From scenes of private life, the writer then passes to a nobler subject, viz. the prospect of the amelioration of the human race, and of their progress in science, liberty, and virtue. He has selected the partition of Poland, to illustrate a period at which every well-wisher to mankind entertained sanguine. hopes of the emancipation of millions of the human species; and he concludes with a poetical prophecy that the day of Polish freedom may be yet expected. In all his allusions to. politics, Mr. Campbell takes no notice of the French Revolu tion; a circumstance which at least argues that he regards the revolution of Poland and that of France in a different light. In fact, we are by no means inclined to suppose, from the tenor of Mr. C.'s writings, that his admiration of Brutus and Kosciusko have tinged his mind with improper principles; and from his silence on the subject of French Liberty, we argue his disapprobation of its horrors and excesses. In his allusion to the partition of Poland, he describes the last fatal contest of the oppressors and the oppressed, the capture of the city of Prague, and the massacre of the Poles at the bridge which crosses the Vistula :

• Warsaw's last champion from her height survey'd,
Wide o'er the fields, a waste of ruin laid,

"Oh! Heav'n! (he cried,) my bleeding country save!
Is there no hand on high to shield the brave?
Yet, though destruction sweep these lovely plains,
Rise, fellow men! Our country yet remains!
By that dread name we wave the sword on high,
And swear for her to live! with her to die !"
He said, and, on the rampart heights, array'd
His trusty warriors, few, but undismay'd;
Firm paced, and slow, a horrid front they form,
Still as the breeze, but dreadful as the storm;
Low mum'ring sounds along their banners fly,
Revenge, or death, the watch-word and reply;
Then peal'd the notes, omnipotent to charm,
And the loud tocsin toll'd their last alarm.
In vain, alas! in vain, ye gallant few!
From rank to rank your volley'd thunder few;
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!
Dropt from her nerveless grasp the shatter'd spear,
Closed her bright eyc, and curb'd her high career
Hope, for a season bade the world farewell,
And Freedom shrick'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 mouldering piles with thunder fall,
A thousand shrieks for hopeless mercy call!
Earth shook,-red meteors flashed along the sky,
And conscious nature shudder'd at the cry!

* Oh! righteous Heav'n! 'ere freedom found a grave;
Why slept the sword, omnipotent to save?
Where was thine arm, O! Vengeance! where thy, rod
That smote the foes of Zion and of God,

That crush'd proud Ammon, when his iron car
Was yok'd in wrath, and thunder'd from afar ?
Where was the storm that slumber'd till the host
Of blood-stain'd Pharaoh left their trembling coast,
Then bade the deep in wild commotion flow,
And heav'd an ocean on their march below?"

From this pathetic allusion to modern politics, the poet passes by an easy transition to another, equally interesting. The picture of the Negroe, hunting on his native plains, With fires proportion'd to his native sky,

Strength in his arm and lightning in his eye,

is finely contrasted with the fetter'd and degraded slave. This subject, though almost exhausted, seems to have presented. itself to the poet's mind in new and glowing colours.

The concluding lines on this topic introduce a simile which, we think, is entirely original, and beautiful:

The widow'd Indian, when her Lord expires,
Mounts the dread pile, and braves the funeral fires!
So falls the heart at thraldom's bitter sigh!

So Virtue dies, the Spouse of Liberty!'

The second part of the poem is shorter than the first, but still more pleasing. The allusion to the solitude of Adam, before the creation of his helpmate, is very poetical; and the anticipation of the lover, while musing on the future happiness which he is to enjoy in the society of

The kind, fair friend, by Nature mark'd his own,'

is a pleasing picture of domestic life. The writer's versification and manner in that passage, particularly, remind us of the simplicity of Goldsmith, although this young* Bard seems not to have made that writer his model. Much, however, as we might commend the beginning of the second part, we think that the author has violated the climax which he seems

We understand that Mr. Campbell is not above twenty years old.
REV. AUG. 1799.

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to

to have intended, in pursuing the reflections as they succeed each other according to their importance. The scenes of domestic life ought to have been all thrown into one place; and thence he should have proceeded to the political topics introduced in his poem.

The last of Mr. Campbell's Pleasures,' judiciously reserved, are those which he deduces from the Hopes of immortality; and in these passages, the poem rises into a tone of unvaried sublimity, suited to the sacred nature of the subject.

The conclusion is in the true style of a Grand Finale, and the idea is bold and impressive:

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 Heav'n's last thunder shakes the world below ;
Thou, undismay'd, shalt o'er the ruin smile,
And light thy torch at Nature's funeral pile !'

To characterize this performance in a few words, we think that it is an highly promising poem, although marked with some defects. It has no incident; no story to embellish it; nor is the plan regularly followed up: but we deem it entitled to rank among the productions of our superior Bards of the present day, as it unquestionably contains many striking proofs of the juvenile author's capacity for genuine and sublime poetry.

The minor pieces are chiefly songs and translations: the latter are not inelegant, and the former possess a simplicity which, when united to melody, must produce a pleasing effect.

Ham....n.

ART. XV. EYPINIAOY EKABH. Euripidis Hecuba, ad fidem Manuscriptorum emendata, &c.

ART. XVI.

IN EURIPIDIS HECUBAM Londini nuper publicatam Diatribe extemporalis. Composuit Gilbertus Wakefield. ART. XVII. ΕΥΡΙΠΙΔΟΥ ΟΡΕΣΤΗΣ, Euripidis Orestes, ad fidem Manuscriptorum emendata, &c.

TH

[Art. concluded from p. 311-334-]

'HE defence of those passages in Mr. Porson's edition of the HECURA, which had been censured in Mr. Wakefield's DIATRIBE, has been attempted in the former parts of this article; and our concern has been expressed, that the confined limits, prescribed by the plan of the Monthly Review, would not allow room for a full discussion of the unassailed excellencies

observable in the Professor's publication.-Extensive, however,as this critique has been, it must not be concluded, before we have offered to our learned readers a confirmation of one CORRECTION exhibited in Mr. Porson's text. The verse, indeed, is in the ORESTES:-but both the tragedies are illustrated by the same Editor, and in both is the Phidiaca Manus equally visible.

ORESTES. 499. Αὐτὸς κακίων ἐγίνετο μητέρα κιανών.

Thus Aldus, and the generality of copies. Brunck gives yévelo, from a persuasion that the augment was unnecessary. Edidit yévélo ex conjectura Brunckius," says Mr. Porson, "qui gaudio exsultasset, si cognosset ita exstare in duobus MSS." The Professor gives

̓Αλὸς κακίων μηλές ̓ ἐγένετο κανών.

This is the emendation, which, as far at least as the lengthened Iota in xxxiv is concerned, it is intended to confirm, at some length; as the consideration of it comprehends a question of importance to the purity of Greek prosody. It relates to the quantity of the penultimate in comparative adjectives which are terminated in IN, and which are in use among the Ionic, Attic, and Doric poets. This point has never been fully discussed; and it has been involved in difficulty and contradiction by all the critics, since the revival of letters; if we except our two learned countrymen, Richard Dawes, in his Miscell. Critica, 251. and Richard Porson, in his note on Eurip. Orest. 499.

Dawes. "Comparativa in ION exeuntia in sermone Attico penultimam semper producunt." The instances in Aristophanes are then produced, in order to confirm the rule, and vindicate a correction in V. 270 of the Acharnenses.

This Canon was rejected by Markland, E. Suppl. 1001. and the truth of it was doubted by Musgrave in his notes on Eu ripides, by Burgess in his notes on Dawes, p. 469, and by Brunck in his notes on Eur. O. 0.507.

The Greek Professor of our times, (whose erudition and acuteness enable him to appreciate the excellencies of former philologists, as well as to detect their errors,) in his note on the cited verse of Euripides, ratifies by his correction this rule of Dawes; though he has judged the mention of his name, on this occasion, unnecessary. Dawes, in his remark, quotes the passages in which these comparatives appear, from Aristophanes only, among the comic writers: but he does not produce a single reference to the tragedies; nor does he state

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*

what is the metrical custom with the Ionic and Doric poets, in their usage of these comparatives. On the rule, however; of which he was the first and original proposer, the following extended metrical Canon may be founded; the truth of which shall be evinced by the necessary examples:

ADJECTIVES OF THE COMPARATIVE DEGREE, TERMINATED IN ION, HAVE THE IOTA IN THE PENULTIMATE SHORT IN THE IONIC AND DORIC DIALECTS, BUT LONG IN THE ATTIC DIALECT.

ΑΙΣΧΙΩ Ν.

The penultimate of this comparative is short, Ionicè and Doricè. Homer t. I. 9. 437.

Αρξάντων ἑέρων. Τὸ μὲν ΑΙΣΧΙΟΝ, ἄι ν' ἀμαχητί.
Pindar. Isthm. Z. 32. 'Ovx dioxiov quàs.

which corresponds with V. S. To pépîalov Oeŵv-Iamb. Hemiol. The Iota is long Atticè:

EURIP. Helen. 271. ΑΙΣΧΙΟΝ εἶδος ανὶ του καλῖν λάξω. ARISTOPH. Plut. 590. Πολὺ τῆς πενίας πραγμ ̓ ΑΙΣΧΙΟΝ, ζήλεις αὐτῷ περιάψαι.

Eccles. 625. Φεύξονται γὰρ τοὺς ἀισχίους, ἐπὶ τοὺς δὲ καλοὺς βαδιούνται.

MENANDER. 'Elgen. ap. Stob. Grot. LXXXVII. p. 363. Cleric. p. 68. Αισχιόν ἐστι· τὸ δὲ ὀδυνῶσθ ̓ ἀνθρώπινον.

'Arxiv also occurs in the following passages; in which, from its situation in the verse, the quantity of the penultimate cannot be determined:

EURIPIDES, Medea. 506. Όμως δ', ερωτηθεὶς γὰρ αισχίων φανεί. SOPH. Electr. 559.

ΑΛΓΙΩΝ.

The penultimate is short in Homer: I. . 278. Σnoóμel' ἀμπύργους· τῷ δ' ΑΛΓΙΟΝ, αι κ' ἐθίκησιν.

* Markland indeed, 1. c. observes, Media in Dorico, adov corripitur semper, vel sapè. The last two words should have been omitted. The custom of the Dorics should not have been produced in the consideration of an Attic poet. Well does the great RICHARD BENTLEY say to Boyle, who supposed that the final syllable of rañas might be short Atticè: " Perhaps he might remember that verse of Theoeritus, Id. II. 4.

Ος μοι δωδεκαλᾶιος ἀφ ̓ ὦ τάλας ἐδέποθ' ἔκει.

For there, indeed, rá is short: but surely such a learned Grecian would know, that this was the Doric idiom, and not to be drawn into example, where that dialect was not used."

BENTLEY on Phalaris, p. 138. In citing the authorities from the Ionic and Doric poets, one instance, on account of our limits, must be deemed sufficient. The examples from the Tragic and Comic writers are given at full length.