Caft him not letterlefs on Neptune's care:

For whofo fails a Cub, returns a Bear.

Education now gives a sketch of the feveral characters juft enumerated; we shall quote only a few lines from the first and the laft. Of the ARTIST it is faid,

He refts not in effect, but scans each cause;
And edifies his art on nature's laws.
His fphere he thus to reputation brings,
In science versant as expert in things.

Th' ingenious court him, and the great carefs,
If not an A. M. yet an F. R. S.

Of the DIVINE,

Where'er he prays, an angel intercedes:
Where'er he preaches, none can fay, he reads.
The Orator fills even Kings with awe,
When in his Master's name he deals his law;
When peace on earth, and glory in the high'ft,
He preaches not himself, but Jefus Chrift.

Madam Pedia having ended her instructions, her fon replies,

without delay

Whate'er thou bidd'ft, unargu'd I obey.

Bold is the enterprize thou dost indite:
Yet I will dare, fince thou haft deign'd to light.

We are then told,

Six fultry feafons he pursued his toil,
Collecting various plants, of various foil.
When the; My fon, 'tis with enormous joy
I fee my maxims all thy care employ.
Thy time's elapft: 'twas never my defign,
Thee,notelefs in a corner to confine;
I deftin'd thee this fweet recefs to grace,
'Till thou wert ripen'd for a nobler place.

This nobler place is the prefent refidence of our Bard; which is here very elaborately defcribed, and concerning which Pedia tells him,

Little did Predeceffor-lords foresee,

That they built, planted, liv'd, and dy'd for thee.
The owner is my own; he'll ne'er refuse

The manfion model'd for the British Mufe.

Whether, by the British Mufe, is meant that of our Author, we cannot take upon us pofitively to fay; our Readers, however, will probably be able to judge, from the ample specimens we have given of his tranfcendent merit in' poetical compofition.

Telemachus,

Telemachus, a Mask.
Fellow of King's
Millar.

TH

By the Rev. George Graham, M. A.
College, Cambridge. 4to. 2s. 6d.

HERE is not in the province of the Drama any species of compofition fo favourable to genius, and fo capable of pure poetry, as the Mask. Unreftrained by time or place, and inattentive to the rules of order and probability, the Poet is at full liberty to indulge all the powers of imagination, in defcription, paffion, and machinery. He may animate his scenes with the language, and diverfify them with the prefence, of superior Beings. He may explore thofe fairy regions that owe their exiftence to poetic fancy, and borrow all the ornaments of ancient Mythology.

When the genius of Milton was permitted to rove at large in this ample field, it gathered the most exquifite flowers of poetry that ever sprung at the command of human imagination; and he fcattered them over every page of his immortal Comus. His language is the language of the Gods; and his imagery, like the appearance of our first Mother, gives a new and more delightful afpect to the creation. Mr. Graham follows his great Archetype in this work of imagination,

Longo fed proximus Intervallo.

His Mufe is correct and decent; but he wants that great enthufiafm, and that ethereal fire, which, while we read, make our hearts burn within us. We have read his performance without being delighted or displeased. His images bear no marks of original genius; his moral sentiments are not uncommon, and his argumentative converfations are often flat, and always too long. He has not prepoffeffed his Reader fufficiently in favour of his characters, to make him interested in their diftress: Mentor does not always fpeak like the disguised Goddefs of Wisdom, and his royal Pupil treats the venerable Sage in a manner more becoming a modern Buck upon his travels, than the polished Prince of Ithaca. The Chorufes prove, that Mr. Graham is no extraordinary favourite of the lyric Mufe: they are mere modern fongs, upon a level with our Vaux-hall and Ranelagh compofitions.

Specimen :

When Cupid lately hither ftrayed,

I caught him as he played,
And fondly prefs'd

The pretty Wanton to my breaft:

And

His Dialogues are fomething better than his Songs; there. fore to do him all the juftice, and fhew him all the favour we can, we shall quote one of the best of them.

TELEMACHUS, MENTOR.

TEL. Mentor, the lot is caft. My choice is fixed.
I yield my foul to love. Then fare thee well.
I know 'tis folly. So it feems to thee.

And thou art wife-thy wifdom be thy guide.

I know thy thoughts-but waste not time in words;
Nor dare reproach my choice. What then remains?
Here let us part. Farewell, farewell for ever.

[Going.

MENT. My Prince, I've often borne you in thefe arms,

A pleafing weight; oft have you called me father,
With lifping accents and uncertain founds.

O let me not for fake my prince, my fon,
Without the comfort of a laft embrace.

TEL. O think not, Mentor, I forget thy cares,
Thy fond affection with ungrateful heart.
Think me not altered in my filial love :

But all is altered elfe-my foul itself

The fates-perhaps I wifh 'twere otherwife

But we must part. Come then, embrace thy Prince :
But fhew thy wonted conftancy, nor vex

My faddened foul with unavailing grief.

MENT. Muft I then tell, amid the heroic band,

The youthful rivals of your glorious toils,

That I forfook my Prince, my royal charge,
Immerfed in floth, in worthless mean delights,
Amidít a bevy of inglorious women?
Muft I be witnefs of their envious taunts,

Their triumphs ill concealed, their foul contempt?

TEL. And who fhall dare defpife Ulyffes fon ?-
But what imports me a vile prating crew?

Contempt! and have I lived to hear the word
Joined with my name ?-but doft thou think, old man—
But tell me not thy thoughts-Contempt !-'Tis well
Thou wert the guardian of my helpless age-

MENT.

MENT. Let me embrace my Prince. I'll not offend
His generous mind with harfh ungrateful truths.
Let me depart.

TEL.

No: dare not for thy life.

Retract thy flanderous charge that wounds my foul
As would the fcorpion's fting my tortured flesh.
Say, who fhall dare defpife me? who but thou
E'er found my name without the Hero's meed,
Well earned applause?

MENT.
Can you believe, my Prince,
(Confult your reason; fearch your noble heart)
Glory will e'er refult to vigorous youth,
From wanton dalliance, and lascivious ease?

TEL. Glory! I reck not of it. 'Tis a light
That shines but to mislead our hapless race:
An empty name; an unfubftantial phantom,
That hath nought real but the pains it brings.
Glory and wisdom-I renounce them both,

What thou calleft wisdom; the froward envious zeal
Of peevish age.

MENT.

Then, bafe degenerate boy,
I leave thy youth to infamy and shame,

The fcorn of earth, the avenging wrath of heaven
Hear me, and tremble, if thou art a man
For can thy frowns and impotence of rage,
Poor fimple youth, controul the will of Jove,
Or blast the unalterable laws of Truth?
Defpifed by men, abandoned by the Gods,
Helpless, forlorn, and tortured by remorse,
Here fix thy feat in this unmanly scene:
Here feek thy comfort from a whining nymph,
The fole poor worthless refuge thou haft left;
Thy virtue yielded to the meanest bribe
That e'er feduced a Prince from honour's path.

TEL. Stay, I conjure thee, Mentor; leave me not.
If thou haft uttered truth (and oh! my foul,
My conscious foul avows each dreadful word)
What is that reptile man-ye mighty Gods,
And what am I?—a vain unbalanced cloud,
Sport of each blast of Heaven; a shackled slave,
Slave of I know not whom; a groveling worm-
Groveling and mean in act; yet infinite
In vaft capacious powers to fuffer ill.

To leave my beauteous Love-To live defpifed-
What fiend has led me to this defperate pass,
This certain mifery?-who placed my youth,
Weak and defencelefs, 'twixt the ravening jaws
Of a wild favage, and the roaring fea?
1 fee the danger now; I feel its terrors

3

Harrow my foul. Now then, old man, rejoice,
For thou hast conquered: give thy triumph loose;
Trample thy proftrate foe. I yield to truth;
I think as thou---I feel such dreadful pangs,

As would even touch thy rigorous favage virtue,
Could't thou conceive them..

In confequence of this converfation, which is too long to be quoted here entirely, Telemachus is prevailed upon to leave the ifland of Calypfo. Minerva, who had all this while been concealed under the difguife of Mentor, conducts the young Hero to the fummit of a rock, from whence he had a view of the sea, and of the vessel that was to convey him. From this rock the throws him into the fea, and he fwims to the fhip. Explebit Numerum, et reddetur Tenebris.

The Magdalens, an Elegy. By the Author of the Nunnery. 4to. 6d. DodЛley.

W

E have once before had occafion to obferve, that there is an imitative as well as an original Genius for the fine Arts. But this is more particularly true in Poetry and Painting. A mind not fufficiently daring or creative, may yet be fo capable of fenfible impreffions, as to catch and reflect the features of an object it has contemplated, with great, exactness.

The Author of the poem before us appears to be of this class. The Nunnery (fee Review, vol. XXVI. p. 358.) was a parody on Mr. Gray's Elegy written in a Country Church-yard, and the marks of imitation (as Ariftotle terms them) were very ftriking. This we took notice of, and at the fame time obferved, that the poem was, in fome places, fufficiently poetical and harmonious; and in others, feeble, quaint, and inelegant. The fame character, totidem verbis, will do for the Magdalens. The spirit and manner of Gray, the ftructure of his verfification, and the fober melancholy of his imagery and fentiment, are closely imitated. The Copyift fails chiefly in expreffion. He is not deficient in the Pathos; for in this little Elegy he has exhibited almost every circumftance of affecting Distress, that his fubject was capable of; but (what, indeed, is a principle article in poetry) he is unable to gain a paffage through the car to the heart, being unhappily defective in melody and ease. He deferves, however, to be treated with all poffible tenderness, being modeft enough to acknowlege that