We have three reasons for believ- hand and a taper in the other, neing that Sir John will consider us as cessary, we imagine, to light the cup having unfairly treated him and to her mouth. But Madam Almira heaven defend us from an action at is far from greedy, and she is very law! These reasons are, first, his anxious to share this delicious coffeevanity; secondly, the epigraph to his cup of arsenic with a friend of hers volume; and, thirdly, his preface.- called Olivia, who however has no For his vanity, all who have read him partiality to such drams, and thereare acquainted with that; for his epi- fore is not to be found. It was very graph, it is as follows: allowable, therefore, in Almira to drink it all herself, since she could find no friend to drink with her.Who would not do the same? Before she swallows this delightful dose, And for his preface, it plainly shews, she talks a little to herself; our authat he thinks the present volume thor herein shewing his deep knowsomething very good. It is written ledge of human nature, by making a with rank affectation of timidity: but woman talk even at the point of the cloven foot is perceptible. We, death. Thus she bursts forth: however, have done what we felt to be our duty; and we have expressed our real and unbiassed opinion of the author and his book.

Non ulia Musis pagina gratior,
Quam quæ severis ludicra jungere
Novit, fatigatamque nugis
Utilibus recreare mentem.

THERE is nothing which surprises

us more in the course of our

"Ha! my soul would burst its Very confines!-gone! Olivia fled!—Oh!! Almira is undone. Two brothers lost

MAYHAP!"

p. 90.

"I faint; my head runs round,* My eyes grow dim, and every object fades; Now may the demon of destruction long

literary function than that perpetually Faith, and its time we think: but recurring phenomenon, an author it was not all over, for she goes on, pertinaciously writing without one (a woman will talk to the last, if it is qualification for composition. A man to nobody but herself, who knows nothing of painting, never attempts to present a picture to the public; nor does he, who is ignorant of the gamut, presume to compose an air: but an author is restrained by none of these delicacies of mind. They who can, and they who cannot write, all strive

and do their best To make as much waste paper as the rest.

pursue

Oh-" (Dies.)

And when the demon catches Oh, we shall be glad to meet with Mr. Jones again. Success to the race.

SOLOMON: a Sacred Drama. Trans-
lated from the German of Klop-
stock. By ROBERT HUISH.
vol. 8vo. 1809.

1

Mr. Jones, who has heard, we presume, of a certain Shakspeare, thought he could write a play. It was a most unlucky thought for himself, and for us too. That it was unlucky for himself we have little Tiess known in this country than HE writings of Klopstock are doubt he will confess when he gets they deserve to be. In Germany he in his printer's bill: and that it was is regarded with great veneration, and unlucky for us, need not be told, for he is justly considered, among them, we have read his book. One speci- as the father of their epic poetry. men will suffice for a display of Mr. Jones's powers of writing tragedy.A lady, called Almira, has an inclination to poison herself; so in she comes with a cup of poison in one

* What an amusing thing it must be to see the lady's head describing a circle, and the lady herself running after it!

may

stings,

claim."

p. 19.

It should be claims, the nominative being who.

His Messiah is a great, though an And not of him, whom constant mis'ry unequal poem, and this is what be said of every human production. And thence our pity, and our pardon / Perhaps, indeed, it is what ought to be said, for it is only by inequality that we can derive pleasure from the productions of genius. Inequality does not necessarily suppose defect. We should rejoice to see an able translation of the Messiah in the English language. A translation which thorised by any classical English should retain not simply the meaning writer.

(for that is an humble merit) but the

"And were it not in me a madlike thought." p. 226.

This is a compound epithet unau

The following specimen will ex

SIXTH SCENE.

SOLOMON-DARDA.

SOLOMON.

spirit, the energy, the very rhythm of hibit the translator's skill:-
the original. Such a translation
should be undertaken with the same
noble consciousness as animated a
Dryden and a Pope, when they sat
down to transfuse the thoughts and
manner of Homer and Virgil into
their native tongues. He who un-
dertook it must labour slowly he
must not translate it as a thing of the
moment he must fill himself with
the feelings and conceptions of his
author, and write, as he would ima-
gine Klopstock himself would have
writtten had he been an Englishman.
With regard to the present volume,

Thou art alone! of all my friends now left,
The only one, in whom I trust can place;
Were not all joy now banish'd from my
soul,

:

And every source of bliss exhausted,
Were not the light within me chang'd
night,

I should rejoice to meet thee here alone,
But then

DARDA.

I would speak, yet must be silent,

we scarcely think that Mr. Huish has Now do thou direct me.
selected the most interesting of Klop-
stock's sacred dramas: but this ob-

jection has the less force as the trans

SOLOMON.

Be not silent,

lator has announced his intention of I come to ask thee to pronounce a word.

presenting the public with the sacred dramas of the Death of Adam, the

DARDA.

SOLOMON.

Death of Abel, and David, in the Speak it Solomon-→→
course of the ensuing month. Per-
haps it would be better, if in his fu-
ture labours, he were a little more
attentive to the quantity of his lines;
and to the punctuation, which, in the
present volume is so very defective,
as often to obscure the sense.

Death-O wish me dead,
Thou will'st not-speak it with the so-

In the preface to the book we noticed one or two errors of construction, and at p. xii. there is the following unacccountable one. "M. de Toureil in his preface to his translation of the two harangues of Demosthenes and D'Eschines, says, &c." But to convince thee of my trust in thee, Surely Mr. Huish does not suppose And that thou now my wretchedness may'st Eschines to have been a Frenchman! The following errors in the translation may also be rectified in a future edition.

1

That God, whom Abraham and Moses Because he once did err?—

The TRAVELS of Captains LEWIS and CLARKE, from St. Louis, by way of the Missouri and Columbia Rivers, to the Pacific Ocean; performed in the years 1804, 1805, and 1806, by order of the Government of the United States. Containing Delineations of the Manners, Customs, Religion, &c. of the Indians, compiled from various authentic Sources, and original Documents, and a Summary of the statistical View of the Indian Nations, from the official Communication of MERIWETHER LEWIS. 1 vol. 8vo.

1809.

TH

(nine shillings) and unassuming forin of this volume. Had it fallen into the hands of a certain bookseller, it would have made its appearance in quarto, illustrated with tawdry plates, printed upon hot pressed paper, and published for two guineas at the least.

From a work like the present, we cannot but persuade ourselves that we shall perform a more acceptable service to our readers by presenting them with some interesting extracts, than if we were to gratify our own pleasure by inditing our own thoughts. When a book is barren, there is some excuse for neglecting its contents: but when it is valuable and instructive, it is the peculiar office of a reviewer to pay more attention to it than to himself.

The introduction contains some useful commercial details :

"The benefits that arise from the discoveries of unknown regions, are too numerous to be here mentioned.

"From the knowledge of geogra phy are derived many intrinsic advantages. It not only feasts the ima gination with the amusement of novel descriptions; but is the life of commerce, whence the arts and sciences receive succour, and a reciprocal

benefit.

"It cannot fail of giving pleasure to the philanthropic mind, to behold implements of agriculture put in the hands of the uncivilized barbarian, to provide and protect him from the precarious reliance on the chase for a scanty sustenance. The time is not far distant, in all moral probability, when the uncultivated wilds of the interior part of the Continent, which is now only inhabited by the tawney beasts of prey, will be converted into sons of the forest, and the howling the residence of the hardy votaries of agriculture, who will turn those sterile wildernesses into rich, cultivated, and verdant fields.

HE public expectation has been long excited respecting this work; and now that it has made its appearance, we no not think that expectation will be disappointed. Captains sufferings of the Aborigines, from the "It may be suggested, that the Lewis and Clarke have collected importation of foreign diseases, and much curious information, both with the more baneful influence of spiriregard to the manners and customs of tuous liquors, more than counterthe American Indians, and the com- balance the benefits they receive from mercial advantages that may be de- civilization. These objections, it rived from a closer intercourse with must be frankly confessed, are very them. By the way, we cannot too powerful. But it is hoped, that vigihighly commend the moderate price, lant measures will be pursued, by a

government professed to be founded cious saying of an eminent traveller among them, that in time of peace no greater friends, in time of war no greater enemies.'

on the principles of humanity and wisdom, to prohibit the introduction of spirituous liquors among them.The small-pox has raged, when little or no communication was held with them. Provisions are already made to introduce vaccine inoculation among them, which will prevent those horrid ravages that are mentioned in the course of the work.

"It may be thought matter of surprise, that regions, upwards of three thousand miles in length, bordering on a country inhabited by an inquisitive and enterprising people, who could avail themselves of the benefit of a lucrative fur trade, should remain so long unexplored. Many impediments have retarded the tour, that has laid open to view a country hitherto hidden from the knowledge of

the civilized American.

46

"Before the acquisition of Louisiana by the United States, the jealous disposition of the Spaniards debarred all ́adventures for discoveries from that quarter.

"These impediments would compel the discoveries of the western part of the continent, to be made by a voyage by the way of Cape Horn, which would be too long, arduous, and expensive to entice the enterprize.

"In the year 1789, the celebrated barked from Fort Chepewyan, in latraveller, Alexander Mackenzie, emtitude 58 deg. N. longitude 110 deg. W. from Greenwich, and with the and perilous circumstances, he exgreatest fortitude, under embarrassing plored with assiduity the northern region to nearly the 70th degree of ice compelled him to return to Fort north latitude, where obstruction by Chepewyan.

Attempts have been made by the great discoverer, Capt. Cook, to find a communication by water in the northern regions between the Atlantic and Pacific oceans. Thence be ascended Whether the the Peace River to its source, and two great oceans are joined together and thence to the Pacific Ocean; in those regions remains an uncertainty; but the rigours of a frigid making many discoveries, which he zone evinced that, though they joined, judiciously narrated in his journal.

it was

impracticable to navigate from one to the other.

"The following statement of the commerce of the Missouri is made by a gentleman, which will sufficiently shew the advantages that arise from it.

"To travel among the Indians, is but too often thought the road that inevitably leads the unfortunate ad- "The products which are drawn venturer to an untimely death. The from the Missouri are obtained from barbarity of the Indians in war is pro- the Indians and hunters in exchange verbial, but, in time of peace, hospi- for merchandise. They may be tality and humanity are traits justly classed according to the subjoined due to their character. It is a judi- table.

d. C. at 1 20 4

dols. cts.

14737 20

--

5068

802 skins

4248 skins

189 skins

96926 lbs.

Deer skins, with hair

Tallow and fat

6381 skins
8313 lbs.

Muskrats

Martens

S. 77971 20