servants of the world, than as a chosen priesthood, I suspect that we scarcely enter the church with a disposition to reduce all our opinions and passions under subjection to the law of Christ.' In offering up our prayers at the throne of grace, have we not sometimes manifested a greater desire to exhibit ourselves than to glorify the Almighty? Have we never substituted the affectation of fine reading for the simplicity of a fervent devotion? Have we not altered sometimes the forms of prayer according to our own notions of propriety, instead of adhering to the letter prescribed with that diffidence which best becomes us? Have we never betrayed a thoughtlessness and unconcern in hastily and irreverently despatching the service, when we ought to have evinced our godly sincerity, by a heartfelt solemnity in performing it? For the pulpit, we are much more apt to frame our discourses according to the wisdom of the world, than the truth which is in Jesus.' In general, we prefer ethics to Christianity-the portico to the mount. In particular, instead of referring to times and circumstances, in the manner of our Saviour, and rendering them subsidiary to the Gospel, we advert to times and circumstances, in the manner of that fashionable character, the political philosopher, and thus make the Gospel subservient to our own purposes. At this portentous moment there are many who degrade the pulpit into the vehicle of prejudiced opinion. Surely, if we must at all advert to the passing scene of politics, we may thence deduce no unprofitable reflections. A good heart might easily, from such a view, suggest the topics of exhortation. But to hold forth the picture of national prosperity that a pacific administration might have once secured, in opposition to the gloomy prospect of a ruined kingdom; to declaim on the blessings of peace as contrasted with the miseries of war; instead of attempting to soften, by every alleviating circumstance, the features of calamity, or entreating our flock to bear with patience those evils which must be, can only tend to increase the number of the disaffected, to swell the murmurs of the multitude. And I much fear (to use the words of the apostle,) that the merit of such a declaimer hath been corrupted from the simplicity which is in Christ?' "But it is sufficient to have thus admonished;' and, though I have not treated of gross enormities, to have pointed out omissions, indecorums, and improprieties, that the man of God may be perfect; thoroughly furnished unto all good works."' "Be it ours, therefore, to guard, with equal caution, against the temptations of interest and pleasure, in our general conversation with the world; to pay especial attention to the flock committed to our care; to preserve, amidst our immediate connexions, the religious sense in all its ardour; and to communicate to all around us, in the house of God, that unaffected piety and zeal, which enliven devotion, and animate exhortation. So shall we behave in all things,' as becomes the disciples of the Lord Jesus;' rejoicing in the testimony of our conscience,' that we have practised, as we have preached, in simplicity and godly sincerity, not with fleshly wisdom." 524 ART. XIV. - Laura; or, Sonnets and Elegiac Quatuorzains. With a Preface. In five volumes. By CAPEL LOFFT. London. Crosby. 1. 10s. THE Sonnet may be divided in a variety of ways; among others, into the historical, the pathetic, and the descriptive. In the historical class we should include the sonnets of Milton and Edwards: Charlotte Smith and Helen Maria Williams supply us with Quatuorzains for the pathetic and in the descriptive we do not hesitate to place Tom Warton. Under these heads a vast many writers would claim admittance; though many, doubtless, would be excluded who, from political partiality we suppose, are here introduced to notice and execration. "tied Mr. Capel Lofft has reprinted a great variety of good sonnets but so much is our attention drawn off from their sentiment to their structure, so "compassed in are they on every side" by affectation the most ridiculous; and so and bound" are we by chains both metrical and prosaic, that no sooner are our feelings excited by something like poesy, than they are damped by the torpedo-touch of worthless criticism; and we are either provoked to anger, or relapse into indifference. Of Mr. Capel Lofft's metrical fancies we will produce a few specimens. On the 4th of January, 1809, he had been indebted, it seems, for an unusual exhilaration of spirits to two exotic nymphs, COFFEE and TEA; and thus he pours out grateful libations to his fragrant mistresses: "Of thought and of calm energies the friend, COFFEA! spirit strengthening plant; by Thee, Our better powers triumphantly ascend!" &c. We have long known that "COFFEE makes the politician wise, And see thro' all things e'en with half-shut eyes." In confirmation of this, there are some who would perhaps adduce Mr. Capel Lofft's political wisdom, which we should not think of doing. But we beg pardon of Mademoiselle THEA! THEA! whence thousand myriads daily know, In the warm stove from our chill clime defends : Of vigorous texture, not stern Winter bends : When e'en the myrtle faints, the icy dart Vainly on thy strong leaf and gold-tipt bloom descends.” Our next specimen shall be a "Serenade, or Quatuorzain en rondeau" to the Moon: "Fair regent of the night, my Júlia keep From every care and every danger free! On her sweet eyelids breathe thy softest sleep! 2. e. Luna est fœmina. But the moon's "breathing soft sleep" "Nor will I fear Thy Summer shall deceive what firm of sooth Thus sacrificing sense to an artificial construction. On reading the introductory Sonnet of Vol. III. we cau scarcely give Mr. L. credit for a musical ear: "The sister powers, Music and Song befriend Them with joint influence, love and admire In the address to Charlotte Smith, "who the quatuorzain had raised to fame," we have several very faulty rhymes. But what is more provoking, this mechanical rhymest presumes to alter a Sonnet of Langhorne, (substituting a very harsh line in the place of two melodious ones,) to preserve the number of lines unexceeded." Nothing can be more awkward and stiff than his versions from the Italian : "Its waters rush, and their proud tribute steer.” In another, we cannot but admire the beauty and vigour of the concluding line: "Her bosom, lovelier than the purest snow, The radiance of her eye fairer than day. I found, when seek, alas, no more I may." So much for Capel's verse :-now for his prose. In his receipt for the manufacture of the Sonnet, he says: "By the reduplication of the first quaternario, the form of the major system is ascertained and its organization perfected. And without a similar reduplication, the terzino would, from the nature of its construction, be strikingly incomplete. With less, the tessitura would not be formed, nor the modulation determinate; and more would rather encumber than improve it. "There is great cause for believing, that the antithetic parallelisms of Scriptural poetry did materially influence the structure and libration of the principal division of the Sonnet." Pref. V. I. In summing up the whole, he solemnly draws this conclusion: "Thus it appears, that there are three principal modes of the Sonnet; two proper, and one improper. The Guidonian, Petrarcan or musico-systematic; the Spenserian or Diasynartete, (connected by like rhyme running through it), and the Asynartete, or disconnected throughout; there being no tessitura of like rhymes pervading its structure. It appears also, that of the regular Sonnet there are at least fifty-two, and of the irregular fifty-four species; to which more must be added even from this collection. Sixteen are tabled of the Spenserian texture. One hundred and six distinct varieties in combining rhymes of fourteen lines, is in no respect an uninteresting contemplation." The author had said before, in his own quaint way; "Difficulties for the sake of difficulty are not respectable: difficulties for the sake of beauty and excellence are so in a high degree." And does he labour under so strange a delirium, as to conceive that such are the real difficulties and the beauties of the Sonnet? Is the art of Sonnet-writing to be attained only by learning the unintelligible jargon which he employs as language; a jargon indicative of a most depraved taste? In this exhibition of Mr. Capel Lofft, we have been guilty of the heusteron-proteron, or putting the cart before the horse; for we have given his quackish composition first, and the receipt for preparing it afterwards. The circumstance is, however, of very little moment to any body. 527 Monthly Register OF ARTS AND SCIENCES. The Conductors of the AUGUSTAN REVIEW request scientific and literary men, and also Editors and Publishers, to favour them with authentic information relative to inventions, discoveries, and improvements in Arts and Sciences; Notices of works preparing for publication, and of those recently published; which will be thankfully received, and communicated to the public in the subsequent Number, if sent to the publishers (post paid) before the 20th of the month. 1. INVENTIONS, DISCOVERIES, AND IMPROVEMENTS, IN ARTS AND SCIENCES. Lusus Naturæ in a Hen. DR. LYALL, physician to Count Orlof, at Moscow, has published a translation of Professor Fischer's " Description of a Hen having the Profile of a Human Face." This ben, which, according to the Professor's account, has greatly excited the curiosity of the public, was found in the district of Balaf, in the government of Tula, and sent to the Imperial University of Moscow, by his Excellency the Civil Governor, Mr. Bagdanoff. The hen is of the middle size. Her feathers are of a pearlish grey colour, and brown in some places, particularly at the points. The form of her body is similar to that of other hens, but her head presents an extraordinary appearance; for at the place where the beak ought to be, she exhibits a human profile, resembling that of an old woman. The beak is entirely wanting; and the jaw-bones are shortened in such a manner that they terminate where, in other hens, the nostrils are found. They are covered with flesh, and resemble lips. The comb, in a front view, in this hen, forms a kind of nose, which appears the more astonishing, as the nostrils are found between the termination of this nose and the jaw; to the No. XIX.-VOL. III.-Aug. Rev. 2 M |