232 



Monthly Review of Literature) 



thought, we believe, but ft fool to Dr. Web- 

 ster. The language of Noah and his family 

 was of course all the same, and Dr.W. finds 

 no reason, which we wondered at as we went 

 on, to infer any changes before the building 

 of the tower of Babel the period and the 

 cause assigned by the writer of the book of 

 Genesis for the commencement of a diffe- 

 rence of language, which for any thing that 

 appears, was not gradual, but sudden and 

 decisive. Dr. W., without however deny- 

 ing the miracle, ascribes the change to a 

 gradual process the result solely of separa- 

 tion and divergence. The more remote the 

 separation, and the longer its duration, the 

 greater became the difference, though still 

 in the more uncultivated, which, as to lan- 

 guage, means the more uncorrupted regions, 

 exist traces of the original tongue he finds 

 many in Ireland, Scotland, and Wales. 

 But, what surprised us most in this learned 

 discussion, he talks of radical differences 

 in the dialects or languages spoken by the 

 descendents of Shem and Ham, on the one 

 hand, and those of Japheth, on the other. 

 We cannot, for the life of us, imagine the 

 line of distinction, or the ground of it. 

 The three branches might have been ex- 

 pected to shew similar traces and similar 

 resemblances of the common stock, and 

 besides the descendents of each touched 

 upon the other. The Shemic branch (not 

 Shemitic, we love analogy as well as Dr. 

 W.) stretched from Syria to China, the 

 Hamic over Africa, and the Japhetic over 

 Europe and Northern Asia. Now, the 

 Shemic languages, Dr. W. represents as 

 radically distinct from the Japhetic, and 

 this is what upon his hypothesis we cannot 

 accede to. Of the Hamic dialects, the 

 Coptic, Dr. W. apparently thinks, is all 

 that is left. The Chaldee is, of course, the 

 original and central language, and for our 

 parts, we should anticipate as many points 

 of resemblance in the east as the west, and 

 certainly no radical differences ; or how is 

 it he does nor find new radical differences, 

 north and south, or any other two opposite 

 points of the compass. The discussion, in 

 the full extent of it, seems to us a little 

 premature the assumption of a central point 

 is apt to warp and twist the coolest judg- 

 ment, and we are afraid Dr. W. has been 

 seduced occasionally into committing vio- 

 lence. 



But we have no desire whatever to depre- 

 ciate the learned lexiconist ; the book has 

 its valuable points. The author has wisely 

 omitted the confirmatory passages, which 

 made at least one out of Dr. Johnson's two 

 folios ; he has changed the mode of marking 

 the accent, advantageously, and corrected 

 many well known blunders of Johnson, in 

 definition and etymology. His suggestions, 

 moreover, on orthography and orthoepy 

 the words in use, we believe, for spelling 

 and pronouncing are generally sound ; and 

 every thing relative to science is indisputably 

 improved. 



Tlie Lay of the Desert, a Poem, in two 



Cantos, by Henry Sewell Stokes The 



desert is Dartmoor, and Mr. Stokes may 

 seem likely to conflict with Mr. Carring- 

 ton ; but after a little preluding, and some- 

 oh-ing and ah-ing, he suddenly, and some- 

 what uncourteously, bids his muse refrain 

 from this "lofty theme so lately sung by 

 Devon's minstrel in no vulgar strain," and 

 then proceeds to interrogate the "land of 

 tors, and glens, and steams," why he him- 

 self being in some doubt, it must be pre- 

 sumed visits its " desert loneliness" 

 Is't to indulge in antiquarian dreams 

 O'er cairn and ruin in their burial dress 

 Of moss impervious almost to a guess ; 

 Upon my fancy's wild and airy steed, 

 Thro' backward centuries of time to press, &c. 



Is't to indulge In correspondence strange 

 With fay and sprite and demon of the blast, 

 The vacant mysteries of the ideal range, 

 Which poets will converse with to the last ? 

 No to the winds such mis-creations cast 

 Off with such whimsies to the days of yore, &c. 

 No, he is no romancer no antiquarian 

 no hunter no fisherman his course to 

 thee, Dartmoor, no such pursuits incline. 

 What the de'il takes him there then ? 

 I to thee hie because my soul is sick 

 Sick with mankind and their disgusting ways ; 

 Altho' but lately kindled my life's wick 

 And now but gathering into manhood's blaze, 

 Much hath it felt the world's foul, murky haze 

 Ay I have lived quite long enough to tell 

 That love, truth, virtue, in the world's wide maze 

 Perish they cannot bear the boisterous swell 



With similar nonsense. 



A sudden break now introduces his 

 dreamings on " Calpe's heaven-aspiring 

 mount," where his " drowsy soul" used to 

 wake, and from off her plumes seem to 

 shake the ignoble dust, &c. All which is 

 particularly fine, and, what is better, serves 

 to remind him of Dartmoor again, which, 

 though less sublime, is not less alone, and 

 accordingly presents a capital spot, not only 

 for invoking solitude, and delineating its 

 sweet and salutary effects, but of comparing 

 the modus operandi of different solitudes- 

 those, for instance, of Andalusia and Dart- 

 moor. Well, and what is the result ? pre- 

 cisely the same the difference is in the 

 process. 

 Here, seems the soul, healed almost with a 



scourge, 

 There, with a kiss does trouble in composure 



merge. 



While he is thus singing or sighing about 

 solitude, to the tors the evening hour pro- 

 claim, which does not hasten him home to 

 bed, but prompts to stay and take advan- 

 tage of the natural tendency such a scene 

 has to refresh the memory, for 

 Not in the world, indeed, doth evening thus 

 Brush up our fading reminiscences, &c. 



Against this terrible world, he now 

 makes some vigorous resolutions. 



