520 
lizations. He would have defcribed in 
picturefque detail thofe familiar patriar- 
chal employments of the Galilzans, which 
no native Sannazarius had painted, their 
unaffected manners, their ealy hofpitality, 
their generous induftry, their {weet equa- 
lity. Knowing that a hero is ftill great 
in the cottage of a fwine herd, he would 
not have feared to involve his perfonages 
im the humble every-day bufinefs of life, 
to repeat their table-talk, and to make us 
acquainted with their perfonal peculiarities 
and foibles. Alfred toafting oat-cakes, or 
Jelus ferving out wine at the featt of Ca- 
na, lofe nothing of their real dignity: it 
is fqueam‘fh for an hifforian, or a poet, to 
hide in allufion incidents fo notorious. 
More of thole affe€tionate traits, which the 
original records have preferved, might 
have been interwoven with advantage in 
the character of Klopftcck’s prophet: they 
are-weli adapted to endear the memory of 
his love; and to impreis lattingly on our 
recolleéiion the moft beneficial idea of hu- 
man excellence, and (he immortai medel of 
the moft ulefully virtuous. Klopftock 
has been more {uccefsful in deliseating the 
manners of Philo, Caiphas, Pilate, and the 
other enemies of Jefus, than in partraying 
thofe of the Difciples. His fancy tends ex- 
clufively to the heroic: and heroic man- 
ners are better fuited to the pharifee, the 
high-prieft, and the governor, than to the 
honett Galilean fifhermen. But if from 
fuch wholefale animadverfion on the plan 
and manners, one turns to a retail exami- 
nation of the perpetual beauties cf ftyle 
and compofition, to whom may not Klop- 
ftock confidently be compared? There is 
ufually a wide wing’d coloflal fublimity 
in his imagery, which outfoars all prece- 
dent, which is werthy of Young, now that 
he is expanded into a feraph. ‘There is 
often a tendernefs yet a probingnels in 
the pathos, which reminds of Euripi- 
des and recalls Tacitus. There is at 
times 2 completenefs of exprefiion, a 
polifh, and a force of diction, as if obtsin- 
~ed by the joint ule of Taffo’s file and 
Milton’s hammer. But hort effuris fust 
Klopttock bett. He darts too high to fly 
Jong. His Jyric therefore furpafs his 
epic undertakings. In the perfection of 
minute parts he efpecialiy excels. Pro- 
duce his comparifons, and Aik n will trem- 
ble for the timilies of Milton,—his de- 
{criptions, and Deiille will queltion the 
inimitability of Virgil,—his 'yvic patlages, 
and Lowth w1ll weich them againit the 
reliques of Iiaiah. The bithop however 
would find him wanting: tor thote odes 
of Klopitock which really approach the 
Klopftock’s Meffiahe-Law Magazine. 
[ Nov. 1, 
beft Hebrew remains, do not form parts 
of the Mefliah. And, after all, what are 
fine paflages and beauties of detail, nume~ 
rous, intenfe as they may be? Miniatures 
at bef. Miniatures by Van der Werff, 
which to the grace and beauty of the Ita- 
lian unite the truth and finifh of the Fle- 
mifh fchool—but they muft not be hung 
againft the walls of the Sixtine chapel— 
I want to fee the Laft Judgment of Michael 
Angelo—away with fuch ‘rabbits’-hair 
pencilling ! 
But the pi€tures of Miltor, and Herder, 
are the frefcoes of that wall. 
(To be continued.) 
EE 
To the Editor of the Monthly Magazine. 
SIR, 
HE fuggettions of A. B. in the oth 
volume of your Magazine, page 444, 
refpecting a periodical liw publication, 
have induced me to trouble you with a few 
obfervation§ on the fame fubjeét, which 
you will pleafe to infert in your much 
efteemed mifcellany. . 
Several Law Magazines have appeared 
within the recollection of the prefent mem- 
bers of that proteflion, and have fuccef- 
fively funk into oblivion, principaily from 
the defects in their refpective plans. * 
One attempted to give a comprehenfive 
abridgment of that very extenfive {cience, 
by devoting about fixteen pages of amonth- 
ly publication to this object ; another pro- 
poted to furnifh, almoft imperceptibly, at 
the trifling expence of 1s. 6d. a month, a 
complete library of the law. Ina fimilar 
publication were long accounts of trials, 
which, however intereiting they might be 
at the moment to the public at large, did 
not atall add to, or rendtr more clear, the 
jaw on the fubjeét. It cannot be matter 
of much furprize that fuch produétions 
were {oon dilcontinued. 
The bett plan, I apprehend, for a Law 
Magazine, intended forthe Profeffion, (and 
upon the Piofeffion muft fuch a Magazine 
depend for its {upport) would be to give an 
account of thole alterations in the law, 
winch have taken place from a certain pe- 
riod, up to which a general fyltem or a- 
bridgment of the law, of contiderable re- 
ipectability, has turnithed, in a reafonable 
compals, a telerably fitistagtory, though 
peroaps, not a ccniplete account et that 
icence. Bacon’s Abridgment is the beft 
work of this deicriprion extant, a new edi. 
tion of which, edited by Mr. Gwyllim, ap- 
peared in 1798. This vroduét:on, though 
it is acknowledged by the editor, to fs far 
rom 
