The daring steed now plung'd in Tay,
Dashing aside the foaming spray;
Young Malcolm too did saddle leave,
With stalworth arm the wave to cleave.

Now o'er their heads the waters close
And now again they struggling rose,
And swam with courage firm and bold,
While big with death the black waves roll'd.
The ruffian rout soon reach'd the strand,
And with loud curse each other brand;
For all their toil reap'd nought but shame;
For them to 'tempt the waves were vain.

The daring Prince too made the land,
And wav'd on high his trusty brand;
And loudly swore, by th' howling flood,
He'd drench the tyrant's hold in blood.'

This is perhaps the best passage in the poem. Mr. Humphreys's rhyming creed is very lax. Such rhymes as soon and groom, Wassail and Castle, clean'd and seem'd, ween and dream, are of frequent occurrence; to say nothing of cheer and care, keep and fleet, longer and ponder, &c. The miscellaneous poems are of nearly the same character with the principal piece; they display no great genius, and a carelessness which is unpardonable. Indeed, we think that more is imputable to want of care than to want of ability; since, though the author does not appear to possess those talents which would intitle him to the character of a real poet, he might probably attain that of an interesting and pretty versifier, if he would take more pains with his language, his rhyme, and his metre. To do this, he must become more familiar with the old and standard writers of our language; and less disposed to copy those of the present day, whose merit is in too many instances little more than the triumph of genius over a bad manner and a faulty taste.

Art. 18. The Cossack: A Poem, in Three Cantos, with Notes.. 8vo. pp. 85. Baldwin and Co. 1815.

In shape, in size, in tone, in temper, lo! the exact counterpart of "The Corsair." Oh! si sic omnia! but alas! some trifling requisites are wanting to complete the likeness:

"Look here upon this picture and on this,

The counterfeit presentment of two brothers.

This was" the Corsair.

The Cossack (of the Don description) resembles him indeed most strongly in outward form; and if the name of Murray had been substituted for that of Baldwin in the title-page, we should have started at the Ghost of Lara. Fleshless and bloodless indeed is this apparition.

Dropping all our "unsavoury similes," we shall proceed to the genuine Cossack; whom, under the name of Kouteskoff, we beg leave now to introduce to our readers, -on horseback 16

• Kosakki

Kosakki-Donski's attaman
Sends him to Volga's tide,
Where, ere it reaches Astracan,
A brother horde reside.
Tidings he bears of gathering foe,

Which Ordinsk's chief must quickly know;
And, followed by his faithful train,
He scours o'er mountain, dell, and plain.
And will he all the livelong night
Continue such a falcon flight?
If so, ere darkness o'er him roll,
He'd almost reach the frozen pole.'

This pursuer of the Polar Star arrives at the cottage of Yemkero; where, after he has barely warmed himself,

What meets his view?

what vision bright

Now bursts upon his ravished sight?
A female form with azure eye,
With long and auburn hair,
A skin of snow's unspotted dye,
A mild enchanting air;

A robe of fur her form embraced,
A rustic zone enclasp'd her waist
With neat unstudied care:
There was a something in her face,
That seem'd as if the softest
grace

Had loved to linger there.
Beneath her breast of ivory hue,
The feeling, pure as morning's dew,
Waked every ermine thought,
That, fed by virtue's limpid tide,
Gave to her bosom in its glide
All with perfection fraught:
So much of heaven there dwelt within,
As drove to distance lurking sin:
It seem'd as if, at hour of birth,
Some angel stole her from the earth,
And rear'd her mid this lonely wild,
Of innocence and peace the child.'

The imitation we conceive to be sufficiently obvious in the above passage; especially in the something in her face, and the so much of heaven: but what upon earth can be meant by 'ermine thoughts,' the Judges only can decide.

The Cossack, whom we last saw riding as if the very devil was at his heels, now

dashes for a space,
Then moves him with a tardier pace,

REV. SEPT. 1815.

H

Gives

Gives to his courser roller'd steel, 'With all the force of battle-heel **

or, as the author

says in another passage,

• With such a very self of zeal.n

In short, he is in love. He now meets Holagou. Holagou is the leader of a band of Calmuck Tartars, with whom and Messrs. Kouteskoff and Co. the most common-place fight ensues which ever was fought in ballad epic. Our friend K. buries them all, and then gallops away," with his galloping dreary dun." Then he goes to a Cossack-ball' at Astracan; where, without wiping the blood off his beard, he enters the room with most exemplary sang froid, and stops the music :

The music's sound is staid 'tis all surprise,
His look so warlike his such ample size;

High o'er the throng he towers, though in the scene
many a warrior of majestic mień:

Is

He strides across the hall; a look of fright

Is seen in ladies' eyes at such a sight,

So fierce he seem'd, for still upon his beard
The bloody token of the strife was smear'd;
But when he roll'd his large blue eye around,
The ladies' souls another feeling found.'

We think that this insinuation is rather indelicate: but, as the Don Cossack is probably of a different opinion, we shall proceed without farther, comment, and observe that he now goes back, after a most rough and Russian appetite at supper, to Yemkero's cottage, and finds it empty. A meagre Turk' has been there, to procure his love for the Pasha's seraglio, and has taken her away, with his band of brother procurers: her father has gone after her; and K. sets off after both. The Turks are so frightened at the ample size and unwashed beard of K., that they release his love, Zamasta; who is then immediately married to the Don, for any thing that we know to the contrary: but the author refers us to the fondest pair that all the world contains,' the real winners of the Flitch of Bacon, for the knowlege of a secret which, it seems, must not be communicated to the uninitiated reader.

EDUCATION.

Art. 19. Steps to Sense Verses, or a Set of Exercises to be rendered into Latin Hexameters and Pentameters. For the Use of Schools. 12mo. Law and Co. 1815.

Steps to Sense Verses!' delightful gradus ad Parnassum for a very large portion of our contemporary poets! We can fancy the doors of Messrs. Law and Whitaker, No. 13. Ave Maria Lane, actually blockaded with the chariots, hackney-coaches, and taxed

८

*This sort of line is truly Scottish, or rather Walter Scottish: but the object of this Don Cossack's ambition is doubtless another author.

carts,

4

carts, of Messrs. A, B, C, D, E, F, G, &c. among the high and the middling multitudes of rhymers, and the rest of the alphabet on foot, to secure this preliminary and most necessary help to their compositions. Alas! however, the school-boy alone, and his instructor, are benefited by this little publication; to the former of whom it will be the means, if rightly used, of much improvement in Latin prosody, while to the latter it will save the necessity of accumulating much manuscript sense and nonsense of the kind in question. Only let the publishers beware, when they deliver the Key to this volume to any applicant, (for a Key is advertized with it,) that he has at least a large bushy wig, or a threadbare pair of velveteen breeches, to verify his title to the character of Tutor instead of that of Pupil, Art. 20. Guy's New Latin Primer, or Companion to Latin Grammars. In Three Parts. 1. Contains regular Nouns, Adjectives, Pronouns to be declined, and Verbs to be conjugated; according, to the Examples of those Parts of Speech in the Accidence. 2. Contains the Exceptions to the three Special Rules for the Genders; and the Irregulars in Declension and Conjugation, so arranged as to be with facility understood and retained. 3. Ex. hibits such irregular Declensions and Conjugations, at length, as are not usually found in School Grammars. By Joseph Guy, junior. Author of the English School Grammar. 12mo. Baldwin and Co.

The father, we believe, of this grammarian is author of several useful works of an elementary description; and the son treads passibus aquis in the same respectable though lowly path. Considered as a mere companion to the Grammar, (all that it pretends to be,) in the earliest rudiments of classical education, this little book may be safely recommended. Whether, after all the similar works, such a publication" be much wanted," is indeed not so clear a point: but we thus obtain at least a variety of choice among books of this description. We agree with the author that the exercise here required, by affording an interesting variety of school-business, will fill up the intervals of grammar-tasks; and that something of the reason and utility of the labour will illumine the learner's mind, even during the most obscure stage of classical learning.'

GEOGRAPHY.

Art. 21. A Treatise on the Construction of Maps; in which the Principles of the Projections of the Sphere are demonstrated, and their various practical Relations to Mathematical Geography deduced and explained, &c. &c. By Alexander Jamieson. 8vo. pp. 188. 9s. Boards. Law.

It is very necessary, in conveying to the student in geography a 'knowlege of the various bearings, extent, boundaries, situations, &c. of different countries, to have some means of fixing them on his mind with associations of a different sort; such as peculiarity of soil, natural productions, manners of the people, the scites of great battles, &c. which have a tendency to make a more permanent impression than any that can be effected without them: but, as it is

H 2

difficult

difficult to find subjects always interesting, it is likewise not easy to fix the geographical situations of places on the mind of a youth so as to be essentially useful to him. The only means of supplying such a want of association is by the construction of maps; since that practice exhibits the principles on which this useful science is founded, in the clearest and most obvious point of view.

The first general ideas of latitude, longitude, and the several artificial lines of the sphere, can be perhaps in no way better explained than by a terrestrial globe: but for the rest we have always thought that the time, which is bestowed in schools on what is called "learning the use of the globes," is thrown away; and it is frequently the means of imparting very incorrect notions to the student, particularly with respect to the celestial sphere, which are more difficult to eradicate than to implant.

If, then, the construction of maps is absolutely necessary to convey a correct idea of geography, a well digested treatise on this subject, reduced to the level of the comprehension of youth, must be considered as a very useful performance; and such an one we conceive Mr. Jamieson's work to be. It is divided into ten sections, viz. Preliminary Remarks on the Nature of the Terrestrial Globe, its Circles and their Uses; Preliminary Observations on Maps and Charts;. on the Principles of the Orthographic, the Stereographic, and the Globular Projection of the Sphere; the Geometrical and Trigonometrical Projections of the Sphere on the Plane of the Meridian and the Equator; the Principles of Mercator's Projection; on the Origin and Properties of the Rhumb Line, or Loxodromic Curve; Meridional, Equatorial, and Horizontal Construction of Maps; on the Principles and Practice of developing a Spheric Surface on a Plane; Geometrical Projections of various Maps; on the Construction and Use of the Analemma; to which is subjoined an Appendix, containing several interesting and valuable notes.

It is difficult, in a case of this kind, to make selections which shall be a fair specimen of the general execution of the work: but the following brief extract may shew the familiar manner in which the different subjects are here illustrated; it relates to the author's explanation of the principles of stereographic projection:

In the stereographic projection of the sphere, the eye is supposed to be situated somewhere upon the surface of the sphere to be represented, and looking towards the opposite concave surface. Imagine to yourself, that there is before you a glass sphere, hung, like the terrestrial globe, in the position of a right sphere; that this glass sphere has cut upon its circumference, all the lines and circles of the globe, and that those lines and circles are opaque; that within this glass sphere, there is a glass plane, coinciding with the points Aries and Libra, and by consequence, with the wooden horizon of the frame in which your sphere is supposed to be hung; then this glass plane meeting the inner surface, or circumference, of the sphere, would represent the plane of a great circle of the sphere passing through Aries, the north pole, Libra, and the south pole. Conceive, also, that there is a perpendicular drawn from the centre of this glass plane or circle, to meet the surface of the sphere precisely where the merdian