the government to fix the Duke of York (the ill-fated James II.) in the navy. His Royal Highness had made such progress, that he commanded at the battle which ended in a signal victory over the Dutch in 1665; for a second experiment seemed to have been attempted by the Hollanders in order to regain, if possible, some equivalent for the advantages which had been wrested from them. We do not find in the remainder of this volume any very striking circumstance connected with the personal history of Sir W. Penn which deserves particular notice. Indeed, the chief part of the concluding portion of the work is drawn from the very amusing and instructive production which was written by Pepys, and the publication of which, a few years ago, excited so strong a sensation in the literary world. With respect to the public transactions which are dwelt on by the author, we think that in the large folio which James II. left after him, in Clarendon, and particularly in the life of Penn by his son, the most interesting facts have been already anticipated. The author, in taking leave of the naval affairs which he had to treat of in these volumes, recapitulates the leading facts which establish its progress as a professional science in this country. Upon this subject we have already made some observations. The author, in the course of his remarks, alludes to the long-disputed claim of Clerk to the invention of the celebrated manœuvre of directing the line of the fleet athwart the line of the enemy. There is much good sense in the following remarks upon this very idle dispute : "Lord Rodney has placed the manœuvre upon its true ground; not on that of extraordinary and exclusive sagacity or genius, but of sound common sense acting in a mind moulded to practical seamanship; a manœuvre, following by necessary consequence in such a mind on the fit occasion, when possessing a formed column, together with a fearless spirit of assault. What has given so disproportioned a character of sagacity to this operation, has been the manner in which it was presented to the world by Clerk, who, professing himself to be no seaman, nor ever to have been at sea, but fond of scientifically contemplating naval evolutions in the abstract, was forcibly struck with the ingenuity and soundness of the idea which had suggested itself to his mind in his closet, and proclaimed it in a tone of exultation, from which he would have abstained had he been a seaman ; a proceeding not uncommon with persons of ingenuity, who hit upon a point in a science foreign to their vocation, and who are seduced to think that they have struck out something quite new, because they are not aware that others have already thought of it. "As to that part of the controversy which regards the honour of having first conceived the idea; whether it originated amidst the thunder of ordnance, or in the silence of the cabinet; it is very evident from what has been shown, that no such exclusive award can be adjudged to any one individual but that, like many other ideas, it sprang up, in original, in many minds so circumstanced as to give it birth, for it is plainly the genuine offspring of circumstances, either experienced or supposed. That it was original in Clerk, is reasonably inferable, because he had no example : to guide or instruct him; but, that Sir Charles Douglas, or Lord Rodney, derived the idea from Clerk, cannot with any reason be insisted on, now that we have discovered that commanders, placed in similar circumstances with those distinguished officers, conceived and used the idea more than a century before Clerk appeared. Let us be satisfied with the fact, that a measure first effected by professional skill, will bear the test of scientific scrutiny; and that, as Newton and Leibnitz may both have hit upon the method of fluxions, without the one being a debtor to the other, so, in the operation of cutting through the enemy's naval line of battle, the mau of practice and the man of theory may each have been originators of that not very difficult conception; for, the difficulty does not lie in the conception, but in the execution."-Vol. ii. pp. 354–356. We are bound to bear our humble testimony to the great value of the present volumes, as containing a body of illustrations drawn from the most authentic sources, and directly tending to illustrate a subject dear to the memory of every Englishman. The light in which Mr. Penn presents the navy of England, when it was laying the firm foundation of its own immortal glory, deserves to be contemplated by every inhabitant of the country-to the seaman it would be quite superfluous to offer any similar recommendation. ART. VIII.-Evenings in Greece. By THOMAS MOORE, Esq. Second Evening. London: Published by J. Power, 34, Strand. We have somewhere read or heard that one of the ancient fathers, we believe St. Augustin, used to call good poetry "the devil's wine." We know not whether this expression occurred to the holy man after a strong draught from Sappho or Anacreon; but we well recollect when at Cambridge, that our youthful blood acknowledged the power of Mr. Little beyond that of any other poet of the day. We are fallen, however, since that time, into the "sere and yellow leaf;" in short, we are some ten years older than when we first tasted the delicious poison" of Mr. Moore's love-songs, and we must confess with a sigh, that judgment has at length displaced fancy from her throne in our minds. .6 Yet, cool as we profess ourselves to be, Mr. Moore is determined, it seems, to lead us captive on the present occasion, by "marrying music to immortal verse;" and, although we cannot pretend to be judges of the music, unless we were to hear it played, we have no hesitation in saying that much of the poetry will find an echo in every heart. Our readers are acquainted, we suppose, from our review of the "First Evening," with the general plan of Mr. Moore's work, and, therefore, little more can devolve on us, in recurring to the subject, than to give them some additional specimens of the poetry. In doing this, we must observe at the outset, that, although there are some marks of haste or negligence in the present volume, its style is more chaste and subdued, upon the whole, than that of Mr. Moore's poetry in general-as far, at least, as we are acquainted with it. Take, for example, the following song, which, in our opinion, is the best of the collection. It is full of that sort of masculine energy which is rather unusual with Mr. Moore, and is the more valuable as it proposes at once a stimulus and a reward for the exertions of youth: I. "March! nor heed those arms that hold thee, Though so close they round thee come; Closer still they will enfold thee, When thou bring'st fresh laurels home. Dost thou live but in her breath? II. Oh what bliss, when war is over, III. There! I see thy soul is burning- One last glowing tear and then- There is, we repeat, in these lines, a manly and energetic character, which, when compared with other specimens that we could produce, is clearly distinguishable from the effeminate and dissolute style which captivated us in our youth. But whatever the merit of the song in question, we cannot refrain from giving our readers another, which is addressed, we suppose, to Byron, under the name of Harmodius: I. "Thou art not dead-thou art not dead! Thou art not dead-thou art not dead! II. Through isles of light, where heroes tread, Forgets all taste of woe. Thou art not dead-thou art not dead! III. The myrtle, round that falchion spread, IV. Where hearts like thine have broke or bled, Their memory lights a flame, instead, v. Thy name, by myriads sung and said, Long as the oak and ivy wed, As bees shall haunt Hymettus' head, Or Helle's waters flow. Thou art not dead-thou art not dead! No, dearest Harmodius, no!" The reader will recollect that this is an imitation from the patriotic address of Harmodius and Aristogiston, as the liberators of Athens from the tyranny of Pisistratus; and as Lord Byron devoted his life and fortune to rescue Greece from the Turks, the song, which we have selected as a testimony of affection to a departed friend, does honour to the writer's heart. For ourselves, indeed, we will confess with candour that we prefer Lord Byron's poetry to his character; but our particularities cannot, of course, interfere with Mr. Moore's affections, nor shall they prevent us from appreciating the tribute which he has consecrated to his friend. We fear that we have already devoted more space to this subject than is compatible with our limits; but we will, nevertheless, submit one more extract to the judgment of our readers, and then express our opinion of the work : : "THE BIRTH OF PORTRAITURE. As once a Grecian maiden wove Her garland 'mid the summer bow'rs, To watch her while she wreathed the flowers. CHORUS. Blest be love, to whom we owe All that's fair and bright below. His hand had pictured many a rose, And sketch'd the rays that light the brook; And fix the soul that sparkles there.' His prayer, as soon as breath'd, was heard, Still as from tint to tint he stole, The fair design shone out the more, And there was now a life, a soul, Then first carnations learn'd to speak, |