phlet of Dr. Woodville; and various parts of the history are likely soon to be fully investigated. It already appears that several of the facts asserted, relating to the vaccine disorder, are not well founded: but we trust and hope that the principal points will be established, and that the public will ultimately derive much benefit from them. ART. XIII. Grove-Hill, a Descriptive Poem, with an Ode to and WE many Plates. 1. Is. Boards. Arch. 1799. PP. 76. E have frequently had occasion to bear testimony to this author's learning, poetical talents, and facility of writing both in prose and verse; and if we have not invariably subscribed to his opinions, nor regarded his works as "faultless monsters,' we have never withheld our praise when we thought it due. In particular, we have celebrated his talent for descriptive poetry; and his descriptions, indeed, are not confined to belle parole, but are enriched by knowlege and reflection. We have no local acquaintance with the villa which he now celebrates, and are therefore unable to judge of the likeness of the portrait: but the picture is well designed and highly coloured. By separating the several characteristic parts of the subject of this poem, apparently for the sake of the elegant wood plates with which it is embellished, it seems rather a collection of portraits, than an historical picture, or complete whole yet, if the publication had no other merit than that of serving as a vehicle for the admirable engravings in wood with which it is embellished, executed by Anderson †, from designs by Samuel, it would have answered a very laudable purpose. Of these ornaments we cannot give our readers any specimens: but from the poetry we shall present them with an extract or two; commencing with the well merited and well drawn eulogy of the worthy and excellent Ferguson: • OBSERVATORY, or TEMPLE of the SYBILS, Sublimer thoughts the kindling bosom fire: Adieu! earth's bounded range, all meaner themes, Gay landscapes, waving woods, and glittering streams: Be mine with heaven-born Ferguson to soar, And yon bright arch and brighter orbs explore: *The scat of Dr. Lettsom, at Camberwell, An ingenious young artist, who already equals his predecessors in this line, and will probably excel them. Pear..n. With his rapt spirit round the ecliptic glow, And, as one dazzling food of light they pour, Doom'd still to be the sport of adverse fate, And wide the intellectual world explores; Weighs the vast mass, and marks its mighty bound, That That long as stars shall shine, or oceans roll, To kindred real shall rouse the aspiring soul." The APIART, which follows this article, is described with much poetical imagery: • Reflected from Augusta's glittering spires, The sun darts fiercely his meridian fires; With brighter splendor shines each glistening stream, Save when on idle drones dire war they wage; All, all to swell the public stores unite. Oh! would the mighty states, whose thunders hurl'd O'er ravaged Europe, awe the astonished world, Oh! would they imitate the blameless race, Whose numerous hives their names conspicuous grace ; Their generous ardour for the public weal; Be firmly bound by one grand social chain, And bid through earth eternal concord reign!' There seems a small inaccuracy, which we did not expect from so orthodox a writer as Mr. M., in saying, p. 3, that Adam led by his Maker (before the fall) tasted every fruit that decked the paradisaical bower.' At pp. 7 and 8, the words bound and bounded seem rather too near neighbours. Pope's objection to "the repetition of the same rhymes within four or six lines of each other, as tiresome to the ear through their monotony," is equally cogent with re-spect to blank verse, and to prose; where an important word continues vibrating on the ear during the perusal of at least five or six lines. Of MITHRA we have formerly spoken with partiality, in vol. xii. p. 251. of our New Series. In this revival of the poem, there is a considerable addition, between the IVth and Vth Stanzas. -- ་་ At At p. 63. a small typographical error seems to have escaped the author's care and correction: Diapasan for Diapason and in another place, the word recanted, for rechanted, seems an unusual acceptation. Though to recant comes from recanto; and originally implied a palinody, no one now thinks of singing who recants an opinion. Besides the uncommon beauty of the engravings, this publication does honour to the typography of our country, by the perfection of the letter-press and paper. Dr B....y. By ART. XIV. The Pleasures of Hope; with other Poems. Thomas Campbell. Small 8vo. 6s. Boards. Edinburgh printed; and sold by Longman, in London. 1799. r would be unreasonable to expect, in a poem on this subject, the same exactness and method which occur in the Pleasures of Memory, or perhaps in the Pleasures of Imagination. All that can be done, in delineating the effects of the passion here described, is to form pleasing groupes, and to combine them by natural transitions. In one transition, we think, the present author has been too abrupt: namely, in passing from the subject which introduces the Episode, to the Sorrows of Conrad and his daughter. The characteristic style of the poem is the pathetic, though in some passages it rises into a higher tone.-It opens with a comparison between the beauty of remote objects in a landscape, and the anticipation of remote futurity: At summer eve, when Heav'n's aerial bow Spans with bright arch the glittering hills below, More pleasing seems than all the past hath been; Though there seems to be no settled mode of arrangement adopted in disposing of the successive pictures which constitute the poem, yet there is an evident climax followed out. The march-worn soldier' entering the field of battle is the first description; to which succeeds an allusion to the situation of the celebrated Commodore Byron; who, actuated by the influence of anticipation, encountered so many difficulties with exemplary fortitude. A domestic scene is then naturally introduced, in which the influence of Hope on parental affection is well pourtrayed. We give the following specimen of this part of the poem: Lo! as the couch where infant beauty sleeps, Her silent watch the mournful mother keeps ; Or cons his murm'ring task beneath her care The pictures of the Maniac and the Wanderer are in the same style, but our limits do not permit us to transcribe them. * For his Narrative, see M. R. vol. xxxix. p. 319. From |