The arrow was tinctured with poifon; and the wound was thought incurable. Elfrida had a faithful and intimate friend, called Emma, who voluntarily undertook, at the utmost hazard of her life, to fuck the poifon from the wound. This extra

ordinary act of humanity and friendship was attended with fuccefs. Elfrida was refcued from immediate death, and Emma faved by a miracle.

Thefe incidents are related with an agreeable delicacy of ftyle and fentiment. In defcribing the fcene of action the author fays, here

Our brave forefathers met their haughty foes,

And arm'd with freedom, dar'd their deathful blows.

The direful fcene arifes full to view,

And fancy peoples all the plain anew!

Loud fhrieks of woe my frighted ears affail,

And death's deep groan breathes horror through the vale."
Afterwards, fhe thus defcribes the fall of Elfrida :

• While round the feather'd deaths promiscuous flew,
One well aim'd arrow caught Elfrida's view!
Inftant the mov'd to meet the fatal dart,
Defign'd to pierce the aged hero's heart!
Her gentle breaft receiv'd the fatal wound,
And her pale form funk bleeding on the ground!
Youth's lovely bloom forfook her fading face!
And death-like languor crept o'er every grace!' '

To this tale the author has fubjoined two odes; the first to the Spring, and the fecond to Liberty. Thefe poems are inscribed, in an elegant and affectionate dedication, to the author's father, by whofe defire they were published.

The English Garden: a Piem. Book the Third. By W. Mason, M. A. 8vo. 25. DodЛley.

The first part of this Poem appeared in 1772, and the fecond in 1777. In thofe publications the author has treated of viftas, lawns, walks, pleafure-grounds, &c. In the prefent he treats of the fhrubs, viz. the thorn, the holly, the box, the privet, the lilac, the fyringa, the woodbine, and the laurel *, which are proper for hiding old walls, or any other difagreeable object, that may be concealed by fhrubs. He then proceeds to trees planted for ornament: and lafly, to pieces of water, ftreams, cafcades, &c.

His plan of gardening is formed upon an extenfive scale; his leading maxim is, a conformity to nature.-The defcriptions are pleafing and picturesque.

On the Preference of Virtue to Genius. A poetical Epifle. 4to. Cadell.

Is. 6d.

The leading fubject, and the correfponding topics of this little production are well enforced by the purity and rectitude of the

The lauro cerafus is a beautiful plant; but the leaves contain a frong poifon. See Phil. Tranf. N° 418, 420. Mede on Poifons. James's Difpenf. &c.

C c 4

author's

author's own heart, and by his pertinent applications from the moft illuftrious fages of antiquity. For though we are not fo unexperienced in literary matters as to conclude that every. public advocate for morals, is himself a moral man; yet, from the remarkable naïveté; from the generous warmth with which our ethic poet praifes and recommends private and public virtue, we may almost venture to affert, that his mind, and conduct, are strongly characterized with integrity, and benevolence, It may alfo be neceffary to add, that the ftrain of his verfe is generally harmonious: for we do not, perhaps, in thefe times, materially promote the circulation of a piece, by informing the world, that its author ftrenuously inculcates juftice, temperance, philanthropy, and true patriotism. The following extract will convince our rea ders that he poffeffes good principles, and that he is a master of good numbers.

The man, whofe choice is Virtue, bravely foars
Above the objects which the world adores.

His life this ufeful leffon fhall declare ;

Virtue-alone deferves man's ferious care,

And though with rank and fashion fools may fwell,
With her alone unfading pleafures dwell.

But 'tis in vain to virtue we afpire,

Unless we gain a portion of her fire;

Unless for all the good below the skies,

Our love to God, the bounteous author rife,

The great, munificent, almighty friend,

And thence, relumed, to man his offspring bend.
Then, men as men, as fons of God, we love,
And feel the growing flame our bofoms move.
-Him fhe adores-him loves-great fource of light,
Whole beauty, too extreme for mortal fight,
Surpaffes all his univerfe contains,

The awful beauty which through nature reigns;
Which fhines diffufed, above, below, around,
Yet is but fhade to his full fplendour found.
The power of language must for ever fail,
Not thought can his ftupendous grandeur scale;
Prefumptuously to him the voice we raise,

Where reverend filence gives profounder praise.—
From him derived in feas of bounty flows
The good celeftial Virtue's hand bestows;
By his parental foftering power the lives;
And justly the to him the glory gives;
To him applies for all his children need,

Yet ftill fhe labours, and, when called, can bleed.
Thus her devotion charity inspires,

And both, uniting, glow with purer fires.'

Caufidicus, a Poetic Lafb: in Three Parts. 4to. 2s. 6d. Bowen. Some of the memorable adventures of a learned Templar, whom the author calls Caufidicus; from his arrival in town, to his engagement in the trial concerning the fex of the chevalier D'Eon, related in humourous Hudibraftics.

A Bridal

A Bridal Ode on the Marriage of Catharine and Petruchio. 4to.

Bew.

A piece of banter on a celebrated female advocate for free.. dom, refigning her liberty to a domestic monarch, particu larly to one of that nation, which has been moft feverely treated in fome of her writings. Her old Platonic admirer is introduced, lamenting her infidelity.

Voltaire's Ghost to the Apoftle of the Sinless Foundery. 4to. 25.6d. Bew.

Mr. Wefley, in a letter to the editor of the Morning Poft, about the beginning of January laft, has given the public a ridiculous and improbable anecdote of Voltaire; and has reprefented it as a flagrant enormity, that his works fhould be tranflated by a divine of the church of England, and a chaplain to his majesty *. For this piece of cant and fanaticifm he is very properly chaftifed by his old friend, the author of the LoveFeat, the Temple of Impofture, and other fatirical publications, addreffed to the hierophant, and the faints of the Foundery. Reviewers Reviewed. A familiar Epifle to thofe Sons of Momus. 410. 25. Bew.

In a variety of different publications †, this ardent and enterprifing genius has lafhed and ftigmatized almoft every confpicuous character on the fide of the court; and in his frontifpieces gibbetted them in effigy, or configned them to the devil. As he has obferved in fome of the Reviews what he thinks a partiality in favour of minifterial writers, he attacks the Reviewers with his ufual afperity. But in this encounter he reminds us of the following lines in Dryden's Virgil:

-His feeble hand a javelin threw,

Which flutt'ring feem'd to loiter, as it flew ;
Juft, and but barely, to the mark it held,
And faintly tinkl'd on the brazen shield."

In the title-page he has exhibited an owl, with the word CRITICISM in capitals over his head. If by this emblematical figure he means to ridicule his antagonists, he ought to be reminded, that, in the days of antiquity, the owl was facred to the goddess of wifdom, and a bird of the moft venerable character. The Athenians reprefented it on their coins, and bore it on their enfigns. Hæc avis, fays Erafmus, Athenienfium populo quondam erat gratiffima, ac Minerve facra habebatur, propter oculos cæfios, quibus etiam in tenebris perfpicit, quæ vulgus avium non videt. Adag. p. 327. Phurnut. de Nat. Deor. p. 51. Pomey likewife, in his Pantheon, has given us, if poffible, a more favourable defcription of this fagacious bird, which Andrew Tooke thus tranflates: An owl, a bird feeing in the dark, was facred to Minerva, and painted upon her images; which is the reprefentation of a wife man, who, fcattering and difpelling

The learned, liberal, and ingenious Dr. Francklin
Captain Parolles at Minden, &c,

the

the clouds of ignorance and error, is clear-fighted, where others are fark blind?

The mythologifts are unanimous in this account of the owl. This learned writer has therefore mistaken his emblem, and paid the Reviewers the highest compliment that could be found in claffical antiquity, when he reprefented them under the majestic character of the owl, and included himself among the geefe, the fparrows, the crows, the magpies, and the like vulgar birds. A Parody of the Carmen Seculare of Horace. 4to. 1s. 6d. Bew. Horace metamorphofed into a violent court fatirift, by the author of the two foregoing articles.

Calypfo; a Masque: in Three A&s. As it is performed at the Theatre-Royal, in Covent-Garden. By Richard Cumberland, Efq. 8vo. Is. 6d. Evans, Strand.

In this Mafque, Calypfo appears in the character of an enchantrefs; the employs her nymphs, her fpells, and her demons, to feduce Telemachus. But this young hero, affifted by the goddess of wisdom, under the form of Mentor, fruftrates her artifices; and Calypfo, at the command of Minerva, finks, together with her ifland and her voluptuous train, into the abyss. The moral is unexceptionable; but nature feems to be rather too much racked and tortured in the machinery, the intrigue, and the unravelling.

Who's the Dupe? A Farce as it is acted at the Theatre-Royal in Drury-Lane. By Mrs. Cowley. 8vo. Is. DodЛley.

In this Farce, the author introduces the following characters. Abraham Doiley, formerly a citizen and flop-feller. He propofes to give his daughter, Mifs Doiley, fifty thousand pounds; but his caprice makes him regardless of fortune, and he fwears, that his fon-in-law fhall be a man of larning. Jeremy Gradus, a pedantic Oxonian, to whom Mr. Doiley intends to marry his daughter. Granger, an officer in the army, of good family, but no fortune, engaged to Mifs Doiley. Sandford, Granger's friend. Charlotte, Mifs Doiley's coufin.

Gradus, by his egregious pedantry, makes himself ridiculous to the ladies. But Charlotte and Sandford artfully perfuade him, that if he wishes to fucceed in his addreffes, he must affume the air of a modern fine gentleman. He accordingly abjures his Greek and Latin, which gives Doiley great offence. Granger is then introduced by Sandford, as a prodigy of learning; and a trial of skill, between the two competitors, is proposed by Doiley; in which Granger, by a little fictitious jargon, and fuperior effrontery, completely vanquishes his rival, and is received with rapture by old Doiley as his fon-in-law; while Gradus contents himfelf with making a conquest of Charlotte.

The moral tendency of this piece is, in fome refpects, ambiguous. The folly of Doiley and Gradus is perhaps exaggerated

beyond

beyond nature and probability. But fome of the scenes are truly comic; fome of the incidents ingenioufly eontrived; the dialogue is humorous, and the principal characters are strongly marked and difcriminated.

The Liverpool Prize; a Farce: in Two Acts. As it is performed at the Theatre-Royal, in Covent-Garden. By F. Pilon. 8vo. 15. Evans, Strand.

Debenture, an old merchant, has a daughter named Harriet, privately engaged to her coufin, George Belford; but entirely contrary to her father's approbation, as George is fuppofed to have no fortune. In the mean time, Debenture wishes to difpofe of her to the beft advantage: fhe is therefore fucceffively propofed to Teneriffe, a Guinea captain, retired upon his money; to Monf. Coromandel, a French general; and to a gentleman, who paffes under the name of Mynheer Van Slopen, a Dutch merchant, just arrived in a French hip from the Eaft Indies, taken by a Liverpool privateer. While Harriet is in the utmost distress, in confequence of her father's abfolute commands to discard her coufin, and receive the addreffes of the Dutchman, the latter difcovers himself to her; and appears to be the father of Belford. Debenture is confounded at this discovery; but all parties are immediately fatisfied; and the young lovers are happily united. The characters are well drawn, and the plot not improperly conducted.

The Chelfea Penfioner; a comic Opera. In Two Acts. As it is performed at the Theatre-Royal, Covent-Garden. 8vo. 15. Kearfly.

Some tolerable fongs; but no interefting fcenes, no delineation of characters, no fpirit or ingenuity in the plot.

Illumination: : or, the Glaziers' Confpiracy. A Prelude. As it is performed at the Theatre-Royal, in Covent-Garden. By F. Pilon. 8vo. 15. Kearfly.

The dramatis perfonæ of this piece are, Skylight, a glazier; Dip, a tallow chandler; Quillet, an attorney's clerk; Mrs. Skylight, 'Mifs Skylight, mob, &c.

Quillet is in love with Mifs Skylight; and, on an illumination night (when her father is drunk, in company with Dip), he employs a pretended prefs-gang to apprehend him. At this crifis Quillet appears, procures his liberty, and, for this important fervice, obtains his confent to marry his daughter.-This is the plot.

The dialogue is fuitable to the characters; and both adapted to the taste of the audience in the upper regions of the theatre.

MEDICAL.

A Treatise on the Teeth. By Barth. Rufpini. A New Edition: with an Appendix of New. Cafes. 8vo. 25. Fielding and

Walker.

. When this excellent little Treatife on the Teeth firft made its appearance, the fubject, however important, was very imper

fectly