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and calmed the mind of the sister-island, had already exhibited the olive branch of peace, and begun to sway the sceptre of justice, in the vast continent of India, when he sunk under the weight of his patriotic labour and anxiety, lamented by us at home, and mourned with tears of anguish by our unhappy fellow-subjects, of various nations and religions in the eastern world;A NAVAL COMMANDER who was, beyond dispute, pre-eminent in courage, in a department of the British service where all our countrymen` are proverbially courageous, who to unrivalled courage united skill, equally conspicuous and extraordinary, who, in consequence of these rare endowments, never led on our fleets to battle that he did not conquer, and whose name was a tower of strength to England and a terror to her foes;—A STATESMAN, whose wonderful and brilliant talents, inherited from his illus trious father, enabled him, even in early youth, to astonish and captivate the public mind, and to rule it, with absolute sway, for nearly twenty years, and who, during that long period, directed or occasioned those unparalleled events, which will fill posterity with astonishment, as they appear on record, and of which the effects will not have ceased until Europe shall have lost its proud distinction amongst the several quarters of the globe, and have become what Asia now is, the sediment of its former strength and vigour;—and, lastly, a wISE, PATRIOTIC, LIBERAL and UPRIGHT, as well as ELOQUENT STATESMAN, whose recent death has thrown a gloom over the country, and occasioned a painful sadness of heart in the present assembly.' pp. 7, 8.

We add a suitable improvement of these events from pp. 21, 22.

It is not without design that Providence has by so many successive visitations deprived us of our ablest statesmen and most valiant warriors. The design even of this national chastisement may be merciful; and it will appear so, if it have the effect (which I pray God it may have!) of awakening us from our torpor, of turning us, like Jonah's warning to the Ninevites, from our evil way and from the violence that is in our hands, and of causing us to cry mightily unto God: but should it, on the contrary, have no effect, should our national pride be still unsubdued, our boastings uncorrected, our crimes unrepented and unforsaken, then, indeed, it may be interpreted as an omen that the Lord hath a controversy with the inhabitants of the land, and that we are devoted, for our sins, to suffer more than common calamities. To lie, in such a state of things, supine and thoughtless, would be a distressing symptom of our being under the dominion of that moral apathy-that morbid indifference to the agency of heaven, which in so many other nations has preceded destruction. Be thou instructed, is the language of Almighty God in the events which we have lately witnessed-Be thou instructed, O Jerusalem, lest my soul depart from thee; lest I make thee desolate, a land not inhabited.'

Of the close of this sermon we cannot express unqualified approbation. From the eminent talents, and even virtue, of the late Mr. Fox, the preacher confirms the prospect of a future resurrection, without a single intimation that it will be

that of life to some, but of damnation to others. Surely Mr. Aspland's hearers have not yet attained to that sublimity of holiness and piety, that would supersede all occasion for such an admonition! If not, why did he withhold it? It is but too certain, that there are preachers, both in and out of the esta blished church,

"who scorn to mention hell, to ears polite !"

and we would earnestly caution Mr. A. (as comparatively a young man) to guard against falling under that description; while we recommend the seasonable remonstrances which we have extracted, to the practical regard of all our readers. The loss of our most eminent statesmen and commanders has been followed by that of every ally who might effectually have cooperated against the common enemy; and by the uninterrupted, unexampled, and almost incredible, successes of his arms, wherever they have hitherto turned. At such a crisis, we cannot but consider the most zealous union, the most diligent preparation for resistance, and the most fervent prayer for the continuance of divine protection, as inseparable from every rational expectation of safety and prosperity.

Art. XIV. The Odes of Anacreon of Teos. Literally translated into English Prose; with Notes. By the Rev. Thomas Gilpin, A. B. (Colton, near Tadcaster) 8vo. pp. 220. Price 7s. 6d. Mawman. 1806.

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WE E are no friends to prose translations in general, and least of all, to literal prose translations; they are commonly the refuge of the indolent, and the nursery of the superficial. Yet it seems hard to forbid that any shall sip from the fountain of Grecian literature, who will not drink " long, so deep, so zealously," as we could wish; and if for their sake we may suffer such an irregular mode of study to be adopted, Anacreon is perhaps the most suitable author that could be selected for the purpose; his compositions being at once remarkably easy, classical, and pleasing. Admitting the utility of a prose translation, we think Mr. Gilpin's vo lume is entitled to much commendation; the version itself is as neat as could be expected; and the notes are well adapted for the instruction of the learner. Addison's Life of the Teian Bard is prefixed to the work; but we do not think our Reverend translator's note is very suitably employed, in vindi cating the poet from the stigma which his poetry has fixed pon him. The 29th Ode is inserted, but not translated; Addison's poetical paraphrase, however, is introduced in the

potes. We select the following as a specimen of the transJation.

ODE XVII.

O Vulcan! graving the silver, make me not a suit of armour; (for what have I to do with battles?) but a capacious bowl; make it deep, as you are able. And grave me upon it neither constellations, nor the celestial wain, nor the terrible Orion; for what have I to do with the Pleiades or what, with the stars of Boötes? Make me vines and clusters upon it; and Love, and Bathyllus, in gold, together with beautiful Bacchus, treading the winepress.

The Greek text is printed on the opposite page; the typo graphy is handsome, and great pains have been taken to make it correct. The words supplied by the translator, to com plete and elucidate the meaning, are distinguished by the Italic character.

We hope the present work will impress many readers with an idea which is not so common as we could wish;-How great is the disadvantage under which the Sacred Scriptures must appear; being translated literally, and moreover, into a dialect which is antiquated, in some degree, by the lapse of two centuries. Let Anacreon, therefore, in his English dress, be contrasted with the Bible, and his literary attractions will fade away before the sublime splendour of inspiration; just as the driveling follies of the effeminate drunkard will be despised, in comparison with the glorious and ennobling morality of Heaven.

Art. XV. A complete verbal Index to the Plays of Shakspeare, adapted to all the Editions, comprehending every Substantive, Adjective, Verb, Participle, and Adverb used by Shakspeare, with a distinct Reference to every individual Passage in which each Word occurs. By Francis Twiss, Esq. 2 vols. 8vo. pp. 1175. Price 31. 3s. Egerton, 1805. F the compiler of these volumes had been properly sensible of the value of time, and the relation which the employment of it bears to his eternal state, we should not have had to present our readers with the pitiable spectacle, of a man advancedin years consuming the embers of vitality, in making "a" complete verbal Index to the Plays of Shakespeare."

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Had we found him sitting upon the sea shore, busily occupied in arranging, according to their sizes shapes and colours, a huge mass of pebbles, the direction which our feelings would have taken may easily be conceived. With similar emotions should we, most probably, have now taken leave of him, had we confined our attention to the relative value of his real and supposed labours. In importance, they appear to us nearly upon a par; although, by the former he has raised a

somewhat more durable monument, than he could have done by the latter, of the futility of his pursuits.

Sensations of a stronger kind, whether more nearly allied to pity or contempt we leave the reader to conjecture, take place in our minds, when we come to the account which the author gives of his production, and the estimate which he forms of its worth. So fully does he seem to be convinced of his having merited the gratitude of mankind, that he can find no adequate way of expressing the extent of his pretensions, except by comparing his "l'erbal Index to the Plays of Shakspeare," to a to a "Concordance to the Holy Scriptures." Hear him!" it has long been admitted by divines, that the Scriptures are best elucidated by making them their own expositors; and there seems to be no reason why this method of interpretation should not, with equal success, be applied to all ancient writers, and particularly to Shakspeare." This happy illustration of the labouring thoughts of the writer, we cannot help suspecting to be the suggestion of some dramaloving son of the church; for is it to be supposed, that the labours of Alexander Cruden were to be found amidst the im mense pile of "all the editions of Shakspeare" which choked Mr. T.'s study? If, however, we are mistaken in 'this' conjecture, and the Concordance is really there, we would se riously recommend him to turn to the words, TIME, ETERNAL, SOUL, DEATH, JUDGEMENT, and a few others which these may suggest, and carefully weigh the passages to which he will be referred. By making these interesting sentences" their own expositors," he will not only find them to be "best elucidated," but he will fully discover the reasons for which we form so low an opinion of his toilsome performance, and exhort him to make the Bible, and not Shakspeare, the companion of his declining days.

It is not impossible, that Mr. T. may justly attribute this censurable misapplication of his time and talents to that blind devotion, which fashion requires to be paid at the shrine of Shakspeare, by every one who makes the slightest pretensions to refinement of taste;

"Ah pleasant proof

That piety has still in human hearts,

Some place, a spark or two not yet extinct."

We are not insensible of the inimitable excellences of the productions of Shakspeare's genius; and so far as the tribute of transcendent admiration can be paid, without the sa crifice of moral feeling, and especially of religious principle,

:

we do not withhold it from him but we say with a far more estimable poet,

"Much less, methinks, than sacrilege might serve,”

He has been called, and justly too, the "Poet of Nature." A slight acquaintance with the religion of the Bible'will shew, however, that it is of human nature in its worst shape, deformed by the basest passions, and agitated by the most vicious propensities, that the poet became the priest; and the incense offered at the altar of his goddess, will continue to spread its poisonous fumes over the hearts of his countrymen, till the memory of his works is extinct. Thousands of unhappy spirits, and thousands yet to increase their number, will everlastingly look back with unutterable anguish on the nights and days, in which the plays of Shakspeare ministered to their guilty delights. And yet these are the writings, which men, consecrated to the service of him, who styles himself the HOLY ONE, have prostituted their pens to illustrate!-such the writer, to immortalize whose name, the resources of the most precious arts have been profusely lavished! Epithets amounting to blasphemy, and honours approaching to idolatry, have been and are shamelessly heaped upon his memory, in a country professing itself Christian, and for which it would have been happy, on moral considerations, if he had never been born. And, strange to say, even our religious edifices are not free from the pollution of his praise. What Christian can pass through the most venerable pile of sacred architecture which our metropolis can boast, without having his best feelings in. sulted by observing, within a few yards of the spot, from which prayers and praises are daily offered to the Most High, the absurd and impious epitaph upon the tablet raised to one of the miserable retailers of his impurities? Our readers who are acquainted with London, will discover that it is the inscription upon David Garrick, in Westminster Abbey, to which we refer. We commiserate the heart of the man who can read the following lines without indignation-

"And, till eternity, with power sublime,
Shall mark the mortal hour of hoary time,

Shakspeare and Garrick, like twin stars shall shine,
And earth irradiate with a beam divine."

"Par nobile fratrum"! your fame shall last during the empire of vice and misery, in the extension of which you have acted so great a part!

We make no apology for our sentiments, unfashionable as they are. Feeling the importance of the condition of man as

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