"The laft, laft drop which warm'd her veins "That meagre infant drains "Then gnaws her fond, fuftaining breast- "That afks her dear embrace, the cure of pain- Say who that hoary form? alone he stands, "And meekly lifts his wither'd hands "His white beard streams with blood"I fee him with a fmile, deride "The wounds that pierce his fhrivel'd fide, "That fanguine drop which wakes his woe "Say, fpirit! whence its fource." "Afk no more its fource to know "Ne'er fhall mortal eye explore "Whence flow'd that drop of human gore, "Unchain'd from earth, and mount the skies, "And time fhall end his fated courfe."- "Now th' unfathom'd depth behold- "That fhapeless phantom finking flow "Deep down the vast abyfs below, "Darts, thro' the mifts that shroud his frame, "A horror, nature hates to name!"— "Mortal, could thine eyes behold "All thofe fullen mifts enfold, "Thy finews at the fight accurft "Would wither, aud thy heart-ftrings burst, "Death Death would grafp with icy hand "And give to reft th' unquiet dead- "Thy form, benumb'd with wild affright, Why backward turns my frantic eye, Two fullen fhades, half-feen, advance!- Again! their vengeful look-and now a fpeechlefs Among the more ftriking beauties of this poem, we must particularly notice (in the firft ftanza) the invocation of the storms to interrupt the dreadful filence of the fcene-the bold image in the 3d ftanza, their glaring look is cold.' In the 6th ftanza, the pathetic idea of the infant telling his abfent mother his diftrefs and, in the 8th, the defcription of a mother and her infants perifhing with hunger, and the freezing power of fixed despair. A wildness and horror run through this whole piece, which arreft the Reader's imagination, and chill the heart with "grateful terrors." These volumes are published under the patronage of a very numerous and respectable lift of subscribers. E. ART. IX. An Ode to Superftition: with fome other Poems. 4to. Is. 6d. Cadell. 1736. IN N thefe pieces we perceive the hand of an able mafter. The Ode to Superftition is written with uncommon boldness of imagery, and ftrength of diction. The Author has collected fome of the moft ftriking historical facts, to illuftrate the tyranny of the dæmon he addreffes, and has exhibited them with the fire and energy proper to lyric poetry. The following ftanzas are particularly excellent: • Mona, thy Druid rites awake the dead! Rites thy brown oaks would never dare E'en whisper to the idle air; t While While murky Night fails round on raven wing, And mow thro' infancy and age; Then kifs the facred duft and melt in tears. Penance dreams her life away; In cloyfter'd folitude fhe fits and fighs, While from each fhrine ftill fmall refponfes rife. Beyond this nether sphere, on Rapture's wing of fire.' The picture of night at the end of the first of thefe ftanzas is highly poetical in the fecond, the gloom of cloystered folitude is well reprefented. The following Elegy is harmonious and tender: The Sailor fighs as finks his native shore, As all its leffening turrets bluely fade; Ah! now, each dear domestic scene he knew, This, the laft with with which its warmth could part, *This remarkable event happened at the fiege and fack of Jerufalem, in the last year of the eleventh century, when the triumphant croifes, after every enemy was fubdued and flaughtered, immediately turned themselves, with the fentiments of humiliation and contrition, towards the holy fepulchre. They threw afide their arms, ftill ftreaming with blood. They advanced with reclined bodies, and naked feet, to that facred monument: they fung anthems to their Saviour who had purchased their falvation by his death and agony; and their devotion, enlivened by the prefence of the place where he had fuffered, fo overcame their fury, that they diffolved in tears, and bore the appearance of every foft and tender fentiment.' HUME, I. 221. Her Her gentle fpirit, lightly hov'ring o'er, 'Tis fhe, 'tis fhe herself! fhe waves her hand! Soon thro' the milk-white foam he fprings to land, The reft of these pieces have the fame character of chafte and claffical elegance. E. ART. X. Sunday Schools recommended, in a Sermon preached at St. Alphage, Canterbury, December 18, 1785. By George Horne, D.D. Dean of Canterbury, and Prefident of Magdalen College, Oxford. With an Appendix concerning the Method of forming and conducting an Establishment of this Kind. Published for the Benefit of a Sunday School. 4to. 1s. Robinfons, &c. 1786. IT T muft afford great pleasure to the friends of religion and public order, to obferve the rapid progrefs of an inftitution, fo pregnant with benefit both to individuals and fociety, as that of Sunday Schools. The Author of this Sermon has faid fo many excellent things on the fubject, that we shall make no apology for giving it a larger fhare of our attention, than we ufually allow to occafional difcourfes. Dr. Horne opens his Sermon (on Pfalm xxxiv. 11.) with this judicious obfervation : It is one mark of that wifdom by which the world is governed, that the affiftance afforded is proportioned to the neceffities of the times wherein fuch affiftance is called for. When the darkness which covers a land becomes fo thick as to make men despair of its removal, light fhall fuddenly arife from an unexpected quarter; fmall, indeed, and scarce difcernible, at firft; but gently and gradually increasing, till the darkness vanishes, and the perfect day is formed. When corruption of one kind or other has in fuch a manner overspread the face of religion, that its features are fcarcely any longer to be diftinguifhed, a reforming hand fhall appear, to do away the foil contracted in a courfe of ages, and restore the picture to its original beauty.' On the prefent corrupt ftate of manners, and the prospect of reformation which arifes from the inftitution of Sunday Schools, our Author says: E 2 • The 52 Horne's Sermon on Sunday Schools. The matter is, however, of late. " come home to our bufinefs and our bofoms." A lawless tribe of profligate, defperate, unfeeling villains have broken loose upon the Public, to rob, to maim, and to murder; fo that we can no longer travel with comfort upon the road, or fleep with fecurity in our beds. Numbers of thefe wretches are from time to time apprehended, and crowded together in'prifons; from whence fome come forth again to make fresh ravages in fociety,, tenfold more the children of hell (if poffible) than they went in; while others furnish out mournful and horrible executions of twenty or thirty at a time, to the aftonishment of the kingdoms around us, and our own fhame and confufion of face. How happens it, fay foreigners to our countrymen, when upon their travels abroad-how happens it, that under a conftitution, of which you boaft, as the glory of the world, monthly fcenes are exhibited, which would fhock the minds of Turks and Tartars? This is a quetion more easily afked, than answered. The fact, alas, is certain; and even the public prints begin to exclaim, that there is no police amongst us, no remedy for thefe disorders; and, in fhort, that all is over. But let us not by any means defpair. This would only make bad worse. If we once bring ourselves to fancy that no remedy can be found, no remedy ever will be found, for none will ever be fought. Dark as the profpect was, a ray of light has broken in upon it, and that from an unexpected quarter. An institution has been fet on foot by a private individual, to the excellency of which every man who loves his country muft rejoice to bear his teflimony. From finall beginnings it has increased and diffused itself in a wonderful manner; and if it be generally taken up through the kingdom, especially in the metropolis, with the fame zeal and judgment which have been fhewn in the management of it among you, the fagacity of the wifeft cannot foresee how much good may in the end be done by it, and how far it may go towards faving a great people from impending ruin. At the moment in which I am freaking, not lefs than one hundred thousand pupils are faid to be in training under its care. There may foon be ten times that number; and if it finally fucceed with half thefe, five hundred thousand honeft men and virtuous women, duly mingled in the mafs of the community, will make a great alteration. In the cafe of good as well as bad," a little leaven (and this can hardly be called a little) leaveneth the whole lump." After feveral general but important obfervations on the expediency of attending to the morals of the common people, the beneficial effects to be expected from Sunday Schools are thus explained: It is to be obferved, then, firft, that when the managers of all other charitable foundations have done their beft, numbers of chitdren must still be left in ignorance, being employed, from morning to evening, during fix days of the week, and all little enough, to earn the bread they are to eat. Their cafe therefore is defperate, unless we contrive to give them on a Sunday that inftruction which they can obtain on no other day. II. By appropriating the charitable fund to the ufe of Sunday alone, numbers may be comprehended (perhaps all the poor children * Mr. Raikes, of Glocefter. ་ |