Art. 25. A Seventh Letter to the People of England, upon political writing, true patriotifm, jacobitijm, and evil and corrupt ad-ns. 8vo. Is. 6d. Single. m A banter upon Dr. Shebbeare; whom the Author of this pamphlet humorously perfonates, and ridicules, with no contemptable irony. Thus, for instance, he makes him burlesque himself, and rail at his mortal enemies, the Reviewers: -But a propos, If, after all the fine things I have been faying, we fhould differ in our ideas of patriotism!I may preach on ⚫ without being underflood.-Permit me to remove this ftumblingblock, by informing you what a true patriot really is. ⚫ Idea of a True Patriot. -. A true Patriot is a man who has an unbounded love for his coun· try; that is to fay, fo far as it co incides with his own intereft.'He flicks at nothing, be it ever fo mean or vicious, which he thinks may be beneficial to the public, and ferviceable to himself.-He is always of fome party or faction, though he never keeps long to any ; but shifts and changes as beft fuits his own views. He ever rails at the government, and fometimes at the He is always against the prefent minifters, and never fails to reprefent every mea Jure they take, as prejudicial to the community. He is continually terrifying the people with falfe alarms; affuring them that their li berty is loft, and their country ruined-He raves, ftorms, fwears, cringes, fawns, and praifes, all in the fame breath. He is a great philofopher, and poffeffed of fuch admirable moderation, that he fuffers himself to be kicked out of every coffee houfe in town, ⚫ without being difcompofed, or fhewing the least refentment.-He is the hireling and hackney-writer of every petty bookfeller that chufes to employ him. He libels all great men, writes feditious pamphlets, and abufes every one that pretends to criticife them.Thus he continues, writing and railing, till a poft or a pillory, the ultimate objects of his withes, effectually put an end to his glorious ⚫ and never-enough-to-be admired patriotijm. This is the character. This the noble character, O my good people of England, that I have appeared in for fome years,-in which I have written fevera! letters to you.In which I have afferted your rights and privileges.And I will venture to fay, that fuch a patriot deferves the applaufe of the whole world.-It is true,-I have had it.The luftre and glory of my immortal ora ⚫tions have extorted it from all.- -All-except a few growling, mean, low, vile, rank, loufy, itchy, pocky, vicious, dirty, venal, corrupt, depraved, envious, partial, foolith, idle, fhabby, ragged, beggarly, daftardly, cowardly, rafcally, ignorant, thick-fculled, block-headed, illiterate, illiberal, fcandalous, flanderous, malicious, malignant, malevolent, black-guard, noxious, feditious, rebellious, water gruel, fneaking, bullying, fwearing, lying, curfing, whoring, drinking, fcribbling, farting, ftinking, Scotch Gentlemen• Critics. Art. 26. Art. 26. Frederic le Grand, au Temple de l'Immortalité *, &c. 8vo. Is. Hooper. This little piece is the work of an elegant fancy. Glory and Fame are reprefented on a journey to the Temple of Immortality; where the former propofes the King of Pruffia as a candidate. All the Virtues are perfonated, and made to plead in his behalf, in the hearing of Severity, who doubts of the reports of Glory and Fame; but at length is fatisfied, and yields to the Hero's admiffion. * That is,---The Inauguration of Frederic the Great, in the Temple of Immortality.---By Mademoiselle ****, Author of Abajai. An English tranflation is printed, together with the original, the prefent pamphlet comprehending both. R-d Art. 27. The Cafe of the Stage in Ireland. 8vo. 1 s. Dublin printed, London reprinted, for J. Coote. There has been for fome time, it feems, a theatrical difpute in Dublin, concerning the number of playhouses for the entertainment of that city. It appears, that Mr. Barry has laid the plan of a new one, to be erected there, in oppofition to Mr. Sheridan, the prefent manager of the theatre in Smock-alley; who, on the other hand, is endeavouring to prevent his rival, by procuring an act of Parliament to limit the number of playhoufes in Dublin. The Author of this pamphlet is an able advocate for Mr. Barry, and attacks the Manager with feverity, humour, and argument: but how this important conteft is like to end; and whether King Sheridan, or King Barry, fhall prevail, Time, who decides the fates of princes and principalities too, will determine. Art. 28. Obfervations on Mr. Garrick's Acting. In a Letter to the Right Hon. the Earl of Chesterfield. By Jofeph Pittard. 8vo. 6d. Cooke and Coote. A lavish and ill-written panegyric on Mr. Garrick's performance in the character of Lear.-On thefe occafions we are often reminded of a remarkable line of Mr. Pope's, Fools admire, but men of sense approve. Art. 29. The Story of the Tragedy of Agis. With Obfervations on the Play, the Performance, and the Reception. 8vo. 6d. Cooper. A flippant and fervile compliment to the Author and the Players. Art. 30. Agis. A Tragedy; as it is acted at the Theatre-Royal in Drury-lane. 8vo. 1 s. 6d. Millar. This Author's laft year's tragedy (Douglas, fee Review, Vol. XVI. P. 426.) was not deemed a masterly performance. The new piece is till inferior to the former :-and this being the cafe, it would be pay ing our Readers a poor compliment, to take up much of their attention with Agis. One thing, however, we can with pleasure remark, on the fuccefs of this and fome other modern plays; and that is, the extreme good. nature of the audiences, which not only fuffered, but rewarded them. If fuch generous encouragement is afforded to fuch indifferent performances, what grateful, what unbounded returns of applause and munificence, may not GENIUS, WIT, and POETRY expect, if ever THEY fhould deign to revifit the British Theatre! Art 31. The Dramatic Execution of Agis. 8vo. 6d. Cooke. A trivial criticism on an infignificant play. Art. 32. Virtue Triumphant ; or, Elizabeth Canning in America. Being a circumftantial narrative of her Adventures, from her fetting fail for transportation, to the present time; in whose miraculous prefervation the HAND OF PROVIDENCE is visible. 8vo. I s. 6d. Cooke. A ftrange kind of rhapfodical, lying, narrative, filled with abfurd accounts of the imaginary adventures of this noted young woman. Perhaps, indeed, the pamphlet before us is intended as a burlesque on the ftory of Elizabeth Canning in general, and particularly of the pompous particulars fo frequently inferted in our news-papers, concerning her advantageous fituation in America:-but whatever were the Author's defign, he deferves peculiar reprehenfion for his daring freedom with the name of God, and His providence, which this fcribbler employs upon all occafions, as freely as Homer and Virgil employed their Jove, their Fates, and the rest of those poetical Deities, which thofe who made them might be allowed to use as they pleased. But this liberty, we apprehend, is not to be taken with real religion : fuch licenfe is fhocking to every one who truly reverences his Maker, and confiders the infinite diflance there is betwixt him and us. Art. 33. Chiron, or the Mental Optician. 12mo. 2 vols. 5s. Robinson. This Mental Optician is an old gentleman, with a new-invented perfpective, by the help of which he difcerns the hearts, the real characters, and fecret history, of every person he views through this extraordinary glafs and fad devils he makes of us, fure enough! His plan, however, is rather hackneyed; and fo are his strictures upon men and manners: In a word, the performance is altogether a fit companion for the noted Mr. Edward Ward's London Spy; but by no means to be compared with the celebrated Diable Boitteaux : of which this feems to be an imitation. PORTICAL Art. 34. Eidyllia: or Mifcellaneous Poems. By the Author of Animadverfions upon the Rev. Dr. Browne's three Effays on the Characteristics; and of a Criticism on the late Reverend Mr. Holland's Sermons. 4to. Is. 6d. Edinburgh: Hamilten and Co.-London: Noon, Payne, &c. The Author endeavours, in his prefatory Hint to the British Poets, to prove that Rhimes, or, as he chufes to call them, Periodical Reiterations of the fame Sound, are not only void of ornament, but a real defect in modern Poetry; and that Blank Verfe may be faited to every fpecies of compofition, from the higheft fublime down to very chit-chat. But neither his arguments, nor his Eidyllia, which are written in fupport of them, have convinced us of the truth of either propofition. We must indeed confefs, where the fubject of a Poem is extenfive, and lofty in its nature, or where the greater paffions, as Terror, and Pity, are to be excited, that Rhime may, with great propriety, be dispensed with: for, as Dryden obferves, "it certain"ly is a constraint to the beft Poets; and those who write well in it, "would write better in Blank Verfe;" yet, in Copies of Verfes (as they are called) Sonnets, Paftorals, Eclogues, Elegies, Satires, and even Odes, correfponding founds feem effential in our language. But as no idea of colours can be conveyed to the blind, fo there is no convincing an ill-tuned ear of the beauty of Rhime; which is not the object of Reason, but of Senfation: and can be estimated only by its impreffion on the Senforium,---not by any speculative or general rule:. However, be this question determined as it may, the following fpecimen will fhew, that what no contemptible Writer prophefied of Milton, viz. "That he fhould be for ever honoured as our Deliverer "from Rhime," will never be applied to our Author. Upon lofing Milton's Paradife Loft, at Lufs, fituated upon LochLomond at the foot of Ben-Lowman, and a group of other vaft mountains: an ODE. Fool that I was! My Milton loft! Old Homer's youngest fon! Lufs! be for ever funk beneath Ben's horrors pil'd around. Sun's 'livening ray ne'er pierce thy gloom. Fishes to devilish fnakes be turn'd: Boatman to Cerberus. Mouth of the hellifh gulf be thou: Nor roam the humming bee. Herds never graze, nor fheep, nor geat; Nor human voice be heard. 278 Crags other echo ne'er repeat Mercury laugh'd, and jeering cried, I Milton from thee filch'd. So did Apollo bid; and fee! Rifum teneatis Amici! G-r Art. 35. Holkham. A Poem. To the Right Honourable the Earl of Leicefter. By Mr. Potter. Folio. Is. Manby. Tho' defcriptive poetry is doubtlefs inferior, both in dignity and uti lity, to ethic compofitions, yet it ought to be remembered, that as in a fifter-art, Landscape claims the next rank to Hiftory-painting, so a Poet, as Virgil, for inftance, in the Georgies, never flands more in need of the Mufe's infpiration, than when he draws either natural or artificial objects. But, to defcribe with propriety, minuteness is not fo neceffary as an enumeration of the more striking, picturesque, and peculiar circumftances: the former is the province of the Naturalift and Philofopher; the latter is the characteriflic of a Poet. Nor is a felection of appearances the only thing required in defcriptive poems; they fhould be diverfified with moral reflections, naturally brought in ; and above all, with fhort, enlivening ftrokes, which may rouse and exercife the affections. If we examine the Poem before us by thefe rules, the propriety of which cannot be called in queftion, we fhall find, that altho' Mr. Potter has omitted none of the peculiar beautics of Holkham, yet he no where applies to our reafon or our paffions; and that, in this light at leaft, his poem is greatly inferior to Cooper's Hill and Grongar. The verification is, however, in general tolerably harmonious; and if the images are not thick fet, they nevertheless may please the eye of imagination. As an inftance of this, take the following paffage. Not fuch the fcene, when o'er th' uncultur'd wild No breathing hedge-row form'd the broider'd bound, Lo, Leicester comes! before his matt'ring hand And, |