prehensiveness. True taste is shewn in nothing more than in the rejection of what is good in kind, but superfluous. That Mr. Townsend possesses the fertility of genius and all the elements of taste, is sufficiently evinced by the extracts we have already given from his productions; and we doubt not that, as his faculties mature,, he will acquire the severity of judgement, the self-denial, and the steadiness of hand which shall enable him to prune the exuberance of his thonghts, and to attain a more uniform vigour of expression. What he chiefly requires, is, to be less easily satisfied. Among the miscellaneous poems, there are two or three more which deserve to be particularized, as of a very pleasing character ; for instance, To Music (p. 211); On revisiting a favorite scene (p. 184); It is not here' (p. 188); and Hydon Hill.' The dullest things in the volume are, as might be expected, two prize poems- Jerusalem,' and' Waterloo,' and the poems about his late Majesty and the Princess Charlotte. The early poems' just serve to shew that the Author writes better as he grows older; a fact which it was not worth while to expend so much letter-press in illustrating. There are some devotional pieces,' which will, no doubt, be pleasing indications to Mr. Townsend's friends, of his religious principles, and, as they occupy but very few pages, weshall say nothing more about them. But then come forty-one sonnets! Some of these are tolerably successful, but they are for the most part too wordy to impress the mind, and too sentimental to interest the feelings. The last, To Ro'mance', seems meant as an apology for the weak fantastic whine' about unutterable woe, hapless love, singularity of fate or feeling, in which, in common with all young poets, our Author occasionally indulges. When he is once happily married, (perhaps he is by this time,) he will wonder, not how he could feel thus, or how he could write to express his feelings, but how he could print all that he had written. But, in disclaiming Romance so indignantly, he errs: it is a more than a poetical, it is almost a moral heresy. What is a character without some portion of ro.mance? For what is romance, but an intellectual enthusiasm, which becomes dangerous only when the affections mistake their proper object?—a species of idealism which keeps the mind from sinking down to the low level of common-place things, by investing real objects with the power of exciting indefinite feelings. Now we feel quite persuaded that, maugre the hatred which he breathes against Romance, Mr. Townsend will never sober down into a dry, matter of fact, common-sense personage. His principles, at the same time, will guard him against the opposite evil,-the antinomianism of sentiment; and his feelings will not fail, under their guidance, to find their level and their right channel. The best things in the Volume are the songs and lyrical pieces; and the inequality that prevails among them, is the more excusable, as they appear to have been chiefly written for music. It is no small praise, therefore, to say, that the feeblest rise above the elegant nonsense which great poets sometimes condescend to write for music, and that beauty of expression is never employed as a veil for voluptuousness. We have already given two speciinens of the songs. The following has an epigrammatic point, as well as a moral beauty, which reminds us of two similar productions of Goldsmith. I know thee now, yet cannot tear We make room for one more. < CONSTANCY. " Let love burn with fiercest flame, 'Tis not worthy of the name: The crown of love is constancy! 'Tis not worthy of the name: The crown of love is constancy! This is crowned with constancy' It is, we admit, a strong temptation to a young poet, especially if he has a large circle of friends among whom his MSS. may have been scattered, to collect into a printed volume the whole of his works. But he must not expect that volume to live. The poems, however, which we have extracted from the present work, together with a few more of almost equal merit, deserve to survive the fate which awaits the collection. Had Mr. Townsend so pleased, he might have put forth a volume one sixth of the present size, which should have done him great honour, and would not soon have been forgotten. He has this still within his Vol. XVI. N. S. E power. Of the luxuriant accumulation of poetry to which the present age has given birth, it is but a small proportion that can have room made for it. The volumes which comprise the collected works of all the British Poets of former ages, are more than outnumbered by those of the rival candidates for immortality who have sprung up in the last few years. The majority of these will deserve to be swept away either for their inanity or their licentiousness; others, which, we fear, will not long survive them, deserve a better fate; but, in the discarded volumes, there will remain the materials of a most elegant anthology. The works of Anacreon Moore, R. W. Spenser, Smyth, Leigh Hunt, Lloyd, Neale, Jane Taylor, Barton Keats, Barry Cornwall, Wilson, Clare, and some other minor writers, whose entire works have no claim to preservation, would furnish a selection equal to almost any thing in the language. Art. V. 1. A Chronological History of Voyages into the Arctic Regions; undertaken chiefly for the Purpose of discovering a North-East, North-West, or Polar Passage between the Atlantic and Pacific from the earliest Periods of Scandinavian Navigation, to the Departure of the recent Expeditions, under the orders of Captains Ross and Buchan. By John Barrow, F.R.S. 8vo. pp. 448. London. 1818. : 2. A Voyage of Discovery, made under the Orders of the Admiralty, in his Majesty's ships Isabella and Alexander, for the Purpose of exploring Baffin's Bay, and inquiring into the Probability of a North-West Passage. By John Ross, .S. Captain of the Royal Navy. 4to. pp. 428. London. 1819. 3. A Journal of a Voyage of Discovery to the Arctic Regions, in his Majesty's ships Hecla and Griper, in the years 1819 and 1820. By Alexander Fisher, Surgeon, R. N. Second Edition. 8vo. pp. 331. Price 12s. London. 1821. 4. Journal of a Voyage for the Discovery of a North-West Passage from the Atlantic to the Pacific; performed in the years 1819-20, in his Majesty's Ships Hecla and Griper, under the Orders of William Edward Parry, R.N. F.R.S. and Commander of the Expedition. With an Appendix, containing the scientific and other Observations. Published by Authority of the Lords Commissioners of the Admiralty. 4to. pp. 518. Price 31. 13s. 6d. London. 1821. 5. The North Georgia Gazette and Winter Chronicle. 4to. pp. 132. Price 10s. 6d. London. 1821. IN our review of Mr. Scoresby's valuable publication, we gave a compressed but comprehensive view of the existing state of knowledge respecting the general phenomena of the Polar regions: in the present article, we shall endeavour to complete our outline by adding a summary of the leading facts connected with the progress of discovery in that quarter. The detailed narrative of the efforts made to extend the course of navi gation in this direction, forms one of the most interesting sections in the annals of human enterprise, furnishing a series of the finest examples of skill, fortitude, and perseverance. The works whose titles we have just transcribed, abound with illustrations of that absorbing and intense enthusiasm which courts the extremest hazards as steps to the attainment of its object; and of that steady and intrepid self possession which, in the midst of terrors that would have overwhelmed spirits of inferior mould, turns even perils to account, either as the means of extrication, or as instruments in furtherance of its object. 'How shall I admire,' exclaims Purchas, as quoted by Mr. Barrow, your heroicke courage, ye marine worthies, beyond all names of worthiness! that neyther dread so long eyther presence or absence of the sunne; nor those foggy mysts, tempestuous winds, cold blasts, snowes and hayle in the ayre; nor the unequall seas, which might amaze the hearer, and amate the beholder, where the Tritons and Neptune's selfe would quake with chilling feare, to behold such monstrous icie ilands, renting themselves with terrour of their own massines, and disdayning otherwise both the sea's sovereigntie, and the sunne's hottest violence; mustering themselves in those watery plaines where they hold a continual civill warre, and rushing one upon another, make windes and waves give backe; seeming to rent the eares of others, while they rent themselves with crashing and splitting their congealed armours.' The first Arctic discoveries were unquestionably made by the Scandinavians, whose roving expeditions made them acquainted with the coasts of Greenland and of the main NorthAmerican continent. On the former of these regions, permanent settlements were made; but their lot was ultimately disastrous. Some of these perished in wars with the natives; and the deplorable visitation which interposed an impenetrable mass of ice between the colonies of East Greenland and the open ocean, has thrown a dark veil over the history of their fate. The earliest voyage in this direction from more Southerly ports, seems to have been the romantic expedition of the brothers Nicolo and Antonio Zeno in 1380. They were Venetians of noble race. The mutilated papers from which the narrative of their adventures was compiled, had been in the possession of the family during a century and a half before they were published. It is stated, that Nicolo, actuated by a restless wish to visit distant lands, equipped a vessel at his own cost, for the purpose of visiting England and Holland, but that having been driven far out of his course by a tremendous storm, he was wrecked on a large island, of which the name was Frisland. He was fiercely assailed by the natives, but saved by the interference of a chieftain, whom he calls, probably by one of those misnomers common to the Southern nations of the Continent, Zichmni, who gave a hospitable re ception to Zeno and his crew. Nicolo having rendered essential service to this Northern chief, who was much addicted to marauding voyages, was made by him captain of his fleet, and contrived to convey to his brother Antonio an invitation to join him. In consequence, the latter fitted out a ship, and sailed for Frisland where he remained fourteen years in active service, plundering and making settlements, discovering new lands, whose strange names have given much annoyance to geographers, and aiding Zichmni in his ambitious design of making himself lord of the sea.' Nicolo died four years after the arrival of his brother. We have not space to enter on the difficult investigations suggested by the imperfect details of the voyages of the Zenos: they contain some statements which would incline us to question their authenticity; but, on the whole, the balance of probability appears to be in favour of their general correctness. The names assigned to the different regions, can be traced to known positions only by comparison and hypothesis, and, of course, geographers differ in their application. One ingenious gentleman thinks that Zichmni is an Italian corruption of Sinclair, who was earl of Orkney in the beginning of the fifteenth century, and stations him in the Shetland Isles; while M. Buache prefers fixing his head quarters in the islands of Feroe; and it is inferred, from a collation of terms and circumstances, that Newfoundland came within the range of Zeno's excursions. In aid of this supposition, certain ruins discovered in the latter island are brought forward; but it yet remains to be decided, whether these 'stone walls, oak beams, and mill-stones sunk in oaken beds,' are the remains of Zichmni's fort, of an Icelandish colony, or of Lord Bultimore's saw-mills. The German forgeries which claim the discovery of America in behalf of Martin Behaim, are gross and palpable; but there is reason to believe that, in the fifteenth century, previously to his grand expedition, Columbus had visited Iceland, and sailed to some distance within the Polar circle. The discovery of Newfoundland is, however, conventionally ascribed to Sebastian Cabot, a native of Venice, whose exertions were ultimately rewarded with a post of high consideration and a valuable pension, in England. The history of the Cortereals is deeply interesting. John Vaz Costa Cortereal, a noble Portuguese, first of this family explored the Northern Ocean in 1463 or 1461, and appears to have anticipated Cabot in the discovery of Newfoundland. His son Gaspar Cortereal, in 1500, discovered Labrador. A second voyage in the following year was his last. After reaching Greenland, he was separated by stress of weather from another vessel which accompanied his own, and which, after long and vain search, returned to Lisbon; but the fate of Gaspar was never ascertained. In 1502, Miguel Cortereal, with three ships, |