Retrofpe? of Domeftic Literature—Fine Literature, Arts, Ge. 583 
&¢ The web is fpun, 
‘¢ The prize is wony 
*¢ The work is done, 
$6 For I have made captive Hodeirah’s Son.” 
Borne in her magic car 
~The Sifter Sorcerefs came, 
Khawla, the fierceft of the Sorcerer brood. 
She gazed upon the youth, 
She bade him break the flender thread, 
She laughed aloud for fcorn, 
She clapt her hands for joy. 
O that Cefarotti, the tranflator of 
Bonaparte’s claffic, Offian, would na- 
turalize, in the country of Ariofto, and 
in his own exactly fimilar fyftem of ver- 
fification, thefe new fiétions. Why 
fhould not the Simoorg of Ginniftan 
_ fucceed to the Hippogryffon of chival- 
ry; and an Arabian wildnefs of fancy, 
but which feldom fhakes off the cof- 
tume, or overfprings the range of 
Arabian idea, find admirers in the 
Caftle of Otranto? Perhaps the Italian 
Thalaba will be fold at the Fair of 
Ancona to feveral of thofe Syrians, 
who there hold intercourfe with Franks, 
and, like the merchants of the Court 
of Saladin, liberalize their leifure by 
ftudying the claffics of the Weft, which 
are no longer confined to the remains 
of antiquity. Some youth, fufceptive 
and induttrious, who confiders as the 
moft precious jewel in the long bead- 
ftring of his pedigree the ftill-gliftering 
name of one of the feven poets, may 
tranflate 1t into the language of the 
Koran, and fufpend it on the gate- 
pofts of the Temple of Mecca, for the 
pilgrims from every part of Arabia,while 
they loiter, to perufe. They will then 
compare the gloom of its fictions with 
thofe which darken the firft book of 
the Shahnameh ; where Eblis, the evil 
{pirit, faftens to the fhoulders of the 
tyrant Zohak ferpents nourifhed with 
the blood of men (but too juft an em- 
blem of a warrior-prince); they will 
then weigh againit each other the Eng- 
lifh and the Perfian Bard, and admit 
, that Southey can ftart a {pirit as foon 
as Firdoofi. 
«The Millennium, 3s.” 
This is a very pleafing poem, verfified 
with eafe, fluency, grace, euphony, 
copioufnefs, and variety, in the manner 
of Dryden; yet the author muft not’ 
expect to delight the whole xra of 
which he is the harbinger, and to be 
faluted, in his own favourite language, 
with a viva uv. m, mil annos. Tempo- 
rary topics lofe their intereft with the 
times: the florift who cultivates only 
annuals has all his work to renew in 
the fpring; and the fatirift of fathion- 
able folly can feldom publifh in time to 
have the reputation of bringing down 
what was dead before his fhot. Urba- 
nity, which in a high degree charac~ 
terizes this writer, 1s in all men an 
ornament, but leaft in a fatirilt, The 
knife of his good-natured irony 1s fo 
far from cutting, that it is fometimes 
dificult to diftinguifh the back from 
the edge. As in the parody from Shen- 
ftone— 
So gently he kick’d me down ftairs 
That I thought he was handing me up. 
For inftance, is the following paflage 
intended as a puff or a quiz on Mefirs. 
Beddoes and Jenner ?— 
O wife’beyond repute! though every agey 
Informed or rude, alike repute you fage, 
Ye fons of AZgypt! in the world’s firft dawn 
Who deemed the cow the goddefs of the lawn, 
Saw Heaven on her its choiceft influence 
fhower, 
And founded altars to the waccine power.—= 
Lo! at the diftance of four thoufand years 
We catch the radiance of your facred feers + 
Apis and Ifis now refume their fway, 
And Britain haftes her homage firft to pay. 
See Beddoes, of the vaccine-church highe 
prieit, 
New temples rearing to the heavenly beaft! 
Daughters of Britain! ye whofe weltered 
, cheek 
nd labouring breath pulmonic ills befpeak, 
Should medicine fail, here feek advice divine! ' 
*Mid the {weet influence of celeftial kine! 
Here bring your beds, your flaccid frames. 
repofe, 
And drink from cows thie lily and the rofe! 
Ye fpotlefs babes whofe lips have never preft 
Aught but the neétar of a mother’s breaft, 
Now flufhed with health, yet doom’d by 
loathfome ails 
To lofe, perchance, the bloom 
vails, 
Here be ye brought, and Jenner fhall prepare, 
From the foul dug, the peft to keep you fair—- 
Plant the vile antidote beneath your fkin, 
And pox without defy by pox within ! 
that ftill pre- | 
The notes difplay a profufion of 
learning which Sir W. Jones would 
have applauded: the author is poly-~ 
glottic as the hydra, pantographic as 
Fry’s letter-foundery ; he would decy- 
pher, like Dr. Hager, the maker’s name 
in arrow-head on a Babylonian brick- 
bat. If languages were diffluent, not 
confluent, and had not originally been 
as numerous as the primeval families, 
he would evolve, like Whiter, the eles 
mental tongue. He quotes the ancient 
and modern languages of Bagdad, He- 
% F brew, 2 
42% 
