tend so much to the good of society or to our own improvement, as those more fixed employments, which are followed with more perseverance, and from which the person is not continually deviating to go in search of extraneous pleasures or amusements. This persevering industry, whether of mind, or body, as far as it opposes the wayward inclinations of the individual, will often be found attended with vexation; but our conduct is then most praiseworthy, when we act in conformity to God's will, though it may happen to be contrary to our natural inclinations. FOR THE PORT FOLIO-MY BROWN STUDIES. In the following imitation of a favourite author, one may easily discern all the spirit of the original. Neither Francis, nor Duncomb, nor Lord Chatham, nor Dryden himself has ever in the form of free paraphrase, exhibited so much of the spirit and genius of Horace. The softness, tenderness, and delicacy of the first stanzas; the vivid description in the third and fourth, the arch allusion in the fifth to the animal Andrews, as described by Fielding; the the whimsical simile, in the sixth, which is of the very essence of Genius, the caution and the description in the closing lines are all of a character so intimately allied with the spirit of the Roman bard, that we should be ashamed, if we did not strive to perpetuate one of the luckiest imitations of his glorious original. HORACE IN LONDON-BOOK III. ODE VII. Quid fles, Asterie, &c. TO A LOVING WIFE. Nay, Fanny, check that falling tear; Soon shall thy Willy homeward steer, Though forc'd from town to town to rove, True, as the mild, mate widow'd dove, Lais, meanwhile, with flirting skill, Would fain with thee change places, With Cupid's shaft attacks him still, Hoping to clasp thy constant Will, In contraband embraces. With many a sad and sly remark, Tells him of Osmyn, Moorish spark, She tells of Joseph Andrews, dead To pleasure, senseless looby! Who quarrel'd with his butter'd bread, And, urg'd by Parsın Adams, fled Vain her endeavours to create, Deaf as the haddock on his plate, But, Fanny, pray beware of Jack, Though none like him can dance a reel, Or o'er the Serpentine can steal Ice bending, Sabbath breaking. Shut, shut your door, at eight o'clock, Firm, as the surge repelling rock, His rude assailing passion mock, And think on absent Willy. Of all the odes of Horace, we remember, with juvenile enthusiasm, that the subject of the following perfect parody, had, and deserved, all our praise. It is impossible for us to enhance the merits of the original; and, in justice to the recent imitator, we must declare that if he and Horace had met at the same banquet with Augustus, the monarch would have pronounced them par nobile fratrum! BOOK I. ODE XVII. Velox amoenum Saepe Lucretilem, &c. TO LAURA. The wood nymphs, crown'd with vernal flowers, And sport in gambols antic If e'er they quit their native vales, Will find around my cot in Wales A region more romantic. Green pastures, girt with pendant rock, Adventurously wanders; Impending shrubs and flowers that gleam, Reflected in the crystal stream Which through the scene meanders. In sylvan beauty charm the eyes, Of misery or anger; The song of birds and insect's hum, Or trumpet's brazen clangour. If sleeping Echo start to mark The shephrd's pipe and tabor. A Whene'er I woo the Muse serene, Her myrtle with his roses. Haste then, my Laura, to my bower, To plenty, love and pleasure, Where wanton boughs an arbour wreathe, Let not the town your soul enthral, If manners still have power to please, No jealous fears shall curb your mind, By prejudiced opinion, My Laura here a queen shall be, From all control and bondage free, ave Cupid's soft dominion CRITICISM.-FOR THE PORT FOLIO. SKETCHES IN VERSE. Mecum quære modos leviore plectro. Printed for C. & A. Conrad, Philadelphia, by Smith & Maxwell, 1810, p. p. 184. THIS is one of the most brilliant and beautiful, if not one of the most splendid and magnificent books, that has ever issued from the press of Philadelphia. The type is broad and bold, the ink is of ebony blackness, and the paper is of a texture, we believe, precisely the same as that of Barlow's Columbiad. In fact, the mechanical execution reminds us perpetually of that splendid quarto, which even the severity of Scottish criticism has spared. It is not often our habit to dwell with so much fondness upon the mere exterior of a volume, however ostentatious and imposing. But in the early epochs of the history of our country, and, in particular, of its literary annals, it is just and honourable to both to record the minutest circumstance which can inflame the ambition of authorship. We have no hesitation in asserting, with all the confidence though none of the dogmatism of Bishop Warburton, that the truly elegant plates, with which this book is adorned, are not only superior to any thing of the kind in America, but when compared with Bensley's designs in the splendid edition of Gray, or with the engravings in Dodsley's Shenstone are still more graphical and in a purer taste. The designs were beautifully painted by Mr. T. Sully, an American artist of high and deserved reputation, and finally transferred to the copperplate by the genius of that excellent engraver, Mr. Leney of New-York, and of George Murray of this city, a favourite pupil of the celebrated Anker Smith, and, in the opinion of the best judges, not at all inferior to his accomplished instructor. Mr. Murray has gloriously distinguished himself by the execution of some of the most masterly and spirited engravings in Bradford's edition of Dr. Rees's Cyclopedia; and the specimens of Mr. M's talents, as exhibited in the interesting volume, now under our review, are of a character so brilliant, as to warrant all the praise which taste and judgment, as well as friendship and affection can bestow. Our business is now with the literary department of this volume, and we shall startle the sensitive author by an act of flagrant hostility in our first onset against his book. He commences his desultory volume with what he chuses to call an imitation of the style of the sixteenth century. Seduced by the example of Dr. Parnell, Chatterton, Thomson, and the whole tribe of Spenser's imitators, he has conceived that whilom, eftsoons, albeit, certes, and spelling envy with an ie are quite sufficient to transport us back to the æra of king James. But while thus apparently dealing out censure, we have great comfort for our author in store. Though, in our deliberate opinion, the poem, |