where it is ufual for the curate of the parish to drink to the next merry meeting on the fame occafion: -thalamifque natus Regiis læto pede ludat However, it is a good wish, a very good wifh, and deserveth to go round. Never, in the most laborious and learned refearches, was my critical acumen and fagacity fo much perplexed, as it hath been by a little poem in this collection, figned J. Gribble. The Writer thereof addreffeth himself to the fun; but he neither taketh notice of King, Queen, Prince, nor Princefs. I tried it by the rules of allegory, I applied the fquare of fimile, and the fcale of metaphor to it, yet ftill could I make of it nothing more than an addrefs to the fun. Verily, this grieved me, and, to ease my mind, I wrote to a learned friend in Cambridge, from whom I received information, that the Author, having an hymn to the Sun in one pocket, and a Poem on the birth of the prince in another, had, by mistake, fent the faid hymn to the Cenfors, who, concluding that it meant fomething about the Prince, ordered it to be printed. Hactenus SCRIBLERUS-Overcome with the fatigue of profound inveftigation, to the misfortune of criticism, he hath here dropt the quill. Much, however, is not left for us to do; for, in this whole collection, we find nothing that we can praife, except the Greek Poem of Mr. Wakefield, and the English verses of Mr. Zouch. The firft is much in the spirit and manner of Theocritus, and the latter we fhall offer to the judgment of our Readers, as the only extract we shall make from this book. With wanton pride Ohio fweeps his course, Weep Weep, O ye mountains! weep; your pride is fall'n, Is it for this their haughty veffels bear Of Niagara, whilft the light canoe Swift bore them o'er the bofom of the deep: Now, wand'ring through the incenfe breathing vale, That chears the world with joy: once more fhall peace Of Carolina, Paradise of bliss. No wily Indian from the thicket's gloom Ambush'd shall aim the poifon'd dart: fecure Of California. The royal youth Το To fway the rod of juftice, and to cull We would not have our Readers fuppofe that we have quoted this as a perfect Poem. We are fenfible, that the thoughts are frequently trite, and that the images are in general too much enlarged for their importance; but we give it as one of the best in the collection. If we have beftowed greater applaufe on the University Poems upon former occafions, it was because they were better executed. Many of thofe gentlemen, whofe verfes we have heretofore diftinguished, have not written upon the present occafion; nor, indeed, is it to be wondered at, that they fhould with-hold their names from fuch a forbidding medley. Such public offerings as these may evince the loyalty of our Universities, but they will never add any thing to their literary reputation. The gifts of poetry, thofe facred gifts, which are never lavished but upon the favoured FEW, cannot be supposed to fall to the lot of every student who can repeat General offerings of poetry muft, therefore, always be unfuccefsful, and expofe our public feminaries to the ridicule of criticifm, when she finds their productions too contemptible, to be treated with gravity. Such publications may likewife have a bad a bad tendency in another refpect. Every rhyming or fyllable. weighing gownfman, whether a Fresh-man or a Senior-fellow, when once he has beheld his name and his verses printed on the full fair page of a pompous Folio; when he fees his own labours affociated with those of Nobles and Doctors, and confiders them as already brought to the ears of kings, it is natural for him to indulge the hopes of poetic fame, and to open his heart to the moft treacherous and infinuating of all fpecious enemies, Selfflattery. Hence the Mufes are difgraced, and the public peftered with crude and wretched attempts, while the unfortunate bard is, poffibly, neglecting fome ufeful calling, in queft of thofe laurels which he can never attain. We entertain the most honourable fentiments of our Univerfities; and are perfwaded, that it would be ferving borh them, and the caufe of literature in general, could we, in any meafure, contribute, by timely ridicule, to prevent the evil confequences above-mentioned." A New and General Biographical Dictionary, containing an Historical and Critical account of the Lives and writings of the most eminent Perfons in every nation; particularly the British and Irish, from the earliest accounts of time to the prefent period. 11 Vols. 8vo. 21. 15 s. in boards. Ofborne, Payne, &c. T muft ever be acknowledged in favour of the General Hiftorian, who undertakes to inftruct us in the tranfactions of paft ages, who faithfully draws from life, and accurately delineates the actions and characters of mankind; that he opens before us a noble fund of rational entertainment; and is at the fame time of the most important fervice, in forming the minds of men to virtue, and exciting them to an honourable and worthy conduct. That he entertains, and in a moft agreeable manner, will not be doubted and whilst he is calling forth into exercise the most generous principles and difpofitions of the human heart, inftructing us in the nature and obligations of private and focial virtue, reprefenting the duties of a man and a citizen, and all the important offices of peace and war, it will be generally allowed that he alfo improves the minds of his Reader. Nor is this encomium wholly confined to the Hiftorian at large; the faithful Biographer lays a juft claim to a proportionable hare of merit he hath the fame important objects profeffedly in view; and in many refpects purfues them with equal advantage and fuccefs. The actions and characters of men it is alike 3 their their province to defcribe; with this principal difference, that the former reprefents them as they appear in the public and more active scenes of life, and as they affect the general courfe of human affairs: whereas the latter, without omitting the public, leads us more into private and domeftic fituations; brings us acquainted with the whole circle of a man's friends, lays open his connections and correfpondence; the plan of his education; the method of his ftudies; his leading views in life; the manner in which he employed his time; and introduces us to the knowledge of a variety of circumftances, of the greatest importance to judging well of characters and manners; affording very ufeful hints for others to improve upon; and which could not with any propriety be introduced into a general Hiftory. Amongst the feveral fpecies of writing therefore, BIOGRAPHY will certainly be placed in a rank of fome importance, in point of real utility, as well as amufement. There have been very few eminent and illuftrious perfons, either in antient or modern times, of whofe lives fome memoirs have not been collected, and handed down to us. The Lawgiver, the Philofopher, the Mathematician, the Poet, the Warriour, Phyfician, or Divine, if in any remarkable manner they have fupported their feveral characters, diftinguished themselves in their profeffions, and merited fame by the fervices they have done their country or mankind, have met with fome ingenious and grateful pen, to gratify the public curiofity, and transmit their memory to pofterity. The great inconvenience of fuch memoirs hath been that they have generally been drawn up by thofe who were friends to the man, or warm admirers of the life they wrote; and of whom it might often be truly faid, that they were Panegyrifts, rather than Hiftorians. But the fingle lives of the moft remarkable and memorable perfons, though written with the greatest truth and exactness, unless collected together, could not be fuppofed in their difperfed ftate, to be of any general and extenfive ufe. To thofe Gentlemen therefore who have taken upon them the immenfe pains of searching into the records of antiquity, and collecting and difpofing thefe materials; who without the partialities of friendship, or the influence of prejudice, and in the juft fpirit of criticifm, have fet themselves to give a faithful account of those illustrious men, whofe lives and actions will be objects of attention to all ages and nations, the public in general, and the friends of literature in particular are furely very greatly obliged. Mr. BAYLE, the compilers of the GENERAL DICTIONARY, the Authors of the BIOGRAPHIA BRITANNICA, and others who have engaged in the fame laborious and important fervice, notwithstanding the particular imperfections of their feveral performances, deferve to |