the ingenuous language of plain profe. We fhould be induced to imprefs upon his mind a maxim, of which he will hereafter acknowledge the good fenfe more readily than at prefent, read more, write lefs.

ART. 12. The Valentine, a Poem on St. Valentine's Day; (the 14th of February.) With a poetical Dedication to Mrs. Dorfet, Author of "the Peacock at Home." By Edward Coxe, Efq: of Hampstead Heath. 8vo. 32 pp. 2s. 6d. Longman and Co. 1810.

Mr. Coxe protefts againft being numbered among the imitators. of Mrs. Dorfet's elegant poem, and we have no inclination to place him in fo uncreditable a fet. He gives reafons, fufficiently good, why he could not have treated this fubject other wife than he has, even if her poem had not preceded: and he produces a little fable, which certainly proves that the fame ftyle of jocularity had been employed by him long before it exifted. This fable, because we think it rather more neat than any paffage we could give from the poem, we shall here infert.

"EXAMPLE BETTER THAN PRECEPT.

"Madame CRAB, like an Alderman's Lady, grown fine,
Thus addrefs'd her fat daughter; to day with us dine,
Coufin LOBSTER, who mourns for the lofs of his mother,
And CRAY-FISH in black too, his little half brother;
I expect PERIWINKLE, and COCKLE, and MUSCLE,
And OYSTER, who wags not, though all 's in a bustle;
And the PRAWNS *, and their miniature, that tiny imp,
Whom we, that are great folks, denominate SHRIMP:
Then hold up your head, child, and turn out your toes,
And don't waddle fideways before fuch smart beaux!'

"The pert, faucy daughter, this answer return'd—
By example much more than by precept is learn'd;
So, if you would have me the graces difplay
In my walking and dancing, firft fhew me the way:
For, believe me, I'm not quite fo filly an elf,

As to mind what you say, while you waddle yourself!" P. 10. In the Valentine, the author produces a few couples of birds, according to his fancy, and either is witty or puns upon them as he finds convenient. It is written in the eight fyllable verfe.

"The couplet wherein the prawn and the fhrimp are introduced, was accidentally omitted to be inferted, when this Fable went to the press, in 1805.”

ART. 13. Vocal Repofitory Tract; containing Selections of Songs adapted to Perfons in humble Life, juited to their Occupations and Amufements, and teaching good Morals. 1d. each Tract, containing 16 pages, or 6s. per hundred. Pitts. 1810.

In our thirty-fourth vol. p. 182, we ftrongly commended the defigu of thefe Tracts, and the execution of that defign. The author, (Mr. Plumptre, of Clare Hall,) has here offered to the public five other Tracts; and, by the advice of his friends, with whom we concur, has happily enlivened his work with fome degree of humour.

A fpecimen of this good humour, in the verfification of a very old ftory, may be acceptable to our readers; and may induce fome to procure, and diftribute among their poor neighbours, thefe falu. tary Tracts.

4 SONG AND A LAUGH. THE CHOICE OF A WIFE BY CHEESE Tune-Nontongpaw-By Dibdin.

"There liv'd in York, an age ago,

A man, whofe name was Pimlico:
He lov'd three fifters paffing well,
But which the beft he could not tell.
These fifters three, fupremely fair,
Shew'd Pimlico their tendereft care:
For each was elegantly bred,
And all were much inclin'd to wed,
And all made Pimlico their choice,
And prais'd him with their sweetest voice.
"Young Pim, the gallant and the gay,
Like Afs in doubt 'tween loads of hay,
At laft refolv'd to gain his ease,
And chufe his wife by eating cheese.
He wrote his card, he feal'd it up,

And faid with them that night he'd fup;
Defir'd that there might only be

Good Cheshire cheese, and but them three ;.
He was refolv'd to crown his life,
And by that means to fix his wife.
The girls were pleas'd at his conceit;
Each drefs'd herself most beauteous neat;
With faces full of peace and plenty,
Blooming with rofes under twenty;
For furely Nancy, Betfy, Sally,
Where fweet as lilies of the valley,
To thofe the gay divided Pim
Came elegantly smart and trim:
When ev'ry fmiling maiden, certain,
Cut of the cheese to try her fortune.
"Nancy, at once, not fearing-caring
To hew her faving, ate the paring;

And

And Bet, to fhew her generous mind,
Cut, and then threw away the rind,
While prudent Sarah, fure to please,
Like a clean maiden, ferap'd the cheese.
This done, young Pimlico replied,
"Sally I now declare my bride,
And the fhall be my wedded wife,
For worse or better, for life
my

"

"With Nan I can't my welfare put,
For the has prov'd a dirty flut:
And Betfy, who has par'd the rind,
Would give my fortune to the wind.
Sally the happy medium chofe,
And I with Sally will repofe;
She's prudent, cleanly; and the man,
Who fixes on a nuptial plan,

Can never err, if he will chufe,

A wife by cheese-before he vows."

P. 2.

ART. 14. Little Dramas for Young People, on Subjects taken from English Hiftory: intended to promote among the rifing Gemeration an early Love of Virtue and their Country. By Mrs. B. Hoole, Author of La Fete de la Rofe," c. 8vo. 128 pp. 35. London, Longman; Sheffield, Gales; Knaresborough and Harrogate, Hargrove. 1810.

In our thirty-fourth vol. p. 69, we mentioned with high fa tisfaction "La Fete de la Rofe, a Holiday Prefent for Young People." We have here another gift for them, fingularly inter efting and affecting.

As the young ladies, for whom thefe little Dramas were written, did not (and were never intended to) perform them in any way, but for their own amusement and improvement during play hours; it is prefumed that they cannot be accused of exciting a fpirit of vanity or a love of exhibition; charges, which certainly apply to entertainments of this kind, when conducted in a public manner. Of the evils produced and fostered by the public performances of [female] children at fchool, the author en. tertains fuch a decided disguft; that he would confider know. ledge itfelf too dearly bought, if purchafed by the lofs of that modefty and fimplicity which are not only the most amiable cha racteristics in a girl, but the harbingers of that "meek and quiet fpirit" in a woman which is above all price." P. vi.

In the present times, this is a very laudable caution, which inclines us to think highly of the young ladies boarding-fchools, at Doncafter and Harrogate. The fubjects, here taken from English hiftory, and put into neat blank verfe, are- -The Death of Henry 11; the Flight of Queen Margaret, and her fon, after the battle of Hexham; the Death of Lady Jane Gray; and the Fortitude

Fortitude of Lady Ruffel. Hiftorical notes are added, for the more ready information of young readers. Surely, fuch a scene as the following muft have ftrongly affected the very youthful speakers, as well as their hearers.

"Enter the SON and two daugters of LORD RUSSEL, with attendants.

FIRST DAUGHTER.

"Oh my dear father! you have left us long,
And we have wanted you in all our sports;
The little kid is grown whofe life you faved,
And frisks and gambols when we call your name.

SON.

"Hufh, little girl! our father is unwell;
And mother fays, dear fir, you're going foon
A long, long journey. May not I go with you?

RUSSEL.

"No, my fweet boy! thou canft not drink my cup,
Nor travel in my path; but thou must stay :
And if thou lov'ft thy father, prove that love
By comforting thy mother when I am gone.

SECOND DAUGHTER.

"When you are gone! that has a difmal found.
When poor
old nurfe was laid in the deep hole,
They faid that "the was gone."-Oh! do not go!
Mamma will want you, and we all shall cry.

SON.

(The children weep.),

"Indeed, my father, my mifgiving heart,
Like my poor fifter's, whifpers fomething bad;
You are not used to leave us; and your eyes,
Tho' you're a man, are full of trickling tears.
"RUSSEL (to Cavendish.)

"Oh! how thefe prattlers agonize my heart!
My enemies indeed might triumph now. (He weeps,
("To the children.)

Farewell, my loves! my darling girls, farewell!
My fon, my fon, farewell! remember long

Thy father's laft, laft words were only these :

"Love, cherish, venerate, thy matchlefs mother." P.91.

MEDICAL.

ART. 15. Practical Obfervations on Strictures of the Urethra'; with Cafes illuflrative of the comparative Merits of the Cauffic and common Bougie; alfo Remarks on Fistula in Ano, and an improved Method of treating Tinea Capitis, with annexed Cafes. By Thomas Luxmore, Surgeon Extraordinary to the Prince of

Wales,

Wales, Surgeon to the Eastern Difpenfary, Sc. Sc. 215 ppLondon, Highley; Edinburgh, Creech.

1809.

It is a fault not unfrequently found with authors of deferved. celebrity, that having once established a reputation by the excellence of their writings, they are too apt to hazard the lofs of it by an eager hafte to compofe and publish other works. Thus they fpeedily, as the phrafe is, write themselves out. Had Mr. Thomas Luxmore ever written himfelf in, we should have been inclined to fuggeft, that in the publication before us, he had fallen into this too general error; but as we cannot call to our minds any production of his pen, which can entitle him even to the rank of mediocrity among medical authors, it is merely neceffary for us to ftate our opinion, that he has treated a very hackneyed, fubject in a very common place manner; that while he has only ventured upon that road which others have too much used, and cut up before him, he has contrived to ftumble over every little difficulty they may have avoided; and that, in fhort, though he has given us a volume of words, he has not prefented a fingle novel idea. We should, however, have been in fome degree fatiffied, had he removed any one of thofe difficulties which are faid to arife in the practical application of thofe principles and opinions which he has derived from others; but instead of doing, this, he has, by ftrange contradictions, appeared only to render that truly confufed, which, at worst, only required a little confideration and judgment to enable it to be applied with as much fafety as certainty. In our obfervations we allude principally to what is written refpecting the nature and hiftory of ftrictures in the urethra, confidering the cafes detailed with the additional remarks upon tinea capitis, and fiftula in ano, as forming that harmless portion of the work, which it became neceffary to infert, for the purpose of fwelling it into a fufficiently fizcable volume. The nature of the principal fubject does not permit us to go into a more exact detail, unless our work were strictly profeffional. In that cafe it would be eafy to prove all that we have afferted.

ART. 16. The Surgeon's Vade Mecum: containing the Symptoms, Caufes, Diagnofis, Prognofis, and Treatment of Surgical Difeafes. Accompanied by the modern, and improved Method of Operating; jelect Formule of Prefcriptions, and a Gloffary of Terms. 269 pp. 6s. Murray. 1809.

Did we approve of the numerous clafs of books which are publifhed as compendiums of the various branches of the healing Icience, we should still be under the neceffity of, ftating our opi nion, that the Surgeon's Vade Mecum is the weakest, and leaft ufeful of any which have hitherto been ufhered into public notice in that form. The great fault which we find with books of this kind is, that if they really are what they profefs to be, they en..

courage