Learn thence, they hate them, (as Almighty Jove, Apollo, Bolina, Calliope, Joyful Cerealia, and Maturna, Mediocrity, it is asserted, cannot be tolerated in poetry by either "gods or men:" but Mr. Lowe must entertain no fears on this ground. His claims to distinction are pre-eminent ! Art. 29. The frantic Conduct of John Bull, for a Century past: or a Review of his Wars and Debts. A Poem, in Two Cantos. Dedicated to the Right Hon. Henry Addington, Chancellor of the Exchequer. 8vo. 2s. Ridgway. 1803. Though these doggerel rhimes are often hobbling, vulgar, and ungrammatical, they bear the features of true satire, and the prove author to be gifted with some penetration. If his mode of treating his subject be not quite new, his work certainly is not tedious. Poor John Bull is treated with very little ceremony; and his past conduct, in needlessly pushing his head into quarrels, squandering his money, and entailing debts on his children, is adduced to prove him mad, or governed by Old Nick.' On the other hand, his antagonist across the herring pond does not escape castigation, but is represented as having weakly sported with the name of Liberty: • Thy cause, indeed, was like to fail, Thou'dst neither ballast, rope, nor sail; And fear'd for thee to wag their tongue. The italics, contractions, and mode of punctuation, in those lines, are exactly copied from the book. On returning to the history of John Bull, the author accuses him of taking a crooked view of his neighbour's difficulties; and, in conclusion, he gives a summary of John's conduct for more than a hundred years past: Thus, John, we've view'd thy conduct o'er Thy wars, thy bloody toil and sweat, No private madman in his cell Such wond'rous prodigies can tell. Thou'st teem'd them out, from year to year, Sixteen thousand pounds a day, And upward, John, thous't thrown away, For a whole century together. What think'st thou of this long stretch'd tether? From which wert thou to take a swing, "Twould make the very welkin ring, Whirling with such a rapid bound, In a gloomy postscript in prose, the author considers it as certain that poor John Bull must hasten again to fighting, borrowing, and funding, till his name becomes extinct. If this be the case, our situ ation is too serious to be made the subject of playful satire: but this is the despair of a poet; and when poets despair, it is always with a vengeance. Art. 30. Pictures of British Female Poesy. By W. Case jun. of Lynn. 12mo. 1s. 6d. Crosby. This poem enumerates but a partial list of our female worthies in the ranks of literature. Those, however, whom the muse has selected, are sufficient to attest the sensibility and taste of the author. His merits and theirs are alike conspicuous in the varied measure of his song. NOVELS. Art. 31. Home. 12mo. 5 Vols. 1. sewed. Mawman. 1803. If the fair writer of these volumes, whom we understand to be Miss Cullen, a native of the northern part of our island, had no claim on the indulgence of the critic from the intrinsic merit of her work, -the very title itself would awaken our benevolence, since "Charity begins at Home:"-but there is no occasion for urging this or any other previous plea in behalf of the present publication. We have read it with very considerable pleasure, and esteem it on the whole as justly intitled to our approbation. The variety of characters and their peculiar traits, which are exhibited with accuracy and precision, display a mind accustomed to much observation, and able to form valuable reflections on the checker'd scene of human life: yet we do not accede to every opinion here advanced. Though the sentiments of Mrs. Almorne, for example, are generally just and philosophical, occasionally we discover somewhat too romantic in her system: as when she proposes to train up the female world in the use of firearms, which appears to us, on many accounts, an exceptionable plan ; and her censure of affection shewn to unworthy relations is too unlimited. Attachments of this fort, being fixed in the mind by early impressions and associations, become a part of our nature, and answer many important purposes. The same process endears to us our native habitation and our native country; and we cannot consent to break asunder this bond of "natural affection." We have observed several inaccuracies of expression, also, as well as of reasoning: such as the landscapes which laid on a table,'— • some books which laid on the counter,' and late of departing,' an expression by no means familiar on this side of the Tweed; and we must add that the story is unnecessarily dilated through five volumes; by which means the reader is obliged to travel over occasional deserts which fatigue him. Art. 32. Something New: or Adventures at Campbell-House. By Anne Plumptre. 12mo. 3 Vols. 158. Boards. Longman and Co. We have looked in vain for novelty and entertainment m these three volumes of adventures: unless it be new and entertaining to introduce a ghost, and resolve it unskilfully into an effect of natural causes; to intersperse pretty oaths and imprecations by way of pleasantries to quote Latin words ungrammatically; and, in a word, to write without the qualifications becoming a writer. Art. 33. Helen of Glenross. 12mo. 4 Vols. 16s. Boards. Ro binsons. If we cannot allot any great degree of commendation to these volumes, we by no means condemn them in toto. They occasionally display a portion of humour, and exhibit with some force the various ab surd or excentric traits of character: but they possess not sufficient animation and interest to work on the reader's affections, and he becomes tired of the theme of love and marriage, offers, and rejections. A lady of fashion here talks of hashing the business' of a husband keeping a mistress, (vol. iv. p. 172.):-an application of the art of cookery with which we are not acquainted. Art. 34 Lady Geraldine Beaufort. By a Daughter of the late Serjeant Wilson. 12mo. 3 Vols. 10s. 6d. Boards. Robinsons. Most of the characters which compose this history are cast in a li centious mould, and a general contagion seems to pervade the parties. HA Even Even those, who are made to conduct themselves for a time with propriety, are represented as fluctuating between duty and desire. We hasten, therefore, to quit the scene, lest the impure atmosphere affect ourselves and our readers. We regret our obligation to speak in these terms of a production which avowedly flows from the pen of a female: but we cannot consider this circumstance as mitigating the offence. Art. 35. The Follies of Fashion: a Dramatic Novel. 3 Vols. 138. 6d. Boards. Longman and Co. The first volume of these letters is occupied chiefly in love-scenes between Sir John Scarsdale and Miss Aubrey: but, in the 2d and 34 volumes, we are brought more immediately into the vortex of dissipation in London, amid balls, plays, and masquerades. Here the author takes frequent opportunity to animadvert on "the follies of fashion," and makes it his laudable aim to impress on his fair readers the sentiments of virtue and benevolence. This novel is not without defects and inconsistencies, but it affords frequent room for commendation; and few, we conceive, will read some of the incidents without confessing, in the words of Aufidius *, "I too was moved.” Art. 36. A Series of Novels. By Madame de Genlis. 4 Vols. I 2mo. 18. Boards. Longman and Co. 1802. The tales contained in these volumes are intitled: Apustary; or the Religious Fair.-Mademoiselle de Clermont-The Herdsmen of the Pyrenees- The Reviewer.-The Castle of Kolmeras.-The Man of Worth. -The perplexed Lover.-Destiny; or the Unfortunate.—The Princess des Ursins-The Green Petticoat.-The Husband turned Tutor.-The Pa lace and the Cot.-And A Woman's Prejudices. They are taken from a collection of novels published by Maradan at Paris, under the title of La Bibliotheque des Romans, conducted by Madame de Genlis and other French writers; and their general merit may be conjectured from a previous knowlege of the genius, taste, and sentiments of that lady. They will be found to be interesting and moral: but they are romantic, and the incidents belong more to the romance than to what the English understand by a novel, which purports to be a natural series of events, such as may be expected in real life. Among Madame de Genlis's representations, which to us, at least, must be deemed extravagant, a Reviewer is made to fall desperately in love with a girl of seventeen, who dictates the sentiments of his journal, Love may have much influence over criticism in France: but things are managed otherwise in England; where the lilies and roses of seventeen do not disturb the imaginations of such veterans as Reviewers. MEDICAL. Art. 37. Practical Observations on Vaccination; or Inoculation for the Cow Pock. By John Redman Coxe, M. D. One of the Physicians to the Pennsylvania Hospital. Embellished with a coloured Engraving, representing a comparative View of the various Stages of the Vaccina and Small-Pox. 8vo. PP 152. Printed at Philadelphia. 1802. Sold in London by Johnson. Price 6s. While vigorous and effectual measures are emploved throughout Europe for extending the benefits of vaccine inoculation, our medical brethren on the other side of the Atlantic are not inattentive to the importance of this practice. No institution, as we are informed, has yet been established in America for the purpose of favouring this object, but the zealous exertions of private individuals have contributed much towards its diffusion. The author of the present publication, with a very commendable zcal for the improvement of his profession, and the dissemination of a discovery so important to the interests of humanity, has collected and arranged, from his own observation, and from the information and works of others, the principal facts relating to the vaccine disease; affording a favourable view of the progress which it has made, and of the ardour with which it is cultivated in the United States of America. Dr. Coxe adopts the opinion of Dr. Jenner on the origin of cowpox, with a decision, which to us does not appear perfectly justified by the paucity of evidence. He wishes that, in future, the term inoculation should be confined to the insertion of small-pox matter; while that of vaccination ought alone, in his opinion, to be employed as characteristic of the usual mode of propagating the vaccine influence.-We see no particular advantage which can arise from exclusively appropriating the term inoculation to small-pox, and must therefore object to it, as an unnecessary innovation stablished usage. Art. 38. Observations on the acute Disease of Egypt called the Oph thalmia. By F. B. Spilsbury, late Surgeon to the Hospital at Barute, &c. 8vo. 2S. Barker. 18oz. The predisposing cause of ophthalmia is supposed by this author. to consist in excess of heat and light; the nerves being this rea, dered extremely irritable, and more readily affected by the small particles of sand which are constantly flying about, and which he conceives to constitute the exciting cause of the disease. The cure, he thinks, is best effected by removing irritating particles from the eye, drawing blood from its vessels by scarification, applying blis ters to or inserting seatons in the nape of the neck, cleansing the prime via, giving opiates, and enjoining the antiphlogistic regimen. This pamphlet is written with a very reprehensible inattention to both verbal and grammatical accuracy. Art. 39. An Examination of the Report of the House of Commons on the Claims of Remuneration for the Vaccine-Pock Inoculation; containing a Statement of the Principal Historical Facts of the Vaccina. By George Pearson, M.D. F.R.S. Physician to the VaccinePock Institution, &c. 8vo. 48. sewed. Johnson. 1802. The design of this publication is principally to. object to the grounds on which the remuneration has been lately made by the British Parliament to Dr. Jenner; and to assert claims to many improvements in it, as well as to the principal share of its introduction to |