1809.] 
¢ O Phillis,’ he whispers, ‘¢ more fair, 
More sweet than the jessamine’s flow’r * 
What are pinks in a morn to compare: 
What is eglantine after a show’r? 
6 Then the lily no longer is white ; 
Then the rose is depriv’d of its bloom 5 
Then the violets die with despight, 
And the woodbines give up their per- 
fume.’ 5 
¢¢ Thus glide the soft numbers along, 
And he fancies no shepherd his peer3 
Yet I never should envy the song, 
Were not Phillis to lend it an ear. 
¢¢ Let his crook be with hyacinths bound, 
So Phillis the trophy despise 5 
Let his forehead with laurels be crown’d, 
So they shine not in Phillis’s eyes. 
The language that flows from the heart 
Ts a stranger. to Paridel’s tongue 5 
Yet may she beware of his art, 
‘Or sure I must envy the song.” 
All this is very good—only Paridel’s 
deceitful words, and those of Corydon, 
which flow from the heart, are so like 
each other, that for a simple person, hke 
myself, it is not easy to distinguish the 
sterling from the base metal. 
Part 1LV—Disappointiment.—It is to 
be regretted, that the poet should not 
have continued this ballad for a dozen of 
parts more. Towards the beginning it 
is full of imperfection, absurdity, and 
inelegance. As we proceed we find. it 
improve. The long quotanon I have 
just made of the third part has genuine 
merit; and with regard to the fourth 
part, there is not a passage, in my opi- 
nion, with which a candid critie can find 
fault: on the contrary, it abounds with 
beauties. 
Having thus, I trust not illiberally, eri- 
ticised Mr. Shenstone, £ shall conclude 
the present dissertation, by quoting the 
sentiments put in the mouth of a Chinese 
by a learned foreigner (I believe the 
Marquis D’Argens), respecting one spe- 
cies of pastoral. [It is an extract from 
the Chinese Spy, a book not sufficiently 
known in this country; although I be- 
lieve it has been translated. 
“ There are several ways of being po- 
etically sorrowful on such occasions (the 
death of distinguislied characters). Now, 
the bard is some pensive scientific youth, 
who sits deploring among the tombs; 
again, he is Thirsis complatmiig amidst 
a circle of innoceat sheep—now, Britan- 
nia sits on her own shore, ana@ gives a 
loose to maternal tenderness for the loss 
of her darling, gallant son—at another 
tame, Parnassus, even the rugged moun- 
Observations on Professor Davy’s new Theory, . $335 
tain Parnassus, gives way to grief, and is 
bathed in tears of distress. 
““ Bat the most usual and approved 
manner is this: Damon meets Melancas, 
who wears a most woeful countenance. 
The shepherd asks his frend, why that 
look of distress? Has he lost « favourite 
kid, or is his mistress faithless?—-No, re- 
plies the other dismally, it is still worse 
——Pollio is nomore, lf that be the case, 
says Damon, let us retire to yonder 
bower, where the cypress and the jas- 
mine give fragrance to the breeze: there 
Jet us alternately vent our sighs for Pol- 
ho, the friend of shepherds, the patron 
of every Muse. Ah! returns his fellow 
swain, Jet us rather repair to that grotto 
by the fountain’s side; the murmuring 
stream will parmonize our lamenta- 
tions, and philomel in the neighbouring 
tree will jom her voice to the concert. 
When the scene is thus settled, they be- 
gin—‘* The winds cease to breathe, and 
the waters to flow”’—the cows ferget to 
graze; the very tygers start from the fo- 
rest with sympathetic. concern!—-By the 
tombs of our ancestors, my dear Fum, 
Tam quite unafiected in all this distress ; 
the whole 1s liquid laudanum to my spi- 
rits, and a tyger of common sensibility 
has twenty times more tenderness than L 
have.” J. BANNANTINE. 
Dec, 2, 1808. 
a 
To the Editor of the Monthly Magazine. 
SLR, . 
IN the Number of your Magazine for 
December last, I see a communica- 
tion from a Correspondent, signing him- 
self ‘* KLECTROPHILUS,”—on the new 
Electrical Discoveries, in which I have 
in vain endeavoured to find that novelty. 
of information and instruction, which, in 
my opinion, should be expected from 
every one who writes upon a subject so 
litle investigated, and so little under- 
stood; and indeed, at last, I was. unable 
fully to satisfy my mind what was the 
real meaning of the author in making 
such a communication. His only osten- 
sible reasons seem to be—ist. To state 
to the public, that Mr. Davy did not, 
in his original experiments on the decom- 
position of the alkalis, make use of the 
large galvanic battery, at present in the 
poesession of the Royal Institution. This 
was very well known before; because 
Mr. Davy had particularly mentioned, 
that, at the time of the discovery, the 
large apparatus, was not in the posses- 
sion of the Institution, 
Q Qilve 
