much delight in his lordship's writings. But when, in the midst of his pathos, we recollect his character, we are disgusted with his affectation. When he makes the pretence of paternal kindness for his infant daughter, a cloak beneath which to stab afresh the bleeding bosom of that infant's mother, we are the more revolted at the atrocity of the act from the sanctity of the disguise. In listening to his invocations of solitude and silence, we are led to reflect on the causes which have rendered him an outcast from society. When we hear him arraigning Heaven, and uttering imprecations on mankind, we cannot but call to remembrance his heinous ingratitude to the one, and his manifold injuries to the other. Many of his sentiments, it is true, harmonize with his condition. But these are not of the class which we admire. and the judgment we have pronounced upon them. In his present performance there is little to excite reprehension, or indeed any thing else. It is altogether unworthy of his lordship's reputation, and only remarkable as it affords another evidence of that incontinence in his lordship which we have so often reproved. If the noble author desire posthumous fame, he should treasure up a legacy for posterity. Indeed if he would not survive his celebrity, he must be more prudent in his demands on a complaisant public. We suspect, however, that the Lament of Tasso,' like Peter Pindar's razors, was made to sell.' Notwithstanding his lordship's youthful deprecation of mercenary motives, he has of late found it exceedingly convenient to replenish his empty coffers by vending 'the lumber of the brain'-and, we believe, has discovered it to be a gainful trade. But we did not thinkt hat after his vehement phillippic against this contraband traffic, he would SO soon have taken to peddling small wares. we We are anxious to be distinctly understood in regard to the nature of the impressions we are apt to receive from his lordship's most applauded and intrinsically finest passages. The more should approve them as truths, the more we abhor them as lies. When lord Byron murmurs in the impassioned and desponding tones of Petrarch, or Camoens, or Tasso, we are affected much in the same manner that we should be by the Janguage of Cato in the mouth of Clodius. We must be persuaded of the sincerity of an orator, or of a poet, before we can yield ourselves up to his power. Mere rhetorical declamation, Plays round the head, but comes not to the heart. But when we perceive the absolute mendacity of the speaker, when his tongue is contradicted by the whole tenor of his life, we are more struck by the effrontery of the falsehood, than with the beauty of the sentiment. Lord Byron has so impoliticly appropriated to himself prominent sentiments, expressed in the persons of his heroes, that we are perhaps induced to extend the parallel of their situations and opinions further than his lordship intended. Thus, this injudicious association of himself with the creatures of his fancy, besides robbing us of the pleasure we might have derived from a temporary oblivion of his actual profligacy, has filled our apprehensions with the spectres of unperpetrated crimes. We sincerely regret the double injustice which his lordship has by this means committed. We have made the above remarks in reference to lord Byron's past productions What price his lordship may have received for this 'copy of verses' we know not-five hundred pounds perhaps-but be that as it may, we will give it to our readers gratis-nor shall we require many thanks for the donation. It may be well, however, to explain the circumstance on which it is founded. Tasso was patronized at an early age, by Alphonso Duke of Ferrara. He produced his poem of Rinaldo, at Padua, when he was but seventeen years old, and four tection of this prince. Alphonso procuryears after placed himself under the proed him an employment in the suite of his brother, a Cardinal and ambassador from the Pope to the court of France. On his return to Ferrara the young poct suffered himself to become enamoured of Elenora, the sister of his sovereign. He struggled with his passion and retired to Sorrento in Naples, his native place, where his sister resided. But absence served only to inflame his passion. Unable longer to deny himself the pleasure of seeing his mistress, he returned to Ferrara, and such was the uncontrollable force of his love, that he had the rashness to embrace the princess in a crowded assembly. The Duke Alphonso, who witnessed his extravagance, coolly ordered him to be confined as a maniac in the hospital of St. Anne. Here for twenty years he suffered all that his own sensibility, and the scenes around him, could inflict. It is not wonderful that he should, at times, have experienced the malady imputed to him. He was eventually released and retired to Naples THE LAMENT OF TASSO. 1. Long years!-it tries the thrilling frame to bear And tasteless food, which I have eat alone But this is o'er-ny pleasant task is done :- none. But thou, my young creation! my soul's child! Oh Leonora! wilt not thou reply? But still my frenzy was not of the mind; That thou wert beautiful, and I not blind, But ours is fathomless, and hath no shore, Above me hark! the long and maniac cry 'Mid sights and sounds like these my life may close: So let it be-for then I shall repose. None! save that One, the veriest wretch of all, Look on a love which knows not to despair, Were punished by the silentness of thine, A something which all softness did surpass- VI. It is not marvel-from my very birth My soul was drunk with love, which did pervade VII. I loved all solitude-but little thought What though he perish, he may lift his eye VIII. Yet do I feel at times my mind decline, But with a sense of its decay :-I see Unwonted lights along my prison shine, And a strange demon, who is vexing me My scars are callous, or I should have dashed Stamp madness deep into my memory, A poet's wreath shall be thine only crown, walls! Of magic round thee is extinct-shalt have This is all! Here is the whole of lord Byron's book, called the 'Lament of Tasso.' We have given his lordship at full length, and we hope we are duly obliged to him for the opportunity he has afforded us of gratifying our numerous readers with an entire volume of new poetry, of the newest pattern. How very condescending it is in great lords to write such little books! Who would have expected a work like this from 'the greatest poet' of the age! We are sorry, however, that his lordship did not bear in mind, that 'whatever is worth doing, is worth doing well.' Indeed the less costly the material, the more requisite is skill in the workmanship to give it value. But we do not discover any unusual polish in this poem. It is written in the same rugged style as his lordship's masterpieces. It is a rough-hewn pebble. We have often a great deal of trouble to make out a very little meaning. The whole of the first stanza is constructed with the most curious infelieity.' The sense is discoverable on close scrutiny, but the periods are cumbrous, and to say the least, very awkwardly arranged. The rhymes do not regularly recur, nor are they perfect-grate and shade, display'd and gate will not harmonize. The figures are bad. We are told of a 'grate' working through the eyeball to the brain, with a hot sense of heaviness and pain'-that is a' grate,' with a 'hot sense, working its way through the eye-ball! There is to be sure, no incongruity in endowing a grate with sense that could perform such feats, though we think it a very nonsensical metaphor. We are next told of a never opening gate which admits nothing through its bars, but day and tasteless food-and the scoffings of captivity. The figurative and Rafinesque literal expressions are not well coupled. With pilfering pranks and petty pains— E. ART. 4. A Manual of Botany for the Northern States, comprising generic descrip tions of all Phenogamous and Cryptogamous plants to the north of Virginia, hitherto described, &c. &c. Compiled by the Editor of Richards's Botanical Dictionary. Albany. WEBSTER & SKINNERS. 1817. 12mo. pp. 164. THE tle of a mere compilation; but compilations are some- commendable, it may be proper to hint, titude towards him in terms highly that students are not in general the best judges of what is most useful in their pursuits. What they deem such, may often prove otherwise, and they are but seldom enabled to detect the errors of their teachers, while they are taught to consider them as doctrines and truths. How much better it would be, if those writers who undertake at an early period to instruct us, or to facilitate our attainments in natural sciences, would consult previously those who may be able and willing to guide their forward steps, and direct them towards the best sources of information. We are induced to state this, in reference to both works of this author, who appears to be a young man of talents; but who might have greatly improved his performances, had he been directed in proper time, to the latest and most correct works, on the subjects which he has undertaken to illustrate. We understand that the author of this anonymous manual is Mr. Eaton, lecturer on Botany and Natural History, first in Yale College at New-Haven, now in Williams' College in Massachusetts. He published last year at New-Haven in Connecticut, a translation of Richards's Dictionary of the terms of Botany, which will be found a useful work, notwithstand ing that it is sixteen years backwards in point of improvement, the period that has elapsed between the publication and translation of the work. The additions introduced into it by Mr. E. are very inconsiderable, and he appears to have had no knowledge of many eminent works published since 1800, (period of Richards's publication,) in which numberless improvements in Glossology, or the language of Botany, have been introduced, such as Philibert's Dictionary, Fontenelle's Dictionary, Link's Elements, Decandolle's Theory, Mirbel's Elements, Wildenow's Principles of Botany, &c. besides his Cryptogamy, and the partial improvements of Correa, Desvaux, Persoon, Acharius, Brown, Rafinesque, &c. None of the parts of Botany or any other science can remain stationary in Europe, particularly during 16 years; and this must not be forgotten by those who shall endeavour to transmit to us the scientific knowledge of continental Europe. Let us not imitate England, who adopts with reluctance, and after long periods, the improvements and discoveries of her neighbours; but let us avail ourselves at once of all those that have been, or may hereafter be made, else we shall never be on a level with those nations, by whom they are adopted and fostered. This manual of Botany deserves at least its name, being of a small and appropriate size, closely printed and with many abbreviations. So far the author has been consistent, since he has included in a few sheets, what might have been enlarged into a thick volume, by those who are prone to swell their labours, in the hope or belief that they may be esteemed in proportion to their bulk and weight! The genera and species of this manual are of course enumerated according to the sexual system of Linnæus, with the trivial corrections of Persoon. This unnatural, incorrect, difficult, puzzling, indelicate and obsolete system, prevails as yet in the U. S. and having beeu adopted in the two Floras of Michaux and Pursh, who appear to carry a greater authority than they deserve, will probably be taught and followed for a short period to come, or until a new Flora of the U. S. shall be undertaken on the plan of Decandollo's French Flora and Species plantarum, when it will of course be superseded by the natural method, which (by Linnæus's own confession) exceeds as much the sexual system, as this system exceeds all others. When it is recollected that the system of Linnæus, although published about 1733, was not adopted in England and America, until about forty years afterwards, and that the natural method of Jessieu, (since improved by Brown, Decandolle, and Rafinesque,) published in 1789, is merely beginning to dawn in England, through the exertions of the illustrious Robert Brown, it will not appear strange, that the U. S. should not have yet followed the example of the continent of Europe, where it begins to be in general use. We are however happy to observe, that even with us, Messrs. Correa and Rafinesque are endeavouring to introduce and teach the method of nature, and Mr. E. has with much propriety noticed to which of the orders of Jessieu, every genus belongs. He has likewise added a reference to the natural orders of Linnæus. By the title of this manual, we were led to expect, that all the plants of the states north of Virginia, were to be described or at least to be enumerated; but such is not the case. Only the genera are described, a few species of each Phenogamous genus and Ferns, (particularly such species as are found in Connecticut and Massachusetts,) and only one species of every other Cryptogamous genus;the whole might have been added with great propriety, and it would not have much swelled the volume. By this addition we should have had a complete manual guide for Herborisations, &c. much cheaper and less bulky than Pursh; but now, many plants will be found by the student and the Botanist in their walks, and excursions, which they will be unable to find in this manual; but let them not on that account think that they are new. Nearly 1400 species are however enumerated, and distinguished by short definitions, many of which will unhappily apply to several species, whence students. may be led into error. Several of the species are exotics in general cultivation ; they are a proper appendage, and are distinguished by the letter e. It is very much |