For lamented in death, as beloved in life, Was he, who now slumbers within it. He was one who in youth on the stormy seas Who, borne on the billow, and blown by the breeze, Yet in this rude school had his heart still kept All the freshness of gentlest feeling ; Nor in woman's warm eve has a tear ever slept, More of softness and kindness revealing, pp. 230, 231. The following is in a more gay and discursive vein; and affords a pleasing view of the literary recreations which are now permitted to those self-denying sectaries. • To be by taste's and fashion's laws Briliant and sparkling as the beams And scatters Toanā dews, gems, and streams, Is + blasted with excess of light.” Another leads his readers on With scenery, narrative, and taus And last, not text, & maste mină, Around whose front and haught brow. Sat he bur chosen might have zeir & The muses brightest garnesi döugh Fit too. forsanth with marbiť vem, int make is OWL VS inath his swa Vitt talent Fact # scare{1. THE: 11 bari before, ti mazi; nari Vi car peruse without Trgte: ? Or think, with cold, unpitying mien, Of what thou art, and mightst have been?' pp. 107-109. What follows has rather more of the ardour and tenderness of love, than we had supposed tolerated in the Society of Friends. 'I did not forget how with THEE I had paced On the shore I now trod, and how pleasant it seem'd; The beginning and end of our loves were before me ; Yes, I thought at the moment, (how dear was the thought!) Thus musing on thee, every object around Seem'd to borrow thy sweetness to make itself dear ; The lights and the shades on the surface of ocean, Of thy innocent heart as I gaz'd on thy face. And, when I look'd up to the beautiful sky, So cloudless and calm; oh! it harmoniz'd well With the gentle expression which spoke in that eye, Ere the curtain of death on its loveliness fell! pp. 176-7. The following stanzas on the Sea appear to us at once simple and powerful. Oh! I shall not forget, until memory depart, When first I beheld it, the glow of my heart; The wonder, the awe, the delight that stole o'er me, As I stood on its margin, or roam'd on its strand, I felt new ideas within me expand, Of glory and grandeur, unknown till that hour, And thus, while I wander'd on ocean's bleak shore, And survey'd its vast surface, and heard its waves roar, And haunted by majesty, glory, and might!' pp. 242-3. These specimens, we believe, will suffice:-we shall add but one more from the concluding verses, as a further illustration of the author's descriptive talent. It is the very carnival of nature, The loveliest season that the year cau show! Have more than vernal softness; and the sun Of leafy luxury begins to fade; When leaves are changing daily to the sight, It is the season when each streamlet's sound, Assumes a tone more pensive, more profound; With dew-drops glistening, evermore have heard Or bleat of sheep, or lowing of the herd; Or rustling of fail'n leaf, when morning's breezes stirr❜d.' pp.282-3. Our readers, we think, may now judge for themselves pretty fairly of the merits of this volume. It is not calculated certainly to make a very strong or lasting sensation in the reading worid; and has no chance either of eclipsing any of the poetical luminaries that are now in their ascendant, or even of falling into their orbit with its attendant fires. Yet we believe there is a very large class of readers in this country to whom it is capable of affording the greatest delight-all those tranquil, pious, unambitious persons by whom the higher excitement of more energetic poetry is either dreaded as a snare, or shunned as a disturbance; but who can still be interested and scothed by the sweet and harmonious amplification of the feelings they have been allowed or taught to think it a duty to cherish. To the members of his own Society in particular, we cannot help thinking that a work like this must be a most acceptable present. Their amusements and recreations have always, we think, been rather too few; and both they and their well wishers in other communions must rejoice when they can add to them the perusal of elegant poetry, in which they are sure of meeting with nothing that can revolt or offend; and from the very success and celebrity of which their whole body must receive new credit and respectability. ART. V. The Transactions of the Horticultural Society of THE original state of most of those vegetables which occupy the attention of the horticulturist, is unknown; and we are still ignorant of the native country, and existence in a wild state, of some of the most important of our plants, such as wheat, &c. We know, however, that improved flowers and fruits are the produce of improved culture, and that the offspring, in a greater or less degree partakes of the character of its parent. The Crab has been thus converted into the Golden pippin; and many excellent varieties of the Plum boast no other parent than the Sloe. Yet, till lately, few experiments have been made, the objects of which have been new productions of this nature; and nearly every ameliorated variety appears to have been the offspring of accident, or of culture applied to other purposes: An extensive field of discovery is still therefore open to the scientific horticulturist. Societies for improvements in domestic animals, and all branches of agriculture, have been long since founded; but it was not till within these few years that the London Horticultural Society was established, for the encouragement of Gardening. Judging from the past exertions of this Society, we may hope that in a very short time we shall have to record improvements and discoveries of considerable importance as, till within a few years, Horticulture was left to the common gardener, who, in general, implicitly followed the routine of his predecessor. Fruit, as an article of general food in this country, is comparatively used in very small quantities. Yet it is well known, that in the great manufacturing towns, in those seasons when it has been abundant, the inhabitants have been far from healthy. Of the different varieties cultivated for common purposes, most are of inferior quality, and the produce of exhausted or unhealthy parents: Hitherto little care has been taken (except in the gardens of the rich) to procure the better sorts of fruit-trees, or to renew the worn out trees which so generally incumber the gardens of our cottagers. A good sort, however, is as easy of cultivation as an austere or barren variety; and one of the princi pal benefits to be derived from the establishment of the Horticultural Society, is the distribution of scions of new varieties, as well as of the scarcer sorts already known. Much in this respect has been done; already the taste for horticulture has increased; and the spirit of liberality, and the desire of communication, is rapidly taking place of the mean and selfish desire of concealment so prevalent amongst collectors and virtuosi of all descriptions. As an article of luxury, much fine fruit is produced in this country; but, owing to the little attention which has been paid to the mode of raising it, and the small and uncertain demand for it when produced, it is one of the most expensive articles at the table: yet perhaps there are few luxuries so sought after by our countrymen on the Continent; and, amongst their estimates of the comparative difference of cost, none seems to surprise them so much, as that of the prices of fruit in England and in France. Every one who has been on the Continent returns with stories of the number of peaches and pears purchased in France for a franc; or of the still larger quantities of figs and grapes procured in Italy for the same price. Our climate forbids us to hope to rival our more fortunate neighbours in the growth of outdoors fruit; yet much is to be expected from the production of more hardy varieties, which will better withstand the chilling effects of our tardy springs and ungenial summers, and also from the improved and more economical construction and management of our forcing-houses. By some it is conceived, that the coldness and the dampness of our climate render fruit an unfit article of food. To this we do not agree. Others also may have an objection to any diminutiou in the quantity of roast beef eaten by John Bull, lest any alteration should take place in his national character; but we are willing the experiment should be tried, leaving these alchymists in the mean time to the undivided enjoyment of their roasted crabs and sloes. It may be observed, that the introduction of fruit as an article of consumption amongst the poor, is not now likely to diminish their quota of roast beef:-the poor-laws, the taxes, our wars, and the transition state' from war to peace, have effectually done that long ago, |