alluded to the Deluge. We cannot think it a happy one. After
the rifing of the waters in one line, they should not be exhi-
bited as fubfiding in the next; for we are till but in the be-
ginning of the flood; though the author immediately after is
loft in the clouds.

And hark! the ocean's thundering gate
Has burst its hinge, and on the continent
Difgorg'd its might; while on the winged storm
Terror triumphant rides. The difmal dash
Of wave on wave, loud howling winds, the earth
Rent to her center by a thousand shocks,
Each fhock, a ruin, only founds the trump
Of elemental war a pregnant cloud
Dilated, like one dark pavilion hangs,
Dreadful fufpenfe! then bursts with all its rage
Collected cataracts of smoking rain

Their wild difpleasure spend; earth-delving spouts,
Swift hurricanes, hails, blafting vollies, land
Made fea, the fea one wide waste infinite.'

The last line is expreffive, and worthy Milton; whom, it is needless to add, Mr. Roberts pretty closely imitates both as to expreffion and incidents.-The abroad exulting,' and Satan leaping from his burning throne,' fpirit of the waters stalking are bold and poetic images. But how inferior is the removal of Armenian haunt,' where

the

Eve, efpoufed late,

Slept upon Amaranth's immortal bloom'

to the account given in the great original, whence the idea is taken!

On the dove's fecond expedition from the ark it is faid,

'Not again

To beat her barriers, fhall the bird return;
No in the well-known mead, or grove, a neft
She weaves and warbles wild her artless notes;
Or drinks ambrofial nectar from the rill.'

We might here ask the author, how this dove, the face of nature being entirely changed, could find out her well-known meads and groves?' How, or rather why, build a neft without her mate; and how warble her artlefs notes,' a mufical mode of expreffion, furely never used by doves, male or female, fince or before the days of Noah ?

6

Nature is next represented as restored to more than pristine beauty. The eye was enamour'd of its charms,' and' zephyr feed refreshing breezes that imprefs'd not the meadow's down.'

The

The

• Good patriarch, wide the lattice of the ark
Unfolded, curious dome; upon whose roof
Was etch'd the chronicle of month, and day;
While the fun, quivering thro' her fable gate,
Reflects the gleam of thoufand golden plumes,
Star-fpangled infects, eyes of living fire,

Darting their mingled radiance thro' the gloom.' This paffage is extremely obscure. Are we to fuppofe, and we cannot, according to grammatical conftruction, underftand it otherwife, that Noah ventured out during the time that the flood-gates of heaven were set open, to sketch his diary on the roof of the ark? and that at the same time, (so while' muft fignify,) the fun fhone through a black gate, and reflected the mingled radiance that proceeded from golden feathers, infects fpangled with stars, and eyes of fire?'-Noah and his family quit the ark. A sketch of his three fons' respective defcendants is given. Some of Shem's

Sumatra fill,

And Borneo cinctur'd by the burning line;
Or drive the furious Tartar, favage clan,

From Pekin's wall.’

Is it proper, because Borneo lies under the equinoctial line, to fay that it is enclosed or furrounded by it? Or to characterise the Tartars as repulfed from Pekin, when it is well known that China has more than once been conquered by their arms, and that its prefent monarch is defcended from them? The address to the Negroes, introduced in the lift of Ham's defcendants, is good but an unfortunate miftake is committed in respect to the fons of Japhet; among whom we little expected to meet with the illuftrious poetical-perfonified being that clofes the mufter-roll.

The Gothic swarm

Of Frank, and Vandal, and the blue ey'd hoft
That fkirt the Baltic, Lapland's frozen fons,
And that fair ifle, which awes the continent,
And on her hoar cliff nurses Liberty,

Queen of the Sea, Britannia, from his feed
Shall rife.'

Next we find that

--- All thefe, the progeny, and pride Of Noah, difembark'd.

Who? the island of Britain, the Goths, Laplanders, &c. That the author could not mean to be understood fo, we will allow; but he might have expressed himself with more perfpicuity,

M 4

and

and not have left us to guefs that Shem, Ham, and Japhet were the progeny alluded to. The birds, beafts, and reptiles follow: The gaudy fluttering infect from the fun

Kindles the gleam of his transparent wing,'

The laft line is truly poetical; and the elaborate defcription of the rainbow, which fucceeds, in feveral places claims our approbation. To others we object. We do not like ' colours that strike the eye with a faint vibration,' nor those that fire the kindling sky.' The metaphor in the firft is confused, and the fecond expreffion is too violent for the occafion. The first address to the Earth, though partly taken from Milton, is ludicrous.

O fear not, Earth, again

To fhed thy green luxuriance, nor to play
Thy artless virgin fancies.'

In the fecond, the author unluckily does not ftrictly adhere to truth.

Fear not, O Earth; contentious waves no more
With bitter blaft fhall fweep thy gallant fons,
Like trembling leaves, away; thy fure appeal
Is yon bright curve.'

True, with respect to a general inundation, but it affords no protection in regard to individuals. Waves sweeping with,' or rather put in motion by bitter blafts,' are still sometimes fatal. The conclufion of this rainbow-description is picturesque; but fome of the fcenery is misplaced:

- Oft fhall God gladden the groves

Of myrrh, and the fweet wilderness of balm
With fhowers, and from his gay. enamell'd bow
Shed humid fruitfulness; fome aged fpire
Shall rife behind in penfive ivy clad,

And awful filence crown the lovely scene.'

What has this aged fpire,' the penfive ivy,' and awful filence' to do with the gay Afiatic fcene preceding it !-We could proceed in noticing fome other trifling faults, but are aware that it may be alledged we have already been too fedulous in endeavouring to point them out, and have paid greater attention to this poem than its confequence required. Our excufe is, and we hope a fufficient one, that had we been lefs explicit, our condemnation might have been attributed to ignorance, inattention, or private malice. It was neceffary to fhew why we disliked it: for the poem is written by a graduate in arts, a fellow of one of the moft refpectable colleges of one of the most famous univerfities in Europe, recommended to public notice by proving the best performance on the subject pro

pofed,

pofed, and rewarded by a year's income of the Kiflingbury farm, the annual ftipend for the most eminent poetical candidate. From the specimen before us, and worse we have seen in former days, and from our having no right to fuppofe that any fuperior performance was rejected, we must conclude that poetry is not a favourite pursuit among the mafters of arts in Cambridge, and that the rent of the farm might be bestowed in a better manner. If the learned tribunal, however, are not allowed to change the object of the donation, they might at least have pointed out fome of the more glaring errors, occafioned perhaps by the hurry of compofition: and these certainly fhould have been corrected before the publication.

The Brunoniad: a Poem, in Six Cantos. 4to. 35. 6d. ferved. Kearsley.

OU

UR readers will remember the unfortunate Dr. Brown, and his eccentric erroneous fyftem; which as it precluded thought, ftudy, and attention, was unfortunately popular among those who felt the inconvenience of labour, of reading, and reflection. It was our lot to be the decided enemy, not of Dr. Brown, but of his arrogance and errors, for we were called on to determine on the merits of his fyftem. We have already said that Contention is no more, unless Error fhould arife from its afhes, and the poison be diffused in other forms. We would willingly close the fcene with his mock heroic, which poffeffes much ingenuity and learning, with that portion of serious burlesque which in poems of this kind is indifpenfible.

As two translations of Ariftotle's Poetic' have lately paffed their ordeal in this Journal, we must not commend or blame too haftily. The mock heroic, though of undoubted antiquity, is not indeed treated of by the Stagyrite; but it is generally allowed by all critics on these poems, from the Batrachomyomachia to the Loufiad, that it fhould have all the properties of the true epic. The ftory must be fingle and the defign obvious: in the Brunoniad we have no fingle object, unless the removal of Dr. Brown to London be one; yet to this the different parts do not concur, nor does it appear that this is the necessary refult of the events. Again: Horace has told us that the poet should begin in the middle; but our author is as regular as a Journalist: it should be enlivened by episodes; yet no epifodes occur. Perhaps, however, we are trying the poet by rules which he difclaims; and his only ob ject was to write an humorous poem on the late medical contests which the eccentricity of Dr. Brown has occafioned. In this

he

he has fucceeded very well; and though evidently a friend of
the Brunonian fyftem, his partiality is not glaring or offenfive.
The following defcription of Brown is a fufficient proof of it.
Hail, parent Bacchus! whofe infpiring juice
Can nobler views, fublimer thoughts infuse;
"Tis thine alone t'evolve the filken chain,
Where life half viewless holds her weak domain;
Where the dim fpeck its little orb displays,
'Tis thine the pure enlivening flame to raise:
"Tis thine, when youth rolls round its rapid ftreams,
To fwell the mufcles and expand the limbs,
While Age himself, from pain and fickness free,
Lolls in his eafy chair and praises thee.

"Twas hence, great Bruno, thy untutor'd mind
Left the dull load of matter far behind;
Led to inebriate at the rofy fpring,

Thy dauntless genius ftretch'd its ample wing.
Hence, like the well-hoop'd cafk, a gulph profound!
Thy bold abdomen fwells a fpacious round:
Hence, fure expulfion of all vexing care,
The large carbuncle gilds thy forehead fair:
Hence through thy veins th'exalted mixture flows,
And hence the crimson honours of thy nofe.'

The defcription of Dr. Cullen is, we think, equally fpi

rited.

Neftor, who now that fable garment wore,
Which many a grave profeffor deckt of yore,
White as the milky dove, or Boreal fnows,
His ample wig around his shoulders flows,
And feventy rolling years in vain control
The flights eccentric of his daring foul.

He fees how fpafm the tortured frame affails,
Alike when Tone or Atony prevails;
How fierce when high the purple currents flow,
And how much fiercer when as much too low.
Patient of toil, his labouring hands restore
Whate'er Germanic Hoffman taught before :
Immortal fage! in whofe ftupendous plan
Shines forth a vital principle in man,
Afk what destroys the student's roseate bloom
When frowning Fate proclaims the day of doom?
"Tis fpafm, 'tis fpafm, th'exulting hero cries,
And rolls in majefty his awful eyes.

When baleful Febris with unhallow'd breath,
Breathes on the panting wretch the blast of death,
Afk what fad caufe contracts his afpect wan,
And fhrinks his fubftance into half a man,