Literary and Critical Proemium. 



3i6 



niitti'd, the ships explored (lie coast very 

 carefully, and the little which it was pos- 

 sible to do was done well. Some interest- 

 iiiK scientific observations lelalive to niag- 

 iiefism and meteorology were made, and 

 a siuall addition has been obtained to our 

 store of collections in natural history. 

 Tint, in such inhospitable regions, no great 

 •variety of living beings on the land could 

 Le expected. The sliips were visited by 

 a tribe of Esquimaux, who added not a 

 little to their amusement and comfoi t ; 

 and a considerable portion of this huge 

 ■volume is occupied with details of the 

 mode of life and manners of these people. 

 They appear to possess a considerable de- 

 force of intelligence, and to have been able 

 to adapt their clothing, lodging, and food, 

 so as to secure themselves great comfort, in 

 defiance of the severity of their climate. 

 Many of the plates exhibit their grotesque 

 appearance in their huge manifold dies- 

 .ses, by which they defend themselves from 

 the cold. In the progress of the expedi- 

 tion, Capt. I'arry derived nincli benefit 

 liom the geographical information he ob- 

 tained from these people, and several 

 <liarts arc given from their observations. 

 He expresses so nmcli reliance on their 

 information, from having experienced its 

 accuracy as far as he went, that, if he had 

 succeeded in getting fairly within the 

 Polar sea, he woidd have departed from 

 the strict tenor of his instructions, and 

 stretched across the mouth of the gieat 

 bay lying on the south-western side of 

 Melville Peninsula, instead of coasting its 

 winding and probably much - indented 

 shores. Capt. Parry's hopes of the pas- 

 sage being ultimately effected, are not 

 diminished ; and, from the enterprise of 

 oin' distinguished countryman, Capt. 

 Vranklin, and his brave companions, it 

 hits been ascertained that the I'olar sea is 

 sometimes navigable on the northern 

 coast of America. There is reason to 

 believe the noitliern continent seldom ex- 

 tends beyond 70° orTl^ north latitude ; 

 and, the open winter observed by Capt, 

 Franklin, proves that tlie ice has a consi- 

 derable Ei)ace fo move about in ; and, 

 although the navigation must ever be 

 liable to unforeseen difficiiUies, yet Capt. 

 Parry expresses " a confident hope, that 

 England may yet be destined to succeed 

 jii an attempt which has for centuries past 

 ctigagcd hi'r attention, and interested the 

 whole civilized world." 



The poet laureate has indulged the pub- 

 lic with what he pompously, if not arro- 

 gantly, calls The Bouk of the Church. 

 KobektSouthey,esq. Doctor Soutliey, 

 or Mr. Laureate Soutliey, or designating 

 liiin by whatever title best pleases Ins ear, 

 is, it Ikis long appeared, a man no less 

 versatile in his literary occupations, than 

 mutable in his jiolitics. We haveiiniroiiuly 

 liecn in the habit of confining our idea of 



[May 1, 



Books of the Church, to the Inspired 

 Writings and the Holy Liturgy, and 

 should have been amoiii; the last who 

 could have expected a Book of the Church 

 from the author of IVut Tyler. Yet, from 

 the unbounded diveisity of his genius, and 

 equal variation of his principles, what is 

 there that might not be expected ? and 

 what is the style in wiiich, to whatever 

 subject he applies his great faculties, he 

 will not, probably, ac(]iiit himself. To 

 follow him through his war and divinity, 

 his gothicism and methodism, his republi- 

 canism and monarchisin, is to trace the 

 foot-steps of a universal artist, a man of 

 all trades, of all doctrines, of all habits, 

 both in manner and thinking. Setting 

 down with this comprehensive opinion of 

 his character, mental, moral, and political, 

 to the serious consideration of his last 

 great work, — his Book of the Church, wc 

 naturally looked for extraordinary things. 

 Awarethat he could expatiate with equal 

 facility and enthusiasm on the personal 

 merits of a Tyler, a Nelson, a Wesley, and 

 a Wellington, we were not less poetical in 

 onr expectations, than he himself has been 

 in his portraits of those distinguished indi- 

 viduals. But it is one among the numer- 

 ous briars that bestrew this vale of tears, 

 and not the least annoying of them, that 

 our prospective zenith of gratification is 

 always liable to be reversed, and to be- 

 come the very nadir of disappointment. 

 In nine hundred octavo pages, from the 

 pen of Mr. Laureate Soutliey, who, even 

 among those loss familiar than ourselves 

 with the original traits, and the mighty 

 grasp of his intellects, would not have 

 hoped to find in a work assuming the title 

 borne by the two volumes before us, some- 

 thing beyond the partial recapilulation of 

 what has appeared in every past history of 

 the church? Something more than a 

 re-print of what long since had been read 

 by every one who reads at all, and the 

 first five pages of which no one can peruse 

 without anticipating the <:ontenis of all 

 that follow, — excepting, indeed, certain 

 passages, in which Doctor Soutliey, quit- 

 ting his authorities and prompters, in- 

 dulges his poetic vein, the floridity of his 

 imagination, and tells us things about the 

 Druidical religion, the Archdruid Chyn- 

 donac, his rocking stones, and the bloody 

 sacrifices offered by naked females dyed 

 with woad ? These, and a variety of simi- 

 lar conceits, are, we giant, no positive 

 proofs that the learned laureate never 

 read Tacitus, or, that having read, he has 

 forgotten his inslriictive annals ; but, with 

 US, at least, they are strong persuasions 

 that he has not condescended to rely on 

 the Roman's text; not less so, than they 

 are so many convictions that IMr. Soutliey, 

 poet as he is, cannot, when deserting his 

 authorities, so dress u|) his fictions as to 

 give them the air of truth. His misrepre- 

 sentations 



