Literary and Critical Proemiums [May t, 



low the compositor to cut his heroics into 

 lines of all imaginable lengths, as in very 

 many places he has done. The period 

 when verses were so formed as to repre- 

 sent lions or eagles, on tlie page, is Ions 

 past, and we wish not to see it return. 

 Let not Mr. P. be either offended or dis- 

 couraged by these animadversions. He 

 may confidently hope for better things ; 

 seeing that, even in iiis present failure, he 

 has produced a greater number of splendid 

 and powerful passages tlian would be suf- 

 ficient to embalm a dozen of modern 

 tragedies. 



An Apiarian Repository has been esta- 

 blished in the Strand, where a newly ii>- 

 vented double-topped straw hive, to be 

 used with glasses if required, may be in- 

 spected ; also the fullest information, and 

 every necessary apparatus connected with 

 the apiary, may be obtained ; together 

 with a Short Treatise, by the Inventory on 

 the general management of Bees, tending 

 considerably to promote and further this 

 desirable object. 



The medical world is gratified by the 

 appearance of another useful work, from 

 the pen of Mr. Frederick Gray, (well 

 known by his treatise on Pharmacology,^ 

 entitled, as usual. The Elements of Phar- 

 tnacy and the Chemical History of the 

 Materia Medica, This work, independent 

 of its utility to the profession, will be 

 found to be a great acquisition to manu- 

 facturers and others. Mr. Gray not only 

 gives an explanation of all the processes 

 of the London Pharmacopoeia, on the ge- 

 nerally received chemical theories; but 

 also describes the properties of the va- 

 rious articles in the Materia Medica of the 

 London College; and likewise those of 

 the several drugs which have recently 

 been introduced into practice. Mr. 

 Gray's description of the most approved 

 furnaces used in the practice of experi- 

 mental and manufacturing chemistry, and 

 illustrated by a series of very correct 

 wood-cuts, will, we have no doubt, prove 

 very useful in promoting the arts depen- 

 dent on that science. But, above all, 

 though a subject not connected with that 

 of the work itself, is Mr. Giay's admirable 

 instiuctions to young students and gentle- 

 men engaged in literary pursuits. These 

 instructions pertain moie particularly to 

 the formation and arrangement of a li- 

 brary, writing for the press, and the art of 

 memory. 



We have seldom spent a few hours 

 more delightfully than in the perusal of 

 Inlegritij, a tale, by Mrs. Hofland. 

 There is a charm about this writer's tales, 

 the cause of which we will not attempt to 

 explain, for we are not among those 

 who are 



"Sfill flying from Nature to study herlavrs, 

 Aii(l<lulling delight by exploriug its cause." 



Our author i?, if we way so' speak of a 

 ftntale, 



346 



ing vestiges of a people once numerous 

 and powerful, of whom time has destroyed 

 every other record. These colossal mo- 

 numents, whatever may have bfcn the 

 design of their erection, have long since 

 outlived the memory of those who raised 

 them, and will remain for ages affecting 

 witnesses of the instability of national as 

 well as individual greatness; and of the 

 futility of those efforts, by which man en- 

 deavours to attach his name and his me- 

 morial to the most permanent and iude- 

 structibli- forms of inorganic matter." The 

 accounts of the various Indian tribes, sta- 

 tionary as well as wandering, are extremely 

 interesting, as presenting views of human 

 nature, otherwise unknown to the inha- 

 bitants of Europe ; and, making allowance 

 for the possible mistakes in all narratives 

 which pass through the medium of an in- 

 terpreter. We have no doubt of the faith- 

 fulness of tl»€ several accounts. We are 

 well pleased, too, with the remarks of the 

 naturalist. The botanist dors not confine 

 his ideas to stamens and pistils, neither 

 does the geologist talk continually of pri- 

 mary and secondary formations. The 

 engravings are well executed, and the 



• subjects well chosen; and this, probably, 

 is one reason why we think that tbey are 

 too few. 



The Innkeeper's Album, arranged for pub- 

 liciitiiin by W. F. Deacon, is a collection 

 of orii>inal tales and poetical pieces, of 

 considerable merit, the effect of which the 

 author has perversely endeavoured to 

 counteract by affecting, in different places, 

 the style and manner of the author of 

 v\ averley. Mr. Deacon ideutiHes him- 

 self in the introduction with Jedediah 

 Cleishbottom; and Rosalie, on her trial for 

 the murder of her child, is the exact 

 counterpart of Effie Deans, in The Heart 

 of .Vicl-L'ilhian. Notwithstanding these 

 and some other objections, we do not 

 hesitate to recommend the volume to our 

 readers, confident that few of them will 

 be found to regret the time that may be 

 speni in its perusal. 



When Mr. Pennie wrote his Rogvald, an 

 Ejiic I'oem, he appears not to have been 

 aware that he whs warring against the 

 Fates. Setting aside the many later pub- 

 lications, had It not been decreed on high 

 that this nation should possess only a single 

 poem (if that description, the exertions of 

 Hume and Smollet would have snatched 

 the laurel for the author of the Epigoniad. 

 We have no wish to insinuate that Mr. 

 Peimie is destitute of poetical powers; on 

 the contrary, he abounds so much in 

 luxuriant and fervid description, that the 

 slight interest his stoiy might otherwise 

 excite, is lost amid the fohage. The 

 blank verse, in which the poem has been 

 written, is generally regular atid harmoni- 

 ous; atid we are at loss to conceive by 



'What fatality he has been induced to al- 



