1823.] 
In the course of his rough journey, 
Juan delights himself with gazing on 
the child whom he had rescued from 
the carnage at Ismail; the conscious 
satisfaction attendant on such a deed, 
is thus beautifully expressed :— 
reflect 
That onelife sav’d, especially if young 
Or pretty, is a thing to recollect 
Fur sweeter than the greenest laurels sprung 
From the manure of human clay, though deck’d 
With all the praises ever said or sung: 
‘Tho’ hymn’d by every harp, unless within 
Your heart joins chorus, Fame is but a din, 
After some whimsical allusions to 
Cuvier’s geological theory, we find 
Juan introduced to the empress at the 
Russian court. The elegance of his 
person, and the grace of his manner, 
captivate the licentious Czarina, who, 
though her paramours were generally 
east in Herculean mould, at times 
deviated from her usual standard of 
election; and, as might be anticipated, 
makes an exception, in the present 
instance, in favour of Juan. The union 
of debauchery and ferocity which cha- 
racterised Catherine are admirably 
depicted, in her manner of feeding 
her ambition with the perusal of the 
despatch, and gratifying her rising 
passion with the contemplation of 
Juan; who, in spite of the jealousy 
and murmurings of rival expectants 
and candidates, is fairly installed into 
the “ high official situation” of Cathe- 
rine’s favourite; and left, at the end 
of the ninth canto, in possession of all 
the distinction and emoluments an- 
nexed to it. 
The following canto commences 
with what many persons will deem a 
very unorthodox allusion to the New- 
tonian philosophy :— ¢ 
When Newton saw an apple full, he found 
Lo that slight startle tor his contemplation, 
*Tis said (for Vl) not answer above giound 
For any sage’s creed or calculation, ) 
A inode of proving that the exrth turwd round 
In a most natural whirl, called gravitation; 
And this is the sole moital who could grapple 
Since Adain, with a fall or with an apple. 
The conclusion of this stanza is a 
signal for the author’s again plunging 
into his metaphysics, whither we do 
not think it necessary to follow him, 
Itis with much more pleasure that we 
find him emerging from these to ad- 
dress a palinodia to his early literary 
censor, Jeflery.. This tribute to a 
former antagonist, displays so much 
frankness, generosity, and manly feel- 
ing, that it must eradicate all: latent 
remains of animosity from the bosom 
of any but the most rancorous and 
vindictive. In addition to these me- 
rifts, the fclicituus introduction of the 
Don Juan, Cantos 9, 10, and 11. 
415 
writer’s recollections of his native 
land and boyish days render the pas- 
sage In question cqual in poetical 
beauty to any thing that has proceeded 
from his pen; and we much regret 
that we are precluded by its length 
from laying it before our readers. 
We are at last again introduced to 
the hero of the poem, who continues 
to revelin the luxury and licentious- 
ness of the Russian court. The con- 
gratulations he receives from divers 
of his Spanish friends, who till this 
period had appeared to have forgotten 
him, are humeourously introduced, and 
a very characteristic episile froni the 
hero’s pious mother, Donna Inez, in- 
duces the bard to wish for a “ forty- 
parson power,” (a metaphor taken, as 
he informs us, from the “ forty-horse 
power” of a steam engine,) to chaunt 
the praises of hypocrisy. In the midst, 
however, of his elevated fortunes, the 
young Spaniard’s constitution becomes 
Impaircd by the excesses attendant 
upon them ; and the empress, alarmed 
for the health of her favourite, on its 
being suggested to her that the cold of 
the climate was too intense for him, 
determines to send him on a mission to 
the British court. He accordingly 
sets out for England, accompanied by 
“the pure and living pearl, the infant 
girl whom he preserved.” The de- 
scription of the almost paternal and 
filial affection respectively subsisting 
‘between Juan and his little ward, and 
of the insuperabie attachment of the 
latter to her early-imbibed prejudices 
in favour of the Mahometan religion, 
is in the poet’s happiest manner; but, 
extending as it does to six stanzas, our 
limits will not admit of transcribing it, 
In their route, they pass threugh Cour- 
land; of which the author observes— 
Tis the same landscape which the modern Mars 
Who march’d to Moscow, led by Fame, the syren ! 
To lose by one month’s frost some twenty years 
Of conquest, and his guard of grenadiers. 
Let this not seem an anti-climax ;—** Oh! 
My guard! my old guard 2’? exclaim’d that god of 
Think ot the thunderer’s falling down below 
Carulid-artery-cutting Castlereagh. 
The remainder of their itinerary is 
rather prosaically told, with the ex- 
ception of some reflections on their 
obtaining a view of England; of which 
we are compelled equally to acknow- 
Jedge and lameut the justice. They 
proceed from Dover till they arrive in 
sight of London; and the name of Mrs. 
Vry, being incidentally: introduced, 
occasions the following apostrophe :— 
Ohi, 
