Зображення сторінки
PDF
ePub

"Twere easy for the Muse to swear

Of glowing cheek and swelling bosom ; How this transcends the lily fair,

And that the rose-bud's opening blos

som.

What though these hills were never seen, Except in blest poetic vision;

A poet's eye can pierce the screen,

And, raptur'd, gaze on fields Elysian! The lawn which veils a virgin's breast

Gives vigour to Imagination; As Fancy paints the phoenix' nest,

The rarest wonder of creation. And I could praise your dewy lip,

And say it breath'd celestial nectar; But as I ne'er was blest to sip,

This were at best a bard's conjecture.

Your voice, the music of the spheres, Would suit my rhyme and sound in metre ;

No tuneful orbs e'er sooth'd my ears, I know not, therefore, if they're sweeter.

My pen could say, your sparkling eye Outshines the stars-sheds brighter lustre ;

With all that memory could supply,

Or poctaster's fancy muster. Such arts befit the venal throng, Who sue for wealth, or flatter beauty; I chuse to decorate my song With artless truth and friendly duty.

I need not say that you are fair,

Your toilet tells you that each morn-
ing;

But Time, who lies in ambush there,
Is all your winning sweetness scorning.

His breath is cold as Lapland snows;
Unseen he on your bosom lingers;
And o'er your cheek, that dimpling
glows,

Unfelt he draws his withering fingers.

He'll dim the lustre of your eye,

Your snow-white neck with freckles sprinkle ;

And mark your forehead, fair and high, With many a long, deep-furrow'd wrinkle..

Then list, dear maid,-be it your care

The nobler charms of mind to nourish; For they, with verdure fresh and fair, Beneath his chilling hand shall flourish.

Just now, improve your sun-bright hour; Why should your sweets untasted wi

ther?

Love beckons from his myrtle bow'r ;

Let cautious Prudence guide you thither. But he who talks by rote, or rule,

Of killing frowns and seraph smiling; Dear maid, suspect that man a fool,

Or that his purpose is beguiling.

Be yours to meet some modest youth,

Who holds your worth in estimation; Whose heart is love, whose tongue is truth,

And sues to gain your approbation: Then, led to Hymen's hallow'd porch,

Before next Valentine's returning, May Love light up his sacred torch, Through life with ceaseless lustre burning!

SCENES AND IMPRESSIONS We imagined, on perusing the first publication of this anonymous author, that we could detect peculiarities about it, indicating a proneness on his part to the laudable employment of book-making; and on this account we could not help viewing his Sketches of India as the forerunner of a family of Tours, Travels, Recollections, Scenes, and Impressions. It is an easy matter, we apprehend, to foretel, with almost perfect certainty, on seeing a man's first performance, whether he will try a

IN EGYPT AND IN ITALY*. second; and still more easy, on sceing the second, to predict whether he will attempt a third; in the same way as it is a simple thing to judge from the expression of a person's countenance, and a little talk with him, whether in his case taciturnity or loquacity prevails. The excellence of a first production, too, is generally a pretty good criterion by which to judge of the probability of its being followed by others from the same pen, for good authors commonly write more than one bookt. But

Scenes and Impressions in Egypt and in Italy; by the Author of Sketches of India, and Recollections of the Peninsula. London. Longman, &c. 1824. pp. 452. + Sir Walter Scott somewhere remarks, that the best English authors are the most voluminous. He himself must be taken as one great instance of this fact.

besides this criterion, there is about some works so much of the natural spirit of their authors, so much that indicates their ordinary feelings and peculiarities, that really one cannot fail to determine, to one's own satisfaction at least, whether they are decidedly given to literary practices, and to the composition of books. That modesty, however, which it is said is peculiar to great genius, may eventually gain the upper hand of a moderate ambition, and thus the world may be disappointed of what that genius promised; but middling talents, which are generally accompanied by an assortment of opposite qualities-pertinacity, loquacity, and conceit, and not unfrequently, too, a degree of activity and industry which leads them to the perpetration of all manner of literary crimes, are sure to prove abundantly steady and unweariable in their operations, when once they are fairly set upon a literary course. But however this may be, it is plain that the author before us, who unquestionably possesses some peculiarities of the latter sort of writers, has now published enough to challenge the critic; and as he has doubtless determined to write still more, we have thought it high time seriously to admonish him to abandon some of the faults with which all his writings abound.

Though there are great exceptions to the general maxim, that " prac tice produces proficiency," as in the instances of Home, Thomson, "The Great Unknown," Campbell, &c. whose Douglas, Seasons, Waverley, and Pleasures of Hope, were among the first, and are decidedly the best things they ever wrote,-yet, when we read the first book of an author who is evidently not more than the third part of a century old, and find it tolerably well put together, we naturally expect that as he writes he will improve. This, however, does not hold good in the case of the author of Scenes and Impressions; and we can only account for the fact, by supposing a very probable thing-that he has been much spoiled by a critique upon his Recollections of the Peninsula, which appeared lately in the Quarterly Review, and in which he was unluckily informed, that he is possessed of a brisk and lively imagina

tion, and that, on the whole, he writes wonderfully well. The upshot of this has been, we are sorry to remark, that our friend has clearly taken it into his head that he is a man of notable talents, of no ordinary imaginative powers, and that he possesses, withal, the necessary capabilities of a more than tolerable author. Now, we would really remonstrate with him on this point, and submit, both to himself and to the public, that his talents, though good, are not by any means of an order that entitles him to make such literary flourishes as those displayed in his last work. Though there was not much simplicity of style in his former works, they were comparatively free from two great faults most conspicuous in this-affectation and bombast-the almost necessary evils of that complacency and self-approbation which we should suppose is invariably produced by the favourable judgment of a literary functionary, so high and authoritative as the one to which we have alluded. When once a man conceives a very satisfactory notion of his own deserts, affectation, that most disgusting, by the way, of all our sinless, or at least secondary failings, is sure to grow upon his character, as a loathsome bloat thrives and spreads on the pampered body; and bombastic language is so much akin to an affected manner, that both may be accounted for in the same way, and reproached in the same terms. It is needless to remark, that both, or either of these faults, especially when visible in composition, imply, at least, a defect of literary skill, if not, indeed, of judgment itself. But to call in question this high and peculiarly-honoured intellectual power, is to an author as serious a matter as a denial of honesty is to a merchant, or an impeachment of professional skill to a professional man, or of orthodoxy to a divine, on which alone depends the confidence of those whose confidence he necessarily requires. On the ground, therefore, of affectation and bombast merely, we shall not farther urge the charge of a scarcity of judgment in the author before us, and we call upon our charity to withhold us from seeking any other proof of the fact. But we do seriously

charge him with a very middling taste. His is professedly a work fitted more to amuse the fancy, and to tell upon the feelings of the heart, than to edify or enlighten the head,and as such, therefore, the blandishments and chastity of a pure taste ought to have been regarded as of much more importance than the lessrefined marks of a powerful and vigorous understanding. Unfortunately, however, he has assumed a style which, for high-sounding tone and blustering consequence, is not a whit inferior in many parts to the halfpolished, half-rude, though far more energetic expatiations of a wellknown metropolitan divine. So far from possessing any thing like harmony, indeed, his composition is stiff to a degree that renders it frequently unintelligible on a hasty perusal, sudden and abrupt in turning from one subject to another, and most cramped and broken where it ought to possess most freedom and continuity. But there is always meaning in what he says, and not a little of it; and there is instruction in it too, though he disclaims all intention to write for any other purpose than to amuse his readers.

ever, a satisfaction in referring to pages 103, 121, 125, and 257, for proofs of our author's religious and moral bearing.

We have been somewhat particular in making the foregoing critical remarks upon the literary character of our author's performance, because the merit of such works mainly consists in the mere elegance and correctness of their diction; on these qualities, at least, depends much of the pleasure derivable from them.

M. A. B.—(we cannot be constantly reiterating our author,"and we have no other mode of briefly designating him)-M. A. B. appears to be a sort of rambler to and fro on the face of the earth. On his way from India, where he had been professionally employed, he called in by Mocha, of which he gives the best and most graphic description we have seen. From thence he sailed up the Red Sea to Djidda, a place described, as our readers will remember, by the master-pen of Bruce; but M. A. B. only sketches the character of its present Governor, Rustan Aga, and describes his unique and amusing interview with that important personage. From Djidda, by the There are, throughout the volume, way of Yambo, Kosseir, and the Deobvious indications of our author's sart, he ultimately arrived at Thebes, having perused, with attention and which was the first place in Egypt approbation, Volney's well-written he halted at to examine. He then Travels in Egypt, for whether studi- sailed down the Nile to Dendera, ed on the part of the former, or ac- Siout, Radamont, Memphis, and from cidental merely, there are, in the thence to Ghizeh, of all which places writings of both, many strikingly si- he gives topographical and charactermilar passages, and many instances, istic sketches, and, like the generality too, in which there are obvious re- of Egyptian travellers, expresses his semblances in their manner. particular astonishment at those moone very important point, however, numents of human power and folly, these authors, we rejoice to say, are the pyramids. We have then an inperfectly contrasted. The one was a teresting enough account of Cairo, conscientious Deist; for, with all his and some very unsatisfactory partideism, Volney was yet an honest culars respecting the present Ruler man, and died at peace with all man- of Egypt, Mohammed Ali Pasha, of kind the other is apparently a whose character we had been led to Christian, of more piety than is com- form a very different notion from monly found in people of his profes- that which is conveyed of it in this sion, among whom, alas! piety is a volume. He is here represented as thing more frequently scorned than a grovelling, brutal, and selfish Turk, revered; "the sword (according to occasioning mischief, rather than a severe if not illiberal remark of doing good to Egypt. We quote the John Edwards) being a more deadly following paragraphs relative to him, weapon to the spirits of those who which may also be taken as specido wear it, than it is to their bodies mens of M. A. B.'s mode of expreson the battle-day." We feel, how sing himself:

In

Mohammed Ali Pasha is a Turk, a very Turk, &c. So far from improving, as far as we could hear and see, he is ruining and impoverishing his country. He has got rid of his Turks and Albanians, and flatters himself his new levy is a master-stroke of policy. He does not pay, and will never attach them; and if they do not (which I think probable) de. sert with their arms, and disturb his conquests and possessions above the cataracts, they will die away as a body, and fall to picces in a very short period of time.

The protection which he affords to the European traveller is to be acknowledged, but not at the expense of truth. He knows if his country was not safe, the European would not come there : he encourages the intercourse, because he avows

his wish to receive and employ Franks;

and it is necessary, therefore, to let them see and know that protection is afforded to them, and to accustom his subjects to their presence. As far as Pasha can be independent of the Porte, he is, and he knows it is only by cultivating his Eu. ropean relations that he can effectually continue so to the end. They might now send him the bowstring in vain; they tell you that he is not sanguinary; men grow tired of shedding blood, as well as of other pleasures; but if the cutting off a head would drop gold into his coffers, he would not be slow to give the signal". His laugh has nothing in it of nature; how can it have? I can hear it now,-a hard sharp laugh, such as that with which strong heartless men would divide booty torn from the feeble. I leave him to his admirers. At one thing I heartily rejoice;

it is said that our consul-general has great

influence with him, and it is known that that is always exerted freely and amicably for Franks of all nations in distress or difficulty, and often for natives also.

We went to the castle and visited the arsenal; a clear-eyed, intelligent, manlyspoken Englishman was in temporary charge of it, and hoped to be confirmed in the situation. He was a good specimen of what our countrymen are in such charges. Not a great deal of work is done here; there are plenty of good workmen, Franks, and some English, who were

disappointed with their employer, and about to return they only cast four pounders. It was in a room here, over a machine for boring cannon, that some Frenchman formerly in charge had painted in large characters" Vive Mahomed Ali, Protecteur des Arts!" The Eng lishman said, that when the Pasha visited

the arsenal, he certainly asked questions that surprised him, in a Turk. A man in power, of common intelligence, soon learns, by some means or another, to ask a few questions when he visits an estab lishment. His merit, if any, is, in 'defiance of prejudices, receiving men with heads to contrive, and hands to execute what himself, his three-tailed sons, and his people cannot.

These particulars are certainly at direct variance with all the accounts of the Pasha we have hitherto seen. Mr Rae Wilson, one of the latest writers on Egypt, whom we know to be a most credible and trust-worthy reporter of all that fell under his observation, characterises him as a man possessed of the most liberal sentiments, anxious to promote the welfare of his people by every honourable means, diligent in encouraging learning, and even the arts, and shrewd in adapting his policy to these laudable purposes. Belzoni also speaks of him in language equally commendatory; and from these and other concurring testimonies in the Pasha's favour, many an enlightened politician has been led to look towards him as the very Viceroy of Egypt who is most likely to raise that deeply-degraded country, a few degrees. up in the scale of political importance among the nations of the world. We do not, however, presume to contradict our author's statements respect

ing the character of the Pasha, for a wily Turk is a being about whom very opposite opinions may be conscientiously entertained by different individuals; only we think he has shewn no extraordinary degree of charity, in insinuating that a "set of foreign adventurers put notions into his (the Pasha's) head, and words into his mouth, which pass for, and, in truth, become his own;" leaving us to infer from this that other travellers had been entirely deceived in thinking that his seeming wisdom was any thing more than dogmas, learnt off by rote, the mere pretty-pollisms of a parrot. We request the reader to observe how M. A. B. tries to lessen our opinion of the Pasha's shrewdness in the sentence immediately following that which is printed in italics in

We do not like the apparently illiberal spirit in which these remarks are given.-ED.

the foregoing extract, and in which he attempts to neutralize the effect of the little credit he had reluctantly and very quaintly given to him. In short, we think M. A. B. has completely mistaken the Viceroy's character, and we are still willing to

believe all that has been said of him by the two travellers before mentioned. We would fain hope, indeed, that we are correct in this notion of the Pasha's character, because we cannot help cherishing an expectation, that if he lives to witness a little more of the success of the Greeks, he may be encouraged to bestir himself to exertion in the same cause. It is a fact well known, that he has gone as far as he could well go in freeing himself from the dominancy of the Porte, and indeed he is now almost independent of it, his subjection to its authority being little more than what a nominal vassalage would be in a feudal country. His means, too, are considerable, viewing the condition in which Egypt remained under the rude policy of his immediate predecessors; or, rather, they are considerable, when contrasted with the now enervated state of the Ottoman Government. Joined with the effective forces which the Greeks can send into the field, therefore, an army of Egyptian Arabs would prove a most formidable obstacle in the way of any attempt on the part of the Porte to re-subjugate the land of Socrates and Plato; and in estimating the united strength of the Grecian and Egyptian armies, there is no occasion to view them as thorough ly organized, for though numerous enough, they are, it must be confessed, defective in point of military discipline and skill. The Turks, however, are not, in this respect, a whit their superiors, nor are they more amply provided with financial means; and it is to be at least presumed, that they do not surpass either Arabs or Greeks in military enthusiasm. In short, we believe that Greece and Egypt could, hand in hand, crush the feeble power of the Turks. But we are forgetting what is more particularly our present business.

In speaking of other Egyptian matters, M. A.B. does not shew much of the characteristic erudition and research of the generality of British

VOL. XV.

travellers. Perhaps this ought not, in his case, to be accounted a fault, for, after what has come from the pens of the numerous sçavans of all nations, who have visited and described the antiquities and curiosities of the country, little new light could have been expected to be thrown upon them by so cursory an observer as our author. The epigrammatic sketches of the manners of modern Egyptians, however, are interesting, though far too hasty and superficial to satisfy a shrewd, censorious reader.

We intended to follow our author in his excursion to Italy also, but we find our room is already occupied. We regret this the more, as the part of the volume which is devoted to his travels in that country is perhaps the most amusing and valuable: the shortness of his stay at the different places he visited did not permit him

to describe them with a travellerlike minuteness and accuracy, but his advertisements of what he saw at Malta, Syracuse, Mount Etna, and Naples, are all written with spirit, and occasionally with force. We were a little struck with the following awkwardly-expressed, though impressive reflections on Rome:

Ascend the tower of the Capitol, and look around over the stately columns, and the pointing obelisks, the temples, porticoes, the arches of triumph! What ages flit, with their crowding shadows, past you! What voices sound, sober and sad, of those who thought and wrote like men worthy the name-men, an undiscovered scroll of whose true thoughts would be prized as a nobler relic than these grand, though ruined shrines of gods and victors, about whom we are now disenchanted.

The greatest pleasure derived from wandering among these noble remains, is a consideration of the surprising power of man. Beneath such a magnificent ruin as the forum of Nerva, under the columns of a Trajan and an Antoninus, before that stupendous block the obelisk,

brought from Heliopolis, and, above all, in

that glorious temple the Pantheon, which has been the model for all after-time,

you feel, if you are a common man, one without the bright attainments of that scientific knowledge, which is true power, without even the strength or skill to raise the stone, or shape the common brick; you feel all the advantages and blessings of

[ocr errors]
« НазадПродовжити »