32. figas in cute solem : fricas is (sic) in c. s.

"Lines on the Death of Her Royal Highness the Princess Charlotte of Wales : to which was adjudged the Prize, proposed by the Provost and Senior Fellows of Trinity College, Dublin, for the best English Poem on the subject. By John Anster, A. B. Sch. T.C. D."

We are sorry we have not room for the whole of this prizepoem, which reflects great credit on the heads of Trinity College, Dublin, who have stimulated the students of that celebrated establishment to the pursuit of poetical eminence. We shall present our readers with extracts from it:

"How hollow are the promises of earth !

Its hopes how fleeting!-all things round us preach
Still the same warning moral :-I have wept
To hear the heavy death-bell's dreary sounds,
On a spring morn, when all things breathed of life,
Tolling for one who died in youth's gay time,
When joys were bright, and hopes were blossomy !
Why linger to enforce such theme? why tell,
How vain all earthly objects of pursuit, -
Flitting for ever like the idle cloud
Before the wind, what time, as Lochlin's bards
Report, the dead upon their shadowy steeds
O'er the hill-tops pursue the phantom prey?-
Nations have passed away!-round Tadmor's walls,
Her columned temples, her proud palaces,
The level dust in mournful silence lies;

Or, when the dry wind breathes, the traveller starts
To see the Spirits of the Desert rise,

And, wheeling round in wild fantastic whirl,

Howl thro' lone streets where man hath ceased to dwell.

Nations have passed away!-along the deep
The voice of the avenging angel came;
And where is Tyre?-upon a lonely rock
The fisher dries his net, nor thinks of thee,
Queen of the Ocean! and his sullen song,
And the hoarse sea-bird's scream alone are heard,
Mingling with the dull wave monotonous!"-pp. 5, 6.

"It was a dream ;---its hues have passed away!
Thus where Vesuvio's streams of fire had rolled
In savage triumph o'er some city's pride,
When ages have passed on, the jealous mass,
That closed abandoned streets is hewn away,
And he, who gazes thro' some fractured roof,
Looks for a moment on the forms of men,
Standing erect in attitude of life,-
Till the cold air of earth hath breathed on them,
And all is solitude and emptiness!"-pp. 9, 10.

"Oh there is grief on earth!-o'er Windsor's halls
The wan moon sheds her melancholy beams ;-
But surely in her calm and lovely light
There is a tenderness that sorrow loves;
And he who gazes on her placid orb
May half forget his griefs !-those solemn bells
Still with their regular and measured peals
Chime heavily!-I hear a distant hum,
Like the long murmur of the evening waves
Breaking upon the melancholy shore.
And see!-the pomp and pageantry of Death!
Banners are waving in the midnight wind;
And heavy plumes are nodding mournfully;
Down Gothic aisles they move; the chapel streams
With a strong glare of thick unnatural light;
And sad it is to gaze along those aisles,
And see the scutcheons held in trembling hands,
Telling, even now, of earthly vanities!-
And sad it is to see the dreary pall,
And that dull urn, and think upon the heart
Reposing there for ever!-by the glow
Of waving torches you may see the cheeks
Of Beauty pale, and stained with streaming tears;
And in the eye of man that faltering light,
Which speaks the pang within, when tears are checked

By strong but painful effort!--not a voice

VOL. XVIII.

Cl. Jl.

NO. XXXV.

E

Disturbs the solemn silence of the pile :-
One feeling holds all bosoms,-youth and age ;-
Youth-in whose heart hope gazed exultingly
Upon the future, with a prophet's eye;

Age-sick of earth,-whose blood had ceased to throb
At man's delights, or man's calamities;-

The same strong feeling holds all bosoms here!"-pp. 12, 13.

"Spirit of the Departed, smile on him!
He sleeps, and thou art with him in his dreams!-
Fair, as when first he gazed upon thy charms ;-
Kind, as when first his tale of love was breathed ;-
And dear, as when, with joy that fathers feel,
He blessed the mother of his unborn child!
His dream is of the days of early love,-
And of his lovely bride :-of her, whose soul
Was lofty, and claimed kindred with the great;
Whose heart was gentle; whose strong mind was fixed
On thoughts beseeming her high destiny;
Whose spirit held communion bright with heaven ;
And thus along the walks of daily life
Shed such a mild and tender light, as clouds,
That float around the sun to catch his rays,
Diffuse o'er earth, in evening's loveliest hues.
Such is his happy dream."-pp. 17, 18.

We earnestly intreat the heads of the University not to encourage, and the young poets not to adopt, the flat and prosaic expressions, which some of our living poets have introduced as instances of simplicity. We allude to such lines as these :

"Weep, for the wrath of God is over us!"

"Yes, there are spirits, whom the cold heart knows not!"
" I see the lovely objects of my vision
Swinging before me, dully, dizzily!"

"Peace dwelleth in the silence of the grave."

"Oh God, in trouble we do call on thee!"

This is not the style of Milton, in the first books of Paradise Lost, of Thomson, of Akenside, of Glover, and other models of English blank verse.

67

VINDICIÆ ANTIQUÆ.

No. IV.-[Continued from No. xxxiv. p. 340.]

To animadvert upon involuntary error, or bring before the public, mistakes, which are necessarily attended by no bad effects sufficiently important to attract the public notice, must ever be regarded as an action not only unnecessary, but proceeding from a malignant disposition. The case is far otherwise when those in error will not be at the pains to obtain information, and yet affect to lead public opinion, and promulgate dogmas destructive of science, and subversive of that learning which has for its object the discovery of truth. It becomes a duty to expose error when thus rendered mischievous in its consequences; and the delicacy, that would screen the promulgators of false doctrines from public censure, is in itself highly reprehensible. In the preceding essays it has been the endeavour of the writer to show, that the ancient philosophy is not sufficiently prized, because those who undertake to guide public opinion, and instruct the rising generation, have not taken the pains necessary to become acquainted with its doctrines, nor even its first principles; and Mr. Dugald Stuart actually apologises for Dr. Reid, who undertook to analyse and explain what he confesses he did not understand, by saying, that "he could not be expected to take pains in learning what he despised." How came the Doctor to despise what he did not understand? What would he have said to those ignorant of the truths which it was the duty of his life to preach, had they told him, " we will take no pains to understand your doctrine because we despise it?" If the ignorant may urge their contempt of what is to them unknown as a reason for refusing to study or receive instruction, their ignorance must be lasting, and ages of darkness must revolve in long succession: we must arrive at a state of barbarism scarcely elevated above that of the beasts which perish, while many of our natural faculties and instincts remain inferior to theirs. Should mankind ever arrive at this state of ultimate degradation, the memory of better ages, and the science of men not undeserving of the epithet of god-like, will be lost; as none are so completely satisfied with their own acquirements as the most profoundly ignorant; for the man must have made some progress in knowledge, who is sensible of his defects, and that he really stands in need of farther information.

The Irish farmer mentioned by Mr. Burke, who wished his son to be a scholar, but upon looking at a Greek book, exclaimed, that he would not have his boy bothered with ugly-looking pot-hooks with