• There no rash elbow shakes the desperate box, • Driven by his fon from Latium's happy feat, Beheld, as in Hefperian plains, the wood The turf, unwounded by the trenching fhare, Now nofeless youths, complaining through the groves Curl-pated flaves fhall harrow up your plains, But, hold, my mufe! nor think thy feeble lay, L. Art. 23. The Graham, an Heroic Ballad: in Four Cantos. By Thomas Blacklock, D. D. 4to. 2 s. 6 d. Davies. The profeffed intention of this poem is to cherish and encourage a mutual harmony between the inhabitants of South and North Britain. To this end Dr. Blacklock has exhibited, in ftrong colours, fome of thofe miferies which their ancient animofities had occapart fioned. His GRAHAM is an affecting story, in which love and jealoufy have a principal fhare; but when he tells us, previously, that this story is a fiction, by a compliment to our humanity, he robs himfelf of a leading interest in our attention. These matters should not be confeffed beforehand. His ftanza is of a particular conftruction, perhaps too monotonous With facred vigilance of thought, Which nought can leffen or deftroy. The laft thought is fomewhat unphilofophical. น. Art. Art. 24. The Poetical Works of Robert Lloyd, A. M. To which is prefixed, an Account of the Life and Writings of the Author. By W. Kenrick, LL. D. 8vo. 2 Vols. 6 s. fewed. Evans. 1774. The poems of the late very ingenious, but very unhappy Mr. Lloyd are here elegantly reprinted, with confiderable additions from the St. James's Magazine, a periodical work in which that writer was concerned; and which was foon difcontinued, for want of encourage. ment: though far fuperior to moft other publications of the kind. Dr. Kenrick, the prefent Editor, has prefixed a well-written life of the Author; in which he justly reproaches the Public, for the unaccountable neglect that Mr. Lloyd's poems have met with, from the time of his decease, while applause hath been lavishly beflowed on very inferior writers.-In this account of Mr. Lloyd's writings, there is a mistake, which we are defired to notice, with a view to its being Iduly rectified, in any fubfequent edition. Dr. K. obferves that Mr. Lloyd, in conjunction with Mr. C. Dennis, undertook a tranflation of the Contes Moraux of Marmontel; a hafty performance, that did them little credit, and would have done them still lefs, had not a fecond attempt by Mr. Colman to tranflate that elegant author, at greater leifure, proved almost equally abortive.'-We are authorized to fay, that Mr. Colman was not the author of the translation of Marmontel here alluded to.-Dr. K. must have been misinformed. Art. 25. England's Tears: a Poem. Infcribed to BRITANNIA. To which is added, Advice to the Voters of Great Britain, at the approaching General Election. 4to. I s. 6 d. Kearfly. 1774. This maudlin Mufe blubbers most woefully about the degeneracy of Britannia's fons: Ah! how unlike these were days of yore, E'er gold, that bane to virtue, curs'd our shore ; * Or fields inclos'd-monopolies practis'd Our honeft fathers better were advis'd. We heartily with this Writer had been better advised, ere he printed thefe confounded caterwauling verses! Art. 26. The Resurrection of Liberty; or, Advice to the Colonists: a Poem. By the Ghost of Churchill. 4to. 2 S. Allen. 1774. This Author, too, should have been better advised: fee the preceding Article. Both the Ghost of Churchill, and the Tear Merchant plead their juvenility in extenuation of the imperfections that may be found in their pieces:-What concern have the Public with the age of a bad writer? Art. 27. Hebé, an Heroic Poem on her Majefty. 4to. Is. 6d. Allen. 1774 "Tune, tune Apollo! tune! O tune the lyre—” Apollo must be an hard-hearted deity, indeed, if he refused to tune the man's lyre, after his affistance had been fo pathetically invoked! See our account of the quarto edition, printed by subscription, in the year 1762. Rev. vol. xxvi. p. 385. Y 3 This This Heroic Poem, as it is called, is happily conceived in the truly elevated ftyle, though not the measure, of the loyal old ballad, which thus fublimely begins: "Britons rejoice! Prince Frederic is come, "The glory of Old England, King George's eldeft fon!" Our amiable Queen's intended excurfion to Portfmouth is the fubject of this little Heroic Piece.' Argument to HEBE. Art. 28. The Myftic Miracle; or, Living Grave: a Poem. Infcribed to the Rev. Mr. Lindsey. 8vo. I s. French. Myftic nonfenfe, about Mr. Lindsey, and the wickedness of churchinnovations, and the ftory of Jonah and the whale. Art. 29. Aglaura, a Tale, taken from the French of Marmontel's Moral Tales. By Mr. Trapaud, Author of the Oeconomy of Happinefs. 4to. I S. Brotherton. 1774. This affecting Tale is miferably spoiled by a spiritlefs transfufion into blank verfe. 4. Art. 30. Modeft Exceptions from the Court of Parnaffus, to Mrs. Macaulay's Modest Plea. By the Author of the Doctor Dissected †, a Poem. 4to. I S. Bew. 1774. No character can be given, where no meaning is expreffed. It is all-nothing,-except a few faint efforts at dirt-flinging. Art. 31. Mirth, a Poem, in Answer to Wartan's Pleasures of Melancholy. By a Gentleman of Cambridge. 4to. 1 s. 6d. Johnfon. 1774. There is confiderable merit in the title-page of this poem, which is neatly engraved, with elegant emblematical figures in the trophy, eftoon, and vignette forms. But is this then nothing more thana pompous fign, T'invite dull fots to wretched wine? We fhall not pafs fo fevere a sentence upon the Gentleman's poem ; but this we must say, that the aptos numeros atque modos dicendi, he has enfortunately neglected. Fantaftic mirth requires a measure very different from the folemn and formal march of blank heroics, which, however, is well enough adapted to the Pleasures of Melancholy. It is not very material to inquire into the merits of a mifapplied verfi£cation. น. Art. 32. Plays and Poems. By William Whitehead, Efq; PoetLaureat, and Register and Secretary to the most Hon. Order of the Bath. 8vo. 2 Vols. 9 s. bound. Dodfley. 1774. The well-established reputation of Mr. Whitehead as a poet, which, in fpite of the moft illiberal attacks, and the equally illiberal neceffity of writing annually on the fame fubjects, has till fupported itfelf in the opinion of the Public, renders any difquifitions on that fubject unneceffary here. Moft of thofe poems which the Public has been in poffeffion of, with a few felect birth-day odes, and fome new pieces, are to be found in thefe volumes. Among the latter, if we miftake not, are feveral very agreeable fpecimens of that eafy elegance and fenfibility which diftinguish Mr. Whitehead's mufe. N. B. The first edition of Mr. W.'s poems was published in 1754, in one vol. 8vo. + See Review, vol. xlv. p. 236. น Ն. ASTRO ASTRONOMY. Art. 33. Aftronomic Doubts: or, an Enquiry into the Nature of that Supply of Light and Heat which the Juperior Planets may be fuppofed to enjoy. By Philip Parfons, B. A. Rector of Eastwell in Kent. 8vo. Is. Printed at Canterbury, and fold by Johnfon in London. 1774 S. It is no uncommon thing to meet with Sceptics in religion, who have very little religious knowledge: but we can hardly allow a man to be a fceptic in aftronomy, who is not acquainted with the firft principles of the fcience. If any one doubt (and publish his doubts to the world), whether the light and heat which the remoter planets receive from the fun be fufficient to the purposes of vegetation and animal life, and the accommodation of their inhabitants, we should · naturally expect, that he would be able to ftate the true diftances according to the lateft obfervations, or at leaft give us the true preportional distances, and that he would know how to estimate the quantity of light and heat they feverally enjoyed. The latter of thefe computations is effentially connected with the former. But we are at a lofs to conjecture, by what method of calculation Mr. P. Has found that the fun would appear to Mercury only three times as large as to us, and to Saturn only feven times lefs. A fchool book of aftronomy would have given him very different proportions, and proportions much more to his purpose, than thofe which he has affigned. However this Author is very ready to give up to the "fcrupulous mathematician," a million or two miles in estimating the vast distances of the planets; and, "like good-natured Sterne, with his mule, he never will argue a point with one of that family as long as he lives;" but when he proceeds to fetch his fupply of light and heat from the fixed ftars, a few millions of miles which bear a much less proportion to the whole diftance, is a matter of very great confequence. We fhould be forry if Mr. P. fhould be provoked to trace out any kind of relation between an inoffenfive Reviewer, and the grave and fimple family to which he alludes in the above paragraph: and we fhall therefore refer him to the following extract from a popular book on this fubject, which, we imagine, he has not yet feen. It contains a fufficient folution of his difficulties. "The quantity of light, (fays Mr. Ferguson) afforded by the Sun to Jupiter, being but th part, and to Saturn only th part of what we enjoy, may at first thought induce us to believe that these two planets are entirely unfit for rational beings to dwell upon. But, that their light is not fo weak as we imagine, is evident from their brightness in the night-time; and alfo, that when the Sun is fo much eclipfed to us as to have only the 40th part of his difc left uncovered by the moon, the decrease of light is not very fenfible: and juft at the end of darknefs in total eclipfes, when his weftern limb begins to be vifible, and feems no bigger than a bit of fine filver wire, every one is furprifed at the brightnefs wherewith that fmall part of him fhines. The moon when full affords travellers light enough to keep them from mistaking their way; and yet, according to Dr. Smith,it is equal to no more than a go thousandth part of the Optics, Art. 95. Y-4 light light of the Sun: that is, the Sun's light is go thousand times as ftrong as the light of the Moon when full. Confequently, the Sun gives a thousand times as much light to Saturn as the full Moon does to us; and above three thousand times as much to Jupiter. So that thefe two planets, even without any Moons, would be much more enlightened than we at firft imagine; and by having fo many, they may be very comfortable places of refidence. Their heat, fo far as it depends on the force of the Sun's rays, is certainly much less than ours to which no doubt the bodies of their inhabitants are as well adapted as ours are to the feafons we enjoy. And if we confider, that Jupiter never has any winter, even at his poles, which probably is alfo the cafe with Saturn, the cold cannot be fo intense on these two planets as is generally imagined. Befides, there may be fomething in their nature or foil much warmer than in that of our earth: and we find, that all our heat depends not on the rays of the Sun; for if it did, we should always have the fame months equally hot or cold at their annual returns. But it is far otherwife, for February is fometimes warmer than May; which must be owing to vapours and exhalations from the earth." See Ferguson's Aftronomy, p. 23, 24. POLITICAL. Art. 34. An Addrefs to the Freeholders of the County of Cumberland, Can it be expected in fuch degenerate times, that dry inftructions, like thofe in this pamphlet, which call for eighteen-pence out of our pockets, will prevail against bank notes, beer notes, and the benign influence of the royal countenance fhining full in our faces, from bright guineas poured into our pockets? One hint of advice, fuited to the prefent ftate of affairs, may however be of fervice to freemen of boroughs; which is, never to be without gold weights and scales in their pockets at these feafons. Verbum fapienti fat; we shall not affront their understandings by defcending to particulars; concluding only in the empirical ftile There are more reasons for this caution, than good people are aware of. If we have wandered from the direct object before us, it was because there was little temptation to dwell upon it. It is mere compilation, and very crudely done; good matter has fuffered by paffing through |