95. Poems and Plays, by William Richardson, A. M. Professor of Humanity in the University of Glasgow. 2 vols. 432 pp. 10s. 6d. Vernor and Co. London. 1805. WPublick and to the Author, for having so long failed to take notice The first volume contains the Poems, which are, in general, short but very lively effusions of a superior mind. The subjects are various, of course; but there are so many of them connected with a country life, and there is so much sylvan embellishment introduced into them all, that they are fitly enough denominated rural. This kind of poetry requires more skill than is commonly apprehended; and the skill and taste that are necessary to please the discerning reader are best ascertained by observing the consequences of the want of them in a Pastoral Poet. A chief and very general offence against taste arises from the want of the power of distinguishing between the things that give pleasure in nature only and those which are calculated to please in representation also; and a second and no less universal one is the too minute and pleonastic exhibition of the minor parts of a subject or landscape. Thus, because the life and occupation of the shepherd are associated, in most minds, with the ideas of peace, hilarity, and inno- cence, and have, on that account, procured currency for Idyllian minstrelsy in all ages and nations, there has been poured in upon the world, by a tribe of indiscreet versifiers, a load of pastoral description, so adhesive to truth and circumstance, that the veriest trifle in the economy of the fold and cottage has been carefully brought into notice, and dignified with numbers. This unskilful debasement of the Muse, taken in connexion with the unnatural and grotesque alliance that was brought about by introducing classical Arcadia, with its sweet solitude, its simplicity, and oaten pipe, into a coun try devoted to the very unpastoral GENT. MAG. July, 1808. pursuits of commerce, luxury, and disrepute among the Criticks of Engwar, soon brought the Eclogue into land. But, although close and minute detail ought to be avoided, we do not forbid all allusion to rural manners and rural incidents; but let them be viewed at a distance, always leaving sufficient room for fancy to improve upon reality. The distant smoke of a cottage makes a better figure in a poem than a tête-a-tête conversation with its inhabitant; and we would rather see him moving homeward to enjoy its shelter, than be told, even by a Spenser or a Phillips, how he fares when he has reached it. Professor Richardson's taste and discernment have proved a sufficient bartier against these violations of propriety, to which inferior Poets are so prone; and from one or two specimens of pastoral that are to be found in his volumes, we are enabled to judge, that if he had addressed himself to that kind of rural poesy, it would have been cloathed with a fair proportion of the beauties and expression of which it is susceptible. In " the Invitation to a Lady" to go to the country, he tells her very sweetly that "When smiling Morn arises gay, Gilding the dew-drop on the lawn, That warble through the green-wood "But when the lucid star of Eve Shines in the Western sky serene, Fantastic measures on the green. With every fragrant bud that blows, The following little Idyll too has a great deal of pastoral simplicity, at the same time that it is both pointed and correct: the title of it is "The Rose." "Said Ino, I prefer the rose For, For, when the smiling Seasons fly, But these are only jeux d'esprit; and it is in a more exalted species of composition where the conception and versification of the Poet are to be sought for. We shall therefore quote two or three stanzas of the Hymn to Melancholy. "How shall I woo thee, lovely maid! Of pensive air, in dusky state array'd; With flowing train that graceful sweeps ground, the Thy brow with wreath of cypress bound. With transporting extacies, "Nor leave me, Mirth! nor with alluring Cast thy chaplet in my way. Lead me, meek-eyed Melancholy, "Fancy listens to my lay; On the slow, pausing breath of midnight borne, Flows from the visionary vale! And Melancholy's slow-puls'd heart assail-- Court, and hall, and turret rung While the gorgeous train advance, And the joyous song resound. Frown'd! The Pleasures haste away; In ruins now the fractur'd columns fall: The screech-owl frightens night with her bewailing cry," &c. The length of this hymn prevents us from transcribing it all; but our Readers have seen enough of it to be of opinion, with us, that it is the production of one who has been well received on Parnassus. We conclude our extracts from the Poems with a few lines from an Epithalamium on the Marriages of the Duchess of Atholl and of the Hon. Mrs. Graham of Balgovan, daughters of the late Lord Cathcart, but now no longer among the living. "The Season smil'd, the gentle airs of May Flew from the bosom of an argent cloud, Wafting on downy wings prolific showers, And gladd'ning all the valley: hills and That fan the bosom of returning Spring, And waft perfumes from her ambrosial hair, [fus'd Play'd with their waving foliage, and difTheir influence and enlivening odour bland. A noble Shepherd rear'd The lovely flowers: he cherish'd them; invok'd [vok'd The dews of Heaven to foster them; inFavonian breezes to preserve them safe From mildews, pestilential blights, and all Th' infectious vapours of a fev'rish sky. -Lovely flowers! they pleas'd And bloom'd, and smil❜d, unconscious of their bloom: [oft Yet were they prais'd, and tuneful voices Publish'd their praises. Many a woodnymph wild Hied from her mossy arbour to admire Their blazon'd hue; and in the coral gence; and endeavoured to make my biography agreeable, entertaining, and instructive." Such is the Author's apology for his work; and we are certainly far from considering Dr. Gregory's Life of Chatterton as precluding the present or any other attempt. The question is, whether Mr. Davis has supplied what was wanting, contributed more particulars than were generally known, or given such a delineation of Chatterton as to make any material change in the opinions of the world respecting that very extraordinary youth. In answer to this, we have little hesitation in saying that he has thrown no manner of light on the personal history of Chatterton, every particular in this Life having been carefully gleaned from the account prefixed to the last edition of his Works, or from the notes, letters, &c. in that edition. But his principal aim appears to have been to stand up as the advocate of Chatterton; and very early in his little volume he gives us this notice. "By the manner in which I have recorded these anecdotes, I shall doubtless be thought by some the advocate of forgery. My sentiments are these: I would advise no man to forge the works of Abraham Newland; for, if he does, he will be assuredly hanged. But I think there is no more harm in forging poems for a priest of the fifteenth century than there would be in writing a satire on the credulity of Milles and Bryant, than whom two more redoubtable champions never mounted in succession a wooden stage." Mr. Davis's advice is prudent at least. He has some dread of the gallows; but as to the violation of truth, and the falsification of literary history, he thinks all that as lawful as satirizing a credulous man. We are not quite of this opinion; but the late forger of the Shakspeare Manuscripts may subscribe to it with a safe conscience. Mr. Davis, however, having thus announced his belief, we are not to wonder that he should sacrifice the most respectable names to the manes of Chatterton. In answer to a remark of Dean Milles, he asks, "who is not disposed to exclaim-what conscious heart does not utter "I tell thee, churlish priest, A ministering angel shall this poet be, When thou liest howling !" In answer to this, we shall only say I that Mr. Davis is probably the only "conscious heart" that will venture to dispose the Dean's lot in a future world in this way. After such abuse we are not much surprised to find our Author assigning Chatterton's poverty as the reason why Horace Walpole neglected him, nor at the following notice of Walpole, Mason, and Gray: "He (Walpole) communicated the Poems, at some literary club, to that great son of Song, Mr. Mason, and the selfsupported melancholy Gray (poor souls! compared to Chatterton, reveling in luxury); who, in the true spirit of established Authors, damned with faint praise the spirit-stirring stanzas of Abbot John." Mr. Davis now makes an observation, which he is surprised was never made before; namely, that Mr. Walpole himself was an egregious literary impostor for pretending that his Castle of Otranto was printed at Naples in 1529, and translated by William Marshall. But the plain reason why this observation was never made be fore is, that it was not worth making. No advocate for Chatterton's forgeries ever considered that it would bear bear a comparison. In the same spirit of invective, other characters, entitled to the veneration of the Literary World, are introduced in this vindication of Chatterton; which, after all, leaves him where he was taken up. With respect to his genius, about which there is no dispute, Mr. Davis displays true taste and feeling; and, had he restrained them within proper bounds, his criticisms would have been preferable to the cold and measured opinions of Chatterton's preceding Biographer. But on all these points the Publick has long ago decided; and any fresh attempts to injure the memory of Chatterton's contemporaries, who would not be imposed on by his forgeries, will certainly fail of success. 97. The Warrior's Return; and other Poems. By Mrs. Opie. Longman and Co. 1808. THIS neat diminutive volume, containing 185 pages, is thus modestly introduced to the Publick by the fair Authoress, the relict of Opie, the late excellent painter, who had the singular good fortune to unite the sister Arts of Poetry and Painting by his marriage with this lady: "The Poems which compose this little volume were written, with two or three exceptions, several years ago; and to arrange and fit them for publication has been the amusement of many hours of retirement," The contents are, The Warrior's Return; Julia, or, the Convent of St. Clair, a Tale, founded on Fact; The Mad Wanderer, a Ballad; Lines written in 1799;, Song, I am wearing away like the Snow in the Sun; To Lorenzo; Ode to Borrowdale, in Cumberland; The Lucayan's Song; Song, Was it for this I dearly loved thee? Ballad founded on Fact; Song, Yes, thou art changed; Stanzas to Cynthio; The Origin of the Sail; Sonnet on the Approach of Autumn; To Laura, and a Love Elegy to Laura; Love Elegy to Henry; To Henry; To Henry; Lines on the Opening of a Spring Campaign; Lines on the Place de Concorde, at Paris; the Moon and the Comet, a Fable; To Lothario; To Henry; To Anna; Remembrance; Secret Love; To a Maniac; Lines on Constantinople; Song; To Henry; and the work concludes with five other Songs. A neatly-engraved frontispiece is prefixed to the volume. There is a description of Poets and Poetesses who become such through strong retentive powers of memory; those persons, extremely fond of the productions of our best writers, read them till they are enabled to repeat whole poems, and quote correctly the most beautiful passages from twenty different authors; they then proceed to write sonnets, elegies, and speak impromptus, which they publish, and the Publick immediately discover that every thought and every image may he appropriated, without the least difficulty, to the original owners from whom they were borrowed, almost unconsciously, by the unfortunate retailer, doomed to sink with his or her books into oblivion. This fact, undoubted and incontrovertible, induces the real friend of the Muse to exult when he meets with originality and polished metre, animated by the genuine fire of the Poet; such is the case in the present instance. Mrs. Opie, possessed of a mind disdaining imitation, and conscious of its own resources, has presented the Community with the means of passing a leisure hour innocently and delightfully; an assertion we shall support by two short extracts which would do honour to the pens of our best modern Poets, "LINES WRITTEN IN 1799. "Hail to thy pencil! well its glowing art Has trac'd those features painted on my heart; [rove, Now, though in distant scenes she soon will Still shall I here behold the friend I laveStill see that smile, "endearing, artless, [did mind; kind," The eye's mild beam that speaks the canWhich, sportive oft, yet fearful to offend, By humour charms, but never wounds a friend. eyes; But in my breast contending feelings rise, While this lov'd semblance fascinates my [line; Now, pleas'd I mark the Painter's skilful And now rejoice the skill I mark is thine : And, while I prize the gift by thee bestow'd, My heart proclaims, I'm of the giver proud. Thus pride and friendship war with equal strife; [wife." And now the friend exults, and now the The following lines are the application to the fable of the Moon and the Comet, told with equal ease and spirit; unluckily for the Arts, the satire is but too well founded. Wilkie, the modern Teniers, whose works are the admiration of all persons of judgment, is thus addressed: "W—k-e, 4 "W-k-e, beware! though Amateurs, And Nobles, Artists, Connoisseurs, Thy works admire, thy skill commend, And smiling o'er thy canvas bend, Thy powers will be no more respected, Thy crowded easel soon neglected, If ever Artist should appear (The Comet of Dame Fashion's sphere), Who works to wondering London shows, Not done with fingers, but with-toes.” 98. Men and Manners; or, Concentrated Wisdom. By A. Hunter, M. D. F. R. S. The Second Edition, much enlarged. WE do not remember to have seen the first edition of this pleasing miscellany; but it is no inconsiderable proof of merit that it has so soon passed into a second. It cannot, at the same time, be disrespectful or unjust to suggest that, in all collections of this kind, there are various degrees of interest and importance. We shall therefore select a few of Dr. Hunter's Maxims, for such they may be called, that appear to be excellent and unanswerable; and then advert to a far lesser number of the inferior kind. The Author, in a brief Preface, says, that "Wisdom that is conveyed in short and pithy sentences, has a more powerful operation upon the mind than voluminous systems of morality. To compare small things with great, this little work is like a watch that you carry about with you, and which tells you the hour without obliging you to go a mile to consult the church-clock of your parish. Children may read it; and grown persons may find in it some things that they never dreamt of." Never be without a will; read it over every two years; and make a new one, or a codicil, every time you make a purchase of freehold land, otherwise it will not pass to the uses of your will, but go to your heir-at-law. "If you are in trade, keep no more houses than you can support; a Summerhouse and a Winter-house have forced many a man into a Poor-house. "Idleness travels very leisurely, and Poverty soon overtakes her. "After we have eat a hearty meal, we think no man is hungry. "Give no alms to a man who begs well, but reserve it for the silent beggar. "Choose a wife from a watering-place where the company live under one roof. It is as safe a measure as buying a horse upon trial. "When you plant a wood, you are only paying posterity what you borrowed from your ancestors. "Do not brave the opinion of the World. You may as well say that you care not for the light of the sun because you can find a candle. "In England Law and Reason go hand in hand. In most other countries they hardly know each other. "Arrogance is a weed that grows on a dung-hill. "Time is a ship that neither casts anchor nor waits for passengers. "Those who lead a life of dissipation and pleasure should consider that the space between death and the card-table is hardly discernible. "A merchant is like a tree, the value of which cannot be known till it is cut down. "Wit is brushwood; Judgment is timber: the first makes the brightest flame, but the other gives the most lasting heat. "An artful woman is a saint in the morning, and a glow-worm at night. "He who is always his own counsellor, will often have a fool for his client. Gossiping and Lying are twin-sisters. "The anatomical examination of the eye is a certain cure for Atheism. "The Serpent tempted Eve with fruit that would purchase knowledge. A modern Eve would much rather have had a guinea to purchase what she liked. "Marrying a man you dislike, in hopes of loving him afterwards, is like going to sea in a storm in hopes of fair weather. "A mouse confined in a wire-trap eats its baited cheese with much composure, and, like the man of pleasure, is unmind ful of its future destiny. "A dog shews his wisdom by barking at a beggar, knowing that he comes to take away his perquisites. "A spirit-merchant and an undertaker should always shake hands when they meet. "A man of bright parts has generally more indiscretions to answer for than a blockhead. "Pay your debts of sin at different times. A death-bed repentance is too great a sum to pay at once. "Infidelity is engrafted on a bramble, but which can never rise higher than a shrub. "When our passions have left us, we have the vanity to think we have conquered them. "When a man trumpets his own praise, he generally blows out of tune. "To make too much haste to return an obligation is a sort of ingratitude. "Grumbling is scolding, with variations. "The shortest way to the church-yard is to pass through the dram-shop. "A statesman is something like a bricklayer's labourer: he is slow in getting up the ladder, but comes very fast down. "The |