From what has been faid, the reader will form a judgment of the merits of this work; and will think, perhaps, with us, upon the whole, that the Author does not deferve of his patronefs quite so ample a reward as that which Octavia beftowed on the Mantuan Bard, when (as our poet happily expreffes it)

With the dear name of her Marcellus ftruck,

She bid him read no more, and close the book.

Hence we take the hint alfo, and clofe that of our Hillingdon * Bard; begging him most serioufly, in compaffion to ourfelves, to lay afide all thoughts of printing the Sportive verses of his youth, with which, if this fong pleafes, he threatens to entertain the public.

The place of our Author's abode-near Uxbridge, if we miftake not:

I at Hillingdon, unknown to fame,
Strove by this fong to gain a poet's name'- p. 276.

K-n-k

The Day of Judgment. A Poem, in two books. The fecond edition, corrected and enlarged. By John Ogilvie, A. M. 8vo. I s. Keith.

T is no ways furprizing, that many writers have employed their faculties in attempting to pourtray that grand and ultimate, however diftant fcene, which eternally interefts all the defcendants of Adam); which muft, of confequence, engage the frequent attention of the serious and rational; and will ob trude itself fometimes on fuch light and guilty miuds, as would gladly decline the terrible confideration of it. In the antient poets, as the prefent ingenious one obferves, we may fometimes meet with a few random thoughts, and undigested draughts of the day of judgment.' The + paflage relating to the general conflagration, in Ovid, is trite and direct. Other European nations may well be fuppofed to have their writers on the fubject, and our own has produced not a few. Were our abilities fufficient, we conceive it is not our office, and are 'certain it is not our inclination, to affume a critical and decifive eftimation of

their different merits: though we think ourselves at liberty to declare, that, during our furvey of literature, we have not been fo completely fatisfied, upon the whole, with any former effay on the subject, as with the prefent: the plan of which feems to us the better for its being very obvious and fimple, as the purpose of it required, and is briefly as follows.

The poet takes his principal materials from fcripture, which must be more acceptable to us as Chriftians, and more fatisfactory to us as men; fince the account of this great future catastrophè, as delivered in fcripture, however defcending to the notions and comprehenfion of men, is more fublime and ftriking, more complete and determinate, than any thing we meet with on this topic in prophane writers. These materials then he very pathetically defcribes and details, as fucceffively reprefented to him in a dream, in which a mighty seraph is his conductor and support, through every fcene of fublime terror; and he concludes his preface, by faying, in defence of his scheme, If any one fhould think, that a dream is no proper medium for illuftrating the most awful, and to men, the moft interefting -fcene that can be imagined, I defire him either to fix on a better, or perufe (if he pleases) the fourth chapter of Job, where he will find the most important truths communicated to Eliphaz in a fimilar form.' We conceive this will be thought a fufficient precedent by the most competent readers of this poem, and haften to gratify them with fome of the many sublime and uncommon beauties it presents us.

After a brief invocation of the celestial muse, with an elegant compliment to Dr. Young, who had foar'd before him on the fame difquifition, he thus propofes his grand tremendous fubject.

I leave unheeded ev'ry mortal care,

The victor's pomp, and all the scenes of war:
A nobler aim invites my fong to rife:
No praife I fing, but his who form'd the skies;
No fcenes, but nature's burning vaults difplay'd;
No pow'r, but that which wakes the fleeping dead.
My theme how vaft! The fun's extinguish'd rays;
Ten thousand stars in one devouring blaze;
That doom, the guilty wretch muft dread to hear;
The laft loud trump that ftops the rolling sphere;
The crouds that burft from earth's diffolving frame;
All heaven descending, and a world on flame.

This seems in truth the os magna fonaturum; and here, as if aftonished at the immenfity and importance of his theme, and forgetting that he had already invoked the celeftial mufe, he directly accofts the incomprehenfible effence and origin of all per

fection,

fection, for his immediate aid, in a ftrain of that humble, yet afpiring piety, which best evinces the mens divinior.

O THOU, whofe hands the bolted thunder form,
Whofe wings the whirlwind, and whofe breath the form:
Tremendous Gop! this wond'ring bofam raife,

And warm each thought that would attempt thy praife.
O! while I mount along th' etherial way,
To fofter regions, and unclouded day,

Pafs the long tracts where darting lightnings glow,
Or trembling view the boiling deeps below;
Lead thro' the dubious maze, direct the whole,
Lend heav'nly aid to my tranfported foul,
Teach ev'ry nobler pow'r to guide my tongue,
And touch the heart, while thou inspir'ft the song.

After a poetical paraphrafe of midnight, when his dream is fuppofed to have commenced, he thus introduces his conduct. ing and informing angel.

'Twas then, amid the filence of the night,

A graceful feraph ftood before my fight,

And blaz'd meridian day,-the rocking ground
Flam'd as he mov'd, and totter'd as he frown'd.

Though it is not improbable our Author thought here of the motion and attitude of Neptune, as defcribed in the thirteenth book of the Iliad,

τρέμε δ' έρεα μακρά και ύλη Ποσσιν ὑπ ̓ αθανατοισι Ποσειδάων

ιοντα.

yet as it is an obvious image, on fuch an occafion, and fomething very like it may have not feldom occurred in other poets, it fhould scarcely be confidered as a plagiarifm here. No one imagines either David or Homer read the others writings; yet their images in defcribing the motions of the true and of a fabulous God are fimilar, though the pfalmift's defcription certainly exceeds that in the immortal Iliad.

The feraph having declared the immediate approach of the final judgment, and the diffolution of our fyftem, the poet, in his dream, foars with him above the earth, the different beauties of which are difplayed, if not embellifhed, in a moft poetical and melodious detail. Among other objects, the bard feems particularly affected with the ruins of very grand and very remote antiquity, as they appear in the following beautiful lines.

Struck deep with woe, we mark'd the domes o'erthrown,
Where once the beauty bloom'd, the warrior fhone;
We faw Palmyra's mould'ring tow'rs decay'd,
The loofe wall tott'ring o'er the trembling fhade!

Or

1

Or fall'n Perfepolis that defert lay!

Or Tadmor's fanes, where tygers prowl for prey!
Vain pomp of pow'r !-now in the throne of kings
Shrieks the 'lone owl, the raven shakes her wings.

The image, in the fourth line, of the trembling fhadow of the fhaking tuinous wall, is, for any thing we recollect at present, perfectly new; and becomes fomething more than picturesque, by the happily adapted movement of the verfe that defcribes it; but the poet's memory feems to have deceived him with regard to Tadmor, which was the ancient name of Palmyra: though he mentions it as a diftinct place.

Having furveyed the ocean, and the moft delightful scenes of our globe, to all poffible advantage, in the bright genial day which he supposes to usher in the laft, this harmonious vifionary thus naturally takes leave of it.

Then fighing deep, distracted at the view,
"Adieu, I cry'd, ye blissful fcenes adieu.
"That fun muft ceafe to gild the flow'ry plain;
"The moon be loft with all the starry train;
"Plung'd in one fire, each mighty frame confume,
"'Tis God, th' Eternal God has feal'd their doom."

An inftantaneous deep gloom, attended with lightning and thunder; a violent whirlwind, and unequalled earthquake follow this farewel ejulation. The darkness is foon diffipated, but the havock augmented, by the rifing of a burning comet, flashing unusual light...

Quick as the wind, the wing'd deftruction came,
O'er all the void, and drew a length of flame;
Shap'd thro' the parting clouds its dreadful way,
And pour'd on earth intolerable day.
At once the cave its inmoft void displays,
The waving forefts catch the spreading blaze;
The earth no more its central fire contains,

It rag'd and fwell'd refiftlefs o'er the plains..

The conflagration which enfues to these convulfions of nature, and this contact of the comet, afford Mr. Ogilvie room for a difplay of his imagination, and defcriptive powers; and fuggeft to his judgment many moral and affecting reflections on the fragility and emptinefs of the labours and pursuits of men: particularly when his beloved Albion is diffolved to evanescence. The mighty angel in the Apocalypfe next appears, with a declaration, that Time fhall be no more. He is defcribed with exceffive grandeur, according to the original; and his adjuration is nobly paraphrafed, though a number of other beauties oblige us to contract it greatly, as follows.

" By

"By him I swear" (he paus'd and bow'd the head)
Then rais'd aloft his flaming hand and faid-
"Thy reign, O man, and earth, thy days are o'er !
"I fwear by him, that time fhall be no more."

་

He fpoke: (all nature groan'd a loud reply)
Then fhook the fun, and tore him from the fky.

Our readers, who are acquainted with the text, will obferve this great circumftance to be an image of the poet's, inferring the ftupendous power with which this angel was invefted; and to this extraordinary abolition of the great luminary, the poet makes the refurrection enfue: or, as he picturefquely exprefies it,

the teeming earth

Pour all at once her millions at a birth !

And here, to fill, or rather extend our imagination, as much as poffible, which he often happily eflays, he adds, within a page or two,

Stars, with their num'rous fons, augment the throng,
Each world's majestic offspring tower'd along.

Though many have fuppofed the planets inhabited, this thought of their inhabitants being judged, with ours, is, for aught we can recollect, entirely this authors; who obferves in a note, [feveral being annexed to the end of the work] that we have only one argument, viz, the want of ocular demonftration, to prove that those vaft bodies, which are to perish with the earth, are void of inhabitants and of cultivation; and as he had judiciously obferved in his note on the comet, Probability in a fubject of this kind is the utmost that can be expected.' -It is remarkable, that at the refurrection, he fuppofes the human race revived in their compleateft vigour and beauty, which may fome way correfpond with the glorified body mentioned by St. Paul.

Here ftood, improv'd in ftrength, the graceful frame,
There flow'd the circling blood, a purer ftream:
The beaming eye its dazzling light relumes;
Soft on the lip the tinctur'd ruby blooms;
The beating pulfe a keener ardour warms,
And beauty triumphs in immortal charms.

Mr. Ogilvie has happily alluded to, or rather imitated, Mr. Addifon's defcription of the difperfed atoms of our interred bodies, fpringing from different fituations and fyftems of matter, into their living connection and appearances, in his fine Latin poem on the picture of the refurrection. It is certain, fpeaking to the apprehenfion of mankind, that the fcripture affirms, and the apoftle's creed repeats, that the body fhall rife, from which may REV. Feb. 1759.

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