f^3i.] 



Mo7iihly Revieiv of Lilerature. 5o3 



Who seek fgr pleasure in the city's din. 



And shun retirement as a pest or sin ; 



Charmed with more humble, and congenial flights, 



For 3'ou the Muse no lofty verse indites ; 



But ye who love the shady woods — the dales, 



The brooks that straddle through your native vales — 



To you with joy the simple reed I raise 



To gain your smiles, &c. 



What does he mean by raising a reed ? — and one, too, that, since the first line, 

 he has metamorphosed from sounding itrings. But it is nonsense to be criticis- 

 ing what, neither in language nor sentiment, proceeds from the soul of a writer — 

 whom it must be difficult to believe has one at all. 



Another poem, in octaves, called Zoenlinda — a poetical romance — connected 

 with the battle of Blore-heath, in 1459, is as obvious an imitation as the first ; 

 but that the authoi- has not discovered, or rather, that has not been pointed out 

 to him. — 



The rage of battle now no more 

 Was heard along the heath of Blore : 

 The echoing woods at length were still ; 

 And from the heights of Salisbury hill, 

 No more the warrior's bright array 

 Fills the sad mother with dismay ; 

 No more from Muxon's lofty tower 

 Anjou marks the carnage pour ; 

 Prostrate in death brave Audley Ues, 

 His gallant spirit seeks the skies ; 

 For surely they who nobly fall 

 Shall rise to him who governs all. 

 O'er heaps of stout Lancastrian dead, 

 Victorious York uprears his head. 

 Pursues afar the foe that flies, 

 Reckless of him who lives or dies. 



Nothing is too hot or too heavy for Mr. Ash. In a layman's epistle he lec- 

 tures Lord Byron, dead at the time some years, on the subject of morals, for 

 which, he says, some bishop commended him, &c. A long didactic Essay on 

 the Art of Acting breaks down in the middle — but there are still thirty mortal 

 pjiges of it — handled, as a cow handles a musket. 



Le Traducteur, or Selections from French Writers for Learners, 

 BY P. F. Merlet, Professor in the University of London. 



In these selections, M. Merlet's aims have been to keep his book free from 

 thoughts or expressions of an immoral or religious tendency — to study variety — 

 to exemplify and illustrate his own grammar — and couple all with instruction 

 and entertainment. These purposes M. Merlet seems to have accomplished very 

 happily, and has thus supplied a very useful book for learners and teachers. 

 The selections, both as to subject and style of composition, are made for the 

 service of youthful pupils. He reserves for a second volume, which is soon to 

 appear, extracts relative to the " higher parts of literature," and from the " ele- 

 gant writings of the present day." Unusual pains, we observe, are taken with 

 the idioms, to supply the corresponding English phrases. 



Remarks on the Condition of Hunters, the choice op Horses and their 

 Management, by Nirarod, 1831. 



This volume of 500 goodly pages, consists of a series of letters, originally 

 published in the Sporting Magazine between the years 1822 and 1828, contain- 

 ing the fruits of the writer's large cxjjcrience — himself a Nimrod of some cele- 

 brity. The volume will have irresistible attractions for all the Tallyhos of the 

 country ; and is indeed calculated to work a considerable change in the system of 

 management. The common course has been, at the end of the season, to give 



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