forth in strains of indignant declamation against the horrid crimes that disgraced the age in which he lived.

Much has been written on the comparative merits of these two great poets; --and yet it might be observed, without giving offence to the partisan of either, that the artful ridicule and elegant raillery of Horace, by exposing to just contempt those incongruities, absurdities, and follies, which generally originate in vanity and are rather troublesome than mischievous, could not but have the happiest effects in regulating the manners and improving the conversation of the polite court of Augustus:but vice, when it appeared in all its deformity in the reign of Nero and Domitian, demanded different chastisement, and called forth the bold invective of Juvenal; who is moral, grave, splendid, and declamatory,--and to the wicked inexorably se

vere.

Persius, as a poet, is very inferior to Horace and Juvenal: he has been justly censured for his obscurity, his coarse metaphors, his extravagant hyperboles, and, in a word, for his total ignorance of elegant composition; yet, if Dr. Johnson said truly that the great use of books is to make us wiser and better, Persius is entitled to no small share of praise. The excellent moral and religious sentiments with which he abounds, the effusions of a heart formed by the best philosophy, -deserve the applause of men of all ages and conditions; and surely no apology is necessary for introducing to the English reader a poet of whom the celebrated Mr. Harris * (of Salisbury) said, that " he was the only difficult Latin author that would reward the reader for the pains which he must take to understand him."

Mr. Drummond is not the first who has given an English version of Persius. Dryden, as is very well known, translated the whole of the six satires, with his usual ease, spirit, and carelessness; and they were published with his Juvenal. It may be worthy of remark that the third satire was performed as an exercise at Westminster-school, and met with the approbation of the famous Dr. Busby. - Dr. Brewster likewise published a translation of Persius, which, we believe, appeared before the commencement of our Review: but we are not strangers to its excellencies. The Doctor possessed considerable learning and ingenuity, and perfectly understood the genius, style, and manner of his author, which he very happily copied.-Like some other translations, this has been too much neglected.

In speaking of the merits of Mr. Drummond's performance, we ought not to pass over his preface; which is extremely well written, and reflects great honour on his learning and taste.

* Author of Hermes, &c.

The

The versification here presented to us is strong, flowing, and harmonious; and Mr. D., generally speaking, clearly expresses the meaning of the original: but it may be questioned whether he is not defective in that ease and vivacity, which seem to be the essence of satire, and in which Dryden particularly excelled. The following passage from the 5th satire will be read with pleasure, on account of the excellent instruction which it conveys; and it will also afford a fair specimen of the translation:

• Imagine not, while passions keep their sway,
That you no master but yourself obey.

What though you've knelt beneath the prætor's wand,
And in your turn submissive slaves command:
Are there not tyrants which usurp your soul,
Divide your bosom, and your will control?
But hark, a voice;-'tis Avarice that cries,
"The day advances fast, for shame, arise."
Back on his bed the drowsy sluggard falls;
Again he sleeps, again his tyrant calls.
"Arise, I say, arise." But what to do?
"Wealth through the world at every risk pursue.
Bring luscious wines from Coa's fruitful shores;
Transport from Asia half its vaunted stores;
Dare the wild wastes of Afric's sterile soil:
Thy camels load with Oriental spoil;
Defraud, deceive, make money if you can,
Nor think that Jove will disapprove the plan :
He who on earth for heaven alone shall live,
Will know full soon how much the gods can give."
Awhile the voice of Avarice prevails;
Already in your thoughts you spread the sails;
The famed Egean in your mind explore,
And brave the stormy Euxine's barbarous shore.
But still as on your downy bed you lie,
You hear the voice of Luxury reply.
"Whither, O madman, whither wouldst thou run;
Across what seas, beneath what sultry sun?
Is then thy bile so hot as to require
Whole urns of hemlock to assuage the fire;
A sparing supper canst thou stoop to eat,
Bad wine thy beverage, and a rope thy seat:
And this, to add a trifle to thy store,
And swell the sum, which was enough before?
Ah think, vain schemer, how the moments fly;
The instant now observed is time gone by.
Seize then the hour; thy way with roses strew;
Thy days make happy, for they must be few.
Enjoy the world ere yet oblivion be,
And dust and ashes all that rest of thee."
Thus in their turns your masters you obey,
Pursue now one, and now another way.

Between

Between two baits have liberty to choose,
That you may take, and that you may refuse.
But think not long your freedom to retain;
The dog broke loose still drags the galling chain.
Who has not heard the lover in the play,
In frenzy raving, to his servant say?
"Shall I then, Davus, long my parent's care,
Waste all the wealth of which they made me heir;
For Chryses, live the shame of all my race,
By them consider'd as their worst disgrace?
Shall I on her with midnight music wait,
And hold late revels at a harlot's gate?"
Spoke like yourself;" cries Davus, "hafte, and kill
A lambkin to the gods averting ill.

But should she weep?" "And dost thou tremble, boy,
Lest her correcting slipper she employ ?"
He who commands himself, is only free.
If any wear not chains, this-this-is he.
His freedom comes not through the prætor's hand,
Nor owes its being to a lictor's wand.'

!

We cannot conclude our remarks on this work without applauding Mr. D. for devoting his leisure hours to classical learning, and to those elegant studies which are useful and ornamental to persons in every situation of life; which add a lustre to the greatest talents; and which ought particularly to be cultivated by those who are placed in elevated stations, and to whom any part of the legislative power in a great nation is

entrusted.

:

MONTHLY CATALOGUE, For SEPTEMBER, 1798. EDUCATION, &c.

Art. 13. Truth and filial Love, a little Drama, in Three Acts. 12mo. Is. Lee and Hurst.

THE author of this performance, in order to impress his young readers with a just sense of the importance of secrecy and truth, has composed a little drama, in which Telemachus is the chief character. The fable is very simple, and not greatly interesting: but it contains good maxims, and useful advice, suitable to the capacities of children.

Art. 14. Lectures graduées pour les Enfans. Graduated Lessons for Children. By the Abbé Gaultier. Small 12mo. 3 Vols. Elmsley, &c.

The Abbé Gaultier has long since attained a distinguished rank among the genteeler priests of public instruction; and his works have received from many fashionable mothers the flattering incense of a grateful smile: while his portrait probably hangs in the lalarium of the nursery, with the other household gods of infancy. His grant mar and spelling book, or, as the grandiloquent philosophers of Paris term them, his analytical and synthetical tables of the French language, received on the 27th April 1787 the formal approbation of the Academy of Inscriptions and Belles Lettres. They were accompanied with a bag of playthings, serving to teach the elements of discourse to children, in the manner of a game. -He still continues to pursue this career of amiable utility, and has dedicated to Lady Auckland three volumes of Graduated Lessons for Children, which begin with ab, eb, ib, ob, ub, and terminate with various sheets of coloured circles; which, at first, we supposed to be intended to teach the theory of the prismatic colours, but which only serve to inclose the different words of a motley sentence. The child is to be provided with a rabbit's hair pencil, and a box of paints; he is to colour blue the circles which surround an adjective, and red the circumference of a verb; a yellow glory is to crown a conjunction; and an interjection is to exhale in viewless white. Such is the character of his arts or artifices of tuition.

We do not think the subject-matter of the dialogues well-chosen; they are dialogues with children, to be sure: but are they not such as tend to foster a frivolous taste?

NOVELS.

Art. 15. Clara Duplessis and Clairant: the History of a Family of French Emigrants. Translated from the German. 12mo. 3 Vols. 10s. 6d. Boards. Longman.

In our 22d volume, p. 570, we spoke with much praise of this original novel of Augustus Lafontaine (author of "Family Stories," see vol. xxiv. p. 565), of which these three volumes contain a flowing and sufficiently correct translation, but made apparently through the medium of the French version. The story preserves its nature and its interest.

Art. 16. Count Donamar, or Errors of Sensibility. From the German.

12mo. 3 Vols. 10s. 6d. sewed. Johnson.

This work contains all the bloated magnificence of diction, extra vagance of imagination, and wild eccentricity of adventure, by which many of the German novels are distinguished; and we fear, also, that its tendency is unfavourable to the cause of religion and virtue. The hero, though set up as a pattern of all that is great and excellent, is a strange composition of pride and presumption; impatient of controul, a slave to his passions, (which he frequently mistakes for virtues,) inflated with false notions of honour, a sceptic in religion, and a quack in politics:- his friend St. Julian, though less headstrong and ungoverned, is equally visionary and romantic: other characters are alike objectionable, on different grounds; and the sentiments are frequently immoral, and highly favourable to the criminal indulgence of our passions. The countenance given to self-murder is particularly reprehensible.

AFFAIRS OF IRELAND.

Art. 17. The Causes of the Rebellion in Ireland disclosed, in an Address to the People of England; in which it is proved by incontrovertible vertible Facts, that the System for some Years pursued in that Country has driven it into its present dreadful Situation. By an Irish Emigrant. 8vo. Is. 6d. Jordan. 1798.

The recent situation of Ireland has been, as this vehement 'emigrant' calls it, 'dreadful' indeed; and whatever tends to elucidate the causes which led to that unhappy situation must be highly interesting on either side of the water. The present publication on that subject appears to be the composition of a person who is conversant in Irish politics, but we know not what credit is due to it. We are indeed persuaded that the writer was not in the secret, with respect to the party which he has espoused.

Of the system by which Ireland has been governed since the year 1783, when the independence of her legislature was established, a history is here given; which represents the administration of Ire. land as being uniformly actuated by the one great principle, of substituting a corrupt influence in the legislature of that country, instead of that supremacy by means of which the British cabinet had formerly governed it, but which they had been obliged in 1783 to give up. The discontents which have agitated Ireland, from that period downwards, are alledged to have had their origin in the overbearing and corrupt character of the Irish ministers; while the various concessions of constitutional measures, which had taken place, are asserted to have been made reluctantly and late; and therefore to have produced neither conciliation nor gratitude.

Tracing the workings of British influence in the parliament and cabinet of Ireland through its opposition to the volunteers, to the volunteer convention, to parliamentary reform, and to the attempts of the catholics to obtain the clective franchise, the author comes to state the origin of that body so singular in its formation, and so fertile, in the result, of mischief to Ireland, -the UNITED IRISHMEN.

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Among other modes which had been devised for giving greater efficacy to the public will on this subject, was that of forming societies which should have for their sole object to animate, to direct, to concentrate, the exertions of the people in the pursuit of this favourite and vital measure. Of these societies the first was formed in Dublin, of a few men whose talents, principles, and character, moral and political, gave such weight and popularity to their union, as soon swelled its numbers to a magnitude, which, while it gave hope to the friends of the popular cause, excited in the administration very lively alarm. But it was yet more the principles of this body than its numbers which alarmed administration. The original members of the society, men of minds not only firmly attached to the political interests of this country, but superior to the influence of bigotry, which had been the most powerful instrument in the hands of the Court faction for diyiding and weakening the people, made it a radical principle of their union to promote as abolition of all religious distinction, and to procure for all the freemen of the state, whatever might be their religious sentiments, a participation in all the privileges of the British constitution. A feform in parliament, accompanied by such a principle as this, became a

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measure