Which the "Mouth-honour, 'breath, poor heart would fain deny, but dare not." and pities the wretch who fears him?” It will be obvious, that our author's defign differs from Mr. Richardfon's, which merited our commendations: we can only exprefs our wishes that it may be ably purfued. The Patriad, an Heroic Poem, in Three Books. 4to. Debrett. 25. 6d. FROM the first book of this heroic poem, a name, to which it has no pretenfions, we conceived much hopes of entertainment, The Mufes are at firft invoked in a very sprightly. manner; and feveral modern writers, particularly fome of our ladies, ridiculed with tolerable fuccefs. After this, the comic or fatiric Mufe is introduced: we know not which is meant; for, in enumerating her votaries, we find fome who were never much favoured by the first, nor others by the second. Having paid her compliments to the writers of the claffic ages, the thus fketches fome of the ftriking features of the fucceeding. Henceforth, the influence of the nine, On earth, 'gan rapidly decline: Devils incarnate rul'd mankind, And all the world, at once, grew blind. By Jove appointed, call'd a king. 4717 They took a priest-'tis fhame to hear on't- * ་ ་ ་ Could into blood transform good wine; But, ere you could infpect the cup, "The priest took care to drink it up. 募 They fwore a very likely flory!- In brimstone, bell, or purgatory, That fouls would burn, though immaterial. They 2018 1 They fwore that wooden ftatues fainted, That three was one, and one was three, Such doctrine down men's throats they cram'd: We'll roaft your fouls and burn your bodies.' These lines are not free from defects, nor fo forcible and poig nant as Butler's generally are; yet they are neither unworthy nor unlike to thofe of that inimitable writer. Had the author continued in the fame key throughout the poem, the tax of half a crown, levied on the reader for forty-five pages, might have been paid without repining. In the fecond book the Mufe (and we think this performance might have been called the Poetiad rather than the Patriad), continues to relate the progrefs of comic humour, from the dark ages to the present times. She begins the laft, which contains a ludicrous account of the Irish volunteers and their leaders, with a palpable bull; afferting, that being AT arriv'd at laft, Not at the end, but the commence Ment of our tale heroic; whence The world may learn, or rather might, la ca It is not clear, the world will read.’ Though in a Hudibraftic poem we expect no great harmony of verfification, yet, in reading fuch lines as these, and we i meet with too many fimilar ones, where the fentiment makes no atonement for the flatness of the diction, we cannot bat feel fome degree of fatigue and difguft. A vein of humour, indeed, pervades the whole poem, but it is not often remarkable either for its ftrength or delicacy. E X. 2 1 FOREIGN FOREIGN LITERARY INTELLIGENCE. As S the British publications are at this moment numerous; and, as each preffes on us with its peculiar claims, we cannot give a very extenfive account of any one foreign work. We fhall briefly, therefore, inform our readers of what is tranfacting on the continent, and defer a more particular account of fome of thefe works to a period of more leifure.. The third (Livraison) set of the beautiful views of Switzerland, were lately delivered. Six plates are pretty regularly published. They are coloured, executed with great clearness and brilliancy, and exhibit fome of thofe views which delight and aftonish the admirers of that romantic country. We have examined the greater number; and, though unequal, yet the worst poffeffes confiderable merit. They are mentioned with greater propriety in this place, becaufe they are accompanied with a preface, written by the celebrated Haller, who, in his botanical researches, wandered over thefe varied scenes, and informs us, with his ufual fimplicity and force of language, what we may expect in this feries of views. The reprefentations are faid alfo to be uncommonly accurate. We fhall not ftep far out of our path, if we mention the Hiftorical and Univerfal Gallery' of Pictures, now publishing at Paris. Thefe conlift of the heads of eminent perfons, etched in aqua fortis, with fome fhort informations relating to their lives. Two fets are already published, at about three shillings each; but the lives confift only of a few well-known facts. Each fet contains eight portraits'; and they seem to be grouped without any regular defign. If the pictures were animated, they would wonder at their fituation, and cry out Now this is worshipful fociety!! In the first, are the portraits of Alexander the Great; Anne Boleyn; Cicero; Fenelon; Maffaniello, the Neapolitan hero; Stanislaus of Poland; William Tell, the deliverer of Switzerland; and Vateau. In the fecond, Lebas; Boffuet; Julius Cæfar; Chriftina of Sweden; Henry IVth; Magalotti; Titian; and De Wit. In France, the pulfe beats high for liberty; but their deliverance is probably yet at a distance. We may fee the difpofition of our neighbours, even from the publication before us. The band of heroes is not now led on by Louis Quatorze; but by William Tell, by Maffaniello, and Henri Quatre. The religious prejudices feem to have also subsided, by the choice of Anne Boleyn, whom every good Catholic ufually ranked, as we do the Pretender, with no very honour. able companion. But we fee that the good Fenelon is still looked up to with respect; and we may add, that a very fuperb quarto edition of Telemachus has been lately published; another honour to his memory. We have not yet feen it, but we fuppofe fuppofe it fplendid, fince the two volumes, fewed, cost two guineas in Paris. While we are mentioning fuperb editions, we are reminded of a fplended one of the Satiricon and Fragments of Petronius Arbiter, published last year at Berlin: we with the editors had difplayed their abilities on a better work. But to return; fome of these heads, particularly that of Stanilaus, are faid to be drawn from memory. We advance nearer to the regions of literature, when we mention Mr. Buch'oz's Differtations on different Plants, illuftrated with coloured plates. Those which he has lately published, are, on the Ipo, a fubtle poifon, with which the arrows of the South American favages are infected. On coffee, with an account of its cultivation, its preparations, its alimentary and medicinal properties. As ufual, the properties of coffee are here estimated much too highly. The next effay is on the Barringtonia Speciofa of Mr. Forster, which we have already mentioned, in our account of Mr. Millar's Various Subjects of Natural Hiftory.' The laft is a differtation on the Lagerstroemia. There is but one fpecies of this beautiful plant, which is one of the moft fplendid that adorns our hot-houses. It was denominated from Lagerftroëm, a Swede, to whofe attention we are indebted for a great part of our knowledge of the natural history of China, His museum of Chinese rarities, particularly those which belong to the animal kingdom, is difplayed in the fourth volume of the Amænitates Academica. The Lagerftroëmia hast been hitherto, we believe, only defcribed by Rumphius. The fubjects of the former Differtations of Mr. Buch'oz, we suppose, are well known. On the fubject of Botany, we perceive, in the foreign Journals, a Differtation on the Seeds of Plants, by George Rudolphus Bohmen, of Wirtenburg. It contains a very accurate defcription of the different parts of the feeds, and their ufe; but we do not find that any thing very new is added. It is with much pleasure we announce a new edition of the Wirtenburg Pharmacopeia, the authority of which we have had occafion to observe, is fo extenfive through Germany, and is fo generally referred to, in the writers on the materia medica in Germany, Holland, and Switzerland. This edition is printed on better paper, and is much more correct than the former one of 1771. The first part contains an alphabetical catalogue of the materia medica, with the virtues, qualities, and fources of the different articles, and the French, Latin, and German names of each. The fecond part contains the formulæ, and a therapeutical lift of the fimple and compound medicines. It is concluded with an Index, in French, Latin, and German, referring to the account of every article and compofition contained in the Pharmacopeia. We are promifed alfo, in the courfe of this year, the fourth volume of Murray's Materia Medica; or, as he ftyles it, Apparatus Medicaminum, tam fimplicium, quam præparatorum, X 3 ક્ et Compofitorum, in Praxeos adjumentum, confideratus.' It. already confifts of three volumes, publifhed in 1776, 1779, and 1784, refpectively; and is the completeft and the fullest fyftem which we have ever feen. The plan is new, and founded on the botanical analogy; we would recommend the confideration of it to the anonymous author, who lately published a short attempt to recommend this method of inveftigating the properties of medicines. The natural orders are greatly increased in number, and the arrangement is fomewhat different. Since Dr. Murray's publication of this Opufcula,' we are told that he has been engaged in completing his Apparatus.” Profeffor Kaeliner, of Gottingen. has alfo published his Commentaries on the Optics of Boerhaave and Haller. The Optics of Boerhaave are contained in a little volume, published by one of his pupils, entitled De Morbis Oculorum.' The chief object of the profeffor is that paffage, in the work juft mentioned, where he fays that, in fixing the eye on any object, we perceive only a very fmall phyfical point, directly in the axis; and that other points are only feen when we change the direction of the eye. It will be obvious, that the language is not quite correct, and that the polition itfelf is rather mathematically than phyfically true, On the paper before us we fee more than a ingle letter at once, and each letter cons tains many phyfical points, The fact is, that we fee more than one point, but we fee only one with clearness; and the area of vifion is really much less than is commonly apprehended, with out changing the direction of the axis. He next explains an intricate paffage in Haller's Phyfiology, where he fpeaks of the concave glaffes ufed by near-fighted perfons, Another expla nation of Haller relates to the means of judging of the size of an object, by the optic angle produced to the bafe of the triangle. The last part is on the ufe of microscopes; and M. Kaeftner apologizes for M. Walther, whom Haller had accufed of an error, relating to the refraction of the cryftalline lens, We have the pleasure of adding, that M, Sauffure means foon to publish the fecond volume of his Voyage fur les Alpes.' Our correfpondent, on this fubject, will be attended to at the end of this Number, in the ufual place. M. Ingenhoufz is purfuing his experiments on the effects which the various fpecies of air, the different degrees of heat, light, and electricity, have on the vegetation of feeds, and the increase of plants. They are defigned as the fubjects of another volume of his Mifcellanies.* The refults of his experiments lie before us, but they are too long for our prefent limits. We hope to be able to refume the fubject, The refearches of chemifts continue to be fuccefsful; but M. Giorgi and Cioni, at Florence, have not been able to extract inflammable air from water: the caufes of this failure are, at Two have been published; but one only has appeared in English. |