aspire to relate our "tales of yore," in a manner worthy of amusing the nineteenth century. The Water-trough is selected from Legrand's Contes devots, pour servir de suite aux Fabliaux du treizieme siecle, &c. and is well adapted by its comic peculiarity to inculcate the author's favourite philosophy, which is industrious in satirizing asce ticism. Pervonte, a comic tale, in three parts, is borrowed from the Pentamerone of Gian Alesio Abbatutis of Naples: it will serve to recommend the virtue of contentment. The Winter's Tale, which is taken from the first volume of the Arabian Nights, comprises the story of the fisherman, and of the young King of the Black-Isles; and, by very slight modifications of the incidents, it has acquired a wholeness and a connection which are seldom apparent in eastern composition,. without having lost any of its native hold on the fancy. The Mule without a Bridle is well-known to the metrical romancers of our own country. This refaccimento, again, by a slight but exquisitely dextrous improvement of the circumstances, is become a most lively "Lay." Hann and Gulpenheh, and the Lay of the little Bird, also occur. To this collection, English nationality may oppose the Fables of Dryden, with some hope of their dividing the suffrage of critics. Dryden's matter is generally of a more heroic cast, and his sentiments are of a higher-toned morality; his style, though careless, is far more condensed and vigorous, and forcibly sweeps along the agitated reader; it pours a luxury of melody never attained by the labour of Pope, never approached by a German splice-work of anapæsts and iambics. WIELAND'S matter is chosen with more taste, improved by a of more dextrous insertion of circumstance, varied with more versatility, and more dazzlingly adorned with a hovering pomp mythologic imagery, interposition, and machinery. No action unsuitable to the times in which it is placed, like that of Palemon and Arcite, occurs here. No legend of a knight of Arthur is degraded, as in the Wife of Bath's Tale, into a veNo false wit from the school of hicle for modern satire. Cowley transforms "a baron bold" into an epigrammatist : no Sigismonda delivers a lecture on republicanism over the corse of her lover. If a sententious morality never obtrudes its formal preachments; yet an Aristippic philosophy, a knowlege of man, a cosmopolite-humanity, is really inspired by WIELAND, however imperceptibly inculcated. In him, nothing negligent solicits forgiveness: he keeps present to his mind an idea of pure perfection, and is ever comparing his works, as they are, with what they might be made. Confident that they will one day 8 day be opposed to excellence yet unborn, he strives to meet the possible fastidiousness of a more intelligent posterity. His style is never careless, and attains in every subsequent edition the minute graces of increasing ease. A sauntering expatiation, always at leisure to gather flowers, is the habitual beauty, but in moments of crisis forms the defect, of his manner. He knows not how to excite the storm and whirlwind of pathetic feeling. Accustomed to be a spectator of the stage of things, he can at most describe the vehemence of an actor, not of an agent. A delicate shading, not the bold nor the abrupt, distinguishes the uniform copiousness of his style. Thus the sur face of the lake is smooth and clear, whether it reflects the waving willow or the mountain-crag; and the sun's rays are of the same density, whether they impinge on the gloomy cypress, on the choir of nymphs in their evening bath, or on the glittering cuirass of contending heroes. The Abderites, a work apparently historical, which fills the xixth and xxth volumes, is a novel of a very peculiar description. It is a contribution to the history of the human head and heart in their operations, not on nations, nor on individuals, but on small masses of men. It describes the pursuits and cabals of a confined and petty public, the politics of a borough-corporation, the intrigues of a rapacious city-priesthood, the squabbles of livery-men, and the law-suits of magistrates;-not in the form in which they appear daily under our own eyes, and in our own neighbourhood; but in the form which they would have assumed at Abdera in the time of Democritus. The urbane satirist points at Greeks, while he hangs the cap and bells on the heads of his own towns-men. This is accomplished with a truth of nature and a conformity to authority which are equally admirable. Two articles of Bayle's dictionary, Abdera and Democritus, have furnished the main basis of fact: the outline has been traced from an industrious consultation of those Greek and Roman classics who have treated of this city and period; and the unauthorized ornaments, the invented colouring, have that inherent probability which rivals or exceeds historic truth in its impression of reality. The spirit of low faction and paltry discord, of local into. lerance and vulgar spite, which this novel tends to remedy, is of itself expiting in England beneath the spreading polish of a liberal refinement: otherwise, we should earnestly wish for its translation, and for its dispersion among those nests of Abderites which the charters of our provincial towns once sheltered. ART. VI. Les Bataves, par BITAUBE'; .e. The Batavians, by ΤΗ HE author of this publication is already known by a spirited translation of Homer, and by an original poem entitled Joseph. He still continues to manifest himself a votary of the Epic Muse, and has now chosen for his theme, The Foundation of the Republic of the United Provinces. That style of writing which may be called more than oratorical prose, and of which the French version of Tasso and the Incas of Marmontel are generally praised as examples, has here been chosen by M. BITAUBÉ for the vehicle of narration: the structure and spirit of the work belong to the loftier sort of epopca. The volume is divided into ten books. The fable begins with the application of William of Nassau to Coligni, for assistance against the Duke of Alva, and terminates with the establishment of the Dutch independence by the union of Utrecht. We are far from thinking an event so modern unfit for this form of composition by some delay of the execution of Egmont and of Horn, and by a slight prolongation of the supremacy of the Duke of Alva, all the principal personages have been conveniently brought together; while the action has its proper extent with sufficient unity. The machinery is allegorical, and, in course, is colder than the intervention of Beings who are subject to human passions. Ocanor, the spirit of the sea, Liberty, Fanaticism, Civilis the genius of political union, Tyranny, Discord, and other personages of this kind, make their appearance; and, by a bolder and more godlike use of their interposition than has been attempted since the days of Spenser, much of their inherent frigidity disappears. The poem thus opens: Fain would I paint the courage of that innumerous nation, which, scornful of adversity, strove with formidable armies and acquired freedom. Worthy descendants of the old Batavians, they more than recovered their pristine glory; they rent provinces from the yoke of Spain, and joined them in fortunate union. In vain the greatest European king armed to subdue their valor; in vain those hell-born monsters, Fanaticism and Tyranny, heaped woes on their soil; the Batavians still stood firm amid ruins, and at length Holland became FREE! O Liberty, whose worship the independent God engraved on the human heart as the fairest of its passions, descend from heaven, speak by my voice, let thy manly accents resound in my recital, thy life-invigorating flame glow in my bosom. At thine appearance, flit hence those fiends of man, Anarchy, the mimic of, thy gait, and Des * See Rev. vol. lxx. p. 77. Also vol. lxxii. p. 219. potism, potism, thy haughtier opponent! Abash'd, let them yield to thee that undivided throne which the laws create and support! Hail, Liberty, divinity of the Batavians! For them thou hast dared the strife of heroes; for them thou hast peopled the ocean with ships; for them thou hast covered the earth with herbage, and fenced it with dikes against the rolling tide. Tell me of the toils which thou couldst court with smiles, and of the man whom thou hast selected for thy champion." The events narrated in this performance are commonly known in their general outline; yet they deserve so well to be impressed in every variety of form on the memory of nations, that we shall not anticipate the reader's curiosity by anatomizing the argument of the poem: the greatest fault of which consists in introducing too much historical reflection and philosophical dissertation, and in often sinking from poetry into commentary. The work was written, it seems, in 1775, but has been interpolated since the French Revolution, and has probably not gained by this recency of allusion. A second extract, from the eighth book, will be sufficient to unfold the writer's manner : Thus the more just had triumphed. Alva, though worsted in battle, was not disheartened, and was revolving thoughts of prudence in his tent. Then War, the dæmon, came to him, dragging with him weapons newly forged. "Leave to the foe (said the fierce spirit) those arms of which they are building a trophy, and at which they gaze with exultation. Behold the weapons which I promised thee: Destruction hollowed them himself." Alva hesitates whether he shall play false to courage by taking the distant-wounding engine: but, considering how general was the dispiritude of his troops, he determines to accept the fatal gift. Then the glad Genie exclaimed with a loud voice, "Bombs! for the first time, arch through the air your road of ruin," and offered to Almanzor a lighted match. The Spaniard grows pale: he trembles: he refuses to perpetrate the unknown mischief. Suddenly, the Spirit himself sets fire to the volcanic weapon. Stifled in the burst of sulphureous flaine, Almanzor drops a corse. Now roars a DIN which mocks the thunder: far vibrates the trembling plain the firmly-based bastions of Leyden quake. Where the ponderous mischief falls, the voice of anger ceases and the strife of war is arrested: the old soldier starts back pale, and drops his arms. Death and Ruin draw a circle about its resting-place. God of battle! I behold thy exultation; thou fanciest thyself the lord of thunder! thy example spreads! flaming bombs dart athwart the air, like comets portending desolation; they shake their fiery manes amid the clouds, fall, burst, and multiply murder! So when the Titanides, having heaped Ossa on Pelion, were removing the forest-clad Olympus, a rock from the clouds fell down to the abyss, shattering into fragments and destroying the towns of men.' We think that the poet would have done well in giving appropriate names to all his Genies, as he has done to Ocanor and to Civilis. The Mammon of Spenser makes a better ma chine than his Despayre.-Should this work be rendered into English, we would advise the translator to take great liberties, by frequently curtailing and habitually enlivening the style, which is too tame for those who are accustomed to the admired prose of Ossian. ART. VII. Briefe zur Beförderung der Humanität, &c. i. e. Letters designed to promote Humanization. By J. G. Herder. Parts VII. and VIII. pp. 180 each. Riga. 1796. HAVING given many pages of our 20th volume (519, &c.) to the six former divisions of this work, it may be expected that we allot a few to the continuation; especially as it includes much incidental notice of the history of English poetry. The 81st letter relates to the decline of Greek and Roman poetry, coincident with the ascendancy of christianity. Mythology and idolatry are no doubt favourable to the excitement of imagination: Italy, therefore, which has retained most of paganism in its worship, has produced more works of fancy than the nations of the North. The succeeding letter contains a dissertation on christian hymns. It analyzes the Jam moesta quiesce querela of Prudentius; the Stabat mater dolorosa of Jacob de Benedictis, which Wieland has translated; and others. Tay The next epistle farther evolves the writer's idea of the rising spirit in mythology and morality. According to him, we are turning from that infinitude attributed to the object of worship and to the idea of futurity; and are drawing towards limited and sensible images: this portends idolatry. We are abolishing self-denial; and with it the austere spirit of our rites: our new religious observances will consist of concerts, festivities, exhibitions of art, and holiday-shows. In the following letters, a very interesting discussion is carried on concerning the origin, progress, and character, of poetic taste, in modern Europe. Two systems divide the suffrages of the learned. The FIRST, taught by Velasquez-Diez and Crescimbeni, ascribes to the Arabians the exclusive honor of exciting in modern Europe a love of song, and of furnishing our earlier writers with models. According to this theory, modern poetry began in Spain, travelled to Provence, and thence to Italy and France: the north of Europe learned of the south the earliest metrical romances are Arabian tales, with the names of European heroes instead of the original Oriental appellations. Rhime is an invention of the eastern nations. This system has been favoured by the southern antiquaries, and is APP. REV. VOL. XXII. countenanced Nn |