who now enjoy happiness and independence, to poverty and dif trefs, would not bring with it the confequence which he predicts; namely, the deftruction of trade. On the contrary, we are inclined to think, that in this would confift the only bright part of the picture. A calamity of the kind we are speaking of muft undoubtedly throw many adventurers into that track, who before were above it, as the only way in which they could hope to employ the ruins of their fortune in earning a livelihood, or in endeavouring to regain their former fituation and confequence. It must moreover be confidered, that the hand which annihilates the principal, wipes off the intereft alfo: the taxes, therefore, which have been levied to pay that interest must cease of course; the neceffaries of life which pay those taxes would return, in fome measure, to their original value; the manufacturer could afford to work at a lower rate, and we fhould be enabled, by our misfortunes, to underfell our more wealthy neighbours; and who is it that does not fly to the cheapest market? Such, it seems reasonable to conclude, would be the confequences of a national bankruptcy to trade: what its effects would be in refpect to arts and fciences,-on our confequence as a nation, —and, above all, in the calamities and miferies in which it would involve individuals, it is the duty of every good man (like Dr. Price) to pray that we may never know them.

The Doctor proceeds to make fome obfervations which particularly refpect the fociety in whofe bufinefs Mr. Morgan is engaged, many of which may also be very interefting to the public at large. And, firft, it appears, that the tables which the fociety ufe at prefent in making their calculations, are founded on the rate of mortality which happened amongst the inhabitants of London, taken in the grofs, during 23 years, from 1728 to 1750: a period of time which included two years, namely 1740 and 1741, of greater mortality than has ever been known in London fince the plague in 1665. In confequence of this, the values of affurances on lives are given in these tables fomewhat too high for the inhabitants at large even of London itself; and much too high for the better part of the inhabitants. The Doctor allows, that there were good reafons for the fociety's beginning with fuch tables; but he thinks, and in our opinion with great reafon, that as it is now established in fome degree of fecurity, and has better grounds to go upon, it would be right to calculate and ufe new tables, founded on obfervations which will give the value of life-affurances, not among the bulk of people in London, where life is particularly thort; but among mankind in general. And in order to this, he ob ferves, that the decrements of life at every age, as deduced by Dr. Halley from obfervations at Breflaw in Silefia, or thofe deduced by himfelf from the Bills of Mortality at Northampton

and

and Norwich, are nearly the mean decrements between those in great towns and in country parishes and villages; confequently, as the fociety affures town and country lives indifcriminately, these are the obfervations by which it fhould be guided. Perhaps the Doctor ought to have added-if the number of lives which it affures in country parifhes be equal, or nearly fo, to the number of lives which it affures in town; for if this be not the cafe, the refults of calculations made from those tables may be very favourable or very detrimental to the interests of the fociety.

What follows must be understood with the fame reftriction. But, fays our Author, obfervations more proper for the use of this fociety than even those above mentioned may now be obtained. I mean those furnished by the Register of mortality eftablished a few years ago at Chester, under the direction of the ingenious Dr. Haygarth.-Chefter is an old and very healthy town, of moderate fize, which has continued much the fame as to populousness for a long course of years; and these are circumftances which render it a fituation particularly fitted for fhewing the true law that governs the wafte of human life in all its ftages. The register which has been established there is more minute and correct than any other; and is, perhaps, the only one which gives the difference between the chances of living among males and females, and from which it is poffible to compute, with any degree of precifion, the values of lives before five and after seventy years of age. Tables, therefore, of the values of life annuities, affurances, and reverfions, calculated from this register, would be a valuable acquifition, not only to the fociety more immediately under confideration, but also to the public in general.

Dr. Price goes on to obferve, that it would greatly affift and expedite the bufinefs of the fociety, and at the fame time do confiderable service to this branch of science, if tables of the values of two, and also three joint lives were computed, agreeable to the best obfervations, true to three decimal places at leaft: for without fuch tables it is impoffible to find, in many cafes, the true values of affurances, and particularly of affurances on furvivorships for terms. He obferves, that there are now no fuch tables extant. Mr.Simpson's table in the Select Exercises, p. 266, is adapted only to London; and gives the values only to one place of decimals. And the table in his own Treatise on Reverfionary Payments, p. 328, is calculated from M. De Moivre's hypothefis, which, although it agrees nearly with the Breflaw and Northampton obfervations in the middle ftages of life, differs fo widely from all real obfervations before twenty and after feventy years of age, as to be totally improper for ufe. He therefore earnestly recommends it to the fociety to direct that fuch tables as are here REV. June, 1780. defcribed,

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defcribed, may be calculated; and obferves, that the expence of fuch calculations can be no object to them, notwithstanding in doing it they will not only contribute greatly towards the speedy and accurate execution of their own bufinefs, but confer alfo a very great obligation on the Public at large. He adds fome other obfervations, but which, though they are of very confiderable importance to the interefts and well-being of the fociety, as they in no wife relate to the Public, we fhall forbear to men

tion.

We should next have proceeded to give some account of the very curious and interesting Essay on the prefent State of Population in England and Wales, which is annexed to this performance, had we not observed that the Doctor has announced the reprinting of it with fome additions in a separate publication. We fhall therefore take fome future opportunity of laying an account of it before our Readers; and conclude what we have to say at prefent with obferving, that Mr. Morgan's performance is one of thofe many laudable, and we may add, fuccessful attempts which have been lately made towards ftripping the more useful parts of learning and fcience of their terrifying and difgufting appearance, caufed chiefly by the use of technical terms, and profeffional phrases; which have hitherto deterred fo many from attempting them.

ART. VI. Eaftern Eclogues: Written during a Tour through Arabie, Egypt, &c. in 1777. 4to. 2s. 6d. Dodfley. 1780.

PEREANT qui ante nos noftra dixerunt! was an exclama

tion of one who could find no image in the storehouse of imagination, but what had been pre-occupied by fome former writer. Indeed, while a writer confines himself to fubjects that have been treated before, or defcribes fcenes already known, it will be difficult to introduce fentiment or imagery that fhall be totally original. In poetry, this difficulty is peculiarly obvious. It too frequently happens that poets attempt to paint what they never faw, and to defcribe what they never felt. Hence they are in a great measure confined to general ideas, fuch as will in fome degree occur to every one. When, therefore, we found it had been the fortune of our Traveller to be tempted, by a near approach to the scenes which he has defcribed, to fketch from the life,' we formed expectations very different from what generally accompany the fight of a new publication. Sorry are we to fay, that our expectations have by no means been grati.fied. There is nothing either in the fentiments or imagery which feems peculiar or appropriate to the characters or scenes which he has defcribed. Nor do we meet with any thing, if the opening of the third eclogue be excepted, which

might not have occurred to a writer whofe knowledge had been collected merely from books. We fay not this, however, as paffing an indifcriminate cenfure on his performance. It certainly has merit; but not of that kind which we expected. The verfification is elegant and harmonious, and the fentiments are fenfible and juft.

The eclogues are four in number: the title of the first is Alexis: or, The Traveller. Scene, the Ruins of Alexandria. Of the fecond, Selima: or, The Fair Greek. Scene, a Seraglio in Arabia Felix. In this eclogue the Writer has made confiderable ufe of Lady M. W. Montague's defcription of the amusements of the Haram. The title of the third eclogue is Ramah: or, The Bramin. Scene, the Pagoda of Conjeveram. It opens with fome degree of fublimity.

High on the top of that religious fane,
Whofe fpires from far attract the zealot-train,
Pride of Gentoos! mid fuperftition's night
Which fhines a beacon to the Pagan's fight,
A Bramin flood-expos'd to ev'ry eye,
The roof his bed, his canopy the sky;
For three long days he here the clime defy'd,
Revenge his study, and diftrefs his pride.
O'er woes impending runs his lab'ring mind,
And omens thicken in the coming wind!'-

"Ye Gods! protectors of the Indian race,
Now trembles not your empire to its bafe?
Say, on what fpot your altars fhall be found,
While mad Ambition walks his guilty round?
Lo! by the Ganges' confecrated flood

The facred Cow diftains the earth with blood;
Selected form of purity divine!

Mute interceffor at your holy fhrine!
I fee! I fee! the fated ruin fpread,

The ftream polluted at the fountain-head!
Religion changing thro' the land her vow;
The Mofque afpiring o'er the Pagod's brow:
But chief the holy temples of Tanjore

Defil'd, where Mahomet ne'er trod before !"
The remaining part of the eclogue is not fo fpirited or ftriking.
Ramah, towards the conclufion, harangues more like an Euro-
pean politician than an Afiatic devotee. The laft eclogue is,
The Escape: or, The Captives. Scene, the fuburbs of Tunis.
Time, Midnight. If we were to give the preference to any of
these pieces, it should be this. The characters are Sebaftian and
Perez, two Spanish captives.

Perez began. A virgin was his theme,
Bright as her orb, yet cold as Cynthia's beam!
"O thou! to whom my youthful vows belong,
Strength of my fword; and goddefs of my fong!

Gg 2

Who

Who oft my chivalry with fmiles haft paid,
And deign'd to grace the midnight ferenade:
Be thou propitious to this teeming hour,
Which gives a captive to thy boundless pow'r.
Love, more than freedom, tempts him o'er the wave,
To own his tyrant, and resume the flave:
To him all thoughts of liberty were vain,
Who, fcap'd from bondage, feeks a stronger chain!
Let Marcia then her Perez' claim approve,
His truth perfuade her, and his fuff'rings move.
And you, my rivals! who that claim difdain'd,
Scoff'd at my lot, and by my abfence reign'd;
Or in the lifts, or in your am'rous fuit,
For love and honour Perez will difpute.

In vain you poize the lance, or breathe the vow-
The fair-one twines the wreath for Perez' brow!"
Sebaftian then. Him fills a dearer name,
Soft as her light, and chafte as Dian's fame!

"And will to thee Sebaftian be restor'd,
With fmiles be welcom'd, as with fighs deplor'd!
Will love o'erpay thee with a late embrace,
Wife of my choice! and guardian of my race!
See, if the thought diffolve me not to tears,
My manhood shake, and waken all my fears.
No babes, perhaps, may lifp a fire's return-
The mother's truft tranfmitted to an urn!

Or if fo hopeless, fo fevere my fate,

Thofe children now may weep their orphan ftate!" Had all the defcriptive parts of these Eclogues been equal to the concluding lines of this, the cenfure that was past at the beginning of this article had been unneceffary.

He faid; and faw the object in his reach:
The friendly galley strikes upon the beach.
Swift by the cord the Captives downward glide-
The bark drops filent with the ebbing tide.
Now, unobferv'd, the lower fort they gain,
Now shoot the narrow outlet to the main.

To crown their hopes the wind from Tunis blows!
They pass the Cape where ancient Carthage rofe:
Onward their courfe with toil unceasing ply,
'Till Murcia's mountains faintly tinge the sky.
Touch'd at the fight they caft their cares behind,
While all their country rushes on their mind!

There is fomething in the fourth line,

The bark drops filent with the ebbing tidethat is uncommonly defcriptive.

We are rather difpofed to think, that where this Writer has failed, it has been owing more to that diffidence which young poets fometimes feel in going out of a beaten track, than to any want of poetical ability: and in this opinion, we are will