"True to the winding lineaments of grace);
"Yet still may Hope her talisman employ
"To snatch from Heaven anticipated joy,
"And all her kindred enerzies impart

"That burn the brightest in the purest heart!

Nor is it possible to speak with too much admiration of the passage, in which he explains the tender meditations of age on the recollected feelings of youth:

"But yet methinks, when wisdom shall assuage

"The grief and passions of our greener age;

"-o'er her lovely hopes, that once were dear "The time-taught spirit, pensive, not severe, "With milder griefs her aged eye shall fill, "And weep their falsehood, though she love them still!" Of spirit and vigour the examples are so numerous, that selection is a task of considerable difficulty: thus:

"Friend of the brave! in peril's darkest hour
"Intrepid virtue looks to thee for power;
"To thee the heart its trembling homage yields,
"On stermy floods, and carnage-cover'd fields,
"When front to front the banner'd hosts combine,
"Halt ere they close, and form the dreadful line.
"When all is still on Death's devoted soil,
"The march-worn soldier mingles for the toil;
"As rings his glittering tube, he lifts on high
"The dauntless brow, and spirit-speaking eye,
"Hails in his heart the triumph yet to come,
"And hears thy stormy music in the drum!"

Thus also, in the address of Hope to Genius:

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"Yes; to thy tongue shall seraph words be giv'n, "And pow'r on earth to plead the cause of heav'n!" The most harmonious versifiers of our language, the Popes and the Darwins, have not been the finest masters of poetical style. Their sentences have been singly beautiful, but not often extremely gratifying in a long succession; for the construction of the paragraphs has been usually so monotonous, as to fatigue instead of pleasing by the melody. Mr.

Campbell has introduced something of that variety in the pauses, of that eloquent climax, and of that progressively accelerated march, of which Dryden appears to have originally furnished a grand but imperfect idea, and which succeeding poets, either overlooking its value, or alarmed by its difficulty, have almost universally concurred to neglect...

"Ye fond adorers of departed fame,
"Who warm at Scipio's worth, or Tully's name :
"Ye that, in fancied vision, can admire
"The sword of Brutus, and the Theban lyre :
"Wrapt in historic ardour, who adore
"Each classic haunt, and well-remember'd shore,
"Where Valour tun'd, amid her chosen throng,
"The Thracian trumpet and the Spartan song:
"Or, wandering thence, beheld the later charms
"Of England's glory, and Helvetia's arms:
"See Roman fire in Hampden's bosom swell,
"And fate and freedom in the shaft of Tell:
"Say, ye fond zealots to the worth of yore,
"Hath Valour left the world-to live no more?
"No more shall Brutus bid a tyrant die,
"And sternly smile with vengeance in his eye?
"Hampden no more, when suffering freedom calls,
"Encounter fate, and triumphs as he falls?
"Nor Tell disclose, through peril and alarm,
"The might that slumbers in a peasant's arm?"

Again:

"And say, supernal powers! who deeply scan
"Heav'n's dark decrees, unfathom'd yet by man,.....
"When shall the world call down, to cleanse her shame,
"That embryo spirit, -yet without a name,
"That friend of Nature, whose avenging hands
"Shall burst the Libyan's adamantine bands?
"Who sternly marking on his native soil,
"The blood, the tears, the anguish, and the toil,
"Shall bid each righteous heart exult, to see
"Peace to the slave, and vengeance on the free!"

It yet remains to pay the tribute of admiration to the noblest of all this poem's splendid qualities-its sublimity. Of that magnificent faculty-the purest source of rapture-the loftiest endowment of genius-" the attribute of God himself"-there

are several examples, so transcendently glorious, that even if they were unattended by any other meritorious passages, they might alone obtain immortality for their author.

Kosciusko's defence of Poland, is thus admirably recounted:

"Low, murm'ring sounds along their banners fly,
"Revenge, or death-the watchword and reply :
"Then peal'd the notes, omnipotent to charm,
"And the loud tocsin roll'd their last alarm!"

" In vain, alas! ye gallant few!
"From rank to rank your volley'd thunder flew :...
"Oh! bloodiest picture in the book of Time,
"Sarmatia fell, unwept, without a crime;
"Found not a generous friend, a pitying foe,
"Strength in her arms, nor mercy in her woe!
"Dropp'd from her nerveless grasp the shatter'd spear,
"Clos'd her bright eye, and curb'd her high career; -
"Hope, for a season, bade the world farewell,
"And Freedom shriek'd---as Kosciusko fell!"

"The sun went down, nor ceas'd the carnage there,
"Tumultuous murder shook the midnight air---
"On Prague's proud arch the fires of ruin glow,
"His blood-dy'd waters murm'ring far below;
"The storm prevails, the rampart yields a way
"Bursts the wild cry of horror and dismay!
"Hark! as the smouldering piles with thunder fall,
"A thousand shrieks for hopeless mercy call!"

The descent of the god Brama, to the aid of oppressed India, occasions the following splendid lines :

"Of India's fate her guardian spirits tell,
"Prophetic murmurs breathing on the shell,
" And solemn sounds, that awe the list'ning mind,
"Roll on the azure paths of ev'ry wind."

"، Foes of mankind! (her guardian spirits say)
"Revolving ages bring the bitter day,

" When Heav'n's unerring arm shall fall on you,
"And blood for blood these Indian plains bedew;
"Nine times have Brama's wheels of light'ning hurl'd
" His awful presence o'er the alarmed world;

"" Nine times hath Guilt, through all his giant frame,

،،، Convulsive trembled, as the mighty came:
"Nine times hath suffering Mercy spar'd in vain-
""But heav'n shall burst her starry gales again!" "

"He comes! dread Brama shakes the sunless sky,
"With murmuring wrath, and thunders from on high!
"Heaven's fiery horse, beneath his warrior form,
"Paws the light clouds, and gallops on the storm!
" Wide waves his flickering sword; his bright arms glow
" Like summer suns, and light the world below!

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Let the reader take the trouble to observe the succeeding description of a comet's creation, existence, and extinctionif he observe, he cannot but admire.

"Hark! from the world's exploding centre driv'n,
"With sounds that shook the firmament of Heav'n,
" Careers the fiery giant, fast and far,
"On bick'ring wheels and adamantine car:
"From planet whirl'd to planet more remote,
" He visits realms beyond the reach of thought;
"But, wheeling homeward, when his course is run,
"Curbs the red yoke, and mingles with the sun!

This series shall be terminated with the passage that concludes the Poem: a passage which, for the grandeur, extent and variety of the ideas, the astonishing skill with which they are combined, and the harmony and sublimity of their general effect, seems almost to defy competition itself.

"Eternal Hope! when yonder spheres sublime
"Peal'd their first notes to sound the march of Time,
"Thy joyous youth began---but not to fade.
"When all the sister planets have decay'd;
" When wrapt in fire, the realms of ether glow,
" And Heaven's last thunder shakes the world below;
"Thou, undismay'd, shalt o'er the ruins smile,
" And light thy torch at Nature's funeral pile!

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The immense and abstract conceptions of time, eternity, and the wreck of the universe, have betrayed hundreds of adventurous poets into absurdity and bombast. But those mighty masses that overwhelm a common mind, are upborne with graceful ease by Mr. Campbell's genius: and the fable of Atlas seems at length to have arrived at its fulfilment. In these few lines, the origin of Time from eternity, the rejoicings of Nature at his birth, the coeval creation of Hope, and their concurrent progress even to the ultimate submersion of Time in that eternity from which he rose, the final destruction of matter, and the sweet and sublime devotion of surviving Hope, as she lifts her eyes to everlasting bliss, and illuminates her torch at the pile where perishing Nature lies enveloped in flames-form a picture on which it is impossible to dwell without the loftiest rapture-although it would be vain to expatiate on its beauties, unless the critic partook those stupendous powers which promise to immortalize the poet!

THE HISTORY OF BARBADOES, FROM THE FIRST DISCOVERY OF THE ISLAND, 1605, TILL THE ACCESSION OF LORD SEAFORTH, 1801. BY JOHN POYER. pp. 668. 4to.Mawman, 1808.

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HE details of Colonial History rarely excite much curiosity, or awaken much speculation. Moving as do the parent states in the higher sphere of power, the eloquence of senates, the secret springs of cabinets, and the events of battles, seem peculiarly their own. All that renders history amusing or instructive, appears to proceed from their energy, or their policy. It is not considered that the strength of a mighty empire is made up of auxiliaries, as the rapidity of a river arises from the multitude of its streams. In proportion as the colonies are rich and productive, the mother country will be great and flou. rishing. In proportion as they advance to, or proceed beyond the political equilibrium of colonial policy, if they be small we may expect murmurs, if they be great we may dread danger. They merit then our peculiar consideration; that we should trace their interests, investigate the sources of their prosperity, and mark the periods of their rise and decline. Con