< On Windsor's becoming the Residence of the Court.
< The seat of Edward well befits the train,
Whose pomp adorns a prosperous Ruler's reign.
There, beneath forests, cherish'd Commerce stems
The untroubled waters of the silent Thames;
And just the City's spires are seen, to grace
With suited majesty, the reverend place.

There too the field of Freedom, at whose sight
John erst had shrunk, a Brunswick may delight.'
A Husband's Apology."

However atoutly you maintain
That damages are solid gain,
My duel, I contend, was right:
What are horns given for, but to fight?"

• On reading an Essay upon Political Justice.
• Briton, admonish'd of the fate

That threatens us, the ship of state
Rescue from danger, with all hands;

Nor strike upon the G-dw-n sands.'

On receiving a Gem of Neitan, engraved for the Author by Marchant.
Well hast thou, Marchant, toil'd to do thy part,

And grace the country with Athenian art.
Now Architecture plans, as George commands,
New wonders here, new praise in distant lands;
Painting perceives her own no vulgar doom;
And Sculpture's recent boasts astonish Rome,
Nor less the nicer skill, with pride, we see
Of old Pergoteles display'd by thee,
Arts bañish'd, that on Louis fame bestow'd,
And to brute Force her only triumph's owed,
The works, whose merit rare no age disputes,
Let France purloin, while Britain executes.”

The second volume contains an Art of English Poetry, imi tated from Horace's Epistle to the Pisos. The spirit of the piece may be collected from the following parody of the passage:

In dark hypocrisy and guile,
Cruel, and spite of valour, vile.
Shew Alexander bent to reign

O'er all things, generous, brave, and vain;
Cato, in danger and distress

More glorious than his foe's success;
The queen of Egypt, true to love,

And scorning hostile rage, above
The woman's lot, in death, of fear;
Brutus disposed, alone sincere,

To free (from power the usurper hurl'd)
A land; Caractacus, a world,'

We take also the parody of the passage,

"Dic mibi Musa virum, capte post tempora Troje," &c.

In a note, p. 202, the author properly observes of Dr. Johnson, as a critic, that he is not an authority; but, when he judges right, the force and frequent beauty of his style, and the ingenuity of his remarks, make us peruse him with a greater satisfaction than most critics. In fact, a limited reliance must be placed on the judgment and precision of a man who observes of our great dramatist: "In the writings of other poets, a character is too often an individual; in those of Shakspeare, it is commonly a species." The diametrically opposite position would, surely, have been more just. :

,

To these critical preliminaries, succeeds an attempt to abridge for the theatre Milton's Samson, Jonson's Silent Woman, and Voltaire's Semiramis. This is a very useful exercise: redundancy is the common fault of genius, and the only one of its faults which taste can correct without, injury. By trimming away the superfluities from the works of our predecessors, we learn the art of selecting that which is permanently impres sive a refaccimento, as the Italians call it, has often superseded an original poem. The violets which, when scattered along the hedge-row, were insufficient to scent the gale, may be condensed into a drop of essence of luxurious and permanent odour:-but it is not to the poems of a Milton that such an

operation

operation should be applied: they are remarkable for condensa tion already.

The first twenty-one lines of the Agonistes run thus in the

original :

"A little onward lend thy guiding hand

To these dark steps, a little further on;

For yonder bank hath choice of sun, or shade:
There I am wont to sit, when any chance
Relieves me from my task of servile toil,
Daily in the common prison else enjoin'd me;
Where I, a prisoner chain'd, scarse freely draw
The air imprison'd also, close and damp,
Unwholsome draught: but here I feel amends,
The breath of heaven fresh blowing, pure and sweet,
With day-spring born; here leave me to respire.
This day a solemn feast the people hold

To Dagon, their sea-idol, and forbid
Laborious works; unwillingly this rest
Their superstition yields me: hence with leave
Retiring from the popular noise, I seek

This unfrequented place to find some case;

Ease to the body some, none to the mind
From restless thoughts, that, like a deadly swarm
Of hornets arm'd, no sooner found alone,
But rush upon me thronging, and present

Times past, what once I was, and what am now.”

The lines in Italics are pruned away by our author! How characteristic of the blind man is the solicitous repetition, in, the second line, of a needless direction to his guide! How heartfelt, in the lines 7 to 11, is the contrast between the prison damps and the free air, and how unnatural is it to suppress such an emotion! The learning about Dagon we regret not: it is given, too, in the narrative form of the antient prologue, and not in a sufficiently dramatic form. A man alone would not so speak: the turn should rather have been,

'Tis a long while since I have sitten here:
Ah that more frequently this people held,
To Dagon, their sea-idol, feasts like this,
Suspending labor! &c.

1

The omission of the simile respecting the hornets is consistent with the abbreviation of the subsequent detail: but we cannot say of this abridgment of Milton, as Mr. Penn says of that of Voltaire, p. 410, I certainly have not lopped off any thing highly and strikingly dramatic."

Tay."

(72)

ART. XII. An Account of Indian Serpents, collected on the Coast of Coromandel: containing Descriptions and Drawings of each Species; together with Experiments and Remarks on their several Poisons. By Patrick Russell, M. D. F. R. S. Presented to the Hon. the Court of Directors of the East-India Company, and published by their Order, under the Superintendence of the Author. Imperial Folio. 31. 138. 6d. Boards. Nicol. 1797. THIS splendid publication is a fresh and honourable instance

of the munificence displayed by the Directors of the EastIndia Company, in the patronage of works that elucidate the natural history of their vast dominion. The frequent occurrence of various kinds of serpents on the Coromandel Coast, and the known fatal effects arising from the bite of many of them, naturally render the whole tribe objects of suspicion. Exclusively, therefore, of the advantages to be derived to natural history from the work before us, it is of eminent importance in an economical view, by distinguishing the noxious from the innocent of this class of reptiles.

The number of serpents here described is forty-three, belonging to the three Linnæan genera of Boa, Coluber, and Anguis; and to these descriptions are added an anatomical account of the apparatus for instilling the poison, experiments on the effects of their bites, and experiments on several remedies.

The poisonous serpents are distinguished from the rest by their fangs or canine teeth, and by possessing two rows of small teeth in the upper jaw: whereas the innoxious kinds are destitute of the former, and have three rows of small teeth, or holders.

Of the forty-three here described, not more than seven are furnished with poisonous organs; nor does the venom of any appear to be nearly so active as that of the rattle-snake. The general effects of the progress of the poison appear to be pain and subsequent contraction of the part wounded, paralysis, stupor, vomiting, convulsions, and death. These symptoms, however, are subject to occasional variations, according to the strength and other circumstances of the bitten animal, and appear to be considerably retarded by violent exercise after being bitten. The subjects of experiment were chickens, rab-" bits, and dogs; and the larger the animal, the greater length of time elapsed before it died in one or two instances the' dogs recovered, and a horse and pig that were bitten both survived the symptoms.

The artificial insertion of poison is much less dangerous than when the wound is inflicted by the serpent itself. Chick

ens wounded by poisoned lancets generally died: but all the dogs that were subjected to experiment recovered, some without any apparent symptoms, and the rest with only such as were slight.

The most celebrated remedy in India for the bite of a serpent is the Tanjore pill, the principal active ingredient in which is white arsenic, of which each pill, of six grains, contains about three-fourths of a grain. This was given to several dogs and chickens after having been bitten, but of these the greater number died; and in the few that recovered, the action of the medicine was so very equivocal as to destroy all confidence in it: the same may be said of the application of the actual cautery, and of alkaline and acid caustics.

A few cases are given of the effects of the bite of serpents on the human species. The symptoms appear to have been very severe, and occasionally to have terminated fatally; in those that ended successfully, the Tanjore pill, Madeira wine, and eau de luce, were administered separately or united, with seemingly good effects.

The venomous serpents of the same species, when made to bite each other, produce no farther effect than that of a simple incision. The Cobra de Capello, whose poison is the most active, does not appear to be capable of injury from the bite of any other serpent, but is itself fatal to some of the less venomous. The plates, which are all coloured, deserve much commendation.

ART. XIII. The History of Cumberland. Part IV. which completes the Parochial History of the County. 4to. pp. 366. Price to Subscribers 116. 3d. Boards. Medium Paper. Law.

OUR

UR readers will find below* a reference to the accounts that have already been given of this work of Mr. Hutchinson, which is now brought to a termination; and the remarks formerly offered will also characterise this concluding part. Thirty parishes, or more, supply a great number of these pages. In some of them, Roman antiquities abound, parti cularly at the station denominated Old Carlisle; also at Stockelwath in the parish of Dalston; at Netherby in the parish of Arthuret or Arthur's head; and in the parish of Stanwix. Most of them have been examined and re-examined by different writers. Mr. Rooke has transferred some of them into the Archaologia, in descriptions formed for the present work, where

*See M. R. for September 1796, vol. xxi. p. 30. also for March, 1797, vol. xxii. p. 328.

A. Ai.

the