslin new;

George Green below, with palpitating hand,
Loops the last 'kerchief to the beaver's band;
Up soars the prize; the youth, with joy unfeigned,
Regained the felt, and felt what he regained,
While to the applauding galleries grateful Pat,
Made a low bow, and touched the ransomed hat."

The concluding example of wanton humour (if it can so be called) is attributed to G. Colman the Younger: but "Punch's Apotheosis" is very unworthy of that humorist, excepting in his idlest and worst manner. It is, therefore, much more appropriately given to Mr. T. H. (we presume, Mr. Theodore Hook,) in the second edition of the "Rejected Addresses :"-this, probably, was suggested by the alteration of the hero in the Dunciad.

We now take our leave of this pleasing publication; which may not only be said to have increased "the stock of harmless gayety," but which, if rightly taken, is capable of producing a serious improvement in our literature. Yet we are not sanguine as to its effecting any part of what it ought to effect; because we fear that the self-love of authorship will scarcely suffer even the poet, whose bad taste has received the besttempered admonition in this burlesque, to profit by the hint, and," flinging away the worser part" of himself,

"To live more nobly with the purer half."

A publication which professes to supply us with some of the real Rejected Addresses has just appeared.

Chronological Retrospect; or, Memoirs of the Principal events of the Mahommedan History, from the death of the Arabian Legislator to the Accession of the Emperor Akbar, and the Establishment of the Moghul Empire in Hindustan. From original Persian Authorities. By Major David Price, of the East-India Company's service. In three Volumes 4to. Vol. I. London, 1811.

[From the British Review, for March, 1812.]

IT has been the usage of the more recently established periodical vehicles of criticism, of which we have frequently

availed ourselves, to consider subjects rather than works: using the latter, or even their titles only, as a convenience for the introduction of essays on the former. We are convinced that the exercise of the privilege in the hands of an original thinker may often be productive of advantage to the public when attended by judgment and discretion, although, in the instance of the work before us, we feel disposed to discuss its merits rather than its comprehensive subject; but giving no pledge that we shall not avail ourselves to a certain extent of the latitude allowed us, and stretch our view beyond the limits of the book itself.

Not, however, that we shall attempt any regular introduction or analysis of this compendium of Mahommedan history. Such an attempt would lead us into a retrospect much beyond our limits; and would demand a research which, though fully aware of its importance, we are not equally convinced of our ability to prosecute in a profitable or satisfactory

manner.

It ought not, in reason, to be always expected that the conductors of a critical journal can be so fully competent to the elucidation of every topic as the authors themselves, who select such topics for their peculiar investigation. This is a concession that has not, so far as we are aware, been yet made by any of our predecessors, or competitors, or coadjutors, or whatever term may suit them best; and we therefore trust that we shall be allowed the whole merit of the originality, as well as of the modesty-and it is not affected-of the concession. We feel no self-abasement in admitting, for instance, that the author of the work before us is more competent to the task of introducing his history by a preliminary discourse than we are of doing it for him. He evidently has devoted very respectable talents, and many patient and toilsome years to the development of his subject, or, as the language of his authorities would more poetically express it, to fathoming the ocean of oriental literature, and collecting the scattered pearls that he has here strung on the thread of history. That he has done so much demands our acknowledgments. Still we cannot but regret that he has not done something more. We think that he has introduced his subject too abruptly, and wish that he had devoted a few pages to its previous discussion. The value of Sale's excellent translation of the Koran is greatly enhanced by his preliminary discourse. The same may be said of the history of Charles V. And a preface of a similar nature to Major Price's Retrospect would have remedied the evident abruptness of the present introduction. His object is, moreover, farther removed from the ordinary

course of reading and reflection, than that of either of the works alluded to; and he will, we think, see the reasonableness of our remark.

We shall, therefore, plainly suggest to him, as the completion of his work is still prospective, the expediency of a few preliminary pages, explaining the theological and political state of the countries that first embraced Islàm, or were overwhelmed by its ferocious champions. Such a chapter might be still constructed as a preface to the first volume, which is evidently its most appropriate place; and if given even with the last would easily arrange itself with the work. A map in outline of the extended theatre on which his tragedians acted,. would afford great additional facilities towards a connected view of the author's diversified and intricate drama. We are further induced to suggest a specification more at length of the authorities from which the facts detailed in this work are taken. There is, indeed, a notice of this in every page, so far as regards the title of the works so laid under contribution; but we rather wish for a catalogue raisonnée of those original authorities.

The "Retrospect of Mahommedan History" is intended to be comprised in three volumes; of which the first only has yet reached us, commencing with the 8th year, and concluding with the subversion of the house of Ommeyah, in the 132d of the Hejra, or A. D. 750. The second volume will commence, as we are told in the preface to this,

"With the accession of the house of Abbas, and terminate with the death of Sultan Ahmed Jullâeir the Eylekhaunian, in the 812th year of the Hejra; and the third volume will commence with the early history of the Tcheghatayan branch of the descendants of Jengueiz, the immediate ancestors of Teymûr, and close with the accession of Akbar, in the 963d year of the same æra, the 1556th of Christ; each distinctly comprising within itself a separate portion of oriental history, and all together embracing a period little short of ten centuries." P. vii.

The researches of the author have been directed, and his object in general confined, to trace within this portion of time

"The progress of Mahommedan grandeur, as it shifted its position from its parent seat of Medeinah, first to Kûfah, and next to the envied and luxuriant region of Damascus; thence to Baghdâd and the banks of the Tigris; to Tebreiz or Tauris, Sûltaunial, and Herât; and ultimately to the Indus and the banks of the Ganges. The scene of these transactions which he has attempted to delineate, will accordingly be laid, for the most part, in the regions extending from the river Oxus to the Peninsula of Arabia, and from the Ganges to the shores of the Mediterranean." P. iv.

It is impracticable to give, within an ordinary compass, any satisfactory analysis of a work superabounding in incidents, and in such a variety of transitions. We shall, therefore, content ourselves with offering some extracts as fair specimens of its style, and such remarks as the subjects may suggest.

The opening of the work affords a favourable specimen of the correctness of the author in points more important than that of mere talent.

"That there existed in the genius of Mahommedanism something calculated to inspire the most powerful energies and exertions, has been too widely and fearfully exemplified in the unparalleled successes of its votaries, to be now made a question. But without conceding too far to the opinions of some very distinguished modern authorities on the subject, there are, in the experience of succeeding ages, sufficient grounds for the belief, that its early and rapid advancement is to be ascribed, in an equal degree, to the degenerate spirit of its opposers, and to the already corrupted state of Christianity in the sixth and seventh centuries. If, indeed, the gospel of peace and benevolence, delivered in spotless purity by a mild Redeemer for the welfare and happiness of mankind, had, even at that period, through human folly and depravity, suffered a deplorable perversion; if the minds of men were become already unhinged and embittered by acrimonious controversies, by impious, unavailing, and contradictory attempts to analyze those.mysterious properties of the Divine nature, so far beyond the scope of the human faculties to comprehend; if the sole object of pure and rational devotion had been in a manner lost sight of, through the degrading substitution of image worship; 'through the cloud of martyrs, saints, and angels, interposed before the throne of Omnipotence; it is almost impossible to avoid the inference, that in the state of ignorance which then generally pervaded the mass of society, the world was sufficiently predisposed to embrace any change or innovation that might be recommended for its adoption, under the influence of superior talents, and a plausible exterior of sanctity. The surprise will therefore cease, that, with endowments of no ordinary stamp, and with the united aid of fraud and violence, the self-commissioned and aspiring legislator of the Arabs should have succeeded in engrafting on the minds of his uninformed, but ardent countrymen, together with the sublime and eternal truth that there is only one God,' an acquiescence at least, if not a belief, in the unconnected rhapsodies of the Koran; and in the fiction necessary, perhaps, to the establishment of his doctrines, and not less to his views of ambition, that he was the apostle of God." P. 2.

The account of the death of Mahommed, with which the first chapter terminates, exhibits an instance of the easy faith of the early bigots to the even then widely spread doctrines of Islàm. It exhibits, also, some lines of the genius of that