and in a very masterly manner. The estimate of the character of this Prince, both as a sovereign and as a man, we shall select, as an excellent specimen of the judgment and impartiality of the biographer. perly admitted among the worthies of the human race, and is recorded in a manner suitable to his high merit. The life of Fox, the father of the sett of Friends, or Quakers, is an extremely interesting article, and contains some original information. Bernard Gilpin, “Frederic undoubtedly deserves a conspi- the apostle of the north, is the subjec cuous place among great princes. As a geof a very pleasing memoir, skilfully neral, though he committed faults, yet his celerity and enterprize, his quickness in seizing the precise moment of advantage, the comprehension and accuracy with which he directed complicated plans, his foresight in providing for all events and exigences, the boldness of his designs, and vigour of his execution, have, perhaps, scarcely been surpassed since the time of Cæsar. He was somewhat inclined to rashness, but his situation often justified great hazards. That he was lavish of the lives of his soldiers, was rather a defect in feeling than in judgment. They were the instruments with which he was playing a great game, and he made it finally a winning one. His political talents were very considerable, and well adapted to absolute monarchy. As a man of letters he would probably have shone even independently of his rank, or rather, perhaps the more, had he had the education and employment of a mere man of letters. His judgment was naturally solid, but in some degree perverted by his early prejudices in favour of the superficial French school. His conversation was lively and brilliant, often sarcastical. He was quick at repartee, and readily felt it. A declared unbeliever in revealed religion, his notions as to natural religion seem to have fluctuated; but his morals were uniformly guided by no other rule than his pleasure and interest. He appears to have had little sensibility, and was capable of severe and even cruel actions. Voltaire once characterised him from a marble table that stood before him-as hard and poished. Yet love of justice and humanity took their turns in his mind, and many ex amples are related of his clemency and placability." The crafty Ferdinand of Spain and the gallant Francis of France are interesting and well executed portraits: the popes of the narge of Gregory are faithFully characterized by Mr. Morgan, and the sketch of the leading events in the busy reign of Gustavus III. of Sweden, attests the care and accuracy of Mr. Johnston. Of the statesmen and political personages, the most eminent in the present voluine are, Franklin, the Guises, and Gracchi. Thomas Firmin, a London merchant, most honourably distinguished for his unwearied and extensive benevolence, though remarkable neither for science, literature, or rank, is very pro abridged from the detailed account ef this venerable divine, published by his descendant the vicar of Boldre. The ambitious and persecuting Bishop Gar diner affords a useful but horrible e ample of the diabolical spirit of religious intolerance. A few new names apper among the theologians; the principal of which are, the learned and irritable Geddes, and Dr. Gerrard, professor of divinity at Aberdeen, for the sketch of whose life the present work is indebted to the Supplement to the Encyclopædia Britannica. Grotius stands pre-eminent among the men of literature; he is evidently a favourite with his biographer, and has received peculiar and deserved attention. Gibbon, and Dr. Farmer, the late vicechancellor of Cambridge, here make their appearance for the first time, we believe, in a work of general biography. Several distinguished foreigners, also, hitherto only known by name to the volume; among whom we have ob British public, are introduced in this served Filangeri, a learned Italian, avthor of a celebrated work on the science of legislation; Fulda, the great Ger- The lives of Fielding, Foote, Grick, Gay, Goldsmith, La Fontaine, and Gray, are all from the pen of Dr. Aikin, and contain a fund of excellent criticism on the character of these au thors and the literary rank of their works. By way of sample we shall quote the concluding remarks on Gray. "Many instances may be brought to prove that poets are not, more than other men, the creatures of passion, thoughtlessness, and caprice; and that of Gray is among the number. With a warm imagination, he had cool affections, and a calm sedate disposition. He least tincture of avarice. Delicacy, with rewas attentive to economy, yet void of the spect to pecuniary matters, was, indeed, catried by him to a degree of excess; for it inde him reject, with a sort of disdainful pride, those emoluments which he might honourably have derived from his literary exertions. The character of an author by profession was what he peculiarly shunned; yet (so difficult is consistency) it could have been only upon the strength of his public reputation as a writer, that he became a petitioner for a lucrative sinecure. His friend, Mr. Mason, attests his secret bounty, even when his circunstances were the most narrow. He was very careful of himself, and so timorous, that it is said, some of the finest views in a tour to the lakes escaped him, because he did not choose to venture to those spots where they were to be seen. This want of personal courage singularly contrasts with the manly and martial strains of his poetry. In morals he was temperate, upright, and a constant friend to virtue. His religious opinions were not Laown, but he always reprobated the dissemination of scepticisin and infidelity. Few men of his reputation have had less vanity, and he bore with good humour and easy negligence ll the critical attacks upon his compositions. As the learning of Gray was entirely for his own use, and produced no fruits for the pubac, it has no claims to particular notice. From the testimony of his friends, it seems to have comprised almost every topic of huun enquiry, excepting those belonging to the exact sciences. We are almost tantalised with accounts of the valuable remarks he made upon authors and subjects in the course of his reading, which, if so deep and original they are represented, ought in some manner to have been brought to public view. If he was, as one of his admirers has asserted, 'perhaps the most learned man in Europe,' never learning more thrown away. It is excluvely as a poet that his name deserves to be -mitted to posterity. In this capacity, the small number of his compositions, compared with the high rank he has attained, Lust be considered as indicative of an unmmon degree of excellence in his art. And, in reality, no one appears to have posssed more of that faculty of poetical percep on which distinguishes among all the objects of art and nature what are fittest for the poet's e, together with the power of displaying m in their richest colours. That many these objects were derived to him from the works of other writers will not be denied by a judicious admirer; and if a distinction is to be made between the poet of nature and the poet of study, he is certainly to be ranged in the latter class. It has already been remarked, that his two principal odes are expressly addressed to prepared readers; and to enter into his beauties, both of diction and versification, a course of poetical study is necessary. Even with such a preparation, the delight they afford will not be the same to all, as is manifest from Dr. Johnson's derogatory strictures; in which, however, candid readers have discovered more ill-nature than taste. In pure invention Gray cannot be said to ex cel, neither is he highly pathetic or sublime; but he is splendid, lofty, and energetic; ge, nerally correct, and richly harmonious. Though lyric poetry is that in which he has chiefly exercised himself, he was capable of varying his manner to suit any species of composition. Perhaps he was best of all qualified for the moral and didactic, if we inay judge from his noble fragment of An Essay on the Alliance of Education and Government." But the number of his fragments indicates a want of power to support a longcontinued flight; and it would be too indulgent to suppose that he could have performed all that he planned. As a writer of Latin verse he is perhaps surpassed by few in classic propriety, and certainly excels the ordinary tribe of Latin versifiers in novelty and dignity. The familiar letters of Gray are entertaining and instructive. They are free from all parade, and possess a fund of pleasantry, sometimes bordering upon quaintness." There are several new articles of fo reign naturalists, chiefly with the signature of Mr. Johnston, in which, however, although we meet with satisfactory accounts of the leading events of their lives, and accurate lists of their publi cations, we miss those concise but highly useful and interesting estimates of the value and object of their writings, which Such a summary would have been pecuwe meet with in the other departments. liarly desirable in the lives of Ferber the mineralogist, Reinhold Forster, and Gmelin; and Gleditsch the acute investigator of the cryptogamous vegetables. ART. XIV. An Account of the Life and Writings of Thomas Reid, D. D. F. R. S. Edinburgh; late Professor of Moral Philosophy in the University of Glasgow. By DUGALD STEWART, F. R.S. Edinburgh. Read at different Meetings of the Royal Society of Edinburgh. 8vo. pp. 222. THE calm and unambitious life of the philosopher recorded in these pages but little calculated to attract public notice. In the exemplary discharge of his duties, first, as a Christian minister, and afterwards as a teacher of moral philosophy, in the universities of Aber deen and Glasgow, he "held the noiseless tenor of his way" for forty-four years. At this period, in 1781, being then upwards of seventy, with faculties matured, but unimpaired, he resigned the professorial dignity, and devoted the whole vigour of his mind to those 310 metaphysical investigations that had long engaged his attention. The result of his meditations was, a series of Essays on the intellectual Powers of Man; which appeared in 1785, and a treatise on the active powers, published in 1788. These works, although they encountered some opposition in Scotland, and were severely and somewhat illiberally attacked by Dr. Priestley, raised the character of their author to considerable eminence, as a sagacious observer of the phenomena of mind. Having thus terminated his public literary labours, Dr. Reid occupied the last eight years of his life in retracing the mathematical pursuits of his earlier years, in the investigation of the new and more philosophical principles of modern chemistry, and in composing occasionally short essays for friendly discussion in a philosophical society of which he was a member. Thus agreeably employed, respected by the public, beloved by his friends, and retaining a considerable share both of mental and bodily activity, he reached his eighty-seventh year; when a violent effectual struggle of about a fortnight, disorder terminated his life, after an inon the 7th of October 1796. fore us is occupied by remarks upon Dr. The principal part of the volume beReid's metaphysical works, and a defence of his system from some fundamental objections. On some points Professor Stewart has successfully vindicated his venerable tutor; but on others we are of opinion that he has completely failed. The total indifference, however, of the English public, to the subject in ques tion, deters us from entering into the discussion. ART. XV. The Revolutionary Plutarch; exhibiting the most distinguished Characters, literary, military, and political, in the recent Annals of the French Republic; the greater Part from the original Information of a Gentleman resident at Paris. To which, as an Appendix, is reprinted entire, the celebrated Pamphlet of " Killing no Murder." 8v0. Two vols. 66 ART. XVI. History of the French Consulate under Napoleon Bonaparte: · being an ano thentic Narrative of his Administration, which is so little known in Foreign Countries. Including a Sketch of his Life. The whole interspersed with curious Anecdotes, and a faithful Statement of interesting Transactions until the Renewal of Hostilities in 1803. By W. BARRE, Witness to many of the Facts related in the Narrative. us with invasion, and Englishmen have Svo. pp. 535. been found to propose an atrocious and unsparing warfare, which in modera times has been commanded only by Robespierre, and has been practised by none. FEAR is always cruel. The Romans had once been driven to the very brink of ruin by the abilities of Hannibal, and never after thought themselves secure till their persecutions had driven the exiled warrior to self-destruction. The ambition of Louis XIV. was stopped in the midst of its career by William III.: and when the victorious arms of the confederates were on the point of inflicting on France the desolation which had attend, ed the march of her troops through the states of Germany, and the provinces of Belgium, a plot to assassinate the redeemer of the liberties of Europe was contrived by the French ministry, and sanctioned by its monarch. The ungenerous policy of England filled Ireland with disaffection, and her alarmed ministers of torture were let loose to quell, by means which would have disgraced even an Alva, the commotions of her own raising. Bonaparte has threatened sent the British ministry has been loudly In the late war and in the preaccused of participating in, and encou raging those plans of assassination, which have been directed against the person of the chief magistrate of France. Let the ministry, if they can with truth, vindicate themselves from so black a charge by a solemn and authentic disavowal; and let and intrepid courage, for which they the British public show the high honour have long been renowned, by consigning to merited contempt and abhorrence all works, together with their authors, whose direct tendency is to degrade the geneous and high-spirited patriot into the lurking assassin. CHAPTER X. POETRY. THE poetical productions of the last year have been unusually numerous, and of unusual merit. We do not mean to say that all, or even a majority of them are entitled to public notice, but the proportion of those that are so is considerably greater than might reasonably be expected. Mr. Turner, the Historian of the Anglo-Saxons, has been engaged in the study of Welch Literature, and has evinced his attachment to the ancient language of Britain, by publishing a satisfactory vindication of the genuineness and antiquity of many poems popularly attributed o Taliesin, Merdhin, and the other great bards of Wales: judging from the speimens which this gentleman has translated in the course of his work, the poems in ¡uestion are certainly worthy of appearing in an English version, but are more ikely to be consulted by the antiquary and historian, than resorted to by the over of poetry. The re-publication, by the late Mr. Ritson, of the most celerated Metrical Romances, is a very important service conferred on the literature f his country: on the knowledge and incorruptible fidelity of this editor the public may rest with liberal confidence, and will be inclined to excuse or overlook the inemperate abuse into which his regard for critical veracity has not unfrequently etrayed him. The third and last volume of Mr. Scott's Minstrelsy of the Scottish order has made its appearance, and will add considerably to his reputation as a oet, without impeaching his taste in any other respect. Mr. Ellis has published a w and improved edition of his elegant and learned Specimens of English Poetry, om the earliest Ages, to the middle of the seventeenth Century. Dr. Darwin's emple of Nature will not, in our opinion, add greatly to his fame, either as a poet or hilosopher. Mr. Maurice, the author of the History of India, has collected hist attered poems, together with some new pieces, into a very interesting volume, le characteristic of which is splendour and harmony without much pathos. The sthumous poems of the late Mr. Moore, are an affecting proof, that genius, se, piety, and poetic fire, are not of themselves sufficient to dissipate the deep bscurity with which modest worth is too often enveloped. We trust that the Lung candidate for poetic fame who has celebrated Clifton Grove with the first rnal warblings of his melodious muse, will find the patronage which he so amply eserves. A translation of some of the shorter Poems of Camoens has been pubhed by Lord Strangford, who, with singular want of judgment, has contrived to press us with high respect for his abilities as a poet, at the entire expence of his ccuracy as a translator. The Pleader's Guide, attributed by public report to the en of the author of the New Bath Guide, contains more genuine wit and humour han we have met with for several years: And the Poems of Mrs. Grant impress with high and equal respect for her domestic virtues and her natural talents. ART. I. Vindication of the Genuineness of the Ancient British Poems of Aneurin, Talietis, Llywarch-Hen, and Merdhin: with Specimens of the Poems. By SHARON TURNER, F.A.S. 8vo. pp. 284. THE Myvyrian archaiology of Wales has thrown much light on the early antiquities of Great Britain. It contains close translations of many poems, as cribed to bards of the sixth century, which have been preserved in manuscripts, said to be of the twelfth century; and which, with some deductions for interpolation, and some for modernization, really appear to have been written by the persons whose names they bear: Aneurin, Taliesin, Llywarch, and Merdhin. They respect Arthur, Geraint, Urien, and other heroes, hitherto only known from the mythological chronicles of the romancers. Of Welsh population and civilization the probable history is difficult to evolve. Traces of a Cimmerian tribe may be found on the skirts of Anatolia, after wards in Thrace, next among the Alps, in Denmark, and in Gaul, finally in Britain. But the continental Cimmerians appear to have been a savage, pastoral people, ignorant of the arts of life. The Cimmerians of Cornwall and Britany, on the contrary, the Armorican or sea-shore Cimmerians, appear early to have attained a high degree of civilization; and when discovered by Julius Cæsar, were already subjected to the bardic discipline, accustomed to the use of Greek letters, and attached to various Phoenician divinities. It may be inferred, therefore, that they derived their civilization, not from their Cimmerian progenitors, but from Phoenician traders, who communicated to them the same alphabet which they had already conferred on the Greeks, and who founded civil and religious regulations analogous to their own. The insertion of these buds of refinement was of course gradual and successive; but tradition distinguished an eminent effort at colo. nization, a sensible intrusion of emigrants, "who had crossed the hazy sea," natives, says Taliesin, of Gafis, who, under Hu the mighty, came from the summer country, and instructed the Cimmerians in agriculture. After the arrival of Hu, the island is said to have been named Britain, from a governor of his appointing. These persons are probably the Corineus and Brutus, so celebrated by Jeffrey of Monmouth : for Gadarn-Hu, or Hu the mighty, differs little from Corineus. These settlers are stated to have fled from the destruction of their city by a foreig power; their domestication must bare preceded the arrival of Julius Cæsar by a century, to account for the pro gress of their arts and institutions: it seems probable, therefore, that Car thage is the Gafis of Taliesin, and that the refugees from Roman de vastation came hither by sea, with what property they could remove, and found. ed our love for order and for commerce. This is further corroborated by the cir cumstance, that they are stated previ ously to have attempted a settlement in Aquitain. It is peculiarly probable that the taste for pedigrees, so notoriously cultivated by the Jews and Arabs, should Le been introduced by a Phoenician r Carthaginian colony; and it is rema able, that the oldest of all the W pedigrees, that which Tysilio gives Cassibellan, precisely amounts to His chion: that is, Hu-ysgown, or the ga Hu, whom Gwyn ab Nudd, a bard the fifth century, appears to consider as the introducer of oxen, and who per haps really introduced the ychain be the oxen with high prominences, or faloes, noticed in the triads. To descendant Coel, the grandson of Car tacus, is ascribed the introduction of water-mill: the captivity of his fam probably occasioned him to learn in It both its use and method of constructi To the intelligence contained in ti. triads Mr. Turner seems little attache he abandons them to shy suspicion. I do not propose," he says, "this w to be a vindication of all the poems that been genetally attributed to Aneurin, 1 liesin, Merdhin, or Llywarch-Hen, or p miscuously published as theirs. My obje is to authenticate the genuineness of such them as I think beyond all dispute; they are the following: “Of ANEURIN-The Godolin. "Of LLYWARCH HEN-The Elegy on Go raint ab Erbin-Ditto on Urien Rege The Poem on his Old Age-Ditto to Mac Ditto on Cynddylan-Ditto on Cadwollenwyn-Ditto to the Cuckoo. "Of MERDHIN-The Avallenau. "Of TALIESIN-The Poems to Use and on his Battles-his Dialogue with Mer |