On the whole, there are many brilliant passages in this translation, but its general character is not pleasing. It may amuse the scholar, but will not interest the common reader.

I will now take leave of Cowper, one of the first poets and one of the best men, that the English nation has ever produced.

MEMOIRS of SOLOMON GESSNER, the celebrated GERMAN WRITER; taken principally from a late Edition of his Works in English.

SWITZERLAND, which possesses no original language of its own, but borrows those of the two great nations in its vicinity, may be said to have more than discharged the debt, in the works of science and genius, with which it has enriched these languages. How much the literature of France has been improved and adorned by natives of Switzerland, particularly by citizens of Geneva, it is unnecessary to say; and Germany is under similar obligations to those Cantons, that use her language, but more especially to the Canton of Zu

rich.

Of this little Republic was SOLOMON GESSNER, the GERMAN THEOCRITUS; who was born in the year 1730. He was the son of a respectable printer and bookseller, from whom he received a liberal, and even a learned education; whose profession he adopted, and whom, in due time, he succeeded. Fortunately the house of Orell, Gessner and Company, into which he was received, had been long established, and was known over Europe, by the extent of its correspondence, and by the choice and elegance of the works, which it gave to the world. Gessner was not therefore involved in the cares of a new establishment, nor was it necessary for him to engage in the details and fatigues of business;

and the bent of his genius being obvious, his partners, by whom he was beloved and esteemed, freely indulged him in his favorite studies and pursuits.

In the twenty second year of his age, he made a tour through Germany, in part for the purpose of extending the connections of his house, but chiefly with a view to his ow improvement. In the course of this journey, he became acquainted with the greater part of the German men of letters of that day; and his talents were doubtless stimulated by the sympathy and the canulation, which such intercourse is so particularly calculated to excite. On his return to Zurich in 1753, he gave his first publication to the world, a small poem in measured prose, entitled NIGHT; and, this meeting a favorable reception, he soon afterwards published his pastoral romance of DAPHNIS, in three cantos. In the first of these poems, he contrived to introduce a compliment to Gleim anl Hagedorn, from whom he had received civility and kindness in the course of his tour. To Daphnis he prefixed a letter to himself from Mademoiselle with his reply, both written in a playful and animated style; from which we are led to believe, that the heroine of this pastoral was a real personage. "Yes," says Gessner, in the language of gallantry and perhaps of truth, "while I described Phyllis, I thought of you; and the happy idea of writing a romance supplied me with a continual dream of you, which rendered our separation less intolerable." In these early productions, with somewhat of the irregularity and the extravagance of youth, we find that luxuriance of imagery, and that soft amenity of sentiment and of expression, by which almost all his other writings are characterized. At this period of his life, Ovid seems to have been a favorite with Gessner, In his Night, we have a fable on the origin of the Glow worm; and in his Daphnis, an episode on the amours of a water god and a nymph; entirely in the manner of that poet.

The success of these publications encouraged Gessner to indulge his taste in rural poetry, and to give to the world his IDYLS, in which, as he himself informs us, he took Theocri

fus for his model. The Idyls procured their author a high reputation throughout Switzerland and Germany. They were the principal and favorite objects of his attention, on which he exerted great taste and skill. They are described by himself, as the fruits of some of his happiest hours; of those hours, when imagination and tranquility shed their sweetest influence over him, and, excluding all present impressions, recalled the charms and delights of the golden age.

The Death of Abel, which is already well known to the English reader, by the translation of Mrs. Collyer, made its first appearance in 1758. The reception of this beautiful and interesting work was still more flattering. Three editions of it were published at Zurich in the course of a single year; and it was soon translated into all the European languages. In most of these it has gone through various editions; and there are few of the productions of the century, that has just elapsed, which have been so generally popular. After this, he published several of his smaller poems, among which was The First Navigator; which perhaps is the most beautiful of his works. He made some attempts likewise in the pastoral drama, of which his Evander and Alcimna is the chief. His Erastus, a drama of one act, was represented with some applause in several societies, both at Leipsic and Vienna.

The poems of Gessner were almost all given to the world, before he had completed his thirtieth year. About this pe→ riod he married; and, as he himself informs us, his father in law, Mr. Heidigger, having a beautiful collection of paintings, consisting chiefly of the works of the great masters of the Flemish school, he devoted his leisure to the study of their beauties, and became deeply enamored of their art. Gessner, who, in his youth, had received some lessons in drawing, resumed the pencil, but with a timid hand. At first he ventured only, to delineate decorations for curious books, printed at his office; but by degrees he rose to bolder attempts. In 1765 he published ten landscapes, etclied and engraved by himself. Twelve other pieces of the same

nature appeared in 1769; and he afterwards executed ornaments for many publications, that issued from his own press; among which were his own works, a translation into German of the works of Swift, and various others. The reputation, which he acquired by his pencil, was scarcely inferior to that, arising from his pen. He was reckoned among the best artists of Germany; and Mr. Fuseli, his countryman, in his Historical Essay on the Painters, Engravers, Architects, and Sculptors, who have done honor to Switzerland, gives a distinguished place to Gessner, though then alive.

The private character of Gessner was in a high degree amiable and exemplary. As a husband, a father, and a friend, his virtues were equally conspicuous. His cast of mind was pensive, and even melancholy; his manners were gentle. In con

versation, he was mild and affable; and, where the subject admitted of it, he was often highly animated, rising into great elevation of sentiment and beauty of expression. But, in every part of his deportment, there was that unaffected sincerity, that simplicity and modesty, for which true genius is so generally distinguished. With qualities such as these, Gessner could not fail to be loved and respected; and, uniting to taste and literature the talents requisite for active life, he was raised by the suffrages of the citizens of Zurich to the first offices in the Republic. In 1765 he was called to the great council; in 1767, to the lesser. In 1768 he was appointed bailiff of Eilibach; that of the fore guards in 1776; and in 1781 superintendent of waters; all offices. of trust and responsibility, the duties of which he discharged with scrupulous fidelity.

The fame of the accomplished and virtuous magistrate of Zurich spread to the remotest parts of Europe. The Empress of Russia, Catherine II, sent him a Golden medal, as a mark of her esteem; and strangers from all countries, visiting Switzerland, gave him the most flattering proofs of their respect and admiration. In the height of his reputation, he was cut off by a stroke of the palsy, on the second of March 1788, in the fifty sixth year of his age; leaving his friends

and the world to indulge the reflection, which the amiable Pliny had long before made. "Videtur acerba semper et immatura mors eorum, qui immortale aliquid parant.

Nam

qui voluptatibus dediti, quasi in diem vivunt, vivendi causas quotidie finiunt; qui verò posteros cogitant, et memoriam sui operibus extendunt, his nulla mors non repentina est, ut quæ semper inchoatum aliquid abrumpat."

It

His pastoral romance of Daph

As a pastoral poet, Gessner is undoubtedly entitled to a very distinguished rank; and we may justly say, that, if he has been equalled by any, he has been excelled by none. is commonly believed, that pastoral poetry is very limited and confined; but those, who read the works of Gessner, will be convinced, that it is susceptible of much variety, when treated by the hand of a master. nis is not inferior in natural simplicity to the celebrated work of Longus; but it far surpasses it in variety of images and incident. Erastus and Evander are instructive and interesting poems, on account of the contrast between the world and nature, which reigns throughout them; and his First Navigator unites the mildest philosophy to all the splendor and imagery of fairy land. If we analyze his dramatic poems, we shall find in them interesting fictions, characters well delineated, and situations replete with novelty. His language is that of the graces, and the chastest ear may listen to the love, which he has created. If he has sometimes the humor of Sterne and Fontaine, it is without their licentiousness. The severest taste can find in his writings no lacuna to sup ply, no phrase deserving reprehension, nor could a more ingenious choice of expressions be substituted, in the room of those, which he has adopted.