titled "The Field of Terror." Impregnated with certair mineral properties, this field defies the utmost efforts of the agriculturist: his oxen run mad when they approach it; and it is supposed to be possessed by malignant demons: but it is his only field, and he perseveres and triumphs in the end. Of all the Baron's numberless productions, however, — epic, pastoral, poetic, and romantic, perhaps none unite so many rich and pleasing qualities, proud chivalric feelings, and knightly and courtly graces, affording a bright and picturesque glimpse of "the olden times," as the tale of Minstrel Love' now before us. Sintram may be more strange and terrible, or the fairy tale of Undine more wildly original and pathetic, or some of his epic pieces more daring and imposing:- but nothing is so full and complete in its way as the adventures of the Minstrel Knight of Maraviglia. He is a model of perfection, full of chivalric valor and platonic love, blooming in the charms of youth, beauty, and poetic fame; and we must not quarrel with the perfectibility of his nature, the success of his high adventures, and that unearthly spirit of love and fidelity with which it has pleased the author to invest him. If, however, we grant "ample room and scope enough" for his fictitious genius to revel, "uncircumscribed and unconfined" within the narrow limits of real nature and probability, he must not betray hesitation and timidity, like our Scotch novelist, and turn coward and renegade to the strength and brightness, as well as to the truth and keeping, of his own daring creations. Thus, in the supernatural pretensions of the "White Lady of Avenel," and "Norna of the Fitful Head," the Caledonian author, by attempting in part to give a natural interpretation to phænomena of unearthly power, destroys the effect of the illusion, and fails to inspire the reader with that genuine enthusiasm and credulity, the deeds of which are so inherent in human nature, and are so requisite to create an interest in and a regard for the fate of beings of a purely imaginative nature. Sir Walter Scott, if we may name him as the "great unknown," thus far spoils his own work and falls short of his object; while the German Baron, by boldly rushing directly into the world of spirits, claims exemption from all rules, builds aërial palaces that have no earthly foundations, and peoples them with beings of another order: but still shadowing forth the duties and the passions of mortals, and thus at once appealing to our reason through our imagination, like a subtle orator and a genuine master of his trade. Here we find no compromizing, no mincing with the object in view. His characters stand forth large and prominent, yet mysterious and obscure: his adven tures and achievements are fairly above human calculation and attainment; his sentiments are high and honorable; his language, though vague and broken, is full of energy and eloquence: his reasonings are profound, and his moral is clear. This is as it should be in romance; and Sir Arnald of Maraviglia is superlatively the noblest Christian knight, holiest pilgrim, and sweetest Provençal Troubadour and minstrellover, that ever reined a steed, or played with a lady's glove. The remaining characters are wholly subordinate to the exalted pretensions of their chief; excepting only the Count de Bisiers and his Lady Alearda, whose minstrel and true knight Sir Arnald of Maraviglia is proud to be. As her sworn champion and loving troubadour, his deeds of honour are proved on the heretical heads and shoulders of the invading Moors. The scene is laid amid the vines and roses of Provence; and images of the repose and beauty of pastoral and romantic life are mingled and contrasted with descriptions of the battle-field, dazzling and magnificent tourney-tilts, and the festive scenes of noble bannered halls. It may be supposed that the story consists of the adventurous deeds and trials of this troubadour-knight; whose resistance, self-denial, and fidelity to his mistress, are made manifest even unto death. By the united strength of his sword, his Christian persuasion, and his delightful songs, he converted many of the slaves of Mohammed to the true faith; for all which, however, we do not find that he received any kind of temporal reward. He obtains only a few cold smiles, but not a single kiss from his lady-love; and the author diminishes something of the glory of his hero's setting sun, by making him die of a cold in his chest, caught in a fatal pilgrimage which he undertakes for the sake of restoring the Lady Alearda's daughter to health. It will easily be seen, then, that it is to the chivalric period which is brought back to us, and to the descriptions, character, and scenery rather than the interest and events of the story, that we are to look for the merits and pretensions of this tale as a picture of past days; when the thoughts of men were lofty, and their passions fresh and strong, but which are chastened and exalted by the fancy of the writer to higher and more poetic ends. We must now, however, take a more particular view of its excellences and defects, as they appear in the English translation with which Mr. Soane has presented us. Our opinion of his powers in such a capacity we have announced on the former occasion to which we have already referred: but here he appears in the character of a versifier and a poet, as well as a mere translator; and we must own that he has acquitted him self In the Preface, Mr. S. has chosen to advance some strange and unfounded opinions, in animadverting on the translation of the Baron's "Sintram and his Companions" by another hand. Independently of the false criticism and very mistaken views by which these remarks were dictated, the motives actuating Mr. S. were exactly those which ought to have restrained him from offering them to the public. ART. XI. A New Theory of the Tides; showing what is the im mediate Cause of the Phenomenon, and which has hitherto been overlooked by Philosophers. By Captain Forman, Royal Navy. 8vo. 2s. 6d. Robinson. 1822. THO HOUGH the moon's attraction is the primary cause, it is neither the sole nor the immediate cause of the phenomenon; and it is because they have confined their views to this one principle, that philosophers have never been able to make out a true theory of the tides.' This sentence is adopted by Captain Forman as a motto for his title-page; and we were speculating about the autho rity whence it had been derived, when we found that the. Captain was quoting himself, these words forming the second paragraph of his introduction. The singularity of the idea thus promulgated led us immediately to expect similar novelties in the subsequent pages, and we have not been deceived The author thus continues:: If the moon's attraction was the sole cause of the rising of the tides, the course of the tides would always correspond with the direction of the moon's motion; it would be high water in all places the moment the moon came to the meridian *; and every lake and pond, every little puddle, would be lifted as high by the power of the moon's attraction, as the ports and rivers that border upon the ocean. The only way to reconcile these secming contradictions is to suppose that the moon has no power to raise the tides, except in the deep parts of the ocean: and this is truly the reason why the flood-tide always comes from the ocean, why there are no tides in the Mediterranean and Baltic seas, and why it is not high water, in all places, exactly at the same time, after the moon has come to the meridian. It is only by supposing that the tides are raised in the deep parts of the ocean, and not in shallow water, that we cati account for all these phenomena; and yet philosophers have never attempted to explain why the moon's attraction should have power over the deep parts of the ocean, without possessing any sensible influence over any other water. * At least it would be high water, in all places, at the same time, after the moon came to their meridian.' • If the power of the moon's attraction was able to raise the waters in the ocean, it ought, by the same law, to be able to raise the waters in every other place; nay more, it ought to be able to raise every substance that is loose upon the earth. The moon, in fact, has no more power to lift a particle of water than to raise a feather or a piece of lead. It is not because the moon's attraction, of itself, has any power to raise the waters, that the phenomenon of the tides is produced; but because her attraction, being in opposition to that of the earth, takes off a small portion of the gravity of every particle; and, as water, like the air, is elastic, these particles must necessarily expand, in proportion to the weight that is taken off them.' This is the grand feature in Captain Forman's theory. The incompressibility of water, he observes, was an article of philosophical faith in the time of Sir Isaac Newton; and therefore its elasticity could not be assumed by that writer as the principal cause of the rising of the tides. At all events,' he says, it is sufficient that the elasticity of water, as a principle for producing the rising of the tides, has never been mentioned by philosophers, in any of their treatises, to give me the right of claiming the merit of having made the discovery! -On reading this passage, we wrote immediately on the margin of our copy," Certainly, the whole merit of this discovery is due to Captain Forman."- Unfortunately, however, this explanation does not apply immediately to those tides which take place when the moon is on the meridian below the horizon; and some machinery is therefore necessarily employed to overcome the difficulty. Magnetism seems to be the great " a wideagent in this case; and by means of two magnets, mouth jug' (p. 37.) and certain bags of wool,' (p. 30.) he seems to have explained the whole business of the tides perfectly to his own satisfaction: for he says; I have proved that the same power exists in nature, which I have supposed to belong to the earth and moon; and that this power is fully sufficient to produce the phenomenon in question. The same arguments that will overturn my hypothesis will overturn every other hypothesis at the same time, and destroy the connexion that ought to subsist between philosophy and common sense: for the only argument that can be brought against it is, that philosophers, who must be allowed to be wiser than I am, hold a different opinion; and the same argument might have been opposed to Newton, when he was a young man, and, if allowed, would have put a stop to all his subsequent discoveries.' We should be sorry to impede the future discoveries of the author: but we must confess that we prefer the Newtonian The fact is theory of the tides to that of Captain Forman. that the Captain seems to mistake altogether the effect of the REV. OCT. 1822. P lunar lunar attraction on the waters of our globe. The mass of 'moon is only about one seventieth part of that of the earth: its mean distance from the surface is about 59 terrestrial radii; and, since the power of attraction is directly as the mass and inversely as the square of the distance, the attraction of the earth on a particle at its surface will be to that of the moon, 1. when at the greatest, as 1 to or as 243670 to 1. This 592 X 70 ratio is such as not to make a difference of more than a pound in the pressure on a square inch, even at the depth of 10 miles a change much too inconsiderable to account for any ́sensible expansion of the waters, as arising from this cause. MONTHLY CATALOGUE, POETRY. Art. 12. The Royal Exile; or, Poetical Epistles of Mary, Queen of Scots, during her Captivity in England: with other Original Poems. By a Young Lady. 2 Vols. 8vo. 14s. Boards. Longman and Co. 1822. We are really concerned to find that our critical duty so frequently obliges us to be at variance with the gentler and better feelings of our nature, which would lead us into terms of favor and commendation with authors, would they only permitʊus. However, necessary and well deserved such flagellations may be, we take no pleasure in fulfilling the unpleasant duty of the drummers of a regiment; and we generally find an author resembling the deserter, who complained that his tormentor never struck him right, though the latter declared that he had tried every means, by hitting sometimes high and sometimes low, in the vain endeavor to please him. Thus, whenever we find fault, it is sure to be in the wrong place: we are blind to a thousand excellences; and, if we hazard a blow, it is aimed at the best passage in the book; though there are faults, which the writer himself could point out to us! Still, however ungracious and disagreeable such a task may be, it must be performed: though, for the credit of the human intellect, we would suppose that, were authors to make greater efforts, they might relieve us from a portion of our unpleasant duty; and it would give us real pleasure if, consistently with truth and impartiality, we could shew "some touches of natural kindness," Father than frek v 1u 66 Open the floodgates of our wrath, |