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imperfections which arise from the of Wyoming as an impediment to poet's diffidence of his own splendid' the flow of popularity which has in powers, and too great deference to the present day attended poems of a the voice of criticism. In some re- ruder structure. But the publick spects, however, publick taste, like taste, although guided in some degree a fine lady, “ stoops to the forward by caprice, is also to a certain extent and the bold;" and the modest and correctly grounded upon critical docanxious adventurer is defrauded of trine; and the truth is, that an author the palm, merely that his judges may cannot work upon a beautiful poem enjoy the childish superiority of con- beyond a certain point, without doing demning an overlaboured attempt to it real and irreparable injury in more give them pleası:re. Let no reader respects than one. suppose that we recommend to imi- It is in the first place impossible tation the indiscreet, and undaunted to make numerous and minute alteraprecipitation with which another po- tions, to alter the position of stanzas, pular poet is said to throw his effu- to countermarch and invert the comsions before the publick with the in- ponent parts of sentences, without difference of an ostrich as to their leaving marks of their original array. success or failure. To sober criti. The epitaph of the Italian valetucism the fault of him who will not dinary will apply as well in poetry as do his best is greater than the excess in regimen; and it may be said of of over caution, as the sin of presump- many a laboured effort of genius : tion is greater than that of spiritual Stava bene, ma per star meglio, sto despondency. Carelessness is also qui." There are in Gertrude passaa crime of deeper die when consi- ges of a construction so studiously dered with reference to its effects involved, that nothing but the deepest upon publick taste ; for the habit of consideration could have enabled the writing loosely is particularly capti. author to knit the Gordian knot by vating to the fry of young scribblers, which his meaning is fettered, and and we are in danger of being deluged which unfortunately requires similar with rhapsodical romances by poets exertion of intellect ere it can be diswho would shrink from the attempt entangled. An ordinary reader is of imitating the condensed, polished, sometimes unable and always unwil. and laboured stanzas of Gertrude of ling to make such an effort, and Wyoming. But considered with re- hence the volume is resigned and ference not to the ultimate reputation, condemned in a moment of splenetick but to the immediate popularity of impatience. Some of the introducthe author, it is dangerous to allow tory stanzas have their beauties thus the publick to suppose that they have obscured, and afford rather a conbefore them the work upon which, jectural than a certain meaning. after the most solicitous and anxious We allude to the second in particu. exertion, he is willing to stake his lar. Similar indistinctness occurs in poetical character. A spirit of con- the construction of the following sentradiction, which animates the mass tence : of mankind, impels them to depre- “ But high in amphitheatre above ciate that which is presented as the

His arms the everlasting aloe threw: chef d'euvre of the artist; and the Breathed but an air of heuven, and all the

grove question is no longer whether the

Instinct as if with living spirit grew." work be excellent, but whether it has

The idea here is beautiful, but it is attained that summit of excellence only on reflection that we discover on which no poet ever was or ever that the words in italicks mean not will be placed by his contemporaries. that the aloe breathed an air of heaven,

We have hitherto only considered but that the grove grew instinct with the labour bestowed upon Gertrude living spirit so soon as the slightest

a

we came

air of heaven breathed on it. Some- enthusiastick feeling, experiences times passages, of which the tone is that simple and natural, are defaced by The dear illusion will not last, affected inversion, as in Gertrude's The era of enchantment's past. exclamation :

Then occur the doubtful and dampYet say! for friendly hearts from whence ing questions, whether the faded in

spiration was genuine ; whether the Of us does oft remembrance intervene?” verses corresponded in any degree to

Again, in altering and retouching, its dictates, or have power to commuinverting and condensing his stanzas, nicate to others a portion of the iman author will sometimes halt between

pulse which produced them. Then his first and his latter meaning, and comes the dread of malignant crideviate into defects both of sense and ticism; and last, but not least torgrammar. Thus in the Oneida's menting, the advice of literary friends, first song we have

each suggesting doubts and altera“Sleep, wearied one ! and in the dreaming tions, till the spirit is corrected out land

of the poem, as a sprightly boy is Shouldst thou the spirit of thy mother sometimes lectured and flogged for greet,

venial indiscretions into a stupid and O say to morrow that the white man's hand

inanimate dunce. The beautiful Hath plucked the thorns of sorrow from thy feet.”

poem of Lochiel, which Mr. CampLastly, and above all, in the irk

bell has appended to the present vosome task of repeated revision and lume, as if to illustrate our argument, reconsideration, the poet loses, if we

exhibits marks of this injudicious may use the phrase, the impulse of alteration. Let us only take the last inspiration ; his fancy, at first so ar.

lines, where in the original edition dent, becomes palled and flattened, the champion declares that even in and no longer excites a correspondent

the moment of general rout and deglow of expression. In this state of struction, mind he may correct faults, but he Though my perishing ranks should be will never add beauties ; and so much like ocean weeds heaped on the surf

strewed in their gore, do we prefer the stamp of originality beaten shore, to tame correctness, that were there Lochiel, untainted by flight or by chains, not a medium which ought to be While the kindling of life in his bosom aimed at, we would rather take the remains, prima cura with all its errours, and

Shall victor exult, or in death be laid with all its beauties, than the over

low,

With his back to the field, and his feet to amended edition in which both are

the foe! obliterated. Let any one read the And, leaving in battle no blot on his most sublime passage in Shakspeare, name, a hundred times over, without in- Look proudly to heaven from the deathtermission; it will at length convey

bed of fame.” to the tired ear, neither pathos nor

The whole of this individual, visublimity, hardly even an intelligible gorous, and marked picture of the idea. Something analagous to this Highland chieftain lying breathless

amid his broken and slaughtered occurs to every poet in the melancholy task of correction. The Scythi- clan-a picture so strong, that we ans, who debated their national af. even mark the very posture and feafairs first in the revel of a festival,

tures of the hero-is humbled and and afterwards during a day of fasting, tamed, abridged and corrected, into

, could hardly experience a greater the following vague and inexpressive sinking of spirit in their second con

couplet:

" Lochielsultation, than the bard who, in re

Shall victor exult in the battle's acclaim, vising the offspring of moments of Or look to yon leaven from the death-besi

of time."

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If the pruning knife has been applied tered and abridged, we are not tho. with similar severity to the beauties roughly satisfied with their insertion of Gertrude of Wyoming, the hatchet in the present volume. Two beauti. of the Mohawk Brandt himself was ful war odes, entitled the Mariners not more fatally relentless and indis- of England, and the Battle of the criminate in its operations.

Baltick, afford pleasing instances of The book contains, besides Ger- that short and impetuous lyrick sally trude of Wyoming, several of Mr. in which Mr. Campbell excels all his Campbell's smaller pieces. Lochiel contemporaries. Two ballads, Gle. in particular and Hohenlinden are nara, and Lord Ullin's daughter, the introduced, although they made part former approaching the rude yet of the author's last quarto volume. forcible simplicity of the ancient We cannot be offended at meeting minstrels, the latter upon a more re. our favourites any where; yet when fined plan, conclude the volume. we connect the circumstance last They were new to us, and are momentioned, with the reflection that dels in their several styles of compoLochiel has been unnecessarily al- sition.

[The following article, and an able review of the French Code of Conscription in

serted in the first volume of the Select Reviews, page 369, are attributed to the pen of a young gentleman of Baltimore, who has lately returned from Europe, where he has been spending several years. Both articles appeared originally in

the Edinburgh Review.] Biographie Moderne, ou Dictionnaire Biographique de tous les Hommes morts ou

vivans, qui ont marqué à la fin du 18 Siecle ou au Commencement de celui-ci, par leur Rang, leurs Emplois, leurs Talens, leurs Malheurs, leurs Vertus, leurs Crimes, et où tous les faits qui les concernent sont rapportés de la Maniere la plus impartiale et la plus authentique. A Leipzig. 1807.

“TO endeavour,” says Machia- tion, which has accidentally fallen vel, in his Discourses,

« to make a

into our hands. Under the title of people free who are servile in their Modern Biography, it purports to be nature, is as hopeless, as to attempt a history of all those who, by their to reduce to slavery a nation imbued rank, their talents, their virtues, and with the spirit of freedom.” This their crimes, have contributed to il. remark, which was dictated by a lustrate, or to disgrace, the end of review of history in the days of Ma- the last and the commencement of chiavel, is eminently confirmed, we the present century. Before we offer think, by the events of our an opinion concerning the execution times. There are nations who cannot of so comprehensive a plan, we shall be permanently enslaved and others state the circumstances, which, as we cannot be long maintained in the erect are informed, attended the publicaposture of freedom. It is often no tion of the work in Paris. In the less foolish than it is criminal, in an year 1800, a Dictionary, similar in ambitious sovereign to bear down form to the present, but characterithe unarmed laws of a free people; zed by far greater asperity and boldand sometimes unwise and unjustifia- ness, was published in the French cable in an honest patriot to subvert all pital, and immediately suppressed by at once a corrupt or arbitrary govern. the police. The authors seem to ment.

have had it in view, to expose the These reflections were suggested inconsistency of those who had enby the perusal of a curious and in- listed themselves in the service of the teresting work on the French reyolu- consular government, after signalizing

own

cure

themselves by their zeal for a demo- this part of the undertaking, too, cratical equality. The book, although our own recollections, and our knowwritten in a republican spirit, was ledge of the sources of their inforparticularly levelled at the members mation, enable us to judge with some of the convention, and contained confidence of their accuracy. These much pointed declamation against sources are, the journals of the legisthe leaders and emissaries of the pare lative bodies; the files of the Monities which alternately usurped so san- teur ; the several memoirs published guinary a dominion over their wretch- at different times, such as those of ed country. In 1806, the undertaking Bertrand de Moleville and Bouillé; was revived in a shape which it was furnishing a narrative of facts whose supposed would prove less obnoxious exactness cannot be doubted, what. to the publick authorities. The vi. ever diversity of opinion may prevail triolick acid, to use an expression of as to the motives and views of indithe author, was wholly extracted ; viduals and parties.* It may be geand particular care taken to exclude nerally remarked, indeed, of the from the biography of the imperial epoch now under consideration, that family, and of the chief favourites its leading occurrences have had of the monarch, whatever might more notoriety than those of almost be offensive. The better to se- any other. There cannot well be

themselves from suspicion, any privacy in the history of a poputhey professed, not to pass judgment, lar revolution, effected, in a great but merely to furnish materials for degree, by pamphlets and publick decision; and to embrace, at the debates, and consummated by battles same time, the names of all their and treaties. foreign contemporaries of political It certainly is not our intention to note.

These sacrifices, however, repeat the disgusting catalogue of the were not sufficient to propitiate the miseries and crimes of the French favour, or lull the vigilance of the revolution; but we have thought that police. The authors were punished; a summary review of the career and and the circulation of their book im- fate of some of its most conspicuous mediately prohibited. The copy now before us was secreted, and given to . The memoirs of these two writers the individual from whom it has pass- are of unquestionable authority. Both ed into our hands with some addi- deserve credit for much firmness of contional sketches of character, upon

duct and purity of intention; and have

infused less of passion into their narrathe accuracy of which we have rea

tive, than might have been expected son to think we can depend.

from their character of leaders and sufThe work is interesting, we think, ferers in the royal cause. The work vi in various points of view. It presents Bertrand de Moleville, although some. us with the portraits of beings of what diffuse, is exceedingly, precious as whom almost all of us have heard ;

& great body of authentick materials. and whose names we still recall with

The historian should particularly add to

these works, the Proces-Verbaux of the sensations of astonishment and ter- legislative assemblies, the “ Tableau Anarour. The biography of foreigners, lytique du Moniteur," and the History of indeed, is miserably scanty and er- the War of La Vendée, by Alphonse roneous; but this branch evidently Beachamp. As men, we blush to acknowappears to have been executed withledge that these incellible records but too out interest or exertion, and forms a

clearly prove, that the savage features of

the convention have not been greatly caremarkable contrast to the industry ricatured by the hand of party. and ingenuity which have been exer- Tristius haud illis monstrum, &c. cised in collecting and detailing the

We find that acts of amnesty for revoluopinions of the chief actors in the

tionary crimes were passed by this body : French revolution. With regard to but they will not be ratified by posterity.

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are

agents, preceded by a few remarks genius of a military despotism in the on the moral and political lessons minority of its dominion, must be es. with which it abounds, might not be sentially hostile. Hereafter, should without interest, nor perhaps without our neighbours ever enjoy that rare utility. We know of no period in felicity of a free press,* even for the the whole record of history, which transactions of the past, there may deserves to be so deeply weighed and arise some mighty painter, whose so particularly examined, as the in- pencil shall do justice to the subject. terval between the years 1790 and When we recollect that Tacitus was 1800. These few years give us the born in the reign of Nero, and maabridged experience of as many cen- tured in that of Domitian, we turies; and never did the faculties encouraged to hope that history may and the passions of civilized man again have in store some intelligence work with so much force, and so of the same esalted stamp, to avenge little disguise. Those who have lost, her cause, and to frustrate the efforts and those who have acquired power ; which are now made to stifle her the vicissitudes which the nations and voice on the continent. governments of Europe have under- Before we enter more particularly gone ; and the precautions employed upon the contents of these volumes, to avert the evils of change; are we must remark, that we are powerequally subjects for minute research fully struck with the novel and imand profound speculation. During posing spectacle which France exhithe shock of this great convulsion in bited from the time of the convention France, and the conflict of opinions until the establishment of the consuamong ourselves, there was no place lar administration of a country ruled for calm observation; and the mind by ephemeral governments, each was rather bewildered than guided struggling to maintain itself by every by the light which these astonishing art which fraud could suggest to vioevents seemed to throw on the cha- lence; convulsed to the centre by racter of our nature. Now that the

profligate factions ; deluged with nastorm is hushed abroad, and the apprehensions of danger have subsided • When we consider the real state of at home, our conclusions are likely the press in France, there is something

ludicrous in the mock solemnity with to be more just, and our reflections infinitely more beneficial.

which the constitution provides against

its violation. It creates a committee in We think, however, that a consi.

the senate, entitled the senatorial commitderable time must still elapse, before tee of the press. When authors or printers the world will be presented with a have to complain of impediments thrown suitable history of ihe causes which in the way of the circulation of their accelerated the dissolution of this works, they are entitled to petition this

committee. When these obstacles are great monarchy, and so rapidly con

not conceived by the committee to be verted a mild and loyal people into a rendered necessary by the interests of the lawless and frantick mob. Preju- state, the minister to whom they are dice and resentment are still too ascribed is invited to withdraw them. powerful to let us hope for an im- Should they continue to exist after three partial narrative among ourselves; neral meeting of the senate, to whom the

invitations, the committee demands a geand if we could supply the talents president formally announces that there and the temper, the materials would

are strong presumptions that the liberty still be wanting. In France, where of the press has been violated.”. The case alone they could be found, the sword is then brought before the High Imperial is still reeking with blood"; the spirit Court—a judicature for the trial of delinof adulation would suppress, and the

quency

in the members of the Imperial unsubdued animosities of faction dis- judges of which are the princes, the se

family, publick functionaries, &c.-the tort the truth, to which, indeed, the nators, &c.

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