when imagination and tranquillity fhed their sweetest influence over him, and excluding all present impreffions, recalled the charms and delights of the golden age. The Death of Abel, which is already well known to the English reader, by the tranflation of Mrs. Collyer, made its first appearance in 1758. Its reception was ftill more flattering. Three editions of it were published at Zurich in the courfe of a fingle year, and it was foon tranflated into all the European languages. In most of thefe it has gone through various editions; and there are few of the productions of the century that has juft elapfed which have been fo generally popular. After this he published feveral of his leffer poems, among which was The First Navigator, which is perhaps the most beautiful of his works. He made fome attempts likewife in the paftoral drama, of which his Evander and Alcimna is the chief. His Erastus, a drama of one act, was reprefented with fome applause in feveral focieties, both at Leipfick and Vienna. The poems of Geffner were almoft all given to the world before he had completed his thirtieth year. About this period he married, and, as he him. felf informs us, his father-in-law, Mr. Heidigger, having a beautiful collec. tion of paintings, confitting chiefly of the works of the great malters of the Flemish school, he devoted his leifure to the ftudy of their beauties, and became deeply enamoured of their art. Geffner, who in his youth had received fome leffons in drawing, refumed the pencil, but with a timid hand. At first he ventured only to delineate decorations for curious books printed at his office, but by degrees he rofe to bolder attempts. In 1765 he published ten landscapes, etched and engraved by himself. Twelve other pieces of the fame nature appeared in 1769; and he afterwards executed ornaments for many publications that iffued from his prefs, among which were his own works, a tranflation into German of the works of Swift, and various others. The reputation which he acquired by his pencil was fcarcely inferior to that arifing from his pen. He was reckoned among the belt artifts of Germany; and Mr. Fafelin, his countryman, in his "Historical Effay on the Painters, Engravers, Architects, and Sculptors, who have done honour to Switzer land," gives a diftinguished place to Geffner, though then alive. The private character of Geffner was in a high degree amiable and exemplary. As a husband, a father, and a friend, his virtues were equally confpicuous. His cat of mind was pen. five, and even melancholy; his manners gentle. In converfation he was mild and affable, and, where the fubject admitted of it, often highly animated, rifing into great elevation of fentiment and beauty of expreffion. But in every part of his deportment, there was that unaffected fincerity, that fimplicity and modeity, by which true genius is fo generally diftin. guifhed. With qualities fuch as thefe, Geffner could not fail to be loved and refpected; and uniting to taste and literature the talents requifite for active life, he was raised by the fuffrages of the citizens of Zurich to the firft offices in the Republic. In 1765 he was called to the great Council; in 1767 to the leffer. In 1768 he was appointed Bailiff of Eilibach; that of the four gaurds in 1776; and in 1781, fuperintendant of waters; all offices of trust and refponfibility, the duties of which he discharged with fcrupulous fidelity. The fame of the accomplished and virtuous Magistrate of Zurich spread to the remoteft parts of Europe. The Emprefs of Ruffia, Catherine II. fent him a gold medal as a mark of her esteem; and ftrangers from all countries, vifiting Switzerland, courted his fociety, and gave him the molt flattering proofs of their refpect and admiration. In the heighth of his reputation he was cut off by the ftroke of a palfy, on the 2d of March 1788, in the fiftyfixth year of his age. Paftoral poetry, to which he was chiefly devoted, has been confidered as one of the earliest forms of this delightful art. In the more fimple ages, when the wealth of men confiited chiefly of flocks and herds, the condition of a thepherd was refpectable in the community, and his life a state of eafe and abundance. In the poffeffion of thefe bleflings, paffing his days in the open air, and having in view the molt beautiful fcenery of nature, the emotions of the heart would sometimes be excited, and the voice of untutored genius make it felf heard. Hence those artless ftrains of rural poetry in which are breathed the firit accents of the 02 paftoral paftoral mufe. Though deficient in harmony and delicacy, thefe ruder efforts would often be true to nature and paffion; and the shepherds and cowherds of Sicily doubtlefs furnished the models on which the Idyis of Theocritus were formed. It is the peculiar praife of Theocritus, and conftitutes a confiderable part of the charm of his writings, that he departed but little from his models, that his fcenery is evidently copied from nature, and that his characters and manners appear to be nearly fuch as the peafantry of Sicily prefented to his obfervation. Virgil copied Theocritus, and departed farther from real life; and fince the revival of letters, the greater part of the paftoral poets of modern Europe, particularly thofe of Italy, have indulged ftill more in the imagery of fancy; with landscapes, compofed indeed of the most beautiful features of nature, for the imagination can paint nothing fairer, they have given us manners and characters in a great meature ideal. Yet paftoral poetry of this defcription has its charms. In the mixed condition of our existence, the forms of beauty, in nocence, and happiness, rife at times, and fade on our view. Imperfect and fleeting as they are, they afford fuch Furniture to the imagination as ferves to decorate thofe creations of fancy, which, while they excite, tend in fome degree to gratify the natural "longing after a happier age." This gratification feems, indeed, in the opinion of the firit of our living critics, to be the true end and defign of paftoral poetry. "Its nature and defign," fays Dr. Aikin, "have been differently reprefented. I have no doubt, however, that the true fecret of the pleafure derived from paftoral is to be found in an univerfal longing after a certain imagined state of society, which though it never did exift, may readily be conceived, and by its innocence, tranquillity, and fimple delights, fweetly contrafts with the turbulence and evils of the real world. It is no new opinion that this poetry has a reference to the golden age; but by this age I would not understand any period recorded by tradition, but rather a kind of Eutopia, in which the wounded and wearied fpirit of man has ever delighted to take refuge... Amid fuch a fairy people I confefs I do not regret nature; nor at my age am I afhamed of lofing myself in the Arcadian walks of a Paltor Fido and Aminta. **** Alas! we know too well that no Arcadia exifts upon modern ground, and that vice and wretchedness prevail in the hamlet as well as in the city. But why may we not for a time be indulged in forgetting it * ?" It is not, however, to be disputed, that where we depart fo far from na ture, the intereit of the scene is apt to languish. We are creatures more of feeling than of imagination, and can deeply fympathize only with beings of our own species, and in forrows which we ourselves may participate. In the lives of the pure inhabitants of these Arcadian landscapes, fuch as they are ufually reprefented by the predeceffors of Geffner, there is too little incident, in their fufferings there is too little of real pathos, to fix the curio fity, or agitate the heart. The mo dern writers of paftoral have resorted little to invention; they have in general contented themfelves with imitating the defcriptions and fentiments of the ancient poets; and hence, of all the varieties of poetry, this is commonly the most meagre in its fubject, and the leaft diverfified in its ftrain. It is not, however, to be doubted, that this famenefs and infipidity are more to be afcribed to the flavish imitation of the ancient pastoral characters and topics, than to the confined nature of the subject. Ramfay, Burns, and Macneill, poets of the northern divifion of the ifland, who have not copied Theocritus, but followed his example in drawing the fcenery and the manners of rural life in their own age and country, have enlarged and beautified this department of poetry. It were perhaps to have been wished, that Geffner had taken a fimilar course, but his learning and fancy carried him back to the era of ancient Greece. In his paftorals, the rough fimplicity of the Swifs peafant, the awful fublimity of the Helvetian scenery, are not to be found. Amidft the foftnefs of a Sicilian land. fcape, he calls into life the fabled perfonages of the claffic mythology, and revives that pure and virtuous race of mortals, who are fuppofed to have lived in the golden age. But though he takes Theocritus as his model, unlike his other imitators, he has chofen his * See "Letters from a Father to a Son," Vol. I. p. 77, &c. fubjects fubjects for himself, and given to paftoral poetry a range, of which it was not before known to be fufceptible. Whatever incidents, forrows, or affections, may be fuppofed to be within the rural fphere, Geffner has confidered as proper fubjects for his muse. "Of all the moderns," fays Dr. Blair, "Geffner, a poet of Switzerland, has been the moft fuccefsful in his paftoral compofitions. He has introduced into his Idyls (as he entitles them) many new ideas. His rural fcenery is often ftriking, and his descriptions lively. He prefents paftoral life to us with all the embellifhments of which it is fufceptible, but without any excess of rednement. What forms the chief merit of this poet is, that he wrote to-the-bearts and has enriched the fubjects of his Idyls with incidents that gave rife to much tender fentiment. Scenes of domeftic felicity are beautifully painted. The mutual affection of husbands and wives, of parents and children, of brothers and filters, as well as of lovers, are difplayed in a pleafing and touching manner. Not understanding his lan guage, I can be no judge of the poetry of his style, but in the fubject and conduct of his paftorals, he appears to me to have outdone all the moderns." ACCOUNT OF THE LIFE-BOAT. [From WARNER'S "TOUR THROUGH THE NORTHERN COUNTIES OF ENGLAND."] The THE coaft on which Bamborough Castle ftands is peculiarly dangerous; a conftant watch is on the look out, and fignals appointed to defcribe the fituation in which the diftreffed are. A life-boat, conftructed by Mr. Henry Greathead, hip-carpenter of Shields, is alfo always ready for ufe, and is found to answer the valuable purpose for which it was defigned. Its form is that of a long fpheroid, thirty feet in length by twelve feet over; either end pointed, and thus calculated to row both ways, an oar ferving the purpofe of the helm. About eighteen inches below the gunwale a strong lining of cork covers the whole of the infide, which gives the boat fuch a buoyancy as enables it to live in any water. crew ufually confifts of about twenty men, and the capacity of the boat enables it to receive about ten more. On the 30th of January 1790, the life boat of South Shields firft put to fea in a horrible gale of wind, for the glorious purpose of refcuing fome unfortunate mariners who were the fport of the tempelt in the offing, a number of cork jackets being provided for the crew, in cafe their veffel disappointed the expectations of the inventor, and failed in its purpole. But the precaution was unnecellary; floating like a feather upon the water, it rode triumphantly over every raging furge, and fimiled at the horrors of the torm. The wreck was approached in fpite of the ele. ments, and the wretched crew, equally affected with aftonishment and ecftafy, beheld the glorious life-boat (never was a name more happily imagined, nor more appropriately beltowed) along-fide of their thattered veffel, and offering refuge from the tremendous abyfs that was opening to swallow them up for ever. Reftored to hope and life, they were removed into the friendly boat, and brought to land, to the unspeakable joy of the benevolent projectors of the plan, who had thus the double gratification of feeing that the veffel was calculated to anfwer its intention in the completeit manner, and of refcuing at the fame time feveral fellow-creatures from inevitable deftruc. tion. Since this firft trial, repeated defperate voyages have been made for fimilar purposes, and with the like fuccefs, to the falvation of many hundred diftreffed failors; and fo confident are the feamen of the fafety of the boat, and the impoffibility of its being liable to cafualty, that it is now become a matter of fatisfaction to be employed in this fervice of faving the shipwrecked, a fervice that well deferves the civic crown. The inventor, naturally enough fuppofing that an object of fuch im portance to the State as faving its citizens from perifhing would be encouraged by Government, fubmitted his plan, and offered his fervice to the Miniftry a few years fince for the construction and establishment of life-boats all along the coafts of the kingdom; kingdom; but the attention of the public was then unfortunately directed to other objects than the economizing of human existence, and his offers were unattended to. In the true fpirit of philanthropy, however, Mr. Henry Greathead, waving the idea of exclufive profit, instead of taking out a patent for the admirable invention, and thus confining its advantages to himself, generously offered to commu. nicate to others every information in his power on the fubject of the con ftruction of the life-boat, and to diffufe by these means, as much as poffible, the bleffings refulting from its adop tion. In confequence of this, another perfon has built veffels of the fame kind, and their number has thus been multiplied in the manner before mentioned. The pecuniary remuneration, which the crew of the life buat receive, is what the generosity of the affluent, faved by their exertions, may bestow upon them; "the bleffing of him that was ready to perish" is the only, but rich reward, when the poor mariner is rescued from destruction by their means. LETTER FROM THE HON. HORACE WALPOLE TO THE EARL OF BUCHAN. MY LORD, Perhaps I am still a greater heretic in my indifference to Camden's Britannia. The work was very merito rious in the author as the firit thing of the kind performed among us, and a vaft undertaking for a single man; but really it is fo lean a work, and of many counties we have now fuch ample defcriptions, that, except gratitude to Camden as the beginner of the work, excites in me no other fenfation, nor do I conceive why it is ftill fo admired, as I fee no merit in it but that of induftry. It is one of those books which I would allow an honourable place in my library, and none at all in my head. I am, my Lord, THOUGH my fingers, lamed anew by a fit of the gout, make it not very pleasant to me to write, I mult thank your Lordship for the honour of your letter, and for the defcription of your Abbey, which, as far as words can convey an idea of the situation, feems to me to be a most pleafing one; and, to me, it is very natural to admire your Lordship's piety in adhering to the ancient ftyle of the religious man fion. Cunningham's History I have not feen advertised yet, and confequently have it not. I fear there are caftrations which will deftroy the chief fatif faction in it; and as for the Latin text, I must own I am not eager, as I by no means like either modern Latin, Your Lordship's obedient humble Ser or modern history written in Latin, and fhould moft certainly prefer the tranflation. vant, HOR. WALPOLE, Berkeley Square, Feb. 11, 1787. fenfe; a motley mixture of the fhreds of the understanding, fomething refembling a Harlequin's jacket, fo fancifully patched as to make the owner ridiculous and contemptible to every man of real fenfe. But the chief caufe of want of happiness among the Great (continued the ftranger) proceeds from their total neglect of the means of finding it like other people; they ufe the power they have to be happy to purchafe uneafinefs only; and Diffipation fmiles at the downfall of thofe whom Fortune raifes."-" I dined," replied Moredius, "a few days fince with a Lady of high fashion, who afforded a triking example of fplendid mifery: fhe was feated at the head of her table, and did the honours with fuperior grace and dignity; her face wore a contant fmile; but the exterior which the manners of the world had taught her could not altogether conceal the agonies of a diftrelled mind; at fome inftants the mafk dropped off, and betrayed the fecrets of a heart ill at eafe: the table was covered with the choiceft deffert, pines, melons, peaches, and nectarines. I could not help reflecting, that molt probably there was not a mouthful of what I eat paid for: I imagined to myself a long fruiterer's bill spread over the board like a table cloth, and a confectioner in miniature in his one horfe chair driving among the blanc manges and rafpberry ice. The hottefs, instead of that hilarity which marks the features of the good and happy, prefented a thin haggard vifage, with fuch strong lines of anxiety written upon it as no paint could hide, one could difcover her ideas during the repaft admirably complexed between the profpect of a fuperb gala or an execution in her house the next day. Let it not be imagined that I mean to libel the Great, or that there is afperity in thele remarks: afk themfelves as to the fact, and let their experience determine. I fhould rejoice to fee them as they formerly were in this country, fuperb in their manfions, fplendid in their equipage, hofpitable in their homes, and liberal in their travels; the boat and pride of the community, and the friends of the poor; not fquandering away their own bleffings, nor robbing others of their fhare, but improving the gifts of fortune to the happiness of their country and themselves: then would the reciprocities of fociety be better pre. ferved, and the fancied advantages of equality be dreaded as a curfe. "I had a melancholy picture of this unhappy change of times and manners," faid Moredius," as I was taking my accustomed ride one morning last week. The clouds had gathered together, and defpoiled the beauty of the diftant prof. pect; the fun, whose beams had just gladdened the scene, was withdrawn ; a long bridle path, inclosed by a hedge on each fide, led to an opening of extenfive country; the rain defcended in flow drops; the husbandman had left the field; all was hufh and ftill, cheerlefs and forlorn: a large mansion prefented itfelf to my view on the right, to appearance uninhabited; its gates were torn down, and the windows clofely boarded up; the garden, where probably the rofe had once diffused its Tweetnefs, was a wilderness of weeds; feveral fallen fragments of ancient fculpture were scattered on the ground; and a ftagnant pool of water completed the fcene of defolation. Happily a stranger of decent demeanor approached me; he appeared to be an old farmer. "This is a weary wet day," faid I, as he drew near me. • Not fo, Sir,' replied he; I am used to the variety and changes of the weather, and my heart does not ficken because it is not always fair; this rain will do much good: there is nothing, Sir, that does harm but vice; vice turns every thing out of its course, and spreads defolation through the world." But yonder manfion," faid I, pointing to it as I turned my horfe's head to the fpot That houfe, answered the stranger, with a heavy figh, was once the feat of worth and hofpitality: its owner was the good and wealthy Argirus; plainnefs and fimplicity marked his character, and the fmiles of his benevolence were known for miles around; his lady was as good as himself; it was the happieft family in the country; many a want has been satisfied at that door, and many a hungry stranger has there received the comforts of refreshment: fifty covers of mally plate went every day to that table, and the hofpitable firloin always fmoked upon his board: there, too, all the merit and talent of the country met for rational entertainment: his equipage was grand, his domeftics numerous; every thing was fumptuous, every thing was liberal. "I am afraid," faid I, "he has been too much so," You are |