instruction they derived from their indefatigable and most respectable tutor. Before this writer presumes to intrude on the legislature again with his hints, let him go to the two universities, and acquaint himself with the real state of education in those seminaries ;-he may then be better qualified to point out their advantages and disadvantages. Why does he deviate from his line? Let him keep to the academies. 800. ART. 29.-The Order and Method of instructing Children; with Strictures on the modern System of Education. By George Crabb. 35. 6d. Boards. Longman and Rees. 1801. The writers on education are numerous, and the press is teeming with new systems, each of which professes to introduce a mode of cultivation that will rear the tender plant to a perfection unknown to former ages. Our system-mongers are for treating the human race just in the same manner as modern cattle-breeders-there is to be an immensity of fat placed in this or that place: and he succeeds the best, and gains the highest prize, who produces, by oil-cakes or grains, or any other artificial mode of treatment, the most unwieldy monster. Children may be too much as well as too little educated; their minds as well as their bodies may be over burdened. The writer of this very sensible and judicious tract, aware of this error, is willing to introduce a mode of gradual instruction, by which the young person shall be taught to think first on easy subjects, and thence be led to others of a difficult and more complicated nature. His view of the human mind is just: his plan may be easily brought into practice; and we shall with pleasure peruse the works which he intends to publish for the benefit of children of all ages. For the present, we heartily recommend the treatise before us to the perusal of parents and schoolmasters. ART. 30.-Visits to the Aviary. For the Instruction of Youth. 12mo. 1s. 6d. Boards. Vernor and Hood. A description of a considerable number of birds, written in a manner that will be likely to attract the notice of children. ART. 31.-The Village Maid; or Dame Burton's Moral Stories for the Instruction and Amusement of Youth. By Elizabeth Somerville. To which are added Plain Tales. 12mo. 25. Boards. Vernor and Hood. 1801. Dame Burton's moral stories may be read by children with the same success as works of this nature usually are; but the Plain Tales at the end can be of no sort of advantage, because they propose no subjects for imitation. It is not likely that parents, who are too poor to buy tea for breakfast, or are glad of a few chips brought home in a ragged apron, can afford to get this book as a lesson for their children. ART. 32-Juvenile Philosophy; containing amusing and instructive Discourses on Hogarth's Prints of the Industrious and Idle Apprentices; Analogy between Plants and Animals, &c. Sc.-designed to enlarge the Understandings of Youth, and to impress them at an early Period with just and liberal Conceptions. 12mo. 25. Boards. Ver nor and Hood. 1801. From the title of this book, a father who purchases it would ex pect a course of experiments and illustrations for the use of his children; but in this he would be disappointed. It contains certain detached pieces, from which indeed some instruction may be gained: but it does not deserve the name of Juvenile Philosophy. ART. 33.-Adventures of Musul, or the Three Gifts; with other Tales. 12mo. 1s. 6d. Boards. Vernor and Hood. Two or three little stories told with some animation, after the eastern manner, and with a proper moral annexed to each. ART. 34.-Edward, a Tale; for young Persons. Principally founded upon that much-admired Performance of the same Name, by Dr. Moore; and adapted to the Capacities of Youth, by Mrs. Pilkington. Is. 6d. Boards. Vernor and Hood. 12mo. Mrs. Pilkington's name has been long known to children, as that of a very principal contributor to their amusement. She has here taken Dr. Moore's work, and moulded it into a novel for youth with her accustomed skill and precision. POETRY. ART. 35-A Translation of the Eighth Satire of Boileau on Man. Written in the Year 1667, and addressed to M. Morel, Doctor of the Sarbonne. 8vo. 15. 6d. Phillips. 1801. The translator's ideas, of the preference due to a literal in comparison with a free version of an author, are strictly correct, and will meet the approbation of every judicious critic. From a literal translation we know what we have to expect; whereas a free translation gives us no assurance of any thing. When indeed a poet of sublime talents chooses to depart still farther from his author, and gives his readers what may be termed a paraphrase, the production will sometimes be the cause of singular gratification-as is the case with Pope's admirable imitations of Horace. But it is only by splendid abilities that this happy end can be effected. If an ordinary genius will attempt free translations, it is ten to one that he subjects himself to ridicule, and, as far as the unlearned class of readers is concerned, he implicates also the fame of the original. The version before us is entitled to the commendation of being strictly literal; it conveys uniformly the meaning of the French satirist ;-but somewhat more than correctness is required from a poetical translator. He should have smoothness at least, if not polished elegance; but nothing of this quality is discoverable in the present performance. The following short quotation will sufficiently show to our readers the want of harmony in the numbers, and the negligent incorrectness of the rhymes. Would you the great should to your levees run, Practise, my son, these noble sciences; Poets, astronomers, grammarians, doctors, Thus, to his son, the skilful us'rer shows Adds nine to nine, and finds it double it.' P. 22. ART. 36.-Rodolpho; a Poetical Romance. By James Atkinson. 4to. 25. Phillips. 1801. A German ballad, entitled Leonora, was translated some time since by the poet laureat. It is full of ghosts and all the terrific imagery which so plentifully abounds in many of the poems and romances of its parent country; and, most likely, has in consequence been read by the quarterly female customers to the circulating libraries, who pay their money to be frightened rather than instructed. The author of Rodolpho has availed himself of the reigning propensity, and prepared for his fair country women a string of horrors, without the trouble of going to the continent for them. Of Leonora and Rodolpho it may fairly be said these two make a pair.' ART. 37.-Alonzo and Cora; with other original Poems, principally Elegiac. By Elizabeth Scot, a Native of Edinburgh. To which are added Letters in Verse, by Blacklock and Burns. 8vo. 10s. 6d. Boards. Rivingtons. 1801. We have here the satisfaction of meeting a poetess of no ordinary merit. The legendary tale of Edwin and Edith is an excellent little" production in the ballad style; and the imitation from Musæus is executed with very considerable spirit. The reader will readily allow Mrs. Scot's fair title to literary fame, when he is informed that her verses have received the approbation of Allan Ramsay, Blacklock, and Burns; with the former of whom she lived in intimacy, while the two latter have favoured her with a poetical complimentary letter, added to this collection, but never before in print. There is not a poem in the volume from which we could not quote with pleasure; yet we prefer doing it from Leander and Hero, because our readers may compare it with the original, or with the well-known translation of Fawkes. • Entranc'd in horror stood the wretched dame; But, though her tears and charms compassion mov'd, While o'er his head the boisterous billows rise. ART. 38.-The Free School; a Poem. To which is added an Elegy We are afraid that Mr. Black, when he invoked the silver-toned Muse, did not cry loud enough. Either she was inspiring some other poet, " or she was pursuing a journey;' or, as he' himself surmises, readventure she slept, and wanted to be awaked:' -be that as wav, there certainly was no voice given, nor any one to answer? Both the poem and elegy are as spiritless as possible; there is not a particle of the vis poëtica in their composition. If our readers should ask why the former was christened The Free School, we must refer them for an answer to the author: for it appears to us that any other name which could have been thought on would have suited it just as well. Ten verses in the beginning, and as many at the conclusion, are all that relate to schools or schoolboys. We will quote the former, with a few lines preceding them, as a proof that we are desirous of selecting where the writer will appear to most advantage. Awake thy lyre, my sportive Muse! Their silken filmy threads to spin; As make a house dance to their lyre; While mea regna I behold, I'll rule a king, de jure, bold: Still let them bite their nails, and think Let their subpoenas round me fly, Rex puerorum still am I : Let discord still inflate their lungs, Still let them brawl with thund'ring tongues— False informations let them bring Or in-or out-I still will sing. P. 3. DRAMA. ART. 39.-Adelmorn, the Outlaw; a Romantic Drama, in three Acts, as originally written by M. G. Lewis. First performed at DruryLane Theatre, on Monday May 4, 1801. 8vo. 2s. 6d. Bell. 1801. Had the author of this play been content to have framed a farce from his story of Adelmorn, he might without any trouble have made it interesting;-nay, with the proper exercise of that genius which he certainly possesses, and which we are always willing to allow him, he might have even worked it into a regular drama, demanding more praise than is due to a number of the pieces now in the routine of performance. But Mr. Lewis was not satisfied with success in the beaten track; he introduces, as is usual with himself, præternatural agents; what is worse, he introduces them uselessly too-and a useless ghost and vision have damned the Outlaw. In a preface of some |