of a Phidias, and throw its fragments promifcuously around us, that we may be ftruck with the beauty of the work, and form a right judgement of the excellency of the artist: or, to feel the mufic of one of Handel's oratorios, and thence to eftimate bis genius, we may as well play all its notes, but not in bis order and combination.' Take, fays Dr. Warton, ten lines of the fliad, Paradife Loft, or even of the Georgics of Virgil, and fee, whether by any procefs of critical chymiftry, you can lower and reduce them to the tameness of profe." Mr. Stockdale makes this experiment, and fhews, that by fuch a tranfpofition, the poetry of Homer and Milton would be entirely divested of its force and beauty. But he adds: I believe I may, without prefumption, infift, that if the trial of poetical excellence, recommended by Horace, and by Warton, was, in the eye of the true critic, a legal trial: the poet never existed who would fuffer lefs by encountering this frozen ordeal than Pope. But why did not our fevere judge bring him to the bar of this rigid fentence, in all his vigour ? Why did he not give him a chance for his life? His arbitrary procefs would have had, at least, the appearance of equity, if he had tried its effect on one of the many admirable paffages which he has quoted in his book, and which demonftrate the futility of its whole tenour, inftead of dragging to his Ho ratian rack the beginning of the firft Ethic Epiftle, in which the great exertion of our poet would have been incompatible with his fubject, and in which he fports in the eafy ftyle of epiftolary familiarity. The pertinacious critic, to evince the mediocrity of Pope's poetry; to reach his hoftile aim; to ftab the poet in a vital part, fhould have tried his experiment on a capital quotation. Many fuch quotations he hath given us from the Rape of the Lock, which are completely beautiful; and many from the Eloïfa to Abelard, which are fuperlatively great. If our prieft, for instance, had condemned fuch lines, to his barbarous purgatory, from the latter poem, as thofe in which Eloïfa paints, in the ftrongest colours, the objects around her convent; and describes, with almoft unexampled animation, their effects on her mind, when her piety was abforbed in her paffion; I make no doubt but a difcerning reader, if he had not been informed of the metamorphofis, would have thought it the fentiments, and language of one endowed with a vigorous imagination. But in thofe lines, thus tranfpofed, the poet would not have been discovered; for they would have wanted the indifpenfible characteristics of poetry; they would have been fpoiled of its beautiful fymmetry; of its captivating graces; of its harmonious expreffion. If he had exhibited fuch a specimen, he would not have been lefs abfurd; but he would have been more ingenuous: and if his poftulatum was founded in truth, truth, he would have unquestionably proved that Mr. Pope was not a poet. I fhall here tranfcribe the lines to which I have now alluded; not as they might have been fhortened, and ftretched, dislocated, and mutilated, by our literary Procruftes;. but in their own form, and pressure. Many fuch teftimonies 1 could produce to warrant my zeal for Pope. • The darksome pines that o'er yon rocks reclined, But o'er the twilight groves, and dusky caves, The active imagination of the fufceptible reader, on whom Pope's Epiftle from Eloïfa to Abelard hath had its full play, has precluded a minute encomium on this admirable quotation : it must have called forth all his fenfibility to nature, to fympathy, and to love." As Dr. Warton may appeal to the authority of Horace, Sat. iv. 60, our author difclaims an implicit obedience to the dictates of that eminent critic.-Horace however does not recommend the trial in queftion. He only fays, that he himfelf, in his Satires, ufes a familiar ftyle; and that if his words were thrown out of their poetical arrangement, we should not be able to difcern the least appearance of the poet. Whereas, fays he, if we tranfpofe thefe lines of Ennius, --Poftquam difcordia tetra Belli ferratos poftes, portafque refregit, we should still perceive the limbs of a mangled poet; viz. certain words and images appropriated to poetry: as we might discover the fragments of a broken statue, by a finger or a toe; and from thence conclude that thefe pieces were the work of an artist, and not merely common ftones. Our author therefore makes an improper conceffion, to the difadvantage of Horace, in a cafe, where that judicious critic has maintained no abfurdity. They are mistaken, who imagine, that he he recommends the transposition of a poet's words, as the test of poetical excellence. Dr. Warton asks, what is there tranfcendently pathetic and fublime in Pope? This writer replies: One would think the man had loft his fenfes. Many paffages interfperfed throughout his works; his filial apoftrophes to the age, and infirmities of an affectionate mother; his Elegy to the Memory of an unfortunate Lady: his Prologue to Cato; his Eloïfa to Abelard, are all tranfcendently pathetic. I believe it will be allowed that if any fubject is, in its nature, a ground-work for the pathetick, it is love: and I imagine it will be likewife granted that the Epiftle from Eloïfa to Abelard, is the warmest, the most affecting, and admirable amorous poem in the world. Now, pray, fir, must not the foul of that writer have been peculiarly formed for the pathetick, who could infpire with all the force, and varieties of the paffion, with its ardour, and ecftacies; with its anxieties, diftreffes, and excruciating torments, every verfe of a poem which confifts of almost four hundred lines? and after you had been converfant with that poem; after you had examined its compofition; (fhall I not pay you a compliment which you do not deferve, if I add) after you had felt its fire and after you had quoted fome of its very striking parts; how could you have the abfurdity, or the affurance to afk, what there is tranfcendently pathetic in Pope t A little afterwards he says: ⚫ I cannot yet lofe fight of the glorious Epiftle from Eloïfa to Abelard. The records of literature do not afford an instance of fo vigorous, and continued a flame as that which we feel in this divine poem; except the New Eloïsa of that aftonishing Swifs, who was forced, by the inhuman treatment he received from his puritanical, and corrupted countrymen, to do them the indelible dishonour of refigning his privileges in their community. In Rouffeau's work, indeed, all the ardour of genius, in the highest degree; all the delicacy, and ftrength of fentiment; all the variety, and force of imagination, and invention; all the beauties, the graces, and energy of compofition, are preferved, with unparalleled, and unremitting powers, through one hundred and fixty-three Letters. But that work is written in profe. And fo extremely rare are great poetical talents; we enjoy a pleasure fo much more lively, and enthufiaftick from exquifite numbers than from the most animated, and elegant profe, and fo much more captivating are their charms, that a mind, fired with poetical ambition, would with difficulty determine whether he would wish to have been the Author of Rouffeau's, or of Pope's Eloïfa. 'I fhall here obferve, from the respect, and veneration I bear to the illuftrious foreign writer whom I have now men. tioned; to enable my readers to form juster distinctions on ob jects jects of criticism; to confole humble capacities, and to humble the pride of learning, and of genius; that the late Mr. Gray's opinion of the New Eloïfa betrayed a depravity of judgement approaching to infanity. He defpifed this unequalled, and immortal novel; and he was in raptures with Fingal. He infinitely preferred a profufe tautology of the most vulgar fentiments; of the moft bleak, and horrid images;-he infinitely preferred the very froth of puerile declamation, to the jufteft, and the nobleft fentiments; to the moft varied, and luxuriant imagery; to the very nerves, and foul of eloquence; to the genuine fubftance, and fplendor of compofition. So dangerous, and fatal to reason, and to fentiment, is natural caprice, a taste naufeated by a long habitude to literary objects; and the intoxicating adulation of a few fawning academicians. The bottom of Lethe, to which Fingal is now configned; the univerfal, and eager attention which is given to the writings of Rouffeau; the applaufe of Europe; and his eftablifhed fame, are the facred, and unanfwerable vouchers for my admiration of that original, and capital genius. The fame univerfal, and intimaté acquaintance with the works of Pope; the fame univerfal applaufe; the fame fixed, and immortal fame, are the refpectable, and incontrovertible warrants for my defence, for my' idolatry of that great poet.' Our author however, though he cenfures Mr. Gray in this paffage, pays a proper tribute of applaufe to his excellent productions, particularly his Elegy, his Progrefs of Poetry, hisOde on the Spring, his Diftant Profpect of Eton-College, and his Hymn to Adverfity." The subject of the bard, he fays, is a fine foundation for his ode, which in many places, is very vigorous and picturefque; but its prophecy is too circumftantially hiftorical; it recites a long feries of paffages from our annals, which are either forgot ten, or not regarded by many, who are far from being illi terate.' Here the author beftows his fevereft animadverfions on the editor of Mr. Gray's Letters, whom he charges with felfish. nefs, vanity, and high treafon to friendship; and, in allufion to his productions, he calls him a puerile florift. At the fame time he vindicates Dr. Akenfide against the cenfures of Gray and Mafon. § iv. let. 2. He then returns to Mr. Pope, and evinces his various excelJences by quotations from the Rape of the Lock, the Essay ca Man, and other pieces. In general, his obfervations are juft, and conveyed in an animated ftyle. But his zeal for a favourite poet, and the warmth of his imagination, hurry him, upon fome occafions, into too much impetuofity. Book Book-Keeping familiarifed: or, the Young Clerk's, Manufacturer's, and Shop-Keeper's Directory. By William Wood. 800. gs. Jerved. Baldwin. Notwithstanding the numerous publications of this kind, the varying and extended nature of trade, render improvements in the regiftering of accounts and regulating of trade, ftill farther neceffary. On this fuppofition Mr. Wood has ventured to add one book more to the number; and he thinks the improvements he has propofed will justify the addition. Having been himself for many years in trade, and the practice of book-keeping, he hopes he is well qualified to offer practical improvement, tho' not to write an elegant book, or a regularly digelted fyftem of the art. Indeed this appears to be really the cafe: fo that, although his book be not at alt proper to teach by, as a school or an academical book, the perfon of mature age, either in trade, or about to enter into it, may find many useful hints to proceed in it with more certainty, expedition, and fatisfaction. His chief general improvement is to omit the journal entirely, and to poft imme. diately from the day-book into the ledger, which, together with the cafh-book, and other fubfidiary books, he particularly defcribes and illuftrates. Some other of his remarks and improvements are general, and may fuit all trades and places; but the much greater part confifts of hints and directions to the trade of Birmingham, the place of our author's refidence. What Mr. Wood chiefly fays of his book, &c. may be gathered from the following fhort extract from the preface. To those who admire nothing but what they do not underftand, I believe this book will have but few charms, notwithstanding the novelty of its appearance; for I have endeavoured, all in my power, to diveft the art of book-keeping of its cumbrous train, and gorgeous trappings, which the ignorant have been taught to admire and look upon with awe; but which deprived them of every degree of familiarity which might be attended with eafe and fatisfaction; if it is not now fo well dreffed as formerly, it will, like a lady, be fo much eafier of accefs; and thofe favours which have been chiefly ingroffed by the merchant, and opulent manufacturer, (and not acquired by them without much labour, ftudy, and expence) are now held out with an open hand, that all, who are defirous, may partake without reftraint; it was principally for the ufe of fuch, whose education has been neglected, and who have but a fmall portion of time, and money to fpare, that I undertook this work, and if I have failed of making it eafy to them, I have failed of a great part of what I intended. With regard to my ftrictures on, and hints offered to the ma nufacturers in general, I believe they are chiefly, if not altoge ther |