delight, kiss and eyes, cannot well be tolerated in the small compass of eight successive lines. To offer particular strictures on the shorter passages would carry us beyond proper limits; and we have already noted their general merits. We shall now only add that the two by Creech are distinguished by fidelity and tender simplicity, that the anonymous versions are executed with considerable success, and that Motin's translation of the Dying Phoenix possesses the charms of grace and freedom, without deviating from the meaning or spirit of the original. Of the smaller poems at the end of the volume, those intitled from the Greek' are admitted by Mr. Walpole himself to be imitations from the Anthologia: but he has neither inserted nor referred to the originals, having scarcely ever noted their places in Jacob's collection; and he thinks that they will easily occur to the mind of the classical reader.' We really wish, however, that he had submitted to the trouble of producing the originals; for so very free and so greatly expanded are these versions, that the classical reader' will scarcely recognize them. We shall quote two of them, to illustrate this remark: O say what mean those frequent sighs? Why heaves, my fair, thy sorrowing breast; Dark clouds of grief, and dim those eyes O tell me all; to sooth thy mind With balmy hands thy wounds shall bind, Say, do I ken aright ?-The youth. Say, hast thou seen his circling arms, No answer! Yet, too well I guess And tell, what thou would'st fain conceal, 1 . On • On a Picture of Sappho. Yes, sure 'twas Nature's self who drew That e'er the queen of beauty grac'd.' The prototype of the former of these will be found, in six lines, in Moecius, apud Brunck, II. p. 237. Epigr. III.; and the other, (less diffused) in eight lines, in Demochæris, apud Brunck, Analect. Vol. III. p. 70. IV. All these pieces are of an amatory complexion, rather too closely bordering on the refined voluptuousness of the new school, yet breathing something of a Grecian air. The first is, perhaps, the most pleasing: O would that I were some soft gale Which fans with perfum'd wing the air, And would that I were yon red rose The Latin Alcaic stanzas consist of a translation from the first part of the fourteenth Canzone of Petrarch, and are certainly intitled to praise. After the finely flowing version, however, of the same passage, by Voltaire, we are not easily reconciled to the kind of measure which is here adopted. Of Mr. W's translations into the Greek language, we shall not here undertake a minute examination. We have often given our opinion of these attempts in general; and Mr. Walpole's attainments in Attic learning were displayed much in detail, in our account of his Fragments of Greek poets, Rev, Vol. 49. N. S. p. 225. To conclude: in this little volume, of which the contents may to some appear rather trivial, we readily perceive an union of talents, taste, and classical knowlege; and we hear with pleasure that it was undertaken during the hours of relaxation from a performance of a more serious cast, ART. ART. XI. Dissertations, Essays, and Parallels. IT By John Robert Scott, D.D. 8vo. pp. 382. 7s. Boards. Johnson. is stated by the author of this volume that most of the papers which it contains were written several years ago, that some of them were honoured with the first prizes in the University of Dublin, and that they are now submitted to the public in order to ascertain how far the writer may be justified, in bestowing farther labour on other productions which he has in reserve, with a view to the decision of the same tribunal. To us it appears rather singular that he should delegate so many of his juvenile performances to this trial, and so few of his more matured compositions; the reverse of which arrangement would on many accounts have been more proper, would have been dealing more fairly with his judges, and would probably have done himself greater justice. Some of these earlier attempts, however, manifest enough of promise, and his later efforts display sufficient marks of advancement, to warrant the conclusion that he is qualified to appear with repute as an author. The productions before us, indeed, possess various degrees of merit but all of them indicate marks of literature, and a turn for thinking. In the Academical exercises, the topics are mostly appropriate, and are in general duly discussed: but it often happens, as might have been expected, that considerations closely connected with the subject are overlooked. The specimens of the labours of the author's riper years possess more decided merit. Through the essay on the Influence of Taste on Morals, a train of just reasoning prevails; and the facts, which are decisive of the point in debate, are with great discretion rather intimated than disclosed. This latter circumstance is a feature which will not fail to strike good judges, and to inspire them with favourable prepossessions; it is a proof of a fine tact; which, in authorship as well as in many other lines, is a prime requisite to eminent success. No. 1. of these papers, a Dissertation on the Influence of Religion on Civil Society, is one of those which obtained prizes at the University; and, all circumstances being weighed, it deserves considerable praise. If, however, the author never loses sight of the question, and if the ideas are all pertinent, still their want of precision and definiteness betray the youthful writer. The objections which he raises he is for the most part able to refute: but many are never urged which a profound opponent would have been very ready to have introduced; and we meet with more than a solitary instance of that pertners which almost invariably attends us in the spring of life. A caviller would object to the author that it was superstition, and not religion which lent its aid to form the social union, and assisted the first movements of bodies politic; and an adversary would also contend that, having been auxiliary to society in its early stages, its interference in its farther progress becomes not only unnecessary but pernicious. He might farther maintain that the principles, which impel us to enter into society, would operate to strengthen and cement the union, and dispose us to the partial sacrifices which the preservation of so great a common blessing required; or he would allege that religion, like science, letters, or arts, is only indirectly beneficial to society. We mention these objections not because we disagree in opinion with the writer, but in order to shew that the paper takes but a partial and limited view of the subject. The notions entertained by the author on this topic will appear from what follows. Having attempted to shew that society is unable to realize and render permanent the blessings at which it aims, he observes: • But notwithstanding these defects are alike striking and unavoid. able, yet are they not remediless, the condition of man hopeless; nor has this lord of the creation been slightly provided with the means of happiness by the supreme first cause of all things. For Religion is at hand to assist the cause of Civil Society, well adapted to remedy its defects, to make up for its deficiencies, and to give to its orders, its decrees, and its sanctions, strength, stability, and support. Ensuring to the magistrate the permanency of the state and the obedience of the subject, from the solemn external tie of oaths, and to the people the unmolested enjoyment of their rights from the internal bond of conscience by it imposed; the blessings of security, of peace, and of order, spontaneously spring from Civil Society; which thus, having laid its foundation on the broad basis of public utility and general good, at length hides its aspiring head within the shadow of the throne of the Most High. Religion being now united, and, as it were incorporated with Society, mutual advantages to each flow from their union; as the former is enforced by the temporal punishments of vice and iniquity imposed, for its own safety, by the latter; whilst it, in return, is more than doubly repaid for this service by the efficacy of those motives to action which the former makes known, establishes, and applies. For holding forth to the virtuous rewards of value immense, and duration infinite, Society receives from this union that aid which its poverty prevented it from bestowing on the deserving; and which, from ignorance of the motives of human actions, it was incapacitated to bestow with justice, had it even possessed the means of rewarding. The fear of divine punishment for villainy and vice, that first and firmest pillar of Society, now combining its force with these rewards, and operating in conjunction with civil sanctions, the two grand prin. ciples of political community are called into action: those principles of reward and punishment which all legislators, speculative or prac tical, have seen to be essential to the well being of the state, but which without the aid of Religion, they have ever been unable effectually to establish. Indeed when the human mind is once thoroughly impressed with a due sense of Religion, or of the existence, attributes, and providence of the Eternal, sentiments of duty supersede the necessity of civil sanctions, and the virtues of the citizen arise from the character of the man. From his belief of an overruling providence, he feels himself obliged to the duties of (what moralists call) imperfect obligation, those duties so essential to the comfort of life; whilst the actions which laws can neither reach, nor sufficiently enforce, are performed with promptitude and alacrity, having it indelibly impressed on his mind that the law was not made for a man of conscience. As he is convinced that no crimes can be hidden from him to whom the secrets of all hearts are known, hypocrisy, fraud, and deceit, are hanished from his conduct, and his most private not less than his most public actions, conformed to the rules of infinite wisdom, purity, and goodness. Called on to take a part in the busy scenes of active life, the dignity of his virtue sheds a lustre on the most exalted station, whilst his conscientious discharge of its functions scatters blessings over the happy land; and in the calmer scenes of sequestered retirement their milder radiance spreads around them a glory which illumines even the obscurity of his retreat.' Dr. Scott's Dissertation on the Progress of the Fine Arts was published some years ago, and was briefly mentioned in our Review, with considerable objections to it in point of style. We know not whether this paper has since undergone any revision, but a second perusal of it has inclined us to a more favourable opinion of its matter. The former part of the essay on Writing History bears the marks of a juvenile production, being composed in a very angry -style, and betraying no small share of conceit. In this part, a hideous picture appears prominent; which is intended, as we suppose, to represent a very celebrated historian of our own times. We scruple not to pronounce it a disgrace to the writer. With all its faults, and we have no desire to dissemble or diminish them, we do not hesitate to say that the work, which is here so severely censured, is an honour to our age, as well as one of the proudest literary monuments of which our coun. try can boast. Strangely constituted is that mind which would regard, as an account of the performance in question, an exagerated statement of its faults. It is very practicable to avoid its errors, but not easy to match the mass of excellence which characterizes it; and we fear that, in this degenerate age, we are not likely soon to witness the appearance of a publication equally valuable and splendid.-The remainder of the paper has little in it that offends, while it abounds with sensible observations. Dr. Scott very properly represents impartiality as the first qualification of an historian: but, should he ever appear 7 ia |