This Despite,' whose widow the unfortunate lady is, must be some relation, we surmise, to that vile thief Deformed, 'who, in Dogberry's time, used to go up and down like a gentleman: Amphitrite, however, takes pity on the deserted lady, and sends Ariel-But we really are unable to get through the story;-and must, like Sloth in the Lutrin, break off in the middle of our narration; happy, if good-breeding can keep us from imitating that goddess, when she Soupire, étend les bras, ferme l'œil et s'endort.' We shall only remark, that it required no ordinary courage to take Ariel in hand after Shakespeare; and that his fate here very touchingly reminds us of the story of poor Ver-vert. That divinely-spoken bird, in his way to the nuns who borrowed him, forgot the holy language for which he had been famed, and learned all sorts of vulgar abominations instead; and we are sorry to say the loan of Prospero's bird' to Lord Thurlow, has been attended with quite as provoking a metamorphosis. But it is time to give the more favourable specimens we have promised:-The following reflections upon the Sacred Islands,' are in the Noble author's very best manner. There sorrow never enters, nor sad pain Afflicts, but joy with youthful love is wed, The following extract from his Lordship's Appendix to the Sylva, contains as few of those faults which are peculiar to himself, with as many of those beauties which are common to him with thousands, as any we can select. Much pleasure yet there is, and sweetness too, In this pale look of the declining year; But yet the robin pours a plaintive lay, And a soft murmur makes the air its own! To dream of joys that may again return, Indeed, we rather think the most respectable efforts of the Noble author's pen are to be found among these lesser pieces of the Sylva and the Appendix ;-though, at the same time, truth obliges us to add, that in proportion as they grow rational, they cease to be amusing; and that we have never read poetry, which explained to us so perfectly, why that people of antiquity-the Træzenians, we believe-sacrificed to Sleep and the Muses on the same altar. We had concluded this article, when we received, by express, another Poem from the pen of this indefatigable Nobleman, entitled- Carmen Britannicum, or, the Song of Britain, written in honour of his Royal Highness the Prince Regent.'-This is really overpowering; and we find we have not a moment to lose in adopting the measure suggested at the beginning of the article, and appropriating one of our brethren exclusively to his Lordship. The Carmen Britannicum' is admirable in its way;-and we only regret, that we have not room for abundant extracts from it. He traces the descent of the Regent in a direct line from Jupiter, through Hercules, Glaucus, the Tarquins, &c. down to Azo, son of Hugo, • From whom our kings the Saxon sceptre claim, And the White Horse do in their banners place.' p. 17. From Azo, the pedigree flows downward through several other sons of gods,' till it ends most satisfactorily in the Prince Regent ;-whom the poet thus addresses The Sun beholds thee with uprising love, And joyous, laughs, in his thrice-golden sphere, The son of Jove, thou to his beams art dear.' p. 23. He has the hardihood, however, in one memorable line, to charge this illustrious person with a deed, of which few have ever suspected him to be capable Thames, by thy victories, is set on fire!' and we were agreeably surprised to find from the following couplets, that India and Africa are the birth-places of some of VOL. XXIII. No. 46. E e those obnoxious things about Court, which we had very much feared were all of home extraction→→→→ • All herbs of earth are in thy gardens seen, The Indian world has been despoiled clean, And Africa, to find new beasts for thee!' p. 24. One more passage, and we have done. This is thy praise: but greater is thy bliss To sit enthron'd upon the regal chair, And see around thee what no land, but this, Can yield to thought of beautiful and fair; Ladies, whom nature for a pattern made, In shape, in stature, in complexion pure. P. 25. And now we, for the second time, take our leave of Lord Thurlow ;-heartily wishing that, as he styles himself the Priest' of the Prince Regent, and seems to threaten many more such oblations at his shrine, he would, at once, assume the laurel in form, and emancipate the brows of the present wearer, whose Pegasus is much too noble an animal, to be doomed to act the part of a cream-coloured horse upon birth-days. ART. IX. Sermons, chiefly on Particular Occasions. By ARCHIBALD ALISON, LL. B. Prebendary of Sarum, Rector of Rodington, Vicar of High Ercal, and Senior Minister of the Episcopal Chapel, Cowgate, Edinburgh. 8vo. pp. 466. London, Longman & Co. Edinburgh, Constable & Co. 1814. THE HE style of these Sermons is something new, we think, in the literature of this country. It is more uniformly elevated, more profusely figured-and, above all, more curiously modulated, and balanced upon a more exact and delicate rythm, than any English composition in mere prose with which we are acquainted. In these, as well as in some more substantial characteristics, it reminds us more of the beautiful moral harangues that occur in the Telemaque of Fenelon, or of the celebrated Oraisons Funebres of Bossuet, than of any thing of British growth and manufacture :- Nor do we hesitate at all to set Mr Alison fairly down by the side of the last named of those illustrious Prelates. He is less lofty perhaps; but more tender and more varied-less splendid, but less theatrical-and, with fewer striking reflections on particular occurrences, has unquestionably more of the broad light of philosophy, and the milder glow of religion. In polish and dignity we do not think him at all inferior-though he has not the advantage of enhancing the simple majesty of Christianity by appeals to listening monarchs, and apostrophes to departed princes. From the very suggestion of this parallel, it will be understood, that the strain of the discourses before us is never careless or even familiar-perhaps not always quite natural-but uniformly graceful, engaging and impressive; and at least as far removed from the parade of a frigid rhetoric, as from the rude energy of tempestuous passion or untutored enthusiasm. If they do not abound in those bursts and flashes of eloquence which constitute the sublime of such compositions, they have all the richness and warmth and softness which make up their beauty; and are intimately felt to be the works of a mind at once delicate and ardent, guided by the purest taste and the most amiable feelings-and pleasing itself with bestowing a careful finish on its expressions, not more from an instinctive love of all that is beautiful and harmonious, than from an unfeigned affection and concern for the subjects on which it is employed. We do not know, in fact, any sermons so pleasing or so likely both to be popular, and to do good to those who are pleased with them. All the feelings are generous and gentleall the sentiments liberal - and all the general views just and ennobling. They are calculated to lead us on to piety, through the purification of our taste, and the culture of our social affections to found the love of God on the love of Nature and of Man-and to purge the visual orb of the soul for the contemplation of the infinite majesty of the Creator, by teaching it to recognize the unspeakable beauty and grandeur which reigns in all the aspects of his physical and moral creation. They are not, however, sermons for profound scholars or learned divines. They contain no display of erudition, nor profess to settle any knotty points in theology. Such labours have their value no doubt, and are entitled to their praise; nor is it a light praise to have consecrated the fruits of long study and scientific research to the illustration of what is dark, or the confirmation of what is doubtful in the foundations of our faith: but we have always thought that discussions such as these could be embodied in no form less suitable to their substance than that of sermons in the vulgar tongue-or, in other words, discourses orally delivered to a promiscuous audience, the greater part of which is necessarily incapable either of following or of appretiating the merits of the reasoning-and no part of which could presume to judge of it on a mere transient recitation of the positions and authorities. There are no subjects in fact that require so patient a collation of books, and so frequent a recurrence to the early steps of our argument, as the abstruse and weighty matters that form the topics of theological controversy,-either with argumentative infidels, or the learned advocates of an erroneous faith. Such discussions, therefore, are most properly made the subject of books, or of academical instruction: but we conceive it to be nothing less than a perversion of the great purposes of ordinary preaching, to substitute them in the place of those weekly discourses by which the morals of a whole congregation are to be improved, or their devotion awakened. It is not easy to overrate the importance of doing this effectually and well; and when we consider how great a proportion of readers are as careless-as impatient of long dissertations, and at the same time as vacant and open to all lively impressions as the mass of an ordinary congregation, it is not easy to calculate how much good may be effected, when a pastor, who has discovered the secret of doing this, is pleased to enlarge his audience by means of the press, and to extend the benefit of his exhortations to all who are enrolled in his flock by the mere act of becoming his readers. For one man whose understanding is perplexed by the false doctrines or false philosophy, which it is the object of a Stillingfleet, a Clarke, or a Horsley, to redargue and expose, we may be assured there are at least a thousand who stand in need of the excitement and suggestions which may be furnished by the volume before us--who want to be roused to a sense of the beauty and the good that exist in the universe around them-and who are only indifferent to the feelings of their fellow-creatures, and negligent of the duties they impose, for want of some persuasive monitor to awake the dormant capacities of their nature, and to make them see and feel the delights which Providence has attached to their exercise. It is lamentable, indeed, to think how many pass through life, without tasting the highest gratification, or exerting the noblest functions of their being, from no other cause than the want of some such excitement; and how many of those who have been happily distinguished for both, are able to trace back the first dawnings of that moral and intellectual existence to the accidental perusal of some work, far less fitted to produce that effect than the least of the discourses of Mr Alison. We are not acquainted, indeed, with any work so well fitted for the purpose; or calculated to make so beneficial an impression on the minds of those to whom such topics have not hitherto been familiar. The beauty of the style and the imagery, is almost sure to attract the attention in the first place; and the mind must be dull and sullen indeed, that offers a long resist |