The history of Pizarro being written in a similar manner, we shal only remark on it that here, likewise, M. Campe places too much salue on a spitit of enterprize, a spirit which requires the stamp of a good motive in order to be intitled to praise.

The narrative in both historics is clear and animated; and the translation is unaffected and easy.

Art. 23. The Young Lady's New Guide to Arithmetic; being a short and useful Selection, containing, besides the common and neces sary Rules, the Application of cach Rule, by a Variety of practical Questions, chiefly on domestic Affairs, together with the Method of making out Bills of Parcels, Book Debts, Receipts, c. for the Use of Ladies' Schools and private Teachers. Dy John Greig, Teacher of Writing, Geography, &c. 12mo. pp. 83.

Wallis. 1800.

The pretensions set forth in this title page are not ill supported in the body of the work; which may be useful where personal instruction is not to be obtained.

Art. 14. Dangerous Sports. A Tale addressed to Children. Warning them against wanton, careless, or mischievous Exposure to Situations from which alarming Injuries so often proceed. By James Parkinson. 16mo. pp. 183. 25. Symonds.

Were the style of this little volume equal to the matter which it Contains, it would merit high commendation; and with its defects of abis. nature, it deserves to be considered as an useful addition to a child's library. No works require so complete a mastery over lan guage, with so much taste and judgment, as compositions for chil

POETIC and DRAMATIC.

Art. 25. Speed the Plough a Comedy, in Five Arts.

As per

formed with universal Applause at the Theatre Royal, CoventGarden. By Thon.as Morton, Esq. 8vo. 25. Longman and Recs. 1800.

To be methodical in our account of this pleasing comedy, we must begin by observing that Mr. Fitzgerald has furnished it with a good Prologue. We think, however, that the complaint of unsuccessful bards being forgotten is not quite accurate: there are records not only of bad poets, but of those who were sworn foes to the Muses. Perhaps good writers are less safe from the monsters of envy, and from shallow critics, than the little Nautilus is from "the monsters of the deep."-Mr. F., addressing himself to the class of " critics, who rule ofer politics and plays," terminates his prologue very happily by the Bollowing four lines:

Protect our Author on the coming day,

And though you damn the prologue-spare the play;

To your decree each Dramatist must bow,

Give but your aid, and that will Speed the Plough!

To analyse the plot of this comedy, and enable our readers to judge of whom and what we are speaking, it may be necessary to tell them

in the (we think) useful manner of the Dramatis Persone of our old comedies, what kind of character each individual is to represent.

Sir Philip Blandford; an hypochondriac gentleman, labouring under the pressure of some secret calamity or guilt.-Morrington; a mysterious character, of great use in the dénouement.Sir Abel Handy; a whimsical character, vain of his genius for mechanics, and a purchaser of all kinds of quackeries and new inventions.-Bob Handy, his son; a wild shatter brained young man, full of pretensions to universal knowlege and accomplishments: the intended husband of Miss Blandford, but fond of Susan.-Henry; an orphan 'youth, utterly ignorant of his family, distinguished by his virtues, and living with Farmer Ashfield.-Farmer Ashfield; an honest, industrious, and jocose tenant of Sir Philip Blandford; Father of Susan. -Evergreen: Sir Philip's old Gardener, in possession of all the secrets of the family.-Gerald, servant of Morrington.-Postilion.-Young Handy's servant.-Peter, servant to Sir Abel. Miss Blandford; daughter of Sir Philip: an amiable, innocent, and generous character. -Lady Handy; a termagant upstart, formerly servant to Farmer Ashfield.-Susan; daughter of the Ashfields, secretly, but innocently, attached to Bob Handy.-Dame Ashfield; the Farmer's wife; with no other infirmities than rheumatism, and a little neighbourly envy at Goody Grundy's better circumstances.

Act I. The west-country dialect is well supported in the first scene, and throughout the play, by Farmer Ashfield. In this Act, besides the liveliness of the dialogue, Dame Ashfield's jealousy of Dame Grundy, bringing her name in on all occasions, is truly risible. The Gardener, speaking in his own character, draws all his similies and allusions from his occupation. Sir Abel's passion for new inventions. The patent lock that can't be picked-The horizontal bolt-Grand substitute for gun-powder-The patent medicine-chest -The infallible axletree-Waterproof shoes-Newly invented pocket glass-Small camp-chair-Converting saw-dust into deal-boardsPreparation for extinguishing flames-Fire-escape-Patent fire-engine, &c. and the conceit of the young 'squire as a cudgel-player, whose head is broken by the old Farmer;-are all laughable.

Act II. Dame Ashfield pardons Bob Handy too easily for spoiling her lace. The description of Ton is excellent. The stage motto, veluti in speculum, is here fulfilled.-The rage, or rather the pretension to every thing-The affectation of cleverness, accomplishments, mechanics, agriculture, botany, arts and sciences in general-New discoveries, &c. Scene III. is really touching; and yet, thro' tears, we must laugh at the old man's provincial language.

Act III. Sir Philip's hatred of Henry is as much too violent as his daughter's love, we should rather say simplicity; which resembles that of Miranda in The Tempest; who never saw a young man before, nor any man, except her father and Caliban.

Act IV. The éclaircissement between Miss Blandford and her fa ther is well written. Bob Handy's description of new inventions is very good but Bob becomes a rational creature rather too suddenly. Perhaps, however, that circumstance renders Sir Philip's confidence in him more natural.

Act

Act V. It has been observed that Sir Philip's choice of Bob Handy an eccentric character, for his confidant,-that he should view hiệ brother's offspring with such detestation-that the instrument of his guilt should have been preserved-that Miss Blandford's and Henry's love at first sight, in which she makes the advances,—are unnatural incidents :-but, with these defects, if defects they be, it should be allowed that there still remains merit sufficient in the piece to intitle it to a place among our best modern comedies. Nothing can be more contrasted, and distinct, than the characters of this play: the two Baronets; Bob and Henry; Morrington and Farmer Ashfield; Gerald and the Gardener; Lady Handy and Miss Blandford.-Indeed, honest Ashfield, his wife, and daughter, are consistently similar, and of one family; at which the admirers of contrast can scarcely grumble.

Mr. Andrews has, furnished an Epilogue truly comic, in the spirit of the play itself, as well as in that of the individual, Bob Handy; who still retains his mixed character of half foolish, half wise; half profligate, and half a man of honour. Mr. A. has made good use of the dispute concerning the old and new century, the affectations and nudities of female dress; and he has produced a good pun, if critics may allow such a thing to be possible, on the enormous bustle with which the necks of the men are encumbered:

Your taste, cries Dad, I fear your credit shocks,
The rise of Cravats proves the fall of Stocks.

Art. 26. Atys; or, Human Weakness; a Poetical Essay. By J...
M... 8vo. 28. Vernor and Hood, &c. 1799.

We have often thought that blank verse is a species of composition not well adapted to sermonizing; and the poem before us has tended to confirm that idea. The reader of it, we imagine, will be of opinion with us that it is already long: yet the author promises, or threatens, to continue it through several books, if this first specimen shall be supported by the public approbation. We should be very bold, if not rash, if we ventured to promise him that support :-for we conceive that the taste of the present day will not much relish an insipid tale respecting a boy and a goddess on Mount Ida, encumbered with the stale mythology of old Greece, loaded with flat and common-place morality, and delivered in the heavy and unharmonious blank verse of a modern poetaster.

Whether we speak too harshly of this poem, the reader may judge from such lines as these:

And as old Rome form'd into deities

The blackest tyrants that, since earth BEGAN

Who, with their crimes, even shame the vilest age,

So he will fondly canonize his sin,

While from some hated Virtue, with foul hands,
He tears her glory's wreath, and darkens her
To some foul Vice's shape-Posterity,

Not wiser than their sires, and sway'd alike
By the same passions, greedily receive

The

The perjured legend they have handed down,

And add new strength by fictions of their own.'

We are at a loss to guess where that author learned the meaning of the word Wisdom, who could thus write respecting the idea which it designates:

Where Wisdom, then,

Proud boast of human kind, where rest thy vaunts,

That thou alone art Virtue? Cast far back
Thy view unto past ages, and where once
Thou'st thrown a light on Virtue, for that once
Confess how often, for thy own base ends,
Thou hast encreased delusion, and abused
Thy godlike mission, by augmenting still
The errors of thy race. Short sighted once
But rendered blind by thee, Credulity,
Thy duty to remove, serv'd as a base
To raise thy fabric on-year after year
Tread on each other's heels-1ace after race
Sink down into the tomb-new errors still
Thy children teach, and those of fools believe.'

Art. 27. Equanimity: a Poem. By Mason Chamberlin.
Is. 6d. Clarke. 1800.

8vo.

Art. 28. Harvest a Poem. By Mason Chamberlin. 8vo. 6d. Clarke. 1800.

The first of these poems is in fact a sermon in blank verse, on the text In patience possess your souls; and the latter may be considered as a composition of the same description, on the subject of grateful piety and trust in God. In the first poem, there is something to justify its title: but the second has little if any thing in it that is appropriate to its avowed subject. The season and labours of Harvest are not described; and if a reader of the poem were required to give it a title, that which it now bears would scarcely occur to his mind. Serious and pious sentiments are diffused through both of Mr. Chamberlin's poems; into whose blank verse, texts of scripture are very liberally interwoven, which often produce a prosaic effect, and give (as we have said) the idea of a sermon put into measured lines. It is impossible to object to the religious tendency of the remarks and observations: but we lament that they were not either exhibited in plain prose or in a diction more truly poetical. Let the reader judge by the following specimens from Equanimity :

Of blessings, which the truly wise alone
Are qualified to taste, who use the world
As not abusing it.

• O confess

Your insufficiency, receive henceforth

The aid vouchsafed you, leave the devious paths
Of speculation, fruitless as 'tis vain,

And proving all things, seek the surer road.

Mark'd

Mark'd out by Revelation from above.

Soon shall the crooked paths be render'd straight,
The rugged places plain and God appear,
Directing each particular event

For final good, though often times by means
Inscrutable to man.'

There imprint

The useful lesson, that the Great Supreme
Disposes all things, for the benefit
Of such as walk uprightly in his sight.'
The bliss of heav'n

Describ'd with all the simple eloquence
Of Inspiration's genuine oracle,

In such as mortal eye hath never seen,

As ear hath never heard, nor heart conceiv'd.'

In the poem called Harvest, the materials, structure, and ment of the verse are the same with those of the former. Thus we read, in a part most appropriate to the given subject:

• For not alike in each succeeding year
Can the prolific earth yield her increase,
E'en with the utmost labour man can use.
Nor is a temporary scarcity

The certain sign of Heav'n's awaken'd wrath.
Let then frugality attend our use

Of the abundance sent from time to time.'

To enforce the practice of frugality, the poem thus concludes

When to supply the famish'd multitude
He wrought a miracle, himself enjoin'd
To gather up the fragments that remain,
When all had eaten, that no needless loss
Might be incurr'd, but liberality
With prudent care be blended-pattern just
For all to follow, who have hope to taste
The better joys of an eternal world,

Which he hath promised to his followers.'

Dr. Johnson's remark on witty perversions of Scripture may partly be applied to poetry composed of scraps from the Bible: it is too easy to satisfy real genius. We allow such a mixture in prose-exhortations from the pulpit, but it will not be permitted by the genuine offspring of Parnassus.

Art. 29. Pizarro; ein Trauerspiel in Fünf Aufzilgen, &c. i. e. Pizarro, a Tragedy in Five Acts, represented at the Theatre Royal, Drury-lane, according to the German of Von Kotzebue's Death of Rolla, or The Spaniards in Peru, adapted to the English Stage, and enriched by R. B. Sheridan; translated into German by Constantine Geisweiler. 8vo. 2s. Robinsons. 1800. "Every dog has his day," says the vulgar proverb; and so has every novelty in the world of Letters: which holds especially true

with