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of altitude, I perceived that the leaves became gradually tinted, and every hour of my journey prefented ftronger evidences of the approaching autumn.

When I began to afcend the fpurs of the Iron Mountain, I difcerned the grafs to be affected, the leaves to be falling, and the gradations from autumn to winter to be everywhere evident.

to a mere cap of eternal fnow upon the head of a central mountain, but) to a wide expanse of fresh-water lakes and moraffes, which are prone to collect the frigid particles from a ftill more exalted fphere; and which the wifdom of Providence has thus confiftently ordained for the bountiful purposes of its creation; and by which means alone it would feem capable (according to the comprehenfions of human philofophy) to preserve an inexhaustible refervoir, to fupport the fucceffive demands which the change of feafons impofe upon

modation of the inferior country, and to replenish the innumerable ducts which are continually exhausted by the calls of abforption and evaporation.

When I reached the fummit or gap of this mountain, that opens to view the picturesque and extensive vale of Kanhawa, which extends above one hundred miles across the country, in a transverse or north-fo many wonderful channels for the accomwardly direction between the fources of the eaftern and western rivers, and has a fair exposure to the north-western winds blowing over the lakes of Canada, the trees were difrobed of their cloathing; and when I reached the ford of the Kanhawa at the mouth of Meadow Creek, I found winter completely verified by the prefence of wild geefe, which feparated into two diftinct flocks, and permitted me to pass between them without flight; and by the firft app arance of clear ice upon the brinks of the river. I now bid adieu to the autumn of this year, and began to prepare myfel with warmer raiment; but to my great furprife, when I approached the fummit of the Blue Mountains, at the place called Fibe's Gap (which commands one of the grandeft views in nature, and lays open the diminished objects below to the utmost capacity of optics), I could perceive in one immenfe fcope all the gradations before me which I had paffed, and I found in the eastern descent of my next day's journey a verdure approaching towards fummier, and differing very little from the ftate in which I had left Nonocluckie.

Since the period here fpoken of, I have fpent feveral years in the countries weftward of the Allegania Mountains, and have had many opportunities of making correfpondent remarks upon the American climate. I think there can be little or no doubt, that these facts evidence the exiftence of a frozen fummit in thofe regions of the western world, which are hitherto untrodden by European feet. I will not hazard an opinion that fuch regions are uninhabitable; I am rather inclined to think that we shall shortly find them to be the abode of a populous and hardy race of favages; and that if they are more frigid in the fummer months than thofe elevated expofures which are even influenced as far fouth as Georgia by the rapid emiffions of their impregnated north-westers, that their retentive property must be afcribed (not

If, however, the fuppofition of fuch a theorem should need fome farther known facts to establish the congeniality of water towards congelation by the powers of attraction, we may inftance that the attrace tion of rivers is known to preserve fruit upon their banks, when the bloffoms of thofe at a greater diftance are seen to wither and die away. It is afcribed to this cause chiefly, that orchards in the lower countries of James and other principal rivers in Virginia are fuppofed to yield more certain crops near the river banks, than in the plains at a distance; and in fome parts of that State there is a custom prevails of fufpending a straw rope from the highest twig of a fruit-tree into a tub of water below, as a conductor to the frost. I have been often told of this experiment, and have at this hour to lament that I refided in the neighbourhood of its practice at too early an age to think it worthy my care, and have not been of later years in a way to accomplish such accurate obfervation as might enable me to vouch for the fact.

Before we take leave of the phænomena of froft, it feems fitting to remark, that clay foils have a greater tendency to retain the impreffions of cold, than thofe of a more light, loamy, or fandy quality. Hence it is, that the fnow is of longer continuance upon the furface of a red clay, than upon any other kind of country; and it may, perhaps, be afcribed to fome peculiar refrigeratory property in this kind of foil, that the farmer always prays for a coat of fnow to shield his crop from the dreaded depredations of an intenfe winter. So far as my obfervation goes in respect to agri. culture, I think both the red clay and the lighter red foils of every quality are most fubject to emit the grain in the act of freezing, and by this nieans to impoverish

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the crop of wheat. But I think all red lands are the most univerfally fuitable for clover; and it may poffibly arife from this condition of the ground, which, although it may prove a bane to grain previoufly fowed, which happens to be then in the very act of radification; yet the difpofition of fuch land to embofom with the thaw any light feed which may become feat. tered upon its furface, may be a good reason why farmers make choice of fuch land, and feize the opportunity of a fuitable froft or a competent fall of fnow, for the purpofe of fowing it with clover.

In respect to the radical prefervation of trees and plants, I recollect to have oblerved a cafual inftance during a hard winter, where a particular tree in a row of the fame kind, growth, and condition, was preferved, and hot forth with very fuperior luxuriance through the mere accident of its having been paved with oyfter fhells; probably, depofited there by the mimick induftry of Imall children.

Upon this principle the Judge of the High Court of Chancery in Virginia, (George Wythe, Efq.) who is remarkable for his fine fruits, is faid to have fucceeded admirably in an experiment of planting a young orchard in the ufual mode, and fecuring each tree refpectively by paffing it through the eye of a grindftone, and breaking the feveral ftones by the ftroke of a fledge hammer, fo foon as the maturity of the tree required a greater fpace for its expansion.

I have frequently obferved a practice in the American orchards of piling brufhwood, weeds, ftraw, or rubbish, round the roots of fruit trees, and think it may generally be confidered an ufeful method; and I have often feen the stumps of trees and other rubbish, fet on fire with an intent to preferve the bloom (of peaches more particularly) from a frosty night. I cannot fay, however, that I fuppofe this laft method to have more than a partial capacity; nor do I know any other place than America, where the expence would not exceed the profit. July 27, 1799.

WM. TATHAM.

For the Monthly Magazine. A CRITIQUE ON THE POEMS OF

FALCONER. BY MR. IRVING.

HE poetry of Falconer is not to be Tregarded as the production of a man

whole fituation in life was favourable to the purfuits of literature. Born of humble and obfcure parents, he enjoyed none of thofe advantages which affluence is cal

culated to fecure. It was not his fate to bask in the fun-fhine of profperity. In early youth he was compelled to relinquish his native home, and to enter upon a profeffion which, in too many inftances, fucceeds in blunting the fofter feelings of humanity; and in the purfuit of this profeffion, he was expofed to innumerable dangers and misfortunes. But his native genius rofe fuperior to the untoward circumstances incident to his ftation. His leifure hours were devoted to the Mufes : and the hands that had been employed in adjufting the braces of a fhip, were not found unfkilful in the management of the golden plectrum.

By those who poffefs the smallest relish for pathetic fimplicity, The Shipwreck will always be perufed with pleafure. Its excellencies are not the refult of painful and unwearied application; they are the happy effufions of a vigorous imagination, and a heart true to the warm impreffions of

nature.

In reviewing his shorter productions we fhall find little scope for critical investigation. They cannot pretend to any particular marks of diftinction; and, unless his fame had refted upon fome more folid bafis, it must very foon have decayed.

In the Elegy facred to the memory of his Royal Highness Frederick, Prince of Wales, whichwas the first poeticaleffort that he ventured to fubmit to public infpection; it is fcarcely poffible to difcover even the fainteft glimmerings of that genius which hẹ afterwards difplayed. It is true we occafionally meet with a few tolerable lines; but thefe only appear like the fcattered flowers, that fometimes bloom amid the fterile plains of Arabia. Towards the close of it, there occurs the moft ludicrous fimile that ever difgraced the serious page of an author. The rifing fame of the young prince he compares to the curling volumes of fable fmoke, which mount in the atmosphere and blacken all the sky!This is apt to remind us of Butler's comparing the changing of the morning from black to red, to the circumftance which takes place in the boiling of a lobster *.

The Ode on the Duke of York's fecond departure from England as Rear-admiral, is of that fpecies of writing which fome have thought proper to denominate Pindaric. Every author poteffes an indifputable right to impofe upon his own pro

ductions whatever name he chufes: but fuch rude maffes of verfes as generally compofe thefe odes, no more resemble the

Butler's Hudibras, part ii. canto ii. v. 29. pointed

pointed shafts* of Pindar, than The Hatchet and Shepherd's Pipe of Simmias, refemble the Iliad of Homer +.-Falconer's genius does not appear to have been peculiarly adapted to lyric poetry. This ode difcovers rone of that enthuñafin which ought to have been its chief characteristic: it is generally languid, and feldom or never rifes to any confiderable height. It must at the fame time be confeffed, that his hero was but ill calculated for infpiring fublime ideas. A man who is only diftinguished by the fplendour of his rank, is a very indifferent fubje&t for poetry. The episode of the choice of Hercules is introduced with propriety, and poffeffes fome merit. The incidents of which it is compofed, have been embellished by Shenstone, Lowth, and others; but it is probable, that no poetical imitation will ever rival the original profe of Xenophon 1.

The Demagogue is a political fatire directed against a certain party, whom he regards in the light of incendiaries. A mongst other partizans, he affails the virulent Churchill, a poet, who once enjoyed a reputation which his uncouth ftrains were by no means adequate to fupport. This poem cannot be confidered as a very happy effort: it is often incorrect, and contains frequent inelegancies of expreffion. There is nothing in its verfification to compenfate for the want of skill which is difplayed in the arrangement of its component parts. The fatire, however, is fometimes manly and poignant.

In the verfes beginning "Ye hills fall proftrate," there is a profane allufion to a paffage of the facred writings, which might

Pindari Olymp. ii. 150, &c.

The mode of writing which is here alJuded to, was introduced by Cowley, a poet of no mean genius, but of an extremely vitiated taste. The unmerited reputation which he acquired by means of his lyric poetry, induced many others to follow his example. Long did the English prefs groan beneath the load of thefe abfurd productions: and Congreve claims the honour of having cured the nation of this Pindaric madneis. He not only fhewed them by his own practice the manner in which Pindar arranged his finzas, but also pointed out the abfurdity of that rambling mode of writing which about his time was fo prevalent. It may however be remarked, that he was not the first English poet who exhibited this fpecies of compofition in its genuine form: among the works of Jonfon, there is an ode which is strictly modelled after the example of Pindar.

‡ Xenophon, Memorabil. lib. ii. cap. 1.

with much more propriety have been omitted.

As The Shipwreck is a performance which the public has always been accuftomed to diftinguifh with particular marks of regard, its peculiar excellencies and defects demand a more ample difplay. The uniform popularity which it has maintained, may be adduced as a proof of its real merit. Various caufes may tend to confer a fhort-lived reputation upon poets of inferior genius. That reputation, however, which does not rest upon a true foundation, muft very speedily decay. Sheffield, Montague, and Granville, were once extolled as legitimate fons of Apollo; but indignant Time has erafed their names from the rolls of fame.

The fate of a merchant-fhip that was loft in a violent ftorm, will, at first fight, appear to be a fubject little fufceptible of embellinment: but when we begin to perufe the page of Falconer, every prejudice of this kind immediately vanishes. In exhibiting a feries of events which can fcarcely be deemed of a poetical nature, he has difcovered no common ingenuity. To relate Gimple and unadorned facts in their natural order, is not the part of a poet: he must select those that feem molt conducive to the general purpose which he has in view, and blend them with others which are purely imaginary, fo that the whole may become interefting, and affume an air of probability. These rules a exemplified in the practice of Falconer: the manner in which he has conducted his fimple tale, cannot fail to touch the fympathetic breaft*. His chief characteristics are tenderness and fenfibility. If he seldom reaches the fublime, it ought to be remembered that in this refpect he is fat from being fingular. Few indeed are the poets that can afpire to a ftation on the mountain of fublimity †.

After having propofed the fubject and invoked the Mules, he apologizes for his

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with her. The poet himself is dragged to the very gates of death:

Another billow burfts in boundless roar; Arion finks, and Memory views no more! Ha!, total night, and horror here prefide! My ftun'd ear tingles to the whizzing tide! It is the funeral knell! and, gliding near, Methinks the phantoms of the dead appear! At length he emerges from the deep; and, with only two of his companions, gains the fhore. An affecting picture of the fate of Palemon clofes the narrative.

dertaking, and proceeds to introduce an allegorical defcription of Memory, which is highly poetical. He fupplicates this power, to recall to his view the events he is about to relate; for in these events he himfelf had a principal concern. The narrative then commences: the ship Britannia is reprefented as proceeding on her intended voyage between Egypt and Venice. Upon the occafion of her touching at the island of Candia, the poet finds an opportunity of lamenting the devaflations of war, and of expatiating on the mifèries of flavery. He next delineates the characters of Albert, Rodmond, and Arion, the officers, of the ship: and in doing this he discovers confiderable powers of difcrimination. That of Rodmond is the most mafterly. Under the fignificant appellation of Arion, he exhibits an interefting portrait of himself.—To this succeeds the beautiful episode of Palemon and Anna, two lovers, whom the cruelty of a fordid parent had doomed to extreme mifery.-engaged with ideas of a different kin, to The fhip fets fail from Candia; and the natives of the island assemble along the fhore in order to view her as "the marches on the feas," and to contemplate the various devices which ornament her ftern and prow.

A feries of pathetic reflections on bidding adieu to the land, forms the exordium of the fecond canto. In that part of the narrative which immediately follows, a variety of ftriking objects are described; the brilliant hues that are reflected from the fides of a dying dolphin; the waterfpout whole towering column mingles with the fkies; and the gambols of a fhoal of porpoifes which are feen exploring their prophetic courfe along the ocean. They are now threatened with a ftorm. The pilots begin to apprehend dangerous confequences from its increafing violence, and hold a confultation refpecting the meafures they ought to adopt. In the mean time the mariners are overwhelmed by the fevere exertions which they are under the neceffity of ufing, in order to prevent the veffel from foundering.

The third canto commences with a dif. fertation on the defign and influence of poctry. He then retumes his subject; but very foon finds an opportunity of entering upon a long digreffion relative to the ancient and modern ftate of Greece. After he has thus indulged his fancy, our wandering thoughts are again directed to the ftate of the labouring veffel, which at length Arikes upon a rock and is dafhed to pieces, the greatest part of the crew perifhing along

Such are the outlines of The Shipwreck ; a poem pregnant with various matter. The moft material objection that can be urged against its general plan is, that the poet makes a long excurfion into the adjacent nations at the very time when the ftorm is precipitating the veffel towards her ruin. It is true, there is magic in the found of ANCIENT GREECE: yet the man who ftands on the pinnacle of danger, may be supposed to have his mind too much

leave any room for the admiffion of claffical raptures. The manner in which he has treated this fubject, will fcarcely be admitted as a fufficient compenfation for fuch a breach of propriety: he performs much lefs than his readers might reasonably expect on fuch an occafion.

Upon the whole, however, the poem is conducted with taste and judgment. Although he is fometimes too circumftantial in detailing the different nautical manœuvres, yet we follow him through the various gradations of the fable with a lively intereft. The introduction of numberlets pleafing and pathetic incidents renders the narrative animated and interefting. The only regular episode which the poem contains is, that of Palemon and Anna. A more beautiful and tender story is hardly to be found in the whole body of English poetry: never were the diftreffes of two lovers pourtrayed with a more delicate hand. The defcription of Palemon's fenfations when he falls in love, breathes all the pathos of the amorous Sappho. Such a defcription could only have been produced by one who had experienced

The trembling extafies of genuine love. The fequel of this epifode occurs towards the clofe of the third canto. In relating the mournful fate of Palemon, the poet appears to great advantage. Upon the foundering of the veffel, the unhappy youth, having betaken himself to a raft, endeavours to gain the fhore; and we are artfully left to luppole, that he is inftantly overwhelmed by the fury of the form.

Arion

Arion and two of the mariners having providentially efcaped the general wreck, begin to fearch for an adventurous youth whom they had feen approaching the Land

Panting, with eyes averted from the day, Prone, helpless, on the fhingly beach he lay

It is Palemon!

We are thus revived with the hope, that he may yet be restored to the arms of the lovely Anna: but this hope is foon blafted; the bruiles which he had received when thrown on fhore by the breakers, put a Speedy period to his exiftence. His final peech is truly affecting.

The fentiments of the poem are commonly adopted with propriety. The most remarkable deviation from the language of nature, occurs in the last words that are uttered by Palemon. After having addreffed his beloved friend in very affecting terms, he proceeds in the following man

ner:

When thou fome tale of hapless love fhalt hear, That feals from pity's eye the melting tear, Of two chafte hearts by mutual paffion join'd, To abfence, forrow, and defpair confign'd;Oh! then, to fwell the tides of focial woe, That heal th' afflicted bofom they o'erflow, While memory dictates,this fad fhipwreck tell, And what diftrefs thy wretched friend befel! &c.

Thefe lines are beautiful; but their beauty is misplaced. Is it natural for a man to utter fach fentiments as thefe, when he is already tottering on the very brink of that awful gulph which no mortal ever repaffed? In order to take a furvey of this kind, the mind must be free from every painful fenfation, and entirely divefted of the influence of every boisterous paffion.

The language of The Shipwreck, though not always carefully correct, poffeffes con

in the ufe of them, he has been fo extremely liberal. Such jargon is but illcalculated for enhancing the value of a poem. It must at the fame time be confeffed, that in reducing it to the smoothnefs of verfe he has been wonderfully fuccefsful.

In the management of his comparisons, he feldom discovers any great degree of skill.

They occur too frequently; and it but rarely happens that the analogy is steadily purfued. Comparifons are introduced for the fake of placing fome object in a more confpicuous point of view; and unleis they answer this purpose, they are only to be regarded as useless appendages or falfe ornaments. Many of Falconer's fimilies neither tend to illustrate, nor to embellish : they derive their origin from objects too contiguous or too remote, and confequently fail to produce the defired effect. Yet it is but juft to obferve, that others are of different defcription. The following corrparifon, which relates to Rodmond is, perhaps, the most masterly one the pon

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SIR, R.

with turns exequoy in his. Accant name prefented with happy turns of expreffion. His verification is, for the most part, fpirited and vigorous: and fome paffages may even boast of

The long majestic march, and energy divine* which characterize the manly productions of Dryden.

Among the principal faults of the poem, may be reckoned the unceafing recurrence of the barbarous phrafeology of feamen. The nature of his fubject rendered it abfolutely neceffary to introduce a number of uncouth terms incident to navigation: but it will be difficult to affign a reason why,

Pope.

don, feems to think that the name Piccadilly given to the great treet extending weftward from the top of the Hay market, originated from the house where Piccadilly capes or turn-overs were fold, about 200 years ago. It is however more probable, that the turn-overs were fo de. nominated from the hout in which they were made, than that Piccadilly hall should receive its name from then. I have been informed, or fomewhere read, that this hall was, before the time mentioned, the tefidence of a Portuguese Ambassador: it might therefore, in the language of Por tugal, be denominated Picadillo - hall, from being fituated on an eminence at the

upper

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