ART. 12. The Fight off Trafalgar. A Defcriptive Poem. By George Davies Harley, Comedian, late of the Theatre-Royal Covent Garden, and now of the Theatres Birmingham, Sheffield, &c. &c. Author of Poems, Ballad Stories, Holyhead Sonnets, &c. &c. 4to. 24 PP. 29, Longman, Hurft, &c. &c.

1806.

With the warmest defire to give credit to the effufions of every mufe on fo glorious a fubject as the Fight off Trafalgar, we cannot beftow on this author any higher praife than that of good intention. Mr. Harley has, if we recollect rightly, on other occafions, appeared to more advantage as a poet. In the prefent inftance, his lines are often harsh and untuneable, his metaphors broken and confufed, and his language bombaft. Take, as an inftance of the laft mentioned qualities, the stanza which he has chofen for his motto, and which, it feems, was compofed too late to take its ftation in the poem.

"Coincidence, length'ning the HERO's career,

Wove the ftorm of the Fight, for the pall of his Bier:
Bright the morn, like his day of renown on the feas,
Till regret became clam'rous, burd'ning the breeze:
The grief of the fkies, as refponfive of ours,

Moan'd in thunder.... and anfwer'd earth's forrows in fhow'rs:
Twas the DIRGE of the HEAV'NS!....to Britons most dear,
To hallow the laurel, we wet with a tear

For the fight off Trafalgar."

If the author understands thefe lines, he has greatly the advantage of us. The fifth ftanza, (which he fays was originally intended for the motto,) is fomewhat more intelligible, but not lefs bombaftical.. We fhould be happy to balance these by quoting a fpirited and unexceptionable ftanza; but " profeffus grandia turget" is too juftly applicable to the whole.

ART. 13. Poems on feveral Occafions, by Charles Crauford, Efq. 12m0.. 2 Vols. Becket. 1805.

The whole of the firft of thefe volumes is occupied by a didactic poem, called the Chriftian, in fix books, the object of which is to demonstrate both the truth and beneficial effects of Chriftianity, in oppofition to the vanity and imperfection of philofophy. Some excellent remarks on Chriftianity are prefixed, and the poem contains a great many fpirited paffages.

Our limits will only permit us to give an extract from the fmaller pieces of the fecond volume.

THE JASMIN,

Addreffed to a Young Lady going into a Nunnery. "Go, flow'r, more beauteous than the fairest rose, The motley'd pink, or any flower that blows,

Go,

Go, and attempt to deck that fragrant breaft,
Where num'rous graces, num'rous virtues reft.
There die not inftant, wither'd through defpite,
To find its hue is of a purer white;

But fay, when thou art feen in honour there,
Thou art a little emblem of my fair:
Say that her bloom is like thy fragrance fweet,
Her form, like thine, most elegantly neat.
And tell her, too, that the resembles thee,
In meeknefs and in gentle modefty;
In eafy grace, and chafte fimplicity.
Then die to teach her how foon beauty flies,
It buds, it blooms, and in a day it dies.
That from her lover's fight no more retir'd,
In ufelefs grace fhe fcorns to be admir'd.
No more like thee fome lonely ruin near,
She gives her fragrance to the unthankful air."

ART. 14. Poetical Amusements in the Journey of Life, confifting of various. Pieces in Verfe, Serious, Theatrical, Epigrammatic, and Mifcellaneaus. By William Meyler. 8vo. 6s. Longman. 1806..

This author tells us he was diftinguished by the reward (which he thought as great an honour as ever kings could confer) of feveral myrtle wreaths, for verses approved by the Society inftituted by Lady Miller, at Bath Eafton villa, he adds, what we do not admit as an excufe for hafte and inaccuracy, that the greater part was finished at one fitting. They are very various in their fubjects, and neceffarily of various merit in their execution. The following specimen is as good as any.

On a Watch.

"Proud man, inftruction timely catch
From this fmall instrument, a watch;
Obferve how fwiftly moments pass,
That life is brittle as the glass.

That all thy fprings and chains are frail,
Prone oft to vary, apt to fail;

That all thy movements foon shall stand,
Till touch'd by one great maker's hand;
Whofe power will give, all nature feels,
Perpetual motion to thy wheels."

ART. 15. Raphael, or the Pupil of Nature. By Edward Walter. I 2mo. 2 Vols. For the Author. 1805.

We do not like to difcourage a poetical attempt, the subject of which is well conceived, and extended as far as two volumes.

But,

But, in this cafe, it seems that the author would have acted more judiciously, and with better chance of being read, if he had contracted himself within narrower limits, and taken longer time to prune and polish his verfification. The poem, as it is, abounds with feeble lines and feebler expletives; do, did, and, for, and fimilar monofyllables occur perpetually to the weakening of the fenfe intended to be expressed.

"Then with his pencil fhades, for he did fear.
And think it tolerably juft portrayed.

Refreshment if to be

you are

inclined.

And blefs'd the ready power of his art."

Yet it is but juftice to acknowledge, that fome very harmonious lines are to be found; and, on the whole, the reader will He must not not be displeased with the perufal of these volumes. indeed contrast them with the Minstrel, though not altogether unlike in the defign, but he fairly may with a very great number which monthly and daily iffue from the prefs.

ART. 16. Maurice, the Ruftic; and other Poems. By Henry Summerfett. 12mo. 111 pp. 4s. Longman, Hurft, &c. &c. 1805.

In a preface to this volume of poems, the author informs us, that he is an uneducated man," and feems to reft his hopes of fame on the fuccefs of Chatterton, Burns, and Bloomfield. It is no difparagement to his talents to fay, he is not likely to rival the leaft of thofe diftinguished felf-taught poets: yet his attempts are well worthy of encouragement. Unluckily the poem which is placed firft in the book, is one of the worst, both in its compofition and its tendency. The pity which it tends to excite is, under all the circumstances, ill placed; and the attempt to render the profeffion of a foldier odious, cannot be deemed patriotic at the prefent crifis. In the principal poem, called "Maurice, the Ruftic," the progrefs of a youthful genius (perhaps the author himself) is defcribed, and the feveral fubjects which ftrike his fancy, enumerated. It has fome beauties, but more defects. We greatly prefer "The Benighted Page," and fome of the fmaller poems, particularly that on Melancholy, which we are concerned that our limits will not permit us to extract. The following fhort poem will, however, give our readers a favourable impreffion of the author's ftyle and manner.

LOVE'S VICTORY.

"Soft as a Cherub's earliest fmile,

O! Venus! is thy rofy Boy;

When all his thoughts are turn'd from guile,
And idly hangs his quiver'd toy;

He

He frolics with the flying hours,
Binding their locks with dewy flowers.
But when fome mortal Nymph appears,
With warlike pomp his bow he rears,
Brifk lightnings fill his eye;-
He fhouts aloud, O! Victory!
Then fpreads his pinions to the wind,
And leaves the wearied Airs behind;
. Pursues, o'ertakes, fecures his prey,
And bears the mangled heart away,
Regardless of each plaint and figh,

While mountains echo, Victory!" P. 12.

Upon the whole, we fee no reafon to difcourage this inexperi enced, and probably juvenile, poet; but recommend, that in future, what he, according to his own avowal, "writes in hafte," should be corrected and published at leifure."

MEDICINE.

ART. 17. Cow-Pox Inoculation no Security against Small-Pox Infection. By William Rowley, M. D. To which are added the Modes of treating the beaftly new Difeafes produced from CowPox. Explained by two coloured copper-plate Engravings, and 440 dreadful Cafes of Small-Pox, after Vaccination, as Cow-Pox Mange, Cow-Pox Ulcers, &c. With the Author's certain, experienced, and fuccessful Mode of inoculating for the Small-Pox. 8vo. 128 PP. Price 38. Harris. 1805.

This very extraordinary production, in which the author af-, fects to treat the practice of vaccine inoculation with the greatest contempt, is degraded by the admiffion of two engravings, reprefenting children affected with foul ulcers, pretended to be occafioned by the cow-pox. But the author cannot be ignorant, that every medical practitioner might give hiftories, and delineations of perfons of all ages, affected with ulcers, more foul and loathfome, than thofe he has felected, occurring after fmall-pox, chicken-pox, measles, fcarlatina, &c. and that fuch ulcers not unfrequently occur, even where the parties have never had any of thefe complaints. It feems, therefore, fair to conclude, that, when they do happen to take place, after a perfon has had any eruptive fever, they were not occafioned by the fever; or at the moft, that the fever only put in motion humours pre-existing in the constitution. That ulcers, to which the author may affix all the hard names he can recollect, may have occurred in perfons who have had the cow-pox, will not be wondered at when it is confidered that more than half a million of perfons have received that disease by inoculation in this country within thefe feven years.: but for the reft,

the

the author of this production writes with fuch fpleen and rancour, and his accounts are fo manifeftly overcharged and exaggerated, that they must defeat the end for which they are published. No perfon of even the leaft liberality of fentiment will believe, that the whole college of phyficians, and the college of furgeons, with the excep tion of one gentleman only, as far as we know, in each body, would give their unqualified fanction to the practice of vaccination, if it had proved injurious to only one tenth part of the number of per fons here faid to have fuffered from it. The truth is, every month, week, and even day, bring additional proofs of the perfect fafety of the cow-pox, and of its efficiency in fecuring the conftitutions of thofe who pafs properly through the disease, from the infection of the fmall-pox.

Some advantages may, however, ultimately refult, even from fo virulent and illiberal an attack. It will put thofe who are in the practice of inoculating the cow-pox, on their guard; make them cautious in taking the infecting matter in a proper ftage of the complaint; in watching the progrefs of the difeafe, and in taking care not to pronounce a patient fafe from the infec tion of the fmall-pox, until they are perfectly fatisfied they have paffed through the cow-pox. Should it produce this effect, then the author, however far from his intention, will approve himself one of the most useful friends to vaccination, and, thereby, in the fame degree, a benefactor to the whole human race.

ART. 18. Inoculation for the Small-Pox vindicated, and its fuperior Efficacy and Safety to the Practice of Vaccination clearly proved. By George Lipscomb, Surgeon. 8vo. 44 PP. Price

25.

G. Robinfon.

1805.

With a very different fpirit from that fhown by Dr. Rowley, the writer of this final tract calls the attention of the public to to the fubject. If the practice of vaccination has, on the one hand, been calumniated, the patrons of the practice were certainly too precipitate, in deciding on its merits. They even ventured to decide on points which could not be determined, until after a lapse of more years than have perhaps even now paffed, fince it was first introduced. We mean the abfolute, and perfect fecurity it offered, that the fubjects of it fhould not at any future period be fufceptible of receiving the infection of the fmall-pox; or that the feeds of future difeafe may not be introduced into the conftitution, with the matter of the cow-pox. Some inftances the writer of this tract gives, of perfons who after indifputably paffing through the cow-pox have taken the fmall-pox; and one of a child, in which fuch extenfive fuppurations took place, apparently from the irrita. tion of the cow-pox matter, as ultimately extinguished its life. But the writer aware, perhaps, that fimilar accidents have occurred After inoculation with fmall-pox matter, only makes ufe of thefe

cafes