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WARREN’S BENEFICENCE.—LEYDEN’S SCOTTISH DESCRIPTIVE POEMS, 
- While to his bosom all the virgin stole, 
Kissed with adoring lips, and gazed his soul. 
Then triumphed Love, with nature for his 
vi dower, 
And Time with silvery feathers winged the 
hour. 
_**To thee young Sybarite! the tale we give, 
If once thou sighest for graces that will live, 
To one dear nymph thy spotless youth resign, 
And loye's eternity shall all be thine! 
AaT. XXXV.. -Beneficence; or, Verses addr 
By F.A.Warren, B.D. Ato. pp. 35. 
the Condition of the Poor. 
© THE author has been desirous of giving 
to his verses a simple domestic manner; if 
aid please, it will be by natural description, 
and unrestrained sentiment; he would wish 
his muse to resemble a rural beauty, who 
Knows not, or if she know, only scorns arti- 
ficial and meretricious decorations. About 
the success of his publications, no writer, it 
is presumed, is altogether indifferent. Great 
as is the authority for the assertion, the 
vaunt, under any circumstances, that *suc- 
_ cess and miscarriage will be alike empty 
sounds,’ savours more of the pride of sto- 
_icism, than the reality of trath; but he, 
whose expectations are low, cannot be very 
he Be 
Art. XXXVI. 
- bens Antiquities. Edited by Mr. Liyven. 
- WEcannot flatter our readers with 
__. the hope of much entertainment from 
the volume before us. 
‘The first and longest peem it contains 
is entitled Clyde; it is the production of 
_ a Scottish schoolmaster named Wilson, 
and ‘was published at Glasgow in the 
year 1764. In 1767, its author, of whom 
¢ M.. Leyden has given a life, was chosen 
_ to superintend the grammar-school of 
_ Greenock, on condition that he should 
_ abandon “ the profane and unprofitable 
-: art of poem making.’ It is probable, 
that Mr. Wilson himself regretted this 
oo more than his readers; for 
is Clyde offers no indication of talents 
| above mediocrity. The locality of its 
— subject would preclude a much finer 
_ poem from becoming popular; and per- 
ups the following passage, descriptive 
_ of the falls of the Clyde, is the only one 
“¢apable by its animation of arresting the 
_ attention of any reader: ; 
_ Where ancient Corehouse hangs above th 
Ny 1; ae stream, > 4 
Bs “And far beneath the tambling surges gleam, 
Engulphed in crags, the fretting river raves, 
_ Chaffedinto foam, resound his tortured waves ; 
With giddy heads we view the dreadful deep, 
And cattle snort and tremble at the steep, 
; re down at once the foaming waters pour, 
d tottering rocks repel the deafening roar: 
ae 
¥ 
579 
To modest beauty, fate decrees the.power,  , 
To raise with fond delay the amorous hour. 
Who knows asoft Aglaia’s heart to move, 
To her shall be—the tender power of love!” 
The language of these poems is highly 
laboured, and occasionally obscure. It 
abounds too with modern’ barbarisms; 
but these will pass current, for the King’s 
English has long been debased. 
essed to the Patrons of the Society for bettering 
much disappointed; and if the author of the 
following poem may, On some accounts, 
arraigned and condenined in the court of cri- 
ticism, he still feels confident that, in the opi- 
nion of liberal or just judges, he can scarcely 
deserve to be tortured on its wheel, or exe 
posed on its gibbet.” : 
The subject and temper of this poem 
would have saved it from a rigorous. 
sentence, even if its size required long 
examination, or its faults severity. The 
stanzas upon the death of the Duke of 
Bedford are the best. P 
Scottish descriptive Poems; with some Illustrations of Scottish literary 
12mo. pp. 255. 
Viewed from below, it seems from heaven 
they fell! : 
Seen from above, they seem to sink to hell ! 
But when the deluge pours from every hill, 
And Clyde's wide bed ten thousand torrents 
fill, 
His rage the murmuring mountain streams 
augment: 
Redoubled rage, in rocks so closely pent : 
Then shattered. woods, with ragged roots up- 
torn, 
And herds and harvests down the waye are 
borne; 
Huge stones heaved upward through the 
boiling deep, ¢ 
And rocks enormous thundering down the 
steep, : ’ 
In swift descent, fixed rocks, encountering, 
roar, . 
Crash as from slings discharged, and shake 
the shore.” 
« Albania” is another poem of mode- 
rate quality, which might have been 
suffered to fall into oblivion, with little 
injury tothe public.. The most curious 
and interesting piece in the present col- 
lection, is pedantically intitled “ Day 
Estival,” and was written by Alexander 
Hume in the latter end of the sixteenth 
century. His style is a singular mixture 
of Latin, French, Scotch and English, 
and is characteristic of the individual 
much more than of the age. Hume ap- 
Pp2 Re 
