Aulis, and by Diana carried to Taurica. There he had the temple of that goddefs committed to her management, and in that rueful office was compelled to violate the rights of hospitality, and facrifice ftrangers to Diana.

"Thefe are but the fictions of the poet, and the tales of legendary records, but they mark the prevalence of human facrifices; and if thefe must have been offered, the unprotected ftranger in a barbarous country must have been placed in imminent peril. At Medinet Abu, upon the walls of an old edifice, a hero is reprefented, in bas-relief, as going in proceffion to a temple to facrifice, who appears in the train, having its hands bound behind its back. A pillar of earth, which is denominated the bride, is annually broken down at Grand Cairo, when the overflowing waters of the Nile are firft permitted to enter the grand canal of that city. By fome it has been fuppofed, that the rite which we have defcribed, and not a real victim, gave rife to the affertion, that a virgin was annually facrificed to the Nile; but the ftrong fuggeftions of truth cannot furrender their rights even to the amiable and engaging fentiments of charity and compaffion. What has been already stated of nations, confiderably improved, requires us to believe, that in the general wreck of morals and humanity, Egypt was alfo infected with cruelty and corruption. Among the negroes in the interior of Africa, where many ancient cuftoms remain, human facrifices are found to be offered; and on certain occafions a girl, richly dreffed, is thrown into the Niger."

This might not be an improper book to introduce into fchools. A neat map is prefixed, and we have noticed but few errors of the prefs.

BRITISH CATALOGUE.

POETRY.

ART. 10. Original Poetry. By a Member of Chrift College, Cambridge. izmo. 108 pp. 3s. Oftell. 1806.

In a fhort prefatory addrefs it is intimated that these compofitions are the works of a youthful poet; an affertion which we can easily believe, as they bear evident marks both of the care. leffness and of the inexperience of vouth. In the prefent times even youthful poets ufually difplay a correct verfification; but several lines in thefe Poems are not verfes. If, however, the author had

made a more difcriminate selection for the prefs, he might have efcaped critical cenfure, feveral of thefe poems being written in a pleafing ftyle, and free from any grofs inaccuracy. One of thefe we will felect as a fpecimen.

TO HENRY AND ROSA, ON THEIR MARRIAGE.

"If you would years of blifs enjoy,

And fhare contentment's balmy pleasures;
If you would wish that no alloy

Should e'er debafe love's genuine treasures;

"Remember well, that hymen's flame
May foon expire if once neglected!
His torch will all your prudence claim,
By mutual warmth alone protected.

Let not the idle wifh of fway,

The mind with anxious cares oppreffing,
Imbitter ev'ry happy day,

And four each connubial bleffing!

"For female merit muft enflave,

And bind us to a fense of reafon ;-
When man attempts its pow'r to brave,
'Gainft nature's laws, the act is treason.

"By foft attentions ever try

To heighten each transported feeling;
While from the world's inquiring eye,

Your mutual faults with care concealing.

"Then, when gay fcenes fhall please no more,
The pulfe of youth no longer beating;
Still fhall you talk your courtship's o'er,
The tale of all your joys repeating.

"Still fhall th' enamour'd Henry trace,
Tho' on his ftaff for ftrength relying,
Throughout his Rofa's wrinkled face,

Fresh charms, the fcy the of Time defying." P. 85.

ART. II. An Olio! By F. S. A. 4to. 23 pp. Printed by Meyler, Bath. No Publisher's Name.

The fubject of this poem (which is profeffcdly in honour of the goddefs Cloacina) points out the appropriate place for reading or reviewing it. A curious engraving, from a painting faid to be found on the grottoes of Thebes in Egypt, forms the frontispiece; and the contents may indeed be juilly termed an Olio; Gnce the author has blended various topics and ideas without the

leaft

leaft apparent connection. The poems begin with a description. of the fouth parade at Bath, and the country adjacent, taking occafion from thence to panegyrize the late Mr. Allen: thence it rather abruptly paffes to the main fubject, referring (we pre fume) to the circumftance alluded to in the advertisement, namely, "one of those ludicrous fcenes which" (the author tells us) "trifles prefent in every family." Here the poet becomes di dactic, and lays down very just rules as to the worship of his favourite goddess. The following lines, on that interefting topic, we think, will afford one of the most favourable fpecimens of his ftyle.

"But happier those who duly pay
Their matin facrifice each day;
Whofe renovating powers are fuch,
The inward mill works not too much;
The vital wheels inceffant play,
Wafting the ufelefs chaff away:
The leffer organs bear a part

In harmony around the heart;
While the firm pulfe's temperate beat

Proves life's grand fyftem is compleat." P. 15.

The rest of the Poem is employed chiefly in obfervations, not very novel, on the poets of the prefent age; but the author returns, at the clofe, to the praises of the Goddefs, to whom, we fear, many of them will defcend. We will not clafs this writer among the number; fince, with more experience, and a different fubject, he might, in time, become a tolerable poet. In one refpect he already refembles Pope and Swift; who (Dr. Johnson has remarked)" delighted in ideas phyfically impure.".

ART. 12. The First Book of the Iliad of Homer, tranflated into Blank Verfe, with Notes. By P. Williams, D. D. Archdeacon of Merioneth, Chaplain to the Bishop of Bangor, and Rector of Llanbedrog, Caernarvonshire. 12mo. 77 PP. 35. Lackington, Allen, and Co. 1806.

To thofe who wished for a translation of Homer which should faithfully reprefent the characteristic fimplicity of the original, the late verfion by Cowper (more especially the pofthumous edition) has, we believe, proved in general fatisfactory; fince it would be unreafonable to expect from a tranflation, of which fidelity is the chief object, all the grace and elegance of Pope. The author before us is, however, of opinion that "an accurate, and at the fame time an eafy and fpirited translation of Homer remains ftill among the DESIDERATA of English literature." He adds that he is "very far from being fo vain or fo abfurd, as to fancy it likely to be fu lied by the prefent attempt."

Bb b

BRIT. CRIT. VOL. XXIX. JUNE, 1807.

As

As the tranflation before us, from being in blank verfe, and nearly literal, bears the nearest resemblance to that of Cowper, we will give a fpecimen of each, that the reader may form his own judgment of their refpećtive merits. We will take our example from one of the fpeeches of Achilles, in his quarrel with Agamemnon, as it is one of the moft fpirited paffages in the firft book of the original; though it begins with a very coarse re proach, which Pope has omitted.

COWPER.

"Oh, charged with wine! in ftedfaftnefs of face
Dog unabafh'd, and yet at heart a deer.

Thou never, when the troops have take arms,
Haft dared to take thine alfo; never thou
Affociate with Achaia's chiefs, to form
The fecret ambush. No; the found of war
Is as the voice of destiny to thee.
Doubtlefs the courfe is fafer far to range
Our numerous hofts, and if a man have dared
Difpute thy will, to rob him of his prize.
Tyrant! the Greeks are women, else themselves
Would make this contumelious wrong thy laft.
But hearken. I fhall fwear a folemn oath.
By this fame fceptre, which fhall never bud,
Nor boughs bring forth, as once, which having left
It's parent on the mountain. top, what time
The woodman's axe lopt off it's foliage green,
And ftripp'd it's bark, fhall never grow again;
Which now the judges of Achaia bear,
Who, under Jove, ftand guardians of the laws,
By this I fwear (mark thou the facred oath!)
Time fhall be, when Achilles fhall be miff 'd,
When all fhall want him, and thy felf the power
To help the Achaians, whatfoe'er thy will;
When Hector, at your heels, fhall mow you down,
The hero-flaughtering Hector! then thy foul,
Vexation ftung, fhall tear thee with remorse
That thou haft fcorn'd, as he were nothing worth,
A chief, the foul and bulwark of your cause.”

WILLIAMS.

"Thou drunkard! dog in effrontery, but deer
At heart! To arm for battle with the troops,
Or with the Grecian chiefs in ambush go,
Thou never dar'dft; for that to thee were death:
Far better pleaf'd no doubt, along our lines,
To fteal His boon, who dares thy will oppose!
Tyrant! deftroyer thy people's weal!

Yet, ah, what worthlefs flaves must thou control!

280

Or

f

Or elfe, believe me, Agamemnon, elfe,
This injury of thine would prove thy laft.
I tell thee now, and fwear a folemn oath,
Yea, by this fceptre, doom'd never to produce,
Or leaves, or boughs, fince firft in mountain-glens
The trunk it left, nor e'er to bud again,
All by the ax of leaves and bark despɔil'd;
The fons of Greece, difpenfers of the laws
Ordain'd by Jove, now bear it in their hands:
This then to thee shall be my folemn oath:
Achilles abfence fhall one day be felt

By all the hoft of Grecce: whom thou, though griev'd,
Shalt not be able to affift at all;

When many a one by Hector's flaughtering hand

Shall dying fall: and thou, with harrow'd foul,
Shalt fret and fume, that thou hadst not esteem'd
The braveft man of all the fons of Greece." P. 28.

290

300

Though we prefer the direct term Thou Drunkard (coarfe as it

290. By this fceptre,] Homer, 'tis known, has been here very clofely imitated by Virgil, En. xii. 206. Altho the imitation is not done with Virgil's ufual fuccefs, yet it is a certain proof that he, and others of tafte and learning among the ancients, confidered the original paffage in Homer as a great beauty. It is, however, more natural to understand it in a literal than an allegorical fenfe, and afcribe the amplification of the speaker merely to his paffion.

293. The ax] Xaλxós. The common name for brafs or cal. cined copper; but Homer applies it to knives, hatchets, fwords, fpears, and in fhort to all edged tools; because that metal was known long before iron or steel. So Lucretius, v. 1285. Arma antiqua, manus, ungues, dentefque, fuere,

Et lapides, et item filvarum fragmina, rami,

Et flammæ, atque ignes, poftquam funt cognita primum;
Pofterius ferri vis eft, ærifque reperta:

Sed prius æris erat, quam ferri cognitus ufus.

294. Difpenfers of the laws] Clarke quotes a fine Greek paffage from Dionyfius of Halicarnaffus, who fays, "That, at the first, every Grecian city was governed by a king, not defpotically, as the barbarous nations were, but according to the laws and cuftoms of their native land: and HE was the most powerful king who enforced his authority in a manner the most confiftent with law and juftice. Even Homer fhews this, when he calls his kings difpenfers of equity and of the laws and customs of their country." Dionys. Halicarn. Antiq. Rom. v.` 74.