earliest invention of the maritime art, and the first practice of commerce between nations; that the ship into which the treasure was conveyed was named after Chrion, which signi fies a ram; and other conjectures. He seems to think that this expedition has, in point of consequence, an equal claim. to attention with the Trojan War; and he asks why have not the authors who have made it their theme risen to equal celebrity?" He satisfactorily answers this question, indeed, by ' acknowleging that the accounts of this event are more involved in fable; more entangled with extraneous circumstances; and less capable of regular construction than those parts of the Siege of Troy and its consequences which have become so famous by the poems of Homer and Virgil.' This, in our opinion, is not all. Whether we regard the events in question as historically true, or as fabulous, we can look only to the genius of their historians, or inventors, for the sources of the interest which we are to take in them. Those sources of interest are a clear and polished narration, a just delineation of character, and most of all a consistent and well. framed action, supported by causes and motives of sufficient importance to excite our attention. Judging by this criterion, can the story of the Argonauts be compared with that of the Siege of Troy? The cause of the one (we speak now only of the story as it is told, without considering whether it is to be understood literally or as a type,) is a "Golden Fleece," thing which can have no existence in nature; and which, if it could, would be more a subject of curiosity to children than to men and warriors, whatever false interest and importance may be given to it by Oracles and Prophesies: while the other is founded on one of the most common and natural springs of human action-Revenge;-and that passion roused by one of the most acknowleged and cruel injuries that man can suffer from man, the seduction and rape of a wife. It is to this difference, principally, that we must refer for an answer to Mr. Noble's question. In vain do Orpheus, (or whoever wrote in his name,) Appollonius, and Flaccus, exert all their skill, and the praise of considerable skill must be allowed to each of them; pathos, sublimity, and the imagery and figures of poetry, are thrown away, when they are exerted to dignify an action which, after all its pomp, is but the voyage of a few Grecian pirates in search of a "Golden Fleece." - a It is admitted that Mr. Noble's preface is ingenious and entertaining, and that he writes as a gentleman and a scholar; we dissent only from him in thinking that, on all occasions, he entertains too high an opinion of the author whose work he is translating, and forms too low an estimate of Apollonius, the predeces D 4 sor sor, and (it is but justice to add) in every respect the equal of that author. The present volume contains the translation of only one book of the poem; and we confess that in that portion we find nothing of the smallest interest, or of any extraordinary poetical merit, if we except the account of the storm at sea, which is greatly inferior to the similar passage in the first book of the Æneid, in every point in which it is not a servile imitation of it. Mr. Noble has offered a very respectable translation of this book: but we shall better do him justice by quoting, from his preface, a translation of that part of the second book in which Venus instigates the Lemnian women to murder their husbands, on their return home, attended by female slaves whom they had brought with them from Thrace. After having described the arts of Venus, (in the form of Dryope,) designed to arouse the jealous fury of the wives, the poet thus proceeds: Swift thro' each bosom rush'd her startling moan,- To shuddering Phlegyas and to Theseus clings, And presses them (their torment) to her heart. Terror Terror rush'd forth,-and, with infuriate pace, A sever'd head all-agonized she bore, Her panting bosom smear'd with recent gore, I first-but, see! the rapid morning breaks!" This is well expressed, and gives the sense and spirit of the original accurately enough, except in the last line, which but tamely renders "et cunctantibus invenit enses." Mr. Noble's errors, in his original poems, consist chiefly of an undue inflation of language, with a dryness and sterility of style. In any other than very able hands, something of this fault, is inseparable from blank verse: but it should therefore be constantly in the poet's contemplation; and all his efforts should be directed to counteract this unpleasant effect of the materials which he chooses to employ. In Mr. N.'s translations, the same failings are to be found; and he does not always catch the true sense of his original. The following is an instance: When Jason in the 7th book leaves the presence of Eetes, and Medea is anxiously following him, the poet says: "Illa domum atque ipsos paullum procedere postes Optat, et ardentes tenet intra limina gressus :” meaning, we conceive, that, knowing she dared not cross the threshold, she wished the palace to move with her and bear her nearer to her lover :-but Mr. Noble translates it thus: Now that the obstructive pillars would retire And the walls part, becomes her fond desire, A few other and similar instances might be found: but they are not worth the trouble of detailing. Mr. Noble promises that, if his translation of the Argonautica is well received, he shall feel himself called upon to bring forward the remaining books, with such a continuance of the subject to the conclusion of the voyage as may be derived from the works of other authors.' We would by no means discourage him from exercising himself in any compositions which he may consider as best adapted to his genius : but we would advise him to prefer original composition; and at all events, as it is probable that he may become a favourite, (especially where it is so desirable to be welcome, at the toilette and in the Drawing Room,) we would caution him against setting down any favours which he may receive to a false account. We are convinced that he will be indebted for them to his Lumena, and his Blackheath, and not to his translations from either Valerius Flaccus or Horace. 1 It is but proper to remark that the present volume is embellished with beautiful engravings, from the pencil and graver of the author's brothers, and that it is very ornamentally printed. ART. VI. Memoirs of the Public Life of the late Right Honourable Charles James Fox. By R. Fell. 4to. pp. 603. l. 118. 6d. Boards. Hughes. 1808. IF F the reader expects to find in this volume an elaborate and well-digested account of the illustrious subject of it, he will certainly be disappointed: but if on the other hand he treats it as one of those ephemeral productions, which seek to convert into miserable gain the curiosity of a moment, he will not do it ju tice. Regarded as a production drawn up in haste, it is creditable to the powers of the author. None but an ardent admirer of the original whom he sketches could, in the short time devoted to the task, have atchieved what this writer has accomplished; and a congeniality of sentiments and views with our memorable statesman, united to an enthusiastic veneration for his memory and character, can alone account for the rapid and happy movements of his pen. A style which is flowing and not generally inelegant *, a judicious selection of passages from Mr. Fox's speeches, a lucid and convincing exposition of his principles and maxims, and a just conception of the leading features of his character, constitute the attraction which renders it impossible for an admirer of that orator who has once taken up this volume, to lay it aside unread. The narrative, the observations with which it is accompanied, and the quotations which it includes, *Of its occasional incorrectness, however, one specimen will afford a sufficient idea: He was the strenuous oppugner of those rights, which he afterwards became the most eloquent and impassioned vindicator of ' place place before our eyes the man himself; and while we feel the value of what we once possessed, we are sensible of the magnitude of our loss. Ascribing to it this general praise, however, we would not be understood to deny that it might owe much to future revisal and impartial examination, and that in its present state it deprecates rigid criticism. We design to submit. to our readers a few extracts from it, which cannot fail to interest, while they justify and corroborate our observations. The author's object is thus stated: His idea was, that a digest of the recorded opinions of Mr. Fox (even imperfect as they are, either through the negligence or the incapacity of newspaper reporters) would comprehend the discussion of almost all the great questions that have in any ages engaged the attention, or divided the interests. of mankind. No person in the least acquainted with the proceedings of the British legislature for the last thirty years need be told, that there is scarcely any subject of importance on which Mr. Fox has not left something like a recorded opinion; and, in the judgment of the compiler of the sheets that follow, it was one of the most striking features in the intellectual, character of that illustrious man, and in which he far excelled all his contemporaries, that though no orator ever scrutinized local and temporary politics with more acuteness and sagacity than he did, his opinions, divested of their particular reference, are applicable to any times and circumstances, and may be appealed to in all ages and countries as conveying the soundest precepts of moral and political wisdom.' In the short account of Mr. Fox's birth and lineage, the writer passes over (we think, without any good reason,) the very humble situation in life of Mr. F.'s grand-father's father, which it has been said was that of a day labourer : The right honourable Charles James Fox was the third son of Henry first Lord Holland, by lady Georgiana Carolina, eldest daughter of the second duke of kichmond. He was born on the 24th of January 1749. O. S. which answers to the 13th of January according to the new computation, On his mother's side he inherited the blood of the Stuarts and of Henry of Navarre: on his father's his ancestors were respectable but not noble. Sir Stephen Fox, the father of Lord Holland, held several distinguished appointments at the court of Charles II., and was some time master of the horse to that monarch. He was a person of much piety, and of a noble and generous disposition. The churches of Farley in Wiltshire and Culford in Suffolk, which he rebuilt from the ground, remain monuments of the former; and his donation of above thirteen thousand pounds to the military hospital of Chelsea, of which benevolent institution he was a zealous patron and promoter, is a striking example of the latter Sir Stephen Fox, in 1703, married a second time, at the advanced age of seventy-six years, and had two sons, both of whom received the honour of the peerage, Stephen, the eldest, being created |