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of juvenile readers the events which it is the design of the work to record. A number of plates are introduced.

Art. 22. A Visit to London, containing a description of the Prin cipal Curiosities in the British Metropolis By S. W. author of a Visit to a Farm House, and the Puzzle for a Curious Girl.

18mo. pp. 192. 28. Tabart and Co.

It is the object of this tract to give a familiar description of London, and to introduce occasionally such moral reflections as presented themselves cut of the circumstances of the narrative. To those young persons, therefore, who may wish to have a concise account of the Metropolis, written in casy language, and which blends entertainment with moral instruction, this little volume will be an accept. able present.

Art. 23 The Book of Trades, or, Library of useful Arts. 18mo, 3 Vols. 99. Half Bound. Tabart and Co.

This work contains a brief report of most of the arts and trades, which conduce to the supply of the necessities and conveniencies of life, adapted to the use of young persons; and as well on account of its imparting to them useful knowlege, as from its furnishing those who are to subsist by their industry with hints for fixing on the employments most congenial to their taste, we think that it is a commendable addition to the juvenile library. The subjects, which are illustrated by characteristic Piates, are sixty in number; and though, since they are so numerous, complete information cannot be expected, sufficient is given to awaken the curiosity of young minds, and to induce them to make farther inquiries respecting the objects in which they may be most interested.

Art. 24. Elements of useful Knowlege, in Geography, History, and other Sciences: drawn up for the use of Children in questions and answers. By J Allbut, Master of Bromsgrove Lickey School. 12mo. 10 Numbers, price 4d. each. Button and Co.

Geography, Astronomy, Natural Philosophy, History, Chronology, Grammar, and Arithmetic, are the topics here treated. The compilement is intended as an introductory book for children, and, being written in a catechetical form, it may help to fix in their memories the first rudiments of science.

Art. 25.
Le Nouveau La Bruyère; The New La Bruyère, or,
The Well Educated Children. By Peter Blanchard. 2 Vols.
18mo. Didier and Tebbett.

Mr Blanchard here supplies lessons for teaching young persons to conduct themselves through life. The subject is divided into three parts, on the duties of Morality, Virtue, and Civility: those of the first, according to the author, include the duties only which justice requires; those of the second, all benevolent and disinterested actions; and those of the third comprehend the proper manner in which the several duties are to be performed The work consists of dialogues between a father and his son and daughter, and considerable pains are taken, by placing the subjects in various lights, to bring them to the comprehension of juvenile understandings. To those young persons

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persons who wish to evercise themselves in reading French, the perusal of these little volumes will be particularly useful, as not only enabling them to improve themselves in the language, but also giving them valuable rules concerning propriety of conduct. They are neatly printed, and ornamented with copper-plate engravings. Art. 26 An Essay on the Elements, Accents, and Prosody of the English Language; intended to have been printed as an Introduction to Mr Boucher's Supplement of Johnson's Dictionary. By Jonathan Odell, M.A. 12mo. pp. 205. 4s. 6d. Boards. Lackington and Co.

1806

In this Essay, Mr. Odell professes to correct the mistakes into which Sheridan, Walker, and others have fallen respecting the subjects mentioned in the title. To have just notions of these matters is of considerable importance, and the public is indebted to the In the author for the pains which he has taken respecting them number and distribution of the letters on articulate sounds, he differs from former writers; our letters, according to him, ought to represent the several sounds expressed in the language, and should be twentynine; of these, seven are vowels, twenty-one are consonants, and thre aspirate b; to these he adds the lengthened sounds of six vowels, but proposes that they should be represented by a mark over the short vowels. Our diphthongs, he asserts, are sixteen in number, and the triphthongs three. As the just representation of sounds by letters is a considerable means of attaining a correct pronunciation of the language, these are particulars worthy of attention.

In the portion of the work allotted to the Accents the author deprecates the common use of that word, in lieu of which he proposes the syllal ic emphasis The accents, he contends, signify the varia tions with which all syl'ables are pronounced, and are as commonly used, and as necessary in the proper pronunciation of the English, as they were in that of the Greek and Latin. In this opinion, he follows Mr. Steele, who proved the fact by imitating on a violoncello the tones of our common speech, and ascertained their perfect agreement with the Greck definitions and descriptions of the tones or accents used in uttering that language.

Respecting Prosody, Mr. Odell asserts, contrary to the opinion of antient and modem grammarians, that the essence of verse, or the governing principle of rhythm, is not to be found in the length of syllables, but only in their emphases; and he maintains his assertion by shewing that short vowels in the Greek and Latin languages, when before two consonants, or as it is called in position, although accordingly accounted long, were in reality still pronounced short. In the scanning of verse, he therefore contends for the using of cadences instead of feet, making the emphatic syllable the first in every cadence. Our Iambic verse, he says, is of various dimensions, from two to six cadences; in which not only bibrachs, but spendees, dactyls, and double pyrrhics also are equalized with the leading Jambic feet, and sometimes a syllable is made to fill a whole cadence. Hence in our common heroic measure we have three different metres, in lines consisting of three, four, or five cadences, exclusive of the occasional Alexandrine, which may consist of four, five, or six.

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To shew that the antient mode of versification is not impracticable in the English language, the author, in the translation of a Sapphic ode, has given a specimen of the Sapphic verse; also imitations of the versification of two odes of Horace, and specimens of the Homeric rhythmus, which was thought to be inexpressible in English, in the translation of the first 53 verses of Homer's Iliad.

In the prosecution of this work, Mr. Odell has evinced considerable learning and talents: but he professes it to be only an essay, and wishes that some other person better qualified would undertake the subject. It is certainly both curious and important, and it would give us great satisfaction to see it thoroughly investigated. Mr. Odell has meritoriously commenced the discussion, and we should recommend it to him to pursue it.

POETRY.

Art. 27. The Age of Frivolity.

A Poem, addressed to the Fashionable, the Busy, and the Religious World. By Timothy Touch'em. 1 Amo. 3s. 6d. Boards. Williams and Smith.

1807.

No, Timothy indeed you will not Touch'em; unless it be to tickle them with laughter at your ineffectual attempts to be cuttingly satirical. The toll keepers will not receive a penny less, nor will the Sunday Ordinary lose a single visitor, by your representation of the Cockney's mode of spending the Sabbath:

Forth from their haunts, array'd in Sunday-dress,
Through ev'ry avenue the thousands press;
Some, in equestrian pomp, bestride the backs
Of broken kuced or broken-winded hacks;
While through each turnpike a long train departs
Of coaches, gigs, and curricles, and carts;
Where closely wedg'd, and jostling side by side,
The swelt'ring gentry take their Sunday ride,
Impatient longing for the cheap regale
Of village beef and pudding, punch and ale;
Where, round the common table, strangers join,
Once in a week, like gentlefolks to dine.
Thither, a few short miles, impell'd along
By many a fretful stamp and lashing thong,
With feeble steps the jaded cattle creep,
And their sad day of rest in labour keep.'

As little will Fashionable Invalids be benefited by Mr. Touch'em's languid and sickly satire:

Sweet summer smiles, and on its balmy wings
Delightful health and rich abundance brings;.
All feel its influence, hope and joy distil,

Save Pleasure's train-and they, poor things! are ill.
They have the megrims, vapours, or the spleen;
They are so nervous, grow so pale and lean;

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They

They have a sort of something, somehow got,
Have so much suffer'd from they know not what,
That they must haste to catch the sea side air,
Just when and where such invalids repair.
There Pleasure waits, their doctor and their nurse,
To fill their time up, and to drain their purse.
Now all alert, most rapidly they mend,

Ere mirth grows stale-while money lasts to spend.'

Mr Touch'em seems to be perfectly satisfied with himself, or otherwise he could not have encouraged his rhyming diarrhoea. He modestly indeed prays, in the motto, to be saved on the brink of writing ill" but we are sorry to inform him that he has completely tumbled in, head over heels.

Art. 28. Three Lyrie Odes, on late celebrated Occasions. By the Rev. William Clubbe, Vicar of Brandeston.

Printed at Ipswich.

4to. 2s. 6d. The first of these odes is devoted to the Victory of the Nile in 1798, the second to the Battle of Trafalgar, and the third is intitled Harmony,' addressed to Britannia.' So much has been written by various bards on the subjects of the first two of these short odes, that Mr. Clubbe cannot be supposed to have furnished any new idea but the following stanza on the death of Nelson is well expressed: Who but must see with delug'd eye

The matchless Victor of the Main
Upon his native shore again

Of his own victory the victim lie!

Of Heaven perhaps too much we crave

To grant us conquest and our conquerors save.'

In the last ode, the poet, invoking Harmony, calls her the choicest gift the Gods bestow: but, however classical polytheism may be, we cannot allow it to be orthodox in a christian divine to avail himself, even in the character of a poet, of the assistance of the Gods. He reminds his countrymen of the success of a few united Greeks against the vast host of the Persian monarch; and, conceiving that the abilities of Britons, both in the Senate and in the Field, are not inferior to those of the sons of antient Greece, he pronounces that nothing is wanting except Unanimity to insure our triumph:

And doth not Albion boast on land

The valour of the Spartan band?
Doth she not count upon her seas
The equals of Themistocles?
In wisdom do her Statesmen yield
To Grecian Senators the field?
For patriot spirit, is her name
Eclips'd by aught of ancient fame ?
Whate'er was valiant, wise or great
In Greece, adorns the British State.

Blest

Blest Harmony! such powers unite
Alike in council and in fight;
And soon a Xerxes shall again
Quit in his fishing boat the main ;

And lonely wand 'ring on the shore
His ruin'd armaments deplore."

Britannia must hold her head high on this representation of the poet; and, after such a comparison, can her sons despair?

Art. 29. Poetry, Odes, Prologues, and Epilogues spoken on Public Occasions at Reading School: to which is added some Account of the Lives of the Rev Mr. Benwell, and the Rev. Dr. Butt. 8vo. Pp. 264. 75. Boards. Richardson.

This Collection,' as the preface states, consists of Poems spoken at Reading School, since the accession of the present Master in 1781, and is published at the desire of the speakers, who cast a pleasing recollection on those exhibitions which have formed a part of their amusement and insruction.' The writers of the principal part of these poems were the late Mr. Benwell, and the late Dr. Butt; the others named are Mr. Bolland, the late Mr. Seward, and Mr. Pye. The compositions, several of which are in Latin, have various merit, some of them evincing the juvenile age of the writers, while others would do credit to more matured authors. Dr. Valpy seems to have taken great pains with his pupils, and the publication must add to the repute of his seminary.

The life of Mr. Benwell is composed by the Rev. Mr. Kett, and that of Dr. Butt by the editor (Dr. Valpy): to the friends and acquaintance of those amiable and accomplished characters, this part of the work will prove peculiarly interesting, and even the indifferent reader will find himself improved in the perusal of it: the accounts are ably written.

Art. 30. Hymns by the late Rev. Joseph Grigg. 12mo. 6d. Rivingtons, &c.

We knew the merit and the abilities of Mr. Grigg: but they consisted not in the powers of versification. The appearance of these Hymns will prove this fact in a way which the friends of Mr. G. will not hail with satisfaction; and had they been worth publishing, the meanness of their present garb would have equally displeased them.

NOVEL.

Art. 31. Memoirs of Bryan Perdue. By Thomas Holcroft. 12mo. 3 Vols. 155. Boards. Longman and Co.

It is stated by Mr. Holcroft, in the preface to these volumes, that his object in writing novels has always been to advance some moral purpose: that his Anna St. Ives was designed to teach fortitude to females, his High Trevor to induce youth to inquire into tae morality of a profession before they adopted it for their course in life, and that of the present work to inculcate on legislators and others a consideration of the value of human life, and the moral tendency of our penal laws. For this purpose he depicts a young man of considerable

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