ART. 20. Elegy on the Death of the Right Honourable Edmund Burke. By Mrs. Weft, Author of the Goffip's Story, Mifcellaneous Poems, a Tragedy, c. 4to. 15. Longman, Paternofter-Row. When we praised the Goffip's Story, in p. 115, of our tenth volume, the author's name was unknown to us. The Mifcellaneous Poems, mentioned in the title page, were printed in 1791, and contained many compofitions creditable to the writer. Mrs. Weft, in taking up the elegiac ftrain for Mr. Burke, has neither done injustice to his fame, nor injury to her own. We can only find room for a small specimen, but willingly recommend the whole." 1 "Friend of thy Country! friend of human kind! While toil and forrow vex the troubled earth." P. 3. ART. 21. An Elegy to the Memory of the Right Honourable Edmund Burke. By the Rev. John Chetwood Euftace. 4to. Is. Rivingtons, and Hatchard, 173, Piccadilly. 1798. Another tribute to the fame great man, from an admirer who praifes with lefs difcrimination, and does not appear to fee (as we do) in Mr. Burke's exertions refpecting America, one confiderable caufe of that very revolution, which he afterwards fo nobly oppofed. We cannot think this writer able to cope in poetical power with Mrs. Weft, and to give an extract may be therefore no real kindness. Yet to avoid any appearance of partiality, we fhall copy what we think the belt lines in the Elegy, namely the firft. I. The hollow knell refounds from yonder tower, The grave demands its prey-the fatal hour Is ftruck--and Death ftill murmurs in the found. 2. No common foul that awful warning calls, It tells the world a great career is o'er : The friend to freedom, order, virtue falls.— Mourn, Albion, mourn, thy BURKE is now no more! Z BRIT. CRIT. VOL. XI, MARCH, 1798. ART. ART. 22. Ode on the Fluctuations of Civil Society; to which is added, an Ode to Fortune. 8vo. Is. 6d. Debrett. 1797. We like the latter ode the beft, which begins prettily enough. Offspring of Fancy! fickle pow'r! By whom mankind, to phrenzy fir'd, Poffefs'd, regretted, or defir d-&c. &c. ART. 23. Britannia, a Poem. By Samuel Hull Wilcocke. 8vo. 35. Faulder. 1798. "This was primarily intended as the first book of a series of heroibiographic poetry, relative to the hiftory of England." The author fays this in his preface of the prefent work, at the conclufion of which, alfo, he deprecates criticism, from this " carly trait of skill in the Heliconian art." It is neither our wish nor custom to be fevere with early attempts at poetry, but we cannot much encourage this writer to proceed further in his undertaking. The lines are often very heavy and profaic; and, notwithstanding the author's apology, no modern ear can tolerate the fubftitution of Caractac for Caractacus, nor of Boadice for Boadicea. The following tribute to the memory of Offian, is, perhaps, the most favourable part we could felect. • Fingal, and all his heroes, noble theme Of fightlefs OSSIAN; at whofe name, the Mufe, Mere nature's verfe refinement's praife command, Ye fpirits of the whirlwind and the mift, The ftorm's tremendous war, the lightnings flash, ART. ART. 24. The Jacobin's Lamentation; or, the Poor too Rich. 8vo. A very happy and well-timed jeu d'efprit, in the manner of the Knife-Grinder, and with a fimilar moral; clearly proving, in good humoured verfe, that ample provifion is made in this country for every fpecies of distress and calamity. ART. 25. The Leafer; being a Selection of the best Effufions and Tranflations of that immortal Bard, Alexander Pope, Efq. with an Account of his Life and Writings. 12mo. 25. Symonds. 1798. The moft popular of Pope's compofitions are here brought together, at a fmall price, and in what fome may think a convenient form: aged eyes as thofe of critics may be fuppofed, will complain of the fmallness of the type. DRAMATIC. ART. 26. The Prodigal: a Dramatic Piece, as performed at the Theatre Royal, in the Haymarket, December 2, 1793. 8vo. 30 pp. Arrowfmith, Holborn. 1794. Though we confider the infertion of an article with a date long paft, as a tacit confeffion of fome kind of remiffness, yet we never think it too late to do juftice to ingenuity. In this prefent inftance, we have little to remark. The original piece by Mitchell, called the Fatal Extravagance, and published in the first volume of Aaron Hill's Dramatic Works, is here very little altered, except by a few inconfiderable omiffions, and by the change of the cataftrophe, which is rendered profperous, inftead of being fo deeply tragical. The new lines introduced for this purpose, are very few in number; but are, in their style, fufficiently fimilar to that of the original piece. Mr. Waldron, who made thefe alterations for the Haymarket Theatre, figns his name to the preface. NOVELS. ART. 27. The Governess, or Courtland Abbey; a Novel. 4 Vols. 12mo. I 25. Vernor and Hood. 1797. This novel is neither ill contrived with regard to its plot, nor deficient in point of arrangement and compofition; and the reader will perceive, that there are other motives to juftify our commendation than thofe of humanity, which are neceffarily by fome circumftances mentioned. ART. 28. Walsh Colville, or a young Man's entrance into Life. 8vo. 45. Lee and Hurst. 1797. A young man, after entering into all the diffipations of a gay and fashionable life, forms an ingenuous attachment with an amiable wo Z 2 man, man, with whom he is ultimately happy. There is no particular novelty of incident, nor variety of character; but as indifcretion is punished, and regularity of conduct rewarded, confidering how novels are generally constituted, we must be content to endure what we cannot confcientiously extol. ART. 29. Emily de Varmont, or Divorce dictated by Neceffity; to which are added, the Amours of Father Sevin, from the French of Louvet. Vols. 1200. 10s. 6d. Kearsley. 1798. 3 It must be confeffed, that the novelifts of France generally excell our own in the ingenuity of their characters, and the contrivance of their ftratagems. If a character fo bafe and unnatural as that of Varmont any where exifts, we truft it is on that fertile theatre of crimes, and not with us. Louvet, the author of this work, was a novel writer by profeffion, and of fome popularity. After various viciffitudes, he has fince been Prefident of the National Convention. We will not deny him the praise which is his due: he has a warm and lively fancy, and many of his fcenes are ingenioufly imagined and happily de fcribed. It is faid of this novel, that it was particularly inftrumental in producing the two decrees of the Convention, authorifing divorce, and allowing priests to marry. ART. 30. The English Nun, a Novel. Lane. 1797. 8vo. 215 PP. 4s. 6d. A very unexceptionable, interesting, and affecting tale, related in a good ftyle, and calculated at once to excite the most tender feelings, and, by the example of the principal perfonages, to animate the fortitude of thofe who may be placed in fituations of fimilar difficulty and trial. The catastrophe is fomewhat abrupt, and will be unfatisfactory to moft readers. ART. 31. Fofcelina: or, the Rewards of Benevolence. A Novel. Dedicated, by Permiffion, to her Royal Highnefs the Duichefs of York. By Ifabella Kelly, Author of Madeline Abbey, St. Asaph, &c. Sc. In Two Volumes. 8vo. Longman. 1797. Our first, but we fear ineffectual, admonition with regard to novels, has been, that the reading of them fhould be made an occafional amufement, and not a daily or ferious occupation. Our next, and we truft more fuccefsful, care has been, to appreciate their respective merite with tolerable exactnefs; diftinguifhing, 1t, thofe which are innocent, inftructive, and well written; 2ndly, thofe which poffefs only two of thefe properties, being deficient in the laft mentioned; 3rdly, thofe which are pernicious in their tendency, whether they be well or ill written. Upon thefe we fhall fet, as deeply as we are able, our mark of reprobation. Jofcelina muft be placed in the fecond of thefe claffes. That this work would be perfectly unexceptionable in its tendency, and in fome degree inftructive alfo, we were prepared to expect from the circumftance of the perfonage to whom it is, with permiffion, dedicated. But the heroine of the ftory is led through fuch a variety of trials and miferies, as could hardly fall to the lot of any human creature. Some very excentric and incongruous characters are alfo introduced into her ftory. How it fares with her in the conclufion, we will not fay; because we would not diminish any readers attention to a narrative, which may in a confiderable degree intereft and amufe him, with fome benefit perhaps, and certainly no injury to his morals. ART. 32. Abftra&t. A Character from Life. In Two Volumes. 12mo. 6s. Lane. 1797. Though this novel appears to be written with a good intention, and not without ingenuity, it cannot, on the whole, be commended. The defign is apparently to expofe the danger of fallacious theories, certainly at prefent a common and a formidable danger, yet the incidents are fo little deducible from that character in the hero, and fo very improbable in themselves, that it cannot produce any confiderable effect. The language is, in general, good, yet difgraced occafionally by fuch affectations, and the ufe of fuch ftrange words, that commendation there also must be lowered. We have to fubferve an impulfe ;""fapor," for favour, &c. "Laft evening" is provincial. There are, however, good and well written paffages in the work. DIVINITY. ART. 33. An Efay tending to fhew the Advantages which refult to Revelation from its being conveyed to us in the form of Hiftory. Published in pursuance of the Will of the late Mr. Norris, as having gained the Annual Prize inflituted by him in the University of Cambridge. By John Spencer Cobbold, A. M. Fellow of Gomille and Caius College. 8vo. 44 pp. 15. Rivingtons. 1797. The question difcuffed in this effay is of a nature to produce ingenious enquiries, and to bring out important conclufions. The writer appears to have been not a little attentive to each in the mode which he has adopted of treating the fubject. Confidering the queftion as relative, he compares the advantages refulting from an historical form, with thofe which would belong to the only two modes which could be fubftituted in its place; namely, a distinct Revelation to each individual, or a fyftematic code of ethics for the world at large. The first of thefe is fo objectionable, that it is difmiffed with little inveftigation: the fecond is found fcarcely liable to lefs objection, from the imperfection of language and other analogous caufes. In demonftrating the advantages of an hiftorical form, the writer proceeds upon thefe premises, that the object of a Revelation is to be believed, and by the operation of belief to influence practice, "This object," he contends, "will be beft attained by a mode of Revelation, which unizes the three following advantages: "1. A ftrength of evidence to command affent to its pretenfions. 2. A clear expofition of duties, |