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Give me the harp, he cried, of thousand ftrings!
Echo, from her mountain cell,

O'er defert heath or fhadowy dell,

The repercuffive notes in varying pauses brings.
Th' obedient Power of infpiration heard.
Now fwell the trains in accent bold;
Now tun'd to artless woe

Let the foft numbers mufically flow;
Or to the praise of heroes old,

Let freedom's war-fong found in thundrous terror roll'd.
Far hence all idle rhymes,
The tafte of none but giddy-paced times;
In manlier modes I ftrike the deep-ton'd lyre,
And other joys inspire.

Whence is this ardour? what new motion bodes
My agonizing foul?
It is decreed:

Illufion come, work thy all-potent deed,
And deal around the land thy fubtle dole.
Be the folemn fubject dreft

In antique numbers, antique veft;

In Time's proud fpoils right gorgeously array'd;
With many a ftrange conceit and lore profound,
There be the bookman's fapient art display'd,
While Folly gapes, and Wonder ftares around.
See Fancy wafts her radiant forms along,
Borne on the plume fublime of everlafting fong,

Brave Richard calls: the crefcent falls;
He rears the cross; the nations bow:
Vengeance, arife! great Bawdin † dies;
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Awful be the notes and flow.

Juga's woes demand the ftrain;

Shall female forrow ftream in vain ?
Ah deck with myrtle wreaths that hapless herse,
Nor let fainted Charity S,

Godlike maid with upcalt eye,

Unheeded pass without one votive verse.

Grief's a plant of every clime,

Call'd into birth from earliest time;

Soon it fhoots a branching tree,

Water'd with tears of mifery.

Change, my lyre, thy numbers change,
And give afpiring thought an ampler range,
In bufkin'd pomp appear
Dread Alla's regal form;
Fate ftalking in the rear
Prepare the iron storm.

*Rowley's Ecl. zd.

Elinourne and Juga.

+ The death of Sir Charles Bawdin. § Ballad of Charitie.

Ælla, a tragical interlude; and Godwyn, a tragedy.

Mark

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Mark where the Norman canvas fwells afar,
And wafts the deftin'd troops to Albion's strand;
Hear, Harold, hear! the diftant found is war;
War, that shall fweep thee from thy native land.
The measure's clos'd, the work difpos'd;
Hang the recording tablet high!

The colours mix; the foul they fix;
Confeft before th' entranced eye.
Confirm, Pierian powers, the bold design;

And ftamp with ROWLEY's name each confecrated line.
POETICA L.

Art. 22. The Prophecy of Queen Emma. An ancient Ballad lately difcovered, written by Johannes Turgottus, Prior of Durham in the Reign of William Rufus. To which is added, by the Editor, an Account of the Discovery, and Hints towards a Vindication of the Authenticity of the Poems of Offian and Rowley. 8vo. I S. Bew. 1782.

The ballad alludes to the unnatural contest between Great Britain and America. It is a pleafing and poetical piece; but so entirely modern in form, verfification, and language, that we were rather furprised to see it in any view connected with the names of Turgottus and Rowley. We expected something of wit and plaufibility in the Account of the Discovery, &c, but were totally difappointed; and to refer to a proverb with which this pamphlet elegantly concludes, we could neither find fauce for the goofe, nor fauce for the gander. Art. 23. An Elegiac Poem: in different Measures, without Rhime. 4to. s. 6d. Faulder.

This poem is in memory of an amiable and virtuous wife.' The fubject naturally exempts it from the feverity of criticism. Art. 24. Ode on the taking of Minorca. Addreffed to the honourable James Murray." 4to. 2 s. 6d. Debrett.

Were the execution of this panegyrical ode equal to the zeal with which it is apparently written, it might difpute the palm of excellence with any compofition of the kind either in ancient or 'modern times. It is, however, not a contemptible performance.

Art. 25. Albion Triumphant; or, Admiral Rodney's Victory over the French Fleet. A Poem. By J. N. Puddicombe, M. A. 4to. I s. 6d. Robson.

Though this, like the last mentioned poem, is not a contemptible performance, it rarely rifes above mediocrity.

Art. 26. The Flames of Newgate; or the New Ministry. 4to. 3 s. Southern. 1782.

A general fatire on the old miniftry and their connections, and a panegyric on the new. It is dull, tedious, nonfenfical, and prophane. We were furprised to hear that this is the work of Mr. Badini, from whom better things might be expected. He should confine his Muse to the Italian Opera.

Art. 27. Anticipation. By Homer. Tranflated from the original Greek, by Alexander Pope, Efq. 8vo. 1 s. 6d. Kearfly. 1782. This is the poorest attempt at fubftituted wit we recollect ever to

* Battle of Hatings.

have met with. It is an application of paffages in Pope's Homer to modern characters,

Art. 28. Viator, a Poem: or, a Journey from London to Scarborough, by the way of York. With Notes hiftorical and topographical. 410. 29. 6d. Becket. 1782.

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Viator's Pegafus is little better than a poft-horse. His verfive deficiencies,' however, as he expreffes himself, are in fome degree fupplied by the narrative notes,' containing local anecdotes of those parts of the country through which he passes.

Art. 29. Abelard to Eloifa. A Poetical Epiftle, newly attempted. 4to. Is. Bew. 1782.

The Letters of Abelard and Eloifa are well known: from these this poem is taken. The Author, however, is not a mere copyist. Could we for a while forget the Epiftle from Eloifa to Abelard, it might be thought not a fecond-rate performance.

Art. 30. Pleafure: a Satire. 4to. 2s. Debrett. 1782. The motto to this poem is, Nocet empta dolore voluptas, the meaning of which is, Pleafure (i. e. Pleafure, a fatire, price two fhillings) is not worth the purchase. The doctrines of this heavy fatire are, that the nation is ruined by pleasure; and, if it is to be saved, is to be faved by Lord Shelburne.

DRAMATIC.

Art. 31. The Candidate; a Farce, in Two Acts. As it is performed at the Theatre Royal in the Haymarket. By J. Dent. 8vo. 49. Stockdale. 1782.

The main incident of Goldsmith's diverting play. called "She floops to conquer," always appeared, to judicious readers and fpectators, to be racher farcical. The pleasantries of The Gandidate, for it has fome pleafantries, are founded on the very fame incident rewirfed; viz. an inn fuppofed to be a private house, inftead of a private haufe fuppofed to be an inn. A leading mistake of this kind naturally produces a number of fubordinate blunders and double meanings, which tend to conftitute a drama full of that fpirit of equisuoque fo much in fashion; calculated indeed to excite laughter, and a powerful engine in comedy; but when used as the main spring, and carried too far, reducing comedy to farce, and degrading farce anto Bartlemy droll. The Prologue, which hinges on the title of the farce, has fome happy turns.

NOVEL.

Art. 32. Wilmot; or the Pupil of Folly. 4 Vols. Small 8vo. 10s. Lane. 1782.

Though this novel may not be diftinguished from the general herd of fuch publications either by originality of incident or character, it has a property which, in works of this kind, is not always to be met with-it is perfectly harmless; and may, therefore, with fafety be indulged in by fuch readers as, labouring under a mental chlorofis, make a practice of gratifying their appetite with every thing that comes in their way.

ASTRONOMICA L.

Art. 33. Jupiter and Saturn, their Appearance in the Heavens, and Influence on the Earth; with caty Directions for viewing

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thofe Planets every clear Night, either with the naked Eye or Telescope. To which are added, the Phenomena of the Harvest Moon, and other heavenly Bodies; alfo, a Description of the new difcovered Planet. The Second Edition. 12mo. 15. Walter.

1782.

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The Author tells us, in his Preface, that his design is to render the knowledge of the heavenly bodies as clear to every rational mind, as the Great Author has rendered them confpicuous to every human eye.' Such a defign is certainly praise-worthy: and we fincerely with we could compliment him fo far as to fay he had fucceeded; or (as he promifes us feveral other treatifes on fimilar subjects) that he is likely do fo. He will pardon us, becaufe we do it with the beft intentions, for pointing out to him the following errors, out of many which he has committed in the performance before us, humble as it is.

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Page 13, he tells his readers, that though Jupiter and Saturn *appear not more than two yards diftant, they are in reality 5° 25, or 325 English miles. They would be 325 geographical miles apart if they were upon the furface of the earth: as things are, they are almoft as many millions of English miles from one another. P. 18, he brings Milton to vouch for Kennedy's whimsical notion concerning the time of the year when the Almighty was pleafed to create this fyftem; because he fays the Sun was firft feen in the Eaft. Milton only means, that the Sun was first seen in the morning; for the Eaft has no relation to one point of the ecliptic more than another. P. 20, he drops into the fame mistake he did p. 13, in fuppofing that becaufe the moon's motion is 13° in 24 hours, it is therefore about 800 miles, inflead of 48,000. P. 36, he fays, latitude means our dif tance from any place, either North or South.' It is the distance from no place but the equator. P. 70, he tells us the distance of the earth from the Sun is 76 millions of miles, inftead of 93 or 94 millions z and, p. 74, that the proper motion which Arcturus, and fome other of the fixed ftars are now known to have, was difcovered by Mr. Herfchal's large telescope, which magnifies 6500 times! but aftronomers were well aware of fuch motion long before Mr. Herfchal was heard of as an aftronomer, and probably before he was born. P. 4*, he fays the Moon attracts the ocean at her new and full;' but the Moon does not attract the ocean more at these times than any other : it is the attraction of the Sun that acts in conjunction with her's at these times; and oppofes it at the quadrations. He maintains alfo, that the hot weather, which we generally experience towards the middle and latter end of July, is caufed by the Dog-star's rifing with the Sun, &c. &c. Indeed, the whole drift of this publication is co perfuade us that the bad weather, and disorders, which we have experienced in the courfe of the foregoing fpring and fummer, have been all occafioned by the conjunction of the planets Jupiter and saturn, which will happen in November next, in what the old astrological gentry call the fiery trigon: but this being a subject which we are not qualified to decide on, we fall take our leave of the Author with this piece of wholesome advice.-Behold thou art whole: fin de more, left a worfe thing come unto thee,'

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CORRE

CORRESPONDENCE.

To the AUTHORS of the MONTHLY REVIEW.

GENTLEMEN,

IN your Review of Barbut on Infects, you speak of fome remedies which he has pointed out for the deftruction of bugs and fleas. You have not mentioned what these remedies are. If, therefore, you would allot a small corner at the end of your next Review to the in fertion of them, you will oblige many, and in particular your conftant reader and admirer,

Aug. 23d, 1782.

R. S.

We should be glad to oblige this Correfpondent, but, perhaps, in fo doing, we should disoblige Mr. Barbut, or his Bookfeller. Befide, it might be deemed making too free with the profeffional myfteries of thofe learned gentlemen, the bug-doctors, and vermin-killers, of this great metropolis, who are a numerous body, and (for aught we know) one of the worshipful city-companies.

+++ In anfwer to J. M. who dates from Norwich, we have to ob ferve, that we are often folicited to mention the prices of foreign books; and have as often declared to our Readers, that we find this a tafk too difficult for us to execute. The prices of foreign books, in England, are not fixed by the importers, like thofe of our own publications; and as for ourfelves, we are frequently fupplied by friends. Sometimes we do put down the first cost of fuch articles as we purchase, when they are immediately paid for; but in common we know not the expence till a general bill arrives from abroad, with the charges of importation; and then it is too late for the Review.

J. W. likewife wishes that we would always inform our Readers, at which of the London Bookfellers they could buy the foreign publications that are reviewed. This, too, can feldom be done, as we often review the foreign books before any number of copies are imported here. Those who would become purchasers must, therefore, enquire, or.defire their Booksellers to enquire, of the importers of foreign books;-who will always furnith, or procure whatever articles are wanted.

Philotaxews thinks that a General Index to the first 60 vols of our Review might be done at a very small expence. A very Small expence is an indefinite expreffion. We think the expence would be VERY CONSIDERABLE, and the fale very limited-The rest of this Correspondent's letter being more cavalier than polite, must be paffed over without further notice.

The Continuation of the American Farmer's Letters, and the Hiftory of Birmingham in our next.

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