epiftle, or the dramatic poem. The imitations of Prior, Shentone, and Pope, are very fuccefsful. She has verfified the narratives of other writers, and formed a pleasing drama from the Comola of Offian. In fome of the poems there is a very interefting difplay of fancy in its livelieft colours; as, for instance, in the Epiftle from a Sylph to a Zephyr, in the Judgment of Cupid, and in some sportive productions, where we admire a playful and amufing fpirit. Her ladyfhip feems difpofed to terminate her fictions with tragical events, but her imagination never fuggefts a fentiment unfavourable to virtue. In every part of the book fimplicity is combined with elegance, both of fentiment and ftyle; and we look with pleasure to the appearance of the fecond volume. Moft of the poems are too long to be extracted, and it were an injury to exhibit them in mutilated parts. The following little poem may, however, be felected as a flight, fpecimen, not as fuperior to, but as fhorter than the others. Few, indeed, in the collection are not equal to it; but, in most of the reft, we should be compelled, by curtailing the length, to diminish the beauties of the production: "AMELI A. Daughters of Albion! who with wanton pride Ah! for a moment deign to be advised, Amelia claims it from her awful grave, "To footh the forrows of her lovely friend, She fmiled forth gratitude-but droop'd, and dy'd." We should have been. tempted to have admitted The Ode to Senfibility, but believe that it has been before feen in print. ART. ART. VIII. The Old Manor-Houfe; a Novel. By Charlotte Smith. 12mo. 4 vols. 15s. Bell, No. 148, Oxford-Street. OF F thofe who have exerted the powers of imagination for the description of ideal characters and fictitious incidents, who have fought, by interefting narration of events, and affecting difplay of circumftances, to engage the attention of mankind; how few have fucceeded fo as to establish a reputation that could furvive the day, or to effect any fubftantial improvement on their readers. To furnish variety of event, and viciffitude of distress, to exhibit conftancy of affection haraffed by difficulties, and finally crowned with fuccefs, to exaggerate the fentiments, and to caricature the paffions of the mind; to accumulate improbable calamities and fuddenly to furnish unexpected relief, to fink to defpair and to raise to rapture, feems to be the great concern of the modern novelist. The character of their works is too often calculated to inflame and feduce, and to furnish the mind with mifreprefentations of nature, and falfe pictures of life. Under this defcription it is not meant to include the prefent production of Mrs. Smith, of which it is a more juft and pleasing talk to point out the merit. We have not often been more interested by the fictions of invention, and the fenfibilities excited by the perufal of the work are in general fuch as are favourable to virtue. The characters are drawn with much originality from life, and are well illuftrated by the display of thofe minute fhades, which the accuracy of female obfervation is accustomed to note and to defcribe 'with fidelity. The incidents are well varied and lively; they keep the feelings in that agitation which fometimes fuffufes the eye with tears, and fometimes thrills the blood with fwift circulation. The events at the Manor-Houfe are familiar, and conducted with probability; the entertainment given at the Hall is particularly well defcribed. When we quit England, we enter, indeed, on more romantic scenes, and, perhaps, fometimes with that Mrs. Smith, instead of that intereft which is given to her novel by the rapid fucceffion of extraordinary events, had exhibited propriety of conduct, under circumstances of embarraffment and doubtful obligation. Orlando, in his fufferings in America, can only display fortitude and patience under unmerited and irremediable hardships: whereas the difficulties in which the heroes of novels fhould be involved, fhould be generally thofe induced by misconduct, or difperfed by prudence. The genius of Mrs. Smith fhould, as fhe has happily done in other parts of her work, rather make 5 common common events interefting, than multiply incredible adventures. Let it not be fuppofed, however, that we follow Orlando with regret to America, of which Mrs. Smith reprefents the bold features with great fpirit. Her local defcriptions of the scenery of nature are in general interefting and impreffive, and the detail of particulars which the paints, argues often an elegant and poetical turn of mind, which fhews itfelf alfo in fome effufions of poetry. The introduction of Political Reflections may be judged cenfurable, where they favour in the flightest degree of those erroneous and pernicious principles which have been recentlypromulgated with fuch fatal effect; but, except as to fome few fentiments of rather ambiguous tendency, we have but little to object on this score; and are not difpleafed that the novelist fhould, by a pathetic defcription of the miferies of war, incul cate affecting leffons against it. Nor do we certainly, disapprove that fpirit of benevolence with which fhe condemns the defperate measure of employing the Indians in the contests between England and America. The general reflections scattered through the work are natural, and the fentiments are often expreffed with very fimple and pathetic effect. But while we approve the tendency of the book, as exciting a love of virtue, we cannot but wish that Mrs. Smith had displayed a defire to recommend virtue on its true principles. The heroifm of Orlando, and the gentle virtues of Monimia, might have been heightened and embellifhed by a display of thole impreffions which they had fuch frequent occafion to profefs. We disapprove much of a practice which Rouffeau, in his Nouvelle Heloife, and other writers, have countenanced, of reprefenting forebodings and fuperftitious prefages of future events as having fome foundation, and being followed by actual accomplishment. The ftyle of the novel is clear and unaffected. In the rapid perufal of a narrative, we are seldom difpofed to ftop at minute inaccuracies. The following beautiful Sonnet well deferves to be laid before our readers : "While thus I wander cheerless and unblest And find in change of place, but change of pain; In tranquil fleep the village labourers reft, And taste repose that I pursue in vain. "Hush'd is the hamlet now; and faintly gleam Of the thatch'd cottage; while the moon's pale beam BRIT. CRIT. VOL. I. JUNE 1793. M " Q'er "O'er the cold wafte, amid the freezing night, For me, pale eye of evening! thy foft light I only fly from doubt-to meet defpair." Such poetry is more than we have a right to expect in a novel; but it does not furprife us in a novel written by Mrs. Charlotte Smith. ART. IX. Indian Antiquities, &c. By the Reverend Thomas Maurice. [Concluded, from page 5. 1 BEFORE we refume our obfervations on Mr. Maurice's valuable work, it becomes us to render him an act of justice. Some of his fubfcribers have, we understand, complained, that the work, for which they paid a guinea, is fold in the fhops for fifteen Shillings: but this is not the cafe-the prefent publication is, in fact, one volume divided, for convenience, into two; and this is estimated, to non-fubfcribers, at fifteen fhillings, and to fubfcribers at half a guinea. We have thought it neceffary to infert this explanation, to obviate any injury which might threaten Mr. Maurice, whofe labours, and whofe expences, certainly require a proper remuneration. We have already imputed to Mr. Maurice a too great fondnefs for fyftem, and controverted his pofition relative to the invention of geometry, from the inundations of the Ganges; and we now proceed to accompany him in his accounts of the geographical divifion of India, according to the claffical writers of Greece and Rome. At page 9, of this part of his work, Mr. Maurice traces the progrefs of Alexander in India: this has been already done, in a masterly manner, by Dr. Robertfon; yet the account of our author is not lefs interefting. We lament, however, the frequency of errors of the prefs, which, always painful to the reader, are most of all perplexing in geographical accounts. Betah is printed Behat: nor do we allow that there is any adequate authority for writing Bedafpes for Hydafpes. Page 15. Concerning the fimilitude betwixt the Indian and Tartarian languages, great information is conveyed in a dif courfe on the Tartars, by Sir William Jones, in the fecond volume of the Afiatic Refearches. It will appear from that 3 difcourfe, difcourfe, that Mr. Hadley's opinion, that the Hindoftan language is derived from Tartary, is exceedingly difputable. P. 21. Mr. Maurice adopts Major Rennel's opinion, that Palibothra ftood on, or very near, the fite of the prefent Patna; but, perhaps, it would not have been amifs to have taken fome notice of the objections of Dr. Robertfon to this affertion. P. 24. Chitpore is, according to Cellarius, the Ophir of Scripture; Mr. Bruce has very ingenioufly difcuffed this fubject, and, from the circumftance of the monfoons, has given very fatisfactory reafons for belief, that Sofala, on the coaft of Africa, oppofite to Madagascar, was the Ophir of Solomon.-See Bruce's Travels, vol. i. p. 434, 435, &c. P. 36. We greatly lament that the writers on Oriental subjects are not more exactly agreed about the orthography of words and names of places, as expreffed in our characters. Mahabbarit is fpelt differently by Sir W. Jones, and others.Oude, we have feen written Owde, Oughde, &c. And in all refpects too little attention is paid to Sir W. J's judicious recommendations on this fubject. The entrance of the victorious Timur into Delhi is thus defcribed: "The Perfian authors are lavish in their praises of this great and beautiful metropolis. The feat of voluptuoufnefs, and the central repofitory of whatever the vast traffic carried on by the Indian merchants with Perfia, Arabia, and China, produced, it abounded with eoftly rarities of every kind; the tribute of the most distant climes, the labour of the most skilful artificers. But a favage conqueror now approached, before whom the pride of India, and the delight of her fovereigns, muft bow the head. Through a deluge of human blood, fhed in his progrefs from Samarcand to India, and fresh from the unprovoked maffacre of 100,000 captive Hindoos, who were left expiring almost beneath its walls, the mercilefs Timur preffed on to its deftruction. He entered the city in triumph, on the 4th of January 1399. The great ftandard of the Tartarian empire was immediately erected on its walls; and the ufurper, feated upon the throne of India, in all the pride of conqueft, received the proftrate obeisance of the nobility of both nations. The royal elephants and rhinoceros, adorned with rich trappings of gold and filver, were brought to the foot of the throne, and, inftructed by their leaders, made the falaam of gratulation. Some days were confumed in rewarding with fuitable honours the princes and generals of the victorious army, in banquets of unbounded magnificence, and in infulting heaven with the grateful vows of fuccefsful tyranny. At length, on fome refiftance reluctantly made by the inhabitants to the wanton outrages of their conquerors, Delhi, and all the wonders it contained, was given up to be pillaged by an enraged foldiery; and on the 13th of the fame month that great and proud city was deftroyed." We may form fome judgment of the enormous booty obtained in this general M 2 pillage, |