With brails refix'd, another foon prepared,
Afcending fpreads along beneath the yard:
To each yard arm, the head rope they extend,
And foon the earings and the robands bend.
That tafk difpatch'd, they firft the braces flack,
Then, to the chefftree, bring aboard the tack:
And, while the lee clue garnet's lower'd away,
Taught aft the sheet, they tally, and belay.

If fome of our Readers fhould find in this defcription too much of the Sailor, they cannot fail of being pleafed with the following, wherein they will find no lefs of the Poet. After taking a curfory notice of the most remarkable countries of Greece, he proceeds to the following description of Parnaffus.

Contiguous here, with hallow'd woods o'erspread
Renown'd Parnaffus rears its honour'd head:
There roles bloffom in eternal fpring,

And ftrains celeftial, feather'd warblers fing;
Apollo, here, beftows th' unfading wreath,
Here Zephyrs aromatic odours breathe ;
They o'er aftalian plains diffufe perfume,
Where o'er the vales perennial laurels bloom.
Here with immortal harps the facred nine
Exalt to extacy their fongs divine;

In vocal melody their notes decay,

And melt, to fofteft love, the dying lay.

Their numbers every mental ftorm controul,
And lull to harmony th' afflicted foul;

With heavenly balm, the tortur'd breast compose,
And footh the agony of latent woes.
The verdant shades that Helicon furround,
On rofy gales, feraphic tunes refound:
Perpetual fummers crown the happy hours,
Sweet as the breath that fans Elyfian flowers;
Here pleafure dances in an endlefs round,
And love and joy ineffable abound.
Adieu, ye flow ry vales, and fragrant scenes,
Delightful bow'rs, and ever vernal greens !
Ye winds that o'er Aönian vallies blow,
Ye lucid ftreams that round Pieria flow:
Ye virgin-daughters of the Sun, who dwell
In bleft Boeotian realms, à long farewel!
From happy realms reluctant now I go,
To raging elements, and fcenes of woe.

Our Poet wishes for the powers of a Maro, to describe the horrors of the raging feas, and the fate of thofe,

Who, on the verge of death, in vain deplore
Impervious dangers on a lee-ward shore.

Yet many of his defcriptions are, in our opinion, not at all inferior to any thing of the kind we meet with in the Æneid; many paffages in the third and fifth books of which, we conceive, nevertheless, our Author has had in view. They have not fuffered, however, by his imitation; and his Pilot appears to much greater advantage than the Palinurus of Virgil.

The splitting of the Ship on the Rocks is thus reprefented in glowing and lively colours.

Lifted on gath`ring billows, up fhe flies,
Her shatter'd top half-buried in the skies;
Borne o'er a latent reef, the hull impends,
Then thund'ring on the marble crags defcends:
Down on the vale of death, with horrid cries,
The fated wretches, trembling, cast their eyes,
Loft to all hope, when lo! a fecond shock
Bilges the splitting veffel on the rock;
Her groaning bulk the dire concuffion feels,
And with up heaving floods the nods and reels;
Repeated ftrokes her crashing ribs divide,

She loofens, parts, and spreads in ruins o'er the tide.

Nor is the Poet's talent confined to the defcription of inanimate scenes; he relates and bewails the untimely fate of his companions, in the most animated and pathetic ftrains. The clofe of the Pilot's addrefs to the fea-men, in the time of their greatest danger, is noble and philofophical. After having given them fuch orders as were neceflary in their distressful fituation, he proceeds:

Tho' great the danger, and the task fevere,
Yet bow not to the tyranny of fear;
If once that flavish yoke your fouls fubdue,

Adie to hope to life itfelf adieu!

No more remains, but now prepare to veer,

Two fkilful helm's men on the poop to steer.

And thou ETERNAL P w's! whofe fovereign fway,

The raging forms, and roaring feas obey!

On thy fupreme affiftance we rely,

Thy mercy fupplicate. if doom'd to die:
To thy unering will fubmiffive truft,

With whom, Whatever is, is ever juft."

It is impoffible to read the circumftantial account of the

unfortunate end of the fhip's crew, without being deeply af

fected

fected by the tale, and charmed with the manner of the relation. But we have not room for all the quotations with which we could entertain our Readers. We cannot refift the temptation, however, of copying the following lines, which end the poem.

Rous'd by the tempeft, and the bluft'ring night,
A troop of Grecians mount Colonne's height;
When, gazing down with horrour on the flood,
Full to their view, a scene of ruin stood;
The furf with mangled bodies cover'd o'er,
And thofe yet breathing on the fea-beat shore:
Tho' loft to fcience and the nobler arts,
Yet Nature's lore inform'd their fimple hearts:
Strait down the vale their haftening fteps they bend,
The wretched fufferers, helpful to attend.
Three ftill alive, in mournful plight, they find,
Benumb'd and shiv'ring, on a rock reclin'd:
Th' affected natives, touch'd with gen'rous pain,
The feeble feamen in their arms fuftain ;
With pitying fighs, their helpless lot deplore,
And lead them trembling, from the fatal shore.

We have only to add, that the ingenious Author of this performance, whose name is Falconer, has infcribed it to the Duke of York, and has prefixed a Chart of the Ship's way, and a section of the Ship itself, in order to render this curious poem compleatly intelligible.

A Courfe of Lectures on Elocution: Together with Two Differtations on Language; and fome other Tracts relative to thofe Subjects. By Thomas Sheridan, A. M. 4to. Ios. 6d. fewed. Dodfley, Henderfon, &c.

H

AVING, more than once, had occafion to declare our

fentiments concerning the writings of Mr. Sheridan, and the usefulness of that plan which he profecutes with fo much affiduity; we fhall, without any farther introduction, proceed to lay before our Readers an account of what is contained in the Lectures now before us. The general fatisfaction they gave when they were delivered, is a ftrong prefumption that they will meet with a favourable reception from the public; the fubjects of them are both useful and entertaining, and the Author's abilities well known.

We

We are forry, however, to find Mr. Sheridan ftill expreffing himself in the moft extravagant terms concerning the powers of ORATORY. A very moderate acquaintance with mankind, we imagine, would be fufficient to convince any perfon, that fuch romantic ftrains only ferve to expose an Author to the ridicule of difcerning Readers.

In his introductory Difcourfe, our Lecturer, fets out with obferving, that there has been no maxim more frequently inculcated, or more generally aflented to, than that human Nature, ought to be the chief ftudy of human kind; and yet, of all fubjects, about which the bufy mind of man has been employed, it is that, he fays, which has been least attended to; or with regard to which, the feweft difcoveries have been made, founded upon any certain knowlege.

"Is it not amazing to reflect, continues he, that from the creation of the world, there was no part of the human mind clearly delineated, till within the last fixty years? When Mr. Locke arofe, to give us a juft view of one part of our internal frame, the Understanding, upon principles of philofophy founded on reafon and experience.'

He obferves, that little or no benefit in point of practice, has resulted from a difplay in theory, of the only part of the human mind which has hitherto been laid open with accuracy, upon principles of true philofophy. The reafon he affigns for this is, the neglect of ftudying our mother-tongue; and nothing effectual, he fays, can be done in this ftudy, without making it a diftinct branch of education, and encouraging proper Masters to follow it as their fole employment, in the fame way as the feveral Mafters in the other branches do.

"But ftill, continues he, there are two other parts of the human mind, with regard to which the world is at this day as much in the dark, as they were with respect to the whole, previous to the publication of Mr. Locke's Effay: the one, the feat of the paffions; for which we have no name as exifting in the mind, unphilofophically referring it to the organ of fenfation, the heart: the other, the feat of the fancy; which is called the imagination.

"Upon a right regulation of thefe parts of the mind, and the faculties belonging to them, all that is noble and praifeworthy, all that is elegant and delightful, in man, confidered as a focial Being, chiefly depends. Yet fo far are we from having any juft view prefented to us of those important parts. of our internal frame; or any well-founded knowlege of the

principles

principles by which the faculties belonging to them ought to be regulated; that every day we fee tome new hypothefis advanced upon that fubject, defigned to overturn all that went before, and laying in the fame claim, which all that preceded it had done, that of being the only right one..

66 It will be allowed by all perfons of reflection, that there is no fpeculative point more ardently to be wished for, than to have it in our power to contemplate thofe parts of the human mind which are ftill concealed from us, or falfly viewed through the mifts of error, with the fame clear fatisfaction that we find in examining Mr. Locke's view of the Underftanding. But, at the fame time, if the means were pointed out, of rendering both thefe views practically useful, by fhewing how a general spirit of good fenfe, and clearness of reafon, might be propagated thro' the natives of this country; by fhewing how the paffions hurtful or dangerous to fociety may be fuppreffed, and thofe of the nobler and focial kind, calculated to promote the general good, may be brought forward, invigorated, and carried into due exertion; by fhewing how the powers of the imagination may be fo regulated as to diffufe a general good taste thro' the nation; a point effentially neceflary to promote fome of the nobleft ends that can be anfwered by the two other powers, thofe I mean of a refined underftanding, and delicate fenfibility: it must be allowed, that the execution of fuch a plan would tend more to the real benefit of this realm, than all the uninfpired books that have been written from the creation of the world to this hour."

Undoubtedly; nay, Mr. Sheridan might have faid, more than all the INSPIRED books that have been written from the creation of the world to this hour.-It is difficult to determine, whether vanity or abfurdity is moft confpicuous in what he advances on this head. To fuppofe, that the paffions burtful or dangerous to fociety may be fuppreffed, and that thofe of the nobler and focial kind may be brought forward, invigorated, and carried into due exertion, by any thing that language or Oratory can perform, while human nature continues in its prefent circumftances, is, certainly, one of the wildeft notions that can poffibly enter into the thoughts of the wildest enthufiaft.

What he fays concerning thofe two other important parts of our internal frame, with regard to which the world is at this day, as much in the dark, as they were with respect to

the