This Penthefilea of liberty and libertinifm, makes an appropriate harangue to her fifters in femality : "She fpoke and veteran BARBAULD caught the ftrain, And trac'd the picture of a Deift's grave:+ And charming SMITH refign'd her power to please, And -Mrs. Barbauld, the moft confpicuous figure in the groupe of female authors, is a veteran in literature: her poetry is certainly chafte and elegant.-Si fic omnia dixiffet!-I was forry to find Mrs. B. (among the gods, Mifs Aikin!) claffed with fuch females as a Wollstonecraft, or a Jebb. The moft fenfible women,' fays Mr. Dyer, are more uniformly on the fide of liberty than the other fex ;-witnefs, a Macaulay, a Wollstonecraft, a Barbauld, a Jebb, a Williams, and a Smith.' (See Dyer's Poems, Pp. 36, 37.)-But, though Mrs. B. has lately published feveral political tracts, which, if not difcreditable to her talents and virtues, can, by no means, add to her reputation; yet, I am fure, fhe muft reprobate with me the alarming eccentricities of Mifs Wollstonecraft. Of Mrs. Jebb's publi cations I received the first intelligence in the notes to Mr. Dyer's Poems, (P. 36,) and I have named her here only as an obfcure writer when compared with Mifs Aikin, the favourite of my former years, when first I lifp'd in numbers." "In Mrs. Robinfon's poetry there is a peculiar delicacy, but her novels, as literary compofitions, have no great claim to approbation. As containing the doctrines of philofophifin, they merit the feverest cenfure. Would that, for the fake of herself and her beautiful daughter, (whofe perfonal charms are only equalled by the elegance of her mind;) would that, for the fake of the public morality, Mrs. Robinfon were perfuaded to difimifs the gloomy phantom of anni hilation, to think feriously of a future retribution, and to commu nicate to the world a recantation of errors that originated in levity, and have been nurfed by pleafure! I have feen her glittering like the morning ftar, full of life and fplendor; and just such, and more glorious, may I meet her again, when the juft fhall fhine forth as the brightnefs of the firmament, and as the ftars, for ever and ever.” "The fonnets of Charlotte Smith have a penfiveness peculiarly their own. It is not the monotonous plaintiveness of Shenftone, the gloomy melancholy of Gray, nor the meek fubdued fpirit of Collins, It is a ftrain of wild, yet foftened forrow, that breathes a romantic air, without lofing, for a moment, its mellownefs: her images, often original, are drawn from nature; the moft familiar have a new and charming afpect. Sweetly picturefque, fhe creates with the pencil of a Gilpin, and infufes her own foul into the landfcape. There And HELEN, fir'd by freedom, bade adieu And YEARSLEY, who had warbled, nature's child, And There is fo uncommon a variety in her expreffion, that I could read a thoufand of fuch fonnets without laffitude. In general, a very few fonnets fatigue attention, partly owing to the fameness of their con ftruction. Petrarch, indeed, I can relish for a confiderable time; but Spenfer and Milton foon produce fomnolence. As a novel-writer, her Ethelinda and Emmelina place her above all her cotemporaries, except Mrs. D'Arblay and Mrs. Radcliffe. But why does fhe fuffer her mind to be infected with the Gallic mania? I hope, ere this, fhe is completely recovered from a diforder, of which, indeed, I obferved only a few flight fymptoms." "Mifs Helen Williams is, doubtlefs, a true poet; but is it not extraordinary, that fuch a genius, a female and fo young, fhould have become a politician; that the fair Helen, whofe notes of love have charmed the moonlight vallies, fhould ftand forward, an intemperate advocate, for Gallic licentioufnefs; that fuch a woman fhould import with her a blaft, more peftilential than that of Avernus, though he has fo often delighted us with melodies, foft as 'the fighs of the zephyr, delicious as the airs of Paradife!" (See her letters from France.) +"Mrs. Yearfley's Poems, as the product of an untutored milk. woman, certainly entitled her to patronage; and patronage the received from Mifs H. More, liberal beyond example; yet, fuch is the depravity of the human heart, that this milk-woman had no fooner feen her hut cheered by the warmth of benevolence than the fpurned her benefactor from her door. Perhaps the had read, when a poor labourer's child, at a charity-fchool, the fable of the Adder and Traveller,' the moral application of which to herfelf, at this crifis of her life, might have done her more effential fervice than all her poetical reveries. But he has fince purfued her literary career with an ardor, by no means damped by the fenfe of ingratitude. Selflove, indeed, feems to have thrown over her conduct a delufive colouring. In the preface to her romantic novel, The Rural Captives,' Mrs. Y. has plainly an eye to her worthy patronefs. Nature herself drew delufion in the defert, where I was beloved by Fancy before I was alive to Fame, and tafted more delight than I have fince found in the midst of proud fociety, where favour falls heavily on the heart from the hand of arrogance.' My bufinefs, however, with Mrs. Y. is to recall her (if poñible) from her Gallic wanderings, if 6 an And flippant HAYS affum'd a cynic leer ;* And linger'd a fweet blush with EMMA CREWE." This poem, afterwards, breaks out into this fine apostrophe to Mifs Wollstonecraft's attempting to drown herself in the Thames : "And doft thou rove with no internal light,$ an appeal to native ingenuoufnefs be not too late; if the fatal example of the arch-prieftefs of female libertinifm have any influence on a mind once ftored with the fineft moral fentiment." * "Mary Hays, I believe, is little known; but, from her letters and effays,' the is evidently a Wollstonecraftian. I cannot mention,' fays he, the admirable advocate for the Rights of Woman, without paufing to pay a tribute of grateful refpect, in the name of my fex, to the virtue and talents of a writer, who, with equal courage and abi. lity, hath endeavoured to rescue the female mind from those prejudices which have been the canker of genuine virtue.' (Preface to her Letters and Effays, P. 6.) The Rights of Woman, and the name of Wollstonecraft, will go down to pofterity with reverence.' (Letters, &c. P. 21.) Mary Hays ridicules the good lady who ftudied her Bible, and obliged her children to fay their prayers, and go ftatedly to church.' (P. 34.) Her expressions respecting the European governments are, in a high degree, inflammatory." (See Pp. 14, 15, 17, 18, 19.) 6 "Angelica Kauffinan's print should accompany Mifs Wollstonecraft's inftructions in Priapifm, by way of illuftration." "There is a charming delicacy in moft of the pictures of Emma Crewe; though, I think, in her Flora at play with Cupid,' (the frontispiece to the fecond part of the Botanic Garden,) the has rather overstepped the modefty of nature, by giving the portrait an air of voluptuoufnefs too luxuriously melting." I do not think my fifter fo to feek, Or fo unprincipled in virtue's book; And the sweet peace that goodness bofoms ever, Could ftir the conftant mood of her calm thought.' At At this crisis of her fate, for time and for eternity, a fupernatural voice is, poetically fuppofed to be, heard, addreffing her and her partners in fin :-- "O Come,' a voice feraphic feems to fay, Fly that pale form; come, filters, come away; * "I know nothing of Mifs Wollstonecraft's character or conduct, but from the Memoirs of Godwin, with whom this lady was afterwards connected. We did not marry,' fays Godwin, but during her pregnancy by G. they married. She died, in confequence, of child-birth, in 1797. A woman, who had broken through all religious restraints, will, commonly, be found ripe for every fpecies of licentioufnefs. Mifs W. had been bred to the established church; but, from her intimacy with the late Dr. Price, was induced, occafionally, to attend the fectarian worship. Thus halting between two opinions, fhe, at length, regarded both as the mere prejudices of education, and became equally averfe from the church and the conventicle. And, accordingly, for the last ten years of her life, the frequented no place of public worship at all. How far a woman of fuch principles was qualified to fuperintend the education of young ladies, I leave to be difcuffed and determined by the circles of fashion and gallantry; intimating only, that Mifs W. was a governefs of the daughter of Lord Viscount Kingfborough :-her meditated fuicide we thall contemplate with fresh horror, when we confider that, at the time of the defperate act, he was a mother deferting a poor helplefs offspring. But burft the ties of religion, and the bands of nature will fnap afunder. Sentiments of religion may doubtlefs exift in the heart, without the external profeffion of it; but that this woman was neither a Chriftian, nor a Mahometan, nor even a Deift, is fufficiently evi. dent from the triumphant report of Godwin. Godwin, then her husband, boafts that, during her laft illnefs, (which continued ten days,) not a word of a religious tendency dropped from her lips. I cannot but think that the hand of Providence is visible, in her life, in her death, and in the memoirs themfelves. As fhe was given up to her heart's lufts,' and let to follow her own imagi nations,' that the fallacy of her doctrines, and the effects of an irreligious conduct, might be manifefted to all the world; and as she died a death that ftrongly marked the diftinction of the fexes, by pointing out the destiny of woman and the difeafes to which they are liable, fo her husband was permitted, in writing her memoirs, to labour under a temporary infatuation, that every incident might be feen without a glofs, every fact expofed without an apology." Come, Come, join with wonted fmiles a kindred train, Yet woman owns a more extensive sway, And the poem concludes in this expreffive manner:- We have thus given a fair and full abstract of the poem. We find it, at once, politically ufeful, and poetically beautiful. The fatire is ingeniously conceived, and judiciously executed. And we are happy to fee one of the first poets of the day, one who ranks amongst the foremost for richness of language, vividness of fancy, and brilliance of imagery, employing his poetical talents, at this awful crifis of church and ftate, in vindication of all that is dear to us as Britons and as Christians. Q ART. VI. Somerville's Reign of Queen Anne. UEEN Anne's partiality to the tories gave them the fuperiority at the general election; but the interest of that party was more prevalent in the lower than in the upper house. A bill paffed the Commons against occafional con * "After all, it is Christianity which has given women their ap. propriate rank in fociety." See Robifon's Proofs, &c. Pp. 262, 271. See alfo P. 457. +Mifs Hannah More may juftly be efteemed as a character, in all points, diametrically oppofite to Mifs Wollstonecraft's; excepting, indeed, her genius and literary attainments. To the great natural endowments of Mifs W. Mifs More has added the learning of lady Jane Gray, without the pedantry; and the Chriftian graces of Mrs. Rowe, without the enthufiafm. Her Percy,' her facred dramas,' her Effays,' and her Thoughts on the Manners of the Great,' will be read as long as fenfibility and good tafte fhall exift among us." "That Mrs. Godwin, herfelf, may be numbered among the penitent, and he, alfo, who drew her frailties from their dread abode, is the fincere and fervent wish of a heart in charity with all men." NO. XI. VOL. III. D formity; |