• Th' immortals take their feats; around them ftand Of leffer deities a duteous band.

The white battalions to Apollo's sway

Submit; and Mercury the Moors obey.
The compact fettled, that no pow'r shall show
To either fide the meditated blow,

By lot they try, which state shall claim the right,
(A point of moment!) to begin the fight.
To the white nation this the Fates affign:
Their chief conceives a deep well-laid defign.
He bids a foldier tempt the Moorish host,
Before the Queen who took his faithful poft.
The foldier marches forth; two paces makes;
The fable warrior the fame measure takes.
Now front to front each other they defy,
And feem in wood to roll a threat'ning eye.
Vain menacing! the laws restrain their rage,
Nor let foot foldiers on one tract engage.
Auxiliar aid ftraight joins each adverfe band,
Pour forth their camp and people all the land.
Nor yet the horror of the day is seen,
And Mars but preludes to the fwelling fcene.-
And now the cavalry in all their pride
From the left wing descend on either fide.
Furious they rush alternate on the foe,
And scatter round deftruction, death, and woe;
From all retreat the laws of war debar

The foot, who fall whole hecatombs of war;
O'er the wide ranks the fiery trooper bounds,

And the drench'd field with pawing fteeds refounds.'
• Dii magni sedere: Deûm fat urba minorum
Circumfufa; cavent fed lege, et fœdere paéto,
Ne quifquam, voce aut nutu, ludentibus aufit
Prævifos monftrare ictus. Quem denique primum
Sors inferre aciem vocet, atque invadere Martem,
Quæfitum primumque locum certaminis albo
Ductori tulit, ut quem vellet primus in hoftem
Mitteret: id fane magni referre putabant.
Tum tacitus fecum verfat, quem ducere contra
Conveniat, pediten que jub t proced re campum
In medium, qui reginam derimebat ab hofte.
Ille gradus duplices fuperat : cui tum arbiter ater
Ipfe etiam adverfum recto de gente nigranti
Tramite agit peditem, atque jubet subfiftere contra
Advenientem hoftem, paribufque occurrere in armis.
Stant ergo adverfis inter fe frontibus ambo,

In mediis campi fpa is, ac mutua tentant

Vulnera, nequicquam neque enim vis ulla nocendi eft
Armigeris, tractu dum mifcent prælia eodem.
Subficio focii dextra lævaque frequentes

Hinc atque hinc fubeunt, late er loca milite complent,
Alternantque vices: necdum tamen horrida milcent,
Præli, sed placidus mediis Mars ludit in armis.-

Nec mora, furgit eques bellator ævis utrinque,

Et mediis hinc inde infeltant cætibus ambo,

Altern que ruunt, et fpargunt fata per hoftes.
Sternuntur pedites paffio, mileranda juventus,

Quod nequeant revocare gradum: fonat ungula campo
In medio et tetis mifcentur funera caftris.'

Bb 3

The

The next piece, in Vol. VII. is a Latin tranflation of Pope's
Temple of Fame. The following lines prove the Tranflator's
happy talent in Latin poetry; and that his tafte has been formed
and improved by an attentive perufal of the Roman bards:
'Dum fpectant oculi cunéta hæc miracula rerum,
Attonitufque animus tantis fulgoribus hæret,
Ere cavo increpitans fubito clangore per auras,
Buccina dat late fignum, quo protenus omnes
Intremuêre adyti; tremit alto a culmine templum,
Excitæque ruunt diverfi a partibus orbis,
Adulai in medio gentes; coalefcit in unum
Diffociata locis, ingens, confulaque turba,
Quam varios induta habitus, tam diffona linguis.
Non æftate nova per amcenos floribus agros
Sic glomerantur apes, fpolia exuviafque rofarum
Cum rapiunt, finguntque favos et rofcida mella;
Vel cum linquentes patriam croceofque penates
Educunt turmas et rupto fœdere regni
Emigrant; fedefque alias nova mœnia quærens
Obfcurat cœlum fugitiva colonia pennis:

Fit murmur, tractimque fonant stridoribus agri
Quis populos numerare queat, qui limen inundant,
Suppliciterque manus tendunt? Stant agmine denfo
Imbelles, validique, inopes, auroque potiti,
Indociles, et quos æquat fapientia cœlo,
Et pueri, et longo gaudens fermone fenectus.
Nam neque laudis amor generofo in pectore tantum
Accendit flammam; ad fummos graffatur honores
Fraude male vitium, et formam mentitur honesti.
Jam Dea per varias difpenfans munera gentes,
Exquiritque auditque viros, et facta recenfet.
Hic damnatus abit, meritam capit ille coronam.
At non æquali virtus examine femper
Libratur; fallax interdum gratia vincit,
Famaque mendaci multos extollit honore.

• Around these wonders as I caft a look,
The trumpet founded, and the temple hook,
And all the nations, fummon'd at the call,
From different quarters fill the crouded hall.
Of various tongues the mingled founds were heard ;
In various garbs promiscuous throngs appear'd;
Thick as the bees, that with the fpring renew
Their flowery toil, and fip the fragran dew,
When the wing'd colonies firft tempt the sky,
O'er dusky fields and shaded waters fly;

Or fettling, feize the fweets that bloffoms yield,
And a low murmur runs along the field.
Millions of fuppliant crowds the fhrine attend,
And all degrees before the Goddess bend;

Haud

The poor, the rich, the valiant, and the fage,

And boafting youth, and narrative old age.
Their pleas were different, their requests the fame;
For good and bad al:ke are fond of tame.

Some

Haud aliter, cum cæca foror, Fortuna, gubernat,
Nunc pretium fceleris crucem dat, nunc diadema
Imponit, celerique rotat mortalia cafu.'

The beauties of the foregoing quotation are too evident to escape the notice of the intelligent reader: Jam Dea per varias difpenfans munera gentes,' is a happy adoption of Ovid's Of cula difpenfat natos fuprema per omnes,' Metam. lib. vi. l. 278. As Exquiritque, auditque viros, et facta recenfet,' is of Virgil's Exquiritque auditque virum monimenta priorum,' Eneid. lib. viii. . 312. not to mention others of a fimilar kind.

Our Author has added elegant tranflations of the Odes, Happy the man, whofe wifh and care, &c.' and Bufy, curious, thirty fly, &c.' in the ftyle of Horace; and he concludes his collection of Latin tranflations with Gray's Elegy in a Country Church-yard, of which the first stanza is,

Eheu! fugaces præcipiti rota

Volvuntur horæ, pronus et aureum
Jubar fub undis fol recondit,

Arva mihi tenebris cedens.

Opaca lentis jugera paffibus
Armenta linquunt: faxa remugiunt
Sylvæque et amnes, atque feffis

Signat humum pedibus colonus.'

A new tragedy called THE RIVAL SISTERS clofes the prefent edition of Mr. Murphy's works. It was written originally for the stage, but was not acted; and the following reafon for this, is affigned in the Preface:

When the piece was finished, the Author had his moments of felf-approbation, and in his firft ardour, hinted to a friend, that he intended to give it to the ftage. But felf-approbation did not laft long-that glow of imagination, which (to fpeak the truth) is fometimes heated into a pleafing delirium with its own work, subfided by degrees, and doubt and diffidence fucceeded. In this irrefolute ftate of mind the Author's refpe&t for the Public, who have done him, upon former occafions, very particular honour, increased his timidity: he was unwilling to appear a candidate for their favour, when he was not fure of adding to their pleasure.'

The play is built on the fame foundation with the ARIANE of the younger Corneille, whofe defects drew down the judgment. of that enlightened critic Madame de Sévigné. Mr. Murphy has given us a very different performance. The conflict, the vehemence, and the various tranfitions of the paffions are painted in higher colours than are usual with French authors; and those languid fcenes which weaken the intereft, and are tainted with the familiarity of comedy, feem to have been carefully avoided.

Some the difgraced, and fome with honours crown'd

Unlike fucceffes equal merits found.

Thus her blind fifter, fickle Fortune, reigns,

And undifcerning scatters crowns and chains.'

Bb 4

We

We do not lay before our Readers the fable of Ariadne, of which we cannot fuppofe them ignorant; it forms, beyond doubt, as Voltaire fays, the happiest fubject for tragedy that has come down to us from antiquity; and Mr. Murphy has not done it injuftice.

We are now arrived at the end of this collection, which we cannot quit without thanking the Author for the entertainment which the perufal of it hath afforded us ; nor ought we to close the article, without informing our Readers that a good likeness of Mr. Murphy, engraved by Cook, is given, by way of frontifpiece to the first volume. R-m.

ART. XIV.

FOREIGN LITERATURE.

ITALY.

Art. 1. ELOGIO, &c. i.e. The Eulogy of the celebrated Abbé

FRISI, delivered at a public meeting of the Arcadian Academy. By F. JAQUIER. Rome. 1786.-The Abbé Frifi was, without doubt, one of the moft eminent mathematicians of the prefent age, and had he not been tormented with an insatiable thirst for literary fame, which was not feldom difagreeably felt both by his friends and adverfaries, his character and converfation (this is faid in confequence of a perfonal acquaintance) would have been as amiable and interefting, as his genius was vaft, and his knowledge extenfive. The learned and refpectable orator, who here offers the tribute due to his memory, exhibits to our view both the mathematician and the man; and we obferve a beautiful mixture of the generous friend, and the equitable and impartial biographer, in this moral and literary portrait. Praife is adopted without fufpicion of exaggeration, when cenfure is, at the fame time, administered with juftice and candour. No panegyrift could be better qualified to appreciate the merit of Abbé FRISI, as a mathematician, than Father JAQUIER, whole eminence in that branch of science, as well as in many others, is fufficiently known; and accordingly his ample and learned account of his philofophical hero, confidered in this point of view, will afford fingular pleafure to the mathematical reader. We have here also an account of the Manfredis, and other eminent Italian mathematicians, who were connected with the Abbé FRISI.

2. Saggin, &c. i. e. Mineralogical Obfervations. By F. SCIPIO BREISLAC. 8vo. Rome. 1786.-This is a very accurate and clear defcription of the foffils and minerals, that the learned traveller, in his excurfions through the Ecclefiaftical State, or Pope's Patrimony, obferved in that extenfive diftrict. His defeription is accompanied with explications and remarks on the

alums,

alums, the alum-ftone, the bafaltes, and other natural curiofities that he met with in this excurfion. In that confiderable space (of 110 Italian miles in length, and 50 in breadth) that lies between the Appenines and the Mediterranean, and comprehends the greateft part of the Pope's territories, there are evident marks of the ravages of fire, as volcanic productions of every kind are found in this extenfive tract of land, wherever the obferver turns his view. But that which principally merits attention, according to our Author, is the formation or ftructure of these volcanic hills and rifing grounds, their fituation, the fubftances that compofe them, and the pofition of their ftrata. All these announce vifibly the violent action of fire, combined with the permanent and regular action of water, and induce our traveller to think, that the fea formerly covered these regions; that rocks and ifles arose from it by the efforts of fubmarine volcanos; and that thefe volcanic eruptions removed, by their volume, the watery element. When the fea retired, the volcano gradually lost it activity, and was at length totally extinguished. Thus one of the most beautiful diftricts of Italy was formed by the recipro cal efforts of two difcordant elements !

3 Lettera, &c. i. e. A Letter from the Abbé Fontana to the Chevalier de Lorgna. Florence. 1786.-This Letter contains new experiments, defigned to confirm the learned Abbé's opinion, that water, paffing through hot tubes, which have not a red heat, does not undergo any decompofition. He repeated the experiments of M. Lavoifier, and other French philosophers; but he has not drawn from them the fame conclufions, nor explained the phenomena they exhibit, in the fame manner. He found, indeed, as they had done, that water, paffing over the interior surface of an iron tube well heated, loft a part of its voJume; and that, on the other hand, a certain portion of inflam mable air was formed by this paffage: he alfo found, that the iron had gained in weight the fame quantity which the water had loft, after a deduction made of what had been converted into inflammable air. But, inftead of concluding from thence, as has been done, that water is a mixed body, compofed of inflammable air, which it yields in effect, and of dephlogisticated air, which is fuppofed to have entered into the hot iron, whose weight is increated, our ingenious Abbé explains the phenomenon in a very different manner. He confiders the heated iron as in a ftate, of all others, the moft adapted to make it lofe its phlogifton, and it is to this that he attributes the formation and developement of the inflammable air in the experiment under confideration. He confiders, moreover, the exiftence of dephlogisti. cated air as an element of the water, and its entrance into the iron, as merely imaginary and as it was a portion of water, and not of dephlogifticated air, that was wanting, he thinks it

much