Prefented as condemned to death by Volnir, for refufing to affift him in gaining poffeffion of the city.

Editha.

Muft we part?

Sigebert. A little while my child, to meet for ever. Editha. I was prepared myfelf.-But, Oh! my father! Canft thou forgive ?

Sigebert. What means my Editha?
Editha. My folly my imprudence? to intruft
That woman with

(Kneeling)

Sigebert. Oh! rife!-my bleffings on thee!
My love; my utmost tenderness!-Oh! wound not
My nature with the thought!-Forgive thee fay'ft thơu ?
And could'ft thou think that I would wifh for life
Without my daughter? I had fondly form'd
A thousand flattering dreams, of freedom, blifs,
And future days of joys; but thou in all
Wert ftill predominant.-Have I forgot
The infant prattler, my prophetic foul
E'en then had fix'd to cheer my hours of age?
And can I, now I find, and feel thee all,
Which Fancy in her wildeft fcope coul1 rame,
Bear to protract my being, torn from t. ?
Could Bertha, could my Edred, e'er have pluck'd
The barbed anguish from thy father's heart?
Oh! 'twould be mifery in its worst extreme.

'Twas Heaven, kind pitying Heaven, discover'd me,
That I might die with thee.

Editha.

Oh! this is death;

This, its fevereft pang. I feel it here.
It pierces through each inlet of my foul;"
A father's tenderness, ne'er known till now.
The filial paffions fwell, and almoft burst
My labouring bofom; gratitude, which ne'er
Can be indulged-whofe debt must be unpaid.
For fate, ftern fate-

Sigebert.

Oh! ceafe. I know it all.
All thou would'ft fay, all thou would'st do, I feel.
Each pious duty, every tender care,

Each foft folicitude.-O worthieft! beft!

Have I not known thee? tried thee? art thou not

The child of my fond heart? more dear to it

Than the warm ftream which feeds it?

Sigebert.

Oh! thou fhould't not

Have waked me from my vifion to that thought.
To lofe thy father! to be loft to him!.
Irrevocably loft!-And yet, 'tis fit.

For thus diffolved in tenderness, I should not
Meet death, as it becomes the brave to die.
VOL. LVII. June, 1784.

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Editha

Editha. Meet death!

Sigebert.

Editha. The mandate of neceffity; the call To virtue, and to fortitude.

Sigebert.

I thank thee.

Yes, we will roufe us from lethargic forrow.
The morn fhall view us with erected mein,

And mark our tearless eye.-Thefe Danes fhall fee,
And wonder at our brave contempt of death.
But ah! this night!-this dreadful feparation!
Into this night, I could methinks

Have ftored whole years of happiness! while thus
I held thee, thus pour'd forth my fond endearments,
And thus received thy tribute of affection.

But 'twill not be-relentless favages!

(To the guards who fart them.)

Have ye no mercy ?-Oh! a moment longer

My Editha!

Editha.

Sigebert.

My father!

"Tis in vain

Never fhall I again embrace my child.

Editha. My father!-thefe emotions!-Oh! controulLeft I should fink

Sigebert-
I will, I will, for thee
I'll force my nature. Sure I should encourage
And comfort thee-not thus by my example
Deprefs-but ah! I cannot-for mortality
Hath forged no bonds to curb parental love.
Farewell-Farewell!-ye gracious powers fupport!-
Editha. Heaven will fupport us.'

Publii Virgilii Maronis Georgicon Liber Primus et Secundus. The
firft and fecond Georgic, attempted in Blank Verfe. Accidit Ode
Hebræa, cum Verfionibus metrica profoque. Small 8vo. 2s. 6d.
Jerved. Dilly.

THE

HE excellencies of this noble poem can never, we think, be adequately rendered in a tranflation. The fubject itself feems ungenial to modern language; implements of husban dry, and terms of art, muft appear uncouth in our numbers. The elegance and uniform fublimity of the original, which dignifies the meaneft fubject, eludes the tranflator's utmost efforts. Its graces are deftroyed by a literal verfion, and its fpirit is evaporated by a diffufive paraphrafe. Mr. Warton acquitted himself like a scholar and man of genius in this ar duous task; but how flat and infipid appear those paffages to

the mere English reader, which are only didactic! What a faint and imperfect reprefentation do they give of the original to those of more claffical knowlege. Our author's favourite predeceffor however appears to be Dr. Trapp, of whom he obferves, that had he been as happy in the diction and verfification in general, as he must be acknowleged to have been in not a few lines (indeed in a confiderable part of the arduous undertaking) any verfion after his, might have been judged fuperfluous. So high an opinion of one whofe poetical abilities, whatever credit may be due to his claffical fagacity, are of a very inferior caft, muft give the reader no great idea of the taste and judgment of the prefent tranflator. As a poet indeed he is entitled to but little approbation. We cannot always fay that accuracy atones for want of elegance; and a needlefs redundancy is too often fubftituted, as reprefenting the chafte diction and condensed fenfe of Virgil. The first lines, felected neither as the best nor worst in the performance, will afford a fufficient fpecimen of our author's abilities. The five concluding ones, which are intended as a translation of the following, will, we apprehend, fufficiently justify our preceding remarks;

Diique, Deæque omnes ftudium quibus arva tueri;
Quique novas alitis non ullo femine fruges;
Quique fatis largum cœlo demittitis imbrem.'

• Whence the full harvest smiles; beneath what star
To turn the foil, Mæcænas, and to wed

The vine to her lov'd elm; what happieft care
Maintains the herd, and rears the humbler flock;
And what the wife experience of the bees

I here begin to fing. Ye glorious lights
Who guide the year foft gliding through the fky!-
Bacchus and genial Ceres, if to you

Earth owe the change of acorn for the fruit
Of the rich ear, and animated draughts
From the pure ftream united with the grape;
Ye Fawns propitious to the rural train
And Dryads, ever youthful, hither come;
Your gifts I celebrate! And thou to whom
Smote by thy trident earth disclosed the steed
Upfpringing and rejoicing in his ftrength;
Neptune! and in thou whom the Caan ille
A train of fnow white fteers on the rich mead
Honour, diftinguifh'd patron of the woods!-
Thyfelf, great Pan, leaving thy country's grove
And forefts of Arcadia, if thy fmile

Regard the hill of Mænalus, O come;
Come, O rever'd of Tegea! Pallas fpeed

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Queen

Queen of the Olive! nor be absent thou
From whom the crooked ploughfhare first derived
Its honour'd ufe! Sylvanus join the train!
And ye, O gods and all ye goddeffes,

Who tend, well pleas'd the culture of the fields;
And rear the infant blade, and pour glad fhowers
Upon the thirsty corn, when harvest waits

And eyes the golden wave and reaps in thought."

If we cannot congratulate the author on his fuccefs, we with pleafure bear teftimony to his modefty.

For myself, fays he, I have thought the two first books fufficient on which to hazard the cenfure of the public. Should they be received as an effort, not wholly mifdirected, to give a kind of fhadow (in that part to which they correfpond) of a poem, which I could not without tremor afpire to trace, the remainder will probably be published; as I have been translating the other two books. That I have finished the translation I can never dare to fay. That was a word efteemed too high to be annexed to their works by the artifts of antiquity: for me, and especially on this occafion, it undoubtedly is their induftry at least, and diffidence, may be imitated.'

In regard to the Hebrew Ode, which is a Latin translation of the fifth chapter of Ifaiah, with the original prefixed, we are informed that the verfes are divided in the fame manner as Dr. Lowth had propofed in his Prælections, and used in his verfion. Those who have read that learned divine's elegant and spirited translation of several poetical paffages in the Old Teftament, will not think very highly of the prefent attempt.

Curfory Remarks on the Importance of Agriculture in its Connection with Manufactures and Commerce, adapted to the present Situation of Great Britain. By William Lamport. 8vo. Cadell.

25.

ME R. Lamport obferves, that he did not defign to write a

treatife on political economy, or on the importance of agriculture in that view his remarks are curfory, but they are fenfible and judicious. The great object of the author is to encourage the cultivation of wafte lands; and to show that, however we wish to extend our trade, or to pursue any other path to national profperity, we must begin or end with agriculture, if we wish to fucceed: The hinge of the whole queftion is this, your manufacturers must eat, and cheaply too, or they cannot fupply foreign nations with their labour, at the proper price. This pofition is unquestionable; but, though obvious, in the rage for reformation and the pursuit

of

of fudden accumulations of wealth, it has been frequently overlooked. Our own lands too will, he thinks, produce many articles, which we at prefent purchase, as plentifully as neighbouring countries. He inftances hemp and madder, both undoubtedly objects of national concern. On the whole, thefe Remarks deferve confiderable attention; for they are diftinguished by a liberality of fentiment, and an intimate knowlege of the fubject. They are written in a lively and perfuafive manner, though fometimes not with fo much accuracy as we wish to find in the work of every author of abilities. We will felect the conclufion, as a fhort fpecimen.

Such, as we have reprefented, being the prefent ftate of Great Britain, it only remains for us to confider what induce ments there are for any of its inhabitants to emigrate from their native country, which do not equally weigh for their continuance in it.

"There are large tracts of land to be cultivated in America, which may be had for a trifle," fays one.

There is almoft a quarter part of Great Britain remaining uncultivated, and which may be had reasonably, fay I. With this difference in our favour, that you are certain of felling the produce of them at a good price; whereas America will not Spare you any of her lands which are in the neighbourhood of her towns, or where the productions of them have an eafy or fhort conveyance to a good market. You may live by yourself if you please; but what will you do with the overplus of your corn, &c. which will bring you in but a trifle at your farm, and the conveyance of which to any advantageous market, will eat out great part of the profit?

"But we want to encrease our trade by going to America,” fay others.

Do ye know for certain, that America will or can permit you to increase it with Great Britain, according to your expectations, fettered as she is at prefent by France? Stay then till ye are certain of it, and until ye are alfo well affured of rs and connections here, as may unite the two countries together in those ftrong and reciprocal bonds which France cannot break afunder; then indeed, perhaps, none of your friends and countrymen will violently object to wishing you a good voyage.

carrying on fuch a trade thr
through your partners

Another company are exclaiming, "What with taxes, &c. our fituation here is very ineligible."

And where is the fituation that is altogether eligible to dif contented minds ?. Remember the old proverb,

" Cælum non animum mutant qui trans mare currunt." For, from the independence of America muft arise a variety of national wants, hitherto unthought of there; for the fupply of which, every individual of her inhabitants must con

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tribute,