Mifs S. may. fay what the pleafes of Critics, but the shall find, that whenever the dares to write as well as fhe has done. here, all her petulance against them will not provoke them to with-hold their praises.

ART. XV. Cafe upon the Will of the late Peter Thelluffon, Efq. By Francis Vefey, Jun. Efq. of Lincoln's-Inn, Barrister at Law. 4to. 135 PP. 55. E. and R. Brooke, &c. 1799.

AMONG the various inftances which occur in our courts of

juftice, of man's eagerness to continue a control over his property after he shall have been laid in the grave, we recollect none which equals the prefent in amount. It confifts of real estates in England, of the annual value of above 4,500l. fome real eftate's in the Weft-Indies, and perfonal property eftimated at above 600,000l. This large mats of wealth, the produce of Mr. Thelluf-fon's industry, he vefts by his will, in truftees, during the lives of his three fons, and of fuch of their male children as should be capable of taking at the time of his deceafe (two of whom were in utero matris) when that event did take place, and directed it to be laid out in the purchase of lands, the profits of which are to accumulate, and alfo to be laid out in the acquifition of landed eftates during all thofe hives, and that of the furvivor. After their death, he directs the lands thus purchafed to be divided into three equal portions, one of which is to be feverally fettled upon the eldest male lineal defcendant then living, of each of his three fons, in tail male, with remainders over to the fecond and other fons, and crofs remainders between the male iffue of these three several stocks. The teftator further dire&s that, upon failure of male lineal defcendants of his fons, the truttees thould fell his eftates, and pay the produce to his Ma jefty, his heirs, and fucceffors, to be applied to the ufe of the Linking fupd.

It is not eafy to fpeculate upon the motives which induced Mr. Thelluffon to make fuch a will, fince the very diftribution" of his property feems to prove that his feelings were not those which are common to his kind. He has precluded not only his own children from the enjoyment of his wealth, but that fuccellion of defcendants to which the parental affections are ufually confined, and, beyond which, we can have little more than dim and indiftinct profpects of our race. To other

parents,

parents, it has been the incentive and folace of their labours, that the fruits would be reaped by their children; and that they would thus confer happiness and honours upon them, fo far as wealth can conftitute the fource of pleasure, or the means of" diftinction. But this merchant derived his moft voluptuous fatisfaction from the fcrupulous folicitude with which he fhot out, from the great objects of human purfuit, every defcendant whom he had fondled as his child, or who could have embraced him with the feelings due to a father. As if it were a crime in his family to have feen the fame day, or breathed the fame air with him, he has paffed a fentence of confifcation and exclufion upon them all. Other founders of large fortunes have felt a natural, and therefore a venial anxiety, to fecure to their family for ever, the opulence they had acquired. Few have' been fo unnaturally capricious as to tantalize their immediate pofterity, by keeping up wealth before their eyes, and unfeelingly withholding the power to touch it. They gave an ufufructuary right to the heir, and wifhed to deprive him of nothing more than the means of fquandering the inheritance. But this teftator covets to keep, untouched for ever, not only the body, but the annual produce of his fortune. He nourishés and lets loofe a montter from his fepulchre, formed with an insatiable inftin&t, to pursue thofe,

"Who from his wakeful cuftody purloin
The guarded gold.”

A teftament like this, not lefs unnatural in the utter exclufion of all the females of his family, than in the provifions which gave rife to the caufe in Chancery, is the fair object of moral animadverfion. They who look into the equity reports, muft perceive that wills which direct the accumulation of property, have increafed very much within the laft fifty years. Every fuccefsful inftance in which dying avarice indulges its own weakness, by procrastinating that period of expenditure, which reftores to the precious metals their genuine fplendour, in a temperate and manly ufe, gives birth to many more of which nothing is heard, except in the families who fuffer from what is done. The legislature muft ultimately interfere to stop the mifchief, unless the moralift can give that turn to the general feelings and opinions, which fhall induce man to impose upon himself a more grateful, and not lefs effectual restraint. These obfervations are not fuggefted from any perfonal difrepect to the memory of Mr. Thelluffon, but from regard to the interefts of fociety.

Teneros animos aliena opprobria fæpe
Abfterrent vitiis,

It

It would be unjust to deprive those who are advanced in life. from fuch a controul over their property, as fhall enable them to command refpect, to punish filial difobedience, or to reward affectionate attachment. But they ought not to keep the mifer alive and active when the body is laid in the grave, or attempt an unhallowed controul over things which are neither the care nor the portion of the dead.

Whatever influence reflections like thefe might have uponthe private feelings of the judges who gave their opinions upon this will, they could have none upon the confideration of its legality. The principal question was, whether a teltator could direct the accumulation of his property during any number of lives in existence at the time of his deceafe, when the perfons were in no way connected with the immediate enjoyment. The cafe was argued by fome of the most able men at the ChanceryBar. The Chancellor called in the ailitance of the Mafter of the Rolls, and the Judges, Buller and Lawrence, in deciding the caufe. He ultimately decreed, in conformity to their una nimous opinion, that the will was valid, and that the trufts declared by it should be established. Mr. Vefey's statement of the cafe is clearly made, and his report of the arguments of counfel, and opinions of the judges, feems correct and faithful. The latter cannot form the fubject of criticism; but we may advert to Mr. Hargrave's masterly account of the rife and progrefs of executory devifes. It is not perhaps very closely connected with the main points of the caufe, but it will afford the lawyer both amalement and instruction. The importance of the cafe will perhaps apologize fatista torily for its being publithed diftin&t from Mr. Vefey's other reports. But we with that he had not given it the inconvenient form of a quarto, which precludes it from being bound up with them, or indeed with almoft any other law-book.

ART. XVI. The Wreath composed of Selections from Sappho, Theocritus, Bin and Mofchus; accompanied by a Profe Tranflation; with Notes. To which are added, Remarks on Shakespeare, &c. and a Comparison between Horace and Lucian. By Edward du Bois. 65. Large Paper, 10s. 6d. Printed by T. Bentley; for White, &c. 1799.

THI

HIS very elegant volume confifts of 57 pp. of Poems and Tranflations; the remainder being occupied by the Remarks and Notes. It may be proper to fay fomething to the

general

general reader, of the age in which the authors flourished, from whole works this selection is made.

Sappho is by far the earliest of these. Contemporary with Alcæus, the flourished about 590 years before Chrift, and has conferred perpetual celebrity on the town of Mitylene, and the ifland Lefbos in which it stood. Of her two celebrated Odes preferved to us, that which is here tranflated is the Ode to Venus.

Theocritus flourished about 320 years later. Of this great pastoral poet, one of the immortal honours of Syracuse, the poem here felected is a little Elegy in Anacreontic verfe, the Tubject of which is, the feizure of the boar which had lately flain Adonis, and is brought by Cupids before their mother, to anfwer for his death. This furnishes alfo a beautiful frontifpiece to the selection; attached to which, at the head of the plate, is the ancient lyre, furrounded with radiance, and relting on rofes and anemones; and on the fides, the paftoral flute of Pan, and the bow and quiver. Befides this little poem, there is the half-comic eclogue, the Herdfman, from Theocritus.

Bion of Smyrna flourished about 200 years before Chrift, and Mofchus (another glory of Sicily) a little later, about an hundred years after Theocritus. Of these two pocts, fo admirable in paftoral elegy, little more is known than is contained in this volume. But never was it more true xapis Baicii OTÕEL. Small indeed are their remains; but breathing now, and as. long as poetry fhall exift, the fweeteft and the most tender graces. What other language of Europe, except the Greek, can reckon near a thousand years from Homer to Mofchus, or, on the finalleft computation 700, of purity and perfection?

Of Bion, three poems are in this Selection: Cupid the Thief, Cupid teaching his Master, and the beautiful Elegy on the Death of Adonis.

Of Mofchus there are thefe; Cupid the Fugitive (from" which the fubject of an elegant fonata was taken) and the. Elegy on the Death of Bion. This elegy, fweet, tender, natural, poetic, truly paftoral; exquifite in numbers, in manner. in imagery, ftyle, and fentiment, is above praife. Greek poetry, fertile of beauties as it is, has perhaps nothing more perfect in its kind than this poem. We have, in our own language, fome highly interefting productions of this class. The Elegiac Ode of Prior on the Death of Mary, the confort of

Which probably has the faireft claim to being alfo efteemed the country of Homer,

William

William the Third, the Elegy of Tickell on the Death of Addifon, and the exquifitely poetic, affectionate, and appropriate Ode of Collins on the Death of Thomfon, never can be forgotten. In Latin poetry, the generous regret of Ovid for the death of Tibullus, has left to pofterity an elegy, perhaps not to be excelled.

i

But thefe two elegies of Bion and Mofchus, the one on a fubject of ideal, the other of genuine forrow, have no need of comparison with the best productions of any age or language in a fimilar kind. Such they are in themselves, that their excellence has a teftimony in every heart fenfible to poetry and affection.

That the tranflation is in profe, it is probable the reader will regret. It is a clofe, but not a literal tranflation. A translation in verfe would not indeed have given fo much of the spirit and manner of the original; unless it had been executed with more vigour and care than are ufually exhibited. At the fame time, this is a fevere and a striking teft of " the quantity of poetic effence," to ufe the expreffion of an excellent writer, which these pieces contain. Break the measure of the verse, reduce it to profe, fo that the profe be not of an incongruous character to the fubject of the fentiment, and the charm of fyle remains undiffolved.

But it will be proper here to infert the words of the tranflator himself, from his Preface. He fets out with the affertion of Cowper, in the preface to his excellent verfion of Homer, that to give a juft tranflation of any ancient poet in rhime is impoffible." Adopting this principle as admitted, he obferves, that while

it implies an argument for the neceffity of freedom in a tranflator, to enable him to do juttice to his original," it" exempts him also from the fhackles of metre; and, inafmuch as his liberty is increased, fo much the more juft and faithful will be his tranflation: and," he ds, it confequently follows, that the plan I have purfued, after Dacier and others, is in every refpect beft calculated to give the English reader a true taste of the delicate beauty and captivating fimplicity of the sweetest bard of ancient times."

66

By no means admitting thefe affertions in all their latitude, we are willing to allow that profe may be made a correct vehicle of the fentiments and fpirit of the original. But though the difficulties are increafed by tranflating in verfe, we are by no means inclined to relieve tranflators from the neceflity of the attempt; or to give up the honourable pre-eminence we enjoy over the French, by rendering the poets of antiquity into our own language, adorned with the best graces of our