eyes, being either unable to bear the fight of these adored features, or being reftrained by bafhful timidity from contemplating the image of an intended husband.

"A venerable prieit, who was praying fervently on our entrance, rofe up haftily to falute the old man by the appellation of brother. Well, brother! has it pleafed the Almighty to hear our prayers?' The old man fat down, remained immoveable, and his vacant and fixed looks indicated the dark defpair which had full poffeffion of his heart. Camilla fignified by a filent motion of her head, that the unfortunate object of their cares ftill remained without confolation. His features foon affumed the appearance of tranquillity, or rather of that ftupor which fucceeds to violent fits of frantic grief, and to the wanderings of loft reafon. He raifed himfelf like an infant, who is attempting to walk. Camilla fprung forward to fupport him, and these two wretched beings, who by turns foothed each other's forrows, quitted us with that inattention, which marks a mind oppressed by feverity of fufferings.”

As our limits will not admit us to give a tranflation of the explanatory converfation which paffed between the Baron and the Prieft, an abftract of it may prove fufficient. The holy Father, on being informed of the appearance of the Spectre, enters into a religious differtation on the subject, and is of opinion, that traditions, and fome refpe&table authorities, feem to favour the fuppofition of their occafional appearance. He, however, leaves the fubject exactly where he found it, involved in mystery and uncertainty. He informs the Baron, that Don Carlos, a youth of promife and accomplishments, became a Captain in the armies of Spain; that he was made a prifoner in defending a gun, which the enemy endeavoured to get_poffeffion of; that the enemy, under an erroneous impreffion that fome French prisoners had been put to death, inhumanly, as an act of retaliation, murdered Carlos, and threw his body into the fea; and that his father receiving at the fame inftant a letter from his fon, flating his brant career to military glory, and another mentioning his death by a cruel execution, became, as de. fcribed, immediately bereft of his fenfes beyond every hope of recovery.

The Baron de Geramb feems to poffefs a talent for animated and flowery compofition; and he would render a fervice to the cause of civilized fociety were he to employ his pen in exciting the Cortes to exertions, imperiously demanded to meet the decifive campaign of 1811.

BRITISH

ART. II.

BRITISH CATALOGUE.

POETRY.

The Peacock at Home, and other Poems.
Dorfet. 12mo. 126 pp. 5s. Murray. 1809.

By Mrs.

Our elegant little favourite," the Peacock at Home," here prefented in a new edition, auctior et emendatior, would be truly welcome, were we entirely fatisfied that all the alterations intro. duced by the author are real improvements. Of this, however, in one or two inftances, we will leave our readers to judge. poem now begins thus:

"When the BUTTERFLY burft from her chryfalis ftate, And gave to the Infects a ball and a fete,

When the GRASSHOPPER'S minftrelfy charm'd every ear,
And delighted the guests with his mirth and good cheer;
The fame fpread abroad of their revels and feafts,
And excited the fpleen of the birds and the beafts;
For the gilded-winged Dragon-Fly made it his theme,
And the Gnat blew his horn as he danc'd in the beam ;
The Goffip, whofe chirping beguil'd the long night
By the cottage firefide told the tale of delight;
While fufpending his labours, the Bee left his cell,
To murmur applaufe in each bloffom and bell,
It was humm'd by the Beetle, &c.”

The

The chief fault of all this is the lofs of that air of ease and familiarity which graced the former exordium. The chryfalis, though very inftructive (perhaps), is a hard word; fete is French; and the whole is too much spun out. The Dragon-Fly makes no found whatever, and therefore is ill introduced. The "Goffip" fhould be changed for the CRICKET, which is meant; and then no note would be required to explain it. The peacock's harangue is enlarged, we think, without effect. The change of begun into began, in the introductory lines, was indeed required by grammar. "Coufin Turkey.Cock, well may you quiver with paffion," is a picturefque improvement. The following lines are new.

"Some bird of high rank fhould his talents exert
In the general caufe, and our honour affert.
But the EAGLE, while foaring thro' ether on high,
Overlooks what is paffing in our nether sky;
The SWAN calmly fails down the current of life,
Without ruffling a plume in the national strife';
And the OSTRICH, for birds who on iron are wont
Their breakfast to make, can digeft an affront."

i

F 2

This

This should be, for the conftruction's fake,

And the Oftrich, a bird who on iron is wont
His breakfast to make,—can digest an affront.

To the reft we do not much object, except as making the speech lefs abrupt and more elaborate. In fome places, however, new ideas are neatly, and even happily introduced; and perhaps the whole poem may be confidered as improved, though certainly lefs than the author intended.

In the additional poems, which are twenty in number, we fee nothing that demands particular remark. Many of them turn on the peculiarities of animals, and are fo far inftructive for young perfons. They are all fhort.

ART. 12. Gaftronomy; or the Bon-Vivant's Guide: a Poem in four Cantos. From the French of J. Berchoux. 4to. 42 PP. 5s. Booth. 1810.

The original Poem here tranflated, is a kind of offspring of the Almanac des Gourmands, and has been very favourably received in France. The tranflator has executed his work with fpirit; but in fome places he feems to have thought that the dif ference of manners would not allow of more than a kind of remote imitation. The following paffage, which we will give in each language, is a proof of this affertion.

"Que j'aime cependant l'admirable silence,
Que je vois obferver, quand le repas commence!
Abftenez-vous fourtout de ces difcours bourgeois,
Lieux-communs ennuyeux, répétés tant de fois :
"Monfieur ne mange point; Monfieur eft il malade ?
Peut-etre, trouvez-vous ce ragoût un peu fade ?
J'avors recommandés de le bien appréter:
Celui-ci vaudra mieux; ah! daignez en goûter,
Ou vous m'offenferez. La faifon eft ingrate,
On ne fait que donner, Meffieurs; mais je me flatte,
Que si j'ai quelque jour l'honneur de vous revoir,
J'aurai tous les moyens de vous mieux recevoir."
Chant. 2. P. 9.

This paffage is thus rendered in the English edition :—

"I'm pleas'd with the filence I've often obferv'd,
Prevail round the table when dinner is ferv'd;
From common-place phrafes with caution abitain,
Nor apologies, equally vulgar, retain

A blight in the air, or a fervant's neglect,

Eke out a thort courfe, with but little effect.

And still worfe is the cant-"Pray your dinner don't spare,
No wonder you faft, on our coarfe country fare,"

Be

Pe attentive and ready, but preffing avoid,

By officious civility, ease is destroy'd.”

The account of the author being compelled to volunteer his fer, vices in the army, during the Revolution, is well rendered. "Some feafons ago,

When fuch horrors prevailed, as may we never know,
By a barbarous tyrant expell'd from my home,
For a time in difguife I was fated to roam;
In the national ranks then enlifted, through fear,
Becoming, like others, a forc'd Volunteer;

Though, thank Heav'n, I ne'er fir'd it, a mufket I bore,
And a knapfack, containing the whole of my store;
Thus equipp'd, I fet off;-Who'd not pity my plight?
O'erwhelm'd with regret, and half dying with fright;
Farewell! lovely dinners, where flow'd wit and wine,
And gay parties, embellished by beauty divine!
Adieu Fricandeaux, and perdrix aux choux,

With all the nice cooking, at home that I knew." P. 32.

If the tranflator had allowed the writer to be ftill a Frenchman, he would have avoided a little inconfiftency in this paffage, which we have concealed by omitting the four firft words. Al together, however, the Gaftronomy makes a pleafant trifle, even in its English form.

Berchoux is an author of talent, and fome of his fugitive poems have confiderable humour, particularly that beginning, Qui me delivra des Grecs et des Romains?" "Le Trouba dour emigré," is alfo pleafant. The notes on his Gastronomie deferved in general to be tranflated, but the English tranflator has thought otherwife,

ART. 13. Mercy. A Poem. 8vo. 15 PP. printed. 1809.

IS. Liverpool,

The fubject of this fhort poem is the fame as that of Mr. Pratt's Lower World, which we lately had occafion to notice. In an advertisement prefixed to the poem, the author takes oc.. cafion not only to panegyrize Lord Erfkine (of whofe good intentions no reasonable man can doubt) but to ftigmatize all who differed from his plan, and who thought (as we till think) that it is fcarcely poffible to enact a new law on the fubject, which may not produce greater evils than thofe which it is intended to prevent. Among thofe perfons, we believe, may be found, many who do not yield in humanity and benevolence to the noble Lord, or to the prefent author.

Of the poem itself we cannot fay any thing very favourable. It is in the common-place ftyle of modern poetry, and does not,

in general, sife above mediocrity. The concluding pailage

F 3

is, we think, the most spirited; and we will extract it as a favourable fpecimen of the work. After defcribing Mercy as .having interceded with the Almighty in behalf of our First Parents, the author concludes thus:

"And when at last, beside His folemn throne,
Juftice fhall wait to make His judgments known,
Commiffion'd to unfold creation's plan,

And God's myfterious ways difclose to man;
When high fhe holds the balance to bestow
Eternity of bliss, or endless woe;
Mercy all other merit will outweigh,

And cherish those who owned on earth her fway.
But for the tyrant who her laws defied,
And crushed the weak beneath his foot of pride,
Mercy herself shall view with tearless eye
His dreadful fate, nor heave one pitying figh;
Nor when avenging horrors round him roll,

Stretch forth her hand to fave his finking foul." P. 15

NOVELS.

ART. 14. Wieland; or the Transformation: an American Tale.
By B. C. Brown, Author of Ormond, or the Secret Witness.
3 vols.
I 2mo. 125, 1811.

This is one of the most extraordinary compofitions of the kind which have of late come before us, and to which we certainly cannot deny the praife of ingenious contrivance. They who delight in the marvellous, may here be gratified even to fatiety. Yet amidst all the triumphs which are here recorded of artifice and fraud, over fimplicity and innocence, it is made to appear, that the fufferers had to blame themfelves for an excefs of credulity, and a want of proper reflection on the confequences of their actions. This we prefume is the moral which the writer intended to inculcate, but it is with fo much intricacy enfolded in tales and incidents of wonder, that it requires great pains and patience to difentangle it. Many of the deceptions reprefented as practifed fuccefsfully on various unfufpecting objects of both fexes, are effected by ventrilocution. We doubt, however, whether it could ever be carried to the extent which is here depictured.

ART. 15 St. Irvyne; or the Roficrucian: a Romance, by a Gentleman of Oxford, 8vo. P. 5s, Stockdale, 1811.

Red thunder-clouds, borne on the wings of the midnight whirlwind, floated at fits athwart the crimson-coloured orbit of the moon; the rifing fierceness of the blaft, fighed through the

stunted