The narrowing line of day-light, that ran after
The clofing door, was gone; and all about me
'Twas pale and dufky night, with many fhadows
Fantastically caft. Here fix or feven

Coloffal ftatues, and all kings, ftood round me
In a half-circle. Each one in his hand
A fceptre bore, and on his head a star,
And in the tower no other light was there

1

But from thefe ftars; all feem'd to come from them.
"These are the planets," said that low old man,
"They govern worldly fates, and for that caufe
Are imag'd here as kings. He fartheft from you,
Spiteful and cold, an old man melancholy,
With bent and yellow forehead, he is SATURN.
He oppofite, the king with the red light,
An arm'd man for the battle, that is MARS:
And both these bring but little luck to man.”
But at his fide a lovely lady flood,

The ftar upon her head was foft and bright,
And that was VENUS, the bright ftar of joy.
On the left hand, lo! MERCURY, with wings,
Quite in the middle glitter'd filver-bright
A cheerful man, and with a monarch's mien;
And this was JUPITER, my father's ftar:
And at his fide I faw the SUN and MooN.
MAX.

O never rudely will I blame his faith

In the might of ftars and angels! "Tis not merely
The human being's PRIDE that peoples space
With life and myftical predominance;
Since likewife for the ftricken heart of Love
This vifible nature, and this common world,
Is all too narrow: yea, a deeper import
Lurks in the legend told my infant years
Than lies upon that truth, w live to learn.
For fable is Love's world, his home, his birth-place
Delightedly dwells he 'mong fays and talifmans,
And fpirits; and delightedly believes

Divinities, being himfelf divine.

The intelligible forms of ancient poets,

The fair humanities of old religion,

The Power, the Beauty, and the Majefty,

That had their haunts în dale, or piny mountain,

Or forest by flow stream, or pebbly fpring,

Or chafms and wat'ry depths; all these have vanish'd,
They live no longer in the faith of reafon!
But ftill the heart doth need a language, still
Doth the old inftinct bring back the old names,
And to yon ftarry world they now are gone,
Spirits or gods, that us'd to share this earth
With man as with their friend; and to the lover

3

L

Yonder

Yonder they move, from yonder visible sky
Shoot influence down: and even at this day
'Tis Jupiter who brings whate'er is great,

And Venus who brings ev'ry thing that's fair!" P. 80

Not having the original with which to compare it, we cannot give any opinion refpecting the fidelity of the tranflation: as an English compofition, it does not want fpirit and energy; but is frequently faulty in rhythm, and devoid of harmony and elegance.

ART. 21. Adelmorn, the Outlaw. A Romantic Drama, in Three Alts. As originally written by M. G. Lewis. First performed at DruryLane Theatre, Monday, May 4, 1801. 8vo. 101 pp. 28. 6d. Bell. 1801.

The fingular title of Romantic Drama, as well as our knowledge of most of the other productions of this author, taught us to expect an excurfion with him beyond the bounds of truth, probability, and nature. The last of these, however, fhould, fo far as refpects the delineation of characters, and the conduct observed by them, even in thefe eccentric dramas, be adhered to.

In a quaint but good-humoured Preface, the author gives fome account of the origin of his piece, and the reception it met with on the ftage. The cataftrophe was, it feems, fuggefted by a story he had read of the discovery of a murder, "through the confcious terrors of the perpetrator, at the moment when, for want of evidence again't him, he was going to be acquitted." On this anecdote the Drama before us is founded; and we readily admit that it is far from being devoid of intereft, or unpleafing in the perufal. In its merits and defects, as a scenic reprefentation, we should have nearly concurred with the oi ; who seem to have borne firong teftimony to the unfkilfulness in the conduct of fome parts of the plot. In delineating fuch a catastrophe, the great difficulty was to make a change fo fudden, in the mind of a guilty and hardened culprit, understood by the audience. This Mr. Lewis obviated by his old expedient of a ghoft; but his ghofts are become to the public, what he feems to confider them himself, rather ludicrous than terrible. When the ghoft, on the next representation, was banished, fome external occurrence, likely to make a fudden impreffion on the criminal, fhould (we think) have been fubftituted for, without fuch a circumftance, a hardened confcience, after refifting fo many attacks, would fcarcely take fo fudden a turn, or yield at the moment of triumph. There are other objections to the conduct of the story, of most of which, indeed, the author feems well aware; but we repeat, that (except in the attempts at humour) it is by no means ill-written; and we fhould be pleafed to fee this writer apply his talents to fome more legitimate fpecies of the drama.

An apology is alfo made, in the Preface, for the justly cenfured Romance of the Monk; but we with the author was not fo fond of bringing that performance, again into notice. On that fubject we think, with the hero in the burlesque tragedy, that "the lefs is faid, the better,"

MEDICINE.

ART. 22.

MEDICINE.

The Medical Affiftant; or, Jamaica Practice of Phyfic: de figned chiefly for the Uje of Families. By Thomas Dancer, M. D. 4to. 384 pp. 11. 18. Jamaica printed, by Alexander Aikman. Imported by Murray and Highley, Fleet-Street. 1801.

Though this work is principally intended for the heads of families, to enable them to diftinguith difeafes, and in cafes of emergency, or where medical advice cannot eafily be procured, to apply the proper remedies, and is therefore written in a popular manner, yet the author has not thought it neceffary totally to avoid technical terms, or even reafoning phyfiologically, where it feemed neceffary to elucidate the phænomena of difeafe, or to give the rationale of the effects of the medicines recommended. He rightly observe, that though a professed medical education may not be neceffary in obtaining a general knowledge of the treatment of diseases, which he thinks fhould not be confined to the medical practitioner alone, yet fuch knowledge is hardly to be acquired but by perfons who have had a liberal education; and by them, thefe terms and modes of reafoning will be eafily underflood.

In his arrangement of difeafes, the author has not followed the ufual nofological order. He firft treats of difeafes affecting the whole body, comprising the different fpecies of fever, then of partial difeafes, or thofe having their feats in particular organs, or parts of the body, as confumption, dropfy, difeafes of the fkin, &c. The difeafes are, in general, concifely and clearly described, and the modes of treating them are fuch as are now ufually practifed, and need not be detailed; we fhall content ourselves therefore with felecting a few circumstances, showing the effect of climate on fome of them. It is the privilege," the author fays, " of the inhabitants of the tropics, to be in a great measure free from phthifical or confumptive complaints; but the exemption is not abfolute, for there are not wanting examples of genuine phthifis among natives who were never off the island;" (p. 416) but when formed, it appears to be equally fatal there as in Europe: the few cures, therefore, that have been performed in confumption, by fending the patients to the Weft-Indies, feem to have been effected by the voyage, rather than by the temperature of the climate there. Calcalus, or ftone in the kidneys or bladder, is fcarcely known among them. In the few cafes that have come under the author's care, the disease had been contracted in Europe. The operation of lithotomy, or cutting for the ftone, has never been performed, the author believes, in Jamaica; and he has never known but one perfon die of the complaint. It seems probable, therefore, that the violence of the difeafe is mitigated by the temperature of the climate. Dropfy, again, is by no means fo frequent in Jamaica as in Europe. The most common form of it there is the hydrothorax, or dropfy in the cheft. When formed it is equally rebellious to medicine there as in Europe. Though dif eafes of the fkin are numerous, and fome of them inveterate and dangerous, the itch is faid to be less infectious there than in Europe, and

the

the tinea, or scald-head, to be fcarcely known among them. The author apologises for the badnefs of the paper, no better being to be had, he fays, while the volume was printing. Indeed an apology was neceffary, as we have scarcely ever seen paper fo vile applied to printing; but to insure an acceptance of his apology, the price fet on the work should have been much reduced.

A Syftem of Diffe&ions, Parts IV. and V.-Appendix to Syftem of Diffections, Part I. containing additional Deferiptions of the Abdominal Mufcles. By Charles Bell," "Surgeon, Fellow of the College of Surgeons. Folio Plates. Johnson.

The author having, in the three former parts of the work, explained the order and mode of diffecting the integuments and contents of the abdomen, thorax, and pelvis, proceeds, in thofe before us, to lay down rules for diffecting the extremities. Numbers Four and Five, contain the diffection of the thigh, leg, and foot; and the Appendix, additional descriptions of the abdominal mufcles. These the author was enabled to give, by having met with a peculiarly hale and athletic fubject, in whom thofe mufcles were better marked and defined than they are ufually found. The reputation of this work is fo fully, and fo justly established, and the work is fo largely circulated, as to need no eulogium, or particular defcription from us; it will be fufficient to obferve, that the numbers before us are executed with the fame care and faithfulness as the former Parts; of which, fee our accounts, p. 68, and 392, in our 12th, and p. 554, in our 15th volume, and that the plates continue to be finished with equal neatness and correctness.

DIVINITY.

ART. 24. A Sermon preached at Durham, July 21, 1801, at the Vifitation of the Honourable and Right Reverend Father in God, Skute, Lord Bishop of Durham. By Robert Gray, B. D. Prebendary of Chichefter, and Rector of Craike, in the County of Durham. 4to. 30 pp. Hanwell and Parker, Oxford; Rivingtons, London. 1801.

25.

A principal part of the argument of this able Sermon is of a novel and very ingenious kind. After mentioning the chief of thofe extraordinary means by which the Gofpel was at first diffused, the third of which is ftated to be the gift of Tongues, the preacher adverts to the manifeftly providential appointment, for the advancement and prefervation of the Chriftian faith, in the permanency and establishment given to the Hebrew, Greek, and Latin languages. The firit, the language of the original Scriptures, "by a remarkable exemption from the ordinary fate of languages," preferved from innovation and debasement, till the infpired canon was clofed: the fecond, in which thofe first Scriptures were to be tranflated near three centuries hefore the advent of the Meliah, and in which the glad tidings of the Gospel were to be everlaftingly recorded," diffufed, eftablished, and rendered permanent by circumftances the moft peculiar and extraordinary: the laft, “ through which revealed wifdom was communi

66

cated

cated for many ages to the weftern church," extended by the power and authority of the Roman empire, fo as to become in its turn a moft admirable inftrument for the purposes to which it was appointed. Of this opinion, which appears to us entirely juft, we fhall only fay further, that it feems to require more diffufion and illustration than the compass or nature of a fermon would allow; and that, though the mind of the writer probably comprehended it in all its parts and relations, it is likely that it would not have the fame degree of clearness to those who heard it stated in that form.

The connection of Mr. R. Gray with the diocese of Durham is honourable both to himself and his Diocefan. For if it be asked, how came he established in that fituation? the only true answer that can be given is, "because he is a found and good divine, and wrote an excellent book for the fervice of Religion*."

ART. 25. A Sermon, preached at the Cathedral Church of St. Mary, in Lincoln, before the Right Reverend Father in God, the Lord Bishop of Lincoln, and the Reverend the Clergy, at his Lordship's Vifitation there, bolden on Monday, the 17th Day of July, 1797. By the Rev. William Hetty A. M. 8vo. 42 pp. Rivingtons. 1798.

The preacher shows (from Gen. i, 26) that the original properties of the human mind were "a clear undertanding, and an unperverted will, with a power of exerting them fully and effectually, in every inftance where duty is concerned" and he contends, that "these properties bear a ftrong refemblance to the three divine perfons of the ever-bleffed Trinity for though in the perfons of the Godhead, none is afore or after other, none is greater or less than another, in any one effential circumstance, ftill power appears to be the more appropriate attribute of the Father, Wifdom of the Son, and Goodness of the Holy Ghoft." He then endeavours to fhow, that the fun is a material emblem of the Trinity; that its light bears a strong resemblance to truth, and its heat to the operative powers of the mind, comprehended under the general term, the quill, or affe&ions." This, as is well known, is the Hutchinsonian notion, with which several able and pious men have been so much enamoured. The fubflance of the whole difcourfe is then briefly flated, that "thofe properties, which we denominate the divine attributes, are nothing more than diftant and imperfect resemblances of the infcrutable nature of the Deity; that the image of God, in which man was originally created, confitted in a power devoted to the profecution of truth and righteousness; that in the primary qualities of the human foul may be traced an analogical reprefentation of the Holy Trinity; and in the material fun is contained a far lefs perfect emblem of the fame Chriftian mystery." Although in fome points this difcourfe is certainly more fanciful than folid, yet we readily allow that it exhibits many proofs of animated piety, and a creditable fhare of reading.

* The Key to the Old Teftament. Also a volume of valuable Sermons, &c.

ART.