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laureat, and resided with his noble pupils, though chiefly with lord Jersey. In the calmness of his retirement, his different poems were produced. Not urged by hunger or request of friends,' he wrote flowly, but correctly: he polished his lines with and feldom hazarded thofe fublimer flights which judg ment did not approve, or reafon could not juftify. Strada would have drawn him as collecting flowers about the middle of Parnaffus, preferving their hues with anxious care, and arranging them, with unwearied affiduity, to the best advantage. Mr. Mafon gives a catalogue of his works, with fome remarks and incidents of the poet's life, connected with the publication. The catalogue we need not transcribe, as we have already reviewed the two volumes in our XXXVIIth Vol. p. 199. To Mr. Mafon's remarks we must pay fome attention. There is one trait of the biographer, which, as it occurred early, and again appeared at the end, was particularly confpicuous, an antipathy-it is fcarcely too ftrong a term-to Dr. Johnson, a dislike, which a variety of opinion on philological fubjects, or the character of a poet, would fcarcely justify. We fhall tranfcribe the firft paffage, which relates to Pope's Epiftle from Eloifa to Abelard.

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it is not the story itself, nor the fympathy it excites in us, as Dr. Johnfon would have us think, that constitutes the principal merit of that incomparable poem. It is the happy ufe he has made of the monaftic gloom of the Paraclete, and of what I will call papiftical machinery, which gives it its capital charm; fo that I am almoft inclined to wonder (if I could wonder at any of that writer's criticifms) that he did not take notice of this beauty, as his own fuperftitious turn certainly muft have given him more than a fufficient relifh for it.

The fit rifes to fo great a height at the end, that the author foars to metaphor: but though we may allow of intellectual indigeftion,' we want an interpreter for unconcocted taste.' In reality, we are forry to fee an elegant effay, and a judicious criticism, deformed by fplenetic effufions. That Dr. Johnfon wanted tafte to difcriminate the nicer beauties of compofition; that he wanted the feeling to which poetic fire is chiefly di rected; that, above all, he feems to have been occafionally diverted from the path of criticifm by political dislike, or fometimes, as we fufpect, in the Life of Gray, by perfonal antipathy, may be allowed. But, after every thing difadvantageous is detracted, his critical merit will be confiderable; and, while we should expect Mr. Mason to be displeased with fome parts of his conduct, we are forry for his intemperate warmth, and his indifcriminate condemnation. The political gloom, which dimmed the fire of Milton, in the critic's eye,

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cannot furely have obfcured the merits of Johnson in the mind of our biographer.

Mr. Whitehead himself was more placable, and his mild unoffending nature is one of the most amiable features of his mind. He expunged fome lines in his Effay on Friendship, when he had reafon to fear they would be confidered as reflecting on the fickle attachment of fome of his earlier friends: to the numerous licks at the laureat,' he made only a good-humoured reply, in the Pathetic Apology for all Laureats, past prefent, and to come;' and even this was circulated only among his friends *. The attacks of Churchill were more fevere, more pointed, more fatal. Yet even to him the re. turns are sketches, in general candid, and fometimes good

humoured. We fhall tranfcribe four lines:

So from his common-place, when Churchill ftrings
Into fome motly form his damn'd good things;
The purple patches every where prevail,
But the poor work has neither head nor tail,'

There are two other paffages on different papers,—perhaps, in the heat of refentment, intended to form a poem, and, in the moment of good-natured reflection, configned to oblivion.

Our biographer's criticism on the Roman Father of Mr. Whitehead, is equally correct and beautiful. Though we have tranfcribed much, we mutt beg for a little farther indulgence.

There are different poetical exertions peculiarly appropri ated to every different fpecies of poetical compofition; but to the drama furely belong all the following: a fluent and wellcadenced verfification, with a variety of paufe, as feduloufly ftudied as in that fpecies of blank verfe which is employed in the best defcriptive poetry; for though, by the frequent admiffion of eleven-fyllabled lines, the tragic ftyle obtains a fuperior degree of freedom, yet diverfified paufes are as effential to this as to the other; and though, as being calculated for recitation, it may take greater liberties in point of accentuation, yet a general rhythm, and the laws on which it is founded, fhould never be infringed, except for the fake of peculiar energy. Again, the tragic style admits, nay, I think, demands the ufe of ftrong images, metaphors, and figures; it cannot, indeed, be truly impaffioned without them; and while it difcards unmean, ing epithets, should be liberal of thofe that add force and vigour to the fentiment, Shakspeare, I am fure, gives full authority to this, as well as to the former affertion. We can hardly turn to a fingle paffage among that infinite number, which, in his works,

* We were surprised at an error in this poem, at least we luspect it to he an error, attend like Satellites on Bayes.'

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we pronounce fuperlatively fine, that is not even crowded with them and yet, while the application of two together, to one and the fame fubftantive, is among the moft diftinguishing maiks of this great mafter's phrafeology, it has, of late,' become a fashion to decry the ufe of epithets entirely. Similes, indeed, unless expreffed with extreme concifenefs, have been justly reprobated; but, of fimiles thus expreffed, no more copious fund is to be met with than in the works of this poet. When "pure defeription holds the place of fenfe," and, what is worfe, of paffion, it is, indeed, of all other things, the most abhorrent to the genius of dramatic language; and when fentiment too is not conveyed in a condenfed energy of phrase, it tends greatly to difguft, not only the fpectator, but the reader. Yet, on thefe accounts, to exterminate either the one or the other, is what no true critic would attempt.'

On the whole, we have viewed, with great pleasure, this pleafing portrait of an amiable man, fketched with much judgment and fidelity, by an intelligent friend. Mr. Mafon may defpife our praife; yet, as we have told him his faults with freedom, we can add with great readiness, that the good fenfe, and good taste, with the judicious reflections in this biographical effay, render it not only valuable in itself, but a well adapted appendage to the three volumes of Mr. Whitehead's works; and, as the one may truly be ftyled a claffic poet, the other may add to his poetical honours, the wellearned title of a claffical biographer.

The poems in this pofthumous volume, already published in a feparate ftate, are, Variety, a Tale, for Married People :the Goat's Beard, a fable:-Venus attiring the Graces. Thofe not before published, befides the different sketches quoted in the Life, are Verfes on the late Improvements at Nuneham, the feat of the earl of Harcourt, printed in a private and more accurate impreffion of the Oxford Guide:-Verfes addreffed to Lady Nuneham, on the Death of her Sifter. Those published in other forms are, the Battle of Argoed Llwyfain, a poem of Talieffin, inferted in Jones's Historical Account of the Welch Bards; - different Birth-day Odes, written fince the collection of the two volumes in 1774 and Observations on the Shield of Eneas, first published in Dodfley's Museum, and afterwards annexed to Dr. Warton's, and Mr. Pitt's tranflation of Virgil. We need not add, that these additional poems do not, any degree, detract from the merit of their author. The prefent editor has followed Mr. Whitehead's example; and, instead of inferting all the odes, has felected only thofe which, with the affiftance of fome friends, whofe tafte in lyrical compofition he could depend on', were moft approved.

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Practical

Practical Obfervations on Venereal Complaints. By F. Swediaur, M. D. The third Edition, corrected and enlarged. To which are added, an Account of a new Venereal Difeafe which has lately appeared in Canada; and a Pharmacopeia Syphilitica. 8.00. 45. ferved. Elliot.

WHEN we have praised a work in general, we do not

mean to infinuate, that it contains no faults; and, while we think an author very commendable, it feldom happens but that, if we examined him clofely, we should find, that he often differed from us in opinion. To this caufe it is owing, that we have received many books with favour, which have, in fome refpects, differed from each other; that we have thought well of Dr. Swedia ur's first edition, though we have praised alfo Mr. Hunter's Treatife: nay, we ftill can approve of the prefent work, though it attacks Mr. Hunter feverely, and commends the criticisms of Mr. Jeffe Foot. In this there is in reality no contradiction: neither is unexceptionable; and we could demonftrate to Dr. Swediaur, that, if we were to follow him ftep by step, we could find, in his prefent work, many defects. His criticism on Mr. Hunter is, in many respects, extremely faftidious, and, in fome instances, it relates to the moft difputed points of practice, in which two of the profeffion could fcarcely be found to agree, without fome exceptions.

As the prefent Obfervations contain an attack on Mr. Hunter, we could not well avoid making these remarks, to ward off the fufpicion of inadvertency or contradiction on our fide. We muft examine this work more minutely than we ufually do a third edition, not only because it is much enlarged, but because the additions are curious and valuable. In our account of the former edition (Vol. LVII. p. 17.) we gave fome hints of the expectations which we formed of Dr. Henfler's work, by which the disputed point, relating to the antiquity of the ve nereal difeafe, was to be afcertained. It is now, we find, published: but, for the complete evidence from historical facts,' we are referred to this German work, published at Altona. If we had known nothing of the fubje&t of this volume, but from the indifcriminate praifes of Dr. Swediaur, we should have fuppofed that the whole, difpute was fettled. We were, however, furprifed to find, from other authorities, that the great foundation of Dr. Henfler was the facts from Luifinus and Altruc. Let us, however, affift Dr. Swediaur, and obferve, that the principal noveltics in the German work are, an account of the Treatifes of Conrade Schellig, and John Widmán (Salicetus). Thefe are fuppofed by Altruc to be loft:N 4

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yet Schellig cannot, by any ingenuity, be traced back farther than 1495, and the earliest Widman (for there were two of that name) we can find, is in 1501. The former is faid to have ufed mercury and warm bathing for the complaint, but unfortunately does not mention the ufual mode of propagating it. The latter, it is faid, obferved the disease from 1457. We own that, without much more decifive evidence than we poffefs, we regard both the one and the other as of little confequence. Dr. Swediaur can only convince us by a translation of the work, which, if it be fo valuable as he reprefents, and as we really believe it to be, deferves to be better known. Its value is not, however, in the hiftorical parts, though the treatifes of Salicetus and Schellig, with fome others, are fubjoined in the additamenta. Since, from various enquiries, we have long fince fuggefted our fufpicion, that the disease is really not of American origin *, we cannot be fufpected to have been influenced in our account of Dr. Hensler's work, by any prejudice. We have wifhed for one well authenticated fact of the difeafe, previous to 1493; but we must confefs that we have not yet found one.

In other refpects, this third edition is rendered much more valuable many new facts are stated with accuracy, new modes of cure are mentioned, with the foundation or authority for different new remedies. We fhall transcribe a fhort paffage of this kind.

My friend Dr. Winterl, profeffor of botany at Buda in Hungary, discovered lately, that the inhabitants in the confines of Turkey cured themselves of the lues in all its ftages by a decoction of the aftragalus exfcapus.-The infpiffated juice of the papaver fomniferum, known under the name of opium, by fuc ceffive increafed dofes from one to twelve or fixteen grains in a day, firft propofed for a trial by Dr. Nooth, has proved very fuccefsful in the great military hofpital at New York. But how far all thefe medicines do or may fucceed without mercury, I am not able to decide. So much it feems to be certain, that the lues is in general much easier cured in warm climates, when properly treated, than in cold ones. A decoction of the bark of prunus padus has been lately found very efficacious, efpecially when joined with the ufe of mercury, in many violent and inveterate venereal complaints, by Dr. Biornlund, phyfician in Sweden; and an account of them has been inferted in the Swedish Philofophical Tranfactions for 1784."

A new chapter is on a kind of venereal disease, which has lately appeared in Canada. It is fomewhat like the fibbens of

Perhaps it is not commonly known, that the original of Quack (quackfalver) came from a fimilar German word quackfalber-the name of quickfilver, from the indifcriminate ufe of this metal in fyphilis by itinerant practitioners.

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