MONTHLY REVIEW OF LITERATURE AND ART. 213 



they inhabit ; and Mr. Bagster, whose attention has been fixed on the sub- 

 ject from his early youth, here draws a candid comparison of the several 

 places adopted by different experimental naturalists, such as Huber, Kir- 

 ley, Spence, Mdlle. Jurine. Reaumur, Thorley, Bevan, Keys, Patteau, 

 Bosc, Huish, Swammerdam Maraldi, White, Uelieu, Nutt, and others ; 

 adding at the conclusion, the further improvements which this comparison, 

 aided by his own observations and experience, has suggested. To those with 

 whom the keeping of bees is a business, this treatise is highly important. 



The tendency of the second volume is indicated by its title an adminis- 

 tering to the physical wants and comforts of man is not the only reason of 

 the value of bees. There are no parts of nature which to the observant 

 eye are not rife with lessons of moral instruction, but the habits of these 

 little insects are eminently calculated to impart instruction, not only moral, 

 but political and scientific. The attention, however, is here confined to the 

 morality they teach, and the reader is presented with a series of reflections, 

 of honied sweetness, but not cloying, impressed upon the mind of the au- 

 thor, a large portion of whose time was devoted to the culture and exami- 

 nation of bees. Though this is not the time when " bees are on the wing," 

 we do not know two books more worthy of selections than these, as pre- 

 sents to either friend or child. 



SPECIMEN OF A NEW TRANSLATION OF THE LUSIAD OF CAMOENS. 

 THE SECOND TRIUMVIRATE, A POEM. BY HENRY CHRISTMAS, 

 OF ST. JOHN'S COLLEGE, CAMBRIDGE. J. FRAZER, REGENT- 

 STREET. 



HE was a wise man who said " The Lord deliver me from my friends !" 

 Mr. Christmas would have been a happy man if he had submitted his 

 carols to some real friend, who would have saved his reputation at the 

 expense of his vanity. Quite sure are we that if his judicious publisher 

 had been consulted, the " Second Triumvirate" would never have made its 

 appearance. Mr. Christmas may be the " Magnus Apollo" of St. John's, 

 but if he canvasses for the opinion of the world, we fear that the voice of un- 

 prejudiced criticism will sound very harshly after the praises of admiring 

 friends. We never meet with such lines as 



" I see, I see slow roll the clouds away, 



Temples and towers start forth to meet the day," 



but we are involuntarily reminded of Tilburnia, in the Critic, and are 

 tempted to reply with her father 



" The Spanish fleet thou can'st not see for why ? 



It is not yet in sight." 



The translation of the Lusiad, though it must not he compared with that 

 of Mickle, is very superior to his original poem, perhaps for the reason 

 stated by the author in his preface, that it contains nothing of his own. 

 The versification is fluent and easy, the language well chosen, though 

 somewhat overloaded with epithets, and if it never rises very high, it never 

 sinks below respectable mediocrity. 



Mr. Christmas has much to learn, more to unlearn. We should advise 

 him, as his friend, to trust in future to Mr. Frazer. No one exercises a 

 sounder judgment in these matters no one is more able to correct his 

 faults and form his taste. 



