edge of the coin, as in fig. 1.; or exactly coinciding therewith, as in fig. 2. which I take to be much better, in more respects than one." FIG. II.

FIG. I.

The coin, fays our Author, ought to be much better milled, and to be turned backwards and forwards in the mill, two, three or four times, which method, by milling the coin more gradually, would make it take the impreffion much better, without tearing,. fqueezing, or bending up, the edge of the coin; this might be done without taking up much more time; or. giving any more trouble, and I believe it would be then poffible to mill letters on the edge of double, and even of fingle guineas.'

This is, in fubftance, the chief of Lord Mahon's improvement; the practicability and efficacy of which he takes fome pains to enforce and illuftrate.

ART. XVII. The Praifes of Poetry, a Poem. By Capel Lofft. 8vo. is:

Owen.

As niuch has been faid in favour of blank verfe poets, who couldnot rhime, the gothic barbarifm of which practice they have ac cordingly laboured to expofe and explode; fo much of late hath been urged by various verfifiers, incapable of attaining the regular and harmonious flow of Dryden and Pope, against the fameness and monotony of their verfification. And thus becaufe (in the strains of Mr. Lofft)

Cowley in a fiery car upborne,
Irregularly great,

To extafy divine lets loofe the reins ;

Loft in a rich extravagance of thought;

every paltry pretender to poetry may indulge his poor extravagance of thought, let loofe the reins of his poney Pegafus, and trot up and down as irregularly little as he pleafes. If indeed the great Mr. Sheridan's maxim be true, that there is a pleasure in variety, fetting afide every other confideration, thefe poetafters are in the right: but we apprehend that notified critick has no better authority for his maxim than the fublime exordium of a common ballad, Variety is charming." But the votaries of the muses, as well as thofe of Venus, may foon learn that nothing turns fooner to difguft than the pleafure purfued in mere variety. We don't find that honeft Scrub was at all fatisfied with his employment; though, as Archer fays,

if variety be the pleasure of life, he had enough of it. To be ferious, the impotence and extravagance of our prefent poetasters are fuch, that, we think, they ought to be rather laid under new restrictions than be delivered from the old. Mafon obferves, of rhime, that the mufe wears its chains, not as those of restraint but "of lovelieft ornament." In his lyric performances, as well as thofe of Gray, the diverfification of their measure is alfo in general delightfully pleafing; but not merely because it is diverfified, but because the tranfition is either eafy and flowing, or pertinent and poetical. Theit fervile imitators divide, like them, their poems into ftanzas; which again they subdivide into fragments, and fritter into pieces of long lines and fhort lines, fometimes tagged with rhimes and fometimes not; fo that thus patched all together, they refemble a harlequin's jacket, compofed of remnants picked up at the piece-brokers.

Of this kind is the production before us; with fome lines of which we are tolerably well pleased, as with others we have been totally difgufted. The reader will not entertain the most unfavourable opinion of our poet's talents from the following fpecimens. After a general introductory fection, containing four tanzas, the author gives in the fecond, the origin, defign and ufe of poetry, in four other ftanzas, as follows:

'Twas harmony, 'twas harmony alone

Dwelt by th' almighty Father's throne

Ere yet creation was, or worlds were made to rise,
When all was chaos, rude, and dark,

And the young feeds of future being hid

In the vaft jarring mafs of fenfelefs matter lay,

Of matter, which the word had caus'd to be→

He fpake; and harmony went forth;
The quickening influence came;

Infpir'd with a new foul the fluggish frame ;
And bad confusion cease:

Confufion heard, and fled; and all was holy peace,

Thence tun'd the new-born stars their mattin song ;
Thence the swift planets wheel their measur'd course,
And one harmonious force

Rolls their confenting orbs along:

Bids comets know their bounds; governs their fierce career,

Then man, erect of foul, untouch'd of fin,

Beheld, admir'd, felt harmony within ;

And though he flumber in the dust of earth,

Her voice can give the duft an ear,

Sent by his Lord once more to call him forth.

Thou, facred spirit of poetic fire,

Was prefent with him: Thou, when evil rang'd

O'er the polluted world by man's offence,

And beauteous order nigh to ruin chang'd

'Twas thine to interpofe. Th' eternal fire,

Gave thee in charge not wholly to retire;

But dart thro' error's mifts, and teach his Providence,
Cities arofe; fociety began:

Nor man, himself a foe to man,

VOL. II.

Roam'd

Roam'd among favage beafts more wild and brute than they i
Nor fuperftition, child of ignorance,

O'er trembling mortals frown'd with horrid glance,
Freezing their hearts with death and death's dismay.

But laws were modell'd, to create

The music of a well united state,
Where freedom and obedience meet,

Mild temper'd rule, fubordination sweet:

And Juftice reigns, of virtues queen,

With awful brow and never alter'd mein :

And poetry to heav'n bears

Her tribute of heav'n-worthy airs,

And fmouths unconquer'd breasts, and bends
To beft and wifeft ends

Unthinking crowds; guides, governs, and defends.

Mr. Loft then proceeds to celebrate the praises of the most celebrated poets ancient and modern; after which he makes poely give the preference to that fuperior fpecies of divine infpiration prophecy.

But ye, how may I name?

Yet will I,-blameless be't-beft guiding stars!
Lo! peace-that gleam was Heav'n!
Highett of mortal race, ye, prophets old!

Circling the throne of glory infinite,

See the great fcheme of providence unfold,

Dwelling on that high theme with ever new delight.

There founds the harp of Ifrael's pious king;

There he enjoys the prefence he ador'd,

And hymns unceafing praife before th' all feeing Lord;

The fon of Amos there

With brow fublime, and deep revolving eye,

And looks that fpeak the prefent Deity

-Of unexpreffive majesty

With him who to the third of Heavens was caught,

And him in Patmos in fuch vifions ranght

Sees the great fhepherd now, who gently leads

His tender flocks to happy meads;

Sees that defpis'd and once rejected man,

All glorious, all a God;

Sees in cœleftial raptures Ifrael rife;
Anticipates her triumph through the skies
Views profpects dazzling the angelic eye,
In the valt boundiefs worlds of prophecy,
Look to the high-orb'd ample fun,
Difpenfing varied night and day;
Obferve the ftated feafons how they run ;

Follow them thro' the ftarry way;

View in the planetary fpheres,

The pow'r which call'd them forth, and bade fulfill their years:

Then far beyond the human ken,

Beyond this narrow world of men,

Let eagle-fancy wing thy fight
To range the univerfe of light;
Then firive to gaze,

Unloft amidst the cloudlefs blaze.

Yet

Yet not to stray,

Bath'd in the ocean of unceafing day,
Nor trace the countless orb on high,
Smooth gliding on in filent harmony,
-Sufpended in the vaft expanfe of iky
By unfeen force and myftic laws,
Fix'd by the one almighty caufe-
Nor myriads ruling in their central throne
Of funs defcry;

While their attendant worlds on each obey—

Of fun's whose beams wing'd with the lightnings haste,
Not in fix thoufand years have hither past ;-

Not these awake the foul like prophecy.

Far as the ocean's waves exceed

The brook that lightly murmurs through the reed;

And as the pow'r of ev'ry human found

Is in the mighty voice of thunder drown'd ;

Thus finks all earthly poefy,

Compar'd with thee, O facred prophecy !

And yet is all true poefy a ray

From that one fource, whence all thy glories spring:

And when the eternal, univerfal King,

His oracles of truth deign'd to convey

His chofen bards burn'd with poetic heat,

And thoughts above all human measure great,
Nor let us too much blame,

If fage antiquity has held the name,

Of poet, and of prophet as the fame.

We would not wish to difcourage this writer in his pursuit, nor do we mean to depreciate his praises, of poetry; but we would recommend him rather to study the regular harmony of verse as it is to be met with in Dryden, Pope, Mafon, Gray, &c. than the new-fangled varieties of pretenders to Pindarics with the foppish followers of French frippery. We will otherwife venture, though neither great poets nor prophets ourfelves, to prophecy that Mr. Lofft will never be a very lofty poet.

ART. XVIII. Address to the Genius of Britain. By the Rev. Thomas Penrofe, Curate of Newbury, Berks. 4to. 1s. Willis, Newbery. Crowder, London.

From the pleasure we received in the perufal of fome former pieces of this writer, we could with for another opportunity of recommending his poetical talents to the reader: truth, however, compels us to own that, in the prefent publication, he appears to much greater advantage as a patriot than as a poet. Politicks is probably not congenial with poefy; at least, we are fo much piqued at our difappointment in the prefent inftance as to fay, of our curate's prefent production, Sunt verba et voces, prætereaque paulum. But, perhaps, our expectations were too much raised by his former productions and the prefent has fuffered by the comparifon. We hope it is fo; as the first acquaintance, we made with Mr. Penrofe's mufe, was too pleafing, to permit, of our fuffering fo fudden a falling-off, with poetical patience. Let our readers judge from the author's humble

G 2.

petition

Petition and remonftrance to his Majefty in behalf of the diftreffed and defperate Americans. After defcribing, more truly than poetically, the ftagnation of trade and its neceffary confequences, occafioned by the difputes with our colonies, he proceeds and concludes as follows.

Nor on the banks

Of venerable Thames does woe prefide

Lefs perilous ;---Thames, the prolific fire
Of Britain's wealth :---along his winding fhores,
Unoccupied, moored to deftructive floth
Whole fleets lie perifhing, a foreft, true,
But still a blasted foreft: gloomy stalks
The unfhipped mariner, and meditates

On foreign fervice.---Should fome child of hope,
Lured by the pleafing retrofpect, once more
Spread his broad fail across the well-known fea;
Should he, amidst the wonders of the deep,
Give way to fancy's dream, and fondly trust
To meet his wonted greeting: how recoils
The visionary voyage !---Not on the beach
Sit waiting love and amity to grafp

His hand, and lead him to their open bower.
No thronging crowds his proffered mart attend
With various traffic:---fed---affrighted---fled
Are all the little deities, that once

Kind, o'er the focial and commercial board
Hung hovering.---in the room, fad change, appear
Stern refolution, ftoick ftubborness,

And independence ;---in his hand each holds

His weapon, jealous of the paffing breeze,

And deaf to antient friendship.---In this paufe,

This folemn paufe, that halts 'tween peace and war,

O fly, bleft fpirit, in the royal ear

Whisper forgivenefs ;---'midst the high behefts

Of justice, let our ever gracious Sire

Forget not mercy ;---'tis the brightest gem

That decks the Monarch's crown: nor thou, great George,

Difdain the Mufe's prayer, moft loyal the

In mild fubjection down the tide of life

Steers her light skiff.---Urged by the plaintive call

Of meek humanity, O! pardon, now

If warm the pleads her cause.---The favage race,
That prowl the defert, or that range the wood,
Are won to tamenefs by the attentive care
Of the kind gentle keeper.---Shame not man,
Nor fay his heart's more fell :---'tis easier far
To footh by tendernefs, than awe by power.
Quit then the bloody purpose, nor perfift
To conquer, when the field is fairer gain'd
By reconciling.---To the ungrateful toil
Commiffioned, fhuddering beats the foldier's heart.
Not fo, when from the plough in eager hatte,
Roufed by the call to arms, the fhouting bands
Rufhed emulous, reluctant none, nor held
By loves or home :---each burning to fupply
The walte of war, and anxious to advance
The common glory.---Spiritlefs now and fad

Embarked