In London"-be it so-'twill give content
At least to a disburthen'd continent;
And we conceiving we have nought to fear,
Will try what we can do to keep thee here!'

We may admire the tenderness of the following pretty triplet; "The man on earth whom most my soul abhors,

Is he who wou'd rekindle fiercest wars

Ev'n from the ashes of our ancestors."

but surely our modern TYRTEUS is inconsistent with himself, for hark! Ye sea-fencibles, and volunteers, hark!

'Six centuries of insults-of renown
From Gallia by superior prowess won!
Trafalgar, Blenheim, Agincourt arise
To prove that English valour never dies.'

Horace was of opinion that the heroes of antiquity were indebted for their celebrity to the genius of the poets. In modern times the

tables are completely turned; for if the verses of the bards of the present day should obtain more than ephemeral reputation, it must proceed from the glory of the names which shed lustre on their lines.

We have perused many other copies of verses on the victory at Trafalgar, the chief merit of which seems to consist in the thick wove paper on which they are printed. If they are not worthy of celebrating our naval triumph in one way, they are in another; they will make excellent envelopes for crackers and sky-rockets.

ART. 31.-Verses on the Death of the late Right Hon. Horatio Nelson, Viscount and Baron Nelson of the Nile, &c. By Richard Lowe, Master of the Academy, Panton Square, Haymarket. 4to.

1s. Mawman. 1806.

THE death of the lamented Nelson has been the melancholy occasion of a long catalogue of rhyming doggerel, under every variety of name and shape-ode, monody, sonnet, elegy, and whatever other appellation the fancy of uninspired authors has been pleased to aflix to their crude conceptions. Among these it is highly grateful to us to meet with one copy of verses (for the modest author does not aspire to a more specious title) which really merits the name of poetry. For energy of expression, chasteness of language, and music of numbers, the composition before us ranks, very high. To plan it has no pretensions, and its great defect is a want of profundity of thought, and of striking, impressive, and especially of appropriate sentiments. This, as well as the occasional weak lines which deform the composition, we impute to the haste in which it was probably written, for we judge it to be the unlaboured effusion of an hour. But we pronounce it to be the effusion of superior talents, refined by taste, and cultivated, as the allusions to

ancient authors bear witness, by classical erudition. The author, it
seems, is the master of an academy, and we congratulate the pub-
lic on discovering a person by whom, to judge from the present
specimen, young persons will be likely to make a proficiency in
the more elegant as well as the solid departments of learning.
The following idea may perhaps be somewhat extravagant, but
it is a spirited and poetical passage!

Oh that to me would Heaven's high power impart
Some magic skill, some more than mortal art;
Thy tomb, great Chief, should rear its head sublime,
O'erlook the world, and triumph over Time;
To known and unknown regions should display
The matchless splendor of thy short-liv'd day,
How fair it flourish'd, and how bright it clos'd:
Of ever living diamond compos'd

Should glow like fire the imperishable frame;
What fitter emblem of a hero's fame?

There should a wreath of deathless laurels stand,

Which fate just shew'd, then snatch'd them from thy band;
There Glory stood amid her bright career,

Curb her triumphant car, and drop a tear;
There sad Britannia with responsive woe
Bid o'er thy corse a mother's sorrows flow,
Invert her spear, that spear, the tyrants' dread,

And drop her shield, for thou her shield, art fled.'

The opening can hardly be called new ; but it is newly and well expressed:

O thou, to whom the task belongs to save

From Time's fell grasp, the wise, the good, the brave,
Life-giving Fame! Onwings of light'ning soar
O'er ev'ry realm to Ocean's farthest shore,
Sound thy loud trump, and let the nations know
How Britain vanquish'd her's and nature's foe;
Then bid it peal its saddest notes, to tell
How Britain's boast, and guardian, Nelson, fell!

'So died of yore, but recent still in fame,
The great supporter of the Theban name! &c. &c

The concluding lines also deserve notice:

'Yes-for I saw-Amid the battle's storm
Fair Glory's self display'd her seraph form,
Mark'd the brave chief direct the bloody scene,
And cried "Enough for me thy day has been;
"Then fall victorious in the martial stre,
"And be thy death as signal as thy life."
But sad Britannia other feelings knew,
She cy'd her champion with maternal view,

In vain to heaven she bow'd her suppliant knee
And cried, "He liv'd not long enough for me!""
In vain for guided by some dæmon's aim,
And charg'd with death, the unerring weapon came!
'Twas then her glitt'ring pinions Victory spread,
Attir'd in charins alluring, o'er his head ;
He saw-rejoic'd--forgot his pains awhile,
And his pale features soften'd to a smile.
So oft, when black'ning storms obscure the day,
Bursts through the gloom a momentary ray ;
'Tis gone-more threat'ning horrors instant rise,
And thicker darkness reassumes the skies!
With grief the goddess mark'd his stified sigh,
Saw life's last beam expiring in his eye,

Then caught him fainting, to her bosom press'd,
And hush'd the hero to cternal rest.'

MEDICINE,

ART. 32.-Cases of two Extraordinary Polypi removed from the Nose, the one by Excision with a new Instrument, the other by Improved Forceps; with an Appendix, describing an Improved Instrument for the Fistula in Ano. Illustrated with a Copper-plate. By Thomas Whately, Member of the Royal College of Surgeons in London. Sto. pp. 42. Johnson. 1805.

THESE operations were attended with considerable trouble, and do great credit to Mr. Whately's skill and intrepidity. It is so difficult to convey any idea of the form of instruments by a mere description, that we shall not attempt it in this case, and content ourselves with observing with regard to the polypi themselves, that they were of a large size and in an awkward situation, and that they adhered, one by a narrow neck and the other by a broad base. In the first, from the various irregularities of its shape, it seems probable that a ligature could hardly have been so applied as to complete the de struction of the tumour. In the other, the forceps and ligature were certainly inadmissible, and Mr.Whately's new instrument,which con sisted of a cutting blade and sheath, moveable by a screw, answered every purpose that could be desired.

It is undoubtedly remarkable that no hemorrhage should occur upon the excision of so considerable a body as a large polypus; though we are far from being convinced that equal success may in every instance be expected. There was also observed a great tendency to sleep in these cases, a fact which Mr. Whately very sensibly leaves to the consideration of physiologists, and which could only arise in two ways, either by direct pressure on the

The poet has doubtless had in view the passage of Cicero, Satis te di vel naturæ vixisse vel gloriæ; at, quod maximum est, patriæ certè parum.'Cic. pro Marc.

brain, or by indirect pressure occasioned by some impediment tỡ the return of blood from the head. We know of no other mechanical causes which at any time produce somnolency. Now, in the case before us, it appears that no direct pressure could be made on any part of the brain, which is well defended on every side by its bony covering. Therefore the other cause must be resorted to, and the most probable origin of the disposition to sleep, appears to be the impediment made to the return of the blood from the head by the internal jugular veins, which lie exposed to pressure from the action of the polypus on the surrounding parts.

Whatever may be thought of the cause of this drowsiness, the effects of it were rather amusing. One of the patients often fell asleep while performing the ceremonies of the toilet, and even occasionally yielded to the influence of his disease when on horseback in the street, and was recalled to misery and safety by the humanity of the passengers. The other victim of this disorder moved in the humbler sphere of a barber's boy, we speak it with due deference to the ancient associates of our profession. This unlucky lad one day, when dressing a gentleman's hair, fell asleep in the act, and dropt his hot curling irons on the head of his master's customer, who was thereby betrayed into a great heat. At other times sundry accidents befell this patient of Mr. Whately from the same cause, such as exposing the throats of the lieges to unwarrantable danger, and the house of his master to the risk of fire. Our humane readers, however, may rest in peace for the future safety of thesa two persons, who are now by the aid of surgery finally delivered from the unseasonable influence of sleep.

CORRESPONDENCE.

IN reply to the Editor of Lord Bacon's Reading upon the Statute of Uses,' an article noticed in our Review for March, 1805, (p. 326.) we beg leave to observe, that his remonstrance is conveyed in such language as hardly to entitle him to an answer. The author of that critique, however, thinks proper to disclaim all personal motives, as well as all knowledge of the Editor whatever; and to observe that it is matter of opinion, whether alterations of a text, depending upon the conjecture of an editor, and not on comparison with an original, are to be denominated corrections and emendations. Our opinion, which was not given but after mature reflection, and a careful examination of the whole work, remains unaltered. As to the printed letter with which the editor threatens us, we shall only have occasion to refer to the critique in question for a complete refutation of it.

Mr. D. must be sensible that to interfere with the concerns of other journals, would be equally inconsistent with our plan and with propriety.

CRITICAL REVIEW.

SERIES THE THIRD.

Vol. VII.

APRIL, 1806.

No. IV.

ART. I.-Letters to a young Lady on the Duties and Character of Women. By Airs. West. 3 Fols. Longman.

1806.

THE just celebrity of this writer's Letters to a young Man,' induced us to take up these volumes with high expectations, which have been amply gratified. We find the same vigour of mind and acuteness of remark, which receive. additional force and point from the sympathetic propriety of their direction: females must naturally listen with deference to the advice of one who, with masculine powers of understanding, capable of instructing the Lords of the Cre-ation,' undertakes the more congenial task of correcting the errors and inculcating the duties of her own sex, and who has not suffered the consciousness of superior intellectual energies to warp her judgment or to inflate her with vanity. Mrs. West is aware that the inferior strength and more delicately organized frame of women points out their right place in society: she is no advocate for an Amazonian republic; but she eloquently illustrates those domestic virtues and duties, of which her own life as a wife, and a parent, is a conspicuous example. Though she with great propriety thinks that the schemes of a certain Utopian female writer were in the highest degree absurd and laughable,she pourtrays in glowing colours, the dignity, the inestimable privileges,. the securities from vice, the helps of grace, and the hopes of glory, which, under the influence of our happy government and of our blessed religion, may give her own sex in this country ample reason to thank God they were born women.' Those ladies who, with a certain eccentric writer, mis take insubordination for independence and greatness of soul, and suppose that the professions of a lawyer, a physician, and a merchant are not incompatible with women,' will find little to gratify their ambitious ideas in the pages of this moral instructor, who describes domestic retirement as the scene and the asylum, where the passive virtues may best display their heavenly energies. At the same time, Mrs. CRIT. REV. Vol. 7. April, 1806,

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