MONTHLY

CATALOGUE,

For OCTOBER, 1788.

POETRY.

Art. 17. The Choice. 4to. 1s. 6d. Creech, Edinburgh; Murray, London. 1788.

H

ARD indeed would be the fate of this devoted fervant of the Nine, after having refifted, as he feelingly defcribes, the enticements of ambition and avarice, and fixed his Choice on facred Poefy, as

Joy's fweet companion and the friend of grief,'

fhould he fail of obtaining the only meed after which he afpires. Could a grey-headed band of Critics have any influence in the Court of the Mufes, we fhould certainly folicit for his honourable reception, in return for the pleafure we have received from the natural fentiments and the flowing numbers of his poem, and particularly from the following verfes:

Yes, thine I am, Seraphic Maid,
Immortal Queen of facred fong;
Thy pow'r my thoughts have long obey'd;
To thee alone my vows are paid;
To thee my fairest hours belong.
Since first my careless infant eye
Began the forms of good to spy;
Since firft my Soul could beauty fee,
My conftant heart was fix'd on thee.

And as more of Life I knew,
Stronger fill the Paffion grew,
All the force of Love to fhow,
Which for Thee my wifhes know:
Where fhall now the feeble Mind
Words of ftrength and rapture find?
Who thy Beauties ever knew,
Nor to thee Affection bore?

Who thy many charms could view,
And not thofe Charms adore?

Thine is the eye of daring Roll,
Which space can ne'er confine,
Which glances quick from Pole to Pole,
With phrenzy half divine.

Thine is the Trumpet's lofty found,

And thine the dulcet Lyre;

Thine is the Wing that fpurns the ground,
And thine the Soul of Fire.

Before thofe fhades of colour'd Light
Which oft thy glowing Hand beftows,
Pale are the tints of Nature bright,
With which fhe decks the vernal Rofe.

The

The Phantoms fair of elegant Defire,

Each Pleasure bland, and each enchanting Love,
With Zeal and Ardor, emulous confpire

Thy Charms to heighten, and thy Form improve.
On thee their choiceft gifts the Graces fhow'r,
As round thy facred Head they fportive play;
And o'er thy golden Dreams profufely pour
The magic Light of Fancy's living Ray.
The various Paffions too are all thy own,
Each Form of Terror grim and fair Delight;
In these thy beft, thy chiefeft Art is shown,
To paint their Geftures and their Words aright.
Nor thine alone the mimic Art
Of fabled Joy and fancied Grief;
Thine is the talk to mend the Heart,
And thine the balm of foft Relief.
To foothe the fadnefs of my penfive Mind,
Along thy flow'ry paths how oft I rove,
And leaving life and all its cares behind,
Haunt the fweet Mazes of thy fairy Grove!
Where Dulness ne'er intrudes with raven cry,
Where forms of vulgar Afpect ne'er appear,
Where all is Beauty to the charmed Eye,
And all is Mufic to the raptur'd Ear.'

The poem confifs of three Cantos, chiefly written in blank verse, but interfperfed with different kinds of rhime.

Art. 18. Letters from Simpkin the Second to his dear Brother in Wales; containing an humble Defcription of the Trial of Warren Hastings, Efq. with Simon's Anfwers. 4to. 2s. 6d. Bell. 1788.

The many witty paffages, and excellent ftrokes of irony and parody contained in thefe Epittles, would incline us to afcribe them to Mr. Anfty; whofe Bath-Guide ftyle is tolerably well-preserved throughout; but, on the other hand, the defective lines which we frequently meet with, incline us to give the performance to fome other writer.

Thefe Letters appeared originally in the daily paper entitled The World; and their design was to burlesque the proceedings and orations of the managers of the profecution of Mr. Haftings. Of the wit and the poetry, take the following fpecimen :

One man had, it feems, the prefumption to ftate,
The IMPEACHMENT expence was enormously great:
When BURKE, in a moment, fprung up in his place,
And cry'd, as he star'd the Man full in the face,
"Such Ainginefs, Sir, would a nation disgrace!
"After all the fine things we've heard SHERIDAN fay,

He's a pitiful wretch who refuses to pay:

"Now that Genius has blinded our eyes with its flash,
"Can we look at accounts? Can we fum up our cash?
"After ioaring above all the Regions of Senfe,
"Can we tumble fo low as to think about Peme?

}

"Has

Has not SHERRY, this morning, expos'd to your view
"All the beauties of Thefpis and Cicero too?
"To the BISHOPS, he gave an example of Preaching,
"To the COMMONS, a model of future impeaching;
"HISTORIANS, hereafter, fhall copy his diction,
"And POETS themfelves may learn Lessons of Fiction:
"RHETORICIANS are taught the arrangement of Flowers ;
"To the Buskin and Sock he has given new powers;
"The PAINTERS may learn finer Pictures to draw,
"And the JUDGES new modes of interpreting Law.
"From him may the ORATOR learn to prevail,
"By Action and Sound, when his Arguments fail:
"The PHILOSOPHER, too, may learn Nature to fift;
"The Attorney to cloak a bad caufe with a fhift.
"Now fince ev'ry profeffion fome benefit draws,
"I can't think for a moment of farving the Cause.”

Art. 19. The Socinian Champion; or Priestleyan Divinity: a Poema
By Philochriftos. 8vo. is. 6d. Buckland, &c. 1788.

The huge Socinian, none befides,
Who ftalks along with haughty ftrides,
And braves a hoft, we aim to wound,
And lay expiring on the ground :'

:

So vaunteth our hero! nor, if we may credit his own tale, is his vaunting vain for, without conjuring up the ghofts of the Seven Champions of Chriftendom, by the fingle prowefs of Y-, a dreadful knight, he leaves the poor Socinian champion weltering in his gore, and after configning his foul to the abyfs of hell, honours his carcafe with the following epitaph:

In philofophy drown'd,

For error renown'd,
In ftate moft profound,
Here deep under ground,

Lies the reafoning divine, Dr. G.
On trial 'twas found,

His faith was not found;

Though with confidence crown'd,
He receiv'd his death's wound,

From Y, who was wifer than he.'

Our Readers will not wifh for any farther fpecimen of the poetry of this piece of its wit or humour, it is impoffible we fhould give any Specimen.

Art. 20. Addrefs to Loch Lomond, a Poem. 4to. 1 s. 6d. Dilly.

1788.

Loch Lomond is a fresh-water lake, of great extent, in Scotland. The general scenery round it is thus laconically characterised by the Author of this Poem :

The gleaming lake; the ever changeful sky;
Old Ocean's waves in view; the profpect wide,
The ftream flow winding in the graffy vale;
The broken cliff abrupt; the waving wood;

The

The barren heath; the lofty mountain wild,
Whence foars the eagle on ftrong pinions borne;
Sublime the foul, and nurfe her dormant powers.
Such, Lomond! thy vicinity can boast;

Such are thy pleafing fcenes; and fuch thy fons,
Among the first in letters as in arms.'

The concluding part of this paffage alludes to Napier, the inventor of h garithms, Buchanan, and Smollet, of whom, after briefly characterising each, be fays,

'Twas near the fouthern shore

Their infint years were spent. Along thy banks,
In playful youth, unconícious of their powers,
yportive rov'd ;'

We have the following retrofpect to antient times:
To guard from ev'ry rude intruder's eye
Thy herd wave, thy valiant fons, inur'd
To all the hardships of a steril clime,—
Defping death in every frightful form,
In ancient times, undaunted met their foes,
And flew who dar'd approach thy fouthern fhore.
Nor Koman arms, nor Norway's hardy chiefs,
Nor all the power of England could prevail,
By force or fraud, thy heroes to enflave.'

From thefe fpecimens, the reader will perceive that this little poem. poffeffes fome degree of merit. The defcriptions, in general, are faithful pictures of nature, the objects which engage the writer's attention are fimple and fublime; and the piece is rendered the more interefting by frequent allufions to hiftorical events, and the characteristic manners of ancient and modern times. The harp of Offian which had enlivened thefe fcenes, as they lie in the vicinity of Balclutha, being mentioned, he says,

• Its notes

Of woe, wild-warbling ftill methinks I hear.
The King of Morven from his airy hall,
Bending looks down upon his hills of mift.
A thouland forms of heroes wait the chief,
Mufing on fcenes and feats of other years.'

Infpired by this great idea, the Author concludes the poem with the following addrefs:

Wrapt in the mift that veils yon mountain's brow,

D fcend ye hov'ring fpirits and infpire

Of Britons old the independent foul,

That brave like them, yet eager to improve

In all the arts of peace and focial life,

Pleas'd with our native hills and wildeft glens,
We truly great and happy yet may live,

And, in the fongs of future bards, our names
May fill, in every diftant clime, well known
For virtuous deeds and useful arts renown'd,
Defcend refpected to the end of time.'

A feverc

A fevere critic might perhaps difcover faults in this poem, which evince that the Author is but a beginner in the art of compofition ; but its beauties fo far compenfate for its defects, that it would be cruel to dwell on them.

Art. 21. Elégie composée dans un Cimetière de Campagne, &c. i. e. Gray's Elegy in a Country Church yard, tranflated into French, Verfe for Verfe, by Monf. P. Guedon de Berchere. With a Latin Version by a Member of Cambridge University. Svo. 15. Hookham, &c. 1778.

The beauties of Gray's Church-yard Elegy are of fo exquifite a nature, that we conceive it to be extremely difficult to tranflate it happily into any language, and next to impoffible to do it tolerable justice in French verfe. We could not therefore take up this pamphlet with any flattering prefentiments. We feared M. Guedon would fail in his attempt; and, in justice to our Readers, we must add, our examination of his work has confirmed our fufpicions. But this failure involves in it little difgrace, as the obitacles he had to contend with are infurmountable. There are fo many of the leffer graces, fuch touches of the great mafter in this Elegy, as cannot be fuffufed into a French tranflation. Mr. Gray, in French poetry, could neither please an English reader, nor convey to a foreigner any idea of the beauties of the original. In fome places, M. Guedon might have made his verfion better than as it now ftands; but with all his efforts, it must have remained, in our opinion, very defective. By the following fpecimens, the reader will have an opportunity of appreciating for himfelf the merit of the prefent tranflation, and of feeing at the fame time, how unlike himfelf, the elegantly plaintive Gray appears in a French drefs.

"The fwallow twitt'ring from her ftraw-built fhed:"
• Ni Prognè racontant les maux de fa famille.

"For who to dumb forgetfulness a prey
This pleafing anxious being e'er refign'd ?"
En dépit de nos maux, qui de nous en effet

Ne trouve du plaifir à gémir fur la terre ?

"On fome fond breast the parting foul relies :'
Notre ame, en s'envolant, compte fur l'amitié.

"Fair Science frown'd not on his humble birth:"
Les Arts n'ont point fété fen obfcure naiffance.
"Heav'n did a recompence as largely fend:"
Le Ciel ne paya point fes vertus à demi.

The above extracts fhew that the tranflator has often departed from the fenfe of the original; and we might have given other inftances of this kind.

As to the Latin tranflation, it is abundantly more faithful and elegant; but not without defects.

• Tinnitufque pigra voce foporat oves'

is an happy verfion of Gray's line,

"And drowfy tinklings lull the diftant folds;"

but