pleasure: but the character of the man breaks forth distinctly in the following stanzas. Not only his tone of freedom *, but his pardonable though high-flown vanity, and above all his devotion to love and beauty, are here conspicuous. • Là, ma Jeunesse indépendante Puisa tes premiers Feux, céleste Liberté ! Qu'aux premiers accens de la Gloire Muses, je parai vos Autels. • Mon Laurier conquit une Amante ; Quand elle enfláme la Beauté ! Ce premier sentiment de l'Ame Laisse un long souvenir que rien ne peut user; Qu'est tout le Nectar du Baiser, Age aimant, âge d'innocence, Age où le cœur jamais n'a de replis obscurs; Tes goûts sont vrais ; tes feux sont purs! L'âge des Jeux et des Amours.' We have bestowed, according to our intention, so much time on the Odes of this bard, that we must be comparatively brief in our analysis of his three remaining volumes. The second volume consists of Elegies, Epistles, and Miscellaneous Poems. In the first division, are some good translations or rather paraphrases from Tibullus; who was seemingly the * As a proof of the genuine attachment which LE BRUN felt for liberty, his editor tells us that M. De Vaudreuil (one of the earliest patrons of the poet) had often occasion to make an apology for his ardent éléve, who in his recitations had expressed himself too boldly for the delicate ears of the court on subjects of government. He would say, in a gentle voice, to the titled circle," Ces poëtes sont vraiment fous !-mais les beaux vers! les beaux vers!" and then ask LE BRUN for an elegy, or his poem of Psyche, which set every thing to rights again. favou favourite, and certainly the most congenial, master of the author, even when writing lyric poetry. To Pindar, indeed, he appears to have been a willing slave; though sometimes breaking his bondage in a splendid act of disloyalty: but to Tibullus he was a devoted friend as well as disciple. In the second division, we have some lively letters in verse; especially that which is intitled Sur la Bonne et la Mauvaise Plaisanterie,' and that playful receipt to procure a sound sleep, which ends, aux inévitables progrès Du Dieu dont MARMONTEL atteste la présence.” This is not the only instance in the book in which Marmontel is mentioned as the climax of an encouragement to somnolency, or in other terms of disrespect; and LE BRUN evidently was hostile to the fame of the long-esteemed author of " Moral Tales." Could he have felt that hostility, (whatever his private reasons might be,) had he read the "Memoirs of Marmontel ?" We think, that delightful book must have forced any rival to admire the author. The third division includes extracts from a poem in four cantos, called Les Veillées du Parnasse.' This unfinished work presents us with Orpheus and Eurydice, Nisus and Euryalus, Hercules and Omphale, and Psyche, supposed to be related as stories, by the God of Verse and the Muses, in French heroic couplets. We are greatly pleased, though some of these thrice-told tales may fatigue the ear, with the fragment of a letter from LE BRUN to a friend on the last subject, that of Psyche. It thoroughly coincides with our own ideas of the grace and elegance manifested in that attractive specimen of antient invention, and irresistibly demands another tribute of admiration for Mrs. Tighe's beautiful poem. (see Rev. Vol. lxvi. p.138.) After having noticed the coarse manner in which Apuleius has transmitted this Milesian Tale through the medium of the Latin, and censured even his favourite La Fontaine for his prosaic French version of it, LE BRUN observes; It would be no easy attempt to render the Tale of Psyche a really classical composition; and it is a treasure of delicacy and of sentiment which the spirit of genius will never cease to appreciate. To such a spirit, the tender, the ingenuous Psyche is eager to give delight. The withered heart and the degraded taste cannot be interested in her character.' We deem this quite prophetic, if we may again apply the epithet to the shrewd conjecture of a poet:-but, indeed, if we may speak of the noble play of " De Montfort" in the language of its encomiast, and describe the muse of tragedy as dejected by the cold reception of her last best effort," we are sure that we may say of "Psyche," (as we have lately seen her living again in all her her natural beauty,) that the readers who do not delight in her revival, and who tolerate her dead contemporaries, are condemned by LE BRUN's anticipating sentence, and rank under the wretched denomination of the withered heart, and the degraded taste.' How should we have regretted the interruption of the poetical labours of LE BRUN on this sweet subject, which he has shewn himself well calculated to treat, had we not so charming a substitute in our native poem; nay so superior, although so similar, a mode of representing "Psyche !" In this third division of the IId volume, we have also a poem intitled La Nature; ou le Bonheur Philosophique et Champetre,' containing fragments of four cantos, and some very pleasing verses throughout. Our limits forbid quotation: but we refer our readers to the poem with confidence; whether they chuse the canto of Wisdom, or of Liberty, or of Genius, or of Love.The volume closes with some detached translations, from the first book of the Iliad, from the opening of the Georgics, from Theocritus, and from Tibullus; and with some Verses of Youth,' which have, as usual, more promise than perfection. Volume III. contains Six Books of Epigrams: besides Poems on different occasions. Of the Epigrams, we can only say (and it is saying everything) that, although we by no means compare them, in any quality, to those of Martial, yet they fully deserve the well-known character which Martial has given to his own collection. We had made several marks for citation in this volume; which to many readers will probably be the most attractive part of the whole publication: but we must be contented with a few. 'Sur une Demoiselle qui avait fait un Drame et un Enfant. Sur le Docteur B***. • Il sait Pindare, il sait Homère, Moise et Sanchoniaton ; Il sait même encore, dit-on, • A une jolie femme qui moralisait. Des Des Jansenistes d'Idalie Sur un poète bien ennuyeux et bien Athée. The fourth volume comprizes the author's correspondence The work concludes with an Essay on the Genius of the To the REMARKABLE PASSAGES in this Volume. N. B. To find any particular Book, or Pamphlet, see the A ACID, Boracic, notice respect- Albuera, battleof, remarks on, 405. Alderney, some account of, 128. Anjere Point, account of, 301. north than the town of Gefle |