Oh! mark the glories of that age And pour'd swift vengeance on the foe; Each felt, with transport felt, his name Snatch'd from oblivion's power, and stamp'd with deathless fame. Speak, gentle Muse, thy conscious pride! The mighty Theban's deep-ton'd lay Rush'd, like a torrent, from the mountain's side. The sacred portion for the Gods prepar'd; His awful name Alone could stay the hostile flame, Quell the fierce victor's rage, avert his vengeful sword. What triumphs, queen of song, were thine, Resign'd for peaceful arts her arms, Heard the majestic Mantuan lay, Delighted heard th' Ausonian lyre Mild counsels breathe, just thoughts inspire, Say, Britain, when, in days of yore, And on the deep-wedg'd ranks of war From mystic shades, Where late he chaunted meek Religion's strain, But where, ah where! in later days, It pour'd a free and virtuous strain? Drives him once more to want, and bids him clasp Despair. Behold, in Mis'ry's drear abode, A care-worn wretch expire! "Tis he! the Bard whose fancy glow'd With soft yet vivid fire; Who in the tend'rest notes of woe Bade Belvidera's sorrows flow ; Whose powerful Muse, beyond controul, Could wring, could agonise the soul!- Who, feigning a rude antique strain, And taught the path to well-earn'd fame, By every Muse inspir'd, with every virtue crown'd. Smile on the liberal chosen few! Thy genuine sons to cherish and admire: Above the vulgar joys that charm mankind; Bid the rich stream of bounty flow! Assert its long lost rights, and claim its native skies!' P. 30. The foregoing poem has occupied so considerable a portion of our journal, that we cannot allow any space for farther extracts. In his imitations of Horace Mr. B. is often happy; and The Progress of Satire' contains much just discrimination, conveyed in flowing and pointed numbers. His character of a work which lately made a wonderful noise in the literary and political world--which was much talked of, but little read-is at once candid and severe. We had some intention of quoting the passage to which we allude; but the consideration of the old maxim, De mortuis, &c. has influenced our forbearance. ART. XIII.-Sermons, on various Subjects; by John Bidlake, B.A. Vol. II*. 8vo. 6s. Beards. Murray and Highley. THERE is a fund of good sense in these sermons, mixed with a considerable degree of piety and enlarged views of religion. Many of the subjects are local; but excellent lessons of instruction are derived from them. The melancholy events which have of late distressed the human race, and the repugnance to religion of every kind in a neighbouring nation, are deeply felt by the writer. But, with due confidence in the Creator of the World, who can draw good out of evil, he considers the unhappy instruments of this evil as destined to pave the way for a train of events which they neither have desired nor could possibly foresee. In our own kingdom, from the growing attachment to popery, so lamentably perceived in many persons whose compassion for the distressed has led them to compassion for their follies and vicious superstitions, the following remarks cannot be too much attended to by those who still retain a regard to the principles of the Protestant religion. * See our 14th vol. New Arr. P. 281. • Much has been said of the violence which has been offered to religion in the neighbouring state. From scenes of bloodshed and devastation the feeling mind naturally turns with horror and disgust. But it must be remembered, that the religion which has been overthrown in the country of the enemy, was a monster of superstition, and the parent of cruel and unrelenting persecution. While we have to lament the tyranny which effected its destruction, as Protes tants we must mourn more for the blood that has been shed, than for the system which its fall has shaken. Strange as it may seem, there is no species of cruelty so unfeeling, none so deliberately and systematically barbarous, as religious enthusiasm. For when the mind is inflamed by this dreadful phrensy, all the avenues of compassion are closed, and every sense of feeling deadened. The ties of nature are disregarded, if not totally dissolved; and the cries of distress, which are by nature so tuned to the correspondent feelings of humanity, as to make even the hardened nerve vibrate, has no tone that can awaken sympathy in the fanatical assassin. When once the deluded wretch fondly imagines that he is employed as the immediate agent of God, his mistaken zeal totally changes his former habits. In fury he exceeds the brute; but with this unhappy difference, that his thirst of blood is never satisfied. The whole history of the church of Rome puts this beyond a doubt; and we must not forget that this sanguinary bigotry has formerly distracted our own country with persecution, and was unfavourable to the interests of the present reigning family. Many periods of our history are marked by its cruel spirit; and we shudder as we read those pages which recount the sufferings of numerous and innocent martyrs. Europe, nay every quarter of the globe, has felt this most dreadful scourge. Again, on a late melancholy event, it has appeared in all the horrors of deliberate and systematic massacre. If tired of such a religion, intolerant and persecuting in its principles; if tired of the vain and meretricious worship, which mocked the common sense of mankind, our volatile neighbours have run into the wild excesses of impiety, and have entertained the foolish expectation of conducting the affairs of life and governing mankind without religion; if metaphysical philosophy has induced them to pursue vain deceits, and to make the dangerous experiment of placing human wisdom in the room of divine; let us hope that the wise Providence, who can bid the mental storm be calm, and direct the evil counsels of men to the production of good, will again, as he did on Sinai, send forth his word from amidst clouds and tempests. Yes, from the ashes of superstition, a rational and a benevolent reHigion may arise. Such must at length prevail: it is indispensable to our present as well as future happiness. In the mean time let us bold fast the profession of our faith without wavering. For every nation will discover, and every individual must have felt, in his own experience, that only piety can produce solid and permanent consolation. While the soul wanders from deceit to deceit, like the bird first enlarged from the ark, in every excursion it will seek in vain for a resting place; and after it has tasted of all that the world has to give, and made every trial for itself, will find that it must return to seek its happiness in God.' P. 48. From this extract our readers will form their opinion of the author's style, which is generally uniform, calm, and perspicuous. His discourses are chiefly of a moral tendency; and, in many instances, very apt allusions are made to the objects of nature; and lessons of instruction are derived from history, profane as well as sacred. It is evident that examples of the former kind cannot be understood by a mixed audience; and as the Scriptures will always afford them in sufficient abundance, the attempt to derive aid from profane history is, to say the least of it, superfluous. ART. XIV.-New Observations concerning the Inflections of Light, accompanying those of Newton, but differing from his, and appearing to lead to a Change of his Theory of Light and Colours: 8vo. 2s. 6d. Boards. Cadell and Davies. IT is not from this subject's having failed to claim much of our attention, nor from the author's choosing to remain unknown, that these observations have been long unnoticed. In fact, we wished to bring his work to an undivided attention, an unruffled mind; and, though we cannot yet boast of these attainments, we can delay no longer the payment of the tribute of investigation and applause which our author's talents so well deserve. In examining and repeating Newton's experiments with other views, we were surprised at some apparent errors and misrepresentations, as we thought them, of appearances, and were compelled to recollect, in justice to the memory of that truly excellent philosopher, his own apology for their imperfections. He considered his experiments as first attempts only: posterity, dazzled by his reputation, has unfortunately looked at the Optics as a perfect work, and, with a very few exceptions, resigned in despair all hopes of improving the science. The mechanical philosophy of the age of Newton was the source of some of his errors in reasoning, and of his misconception of some of the phænomena. While he represented rays of light by lines, it was difficult to divest himself of the geometrical idea of a line; nor, when an impulse was given, was it easy to suppose the direction changed, without some impediment or cause of change. We now begin to perceive all the difficulties and inconveniences of extending the mechanical philosophy beyond its proper sphere, and to distrust the universality of axioms which were once supposed indisputable. In fact, the similarity of the term led philosophers to confound the philosophical axiom with the mathematical. The latter is a proposition that cannot be otherwise; the former, one which has not hitherto been proved untrue. The optical axioms are philosophical only. |