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ART. XIII. Metrical Essays. By John Ambrose Williams.

Small 8vo.

pp. 148.

Wood.

MR. Williams begins his preface with an assertion, the truth of which we must deny. "Critics," says he, declaim against self-taught poets." Where did he learn this? We think, on the contrary, that, if the subject be carefully enquired into, they will be found to have sinned more on the side of indulgence than of severity. To "self-taught poets," meaning by this expression, which, however, is an awkward and equivocal one, those uneducated writers who have manifested poetical talents, they have, in at least ninety-nine cases out of a hundred, lent a helping hand. To every labourer or journeyman manufacturer, who, because he could rhyme and mete out ten syllables, took it into his head to fancy that he was a poet, they certainly have not given encouragement to quit his beneficial calling for the-idle and starving trade of stringing verses together. But their conduct in this case, far from deserving censure, deserves gratitude and praise, not only from the public, but from the misled writers themselves. Having thus rebutted Mr. Williams's groundless accusation, we will prove that we are in charity with its author. Considered as Considered as "the juvenile offspring of a mind indebted to little except its own assiduity, for whatever degree of superiority it may possess over absolute ignorance and mere vulgarity," his productions, which he modestly declares to be "nothing more than trifles," do him considerable credit. His volume, amidst much incorrectness and tameness, contains several lines, and some passages, which are by no means contemptible. In one or two of his poems, that of "Napoleon" for instance, he is not wanting in sprit. Still we would not advise him to devote a large portion of his time to the courtship of the Muses, and still less would we advise him to be too liberal in making known to the public the result of that courtship.

ART. XIV. Parnassian Wild Shrubs: consisting of Odes The Moralist, a Series of Poetical Essays; Sonnets, and Miscellaneous Pieces. By W. Taylor. Small 8vo. pp. 103. Wilson. 1814.

THERE is nothing in the world more common, and at the same time more ridiculous, than that inveterate self-delusion, which induces men to believe that they are admirably gifted. to act those very parts for which nature has wholly disqualified

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them. We, for example, every day see persons ogling at the glass, smirking complacently, and proving, by a hundred similar tricks, that they believe themselves to be possessed of all the charms of Adonis, while, in fact, they are more fit to perform the office of a scare-crow, or a raw head and bloody bones; others, who look on themselves as Hampdens and Ciceros, but who are nothing more than vulgar demagogues, and Palace Yard bawlers; and others, who live in certain hope of seeing their names enrolled with those of Milton and Dryden, though they are only humble rivals of those bards who compose Christmas verses for the Bellman and the Lamplighter. This last class is, unfortunately, a numerous one, and is that by which we critics are the most annoyed. We do not, however, mean to say that Mr. W. Taylor has any such lofty expectations as are indulged by many of the rhymers to whom we have alluded. On the contrary, in his preface, he speaks of his productions with a laudable modesty. The title, too, of his book is undoubtedly meant to be an unassuming one. It claims, nevertheless, more than we dare, in justice, to allow. It implies that his shrubs, though wild, are still the growth of the Parnassian Mountain. Now, we must take leave to deny, in the most positive manner, that they are so. If they really came from Parnassus, though they might not possess the grandeur of the tree, or the beauty of the cultivated flower, we should receive them with pleasure. But they do not come from that consecrated ground. Mr. Taylor seems a good-natured, moral man, but he knows not a single step of the road to Parnassus; and we hope that he will not again commit the mistake of going astray upon a moor, and then bringing to market, under a false name, a basket of arrant weeds, devoid of scent and of colour.

ART. XV. An Attempt to establish a pure scientific System of Mineralogy by the Application of the Electro-Chemical Theory. By Jacob Berzelius. M.D. F.R.S. Professor of Chemistry at Stockholm. Translated by John Black. 12mo. pp. 139. 6s. Baldwin. 1814.

THIS little essay treats upon an important point in the united provinces of Mineralogy and Chemistry, in which we have little doubt but that further discoveries will be rapidly made. We have received much curious, information from its perusal, and we doubt not but that it will be read by every professed mineralogist with much interest and advantage. The following extract will afford a very fair notion of the Theory which Berzelius adopts.

"Through

"Through the influence of electricity on the theory of chemistry, this last science has experienced a revolution, and received a greater and more important accession of influence, than it did through the doctrines of either Stahl or Lavoisier. The influence of the electro-chemical theory extends even to mineralogy, whose doctrines must receive an equal extension with those of the parent science, although no attempt has yet been made to apply this theory to mineralogy.

"From the electro-chemical theory we have been taught to seek in every compound body for the ingredients of opposite electro-chemical properties, and we have learned from it that the combinations cohere with a force which is proportionate to the degree of opposition in the electro-chemical nature of the ingre.. dients. Hence it follows that in every compound body there are one or more electro-positive with one or more electro-negative ingredients*, which, as the combinations consist of oxides, means the same as that every body in the combination, called by us a basis, must be answered by another which acts the part of an acid, even supposing that in its isolated situation it does not possess the general characters for which acids are distinguished, namely, a sour taste, and the property of changing vegetable blues to red. The body, which is in one case electro-negative when combined with a stronger electro-positive, that is, which is acid when combined with a stronger basis, may in another case be electropositive, and be united to a stronger electro-negative body, or, which is the same thing, may be the basis to a stronger acid. · Thus in the union of two acids the weaker acid serves as the basis to the stronger.

"Thus every combination of two or more oxides possesses the nature of a salt, i. e. has its acid. And, if we suppose this combination decomposed by the galvanic battery, the first will be col lected round the positive pole, and the second round the negative. Hence in every mineral composed of oxidised bodies, whether of an earthy or saline nature, we must seek for the electro-negative and electro-positive ingredients; and after the nature and qualities of these are found, a critical application of the chemical theory will tell us what the fossil in question is." P. 11.

‹‹ * I must once for all inform the reader that, from the consideration I have recently bestowed on this subject, I have been led to introduce this alteration into the nomenclature of which I have already given some account, in my Essay on Nomenclature and the Electro-Chemical System. (K. Vat. Ac Handl. 1812, İ. H.) By electro-positives, is to be understood such as have inflammable bodies or salts for bases; and by electro-negatives, the oxygen and oxides which go to the positive pole of the galvanic battery.→

ART.

ART. XVI. Parliamentary Portraits, or Sketches of the Public Character of some of the distinguished Members of the House of Commons, originally printed in the Examiner. 235 pp. Baldwin and Co. 1815.

8vo.

IN former days the coffee-house was the arena upon which all the minor politicians of the day descended to discuss the affairs of the nation. In the revolution, however, of fashion, these scenes of noisy debate having become the temples of taciturnity, some other vent was found necessary for the ill-humours of the extremities of the body politic. The coffee-houses have been succeeded by the Sunday Papers, in which every discontented coxcomb may fire off his seditious vulgarity, without any fear, excepting in a very few instances, for the personal consequences of his virulence and absurdity. In the mean time these wretched scribblers, who but for the aid of a little libel and sedition, would have slept on in a state of utter insignificance, rise into no small share of self-importance, and become the secretaries of state affairs for the mob-department. It is almost incon ceivable with how much audacity of falsehood they issue forth their strictures upon measures, of which they know neither the origin nor the end, and their portraits of characters, of which they are from pure ignorance unable to form the slightest con- · ception. It is lamentable also to observe with what avidity these weekly messes of treason and lies are swallowed by the deluded multitude, who in many cases are better informed and better principled than their teachers.

We neither know, nor are desirous of knowing who may be the author of the portraits before us; he appears to have a tolerable school-boy's acquaintance with the Latin and Greek languages, and to have been a constant attendant on the gallery of the House of Commons. We are willing to give our author credit, where he appears to deserve it. He has studied the characters of the various speakers, as they appear in the House with much diligence, and has presented us with no unfaithful portrait of their respective merits. The peculiar features of each member are well drawn, and the attention which the House is inclined to bestow upon their exertions, fairly calculated. The following is the portrait of Lord Castlereagh :

"It is peculiar also to Lord Castlereagh to be heard with much apparent respect, and even fondness, though the style of his ha rangues is decidedly the dullest in the Lower House. He has no imagination, no energy either of thought or language, no spirit in his manner; and though he is perpetually aiming at uncommon words and forms of expression, yet I never remember him to have struck out one happy combination. His involutions of sentences

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have been much ridiculed as rendering his meaning frequently inaccessible and his adversaries and rivals have generally ascribed this obscurity to design, and call it a stratagem to escape from any open declaration of his sentiments, which might be in the way of future arrangements. I do not think so: I believe Lord Castle. reagh to be sincere in most of his opinions, and more free from uncandid evasions than most of the political aspirants of the day: he has at least as much public integrity, and as strong claims to public confidence, as Mr. Ponsonby, and a vast deal more, I apprehend, than Mr. Canning. The perplexity of his diction I impute to that anxious laboriousness so common to a mind inquiring but not acute, whose ideas being indistinct and half-formed, can of course never produce clear and perfect images, but which, being eager to communicate its notions, endeavours, by every artifice of variety, quantity, and length, to supply the place of simplicity and energy. It is like the variegated patch-work of a beggar's garment, where a thousand diversities of rags, however artfully placed, form but an ill substitute for a firm and uniform texture; or like an unweildy levy-en-masse, instead of a compact, well-organized, and manageable army.-A more trifling peculiarity is that affected pronunciation with which he enervates the masculine sounds of our tongue; such for instance as calling "knowledge," "nullige ;" nullige," "Commons," "cummins;" "discussion," "deskissin," and several others: this is so curious an exception to the usual plain dull common sense of Lord Castlereagh, that I can only account for it by supposing that Lady C., who is a lady of letters, may have some favourite theory of enunciation, intended to supersede Sheridan's or Walker's, and that she has engaged her noble husband to try its efficacy and power of pleasing in the first assembly of the nation. One puerile affectation may be forgiven him, because it seems to arouse all his energies, and really stirs him into a sort of warmth: a military subject is to him what Galvanism is to a dead frog: he jumps about with symptoms of life, which might deceive a common observer, till, on looking for the animating soul, you find that all these exertions were merely accidental. Whence this military propensity proceeds, I cannot tell: his father was a Colonel of Volunteers, and himself commands a regiment of Militia; but this is the case with a score or two other Members of the House. It can hardly arise from his looking well in the military dress, though he is fond of appearing in it; for he must know that he looks the accomplished gentleman in any garb. Indeed this is the favourable side of Lord Castlereagh: his handsome person, his intelligent and well-defined countenance, his conciliatory tone, his graceful manners, his mildness, urbanity, and invincible courtesy, ensure him popularity and even fondness from the House of Commons, in spite of his dulness and in spite of his political errors. Personal and even political animosity loses daily some of its rancour, from the influence of that gentleness which never irritates, and is as slow to be irritated; whose polish makes

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