POETRY.

Art. 25. All the Talents! A Satirical Poem in Three Dialogues. By Polypus. 7th Edition. 8vo.. 35. 6d. Stockdale junior. 1807,

3s,

Knave and fool are the pretty words which contending factions bestow on each other with the most profuse liberality; and if we credit the account which each party gives of its opposite, we must despair of finding either talents or virtue in the world. Poets, when animated with political enmity, mistake the bludgeon of calumny for the rod of rhimes; and, overwhelming public characters with the coarsest abuse, they hope that it will pass current as mere pungent satire. Polypus would have us believe that he is a man of no party, and that his poetic indignation and approbation are merited by the objects on which they are bestowed: but few readers, though they may be amused by his talents, can think that he weighs the talents of others in a fair scale. For one set of statesmen he has a smoaked and distorting glass, and for another a lens which throws a Clande Lorraine tint. Never, in short, was partiality more strongly mark, ed, nor hatred more indiscreet and unrestrained. The high claims of the late Ministry, and the prodigality of flattery employed by their friends, might present a topic for satire; and had Polypus reined in his Muse, he might have indulged a good-humoured laugh: but, in our opinion, he has suffered too much gall to flow from his pen. He classes Whigs with Bankrupts, Spendthrifts, and Traitors; and he would insinuate that all who profess whig principles must be black at heart. He" out Herods Herod" in some of his caricatures; and though in most of his verse and his prose he displays considerable genius, if he did not write the name under some of the portraits, it would be difficult to find out for whom they were intended. Moreover, Polypus is not always original, for he often copies Pope, and like him suffers satire to run riot. In the quantity and quality of his notes, also, he follows the example of the author of the Pursuits of Literature.

Art. 26. Elijah's Mantle. A Poem. 8vo. 1s. Stockdale junior. These lines have been widely circulated and much praised. The compliment to Mr. Pitt is well managed, and the idea in the last stanza is beautiful: but the effect is injured by the harsh alliteration of cold corse,' which might be easily removed by reading pale

Corse.

Yes, honour'd shade; whilst near thy grave

The letter'd sage, and chieftain brave,

The votive marble claim;

O'er thy cold corse-the public tear,
Congeal'd, a chrystal shrine shall rear
Unsullied as thy Fame.'

Art. 27. The Uti possidetis & Status quo: a Political Satire. 8vo.

1s. 6d. Stockdale junior.

This squib on the late Ministry throws its fire with brilliancy an effect. The satire is so playfully managed, that the very objects of

it cannot be offended.

Ff4

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Art.

Art. 28. Ins and Outs; or the State of Parties.

By Chrononhotonthologos.

A Satirical 8vo. 2s. 6d. Chapple.

Poem.
1807.
Not so highly seasoned with the sauce piquante of scurrility as " All
the Talents," and consequently not so likely to run through many
editions; because the people, in deciding between contending satirists,
always give the preference to the most acrimonious and ill natured.
If harmonious numbers and gentlemanly satire could procure for a
poet any notice, this writer with a long name might count on some
readers but we suspect that, the taste of the public is too much vi
tiated to relish any others than high dishes. Perhaps, however, the
politics of this poem, compared with those of Polypus, may promote
its sale. We give one specimen :

Author. While Britain sees her proud insulting foe
In triumph ride, and threat her overthrow,
And smiles at danger, as she oft has smil'd,-
• Friend. Three millions of her sons unreconcil'd—
Author. Curse on the tongue, the slave of party zeal,
Foe to its king and recreant to her weal,

That strives to sow dissention o'er the land,
And damp the ardour of her patriot band!
'Friend. I love my king, and church, and state revere ;
Not Llandaff loves the cause of truth more dear;
Not Grenville loves the constitution more,
Or P/ the Treasury's valued store.
I love my country's rights, and freedom love,
Fonder than Fox's dying voice could prove,
Fonder than Mulgrave loves to rule the board,
Fonder than Canning sighs to be a lord,
Or Duigenan longs with Grattan to dispute,
Or Johnstone loves his stipend to be mute.
But when such heads aspire to guide our isle,
Forgive me, Britons, if I love to smile!'

The satirist concludes with an unfashionable wish for peace; which, though formerly deemed a blessing, is now in very

Art. 29. Bonaparte. A Poem. 8vo. 18. 6d.

little request.

Hatchard.

• The melancholy fate of the virtuous Palm induced this writer to
express his rhiming indignation against the disturber of Europe; and
he thought that if he could not harrow up Bonaparte's soul by a
recital of his enormities, the catalogue would at least help to keep alive
the public indignation against him. The shades of D'Enghien,
Pichegru, Toussaint, Palm, of the Turkish prisoners at Jaffa, of the
negroes at St. Domingo, &c. are made to pass in solemn march be-
fore him; and then the poet adds,

• Read if you can, unwarp'd by rage,
The records true of every age,
The grave historian or the sage,

Moy.

Describing man,

And

This kind of stanza is apt to tire; and as the poet is often very aegligent, the reader will wish that he had vented his rage in a nar

rower compass.

Some of the stanzas, to use his own words, are sad, sad, sad.'

Art. ༣༠.
The First Book of the Iliad of Homer translated into Blank
Verse; with Notes: by P. Williams, D.D. Archdeacon of Me-
rioneth, &c. small 8vo. PP 77. 3s. sewed. Lackington and Co.

1806.

Dr. Williams observes that an attempt to translate the Iliad into English verse after such men as Pope and Cowper will, he is aware, astonish the Learned World:' but he informs us that the occasion of his undertaking the task was the amusement which he found in the exercise, after he had retired from the laborious employment of a public school; and his motive for publication was that, in comparing his performance with the celebrated translations of Pope and Cowper. he thought that it had sufficient characteristic merit of its own to induce him to revise and prepare it for the press. In the work, his great endeavour,' he says, has been to avoid the ascititious finery of Pope on the one hand, and on the other the "robes antique" of Cowper and in their stead to represent the noble bard in a characteristic English dress'; 'he hopes that the style will not be found bald, nor the verse tame and uncouth;' and he says that it hath been attempted, though the attempt be desperate, to imitate in every particular the ease and divine simplicity of the great original.'

་

Such is the language used by the translator; the undertaking is a bold one; and a man must be possessed of many enviable attainments to prosecute it with success. In the examination of the specimen before us, we contemplate an effort which it would be impossible to accomplish; an endeavour is here made to give a translation at once versified and literal: but there are no two languages whose idioms will admit of their being so rendered; and in consequence therefore of the difficulties with which Dr. W. was thus contending, his style is often obscure, his expressions are unappropriate, and his phrases unnaturally inverted. The chief object of a translation is to render into one language the sense and spirit of another, for the benefit of persons who do not understand the original; and in the attainment of this object, Dr W. has in a great measure failed, since a mere English reader will often be at a loss to ascertain the meaning of the author. In the execution of the version, however, the Dr. manifests great care and industry; and considering the insurmountable difficulties which opposed him, it shews that he possesses no mean abilities. The following are the first 20 lines:

Sing, Goddess, Peleus' son's accursed wrath,
Which caus'd the Greeks innumerable woes,
And many a Hero's soul to Hades burl'd,
Illustrious Souls! but the bare corse expos'd
To dogs, and all the ravenous fowls, a prey;

Mo-y.

[Lo

[Lo thus Jove's purpose was fulfill'd] e'er since
The day, that Agamemnon, King of men,
And great Achilles, were by strife disjoin'd.

What God involv'd them in that dire debate?
Latona's son, and Jove's: for, at the King
Enrag'd, he made a foul contagion spread
Thro' all the host; and many a soldier died!
For Atreus' son had Chryses roughly us'd,
Apollo's Priest; who to the nimble ships
Of Greece had come, his daughter to redeem,
And, with that view, had gifts immense convey'd,
Holding Apollo's garland in his hands,

On sceptre bright with gold; and all the Greeks
He pray'd, but chiefly Atreus' noble sons,

The two great leaders of th' united host :'

INT

This translation may be serviceable to young students in assisting them to understand the meaning of the original; and the critical notes which accompany it will be perused by them with profit. In this respect, it will answer the end of the author; who, in a part of his preface, says that it is chiefly intended for the Novice in Greek learning, and that the comparing of different translations with each other, and the original, may tend, if not to ascertain the author's exact cast and expression, yet probably to form the young scholar's taste and improve his judgment.'

At the end of the book, are Conjectures concerning the Origin of the Poetic Fiction that the summit of Olympus was the place where the Gods assembled in Council;' in which the translator supposes that the appearance of the Aurora Borealis was the origin of the fiction in question.

MEDICAL, &c.

W. Res.

Art. 31. Cases and Cures of the Hydrophobia, selected from the Gentleman's Magazine: containing many curious and interesting Accounts relative to that alarming Malady. 8vo. 2s. Stace. 1807. The compiler of this pamphlet has probably been induced to undertake the task, in consequence of the reports that have lately prevailed respecting the frequency of this dreadful malady. As a scientific work, however, it can be intitled to very little commendation; anonymous papers in a magazine not being sources from which a medical man expects to acquire any very important addition to his professional knowlege. Yet the publication is not without some value, as exhibiting, in a connected view, the state of opinion on a subject in which the welfare and feelings of the community are intimately concerned. We think that it may be inferred from this compilement, that credulity on medical topics is on the decline. Half a century ago, specifics poured in from every quarter, many of them sanctioned by the highest authority, which appear to have acquired universal repute: but we believe that it may be confidently affirmed that if a second Dr. Mead should appear in the present age, he would not venture to propose liverwort as an infallible remedy for Hydrophobia.

Bos. Art.

Art. 32. An Examination into the Principles of what is commonly called the Brunonian System. Introductory to a Series of Aphorisms upon Life and Mind, Health and Disease; with an Attempt to form a more simple and philosophical Arrangement of Diseases, upon the present state of our Knowledge of the Animal Economy. By Thomas Morrison, Member of the Royal College of Surgeons, London. 8vo. 4s. Boards. Highley.

The late Dr. Garnett was well known to have been one of the most zealous defenders of the Brunonian hypothesis; and in his posthumous work, intitled Lectures on Zoonomia, he employed it very extensively in the explanation of the phænomena of the animal economy. The publication of that book appears to have been the principal motive with Mr. Morrison, for giving his sentiments on this subject to the world; since, conceiving that the hypothesis was founded in error, and might lead to dangerous practical confequences, he was anxious to counteract these evils by exposing its fallacy. In pursuance of this intention, he proposes to consider the Brunonian system in four points of view; endeavouring to prove, in the first place,

That its principles are not founded upon the true laws of the animal economy;

Next, That they are contradictory and inconsistent in themfelves;

Thirdly, That they are not sufficiently general in their application to Diseases ;-and,

Finally, That they may lead to dangerous errors in practice.' Mr. M. commences his strictures by some remarks on the new terms adopted by Brown, especially the one so frequently employed, excitability. He endeavours to shew that Brown himself had not a perfectly clear conception of its import, and that his disciple, Dr. Garnett, is liable to the same imputation: but be alleges a more serious charge against the Brunonians, for he attempts to prove that, in the idea which they have given of excitability, they have confounded cause and effect: they explain this word as being synonimous with life or vital principle, while they affirm that life is the result of powers acting on the excitability. After the numerous controversies to which this subject has given rise, and the various explanations and illustrations of it that have been attempted, it cannot be expected that we should be able to throw much light on it in the narrow limits to which we are restricted. We shall only remark that we conceive the terms life and vital principle to have been used in at least as vague a manner as excitability; being sometimes intended to express the effect of the animal powers, as exhibited in the living body, and at other times the cause of these effects, the irritability of the muscular fibre and the sensibility of the nervous system. The Brunonians appear to have used it in the latter sense: but they have exhibited in a striking manner their inattention to the phænomena of vitality, in confounding the actions of these two distinct systems, which had been so clearly discriminated by many of their predecessors. This spirit of generalization we regard as the prominent error in the hypothesis, and as a principal cause which must render it of