Abbildungen der Seite
PDF
EPUB

able retreat, after a battle loft, is that of knowing how far to pur fue the good fortune of conqueft, and when to retire fecurely, to enjoy the spoils of victory. The petty acquifition, that might do ho nour to a novice in literature or in arms, would rather diminish than increate the reputation of a veteran practifed in great atchievements, and repeatedly crowned with laurels. Hence it is expected of a writer, who hath acquired any portion of literary fame, that every new work he produces fhould be fuperior to the laft; and if it prove otherwife, it detracts from his general character, by just so much as its merit falls short of expectation. The current of a living Author's reputation is thus ever on the ebb or flow. To this, it may be added, that even novelty in the author, as well in the performance, is, in this novelty-loving age, become requifite to make a work of entertainment compleatly taking. However new the defign, incidents, or model of the compofition, yet, if the author hath been long known, the pre-conceived notion of the style and manner, gives the whole an old-fashioned air, and it is not quite a new thing, at least with the ladies; for whofe ufe and amusement works of this kind are chiefly calculated. The difpofition of the public may be imagined, in this refpect, like that of a froward child, equally capricious and unaccountable. But, fo it is. Mrs. Lenox, therefore, fhould not be difappointed if her Sophia does not meet with fo warm a reception as the female Quixote, Henrietta, and fome other of her pieces, have been honoured with. Indeed, we muft confefs, that this performance, confifting of a love-flory, not uninterefting in point of incident, nor inelegantly written, wants, nevertheless, much of that fpirit and variety which this fpecies of compofition peculiarly requires, and which are more confpicuous in fome of her former works,

Art. 11. A Grammar of the Italian Language, with a copious Praxis of moral Sentences. To which is added, an English Grammar for the Ufe of the Italians. By Jofeph Baretti. 8vo. 4s. Hitch, &c.

If Mr. Baretti's Italian grammar has any thing to recommend it, more than thofe that have been already published, it is the brevity with which the principal rules are laid down: But by confulting this brevity too much. he has fometimes left the learner in the dark. In point of pronunciation, particularly, we can by no means recommend this work; nor can we approve of the Author's determination ta fay nothing on points where he could not lay down any unexceptionable rule. If he intended to give his grammar any fuperior utility, it fhould have conveyed more light to the learner, and not less than others. In this respect, however, thofe of Altieri, Veperoni, &c. are much preferable to Baretti's. In fact, this grammar is only a copy of that prefixed to his dictionary, with the addition of moral fentences, italian and English. The Author boats that this performance is the best of its kind that ever appeared in public; but he had ever a favourable opinion of

his own productions. In truth, its defects are many. He should have given a more ample explanation of the pronouns and active verbs ufed imperfonally in Italian; the most perplexing and difficult part of the language. It is also very defective in regard to the conjugations.

The verbs are conjugated at length (the order and divifion of the tenfes are an invention of his own) but no English is given to the Italian; which is contrary to the practice of others who pretend to teach a language: For to what purpose can a ftudent learn by rote a verb in the language he would acquire, if he is not informed to what word it anfwers in his own. Mr. Barretti may fuppofe the ftudents previous knowledge of grammar; but that is feldom the cafe, even with adults, and hardly ever with younger pupils; who, for the most part, begin to apply themselves to the study of the French or Italian, without any foundation in grammar.

But though Mr. Barretti has not acquitted himself much to our fatisfaction as a grammarian, he has certainly acted the part of a good citizen, by making the fervices of his tongue-teaching countrymen' still more neceffary and important,

POETICA L.

Art. 12. The Viceroy. A Poem. 4to. IS. Payne, & Co. An elegant and truly poetical panegyric on Lord Halifax, the prefent worthy Lord Lieutenant of Ireland,

Art. 13. An Ode to the Right Honourable the Earl of Lincoln. 4to. 6d.

Kent.

A compliment to the Duke of Newcastle, on his retirement.A dry politician at the Smyrna, on feeing this ingenious little poem, exclaimed, Oh! that it had but come out twenty years ago.'

[ocr errors]

Art. 14. Mifcellaneous Poems. By Elizabeth Carolina Keene. 8vo. 5s. fewed. Hooper.

Many circumstances intitle the fofter fex to a more delicate treatment than our own, and therefore it is always with tenderness we look upon the productions of a female pen. If Mrs. Keene's poems fhall be thought to merit the public favour from the following extract, may they enjoy it.

The FAIRY in Love.

Faireft of the virgin train,

That trip it o'er this magic plain,
Come and dance, and fing with me,
Under yonder aged tree.

There I'll tell you many a tale
Of mountain, rock, of hill and dale,

Which will make you laugh with me
Under yonder aged tree.

Who is that, that I efpy
Juft defcending from the sky?
Faith, 'tis Cupid come to fee
Flirtill' beneath yon aged tree.

A little rogue! but he shall smart,
I'll take away his bow and dart ;.
And give them 'fore his face to thee,
Under yonder aged tree.

There we'll dance, and play, and fing,
Celebrating Pan our King;
And I'll always live with thee

Under yonder aged tree.

FLIRTILLA's Answer.

Were I like the Paphian queen,

In beauty and majestic mien,
Flirtilla e'en would dance with thee
Under yonder aged tree.

Then I'd liften to your tale

Of mountain high, or lowly vale;
Such fweet difcourfe would me delight,
To be with thee from morn to night.

Ah! but Cynthia then I fear,
Left fhe fhould chufe you for her dear;
Left you too fhould inconftant prove,
And thus repay Flirtilla's Love.

Not Cupid with his keeneft dart
Should ever pierce my conftant heart;
For ah! already 'tis too true,
Flirtilla thinks of none but you.

Not Jove himself should rival thee,
Nor ever fnatch one kifs from me;
From me no favour fhould he meet,
Though he were dying at my feet,

Though he defcended from the sky,
In all the blaze of majesty,
My love within thy bofom lies,
With thee it lives, with thee it dies.

If then these terms you do approve,
To pafs our time in mutual love,
Flirtilla gives her hand to thee,
Witnefs, yonder aged tree.

Art.

MEDICA L.

Art. 15 An Account of the topical Application of the Spunge, in the Stoppage of Hemorrhages. Read before the Royal Society. By Charles White, F. R. S. one of the Corporation of Surgeons in London, and Surgeon to the Manchester Infirmary. 8vo. Is. Johnston.

This fmall pamphlet, which may prove of confiderable utility, gives thirteen cafes in furgery, of which nine were amputations, in evidence of the fuccefs of this application. The taking up and making ligatures on the larger veffels after amputations, being, according to the report of those who have fuffered them, the most painful part of fuch operations, having been fometimes attended with convulfive fymptoms, the locked jaw, and even death; and the agaric of the oak having proved lefs infallible in the fubfequent hæmorrhages than was at first expected, befides the frequent difficulty of procuring the best fort, Mr. White has thought it his duty, he fays, to lay this remedy before the public. The punge fhould be of the best and closest kind, or the fine male fpunge, and is to be cut into flices, not horizontally, according to the ftrata or layers of which it is compofed, but perpendicularly and through them, fo that each flice is to confift of feveral ftrata. After the application of fuch flices to the wounded veffels, a gentle compreffion fhould be made upon them, either with a linen roller, or with cross flips of good fticking-plaifter. But as the price of this fmall yet important pamphlet, (which contains all neceflary directions for the proper application of this effectual and, as it may be called, anodyne remedy) is fo trifting, that we cannot fuppofe any decent operator will be without it, we fhall only add, that it is expreffed and conducted in the clear manner of a fenfible writer; and that feveral phyficians, furgeons, and pupils at Manchester are mentioned as prefent at the operations, who may be fuppofed fo many evidences to the efficacy of this happy application. Befides which, our Author fays, p. 48. The fpunge has never yet failed me, though I have applied it within thefe fixteen months to upwards of fifty patients; and have conftantly ufed it fince laft Michaelmas, without ever having had recourfe to the needle and ligature, except in two cafes." Admitting this, we must alío admit, that amputations must not only prove lefs painful, but lefs fatal than they have often been before this new application.

RELIGIOUS and CONTROVERSIAL.

Art. 16. Devout Meditations: Or a felect Collection of Obfervations, divine and moral. Abfiracted from the Writings of the most approved Authors. By a Gentleman. 8vo.

Baldwin.

1 S.

This devout, medley can only be commended for the piety of the defign. The author appears to be but fuperficially acquainted with

the

the doctrines of chriftianity, which yet he ventures to write about although it be only to tell us the old ftory, that we are commanded to believe what we neither do, nor can understand.When will this wretched tafte for Ænigmas, Acrostics, Anagrams, and Rebufles wear out?

Art. 17. A Help to the Study of the Scriptures; or a new and compleat Hiftory of the Bible. 12mo. 2s. 6d. Hinxman. A pretty book for children; adorned with pretty pictures.

Art. 18. Chrifl's Temptations real Facts: or a Defence of the Evangelic Hiftory; fhewing, that our Lord's Temptations may be fairly and reasonably understood, as a Narrative of what was really tranfacted. Being an Answer to Mr. Farmer's Inquiry*, &c. 8vo. Is. 6d. Piety.

Much learning mifemployed. We do not think Mr. Farmer anfwered yet.

* See an account of this ingenious performance in Review, Vol. XXV. p. 130.

Art. 19. An occafional Review of the Prebendary of Litchfield's Sermon, and Addrefs to the People called Quakers. By John Johnfon. Svo. 9d. Johnson.

We are determined to have nothing to fay, in regard to this unprofitable controverfy, farther than barely informing our Readers that there are fuch publications-by repeating their title-pages, as

above.

Art. 20. A pre-exiftent Lapfe of human Souls demonftrated from Reafon; fhewn to be the Opinion of the most eminent Writers of Antiquity, facred and profane: proved to be the Ground-work likewife of the Gospel Difpenfation; and the Medium through which many material topics, relative thereto, are fet in a clear, rational, and confiftent Light. By Capel Berrow, A. M. Rector of Finningley, Nottinghamshire. 8vo. 2s. 6d. fewed. Whifton, &c.

Though the Opinion of the pre-existence of human fouls is juftly given up, in the prefent age, as a fentiment either wholly founded on imagination, or upon very precarious reafonings, yet it hath formerly been embraced by fuch a number of eminent perfons, that it feems to claim fome degree of refpect, On this account, notwithftanding the awkwardness of the title, we took up Mr. Berrow's book, with an intention of laying before our readers a diflinct view of his fcheme, provided it fhould be found to contain any thing plaufible or ingenious. But we are forry to fay, (as the Author is,

we

« ZurückWeiter »