IF but attentively we look THE NETTLE.-A FABLE. In Nature's wide-extended book, still Proclaim its Heavenly Author's skill; thoughtless, sporting on the wild! The blue-bells tempt his little hand Beneath the hedge-row as they stand, But whilst he strives the prize to gain, Backwards he starts, and shrieks with pain; Unconscious of the Nettle's pow'r Now ruminate awhile, and say, When passion rules his youthful prime, When the vain world, by arts unbless'd, Her threat'ning lash should conscience shake, And bid the trembling wretch awake, See, see Religion's heavenly form The terms he marks as too severe, And deems the heav'nly maid austere, ~ IF you have received no translation of the Latin Epigram, which your respectable cor: respondent, Mr. Law, expressed a wish to see, and you should deem the following verse to contain the sense of the Latin, it is much at your service: from the custom mentioned in the epigram has no doubt origipated the expression, “ sub rosa,” under the rose, when secresy is to be observed. June, 1818. Yours, J. H. TRANSLATION OF THE LATIN EPIGRAM. Under the rose what pass'd, must never be express'd. Analytical Review. CHILDE HAROLD'S Pilgrimage. Canto the Fourth. By Lord Byron. 8vo. 12s. Murray, London, 1817. IF any thing were wanting to establish the character of Lord Byron as a poet, the publication of the present volume has accomplished it. Childe Harold may now be considered a finished performance, and, as such, will hereafter rank with the first and best compositions which our own or any other country has ever produced. In this poem we behold the genuine effusions of a mind highly cultivated, and richly adorned with ancient and modern learning, and a fancy singularly exuberant and playful. We see nothing like the worthless unmeaning jargon which has so frequently been dignified with the name of poetry, and which in these latter days has so completely inundated the printing offices and booksellers' shops; the powers of the judgment have been exercised as well as the wanderings of the imagination indulged, and all the various energies of the noble poet seem to have been concentrated in the composition of this beautiful and excellent poem. The other productions of his lordship's pen, although unrivalled for the sublimity and originality of the characters pourtrayed in them, no less than for the elegance and beauty of their style, have generally been given to the world unfinished and incomplete; but the present poem, which is the longest, the most thoughtful and comprehensive of his lordship's compositions, to the gratification of all real admirers of versification is now laid before the public in a perfect state. Whether it is that the singular richness and luxuriance of the stanza which he has selected are peculiarly adapted to the subject; or whether the uncommon powers of mind possessed by the author render him capable of adopting any metre he chooses, we can scarcely decide; but this we know, that the frequent recurrence of the same rhyme, which would be regarded as no inconsiderable difficulty by inferior versifiers, produces a harmony and sweetness peculiarly agreeable. It is evident that composition requires no effort with Lord Byron; he has not to rack his brains and fathom his memory for a rhyme or a simile, nor to consult his dictionary before he can spin out a line; but every conception of his mind, or phantom of his imagination, is involuntarily produced and embodied in elegant verse, evidently without trouble or exertion to the author. This conviction has not been produced without a careful examination of all his lordship's productions; nor has the prejudice entertained in his favour been confirmed without making a fair comparison of his merits with those of other modern poets: his works, indeed, demand attention before they can be properly and fully understood; and require comparison before their excellence can be fairly estimated. Indeed, we doubt not it will be said of Byron hereafter, as it has already been said of Homer, " carminibus vives semper tuis," if it be not, we shall be greatly disappointed in our pleasing anticipations of the improved taste and superior endowments of the future generations of mankind. Not, indeed, that we would presume to determine who shall be the favourite of posterity, but we are convinced that in the expression of this opinion we shall be sanctioned by the concurrence of thousands possessed of superior talents and acquirements amongst our contemporaries. The buzz of disapprobation which his rivals have attempted to raise against him will not survive their own malicious aspersions, and both will soon be forgotten with the few and inconsiderable failings which it must be acknowledged by his greatest admirers that he possesses. 3 N With his lordship's private affairs we do not consider ourselves authorised to interfere; he may have acted rashly and imprudently, but we cannot imagine that his noble and exalted character has ever descended to the acts of baseness which have been attributed to him, and we would, at least, whilst the case is involved in such impenetrable mystery, adopt the charitable determination of remaining neuter on the subject. The ardour of his feelings and the singular constitution of his mind may have precipitated him into errors which, if the cool calculations of prudence had been attended to, he might have avoided, but it is before a higher tribunal than that of a periodical review or any other human ordeal that the degree of his criminality can be fully ascertained. The worst construction that can be put upon his conduct entitles him to our commiseration, Flung from the rock, on ocean's foam to sail Where'er the surge may sweep, the tempest's breath prevail." Canto III. Stanza II. We question whether his compositions have not received a tinge from his misfortunes, which has rendered them doubly interesting, and we must confess ourselves to have enjoyed peculiar pleasure from the perusal of those stanzas in the former cantos which relate to the peculiar feelings cherished by Harold, with whom the author seems to have identified himself in many instances. "Where rose the mountains, there to him were friends; Of his land's tongue, which he would oft forsake For Nature's pages glassed by sunbeams on the lake." We utterly disagree in our opinion of Childe Harold with those fastidious critics who have heaped such volumes of unmerited abuse upon his head, and we candidly avow that the loss of his sociéty in the present canto forms the principal ground of objection, if such it may be termed, which we feel towards it. The poem in its complete state is dedicated to Mr. Hobhouse, a gentleman who is equally distinguished by his intimate friendship with Lord Byron, his extensive literary acquirements, and his political principles; and to him, we are given to understand, the world is indebted for many of the valuable notes which are subjoined to the present volume. "It has been their fortune to traverse together, at various periods, the countries of chivalry, history, and fable-Spain, Greece, Asia Minor, and Italy; and what Athens and Constantinople were to them a few years ago, Venice and Rome have been more recently." The dedication is commenced by the following friendly acknowledgment :"After an interval of eight years between the composition of the first and last cantos of Childe Harold, the conclusion of the poem is about to be submitted to the public. In parting with so old a friend, it is not extraordinary that I should recur to one still older and better,- to one who has beheld the birth and death of the other, and to whom I am far more indebted for the social advantages of an enlightened friendship, than — though not ungrateful-1 can, or could be, to Childe Harold, for any public favour reflected through the poem on the poet,—to one, whom I have known long, and accompanied far, whom I have found wakeful over my sickness and kind in my sorrow, glad in my prosperity and firm in my adversity, true in counsel and trusty in peril-to a friend often tried and never found wanting;-to yourself." Under these circumstances his lordship could not, perhaps, have selected a person more deserving of so great an honour. This canto commences with an allusion to the fallen grandeur of Venice. :- "In Venice Tasso's echoes are no more, The revel of the earth, the masque of Italy!" The songs extracted from the Jesusalem of Tasso, the favourite poet of Italy, which once formed so considerable a part of the pleasures to be found in sailing on the Venetian canals, are now a novelty to the Venetians themselves. The loss of their independence has deprived them of the relish which the recitation of these beautiful stanzas was wont to produce in their days of liberty and freedom; and their repetition in the present altered condition of the country, would ill accord with those melancholy and dejected feelings which must be ever present to their minds. Liberty, indeed, is one of those inestimable treasures, the value of which is seldom duly appreciated till its loss has been experienced. When this catastrophe takes place, the mind anxiously longs for a thousand delights which it was accustomed to experience, and vainly regrets the absence of those pleasures which were tasted, perhaps, without gratitude, and lost, perhaps, without an effort to preserve them, In the eighth, ninth, and tenth stanzas, which we here transcribe for the perusal of our readers, may be found a spirit which has seldom breathed in his lordship's former productions. "I've taught me other tongues-and in strange eyes Have made me not a stranger; to the mind "Perhaps I loved it well: and should I lay |