Arriving at Cairo, Mr. Browne proceeded to Jerusalem; and three chapters are occupied with the account of Syria. Chapter 25 conducts us to Damafcus; but here we have feriously to regret, that our lively curiofity was disappointed. Damafcus is lefs known in modern accounts, than any great city of the Turkish empire; and Mr. B. has added very little to what was known before. From Damafcus the traveller went to Balbec, thence to Aleppo, from this place to Conftantinople, and finally to England.

Mr. Browne feems to have been well qualified for the office he undertook, by courage, conftitution, forbearance, and, laftly, by his knowledge of languages; he had alfo fome fkill in botany, and was not ignorant of medicine. As a writer, we have many objections to make; his ftyle is often incorrect, and fometimes ungrammatical. P. 69, "The meat is cut into minute pieces before it be dreffed." See alfo p. 82, and p. 91, "replete habit of body" is affected; we remember alfo feeing remarkable for remarkably; and the word aculeate ufed for tharpness of language; and odontalgy for the tooth-ach. These are errors of inferior moment. Mr. B. appears alfo to have imbibed the principles of Volney, and other writers of that ftamp. At p. 362, a very flagitious paffage occurs, which we fhall not debafe our pages by tranfcribing. The comparifon of European with Oriental manners, in Chapter 29, is exceedingly nonfenfical. Among other abfurdities, the author fays education fhould be the art of forming man on the principles of nature. French philofophy fays the fame; but Raffelas afked a plain question, "Pray what are the principles of nature ?" We have, however, in this book, a faithful narrative of a journey into a part of Africa, hitherto trodden by no European foot. We have alfo the means defcribed of penetrating further, by the aid of those black caravans, which fome individual poffeffed of language may hereafter profecute with fuccefs; and we have a full confirmation of Park's affertion, that a familiar knowledge of Arabic will certainly conduct a traveller wherever the Mahomedan faith extends.

We feel obliged to the author for all the adventitious parts. of his work, and not a little for the itineraries, which, from however humble information derived, are ftill valuable with regard to a country, where fo little intelligence of any fort bas hitherto been obtained.

ART.

ART. III. Poems, Sacred and Moral. By Thomas Gisborne, M. A. 12mo. 118 pp. 45. Cadell and Davies. 1798.

THE HE reader receives here a prefent from a moral and religi ous writer, weli worthy not only of a moralift and a Chriftian; but of a poet. It is not always that the fervour of these admirable feelings has been found exacly coincident with poetic ar dour, or poetic charms, but here the union is complete; and there is not a poem in this little collection, which we might not adduce, altogether, or in part, as a proof of our affertion. We were not equally pleafed with the Walks in a Foreft, poetically confidered; and we fcrupled not to avow cur opinion; which will remove all fufpicion, that the high and truly eftimable character of the author operates, in this inftance, to bias our critical judgment.

The Poems here published are twelve in number; very different in length, but all good in their respective styles; and, what is truly pleafing to us, all written in pure, unaffected English. The firft Poem is entitled Confcience, and, in a very animated train of compofition, illuftrates the pangs from which the most concealed guilt cannot escape at many trying moments. It opens with the boast of a murderer, who thinks that, having escaped all danger of detection, he has escaped al We will infert a single paffage.

terror.

No terrors haunt thee!-Lo! 'tis Winter's reign,
His broad hand, plunging in th' Atlantic main,
Lifts into mountain piles the boiling deep,
And bounds with vales of death each billowy fteep.
Now when thy bark, the dire afcent surpast,
Turns to the black abyfs the downward maft;
In that dread paufe, while yet the dizzy prow
Pois'd on the verge, o'erhangs the gulf below;
Now prefs thy conscious bofom, and declare,
If guilt has rais'd no throbs of terror there!

The broad hand of Winter ftirring up the Atlantic is a fine image: the rest is expreffed with great vigour. The fecond Poem, named Fortitude, very happily contrafts the Chriftian fortitude of Louis XVI, who bore all infults from a fenfe of duty, with the boafted Pagan fortitude of Cato, who flew himfelf. The next has for its title, Stanzas to a Church Bell, but it fhould evidently have been to a Set or Peal of Church Bells, fince the author fpeaks of their ringing backwards, and clanging together, and other things which cannot be faid of one bell. The moral comparifon between the various ufe of the

belly

bell, and that of the human tongue, is well drawn. The Birthday Eve which follows, is in the English trochaic measure (as it has been called) with alternate rhymes; a measure which has more than once been used with fuccefs for elegiac, and even pathetic fubjects. It is here written with skill and general harmony; the extenfion of the word glorious to three fyllables, is the only material objection to it in that point of view; the fentiment is pious and excellent.

Be the year now at hand as the day that is past!
As the fun rofe this morn in calm luftre array'd,
So rife the new year by no grief overcaft,

No turbulent ftorm of misfortune difmay'd!

On the fplendour of noon no obfcurity ftole,

Save the dim fitting cloud that but temper'd the ray;
So if Sorrow muft darken the months as they roll,
O mild be her fhadows, and paffing her fway!

May this with be accomplished! we moft cordially fubjoin. The Ode to the Harp of Cowper, has the religious turn which Cowper would himself approve; and, at the fame time, does him that honour which his pre-eminent genius fo juftly demands. The Dying Indian, an Ode, expands, with great force and fuccefs, the ideas fo ably touched in Mrs. J. Hunter's admirable Son of Alknomook. It is dignified alfo by a fublime conclufion in the genuine fpirit of Christianity, contrafting the death of St. Stephen with that of the daring Savage. An Ode on The Reformation is the feventh article in this volume, and is both well planned and ably executed. The perfonified character of The Reformation is well introduced, after ftating the offences of the Roman church, which was prepared for hostile movements against all oppofers;

VI.

Even now behold the figus difplay'd
Of roufed alarm, of vengeful ire!
Volumes of fmoke the pile o'erfhade;
Each roaring turret pours its fire.
For lo, the keen-eyed guards defcry,
In human guife, an Angel Foe draw nigh!

Still as more fierce the vollied lightning glows,

His form dilates, his ftature grows.

Nor fpear nor fword he deigns to wield;

Backward he flings his radiant fhield:

Befide yon bulwark takes his ftand;

The buttress grafps with giant hand;

Shakes, Sampfon like, the nodding towers amain,

And opes the mighty rent, that ne'er fhall close again.

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BRIT. CRIT. VOL. XIV. SEPT. 1799.

VII.

"So wait, Abhorred File, thy fall".
Ere yet anew he feeks the skies,
"So nurse beneath thy ruin'd wall

Thy ferpent brood," the victor cries.
"So wait thy fall, fo nurse thy brood,

O'ergorg'd and drunk, with Saints' and Martyrs' blood;
Fill, clofed the number'd years by Heav'n affign'd

The fcorners of its law to blind,

And prove, by more than Pagan rage,

The votaries of the facred page;

He, Lord of Angels and of Men,

In thee ftill crucified again,

Comes, robed in clouds to vindicate his name,

And fink thy mouldering wrecks in ever-during flame.”

This is furely a fublime and noble ftrain of Lyric compofition! Nor is fpirit wanting in the continuation of it. The eighth Poem is a kind of paraphrafe on the tenth chapter of Ifaiah, ver. 5-19, and is intended to illuftrate the conduct of Providence, in permitting certain corrupt powers to prevail for a time, as minifters of divine wrath; to be themselves punished in turn, when the purposes of Heaven fhall have been executed. Ey much the longest Poem in the collection is that which next follows, entitled Confolation. The plan of it is, to give a general view of the confolations held out by the principal fects of the Pagan Philofophy, and to contrast them with the effectual confolation of Chriftianity. Long as the Poem is, its fpirit is well fupported, and it contains much good writing. A fhort Elegy, entitled The Duellift, ftands next. It details the unhappy fate of a perfon, provoked by infult to fight; and concludes with this impreffive ftanza: Stranger! if trials like to his are thine,

Hark to the voice that whifpers from his fod.

"Shame doft thou dread? the fhame of fin decline:
Talk'st thou of valour? dare to fear thy God."

The remaining Poems are, an Elegy, and an Epitaph on Mafon; both doing high credit to the writer, and to the fubject. Some parts of the Elegy have a degree of merit very far from common. For example:

"See Afton's fane her groaning valves expand,
In fable woe receives her paftor dead;
See round his bier, no mimic mourners, stand
The friends he cherish'd, and the flock he fed.
Mark from its height the folemn organ breathe,
'Twas his own hand that plac'd the mufic there:
Lift to the infant choir that chaunts beneath;

'Twas his own task their early fong to rear.

Behold

Behold the white-rob'd minifter of Heav'n

(Such was he once!) the hallow'd rites begin ; Tell of the grave fubdued, a Saviour giv'n,

Life without end, and blifs unftain'd by fin."

It clofes well alfo. Mafon, he fays, being remov'd to Heav'n,
There, 'mid empyreal light fhall hail his Gray;
The Milton thron'd in peerless glory fee;
The wreath that flames on Thomson's brow furvey;

The vacant crown that, Cowper, waits for thee.

If recommendation can be wanted to a volume which bears the name of Gisborne, we give it with unmixed pleasure; but we understand that it is already haftening to a fecond edition.

ART. IV. The Duties of Overfeers of the Poor, and the Sufficiency of the prefent Syftem of Poor Laws, confidered in a Charge to the Grand Jury, at the General Quarter Seffions of the Peace for the Ifle of Ely, holden on April 2, 1799. By James Nafmith, D. D. Chairman. Published at the Request of the Magiftrates. To which are annexed, Remarks on a late Publication, entitled, Obfervations on the present State and Influence of the Poor Laws, founded on Experience, by Robert Saunders, Efq. 8vo. 69 pp. 2s. Wifbech printed; and fold by J. White, and Rivingtons, London.

THE Charge which is here published, does great credit to its

author as a clergyman and a magistrate. It is written in a plain and perfpicuous ftyle, well fuited to the occasion upon which it was compofed, and the perfons to whom it was more particularly addreffed. Its object is to prove the fufficiency of the laws which now exift, as to the management of the poor,' both for the purposes of comfort to them, and economy to the parishes. Dr. Nafmith endeavours to prove, and we think fuccefsfully, that thefe objects may be attained by the choice. of proper overfeers, and the faithful and steady difcharge of their duties. He points out the feveral powers and functions of the veftry, of overfeers, and of magiftrates, and the most effectual means by which the object of the poor laws may be advanced by each. Recommending, as we must do warmly, to the pub lic the whole of this little tract, there is one particular paffage which we cannot forbear citing, as meeting with our fulleft approbation, and to the truth of which we can bear testimony, from our own experience.

R 2

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