613

ART. VI.-Emilia of Lindinau; or, The Field of Leipsic. A Poem, in four Cantos. By MARY ARNOLD HOUGHTON. London. Whittingham and Arliss. 1815. pp. 201. Price' 8s. bds.

THIS poem is one of a class which we have frequent occa sion to notice in the progress of our monthly labours. Laudable in its tendency, elegant in its sentiments, and correct in its diction, its melody rather soothes than animates. The notes please while they are heard, but they come and wake no fervour in the fancy-they depart and leave no traces on the memory. We read, and we commend, but we forget to read again. Something is wanting to the heart, though all is complete to the taste; the work is deficient in genius and poetical inspiration. Emilia of Lindinau has fewer defective lines, fewer tame expressions and compulsatory rhymes than the most perfect of the poems of Walter Scott. Yet, whom do we find, among the busy or the dissipated, the learned or the superficial, whose mind does not involuntarily retain some passage from that enchanting poet, whose excellencies we do not coldly praise but warmly feel, and whose very defects we love.

Miss Houghton has not scrupled to avail herself of what Lord Byron calls "the fatal facility of octo-syllabic verse;" but the pauses are judiciously varied, and the uniformity of the measure is relieved by occasional songs. Altogether, the performance is creditable to the talents of the lady, and would not disgrace many of the grown gentlemen who make verses and publish them. We do not think, with a learned brother of our craft, that women are by nature unqualified to touch the epic lyre; nor would we desire to confine that expansive genius which sometimes glows in a female bosom, within the narrow bounds of madrigal or sonnet; though we certainly did, on a former occasion, say something to that effect. Till we see one of our male cotemporaries produce a work equal to "De l'Allemagne," or "L'Italie," which are equally critical, poetical, or philosophical, we shall not readily admit the expediency of enforcing any salique restriction on the mind.

This poem combines a very pretty domestic story with some notices of the great battle of Leipsic; but these are by no means so circumstantial as the title had led us to expect. We do not, however, think the work will be the less popular on that account. The town has been surfeited with

battle-poetry; and not only a bold and forcible pen, and previous familiarity with scenes of passion, danger, and death, but considerable local knowledge and peculiar opportunities for correct information, such as can hardly ever fall to the lot of any woman, are essential to give interest and identity to the narration of a recent contest between the great powers of Europe.

We select for our readers a few passages, perhaps not the best, but those most easily detached from the poem.

"Far in a wild and quiet grove,
Fit haunt for Genius and for Love,
Wash'd by old Elbe's majestic tide,
A rock uprears its dark grey side,
Within whose deep recesses stands,
A grotto form'd by Nature's hands.
From the cleft roof a doubtful light
Gave ore and spar to sparkle bright,
And ray, like that of moon-beam, shone
On mossy floor and couch of stone;
Wreaths of wild-rose and woodbine spray
Hung mantling o'er the rude door-way,
Beneath whose arch there wander'd still
A little silver tinkling rill,

That, murm'ring o'er the pebbles, made
Meet music for such quiet shade.
Oft here, in childhood's frolic hours,
Emilia brought her gather'd flow'rs,
And here her harp's romantic sound
Gave sweetness to the echoes round.
Here too, with meek and downcast eyes,
Young Passion pour'd his infant sighs;
While soft Confusion's rosy red
Emilia's bashful cheek o'erspread,
And through her silken eye-lash stole

The glance that spoke her secret soul.”—p. 20.

SONG,

"You ask me why the lyre is still,

O'er which my hand so often stray'd,

When, throbbing wild to pleasure's thrill,
My heart responded as I play'd.

Ah, ask no more-those days are fled,
And with them fled the jocund strain;

Or, like the mem'ry of the dead,
It only wakes to waken pain,

Whene'er the witching lay I hear,
Which once each sense in magic bound,
Remembrance sadly hov'ring near,
In ev'ry note inflicts a wound..

Where is the voice whose thrilling tone
Dissolv'd in softness o'er the lyre,
And gave a charm, till then unknown,
To all the poet's glowing fire?
Where is the scarcely-whisper'd sigh,
Which oft the pause of feeling broke;
The ling'ring gaze, the beaming eye,
Where all the soul distinctly spoke?
Ah! lost to me, I seek in vain

Some fancied semblance still to view;
For time can ne'er return again

The dream of bliss my fancy drew.

Then sleep, my lyre-thy sprightly tone
Can only mock this pensive breast;
He, who inspir'd the lay, is gone,
And let thy strings in silence rest."

P. 79.

ART. VII.-1. Three familiar Lectures on Craniological Physiognomy; delivered before the City Philosophical Society. By A MEMBER. Embellished with Engravings. 8vo. London. E. Wilson. 1816. pp. 114.

2. The Craniad; a serio-comic Poem. London. Sherwood and Co. 1816.

THESE productions, with several others on the same subject, are the result of indignant feeling at the violent shock given to fixed and permanent opinion, by the assault of the massive books of Drs. Gall and Spurzheim. It is admitted as a principle in mechanics, that weight is force; but, in the matter of books, we trust it will always be allowed, that physical and moral weight differ materially.

We opened the former of these tracts with some degree of unwillingness, apprehending, from the seriousness of the title-page, that we were about to enter upon an elaborate exposition and vindication of the farce which Gall and Spurzheim have performed upon the stage of science with such disgraceful success-the one in France, and the other in this country. Of the numbers of their patrons and admiring converts among the solid thinkers of their own nation, we hear but little, and believe less. It is a trite observation, that a prophet has no honour in his own country; yet real merit will, we believe, always flourish in the soil to which it is indigenous, without requiring to be transplanted to any

variety of climate; while quackery, like a parasite plant, maintains its baleful elevation, only so long as it is supported by the sturdy patience of its prop and victim. We found ourselves most agreeably deceived in our prognostics of the tenour of this lively and amusing work. It possesses all the point and raciness of sportive satire, with much of the exactness of logical deduction. We are clearly informed in its pages what craniology pretends to be, and what it is not. What it is-we can scarcely state, without violating the laws of good breeding towards the learned professors who aspire to rule over the heads of the people. It is parlia mentary enough to charge, by certain conventional phrases indirectly used, an honourable or right honourable member with any degree of political vice or folly; nor is it wholly inconsistent with the practice of our courts to tax a learned brother, who may happen to be one's most intimate friend and chosen associate, with wilful perversion of truth. But what author dares to depart so far from the dignity of his calling, as to charge the compounders of enormous quartos, the declaimers in copious lectures, or the oracles of literary coteries, with a gross attempt to insult and deceive a generous and hospitable nation, and the despicable meanness of solemnly asserting as facts, stories which they do not themselves believe!

Very far indeed from any thing so rude and unauthorlike is the language of our acute and courteous lecturer; who

says:

"As it is only with Dr. Spurzheim's philosophical speculations and intellectual character that I am concerned, I avoid any allusion to his moral principles, and shall not, therefore, inquire by what motives he was induced to travel from Germany, to promulgate his ingenious and useful doctrines in this country. This extraordinary conduct has been variously ascribed to the love of mankind," to the love of fame,' to the love of craniology,' and to the love of money;' and in this last motive the generality of persons seem inclined to acquiesce. On the contrary, however, the advocates for the science affirm, that it was pure disinterested philanthropy alone which drew (or drove) the learned Doctor from the place of his nativity, to sojourn among strangers in a distant land;' and that he is capable of demonstrating that his new system, when once established, may easily be rendered more extensively and more lastingly beneficial to mankind than even the famous Elixir of Life, discovered by his never-tobe-forgotten predecessor and prototype, Paracelsus the Great."-Lect. I. p. 11.

The first lecture treats of the science of physiognomy, or the faculty of judging of the internal qualities of the mind by the external conformation and babits of the body, in all

its branches; and relates, in a brief but luminous manner, the various hypotheses entertained by Baptista Porta, (the father of comparative anatomy,) Lavater, and Professor Camper. This part of the work is illustrated by several interesting anecdotes, and the lecture concludes with this passage:

"I shall conclude this lecture with noticing another calumny by which the intellectual character of Dr. Spurzheim has been attacked; a calumny so cruel as to excite the regret of the more liberal of the learned Doctor's opponents, and of so barefaced a kind as to carry its own refutation along with it. Dr. Spurzheim having ingenuously told us, that Dr. Gall was the real inventor of this new system of physiognomy; and that that great and original genius had made considerable progress towards its establishment before he was so happy as to become acquainted with him; but that Gall, finding him to be dexterous at dissecting, agreed to divide the profits of the speculation between them; and that, for a long time, he has been especially charged with the prosecution of the anatomical part of craniology. Some witling has most wickedly and maliciously said, that if the book which Dr. Spurzheim has published in our language proves nothing else, it must be allowed to prove, at least, the possibility of the poet's declaration being true, when he says,

"That in your nice affair of system,

"Wise men propose, but fools assist them."-Lect. I. p. 31.

In the third division of the work, the ingenious author specifies and comments upon all the newly-invented mental qualities and propensities, upon which Dr. Spurzheim has generously bestowed both

"A local habitation and a name."

We have, in our patience of folly and endurance of absurdity, "suffered persecution and learned mercy ;" and therefore will not torment our readers any more about adhesiveness, combativeness, secretiveness, &c. &c., but we must quote a few lines concerning veneration, (we marvel that the learned Doctor does not call it venerativeness).

"It is notorious enough, that all persons do not go to church from sentiments of piety, or motives of duty; but that some go from habit, some from interest, some to keep their assignations, some from a desire to exhibit themselves, and to be entertained with the exhibitions of others: few, it is to be feared, go for the purpose of setting a good example; fewer still to learn their duty toward the Supreme and to each other; still fewer to humble themselves before Him in whom they live, and move, and have their being;' and fewest of all, it may fairly be presumned, enter the temples of religion during public worship for the purpose of advancing the interests of science. Dr. Gall, however, who is extraordinary in every thing, is one of that small number; and, to promote the interests of the important science of craniology, he visited churches, in order to observe the configuration of the heads of those who excelled in devotion.' The first discovery that he made was, 'that the heads of all those who prayed with the