Lavallée's History of the Rise, Progress, and Extinction, &c. of the French Maltby's Lexicon Græco-Prosodiacum, Auctore T. Morell, S. T. P. Mant's Sermons preached before the University of Oxford Mason's Plea for Sacramental Communion on Catholic Principles Memoirs of the early Life of William Cowper, Esq. Written by Himself of the Marchioness De Larochejaquelein of the Revolutionists, and of the Present Ministry Monody on the Death of the Right Honourable R. B. Sheridan Naiad a Tale. With other Poems Narrative of the Imprisonment and Escape of Peter Gordon, from the 543 379 290 -Parliamentary Portraits: Originally published in the Examiner 141 502 Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London, for the Year Poetic Mirror, or the Living Bards of Britain -Précis de la Vie Publique du Duc d'Otrante Reid's Essays on Insanity, Hypochondriasis, and other Nervous Affections Report of the Committee for Investigating the Causes of the alarming In- Ryder's, Bishop, Charge to the Clergy of the Diocese of Gloucester. Shelley's Alastor, or the Spirit of Solitude: and other Poems ECLECTIC REVIEW, FOR JULY, 1816. Art. I. 1. The Poet's Pilgrimage to Waterloo. By Robert Southey, Esq. Poet Laureate, Member of the Royal Spanish Academy, and of the Royal Spanish Academy of History. 12mo. pp. 232. 8 Plates. Price 10s. 6d.-Longman and Co. 1816. 2. Thanksgiving Ode, January 18, 1816. With other Short Pieces, chiefly referring to recent Public Events. By William Wordsworth. 8vo. pp. 10, 52. Price 4s.-Longman and Co. 1816. IT T ought to occasion no surprise, that modern poets have rarely succeeded in the attempt to please or to interest, when subjects of present political concern have been their theme. Seldom, very seldom are the feelings awakened by public events, of a nature to blend with the emotions of taste, or to admit of that pleasing exaggeration which it is the business of the poet to produce. The poet himself, in venturing upon a political theme, finds it difficult to exercise the power of abstraction sufficiently to enable him to select and combine the appropriate materials for poetry, and still more difficult to carry the enthusiasm of a cultivated mind into subjects, the familiar details of which are often mean, painful, or disgusting. The time was, when the wreath of the victor was entwined by the hand of the bard; and when the poet alternately wielded the sword, and recited in rude melody the songs of heroes. But those times are gone by, we trust for ever. We do not believe that the poet exists, who could succeed in making war, as a present event, interesting to the imagination. As to deeds of other times,-battles fought before the invention of gunpowder, wars which have left us no legacy of taxes,-the burthens and the griefs of which we have never had to feel; -these it is very possible to render poetical enough; and by that sympathy with which genuine poetry inspires us, we may be so far transported in imagination to those times, as to adopt for the moment the characteristic feelings of its heroes and warriors. But stronger sympathies than those awakened by the poet, connect us with present events, and they are such as preclude the indulgence of the fancy in scenes of modern war. VOL. VI. N. S. B Eclectic Review, MDCCCXVI. JULY-DECEMBER. NEW SERIES. VOL. VI. Φιλοσοφίαν δε ου την Στωικην λεγω, ουδε την Πλατωνικην, η την Επικούρειον τε CLEM. ALEX. Strom. Lib. 1. LONDON: PUBLISHED BY JOSIAH CONDER, 18, ST. PAUL'S CHURCH-YARD. DEIGHTON AND SONS, CAMBRIDGE; AND OLIPHANT, WAUGH, AND INNES, EDINBURGH. |