And see unmatch'd your crime-stain'd page,
Since time began.'

This kind of stanza is apt to tire; and as the poet is often very negligent, the reader will wish that he had vented his rage in a narrower compass.

Some of the stanzas, to use his own words, are sad, sad, sad.'

Art ༣༠.
The First Book of the Iliad of Homer translated into Blank
Verse; with Notes: by P. Williams, D.D. Archdeacon of Me-
rioneth, &c. small 8vo. PP. 77. 35. sewed. Lackington and Co.

18:6.

Dr. Williams observes that an attempt to translate the Iliad into English verse after such men as Pope and Cowper will, he is aware, astonish the Learned World:' but he informs us that the occasion of his undertaking the task was the amusement which he found in the exercise, after he had retired from the laborious employment of a public school; and his motive for publication was that, in comparing. his performance with the celebrated translations of Pope and Cowper, he thought that it had sufficient characteristic merit of its own to induce him to revise and prepare it for the press In the work, his great endeavour,' he says, has been to avoid the ascititious finery of Pope on the one hand, and on the other the "robes antique" of Cowper and in their stead to represent the noble bard in a characteristic English dress'; he hopes that the style will not be found bald, nor the verse tame and uncouth;' and he says that it hath been attempted, though the attempt be desperate, to imitate in every particular the ease and divine simplicity of the great original.'

Such is the language used by the translator; the undertaking is a bold one; and a man must be possessed of many enviable attainments to prosecute it with success. In the examination of the specimen before us, we contemplate an effort which it would be impossible to accomplish; an endeavour is here made to give a translation at once versified and literal: but there are no two languages whose idioms will admit of their being so rendered; and in consequence therefore of the difficulties with which Dr. W. was thus contending, his style is often obscure, his expressions are unappropriate, and his phrases unnaturally inverted. The chief object of a translation is to render into one language the sense and spirit of another, for the benefit of persons who do not understand the original; and in the attainment of this object, Dr W. has in a great measure failed, since a mere English reader will often be at a loss to ascertain the meaning of the author. In the execution of the version, however, the Dr. manifests great care and industry; and considering the insurmountable difficulties which opposed him, it shews that he possesses no mean abilities. The following are the first 20 lines:

Sing, Goddess, Peleus' son's accursed wrath,
Which caus'd the Greeks innumerable woes,
And many a Hero's soul to Hades hurl'd,
Illustrious Souls! but the bare corse expos'd
To dogs, and all the ravenous fowls, a prey;

[Lo

[Lo thus Jove's purpose was fulfill'd] e'er since
The day, that Agamemnon, King of men,
And great Achilles, were by strife disjoin'd.

What God involv'd them in that dire debate?
Latona's son, and Jove's: for, at the King
Enrag'd, he made a foul contagion spread
Thro' all the host; and many a soldier died!
For Atreus' son had Chryses roughly us'd,
Apollo's Priest; who to the nimble ships
Of Greece had come, his daughter to redeem,
And, with that view, had gifts immense convey'd,
Holding Apollo's garland in his hands,

On sceptre bright with gold; and all the Greeks
He pray'd, but chiefly Atreus' noble sons,
The two great leaders of th' united host :'

This translation may be serviceable to young students in assisting them to understand the meaning of the original; and the critical notes which accompany it will be perused by them with profit. In this respect, it will answer the end of the author; who, in a part of his preface, says that it is chiefly intended for the Novice in Greek learning, and that the comparing of different translations with each other, and the original, may tend, if not to ascertain the author's exact cast and expression, yet probably to form the young scholar's taste and improve his judgment.'

At the end of the book, are Conjectures concerning the Origin of the Poetic Fiction that the summit of Olympus was the place where the Gods assembled in Council;' in which the translator supposes that the appearance of the Aurora Borealis was the origin of the fiction in question.

MEDICAL, &c.

Art. 31. Cases and Cures of the Hydrophobia, selected from the Gentleman's Magazine: containing many curious and interesting Accounts relative to that alarming Malady. 8vo. 2s. Stace. 1807. The compiler of this pamphlet has probably been induced to undertake the task, in consequence of the reports that have lately prevailed respecting the frequency of this dreadful malady. As a scientific work, however, it can be intitled to very little commendation; anonymous papers in a magazine not being sources from which a medical man expects to acquire any very important addition to his professional knowlege. Yet the publication is not without some value, as exhibiting, in a connected view, the state of opinion on a subject in which the welfare and feelings of the community are intimately concerned. We think that it may be inferred from this compilement, that credulity on medical topics is on the decline. Half a century ago, specifics poured in from every quarter, many of them sanctioned by the highest authority, which appear to have acquired universal repute: but we believe that it may be confidently affirmed that if a second Dr Mead should appear in the present age, he would not venture to propose liverwort as an infallible remedy for Hydrophobia.

Art.

Art. 32. An Examination into the Principles of what is commonly called the Brunonian System. Introductory to a Series of Aphorisms upon. Life and Mind, Health and Disease; with an Attempt to form a more simple and philosophical Arrangement of Diseases, upon the present state of our Knowledge of the Animal Economy. By Thomas Morrison, Member of the Royal College of Surgeons, London. 8vo. 4. Boards. Highley.

The late Dr. Garnett was well known to have been one of the most zealous defenders of the Brunonian hypothesis; and in his posthumous work, intitled Lectures on Zoonomia, he employed it very extensively in the explanation of the phænomena of the animal economy. The publication of that book appears to have been the principal motive with Mr. Morrison, for giving his sentiments on this subject to the world; since, conceiving that the hypothesis was founded in error, and might lead to dangerous practical confequences, he was anxious to counteract these evils by exposing its fallacy. In pursuance of this intention, he proposes to consider the Brunonian system in four points of view; endeavouring to prove, in the first place,

That its principles are not founded upon the true laws of the animal economy;

Next, That they are contradictory and inconsistent in themfelves;

Thirdly, That they are not sufficiently general in their application to Diseases ;-and,

Finally, That they may lead to dangerous errors in practice." Mr. M. commences his strictures by some remarks on the new terms adopted by Brown, especially the one so frequently employed, ́excitability. He endeavours to shew that Brown himself had not a perfectly clear conception of its import, and that his disciple, Dr. Garnett, is liable to the same imputation: but he alleges a more serious charge against the Brunonians, for he attempts to prove that, in the idea which they have given of excitability, they have confounded cause and effect: they explain this word as being synonimous with life or vital principle, while they affirm that life is the result of powers acting on the excitability. After the numerous controversies to which this subject has given rise, and the various explanations and illustrations of it that have been attempted, it cannot be expected that we should be able to throw much light on it in the narrow limits to which we are restricted. We shall only remark that we conceive the terms life and vital principle to have been used in at least as vague a manner as excitability; being sometimes intended to express the effect of the animal powers, as exhibited in the living body, and at other times the cause of these effects, the irritability of the muscular fibre and the sensibility of the nervous system. The Brunonians appear to have used it in the latter sense; but they have exhibited in a striking manner their inattention to the phænomena of vitality, in confounding the actions of these two distinct systems, which had been so clearly discriminated by many of their predeces sors. This spirit of generalization we regard as the prominent error in the hypothesis, and as a principal cause which must render it of

little value, either in the speculations of the physiologist or the practice of the physician. Notwithstanding the genius of Brown, it appears to us sufficiently evident that he had not a distinct conception of the whole of his hypothesis; and that he did not attach a definite idea even to its fundamental propositions. An inconsistency of this kind is pointed out by Mr. Morrison in the account which is given of this same property, excitability; a circumstance which lies at the very foundation of his system, and on which its merits must in a considerable degree depend. We are told that the nature of excitability is altogether unknown; and that therefore we are not to conceive of it as a thing to which me sures of quantity can be applied, although the poverty of language may occasionally render such expressions necessary: but can any one have paid the slightest attention to the subject, without being convinced that not merely the expressions, but the very substance of the whole theory, consist in ascertaining the increase or diminution of this property; and that its boasted simplicity entirely depends on reducing all diseases to a scale of quantity?

Mr. M. farther attacks the Brunonian hypothesis on the manner in which the exciting powers are supposed to produce the two states of direct and indirect debility, which in his opinion involves a palpable contradiction. We are first informed that, by diminishing these powers, the excitability or vital principle is accumu lated; whereas we are afterward told that, by the progressive removal of the exciting powers, the vital principle is gradually dimi nished, until it is at length extinguished. The idea of the Brunonian indirect debility appears to this author equally paradoxical. In this condition of the system, the vital principle is supposed to be accumulated in the highest degree, and yet it is exhausted by the most trifling exertion; so that the more of life the body possesses, the less able is it to perform the actions of vitality.

The vague and ill defined manner, in which the term stimulus was employed by Brown, affords another striking instance of his tendency to premature generalization; in fact, the word stimulus, as used by this sect, means nothing more than action or effect; for what farther resemblance can be traced between the operation of lightening, arsenic, food, and alcohol, all which are referred to the head of stimulants?

Although we think that this treatise exhibits marks of ability, it has not that decided excellence which can enable it to make any great impression on the public mind. Indeed, our opinion is that the popularity of the Brunonian doctrine is rapidly declining; and though it may continue to catch the attention of the student by its boldness and simplicity, the absolute impossibility of reconciling it to the phenomena of disease must be an insuperable bar to its reception by the experienced practitioner.

MISCELLANEOUS.

Art. 33. A Letter to Samuel Whitbread, Esq. M.P. containing some Remarks on the Poor Laws, leading to a Description of the peculiar Poor Situation of the Hamlet of Mile End New-Town,

Stepney.

Stepney. By the Rev. John Cottingham.

1807.

Svo. Pamphlet.

After some general observations on the imperfection of our System of Poor Laws, Mr. C. proceeds to corroborate the statement of Mr. Hale, (see an account of his pamphlet in our last Number, p. 331) respecting the distressed situation of the Hamlet of Mile-End New Town; the features of its misery being without a parallel, and admitting no prospect of relief within itself. It may be presumed that this singular case will not be overlooked by the Legislature, and that some means will be devised to alleviate the hardships which so greviously oppress this district.

Art. 34. The Principles and Regulations of Tranquillity; an Institution commenced in the Metropolis, for encouraging and enabling industrious and prudent Individuals in the various Classes of the Community, to provide for themselves, by the Payment of small weekly Sums, in such a Way as shall secure to each Contributor, or to his Widow and Children, the Benefit of his own Economy, for receiving the Savings of Youth of both Sexes, and returning the same at the Time of Marriage, with Interest and proportionate Premiums thereupon; for enabling Parents, by the Payment of small Suns at the Birth of their Children, to provide Endowments for them at the Age of 21 Years; and also for other useful and important Purposes, particul-rly for concentrating and applying the Exertions of the Liberal to the Benefit of the Indigent, so as to prevent the Unworthy claiming, or the Impostor abusing, their Benevolence and thus affecting the gradual Abolition of the Poor's Rate, whilst it increases the Comforts of the Poor By John Bone, Author of an “Outline of a Plan for reducing the Poor's Rate, &c. in a Letter to the Right tionorable George Rose, M. P." Svo. PP. 99. 3s 6d. Asperne. 105.

So ample a title fully informs the reader of the nature of the pamphlet: but the subject is too great to be treated in the cursory way of which our plan, as it respects tracts of this sort, will admit

The

zeal, activity, and diligence, displayed by the writer, are highly commendable; and persons who direct their attention to the important matters here under consideration, whatever they may think of the scheme, will meet with hints and observations which are well worthy of consideration.

Art. 35. The Speech of Randie Jackson, Esq. addressed to the Honorable the Committee of the House of Commons, appointed to consider the State of the Woollen Manufacture of England, on Behalf of the Cloth-workers and Shearmen of the Counties of Yorkshire, Lancashire, Wiltshire, Somersetshire, and Gloucestershire. P blished by them from the Short hand Copy of Mr. Gurney. 8vo. pp. 79. s. 6d. Stockdale 18c6.

This speech is professedly in behalf of that description of manu. facturers named in the title, whose case, from their having been for three or four years under Mr. Jackson's paternal guidance and di rection,' is supported with considerable zeal. With the interests of his clients, however, the speaker combines views of a public nature.