There fhine the yellow fields with corn o'erfpread; Trips o'er the lawn, and meditates the wound." The merit of this performance, however, does not lie mere, ly in poetical description: the moral fentiments, conveyed in nervous and harmonious numbers, ftamp an additional value on the scenery, His defcription of the ftate of flavery in the West India Iflands, and the juft indignation he expreffes at the commercial avarice and falfe policy which are the cause of it, do him particular honour. "There Afric's fwarthy fons their toils repeat, We must except fome few lines, and falfe Rhimes, which, as we hare often obferved, we look upon as a capital defect in modern verfifica tion. Shame "Shame to Mankind! But fhame to Britons moft, The trembling limbs with galling iron bind, "Yet whence these horrors this inhuman rage; And Britain finks if Afric's fons be free? -Bleft were the days ere Foreign Climes were known, Nor does his comparison, between the infant and adult ftate of Commerce, lefs honour to his feelings. " When Commerce, yet an infant, rais'd her head, "Now, more deftructive than a blighting storm, And And the poor natives but furvive, to know Can this be fhe, who promis'd once to bind This fiend, whose breath inflames the spark of ftrife, The annexed Ode was written on the inftitution of a fociety in Liverpool for the encouragement of defigning, drawing, painting, &c. Our poetical readers will thank us for extracting its exordium, written in a ftrain, well characterised by the poet's own words, applied to Angelo and Milton"Majeftic, nervous, bold, and ftrong.' "From climes where Slavery's iron chain With her they bloom, with her they fly; And, when the Power transferr'd her fmile To Albion's ever grateful ifle, The lovely Fugitives forgot to roam, But rais'd their altars here, and fix'd their happier home. Swift fly the hovering fhades of Night, When burfts the orient dawn of Day; The clouds of Ignorance decay. First came the Muse-her great defign Each dull fenfation to refine; To plant in every rugged breast Or with the great example glow, Or fhrink at Satire's pointed rage; Thro' Fancy's realms the wondering mind to bear, "Of power to ftill the raging deep, An Institution, we are forry to hear, already come to decay. Το To free the flave, the wild to tame, And tune the amorous pulfe to love: Pure as the vestal's facred fire; Now loud and dreadful fwell the strong alarms, Next came the power, in whom conjoin'd In heavenly colours bright, thro' numerous years to last. Hers is the glowing bold defign, And kindle virtue's facred fire: The wondering sense to charm, or moralize the heart.” K. A Letter to Courtney Melmoth, Efq; occafioned by his Apology for the Life and Writings of David Hume, Efq; &c.By a Country Curate. 12mo. Is. Richardfon and Urquhart. There is fomething fo fecure in confiftency, that, whenever it is departed from, we lay ourselves open on every fide to reproach. proach. This feems to have been the cafe with Mr. Melmoth, at leaft fuch is the appearance, which our Country Curaté hath laid hold of, to manifeft his own orthodoxy, and to reprobate the religious pretenfions of Mr. M. The Apology for the Life of Mr. Hume, of which we gave our opinion in a former Review, followed, it feems, too clofely on the heels of the fublime and beautiful of Scripture, another publication of Mr. M.'s the one exhibiting this author as an advocate for the facred writings; the other befpeaking him a friend to the cause of infidelity.-There is doubtlefs a great appearance of inconfiftency in all this, if Mr. M. be really the writer of the Apology* but before our Country Curate took upon him to be fo fevere on this gentleman on that account, he should have remembered that the Comment on the Scriptures was written many years ago, while the author was a candidate for holy orders. He may poffibly have entered into very different orders fince; and, tho' that denote his apoftacy, it fkreens him from the charge of inconfiftency.-Not that we take any part with apoftate parfons, tho' we think them, after all, rather more refpectable than hypocritical ones. We beg Mr. Melmoth's pardon, however, as well as that of our Country Curate, for this freedom of expreffion, if it be inapplicable to either. We should do the latter injuftice, alfo, did not we confess that he hath been fometimes very juftly fevere, in his animadverfions on the flirting (if we may fo term it) reflections he has unneceffarily caft on the higher ranks of society, as well as on the characters of fome refpectable individuals, in his Apology. "You have very severely and unjustly handled our modern nobility, by animadverting fo boldly on the contemptible ignorance of the most part of them. It would be a happy circumftance if they were all ignorant of Hume's dangerous philofophy. Ignorance in that respect would be fuperior to knowledge. Many of the nobility, all muft allow, fhamefully neglect the cultivation of their mind. But had you in the leaft confidered right, you would not have been fo fevere, in your determination of a matter, which now, I muft plainly tell you, your judgment is incapable of deciding. Many of noble birth have shone, and do now fine, in the lite rary world. "You, Sir, again contemptuoufly fay that the "modern great "(who are but too commonly the least of all God's little atomns) must "be amongst the worst judges of literary merit." I hope, that, fince you have degraded the nobility, as ufelefs members of Society, you don't defign to fit in the critical chair. To be fure, you have a deal of Of which, however, we have only anonymous and unfupported information, |