ART. IX. Viridarium Poeticum, seu Delectus Epithetorum in cele berrimis Latinis Scriptoribus sparsorum, designatum ad Epitheta ab antiquis usurpata Exemplis illustrandum, in Scholarum usum quibus compositio Latina præcipuam Eruditionis partem efficit. A Thoma Browne, A. M. 8vo. 8s. bound. Robinsons. BEFORE Mr. Browne unlocks the door which opens into his flower-garden of the Muses, lie takes the opportunity, in an elegant preface, of adverting to the high estimation in which poets were viewed by the antients; and of rectifying the opinion concerning Plato, that he would have excluded afl poers from his republic. Plato's objection, he observes, extended only to one kind of poetry; viz. to that which endeavours to agitate the ntind in a tragical manner; and he wished to afford encouragement to those other kinds of poetry, which are employed in singing the praises of the gods, in teaching the institutions and manners of our country, or in extolling good and in reprobating bad men. It may, however, be asked, how is poetry, even within the Platonic limits, to accomplish its purpose? and what are the mysteries of this divine and fascinating art? Now the poetical Tyra is to be informed that he is to be as solicitous of acquiring a rich and varied collection of epithets, as the Botanist is assiduous in forming a collection of flowers. Epitheta, (says Mr. B.) judiciò selecta, et quorum venustas in compositione, seu poeticâ, seu prosaicâ, magnopere percellit, non parum ad exornandum carmen invenientur, nam stylus politus tantum iis debet ac coloribus vivicans pictoris pencillum? A copia epithetorum, however, is of little use without a nice and discriminating judgment in selecting and applying them; • Peritia perfecta accidentum, qualitatum, et affectuum cujuscunque rei æque in illis seligendis desideratur.-Nam magni refert, propria nomina rebus tribuere.'Moreover, the effect of eloquence as well as of poetry, depends in great measure on the judicious management of epithets; and hence are often derived the striking and brilliant effects of oratory. Ut flores pratum, et rose semitarium, sic epitheta, ritè adaptata, linguam exornant. Here ako skill is very necessary in their management; and perhaps a familiar acquaintance with the best writers will more assist to form the judgment and correct the taste of the young student,' than any mere. set of rules or precepts. Mr. B. therefore directs those, who wish to write Latin poetry with facility and elegance, to make themselves well acquainted with the Æneids of Virgil, the Odes of Horace, the Elegies and Heroic Epistles of Ovid, the Elegies of Propertius, the select Epigrams of Martial, and the works of Lucretius. In the volume before us, which is a republication, in a new form, of the almost forgotten work of Johannes Ravisius, and which 6 which is a kind of Gradus ad Parnassum, the epithets are arranged in the following order; first, are placed those which were employed by the writers of the Augustan age; next, those of authors from that period to the time of Juvenal, called the last of the Roman poets; after these follow those employed by Claudian, Boethius, &c. to which, lastly, are subjoined the Epitheta recentiora, taken from the writers of the middle ages. As this mode of arrangement will be best explained by an example, we shall transcribe the following: • arduus levis pūrus ÆTHER. -ruit arduus æther Quacunque illa levem fugiens secat athera Latificusque dies erat omnibus æthere puro nubificus Ethera nubifuum complectitur orbe decoro Strid re ingenti liquidum trans æthera vecta Hæc super imposuit liquidum, & gravitate carentem-thera liquidus Sgrăvitāte O carens sacer Sed timuit ne forte sacer tot ab ignibus æther Per alta videt spatia sublimis ætheris pars ætheris illa sereni-Tota vacet Innumere vasto miscentur in ethera voces primus se sustulit cether-Signifer Sed igitur quum se levis diffusili ather Inde mare, inde aër, inde ether ignifer ipse Sive quod inclusi rapidi suut etheris astus -raptoque polo micat igneus ather af videt alto ex athere clausa-Mania Huc se cæruleo libravit ex ætheré virgo Astraque et effusis stellatus crinivus ather Epith. Recent. curgus, incandens, oūrĕus, ăpērtus, rūbens, lūcīdus, lātus, fūmīdus, candens, ardens, udus.' This book will be an acceptable present to the Latin scholar. It is dedicated to Dr. Heath, head-master of Eton. ART. X. The Letter of the Honourable Charles James Fox to the Electors of Westminster, dated January 23d, 1793. With an Ap plication of its Principles to subsequent Events. By Robert Adair, Esq. M. P. 8vo. 3s. 6d. Ridgway.. 1802. N times of great political fermentation, the sagest advice is perhaps the least likely to obtain success. He who proposes calm and temperate measures to men alarmed by fear, goaded by pride, or irritated by passion, must calculate on in REV. JUNE, 1802. N curring curring the censure of cowardice or disaffection, and attracting opposition and obloquy rather than gratitude and praise. Statesmen of the most penetrating and liberal minds have repeatedly experienced the force of this melancholy truth; and have been obliged to console themselves under the failure of honest though calumniated efforts, by appealing fror those to whom their suggestions were of practical importance, to a future age which will contemplate them only as matters of history. To the real patriot, however, this is a slender solace. His regrets at the infatuation of his countrymen are not diminished by those subsequent miseries which confirm him a true prophet; and the compliment which experience pays to his judgment is so dearly bought by the people at large, that the very evidences of his sagacity must afflict his heart muchr more than they can gratify his vanity. What the sensations of Mr. Fox may be, on taking a retrospective view of the conduct of this country for the last nine years, we pretend not to affirm: but, if he really possesses that amiable nature which friends and foes alike attribute to him, sensations very different from those of exultation will occur to him, on comparing his letter to the Electors of Westminster, in Jan. 1793, with subsequent events. In recommending the conduct which ought to have been pursued by our Governors at that period, it must now be confessed that he evinced superior penetration; and there are few, we believe, who have not been dearly taught to lament that his constitutional and conciliating sentiments were so contemptuously rejected. Since, however, it may not be too late to repair mistakes, the pamphlet before us is designed, by a friend of Mr. Fox, to enforce, while conviction is recent, those important truths which are essential to the prosperity of the Empire; and by the abandonment of which we have inflicted on ourselves so much injury, doubling our own debt, while the territory of France has doubled itself. For this purpose, he has re-published Mr. Fox's Letter, with a comment at once ingenious and argumentative, spirited and elegant; and, though this great Statesman may have no disposition to exult in warnings verified by public sufferings, he may feel some gratification in thisnoble effort of friendship, and in finding so congenial an editor as Mr. Adair who has undertaken this task from a deep sense of what is due to truth, especially in these times. Mr. Fox's Letter to the Electors of Westminster being a summary of the arguments-employed to support three motions, which he made in the House of Commons on the 13th, 14th. and 16th of Dec. 1792;-the first having in view the internal: State of the country with respect to insurrections, and the means employed employed to quell them; the second relating to the policy of negotiating with the existing government of France for peace; and the third discussing the mode of negotiating with success; Mr. Adair divides the letter into three parts; commenting. on each as a separate text, and offering, under the title of results, the testimony of subsequent events' in justification of the policy and patriotism of his friend's proposals. These suggestions, he observes, have met with a fate not rare in the history of wisdom; namely, that of being contemned in the freshness of hope and the vivacity of insolence, and of being resorted to in the danger of defeat and the humility of disap pointment.' In his commentary on the first part of Mr. Fox's Letter, Mr. Adair strenuously contends for those great constitutional principles which are called Whiggish; and he laments the disunion and destruction, which happened at this time, of that '. party, called the Rockingham party, which for twenty years had materially contributed to preserve such a balance between the crown and the people, as forms the only practical security of the British Constitution. His views of this subject are clearly exhibited; and, after the attempts which have been made to discredit these princples, they so loualy demand re-consideration, that we shall place the whole passage before our readers: • This balance is not a mere theory, or vain metaphysical abstraction, as the reasoning of some writers would reduce it to, who seem wholly to have mistaken the nature of the powers of which it is composed. According to the popular speculation, both the balance of the constitution, and the security for it, consists in the nice and exact distribution of the powers of its several branches. The fact is the very reverse. In the distribution of powers there is no balance; and it is because there is none in their distribution, that a balance is gained in their exercise. What indeed could be more absurd and inconsistent than a scheme of government which supposes a balance, and at the same time gives to one man the power, by his mere will, of counteracting the collective determinations of a whole community? For let it be recollected that a King of England, responsible himself to no existing tribunal, may perform many of his most important functions without the intervention even of any person who is responsible. He may negative the wisest and most necessary bill, and dissolve the honestest parliament. What makes the excellence of our constitution is a happy practice, growing out of the common feelings of mankind, which turns to the best account, forms that might otherwise palsy all wisdom or excellence, by providing the quickest appeals against injustice, and leaving the freest course to human action. Hence it becomes to us absolutely in sluable; because, although a more perfect theory might possibly be given us, no invention can supply the convenient and easy vigour of the old practice. This practice, in its turn, is regulated by compromise; it is to the N 2 spirit spirit of compromise, therefore, pervading and penetrating our constitution to the very bottom, and bending all its powers to one point, that we must look for the true causes of that balance at the top, which keeps the three estates in their several places. By what means indeed this spirit acts, and how it circulates through all the veins of the state, until it falls back again into the grand reservoir of Public Will, at the bottom of which lies its source, were an investigation of a very wide scope, and not immediately suited to the present purpose. It is sufficient that all parts, and all interests, even those of the humblest classes of British subjects, have their share, great or little, in producing the result, and establishing a presiding power that watches over and preserves the ends for which King, Lords, and Commons, are appointed. • That union of vast and complicated interests, known in England by the name of WHIG, was, while it existed, one, and no inconsiderable party to this compromise. It was a connexion that had for its express end and object, the maintenance of the balance. It was not the work of a day, but laboured out its existence through much difficulty, and many civil woes. He, who may have leisure or curiosity (all other motives, it is to be feared, are over) to trace it from the Bill of Exclusion to these days, will find it in more periods than one of our history, keeping by its own force, and natural influence, the government steady upon its base. The Whigs were taught the use of this influence by the virtues which had acquired it for them. Their notions of government were fixed and determined; and as it was of the very essence of their system that none of their principles should be concealed, nor any of their views kept back, the public had always a fair choice between their adverearies and themselves. Their fundamental tenet was, that the Liberty of the English People was the End of the English Constitution. They did not suffer their course to be diverted, or their action suspended, by that previous question of hypocritical despotism, "Who are the People?" They understood by the People all those whom the Creator had endued with the powers of thinking, of acting, and of suffering;those over whose reason imposture might endeavour to gain a sway; those over whose actions tyranny might usurp a control; those to whose sufferings tyrants are ever deaf. These were THE PEOPLE, in the eyes of our great ancestors, the authors of the revolution in 1688. Their code was simple. Government was from the People; it was for the People; and, when abused, was to be resisted by the People. · Taking ground upon these principles, the founders of the Whigsystem knew, that, in their extreme, they were not for every day's use. Their chief object, therefore, was a balance. Sometimes it was to preserve it; sometimes to restore it; but they never lost sight of the balance. They did not at the Revolution. That great act was a compromise. The Whigs then did not go to the extreme of their principles. To dethrone King James, and elect King William, they did not think it necessary for the people to put forth their whole strength, and begin government again under a new contract. The case was, indeed, a case of necessity as to the di posing of James, but a necessity that called for nothing beyond his dethrone 6 ment |