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destined to be the poet of nature rather than a moralist or historian.

In the next composition, Mr. H. is transported in a dream to Longovicum, a Roman station, the remains of which are still visible in the neighbourhood of Lanchester; and here the Spirit of the place recites, to the sound of her harp, the changing fortunes of the country during the periods of British, Roman, and Saxon ascendancy. The whole is written with great vivacity; and the characteristic scenes of Druidical polity and superstition, of Roman civilization, and of Danish and Saxon devastation, with which this wild narrative is interspersed, are well introduced and supported.-The notes which accompany this poem contain a description of the Roman station at Longovicum, and of inscriptions and coins found in the neighbourhood; together with some details and discussions that are interesting to the antiquary, but on which we have not room to enlarge.

The volume closes with three odes, of which the first is decidedly the best. Indeed, for elegance of fancy and smoothness of versification it will not readily be equalled; and though our extracts have been already long, we cannot withhold from our readers a share of the gratification which this little production has afforded us :

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• ODE I.

TO THE WESTWINDS.

Whither, ye timid zephyrs, have you flown,
Ye people of the westwind, tell me where

You stretch your aromatic wings,
And in what gardens of the sun,
At morning, breathe

Your pleasant coldness? Have you southward fled
With spring to linger on the breezy shores
Of Ebro, or the olive's leaf
To paint with everlasting green
. On Tajo's banks?
Perhaps, you sport upon the golden sands
Of Niger, and, in heat meridian, dip

Your wings upon Anzico's plains;
Or, in the cocoa-vestur'd isles,
Beyond the line,

Kiss the young plantain, and to dance and song
The simple natives call. O ministers

Of health and medicines, that cure

The soul with sickness woe begone→
O! back return,

And brace my languid limbs, and on my check,
With hands benevolent, your crimson lay:

REV. JULY, 1808.

U

Come,

Come, and repair the dreadful waste,
Committed by the ruffian tribe,
That rule the north.

From the fair pastures of the bright-horn'd bull
Descending, on the orient shafts of day,
A thousand sylphs of heat are come
To strew your grassy road with flowers,
And bid you hail.

Already has the primrose decked for you
Her fragrant palaces, and wide unfolds
Their vestibule with yellow doors.
The purple-spotted orchis, too,
Prepares his halls

Of curious workmanship, where you may spend
Your festal mornings, or, beneath the gloom
Of solitary midnight, rest

In caves, that azure crystal seem
To eyes like yours.

Come, in the globe-flower's golden laver, wash
Your little hands with dew-drops, and in seas
Of evening tears, upon the leaves
Of alchemilla, gently plunge
Your beauteous limbs.

Will you not sip the woodruff's od'rous lymph,
And banquet on th' ambrosia it affords?
Will you not in the wortle* sit,
And luscious nectar drink beneath
Its ruby dome ?

O! you shall revel on Eliza's lip,

Madden with rapture on its coral bloom,
And, in her gentle eye, behold
The infant softness of your forms
Reflected bright.

Come then, O genial winds, and in your way
Visit the fairest fountains of the sky;

And, in the hollow of your hands,
Bring each a precious drop to cheer
Returning spring.'

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In a work so easily revised, we did not expect to meet with such expressions as clumpses' for clumps, lays' for lies, thrums, jammed,' &c. Mr. H.'s sins against prosody are still more inexcusable, since we are perpetually stumbling on lines which are faulty in length or cadence.

Vaccinium myrtillus, Billberry or Bleaberry. The stamina of this shrub form a very beautiful dome.'

ART.

ART. X. The Life of the Right Honourable Horatio Lord Viscount Nelson, K.B. Vice Admiral of the White Squadron of His Majesty's Fleet, Duke of Bronte in farther Sicily, &c. &c. &c. By Mr. Harrison. 8vo. 2 Vols. 11. 35. Boards. Chapple.

EXU XULTAT animus, maximorum virorum memoriam percurrens. Such was the remark of Valerius Maximus, nearly two thousand years ago; and it will continue to be verified, while the mind of man can distinguish between great and base qualities, and prefer the eminence of virtue to the notoriety of vice. All human examples, however, animate and inanimate, should be studied with the view of profit, by discrimi nating the merits which they may display from the alloys with which they are invariably mixed, and by perseveringly endeavouring to imitate the former, while the latter are as resolutely avoided. In contemplating the finest works of human skill, the artist is anxious to discover any latent and minute imperfection, the indication of which may prevent a fault from receiving the sanction which the general excellence of the object confers; and in discussing the characters of illustrious dead, is not the moral obligation of this scrutiny much more weighty than the professional duty of the statuary, the painter, or the mechanic?

The qualities and the deeds of Nelson were singularly a dapted to excite admiration: but, as we have formerly remarked, he was not "the perfect monster which the world ne'er saw," and that world should no more be deprived of the cautionary lessons which the shades in his character may imprint, than of the excitements which are emblazoned in the brilliancy of his career. As an historian, however, Mr. Harrison balances not with steady and temperate hands the scales of rigid justice; nor, as a painter, does he even give full and due effect to his picture by the requisite distribution of light and shade. His allotments are all thrown into one scale, that of encomium; and his colours are mixed up so as to produce only one general mass of lustre. Language does not seem to suffice him for eulogy, and the liberality of his country in rewarding the hero never satisfies his prodigal desires. In speaking of him, his terms almost remind us of Miss in a novel describing her lover: Nelson's actions are always great, exalted, noble, incomparable, and his honourable lips utter only correspondent expressions, becoming this excellent, indefatigable, and friendly hero, the glory of human nature as well as of his country,' of whom the world was scarcely worthy!'-Now we would ask Mr. H., what need there is of such a daubing representation of acts and characters that are really splendid, and what becomes of it if it be not deserved ?

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As to the honours bestowed by the nation on its brave defender, they are at every period of his success inadequate in Mr. H.'s eyes to the merits of the warrior; and Lady Hamilton is quoted as having finely remarked, with a spirit and energy forcibly depicting the grand character of that superlative mind which renders her, at once, the idol and idoliser of transcendent genius and valour,-that "the splendid reward of Mari"borough's services was because a woman reigned, and women, "had great souls; and I (says her Ladyship, for these are "her own matchless words) told Nelson that, if I had been a queen, after the battle of Aboukir, he should have had a "principality, so that Blenheim park should have been only as "a kitchen garden to it !"-Will Lady H. inform us what she would have added, after the subsequent victories of the Admiral? Her lavish disposition reminds us of the boy who was crying at noon for his dinner, and being asked whether his mammy allowed him none, answered that she had gone out in the morning and left it for him, but that he had eaten it all at his breakfast. After such an Aboukirian breakfast, what would her Ladyship have allotted for a Copenhagen dinner, and, alas! for a Trafalgarian monument?

In the preface, Mr. Harrison boasts of having presented to his readers many novelties concerning Nelson, notwithstanding the various accounts of him which have hitherto appeared; and we shall readily acknowlege that his boast in this respect is well founded, since he has certainly furnished us with a great number of new particulars, anecdotes, and letters, hitherto secluded from the public eye. Indeed, with regard to epistolary communications, we can account for his having obtained possession of them no otherwise than by supposing that he has had access to Lord Nelson's own copies of his letters and dispatches; while for minute, personal, domestic, and travelling anecdotes, Lady H. and others of Nelson's companions must probably have been the author's informants. We have doubts whether he was justified in giving to us some of the official documents: but he has taken on himself this responsibility, and we have only to avail ourselves of the knowlege thus imparted.

On the other hand, Mr. H. has made free use of former details. Much is taken from Mr. Charnock's publication*, though not acknowleged; twelve pages are allotted to Captain Phipps's Voyage to the North Pole, and eighteen are copied from Dr. Moseley's book on tropical climates, relative to the expedition against the Spanish settlements in America; Col.

*See Rev, Vol. xlix. N.S. p. 165.

Drinkwater's

Drinkwater's account of the action off St. Vincent's is quoted through fifteen pages; Nelson's own journal is added; and the battle of the Nile occupies seventeen pages, transcribed from a sketch said to have been drawn up by Captain Berry, and which has before been printed.

Let us now, however, turn from the scene-painter to the Hero on the stage. Some minor errors of the former shall be the subject of a few concluding remarks.

Our abstract from Mr. Charnock's work has put our readers in possession of the chain of incidents which distinguished the life of Nelson. We shall now attend to some of the circumstances relative to them, which occur for the first time in the present volumes; and to the traits in conversation, letters, or otherwise, which mark the features of his extraordinary cha

racter.

Enthusiasm in the service of his country, and for the honour of his profession, was his distinguishing and paramount feeling. In the pursuit of this object, no danger terrified him, no obstacle deterred him, no consequences restrained him, life was desirable only as it tended to this duty, and death was welcome if occuring in the discharge of it. All the particulars here recorded, concerning his command while protecting the two Sicilies, Malta, &c. eminently illustrate and confirm this truth and afford perhaps an unparalleled display of exertion and anxiety. Is His Majesty's service (said he) to stand still for an instant ?" Few constitutions, we believe, could long support such a mind as he possessed, and such fatigues as the incessant workings of that mind created; his bodily frame certainly was too weak for the task, and suffered severely from the effects of it.

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That he considered the cause, moreover, in which he was engaged, to be just, and that he deemed the views of his government to be laudable, must be argued from a remarkable passage in a letter to Lord Minto; My conduct, as your's, is to go straight and upright. Such is, thank God, the present plan of Great Britain; at least, as far as I know: for, if I thought otherwise, I should not be so faithful a servant to my country, as I know I am at present."

A degree of irritation, and the most acute feeling, naturally attended a temperament of this kind; and we discover repeated instances of those sensations in his expressions respecting Sir Sidney Smith, whose appointment in the Levant seemed to interfere with his own command, as well as respecting his treatment by the Admiralty on various occasions, and on being superseded by a senior officer. The excess of his exertions, the unfortunate issue of the contest, and his disapU 3

pointments

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