however, to be cruel to the poor brat, because it seems to cour our protection; and yet we cannot consent to let it pass as the legitimate offspring of Apollo. All we shall add is, that we heartily with the author would have permitted it to remain in the poetical bills of mortality, under the article STILL-BORN. 14. The Margate Guide. Containing a particular Account of Margate with respect to its new Buildings, Affemblies, Accommodations, Manner of Bathing. To which is prefixed, a Short Account of the Isle of Thanet in general. 8vo. Is. Carnan and Newbery, A fenfible, and agreeable account of Margate, and the adjacent parts of Kent, remarkable for their natural curiosities, for their antiquities, and for their improvements of art and luxury. The particulars, which the author relates, are judiciously chofen; they are told with perfpicuity; and in the main, with accuracy of language. The feizing and conveying of Henry Crifpe, efq. of Quex, in the Ile of Thanet, to Bruges in Flanders, is related towards the end of this pamphlet. This is a very fingular anecdote, and has not hitherto been publicly known. It deferves the attention of the hiftorical critic, from its peculiarity, and its concomitant circumstances. 15. Margate in Miniature: or, The New Margate Guide. 8vo. 15. 6d. Rofon. To this work fome praise at least is due, on account of the fmall degree of trouble it has afforded us in the perufal; as many pages of it do not exhibit above fix very short lines like the following. Or, Mifs M to Captain D. If you love me dearly, Tell me fo fincerely." To Mr. B- -n. You fay to love me is your lot Or Gentle reader, would't thou have any more?-If thou would'ft, e'en buy the whole eighteen-penny-worth.—What a pack of defpicable imitators has the author of the Bath Guide tempted out, to plague the Reviewers, and impofe on the public! 16. The 16. The Court of Cupid. By the Author of the Meretriciad. 2 Vols. 8vo. 5s. Moran. It is our misfortune now to be obliged to treat of a scribbler better known by fuch repeated praises as he has lavished on himfelf, than by any decisions made by the world in his favour. Whatever happens to be captain T's fubject, he generally takes care to introduce himself as the hero of the piece. Is the jubilee at Stratford to be praised?-all characters are thruft afide to make room for the gallant T-'. Is a pretended auction of public characters to be described in the newspaper?-he difpofes of himself at the highest price. Are the writers of the age to be weighed in a vifionary balance ?—his own weight is fufficient to fink the fcale, while clusters of others must be contented to kick the beam.—One_instance of his modefty, and one only, have we ever met with, and therefore justice obliges us to make mention of it here. In his late proposals for printing two other volumes of his works by subscription, he takes care to inform us that he was educated at Beverley school. This caution we fuppofe was owing to fome fears, which arose in his mind, left his readers should fufpec him to have had no education at all. These volumes contain fome republications and fome new pieces. The Meretriciad, which is little more than a versified lift of all the common prostitutes about town, together with anecdotes of their characters introduced by way of notes, has already received our cenfure; and we heartily wish we could find a fingle article, among such as are new, which could in the least deserve our praise. The titles of all the pieces before us, befpeak their feveral contents; and when their author promifes any thing meretricious, the reader may be as fure of meeting no disappointment on that account, as if every line had been penned by the moft ignorant or profligate among the fifterhood of Drury Lane. Captain T- is, in short, what he calls himself, the poet of the fters; and not unwilling is he to be received as a fecond NASO, by which title he generally diftinguishes himself in the public prints, as well as in his other not lefs notable compofitions. There is no reason why fuch a man fhould be offended at the freedom of our remarks; a man whose conftant employment is, to vilify the private characters, and decry the performances of others. We are not afraid of exalting fuch a one into our enemy, but should be truly afhamed had he any reafon for calling himself our friend. His readers and ours, are happily of different claffes; and we dismiss him therefore to feek confolation in their elogiums as well as in his own; though we again moft feriously affure him that he will be ad mitted } mitted as a wit, only on board the Infernal tender; and as a poet, in no other place than Broad St. Giles's. We fhall make no extracts from thefe volumes, as we know not where to find a page fit to be difplayed before modest eyes. We are always ready to follow Signor Baretti through the dangerous vales of Alcantara, or to climb the rugged Alps with Dr. Goldfmith; but do not chufe to venture through blind alleys into night-cellars or brothels, with the author of the Meretriciad for our guide. 17. A Search into the Prophecies. In two Letters to the Ruffian Nation. 8vo. Smith, Canterbury. We are informed by this anonymous fearcher into prophecies, in his addrefs to the reader, that his work was refused by the London bookfellers. A circumftance very unfavourable for us, who are obliged to read through thick and thin; though the author indeed looks upon it as an undoubted proof of the excellency of his work. We cannot help obferving, that there appears to us in this performance, a fpecies of impiety, which affumes to itself a dogmatical impertinence by intruding into the arcana of Providence, for fuch undoubtedly is the work before us, which preffes into its fervice the facred writings, to fhew us a picture, of which there is not a single feature for its resemblance. It is a little unfortunate for this writer of a Canterbury tale, that what he would mean to establish, is as diametrically oppofite to the sense of fcripture which he cites, as it is contrary (which we could abundantly fhew him) to the opinions of the most eminent writers, who have favoured the world with their valuable labours, on this difficult fubject. To fatisfy our readers, however, of the inability of the author, for this kind of work, we will beg leave to lay before them the paffages from the prophecy of Daniel, on which the chimerical scheme of our author's prophecy is founded, and which he imagines are applicable to no other kingdom upon earth, but the Ottoman Porte; nay, in his fecond letter, he roundly afferts, that the grand fignior himself is the perfon marked out in the prophecy to come to his end.-The reader fhall now have an opportunity of finding out the grand fignior in Daniel chap. xi. verfes 44, 45. But tidings out of the east, and out of the north fall trouble him; therefore he shall go forth with great fury to deflroy, and utterly to take away many. -And he shall plant the tabernacles of his palace between the feas in the glorious mountain; yet he hall come to his end, and none shall help him. If it is unneceffary to make any farther comment, we defire the reader carefully to perufe for his private inftruction, the faw them-but we find them not, We liften-fuch enthufiafts are we in diftrefs, as if we expected a repetition of the never-tobe-forgotten found :--. But we hear it not. The voice of the charmer has ceafed for ever. The table wants its ornament, and the walk its vifitant. Let the weary mourner retire to rest. And even then, before the clofing eye will pafs the firmly-impreffed image of the departed. The bufy imagination will grasp the phantom, and eagerly reprefent every wonted glance, and every accustomed attitude. Sleep, alas! was not made for the mourner. -the wretched he forfakes, Swift on his downy pinions flies from woe, And lights on lids unfullied with a tear. We Or to what purpofe fhould the mourner awake, to behold that light, which cannot difcover to him the only object which he longs to fee! The beauties of nature, the accommodations of art, and the fupplies of fortune, have loft their charms. Every fcene is dull. The fable hangings in the houfes of the great, are fuperfluous. We need only to fee objects as they used to appear, to convince us that an effential one is abfent. may flie for fresh fpirits to new scenes, and feek diverfion from a fucceffion of objects. It may fücceed in time; but it is a violent force upon nature. Do we not accuse ourselves of cruelty to the memory of a friend, in ftriving to root it out of the mind? And when we have got rid of it for a time, do we congratulate ourselves upon it? Or rather, is not the fresh recollection a ground of keener and fuperadded pain? Inconfiftent mourners that we are! Whom have we been ftriving to forget? Did the friend we have loft, deserve no better than to be forgotten, and forgotten intentionally too? After all the arts of oblivion, (which never can be pronounced innocent) the lofs, with fenfible minds, will be the prevailing thought; and full often will they look back with a figh, and fondly wish to recall the pleafing hours which never can return. Why, oh Death! fays a mourning parent, was thy rage pointed at a harmless babe! Could not innocence be exempt from thy fury? Why must that heart, which never entertained one purpose of deceit, be cold? Why muft that cheek, which confcious guilt had never taught to blush, be pale? Or why does heaven give, determining next moment to take away? Another unhappy mortal laments, not merely over innocence intombed, but over excellence, over virtue ripened to a folid maturity, cut off in the vigour of existence, the powers of the understanding in full ftrength, and the amiable qualities of the heart in perfect luftre: a bleffing loft to the world, and an ornament loft to humanity. And though the benignity of heaven may be adored, in tranfplanting early very fingular virtue to a foil more worthy of it, the lofs is feverely felt by the kindred plant, which once flourifhed by its fide. But fo it is. The most excellent virtues muft yield to the power of death. If Chrift be in you, fays the apostle, i. e. if the qualities of Chrift be in you, if humility, if The first of these Effays contains some cursory reflections on the fentiments and critical obfervations of Longinus in his Treatise on the Sublime. The feveral figures which are mentioned by that celebrated critic are illuftrated by examples taken from the scripture and from modern writers. The author in this tract has pursued the plan which was marked out by the tranflator of Longinus, in the notes fubjoined to that ingenious performance. The fecond Effay confifts of reflections on the influence of government on the mental faculties. Mr. G thinks that our present establishment is more favourable than any other to the arts and fciences, which may be very true. But furely no inference can be drawn to the disadvantage of a republican fyftem, from the ftate of literature under Oliver Cromwell; for, at that period, it would in all probability have been just the fame under any other form of government. In the two following differtations the author confiders Virgil in his pathetic character, by a view of the hiftory of Dido; and his defcriptive talents in the reprefentation of the games.' In the last Effay he has made fome remarks on the two gates of Sleep, mentioned at the end of the fixth book of the Æneid. He feems to think that Virgil's account of the difmiffion of Eneas through the ivory gate is attended with infurmountable difficulties; and therefore he proposes an erasement of fix lines, that is, of the whole paffage relative to the two gates of Sleep. The text, he fays, thus cleared of the Splendid incoberency, the hero's anxiety to revifit his affociates naturally ceases by his inflantaneous return to the army, and the critic is refcued from the Tartarean punishment of an ineffectual pursuit after a • Dream of a dream, and fhadow of a shade.' This erafement would undoubtedly remove the difficulty, which has hitherto embarraffed the commentators; but it is a rafh and defperate remedy, and would leave us utterly at a lofs to account for the inftantaneous transition of Æneas from Elyfium to the upper world: it would make a chafm in the ftory of his adventures, which all the force of imagination would hardly fupply. 20. A Collection of Poems by feveral Hands. 4 Vols. 12mo. 65. Jewed. Pearch. This collection of poems is inferior to Mr. Dodfley's :it contains, however, a number of fuch performances as have appeared for twenty or thirty years paft, together with a few original compofitions.-When we have faid this, we apprehend we have faid enough. 21. The |