Pass, where to Ceuta Calpe's thunder roars, While swarthy nations crowd the sultry coast, "If the nations who inhabit this hemisphere of the globe, instead of destroying their seamen and exhausting their wealth in unnecessary wars, could be induced to unite their labours to navigate these immense masses of ice into the more southern oceans, two great advantages would result to mankind, the tropic countries would be much cooled by their solution, and our winters in this altitude would be rendered much milder, for perhaps a century or two, till the masses of ice became again enormous."-Ed.] [DR. THOMAS BEDDOES, born at Shiffnal in 1760, was a scientific Physician far in advance of his age; his Popular Essay on Consumption, 1779, his tracts entitled Hygeia, 1801, &c., may still be studied with profit. He paid particular attention to the medical use of the permanently Elastic Fluids, and avows that as "one rash experiment on a patient would demolish a plan on which the hope of relieving mankind from much of their misery is founded," he made preliminary experiments on himself in the case of Orygene and Consumption, as alluded to in the text. A propos of the artificial distribution of disease, it may be mentioned that in The Batchelor, p. 189, is a method for "discharging the Plague". He wrote much on the political topics of the day, always taking the liberal side, and attacking PITT with great virulence and eloquence. The principles of the French Revolution were at first advocated by him with the utmost enthusiasm, but he was soon disgusted by the excesses committed. He was a student of German literature, and much admired by Immanuel Kant. He was also an intimate friend of Darwin's, whose political opinions he shared, and whose works were intrusted to his revision in manuscript. A few months after the publication of Darwin's Botanic Garden, its magnificent imagery and harmonious versification inspired some admirers to say that the style of this work was a style sui generis, and that it defied imitation. Dr. Beddoes maintained an opposite opinion. Much as he admired the poem in question, he thought that the Darwinian structure of verse might be imitated by a writer possessed of inferior poetical powers, and in a few days he produced in the same circle part of the manuscript of Alexander's Expedition to the Indian Ocean as an unpublished work of the author of the Botanic Garden. The deception completely succeeded, and some enthusiastic admirers of the latter work pointed out with triumph "certain passages as proofs of the position that the author in his happier efforts defied imitation". Beddoes's success was the more extraordinary, as in the "Introduction" to a considerable extract from his poem which he printed in the Annual Anthology for 1796, he states that he had never before written twice as many lines of verse as the composition under notice consisted of. As BEDDOES'S imitation of DARWIN is seldom met with, it may not be out of character in a work of the present nature to give a specimen of it. AN IMITATION OF DARWIN. "Now the new Lord of Persia's wide domain, A thousand sails attendant catch the wind, And yet a thousand press the wave behind'; Two veteran hosts, outstretched on either hand, Wide wave their wings and sweep the trembling land. And shakes o'er crested helms his blazing pride; While Victory, still companion of his way, Sounds her loud trump and flaunts her banners gay." Further on, the Hero's attention is attracted to the surrounding landscape, which he thus apostrophizes: "Ye fields for ever fair! Thou mighty stream! Bright regions! blessed beyond the muse's dream! Ye fostering skies that rear each beauteous birth! How ray with glory my historic page?" In a letter to Hannah More, Horace Walpole says: "The poetry is most admirable; the similes beautiful, fine, and sometimes sublime; the author is a great poet, and could raise the passions, and possesses all the requisites of the art". In another lively epistle to the Misses Berry (28th April, 1789), he says: "I send you the most delicious poem upon earth. I can read this Second Part over and over again for ever; for though it is so excellent, it is impossible to remember anything so disjointed, except you consider it as a collection of short enchanting poems. The Triumph of Flora,' beginning at the fifty-ninth line, is most beautifully and enchantingly imagined, and the twelve verses that by miracle describe and comprehend the creation of the universe out of chaos, are, in my opinion, the most sublime passage in any author, or in any of the few languages with which I am acquainted."-ED.] [Darwin was acquainted with Rousseau. He was a man of great bodily and intellectual vigour, irascible and imperious, a strong advocate of temperance, and for many years an almost total abstainer. His professional fame was such that George III. said he would take him as his physician if he would come to London. He formed a botanical garden at Lichfield, about which Miss Seward wrote some verses which suggested his Botanic Garden. The Loves of the Plants had a singular success, and was praised in a joint poem by Cowper and Hayley, It was translated into French, Portuguese, and Italian. Darwin himself is said by Edgeworth to have admired the parody (Monthly Magazine, June and Sept., 1802, p. 115). Coleridge (Biographia Literaria, 1817, p. 19) speaks of the impression which it made even upon good judges. In the Anti-Jacobin Review, vol. i. (1799), pp. 718-721, appear some Latin verses [by Ben. Frere] which are thus introduced: "Among the copies of verses which are annually produced as a public exercise called TRIPOS, at Cambridge, we have selected the following as a beautiful composition. The subject is Dr. BEDDOES'S Factitious Air applied to the Case of Consumptions."—ED.] FOREIGN INTELLIGENCE EXTRAORDINARY.* The Priority of Intelligence which has ever distinguished OUR PAPER will, We trust, receive additional lustre from the extraordinary News which We now lay before the Public. We received it by a Neutral Ship, which arrived in the River last night; and feel ourselves much indebted to the attention of our Correspondent, a Currant Merchant at Zanté, for its early communication. Without arrogating to ourselves that merit which is (perhaps) justly our due, We think ourselves justified in asserting that it is not only the earliest, but, if We are not much mistaken, the only account which will appear in the Prints of this Day respecting the Successes of BUONAPARTÉ. COPY OF A LETTER FROM GENERAL BUONAPARTE TO THE COMMANDANT AT ZANTÉ. "The brave Soldiers, who conferred Liberty on Rome, have continued to deserve well of their Country. Greece has joyfully received her Deliverers. The Tree of Liberty is planted on the Piraus. Thirty thousand Janizaries, the Slaves of Despotism, had taken possession of the Isthmus of Corinth. Two Demi-brigades opened us a passage. After ten days' fighting, we have driven the Turks from the Moria. The Peloponnesus is now free. Every step in my power has been taken to revive the antient spirit of Sparta, The Inhabitants of that celebrated City, seeing black broth of my Troops, and the scarcity of specie to which we have been long accustomed, will, I doubt not, soon acquire the frugal virtues of their Ancestors. As a proper measure of precaution, I have removed all PITT's gold from the Country. "Off this Island we encountered the Fleet of the SULTAN. The Mahometan Crescent soon fled before the three-coloured flag. Nine Sail of the Line are the fruits of this Victory. The CAPTAIN PACHA'S Ship, a second rate, struck to a National Corvette. My Aide-de-Camp will present you with the model of a Trireme, which was found among the Archives of Athens. Vessels of this description draw so little water, that our Naval Architects may perhaps think them more eligible than Rafts, for the conveyance of the Army of England. Liberty will be sufficiently avenged, if the ruins of a Grecian City furnish us with the means of transporting the Conquerors of Rome to Britain. "On landing at this Island, I participated in a Scene highly interesting to Humanity. A poor Fisherman, of the family of THEMISTOCLES, attended by his Wife, a descendant of the virtuous PHRYNE, fell at my feet. I received him [* This piece has not hitherto formed a portion of the editions of The Poetry. -ED.] with the Fraternal embrace, and promised him the protection of the Republic. He invited me to supper at his Hut, and in gratitude to his Deliverer presented me with a memorable Oyster Shell, inscribed with the Name of his illustrious Ancestor. As this curious piece of antiquity may be of service to some of the DIRECTORY, I have inclosed it in my Dispatches, together with a Marble Tablet, containing the proper form for pronouncing the Sentence of Ostracism on Royalist Athenians. "KLÉBER, whom I had ordered to Constantinople, informs me that the Capital of Turkey has proved an easy conquest. Santa-Sophia has been converted into a Temple of Reason; the Seraglio has been purified by Theo-Philanthropists, and the liberated Circassians are learning from our Sailors the lessons of Equality and Fraternity. A Detachment has been sent to Troy, for the purpose of organizing the Department of Mount Ida. The Tomb of ACHILLES has been repaired, and the Bust of BRISEIS (which formed part of the Pedestal) restored to its original state, at the expense of the Female Citizen BUONAPARTÉ. "The Division of the Fleet destined for Egypt has anchored in the Port of Alexandria. BERTHIER, who commands this Expedition, informs me that this Port will soon be restored to its ancient pre-eminence; and that its celebrated Pharos will soon be fit to receive the Reverbères which have been sent from the Rue St. Honoré. "BARAGUAY D'HILLIERS, with the Left Wing of the Army of Egypt, has fixed his Head-quarters at Jerusalem. He is charged to restore the Jews to their ancient Rights. Citizens Jacob Jacobs, Simon Levi, and Benjamin Solomons, of Amsterdam, have been provisionally appointed Directors. The Palace of Pontius Pilate is re-building for their residence. All the vestiges of Superstition in Palestine have been carefully destroyed. "I beg you will ratify a grant which I have made of the Temple of the Sun at Palmyra to a Society of Illuminati from Bavaria. They may be of service in extending our future conquests. "I have received very satisfactory accounts from DESAIX, who had been sent by BERTHIER with a Demi-brigade into the interior of Africa. That fine Country has been too long neglected by Europeans. In manners and civilization it much resembles France, and will soon emulate our virtues. Already does the Torrid Zone glow with the ardour of Freedom. Already has the Altar of Liberty been reared in the Caffrarian and Equinoctial Republics. Their regenerated inhabitants have sworn eternal amity to us at a Civic Feast, to which a detachment of our Army was invited. This memorable day would have terminated with the utmost harmony, if the CAFFRARIAN COUNCIL of ANCIENTS had not devoured the greatest part of General Desaix's Etat-Major for their supper. I hope our Ambassador will be instructed to require that Civic Feasts of this nature be omitted for the future. The Directory of the Equinoctial Republic regret that the scarcity of British Cloth in Africa, and the great heat of the climate, prevent them from adopting our costume. "We hope soon to liberate the Hottentots, and to drive the perfidious English from the extremities of Africa and of Europe. Asia, too, will soon be free. The three-coloured flag floats on the summit of Caucasus; the Tigrine Republic is established; the Cis and Trans-Euphratean Conventions are assembled; and soon shall Arabia, under the mild influence of French Principles, resume her ancient appellation, and be again denominated 'the HAPPY'. "In the course of the next Decade I shall sail to the Canal which is now cutting across the Isthmus of Suez. The Polytechnic School and Corps of Geographical Engineers are employed in devising means for conveying my heavy artillery across the great Desert. Soon shall India hail us as her Deliverers, and those proud Islanders, the Tyrants of Calcutta, fall before the Heroes of Arcola. "The Members of the National Institute who accompanied the Squadron to Egypt, have made a large collection of Antiquities for the use of the Republic. Among the scattered remains of the Alexandrine Library, they have found a curious Treatise, in Arabic, respecting Camels, from which it appears that Human Beings, by proper treatment, may, like those useful animals, be trained to support thirst and hunger without complaining. Many reams of papyrus have been collected, as it is thought that during the present scarcity of linen and old rags in France, it may answer all the purposes of paper. CLEOPATRA'S celebrated Obelisk has been shipped on board the Admiral's Ship L'Orient, cidevant Sans Culottes: Another man-of-war has been freighted with the Sphinx, which our Engineers removed from Grand Cairo, and which, I trust, will be thought a proper ornament for the Hall of Audience of the Directory.-The cage in which BAJAZET was confined, has been long preserved at Bassora; it will be transmitted to Paris as a proper inodel for a new Cayenne Diligence.-I beg leave to present to the Director MERLIN, a very curious book, bound in Morocco leather, from Algiers. It is finely illuminated with gold; and contains lists of the various fees usually received by Deys and their Ministers from Foreign Ambassadors. A broken Column will be sent from Carthage. It records the downfall of that Commercial City; and is sufficiently large for an Inscription (if the Directory should think proper to place it on the Banks of the Thames), to inform posterity that it marks the spot where London once stood. "Health and Respect, "BUONAPARTÉ." |