'Tis said when famed Alcides slew The Earth's dread son-that Slumber bound bim* The Hero woke-attack'd anew And saw-the tribe of PIGMIES round him! So Truth some mighty victory gains- And, lo, the Dwarfs rush out to seize her! The Giant crush'd-there still remains Some tribe of Hall's that can but teaze her!" The birth of the Twins is a fine scene, but it ought to be read as a whole. The ensuing is one of those slight touches in which our author so much excels: "Fair Nature, in the young, thy beauty For something never won, we yearn! As birds that seek athwart the main There is an old tradition, that when Hercules (the great reformer of the ancient world) had conquered the giant Antæus-(a sort of Charles the Tenth)-he fell asleep in the Libyan desert, and was suddenly awakened by an attack of the Pigmies. On-onward still-how few remain And thus-oh! thus! no more deceived- No single extract can give an idea of the powerful incantation scene, with its imaginative and original imagery: we content ourselves with one verse, but that is a picture "Suddenly forth to the roof, the light Burst, of a mighty flame! It shot from the earth to that lofty height- A little female flattery may be surely allowed to a poet, and, for their "sweet sakes," we select some lines studded with "charming words:" "Ching thought, the first ball he attended, (The married women seem'd so pretty,) Some goddesses had condescended To improve the beauty of the city. He ask'd the names he should adore, I find we worshipp'd them before; And in Ching's prayer-book you may spy 'em, Here's Lady Gower, a charming face To heavenly visions to exhort one; A future Boudhist Nat in Norton. The last book is, perhaps, the most finely wrought, the most replete with power and passion; but as far as this present page is concerned, that book will remain a scaled one, we would not tell the end for the world, and conclude in the author's own words, that "Plots are fruits which shun precocity, Our space permits us not to analyze, we can only recommend the noble poem of "Milton.” We consider it, with its magnificent thoughts, its most original conception, its glorious subject, among the very first-rate of Mr. Bulwer's writings. It is a step of pure gold towards his altar of fame. The "vanity of small successes" is full of truth, that best of poetry, and-but if we go on naming favourites, we shall sooner exhaust our limits than our list. If originality, wit, pathos, sense, and satire, can secure public favour, it will be lavished on the "Siamese Twins." Nat, (as we have before said) are superior beings. The Political Life of Mr. Canning. By or "The Eve of St. Agnes." But it does contain G. A. Stapleton, Esq. 3 vols. This work is written professedly for the purpose of vindicating the foreign policy of Mr. Canning, and presents a complete detail of his whole political career, from his acceptance of the portefeuille of the Foreign Department, in the autumn of 1822, to his lamented death in 1827. From Mr. Stapleton's connexion with Mr. Canning, we believe as private secretary, and from the fact that the materials from which these volumes have been compiled were principally derived from Mr. Canning's present representative, it may naturally be supposed that a spirit of partisanship is not unfrequently visible throughout the work; yet it is due to the author to admit, not only that it is very ably written, but that its general tone is that of fairness and impartiality. As to the character of Mr. Canning's general policy, and the value of the principles by which it was guided, much difference of opinion will of course long continue to prevail, ere the pen of the philosophical historian can be employed upon the subject with advantage, and it is therefore one upon which we do not feel ourselves at all called upon to decide; but we hesitate not to say, that future writers will find in these volumes a valuable contribution to the materials for a history of the reign of George IV. In the first volume is given, a condensed and luminous exposition of Mr. Canning's celebrated arguments against Reform, a subject of no ordinary interest and importance at the present moment; but the view taken of it by that eminent statesman, however gratifying to the aristocracy of this country at the time, and however ingeniously supported, is as unsound in prin. ciple, as in our day it would be unpopular in practice. To those interested in the motives and real character of Mr. Canning's measures, as well as in his fame, (and what Englishman is not?) we willingly recommend Mr. Stapleton's work as a faithful chronicle of his public life during the five years it embraces. Poems, chiefly Lyrical. By Alfred Ten nyson. Almost There is no particular mark or likelihood about the title-page of this little volume; there is no prefatory flourish, or pompous introduction,-nothing about the author's "leisure," or his " friends," or bis fear of "criticism,”—not a word that may throw a light upon what is to follow. Yes; there is a page of errata, in which, for "three times three," we are told to read "amorously ;" and which instructs us also to read "kissed" without the accent; this appeared to us somewhat whimsical, and prepared us for merriment. the first verse we came to dissipated the expectation, and turned indifference to interest-such an interest, we may add, as can be seldom felt; for the coming of true poets is, in more senses than ane, like the coming of angels. This little book, which we read through twice before we laid it down, and which we bave taken up more than twice since, is a thing not to be heedlessly passed over. It is full of precisely the kind of poetry for which Mr. Keats was assailed, and for which the world is already beginning to admire him. We do not mean that it contains any thing equal, or nearly equal, either in majesty or melody, to the "Hyperion," the "Ode to the Nightingale," many indications of a similar genius; and this assurance will, we are convinced, by such a mind as Mr. Tennyson's, be accepted as a grateful and delicate compliment. Such we intend it to be. There is the same fulness of thoughts and fervour of feeling, with much of the same quaintness of expression, an equal degree of idolatry of the old writers, mixed with a somewhat more apparent reverence for the moderns,-fewer faults, perhaps, and certainly fewer dazzling and bewildering beauties. But Nature is the same in both, and her rich and golden gifts will not be lavished in vain. She has taught Mr. Tennyson to sing as a poet should sing, she has taught him to throw bis whole heart into his barmonies. The music of some of his lyrics seems to be the work of his subject, not of himself-the measure is suggested by the theme-the out-break of a moment. It babbles up like a brook, and the verse flows away upon its course, smooth or rough, just as it may happen. His poetry resembles Wordsworth's river "it glideth at its own sweet will." We have here mentioned a poet, whom Mr. Tennyson has evidently studied, and with no commnon effect; there are lines in his volume that even Wordsworth might be proud to have suggested. We have hardly space to particularize what has pleased us most. "Mariana in the moated grange," is certainly one; the "Merman" and the "Mermaid," and the "Sea Fairies," are, in many passages, exquisitely fanciful. We love the "Mermaid," who is to be married "In the branching jaspers under the sea. We can trace a very singular vein of feeling and reflection in the "Confessions of a Secondrate Sensitive Mind not in Unity with itself." The song beginning, "The lintwhite and the throstlecock," and the pieces called "Nothing shall die," and "All things shall die," have a sweetness in them beyond even their grace of versification. The love-songs are full of tenderness and wild music; the sonnets are deep-toned and stately. The "Kraken"-short as it is we have not space to extract it—is like a fragment of boar antiquity; it is an echo from the sea of which it sings. Mr. Tennyson has a habit of making one line play many parts, by introducing it as often as possible, or altering it slightly. An instance, and a very happy one, occurs in a beautiful ballad, called "Oriana." knight who has slain his bride instead of the foeman that came "atween him and the castle-wall," reiterates his lamenta. tion thus: "The bitter arrow went aside, Oriana; The false, false arrow went aside, The damned arrow glanced aside, Thy heart, my life, my love, my bride, The pathos of this, as it gushes up in its proper place in the ballad, is perfection. There is more poetry in this volume than will ever become popular; yet there is something in it that must be remembered. We do not fear that the real originality of some parts will be hidden by the affectedness of others; or that such imperfections as are apparent in it-the too frequent use of the accent and of compound words, or rather a fondness for throwing two or three words into one without a hyphen at all-we have no fear that such eccentricities as these will dim the light that is perpetually breaking through them, or prevent it from shining before men. The Champion of Cyrus, a Drama, in Five Acts. By Luke Booker, LL.D. &c. This drama is, what Dr. Booker, with considerable novelty of language, designates as "the first effort of his muse." It purports to be a production, "against which fanaticism itself should have no just cause to allege any objection." Very likely; but we have; for it possesses two defects, which we can scarcely, prevail upon ourselves to pardon in a tragedy, it is very long, and very laughable. We might, however, be brought to excuse Dr. Booker for conceiving such amiable absurdities and caricatures of unoffending huma nity, as we find in his play; we might smile at his satisfaction, in having constructed a drama, in which those stipulated essentials," the unities, have been strictly attended to; but we cannot so readily forgive his sweeping and formidable attack upon the dramatic character of the nation; nor can we quite concur with him in his view of the immoralities of the "School for Scandal," which he pronounces to be "a fœtid carcase."Were our nature at all revengeful or malicious, we should give an extract from "Cyrus;" but we are sure that the public will think all the better of the dramatist, for not being indulged with a specimen of his poetry. Science without a Head; or the Royal Society Dissected. By One of the 687 F.R.S. S.S. We regret that the great pressure of new publications prevented us from noticing this important pamphlet at an earlier period. The object of its anonymous author seems to have been twofold, that of refuting some of the charges advanced against the Committee of Management of the Royal Society, by Messrs. Babbage and Sir G. South, and of influencing the decision of the great body of the Members of the Society in their late election of President for the ensuing year. The appointment of the Illustrious individual, who has consented to fill that office, having taken place under circumstances equally honourable to all parties, we should not now have deemed it advisable to notice the tract before us, but for the interesting anatomy of the Royal Society, which the author has laid bare by his dissecting scalpel. In our last Number, we took occasion to offer a few remarks on Mr. Babbage's work, and contended, that the " Decline of Science in England," which that gentleman so feelingly deplores, ought to be limited in its application to the decline of (or rather the total absence of) that internal discipline of the Royal Society, which is requisite to advance the various branches of scientific rescarch. We are happy to find the author of the able pamphlet before us takes precisely the same view of the case. And with the object of illastrating the point to its full extent, he has been at the pains of entering into an analysis of the scientific pretensions of the 687 gentlemen who compose this distinguished Society, by dividing them into ten lists or tables, according to their professional or non-professional pursuits, together with the number of contributions furnished by each member during the last thirty years. These lists (which we must presume to be accurately made up) are no less valuable as a guide to members of the Society in the election of fature candidates, than as affording a satisfactory demonstration of how small a proportion of the 687 members of the Society have ever shown their scientific qualifications for the honour of a fellowship. The author, whom we should take to be a member of the medical profession from the tenor of many of his observations, after going through the several lists or sections, observes "From the perusal of the preceding documents, my readers will rise with the full conviction that, in the election of its members, the Society has not often considered the real interests of science, or its dignity as a scientific body. Few, very few indeed, of the several hundred fellows classed in the manner I have exhibited them to the public, had, when elected, or have even at this moment, any pretension to be considered as scientific men-few could be expected to become useful and valuable members-few cared for the admission, except as it conferred on them an appellation which it was at one time the custom to look upon as honourable. Conscientiously I could not, without detriment to science, have selected from among those fellows who have been elected since the first year of the present century, more than thirty really illustrious men of science, whose names will be pronounced with the same respect by posterity, with which they have been or are looked upon by their contemporaries." Speaking of the mode in which candidates are admitted, the author says "The whole concern, in good truth, is a complete farce; and my astonishment is, that when such elections take place the electors do not burst vut in roars of merriment at the solemnity with which the secret votes are collected in behalf of a candidate, whose whole known tenor of life is in overt contradiction with the professions and descriptions read aloud, and with due pomp, by one of the secretaries." The suggestions which our author recommends for remedying these and similar evils in future appear very judicious, provided they could be carried into effect without modelling the Society de novo. Radical reforms, however, can never be reckoned upon in any of our old chartered institutions. Persons who have been accustomed to the sweets of power for a long period will never tamely submit to the sacrifice of their personal influence, however advantageous it might prove to the body politic. We have therefore little hopes of any decided improvement, notwithstanding the well-known zeal and personal influence of the illustrious individual who has lately undertaken the arduous duties of President, while the system exists of admitting members without reference to their scientific attainments, and allowing unqualified persons to decide upon the merits of the various communications. From the following abstract, our readers will perceive that the author recommends a plan for a partial remedy of these evils, nearly approximating to that pursued in the French Institute, and the Society of Arts, Manufactures, &c. &c. "Dividing the members of the Society into distinct classes, each class should be allowed to meet in a committee of its members, as often as necessary, auder the presidency of one or two of their own members, and assisted by another acting as Secretary. These committees should be open to all the fellows of the Society; but the voting upon the papers referred to particular classes, should only be permitted to the members of that class, who thereby would become a sort of guarantee to the Society at large, as well as to the author, that the paper had received the fullest consideration from 'fellows' the best informed on the subject." We shall not allow ourselves to offer any opi. nion on the merits of those individuals who are alluded to, both by the author of the tract before us, as well as Messrs. Babbage and South, in the management of the funds of the Society. That a great want of judgment has hitherto prevailed in the expenditure of such large funds as nearly 5,000l. per annum, will be admitted by every member of the Society, except "the select," unless it can be shown that science has been actually promoted by the labours of the Royal Society, which we have the evidence of some of its most distinguished members to disprove. In this department, however, we look forward to much amendment under the auspices of the illustrious Dake at the head of the Society, though we entertain but slender hopes of that species of reform which shall induce members of the Astronomical, Geological, or Linnæan Societies, to give a preference to the parent Society in communicating their researches, while the meetings and committees of that Society remain encumbered with the absurd formula of a by-gone century. let committed in his "Life of Bacon," when he forgot that the great man was a philosopher. Mr. Stebbing does not forget that the subjects of his pen were children of song; but we look in vain for the enthusiasm that remembrance should have awakened. He knows, but he does not scem to feel the dignity of the theme; the ground he treads on is holy, but he walks as upon vulgar earth; and writes of poets, patriots, and lovers, as if Dante, Petrarch, and Tasso, were so many merchants of Florence and Sorrento. His delineations of character, and the pictures he draws of the times, want that excellence which the French express so well by the word "vèrve." The style, although sometimes elegant, and never common-place, wants the strength and vividness which the subject frequently demands. It gives no more lively conception of the poet's character than the medallion portrait prefixed to his life gives of his person,-each is a faint inexpressive ontline, wanting the body and the colour, which give animation both to the page and to the picture. Notwithstanding these remarks, we recommend the work. The volumes are light and agreeable, and they have no competitors in the whole circle of our literature. Observations on the Necessity of Reforming the House of Lords. Mr. Cobbett's example of a simple proposition, in his English Grammar, is, "the House of Lords is a den of thieves;" and when this pamphlet was put into our hands, our first thought was, that the author intended to put the right honourable House through its purgation. On turning over a new leaf, however, we discovered that the proposed reform was of a legal rather than a political nature, being confined to the House of Lords "considered as the Court of ultimate appeal in the administration of civil justice." The real nature of an "Appeal," and the unmeaning absurdities which attend the whole process, ac. Lives of the Italian Poets. By the Rev. cording to the present system, are clearly ex. H. Stebbing. The author has chosen a splendid subject, and produced a work which we have long desired to read in the English language. The lives or no class of distinguished men are read with such earnest interest as those of poets. The poet has a double existence; he moves amongst ordinary men in the material world, participates their pas sions, mingles in their affairs, stoops to their conversation; but he has a higher and more essential being in an immaterial world, which he has created for himself, and where he holds no commonion, save with the immortal shapes of his own fancy. Such, in general, is the source of the pecaliar interest with which we peruse the biography of the bard. This feeling is heightene: in the case of the bards of Italy, by the recollection, that the harp which they strung, and struck to such divine harmonies, had lain neglected and silent many a century, while darkness covered the moral face of Europe. Poetic genius was the first light that pierced the obscurity of the middle ages. It sprang up on the banks of the Arno, with the august author of the "Divina Commedia." Bat we must turn from the subject of the work to its execution. The biographer of the Italian Poets has certainly avoided the fault which MalMarch.-VOL. XXXIII. NO. CXXIII. plained, and the folly of appealing from the Lord Chancellor in the Court of Chancery to the same person in the House of Lords,-from the tie-wig to the full-bottom, and from the wooden bench to the woolsack,-is exposed at once with logical acuteness and graphic humour. We believe that this very clever and ingenious brochure is from the pen of Mr. Leahy, a young barrister, to whose talents it does great credit. Journal of a Nobleman, comprising Travels, and a Narrative of his Residence at Vienna during the Congress. The travels related in this work extend through various countries- Poland, Turkey, Wallachia, Transylvania, and Hungary. From his rank and fortune, the author seems to have possessed every facility for obtaining access to the first circles in every place he visited, and he must be allowed to have used his advantages so well as to be enabled to give lively pictures of fashionable society, as it is inodified by the manners of various nations. His peculiar tastes and habits appear to have indisposed him to a close inspection of the lower or even of the middle classes. Accordingly, we are amused with anecdotes of princes and noblemen; descriptions of fêtes, balls, concerts, audiences, Q and pageantries, rather than instructed by views of the general state of the population, which constitute the principal value of books of travels. Considered, however, as the progresses of a man of fashion visiting and conversing with the people of fashion of other lands, these volumes are ex. tremely entertaining, and will be certain of obtaining the attention of a large class of readers. We consider the second as the most interesting volume of the two. It contains the narrative of the noble writer's residence in Vienna at the stirring and brilliant period of the Congress, "where," to use his own words, "a kingdom was aggrandized or dismembered at a ball, an indemnity granted at a dinner, a restitution proposed during a hunt, and a bon-mot sometimes cemented a treaty." The author proposes to supply the defect of the work of the Abbé de Pradt, which is chiefly political in its nature, and wants the piquancy it might have had, if the private life of the illustrious actors in the great diplomatic drama had been exhibited to view. We must say he bas succeeded in his design. Disengaged from political cares and negotiations, he seems to have been as active at the dinners and festivities of the Congress, as the ablest minister could have been at the settlements of boundaries and framing of constitutions. We have the fruits of his activity before us in a number of striking anecdotes of emperors, kings, princes, princesses, and a long train of diplomatic personages of the first distinction, whose naines are too notorious to require enumeration. The splendid revelries, and sumptuous entertainments, and gay bustle of the city, are given with a vivacity of colouring which evinces much power of the writer in the descriptive style. He promises the world a larger work upon the same subject. It is certainly one that is well calculated to attract attention, and the author has already established a claim to receive it. The Talba. By Mrs. Bray. 3 vols. Mrs. Bray has well merited the reputation she has acquired. Few modern writers, of the gentler sex, display greater skill and power in the management of a story there is much energy and earnestness in every page of her productions; in descriptions of scenery, and in the arrangement of dialogue, she is peculiarly happy; and she possesses the rare advantage of a fine eye for pic torial beauty and effect. "The Talba" is, how. ever, liable to one objection; it is rather a col. lection of vivid and finished paintings, than, what it ought to be, one grand historical picture. Portugal, in the fourteenth century, was a land of romance, the choice of time and country have been fortunate. "Inez de Castro," whose sad history has so often furnished materiel for the poet, the painter, and the novelist, is the heroine of the tale; but the author has judiciously omitted the introduction of the awful though revolting ceremony of crowning with gems and gold her fleshless remains, long after the assassin's hand bad consigned them to a sepulchre. It is, how ever, from the Moors, who figure in the tale, that its main interest arises. We are carried with them from scene to scene, and from plot to plot, and always with increased desire to meet with them again. "The Talba," who gives a title to the work, is a happy thought of the authoress. Half-priest and half-warrior, with all the heroic feeling of his depressed but not degraded race, he is the very model of a hero of romance. It would be to destroy the pleasure of the reader to detail the plan of the story; if its leading event be generally known, and this is undoubtedly an evil, it is amply compensated for by the introduction of matter novel, varied, and full of interest; the historical points, upon which it is evident much care and labour have been bestowed, are managed with such skill as always to satisfy without ever wearying; while human nature, nearly the same in all countries and in all ages, in its gentler or. its fiercer workings, is poartrayed with judgment, delicacy, and accuracy, seldom to be met with in works of the imagination. We may congratulate Mrs. Bray on having added much to her already established fame, and recommend her volumes, with the certainty that they will amply recompense all by whom they may be perused. Hints to Small Landholders on Planting and on Cattle. By Martin Doyle. Hints addressed to Small Landholders and the Peasantry of Ireland, on Road-making and on Ventilation. By Martin Doyle. Martin Doyle's little books have been deserv edly popular among the class of persons for whom they are principally intended; and it would be well if every farmer, gentle and simple, through. out the three kingdoms, were made acquainted with the results of his industry, good sense, anl experience. If they were universally studied in Ireland, the "occupation" of the Agitator would be in reality" gone;" their extensive circulation would do more towards restoring health and prosperity to that diseased and distressed country, than a hundred thousand demagogue speeches, or twice as many Government proclamations. Such instruction as he conveys is the only effectual way to convert the pike into the spade, and lead men to labour honestly and steadily in their calling, instead of to talk about and wrangle for objects of which, in truth, they know little, and care less. The plan adopted by Martin Doyle-a clergyman of the county of Wexford, we understand— might be advantageously followed both in this and the sister country,―talent could not be better labouring classes, in a cheap and attractive form,— employed than in conveying instruction to the that should levy but a small tax on their pockets, and repay them with information and amusement. Several of the anecdotes related in these publications are full of freshness and humour; but all are made to bear upon the grand object held in view-to render the home of the reader more happy, his sources of enjoyment more numerous, and his means more ample. It is a public duty to recommend them to public attention. Tales of a Grandfather, being Stories taken from the History of France. 3 vols. "Just as the twig is bent, the tree's incliued." Fortunate is it for those who are hereafter to fill our places, that such a man as Sir Walter Scott is labouring to make thein wiser and better than their fathers. It is a peculiar gift even of genius, that grapple with any subject, every difficulty is overcome," the rough places are made plain, and the crooked straight." The author of "Wa, |