On some great spectacle. Opening anon, 1 saw him, bleeding, and transpierced with darts, Borne past me on their shields. Abim. Fragments of purple hung about his shoulders. Abim. Unhelm'd his head, and bare; His breastplate sparkled, studded, and engrailed Abim. Palm-like tall, of noblest aspect; Abim. I have watched His dauntless bearing through this desperate day And fought it like a son of David.' Hadad conceals from the guard who accompany him, the fate of their master Absalom, and sends them forth in pursuit of him. He then leaves the Ishmaelite's tent with Tamar, under pretence of pursuing their journey to a place of safety, but in reality for the purpose of obtaining undisturbed possession of her. In a dark and solitary wood, he addresses her by every possible argument, which he thinks may prevail on her to yield herself up to his power and protection. On her persisting in her resolution to return to her grandfather David, he begins to reveal his real nature, and promises her the gift of immortality, if she will but authorise the act by one consenting word. Instead of being dazzled, the princess becomes terrified, and Hadad, dismissing all caution, unfolds to her his character, and the whole course of his love. He tells her, that the first time he saw her, himself invisible, was when she returned with her father Absalom from Geshur, that he was satisfied with gazing on her and being near her, till the young Syrian, the real Hadad, won her affections; that he then first knew 'Hell's agonies, and writhed in fire, and felt the scorpion's sting;' but yet he did not harm his rival, who was killed by some outlaws while hunting among the mountains; that he then assumed his body, and since that time had worn it, braving all the consequences of the deed for her love. Several striking circumstances are introduced, but we will not mar this highly wrought and terrible scene by transcribing them. To conclude our abstract of the story, Tamar, resisting the advances of her infernal suitor, and calling on God for aid, is dragged into a cave. A party of David's soldiers, who happen to be near, hasten to the spot; but aid of another kind had arrived before them. One of them, who had entered the cave, rushes out in an agony of terror, and gives the following answer to his companions, who ask him what he saw. 'One like the Cherubim, Dreadfully glistering, wing'd, and dazzling bright Tamar, of course, is rescued, and the withered body of Hadad, dispossessed of the foul spirit, is left upon the ground. An observable characteristic of this poem is the equal tenor of its composition. There is nothing in it which is mean, or inconsistent with the dignity of the subject; with the exception of one incident, which we shall notice presently. In one of his other performances, The Judgment,' Mr Hillhouse was equally remarkable for the almost presumptuous nature of his theme, and for the reputable manner in which he bore himself through it. If we compare the two productions, we shall find quite as much genius and poetic talent displayed in the Judgment as in Hadad; but in the latter there is more maturity, greater ease, and an increased capacity expressed for a long sustained flight. Mr Hillhouse is a careful writer. He observes all the proprieties of place, time, and character. In perusing Hadad, we were struck with his constant adherence to historical and geographical truth, and his continual allusions to the customs, manners, events, and superstitions of the people among whom he had laid his scene. His dramatis persona are not mere ly a list of Jewish names, but they are Jews, clad in Jewish costume, living in Jewish houses, expressing Jewish opinions, and talking, as far as possible, a Jewish language. The people are the descendants of Abraham, and the country is Palestine. We have exhibited a glimpse of Joab's portrait, of David's, and of Ahithophel's; the rest are equally faithful, and Absalom's and Mephibosheth's are as marked and distinct as either of these three. We see but little of the young Solomon; and it is in the scene where he is brought forward, that the incident occurs, which we have said is beneath the general gravity of the piece. Hadad tempts the prince by showing him a box, which contains an intoxicating perfume, and on the lid of which is depicted a glowing representation of Venus and Tammuz,-very like the snuff-boxes, we presume, which some of our beaux wear in a private pocket, and show to their particular friends. As the fiend is relating the story of the picture, the marplot Nathan enters, snatches the box from the prince, examines it, throws it on the ground, and it flashes and rises in smoke! We allow that the kind of temptation employed, is in perfect keeping with the character of Solomon, and his future frailties and follies; but to our taste, the snuff-box, the flashing and the smoke, are too childish and marvellous; they savour too strongly of the puppet show. We were somewhat surprised, considering our author's habit of correctness, to find him guilty in several instances, of false accentuation. In words of every day use, casual incorrectness may pass without rigid reprehension; because the living voice of the public, and a crowd of cotemporary writers will preserve the authorised pronunciation; but among proper names, a deal of confusion may be introduced by a single respectable poet, if he does not take especial care to observe their orthoepy. If Mr Hillhouse had merely written precedence for prece'dence, and e'querries for equeries, we should not have minded it; but we deem it our duty to point out to his notice the accentuation of Gilbo'a instead of Gilboa; Aba'na instead of Ab'ana; Maz'zaroth instead of Mazza'roth; Bethaba'ra for Bethab'ara; Pagi'el for Pa'giel; and Nethi'nims for Neth'inims. Here we will end our fault finding; for we did not sit down to find fault, but to express the high opinion which we entertain of this poem, and our gratitude to the author of it. There are some folks, we know, who pretend to think it very tame in us that we do not cut up every author who falls in our way, till we can see his bones; and who charge us with loading all American writers with thick and indiscriminate praise, for no other reason than because they are American. In answer to this, we will merely remark, that we are not blind to the miserable stuff, which is constantly thrown off by the presses of our country, but that it is not often we feel any desire to soil our hands with it; secondly, that we have no compunction in confessing, that we do hail, with infinitely more delight, a good work which is produced by native genius, than one of equal quality which is sent to us from the land of our ancestors, because we stand in lamentable need of such things, and the English have a plenty of them, and moreover because we are Americans ourselves. Our third remark is, that whenever we think a work is good, whether it be poetry or prose, we shall be sure to say so. Mr Hillhouse's Hadad is an ornament and bright addition to the literature of our country. We can send it abroad without a blush or an apology; not as being of the highest order of excellence, but as a sample of American poetry, full of beauty, dignity and interest. We read it with pleasure, and we came to its last page with regret. ART. III.-Reports of Cases, argued and determined in the Supreme Judicial Court of the State of Maine. By SIMON GREENLEAF, Counsellor at Law. Vol. II. Containing Cases of the years 1822 and 1823. Hallowell. 1824. "THE attendance of courts,' says Lord Bacon, 'is subject to four bad instruments; first, certain persons that are sowers of suits, which make the court swell and the country pine; the second sort is of those that engage courts in quarrels of jurisdiction, and are not truly "amici curiæ," but "parasiti curiæ," in puffing a court up beyond her bounds, for their own scraps and advantages; the third sort is of those that may be ac counted the left hands of courts; persons that are full of nimble and sinister tricks and shifts, whereby they pervert the plain and direct courses of courts, and bring justice into oblique lines and labyrinths; and the fourth is the poller and exacter of fees; which justifies the common resemblance of the courts of justice to the bush, whereunto while the sheep flies for defence in weather, he is sure to lose part of the fleece.' Had the learned chancellor continued to our own time, he might have found at least one more subject for his grave wit, in the multitude and increase of law reports. To say nothing of the luxuriance of the English press in this department, our own country has become the field of so much legal disputation, and, consequently, of judicial decision, that it requires no despicable share of money and leisure, to supply our libraries with volumes, that publishers are continually laying before us, or to keep pace with the emphatically ' written reason,' which they tacitly demand of us to examine as well as to purchase. But hard as it is to pay so dear for what we may call technical books, and which the world cares so little about, we want our own reports. Our age is not peculiar in its complaint of the increase of law books. Lord Mansfield, in the middle of the last century, referred to the multiplication of this species of human industry with infinite complacency. His remark was, that though the increase was great, it did not increase the quantity of necessary reading; as the perusal of the new, frequently superseded the necessity of that of the old production. If this remark of his Lordship was true in his own time, it has certainly gained force since the period his splendid intellect adorned the British bench,-and whether he referred to books of reports or elementary works, all of our age, and especially those of our countrymen, who are destined for the bar, will feel the peculiar pertinency and meaning of the observation. Indeed, in this country, where there is a score of independent sovereignties, each supporting its own system of judicature, and more than half of them their reporters of decisions, there is consolation in the thought, that the plan of systematising the science, and reducing the disjointed and rambling principles of the system, to the subjection of essays and law treatises, has gone so far; and |