Next Falfhood came: a foe to Learning's page:
Born in a blind and a believing age.

In either hand fhe held a folio book,

All gilded o'er, and gaudy to the look.

The one, though fill'd with many a labour'd note
On fcripture text, by graveft fathers wrote,
Serv'd only to disguise the facred page,

Confirm the fceptic, and confound the fage.
The other book was ftuff'd with wild romance,
Where lawless Fiction wheel'd its wanton dance;

Tales of faints, pilgrims, virgins, knights, and 'fquires,
Regions of fcalding ice, and freezing fires,

Monks, falamanders, ftags, cats, monkeys, hogs,

Martyrs, popes, badgers, kings, cocks, bulls, and frogs,
Baboons, owls, prelates, emperors, and dogs.

Close at her heels, book-laden as the walk'd,

Her lordly fister, Imposition stalk'd :

She who by force all Falfhood's tales promotes,

Makes men affent, and crams them down their throats.' This poem is written with a laudable defign, that is, to expose fuperftition, tyranny, and fraud, when they impiously affume the appearance of religion.

25. The Academick Sportsman; or, a Winter's Day: A Poem. By the Rev. Gerald Fitzgerald, Fellow of Trinity-College, Dublin. 4to. 1s. Johnston.

Next to the pleasure of paffing a winter's day in the fport Mr. Fitzgerald defcribes, we relifh the reprefentation he has given of it. The poem is poetically defcriptive of the exercife of fhooting, and the principal fubject is intermixed with feveral epifodes, which are properly introduced and agreeable. 27. Ode on an Evening View of the Crefcent at Bath. Infcribed to the rev. Sir Peter Rivers Gay, Bart. 4to. 6d. DodЛley. This Ode was written on occafion of a scheme intended to convert the fields in the front of the Crefcent at Bath into a kitchen-garden. The author endeavours to diffuade the rev. Sir Peter Rivers Gay, who is proprietor of the ground, from that refolution, by conjuring up the Genius of the river Avon, to affure him, that if he does not relinquish the project, he will certainly be metamorphofed into a cauliflower. How far this threatening will operate on the reverend baronet, we do not know, but we hope that he will not facrifice the ornament of Bath to the infidelity he may entertain refpecting the credit of the prophet. In the mean time, the author feems to be indebted to the reverend baronet for the fourth part of the poem; for in every ftanza, through eleven pages, of which the Ode confifts, the laft line is, Sir Peter Rivers Gay.'

28. The Orange-Girl at Foote's to Sally Harris: or the Town to the Country Pomona. An Heroic Epifile. 40. 15. Bladon. The fubject and ftrain of this epiftle induce us to afcribe it to the author of The Rape of Pomona.' We cannot deny its title

to

6. Lettres d Elle et de Lui. Par une Dame de la Cour et qui n'eft pas d'une Académie. Paris. 12mo.

The most interefting part of this fhort novel is its title; and its ingenuity will hardly raise either the envy or regret of any aca

demician.

21. Lettres du Baron d'Olban. 12mo. Paris.

Another fhort, but much more interesting novel.

MONTHLY CATALOGUE.

POETRY.

22. Miscellaneous Poems, by John Byrom, M. A. F. R. Š. 2 Vols. 8vo. 10. fe wed. Rivington

Tpenfity

HIS ingenious author appears to have had fo great a proto verfification, that whatever might be the nature of the fubject which employed his attention, he chofe to exprefs his fentiments in the language of poetry. For this reason, the character of thefe Poems is extremely various: the gay, the grave, the light, the thoughtful, the ludicrous, the religious, all are occafionally to be met with in this mifcellaneous publication; but the editor has very properly placed the ferious Poems by themselves. Many of the pieces in this collection having been written rather for private than public perufal, they have the greater claim to the candour of criticism; though independent of this confideration they poffefs, in general, a degree of merit which it would be injurious not to admit to a highter rank in literary eftimation than indulgence only could juftify. The beautiful paftoral, beginning with

My time, O ye Mufes, was happily spent,

written by the author when a ftudent of Trinity-College, Cambridge, and placed the firft in this publication, is fufficient to procure Mr. Byrom a reputation in poetry.

23. The Adventures of Telemachus, an Epic Poem tranflated into English Verje, from the French of Monf. Fenelon, Archbishop of Cambray: 2 Vols. Book I. 410. 35. Hawes, Clarke, and Collins.

Though the beautiful ftyle of Fenelon leaves little room for regretting that he had not embellifhed the adventures of his hero with poetical measure, thofe who are defirous of beholding that admired production in a drefs in which its comparative merit, refpecting the epic poents of Homer and Virgil, can be more eafily afcertained, will undoubtedly receive pleafure in perufing the tranflation now before us. This fpecimen of the work is justly entitled to approbation. While the tranflator has fubjected his author to the fetters of rhyme, he has transfufed his fpirit with undiminished grace and energy, if he has not even heightened the beauty of the original by the harmony of verfe. But, tho' the tranflator undoubtedly deferves

F 3

the

the encouragement of the public, there is reafon for fearing that the high price of the work will render the completion of it abortive.

24. The Dying Negro, a Poetical Epifle, fuppofed to be written by a Black, (who lately feet himself on board a Vel in the River Thames ;) to his intended wife. 4to. Is. W. Flexney.

We are informed in an Advertisement that this Poem was occafioned by a paragraph which appeared very lately in the London papers, intimating, that a black, who a few days before, ran away from his mafter, and got himself chriftened, with intent to marry his fellow-fervant, a white woman, being taken, and fent on board the captain's fhip in the Thames, took an opportunity of fhooting himself through the head." Whatever credit may be due to this paragraph, can be a matter of no mo ment to the merit of the poem, which we acknowledge to be the moft claffical production of the kind we have lately perufed. In tenderness and variety of animated fentiment, it approaches nearest to the admired epiftles of Ovid. As it may be proper to gratify our readers with a specimen, we shall lay

'before them the conclufion.

• Why does my ling'ring foul her flight delay ?
Come, lovely maid, and gild the dreary way!
Come, wildly rufhing with diforder'd charms,
And clafp thy bleeding lover to thy arms,
Clofe his fad eyes, receive his parting breath,
And footh him finking in the fhades of death!
O come-thy prefence can my pangs beguile,
And bid th'inexorable tyrant fmile;
Tranfported will I languifh on thy breaft,
And fink in raptures to eternal rest:

The hate of men, the wrongs of fate forgive,
Forget my woes, and almoft with to live."
-Ah! rather fly, left ought of doubt controul
The dreadful purpose lab ring in my foul,

Tears must not bend me, nor thy beauties move,
This hour I triumph over fate and love.

Again with tenfold rage my bosom burns,
And all the tempeft of my foul returns,
Now fiery tranfports rend my madding brain,
And death extends his fhelt'ring arms in vain;
For unreveng'd I fall, unpitied die;
And with my blood glut Pride's infatiate eye!

Thou Chriftian God, to whom fo late I bow'd,

To whom my foul its fond allegiance vow'd,

When crimes like these thy injur'd pow'r prophane,

O God of Nature! art thou call'd in vain?

Did'st thou for this fuftain a mortal wound,

While heav'n, and earth, and hell, hung trembling round?
That these vile fetters might my body bind,
And agony like this diftract my mind?
On thee I call'd with reverential awe,

Ador'd thy wifdom, and embrac'd thy law;

Yet

Animaux auxquels elles fervent de Nourriture, leurs Analyses chymiques, la Manière de les employer pour nos Alimens tant Solides que Liquides; leurs Propriétés, non feulement pour la Médecine des Hommes, mais encore pour celle des Animaux, les Dofes et la Manière de les formuler et Les differens Ufags pour lefquels on peut s'en fervir dans les Arts et Métiers, &c. &c. &c. On y a joint une Bibliothéque raisonnée de tous les Livres de Botanique, l'Explication des différens Termes ufités dans cette Partie de l'Hiftoire Naturelle, une Notice de tous les Syflemes, et enfin la Liste des Professeurs et des Jardins Botaniques de l'Europe. Ouvrage orné de 1200 Planches gravées en Taille douce par les meilleurs Maîtres, et deffinées d'après Nature fur les Plantes les plus rares. du Jardin du Roi et de celui de Trianon, et d'après la magnifique Col lection de Planches déposée dans le Cabinet des Eftampes à la Biblio. théque du Roy, commencée et exécutée par Ordre et fous les Yeux de feu Monf. le Duc d'Orleans, Regent du Royaume, Par Robert et Audriet, &c. et continuée de nos jours par Madem. Baffeporte. Par M. Buchoz, Docteur en Médecine, &c. &c. &c. Tome I. II. III. Contenant les Planches. Fol. Paris.

BUT let us breathe and reft awhile-before we lament our laborious botanist's exceffive fondness of hyperboles and amplifications in his titles. For, furely, he cannot be in earnest in promifing what all the united labours of the whole learned world, were they all to turn botanists, and live together to the age of Methufalem, would be utterly unable to accomplish; fince the whole tudy of the productions of nature appears ftill to be in its infancy, and all the regions hitherto explored by naturalifts almost disappear when compared with thefe which they have never yet feen.

It is to this ifland chiefly, fays M. de Commerfon, in a letter dated at Madagascar, that nature feems to have retired as to fome particular fanctuary, there to operate according to models different from these to which he has subjected herself in other countries. The moft unufual and admirable forms are here found at every step. At the fight of fo many treasures lavished on this fertile country, one remains convinced, that it is one corner only of her multifarious and difperfed productions that has hitherto been lifted up.One can even hardly forbear a look of compaffion on these speculative reafoners who waste their lives in forging vain fyftems of botany, &c-Linnæus enumerates only about 8,000 fpecies of plants; the celebrated Sherard knew about 16,000; a modern calculator has thought to perceive the greatest amount of the vegetable kingdom, when he pushed it to 20,000 species. As for me, I will venture to fay, I have already collected 25,000; nor do I flatter myself with having yet collected one fifth part of the whole.'

Such are the reflections inspired by the contribution of one fingle inland towards An Univerfal History of the Vegetable Kingdom; or, a Dictionary of all the Plants growing on the Surface of the Globe. And a hundred fimilar remarks might be made on almost all the the effential promises of that title. But we forbear.-M. Buchoz deferves, no doubt, approbation and encouragement for his fpirit and induftry. Many of his promifes are great defiderata ; and fome of his works have a confiderable fhare of merit; to which we wish he might join that of modesty, and a deliberate ex

amen.

The plates contained in these three volumes, appear to be well engraved. The text of the work is to be published both in folio and octavo, in a number of volumes, that cannot poffibly as yet be afcertained.

[ 68

FOREIGN LITERARY INTELLIGENCE. 13. Epitre de M. de Voltaire à Horace,

14. Reponse d'Horace à M. de Voltaire.

THough poffeffed of a fortune fufficient for the moderate defires of a philofopher, or even the reasonable wishes of a prince; honoured with the implicit faith of a numerous fe&t in his oracles; and affured of terrefrial immortality by a statue erected to him in his life time; the celebrated poet of Ferney had of late very movingly complained of the miferies of his own times, the ma-lignity of criticism and flander, and many wretched verfes attributed to him; and addreffed his complaints in an epiftie to Horace, in Elyfium.

Suppofing now his poetical epistle to prove not lefs fweet and powerful than the mufic of Orpheus, and to have reached her addrefs; yet as there is no regular intercourfe as yet fettled between thefe bleffed manfions and this fublunary world; and as, of course, it would be fomewhat late before we could learn whether immortal Horace be yet fenfible to trifling mortal cares, and fufficiently acquainted with the French language and tafte, to relish rhymes and modern philofophy; fome minor French bard has obliged us with a very ingenious and polite anfwer, in which, with a competent dofe of compliments, we hope he has contrived to foothe the above complaints against wretched verses attributed to Voltaire, by infinitely more wretched rhymes written in the name of Horace. 15. Hiftoire des Celtes et particuliérement des Gaulois et des Germains, depuis les Tems Fabuleux jufqu'à la prise de Rome par les Gaulois, par Simon Pelloutier, Pafleur de l'Eglife Françoise de Berlin, &c. Nouvelle Edition, révue, corrigée, et augmentée, par M. de Chiniac, Avocat au Parlement. Paris. 8 vols. 12mo. 2 vols. 4to. This new edition has been confiderably improved by corrections of the tyle; by feveral notes and additions of the editor's; by placing the texts quoted by the author, at the bottom of the pages, and by an historical elogium of Mr. Pelloutier, compofed by Mr. Formey, and prefixed to vol. I.

6. Hiftoire Générale d'Allemagne depuis l'an de Rome 640 jufqu'à nos Joure. Par M. Montigny. 2 vols. 12mo. Paris.

These two first volumes contain only the Ancient History of Germany: and the second ends with Charlemagne.

17. Manuel du Jardinier, ou Journal de fon travail diftribue far mois, par M. D***. Paris. 12mo.

Containing an abstract of the most inftructive works on the culture of kitchen gardens, well digefted, reduced to a small compafs, and fo much the better adapted to the ufe of gardeners.

18. Seconde Lettre à M. de V... par un de fes Amis, fur l'Ouvrage intitulé l'Evangile du Jour. Paris. 8vo.

When truths evidently defigned to foften both the miferies of life and the horrors of death, are often and variously attacked by infidelity, we are forry to fee them fometimes afferted in a language by no means becoming their dignity and importance.

19. Cyrus, Tragedie en cinq actes, par M. Turpin, Auteur de l' Hiftoire du Grand Condé, &c. &c. 8vo. Paris.

Some parks of genius, abandoned by hurry and incorrectnefs to oblivion.

1

20. Let