Alta quies lecto non abrumpenda saligno. The two succeeding words of Horace, forumque vitat, are This is truly the art of "filling the world with words," Imi tations, pursued with such latitude, and with such total disregard to the manner of the original author, can scarcely be otherwise considered than as exercises on a subject previously occupied; the attempt is rather competition than translation. Indeed, the grave and lofty verse, which Miss Seward has chosen for her odes, excludes every comparison with the sportive measures of Horace. We may remark, as the general fault of his English translators, that their versions have been too solemn. Perhaps a more adequate impression of the graces of the courtly Roman might be conveyed to the English reader, if the measure of some of our songs were adopted in translating him. We possess sufficient varieties of metre, to suit the graver and the gayer turn of his odes; examples of which may be found in Cowley, Lansdowne, Prior, and others, Who from the Antients like the Antients write. We select, as a favourable specimen of Miss Seward's imitations, the Ode to Thaliarchus : * In dazzling whiteness, lo! Soracte towers, 6 As all the mountain were one heap of snow! Rush from the loaded woods the glittering showers; Let plenteous billets, on the glowing hearth, Nor heed th' arrested streams, or [no] slippery plains. High Heaven, resistless in his varied sway, Speaks! The wild elements contend no more; Climbs the dark rocks, or curls upon the shore. *This Ode was probably written at the Country Seat of that Nobleman, near the mountain Soracte, in Tuscany, twenty-six miles from Rome.' Cc 3 • And And peaceful then yon aged ash shall stand; Soft as thy tip-toe steps the mazes rove, A laugh, half-smother'd, thy pleas'd ear shall meet, And then the ring, or, from her snowy arm, Of the more free paraphrases, we have an agreeable example in the ode addressed To the Hon. THOMAS ERSKINE. Horace, Book the Second, Ode the Third, imitated. • Conscious the mortal stamp is on thy breast, There let thy duteous Train the banquet bring, While every Muse and Grace auspicious wait, * The Author had the pleasure of passing a fortnight with Mr. and Mrs. Erskine at Buxton in August 1796.' At At frequent periods woo th' inspiring Band Fann'd by pure gales on Hampstead's airy downs, • What can it then avail thee that thy pleas E'en now thy lot shakes in the Urn, whence Fate And lo! the great Man's prize!--a SILENT TOMB!' In the version of the Ode to Mæcenas, (p. 141,) we could not help remarking one stanza as superior to the rest, and which reminded us of the pleasant, but too waggish imitations of Horace by the late Mr. Hall Stephenson: Ah! happy friend! for whom an eye, Of splendid and resistless fire, Lays all its pointed arrows by, For the mild gleams of soft desire !' This is a large paraphrase on Horace's fulgentes oculos: but fifty stanzas, if equal in merit, would not be reckoned tedious on this subject. The imitation of that delightful ode, "Beatus ille, qui procul negotiis," &c. is written, we are told, expressly for the benefit of those who cannot read the original. We should therefore have passed it without any remark, had not our eye been caught by some singular criticisms contained in a note. Miss Seward seems to think that Horace is not sufficiently minute and copious in his descriptions; and, to our great surprise, she deduces the remark from this very ode, which is celebrated for its descriptive excellence. That the circumstances of the description are suggested forcibly, in few words, is the great and uncommon CC 4 praise praise of the Roman lyrist. Miss Seward observes that the image of the well-fed sheep hastening home' is not picturesques and she thinks that, when he adds to see the weary oxen dragging with languid neck the inverted ploughshare,' he gives 'perhaps the most poetic feature in this ode.'-We cannot sacrifice so much to politeness, as to acquiesce in this criticism. How was it possible for the lady to overlook that delicious passage, which, on every perusal, awakes in the reader all the pleasurable emotions of rural leisure and retirement? Libet jacere modo sub antiqua ilice : Modo in tenaci gramine. LABUNTUR ALTIS INTERIM RIPIS AQUE: QUERUNTUR IN SILVIS AVES, FONTESQUE LYMPHIS OBSTREPUNT MANANTIBUS, These soothing ideas could not be more distinctly impressed in a thousand verses than in these last four lines: but the votary of minute description may feel dissatisfied, because the poet has not informed us whether the banks were shaded with beech or poplar, and whether the birds were ring-doves or turtles. This is the autumnal-tablet given by Horace. The winterpiece is not less correct in its colouring, nor less perfect in its design. Though we must forbear to multiply our quotations, we cannot omit the very picturesque whole of that description, in which Miss S. has only been able to find one poetic image: "Has inter epulas, ut juvat pastas oves Videre PROPERANTES domum! Videre Fessos vomerem INVERSUM boves POSITOSQUE VERNAS, ditis EXAMEN domus, CIRCUM RENIDENTES LARES!"* What a pleasing groupe has the poet here embodied! we sit at the table, partake the amusements, and enjoy the scenes, of the rustic philosopher. In the last line of Miss S.'s imitation of this ode, she has condescended (we dare say, unconsciously) to borrow from the despot Johnson,' as she styles him: she speaks of misers, who Against experienced disappointment, try With gold to purchase that, which gold can never buy.” Every reader of Johnson's "London" must recollect this fine passage: "But thou, should tempting villainy present, All Marlbro' hoarded, or all Villiers spent, While we object to Miss Seward's censure of Horace's rural descriptions, we are aware that there are many beautiful passages in the writings of other authors, which comprehend a great variety of minute details: but their excellence does not consist in prolixity. Two instances in Comus occur to us, in which there is a peculiar beauty, because the time of the day is designed by the progress of rural occupations: "Two such I saw, what time the labour'd ox "This evening late, by then the chewing flocks We confess that we should wish to see this accomplished lady's talents exercised, in future, on original composition rather than on translation. The tones of her muse are naturally solemn and plaintive, and they will not easily assume new modulations. Her admirers will require no change of manner; and, as Miss Seward has ever shewn herself in her works the friend of Genius and of Virtue, we have no doubt that her productions will continue to meet with support, from the most liberal and best-informed part of society. ART. II. A View of the Causes and Consequences of the American Revolution; in Thirteen Discourses, Preached in North America between the Years 1763 and 1775 with an Historical Preface. By Jonathan Boucher, A. M. and F. A. S. Vicar of Epsom in the County of Surrey. 8vo. pp. 700. 9s. Boards. Robinsons. 1797 T 'HE attention of the reader of this volume will be caught at the opening of it, and he will be materially instructed in the principles and views of the author, by the dedication to George Washington, Esq. This dedication is written in a manly and elegant strain, and opens thus: • SIR, In prefixing your name to a work avowedly hostile to that Revolution in which you bore a distinguished part, I am not conscious that I deserve to be charged with inconsistency. I do not address myself to the General of a Conventional Army; but to the late dignified President of the United States, the friend of rational and sober freedom.' Mr. |