But Morning there with hurried footsteps leads
To the dark goal her fiery-harness’d steeds;
Springs with one bound above the astonish'd sky,
Pours forth her rushing wheels, and waves her torch on high.'

p. 1.

p. 4.

The eagerness and bustle of the expectant crowd, who are awaiting the triumphal entry of the victor, is nervously por. trayed.

• Thence far beneath the wonder-stricken eye Might one vast sea of waving heads descry; While the low hum which upward rose might seem The uncertain murmur of some fancied stream. For there by nimble-footed youth was led Gray Age slow-faultering in his palsied tread; There, in the midmost press, the Mother bore Her infant charge, and held it up before; And as a second prattler by her ran Bade him remember this, when grown a man. There Sickness ceas'd to languish, Grief was free, And those came forth to smile, who could not see.' The devoted filial affection of Jephthah's daughter is represented in soft and glowing colours; the general effect of which reminded us of some of Westall's Illustrations of Scriptural Subjects. The versification is evidently formed on the model of “ The Corsair” and “ Lara,” but there is less of individuality in the portrait than in Lord Byron's characters. The finest lines are those which indirectly describe the passion of love, from which her bosom is represented as being free.

• His child-Her father in those holy ties
Were center'd all her bosom’s sympathies :
Unus’d to kindle at a softer flame,
She knew none sweeter than a father's name;
Untaught a keener, warmer glow to prove,
She sought none dearer than a father's love.
In the pure mirror of her spotless mind
One single image was alone defin'd;
Link'd with her life, and of her being part,
The first, unconscious offspring of her heart.
Ask ye what hand the living stamp impress'd,
'Twas Nature's powerful working in her breast.
Seek ye when first it mingled with her frame, ,
She deer'd existence, and its birth the same.
Oh blest! when such affections sway the soul,
And instinct needs not, nor rejects controul ;
When Memory wakens none but pleasing tears,
Nor Hope half blushes at the wish she fears;
When the young blood in even current flows,
Smooth, but not languid, strong, but in repose;

When every pulse with health and life beats high,
And the heart prompts each movement but the sigh;
When the gay sun which gilds the forward scene
Lures most to that which still is most unseen;
And noon's mid glory on the future cast
Leaves not one shadow which can dim the past.' p. 6,
• As yet her eye where wonder prompts or chance,
Scatters abroad its ever-changing glance;
Knows not with drooping lid to quench its blaze,
Nor shrinks as conscious, from another's gazę.
As yet a smile which Innocence might wear
Plays on her lip, and dwells delighted there;
Asks not for homage, spreads no curious wile,
Nor marks with heighten'd wreathe an answering smiler
Yet lurks a spirit in that eye

which seems
Though yet unwaken d, powerful in its dreams;
And beams a lustre on her cheek which shows
How rich that cheek will be when once it glows.
Thus on the stem the budding fruits may cling,
Ere shed the blossom’d fragrance of their spring;
And as they mingle on the cluster'd tree,

Give promise fair what summer soon shall be.' pp. 7–8. The character of Jephthah is very strongly drawn, but still We think it very far beneath the dignity of the hero of Scripture. As for the Jephthah who is enumerated, by the Apostle Paul, among the worthies, who," through faith, subducd kingdoms, “wrought righteousness," &c.; we discover no trace of him

The Author was not conscious, perhaps, that he was imitating Lord Byron rather than following Scripture ; for We think it impossible to acquit his hero of something more than an accidental resemblance to? Conrad. The close of the

poem, also, is completely in the style of his Lordship's Tales, but it would have done no discredit to the name of their noble Author. Such imitations, in fact, are worth a great deal of poetry that is more strictly original.

• There is a place which in it's Maker's hati
Seems form’d, so wild it is, so desolate;
Outcast from all his works, and in despair
Tost to Creation, and forgotten there.
It bears no trace of Nature, till the void
Minds you of that she must have once destroy'd;
No sign of her fair fruits, till you confess
Their being from it's single barrenness.
Save in one narrow spot you can descry
Nought but unbroken, blank sterility;
One narrow spot where, but that e’en the dead
Are here forgotten whence all life is fled,
The sullen vastness of some scatter'd stones
Would mark the resting place of mortal bonow.

in this poem

There her wild arms the wandering ivy flings,
Loosening each separate block to which she clings;
And veils with mantle of insidious shade
The ruins which her seeming love has made.
There, where no turf can spring, the deadly yew
Weeps the black droppings of her venom d dew;
And that strange plant, which of mysterious birth;
Holds no communion with all-gendering earth ;
Chance-sown on other trees which seems to shoot
Boughs without leaves, a stem without a root,' pp. 18-19.
The remaining lines, which we have not room to insert,
darkly convey the catastrophe of the poem.

But virgin blood has staind that fearful wild!"
Mr. Smedley has evinced great judgement in throwing the
sequel into the form of a narrative, after the manner of Racine,
with this further advantage, that he is enabled by referring to

it, as

“ A tale so dark, so sad, of times of old,' to cast additional obscurity and mysterious horror over the ineffable tragedy.

We shall be glad to see, from Mr. Smedley's pen, something better than Scriptural Tales, or Prize Poems.

Art. VIII. The Sick Man's Friend: containing Reflections, Prayers,
and Hymns, adapted to the different Circumstances of the Sick;
and intended to form devotional Exercises, for the profitable Em-
ployment of their Time, and for a Preparation against the Hour
of Death By the Rev. J. Fry, A.B. pp. 119. 12mo. price 2s. 6d.
Combe, Leicester : Hatchard, London,
THIS little work is particularly calculated for those situ.

ations where the attendance of the Pastor or visitor cannot be so frequently expected as would be desirable, and " where there is cause to fear a want of those instructions unto

righteousness, and those consolations of religion, which are so necessary in these awful circumstances The Prayers are selected, for the most part, from Sir James Stonehouse's

Every Man's Assistant, and Mr. Jenks's Family Prayers. ! The Hymns are from various authors.'

This manual of devotion is of a very serious and affectionate cast. The addresses are appropriate to the different characters which are represented, and the sentiments are strictly evangelical, Although, from the occasional introduction of parts of the Liturgy of the Established Church, it appears to be especially intended for the use of its members, yet it may without impropriety be pecommended to the notice of the Christian public, as a proper

Vol. IĄ. N. S.

• present for the hand of Christian benevolence to lay in the < sick room of the poor.'

We would suggest to the pious Author of this work the propriety of making a few corrections in regard to the style, and also—as a further hint for the improvement of the next edition of the work-the josertion of references to passages of Scripture under the respective chapters, to which the afflicted might have recourse for instruction or consolation. Send thine holy “Spirit,' would be better than send thine Holy Ghost-p. 105. The personal pronoun should be substituted in several places for the neuter: and in the invocations, at the bottom of p. 104. the same person of the verb should be used in each instance.

Art. IX. Time's Telescope for' 1815; or, a Complete Guide to

the Almanack: containing an Explanation of Saint's Days and Holidays : with Illustrations of British History and Antiquities, and Notices of Obsolete Rites and customs: To which is added an Account of the Fasts and Festivals of the Jews; Astronomical Occurrences in every Month; comprising Remarks on the Phenomena of the Celestial Bodies : a History of Astrò. nomy : and the Naturalist's Diary: explaining the various Appearances in the Animal and Vegetable Kingdom. To which is prefixed an Astronomical Introduction. Illustrated with Cuts. 12mo pp. xlviii. 336. price 9s. London. Sherwood, Neely, and

Jones, 1815. WE took a peep through “ Time's Telescope" last year,

and found that it brought within sight a prospect gratifying to our old eyes, and rapturous to young ones. This year we have looked through Time's new “ Telescope," and find it equally good and equally pleasing. The copious title page extracted above, renders it unnecessary for us to enter into minute description. Yet we cannot with a safe 'conscience withhold our recommendation. Books for the use of young persons abound; but many of them ought neither to be read by persons of any age, nor to have been written by persons of any age. One of the annual publications intended for youth is precisely of this description Professing to furnish amusement for every

evening in the year, it exhibits a dangerous theology, and an erroneous philosophy; and thus, instead of amusing or instructing, actually deludes and injures. Not so the little work before us.

It supplies accurate, though popular instruction, on a variety of topics. It is written in a correct and tasteful style, enlivened by many exquisite quotations from the poets of the day; and is interspersed with such reflections as flow naturally from the conviction that knowledge to be extensively beneficial either to its possessor, or to others, must be purified by Religion, manifested in benevolence, and consecrated to God.

211

THE

Art. X. Travels in the Pyrenees; containing a Description of

the principal Summits, Passes, and Vallies. Translated from the French of M, Ramond. By P. Gold, 8vo. pp. 324. price 9s. Longman and Co. 1813.

Translator informs us, that in returning from Egypt by the way of the Continent, he happened to be in France at the time when so many of our people were arrested. During his detention, from which he was, at length, liberated by the kind interposition of Dr. Jenner, he employed some of his time, it seems, in translating Ramond's Travels; but he would not have thought of printing the performance, had it not been suggested, that such a work would be particularly acceptable to the public just at the moment when so much interest was excited by our triumphant military transactions on one part of the Pyrenees.

This flattering circumstance might certainly give the book a better chance of catching the public attention ; an advantage Very fairly taken when the work has so much intrinsic merit. This circumstantial recommendation will soon become needless and forgotten, as the reader advances into descriptions of scenes the ancient majesty of which tends to throw a character of littleness and vanity on all momentary events, produced by frail and transient agents like man.

The English public possess very little information relating to the Pyrenees. They have not been a favourite region of our adventurers, even in times when there were no political causes to render them inaccessible; while we have innumerable descriptions of the Alps, circulating in our most familiar literature. The confessedly superior grandeur of the Alps, may have been one cause of the comparative indifference towards a chain of mountains hardly deemed magnificent enough to be their rivals. This volume, however, will shew that the most passionate ad mirers of gloomy sublimity and daring adventure, may find more than enough among these noble though secondary eminences, to absorb their strongest feelings, and employ and sometimes defy their utmost powers and courage of enterprise. We think that Mr. Gold, though he might easily have given a. better finish, and a diction more purely English, to his translation, deserves acknowledgement for throwing this interesting work into the channel of our literary amusement. As it is in a form so easily attainable, we shall do little more than express this general recommendation, and add two or three extracts.

The journey, or maze of journeys, appears to have been undertaken in 1787. The traveller, who was previously familiar with the wonders and dangers of the Alps, is equally' a man of science and of fancy, He describes as well as be speculates.