1 14 Monthly Review of' Literature. [JAN. 



tion those which he introduced. While the Protestant ridicules the popes for 

 their assumption of infallibility, let him turn to the Acts of Parliament of Ed- 

 ward the Sixth, and he will there see an equally gross assumption, that the 

 Catechism, Liturgy, &c. were written by the Holy Ghost, which none must 

 doubt, " under penalty of the king's dipleasure." While he makes our blood 

 curdle with the recital of the Catholic burnings of Mary, let him add the similar 

 persecutions of the Arians, &c. in the time of the Protestant Elizabeth ; while 

 he complains of the intolerance of the Romanist, let him read, as a commentary 

 on it, the Act of a Protestant Parliament, which obliged all persons to attend 

 Protestant churches under penalty of a pecuniary mulct of 200 a month.* All 

 this, and much more, Mr. Blunt glosses over. These are, indeed, sad errors, 

 though only of omission ; but we can see the leaven of something worse work- 

 ing in the heart, and influencing the head which dictated this book, that " the 

 more enlightened generation, as it has been called" (and is ; in pity to Mr. Blunt's 

 ignorance of such fact, arising from his seclusion in St. John's, we inform him 

 it is), will not be easily blinded to. If the want of provision for the clergy is 

 the main defect Mr. Blunt finds in the Reformation, after his investigation of 

 this History (vide p. 321, &c.), we would advise him to look again at the re- 

 venues of our ecclesiastical princes ; and, if he could, without offence to those to 

 whom he looks for promotion, to recommend a little more equal distribution, 

 and a little less hostile, and repugnant method of gathering them. We doubt 

 whether the great mass of the respectable clergy would not be abundantly grate- 

 ful for it, and well satisfied with the proceeds. We would, likewise, advise 

 Mr. Blunt to return to the perusal of Milton's tract on Reformation, and read, 

 mark, learn, and digest it. The time will come, we trust, when all traders and 

 money-changers will be driven out of Christ's temple ; and, finally, when it 

 will be placed altogether on a different footing. We hope that the next time 

 Mr. Blunt talks of " an abused press/' he wilhiot shield himself under the pro- 

 tection of a double entendre. 



THE LAST OF THE SOPHIS, a POEM, BY C. F. HENNINGSEN, A MINOR. 



Were a bill passed to abate the severity of our critical laws, Mr. Henningsen, 

 we fear, would be but too happy to take the benefit of the act, notwithstanding 

 his attempts to meet our demands. He presents us, indeed, with a Persico-Tartar 

 Tale, and introduces us to the last of the Persian Sophis and Nadir Shah ; but, 

 although he adds to the already long list of that savage's crimes, by making 

 him the mysterious ravisher of the prince's betrothed bride, our conceptions of a 

 readable poem are not satisfied. Mr. Henningsen, however, endeavours to make 

 up the deficiency in the notes, in which he informs us, that a mosque is a Ma- 

 'hometan church (considerate instructor !) that the road to the Moslem heaven 

 was over a " strait and narrow" bridge, &c. We are told, also, that the author 

 is a minor ; but we certainly think, Master Henningsen, that we might have 

 learnt that fact as readily from the Roman type of the poem, as the Old English 

 letters in the title-page. Mr. Henningsen will, perhaps, in his next edition, add 

 to his favours by explaining the following lines : 



" When deep oblivion dwells 



O'er soul and sense, the heart may steal 



An hour, a single hour's repeal 



From sorrows it is doomed to feel, 



Yet why so soon, that passing dream, 



That momentary Lethe's stream ? 



And why so sudden must they break, 



And we to wayward fate awake ? 



To wish, perhaps, to sleep for ever, 



On what should e'er have been, or never !" 



23 Elizabeth, c. 1, a. 5, &c. 



