I will only add one more caution before I leave the subject of literary advice. Let not the scholar think his education finished, when all the forms of it are completed. Let him not clofe his books as foon as he has relinquished his tutor. Improvement is the business of life. And his days will pafs away pleafantly, who makes a daily addition to his ideas. But he who deferts his books, from a common but mistaken notion, that after a certain number of years spent in the ufual forms, he is completed, will foon find, that his books will defert him. He will have renounced one of the best modes of spending stium cum dignitate, a respectable retirement. Some of the most important profeffions fhould not be, as they often are, merely a genteel retreat for idleness. Epaminondas, la derniere année de fa vie, difoit, écoutoit, voyoit, faifoit les même chofes que dans l'age où il avoit commencé d'être inftruit.-Aujourd'hui nous recevons trois educations diffe rentes ou contraires, celle de nos peres, celle de nos maitres, cele du monde. Ce qu'on nous dit dans la derniere, renverfe toutes les idées des premieres. MONTESQUIEU. In the above fection I have only taken notice of the English universities. I am not experimentally acquainted with any others; but I know that great pains have been taken to recommend the Scotch and foreign universities, to Englishmen. They certainly can be fuperior in no other refpect but ftrianefs of difcipline. I believe Europe cannot produce parallels to Oxford and Cambridge, in opulence, buildings, libraries, profefforfhips, fcholarships, and all the external dignity and mechanical apparatus of learning. If there is an inferiority, it is in the perfons, not in the place or in its conftitutions. And here I cannot help confeffing, that a defire to please the great, and bring them to the univerfities, for the fake of honour and profit, and other political motives, caufes a compliance with fashionable manners, a relaxation of discipline, and a connivance at ignorance, folly, and vice. Notwithstanding we have in the former part of this article. very freely controverted fome pofitions of the ingenious Writer, we are ready to acknowledge the general merit of this practical Treatife; and we fcruple not to pronounce, that whoever is immediately interested in the education of youth, whether it be parent or tutor, or whether fuch tutor be public or private, he cannot fail to perufe it with fingular advantage. If Mr. Knox be able to carry his ideas on this moft important fubject into actual execution, or can act up to the very excellent principles he has laid down, it will not be difficult to foresee that, the feminary over which he prefides muft exhibit as faultlefs a fpecimen of fcholaftic difcipline as ever appeared in any age or. nation fince letters were cultivated. C..t..t. ART. IL Rimes. 18 8vo. 2s. 6d. fewed. Dilly. 1781. TH HIS Writer is of opinion, that uniformity of ftanzı, ^ By Mr Pinkerton tinguishing the great fource of all pleafure, variety. To remedy this, he has adopted a series of ftanzas in which, as is ufual in the choral odes of the Greek tragedians, and in Pindar, the two firft correfpond, and are fucceeded by a third of a different measure. Thefe, which the ancients diftinguished by the titles of ftrophe, antiftrophe, and epode, are here denomi nated, somewhat fantastically, cadence, antiphony, and unison. Our fentiments on this divifion of the English ode being already known, they need not be repeated; efpecially as we meet with nothing either in the reafonings of this writer, or in the fuccefs of his practice, to difpofe us to retract them. We fhall, however, obferve that he appears to be mistaken, when he fuppofes diverfity of ftanza effential to variety in poetical harmony. If variety depended folely on varying the mode or measure of the verfe, his argument might be conclufive; but this, in fact, is far from being the cafe; it is even poffible that a verse may be varied without obtaining the variety fought for. For inftance, by the addition of two fyllables to a verfe of eight the measure is varied; but unless the additional fyllables be emphatical themselves, or remove the emphafis from fyllables already emphatical, the general harmony of the verfe will be the fame. This writer does not feem apprifed that the variety here spoken of depends, not upon the counting of fyllables, or the tranfpofition of rhymes, but upon the paufe, the emphasis, and (if we may so speak) upon that certain mufical expreffion, which, as it is the refult of feeling and taste, diftinguishes the poet from the rhymift. Were it otherwife, whence have blank verfe and the couplet their variety and harmony? But enough on this fubject. Let the objectors to uniformity of ftanza read the noble Ode to Mr. Howard, or the admirable Lyric productions of a Warton, and they will find that, though diversity of ftanza may not be inadmiffible, it is far from being neceffary. Had not Mr. Warton, whofe knowledge of English poetry and its powers, as a critic, is not lefs eminent than are his abilities as a poet, been convinced that the genius of the English ode required not fuch diverfity of ftanza, it is probable he would, on fome occafion at leaft, have adopted it. The pieces in this collection written after the model spoken of above, have the affected title of melodies. To them fucceed what the Author is pleafed to call (and it is well he has given them a name) fymphonies; in which the ftanza, couplet, blank verfe, and profe, are interchangeably jumbled and dance the hays together, because forfooth, the fubjects feemed to demand an answering mode;" dii boni! Much, however, as we reprobate the licentioufnefs of fuch capricious innovation, we must do this Writer the justice to acknowledge that he is not without fome qualifications efféntially requifite requifite in the compofition of a poet. He appears to have confiderable learning, and his learning has furnished his imagination with good ftore of poetical imagery. At the fame time it must be confeffed that we meet with little of that wild and animating enthusiasm, that ardor animi æthereus, which is the foul and characteristic of true poetry. Add to this that his language, as may be seen in the fpecimen that follows, is rather ftudied than elegant, and its combinations are not unfrequently harth and inverted. ON THE MILITARY PREPARATIONS MDCCLXXIX. PRELUDE. "The kingly oaks whofe lofty creft So they whom honour's crown hath bleft From Time, from Envy's hateful train CADENCE I. When first the chiefs Of whom the gallant Edward led, When Creffy's field Saw conquet crown With chaplet bright his helmed head! When wounded by Despair I. The Gallic Genius fled and fought his native air, A breaft of diamond ferene and ftrong Was thine, of mighty fire, thou mightier fon; All regal merits did to thee belong, Chief of the fable mail! that grace a throne. His awful pomp in his meridian tower; O greater than thy fame! fuch feemed thy power, The lilied legions fled with wild amaze. CADENCE II. Ye Fays that rove The moon loved mead Where Where Seine extends his flowery fream, Your little breasts To fee the British fymbols beam Along your haunted shore; Where feldom hoftile foot had dared to pace before. ANTIPHONY For vain was art, For numbers vain To stay heroic Henry's courfe. Witnefs ye plains Of Azincour Yet red with fignals of his force! Nor force his fole renown, II. For gems of every virtue decked his warlike crown. And thou, perfidious Spain, yet dar'ft engage And bade her own dread storms their pomp enfold. When Cromwell steered The golden helm Of empire he unjustly won, Before his name The Gallic King III. Sat trembling on his painted throne: Nor lefs when from afar The lord of Blenheim rolled the purple tide of war. Their ancient fervors to revive: Elfe whence of Wolfe the fate, That wild Canada's lakes and Albion's hill's repeat ? UNISON III. O then ye lines of warlike fires awake! Ye British youth awake to ancient praife. To hide your fathers light with brighter rays. The wretched path that ever leads to shame. From From Hazard's hand the wreath of Glory claim, CLOSE. Thus hath the Mufe with feeble skill Her temple to renown prepared; And make their praise their own.' The next Melody is the Harp of Offian, a poet for whom he entertains a very violent predilection, not even allowing him to be fecond to HOMER! We are not to wonder then, that he has beltowed abundant labour on fo favourite a fubject. The Harp of Offian is, nevertheless, too artificial to be pleafing; and (if we may be pardoned for the jingle) too affected to affect. We trace in it nothing of that fublimity of imagination, that elegance of tafte, and that enchanting beauty of expreffion, which characterife the Ode prefixed to the tranflation of the Jeep.160. Fingal of Offian into English verfe, written, as we have been informed, by an ingenious clergyman of Devonshire; and which (from the fame fource of information we hear alfo) either has been or will foon be fet to mufic by a gentleman, whose name it is fufficient to mention, to excite the curiofity of all the lovers of the chafte and elegant in harmony-JACKSON! C..t..t. ART. III. The Mirror. A Periodical Paper published at Edin- "To 7 s. 6d. ་ O hold the MIRROR up to Nature, to fhew Virtue her own features, Vice her own image, and the very age and body of the Time his form and preffure," is the defign of this publication. How far the reprefentations of domeftic life, which this Mirror exhibits, are faithful and exact, must be determined by those who are acquainted with the manners of the Scotch in their own country. But whatever may be the decifion in that particular, it will not materially affect the general character of these fenfible and ingenious Effays, as they poffels confiderable merit, independent on local and tranfitory circumftances. Not that this commendation is to be extended indifcriminately to them all: we fometimes meet with unimportant and trifling matter, at least what appears fo to us on this fide the Tweed; and our ears are not unfrequently offended by Sco ticisms, which, even on familiar fubjects, ought carefully to have been avoided. At the fame time we are fenfible that an uniform equality in a periodical publication of this fort, conducted by Rev. July, 1781. C various |