and if printed by themselves, would scarcely amount to more than two additional pages. "Tentamen de Metris ab Esebylo in Choricis Cantibus adhibitis," 8vo. 619 pp. "Essay on the Metres employed by Eschylus in his Choruses." This laborious production has proceeded from the classical pen of Dr. Burney, than whom no man is better qualified for so severe a task, and who is well known to have devoted a great part of many years to its accomplishment. Instead of trusting to the guidance of the ear, or forming fanciful and preconceived theories, he has pursued the more correct and far safer method of obtaining just notions of Greek harmony, by a diligent collation and comparison of the metrical remains of the dramatic poets; upon which alone he has founded his dicta, and which being thus built upon a rock, he afterwards applies, with singular success, to the enucleation of a multitude of involved and difficult points. Hæphestionis Alexandrini Enchiridion, &c." "The Enchiridion of Hepbestion, faithfully collated with the MS. copies, with variorum Notes, and especially those of Leonard Hotchkis, M. A. By Thomas Gaisford, A. M. To which is subjoined, the Chrestimathia of Proclus." We learn from a note, that Mr. Hotchkis was a fellow of St. John's College, Cambridge, and afterwards Master of Shrewsbury school. That he was a man of extensive erudition is obvious from the annotations selected from him, which display great judgment, learnThese ing, and critical acumen. annotations, however, are less frequent than from the prominent notice of his name in the title-page we should have expected. The notes, which are placed at the foot of the page, besides those of Mr. Hotchkis, We proceed to the national poetry of the current year; of which there has been an abundant harvest, though much of it is by no means of the best and rarest kind. "The Vision of Don Roderick, a Poem. By Walter Scott, Esq." The political events of the day alone have given rise to this effusion; and it is not likely to survive the day to As it is which it is addressed. short, we have copied the whole of it into the department of poetical selections, to which we refer our readers. Mr. Scott will here be found to have departed from his accustomed wildness of metre, for regular shackles. "Retrospection, a Poem, in familiar Verse. By Richard Cumberland." This is the last production of the venerable bard, whose name it bears: it commences as follows: World, I have known thee long, and now the hour When I must part from thee is near at hand. Near, indeed-Westminster Abbey received his remains in about ten days days after its publication. The work itself is little else than the writer's life put into verse; it has but little force or poetical merit; but to those who know the author, or have ever fully read his preceding works, it has very powerful influence of another kind. "The Plants, a Poem; Cantos, the Third and Fourth. By William Tighe, Esq." The author in this volume brings to a conclusion an elegant, and upon the whole, an animated poem, upon a subject which has often been selected, but in which he nevertheless finds sufficient novelty; for nature will always furnish novelty to the attentive, enquirer, regular and harmonious as she is in her usual march. There is a sufficiency of classical allusion, and picturesque delineation; some-, what less sublimity than in Darwin, but at the same time less glare, and certainly much more freedom. "Psyche, with other Poems. By the late Mrs. Henry Tighe." The fair writer of this elegant allegory, after six years of protracted illness, expired March 24, 1810. We have hence perused it with a pleasing melancholy, and perhaps some prejudice of favour. Yet in sober truth we can fairly assert, that it stands in need of no adventitious event to fix the reader's approbation; and under this impression, we cordially send him back to the extracts we have thought it our duty to make from it, and to insert in the preceding department of our Register. "The Poetical Works of Anna Seward, with Extracts from her Literary Correspondence. Edited by Walter Scott, Esq." In Three Volumes." Small 8vo. "Letters of Anna Seward: written between the Years 1784 and 1807. In Six Volumes." Crown Svo, The fame of Anna Seward must repose rather on her poetical than on her epistolary talents. That indeed, which may proceed from the last source, must be altogether posthumous, for as a letter-writer, whatever her private friends may have done, the world has even now to become acquainted with and calogize her. There seems a sort of vanity in the manner in which both these works were prepared for the public eye: they were carefully arranged, and re-copied, and bound up in MS. and disposed of by a will for some time antecedently to the writer's death-and by a will too of a most extraordinary composition, and possessing more of titile-tattle than we ever witnessed in an instrument of this kind in our lives, or probably ever shall again. By the terms of this will, the posthumous publication of the poetical works was deputed to Mr. Scott, and of the epistolary works to Mr. Constable, with neither of whom the fair testatrix appears to have had any thing more than the most superficial acquaintance; but it is obvious that she thought these were the gentlemen who would best answer her purpose. The poems possess more merit than usually belongs to posthumous collections, or those which an author does not think it worth while to bring personally before the public: they are, however, too much interspersed with occasional pieces and addresses, which may prove a dead weight to the rest. The letters display great vigour and capacity of mind, great command and felicity of language, and, in general, sentiments highly favourable to the best feelings of the heart, and demonstrative of their existence in the writer's own, But they are so intermixed with the the private unbosomings of intimate friends, upon delicate subjects, that without without their consent, such correspondences ought never to have been blazoned before the world. "The Remains of Joseph Blacket: consisting of Poems, Dramatic Sketches, the Times, an Ode; and a Memoir of his Life. By Mr. Pratt." Two Vols. 8vo. This work is strongly recommended to the benevolence of the public, by the peculiarity of its history; and we may add, will not be discommended on the score of intrinsic merit. Mr. Blacket was an untaught bard-just rising into an honourable reputation, when he was attacked by a pulmonary consumption, which had already proved fatal to a beloved sister, and which destroyed him also at Seaham, near Sunderland, August 22, 1810. He has left behind him an aged mother and an orphan daughter; and whatever profit may accompany the sale of this work, will be a seasonable legacy to these near relations. "The Banks of the Wye; a Poem, in Four Books. By Robert Bloomfield, Author of the Farmer's Boy." In easy and natural description, the bard of Suffolk here describes the scenery and events that accompanied him, while one of a party that in 1807 proposed to themselves a short excursion down the Wye and through part of South Wales. The usual style, character, and other merits that distinguish this writer's productions, may be traced in about the same proportion in this pleasing production. "Poems. By Miss Holford." 8vo. These are the smaller and more limited flights of a poetess, who in "Wallace, or the Fall of Falkirk," sufficiently proved that she has innate powers of stretching a bold and lofty, and long-expanded wing. We cannot, however, compliment her upon the present collection; there is too often a want of genius, judgment, and originality. "Dramatic and Narrative Poems. By John Joshua Earl of Carysfort, K. P." Two vols. 8vo. These volumes do great credit to the literary taste and genius of the noble author. The dramatic poems, which are four in number, fill the first volume, are formed upon correct models, and with many of the excellencies, have none of the defects of the French school. They are well conceived, and accurately planned; but are somewhat deficient in pathos and animation. The narrative pieces discover great richness of invention, and grace of versification. The rest it will be sufficient to catalogue. "Poems, by Elijah Barwell Impey, Esq." 8vo. containing high metrical polish, formed upon Italian models. "The Triumphs of Religion; a sacred Poem, in Four Parts." Published anonymously; and which we suppose will never be known otherwise. "Simple Pleasures, by Miss Venning." Designed, as the authoress herself modestly states, " for young persons above twelve years of age.' "Glenorhel, a descriptive Poem in Two Volumes. By James Kennedy." Full of new words and new conceits. "Christina, the Maid of the South Seas, a Poem, by Mary Russell Mitford;" exhibiting many proofs of taste and genius; and from which nothing but want of space prevents us from copying. "Poems, by D. P. Campbell." Dedicated to the Duchess of Gordon, and published by the bookseller, Mr. Young, of Inverness, from the benevolent motive of serving a young woman who he thought, and thought correctly, is imbued with a truly poetic spirit. The chief Novels, Tales, and Romances, that have occurred to us in the the course of the year, are the following: "Mr. Dibdin's Bibliomania, or Book-madness, a Bibliographical Romance in Six Parts, illustrated with Cuts;" and we may add, abounding with wit and high interest. Cottage Dialogues among the Irish Peasantry, by Mary Leadbeater; with Notes and a Preface, by Maria Edgeworth." Well worthy of being put into the hands of the junior parts of a family. "Thinks I to Myself." A tale which has now been so generally in every one's hands, as to render it unnecessary for us to point out its peculiar merits. "Frederic de Montford, by the Author of the Pursuits of Fashion." 12mo. Three Vols. Containing some novelty and more hu mour." Gotha, or Memoirs of the Wurtzburg Family, founded on Facts, by Mrs. S." 12mo. Two Vols, "Frederick, or Memoirs of my Youth, interspersed with occasional Verse." 12mo. Two Vols. This is ushered into the world in all the finery of a gay and gaudy pink-suit; but it becomes us to add, that we believe it would have found its way without such adventitious decorations. "Felissa, or the Life and opinions of a Kitten of Sentiment." 8vo. A tale that will amuse, and without exciting mischief of any kind. "Islanda Fitzalton, or the Misfortunes of a young Irish Lady." A work that has had the honour of being noticed in some of the foreign journals. FOREIGN FOREIGN LITERATURE Of the Year 1811. CHAPTER I. BIBLICAL AND THEOLOGICAL. Comprising a Sketch of the various Productions of France, America, Germany, Denmark, and Sweden. ONE NE of the best accounts we have seen in the course of the current year of the state of religion in France is contained in M. Faber's "Notices sur l'Intérieur de la France," "Essays on the Interior of France," at an English version of which we have already glanced, and to the general matter contained in the original of which, we shall still have to return in the third chapter of the present division. From this work we learn that religion is as much made a state engine of, as internal police and finance. The ecclesiastical charges of the pulpit, and especially those offered on particular occasions by the archbishops and bishops, and the ostentatious parade of religious festivals in the different dioceses, are dressed up in the most enticing manner, to attract the attention of the public, in order to resound the glory of his imperial majesty. The dignitaries of the church strive with one another in the fulsomeness of their flattery. They compare Napoleon to all the distinguished characters in the Old Testament: to Joshua; to Cyrus; to the Lion of the tribe of Judah. Even the most antichristian, and abominable measures-even the conscription itself-are advocated by this timid and servile tribe. "Can any law be more equitable than the military conscription?" said the bishop of Séez; "that conscription which summonses all the citizens, without exception or distinction, to bear arms for a few years only, in the flower and vigour of youth, that they may afterward return to their peaceful homes?"-"It is to the succour of heaven," exclaimed the bishop of Liege, "that our august monarch owes his wonderful success. Happy is the man who putteth his trust in GoD, and whose hope is the Lord."-" Like another Judas Maccabæus," said the bishop of Metz, of Metz, "Napoleon puts on his breast-plate as a giant; he braces himself with armour for the combat."-"The prodigy, my brethren, which we admire," cried the archbishop of Bourges, "is not the work of men; it is the handiwork of the mighty God who watches over the man of his right hand." The bishop of |