What then are all the galleries of artThe treasuries of knowledge? Are they not The tombs of vanish'd genius, where a part Of her embodied thoughts repose? And what Are all the riches of this hallowed spotThis temple, on whose threshold now we tread? Fragments of many a nation's fame, whose lot Is now to be with barbarous hosts o'erspread, Tho' sons they had, whose names reign o'er the ancient dead. Here let ambition pause, that blazing star, Whose fervent path with quenchless heat doth burn ; Rides o'er the panting world! Here let her learn, Struck down in youth, or from the mount of years, Our mourning thoughts, when on these works we gaze, Dropt o'er the vanities of other days, Are gracious as the dew of twilight spheres, Then, though Death cut it down, it ceaseth not to blow. "Tis not time lost, to talk with antique lore, The musing mind may bring an ample store A partial conquest over time, from whence Where life, with all its pomp, appeareth worse than vain. Turn, turn, from earth to heav'n, for here we find By these best treasures of the world, to bind, He then proceeds to the Egyptian Gallery, and successively notices the mummies-the bust of Memnon-the scarabentthe statue of Isis-the head of Orus-and the sarcophagus. These he relieves and illustrates with associations, drawn from the history of ancient Egypt, which contribute to the poetry of the Canto, and suggest reflexions which we should call good, but for their identity. The monotony of grief seems to have seized his muse, and to have indeed caused "his thoughts to wind themselves into a melancholy strain." "Of mirth there could be none, for Egypt teems The history of Moses and the destruction of Pharoah, forms one of the associations by which his theme is illustrated. We quote it as a specimen of the author's dramatic style : LVIII. "Nile was not young three thousand years ago, Slept by his side, unconscious of the woe Felt by its race, to slavery exil'd When to his stream, where grew the weed-grass wild, And saw the waken'd babe, which on her smil❜d, As if the royal virgin's love to claim That first bright step which led to Israel's peerless fame! LIX. A shepherd in the Midian wilderness, His father's flock the future prophet fed; Thence was he summon'd forth by God to bless His people, when from Pharaoh's hand they fled- Ere he was call'd to conquer Israel's foes: And thus the Lord of life, for us that bled, In humble sphere prepared to bear our woes, And, from a borrow'd tomb, to God's right hand arose : LX. And Moses, laden with the weight of years, VOL. III. PART I 1 And that wild waste where Israel's numerous band, Calm as the evening light at close of summer day. LXI. Silent and soft, as from some moon-watch'd fountain, Not peaceful thus do all men bid adieu To time's fair scenes, those types of thinks unknown: Once heard, appall'd, an army's dying groan, When in the sanguine sea her hosts were overthrown. LXII. Hark! hark! I hear the bellowing roar, And shouts which struggling warriors are repeating, Yet grappling hard with death, and in strong torture crying. LXIII. The clash of swords is heard, drawn out in vain, And sheath'd in billows by their own blood dyed ; War-chariots sinking in the watery plain, With glittering helms and armour are descried! Swords, spears, and shields, toss'd on the foaming tide, Aid not the men that Israel's God defied! Thrice from the wild abyss their brows emerge, And then the mingling waves ring on their funeral dirge." In the first stanza, there is a variation from the Scriptural account, which is not for the better:-"And when she had opened it, she saw the child; and behold the babe wept, and she had compassion on him, and said, 'This is one of the Hebrew's children.' This weeping of the babe, Moses, has always struck us as one of the most delicate touches of pathos; but the rhime induced the author to write "smiled," and he dilates the idea into a conceit,-a succedaneum for compassion, which was the natural effect of the infant's situation and condition. We have only room for the following stanzas: LXXXI. "Mark this black figure seated on the ground, Half to the grave, and half to earth allied; LXXXII. The hermit of the desert, ev'n old Nile, In regions where the noon-born winds that blow, Who for Osiris' sake is fill'd with woe, Which have o'erflow'd Nile's urn these thousand years; LXXXIII. Daughter of Time! Idol of many names! The light touch of a minstrel's harp-string claims; And to thy charms the young bard lisps his vow, LXXXIV. And he doth muse upon the mystery, Still as the world grows old, becoming more depraved Thou wert the Ceres of that desert clime, To the dread grandeur of their former state, Which like a tomb outstands the memory of its date." g เด The Magistrate! or Sessions and Police Review, critical, humorous, and instructive.-8vo. No. 1. May 1.-No. 11. June 1, 1825. 66 THIS is a monthly publication which commenced in May last. From the two numbers which are now before the public, we conceive ourselves fully warranted in expressing our opinion, that the work strictly answers to its title, and is consequently both agreeable and useful. The object of it appears to be, to disseminate abroad a knowledge of those legal subjects, the investigation of which belongs peculiarly to the Magistrate;" and at the same time to give such a degree of publicity to the proceedings of the gentlemen who fill that office, as may tend to prevent the improper exercise of the extraordinary authority with which they have from time to time been invested by the legislature. This is designed to be done in such a manner as to amuse, while it informs, and to convey a very useful portion of legal instruction, without that dryness which pervades law-books in general, but which the conductors of this work consider not to be unavoidable. When it is recollected how extensive and multifarious the powers and duties of magistrates are, and that to them belongs the determination of an infinite variety of matters, from the most trifling to the most important, obvious indeed must be the utility of a publication, which makes society acquainted with their own rights and liabilities, as well as with the authority of the persons to whom the investigation of them is entrusted; and that utility will certainly not be diminished by clothing the work in the alluring garb of pleasantry. But the 3 |