venth edition of this poem, which as it was published eleven years after the first, had I suppose undergone the revision above alluded to. I am not therefore surprised at finding no verses upon Ridicule which could offend the bigots; there remain, however, some passages in the note to the 259th line of the third book, which, even now that we are half a century more enlightened, may be thought worthy of quotation. "To ask... whether ridicule be a test of truth, is, in other words, to ask whether that which is ridiculous can be morally true, can be just and becoming; or whether that which is just and becoming, can be ridiculous. A question that does not deserve a serious answer." Again, Akenside says: "In objects offered to the mind for its esteem or applause, the faculty of ridicule, finding an incongruity in the claim, urges the mind to reject it with laughter and contempt. When therefore we observe such a claim obtruded upon mankind, and the inconsistent circumstances carefully concealed from the eye of the public, it is our business, if the matter be of importance to society, to drag out those latent circumstances, and by setting them in full view, to convince the world how ridiculous the claim is; and thus a double advantage is gained; for we both detect the moral falsehood sooner than in the way of speculative inquiry, and impress the minds of men with a stronger sense of the vanity and error of its authors...... But it is said, the practice is dangerous, and may be inconsistent with the regard we owe to objects of real dignity and excellence. I answer, the practice fairly managed can never be dangerous; men may be dishonest in obtruding circumstances foreign to the subject, and we may be inadvertent in allowing those circumstances to impose upon us; but the sense of ridicule always judges right."

This doctrine of Akenside's is manifestly fatal to all miracles,

&c. &c.

In his verse too as well as his sentiments, as when he says,"

prose, we meet with many

"I do not mean to wake the gloomy form
Of Superstition, dress'd in Wisdom's garb,
To damp your tender hopes; I do not mean
To bid the jealous thund'rer fire the heav'ns,
Or shapes infernal rend the groaning earth,
To fright you from your joys:-

liberal

Let me add some lines, where the poet, after justly lamenting that the fine arts were for a long while totally subservient to kings and priests, adds'—

Of tinsel pomp and Raphael's magic hand
Effused its fair creation to enchant

The fond adoring herd in Latian fanes

To bind belief: while on their prostrate necks
The sable tyrant plants his heel secure."

I will give one more quotation, because therein the poet mentions, as he ought to do, that country, which, in morals, in metaphysics, and in the fine arts, has never been equalled:

"8 Genius of ancient Greece! whose faithful steps
Well pleased I follow through the sacred paths

Of nature and of science; nurse divine

Of all heroic deeds and fair desires!"

It may be imagined from my giving these passages from the "Pleasures of the Imagination," that I am extremely fond of this poem. But the contrary is the case. I admire, indeed, some detached parts; but, as a whole, I consider it one of the dullest metrical compositions I ever looked into.

Yet it is considered one of the most finished models of blank verse. This is very probable: but I would limit blank verse to epic poetry and tragedy. A work on the Imagination ought to be written in light and easy rhyme, or in harmonious and flowery prose. Above all things it should be simple, although rapid: for notes explanatory of the meaning of each paragraph, section, or stanza, are only allowable in a Pindaric Ode like Gray's Progress of Poesy.

pos

As the "Pleasures of the Imagination" are the only poem of Dr. Akenside's which I ever perused, I can say nothing of his other works; but we are told," that his" Hymn to the Naiads" is a beautiful and classical production, and that his " Odes" sess copiousness and elevation of thought, although they are not by any means remarkable either for grace or harmony. Dr. Akenside's medical works are entirely out of my sphere; but they are said to be respectable, and his discourse on the dysentery was admired for being written in pure and elegant Latin.

Dr. Akenside appears to have gained, as a medical practitioner, more honour than emolument. Thus he was admitted, by mandamus, to a Doctor's degree at Cambridge, after having taken it at Edinburgh and Leyden; he was elected a fellow of the College of Physicians, and one of the Physicians of St. Thomas' Hospital; and he was appointed one of the Physicians to Queen Charlotte. But he was carried off by a putrid fever before he had amassed any fortune; and probably the only repayment which his friend, Mr. Dyson, received, for having advanced him £300

a year in order to support his appearance as a London practitioner, was his succession to the effects of the deceased, and particularly to the books and prints, of which he had been an assiduous col

lector.

I consider it highly to the honour of Akenside, that, having gone to Edinburgh, at the age of eighteen, to qualify himself for the office of a dissenting minister, he repaid what he had received from the dissenter's fund, as soon as he had relinquished his original intention, and had determined to devote himself to medicine. He afterwards studied at Leyden: and I should conjecture (although without anthority), that perhaps it was owing to his having passed the critical period of his life, at this foreign university, that he soon afterwards exhibited himself so liberal in his sentiments.

We are told, that it is Doctor Akenside who is ridiculed in Smollett's Peregrine Pickle, as the giver of a feast after the manner of the ancients. The Doctor was deemed haughty and ostentatious by his brethren of the faculty; and perhaps, even in private life, he was not endued with all the frankness of genuine modesty. For, although perpetually reminded, by a certain halt in his gait, of the fall of a cleaver from his father's stall, he is nevertheless said to have concealed from his friends, that he was the son of a butcher. This silence must surely be considered a mark of extreme vanity; especially if it be right to imagine, that, supposing any one to be obliged to choose a cut-throat for his father, it would, in these carnivorous times, be more honourable to be the son of a butcher than of a soldier.

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No. 15. Vol. 14.] LONDON, Friday, Oct. 20, 1826. [Price 6d.

STATE OF THE REVIEWS.

THERE is a highly useful advance in this species of literature. The "Quarterly" has taken a step so as to come under the title of "Moderate Reformer." The "Edinburgh" plays pro and con, so as to make it questionable, whether it will take the late place of the "Quarterly," or outstrip the "Westminster" in liberalism. "The Westminster" is a solid publication of the kind, and does all the good that such a publication at such a time can do: I do not praise all its articles indiscriminately; but there have been some, highly important, in this age of struggle for free discussion's As many of the distant readers of "The Republican," might not be suited with the convenience of reading "The Westminster Review," I shall copy one of its articles entire, that on the Church Establishments, and reprint it as a tract. It contains many little admissions on the head of Religion and Christianity, which I should not have written; but where it is intended it should be read, those admissions may be even useful. Instead of saying that Church Establishments are hostile to Christianity, I, in my sense of Christianity, should have said, that they are essentially Christian. I protest against this play upon the word Christianity, that makes it synonymous with a system of good morals. It is a system of religion and has nothing to do with morals. Morality is outraged, when it is put under the name and garb of Christianity. It is a system of itself, of all that is good to man, and cannot be improved, but is corrupted, by any kind of alliance.

The Reviews have exercised great influence on the parties of this country. The" well as we-are men" have taken the "Quarterly" as the standard authority for their opinions. The Whigs, or they who have formed a standing opposition to all the measures of all men who might be in office, have made "The Edinburgh" their banner, and latterly, as a third party and a better party has grown up, discriminating fairly between the right and the wrong of the measures of all men and of all institutions established or proposed for establishment, "The Westminster" has grown up as an organ

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for them. This new party, under the various names of Reformers, which they have assumed, or which have been assumed for them, has done much toward the breaking up of the two old parties, parties of near two or full two centuries standing, and there is some promise of an amalgamation of all parties in pursuit of sounder or the best known principles. Political personality has almost ceased; and measures, not men; principles, not politicians, are becoming the subjects, and the proper subjects, of review. This is a state of things at which good and well informed men will rejoice; and for the purpose of extending a knowledge of this state of things, I copy the following article.

R. C.

"We intend, on the present occasion, as far as our limits will permit, to examine to the bottom the question of, an Ecclesiastical Establishment, and more especially of the Church of England, in its effect on religion, on morality, on the character and actions of the clergy, on learning, on education, and on government.

"We think it proper to begin by distinctly stating our opinion, that an ecclesiastical, establishment is essentially antichristian; that religion can never be safe or sound, unless where it is left free to every man's choice, wholly uninfluenced by the operation either of punishment or reward on the part of the magistrate. We think it proper to go even further, and declare, that it is not religion only to which an ecclesiastical establishment is hostile : in our opinion, there is not one of the great interests of humanity, on which it does not exercise a baneful influence.

"We know well to what we expose ourselves, by the promulgation of these great truths, for such they appear to us, and such we trust we shall establish them to be, by evidence which cannot be resisted. The clergy have, by a long course of usurpation, established a sort of right to call themselves and their interests, by the most sacred names. In ecclesiastical language, the wealth and power of the clergy are religion. Be as treacherous, be as dishonest, be as unfeeling and cruel, be as profligate, as you please, you may still be religious. But breathe on the interests of the clergy, make them surmise discredit at your hands, and you are the enemy of religion directly; nay, the enemy of your, God; and all the mischief which religious prejudice and antipathy, the poisoned, deadly weapon of the clergy, can bring down. upon its victims, is the sure and necessary consequence of your sacrilegious audacity.

"For protection against this spirit of persecution, strong and formidable to the present hour, we look to public opinion, daily approaching to the condition of a match for this once gigantic foe; and the strong line which we trust we shall be able to draw between the interests of a corporation of priests, and those inte