the Church which you condemn, impofe a teft like this? Or is character of lefs value than emolument? While you pretend to be the advocate of free inquiry, fhall you prefume to vilify a creed because it is not your own? Univerfal toleration was once the theme: but toleration is now applied in a more reftricted sense: it now means the endurance of every thing, and of any thing, but THE DOCTRINES OF THE ESTABLISHED CHURCH. How long they will be endured, I know not. The affailants are numerous, and active on every fide: they are provided with all the implements of warfare, with all the means of influencing the public opinion. There is hardly a religious fect which is not provided with fome literary journal, in which its own authors are invariably commended, and the advocates for the Church of England invariably condemned. And though they diffent from each other, they all agree in oppofing the eftablishment. For this purpofe mutual jealousies fubfide; and the very difcord which divides them from the Church, becomes among themselves a bond of union. To this formidable and sys tematic warfare what do we oppofe? That we are able to oppofe, cannot be doubted, when we confider that the clergy of the Church of England are, without exception, the moft learned body in the kingdom. Both claffic and fcientific knowledge is fur nished by the clergy. And can it be fuppofed, that men like thefe are without the ability to defend the doctrines to which they have fubfcribed? No! But we want either the zeal which animates our opponents, or the courage to fland forward in defence of our own caufe. We are afraid of being thought intolerant, if we do but affert that our articles are true; we are afraid of being charged with bigotry, if we are not ready to concede every thing to those who are ready to concede nothing to us: we are afraid of being branded as perfecutors, if, while we are ready to grant toleration to all, we choofe that no exception fhould be made for ourselves. This is not unknown to the Critical Re viewer. You, Sir, are well acquainted with that noble maxim, that when confutation is difficult, an adverfary must be filenced by abufe: you are well informed of the benefits which refult from a copious application of thofe terms of reproach, which are calculated to please the ears of the vulgar: and you are equally fkilful to apply them, in proportion as the importance of your adverfary makes him more obnoxious. You know, likewife, that one effectual mode of degrading a religion is to degrade its moft diftinguished profeffors. I do not affect, Sir, to defpife the calumny which is diffeminated in a public journal: I do not affect to difregard the credit, which, if an author lofes, he muft ceafe to be useful and ftill lefs am I indifferent to the decifion of that tribunal to which I now appeal. But though I am not indifferent to praife, I am lefs indifferent to duty. And here I have a confcious fatisfaction, of which no man can deprive me.

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I enjoy

I enjoy the conscioufnefs, that I execute my office to the beft of my ability, devoting to it my time, and even facrificing my health. I enjoy, likewife, the confcioufnefs which arifes from an honeft discharge of it,the consciousnefs of not betraying the cause which I approve, the cause which has been entrusted to my care, and which I am pledged to defend.”

ART. VI. Dramatic and Narrative Poems. By John Joshua, Earl of Carysfort, K. P. 2 vols. 8vo. 11. 1s. Mackinlay.

1810.

IF F the phrafe of "the mob of gentlemen who write with eafe," was appofite in the time of Pope, it is certainly much more fo at the prefent day. Among our modern writers of poetry, refinement feems another word for imbecility, and rhythm is fo fmooth, fo foft, fo melifluous that whilst the ear receives no cause of offence, the underftanding has no refting place, and we glide along from page to page, without any improvement of our time, or addition to our flores of information. At intervals, however, as in the prefent inftance, fome better and more congenial fpirit prefents itfeif, to roufe us from the fomniferous lethargy which the perufal of modern poetry has a tendency to excite, and gladly and thankfully do we exult, when any new ftar appears in the poetic firmament, to cheer us on our way.

Thefe two elegant volumes from the pen of Lord Caryf fort, contain feven dramatic and narrative poems. In the firft volume are found the four dramatic pieces on the subject of Caius Gracchus, Monimia, the fall of Carthage, and Polyxena. At the end of each piece are fome concife, but judicious obfervations, explanatory of the fubject, and of the motives and intentions of the noble author. In the first of thefe poems, the Caius Gracchus, are many very ftriking and impreffive paffages, and the interview between the mother and the fon, between Cornelia and Gracchus, cannot be perufed without the deepest emotion. Its pathos, noble fentiment, and beauty of language, cannot eafily be furpaffed; the fame may be faid of many parts of Monimia, particularly of the conclufion.

The fall of Carthage is upon the Grecian model, and has its chorus and femichorus. From this the fubjoined extract cannot fail of leaving a very favourable impreflion with the reader; indeed, in the whole of this poem there is a great deal of original thinking.

CHORUS

CHORUS.

"Silent, firm, compact, and ftrong,
Move the Roman bands along;

Erect their crefts, and bold their tread;
Soon to mingle with the dead,
Shakes beneath th' affrighted land!
Carthage her heroic band

Marthalls on her lofty towers,
All her warriors, all her powers;
Every bofom beating high,
Full of hope and firm to die.
Hovering o'er, the god of war
Sends his dreadful voice afar;
Furies fwell the horrid found;
Till from Tartarus profound,
Conflict fierce and wild difmay,
Death and ruin rife to day!
Many a weeping dame fhall tear,
Frantic, her dishonour'd hair!
Ere the weftering fun fhall fail,
Many a youth lie cold and pale!
"Oh execrable luft of boundless fway
Loves not the spring thy fair Hefperian fhore?
And beams not there Apollo's genial ray
On cluster'd vines, and Ceres' golden ftore?
That thou fhouldft envy Afric's torrid plain,
Her fandy defarts, and her forefts drear,

Where the gaunt lion holds his favage reign,
And livid fnakes the poifon'd wound prepare;
And liften rather to the groan of death,
The fhriek of fear, the widow'd matron's cry,
Than, in thy native bowers, where zephyrs breath
Through myrtle fhades, be bleft with focial joy!

"But ah! Ambition's lofty brow
Scorns focial joy, and mocks at woe
Which others feel. But Chance and Fate,

Though now with cruel Hope elate,

Thy fancy riot in the fpoils,

Ev'n now for thee may fpread the toils,

Which fhall thy lawless courfe confine;

Till awful Nemefis affign

Shame and anguish to control

Thy rage, and fcourge thy guilty foul,

For the, of fovran deity

Conceiv'd by ftern Neceflity,

Hears not the pray'r; but firm to scan
The actions, and the heart of man,

To thefe unfolds the glorious reft
Of th' Elvfian manfions bleft;
To thofe the realms Cocytus laves
Where roar the Phlegethontic waves:
And the rebellious Titan race

Howls in th' unextinguish'd blaze.

"Oh Peace, fweet failing daughter of the skies!
With whom the facred choir of mufes moves,
Inviting with celeftial harmonies

The graces, and the blooming train of loves,
O'er the bleft land their influence benign
Gently to fhed, with renovating power,
And to the arts, and learning's fpirit divine,
Restore soft leifure, and the filent hour!
For ever art thou fled? The clash of arms,
The cries of battle, chill our hearts with fear!
Portentous figns I view! These fierce alarms
Proclaim the laft fad day of Carthage near!"

Vol. 1. p. 272.

The ftory of the Polyxena is of courfe, as the author acknowledg s, borrowed from the Hecuba of Euripides. The character of Caffandra is fuflained throughout with great force and pathos, and is compofed in the genuine fpirit of claffical taft and information.

The first poem of the fecond volume is founded on the Heathen mythology, and the idea of Britain's being colonized by Bratus, the defcendant of Eneas. This is in blank verfe. It is very fpirited as a compofition, and the tale is remarkably well told. The bower of Meliffa is in rhyme, and extends to fix cantos. It is by no means eafy to do juflice to the warmth of imagination, the ingenuity, and the elegance of this poem; it p felles every requifite which ought to characterize a compofition of the kind. The events are fo happily contrived, fo well connected, and lead the reader, in fo pleafing a manner, to the catastrophe, that it will endure a comprifon with the beft effufions of the kind, from either Dryden or Pope. The following fhort extract will ferve to give an idea of the fpirit of the whole

poem.

"Much marvell'd at that fight the noble youth,
Doubt fi I'd his mind. But now the fhield of truth,
With his neglected armour, thrown afide,
Lay ufelef; while A'cina, like a bride

Soft blooming, brea ling love, and fond defire,

Shot through each trembling nerve resistless fire.

Thus,

Thus, in delicious madnefs, many a day
Flew fwiftly by, yet not without allay
The blifs, while often in the lonely hour
The angel confcience on his ear would pour
His warning, and with forceful touch pourtray'd
Meliffa's bower, and his deferted maid;

Such mufings fill'd his mind, when, lo, it chanc'd
His eye upon the lofty chamber glanc'd,

Where all deform'd with ruft, in order'd files
Stood rang'd of many a lucklefs knight the fpoils
Anxious he fought his own. And foon their light
Not yet by time grown dim, attracts his fight.
Eager he fprings to feize. With fhrieks and cries
The palace rings, and all around him rife
Terrific forms, which clubs and lances wield,

And crowd to thwart, and drive him from the fhield.
He, rouz'd by hope, their threats and force difdains;
Preffes undaunted on, and the bright prize obtains.
"Th' illufion fled. No more, with wanton wing,
Light zephyrs fling around the balmy fpring;
No leafy bower excludes the fultry beam
No vale is vocal with the murmuring itream;
Rich chambers, breathing late Arabia's gale;
Gloomy and wafte, infectious fnch exhale.
And that fair dame, with vice polluted breaft,
His new purg'd eyes and chaften'd thoughts deteft.
Then in the fhield's clear mirror he furveys
The favage beafily crew, the fhield difplays
Forms once in human femblance caft, defac'd
By arts of that curf'd witch, and foul difgrac'd.
Around their hearts, bafe, fordid paffions twine
Indiffoluble bonds, and quench the spark divine.
Mov'd at the fight, he fheds fome pitying tears,
Then, joyful at the danger fcap'd, he fares
Forth on his way with courage undismay'd,

And prudence by experience firmer made." Vol. 11. p. 240. The concluding piece in thefe volumes is called the Statues, or the Story of Zeynu Lafnâm. This is also a very pleafing tale, and indicative of rich and copious ftores of fancy and embellishment.

These poems, we have no hefitation in afferting, will be an acceptable prefent to the lovers of poetry, but more particularly the latter volume. If the noble author fhould have any more tales of this defcription in the receffes of his portfolio, we hope that the gratification which muft of course. be experienced by the readers of thefe, and which we have no doubt will be very general, may be an inducement with his, Lordihip no longer to withhold them from the public. ART.

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