pinions and conduct of Milton. The idle afperity of his ftrictures founds too much like the still more idle apology of the courtly laureat for appearing as the commentator of the democratic Milton.-Thefe commentaries, and his obfervations on Spenfer, may be now regarded as in fome degree fupplemental to his great unfinished work on English Poetry.

In accepting the laurel, profaned by Cibber, and contemned by Gray,' it would be difficult, and even unjust, to suppose that Warton was not confcious of degradation. Of this feeling there indeed appear to us very evident fymptoms in the choice of the fubjects, and in the general ftrain of what, with ludicrous gravity, a former biographer has been pleased to denominate his official odes. By excluding the ufual topics of adulation, he may be faid to have efcaped, rather than conquered, the difficulties of his periodical task. His conftant excurfions into his own favourite regions of Chivalry, remind us too often of the cypress in the fea-piece, and of the nunc non erat his locus' of Horace. In fome of them, however, the turn and application is ingenious and happy; and after all, even in his wildeft rambles, he is not without the apology of precedent in the father of Lyric poetry himfelf-his grand predeceffor and prototype in the art of official odewriting.

In delineating the private character of Mr Warton, his biographer has gone through his talk with the most inefficient and drawling prolixity-fuch as was to be expected from a writer whofe knowledge is derived from cafual information, and through whofe mind the scattered lights feem to pafs without the leaft tendency to convergence. Of the truth of the likeness, such as it is, we do not pretend to judge; and shall refrain from hazarding any criticisms on its merits in that respect.

We have already obferved, that in eftimating the literary character of Mr Warton, his biographer generally takes the fafe ground of prevailing opinion. Among the few deviations from the noiseless tenour of his way which he has ventured to make, the moit eccentric and amufing is a parallel of the literary characters of Warton and Gray. It chiefly confifts of a statement, on the one hand, of the many things which Gray projected, and the few he executed; and, on the other hand, of the many fimilar things which Warton had the industry to carry into actual execution. The refult of the comparifon is intended to exalt the character of Warton: yet the moft partial admirers of Gray would have certainly very little pretence for challenging the award of Mr Mant. In poetry, and in epiftolary writing, the palm is given, almott without a itruggle, to Gray.

As

As the editor and annotator of Warton's poems, Mr Mant has been naturally led to enter into a more minute and careful examination of his poetical character, and the peculiar merits or defects of his compofitions of that clafs. This, although it partakes of the fame common nature with the reft, is perhaps the least exceptionable part of Mr Mant's performance: but it would exceed the proper bounds of this article to examine the juftness and folidity of his criticisms. As a fpecimen of his manner, and indeed one of the most favourable which we could have chofen, we fhall prefent our readers with the concluding paragraphs of Warton's life. We would not be understood as implicitly affenting to his panegyric: but a little may be pardoned to the natural partialities of a biographer.

If these obfervations are juft, it may be concluded, by way of general remark, that notwithstanding his blemishes, for blemishes he undoubtedly had, Warton is entitled to claim no mean rank amongst the poets of his country: that he difplays great facility and variety of powers; that his ftyle is forcible and ornamented; his thoughts lofty and dignified; his imagery in his descriptive poetry, felect, new, and diftinct; in his lyric poetry, gorgeous and magnificent: that in his lefs ferious pieces, he has the humour, without the groffness of Swift; that in his Latin compofitions, he fhows a true claffical tafte and feeling; and that in all his poems, though he abounds in imitations of his predeceffors, his imitations are not fervile, and that what he borrows he makes his own.

In one department, he is not only unequalled, but original and unprecedented: I mean, in applying to modern poetry, the embellishment of Gothic manners and Gothic arts; the tournaments and feftivals, the poetry, mufic, painting, and architecture of " elder days." Nor can I here refrain from repeating, that, though engaged in his fervice, the talents were never prostituted to the undue praife of royalty: nor from adding as a topic of incidental applaufe, that, though he wanders in the mazes of fancy, he may always be reforted to as fupplying at least an harmless amufement; and that with Milton and Gray, whom he refembled in various other points, he fhares alfo this moral commendation, that his laurels, like theirs, are untainted by impurity, and that he has uniformly written' (to use the words of another unfollied bard)—

"Verfe that a virgin without blufh may read."

We will not detain our readers with a particular examination of the remaining part of thefe volumes. We have already faid, that to the text of Warton's poems very little has been added by the prefent editor; and of that little, no particular notice appears to be requifite. Of the value of Mr Mant's labours as an annoR 2

tator,

tator, we have alfo hinted our opinion. And judging, as we can only pretend to do, from a curfory inspection, it may be enough to fay, that the inftruction or amufement we have derived from his notes, has rarely compenfated the pain of perpetual interruption in the perufal of the text. From his constant and liberal adoption of the poetical phrafes and formularies of a few favourite authors, it is ealy to fuppofe that the poems of Warton must furnish to his annotator abundant opportunities for the display of imitations and parallelifms. Thefe Mr Mant has fet himself to trace with the moft fcrupulous minutenefs; and although he has already done more than is fufficient to gratify the curiofity of most readers, yet it would probably be no arduous task to enlarge the collection. This, however, is a hint which we would be forry to fet improved by any future editor. To detect the fources from which the great original poets of any country have filently drawn, is a matter at least of great curiofity, and is often effential to the full illustration of their meaning; but for the cumbrous labours of Mr Warton's annotators, we are not aware that any fimilar apology can be pleaded.

To the original poetry of Warton, his editor has annexed a fmall felection of Latin metrical infcriptions, published in 1758. The original edition has long been rare, and almost forgotten: and the prefent republication will, we prefume, be acceptable to every claffical reader. It is compofed of a few of the choiceft flowers, culled from the taftelefs and unwieldy collections of Nazochi, Smetius, and Gruter, blended with a few sprigs of modern growth. Thofe which have been fince afcertained to be Warton's, might have impofed on the difcernment of a connoiffeur; and may be regarded as affording another curious inftance of his faculty of imitation.

The volumes conclu,le with an inaugural oration, pronounced by Mr Warton, on his appointment to the Camdenian Profefforthip of Hiflory in the University of Oxford. The inftitution of Camden was one of the earliest attempts to innovate on the esta blifhed fyftem of academical education, by intermingling more liberal and ufeful ftudies with the fcholaftic difcipline which had long exclufively prevailed. Of the boldness of the innovation we may judge from the duties impofed on the profeffor of history by the flatutes of the Univerfity: Prælector hiftoricus Camdenianus, bis in qualibet feptimana, Lucium Florum, aut alium quemvis antiquioris et melioris notæ hiftoricum, prælegat Artium Baccalaureis et fludiofis in jure Civili.' Leaving the bachelors in arts, and the tudents in the Civil law of the present day, to their own private ftudies in the interpretation of Lucius Florus, the Camden profello here announces his defign of taking a wider range, more

fuitable

fuitable to the genius of the age. In his views of the capabilities of his fubject, he cannot, however, be accused of deviating very extravagantly from the ancient track. Inftead of aspiring to thofe higher fpeculations, which the matter of history is calculated to fuggeft, or aiming to inftruct his hearers in those leffons of moral and political wifdom which give to it its greatest value, he proposes to confine himself to a critical examination of the literary merits of the great hiftorians of Greece and Rome. In choofing this fubordinate walk, our readers will probably agree with us, that Mr Warton prudently confulted the vigour and extent of his own powers.

ART. XXVIII. Practical Obfervations in Surgery, illuftrated with Cafes. By William Hey, Eiq. F. R. S. Senior Surgeon to the General Infirmary at Leeds, &c. &c. &c. London. Printed for T. Cadell & W. Davies. 1803. 8vo. 537 pages.

THI HIS work has many claims to the attention of the practical furgeon. It is written by a man who, during a period of more than forty years, feems to have enjoyed very favourable opportunities for obfervation, and who has been in the custom of daily committing to paper whatever appeared to him to be new, or peculiarly inftructive in practice. In communicating the refult of his experience to the public, Mr Hey uniformly speaks with a proper degree of modefty of his fuccefs, and of the improvements which he conceives he has introduced into the practice of his art; while at the fame time he acknowledges, with a frankness and candour which do him much honour, the mistakes he has occafionally committed. Unlike, in their nature and object, to the ephemeral medical productions of the day, these Practical Obfervations' may be regarded as a legacy bequeathed to the coming, rather than as a recommendatory introduction to the present generation.

The work now before us will not readily admit, nor does it feem to us to require, a regular analyfis. In reviewing it, therefore, we conceive we fhall best fulfil our duty to the public, by pointing out fome of those modes of practice which seem to be peculiar to the author, and the particular points in which we may happen to differ from him in opinion.

The first chapter is entitled, On fractures of the skull,' and seems to have been written chiefly with a view to recommend the ufe of a fmall faw, in place of the inftrument called Trephine, in removing deprefied portions, or too prominent points of the

fkull

kull. Mr Hey gives, in a plate, figures of two forms of this faw; one with a femicircular, the other with a straight edge.

The ftraight-edged faw (he obferves) executes its task with greater readiness; but the convex edge is neceffary when the bone is to be fawed in a curvilinear direction. It is alfo useful when the thickness of that part of the cranium which is to be fawed out is very unequal.

This inftrument is worked with eafe, if the preffure made upon it by the hand is light. It faves much time in cafes of extenfive fracture, where the repeated application of a trephine would have been needful; and it may be used with lefs danger of wounding the dura mater, if the fame precautions are used in examining, from time to time, the depth of the groove, as is neceffary in the use of the trephine.'

In this chapter, two cafes of caries of the tibia are related, in which a cure was effected by removing the diseased bone with inftruments. They are obviously cafes in which most furgeons would have judged it neceffary to have had recourse to amputation. The mode of practice adopted in these cafes by Mr Hey, certainly deserves a more extenfive trial than it has hitherto received.

The chapter on Cataract contains many curious facts, and fome original obfervations. Mr Hey is a ftrenuous advocate for the method of cure by couching, He has given very accurate figures of the needle he employs. It differs from the common, by being nearly one half fhorter; by having a femicircular, instead of a pointed extremity; and by its increafing gradually in diameter from the extremity to the handle. Its principal merit, however, would feem to us to confift in being smaller than the common needle. This circumftance has not in general been fufficiently attended to, though we believe it will be found that the degree of inflammation fucceeding to the operation of couching, will be in fome measure proportional to the fize of the needle which is used. From the thortnefs of Mr Hey's inftru ment, it is eafy, in operating, to judge of the depth in the eye to which the intrument has penetrated. We doubt whether the comparison of this inftrument with the common needle be in all refpects fair. Some of the defects attributed to the old inftrument are common to both, and are perhaps infeparable from every form of cataract needle that can be conceived.

Mr Hey has obferved, that when the needle is pushed through the coats of the eye, in a direction parallel to the iris, that the eye is apt to roll; but that by directing the point of the needle to the centre of the eye, that organ is rendered steady, and the needle paffes through its coats, without any danger of wounding either the iris or the ciliary proceffes. The point of the in

ftrument