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still bolder task in this laborious sort of exercise, by swimming from the island of Lido quite through the grand canal of Venice; in doing which, he was four hours and twenty minutes, without touching either the ground or a boat.

(To be concluded in our next. )

REVIEW-Of Woman, a poem, by Eaton Stannard Barrett, Esq. author of the Heroine, 3d edition, printed for Colburn and Co. 1819.

Forsake her not, and she shall preserve thee.
Love her, and she shall keep thee.
Exalt her, and she shall promote thee.

THERE are usually two opinions afloat respecting woman, as diverging_and opposite as the antipodes themselves. The one arises from a sort of enthusiastic veneration, and its result is the most ridiculous flattery; the other, than which nothing can more debase the human mind, is to degrade her to a parallel with the brute, and, instead of cherishing for her the most lively feelings of interest and respect, regarding her as the slave and drudge of man. There is no doubt, great exaggeration in both these opinions. The mind, romantic in its favourite idolatry, revelling in its seeming devotion, and ardent in the cause of adulation, should recollect that "the fairest creature is a fallen creature" and, adopting the language of Cowper,

"Oh!

still,

Charms she may have, but she has frailties

too,"

should consent to be led by the tates of reason and philosophy.

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gulphed in the vast display of poetic feeling and imagery. This we are in hopes will shew him that "the woman" was to be a blessing to " "the man" before the fall, and that with no other relative intention was she created. Some men, however, there are, who entertain a more rational consideration for the sex, allowing to woman her proper share of respect and imperfections, viewing her in her proper light, neither worshipping her as a goddess, nor offering her the indigni

ties of a brute.

Whatever censure we shall feel ourselves called upon to pass on Mr. Barrett's production, his candour may certainly be cited in mitigation of damages, for his introductory observaextraordinary, as well as the most tions are certainly among the most novel, which it has ever fallen to our lot to notice. He tells us in short,

66

that he "published a work of the same
kind some years since, bearing the
same title, and not at
friends"-that it was unsuccessful-
the request of
tice of which he was afterwards con-
was abused by the critics, of the jus-
vinced, as he himself discovered it
full of errors.

And to crown the

whole, the work has undergone an entire revision, but he still entertains fessions as these, say what we will a small opinion of it. After such conof his production, it would be highly ridiculous in Mr. Barrett to be displeased or dissatisfied, except with our lenity.

The machinery of the first part is distributed under the following heads. spare your idol, think her human" Elegiac tributes to Princess Charlotte Of Refinement and Piety-The Libertine, the Clown, the Pedant, the Witling, and the Deist, still despise dic-her-The pursuits and characteristics of each sex contra-distinguished-The We almost shudder to say any thing discrepancy between both beneficialto the man who holds opinions of an Women excel us, 1st, in Devotion; opposite nature. It is true he is des- 2dly, in Chastity; 3dly, in Modesty; picable in our eyes; yet, in hopes 4thly, in Charity; 5thly, in Good that he is not too far gone to be re- Faith; 6thly, in Forgiveness; 7thly, claimed, we will suggest a few things in Paternal Affection.- Episode of a to his consideration. Our recommen- Mother and her Child-Women have dation shall be confined to Milton's often excelled as Sovereigns; they rule Eve, as presenting the finest picture the destinies of empires by presiding of human excellence which our lan-over national morality." guage can boast. We will allow him In the commencement of his eulogy to oppose and criticise the poet with on woman, our author expresses himthe most poignant severity which his self in the following strain: misapplied talents can invent, and we dare assert that he will be en

"In early days, ere nations were refin'd, Imperious man degraded womankind,

And rais'd her by degrees, as social good
And moral laws were better understood:
Till when the holy Son of woman came,
And Eve's offence was lost in Mary's fame,
Man, virtuous and devout beyond the past,
Restor'd his helpmate to her sphere at last;
And shunning either indiscreet extreme,
Now leaves her not oppress'd, and not su-
preme.
p. 24 and 25.

The social habit of man, in an uncivilized state, is certainly an interesting question. Man, enlightened by philosophy, performs every action upon principle-hence he is called a rational being. But in a state of savage barbarity, he is taught to avoid and perform by instinct. That disposition which teaches him the distinction between food and poison is intuitive.

In the island of Otaheite, at the time it was visited by Captain Cook, speaking of the domestic usages of the inhabitants, he says, that "the master and his wife repose in the middle of the house, then the married people, next the unmarried females, then the unmarried men, and in fair weather the servants sleep in the open air." A tolerably fair conclusion we think may be drawn from this, that " man," at least in Otaheite, was not arrived at the lowest point of degradation !

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ratio with his understanding, we are enabled to relax a little on this passage, for we can give the former more credit, as being less conversant with the varied means which the latter is at liberty to employ in such diabolical purposes. As the passage bears more particularly on the conduct of that part of the human race enjoying the advantages of education and instruction, it behoves us to say that the "Clown" and "Groom" are likely to make better husbands, than my Lord" or the " Squire" for the former have seldom any other views on entering the marriage state, than a consummation of their happiness, and hence they follow the bent of their inclination. Not so with those in the higher walks of life, where prudence over-rules affection, and choice is made to bend to sinister consideration.

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Nothing can exceed the avidity with which the numerous hosts of poets of the present day hoist the hyperbolic ensignia. Far be it from us to condemn the just and prudent introduction of imagery; but the mind should not be confused by crowded succession, or disgusted by ill-adapted illustration. Such, however, we cannot but consider the following, wherein But Mr. Barrett tells us "Eve's our indifference towards the other sex offence was lost in Mary's fame." is followed up by allusions to the How this was effected is not easily " discoverable, Mary herself being only an instrument. We are told that Christ took away sin by the sacrifice of himself; but surely it was never intended to have a literal signification, for if the transgression of Eve had been cancelled, sin, as an effect of that transgression, should have been physically destroyed:

"Remotâ causâ tollitur effectus." "Yet since our own enlighten'd time retains, Some partial tincture of the former stains, Pale libertines, whom wanton arts allure, Still by the vicious female judge the pure. Companion of his groom, the clown confounds Subservient woman with his horse and hounds;

And pedants, who from books and nature
draw,

Try and attaint her by scholastic law.
Wits for an epigram her fame undo,
And those who God blaspheme, mock woman
too."
p. 25.

Having already given it as our opinion, that savages do not treat the fair sex with more indignity than a civilized being, calculating in a given No. 43.-Vol. IV.

chilly moon." Images form the very soul of poetry, and it is these which raise and keep alive that indescribable enthusiasm which the poet feels. It is prudent selection, therefore, from this crude heterogeny which enables the poet to kindle" the same divinity which stirs within him," in the breast of his readers.

After having told us of the indifference paid to woman by the libertine, the clown, the pedant, and the wit, he thus proceeds :-

"As such conclude her of inferior clay,
Because she wants some merits men display,
As well they may condemn the chilly moon
Because her crescent cannot glow like noon:
For if that orb whose affluent dew bestows
Balm on the glebe, another sun arose,
This flowery ball would wither, stagnant
gales

Engender death, and midnight scorch the
vales."
p. 26.

Flattery is sometimes conveyed by inconsistent allusion, and we are afraid this passage is a case in proof. It puts us in mind of a youth on Valentine's day, who treats his charmer by 3 C

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The lawless freedom of the howling den: Man covets peace, too; yes, the stilly void, The dire repose when all things are destroy'd: The peace that worlds in desolation wear, The calm of death, the silence of despair.' p. 28 and 29. Can the "freedom" so much desired by every creature of the human race, be the "lawless freedom of the howling den?" Here is undoubtedly a paradox, for a den is as certainly opposed to any thing in the shape of freedom, as any thing opposed to liberty can be. We are aware that freedom has a relation to body and mind; but in neither sense can it be here applicable, for the victims of the latter are not to be controlled by human interference, any more than a rational being should covet "the lawless freedom" of confinement, and that too "with wolfish ken!" Mr. Barrett's imagination must certainly have obtained a most powerful mastery, when it led him forward to the last confusion of all things. Let the reader for a moment set before his eyes the awful picture of the last great day, when the Grand Architect shall, with a tremendous crash, hurl the earth from its centre, and bury the heavens in oblivion; when the planetary system shall be annulled, and the dark canopy of confusion shall envelop all those natural beauties, which the mind now contemplates with delight. Is it at all likely human nature can behold such an awful tragedy, and call the succeeding silence peace, and of such a nature as is coveted by

man,

"the stilly void, The dire repose, when all things are destroy'd:

The peace which worlds in desolation wear,
The calm of death, the silence of despair."

When Mr. Barrett penned these lines, he must have been led away solely by attention to metre, without any appeal to reason. What satisfaction is there in the desolation of worlds, which can make man earnestly desire to feast his eyes on the dreadful | wreck? Or what is there in "the calm of death," or "the silence of despair," which bears any allusion to peace?

When commencing our remarks on this poem, we recollect having hinted that our author had not forgotten to attune his muse's voice to flattery; and we really think that no woman, who has any modesty or discrimination, can suppress a smile at the following lines:

"O Woman, whose great Author bade the worst

Of all things earthly, be created first:
O woman, last and best of all create,
Not form'd from dust as thy presumptuous
mate;

But born beside his heart, thou toilest still,
To soothe thy birth-place, and preserve from
Still by thy birth-place, whether lov'd or

ill.

spurn'd,

Still to thy moody birth-place art thou turn'd. The stream that hastes where'er its ocean dwells,

The wave that presses, though the rock re-
pels,
Mistrustful of each other, men in thee,
A friend who never proves a rival, see.
The maim'd, the wrinkled, the decay'd, the
blind,

All, save the blooming lover, own thee kind:
And as blest rainbows the meridian shun,
But grace the rising and departing sun,
So at our prime the courtship disappears,
So tends our early age and latest years."

p. 40.

Having followed Mr. B. through the first part of his work, we find it quite unnecessary to proceed further; terminate our comments. a few general remarks, therefore, shall

As it has been necessary in the course of our duty to censure much more than we could have wished, we are still, however, happy to add, that our obliquities have not been the is true, have been freely given; still effect of prejudice. Our opinions, it are not exclusively our own. we have this satisfaction, that they It has

been our business to submit to the

trial "by woman,” " and it has been ours to see many of the sex laugh contemptuously over many of the pas

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Again he says:

and, when compared with the above, it is less objectionable, because less "The same kind of facts, the same reasonspecious, and consequently less inju-ing, the same sort of evidence, altogether,

rious. Flattery alone is the greatest pretension of the latter, while his contemporaries

"Prepare an opiate baneful to the soul."

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(Continued from col. 674.)

Mr. Lawrence is not entirely free from inconsistency: how his exertions to establish an implicit faith in his own opinions correspond with the following passage, we submit entirely to the judgment of our readers.

"The increasing light of reason has destroyed many of these remnants of ignorance and barbarism but much remains to be done, before the final accomplishment of the grand purpose, which, however delayed, cannot be ultimately defeated;-I mean the complete emancipation of the mind, the destruction of all creeds and articles of faith, and the establishment of full freedom and belief." p. 90.

This Quixotic æra, which he contemplates with such satisfaction,the approach of which he hails with such ecstasy,-would leave him a solitary believer in his own doctrines; and he emulates but little, that superior wisdom, in whose image he was created, and which does nothing in vain, in writing such a ponderous and laborious volume, to no one purpose, according to his own avowed expectation. We are really sorry to be severe or hypercritical upon one of Mr. Lawrence's talents and abilities; but when he would, with a certain sophistry, and pomposity of language, persuade us out of our senses, we cannot resist our feelings and indig

nation.

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which shew digestion to be the function of the alimentary canal, the motion of the muscles, and various secretions of their respective glands; prove that sensation, perception, memory, judgment, reason, thought, in a word, all the manifestations called mental or intellectual, are the animal functions of their appro priate apparatus, the central organ of the ner vous system. No difficulty nor obscurity belongs to the latter case, which does not equally affect all the former instances: no kind of ovidence connects the living processes with the material instruments in the one, which does not apply just as clearly and forcibly to the other.

"Shall I be told, that thought is inconsistent with matter, that we cannot conceive how medullary substance can perceive, remember, judge, reason. I acknowledge we are entirely ignorant how the parts of the brain accomplish these purposes;-as we are, how the liver secretes bile, how the muscles contract, or how any other living purpose is effected;-as we are, how heavy bodies are attracted to the earth, how iron is drawn to the magnet, or how two salts decompose each other. If we go beyond this, and come to inquire how the mechanism by which these things are effected, we shall find every thing around us equally mysterious, equally incomprehensive; from the stone which falls to the earth, to the comet traversing the heavens; from the thread attracted by amber or sealing to the revolutions of planets in their orbits; from the formation of a maggot in putrid flesh, or a mite in cheese, to the formation of a Newton or a Franklin." p. 980.

wax,

an

Lawrence gratuitously assumes Here it will be observed, that Mr. analogy between bile and thought, perception, memory, judgment, and tal manifestations, and the inert mareason-in a word, between the menterial results of animal assimilation. But though Mr. Lawrence may have fully satisfied himself of the reality of such analogy, it yet remains that he satisfy us and the world at large upon this point, before we can assent-nay, before we can even entertain the queswhich shews digestion to be the function;-what, the same sort of evidence tion of the alimentary canal, shews thought to be the function of the brain! of the alimentary canal, is acknowabsurd! That digestion is the function ledged, assented to, nay even demonstrated, by all anatomists and physiologists: if it be equally clear, equally evident, that reason, perception, judgment, &c. be the function of the brain; why has not the proposition been as perspicuously demonstrated, as universally assented to? Why has

it hitherto been not merely doubted, but actually denied? Was it that Mr. Lawrence might have the glory, the honour, and credit, of enlightening our feeble and glimmering understandings upon this clear, this almost self-evident matter? He appears quite indignant at the idea that thought is inconsistent with matter; but no apprehension from his indignation shall deter us from asserting and repeating it, that thought is inconsistent with matter; and still farther, that matter exhibits no one property analogous to thought; nor shall we believe the contrary, till Mr. Lawrence establishes the fact upon widely different grounds from those upon which he has attempted it. But even should he succeed, will he have arrived any nearer his purpose? Can he shew thought to be a production from the brain, as bile may be shown to be from the liver, or digestion to be the result of the function of the alimentary canal? Until he can accomplish this object, it is in vain for him to argue, it is in vain for him to labour, he cannot establish his hypothesis; and, in the end, "that there is not an immaterial immortal soul," would not follow as a necessary consequence.

Mr. Lawrence, with a flippancy very little creditable in a philosopher, would have us believe, that unless we concede to the brain the function of thought, it is an useless piece of furniture in the animal economy. Well! what then? Providence has operated in vain. We really wish he had been open to conviction from such kind of arguments himself.

"In opposition to these views, it has been contended, that thought is not an act of the brain, but of an immaterial substance, residing in, or connected with, it. This large and curious structure, which in the human subject receives one-fifth of all the blood sent from the heart, which is so peculiarly and delicately organized, nicely enveloped in successive membranes, and securely lodged in a solid bony case, is left almost without an office, being merely allowed to be capable of sensation. It has, indeed, the easiest lot in the animal economy, it is better fed, clothed, and lodged, than any other part, and has less to do. But its office, only one remove above a sinecure, is not a very honourable one: it is a kind of porter, entrusted to open the door and introduce new comers to the master of the house, who takes upon himself the entire charge of receiving, entertaining, and employ ing them." p. 98 and 99,

Really we cannot conceive how the

office of the brain, under any circumstances, can resemble a sinecure→ even upon the metaphorical duty ironically assigned to it by Mr. Lawrence. We are inclined to think the office of porter to a master, who is in the habit of seeing so much company, far from being an idle one. Indeed, upon the same principles, upon a parity of reasoning, the office of the stomach, of the liver, of the mouth, &c. might each be ranked as sinecure porterships to the heart.

But Mr. Lawrence stops at nothing to decoy his hearers; he seems perfectly aware, and has taken ample advantage, of the strength and support which a bad cause, and untenable doctrines, acquire from timely effusions of ridicule. Of this description, we should take the following statement, and with such view, no doubt, has it been offered.

"Sir Everard Home, with the assistance of Mr. Bauer and his microscope, has shewn us a man eight days old from the time of conception, about as broad, and a little longer, than a pin's head. He satisfied himself that the brain of this homunculus was discernible. Could the immaterial mind have been connected with it at this time? or was the tenement too small for so ethereal a lodger? At the full period of utero-gestation it is difficult to trace any vestiges of mind; and the believin the dark, on the precise time at which the ers in its separate existence have left us quite spiritual guest arrives in his corporeal dwelling, the interesting and important moment of amalgamation or combination of the earthly dust and the ethereal essence." p. 100.

Now, to say the least of this, it is treating a subject of the highest moment and importance, with an unbecoming degree of levity.-In fact, Mr. of one, who, to borrow money from a Lawrence here strongly reminds us friend, invites him to his table, and powerfully plies him with its delicacies, in the expectation that every bumper will add an additional hundred to the weight of his obligation; thus Mr. Lawrence, with a levity and humour peculiarly his own, would first intoxicate our understandings, and, having effected this, would then beguile us out of our senses.

That we are unable to explain this matter, is neither proof nor argument against the fact. Mr. Lawrence himself cannot explain the theory of conception and labour, nor can be throw any great light on this important process; but what would he say to any one who would hence deny any such

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