We are not pleased with the noble author, when he labours to persuade us that he has really acted the part of a translator, and, in most cases, closely copied his original. In some instances, he has certainly pursued or expanded a hint furnished by the epic poet of Portugal; yet we shall not greatly err, if we regard those minor compositions as poems rather than translations, and Camoens as Viscount Strangford in disguise.Ought such tricks of diplomacy to be tolerated in the literary world? We think that they should not. A little jockeyship of publication, however, cannot affect the intrinsic merit of the pieces themselves. That merit chiefly consists in a happy union of tender sentiment and simple elegant expression. Though love be the prevailing theme, and love has been celebrated since poets existed, these madrigals, canzonets, and sonnets will still bear the test of critical perusal, and will still please by their native sweetness. It is not mean praise to say of a young amatory poet, that he is more terse than Anacreon, and more delicate than Little. The following extracts will, we apprehend, justify the very favourable opinion which we have formed of the present collection:

• CANZON.

• When day has smil'd a soft farewell,
And night-drops bathe each shutting bell,
And shadows sail along the green,
And birds are still, and winds serene,
I wander silently.

And while my lone step prints the dew,
Dear are the dreams that bless my view,
To Memory's eye the maid appears,
For whom have sprung my sweetest tears,
So oft, so tenderly :

I see her, as with graceful care
She binds her braids of sunny hair;

I feel her harp's melodious thrill

Strike to my heart -- and thence be still

Re-echo'd faithfully:

I meet her mild and quiet eye,
Drink the warm spirit of her sigh,
See young Love beating in her breast,
And wish to mine it's pulses prest,

God knows how fervently!

Such are my hours of dear delight,
And morn but makes me long for night,
And think how swift the minutes flew,
When last amongst the dropping dew,
I wander'd silently.'

⚫ MADRIGAL.

• MADRIGAL.

Dear is the blush of early light

To him who ploughs the pathless deep,
When winds have rav'd throughout the night,
And roaring tempests banish'd sleep-
Dear is the dawn, which springs at last,
And shows him all his peril past.

'Dearer to me the break of day,
illumes;
Which thus thy bended eye
And chasing fear and doubt away,
Scatters the night of mental glooms,
And bids my spirit hope at last,
A rich reward for peril past!'

'SONNET.

Mondego! thou, whose waters cold and clear

Gird those green banks, where Fancy fain would stay,
Fondly to muse on that departed day

When Hope was kind, and Friendship seem'd sincere ;
-Ere I had purchas'd knowledge with a tear.
---Mondego! though I bend my pilgrim way

To other shores, where other fountains stray,
And other rivers roll their proud career,
Still nor shall time, nor grief, nor stars severe,
Nor widening distance, e'er prevail in aught
To make thee less to this sad bosom dear;

And Memory oft, by old Affection taught,
Shall lightly speed upon the plumes of thought,
To bathe amongst thy waters cold and clear!"
'STANZAS.

I saw the virtuous man contend

With life's unnumber'd woes;
And he was poor-without a friend-
Press'd by a thousand foes.

'I saw the Passions' pliant slave

In gallant trim, and gay;

His course was Pleasure's placid wave,
His life, a summer's day.-

And I was caught in Folly's snare,
And join'd her giddy train-
But found her soon the nurse of Care,
And Punishment, and Pain.

There surely is some guiding pow'r
Which rightly suffers wrong-
Gives Vice to bloom it's little hour-
But Virtue, late and long!'

• CANZONET.

Thou hast an eye of tender blue,

And thou hast locks of Daphne's hue,

And cheeks that shame the morning's break,

And

And lips that might for redness make
Roses seem pale beside them;

But whether soft or sweet as they,
Lady! alas, I cannot say,

For I have never tried them.

Yet, thus created for delight,
Lady! thou art not lovely quite,
For dost thou not this maxim know,
That Prudery is Beauty's foe,
A stain that mars a jewel!

And ev'n that woman's angel face,
Loses a portion of its

grace,

If woman's heart be cruel!

Love is a sweet and blooming boy,
Yet glowing with the blush of joy,
And (still in youth's delicious prime)
Tho' ag'd as patriarchal Time,
The withering god despises :
Lady! would'st thou for ever be
As fair, and young, and fresh as he-
Do all that Love advises !'

Lord Strangford's versification is soft and musical; and his rhymes are, for the most part, correct: but the suspension of a pause at the end of the line is sometimes so unduly prolonged, that it mars the ease and freedom which we expect in short and airy measures. Thus the second, third, and fourth lines of the Madrigal, which begins with Pr'ythee, Cupid,' &c. run into one another without so much as a terminating comma. In the stanzas to Night, we have three lines of the same exceptionable structure;

For this around thy solemn fane Young birds I strew, that glisten • With tears of woe

By jealous Tithon,' &c.

Another example occurs at the beginning of the 14th sonnet:

My best belov'd although unpitying skies
And wrathful fortune sternly thus conspire
To bid thy servant's lingering steps retire
Far from the tempered gleam,' &c.

The epithet southernly is somewhat grating; and it shall often be warm'd by remembering thee' is one of the few lines which we should point out as prosaic.

The phrase done to death must surely be an oversight, not to say an error of the Press. As it stands, it gives us a culinary idea, very different from the cold state in which the Lover is represented to be.

We shall compensate for these strictures by copying another pleasing amatory effusion:

• CANZONET.

The Lady who swore by her Eyes.
'When the girl of my heart is on perjury bent,
The sweetest of oaths hides the falsest intent,
And Suspicion, abash'd, from her company flies,
When she smiles like an angel-and swears by her
For in them such magic, she knows, is display'd,
That a tear can convince, and a look can persuade;
And she thinks that I dare not, or cannot, refuse
To believe on their credit whate'er she may chuse.

eyes.

But I've learn'd from the painful experience of youth,
That vehement oaths never constitute truth;
And I've studied those treach'rous eyes, and I find
They are mutable signs of a mutable mind!

Then, dear one, I'd rather, thrice rather believe
Whate'er you assert, even though to deceive,

Than that you "by your eyes" should so wickedly swear,
And sin against heaven-for heaven is there!'

Of the notes,' the noble writer remarks, little can be said. He who comments on amatory verses undertakes but a limited office. His utmost effort is the citation of parallel passages, unless he substitute admiration for criticism; a mistake into which, of all others, a translator is most likely to fall.' Let us add that his Lordship's translations and imitations of these parallel passages are executed with singular neatness and propriety.

Among the other beauties of this classical performance, the reader of taste will not overlook the pretty and merited compliment with which Lord S. concludes his preface: ·

The present writer has yet to offer his grateful acknowledgments to those wuose advice and experience have aided his labours. It is with pride and pleasure that he enrols among them the names of Percy and of Hayley. To the kindness of the latter he is indebted for the assistance of many valuable books, which could not elsewhere be procured; and to the almost fatherly friendship of the learned Bishop of Dromore, his obligations have long been unbounded. It is no small honour to so young a writer, that he should be countenanced by men, who, like the good spirits in Trissino, sit under the shade of their own laurels, and smile encouragement on those who are labouring up the mountain over which they preside.'

The work is handsomely printed, and embellished with a head of Camoens.

REV. SEPT. 1804.

C

ART.

Muir.

ART. III. An Account of the Astronomical Discoveries of Kepler: in cluding an Historical Review of the Systems which had successively prevailed before his Time.-By Robert Small, D.D. F.R.S. Edinburgh. 8vo. pp. 370, and 11 Plates. 7s. 6d. Boards. Mawman.

THE

HE real merit of those great men, who have given to Science and Philosophy a new existence and a new form, is known only to few. Their praises, however, loudly resound on every side; and while all, who make pretensions to acquirements in Science, speak of Galileo, Bacon, Kepler, and Newton, with enthusiasm, very few consult the original works of these celebrated authors. In books of easier access, and of more familiar aspect, we seek for sketches of their discoveries, for the summaries of doctrine, and for the results of investigation. The "bright reward" of those who live laborious days," the veneration of posterity, is not always the offspring of reason and feeling: we praise, because others have praised before us, and reverberate the echo of reiterated commendation.

Bacon and Newton are not yet removed into the shade, nor viewed through the medium of another's representation: we are not as yet contented with the substance and spirit of their philosophy, compressed within the limits of a journal or a magazine: since national partiality, acting on the same side with good taste and judgment, still cause their original productions to be read by their countrymen. Galileo and Kepler, however, the one preferred by his historian to Bacon, the other the illustrious precursor of Newton, are almost entirely neglected. The little which we know of them is derived from the secondhand report of others; and indolence, or want of opportunity, has hitherto induced us to subscribe to the statements of others respecting their labours and their merits.

To the generality of readers, indeed, it must be acknowleged, the original works of such authors are not most conveniently adapted. Numerous circumstances influence the style and the mode of communicating new notions and discoveries. From the prevailing ignorance of the times, it might be necessary tediously to explain and illustrate truths now commonly received; and from the current prejudices, it might be necessary to combat errors with caution or with vigour, which now would seem excessive and preposterous. The minds of the inventors, also, felt the influence of the opinions of their age, and complied with its fashion from the frequent employment of barbarous terms, and of words without precise signification, they imperfectly and obscurely communicated their inventions; from the intentional use of terms, by which poor and beggarly

notions