Half-yearly Retrofpect of British Literature. 491 only a few devotees, writhing themselves tive of eminent characters, and are eviin distorted attitudes, and drawling out dently the production of an impartial and portions of the Koran with equal loudnef's acute obferver. A work of confiderable and difcordance." A tranflation has ap- and deferved popularity, is Mifs WILpeared, from the original Italian of the LIAMS's Tour in Switzerland;" Miss Abbé LAZZARO SPALLANZANI's "Tra- W. it is well known, refided in France vels in the Two Sicilies, and fome Parts of during the dreadful period of its revoluthe Appenines." The celebrity of SPAL- tionary government; he was a Girondift, LANZANI, as a naturalift, philofopher, the friend of Madame Roland, and had and phyfiologist, will excite very confider- published a work in England, in which able attention to the prefent performance: was difplayed, with all its uglinefs and his microscopical obfervations, and his deformity, the character of many a fero experiments, multifarious, indeed, and cious fatellite of Robespierre. Thele valuable, but many of them attended with united circumftances rendered her fitua circumftances of DISGUSTING AND UN- tion moft perilous; of course, it is not PARDONABLE CRUELTY, are well wonderful, that the anxioufly feized the known to the learned, and many of them, fortunate opportunity which presented it-even to the unlearned world. The prefent felf, of obtaining a paffport for Switzerwork, however, may be read without land; to this opportunity the public is fhock to the feelings of any one, for the indebted for the prefent tour, which now Abbate, whofe former ftudies have been excites a double intereft, as it was made chiefly devoted to the investigation of ani- through a country, whofe moral and pomal and vegetable phenomena, has now litical features have fince fuffered a turned his attention to the minutiae of change, which fcarcely any thing less than mineralogy. For the purpofe of forming conqueft could have fo fpeedily effected. an ample and valuable collection of vol- Mifs WILLIAMS's ftyle of writing is well. canic matter, SPALLANZANI made the known; lefs elegant than if it were lefs circuit of the Phlegrean fields and the ornamented, the feems to have no relifh Eolian ifles: the ever-burning craters for that fimplicity of compofition, whose of Etna, Stromboli and Vefuvius, fub- charms are to us infinitely more fascinatmitted to his undaunted and indefatigable ing than the rich poetic periods, which refearch. We have frequently had oc- almost monopolize her pages. The fubcafion, and feldom more occafion than at lime and tremendous fcenery, however, prefent, to lament, that it is inconfiftent which Switzerland prefents, not excufes, with our plan to enter at large into works but demands a glow of colouring, a free of curiofity and importance; it is evident, and an animated pencil. But the ketches however, that a retrofpect of fo unre- of country which Mifs W. has introftricted a nature, would fwell to a fize duced, fhe profeffes to be fubordinate: difproportionate to our other communica- for the main object of the work is to diftions. With reluctance, therefore, we play the moral fituation of Switzerland; muft content curfelves with a fimple re- to exhibit the government and manners of commendation of the Abbè SPALLANZA- the Cantons; to draw a comparative picNI's travels, to the perufal of our readers. ture of the prefent state of Paris with that A republication has appeared of "Paul of the Swifs towns; and to trace the imHentzner's Travels into England during portant and momentous effects, which the Reign of Queen Elizabeth," &c. Ho the French revolution has produced in race Walpole tranflated thefe travels from Switzerland, where a new æra has already the Latin, and printed them at Strawberry been established by it, in the annals of its Hill, about forty years ago; to the pre- hiftory. In the perufal of these interestfent edition, which is correctly and beau ing volumes, we could not but contraft tifully printed, the Fragmenta Regalia, or the ancient freedom, which the hardy Obfervations on Queen Elizabeth's Times forefathers maintained of these bleak and Favourites, are added: the engrav- mountaineers, the Swifs, with the difings which adorn this work, are numer- gufting vaffalage to which their defcendous, and executed in a ftyle of confiderants had moft ingloriously fubmitted; able elegance. Dr. Moopy has edited "A Sketch of Modern France," written in a series of letters, by a Lady, during a tour through that country in the years 1796 and 1797. Thefe letters are written with a great deal of vivacity; they abound in anecdotes, for the most part illuftraSUPP. MONTHLY MAG. No. xxxiii. "all the peafantry in the canton of Bafil, with only the exception of the little town of Lieftal, which enjoys a few municipal privileges, are literally Serfs, and annexed to the foil." Three-fourths of the inhabitants of this canten, antecedent to the late revolution, were abfolute flaves 3 S a ftill 492 Half-yearly Retrofpect of British Literature. a ftill larger proportion were in a state of vaffalage in the canton of Zurich; nor did Lucerne, the Baotia of Switzerland, wear, in any degree, lefs heavy or lefs galling chains than either. "What," exclaims Gustavus Vafa to the miners of Dalecarlia, "What but liberty Through the famed courfe of thirteen hun dred years, Aloof hath held INVASION from your hills, And fanctified their fhade? .... And what are fifty, what a thousand slaves, But the French have marched over the hills of Switzerland, for the mountaineers had no liberty to ftrike for; and they yielded, after an obftinate, indeed, though hort conflict, to the reftlefs and ambitious arms of a proud and overbearing republic. The last thirty pages of Mifs WILLIAMS's interefting work contain important matter, and matter very little known, relative to this invafion; which had not taken place at the time the wrote, but which the feems to have clearly anticipated from the temper which the obferved in the country. It appears that the popular party of the Pays de Vaud claimed from the French an ancient guarantee of their republican independence, in oppofition to the governments of Switzerland, particularly that of Berne; this guarantee was made by the French nation in the year 1565, in confirmation of the treaty of Laufanne, concluded the preceding year, between Philibert, the fucceffor of Charles the Third, duke of Savoy, and the Swifs cantons. Mifs WILLIAMS has given a history of this curious and important treaty, which, if correct, feems, on the acknowledged principles of national faith, not only to justify the invafion of Switzerland by France, but to fhew that it was fimply the honourable fulfilment of an old engagement in favour of the people *. The invafion of Switzerland has met with fuch general reprobation, that we are particularly folicitous not to mislead our readers, and prompt them to an erroneous judgment on the fubject; Mifs WILLIAMS wrote antecedent to the revolution, and confequently cannot be fufpected of having written exprefsly in vindication of it. We have ated plainly, what was the impreffion nade on our minds in the perufal of her tour; a very oppofite impreffion might be made on the minds of others. We wifh our readers, herefore, not to form their opinion from The last work which we have occafion to notice in this department of literature is, "Travels through the Maritime Alps, from Italy to Lyons, across the Col de Tende," &c. by Mr. ALBANIS BEAUMONT, author of "The Rhatian Alps," &c. The chief merit of this publication, as well as of the former by the fame gentleman, confifts in the splendour of its plates, and the elegance of its typography. It is printed in folio, and the price of it is five guineas. TOURS. Some few narratives of what may be denominated domestic excurfions, una- . fpiring to the dignity of "Voyages and Travels," have too much merit to be paffed over in filence. We have seldom perufed a small volume, which, for 2 de lineation of character, variety of incident, and variety of defcription, ex ceeds Mr. WARNER'S " Walk through Wales." We are happy to obferve an increafing frequency of thefe pedeftrian tours: to walk, is, beyond all comparifon, the most independent and advantageous mode of travelling; Smelfungus and Mundungus may purfue their journey as they please; but it grieves one to fee a man of taste at the mercy of a posti. lion. Mr. HENRY SKRINE is rather a common-place traveller: his " Two fucceffive Tours through the whole of Wales" is a mediocre performance, affording but little room, either to cenfure or applaud. Mr. WOODWARD'S "Eccentric Excurfions" contain abundant sketches of character and country, in different parts of England and South Wales. A vein of humour pervades them, which, however, is not always the most happy the work is embellished with a hundred engravings, many of them original and characteristic. Mr. M'NAYR's Guide from Glasgow to fome of the most remarkable Scenes in the Higblands of Scotland," is fomewhat overcharged with defcription; we question. not the warmth of the author's feelings at the fcenes he furveyed, but a man of fimple and correct tafte would, in fome degree, have repulfed the wantonness and luxuriance of his imagination, when he fat down to write. As the eye may be offended at a glare of colouring, fo may the ear be foon furfeited by richness and mellifluence of defcription. Mr. M'NAYR, however, is entitled to confiderable praise; like Mr. WARNER, the pedestrian tourist just mentioned, he is an admirer of Offian, Half-yearly Retrospect of British Literature. and abounds with poetic and historical quotation. TOPOGRAPHY. Dr. J. A. GRAHAM'S "Defcriptive Sketch of the prefent State of Vermont" is written in a style of such uniform panegyric, that, in order to derive much va luable information, it must be read with confiderable caution; with fuch caution, however, it may be carefully perufed Mr. POLWHELE has published a part of the first volume of his "Hiftory of Devonfbire;" it is fomewhat fingular, that this elaborate work was introduced to the public by a fecond volume, which appeared fome three or four years fince; the part juft published contains what Mr. P. modeftly calls a "sketch of natural history.” After a general defcription of the province, fucceed many curious atmospherical remarks; Mr. P. has invefigated the fources of a great variety of rivers, and the qualities of a great variety, of fprings; he oppofes. the hypothefis of Dr. Halley, that fprings are produced by vapour, and feems to coincide with thofe philofophers who confider them derived from the fea, "by cavities running thence through the bowels of the earth like veins or arteries of the human body, and that the fea acts like an hydraulic machine, to force and protrude thofe cavities to a confiderable inland diftance:" Mr. P. conjectures, in addition, with great probability, that a depofition of falts is occafioned by the filtration of fea-water in its paffage through the earth: the water becomes lighter in proportion to the fubfidence of its falts; it rifes, therefore, through the pores of the earth, above the level it would otherwise preserve, even to the tops of the hills. Though a work, by no means exclufively topographical, we may, without impropriety, arrange in this divifion, Mr. MURPHY's "General View of the State of Portugal." The plan of Mr. MURPHY, indeed, embraces an extensive variety of topics, all of which he has treated in a concife and intelligible manner, communicating a true idea of the history and national character of the Portuguefe. The agriculture of Portugal is a fubject of distinct confideration; the causes of its former declenfion, and thofe which still impede its advancement, are traced with much skill and ingenuity: the vine, of course, continues to be cul tivated in preference to grain, because it has been proved to be four times as lucrative. Having, in a feries of chapters, given an account of the revenue, the military and marine departments, the con 493 quefts, and the coinage among the Por tuguese, Mr. M. offers fome lively and ftriking sketches of their domestic manners. This curious and amufing work, which includes “an account of the phyfical and moral state of the kingdom of Portugal, together with obfervations on the animal, vegetable, and mineral productions of its colonies," is compiled from the beft Portuguese writers, and from no tices obtained in the country. We proceed to an interefting and useful department of literature, namely, BIOGRAPHY, which is cultivated to a confiderable ex tent. "The Life of Sir Charles Linnæus," has been tranflated from the German of M. STOEVER, by Mr. JOSEPH TRARP. The general putlines of the biography of this great naturalist have long fince been known; they are now filled up life, which are new and interefting. A. however, with particulars of his private copious lift of his works is added, to gether with a "biographical sketch of the life of his fon," whofe character and attainments Dr. STOEVER has represented in a favourable light. It is impoffible not to mention, in terms of fevere difap probation, the clumfy ungrammatical tranflation, which this valuable work has undergone in the hands of Mr. TRAPP: felf, but in fome measure on the Linnæạn it reflects difgrace, not only on him→ fociety, for not having taken precaution to prevent it. The death of a woman, renowned for talent and eccentricity, has been fucceeded by an interesting narrative of her life: in the vigour of age, and in the bloom of beauty, Providence craft Godwin. Her widower has pubhas fummoned away Mary Wollstonelifhed the "Memoirs" and "Pofthumous Works" of this contefted character; the but they are written with much implici former are fomewhat meagre, perhaps, ty, and, we have no doubt, with truth: every exceptionable circumftance of her life is narrated in the fame ungarnished language which is employed in the enumeration of her many meritorious actions. It is not for us to vindicate Mary Godwin from the charge of multiplied immorality, which is brought against her by the candid as well as the cenforious by the fagacious as well as the fuperfi cial obferver: her character, in our estimation, is far from being entitled to unqualified praife; the had many faults; he had many tranfcendant virtues, But the is now dead, and we fall 494 Half-yearly Retrofpect of British Literature. No farther feek her merits to disclose, The bofom of her Father and her God! The Life of Catherine the Second, late Empress of Ruffia, has employed the pen of many a catchpenny fcribbler: the only work of any merit which has hitherto appeared on this fubject is tranflated in three octavo volumes from the French. During the reign of this moft extraordinary woman, the throne of Rullia, infinuated the creeping fibres of its root into every court of Europe; and, imbibing from each fome falutary juice, converted it immediately to nutrition: the growth of the plant was wonderful and alarming! Mr. MARK NOBLE has degraded the dignity of a biographer in his "Lives of the English Regicides," &c. Surely, had this gentleman been difpofed to vent his idle rage against the French, he might have found fome method lefs difcreditable to his own character as an author, than that which he has adopted of converting the hiftory of a paft period into a vehicle of party poitics; but the extreme folly and grofs illiberality of calumniating a Bradshaw, a Ludlow, and a Sidney, unite to form a very efficacious antidote against the poifon which his malignity had prepared. Mr. ASPRY CONGREVE'S "Memoirs of the late Mr. Charles Macklin are entertaining, and it is probable authentic. Mr. ALMON, the author of thofe interefting "Anecdotes," which appeared fome year or two fince," of the late Earl of Chatham," has published fome "Biographical, Literary, and Political Anecdotes of feveral of the most eminent Perfons of the prefent Age." Thefe fketches are of very unequal merit. A new edition has appeared, in fifteen volumes, of the General Biographical Dictionary." It is enriched by a few improvements, and a copious addition of new matter. Works of this fort are useful as references in the reading of hiftory; but where the biography of fome thousand men is compreffed into a few octavo volumes, it must necessarily be meagre; and where the documents are many of them doubt. ful, it must neceffarily merit but a cautious, confidence. The present, however, is a useful work. Not fo the Literary Memoirs of living Authors of Great Britain," which are collected by a -writer whofe tafte, judgment, and critical acumen, are all of them incompetent to fo arduous a performance, and whofe grofs partiality and prejudice are dif graceful to it. A new edition has made CLASSICAL LITERATURE. The learned Prebendary of Durham, Mr. BURGESs, has added to a republication of Ariftotle's "Peplos" three Infcriptions, till now unpublished, from manufcript in the Harlean Collection. The editor of this finall and infignificant original has fuffered an unpardonable abundance of typographical errors to creep into his text. We are indebted to a British fenator, Mr. DRUMMOND, for a tranflation of the "Satires of Perfius." This arduous task is introduced by a prologue, wherein Mr. D. appears to much advantage as an original poet; and by a very elegant preface, where the comparative merits of the three Roman fatirifts, Horace, Juvenal, and Berfius, are sketched with the hand of a mafter. The tranflations Half-yearly Retrofpect of British Literature. tranflations of Dryden and Brewfter are each a formidable rival to Mr. DRUMMOND, who, notwithstanding he has occafionally weakened the fenfe of his author, like both his predeceffors, by a dilated verfion, has, on the whole, executed his task with fuch tafte and spirit as to merit the thanks of every claffical reader. An anonymous author has publifhed in two octavo volumes, with claffical notes and a revifion of the Latin text, a tranflation of "The Poems of Catullus." It has the barren merit of mediocrity, and is highly cenfurable as containing all the beastly and difgufting indecencies of the original. Mr. BUT LER has published, with the addition of a few fhort notes, the poem of " Marcus Mufurus," prefixed to the Aldine and two Bafil editions of Plato: this is fucceeded by Ifaac Cafaubon's Sapphic ode to the memory of Jofeph Scaliger. In the fame finall volume are included Poemata et Exercitationes utriufque lingue, by the editor of the volume: thefe original compofitions are nine in number; among them are Garrick's beautiful fong," Thou foft-flowing Avon," in Greek hexameter; Beattie's "Hermit," and Milton's feventh Sonnet, in Latin hexameter and pentameter. The learned editor of this work announces that he has been appointed by the Univerfity of Cambridge to publish a new edition of Afchylus. The laborious Mr. BRYANT has given us the fentiments of Philo Judæus concerning the Aoyos, or "Word of God." Numerous paffages are pro duced from that learned Jew, to which ́are added citations from the Fathers, as testimonials for the truth of the doctrine of the Trinity. Notwithstanding the general orthodoxy of this gentleman, one or two tenets in this curious performance favour fomewhat of herefy. The Rev. Mr. RAYNER has tranflated into English "The Commentary of Hierocles upon the golden Verfes of the Pythagoreans." To this work, which is accompanied with notes and illuftrations, he has added a tranflation of the "Characters of Theophraftus;" a philofopher to whom we are indebted for the prefervation of "Ariftotle's Works," which have lately been tranflated in a ftyle of fuperior elegance and accuracy by a gentleman, well known in the literary world, Dr. GILLIES, to whofe "Hiftory of Ancient Greece" the prefent English Ariftotle" is intended as a companion and a counterpart. This work is illuftrated by introductions and notes: it contains a critical 4 495 hiftory of the life of Ariftotle, and a new analyfis of his fpeculative works. From Claffical Literature we proceed to notice the few works which have appeared in the departments of PHILOLOGY and CRITICISM. Mr. HORNE TOOKE has given to the NATURAL HISTORY and PHILOSOPHY. Elements |