1825.] 
perusal of this temperate and well written 
Essay; together with the very learned 
notes appended, in which Mr. L. with as 
much truth as modesty observes, “ the 
younger student in theology will find some 
valuable matter, collected from works of 
higher price, and more difficult attainment, 
whatever may be the merits or demerits of 
the Essay itself.”’ 
Observations on some of the Dialects in 
the West of England, particularly Somer- 
setshire: with a Glossary 0° Words now in 
use there; and Poems and other Pieces, 
exemplifying the Dialect. By Jamus JEN- 
nines, Honorary Secretary to the Metropo- 
litan Literary Institution. 12mo.—Among 
modern publications, this is a sort of phe- 
nomenon—a little book, with a good deal of 
valuable information. To the English 
scholar (that rarest of all scholars in Eng- 
land) it will be particularly acceptable ; and 
if ever we should have a rational -revision 
of Dr. Johnson’s very imperfect, and fre- 
quently-misguiding dictionary,—or, what is 
still more desirable, a real English Dic- 
tionary substituted in its place,—this will 
be, or ought to be, one of the helps appeal- 
ed to in the compilation of such a work : 
for though we neither expect nor wish that 
Zummerzetzhire pronunciation, nor Zum- 
merzetzhire orthography, should be zet up 
ds the standard of polite conversation, or 
élegant composition, yet we scruple not to 
pronounce, that a genuine etymological 
and proper standard dictionary of the Eng- 
lish language never can be produced, with- 
out, at least, as intimate an acquaintance 
with our own provincial dialects, as with 
the lexicons and idioms of the Greek and 
Latin. The errors of Johnson, the incon- 
gruities and absurdities which resulted from 
his deficiency in this species of lore (the lex 
non scripta, as it might be called, of our 
lingual jurisprudence,} are innumerable. 
Tf other lexicographers should proceed, from 
time to time, in the same pedantic path— 
neglecting our native sources, and tortur- 
ing our language into a dialect of Greece 
and Rome, we may expect, at last, a most 
Tearned and elaborate dictionary of the 
English tongue, by means of which all 
our old, and many of our most valuable, 
English authors may be rendered as un- 
intelligible to English students as the 
elucking of Hottentots, or the jargon of 
gipsies. As our space does not permit us 
to indulge in any length of quotation, we 
must satisfy ourselves by,recommending to 
the curious reader, the attentive perusal of 
the introductory observations, anda frequent 
reference to the glossary, and the remarks 
that are interspersed; and with observ- 
ing, that the poems subjoined will be found 
amusing, from their inherent merit, as well 
as valuable for the exemplification of the 
dialect they are intended to illustrate. That 
dialect itself is very far from being unplea- 
sant to ears that are accustomed to it; and, 
although compositions so completely pro- 
Domestic and Foreign. 
547 
vincial ean only be acceptable as specimens 
of local idiom ; yet, if any attempt should 
be made for reviving a taste for pastoral 
eclogue, we should not scruple to recom- 
mend a sprinkling, at least, of the local 
phraseology of the district in which the 
scene is laid. We think it would be 
found that a dorie grace might occasionally 
be borrowed from our avestern, as well as 
from our northern dialects. 
Zoné, a Levantine Sketch, and other 
Poems. 12mo.—The author of this little 
volume has evidently some poetry in him, 
and some sense of poetic rhythmus ; but 
both sadly disfigured by the affectation of 
the cockney school—so called, we suppose, 
from its disciples appearing to have culled 
their flowers, not from the garden of na- 
ture, but the bough-pots in Covent Garden, 
and therefore neither to know where to 
plant them, or to what stems, or soils they 
belong. In the very first stanza we have 
“the bloom of music-breathing flow’rs,” 
whose “hue, bright as the wing of Iris, 
was the love-smile of her eye, that beam’d 
upon the chords,” &c. In the third, the 
poet congratulates himself, that “still me- 
mory may entwine youth’s rosy thoughts 
of his own valley.” In the fourth, he gazes 
** Upon that crescent light, 
Smiling the requiem of yon orb of gold; 
The idol of her ever chaste delight 
Embedded .in the ocean’s purple fold,” 
and, ‘‘ dropping her dewy pearls in etherial 
cold,’ till a “ gorgeous lustre” breaks 
“ over her empyreal dream.” As we pro- 
ceed we have “ laborious ecstasies !”” “* ena- 
moured lilies opening their genial ests,” 
and ‘‘witcheries of a life-breathing bosom 
falling like a sunbeam on the panting 
sense,” &c. &c. &c. And then a little 
farther on we have sixteen lines of twelve 
syllables each, to tell us that the rose would 
not have been red, if Zoné’s cheek had 
not imparted the bloom ; and the lily would 
not have been white, if it had never kissed 
Zoné’s white bosom; nor the violet blue, 
if Zoné had never smiled upon it ; nor the 
carnation either beauteous or sweet, if Zoné 
had never kissed it. We have a sort of 
Scotch-reel of kisses here, by the way :— 
the lily kisses Zoné, and Zoné jigs round 
and kisses the carnation. 
But where then is the author’s poetry ? 
our reader exclaims: this is not poetry, 
but poetic language run mad, because it 
can find no meaning to apply itself to! 
We answer, that there are gleams of poetry 
occasionally breaking through all this non- 
sense. The following lines of this very 
song (the only two, however, out of the 
whole sixteen, of which so much can be 
said), if disentangled from the nonsense 
with which they are coupled, would have 
been poetical : 
*« When Zoné is smiling with joy in her eye, 
Tis a violet encircled with spangles of dew.” 
The eleventh stanza of the poem, also, 
though not without its blemishes of cock- 
4A 2 ney 
