1828.] 



Domestic and Foreign, 



77 



Her mate himself the softening power confess'd. 



Forgot his sloth, restrained his appetite, 



And ranged the sky, and fish'd the stream for her. 



Or, when o'er wearied Nature forced her off 



To shake her torpid feathers in the breeze, 



And bathe her bosom in the cooling flood, 



He took her place, and felt through every nerve, 



While the plump nestlings throbb'd against his 



heart, 



The tenderness that makes the vulture mild ; 

 Yea, half unwillingly his post resigned, 

 When, home-sick with the absence of an hour, 

 She hurried back, and drove him from her seat 

 With pecking bill, and cry of fond distress, 

 Ansvver'd by him with murmurs of delight, 

 Whose gutturals harsh to her were love's own 



music. 



Then settling down, like foam upon the wave, 

 White, flickering, effervescent, soon subsiding, 

 Her ruffled pinions smoothly she composed ; 

 And, while beneath the comfort of her wings, 

 Jler crowded progeny quite fill'd the nest, 

 The halcyon sleeps not sounder, when the wind 

 Is breathless, and the sea without a curl, 

 Nor dreams the halcyon of serener days, 

 Or nights more beautiful with silent stars, 

 Than, in that hour, the mother Pelican, 

 When the warm tumults of affection sunk 

 Into calm sleep, and dreams of what they were, 

 Dreams more delicious than reality. 

 He sentinel beside her stood, and watch'd, 

 With jealous eye, the raven in the clouds, 

 And the rank sea-mews wheeling round the cliffs. 

 Woe to the reptile then that ventured nigh; 

 The snap of his tremendous bill was like 

 Death's scythe, down-cutting every thing it struck. 

 The heedless lizard, in his gambols, peeped 

 Upon the guarded nest, from out the flowers, 

 But paid tlie instant forfeit of his life ; 

 Nor could the serpent's subtlety elude 

 Capture, when gliding by, nor in defence 

 Might his malignant fangs and venom save him. 



We must hurry on to a conclusion. By 

 some curious alchemy or perhaps brought 

 over in the stomachs of leviathans human 

 beings are at length produced on the island, 

 and do unrighteous deeds, that make the 

 poet shake his head the least of their enor- 

 mities, being to dine upon each other's car- 

 cases. We must acknowledge, the picture of 

 these human appendages is the least pleasing 

 of any, while it may not be considered unuse- 

 ful as a foil to the inimitable beauty of a de- 

 votional scene, exhibited in the person of an 

 ancient savage chieftain, more enlightened 

 than his fellows, who, walking with his grand- 

 child, bursts into a spontaneous prayer, which 

 the infant imitates. It is too long, we per- 

 ceive to quote and must not be mangled ; 

 but it will be among the first bits to fix the 

 reader's attention. 



Blue-Stocking Hall. 3 vols. 12mo./ 1827. 

 " Blue-Stocking Hall" is merely a title to 

 attract readers. It has little or nothing to 

 do with the story. The book is no shewing 

 up of Lady D. and her coteries, as the reader 

 might expect. There is no offence at all in 

 it ; neither is it a grave description of learned 

 ladies, nor even a graver defence of them, 



though some such aim apparently the writer 

 had originally in view. A young fellow, of 

 the name of Howard, of excellent disposi- 

 tions, but warped by fashionable society , 

 where it seems knowledge is scouted, and 

 learning pronounced to be plebeian, espe- 

 cially for ladies, is despatched, in the hope of 

 getting rid of a church-yard cough, to his 

 aunt's a lady rusticating in the remotest 

 wilds of Ireland. The aunt is a widow, 

 with three daughters and a son. The young 

 hero knows nothing of the general or indi- 

 vidual character of the family which he is 

 going to visit, but on his arrival, and before 

 he meets them all at dinner, straying into 

 the library, he discovers by the books that 

 lay about, that he has got into a family of 

 blues. They turn out, however, to be not 

 only blue, but blithe and accomplished the 

 daughters beautiful and fascinating sing- 

 ing and dancing, playing and drawing to 

 admiration active benevolent feeding 

 and visiting the poor, and making and dis- 

 tributing flannel petticoats a nest of graces 

 a trio of saurs gris and the mother, as 

 becomes such an offspring, herself a very 

 Minerva. Among the friends of the family, 

 he encounters Mr. Otway, the excellent 

 associate of the widowed lady's husband 

 who now lives in the neighbourhood, on the 

 most confidential and familiar terms with 

 every member of the family, addressed by 

 the pet name of dear Phil short for philo- 

 sopher. This addition does not take from 

 the youth's alarms, and to add to them al- 

 most immediately arrives the family tutor 

 a man of immense learning, of extraordinary 

 powers and the exemplar for every body's con- 

 duct. Though somewhat embarrassed, Howard 

 puts on a bold front, but resolves on a speedy 

 flight. He has a profound contempt for blueism 

 azure seems to be the word now and the 

 loftiest notions of the supremacy of fashion, 

 and of himself being de ban ton. Before he 

 takes wing, however, he resolves to make an 

 effort to rescue the younger one at least from 

 ruin. He argues with the gentlemen-*-ex- 

 rtostulates with Mamma and banters the 

 young ladies, all of course to no purpose he 

 is baffled at every turn. The young ladieg 

 are perfectly unsophisticated delicate af- 

 fectionate to each other, and filled with 

 respect and love for their fond mother, and 

 admiration for dear Phil, and the tutor 

 and in absolute ignorance of the levities, and 

 hardening influence of a London life. The 

 young sprig of fashion, brought up by his 

 mother, in utter scorn of mere natural feel- 

 ings, and drilled into factitious views, is per- 

 petually outraging the refinement or the 

 purity of his cousin's sentiments and thus 

 getting into scrapes. One of the first of 

 his flippancies is to ask if Mr. Otway is- 

 not one of his aunt's aspirants ? an im- 

 plication, which shocks the cousin to whom 

 it is addressed even to tears. By degrees, 

 he comes to understand the party, and, pos- 

 sessed of some tact, he avoids these blunders ; 



