fame of Brian grows young, is a singularity that approaches nearer to the figure of rhetoric called Taurus, than any thing in the whole poem.

Immediately after this, the poet "breaks up" into the following limping strain, which resembles marvellously the pace of a man who labours under the misfortune of wearing one leg longer than the other.

Alas! poor "orphan tree!" Anon, the capricious poney ambles off at the following rate.

Again,

"Clive and Comedy, came together,
Waving wild their wand of feather,
Round and round the antic throng,
Led along

By their airy song."

"How the holy sound
Would call around

The vision of former years

The virgins bright,

In their mantles of light,

Would forget the virgin's fears."

The Pegasus of the present day is assuredly not the horse with which the earlier English poets so bravely attained the height of "crack skulled" Parnassus, or he has been terribly spoiled by un> skilful jockeys. When Dryden rode him he was a majestic war horse, his "neck clothed with thunder," prancing along with a grand and steady pace, and bearing his rider and kimself unjaded to the end of the journey. Now, under the direction of the mighty masters of the modern epic school, he appears a little, stumbling, capricious, ungovernable Narragansett poney, sham VOL. II. New Series.

9

bling along as we occasionally see a pug dog, sometimes on three legs, sometimes on four, and relieving himself from the intolerable fatigues of his way, by practising every variety of motion. There are in the present poem, we imagine, at least, thirty different metres, jumbled together with the most unaccountable whimsicality, so that we advise the reader to keep a good look out before him, else he will be continually in danger of being unhorsed by the stumbling varieties of this clumsy Pegasus.

"Our author"-this is a phrase used by us critics to show that the author is exclusively our property-has availed himself of the poetic license established by the Great Master of the modern school of epic, to change his rhyme and his measure just as it suits him. By this unrestrained liberty, the poet is, in a great measure, released from the shackles of rhyme, and can indulge in rigmarole story-telling as much as he pleases.

Having formerly premised that our object was to set forth some of the most prominent features of the present fashionable school of poetry, we will noi spend much time in stating the peculiar beauties and faults of the poem before us. It is principally devoted to the praise of Ireland, which is poetically known as the "Emerald Isle," and to the distinguished characters it has produced. In the pursuit of this last object we think he has selected many individuals that do little honour to his country, and injudiciously blended real with fictitious personages, at least, personages whose existence and exploits seem to belong to the region of fable. He has celebrated the late Miss Owenson,* and not only celebrated, but imitated her in that mawkish sentiment, as well as that imposing and obscure style, which dazzles without enlightening; and where the reader is continually tantalized with some shadowy spectre of an idea, which can never be reduced to any specific form or dimensions.

He has dwelt, too, we think, with a most unlucky partiality upon the name of Dermody, whose talents as a poet by no means kept pace with his improvements in vice and immorality. To the eccentricities and irregularities of genius, we are at all times willing to afford a liberal toleration; but ingratitude, vice and debauchery, must not hope to find a sanction from their connexion with supe

*Now Lady Morgan.

rior mental endowments. At this late period, when men of genius are brought under the canons of criticism, it appears high time that they should also be obliged to submit to the laws of decency and morality, and that as they can no longer claim exemption from the rules of the first, so they are bound, like all other men, to conform to the precepts of the last. If the world has any thing to blame itself for in its conduct towards men of genius, it is in making too liberal an allowance for their fantastical departures from the ordinary rules of conduct adopted by common men. The calm acquiescence in these breaches of the salutary ordinances prescribed for the government of all, has, we believe, brought on the ruin of many a chosen spirit, who, had he been arrested in time by the saving disapprobation of the world, would have checked his downhill career, and regained his lost elevation. The world indeed has spoiled many a man of genius, as well by its indiscreet praises, as by its too liberal allowances for that impru dence which is supposed to be a sure indication of promising talents. The praise has operated to check the progress of farther improvement, and to bring on a premature confidence, which is the forerunner of carelesness, idleness, and decay; while the too liberal toleration held out to their imprudence or dissipation, has seldom failed to produce in the end those lamentable catastrophes which are so thick set in the literary annals of the world. But this is not the worst; the evil extends much farther than to the few men who are gifted with extraordinary powers of fancy. From this supposed intimate connexion betwixt genius and imprudence, thousands of young men who had no one attribute of the former, but the possession of the latter, have been led to mistake themselves for persons of extraordinary genius, when, in fact, they could advance no other claim to such a distinction, than that which was founded on a general defiance of those hallowed rules which men of genius themselves originally devised for the benefit of human happiness. That imprudence is often the concomitant of a brilliant and ardent fancy, is clearly demonstrable, because that judgment which is necessary to the direction of our conduct, is often blinded and impaired by the dazzling glow created around us by the workings of the imagination. He, however, who can produce no other voucher to his superior genius than wild and ungovernable imprudence, or

"On the whole," as "my masters," the English Reviewers, say, when they have lost sight of the book they are reviewing for at least two good hours-on the whole, we think Mr. Phillips occupies a pretty respectable rank in the list of those poets who have been most successful in imitating the multifarious rigmarole style, and the matchless dexterity in note-making of the Great Master, both which combined undoubtedly constitute the perfection of the school of modern chivalry. We recommend him to the hospitality of our country, which seems not only the political, but the literary asylum of Europe, where all sorts of distressed poets, as well as patriots, find a welcome and a home. And we make this recommendation with the more confidence, as, notwithstanding its faults, we consider the present poem as one of the most remarkable ever written, for, though the writer is a Wild-Irishman, and the book all about Ireland, we have not been able, with all our industry, to detect a single substantial, incontestable bull! P.

BIOGRAPHY

OF

CAPTAIN JACOB JONES.

[We must apologize to the writer of the following article, for having omitted several passages of a political nature. We expressed our determination, on taking charge of this work, to conduct it without party bias; and that whatever political strictures it might contain, they should be merely of a national nature. However, therefore, we may coincide with the author in his opinions, he will perceive that we cannot, with any consistency, give them insertion. Besides, we consider the victories of our navy as so many subjects for national feeling, in the discussion of which the sordid animosities of party should give way to the nobler sentiment of patriotic exultation.]

JACOB JONES, Esq. of the United States navy, was born about the year 1770, near the village of Smyrna, in the county of Kent, state of Delaware. His father was an independent and respectable farmer, of excellent moral and religious character. His mother was of a good family of the name of Jones; an amiable and interesting woman; she died when the subject of this memoir was yet an in

fant.

Between two and three years afterwards his father married again, with a Miss Holt, granddaughter of the honourable Ryves Holt, formerly chief justice of the supreme court of Delaware; or, as it was then denominated, "The lower counties on Delaware." Shortly after this second marriage his father died, when this his only child was scarcely four years of age. It was the good fortune of our hero to be left under the care of a stepmother, who had all the kind feelings of a natural parent. The affection which this excellent woman had borne towards the father, was, on his death, transferred to the child. By her he was nurtured from infancy to manhood, with a truly maternal care and tenderness. At an early age he was placed at school, and his proficiency in learning was equal to her most anxious wishes. After becoming well acquainted with the general branches of an English education, he was transferred to a grammar school at Lewes in Sussex county, conducted by the learned and pious Dr. Matthew Wilson. Under his direction he read the classics with much assiduity, and became well acquainted with the Latin and Greek languages. The writer of this memoir distinctly remembers also, that in the geographical lessons he continually bore off the palm, and received, beyond all others, repeated proofs of approbation from his preceptor. At the age of eighteen he left Lewes Academy, and entered on the study of physic and surgery, under Dr. Sykes, an eminent physician. and surgeon of Dover, in the county of Kent. With him he diligently prosecuted his studies for four years, after which he attended the usual courses of medical lectures of the University of Pennsylvania, and then returned to Dover to commence the exercise of his profession.

He did not, however, continue long in the practice. He found the field already engrossed by a number of able and experienced gentlemen of the faculty, among whom was the late lamented Dr. Miller of New-York. Discouraged by the scanty employment that is commonly the lot of the young physician, and impatient of an inactive life, he determined to abandon the profession for the present, and seek some more productive occupation. This resolution was a matter of much regret among the elder physicians. They entertained a high opinion of his medical acquirements, and considered him as promising to become a distinguished and skilful mem