monly called a life of pleafure, much in the manner of Young, strongly delineated.

'Whom call we gay? that honor has been long
The boaft of mere pretenders to the name.
The innocent are gay-the lark is gay
That dries his feathers faturate with dew
Beneath the rofy cloud, while yet the beams
Of day-fpring overshoot his humble neft.
The pealant too, a witnefs of his fong,
Himfelf a fongfter, is as gay as he.

But fave me from the gaiety of those

Whose head-aches nail them to a noon-day bed,
And fave me too from theirs whofe haggard eyes
Flash defperation, and betray their pangs
For property ftripp'd off by cruel chance;
From gaiety that fills the bones with pain,

The mouth with blafphemy, the heart with woe.'

Our innate defire of novelty is then confidered, and the expediency of changing the fcene proved, as objects, though not fo beautiful in themselves as those we have been long accustomed to, will please by being lefs familiar. The inclofures of the

valley; the rock that hides the fea-mew in his hollow clefts;' the common overgrown with fern ;' the haunt of a melancholy maiden crazed with love, are next exhibited. An affembly of gypfies is introduced, and their manners defcribed. This leads the author to pass fome encomiums on a civilized ftate, which he looks upon as equally conducive to happiness and virtue. He expreffes his compaffion for the islanders in the South Sea, particularly Omiah, whofe fituation, as it appears to the author, when reftored to his own country, is well imagined. But, though he allows a civilized state to promote virtue, he remarks that great cities are inimical to it. He bestows fome encomiums on London; but concludes the book with arraigning its effeminacy of manners, its seve rity in punishing petty offenders, and shameful lenity towards those of fuperior rank.

From the sketch we have given of the firft book, an idea may be formed of the manner in which the others are conducted. The fubject-matter is fometimes ferious, and fometimes comic. The tranfitions are in many places happily contrived in others, too abrupt and defultory. Sometimes our author fhews himself rather too much the laudatur temporis acti. Our follies and vices are fufficiently numerous, but those of our forefathers, if we judge from the writers of their days, were little or nothing inferior. We are cenfured for wearing

habits costlier than Lucullus wore.'

Our

Our mutability in fashions is justly ridiculed; but our modes
of dress are not, in general, remarkably coftly. Our ancef
tors flowing wigs, in the reign of good queen Anne, was pro-
bably a more expenfive and abfurd fashion than any in modern
days. In another place, our author having expreffed his ftrong
attachment to his native country, his participation of its joys
and forrows, obferves,
"And I can feel

Thy follies too, and with a just disdain
Frown at effeminates, whofe very looks
Reflect difhonour on the land I love.

How, in the name of foldiership and sense,

Should England profper when fuch things, as fmooth
And tender as a girl, all effenced o'er

With odors, and as profligate as fweet,

Who fell their laurel for a myrtle wreath,

And love when they fhould fight; when fuch as these
Prefume to lay their hand upon the ark

Of her magnificent and awful caufe?

Time was when it was praise and boast enough
In ev'ry clime, and travel where we might,
That we were born her children. Praise enough
To fill th' ambition of a private man,

That Chatham's language was his mother tongue, And Wolfe's great name compatriot with his own." We confider this reflection on our military gentlemen as too pointed, if not unjuft; particularly if he means to intimate that our public misfortunes are owing to their misconduct. To a deficiency, indeed, of Wolfes and Chathams, to the diffenfions of commanders, to internal divifions, and latterly to the fuperior force of our enemies, the ill-fuccefs of the late unfortunate war might juftly be attributed: during the continuance of which, we apprehend, no officers ever bore fatigue with greater patience, or encountered danger with more refolution than our's. If the charge of effeminacy against them while at home be allowed, the zeal and fortitude they manifefted while abroad should have exempted them from unqualified cenfure.-If fome few of Mr. Cowper's fatiric obfervations are trite and threadbare, the generality are no less justly conceived than forcibly expreffed. In proof of which, though numbers might be adduced, we shall felect a paffage that ftigmatizes a well-known divinity quack; whofe public addreffes to the clergy imply the meanest opinion of, and cons vey the greatest infult to their order, it poffibly ever expe rienced.

But hark-the doctor's voice-faft wedg'd between
Two empyrics he stands, and with swoln cheeks

Inspires

Infpires the news, his trumpet. Keener far
Than all invective is his bold harrangue,
While through that public organ of report
He hails the clergy; and defying fhame,
Announces to the world his own and theirs.
He teaches thofe to read, whom schools difmifs'd,
And colleges untaught; fells accent, tone,
And emphasis in fcore, and gives to pray'r
Th' adagio and andante it demands.

He grinds divinity of other days

Down into modern ufe; transforms old print
To zig-zag manufcript, and cheats the eyes
Of gall'ry critics by a thousand arts.-

Are there who purchase of the doctor's ware!

Oh name it not in Gath ;-it cannot be,

That grave and learn'd clerks fhould need fuch aid.
He doubtless is in fport, and does but droll,

Affuming thus a rank unknown before,

Grand caterer and dry- nurfe of the church.'

Our author's excellency, in faithfully delineating the fcenes of nature, has been already mentioned. A ftriking inftance of it is to be found in his defcription of a winter's morning. The objects are brought immediately before our view: and the village cur, with which we shall clofe our extract, is peculiarly excellent, and painted from the life.

''Tis morning; and the fun with ruddy orb
Afcending fires the horizon. While the clouds
That crowd away before the driving wind,
More ardent as the difk emerges more,
Refemble most fome city in a blaze,

Seen through the leaflefs wood. His flanting ray
Slides ineffectual down the fnov vale,
And tinging all with his own rofy hue,
From ev'ry herb and ev'ry spiry blade
Stretches a length of fhadow o'er the field.
Mine, fpindling into longitude immense,
In fpite of gravity and fage remark
That I myfelf am but a fleeting shade,
Provokes me to a smile. With eye afkance
I view the muscular proportioned limb
Transform'd to a lean fhank. The fhapeless pair
As they defigned to mock me, at my fide
Take step for step, and as I near approach
The cottage, walk along the plaifter'd wall
Prepoft'rous fight! the legs without the man.
The verdure of the plain lies buried deep
Beneath the dazzling deluge, and the bents
And coarfer grafs upfpearing o'er the rest,
Of late unfightly and unfeen, now fhine

Con

Confpicuous, and in bright apparel clad
And fledged with icy feathers, nod fuperb.
The cattle mourn in corners, where the fence
Screens them, and feem half petrified to fleep
In unrecumbent fadnefs. There they wait
Their wonted fodder, not like hung'ring man
Fretful if unfupplied, but filent, meek,
And patient of the flow-pac'd fwain's delay.
He from the ftack carves out th' accustomed load,
Deep-plunging and again deep plunging oft
His broad keen knife into the folid mafs.
Smooth as a wall the upright remnant ftands,
With fuch undeviating and even force
He fevers it away. No needless care,
Left ftorms fhould overfet the leaning pile
Deciduous, or its own unbalanced weight.
Forth goes the woodman, leaving unconcerned
The chearful haunts of man, to wield the axe
And drive the wedge in yonder foreft drear,
From morn to eve his folitary task.

Shaggy and lean and fhrew'd, with pointed ears And tail cropp'd fhort, half lurcher and half cur His dog attends him. Clofe behind his heel Now creeps he flow, and now with many a frisk Wide-fcampering fnatches up the drifted fnow With iv'ry teeth, or ploughs it with his fnout; Then thakes his powder'd coat and barks for joy.' What follows, for feveral pages of the fame kind, poffeffes equal merit; but we refrain from transcribing any farther. It is but justice, however, to observe, before we conclude our review of this poem, that the religious and moral reflections with which it abounds, though fometimes the diction is not fufficiently elevated, in general poffefs the acutenefs and depth of Young, and are often expreffed with the energy of Shakspeare. The Epiftle to Mr. Hill exposes the false pretenders to friendship, and concludes with a handsome compliment to that gentleman. In the poem entitled Tirocinium, we meet with fome fevere ftrictures on the mode of education in our public fchools; and we fear the author's cenfure is too juftly founded. The facetious ballad of John Gilpin, concludes the volume, and is too well-known to need our recommendation.

A General Synopfis of Birds. Vol. III. 4to. 21. 125. 6d. in Boards. Leigh and Sotheby.

OUR

UR attentive and industrious author has now completed his defign, viz. of giving a concife account of all the birds hitherto known;' yet, as information constantly accu

mulates in this enterprifing age, we are promised, what must have long fince become neceffary, an Appendix. Mr. Latham's former conduct convinces us, that the additions which have claimed his attention, will deferve our's; for he is as much fupe rior to the profeffed book-maker as his work exceeds the crude compilations which we have fometimes received under the title of Natural Hiftories. In our fifty-fourth and fifty-feventh volumes, we gave fome account of his plan, and specimens of his execution. The volume before us contains the grallæ, and the anferes of Linnæus, defcribed with the fame care, and etched with the fame precifion. Mr. Latham fpeaks with diffidence of the execution of the etchings, which are his own; but, as they are exact reprefentations, and the attitudes not deficient either in accuracy or fpirit, they contain all that we ought to defire. If he had done more, in our opinion his fuccefs would have been lefs complete. The colouring is alfo juft; but it is not always carefully laid on; for when etchings of this kind are properly coloured, they are the trueft reprefentations of nature. This is the whole fecret of the effect of those beautiful views of Switzerland and the Glaciers, now publishing with so much deferved applause on the continent.

This volume contains the order ftruthius,' compofed of the dodo, didus Linnæi, from the galline; the oftrich and the caffowary, (ftruthio, camelus, and cafuarius, of Linnæus.) The gralle and anferes of Linnæus are comprehended under the clafs of water-birds, and divided into, first, those with cloven feet; fecondly, pinnated feet; and thirdly, web feet.

There is no department in natural hiftory, where we find more changes from the established fyftem of Linnæus than in birds. They arife partly from the many new discoveries, and partly from the attention of natural hiftorians being more fixed on other fyftems befides that of the Swede on the con trary, the united diligence of botanifts has been almoft exclufively employed in perfecting the fexual arrangement. This uncertainty, perhaps caprice, has occafioned great varieties; and, while they are more important in the orders of the gralla and anferes, they are alfo more numerous on account of the many additions to the fpecies, from the obfervations of later voyagers. This laft volume, as well as the Arctic Zoology, is a very fatisfactory account of the kinds of birds which occurred to captain Cook and his companions: perhaps it is more fatisfactory than the work just mentioned, because it is confined by no imaginary limits, and comprehends every degree of latitude in each hemifphere. Vol. LX. 08. 1785.

S

The