which some of the prolific species, as the rat, rabbit, &c. devour their own offspring.

Another sentiment, which spontaneously flows from our notions of the wisdom and goodness of the Deity, is that no species of animal has been created in vain; although our very limited sagacity may not, in every case, be able to discern the usefulness of some of the more noxious families. The superabundant vegetation of hot countries, which might degenerate into a mass of corruption, is checked by the ravages of the locust, which likewise affords food to man; and myriads of tormenting mosquitoes, bred in swamps and marshes, are eminently serviceable in consuming those animal and putrid remains, which would otherwise generate noisome effluvia, pregnant with disease and death. Besides all this, every species probably ministers, directly or indirectly, to the sustenance of others; and it is not for us to calculate the extent of mischief which might ensue from the obliteration of a single link in the chain of creation. The very dreariness of the desert has its appropriate inhabitants, among which the ostrich holds a distinguished station, though its economy has been too inconsiderably appreciated. Mr. Fothergill's comment on a passage in Shaw's travels, relative to the habits of this bird, is worthy of transcription, but too long for our insertion. Our humane readers will likewise concur in his spirited reprehension of the wanton practice of shooting swallows and martins on the wing. The common earth-worm, however much despised, not only affords food to many species of birds, and to some quadrupeds, but promotes in various ways the vegetation of plants.

The utility of worms, indeed, really consists in fertilizing the earth, though they act also as correctors to our rich soils; a fact that seems to have escaped the notice of the accurate WHITE. By cleansing the surface of the ground they inhabit of those vast quantities of leaves, fibres of plants, and decaying vegetable matter, which, at certain seasons, cover the earth, they make the best possible preparation for reproduction. Poor soils are ameliorated and enriched by their labours, and rank land is rendered more serviceable by having a portion of the fat redundance of vegetable particles removed, which is performed by earth-worms, who prey upon the finer parts of rich vegetable mould, as well as upon vegetables themselves: a fact that may be easily proved, by dissecting one of these animals newly taken from fertile ground.

• Worms have another important service to perform, which is done by producing a gradual and regular change and admixture of the component parts of the soils they inhabit, which are generally fertile in proportion to the number of worms found in them: insomuch, that no animal of this kind was ever found in a strictly barren piece of land. Both farmers and gardeners form very erroneous

con

conclusions on this subject; and are never more blinded by prejudice, than in their persecutions of these useful agents, who convert what would otherwise be unprofitable, into the best materials for a fertile soil; and, as they only draw into their holes what is prostrate upon, or touching, the earth, they cannot injure the strong and healthy plants which grow upright.'

In like manner, the viper and the toad are shewn to exercise their peculiar offices of benefit to mankind: the former, by keeping within bounds the smaller murine species, which would otherwise speedily over-run whole districts; and the latter, by reducing the superfluous multiplication of various insects and

worms.

Perhaps the most original, and certainly one of the most pleasing, chapters in this performance is the tenth; in which the author descants, in a lively and feeling strain, on the pleasure which Providence has invariably annexed to the fulfilment of each animal's duties, or destinies, whatever these may be; and the pain which inevitably follows every deviation from such fulfilment, whether that deviation be voluntary or compulsatory. Some fine illustrations of this doctrine are deduced from the delights of parental affection, and from the functions of nestling and incubation: but we have left no room for farther

extracts.

The eleventh chapter presents us with some interesting thoughts on that mysterious change of matter which is continually taking place in the animal, vegetable, and mineral kingdoms; and in consequence of which law of nature, though forms are fleeting and evanescent, not an atom in the universe is lost. Animal, vegetable, and mineral reproductions and decompositions assume their appropriate characters and appearances: but the organized and unorganized productions of nature probably result from different modifications of that elementary matter, into which they seem to be alike ultimately resolvable. In the strong language of Shakspeare," a king may go a progress through the guts of a beggar;" and the dust of an Alexander or a Caesar may be traced to the stopping of a bung-hole.

"To this complexion we must come at last."

The concluding chapter is intended as a brief recapitulation of the objects and sentiments recommended and illustrated throughout the volume.-The spirit of the whole is obviously dictated by the purest intentions, and cannot fail, we should think, to serve the cause of genuine piety and philosophy: while from the amusing anecdotes relative to the habits of particular species of animals, which are occasionally introduced in these

pages,

pages, we may venture to predict that Mr. Fothergill's more extended lucubrations will experience a cordial welcome from the British public.

Art. IX. The Bees; a Poem, in Four Books. With Notes, Moral, Political, and Philosophical. By John Evans, M.D. Book III. 4to. pp. 123. 7s. sewed. Long

F.R.M.S. Ed. man and Co.

1813.

F the two preceding books of this poem, we have already stated our unbiassed sentiments *. The present livraison, which is inscribed to Lady Eleanor Butler and Miss Ponsonby, commences with an invocation to Sylvanus, the wood-nymphs, and other rustic deities: a stale expedient, which might easily have been spared, without any injury to the general effect. The transition, however, from rural nymphs to the fair enthusiasts' of Llangollen's vale, is natural and easy. These recluse ladies, moreover, sedulously cultivated an apiary; and they appear to have had strong claims on the poet's gratitude: since, after having celebrated the history of their retirement, and the mountain-plants that adorn their artificial rock-work, he thus again apostrophizes them:

ACCOMPLISH'D FEMALES! while ye joy to rove
At eve's sweet pensive hour thro' glade or grove,
O'er each moist Dryad haply may ye bend
In sad remembrance of a long-lost Friend,
Beneath† whose fostering care the scions grew,
And o'er his lawn their first green honours threw,
If on that friend your partial plaudits smil'd,
And the lone hours of drooping age beguil'd,
While yet his pencil's fault'ring stroke could trace
In this fair Arcady each sylvan grace;

Fain would the bard that paints your Hybla's round,
(Since poesy is still but pictur'd sound,)

Share in a father's fame, and cheer'd by you,

With zeal redoubled his lov'd theme pursue.'

The theme is pursued, accordingly, at least for a few pages; and the gathering of propolis, one of the first labours of a new settled swarm, suggests the following version of a wellknown fact:

See Rev. N. S. Vol.li. p.312., and Vol. lviii. p.23.

+ Beneath.] A large proportion of the trees and shrubs in this Cambrian Arcadia were reared by the author's father on the banks of the Virnwy, in Shropshire. The affectionate attention paid to him by these ladies during his solitary residence at Wynnstay, after the death of the late baronet, and amidst the increasing infirmities of age, made a deep and lasting impression on his feeling mind: nor shall it ever be erased from the breasts of his grateful family.'

• Nor

♦ Nor deem, vain boaster, that reserv'd for thee
Hangs all the ripening fruit on reason's tree.
Even these, the tiniest tenants of thy care,
Claim of that reason their apportion'd share;
Witness yon slaughter'd snail, within their door
Tomb'd like the first bold Greek on Ilion's shore.
Slow pacing, while the unwieldy lubbard crawls,
In heedless gaze, nor marks the embattl'd walls,
Wond'ring the warders view his brawny chest,
And eye-tipp'd horns that quiver on his crest;
Horns doom'd no more to paint the pencill'd ray,
Nor with nice sense direct his ready way,
For, soon in fearless ire their wonder lost,
Spring fiercely from the comb th' indignant host,
Lay the pierc'd monster breathless on the ground,
And clap in joy their victor pinions round.
While all in vain concurrent numbers strive
To heave the slime-girt giant from the hive,
Sure not alone by force instinctive sway'd,
But blest with reason's soul-directing aid,
Alike in man or bee, they haste to pour,
Thick hardening as it falls, the flaky shower;
Embalm'd in shroud of glue the mummy lies,
No worms invade, no foul miasmas rise.
A second victim now, in crested state,
Drags his cov'd mansion thro' the fatal gate:
Ah! soon appall'd, he hears the hoarse alarm,
And sees with wild affright the rushing swarm.
In vain, fast-shrinking to his self-built home,
He bars with slime the convoluted dome :
High o'er his head yet clammier cements swell,
And strokes of busy plasterers sound his knell.'

By means of one of his dexterous hooks, Dr. Evans contrives to connect the imprisoned snail with the fossil bones in the rock of Gibraltar, and the universal deluge. From this last sublime catastrophe, he rapidly descends to the preparation of wax, the advantages of Mr. Wildman's glass-hives, the unvarying symmetry of the cells, &c.; and he next illustrates, in eloquent and animated numbers, the fine idea that the structure and habits of an insect as powerfully attest the existence of Deity as the most stupenduous productions of nature or of art. He then commemorates the gathering of honey, farina, and honey-dew, in summer, the loves of the bees, and the massacre of the drones. In alluding to the supposed imperfect vision of the bee, or rather to that insect's indistinct perception of very near objects, (a defect which, it has been alleged, is compensated by the antennæ,) the poet thus feelingly apos trophizes a departed friend, and a brother-bard:

Thus, O! my BLACKLOCK, when thy morn of light,
Clos'd its young dawn in ever-during night,

Ere

Ere yet could Mem'ry in thy infant brain
Store of bright objects her ideal train,
Kind heaven, in mercy, lent each sister sense
A brisker flow, a ten-fold influence.

Each feeling chord how exquisitely strung!
With tones impressive how the arched ear rung!
Fancy with fairy-pen the landscape drew,
And flash'd all Nature on thy inward view.
E'en on the child shone music's melting power,
While artless numbers sooth'd the boyish hour,
Genius and taste in mingled currents ran,
And stamp'd the poet, ere they own'd the man.
Ah! long to realms of purer bliss remov'd,
That poet hails the harmony he lov'd.'

any

of

The closing images are well conceived, and happily pourtrayed: but they would have formed, in our apprehension, a more natural termination of the whole poem, than of its separate portions; because they exhibit to us the conclusion of an industrious day, on the part of the bee and of the peasant, the contrasted condition of the honest rustic and the wealthy sensualist, and the far more elevated enjoyments of a cultivated mind; which, contemplating in an evening-landscape the presence of its Divine author, confidently reposes in a future and more perfect state of existence.

Such is a sketch of the design of the present Book, which appears to be rather more correctly finished than either of the other two, while its general physiognomy and features so strongly resemble both as to absolve us from the task of farther criticism. In profusion and copiousness of explanatory notes, Dr. Evans is perhaps more fashionable than judicious: but, where we find so much to commend, we are unwilling to appear fastidious.

ART. X. Caledonia: or, an Account, Historical and Topographic, of North Britain, from the most ancient to the present Times. Vol. II. By George Chalmers, F.R.S. and S.A. 4to. pp. 1007. 31. 38. sewed. Cadell and Davies.

W HETHER the literary undertakings of Mr. Chalmers excite

any lively sensations in the public, whether their progress be watched with anxiety, and whether their completion be learnt with delight, we do not presume to say: but this is undoubted, that he seldom loses sight of them himself, or is tardy in executing them. We know not any instance except the present in which he has failed in this respect. It will be recollected that, in his former volume, he stated that he should speedily favour the world with another; and the promise has so far been kept, that a volume not less formidable than the first has long made its appearance. It