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talent and an easy vein of poetry. We have noticed fome animated defcriptions which we would willingly transcribe if we could fo far extend our account. We fhall make one or two extracts, which may affift in giving a favourable idea of the work. The following is the firft ftanza of the Third Canto, which defcribes the banquet given by Charlemagne . to his Peers and their allies.

"While over hill, and dale, and mead,
Bernardo guides his fiery fteed;
The wandering Mufe returns to where
Standards and banners mock the air.
As knights and dames, a fplendid train,
Following the march of Charlemagne,
To feftal halls repair.

Onward they move in bright array,
Infpir'd by mufic loud and gay;

While with flow pace the attendant throng,
Heralds, Purfuivants, move along ;

Summoned in Pampeluna's towers,

To pafs in mirth day's clofing hours.

Enjoined, when Sol's bright rays fhall beam anew,

With zeal redoubled, and with splendour due

To grace the martial lifts the tourney to renew." P. 98. In the fame Canto, the fhort dialogue between Bernardo and Orlando is highly fpirited; and the calm courage of the Spaniard is judicioufly contrafted with the impetuous rage of the Frenchman. The defcriptive lines which open the fourth canto are alfo a favourable fpecimen of Mr. B.'s powers in the higher fpecies of poetry:

"Again the fun, bright harbinger of day,
Had caft o'er nature his enlivening ray;-
O'er mountain rude, and dew-befprinkled heath,
Brifk gales were whifpering, with perfumed breath,-
And mingling with the hoarfe and folemn found,
Of foaming ftreams, from crag and cliff around-
The feathered choir-the fheltering groves among,
Harmonious difcord! poured their matin fong:-
While May, encircled by the fprightly hours,

Clothed hill and valley with unnumbered flowers." P. 141. Nor can we, in juftice to the author, omit the following pleafing ballad, which forms the fourth ftanza of the fame

canto.

"The beams of morn in ruddy luftre break-
The Lark, afcending from his jocund ftrain,
The fhepherd hinds their lowly cots forfake,
And lead their flocks excurfive o'er the plain ;`

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All hearts to pleafure and to love incline :
While I, in Luna's towers unheeded pine,
And mourn departed joys, :hat once were mine.
"Born in the lap of eafe, of wealth poffeft;
Honours, renown, and pageantry and state,
Adorned life's opening fcene; with beauty bleft,
Great was my rapture, and ferene my fate.
But foon the vifion fled, where filence reigns,
Condemned to fad captivity and chains,
Keen is my anguifh, poignant are my pains.

"Thus 'reft of all I prized on earth held dear,
Ah! what do forrows-what do tears avail?
Deaf to my plaint the love-lorn fwains appear,
No wanderer's flay beguiles my woe-fraught tale:
But death, I truft, will foon my eye-lids clofe,
In kind compaffion to a wretch's woes,

And in the grave my tortured frame repofe." P. 145.

"

In the fame canto there is a pleafing incident relative to Bernardo and Olympia; and in the fifth (by much the best in the Poem) the laft great conflict between the two rival heroes, Bernardo and Orlando, is given with confiderable effect. At the end of the volume are fome notes, in which is difplayed an intimate acquaintance with the early Italian poets.

Upon the whole, any objections which we are inclined to make are directed more againft the exercife of this new fpecies of poetry, founded upon the abfurd incidents of romance, than upon any defects which we have noticed in the Poem before us. Difpofed as we are to confider it as temporary tribute to the "Spanish Heroifm" of our own days, haftily conceived and rapidly executed, it has a claim upon our indulgence. But we cannot clofe our account of it, without fuggelling a wish, that its author, of whofe talents we entertain a favourable opinion, may, if he continue to write, adopt a fubject and ftyle more likely to give permanence to his reputation, as a Poet, and better entitled to unqualified praife.

ART. IV. The Life of Apollonius of Tyana, Tranflated from the Greek of Philoftratus. With Notes and Illuftrations. By the Rev. Edward Berwick, Vicar of Leixlip in Ireland. 8vo. 504 PP. 12s. Payne. 1809.

POLLONIUS of Tyana, whofe fabulous life was written by Philoftratus, has neceffarily provoked the attention of scholars, from the period in which he flourished

to

to the prefent. Hierocles, the diftinguished ornament of the Platonic fchool, wrote in the beginning of the fourth century, a book againft Chriftianity, in which he drew an impious parallel between our Saviour and this Apollonius. This neceffarily received the chaftilement its prefumption and profaneness merited, but of courfe attracted alfo popular curiofity to the fubtle and impudent impoftor who gave oc cafion to it.

On the fubject of Apollonius, therefore, as might not unreasonably be expected, we have various publications in our language.

We have a Hiftory of the Life and Memoirs of Apollonius, added to an impartial View of the Truths of Chriflianity, by the Rev. John Bradley. London. 8vo. 1699.

The life of Apollonius, tranflated from the French of Tillemont, by Robert Jenkins. 1702.

The Hiftory of Apollonius Tyaneus, by Fleetwood, Fellow of Eton College, in his Effay upon Miracles. 1702. Account of Apollonius, by G. Mackenzie, M. D. in his Lives of the Scotifh Writers, Vol. II. p. 603. 1711. Again by Leland, in his View of the Deifls, vol. I. Differ tations on the Life of Apollonius, tranflated from the French of Houteville, 1739. A curious little Tract de Miraculis quæ Pythagoræ, Apollonio Tyanenfi, &c. tribuuntur. Auctore Phileleuthero Helvetio. Edinburgi. 1755. Again, and laftly, in Lardner, in his Collection of Jewifh and Heathen Teftimonies to the truth of Chrifianity.

Of the work of Philoftratus, we have no entire verfion But the prefent; nor is it very clear what fervice this is likely to render, either to literature or religion. A more foolfi, unconnected, unimpreffive hiftory of impofture and falfhood, was never put together.

Charles Blount tranflated the two firft books, and added notes upon each chapter. Upon the fuccefs which this work had, the reader may, if he pleafes, confult Wood's Athenæ Oxonienfes. Blount had tranflated the whole, but wifely, as we think, fuppreffed the remainder. We impute no improper feelings to the present tranflator, very far from it, but cannot help thinking that he might have exercifed his very refpectable talents upon a better and more useful fubject. We have compared his tranflation with the original in two or three places, and find it fufficiently faithful. Of its foirit and elegance, the reader may judge for himfelf from the following fpecimen.

"I am not ignorant that the conduct of philofophers under defpotic governments, is the trueft touchstone of their character,

and

and I like to confider how much one man exceeds another in cou rage on fuch occafions, and which to afcertain is the chief object of the following reflections. During the reign of Domitian, Apollonius was affailed on every fide with accufations and in formations; the caufes whence and wherefore they originated, together with the pretexts under which they were concealed, fhall be explained hereafter. But as it is neceffary to specify the language he used, and the character he perfonated, under which he efcaped guiltless, and at the fame time overcame the tyrant, instead of being overcome; fo it is equally neceffary to notice what I find most remarkable in what has been done by other philofophers against tyrants, and to compare all with what Apol lonius himself did, for it is by fuch comparison we shall come at the truth and a juft appreciation of his character.

Zeno of Elea, who is confidered as the inventor of logic, was feized in the very act of planning the deftruction of the tyranny of Nearchus + the Myfian. When put to the rack, he, far from difcovering his accomplices, named all the tyrant's most intimate friends as guilty, who were all put to death in this way he liberated Myfia, by ingeniously contriving to fupplant ty ranny by its own weapons. Plato declares he entered into the defign of restoring liberty to the Syracufans, by acting as an ac complice with Dion, who was at the head of it. Phyton when forced to quit Rhegium, fled to Dionyfius the tyrant of Sicily, by whom he was admitted to a greater fhare of his confidence than an exile ought, by which he became acquainted with the tyrant's fecrets, and having learnt that he defigned to make him. felf master of Rhegium, he gave information of it to the ci tizens by letters, and was difcovered. When taken, the tyrant had him faftened alive to one of his machines, which he ordered to be advanced to the walls, prefuming that the Rhegians would not attack it with offenfive weapons, out of regard to Phyton. The moment he understood it, he cried out, "Spare me not, for I am the fignal of your liberty." Heraclides and Python,

Zeno of Elea, or Velia, in Italy, the difciple and adopted fon of Parmenides, and the fuppofed inventor of dia. lectic. He lived 466 years before Chrift.”

+"Nearchus was a Myfian, and tyrant of the Eleates." "See life of Plato in Diogenes Laertius."

"There is fome difagreement between Philoftratus and Di. odorus, concerning Phyton-the latter fays he was general of the people of Rhegium against Dionyfius, the tyrant of Sicily, that he was taken by the enemy, and tortured; and his fon thrown. into the feaA. 387, before Chrift."

"Two brothers who put to death Catys, in revenge for the death of their father, for which they were invested with the rights of citizenship by the Athenians."

who

who put to death Cotys the Thracian, where young men of the academic fchool, both wife, and confequently free *. Who is ignorant of what was done by Calisthenes + the Olynthian, whơ on the fame day, both praised and cenfured the Macedonians, when at the fummit of their greatnefs, and yet every one knows he was put to death the moment he appeared difagreeable to them. Let us not forget Diogenes of Sinope, and Crates of Thebes ‡, the one immediately after the battle of Cheronea, waiting on Philip, rebuked him tharply on account of the Athenians, of whom Haraclides faid, he has deftroyed by arms a people too vain of their military glory) and the other, when Alexander told him he would rebuild Thebes, faid, he did not want a country, which a more powerful man might again deftroy. Many other examples might be adduced in point, but as my object does not admit of prolixity, I fhall omit them; for otherwife I should be obliged to fpeak against actions already noticed, not from their want of merit or general approbation, but from their being inferior to what were performed by Apollonius, though fuperior to what have been done by others.

"The actions of Zeno of Elea, and of those who killed Cotys, are not to be compared with what Apollenius did. It is eafy to enflave Thracians, Myfians, and Geta, but it is impru dent to make them free, because they do not love liberty, nor confider, as I think, fervitude a difgrace. Plato fhewed no great wifdom in determining to meliorate the public affairs of Sicily, in preference to thofe of Athens: because it appeared that money was his object, and that he who thought to deceive others, was deceived himself; but this I dare not fay, from regard to those who do not like to hear it. What Phyton did at Rhegium against Dionyfius, was done against him before his power was fully eftablished in Sicily, and if he had not been pierced by the darts of its citizens, muft have fallen by the hands of the tyrant. But in all this I find nothing extraordinary, for he only preferred dying, on account of giving liberty to others, to that of living in flavery himself. Califthenes cannot escape the imputation of depravity, becaufe, by praifing and blaming the fame perfons, he either blamed thofe whom he thought deferved praife, or praised those whom he thought deferved blame. Hence it fol, lows, that he who infults the good, will never efcape being thought envious; and in the fame manner, he who praifes and flatters the wicked, will be confidered as participating in their crimes, because the praife which is lavifhed on them, only renders them the more wicked. Had Diogenes fpoken his mind to

"Agreeable to the dogma of the Stoics, which fays, "Solus fapiens liber."

+"See the life of Alexander."

$ "Crates was a difciple of Diogenes, before Chrift 324."

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