That graz'd it stood beneath that ample cope
Unerouded, yet safe-shelter'd from the storm.
No flock frequents thee now; thou hast out-liv'd
Thy popularit, and art become

(Unless verse rescue thee awhile) a thing
Forgotten, as the foliage of thy youth!

While thus through all the stages thou hast push'd
Of treeship-first a seedling hid in grass;
Then twig: then sapling, and, as century roll'd
Slow after century, a giant bulk

Of girth enormous, with moss-cushion'd root
Upheav'd above the soil, and sides imboss'd
With prominent wens globose-till at the last,
The rottenness, which time is charg'd to inflict
On other mighty ones, found also thee.

What exhibitions various hath the world
Witnessed, of mutability in all

That we account most durable below!
Change is the dict,' on which all subsist,
Created changeable, and change at last
Destroys them-skies uncertain, now the heat
Transmitting cloudless, and the solar beam
Now quenching, in a boundless sea of clouds--
Calm and alternate storm, moisture and drought,
Invigorate by turns the springs of life

In all that live, plant, animal, and man,

And in conclusion mar them. Nature's threads,
Fine, passing thought, e'en in her coarsest works,
Delight in agitation-yet sustain

The force that agitates not unimpair'd,
But worn by frequent impulse, to the cause
Of their best tone their dissolution owe.

Thought cannot spend itself comparing still
The great and little of thy lot, thy growth
From almost nullity into a state

Of matchless grandeur, and declension thence
Slow into such magnificent decay.

Time was, when settling on thy leaf, a fly

Could shake thee to the root-and time has been

When tempests could not. At thy firmest age

Thou hadst within thy bole solid contents

That might have ribb'd the sides, and plank'd the deck
Of some flagg'd admiral, and tortuous arms,
The ship wright's darling treasure, didst present
To the four quarter'd winds, robust and bold,
Warp'd into tough knee timber, many a load!
But the axe spar'd thee; in those thriftier days
Oaks fell not, hewn by thousands, to supply
The bottomless demands of contest, wag'd
For senatorial honours. Thus to time.

The

The task was left to whittle thee away,
With his sly scythe, whose ever nibbling edge,
Noiseless, an atom and an atom more,
Disjoining from the rest, has unobserv'd
Achiev'd a labour, which had far and wide,
(By man perform'd) made all the forest ring.

'Embowell'd now, and of thy antient self
Possessing nought, but the scoop'd rind, that seems
An huge throat calling to the clouds for drink,
Which it would give in rivulets to thy root;
Thou temptest none, but rather much forbidd'st
The feller's toil, which thou couldst ill requite:
Yet is thy root sincere, sound as the rock,
A quarry
of stout spurs, and knotted fangs,
Which crook'd into a thousand whimsies, clasp
The stubborn soil, and hold thee still erect.

So stands a kingdom, whose foundation yet.
Fails not, in virtue and in wisdom lay'd,
Though all the superstructure, by the tooth
Pulveriz'd of venality, a shell

Stands now-and semblance only of itself!'

In some parts of this fragment, the poet is not inferior to Shakspeare and Milton; though in others he betrays both inflation and quaintness. It is fair, however, to suppose that, had Mr. Cowper finished his design, we should have found it more polished.-To conclude: he must take an eminent station among our writers both of verse and prose; and he merits also our cordial esteem as,making genius always subservient to religion and virtue.

Facing the title is a view of St. Edmund's Chapel, in the Church of East Dereham, containing the grave of Mr. Cowper; and at the end of the volume is a sketch of his Monument, with the following inscription, written (we suppose) by the Editor:

IN MEMORY

OF WILLIAM COWPER ESQ
BORN IN HERTFORDSHIRE 1731
BURIED IN THIS CHURCH 1800.

YE, WHO WITH WARMTH THE PUBLIC TRIUMPH FEEL

OF TALENTS, DIGNIFIED BY SACRED ZEAL,

HERE, TO DEVOTION'S BARD DEVOUTLY JUST,

PAY YOUR FOND TRIBUTE DUE TO COWPER'8 DUST!
ENGLAND, EXULTING IN HIS SPOTLESS FAME,
RANKS WITH HER DEAREST SONS HIS FAV'RITE NAME:
SENSE, FANCY, WIT, SUFFICE NOT ALL TO RAISE

SO CLEAR A TITLE TO AFFECTION'S PRAISE;
HIS HIGHEST HONOURS TO THE HEART BELONG;
HIS VIRTUES FORM'D THE MAGIC OF HIS SONG.'

This epitaph is simply elegant, and appropriately just.

ART. III. General Zoology, or Systematic Natural History, by George Shaw, M.D. F.R.S. &c. with Plates from the first Au thorities, and most select Specimens, engraved principally by Mr. Heath. Vol. IV. in 2 Parts. 8vo. pp. 640. 98 Plates. 12s. 6d. Boards. Kearsley. 1803.

T

21.

HE preceding volumes of this judicious and elegant compilement were introduced to the notice of our readers in the 39th volume of our New Series, pp. 16. and 113., and it gives us pleasure again to report the progress of the author. In pursuance of his plan, Dr. Shaw now details the natural history of Fishes; and, as introductory matter, he has extracted, chiefly from the large work of Monro, some of the principal physiological and anatomical facts which relate to this interesting class of animals. These preliminary observations are valuable, but scanty; and in particular they convey little or no information regarding the scaly covering, the respiration, the habits, and the longevity of fishes.

In the distribution of his orders, Dr. Shaw follows the Linnéan divisions of apodal, jugular, thoracic, and abdominal. The first includes those fishes which have no ventral fins; the second, those which have the ventral more forward than the pectoral, or breast fins; the third, those which have the ventral fins situated immediately under the pectoral; and the fourth, those which have the ventral placed behind the pec

toral.

There still remains a particular tribe called Cartilaginous Fishes, Pisces Cartilaginei. This tribe was by Linnæus separated from the rest, and placed in the class Amphibia, where it constitutes the order Nantes.

This particular distribution of the Cartilaginous Fishes was made on a supposition of their being furnished both with lungs and gills; an idea which seemed confirmed by the observations of Dr. Garden of South Carolina, who, at the request of Linnæus, examined the organs of the genus Diodon, and found, as he conceived, both external branchia or gills, and internal lungs. This idea, however, has been shewn by later physiologists to have been not strictly correct; the supposed lungs being in reality only a peculiar modification of gills. The cartilaginous fishes, as their name imports, differ from others in having a cartilaginous instead of a bony skeleton.'

Either prefixed or subjoined to the statement of these divisions, we expected a definition of the class: but, we know not for what good reason, the Doctor has omitted this information. The first part of the fourth volume, which is in size very disproportioned to the second, comprizes the apodal and jugular orders; and the second, the thoracic.-To the eight genera of the apodal order, as set down in the twelfth edition of the System

1

of Nature, the present author has added ten; namely, Ans guilla, Synbranchus, Sphagebranchus, Monopterus, Odontognathus, Comephorus, Triurus, Leptocephalus, Stylephorus, and Sternopty.

The Linnéan generic characters of Murana being applied to the Anguilla of Dr. Shaw, an cel-shaped body, want of pectoral fins, and a spiracle on each side of the neck, constitute his Murana. From the latter, Synbranchus differs only in the spiracle being single, and situated beneath the throat. Its two species, both from Surinam, are neatly described.

It is still doubtful whether Sphagebran hus rostratus, adopted from Bloch, be essentially different from the Murana caca of Linné.

Monopterus Javanicus is inserted on the authority of La Cépède, whose splendid work on Ichthyology has been singularly enriched by the manuscript observations of Cominerson.

Nineteen very amusing pages are devoted to the electric Gymnotus: but we pass to an article of greater novelty.

ACULEATED ODONTOGNATHUS.

Odontognathus abdomine aculeato.

Odontognathus with aculeated abdomen.

L'Odontognathe aiguillonné. Gépède pisc. 2. p. 222.

The genus Odontognathus, instituted by Cépède, consists of a single species, of which the following is the description The head, body, and tail are very compressed: the lower jaw, which is longer than the upper, is very much elevated towards the other when the mouth is closed, insomuch as to appear almost vertical, and is lowered somewhat in the manner of a drawbridge when the mouth is opened, when it appears like a small scaly boat, very transparent, furrowed beneath, and finely denticulated on the margins: this lower jaw, in the act of depression, draws forwards two flat, irregular lamine of a scaly substance, a little bent at their posterior end, and larger at their origin than at their tips, denticulated on their anterior margin, and attached, one on one side, and the other on the opposite, to the most prominent part of the upper jaw: when the mouth is closed again, these pieces apply themselves on each side to one of the opercula, of which they represent the exterior denticulated border: in the middle of these jaws is placed the tongue, which is pointed and free in its movements: the gill covers, which are composed of several pieces, are very transparent at the hind part, but scaly and of a bright silver colour in front: the gill membrane is also silvery, and has five rays: the breast is terminated below by a sharp carina furnished with eight crooked spines: the carina of the belly is also furnished with twenty-eight spines, disposed in two longitudinal ranges: the anal fin is very long, and extends almost as far as the base of the tail-fin, which is of a forked shape the dorsal fin is placed on the tail, properly speaking, at about three quarters of the whole length of the animal, but it is extremely small. The general length of this fish is three decimetres, and its colour, so far as may be conjectured from specimens preserved

for

for some time in spirits, is a bright silver. It is a native of the American seas, and is common about the coasts of Cayenne, where it ranks in the number of edible fishes.'

Coinciding with La Cépède, Dr. Shaw transfers Callyonymus Baikalensis of Pallas, and of Gmelin's edition of the Systema Natura, to Comephorus; though, apparently from oversight, he describes it again, with some variation of language, under the Gmelinian designation, and in the order of jugulars.

The general appearance of Scomber gladius of Bloch may apologize for its transference to the genus Xiphias; yet the finny processes beneath the breast, and above and below the tail, with the small prominences on each side of the latter, plead in favour of the original arrangement.

Stylephorus chordatus, as here described, would form an interesting extract: but it has already appeared in the Linnéan Transactions, and in the Naturalist's Miscellany. In its stead, therefore, we transcribe the article Triurus; which will, no doubt, be new to many of our readers:

Triurus Commersonii. T. orificio operculorum valvula clausili. Triple-tail with the branchial orifice closed at pleasure by a valve. Le Triure Bougainvillien. Cépède pisc. 1. p. 201.

The genus Triurus is instituted by Cépède from a remarkable fish discovered by Commerson in the Indian seas, and of which the following is the description. Its general appearance and size is that of a herring: the body is much compressed, and covered with scales, so small and deeply seated, that, at first sight, the animal appears destitute of any the head, which is compressed as well as the body, and a little flattened above, is terminated by a very lengthened snout in form of a strait tube, at the end of which is a round hole by way of mouth, and which the fish has no power of closing: in the bottom of this tube are the two bony jaws, each composed of a single incisive and triangular tooth, no others being observable either on the palate or tongue, which latter is very short, cartilaginous, but rather fleshy at the tip, which is rounded: the nostrils are very small, and placed nearer to the eyes than to the tip of the snout: the eyes are moderately large, slightly convex, not covered by the common skin, as in the Gymnotes and some other apodal fishes, and the irides are of a bright gold and silver colour: the gill-covers are situated beneath the skin, and are each composed of an osseous lamina in form of a sickle: the gill-membrane is five-rayed, and is attached to the head or body round its whole

Contour,