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gratification by contrasting the immaturity of unfledged ideas with the 

 soberness of advanced reason. But to publish such crude and abortive 

 rhapsodies ten years afterwards, when the taste should have been per- 

 fected and the judgment matured, is an offence against literature which 

 admits of no palliation. All men are not gifted with the fire of genius 

 and the creative imagination of poets— but all men, before they publish, 

 ought to have penetration enough to distinguish the ravings of absurdity 

 from the brightness of intellect. To cull a given number of words from 

 a dictionary and arrange them in the order of versification, is only the 

 employment of a literary mechanic — a poet must be endowed with 

 genius, fancy, sensibility, imagination, perception, a taste for general 

 literature, a knowledge of the arts and sciences, and a thousand other 

 qualifications not necessary here to enumerate, but known to be indis- 

 pensable to sustain the character of a bard with fame and honour. To 

 none of these essential endowments has Albius the least pretensions ; 

 we therefore strongly advise him to abandon the muses, and pursue an 

 occupation more suited to the order of his talents. That we may not 

 be supposed capable of checking the rising flame of genius by undue 

 harshness and severity, we extract the following brief specimen from a 

 short poem entitled "An Ode to Achilles, addressed to the British 

 Fair"— 



" Not long Pelides did survive his date, 

 But justly met the vengeful hand of fate, 

 To the dark shades by Paris' shaft was sent, 

 For British dames to erect his monument. 

 To those fair nymphs who first devised the same, 

 Let this inscription further speak his fame. 

 ' This massive pile is to commemorate 

 The savage hero of the Grecian state, 

 Whose brutal courage to the world is known, 

 And deeds ascribed that never were his own ; 

 The indelicate posture of whose effigy, "j 



And immodest state of shameless nudity, J . 



Bespeak a want of common decency, J 



To grace or figure not the least pretence, 

 Devoid of meaning — still more void of sense. 

 Unlike the noble Hector did he die 

 In the defence of his beloved Troy, 

 Struck by an arrow winged from Phoebus' bow 

 Ere scarce he had pronounced his perjured vow, 

 As from the fane the fair Polyxena led 

 A mourning captive to a tyrant's bed. 

 Anticipated in his lovely prize. 

 Called off by Pluto to the nether skies, 

 Albion's fair daughters thus lament his doom. 

 And to their loved Achilles raise this tomb.' " 



Verily, the man who could publish such trash as this must either have 

 an overweenhig fondness for his own mental imbecility, or a very 

 indifferent opinion of the perception and judgment of his readers. The 

 only flickering of rationality which the author has evinced, is that of 

 having concealed his name and adopted a fictitious signature. 



Catherine Audley, the Recluse of Ledbury : an Original Historical and 

 Local Drama, as performed at the Ledbury Theatre with the greatest 

 approbation. Ledbury : Gibbs, Jun. 



By bell, book, and candle, and the seven champions of Christendom, 

 if here is not St. Catherine herself bodily, after many a long ramble we 

 have had in vain attempts to capture her. Long life to the resuscitator 



