to having promised prizes to the best productions offered, good or bad, ought to have distributed them in strict oms to say the Society conformity to such promise, whatever their intrinsic merit! We agree with Mr. Jones and his counsel learned in the law, and recommend a bill in Chancery forthwith. 102 3T O **So much for the wrong on general grounds.In looking to the poem here given, as that supplied by' our angry and unfortunate bard, without being either absurd or discreditable to his scholarship, it is precisely one of those smooth mediocre productions that premiums are calculated to engender, and which, if they are not worthy the premium, are certainly not worth anything else. Academical prizes may now and then usefully elicit a poetical genius, although we exceedingly doubt it; but as a broad and general inducement to general national intellect, they are absurd, for no candidate of acknowledged or of conscious great powers, will put on harness and stoop to contend for them. We fully believe that the Royal Society of Literature met with no contribution, the publication of which could do it honour; but anything but a Royal Society of Literature would have foreseen such an issue. A promise, however, having been made, it should have been kept. "The Fall of Constantinople," by Mr. Jacob Jones, as a prize poem, would not have exalted their foresight to the skies, but it would at least have preserved their honour. The pertinacious irascibility of Mr. Jacob Jones, Jun. has produced a publication which will instruct in more ways than the author intended. Everybody was convinced, in the first instance, that a Royal Society of Literature would, from the very nature of things, become a species of party patronage, and, by negativing the independence, necessarily promote the subserviency of genius. We quote the following passage from the letter transmitted by Mr. Jacob Jones, with his Essay on Homer: "The peroration, for composing which, I had only two hours to spare, might be much enlarged and improved; and a dedication to his Majesty might give scope for a short piece of writing, which should be vigorous and masculine, without the smallest approach to being fulsome, and which might be PUBLICLY USEFUL as well as privately acceptable.' Now we do not complain of this as an absolute servility on the part of Mr. Jacob Jones, who seems to pride himself on his Toryism, but it is quite sufficient to indicate the species of mental prostration, which the Society, with its premiums and its pensions, is likely to foster. In point of fact, a Royal Society of Literature is a folly everywhere, but in England something worse. If we examine the higher productions of English intellect, how many shall we find that could never have exhibited the free breathings of mind by which they are at present distinguished, had they been produced under the influence of a Royal Society of Literature? Without adverting to direct and unequivocal opinions, passages must have been modified, lest this or that construction might have been put as their being offensive to power, and intellect would have danced in chains, as all intellect must do which bows down at such a Tashrine. In a word, we cannot discover a more injurious Institution in a free 3 country, than a Royal Society as aforesaid, if absolutely effective and rich. As it is, the mischief is small, and the result-puerility. Sa oled: • Having spoken with no go abse N JHI ATE admiration of the Fall of Constantinople, it is but fair to , that in some of the minor poems appended to it, Mr. Jones has evinced both poetry intornos and pathos. We supply an example ni boutsel fenuos eid bas 2900 .1M diw ON THE SULIOTE WOMEN,nol v195asdƆ ni llid WHO, WHEN PURSUED TO THE VERGE OF Á PRECIPICE, THREW THEIR CHILDREN DOWN → → IT, TO SAVE THEM FROM BECOMING THE SLAVES OF THEIR OPPRESSORS, THE TURKS. OF TH vlozinery as ti „qiThe Spartan's pass may live in song, hotelmolio sun er And freedom consecrate his shrine; 3.976 pulizer And, woman! let that tale be thine! Let fame a nobler tale prolong, Go! bid the Pasha haste, and see A sight that angels weep to view; volt toalletai Bid his red eyes roll savagely, Tomazoo toAnd, mothers! bid him gaze on you. modt Your infants' shrieks arise to heav'n; dimtgan og Their blood shall call its vengeance down; Antud maid Mercy shall pass him unforgiv'n, And Pity greet him with a frown. As on But hark! the crags are echoing round, 7 the furious foemen' press; A ton blnou sa Woman" it is the rallying sound; buy192970 9ved tese Yet theirs will be a fierce, caress, See, on the precipice's height bonaborg end au The heroine-phalanx take their standolosuiteq edT hua odt Theirs, the gaunt she wolf's cubes s Theirs the robb'd mother's desperate hand. notesilday bodytoy bebast and evans The sword is on them-firm, and free post to yo sinabrogabil on! such a mother smiles at thee,noteq treq lo esiosga The Suliote-mother yields her breath; edne od: stomory plinsaess Yet, heroines! yet one struggle more,tial sifa mou One last, long grapple with the foe; Your sucklings bid the wretch restore, Down-tumbling to th' abyss below. ist „Jedemorgy o!T & 9917 "Tis done! the vulture-feast is spread Rejoice, rejoice, ye Suliote-brave! The Infant's steep"---your watchword wild; M to 'Twas there the Moslem found a grave,lue slipp až The mother sacrific'd her child. The Spartan's pass may live in song, And, woman! let that tale be thine We suspect that Mr. Jacob Jones is a very great original. Here we have notices of Dissertations on Homer, are favoured with poems on the Fall of Constantinople, and what not; and behold, in a note he informs us, that he is about to publish a pamphlet against the TREAD WHEEL Discipline-Prodigious! writing Since the foregoing observations, we find that Mr Jacob bas Jones, Jun. has cancelled his angry preface; and through the medium of a very suspicious person, one MODERATOR, the fact is announced in the JOHN BULL-Worse and worsies tenehu will el a ak dol Sabaan Researches, by Mr. Landseer. MR. LANDSEER has long been known as an eminent artist and antiquary, and upon several occasions has distinguished himself at the Royal and other Scientific Institutions of the metropolis by his Lectures on subjects connected with the Fine Arts: and it seems that the "Sabæan Researches," just published, have been embodied from a Course of Lectures recently delivered by him at the Royal Institution on the subject of certain Engraved Antiques of a very peculiar kind; which Mr. L. shows to have been the Sacred Signets of the most ancient Sabæan Nations, and their immediate successors. From the shapes of these gems-from the substances of which they are severally composed-from the subjects they each contain-and from other evidences, with which all are more or less replete, the date of each signet; the country to which it belonged; the rank of its possessor; and various other interesting consequences, are inferred with a discrimination, and by reasoning, calculated to convey a like impression to that which seems to have been received upon the mind of the author relative to each of the wonderful diversity of topics brought under examination. In comments of this nature, it is usual to afford the world an opportunity of forming its own judgment, by introducing such extracts as appear to contain something like a sample of the work in question; but, in the present instance, it would hardly be possible, even were our limits more adequate, to break off one fragment from the whole that would show more than that it belonged to a fabric of very curiously unique workmanship; and that it could not appear away from the place whence it was taken, and where alone it was designed to be seen, without detriment to both itself and that of which it was a member. We shall, therefore, content ourselves with giving a little further general description of the book, and with pointing out a few of the particular advantages which it seems to us capable of conferring upon the arts and sciences, upon philology, and upon religion. The Work is comprised in Eight Essays, each of which has its special tendency; forming altogether a quarto volume of considerable magnitude; and every treatise is illustrated with Engraved Specimens of certain cylindrical and other shaped Signets or Gems; or with some particular detail found represented on these venerable remains of ancient art. Each Essay is addressed to some individual who has signalized himself in pursuing or promoting scientific achievements; and the adoption of this epistolary style has enabled the author to communicate, in a familiar way, the discoveries he has made; and to argue questions that might, perhaps, have been otherwise dry and unpalatable to general readers, in the most intelligible and agreeable manner. From what has been thus generally advanced, it might be supposed! that inquiries concerning such antique relics as Arabia and Chaldea offer, could only interest the profound virtuoso; but from Mr. Landseer's "Researches" it will be found that the subjects of these Oriental monuments concern readers of every class above the mere triflers; in fiction. It is, indeed, true, that the investigation mainly relates to an article which, from its outside appearance, few would think worth stooping for, and the intrinsic quality of which none, therefore, but a well-versed antiquary could know how to appreciate. But from the following concise specification of those branches of knowledge which may more especially extract valuable accessions from the results afforded by the successful labours of Mr. L., it will be at once manifest, that the very shards of Old Saba, Babylon, &c. are able to teach us many acceptable facts as to the arts, the sciences, the religion, and the history of times to which written documents supply no clue. ́ The subjects found wrought upon these pieces of Sabaan sculpture appertain to such celestial objects as excited the most popular attention in those early ages and countries to which they severally be longed and, such as have before sought in vain through the vague narratives of the primitive historians for some account of the earliest seat of systematic astronomy, will here find themselves agreeably and satisfactorily led within sight of the dawn of this now effulgent science. In adducing many of his evidences, and in deriving his dates, Mr. L. refers very much to that tardy recession of the fixed stars, and nutation of the poles, which, among other effects, causes what is termed the precession of the equinoxes, and which he has very appropriately and magnificently designated" The Great Century-Hand of Time." Concerning many of the constellations, and particularly those of Taurus, Aries, Bootes, Virgo, Cepheus, Cassiopeia, and the successive solstitial signs, some very interesting facts have been elicited from the symbolcal representations contained in these very ancient works of art. In short, those best versed in astronomy and its early history, will find themselves rather surprised, after the lapse of so many centuries, to hold the sages of nations long since in oblivion, restored to light, exhibited before their eyes, peopling, as it were, the starry firmament. As forming the first rude efforts now known to be extant among the Arts of Design, the Gems of Babylon must possess an interest which none but the professed artist, or the amateur who has taken a philosophical view of the progress of these arts in all their branches, can duly appreciate yet, from their venerable character, these miniature specimens of deified personifications, are subjects which every classic poet and mythologist must have some curiosity to become acquainted with ; and more especially so from the unsophisticated originality with which they come stamped. Though the author, in prosecuting these novel inquiries, does not enter much into topics of a religious nature, yet he has very expressly shown that the Sabæan Signets of which he treats, are “Graven Images" of that very kind, the worship of which is so strictly prohibited in the decalogue. It is also deducible from the course of arguments contained in the work, that the first emotion of religion in the mind of man, which is generally termed natural religion, was, in all probability, excited by the sublime display of the starry Heaven: and revealed religion is also indebted to the author of these "Researches" for the removal of a troublesome stumbling-block with which all the transla tions of the Scriptures have been hampered. No commentator has ever been able to give any satisfactory solution as to that species of idolatry denounced under the term "Grove-worship;" and this diffi- " culty Mr. L has clearly shown to have arisen from quite a mistaken" sense of the Hebrew word, " Ashre," the true signification of whichhe seems to have very effectually extracted; and he has also, in many other places, evinced much discernment in sifting and rectifying ety mological points. The sacred cestimation in which the signets so frequently alluded to in Scripture were held, and the peculiar manner in which they were used in the ceremonies of religion and ratification of solemn compacts, is very fully explained indeed, we may at once say, that the Sabean Researches" is a book that every bible-reader of an intelligent order may, with much advantage; consult、i,,9519tallib *Though the few foregoing observations may stend: to show somer of the main bearings in which this work is calculated to be conspicuously useful, yet it perhaps extends with equal application into other direc tions that relate to the early stages of the world. Indeed, the laborious task of exploring the secret contents of these Sabæan remains is manifest from a closely printed index which occupies many pages, and which will, no doubt, be esteemed a valuable appendage to a work so full of curious information, of which it may be considered an alphabetical analysis, well calculated to occasionally refresh T Tthes memory concerning any subject canvassed in the volume to which it is attached. The more insight any one may have previously had into the early history of mankind, the greater pleasure will he derive from the perusal of these "Essays:" and where but little knowledge on the subjects they embrace has been before acquired, they are calculated to convey much, and to create a thirst for more of a similar naturensin short, the detached traces which others had here and there marked of the early progress of Infant Science, Mr. Lohas connected, and followed it up to its first stage, restoring and gilding its little footsteps through tracks where they had seemed totally and for ever obliterated. act w 199m ow &L q Vidov ZAIHTOJ-A1M to rяal adt al :encitosher paiwollół pla bes dant lo ano tod COMMON PLACES. to 8971880, 76 19010 Hora In the late quarrel about Liberty, upwards of five millions of men have been killed, and one kinges 407 523 NOx 1 3 10 2ьkériíi sáð The people (properly speaking) are not a herd of slaves just, let loose, or else goaded on, like blind drudges, to execute the behests of their besotted task-masters; but the band of free citizens, taught to know their rights, and prepared to exercise them. The people are the slaves of ignorance and custom; the friends of the people are the dupes of reason and humanity. Power stops at nothing but its own purposes. LXXXVI. * Fa For The Author of Waverly observes" In truth, the Scottish peasantry <are still infected with that rage for funeral ceremonial, which once distinguished the grandees of the kingdom so much, that a sumptuary laws was made by the Parliament of Scotland for the purpose of 7 restraining it and I have known many in the lowest stations who have denied themselves not merely the comforts, but almost the neces-saries of life, in order to save such a sum of money as might enable their surviving friends to bury them like Christians, cas they termed it; -nor could their faithful executors be prevailed upon, though equally > necessitous, to turn to the use and maintenance of the living the money |