WALKER’S DEFENCE OF ORDER.—==-THE INQUIRy, 
Art. X. The Defence of Order; a 
MR. Walker is unhappy in the choice 
of his subject : more knowledge and more 
power of thought than he possesses are 
requisite to render didactic poetry tole- 
rable. Where he digresses into narra- 
tive he is far more successful. The fol- 
lowing passage is well executed for its 
style of composition. 
£* Alas ! how fair the dawn to thousands rose, 
Who ne'er again their eyes in sleep should 
close ! 
Ere midnight’s watch, with foul explosion 
7 driven, 
In mangled atoms, round the burning heaven ! 
* In fancied safety, lics the Gallic host, 
Moored on the margin of the shelvy coast ; 
But see, amazed, the British line appear, 
_ Shoot round their flank, and dare their faith- 
less rear; 
With dreadful flexure, to a crescent bend ; 
Down half their length its clasping horns ex- 
tend ; 
Till closer, closer yet, the fierce embrace, 
With fiery pressure, melts them from the place. 
fe gear eastern monarchs, round the savage 
air, 
_ Where couching pards, and lamp-eyed tigers 
a glare, 
Light up acircle of nocturnal fire, 
_ Andnigher yet the curve contracts, and nigher; 
Till, struck with dread, the hollow-growling 
* game 
Poem, By Josian Wavkea, 4. M. 
pp: 176. 
557 
: 
Svo, 
Like Time’s last groan, each pulseless heart 
appal, 
And suing darkness drops her veil o’er all. 
At that dread signal, Gallia’s naval knell, 
Loose from her grasp unravished India fell; 
And those, seut forth to spoil the jewelled 
queen, 
A hope forlorn on Egypt's plains were seen. 
“ And now, the arena’s awful gate unbarred, 
A passage broken through the slaughtered 
guard, 
Nelson retires, to seek severer toil, 
And shake the Baltic, as he shook the Nile: 
White Scotia’s chief the ower of Albion leads, 
Tocrown the conflict with their noblest deeds, 
How sternly calm, portentously serene, 
Their glorious entrance on the vacant scene! 
In steady lines, the glittering boats convey 
A ficight of heroes through the watery Way, 
‘Yo Nile’s broad mouth their sWeepy course 
they bend, u 
Whose jaws, beset with fangs of fire, distend. 
Ou Nature's wall, the beetling cliff of sand, * 
A living parapet, the warriors stand , 
And, bellowing ceaseless from the embattled 
steep, 
The surfy strand their red artillery sweep. 
Yet, fullin front, their course the rowers urge, 
To shouts and songs responsive, beat the 
surge ; 
And, should a bolt, which skilful glances 
guide, 
Crush some ill-fated consort by their side, 
Not fear, but rage, the thickening stroke im- 
: pels, ! 
And louder still, the doubling chorus swells. 
The crooked keels at once indent the sand 5 
_ See closed apace the moving wall of fame ; 
k, Escape in vain, with anguished eye, explore, 
_ And shake the forest with a dying roar. 
With ringing arms, the soldier leaps to land ; 
And, on the beach, which arrowy thunders 
tear, 
a 
‘But who shall paint the last convulsive 
throes, 
As ships with ships, in grappling fury, close ; 
Briton and Frank, in mad disorder, jomed, 
Bolt meeting bolt, and mast with mast en- 
twined ! 
The glassy deep reflects the fiery air, 
And sheety lightnings scorch with livid glare, 
Selects his place, as in parading shew, 
When British beauty shone—his only foe. 
Fast as the warriors drop, their comrades still 
Leap to the spot, the gory gaps to fill ; 
\rrayed in speed, they move with growing 
ace, 
Till quickening, kindling, glows the rapid race; 
_ And distant Pharos reddens in the glare ; And up the cliff, with more than mortai 
: Afric looks on, with blank astonished eyes, might, 
__ As, here withdrawn, her fortune Europe tries; They pant, they press, and seize the hostile 
—Till, bursting vast, a dread volcanic crash, height ; 
_ And, coating night's black vault, a sulphor- 
—Hostile no more, for every foe is fled, 
ous flash, 
In rout and tumult, o’er the valley spread.” 
Art. XI. 
The Inquiry. Part I. 12mo. pp. 44. 
Dk 
___ THIS well-meant poem is decent but “ Strange world of good, replete with ev'ry 
dull. It requires no common talents to pry evil, ; 
render metaphysical argument tolerable Pain, death, want, woe, damnation, and the 
evil; 
m verse; with what success this author 
Ahas attempted it a brief extract will suf- 
fice to show, 7 
So spoke Voltaire—and with too just a hand 
His sportive tale of human mis'ry plann’d, 
