We now come to our reluctant office of pointing out what we conceive to be the defects of this noble effort of genius. - In the first place, we do not wish to dwell on the plan, any farther than to say that a very little management would have avoided the fault to which we alluded before, when we mentioned the manner in which Azim and Zelica are brought together. Pity for the one, and admiration of the other, should have prevented this painful incident: but we should ourselves commit the very offence which we censure, if we spoke more plainly on the subject. We are loth to say any thing of the blasphemies of the Impostor; they are in character, no doubt: but some of them will excite a shudder among the less firm of their audience. The dreadful scene which precedes and follows the unveiling of the mysterious countenance is admirably executed; but we shall not mutilate such a passage, nor spoil the freshness of the reader's pleasure.

In adverting to particular lines and expressions, it will be sufficient, for the most part, simply to quote them; because the reasons of our censure will be manifest, from the explanation of our principles of criticism on these points which we have so often given.

An unworthy simile, lowering the object which it is intended to illustrate, is appended to the following four lines, which in themselves are not only unobjectionable but beautiful:

Oh grief, beyond all other griefs, when fate
First leaves the young heart lone and desolate
In the wide world, without that only tie
For which it lov'd to live or fear'd to die;
Lorn as the hung-up lute that ne'er hath spoken
Since the sad day its master-chord was broken !'

Had the latter subject been compared to the former, it would have been obviously ennobled and exalted: but the contrary effect is produced at present, by a species of perverted comparison very common in modern poetry.

Just before this passage, occurs one of the numerous lines in which a wrong accentuation is vainly attempted to be slurred under a rythmical variety:

'those sounds of dread

Fell withering on her soul," Azim is dead!"

6

Just below, we have a galaxy of lips and eyes;' and this may be pretty and proper Mohammedanism: but certainly a redundancy of these features, particularly the last, is visible throughout the volume: -

'Woman's bright eyes, a dazzling host of eyes.'

from the flash

That lightens boldly through the shadowy lash,
To the sly, stealing splendours, almost hid

Like swords half-sheath'd, beneath the downcast lid.' This is somewhat Darwinian; and the same may be said of the Complete Florist's Garden, which is exhibited in various parts of the volume, particularly in the last story; where, indeed, we are so clogged and lost in sweets, that we fancy ourselves imprisoned in a kind of Confectioner's shop; or a bazar, perhaps, uniting the two trades above-mentioned with that of a Perfumer; so that we struggle from bottles of Eau de Cologne, and boxes of musk, into beds of the rose and the ranunculus, only to be finally relieved by pots of raspberryjam, unmitigated by a morsel of biscuit! We are again, however, wandering from our specific task; and the author's irregular troops recall us to a skirmish with them. He has attempted, in one of those anticipations which we have described in our introductory remarks, to foil the thrusts of criticism at this favourite corps of Cossacks, but, we think, without success. "Fleas are not lobsters, d-n their souls!" and trochees are not iambics. Words must be pronounced (confound them !) as they are accentuated, whatever havoc they make with versification. The line which Mr. Moore has chosen for his point d'appui, and on which he rests his defence of a whole host of brothers,

Gigantei fratres, - Titania proles, —

of extraordinary dimensions, we shall leave to Fadladeen: but we beg to enter our protest against the subjoined candidates for the aukward squad. Our readers will have observed such of their likenesses as may have occurred to blemish the beautiful passages which we have quoted: but, at all events, we shall not more plainly point them out. be lost in the blaze of light that surrounds them. No! had not reason's light totally set."'

That ecstacy, which from the depth of sadness

Let them

Glares like the maniac's moon, whose light is madness.'

This sort of double Hudibrastic termination we sufficiently condemned in our review of the vigorous poem of Rimini. The present author should be above any indulgences of so superfluous a description: - but what is the maniac's moon? Of the harvest-moon we have heard, and of several other distinct species of moons: but we thought that all moons had been equally connected with the unhappy lunatic; unless, indeed, there be some recondite allusion to the particular and periodic returns of this supposed influence.

'None

None but a lover

Could in that wreck of beauty's shrine discover
The once ador'd divinity!'

'But safe as yet that Spirit of Evil lives.'

Among the last of whom, the silver veil

Is seen glittering at times, like the white sail
Of some toss'd vessel.'

In these lines, the three sorts of vagary to which we directed the reader's observation are all exemplified. Here is the familiar vagary, in the prosaic expressions, Among the last of whom' the rough inharmonious vagary, in the clause, Is seen glittering at times; and, lastly, the overlapping vagary, in the conclusion, 'like the white sail of some toss'd vessel.' How easy, how inexpressibly easy, it must be to write such verses as these, in comparison with the attempt to compose a single passage in the simple but sweet and dignified style of Goldsmith, (to mention the last alone of our chosen favourites,) or in the natural and better manner of Mr. Moore himself. Assured as we are, by his very powerful and original productions, that the poet in question could, if he pleased, with comparative facility, avoid all the errors of expression and versification into which he has of late fallen, we have bestowed and shall continue to bestow considerable pains on this his longest effort, but not even yet his best effort, if he chuses, (as we warmly urge him,) to make a still higher attempt; if he chuses to efface the mark of dishonour from the annals of English literature; and not to leave one of the first nations that has stamped its memory on time, destitute of a single great poem erected on a patriotic foundation.

We are forced, in pursuance of our object, to return to the ungracious task of verbal criticism.

Among the many examples of prosaic or familiar words. which the volume affords, introduced in such a manner as to give a low or ludicrous effect, we mark the following:

airy as the dancing spray,

When from its stem the small bird wings away.'

Only substitute Tom-Tit for small bird, and see the effect. through the evening dusk

She now went slowly to that small kiosk.'

'as the sea-dog dotes

Upon the small sweet fry, that round him floats.'

On one side gleaming with a sudden grace
Through water, brilliant as the crystal vase

In which it undulates, small fishes shine
Like golden ingots from a fairy mine;

While on the other,' &c. &c. (side understood.)

This fondness for the epithet small reminds us of the celebrated tale of Little Red Riding Hood; where, in a modern versification of the story, the wolf tells his young visitor,

"I've got a small cold in my head."

Enough of this.

Forth like a diminutive mountain-tide,

Into the boundless sea they speed their course.'

These are rather like the Miltonic cadences of blank verse, than such as we have been used to consider as the legitimate and musical varieties of rhyme. A very popular joke circulates among modern anti-harmonists, about not counting syllables on the fingers. Have they forgotten that Horace, when he gives much to the ear, does not take away all from the fingers? "Legitimumque sonum digitis callemus et aure." Have you forgot the eye of glory, hid Beneath this veil, the flashing of whose lid Could, like a sun-stroke of the desert wither Millions of such as yonder Chief brings hither.' I will myself uncurtain in your sight

The wonders of this brow's ineffable light-
Then lead you forth, and with a wink disperse
Yon myriads howling through the universe.'

We shall conclude this long critique, reserving the remainder of the volume for our next Number, with two or three remarks of a similar nature: but not until we have recalled to the reader's recollection the pathetic, the glowing, and the highly animated passages which we have already presented to his perusal; nor without requesting him, and the author, to believe that we love much better to enjoy the beams of the sun, reflected in the scenery beneath him, than to gaze on his spots, however alarmingly they may have increased of late.

The phrases, some years since,' 'some months since,' &c. occur with as much sang froid in this poem as if poetry really admitted them; and a fault yet remains to be noticed, into which we did not imagine that this author would have fallen. Terror and Pity have been considered as the rightful divinities who preside over the tragic and the epic temple; and it has been thought that the excitement even of moral horror must be cautiously managed. It may be salutary, however, to be at times disgusted with exhibitions of depraved feeling but natural horror, or disgust raised by revolting physical objects, can never be allowed in modern poetry,

what

whatever the stronger stomachs of the antients may have endured. On this ground, we object to the dreadful dead-body scene in the Veiled Prophet,' at page 26., and to the allusion to it afterward :

'Instead of scents and balms, for thee and me

Rose the rich steams of sweet mortality.'

"Quodcunque ostendis mihi sic," &c.

The pictures in the Prophet's apartments excite a different sensation but we question whether by the change we gain as much in taste as we lose in more elevated qualities. The execution of the scene is, as usual, highly meritorious. [To be continued.]

ART. VIII. On the Supply of Employment and Subsistence for the Labouring Classes, in Fisheries, Manufactures, and the Cultivation of Waste Lands; with Remarks on the Operation of the Salt Duties, and a Proposal for their Repeal. Addressed to the Right Hon. Nicholas Vansittart. By Sir Thomas Bernard, Bart. 8vo. pp. 72. 38. Murray. 1817.

17

T is well known to our readers that this worthy Baronet has laboured for many years in the cause of the humbler orders; and he now comes forwards with redoubled diligence in this season of their distress. The object of his pamphlet is of the highest interest: but we cannot help thinking that it might have been more definitely expressed by such a title as "The Effects of a Repeal of the Salt Duties in extending productive Industry, affording Labour for the Poor, and providing fresh Sources of Revenue." He agrees with Lord Erskine * in forming a high estimate of the importance of this commodity; observing that no substance is more valuable or more generally applicable to use than common salt; and that every acquisition and every step which we make in chemical knowlege discover new benefits that may be derived from it. Lime has been of the greatest advantage to our agriculture in the course of the last half century, yet lime is neither so cheap nor so powerful, nor yet so universal, a manure as salt. Different soils require different proportions: but it may be laid down as a general rule, that not less than ten loads of lime are required to manure an acre of land, for which a single bushel of salt would be sufficient. Where a failure has taken place in applying salt as a manure, it has generally proceeded from an excess in the quantity; such, at least, was the case before the extraor

* See "Armata;" or the M. Rev. for March last.