lack of true poetical judgment, is no where so perceptible as in their national poems, if indeed they may be so called, where the poet celebrates the valour, wisdom, and excellence of his country. In these compositions, the causes we have endeavoured to explain, as influéncing American literature, are more powerfully operative. There is in most of them, (for they are not without exceptions,) the most complete want of dignity and taste, accompanied with an amazing degree of pretence and bravado.

The American poets form no particular school. They generally take some of our standard authors as their model, and follow with such steps as they may. Most of them pursue the system of the French school, while others track the footsteps of some of our modern bards. Amongst the former may be reckoned the "Airs of Palestine," and amongst the latter, "the Bridal of Vaumond," the writer of which, however, seems to aim at something more original.

It would be very possible, to form an exceedingly pleasing little anthology from the works of these gentlemen, should we select only the best-written portions of their volumes; but this we are afraid would hardly tend to elucidate the truth of our speculations, so that our readers may depend upon seeing both good and bad.

The "Airs of Palestine" by Mr. PIERPONT, has attracted some notice in England, and is, on the whole, a pleasing poem. The author informs us, that it was written in the cause of charity, and was intended to form a part of the performances of an evening concert, for the benefit of the poor. It is written with much ease and harmony, and bears the marks of a pen accustomed to poetical composition. The theme of the poet is music, and as the title imports, sacred music, and it is managed with no small degree of ingenuity and taste. Indeed, Mr. Pierpont possesses more of the latter quality, than any of the transatlantic bards who have fallen into our hands.

Or, mid the playful children of his flocks, Toss his light limbs, and shake his amber locks,

Rather than idly gaze upon the stream?-
That boy is lost in a poetic dream:
And while his eye follows the wave along
His soul expatiates in the realms of song,
For oft where youder grassy hills recede,
I've heard that shepherd tune his rustic reed ;
And then such sweetness from his fingers
stole,

I knew that music had possessed his soul.
Oft in her temple shall the votary bow,
Oft at her altar breathe his ardent vow,
And oft suspend, along her coral walls
The proudest trophies that adorn her halls;
Even now, the heralds of the monarch bear
The son of Jesse from his fleecy care,
And to the hall the ruddy minstrel bring,
Where sits a being, that was once a king;
Still on his brow, the crown of Israel gleams,
And cringing courtiers still adore its beams,
Though the bright circle throws no light
divine,

But rays of hell, that melt it while they shine."

The following address to the Deity is the most poetic part of the volume"O! Thou Dread Spirit! being's end and source!

O! check thy chariot in its fervid course— Bend from thy throne of darkness and of fire, And with one smile immortalize our lyre!

lay

balm ;

I love to walk on Jordan's banks of palm;
I love to wet my foot in Hermon's dews;
I love the promptings of Isaiah's muse:

In a rich veil of Tyrian purple drest;
When harps and cymbals joined in echoing

clang,

When psalteries tinkled, and when trumpets

Thou didst descend, and rolling thro' the crowd,

Inshrine thine ark and altar in thy shroud,

his object in publishing, and he seems slyly to hint, that it was Mr. Pierpont's

And now, Almighty Father, well we know; When humble strains from grateful bosoms

flow,

Those humble strains grow richer as they rise,

And shed a balmier freshness on the skies."

It is however, evident, that these extracts exhibit very few signs of genius; this is such poetry, as any man of a quick and cultivated mind, would write without difficulty. Mr. Pierpont endeavours, in his preface, to defend the use of double rhymes, which occur very frequently in this poem. To a certain degree, they undoubtedly lighten the monotony of the heroic verse, but Mr. P. has made an unsparing use of them, which gives too great an air of levity to a poem like the present, especially when he is treading upon religious ground.Witness the following:

"There, in dark bowers embosomed, Jesus flings

His hand celestial o'er prophetick strings; Displays his purple robe, his bosom gory, His crown of thorns, his cross, his future glory:

And while the group, each hallowed accent gleaning,

On pilgrim's staff, in pensive posture lean

ing;

Their reverend beards, that sweep their bosoms, wet

With the chill dews of shady Olivet,Wonder and weep, they pour the song of sorrow,

With their lov'd Lord, whose death shall shroud the morrow."

66

It is perhaps scarcely fair to bring forward, "The Bridal of Vaumond," as a criterion of American talents, as the writer tells us, "that he is yet a youth, and amongst the rhymers of the day, a child," in a legal, as well as a poetical sense of the terms." We believe, however, that this "child" has obtained a certain celebrity on the other side of the Atlantic, and the Bridal of Vaumond has been mentioned, by a writer in a popular Northern publication,

as one of the finest of the transatlantic compositions. We cannot join in this eulogy. The poem possesses, and in no inconsiderable degree, all the faults which characterize the writings of Americans. It is crude, careless, and pretending, with great attempts at effect, and with very little taste. In the preface, the author insinuates, that fame is

of charity.

"The author publishes from none of the avowed motives of his countrymen; neither at the solicitation of friends, for the good of the poor, nor for his own good. He is not ashamed of acknowledging, that the impelling principle is the same with that which instigates all authors, whose reasons are worth scrutinizing."

The author is a disciple of Walter Scott's, with introductory epistle, &c. in due form, and with a sufficient, and more than sufficient change of stanza. Spencerian and heroic, and octo-syllabic verse, with many other kinds, for which names have never yet been invented, consisting of lines of various length, from three syllables to ten, are all mixed up together, to the no small discomfiture of regular ears; the plot of the romance is shortly as follows.

Vaumond, the son of a peasant, deformed in body, and of a greater contortion of mind, sells the reversion of his soul to the powers of darkness for earthly beauty, honour, and dominion, or as the author expresses it:

"He hath given the whole

To the mountain powers,
Body and Soul,

He is our's!"

But the evil gifts are to be recalled, when he acknowledges the power of the cross, and he is forthwith to be condemned.The fair Isabel is beloved by a true Knight Lodowick, but Vaumond is his rival.-At a tournament, the satanie Knight conquers Lodowick, who had no such powers, and receives from the hand of beauty the reward of valour, at which circumstance, Lodowick appears to have been chagrined, as we are told, that

❝ ——wounded pride and recent smart, Were burrowing in his inmost heart." This displeasure is not removed, when a banquet where Isabel was present,

at

"He saw the baron clasp her hand, He heard her tones divinely bland, Breath'd in his rival's ear; That glance so arch-its living light Had fir'd the frozen anchorite"Of course the earthly knight challenges the supernatural one.

"Then meet me if thou durst"-" He cried, And left the hall with hurrying stride."

Lodowiek

Lodowick ought to have known with what kind of an enemy he was dealing, before he provoked him, for he is seized in his own castle by some of his rival's ministers, blind-folded, and carried away, from the mode of conveyance, we should suppose to Ireland.

"Now the jolt of a car he feels,

He caught the rumbling of the wheels." It appears, however, that he was transported to Mount Etna, and confined in a chamber, in the midst of the volcanic mountain, from which he is at last, fortunately spit up by an eruption; not however, before he had beheld his rival conversing with some of his suspicious looking friends.-The Knight proceeds, and on his way, hears an old peasant singing " a descant wild," which turns out to be the lamentation of Vaumond's father, over his son's undutiful conduct, in forsaking him for the mountain powers. We certainly must confess it a very impartial ac count which he gives of his offspring"The child grew up of dwarfish size, Huge feet, crook'd legs, and goggle eyes, With bow-bent back, and monstrous head." Lodowiek having heard his tale, invites the peasant to accompany him, promising him innumerable Ave Marias, at Messina.

In the meantime, the plans of Vaumond are rapidly coming to maturity. Rugero, the father of Isabel, on his death bed," bids them tie the knot of fate," and dies; and the baron desires that the ceremony may be immediately celebrated in a neat chapel of his own, without any pomp, or attendants; Isabel, who does not hesitate, on account of her father's illness, dutifully obeysVaumond, leads his bride down a flight of steps, to which, there seemed no termination, but at length they reached a chamber, which appears to have been his Satanic Majesty's Chapel of ease.The cross is seen reversed, and environed with flames, the book is made of dead men's skin, and the priest carefully hides his face, lest his real character should be discovered. At the moment the ceremony is to take place, the shock of an earthquake is felt, the whole scene disappears, and Isabel finds herself in the green-wood shade, supported by Lodowick and the old peasant, who tell her, that when the earth opened before them, they were led by curiosity, to walk into the chink, where

they discovered her lifeless form; and they then conducted her to a neighbouring convent. Lodowick, for a second time, challenges Vaumond, and the heroes meet in the lists. They are both required to kiss the cross, and abjure all magic aid; but this Vaumond stoutly refuses, and at last proceeds so far, as to dash the sacred symbol on the ground, and trample upon it. At this outrage every sword starts from its scabbard, and Vaumond would have perished, had he not blown his horn, at which, an army of subterraneous warriors start up, and a furious conflict ensues; Vaumond and Lodowick meet, but the sword of the latter makes not the slightest impression on his enemy; at length he seizes the large cross, and is about to dash it upon the Baron's forehead, who bends his head to avoid it-The "juggling fiends" pretend, that this is a recognition of faith, and restore him to his original deformity, and immediately after claim him for their prize, by which event every thing is set right.

So much for the plot; now for a specimen of the poetry, which is extremely unequal, in some parts rising above mediocrity, in others sinking far below it.

There are several songs interspersed in the poem, and some verses from these will give the best idea of our author's style.

A FEMALE HEART. "Hast thou e'er marked on Ocean's breast, When the wild wave hath sunk to rest,

The golden sunbeams play-
-As upon hearts as soft, as mild;
But ah! too oft as yielding, wild

Dances fond flattery's ray.-
Their frolic measures couldst thou tell,
Or heed their mystic union well?

Or hast thou seen, where Autumn's blast
Around the forest leaves hath cast-

-Such wrecks can passion make!
Destroying all that once was there,
Lovely, of good report, and fair,

The boughs when whirlwinds shake-And, from their traces couldst thou tell The breeze that bore, or when they fell? Or canst thou, on the boundless deep, The pilot lost instruct, where sleep

The treacherous rock and shoal-As darkling oft on passion's waste, The bark unheedingly is cast,

A shipwreck of the soul.Know'st thou where'er gaunt danger's head Lurks beneath Ocean's giant bed? Gaze on yon vault of mystery, Scan, if thou mayst, the galaxy, And number every world;

Its

Its course fulfilled, proclaim these, burst
Its bonds, what star shall perish first

Unspher'd, in ruin hurl'd!

Then, stranger, thou hast wondrous art,
And thou canst read a female heart."

After turning over the leaves three or four times, a better extract cannot be furnished. D. D.

For the Monthly Magazine.

On the LEVELS of the CASPIAN, EUXINE, and BALTIC SEAS.

T

that I have had occasion to visit, in traversing these countries, lies between the' towns of Ostasckhow and Waldai, near to the village of Mosti. This hill is about 1078 English feet above the level of the sea." The work contains a quotation from M. Storch, somewhat analogous, that at the place where the great canal between the Don and the Wolga was to be cut, the Rowla, which falls into the Don, is 50 feet higher than the level of the Wolga. D. Kephalides, in

lished by M. Pansner, that in accordance with seven thousand six hundred and sixty-eight barometrical observations, repeated three times a day, for seven years together, that Astrachan is about 166 English feet under the level of the surface of the sea. This corresponds with an observation of the Russian academician Inakhodzow, that Kamuchin, on the Wolga, about 568 versts distant from Astrachan, is about 189 English feet beneath the level of St. Petersburg. But as this capital is about 76 feet above the level of the sea, it follows that Kamuchin must be about 120 feet lower than the surface of the sea.

The above positions establish the fact, that there cannot be any subterranean communication between the Caspian and the Black Sea, the latter being much more elevated, nearly a hundred English feet.

The following remarks terminate the Memoir of M. de Pansner: "The heights of the Wolga, the modern name for the Mount Alaunus of the ancients, is an eminence of a soft contexture, intersected with a multitude of small streams. Neither my researches, nor those of any other well informed voyager, have been able to trace any rocks of primitive formation. The mountain, in a geognostic point of view, is nothing but a series of elevations of layers or strata, and of alluvion. The whole country is overlaid with a fine sea sand, and with an infinite number of large blocks of granite, such as are now found on the shores of the Baltic. These data evidence that in remote antiquity the whole superficies has been submerged, and overthrow a notion entertained by some, that a mountain of granite has been here broken to pieces. This eminence is also interesting in another respect, as it is probably the most elevated point of Northern Europe, whereon petrifactions of marine animals are to be found. The greatest mound or height

an observation, "In istis regionibus ubi Tanaim," &c. In those countries where the Tanais approaches the Wolga, it is certain that the former river is lower by

70 feet than the latter.

To the Editor of the Monthly Magazine.

SIR,

IN Specimens of the British Poets,

with Biographical Notices, by Mr. Campbell, there is, in his account of the late Dr. Darwin, the following passage: "Mrs. Anna Seward, in her Life of Darwin, declares herself the authoress of the opening lines of the Poem; but as she had never courage to make this pretension during Dr. Darwin's life, her veracity on the subject is exposed to suspicion." Permit me to refer your readers to Miss Seward's Life of Dr. Darwin, in which she also states, that the verses in question were published in the Gentleman's Magazine, for May 1783, nineteen years previous to the death of Dr. Darwin, which took place in 1802; and that they were sent to the Gentleman's Magazine by Dr. Darwin himself, with some alterations and additions; that they also appeared in the Annual Register about the same period; and that they were also published in their original state in Shaw's History of Staffordshire, page 347, article Lichfield, published in 1798, four years previous to the death of Dr. Darwin.

March 27, 1820.

A. S.

stated, that after a short interval the shilling will be seen to move, and will finally strike the hour of the day against the sides of the glass, when it will gradually decrease in motion until the thread become quite stationary.

This experiment I have tried in various ways, and though it frequently succeeds, yet I am satisfied it is a deception, and for the following reasons: If the hour be unknown, the motion of the shilling when once commenced, will continue uninterruptedly for any length of time, if before it be commenced, the person trying the experiment should close his eyes, the thread and shilling will remain perfectly still if, when the shilling is just on the point of striking the glass, the eyes be closed, the motion decreases; and on re-opening them, the agitation is again increased, and the shilling will strike the glass, until the hour of the day be completed.

If the hour be known, and the experiment tried in the light, it never fails of succeeding; but if in the dark, even if the hour be known, the shilling will not acquire sufficient action to enable it to strike the sides of the glass.

It is my opinion, that the motion is communicated in the first place by the pressure on the muscles of the elbow joint, arising from the whole weight of the arm being rested upon those muscles; when the shilling begins to move, the action is increased by an insensible and corresponding motion of the arm; and it is well known what a very surprising effect will be produced, by a very slight impulse, if constant on a body thus suspended.

So soon as the hour is struck by the shilling, the mind, fearful that by another stroke, the experiment will fail, involuntarily induces the fingers to give a check to the thread, and thus the motion gradually decreases.

It is probable, that the phenomenon of the divining rod is analogous to the above. Writers have frequently asserted that a hazle twig, if held in the hands of a person at the time he passes over land where water lies concealed, will bend itself, and that very sensibly; no person, to my knowledge, has yet explained or attempted to explain, in a satisfactory manner, how the water can act upon the twig; and until this be done, I must remain an unbeliever. M. MAURICE.

19, Hatfield-street.

• We insert the above, because those who believe in principles of attraction, gra

vitation, repulsion, &c. may also believe in any other species of legerdemain, and in this European-Magazine philosophy among the rest. The matter is so silly, that we forbear to ask how it happens among those who count the hours from one to twenty-four, or from sun-rise to sun-set, &c. &c.? What if three such should try the experiment together! We exhort our readers, in defiance of the dogmas and prejudices of universities and learned societies, to dismiss from their minds all doctrines of material causes which are not mechanical, and analogous in kind to their effects,-to consider all power as motion applied to body,—and all motion as transferred or transferrable, and as caused by motion-and then the superstructure of superstition will be destroyed, and the sublime mysteries and beautiful simplicity of nature in every variety will soon be understood.-Ed. For the Monthly Magazine.

NEW VOYAGE ROUND THE WORLD.

A

FTER a voyage of three years and a month, round the world, the

ship Le Bordelais, lately re-entered the port of Bourdeaux.

The captain, M. Roquefeuille, left the river of Bourdeaux, Oct. 19, 1816; and doubled Cape Horn, and anchored at Valparaiso, without having touched at

any harbour. Thence he proceeded to Lima, and after a short stay, sailed to the north west coast of America, running down all the coast of California.

The summer of 1817 being allotted to the purposes of traffic, the ship went to winter in the isles of Marquisas or Mendoza. In the summer of 1818, captain Roquefeuille crossed the Pacific ocean for China.

In this long passage, he cast anchor at the Sandwich islands, where no French vessel had been seen since the

expedition of La Peyrouse, a space of immense Archipelago, have preserved thirty years. The inhabitants of that the remembrance of La Boussole, and L'Astrolabe. They shewed the captain various presents of arms and other articles, which they had received from Peyrouse and De Langle. A youth of Sandwich Island requested, and obtained permission to embark for Europe,

in Le Bordelais.

M. de Roquefeuille reports, that the inhabitants of these islands have made great advances in civilization, since the visit of Bougainville.

They have a form of government, but with an absolute prince at the head, according to the Asiatic custom. The different kinds of apparel which the Bordelais had brought for barter, were not relished, as being too antique; for