cately praised. I believe,' says our author, "the natives of America would shudder to live in England; as they are so habituated to taking fruit in a friendly manner, riding horses away, &c. &c. they could not readily refrain from so doing. We must refer our readers to the story that follows this remark, (volume 2, page 625,) and not partially transcribe it, as we should only mutilate sentiment, and leave out oaths; and the whole is much too long and tedious for a quotation. Mr. P. indeed occasionally finds it in his heart,' like Dogberry, to bestow all his tediousness upon our worships.' The story, we will however venture to assure our readers, though apparently vulgar in its language, and to the last degree coarse in its incidents, is, tediousness excepted, very entertaining, and like the one before quoted, an extremely refined piece of almost doubtful irony, One sentence will awaken curiosity, and induce every person of taste to proceed. It is as follows: 'D-n such a country! I wonder all the people do not leave it.' After these repeated demonstrations of Mr. Parkinson's turn for low humour, we should have been surprized at his quoting Lord Chesterfield with great praise, had we not been convinced that the graces have occupied a large share of Mr. P.'s attention. "The rat-tailed sheep which come from Holland, are very beantiful....The lower class of Dutchmen exceed all others in the cultivation of American soils. Genteel people, as merchants, from Holland, are, on the contrary, much more extravagant than any other set of men, except the Americans themselves, who, I think, exceed all nations. Scotchmen are allowed to be the best merchants. .A's to the French, I had little opportunity to judge of them, as they do not mix in company like other men, nor do they resort to taverns; and when you meet with them at those places in travelling, they generally converse in their own language: therefore, as I could not speak French, I had no opportunity of learning any thing from them. They are remarkably rude as travelling companions. I have sech them seat themselves at a tavern, by the fire, and suffer all the rest of the company, ladies as well as gentlemen, to sit (we suppose stand) round them.' VOL. II. P. 608. In the above passage, we discover two traits of characterMr. Parkinson's politeness, and his rambling, desultory mode of thinking, which, was he not ironical, would be almost idiotic. ART. IV. Ode Græca præmio Dignata quod donavit Aca demie Cantabrigiensi, vir Reverendus Claudius Buchanan 4. B. Coll. Regin. Cantab. et Vice-Præpositus Collegii Bengalensis in India Orientali. Auctore Georgio Pryme, A. B. Trin. Coll, 4to. 2s. Cadell. 2s. Cadell. 1804. THE nature of the poem before us is so fully explained in, the title-page, that we have only to add, that its subject is TENEZON ONE, and that it consists of thirty-four Sapphio stanzas. Perhaps an apology is due to some of our readers for reviewing it so late, and to others, for reviewing it at all; at least, for giving a detailed account of it. But if, from the importance which our extended notice may seem to attach to the present production, or from the praise which we shall occasionally and justly bestow on the author, any one should rashly conclude that we are admirers of this species of poe try, we think it proper to refer them to our observations on Mr. Walpole's Greek exercises in our Review for March, 1805, in which our opinion of, and objections to modern compositions in that language are fully stated. Yet, after all, we do not violently blame a young student for amusing himself now and then with stringing together ends of verses from schylus or Pindar; though it must be allowed that the same time would have been infinitely better employed in reading those authors, even for the fiftieth time. Almost every exercise is some way serviceable to a young student, and that of fabricating centos may therefore not be without its use. It would moreover, be highly unfair to censure the author of a prize-poem for laying his work before the public, where publication is the condition of the prize. The case is widely different when, in the way of authorship, grown gentlemen collect for the public eye. whole volumes of their centos. The only thing that can be said in palliation of such laborious trifling is, that the books are not likely to waste the time of any one besides the authors. The present Ode is unquestionably distinguished by elevation of thought; it frequently attracts us by animation of language, felicity of expression, and above all, by skilful versification. The construction of the plan is objectionable; it opens with an invocation to the Holy Spirit, evidently taken from Milton. The creation of light, and the dispersion of chaos are next related, v. 12-22. The sun is then allego rically described as the temple of light, and the planets and the most considerable of the other heavenly bodies, as attendants in the temple, around which they perform their ministry, and from which they draw their light in golden urns. v. 22-72. The narrative is here interrupted by an apostrophe to the Sun, in which his future extinction is declared with considerable solemnity and pathos. v. 73-84. Thus far all is regular, animated, and consistent with the subject and with itself. We are sorry that we cannot extend this commendation to the latter part of the ode; which, however praise-worthy in many parts, falls, on the whole, much below the merits of the beginning. The poet descends with more rapidity than grace from heaven to earth; and describes the production of plants, v. 89100; and of animals, v. 101-110. The creation, disobedience, and fall of man, are then dispatched in fourteen verses, v. 11-124. In three stanzas more it is said, if we understand the passage rightly, that the night of ignorance and sin was dispelled by the appearance of the Redeemer on earth; that his appearance was a second yea pus; and that death was then deprived of its sting, and the grave of its victory. Here the ode concludes. Such of our readers as understand arith netic, will easily see the vast disproportion between the descriptive and the moral and religious part of the poem. From the words of the motto, from the circumstance that it is taken from scripture, from the comparison of it with the other subjects proposed by Mr. Buchanan, it is, we think, clear, beyond the possibility of a doubt, that the Greek ode on yevéola çus was intended to convey some allusion at least to the new institution in Bengal, and to express a hope, that the light of religion and science may speedily dawn in the east, and spread to the remotest corners of the world. Surely these ideas, above all others, were well calculated to supply materials for a grand finale; to say nothing of their connection with the subject, which we should have thought indissoluble, had we not actually seen it dissolved. * This brings to our recollection a most splendid fragment of Sappho, apud Hophæst. de metro lonico, Πλήρης μὲν εφαίνετ ̓ ἃ Σελάνα, αἱ δ ̓ ὡς περὶ βωμὸν ἑστάθησαν. Horace has imitated it, but inadequately: Ner erat et calo, dc, This omission seems still more extraordinary, when it is considered how aptly the apostrophe to the sun would have introduced the mention of the immutable perfections of the Supreme Being; and how nobly the transitory glories of the material world might have been contrasted with the eternal splendor of divine truth. How thoughts so striking and so extremely obvious could be neglected or overlooked, we shall not stay to inquire. Perhaps Mr. Pryme, having expended in description, nearly as many verses as are usually allowed for an ode, and thinking them, perhaps justly, too good to expunge, was obliged, just as he had reached the most important part of his subject, to break off his song with as much precipitancy as the country parson used to bring his sermon to a close, when he saw the 'squire at the end of his nap. Having given our opinion of the plan, we proceed to specify those parts of the execution which we think less commendable than the rest; the beauties we leave to the spontaneous admiration of the reader; to whom we shall present a specimen at the end of our critique, that, if he should be wearied by our remarks, he may be restored to good humour with himself and us by the perusal of verses of no common merit. V. 1. Πραξίων ἅλις χθονίων· μὲ θυμὸς Ορνύει νῦν θειότερόν τιν ̓ ὕμνον Η zágos μénπav.—Mr. Pryme obtained Sir William Browne's medal for a Greek ode, 1802. To this event in his life, the three first words seem to allude. But we think the propriety of the expression disputable at least. For if x9ovos be authorised as synonymous with Bpóreos, which it may be or not; still pakis xeovia is a very laconic phrase for a poem on a human subject.' But be this as it may, what follows is clearly wrong; for never yet was the enclitic ou placed at the beginning of a sentence by a classical author. V. 9. ἑκὰς, ὦ βέβαλαι, Εστὲ, λαχοῖσαι Νάματος τᾶς Κασταλίας. In Milton's or Pope's English, such a command may be given to the Grecian muses with perfect security. But in our poet, who ought not to use a word or phrase which is not imported from the vicinity of Parnassus, such language to the goddesses of the Castalian fount, is as imprudent as it is ungracions. We trembled lest they should take him at his word. Γ. 7. (ὦ διον Πνεῦμα)—εὔπτερος γὰρ Εἶτε πέλεια, Ζωφύτῳ θάλπει προσέθης ἀβύσσω Κόλπον. We are well aware of the great brevity which the Greek poets frequently use in their similes. Αἴας δ ̓ ἐγγύθεν ἦλθε, φέρων σάκος ούτε πύργον. Homer Il. Λ. 485. Ως νυν ὀκνοῦμεν πάντες, ἐκπεπληγμένον Κεῖνον βλέποντες, ὡς κυβερνήτην E. Soph. Ed. Tyr. 922. Similar instances may be found" in the sacred writers. Yet we could have wished that a more significant epithet than εὔπτερος had been given to πέλεια. Milton, from whom the passage is translated, is much more marked and forcible; with mighty wings outspread, Dove-like sal'st brooding o'er the vast abyss. Par. Lost. I. 21., on the wat❜ry calm His brooding wings the spirit of God Out-spread. VII. 234. ταχύπτερος οι τανυσίπτερος would have been more to the purpose. The latter epithet is joined to ze in Homer, Od. X. 468. Ως δ' όταν ἢ κίχλαι ταυσίπτεροι ἠὲ ΠΕΛΕΙΑΙ. V. 13. God said, let there be light; xix uvxáтwv čraμjev Ικταρ ἀκτὶς ἑπταπόρος, πτερωτὸν Ως νόημα, σπερχομένα μάλ' αιθέρος δια μέσσω. Οὐ γὰρ ἦν τόθ' Αλιος. How the light could be έπτα Topos, we do not understand, It could not come from seven luminaries; for in this very sentence we are told that the sun was not; nor could it proceed in seven bodies or directions; for we hear of no such thing in scripture, and the idea is neither poetical nor philosophical. It is suggested that inтaTópos alludes to the seven colours of which the light is composed. But can an uniformn compound of seven substances be called επταπόρος ? We have another objection; the words où FAP Tó' as, before. That do not scem well connected with what goes the light should rush swiftly through the air,' seems to be a natural consequence of its creation, whether it was embodied in a sun, or scattered through the abyss. We allow that the words call up awful recollections; had they been set off by the addition of some appropriate circumstance, they would have had a very grand effect. Let there be light! said God; and forthwith light Sojourn'd the while. P. L. VII. 243, &c. These verses Mr. Pryme manifestly translated. It is strange that he has omitted an idea not the least striking in the passage, without which, too, there is an evident deficiency in the sense of the whole. V.17. ἀνάρχω ἀρχᾶς. 20. ἀπλανέες πλανᾶται. 124. ποτμον ἄποτμον. Of these three instances of oxymoron, two at least should have |