der imaginary perfons, is shadowed some real action, or in.
structive moral; but in this poem no real action is shadowed ;
and, what is of more consequence, the piece is exceedingly
deficient in moral, or rather is absolutely immoral; for, by re-
presenting marriage in a satyrical and false light, it seems in-
tended to excite a general odium against that most happy con-
nection. It is, indeed, lucky, that the Author possesses not
much of the magic of poetry; for tho' there is ingenuity in
the structure of some parts of the fable, yet are not his num-
bers fo enchanting, as not to let the reader see, that the poem,
upon the whole, is as ill-conducted as it is ill-designed,
In the golden age reigned Cupid, and,

Inspir'd by him, the great paternal God (a),
With grace and dignity sublimer glow'd;
He tun'd his lyre that more divinely sung,
With finer eloquence adorn'd his tongue;
With brighter beauties deck'd the Cyprian dame,

And arım'd her eyes with more refiftless flame.
The other Deities too, and man also, confessed his fway:

No faithless shepherd then was known to feign,
A love he did not feel, for fordid gain ;
No fạir, by artful modefty with-held,

The love her anxious bolom own'd conceald. But Gods and Men did not long enjoy this supreme felicity, Hermaphroditus was the unhappy occasion of a sad reverse of fate. All the Nymphs and Naids loved him; but he, infenfible to their charms, betook himself to Ihady groves, and purling streams. In the course, however, of his peregrinations, he came to Salmacis, a river of Lycia, which flowing between embow'ring fhades, and being dimpled by a gentle breeze, the coolness and transparency invited him to bathe. Here the guardian Goddess of the silver flood,

Herself, unseen, beheld the youth, admir'd
His lovely form, and what the faw, defir'd.
But as he casts his airy dress afide,
Nor hides his naked charms, nor itrives to hide:
As on her view his growing beauties rise,
Through all her frame the keen contagion flies,
Love settles in her breast, and sparkles from her eyes.
When naked now his lovely limbs divide
The stream, and shew more lovely through the tide,
In soft embraces longing to be join'd,
She plung 'd into the tream, not mistress of her mind.

}

fa) Apolla, the father of Capid.

She

}

She forc'd her way, and seiz'd the struggling boy,
Averse to charms, reluctant to the joy ;
The more he strugglid, flill the more she press’d,
Entwin'd her limbs, and ç'ipt him to her breatt :
Then to th’immortal Gods her suit address'a.
As they were join'd, so join'd they might remain,

Nor chance, nor time itself dissolve the chain, All this description is borrowed from Ovid; but our Au. thor has over-looked some of the most striking beauties in that pleasing poet. What follows is, however, an improvement on the original :

So pray'd the nymph, neglecting in her prayer
The sympathy of soul, the mutual carę
Which spring from union, and consent of bearts,

Which cherish love.
For the prayer being accepted, a monstrous union ensued,

The female o'er the motley union reigns ;
A fix'd aversion still the male retains,
And prays no issue from their loins might come ;

Joyless the bed, and barren be the womb (6).
But his address was not granted, for in due time,

The nymph (c) produc'd a song
From thence (a) by Gods and Mortals Hymen nam'd,
And in his hand the torch of discord fam'd,
Giv'n by the Goddess at his natal hour,

Sign of his fource, and emblem of his power. For Jove and the Fates had decreed, that the son should avenge the fire, by binding the youths and virgins in chains which nothing but death could loofę.

But no sooner was Hymen known on earth, than the Fair, continues the Bard, either misled by pride, or affecting no

(6) In Ovid, when Hermaphroditus faw himself transformed into a monster, neither woman nor boy, he prayed to his parents,

wo Sed jam non voce virili

Quisquis in hos fontes vir venerit; exeat inde

Semivir : et ta&tis fubito mollescat in undis. Accordingly the antients believed that this river had a wonderful effect in enervating a man.

(c) Is there ngt fome impropriety in calling a double-sex'd monster a Nymph?

(d) We see no connection between Hymen and this supposed manper of his birth. Hymen is derived from the Greek word vfursa'a çelebro. The antients more juftly supposed Hymen to be the lon of Apollo and of Urania,

velty, deserted the God of Love, and placing Hymen in his Atead, paid their adorations to him only.

And tho' the favour'd youth to love invite,
Scorn his embrace, reject the dear delight,
Till Hymen bids, and fett'ring both in chains,

Entails a life of miseries and pains. Nor are the Fair, says this perspicacious Bard, who fall in love, in a better situation, for the hard-hearted swains will not fatisfy their defires,

Till Hymen bids the bliss, and binds the chain." Which if they refused, the consequence was, solitary virginity to the maids, or promiscuous love to the males.

Or if either sex yielded to marriage, as that God was wholly regardless of those tender sympathies which love requires,

He join'd as chance, or wayward fancy guides,

Indifferent bridegrooms, or reluctant brides. But as Hymen was endowed with a brazen front, he tells his votaries, that if they loved before,

His chains would only bind their love the more,
And if they lov'd not, love would thence arise,
Grow in his bonds (e), and Atrengthen in bis ties.
How false the word ; indifference, stedfast hate,

And Arifes and jars distract the nuptial state. At the sight of this change on earth, Cupid, with indignation, followed Astrea to Heaven; Venus, however, remained be

low, and

Enchants the foepherd till, and charms the wains.
But reserve and modesty, the armour of beaụty, being gone,
Venus turned prostitute, and permitting every liberty to the
Fauns, Satyrs, and Priapus, whom she before had rejected,
the became at last pregnant (f),

Far from her wonted haunts her course she bore,
And hid her fame on India's favage shore.
Without Lucinas' aid, her pangful throes,
A dreadful Dæmon to the day disclose.
Disease and Death rejoice ; with mortal fright,

Kind Nature starts, and sickens at the sight. (e) Of all faults in writing, there are few lefs pardonable than the giving the fame idea in different words. Our Author has many pleonasms.

(f) Had promiscuous love been the parent of the lues veneria, the antients had not been unacquainted with that direful malady: The truth is, the p— is an endemic diseafe, in the new world, and came to Europe by infection,

These

po

(6)."

The two last lines are the best in the poem; but the picture that follows of the Dæmon, is not only disgustful beyond sufferance, but falle in some of its colourings. Nor are we much more entertained with the description of those ills which the P- produces in the world. And if Longinus (8) blames Hefiod for the odiousness of the following image, in that et's personification of darkness, (exaus)

Της εα μεν γενων μυξάι ρεον what would that delicate critic have said of this part of the present poem? Fracastorius was aware of this objection, and has with great dexterity avoided it, thó his subject (i) most naturally led him into an enumeration of the symptoms of the venereal disease. His portraiture of a youth languishing under the effects of this disorder, excites our pity for the melancholy sufferer, but raises not our aversion to the cause (k). These things discover the genuine poet. But to proceed.

The amicted immediately apply for assistance, to the professors of phyfic, who addressed Apollo and Æsculapius to teach them the method of cure:: but the Gods of medicine could afford them no aid : the disorder baffled their science. Cyllenus laughed, and alarmed Apollo by calling him a wretched quack, and his art a jeft.

He fears,
Left, as th' harmonius lyre Cyllenius stole,
And that persuasive art which wins the soul,
So he should steal his boatled bealing skill,

And gain the privilege (7) by art to kill.
Nor were his apprehensions groundless.

Lama lor all the Doctors own, The Dæmon yields to Mercury alone. Parturiunt montes! What a wretched pun is this! Nor is it true; for tho' Mercury is the grand antisiphylic, yet are there other remedies more effectual than even'that mineral, in some of the symptoms of this disease.

At this place, however, the allegory, such as it is, should have ended; but the Author drags on through twenty-eight lines more, at the end of which we have an impertinent conclusion to a most impertinent poem : the worthy moral of which is, If you live single, the p- is your destiny; and, if you marry, there is an end of all felicity!

However, as the Author is not entirely deftitute of poetical merit, we hope, the next time he publishes, that he will be more attentive to his plan, as well as more careful of his 'numbers.

(g) Sect. 7. (6) The shield of Hercules, 1. 267. () Syphilis. (X) Sub. finem, lib. prim. (1) Do these two lines agree? What an impotent fatyr is this, upon physic!

For, A UGUST, 1756.

MISCELLANEOU S. 1. MR. Archibald Bower's -Afidavit in Answer to the false Accusations brought against him by Papists

. To which are added, 1. A circumstantial Narrative of what hath fince passed between Mr. Bower and Sir Henry Bedingfield in relation thereto. 2. Copies of the said pretended Letters sent him by Sir Henry Bedingfield, and of a subsequent Affidavit made by Mr. Bower of their not being wrote by him, or with his Privity. With some Short Observations on those pretends ed Letters, proving them to be spurious. 8vo. 1S. Sandby:

In this finall pamphlet we have, first, Mr. Bower's Affidavic sworn in the court of King's-Bench, May 31, 1756, before co. pies of the Letters mentioned in our latt Number were delivered to him by Sir Henry Bedingfield. In this Affidavit Mr. Bower maketh oath, That he came into England in or about the month of June or July, 1726, and that for upwards of twenty-nine years Jaft paft, he hath not been present at any religious worship or ceremony of the Romifh religion; or practised, repeated, or used any of the ceremonies, offices, prayers, or devotions, peculiar to that church, either in public or privare; or been in any manner, or by any act whatsoever, reconciled to, or expressed his approbation of, the Popish religion, or any of the errors or tenets of that church condemned by Protestants ; but doth now believe, and for upwards of twenty-nine years lait past hath believed and esteemed, the principal tenets maintained by the church of Rome, in opposition to the Protestants, to be impious and heretical ;-that he hath for upwards of twenty-four years last joined with the church of England as by law efablidhed in this kingdom, and, during that time, used his utmost endeavours to convince several of his relations, and others, who were eduBated in the Romish religion, of the errors thereof; and that the contents of the Letters are entirely false, scandalous, and groundless, and a wicked contrivance and forgery of the Papists to blacken his good name, and hurt the Protestant cause, &c.

What weight Mr. Bower's Affidavit may have with the public, we know not. As to the Letters being a contrivance of the Pac pists to blacken his name, there feems to be little, if any, foundation for such a pretence. It is well known to those who have been at pains to enquire into this matter, that the Papists have endeavoured to throw obitructions in the way of such enquiry, instead of being desirous to promote it. And for this conduct of theirs, a very obvious reason may be assigned. They are very fenfible that a fuil and impartial enquiry into this affair, would bring to light a great many circumstances, which it is their un. doubted interest to corccal. - Buc we must not enlarge.

duc

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