It might not be too much, perhaps, to request a reader of this description to elucidate the meaning of the following couplet: "Soft as the melody of youthful lays, That steals the trembling tear of speechless praise." When obscurities of this kind so frequently occur in a poem which can boast of passages so exquisitely beautiful as those which we have selected, we cannot attribute them to the false taste of the author, but we must ascribe them rather to that negligence which is engendered by the folly of unqualified admiration. Correction and emendation are a superfluous task to him who feels conscious that his very faults will be received with undistinguishing applause. Those who have formed their taste by a long and exclusive study of the most perfect models of poetry, both in the ancient and the modern languages, cannot but lament to find the most elevated conceptions defrauded of their force by harshness and obscurity of expression. Such a reader could never rest satisfied with that night of stormy water" as a form of words at all calculated to convey the idea of a night when storms agitated the water. The noble Lord is very liberal in the use of his Turkish terms. No objection can be urged against the introduction of those words which convey an idea for which in our own language we have no adequate expression. No single word in English can give a notion of a haram, a pacha, a muezzin. A foreign term is also judiciously adopted, when the corresponding word in our own language is associated with a low or mean idea. Chibouque is therefore properly used for a smoking-pipe. But where the word in our own language fairly and fully expresses the idea, the adoption of a foreign term is always useJess, and often absurd. When we have a name so expressive as the "nightingale," why should we read of the bulbul," a word, which, if it can give any idea at all, must from the repetition of the syllable convey to the English ear a ludicrous expression. Surely our "rose" is is a more elegant term than gul." In the following lines, our country gentlemen, who have not been enabled to pick up scraps of Turkish in the grand tour, must find themselves totally at a loss: " "Resigned his gem-adorn'd chibouque, And mounting featly for the mead, With Maugrabee and Mameluke, To VOL. 1. JAN. 1814. To witness many an active deed Watch well the Haram's massy doors." To some of these hard words his Lordship has kindly vonchsafed a glossary in the notes; for not even W. Scott, with all his Border jargon, could have more effectually set interpretation at defiance. Before we close our observations, we must enter a protest against the stage effect of dashes, which occur, without any reason whatsoever, sometimes twice or thrice in one line, and never less than a dozen times in a page. Parts of the noble Lord's poetry do not want these tricks to set them off; and where they are introduced to give a spirit to what was previously flat, and a mysterious meaning to what was before unintelligible, to the eye of a sensible critic they will generally aggravate the fault. We have thus presented to our readers a fair representation of the beauties and defects of this popular tale; more we need not say, for as the book is now in the hands of nearly the whole English nation, it will answer for itself. We have spoken with the more freedom of what we conceive to be its defects, as from its universal circulation every objection may be canvassed, and every misrepresentation corrected. if we were allowed in opinion to anticipate its fate, we should prediet, that whatsoever its faults may be, both they and the parts which contain them will be rapidly forgotten, but that its beauties will be long 'stored up in the memory of every admirer of true and legitimate poetry. ART. IV. An Introduction to the Study of the Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy: containing a Series of Lectures upon the Rectilinear aud Projectile Motion, the Mechanical Action, and the Rotatory and Vibratory Motion of Bodies. By the Rev. B. Bridge, B.D. F.R.S. Fellow of St. Peter's College, Cambridge, and Professor of Mathematics and Natural Philosophy in the East India College. 2 Vols. 8vo. 432 pp. 11. 1s. Cadell and Davies. 1813. WHOEVER, while lounging in a friend's parlour, has occasionally taken up a Review, must have generally found, in some part of it, the leaves uncut. After long and accurate attention to the phænomenon, as it occurred to ourselves, we are compelled to confess, that the sheet appropriated to mathematical ΟΙ or philosophical subjects uniformly exhibited that ignominious mark of neglect. With whatever coolness we might heretofore contemplate such a circumstance, we now feel, very sensibly, that it" comes home to our business and bosoms." The re membrance of indignities offered to the labours of others excites dire apprehensions of the contemptuous disregard, to which our own are exposed. Most laudable are the customs that have been established by those ingenious worthies, who have preceded us in the career of criticism. Illustrious examples at this moment stimulate ́ us to make the phænomenon, which has just been brought forward, the ground-work of refined and instructive speculation. We might investigate its causes and trace its consequences. Many an ear could we delight by the rhythm of our periods, and many an understanding could we fascinate by the brilliance of our conjectures. Let the disquisition, however, be deferred till ano. ther opportunity; and proceed we to a yet more urgent, and, in our judgment, a not less pleasing duty, which we have to discharge. We are authorized by that learned and mysterious fraternity to which we have the honour to belong-the good-natured reader will forgive our eagerness to declare how fearlessly we have encountered the rites of initiation, and to acknowledge the prompt and flattering attention with which we have been admitted to the renowned grades of Apprentice, Fellow-Craft, and MasterCritic we are authorized to certify to the literary world, by these presents, that it is from a paramount sense of duty alone that the abovementioned neglected subjects undergo discussion at all;-that we have no motive of affection for such subjects arising from any peculiar facility with which our accounts of them are drawn upon the contrary, that we can much more easily keep pace with an adventurer in his Travels in India, than pursue the evolutions of a mathematician in a Treatise on Isoperimetrical Problems. So much for our brethren in general:--with regard to our own private lodge, although we dare not divulge the greater mysteries, we may conscientiously publish our determination to notice all such WORKS OF SCIENCE as may appear, in this country, with just claims to attention. Their magnitude and importance will, of course, regulate the extent of our obser vations. Anxious, as it is natural for us to be, that our first number 'should contain as much information as possible, that may be interesting, we take credit to ourselves for no little hardihood. in inserting an article which, by its very title, will probably deter many readers from an inspection of its contents. May we be E 2 permitted the permitted to entreat, that all those who have accompanied us thus far will, at least, admire our resolution. As an encouragement to perseverance in the perusal of these remarks, we can with great sincerity declare, that we shall through the whole critique studiously avoid the introduction of any thing that might grievously discompose the gentlest student of the Belles Lettres. When Oliver Goldsmith was employed in writing his Natural History, Dr. Johnson predicted that he would make it as enter taining as a Persian tale:-and-" to speak without vanity, for we are above it,”—we do think that the review of a treatise on Mathematical Philosophy might, even in power of amusement, contest the palm with many a modern Novel. Mr. Bridge is not one of those who, emulating the grand style of Epic Bards and manufacturers of Romances, plunge at once into the intricacies of their subjects. To prepare the understandings of his readers for the speculations concerning which we are about to offer an opinion, he had previously written three tracts. They have, indeed, casually fallen into our hands; but we do not pretend that the time employed in studying their contents has occasioned a vast consumption of lamp-oil. The first tract unfolds the rudiments of algebraic calculation. It may with great propriety be called, as W. Ludlamn formerly denominated an extremely similar work of his own, "Horn-book for Babes in Mathematics." To that interesting class of human beings, for whose instruction it was immediately designed, we believe that it has proved very acceptable and very useful. The operations to be performed are all along indicated with great patience and industry; and the rationale of rules and processes is occasionally given in a manner not ill contrived to "teach the young idea how to shoot." A tract of this kind, replete with numerical examples and questions without solution, may have a beneficial effect on ininds that generalize too slowly, as well as on minds that generalize with too great rapidity. In the Preface, Mr. Bridge has announced his intention of publishing a volume, supplementary to the present work, on the. general Theory of Equations, the Summation of Serics, and the Application of Algebra to Geometry."-The second of the tracts to which we have above alluded, contains the Elements of Plane Trigonometry. In this we find little that can call for remark. The common theorems are deduced by the ordinary methods without much of system indeed; sometimes geometrically and sometimes algebraically. It may, beyond all doubt,, accomplish the purpose for which it was intended. Almost any other elementary treatise on the subject will accomplish that purpose as well. The third tract, on the Conic Sections, we like the least of all. Its principal claim to notice is professedly grounded grounded on novelty of arrangement. In the arrangement which it presents we discover no striking merit. The demonstrations, from an incongruous mixture of Algebra and Geometry, are, to our taste, sufficiently disagreeable. The tract, indeed, comprises many propositions not usually introduced into elementary treatises on these curves. The propositions to which we allude, and which are not brought together with due regard to unity of plan, relate to the quadrature of the curves, to constructions in certain cases, and to properties common to the different sections. Theories of Conic Sections are now objects of attention, it is true, not so much on their own account, as for the attainment of knowledge indispensable to the study of Natural Philosophy. Are they therefore to be divested of the great characteristics of a system complete in itself? The Elements of Geometry are also studied with a view to their subsequent application; but we are not content with unconsidered collections of miscellaneous propositions; we read Euclid. The number of treatises on Conic Sections, which have been pub. lished during the last twenty or thirty years, seems to indicate a prevailing feeling that something, by which they might be more completely adapted to the purposes of students, was yet wanting. Mr. Bridge, among others, imagined that he had discovered the deficiency, and has endeavoured to supply it. He is, we believe, the last Mathematician who has tried his hand. Perhaps no one will pronounce, that his efforts have been eminently successful. We now beg for a little respite: paper is dear and money scarce. The world has already been favoured with plenty of systems, possessing moderate claims on its regard; and even of these, the relative merits have not yet been determined. There are, let it be recollected, many other sciences to be learnt, and many other merits to be assigned: time hastens; and, not to persevere too long in novelty of remark, art is long and life short. We are, in truth, tired of reading compilations, which, because they exhibit propositions mumerically arranged, are called systems. The turn is now come for something that shall have been completely finished before one word of it was printed: something that, if it were only for the sake of variety, shall bear the marks of sound learning and continued reflection. There is a gentleman who, if report may be credited, has for a considerable time been employed in preparing a treatise on this subject. That gentleman will undertake nothing without well knowing what he is about. All the resources of Geometry are at his command, and he can apply them with an acuteness and elegance that leave nothing to be wished for. We hope that our information is correct. If it be correct, and if we had the power of doing so, we would impose quiescence, in these mat ters, |