during the rainy season, when whole families are shut up in these close cottages; and every one who goes abroad must necessarily go with his pores in a condition expressly adapted to make him catch a cold or a fever.' The Sultaun of Sennaar demanded peace, and the Turkish army entered his capital in order of battle, the prospect of a rich plunder promising a recompense for their toils: but, on a nearer approach, they found this once powerful city to be a heap of ruins, with several hundreds of uninhabited houses; it having, says the author in his peculiar style of eloquence, 'been for eighteen years the lacerated prey of war and confusion.' We have now extracted from this narrative nearly all the little information which it comprizes: but we should not have devoted so large a space to such a production, if the novelty of the subject did not in some degree compensate for the faults of its execution. With regard, however, to geographical science, the book is perfectly useless: not a bearing is marked, not a distance defined, not an astronomical observation made; and the author has the rare merit of having traversed distant and unknown countries, without having contributed a single remark or adduced a single fact that can tend towards the elucidation of them. ART. V. The Universe; a Poem. 8vo. 7s. 6d. Boards. By the Rev. C. R. Maturin. WE E have too long neglected The Universe.' A part of such a subject might have been excusably postponed: but that the whole should be laid on the shelf, for so many months, must reflect some discredit on our powers of attention. We crave pardon of The Universe,' and of Mr. Maturin. From a poem like this, "de omnibus rebus et quibusdam aliis," it is very difficult to select passages that shall be at once popular, and such as will convey a just idea of the merits of the entire work. Yet the attainment of this combined object should be the earnest and diligent endeavor of all critics, of poetic or prosaic employment; as their double duty, to their author and to the public, can by no other means be satisfactorily discharged. Impressed with this feeling, how shall we conduct our review of The Universe?" We are most seriously anxious to do justice to the poet; who, as we have honestly observed in a former article, seems to us to have had hard measure dealt out to him in the most important matters matters which can belong to man : — but our paramount duty still operates, and for ever must operate on us. We shall escape from the dilemma by our old but candid resource, of throwing ourselves and the author on the united mercy and justice of our readers. We shall let Mr. Maturin speak for himself; and if there be any thing in the poem which can recommend him to the public, we shall be more than usually happy to have contributed to so desirable a result. The beginning, the middle, and the end, shall be our fair and orthodox clues to the merits of the work. Nature ethereal essence, fire divine, Pure origin of all that earth has fair, Or ocean, wonderful, thou or sky, sublime! Seen in the rainbow when it's coloured arch From flower-zon'd mountains, wav'd their odorous wings Then goodliest beam'd the unpolluted — bright Divine similitude of thoughtful man, Serene above all creatures - breathing soul Of those sweet thoughts, that with life's earliest breath, To Heav'n's gate, thrilling love! Then, Nature, then Our Our intermediate selection shall be made at page 54. 'Ye too, bright streams That, by the lands of Cush and Havilah, The gulf of pearly Ormuz-on whose banks, Of bare and solitary sands, where now After the heart-sick toil of many days, Which having gained, the traveller weeps for joy!) Reposing on their course, and through the shade The The concluding proof of Mr. Maturin's poetical powers may be found at page 95. 'Onward he moves To watch his path! and calmly to the end They come not from the blighted heart And weeps or smiles in bitterness: they come It is impossible that any heart should fail to recognize in the above an ample feeling of virtue; many tastes will be satisfied'; and no mind can be injured. With this sincere panegyric we say adieu to the author; recommending conciseness, and a less capacious choice of subject, in his next attemp "Unus Pellæo juveni non sufficit orbis" is no compliment, though an exaggerated statement; but what should we be forced to think of that literary ambition, which would not be contented with one • Universe?' ART. ART. VI. Catiline: a Tragedy, in Five Acts. With other Poems. By the Rev. George Croly, A. M. 8vo. 8s. 6d. Boards. Hurst and Co. 1822. TH HERE is a species of noisy subaltern genius, which in a regiment may raise a storm in such a slop-basin as the Isle of Man; or in the corps dramatique may excite for a moment, certainly not for a season, the admiration of a few ill-judging acquaintances. Of such a character, according to our judgment, the work before us decidedly appears. Whether Catiline was a well-chosen subject by any of those antient bards, foreign or domestic, who have adopted it, we shall not at present inquire: but it is clear that in the present day the Roman conspirator must have many charms for the poetical reader. He was daring, profligate, and mysterious, violent hater of all that was good and great around him, — and the acknowleged head of a band of accomplished banditti. Women, no doubt, loved him, with the usual degree and firmness of affection that are likely to be bestowed on such a personage. He was a patrician, and a gambler ; —a sensualist, and a brave soldier. What else can be required, but pallor of countenance and curliness of hair, (both of which qualities this abandoned Roman no doubt most eminently. possessed,) to complete a modern hero? a Mr. Croly, therefore, has judiciously chosen his subject; and he labors hard in his preface to invalidate the testimony of Sallust, and to represent his hero as a much injured man, as far as that historian is concerned. He seems to view the whole event nearly in the same light in which Napoleon Bonaparte considered it; as a faction of the nobles, damned to perpetual infamy because unsuccessful; i. e. " Ille crucem sceleris pretium tulit, hic diadema." We have not leisure, nor space, to enter into the argument: but we may be allowed to observe that an author of the year 1822 should have strong proofs to adduce in justificatión of that presumption, (we can call it nothing else,) which leads him to speak of Sallust's account of the personal ap-. pearance of Catiline, of the celebrated "citus modò, modò tardus incessus," &c., in terms like the following: The pantomime is coarse and improbable' !! (Preface, p. x. note.) — We are sorry to be compelled to add, that such a designation seems to us not unhappily to characterize the tragedy before Of this fact, however, we shall amply enable our readers us. * An expression of the great Lord Thurlow. How apposite is this idea to numerous effusions of the day! to |