of inftructive books, ufually put into the hands of young fcholars; and may prove the means of exciting their attention and curiofity to engage more deeply in the line of historical fcience.

ART. XVI. The Immortality of the Soul: a Poem, from the Latin of Ifaac Hawkins Browne: Tranflated by John Lettice, B. D. late Fellow of Sydney-College, Cambridge. To which is added, the original Poem; with a Commentary and Annotations by the Tranflator. 8vo. 312 pp. 45. 6d. Rivingtons. 1795.

IN

N his dedication of this tranflation to the worthy fon of the original author, Mr. Lettice modeftly, but fatisfactorily, explains the motives of the undertaking.

"With a view," he fays, " to promote yout father's meritorious defign, and to extend the benefits of it to those who could not other. wife have partaken it, it doubtlefs was, that feveral ingenious perfons, foon after the publication of his poem, undertook to communicate his arguments, and, as far as might be hoped, the beauties of his poetry, in English translations. The reafon of my adding myself to the number is lefs the hope of excelling the more fuccefsful of my predeceffors, than that of contributing, at this momentous crifis, which threatens the happiness of half our fpecies, to recal the thoughtless, the mistaken, the incredulous, and the wicked, to a subject calculated, above all others, and under all circumftances, to engage the attention and attach the affection, of human beings.

Mr. Lettice has chofen blank verfe for the medium of his verfion, which certainly affords fome advantages in preferving the connection, and imitating the tranfitions of an argumentative poem. It expofes him, at the fame time, to the double danger of falling into a profaic style on the one hand, or fwelling into turgidity on the other. Between which Scylla and Charybdis how few poets have been able to fteer! That this tranflator is altogether equal to thofe happy few, we cannot undertake to fay; but, after a very careful perufal of his book, we can without hesitation pronounce, that it is well executed. The verfification is fuch as will be read with pleasure, and the writer has, in general very fuccefsfully caught the fpirit and reafoning of his author. His Commentary and notes are judicious, and we, have little doubt that the appearance of the I work in this new form will fucceed, as it ought, in recalling the attention of the public to a very valuable illuftration of a most important fubject; to a poem which, if the infidels of

a neigh

a neighbouring state had confidered, it would perhaps have fhaken their favourite opinion, that death is an eternal fleep.

As the most celebrated of former tranflators is Soame Jenyns, we fhall compare a paffage of the new translation with one from his. We take it from the beginning of the fecond book, choofing our fpecimen, not from the confideration of either verfion, but from looking over the original.

S. JENYNS.

Yet true it is, furvey we life around,
Whole hofts of ills on ev'ry fide are found,
Who wound not here and there by chance a foe,
But at the fpecies meditate the blow;

What millions perish by each others hands
In wars fierce rage! or by the dread commands
Of tyrants languifh out their lives in chains,
Or lofe them in variety of pains!

What numbers pinch'd by want and hunger die,
In fpite of Nature's liberality!

(Thofe, ftill more numerous, I to name difdain
By lewdness and intemp'rance juftly flain)
What numbers guiltlefs of their own difeafe,
Are fnatch'd by fudden death, or wafte by flow degrees!
Where then is Virtue's well deferv'd reward?

Let's pay to Virtue ev'ry due regard,
That the enables man, let us confefs,

To bear thofe evils which fhe can't redrefs,
Gives hope and confcious peace, and can affuage
Th' impetuous tempefts both of luft and rage;
Yet fhe's a guard fo far from being fure,
That oft' her friends peculiar ills endure:
Where Vice prevails feverest is their fate,
Tyrants purfue them with a threefold hate;
How many ftruggling in their country's caufe,
And from their country meriting applaufe,
Have fall'n by wretches fond to be enflav'd,
And perish'd by the hands themselves had fav'd.
Soon as fuperior worth appears in view,
See knaves and fools united to purfae!
The man fo form'd they all confpire to blame,
And Envy's pois'nous tooth attacks his fame;
Should he at length, fo truly good and great
Prevail, and rule with honeft views the ftate,
Then must he toil for an ungrateful race,
Submit to clamour, libels, and difgrace,
Threaten'd, oppos'd, defeated in his ends,
By foes feditious, and afpiring friends.
Hear this, and tremble! all who would be great,

Yet know not what attends that dang rous wretched state.

"LETTICE,

"LETTICE.

"Be facts our better proof: at large furvey
Life's ample scene, encompafs'd round with ills:
And dealt, not partially, to thefe or those,
As chance befalls; the family of man,
No favour'd fon exempt, one equal lot,
Partakes What thoufands fall beneath the fword!
What thousands at the tyrants nod expire,
Or bear his ponderous chain; his ruthless heart.
Inventing, day by day, new tortures! why
Recount I those whom famine dire confumes,
While Nature, all beneficent, her ftore
Profufely fpreads; or thofe, a wretched train
Snatched fudden by difeafe; or guiltless thofe,
Whom lingering anguifh flowly waftes away?
'For that infenfate tribe I fcorn to name,
Whofe inbred crimes, intemperance, or luft,
Have led, felf-murder'd victims, to the grave.
"Doth virtue then or fanctity of life
Its guerdon meet?" to virtue be her claims
All in full measure granted: all those ills,
Thofe miferies, which life is doomed to know
She schools us by endurance how to cheer,
Infpiring better hopes; man to himself
She reconciles: the ftorms of anger the
And love affuages bland!"-But all her strength
'Gainft ills of ruder fhock protends no fhield
Of fure defence: fo fails her fovereign power,
That oft her zealous votaries fhe leads
To perils imminent. 'Twere better then
That they give preference to Vice, whofe fate
To fome imperious tyrants service binds
Their pitiable lot. For Virtue's friend
The tyrant's hated object ever ftands.

"Full oft the patriot's life, whofe merit claim
His country's brighteft recompence, hath fall'n
Beneath th' infuriate hands of those he fav'd,
Doth Genius lift above the vulgar throng
Some lov'd afpirant? Envy's crew, alarm'd,
Ceafelefs his doom confpire; t' afperfe his fame
Their ferpent teeth the deadly venom shed.
But grant, by Virtue's perfevering force,
Thefe clouds difpers'd, to light emerging flow
He gains a nation's helmn; his late reward.
What labours for a thanklefs world! reproach,
And scorn, and dangers next become his lot!
Dangers, or threatned by rude faction's tribe,
Or potent rivalry's ambitious league.
Liften brave fpirits! ye of fair renown,
And honour madly emulous, what ills,
In fecret ambush, wait your high career."

3

In B. I. 1. 21 dalliance is ufed as a trifyllable, which has al ways a flat effect. Réceptacle, in 1. 72, is harthly, and we think wrongly accented. Nolition, 1. 120, is a word not allowable. The following inverfion produces great obfcurity:

3. sé

Our living fame,

2. How generations yet unborn may hold,
1. Hence fprings that warm follicitude."

the fenfe requiring the lines to be read as here numbered. In the enfuing inftance the tranflator has miftaken the meaning of his author:

"And flows in ftreams of fweeteft eloquence:
Each word prognoftic of approaching death.”

Scame Jenyns has it rightly.

"For when the body oft' expiring lies,

Its limbs quite fenfelefs, and half clos'd its eyes,
The mind new force, and eloquence acquires,

And with prophetic voice, the dying lips infpires:"

Thefe, and a few more corrections, may, perhaps, hereafter render the tranflation ftill more unexceptionable. For the edition in which they may be adopted, we will alfo fupply the following illuftration. The author certainly had a patfage of Lord Bacon's works in his contemplation, when he wrote thefe fine lines.

Cumque fuper terris quæ fiunt, quæque tuemur
Omnia, curriculo volventia semper eodem,

Non explent animum, varia et magis ampla petentem;
Sanctus adeft vates, per quem fublimior ordo,
Pulchrior et fpecies, et mentis idonea votis
Exoritur, vitæ fpes auguriumque future."

"The ufe of this feigned hiftory hath been to give fome fhadow of fatisfaction to the mind of man in thofe points, wherein the nature of things doth deny it, the world being, in proportion, inferior to the foul; by reafon whereof there is, agreeable to the spirit of man, a more ample greatness, a more exact goodness, and a more abfolute variety, than can be found in the nature of things. Therefore, becaufe the acts or events of true hiftory hath not that magnitude which fatisfeth the mind of man, poefy feigneth acts greater and more heroical; because, true hiftory propoundeth the fucceffes and iffues of actions not fo agreeable to the merits of virtue and vice, therefore, porfy feigns them more juft in retribution, and more according to revealed providence; becaufe true history reprefenteth actions and events more ordinary, and lefs interchanged; therefore, poefy endueth them with more rarenefs and more unexpected and alternative variations fo as it appeareth that poefy ferveth and conferreth to magnanimity, morality, and to delectation. And, therefore, it was ever thought

thought to have fome participation of divinenefs, because it doth raife and erect the mind, by fubmitting the fhews of things to the defires of the mind; whereas reafon doth buckle and bow the mind unto the nature of things." Lord Bacon Adv. of Learning. B. II. P. 463. fol.

With these remarks we difmifs a work, which has added to the good opinion we had before conceived of this author, and which will doubtless increase his estimation in the eye of the public.

ART. XVII. Account of the Management of the Poor in Hamburgh fince the Year 1788, in a Letter to fome Friends of the Poor in Great Britain. 8vo. No Price or Publisher's name. Edinburgh. Edinburgh. 1795.

THE

HE progreffive increase of the Poor's-Rate throughout the extent of Great-Britain has, of late years, been a fource of juft and great complaint. The evil feems to have proceeded entirely from a want of that management, which a fagacious foreigner has shown us in this pamphlet, to be not only practicable, but to be followed by the moft defirable fuccefs. If in each provincial town, fuch as Manchester, Birmingham, or Norwich, a number of individuals above the reach of influence, and fuperior to the allurements of interest, were to combine in the prosecution of fome fuch plan as is here pointed out, they would certainly difcharge a great and honourable office, and fpeedily fee an increafe of diligence among the poor, and a confequent diminution of diftrefs, the refult of their meafures. The writer of this pamphlet we understand to be a German gentleman of confiderable fortune, who long refided in this country from motives alike honourable to his philanthropy, and his defire of ingenuous improvement. Among the things which caught his attention when among us, was the management of our poor, the complaints against the continual increafe of the poor's-rates, and the numerous fcenes of private calamity offensive to the feelings of all, and difreputable to a well ordered government. After fome very wife and philanthropic remarks upon the relative fituations of the poor in various parts of Europe, he obferves, that

"In all the Weft of Europe there is hardly a country where the fums which public and private benevolence beftows upon the poor, are not more than adequate to the purposes of their relief, but mifma

U

BRIT, CRIT. VOL. VI. SEPT. 1795.

nagement