158 A CRITICAL DISSERTATION 



best fare to Earl Grey, or to take " pot luck'' with 

 the Duke of WeUington ? 



Let manners and habits be amended ; but, till 

 they are so, let men be forgiven. When a pervading 

 propriety shall govern the world, it will be found to 

 afford place and means for every man within it. 



A CRITICAL DISSERTATION ON FALCONER'S 

 SHIPWRECK. 



Continued from page 133. 



We have the poetry of a voyage drawn by a talented 

 native of this country. His apostrophe to a con- 

 stellation not visible in our hemisphere, but familiar 

 to many of my fair readers, from the tale of Paul 

 and Virginia ; I say Mr. Osier's apostrophe to the 

 Cross of the South is so beautiful that I make no 

 apology for introducing it. 



" Fair Southern Cross ! tliou charm to every eye, 

 The loved Shechinah of the templed sky ; 

 Nursed in Rome's faith the wanderer on the sea 

 Prefers his midnight orisons to thee." 



But to resume, — 



Critics have observed that nothing like a simile 

 occurs throughout the first book of Homer : the poet, 

 say they, bent on unfolding his fable, has no time to 

 wSste on figures of rhetoric. Falconer's work, up 

 to this point, has been open to nearly the same 

 remark. The progress of the main design now 

 admits of, requires even, every ornamental resource, 

 every beauty of diction, that may diversify it; and 

 accordingly we find similes thick strewn, 

 *' Like leaves in V^allombrosa." 



The boatswain's voice heard through the storm, 

 is like the hoarse bay of a mastiff; the wind flies on 

 its quarry like a ruffian, and the ship labouring in 

 the sea, is like a war horse reeling in the shock of 

 battle. I shall merely refer to the beautiful simile 



