nervous and manly writer; one who feems more defirous of exploring truth, than ambitious of embellishing it with unneceffary ornament. Of the facts on which his arguments are founded he appears to be fully informed, and his mode of arguing is clofe and convincing.

We have only to regret that Lord A. in treating a fubject in which every Englishman is fo deeply interested, has fallen into the error of thofe politicians who have imagined that property (not the people) is the object of parliamentary reprefentation; a doctrine fo abfurd, that we want words to exprefs our aftonishment at its existence in a country where the invaluable rights of the lowest citizen, whofe only property is his FREEDOM, CIVIL and RELIGIOUS, are furely as much the objects of constitutional protection, which implies reprefentation, as the dirty acres and money-bags of the opulent, but lefs numerous and less useful, part of the community!

ART. XIV. A Poetical Epifile to his Excellency GEORGE WASHINGTON, Efq; Commander in Chief of the Armies of the United States of America, from an Inhabitant of the State of Maryland. To which is added, a Sketch of the Life and Character of General Washington. 4to, 2 s. 6d. Annapolis printed, 1779; London reprinted for Dilly, &c. 1780.

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LTHOUGH America is, or lately was, like all rifing countries, in a general ftate of improvement, yet poetry, in particular, does not yet seem to have been highly cultivated in that foil. But great events will produce great poets. Homer, perhaps, had never immortalized himself in fong, had the fiege of Troy never taken place.-The fpecimens of American poetry which we have hitherto met with, are, probably, the dawnings of that brighter day which may, ere long, fhine forth in full fplendor.

The little poem here republifhed, from the original American edition, is chiefly intended by its Author (a native of America *) as a compliment to his celebrated countryman, the Commander in chief of the Congress' troops.

Having paid due refpect to the merits of the hero to whom this Epistle is immediately addreffed, and reprobated the hoftile

• Say, where along yon venerable wood,
My native fream fwells thy Potomack's flood,
Shall my untutor'd Mufe begin the fong,
Which future bards in rapture fhall prolong :
Or there my little bark prefume to fail,
Fann'd by fair Liberty's infpiring gale?'

By his native ftream, the Author means the river Wiccomico, which empties itfelf into the great river Potomack.

conduct of Great Britain towards his native country, with a warmth of refentment which was to be expected in a poem of this kind, the Western Mufe thus contrafts the bloody picture with a prophetic delineation of the ftate of America, happily fettled in the enjoyment of that freedom for which he is now Struggling:

Great without pomp, without ambition brave,
Proud, not to conquer fellow men, but fave:
Friend to the weak, a foe to none, but those
Who plan their greatness on their brethren's woes;
Aw'd by no titles, undefil'd by luft;
Free without faction, oblinately juft;

Too wife to learn from Machiavel's falfe fchool,
That truth and perfidy by turns fhould rule;
Too rough for flattery, dreading ev' as death
The baneful influence of corruption's breath;
Warm'd by Religion's facred genuine ray,
That points to future blifs th'unerring way.
Yet ne'er controul'd by Superftition's laws,
That worlt of tyrants in the nobleft caufe;
The world's great mart, yet not by gold defiled,
To mercy prone, in justice ever mild,

Save to the man who ftrikes at FREEDOM's roots,
And never curs'd with M-sf- ds, N~ths, ór B—tes,
Such be my country; what her fons should be,
O! may fhe learn, great WASHINGTON, from thee!
Thy private virtues be their public rule,
Thy public conduct be the patriot school!
That living law, from whence her rifing youth
May gather wisdom, conftancy, and truth,
Of independence caich the generous flame,

And learn to fhudder at oppreffion's name!

It is the cuftom of fome painters to draw flattering refemblances; and we fear that this artist is of their number. We apprehend that the world pever yet faw, and never will fee, human fociety in the high ftate of perfection which he has so fondly imagined.

The memoirs of the life, and the sketch of the character of Mr WASHINGTON, feem to contain the most authentic, as well as moft circumftantial, account of this modern FABIUS, that hath yet appeared. The half-length portrait, given by way of frontifpiece, is engraved from an original painting; and it is faid to bear a juft refemblance of the General's perfon.

This pamphlet is published for the benefit of the American prifoners in England.-It is true, as the benevolent Editor obferves, in his prefatory advertisement, the pains of captivity cannot be much lightened by this small mite of an obscure individual; but, as he justly adds, fuch munificent donations as have been made by Englishmen toward the relief of the Ame rican

3

rican prisoners, confined in this country, muft ftamp a leffon on the minds of those unfortunate captives, and our American brethren in general, that they fhould not withdraw all national affection from a country, the bulk of whose inhabitants have not withdrawn all national affection from them."

ART. XV. Poems and Miscellaneous Pieces, with a free Tranflation of the Oedipus Tyrannus of Sophocles. By the Rev. Thomas Maurice' A. B. of Univerfity College, Oxford. 4to. 10 s. 6d. Dodfley' 1779.

OST of the poems contained in this volume have already appeared in print, and have been noticed in our Review. We obferved in them a genuine poetical fpirit, and melodious verfification, with a mixture of inequality and incorrectness. We remember to have remarked, on one occafion, that as the Author was of inexperienced age, we might hope for better things; and, accordingly, feveral of the original pieces in this collection demonftrate that our hopes were not without foundation. The Great have been too frequently addreffed, even by good poets, in ftrains of fervile adulation. Mr. Maurice's verfes to the Marquis of Blandford, after having feen Blenheim-house, afford a manly, decent compliment.

After a natural introduction of the great Marlborough's triumphs, the poet thus proceeds:

Here BLANDFORD, oft, as to thy wond'ring eyes
His deathlefs feats in bright fucceffion rife,
Congenial tranfports in thy bofom roll,
And half his fpirit fires thy infant foul.
But far from thee be war's tumultuous rage,
Nor let ambition taint thy tender age;
Let Spenfer's bright example teach thy mind
Sublimer joys, and tranfports more refin'd:
Like him, thy hand to pining want extend,
Protect the orphan, and the wretch befriend.'

The fituation of Blenheim affording occafion, he mentions the story of Henry II. and Rofamond; which not inelegantly finishes the piece :

But short the blifs unholy joys afford,
His raging confort feeks her abfent lord;
And Rofamond, from love and Henry torn,
Retires to weep in yonder glooms forlorn.
Oh never more may guilty transports fain
Thefe hallow'd haunts, nor jealous fires profane;
But ev'ry future lord, like Spenfer, prove
The fweets of focial life, and fpotless love!'

Hinda, an Eastern elegy, is not, as the Author informs us, a particular imitation of any Afiatic poet, but was written when

• See Hagley, a defcriptive poem, Monthly Review, vol. lvi. p.

156.

his imagination had been animated with the perufal of those beautiful specimens of Eaftern poetry given to the world by Mr. Jones and Mr. Richardfon. This elegy is the complaint of an Arabian lover, for the lofs of his deceased bride. The Oriental character is, in general, well fuftained, most of the images are local, and the language is marked by dignity and ease:

Led by the ftar of evening's guiding fires,
That shone ferene on Aden's lofty spires,
Young Agib trod the folitary plain,

Where groves of fpikenard greet his fenfe in vain :
In wealth o'er all the neighbouring fwains fupreme,
For manly beauty every virgin's theme;
But no repofe his anxious bofom found,
Where forrow cherifh'd an eternal wound.
The frequent figh, wan look, and frantic start,
Spoke the defpair that prey'd upon his heart.
The haunts of men no more his fteps invite,
Nor India's treasures give his foul delight.
In fields and deep ning fhades he fought relief,
And thus difcharg'd the torrent of his grief,'

After an apostrophe to happier Nymphs and Swains,' the Soliloquift thus difclofes the cause of his grief:

"HINDA, once fairest of the virgin train,
"Who haunt the foreft, or who range the plain,
"Sleeps were the boughs of yon black cypress wave,
"And I am left to languish at her grave!

"To that dear fpot, when day's declining beam
"Darts from yon fhining towers a farewell gleam,
"Conftant as eve, my forrows I renew,

"And mix my tears with the defcending dew,

"The last fad debt to buried beauty pay,

"Kifs the cold thrine, and clafp the mould'ring clay."

Reflecting on paft pleasures, he then epifodically introduces a kind of epithalamium:

"Prepare, I cried, prepare the nuptial feast,

"Bring all the treasures of the rifled East:

"The choiceft gifts of ev'ry clime explore,
"Let Aden + yield her tributary ftore;
"Let Saba all her beds of fpice unfold,

"And Samarcand fend gems, and India gold,

"To deck a banquet worthy of the bride,

"Where mirth fhall be the guest, and love prefide."

Then expatiating on his own poffeffions, and defcribing the perfon of his beloved, his digreffion concludes with the following paffage, in which the luxuriant pictures of Eastern poetry are happily imitated:

Aden and Saba are both cities of Arabia Felix, celebrated for the gardens and spicy woods with which they are furrounded,'

"A bower

"A bower I have, where branching almonds fpread, "Where all the feasons all their bounties fhed; "The gales of life amidst the branches play, "And mufic bursts from ev'ry vocal spray, "Its verdant foot a ftream of amber laves, "And o'er it Love his guardian banner waves: "There fhall our days, our nights in pleafure glide, "Friendship shall live, when paffion's joys fubfide; "Increafing years improve our mutual truth, "And age give fanction to the choice of youth." His complaint is thus beautifully resumed:

Thus fondly I of fancied raptures fung,
"And with my fong the gladden'd valley rung.
"But fate, with jealous eye, beheld our joy,
"Smil'd to deceive, and flatter'd to destroy;
"Swift as the fhades of night the vifion fled,
"Grief was the guest, and death the banquet fpread.
"A burning fever on her vitals prey'd,
"Defied Love's efforts, baffled med'cine's aid,
"And from these widow'd arms a treasure tore,
"Beyond the price of empires to restore."

There appears to be fomething exceptionable in the termination of this little poem. That an act of fuicide fhould be produced by fuch a permanent, mellowed grief as the general tenor of the poem points out, is, we think, 'improbable. We have also a doubt whether the practice is consistent with Arabian manners. Confidered in a moral light, perhaps even fictitious examples of fuicide, in general, are not favourable to virtue. They may tend to familiarize the human mind to an act which the fevere preffure of misfortune too often induces men to commit.

The Profpect of Life, an ode, paints the dark fide of things ftrongly, and juftly. Perhaps it might have been improved by contraction, and a different arrangement. We should, also, have approved it more, had it been written in regular stanzas. Cowley's mif-titled Pindaric, in which he was followed by every rhimer, is now, in general, properly difcarded, and we are forry whenever we see attempts made to revive the use of it, by any who merit the name of poet.

The following picture of fome of the miferies of life, is well drawn, and highly coloured :

Ah! why the catalogue of ills prolong,
And fwell with complicated woes the fong?
Recount those darker moments of defpair,

When all the paffions, fierce and unconfin'd,
Ruth with the tempeft's fury on the mind,
And reason, headlong, from her station bear:
When poverty to every other pang

Adds her keen edge-presents an infant train,
Who with imploring eyes around thee hang,
And raise their fuppliant plaints for bread in vain:

Stern