With his rapt spirit round the ecliptic glow, And, as one dazzling flood of light they pour, 6 • Doom'd still to be the sport of adverse fate, Aad wide the intellectual world explores; Or with great Newton in mechanics towers, Invests their secret laws and wonderous powers; Weighs the vast mass, and marks its mighty bound. That That long as stars shall shine, or oceans roll, To kindred zeal shall rouse the aspiring soul." The APIARY, which follows this article, is described with much poetical imagery : • Reflected from Augusta's glittering spires, The sun darts fiercely his meridian fires; With brighter splendor shines each glistening stream, Save when on idle drones dire war they wage; All, all to swell the pablic stores unite. Oh! would the mighty states, whose thunders hurl'd O'er ravaged Europe, awe the astonished world, Oh! would they imitate the blameless race, Whose numerous hives their names conspicuous grace; Their generous ardour for the public weal; And bid through earth eternal concord reign!' There seems a small inaccuracy, which we did not expect from so orthodox a writer as Mr. M., in saying, p. 3, that Adam led by his Maker. (before the fall) tasted every fruit that decked the paradisaical bower.' At pp. 7 and 8, the words bound and bounded seem rather too near neighbours. Pope's objection to "the repetition of the same thymes within four or six lines of each other, as tiresome to the ear through their monotony," is equally cogent with respect to blank verse, and to prose; where an important word continues vibrating on the ear during the perusal of at least five or six lines. Of MITHRA we have formerly spoken with partiality, in vol. xii. p. 251. of our New Series. In this revival of the poem, there is a considerable addition, between the IV th and Vth Stanzas. At p. 63. a small typographical error seems to have escaped the author's care and correction: Diapasan for Diapason and in another place, the word recanted, for rechanted, seems an unusual acceptation. Though to recant comes from recanto, and originally implied a palinody, no one now thinks of singing who recants an opinion. Besides the uncommon beauty of the engravings, this publication does honour to the typography of our country, by the perfection of the letter-press and paper. ART. XIV. The Pleasures of Hope; with other Poems. By Thomas Campbell. Small 8vo. 6s. Boards. Edinburgh, printed; and sold by Longman, in London. 1799. T would be unreasonable to expect, in a poem on this subject, the same exactness and method which occur in the Pleasures of Memory, or perhaps in the Pleasures of Imagination. All that can be done, in delineating the effects of the passion here described, is to form pleasing groupes, and to combine them by natural transitions. In one transition, we think, the present author has been too abrupt: namely, in passing from the subject which introduces the Episode, to the Sorrows of Conrad and his daughter. The characteristic style of the poem is the pathetic, though in some passages it rises into a higher tone.-It opens with a comparison between the beauty of remote objects in a landscape, and the anticipation of remote futurity: At summer eve, when Heav'n's aerial bow Spans with bright arch the glittering hills below, Though there seems to be no settled mode of arrangement adopted in disposing of the successive pictures which consti tute the poem, yet there is an evident climax followed out. The march-worn soldier' entering the field of battle is the first description; to which succeeds an allusion to the situation of the the celebrated Commodore Byron *; who, actuated by the influence of anticipation, encountered so many difficulties With exemplary fortitude. A domestic scene is then naturally introduced, in which the influence of Hope on parental affection is well pourtrayed. We give the following specimen of this part of the poem: Lo! as the couch where infant beauty sleeps, T In form and soul; but ah! more blest than he. And chase the world's ungenerous scorn away. Dura 2"And say when summoned from the world and thee I lay my head beneath the willow tree, Wilt thou, sweet mourner! at my stone appear, moi gan .$. Oh wilt thou come? at evening hour, to shed gods Breathe a deep sigh to winds that murmur low, Or cons his murm'ring task beneath her carei M Or lisps with holy look his evening pray', fi. Or gazing, mutely pensive, sits to hear The mournful ballad warbled in his ear; How fondly looks admiring Hope the while, At every artless tear, and every smile; The pictures of the Maniac and the Wanderer are in the same style, but our limits do not permit us to transcribe them. *For his Narrative, see M. R. vol. xxxix. p. 319. From From seenes of private life, the writer then passes to nobier subject, viz. the prospect of the amelioration of the human race, and of their progress in science, liberty, and virtue. He has selected the partition of Poland, to illustrate a period at which every well-wisher to mankind entertained sanguine hopes of the emancipation of millions of the human species; and he concludes with a poetical prophecy that the day of Polish freedom may be yet expected. In all his allusions to politics, Mr. Campbell takes no notice of the French Revolu tion; a circumstance which at least argues that he regards the revolution of Poland and that of France in a different light. In fact, we are by no means inclined to suppose, from the tenor of Mr. C.'s writings, that his admiration of Brutus and Kosciusko have tinged his mind with improper principles; and from his silence on the subject of French Liberty, we argue his disapprobation of its horrors and excesses. In his allusion to the partition of Poland, he describes the last fatal contest of the oppressors and the oppressed, the capture of the city of Prague, and the massacre of the Poles at the bridge which crosses the Vistula: Warsaw's last champion from her height survey'd, Wide o'er the fields, a waste of ruin laid, "Oh! Heav'n! (he cried,) my bleeding country save! Yet, though destruction sweep these lovely plains, In vain, alas! in vain, ye gallant few! |