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which Affeman defcribes, and which is a great deal younger than the two firft, is (as we have before observed) fo extraordinary, that it has given rife to various conjectures; but we are, with Affeman, of opinion, that Barfauma, or whoever tranfcribed this copy, was induced by ignorance, or vanity, to alter the two laft notes, and to apply them to himself,—when, in fact, the fecond note related to Thomas of Heraclea, and the third to fome later transcriber.

ART. XIII. Danebury: or, the Power of Friendship. A Tale. With Two Odes. By a Young Lady. 410. 1 s. 6d. Johnfon.

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HE fcene of this affecting little tale is laid at DaneburyHill, an ancient camp in the vicinity of Stockbridge in Hampshire, near which, according to tradition, a battle was fought between the Danes and the Weft Saxons, in which the former were defeated.' During the battle, Elfrida, whose anxiety for the fate of her father had compelled her to follow him, receives a wound from a poifoned arrow. Juft as she is expiring, her friend Emma fucks out the poifon from the wound, and restores her to life:

But ah! from Emma's cheek the roses fly,
Joy beam'd a fmile, while pain awak'd a figh:
Too foon fhe felt her fickening fpirits fail,
And languor o'er life's active fprings prevail !
But loth to damp the joy she had inspir'd,
To the cool air fhe unobferv'd retir'd.

Beneath an ancient elm's romantic fhade,
Where ruftic toil an humble feat had made;
When day departing crimson'd o'er the sky,
And glitter'd on the stream that wander'd by,
The little friendly groupe would oft repair,
(While breathing woodbines fweeten'd all the air)
Each blameless feeling of their hearts unfold,
Or listen to the tale of times of old.

Ah happy moments! ever, ever fled !

Now Emma there reclines her dying head!

While o'er her pallid face creeps death's cold dew,

And all the landscape fwims before her view.

'When near approach'd a venerable Sage,

In all the hoary Majesty of Age!'

• Skilled in falubrious herbs,' this venerable Sage adminifters an antidote, in confequence of which

In her meek eye, the trembling luftre fhone,
And health and beauty reaffumed their throne.'
The poem then concludes with the following well-finished
and beautiful lines:

The moving tale foon reach'd Elfrida's ear,
The moving tale ftole many a rapturous tear.

Ah!

Ah! who can paint the feelings of her mind?
Love, wonder, gratitude, and joy combin`d!
Or the calm blifs that beam'd in Egbert's eye,
Mild as the radiance of the evening sky!
From every heart enraptur'd praife afcends,
And Heaven approving fmiles on Virtue's friends.
And now return'd in peace, the warrior-train
With fhouts of victory gladden all the plain.
Th' invading Danes before their valour yield,
And prefs, in flaughter'd heaps, th' enfanguin'd field.
Though Time, with rapid wing, has fwept away
Forgotten ages, fince that well-fought day:
Ev'n now, their rifing graves the spot disclose,
And shepherds wonder how the hillocks rofe!
Ev'n now, the precinct of their camp remains,
And DANEBURY HILL the name it still retains.
O'er those romantic mounds, whene'er I ftray,
And the rude veftiges of war furvey;

Fair gratitude fhall mark, with fmile ferene,
The alter'd afpect of the pleafing scene.

There, where the crouded camp fpread terror round,
See! waving harvests clothe the fertile ground!
See! fmiling villages adorn the plain,
Where defolation ftretch'd her iron reign!

How fair the meads, where winding waters flow,

And never-fading verdure fill bestow!

While ftretch'd beyond, wide cultur'd fields extend,
And wood crown'd hills thofe cultur'd fields defend !
But ah! too faint my numbers to display

The various charms that rife in rich array!
One peaceful frot detains my longing fight,
There, Fancy dwells with ever fond delight,
Recals the fcenes of childhood to her view,
And lives thofe pleafing moments o'er anew.'

There is an excellence in this poem which few writers attain to, and which, from a female pen efpecially, is not always expected-it is uncommonly correct. The two Odes which are fubjoined are evidently effufions of the fame elegant and ingenuous mind.

ART. XIV. Advice from a Lady of Quality to her Children; in the laft Stage of a lingering Illness. Tranflated from the French, by S. Glaffe, D D. F. R. S. Chaplain in Ordinary to his Majefty. 2 Vols. Small 8vo. 5 s. fewed. Rivington, &c. 17-9.

ΤΗ

HIS work is recommended, in one of Pope Ganganelli's letters, as a complete treatife on education. Such refpectable teftimony to its merit has induced the Tranflator to put it into an English drefs. It is divided into twenty evening conferences, which a Lady of Quality is fuppofed to have had with her children, during the last stages of a lingering illness.

The

The Author feems no ftranger to the human heart, nor to those arguments by which it may be influenced. The precepts laid down are, in general, ftriking and judicious, and the language in which the Tranflator has clothed them, is fimple, concile, and elegant.

Our Readers may form fome idea of the ftyle and fpirit of this performance from the following extract, taken from the conference on Female Conduct:

I have long wifhed, my dear daughter, for this opportunity of freely converfing with you on fubjects of the utmost confequence to you. Your youth, the world into which you are going, the fnares which it lays, and the few days which I have yet to live, all induce me to open my heart to you, and to give you fome inftructions relative to your dangerous fituation.

If you could poffibly entertain a doubt of my affection; the effort I am now making, when my foul is bowed down with fickness and forrow, and fees nothing before it but the horrors of the grave, muft needs convince you how earnestly I wish to fecure your happinefs. My wishes will never be realized, but while you are careful to lay down proper rules for your conduct, and fuffer nothing afterwards to tempt you to break through them.

If you are fo unhappy as to give yourself up to the distraction of the world, you will no longer be able to maintain the dominion over your own heart: you will live an utter ftranger to yourself; and there will not be a single day, which you will know how to difpose of in a proper manner. The world is never to be fatisfied; the more we beltow upon it, the more unreasonable are its demands. Your fex requires the utmoft circumspection; what among men is reputed a venial fault, is an abfolute crime with us. There are a thousand things faid and done in their company, which a woman ought neither to hear nor fee. I would wish that a young woman fhould be filent and modeft; and the world, diffipated as it is, expects the fame. Its judgment of us is very fevere; and it often fixes our character for life.

If you are over-folicitous to please others, you will run into a ridiculous affectation: you must make yourself agreeable to every. one you converfe with, without letting them fee that you are thinking about it. Nothing pleases which is not natural. A woman, who fets herfelf to draw the attention and admiration of all upon her, will foon become an arrant coquette, if she is not one already.

It is only a natural and virtuous behaviour, which will fecure to you efteem and approbation: if this fhould not fucceed, fo much the worse for those you meet with. Whatever happens, this truth is indifputable; that one of the brightest ornaments of the fex is modefty and that a young lady can never appear to greater advan tage, than when he is utterly divefted of affectation in her behaviour.

• Do not confound the ideas of modefty and timidity; the one pleases, the other diftreffes; we cannot avoid being hurt, when we fee a young perfon confufed and difconcerted. There is fuch a thing as an ingenuous confidence, which should make you not un

willing

willing to fpeak, when the subject requires it; and to fing or dance, when a proper opportunity prefents itself. If you are not vain, you will not be timorous to a fault.

I shall be very forry for you, if ever vanity takes poffeffion of your heart; for then, instead of being agreeable and communicative, you will be always unhappy in yourself, and your boldness will only ferve to make you ridiculous to others. A difdainful carriage is that of a perfon of mean talents, and a bad heart; people of quality are lefs apt to affume it, than those of an inferior rank. We feldom endeavour to fet ourselves off by pride, but when we have no other means of diftinguishing ourselves; this is a ridiculous affectation, which the world always laughs at, but never forgives: the more humiliating our behaviour is to others, the more pleasure do they take in letting us down.

Affability will fupply the want of thofe qualities, which you do not poffefs: it is the best apology that I know for little imperfections. Great allowances are always made for one who has no pride or pretenfions to fuperior merit: but felf-love naturally raises in us an oppofition to arrogance and prefumption. Many women have be come the fubjects of fatire, only by their haughty behaviour. Your figure is not without its share of elegance; and the handsomer a lady is, the more ready people are to fufpect that she is vain.

The education I have hitherto given you convinces me, that the toilette will not engage your chief attention; you ought to spend as much time at it, as is neceffary for your decent appearance in company. We must not fly in the face of fashion, or make ourselves remarkable by our fingularity: but there are certain trifles in dress, which we ought to defpife. Thofe, which make a woman a flave to her dress, are fit only for fuch weak minds, as the prefent age, with all its attachment to trifles, hath not yet learnt to esteem.'

As to the laft remark, even we Reviewers, feldom as we shew our thread-bare coats in the regions of elegance and fashion, know enough of the female world, to be fenfible of its truth. Our fair countrywomen will, we doubt not, profit by an argument which has the fanction of OUR AUTHORITY.

ART. XV. Moral and Hiftorical Memoirs. Svo. 5 s. Boards. Dilly.

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1779.

HESE mifcellaneous Effays (one of which, On unreftrained power, has already been noticed with approbation in our Review for July 1778,) contain a great variety of useful reflections on men and manners, which are evidently the refult of a judicious and attentive obfervation of the world, and are manifeftly written with the laudable defign of ftemming the torrent of fashionable follies, and reftoring that fimplicity of manners and integrity of character, the prefent decline of which is too juftly lamented by all wife and good men. The Author's remarks are illuftrated and confirmed by a great variety of pertinent hiftorical facts. Nothing feems wanting to render this Miscellany as pleafing as its general defign is useful, but a

greater

greater attention to correctness and elegance of ftyle, with respect to which we are forry to remark, that the Author has discovered a great degree of negligence.

We felect the following Effay on Converfation, partly on account of its brevity, but principally because it contains many ufeful remarks on a fubject, which, perhaps more than most others, needs the correction and improvement of philofophy.

'One of the greatest alleviations of the cares and troubles of life, is the amusement and relaxation we receive from the fatisfactions of converfation. They heighten the enjoyments of the table, which without their feafoning would be merely fenfual, and are a grateful interruption of our ferious and interested purfuits. They excite a mutual defire to please, fofter benevolence, friendship, and good humour; they brighten wit, exercise memory, and gently folicit all the powers of fancy, imagination, and reafon,

"Were it neceffary to define conversation, it might be called the free and perfonal communication of our opinions and fentiments on domeftic, political, or literary fubjects; for such are the topics to which Cicero feems to confine this intercourse, and to which perhaps it ought to be reftrained. Hence, it is only in civilized countries, and among the learned and polished part of mankind, that any thing can fubfift deferving the name of converfation. In the convivial meetings of favage life, the fubject of discourse can be little but the incidents of hunting and the chace, or the events of irregular incurfion, attack, or defence. In communities alfo, where the arts and sciences have made but inconfiderable progrefs, it must be very circumfcribed and limited. Even in highly polifhed ftates, none can be faid (with propriety) to converfe, but those who have been fortunate in a liberal education, whofe thoughts are raised above the common and vulgar cares and purfuits of life, and whofe minds have been adorned and enlarged by reading, by company, and by travel. The more a man knows, the more he has feen, the more various and extenfive his curiofity, and information, and knowledge of human affairs, the more qualified and capable he is of entertaining and interefting in fociety and good company.

In reading the accounts by fenfible travellers of those countries, where science and letters are in a manner unknown or neglected, and whereby the forms and corruption of the government, the attention of the community and individuals, is eftranged from public affairs, one pities the languor and listleffnefs of focial and private entertainments. The enjoyments of the company feem entirely fenfual. It is the palate, the fenfes only, that are excited and gratified, not the understanding and the fancy, the tafte and the heart. The parties are enlivened, neither by wine nor by coffee: the one cannot give

them

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