1831.] 



Domestic and Foreign. 



101 



itely the degree of expansion, the tour- 

 ure, and unluckily the languor of the 



Water with purest virtue flow* ; 

 And as the fires' resplendant litfht 

 Dispels the murky gloom of ni)s r ht, 

 The meaner treasures of the mine 

 With undistinguished lustre shine, 

 Where gold irradiate glows. 



These few lines measure pretty accu- 

 rat 

 nure, 

 whole. 



Anacreon's pieces are short, and 

 better submit to a paraphrastic ver- 

 sion. Mr. Bourne is often felicitous 

 enough. 



The eleventh volume contains a por- 

 tion of Tacitus a reprint of Murphy's 

 translation certainly one of the most 

 readable versions of a Latin author we 

 have. Hejfgenerally hits the sense, but 

 he does it mainly by doubling the 

 phrases, and certainly nobody ever got 

 over difficulties with more dexterity. 



Serious Poems, comprising the Church- 

 yard, Village Sabbath, Deluge, fyc., by 

 Mrs. Thomas. This is a neat collection 

 of moral and reflective poems, written, 



we are assured in a very unpretending 

 preface, for the amusement and instruc- 

 tion of the author's family, and without 

 any view to publication. It will be 

 readily imagined that in compositions 

 originating in such a feeling, a more 

 than usual amount of carelessness must 

 be discerned ; we accordingly find in 

 this volume passages which would have 

 been much improved by a little thought 

 and labour, and lines that would cer- 

 tainly have pleased us better if the mu- 

 sic had been attended to as well as the 

 moral. The principal point, however, 

 in works designed in a great measure, as 

 this is, for the perusal of the young, is 

 to be unexceptionable in point of feeling 

 and sentiment ; and here Mrs. Thomas 

 exhibits no want of care or correctness, 

 having scrupulously omitted every thing 

 that could offend the taste of the most 

 fastidious reader. The longer poems, 

 such as the Deluge, &c., are evidently 

 the first productions of a pious and well- 

 intentioned mind some of the miscel- 

 laneous pieces are upon lighter subjects, 

 and may be more generally approved. 



FINE ARTS' PUBLICATIONS. 



THE ANNUALS. 



WE have already touched upon the 

 beauties and they are many of the 

 embellishments of the French Keepsake 

 and the Talisman , and we need only 

 refer to them again by saying, that as 

 they now lie beneath our eyes, inter- 

 secting the gilt leaves of these elegant 

 volumes, and enveloped in all the charms 

 of green and crimson silk associated on 

 the one hand with the best and brightest 

 names of modern French literature 

 and on the other with some of the most 

 sparkling productions of our own we 

 cannot help relishing them a great deal 

 better than when they first courted our 

 glances in a portfolio. The literature 

 and the embellishments shed a mutual 



Xupon each other. To the French 

 ing we would willingly, were it 

 possible, devote a more extended space ; 

 it has no inconsiderable portion of the 

 lighter graces of song and sentiment, 

 mixed occasionally with more solid pre- 

 tensions. In many respects it is supe- 

 rior to most of our own ; and our coun- 

 trymen or rather, as it is upon the 

 ladies, that the annuals must chiefly 

 rely for justice, our countrywomen 

 will best evince their taste and libera- 

 lity by shewing that they are not slow 

 to appreciate those of their sprightly and 

 fascinating neighbours. With respect 

 to the Talisman, we are at a loss 

 to discover the trickery which some 

 critics have detected, in collecting 



the most favoured pieces, in prose 

 and verse, from obscure or forgot- 

 ten quarters, and bringing them toge- 

 ther in one bright cluster. Many a 

 sketch, many a scrap of verse have we 

 wished to possess though we scarcely 

 felt tempted perhaps to buy the volume 

 that contained one solitary treasure, and 

 nothing else that we cared for. The 

 trickery is at least acknowledged, both 

 in the advertisement and the preface, so 

 that the purchaser is cheated with his 

 eyes open. Mrs. Watts has executed 

 her task very tastefully. There is to us 

 much that is new even among the selec- 

 tions ; and if there are one or two pieces 

 that are too good to have been forgot- 

 ten, we cannot surely be displeased at 

 seeing them once more in such a shape 

 as this such as the pleasantries from 

 the Indicator , and others equally fami- 

 liar to us. It would have been as well 

 if the original papers had been particu- 

 larized but as long as the path be a 

 pleasant one, we shall never stay to ask 

 ourselves whether we have trodden it 

 before ; or if we do, we shall not be less 

 delighted with it upon that account. 



The first of the comic annuals hap- 

 pens to be the last of them this year. 

 Mr. Hood has however at length made 

 his appearance, to the great delight no 

 doubt of the lovers of good old jokes, 

 and a few intolerable new ones. In say- 

 ing that he has nothing to apprehend 

 from his rivals, we say but nttle for 



