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To win the last my every nerve I strain'd;
Kind fortune smil'd, and I the meed obtain'd.
Then I, exulting, thus address'd the fair.

، A virgin's gift a youth should guard with care.
If Heaven permit, this nut, a future tree,
Shall stand a monument of victory.

And oft, beneath its spreading shade reclin'd,
The beauteous donor I'll recall to mind.'
The nut I buried in the lap of Earth,
Whose fruitful womb produc'd the living birth.

By love inspir'd, ere long I woo'd the maid,
Who frown'd at first, but soon my sighs repaid.
With frequent feet this conscious spot we sought;
"Refreshing water from the streamlet brought;
Bedew'd the sapling with the genial shower,
And oft beneath it spent the happy hour.
Here first her vows she proffer'd to be mine,
And soon confirm'd them at the nuptial shrine,
A more than mortal's lot I then enjoy'd,
Till envious Fate my bliss, alas! destroy'd:
For soon, too soon !-excuse my tears-my wife,
Clasp'd in my arms, resign'd the breath of life!
The last request the virtuous matron made,
Was here to rest, beneath this walnut's shade;,
Where, too, ere long, for soon I hope to die,
Beside my wife's remains my own shall lie."

، Thus Lacon spake, and, bending low his head,
Bedew'd with tears the mansion of the dead.
The stranger, rising, thus with ardor cried,

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May years revolve before you join your bride!
To climes remote I speed, and grieve to part;
But ne'er shall absence blot you from my heart.
Where'er I roam I'll send the daily prayer

That Heaven may bless you with his guardian care.”
With lingering pace the Traveller left the spot,
And aged Lacon soon regain'd his cot."

Art. 27. Leander and Hero, translated from the Heroic Epistles
of Ovid. With other Poems, original and translated. Crown
8vo. 25. 6d. Boards. Rivingtons. 1800

The author of these poems is intitled to some praise for the harmony of his versification, and for the spirit which he has displayed in his translations. The principal fault, which we have remarked in him, consists in a few unnecessary inversions, which obscure the sense without improving the melody of his numbers. We select the following passages from the translation of the epistle of Leander to Hero, as a specimen of the writer's powers:

، In these, or terms not much unlike, I spoke ;

On through the smiling glass, mean while, 1 broke:
Play'd on the deep the moon's reflected gleam;

The night a rival of the noontide beam

O.W.

No stillest air unsmooth'd the calm profound;
Nor caught my listening ear the gentlest sound;
Save what by fits the parted waves replied;
Or Halcyons, brooding on the peaceful tide,
Were heard to moan,-a sweet and solemn strain,
Their Ceyx sunk beneath the watery plain.
And now these ams, by long fatigue subdued,
With fainter force their oaring sweeps pursued:
Then, ere my spirits yet entirely fled,

Slow from the wave I rear'd my languid head:
Soon as remote the sparkling sign I spied,
"Behold my star!" with new-born hope I cried,
"Its beams, as distant round the shore they play,
"Call me to bliss, and I the call obey !?
I said; returning strength my sinews felt;
Appear'd the rigour of the deep to melt:
O Love all-powerful, from thy rising fire
The bosom's frost, the water's cold retire!
Now near and nearer to the coast i drew:
Broad o'er the wave it's shade the turret threw:
At the blest sight my beating bosom rose,
And seem'd too soon my briny task to close.
But when I see, delighted on the strand,
Thee, dear spectatress of my labours! stand;
My leaping heart redoubled vigour fires,
Redoubled energy my frame inspires;
With bolder strokes I shoot the yielding seas,
And toss my frolic arms, thy sight to please.
Thee can thy nurse, officious, scarce restrain,
Scarce hold thy footsteps eager from the main;
(With secret joy those eager steps I spied;
Nor could thy soul the fond impatience hide!)
Nor, spite of all her struggles, can she save
Thy foot from bathing in the foremost wave.
Next am I welcom'd in thy warm embrace;
Next thy dear kisses wander o'er my face:
My glowing limbs thy ready vest supplies;
Thy clasping hand my briny ringlets dries.'
In the above extract, the line

and this,

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Play'd on the deep the moon's reflected gleam,'

And seem'd too soon my briny task to close,' are rendered rather equivocal by the inversion.

No stillest air unsmooth'd the calm profound'

is a very faulty line; and the expression of a vest supplying a limb is too inaccurate even for the licence of poetry.-The following Elegy affords a favourable specimen of the author's talents for original composition c

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SOLITUDE.

On the Wish of withdrawing from civilized Life, sometimes expressed by Men of Genius.

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"Devenêre locos lætos, et amoena vireta
Fortunatorum nemorum, sedesque beatas:
Largior hic campos æther, et lumine vestit
Purpureo."-

If genial suns, or fragrant glooms can please,
Haste, mount the vessel, guide the flying sail;
Where coral-rocks bestud the southern seas,

Point the bold prow, and catch the balny gale!
Where with bright green primæval forests glow,
Where the high arch of glittering mountains bends,
And Nature, in the 'broider'd vales below,

Unstain'd by Art, her peaceful children tends.
Such, OTAHEITEE! such thy golden clime,
Thy blue horizon, and thy laughing skies;
So rove thy sons beneath their palms sublime,
That, in still air, unmov'd, majestic rise.
Happy! for them the cool banana's shade
Its ample roof, and clustering fruit bestows,
For them the coco lifts its spiry head,

;

In whose full cups a guiltless vintage flows.
Ah bowers of bliss! where oft the glancing sun
Has view'd the sportive theft, the pleasing wile
And the clear streams, that gently-murmuring run,
Heard many a vow, reflected many a smile.
Sweet, in your shades to slumber life away;
Mark the blue Her'n stalk stately round the cove;
Admire the various gleams of plumage gay;
Or soften at the tale of artless love:

To note the skilful diver smooth descend
In the calm bosom of the glassy deep;
Their flexile limbs the feathery dancers bend;
Or near some lone morai the mourner weep!
Isles of delight! retreats from toiling thought!
How sweet, to lay the weary frame along,
And (what the melancholy CowLEY sought!)
Pour in such glens some tender, serious song!-
And is this all!-for this was being given-
To glades, and glooms, and solitudes to run?
For this hath man receiv'd the seal of heaven-
To sigh in shades, or batten in the sun?
For this (O dead to virtue, genius, fame!)
The polish'd walks of social life resign'd?
Quench'd the deep blushes of indignant shame?
Each energy, that wakes the manly mind?

Renounc'd

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Renounc'd each meed of honourable toil?

Each youthful hope, that keeps the life-blood warm,
Of fortune's prize, of learning's favouring smile,

Of partial friendship's more prevailing charm?
Far, my lov'd country, from thy proud embrace,
From every form of great, or good, or fair-
On some rude island's silent marge to pace,

And, like the pebbly current, murmur there?
In other zones may fairer spring rejoice,

And other Autumns blush with livelier stain:
In Europe, science heavenward lifts her voice,
In Europe, empire, arts and freedom reign.
Though Hafez sing of summer-breathing bowers,
Of founts, whose bosom drinks the Persian beam-
These tempt not him, who counts his banish'd hours,
Sad exile, panting for his native stream.
Vain bribes! eternal love, eternal spring,
To him, who, on Calypso's magic coast,
Wept, as sharp anguish came on memory's wing,
For names, sounds, paths, delights and duties lost!
And who would leave the glory of our kind-

GoD's temples, social worship's holy light-
To plunge the torch of heaven, the cultur'd mind,—
In dreaming solitude, and rayless night!--
And, when this vacant lapse of time were sped,
(Like passing clouds that shadow o'er a waste)
No deed perform'd, to mingle with the dead-
No urn by any weeping friend embrac'd ?
COWLEY! I mourn, (if such thy strange desire!)
I mourn, that melancholy's cherish'd views
Should in the museful mind sad shapes inspire,
Colouring each form with spleen's unreal hues;
I mourn, that love of eloquence and song,

By heaven inspir'd, should lull the studious breast,
Sickening and pall'd with life's tumultuous throng,

In sullen apathy, and sordid rest!

My desire has been for some years past, and does still vehemently con tinue, to retire myself to some of our American plantations, not to seek for gold, or to enrich myself with the traffic of those parts, but to forfake this world for ever, with all the vanities and vexations of it, and to bury myself there in some obscure retreat, (but not without the consolation of letters and philosophy.)

66

Oblitusque meorum, obliviscendus et illis:"

COWLEY'S PREFACE." O.W.

MISCELLANEOUS.

Art. 28. Part of a Letter to a Noble Earl; containing a very short
Comment on the Doctrines and Facts of Sir Richard Musgrave's

Quarto ;

Quarto; and vindicatory of the Yeomanry and Catholics of the City of Cork. By Thomas Townshend, Esq. Barrister at Law, and a Member of the Irish Parliament. 8vo. Is. 6d.

Booker.

1801. This pamphlet did not fall into our hands till we had finished our review of Sir R. Musgrave's History; and we must not dissemble the pleasure which we felt, on finding our observations corroborated by so able and well-informed a writer as Mr. Townsend. Instead of giving an abstract of these pages, we imagine that we shall render greater service in this conflict between genuine policy and Christian forbearance on one hand, and selfish views and bigotry on the other, if we let the author speak for himself. His claim to attention is thus briefly but strongly stated: I have my information from my own personal observation; the Author of the Quarto from prejudiced rumour.'

The following passages support the above assertion, while they afford a testimony highly honourable to the objects of the writer's praise:

Immediately on the breaking out of the rebellion, I was appointed Counsel to the General who commanded in the southern district, and who resided at Cork. The peculiar features which distinguished the last, from all former rebellions; the mixture of conspiracy and conflict, of mysterious initiations, and of open array, made it justly supposed by the government that legal assistance was necessary in searching after those more tranquil and concealed, though not less dangerous and wicked characteristics of the treason. His Majesty's General, with whom I had the honour to act during the whole of that unfortunate period, ought not to be lightly passed by. He exercised a discretion so sound; a temper so moderate, and yet so firm. a regard to the shedding of blood so scrupulous; and a force of decision in dealing with guilt so effectual and exemplary; and was withal so unbiassed by his prejudices, so unadvised by his passions, and so patient in his investigations between guilt and innocence, that a man better fitted for the awful duties committed to him could not be selected from any class in the community. It would be injustice not to say that his successor, to this day, has fully emulated so noble an example.'- To advise and confer with the General on all occasions, to examine informers, digest their informations, and investigate and arrange concurrently with him, was an important share of my duty.'

We fully concur in this equally just and spirited remark; That any man can be found, who, in the present mind of Europe, looks for the causes of popular disquiet in the theological fustian of the thirteenth century, is not less than a miracle! In this triumphant day of a shameless and presumptuous Atheism, to impeach the most general profession of Christianity, the religion of all the crowns and cabinets of all the kingdoms of the continent of Europe, as the cause of blood and treason in Ireland, is, to my humble mind, an intellectual irregularity beyond the adjustment of reason.'

The subsequent piece of information is as interesting as it is satis factory:

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