Blandus u upilio, me pafcit conditor orbis: Ne mibi quid d fit providus ille cavet." Jobnft. [What relation have the ideas of condutor and spill"] P. 8. Pf. cxxxvii. 2. 4 Muta fuper virides pendebant nablia ramas, Ht falices cites fuftinuere lyras. Buchanan. Here we are told, in the firft line, their mure harps hung upon the green boughs; in the next, that the willows fuftained their lent lares." [Sat the mer, or pfaltery, differed from the harp: - pustiala nailia palma Vorrere OVID. By which it appears that the harp was torched with one hand only, the nablion with both. And thus alfo Johnston: Dujetas a era lyras, et mata ferebang Ver. 5.Com Precor antè ince capiant me oblivia dex, Ne m. nor argutæ fit men dextra lyræ. Buchanan. Here the poet withes he may fooner forget his right hand, and his right hand forget his harp, than he should forget Jerufalem." [How beautiful, had Johniion faid this!] P. 66 9. Example of an anti-climax in Bu chanan: -fed prodiga lam Pf. i. 3. & 4. nem." Buchanan. [The image is more beautiful, and the thought aggravated.] P. 11. "Fraudam anfracas [a mere Virgilian word! See below is enough to frighten all the inhabitants of Parnaffus. "Cicero indeed, to conclude a paragraph in a full founding manner, may fay, Quid opus,eft circuitione et anfrau? De Dio. II. 61. Bat anfraus in any line of Virgil or Horace is not to be found." [Except in Virgil's Eneis, lib. II. v. 522. Et curve anfractu vallis accommoda fraudi. See this corrected among the Errata ad fin. in fuch a manner as to commit a new fault For this alliteration would have been a beauty in Johnfton. He ought to have confeffed his rafhnefs or ignorance. But in this cenfure his justly admired Broukhufius is involved together with Virgil and Buchanan : and in lines which all the world must agree to admire: Ab quotis illo captum modulamine velam Lib. XI.' Eleg. III. An Elegy in which there are more beauties, and a greater variety of verfification, than in all the Pfalms of Johnfton put together. And yet what a ftill greater variety may we obferve throughout the whole fourth book! See particularly the fixth and ninth Elegies, and especially the twelfth.] P. 13. Pf. cxxxiii. 1. O quibus illecebris pax et concordia fratrum [With what allurements do the peace and agreement of brethren draw me! Is this to fay, in the affecting fimplicity of the original, How good and pleasant it is!] P. 15. "To obviate the objection of Buchanan's fuppofed advantage in ufing fuch a variety of numbers, because of the various fubjects which the Pfalms contain, an unanfwerable argument is this: The Pfalms in the original being all divided into small parts, it is not poffible to make a good tranflation in Latin verfe, and at the fame time good verfe, except in elegiac measure." [One would think this fhould be rather an unanswerable objeZion to the performance of Johnston: a perpetual and heavy uniformity of numbers; the very fame in every Pfalm, and in every part of the fame Pfalm; the fame air, and the fame laws of verfification, if the fubject be ever fo noble or fo tender, fad or chearful. Not thus Propertius addreffes himself to Virgil to celebrate the tendernefs of his Eclogues, or afcends the chariot in the very next poem, and in far different and more pompous numbers places himself the head of the Roman Elegiacs, Nor thes did his Callimachus and Philetas fet him an example, from which if Ovid departed, he, might have reafon. His were plainly Amours, as we now call them. They were verfes of gallantry. With reafon therefore did Brouk hufius reflore the laws of the ancient Grecians, and vary the turn of his verfes according to the variety of his fubjects. (See the tender lines to Julia, and the very next elegy, in which he infults his friend Francius.) What I have faid here relates chiefly to the manner of clofing the Pentameter line. But even in the Hexameter Johnfton is far from imitating Virgil, as this writer pretends. There is more variety in any one page of Virgil, than in all the Pfalms of Johnfion. P. 17. "I took not long fince the liberty to offer fome remarks of mine to the public on this fubject (poetry)." [Thefe remarks were written with fo little judgment or real obfervation of the practice of the most ancient poets, that it is plain the. author never read nor perhaps faw fome of the poets,on whom he remarks. As Hefiod was one of the most ancient poets, he takes it for granted that he falls into the vice of paufing at the fyllable after the fecond movement, which Virgil does twice, and in many places ten times, to one fuch inftance in He Vix. P. 11. 1. 6. after anfractus' add "coupled with fuch a rough word as fraudum.” + "Letters concerning Poetical Tranflations, and Virgil and Milton's Art of Verfe, &c. 7739, 8vo. Lod. fiod. Bet this gentleman has eyes, or no But this author does not know that the Regia Solis erat fublimibus alta columnis, Lib. II. And Milton, on a like occafion, as if he had High on a throne of royal ftate, which far P. 20. Pf. iv. J. Tu meus es, genui te bodies me pofce, dabagus, Opater, O hominum divumque æterna po teftas! Me Dominus clamantem ad fe, auxiliumque petentem. Buchanan. "Here is one of Virgil's most fublime fano rous verfes placed between two of the most miferable, diftorted, hobbling lines that ever any mortal wrote." [As the last of thefe verfes is very beau tiful, I know not whether the judgment of this writer is owing to his prejudice or igno rance; though I believe it is owing, in tome meafure, to both. However, it appears from other places that, he knew not that the vowel in fe was to be elided, and the accent or eme phafis to lie on the word clamanism; and ldare fay, had Buchanan writ the, verfe that fol. lows 0 Pater, &c. in Virgil himfeify he would have judged of it in the fame manner, and have laid the fame emphasis on jam there as on fe here. Namque aliud quid fit quod jam implorare queamus?] P. 21. "In the first ode of Horace, Maěcenas atavis éditě regibus, the foft vowel e is iterated five times in four words, and every time in a full found, that is, at the conclus fion of the fyllable, Me-ce-e-te-re," &c. [He who can thus account for the beauty of Horace's numbers, thews he has not fo much as a notion of numbers.] Ib, "O et praefidium et dulce decus mēsim. "Here the fame vowel is again repeated fix times, nor muft it país unobserved how much the full rhime in præfidium and meum adds to the harmony.” (Had he read either Cicero or Quintilian, he would have feen that it was impoffible præfidium and meum should shime to one another to the ear of a Roman: for they both unluckily mention this very word præfidium, or prefidii, to fhew that the last fyllable in either is loft to the ear, when it is to judge of numbers either in profe or in verfe, if a vowel follows. For with the former, præ fidii aut is a criticus, that is, three fyllables only in real quantity to the ear; and with the other, prefidium eft, used for a dactyl, followed by a long fyllable, whatever li cence the poets took, was a clofe, he could never approve. Praefidium et therefore, con- . fidered according to the laws of numbers, are founds to be excufed rther than admired.] Ibid. "In the fame manner, with the fame thought, and to the fame perfon, Virgil addreffes himfelf in the Georgics: And farther perhaps our language will hardly permit. But his own Virgil, who in the beginning of the Georgies varies (not the Ce furd indeed, but yet) the real paufes of the breath in every line, as this writer juftly obferves, can, on proper occafions, give us 10, 20, 40, or 50 lines together, and scarce ever O decus, O famaë mërito pars maxima noftrač, vary the Cafura, or even the real paufe, and Maecenas. Georg. II. 40. then only to give the deeper groan, or paint a [With what knowledge of ancient founds ghoft fill paler, a river overflowing its banks, does our author make e and ai or oi to be exor unruly horfes that run away with the cha-actly the fame to the ear, and to rhime to riot and the driver. See the ciofe of the firft Georgic, and compare it with all the verfes that precede it, from Quid tempestates autumni et fidera diam? to which they are fo beauti fully oppofed both in fentiments and numbers.] each other! What the real found of ins was, may be judged by the found when. the diphthong was refolved into its conftituent vowels: Astonitufque legis terai frugiferai. Our Our author, however, was in no danger of being frightened with the noife of fuch vowels. Yet with like fkill he judges that alfo and 2 are the fame in the following inftance, Collegifse juva', &c.] P. 22. Evitātā rotis, pālmāque nobilis. Hore the vowel a is repeated four times, and every one is a full found." [He is mittaken in imagining that the shorter final a is as foll a found as the a which had twice the length. The final was rather an indiftinét and gentle breath, to give a graceful clofe to the radical founds, as the French pronounce their final e. But enough, and perhaps too much of this; otherwife I might have obterved that tis (i. e. teiz), and lis (in rotis and nobilis, to which our author fuppofes the harmony is chietly owing) are foch different founds, that Auftin imagines no car could have borne it, if Virgil had faid Troja qui primis ab oris.] P. 25. Integer vita, fcelerifque purus. In this line of Horace there is not one difagreeable fyllable, and even one was enough to have fpoiled the whole." [Whatever this writer thinks, neither ger,. nor ris, nor ras, would have given any great pleafure to the ear of a Roman.] Ibid. Pf. v. 3. "Mente non duru, tetricufque trifles. Buchanan. What a falling-off is here! from a line fofter than even Horace, to dura, tetricufque triftes!" [This author is really complimenting Buchanan all this time. It appears that the founds in his verfes rife out of the fenfe. Thus the power and the mercy of God are expreffed at once in the fuller founds that begin and the fweeter that close the first line, 0 Ipotens veram, Deus, aure lenis, and his feverity deprecated and dreaded in every found. of the laft, dura, tetricus, triftes, which are all equal to the ideas.] P. 26. "The ra-tri-trift [just like ger-risras being brought fo near together, as perfeely fet the reader's ears on edge, as the foureft crab can his teeth. This is even worse than [Milton's grating our ears with perpetual ♬'s : - when hollow rocks retain The found of bluft', ing winds [lull That roule the fea, and with hoarfe cadence Seafaring men o'er-watch'd or thofe in which we hear the roaring of the fea --that parts Calabria from the hoarfe Trinacrian fhore.] "Here we fee now what it is to want art" [and follow nature.] P. 27. Pf. cxix. 2. Beth. “Qua rēgant movēs juvēnēs, babēnam." Jobrflon. "This line of Johnllon's is alliterated with the fame vowel as his mafter's (Integer vita, &c.) and almost exactly in the fame places." [And yet how flat at once to the ear and the mind!] Ibid. “Lex dabit. Tē, Rēx fuțēvûm, rogovi. "Here Johnston's line is again alliterated with the fame vowel e four times." [Shut your eyes, and ask yourself if such a line can give pleasure to the ear, or that which follows, Mëntë fincèra: mibi, në vacillēm.] Ibid. "The Adonic verfe in Johnston, Dirige grējus, is alliterated twice with the fame vowel, which he has carried through the whole ftrophe" [as well as the fame ca nine growlings, which we hear fnarling from the beginning to the end. Thus, I mean, he would probably have expreffed himself had Buchanan writ thus.] P. 28. "Voce fublimi, põpulõs per ōmnes, Jura, ceu praco, tuā publicāvi." Johnston. [How poetical a word! how worthy the mouth of a Virgil or Horace!] Ibid. "Quam doces, jēgēm mēditabor; una Hac meam fulcit Cynefüra puppim." [A name well known, no doubt, to David, who had great experience in the art of failing, and was well killed in the Grecian names of the constellations.] P. 29. "This it is to have the advantage of variety of numbers," (applied ironically to Buchanan.) [This writer feems to have no other notion of variety of numbers than variety of verfe.] P. 41. note. Pf, civ. 32. [Šimple and great.} Buchanan. "Ille Deus, quo territa tellus Concutiente tremit, montes tangente vaporant, [Fumiferâtrepidum n bulâ teflante pavorem. Jobnflon. Illius adfpečiu tellus tremit"[infima;] fumant Ardua cælefti culmina taɛa manu.” [The fublime loft in the circumlocution.] What a heap of words are got together here, and to how little purpofe, by Bechanan! How ftrong and concife is Johnfton!" [This author has not learned to diftinguish between the fublime and the ftyle fablime. See Boileau's Longinus. Fumant ardua, &c. do these words convey the immediate connection between the two ideas, He toucbeth the bills, and they smoke ?] Conclufion of the Prefatory Difcourfe, &c. P. 4. Pf. i. r. Buchanan. "Felix ille animi. "It is no eafy matter to fix any sense on this figurative expreflion, which is borrowed from Angelus Politianus." [Rather from Virgil's Infelix animi, Amens animi, Fidens animi, Inops animi, Victus, præftans, dubius animi, &c. How far out of his depth in criticifm does this poor gentleman venture!] P. 14." Thefe are trifles in comparison to fcelerata impietas, wicked impiety." [Like Virgil's Errore malo.] P. 16. Pf. civ. 2. 3. "Buchanan has fo jumbled these two verfes together, in his tranflation (the natural confequence of ufing this fort of verfe.) that they cannot be confidered feparately." [Does not the running of fuch verfe one into another make a confiderable part of its beauty and harmony?] (To be continued) MR. URBAN, You OUR attention to natural knowledge induces me to fend, what I am confident you will think worth recording, a particular account of the ftorm which, in p. 537, you have mentioned to have happened at Roehampton in Surrey. On Sunday, October 15, 1780, about ten minutes paft eight in the evening, a whirlwind arofe, accompanied with moft dreadful thunder and lightning, and continued about twenty minutes, when the wind abated, but the thunder and lightning continued till near ten at night. It first attacked some trees by Richmond park wall, ftanding upon an omience near lord Befborough's house at Roehampton, and tore fome branches from them; then affaulted lady Eggleton's house in a line North, did much damage there, and fripped off great branches from three large elm trees tanding in a field behind the laft-mentioned houfe: from thefe three trees the ground rather declines and finks into a valley, where the wind ploughed up the earth (here and there) eight inches, or more, deep, for two yards in breadth and fixty yards in length. The ground of this field being very loafe by the burrows made by moles, and their hills from time to time being fpread and rolled, the wind (it is fuppofed) penetrated fome apertures or holes in the earth, and blew up the ground in the manner above deferibed; and this conjecture was the more confirmed by a gentleman's pointer dag (he happened to have with him) trying a few days after to cratch the moles out of the earth, which then feemed plentiful in the very track of the wind. In the fame field flood an extremely large walnut tree, which was whirled up by the roots, and cat eleven yards diftant from the place where it grew. The form then attacked the gable and of the gardener's nonie in Roehampton Lane, and here Providence feemed to interfere on behalf of a poor woman who was that day brought to bed in the upper room of the house; for had ot (as it is thought) a row of elm trees Landing near, and which did not fuffer, given a turn to the wind that feemed to be coming in a frait line, the flack of chimaeys mufi, in all human probability, have been beat down upon the house; inftead of which, the wind coming fideways, they fell obliquely into the garden, and the front of the room fell outwards, whereby the woman efeaped unhert. At this gardener's, a barn (wherein were eight perfons, one of whom was killed, and the others terribly bruised and missed) and all the out-houles were levelled with the ground: an empty cart ftanding in the yard, was blown into Roehampton Lane, feventy yards off, the body of which was torn fiom the carriage part, and lay ten yards further; but it was obferved, that the iron-work of the wheels did not appear to be in the leaft affected. An ela tree, above a yard in circumference, growing in au hedge-row near the above gardener's houfe, was torn up roots and all, and hurled at leaû éwo yards dife tance on Barnes Common; and more tha 20 large elm trees, which grew on each fide of Rochampton Lane, were torn up by the roots, and lay in various directions, fo as to 'block up the road entirely. The parish work-houfe, lately erected on Barnes Common, was unripped, and a windmill at fome diftance on the fame Common was beaten down, and several large trees near Earn-Elms were torn up. The gardener's houfe at Mr. Hoare's feat there was much damaged, as were feveral houses on the mali at Chifwick, and likewife the charch and feveral houfes at Hammersmith; a fummer house and garden wall there were entirely removed. It may be obferved, that from Lord. Befterough's, where the form began, to Hammerfmith charch, is pretty nearly a direct line, and its progrefs feems to have been from the Senth to the North, and the breadth not more than one quarter of a mile. In the morning of this day the air was very clofe and fultry, the thermometer above fixty, and refe fome degrees during the form, the wind South. A. G. Cannot help thinking the treatmem Religion and its Minitters meet with from many in the House, (ice Gent. Mag, p. 503, 504), and the little relpect the whole Houfe thews in their non-attendance on the days enjoined to be kept boy by their own,acts, contributes, as much as any thing, to the general indifference fo mock complained of. I remember, a good many years ago, a petition was prefented from dr. Margaret's parith, defiring fome aftance towards repairing their church. A member ftood up and oppofed it ftrenuoufly, but being replied to, that it was the parith church of the Htute, and where they went, &c. he anfwered, taze if fo, he thought the request should be complied with, but that he knew nothing of that matter, as he never went to any church. - LE the guardians of our happy constitution in church and ftate may treat one half of ir in this contemptuous manner, of what use are Tefis, &c. and why thould the vulgar, &c. who are under no ties, keep any meatures, as feems to be the cafe with Hellis and his partifans? P. 524. What ftuff it is to talk of his Grace's fpleen, wrath, &c. Take my word for it, Secker will be efteemed when Hollis and his partifans in religion and politics will be execrated by the nation, which will owe its flavery and either atheism or fuperftition to the labours of thefe Reformers. In the prefest instance it is ftated to be fair and right to lay any thing, and in any manner, agaiak etablishments; whereas the most decome and polite man could not make a reply but the wrath that fet him to work was vifible. If poifon was conveyed by the newfpapers, was it wrong or unbecoming the archbifhop to adminifter an antidote of his own, or his humble friends, by the fame channel? Yours, &c. L. M. Str. Com 31. Common-Place Arguments against Adminif tration, with obvious Anfawers (intended for the Ufe of the New Parlament). 3d Editin. 8vo. Is. 6. Faulder. T HE celebrated Author of Anticipation has here anticipated again, by giving us (as he pretends)" most of the houghts, and many of the words, that will be used for and againft" the following popular queftions, viz. "The late and the new parliament;-complimentaty invitations to the young members; -the prophecies of oppofition-annual parliaments;-beft officers driven from the fervice-converfation politics;the praife of party-the laft campaign, and ftate of the nation, comprifing the captures ;-Rhode Island, and M. de Ternay-Lord Cornwallis's victory ;—. danger of Jamaica and Halifax ;-Portuguete perfidy-army and navy-peti tions and affociations ;-mifcellaneous eloquence for the gallery;-and, change of the miniftry." On the fubject of the captures, oppofition, we think, will hardly be fo ignorant as to give Count D'Faign (inftead of Don Cordova) the honour of capturing our E. and W. India alects, or to talk of the decided fuperiority of the French and Spaniards in the W. Indies," when they themfelves confefs the contrary. But we with not to know or anticipate what may be said, contented if we can learn and communicate what has been faid, on the fubjects in debate. And, in truth, fuch jeux d'efprit in fuch an important crifis feem to us little better than "Nero's fiddling, while Rome was in flames." 82. Kilkhampton Abbey, &c. Part II. 2s. 6d. (See our last.) O tempora! O mores! 3. M.moirs of the Rev. Ifaac Watts, D. D. By Thomas Gibbons, D.D. 800. 55. Buckland. HAVING in our Volume for 1764, p. 321, inferted fome memoirs of this truly pious and learned Divine, by Dr. Jennings, we fhall only obferve on this publication, that it is very copious (fome will think prolix), being divided into XII chapters, of which the fubjects are, Dr. Watts's birth, childhood, and claffical education; his academical Audies; his occafional poems during his ftudies, &c.; a review of his life; his character as a chriftian and a minifter, his writings in profe; his writings in poetry; his improvements on the poeti cal compofitions of others; the honourable notice taken of him while living: his decline and death; the refpect paid him at his deceafe; 57 felect letters of his correfpondents, &c." With an Appen dix, containing, " 1. a catalogue of his writings; and, 2. fhewing that a collection of poems, lately published under the title of the Doctor's Pofthumous Works, have been already published, or have been falfely afcribed to him," being probably written by his father (this impofition was in like manner detected in our laft year's Magazine, p. 381.). To the fhort memoirs above-mentioned we fhat only add (from thefe), that for the laft thirty-fix years of his life Dr. Watts refided in the family of Sir Thomas and Lady Abney at Stoke Newington. His. correfpondents; whofe letters are inferted, are Archbishops Secker and Hort, Bishop Gibfon, Countefs of Hertford, the late and prefent Lord Barrington, Dr. Doddridge, Mr. James Hervey, &c. The firit letter (dated Nov. 18, 1711) is the most curious, as in ic Mr. Secker gives an account of his courfe of ftudies at Mr. Jones's academy at Gloucefter," an extraordinary place of education," as he ftyles it, into which Dr. Watts procured him admittance. "This very fenfible letter," adds the editor," was written by Mr. Secker at the early age of eighteen. It does honour to himself, at the fame time it fuch diftinguifhed and deferved refpect to his learned, vigilant, and amiable tutor, the Rev. Mr. Samuel Jones.. Had Dr. Porteus and Dr. Stinton, the authors of the Archbishop's memoirs prefixed to his works, been acquainted with Mr. Jones's eminent merits, they certainly would not have paffed him over fo flightly as one Mr. Jones, who kept an academy at give him his juft honours in all fubfe Gloucefter. But they will undoubtedly quent editions." As a fpecimen of the this letter were it not too long for our correfpondence, we would have given purpofe. We will therefore add a fhorter, written alfo at the age of 18, by the prefent Vifcount Barrington., pays "REV. SIR, Besket-House, Feb. 22,1734-5. "My Lady begs you to accept, through my hands, her beft thanks for your laft kind letter to her. She is fully fenfible of the favour you do her, both by the handfome manner in which you speak of her deceased The answer to this is, "Previous Queftion." The moment he (D'Ellaign) had fteered from Spain, two of our most valuable fleets were inftantly captured." Lord, |