discover little of the author of The Shipwreck; Mr. Clarke adds, that a severe criticism on it, written by Falconer himself, appeared in the Critical Review. I know not how to reconcile this to the separate professions of author and critic, but of the severity of the criticism the reader may judge. The Reviewer says, "This poem is more than tolerable, and just falls short of excellency. We know not what the author might have produced, had he consulted the conflict of Hercules between Virtue and Vice, as described by the ancients; he would then have represented it less poetically than he has done but the contour of the hero's body, and the attemptive inclinations of his head, would have been more natural, more just, and more exquisitely sensible." If Falconer wrote this, we hope he understood his meaning; but I am informed, on authority which I cannot doubt, that Falconer never wrote a line in the Critical Review.

As Falconer wanted much of that complementary time of service, which might enable him to arrive at the commission of Lieutenant, his friends advised him to exchange the military for the civil department of the royal navy; and accordingly, in the course of the year 1763, he was appointed purser of the Glory frigate of 32 guns. Soon after he married a young lady of the name of Hicks, the daughter of the surgeon of Sheerness Yard. With this lady, who had considerable taste, he appears to have lived happily, although his circumstances were reduced from want of employment. That this was the case appears from a whimsical incident related by his biographer. "When the Glory was laid up in ordinary at Chatham, commissioner Hanway, brother to the benevolent Jonas Hanway, became delighted with the genius of its purser. The captain's cabin was ordered to be fitted up with a' stove, and with every addition of comfort that could be procured; in order that Falconer might thus be enabled to enjoy his favourite propensity, without either molestation or expense."

Here he employed himself, for some time, in various literary occupations. Among others he compiled an Universal Marine Dictionary, a work of great utility, and highly approved by professional men in the navy. In 1764, he published a new edition of The Shipwreck, in 8vo. corrected and enlarged, with a preface which indicates no great facility in that species of composition. In the following year, appeared The Demagogue, a political satire on lord Chatham, Wilkes, and Churchill, and intended as an antidote to the writings of the latter. It contains a sufficient proportion of the virulent spirit of Churchill, but lord Chatham and Wilkes were not at this time vulnerable, and The Demagogue was soon forgotten.

The Marine Dictionary was published in 1769°, before which period he appears

$ She died at Bath, within these few years. In consideration of the success of the Marine Dictionary, she was liberally supplied with sums of money, from time to time, by the late Mr. Cadoll, the proprietor of that work, nor did his liberality cease with the expiration of the usual period of copyright. This circumstance, which is mentioned by Mr. Irvine, has been delicately confirmed to me by Mr. Cadell's successors.

In this work he introduces a compliment to the British navy, which subsequent events have so amply justified, that no apology seems requisite for its insertion here." RETREAT, the order or disposition in which a fleet of French men of war decline engagement, or fly from a pursuing enemy. The reader, who wishes to be expert in this manœuvre, will find it copiously described by several ingenious French writers, particularly L'Hote, Saverien, Morogues, Bourde, and Ozane; who have given accurate instructions, deduced from experience, for putting it in practice when occasion requires. As it is not properly a term of the British Marine, a more circumstantial account of it might be considered foreign to our plan. It has been observed in another part of this work, that the French have

to have left his naval retreat at Chatham for an abode in the metropolis of a less comfortable kind. Here depressed by poverty, but occasionally soothed by friendship, and by the affectionate attentions of his wife, he subsisted for some time on various resources. I must however except "a small pittance for writing in the Critical Review under Mr. Mallet," concerning which Mr. Clarke has been misinformed. Neither Mallet nor Falconer ever contributed to that Review. Falconer was long a welcome guest at the liberal table of Mr. Hamilton, the proprietor of the Critical Review, and was always an inmate in his family, but never discovered talents which could induce Mr. Hamilton to require his aid as a critic. In 1768, Falconer received proposals from the late Mr. Murray, the bookseller, to be admitted a partner in the business which that gentleman afterwards established.

No reason can be assigned with more probability for his refusing this liberal offer, than his appointment, immediately after, to the pursership of the Aurora frigate, which was ordered to carry out to India, Messrs. Vansittart, Scrofton, and Forde, as supervisors of the affairs of the company. He was also promised the office of private secretary to those gentlemen, a situation from which his friends conceived the hopes that he might eventually obtain lasting advantages. Dis aliter visum. The Aurora sailed from England on the 30th of September, 1769, and after touching at the Cape, was lost during the remainder of the passage in a manner which left no trace by which the cause of the calamity could be discovered. The most probable conjecture is, that she foundered in the Mosambique channel.

When we reflect that a shipwreck inspired the poem which has immortalized Falconer's name, and that a shipwreck terminated his life, we are strongly reminded that

The paths of glory lead but to the grave.

"In person" says Mr. Clarke, "Falconer was about five feet seven inches in height, of a thin light make, with a dark weather-beaten complexion, and rather what is termed hard-featured, being considerably marked with the small-pox; his hair was of a brownish hue. In point of address, his manner was blunt, awkward, and forbidding; but he spoke with great fluency; and his simple yet impressive diction was couched in words which reminded his hearers of the terseness of Swift. Though he possessed a warm and friendly disposition, he was fond of controversy, and inclined to satire. His observation was keen and rapid: his criticisms on any inaccuracy of language, or expression, were frequently severe, yet this severity was always intended eventually to create mirth, and not by any means to show his own superiority, or to give the smallest offence. In his natural temper he was cheerful, and frequently used to amuse his messmates by composing acrostics on their favourites, in which he particularly excelled. As a professional man he was a thorough seaman, and, like most of that profession, was kind, generous, and benevolent. He often assured governor Hunter, that his education had been confined merely to reading English, writing, and a little arithmetic: notwithstanding which he was never at a loss to understand either French, Spanish, Italian, or even German."

As a poet, Falconer's fame must rest entirely on The Shipwreck. His other pieces

generally exhibited greater proofs of taste and judgment in the sculpture, with which their ships are decorated, than the English; the same candour and impartiality obliges us to confess their superior dexterity in this movement."

could never have survived the occasion which produced them, and could have ranked him only among the versifiers of a day, while The Shipwreck bids fair for immortality. In the powers of description, he has scarcely a superior, and has bid defiance to comparison by choosing a subject with which accident only can make a poet acquainted, a subject which may be described, for he has described it in all its awful dignity, but which surpasses the common reach of imagination. The distant ocean, and its grand phenomena, have often employed the pens of the most eminent poets, but they have generally produced an effect by indefinite outlines, and imaginary incidents. In Falconer, we have the painting of a great artist taken on the spot, with such minute fidelity as well as picturesque effect, that we are chained to the scene with all the feelings of actual terrour.

In the use of imagery, Falconer displays original powers. His Sun-set, Midnight, Morning, &c, are not such as have descended from poet to poet. He beheld these objects under circumstances in which it is the lot of few to be placed. His images cannot therefore be transferred or borrowed: they have an appropriation which must not be disturbed, nor can we trace them to any source but that of genuine poetry. Although we may suspect that he had studied the Æneid, there are no marks of servile imitation, while he has the high merit of enriching English poetry by a new train of ideas, and conducting the imagination into an undiscovered country.

The principal objection to this pcem, is the introduction of sea-terms, and although it must be confessed that he has softened these by an exquisite harmony of numbers, some of his descriptions must ever remain unintelligible to indolent readers. But Falconer did not need to be told of this objection. In his introduction, he deprecates what he had full reason to expect:

Then censure not severe the native song,

Though jarring sounds the measur'd verse prolong,

Though terms uncouth offend the softer ear.

He allows that his Muse was a

Voice attempting themes, before unknown
To music..........

and he was aware how difficult it would be

in ornamental verse to dress

The harshest sounds that terms of art express.

If, however, we attend to his design, it will become evident that the introduction of seaterms was absolutely necessary. The Shipwreck is didactic, as well as descriptive, and may be recommended to a young sailor, not only to excite his enthusiasm, but to improve his knowledge of the art of seamanship. Mr. Clarke, whose judgment on this subject may be followed with safety, and whose zeal for the reputation of the British navy does honour both to his head and heart, says, that The Shipwreck “is of inestimable value to this country, since it contains within itself the rudiments of navigation: if not sufficient to form a complete seaman, it may certainly be considered as the grammar of his professional science. I have heard many experienced officers declare, that the rules and maxims delivered in this poem, for the conduct of a ship in the most perilous emergency, form the best, indeed the only opinions which a skilful mariner should adopt." With such views it was impossible to exclude a language which is uncouth only where

it is not understood, and which, as being the language of those heroes who have elevated the character of their country beyond all precedent and all comparison, merits higher veneration than the technical terms of common mechanics, and, upon this account, The Ship wreck ought not to involve the blame which attaches to the Cyder of Philips, or the Fleece of Dyer. No art can give dignity to such subjects, nor did they demand the aid of poetry to render them more useful or more pleasing. Falconer's subject was one of the most sublime inflictions of Providence. He described it for those who might be destined to behold it, and he knew that if among sailors he found no acute critics, he would find intelligent and sympathizing readers. When therefore we consider his whole design, the objection may admit of some apology even from those who will yet regret that a poet of such genuine skill should have narrowed his fame by writing for a class.

In this poem, a fastidious eye may perhaps discover some small defects in point of correctness, and occasionally an improper or degrading epithet. In the third canto, it may be thought that the continuity of the story is broken by the introduction of the decline and fall of ancient Greece, however just and poetically beautiful the reflections To me it appears that these digressions are not wanted to relieve the reader, because he is impatient to know the fate of those whom he has left on the brink of destruction. Yet with scholars, the classical enthusiasm displayed will be sufficient to atone for the length of the interruption.

are.

It only remains to be mentioned that Falconer does not appear to have been one of those poets who think themselves exempted from the labour of revision and correction. Although he could profit very little by the opinion of the public critics, who bestowed only praise, he appears to have consulted his better judgment in making corrections and some very considerable additions to the second impression published in 1764. The personification of Memory, in the Introduction, and, if I mistake not, the description of the ship's losing sight of land, and the Occasional Elegy, were among these additions. In preparing a third edition, he also made a few changes, but is said to have left the copy in the hands of Mallet who took some improper liberties. Mr. Clarke, by a careful collation of the several editions, appears to have restored the text to all the purity and correctness of which it is now capable,