.... Oh! what is glory? what the laurell'd wreath Of Thee (brave youth) can no historic page And trembling moon-beams kiss thy place of rest. Let not severity your motive scan, For ever pillow'd on the rocking deep, CHRISTINA. To frame an advertisement, with a reward. "Ye daughters of Virtue, whose fame doth abound As the nurses of childhood and youth; A babe, of celestial descent, has been found, And is cherish'd at present by Truth: But to those who will take her, and bring her up well, The secret of happiness with them shall dwell." First came a tall female, with eloquent speech, With a comely and dignified brow; She proffer'd to take the sweet foundling, and teach Her all sciences mortals could know. But MINERVA was stalwart, and stern, and could scowl; And the infant seem'd startled at sight of her owl. Each lovely in charms of her own; But the one was too gay to be trusted,--and one Too grave for such nursing was grown: They proffer'd to pledge themselves never to part; But Hope's guardian had bere some misgivings of heart. Meantime came RELIGION, with FAITH as her guide, And they told of their errand the scope; When Truth, in a moment, resolv'd to confide TO RELIGION the nursing of Hope. And eke in good time, of her secret beguil'd, That HOPE and RELIGION were mother and child. Dear is that school-boy spot Oh! I remember all my boyhood yet! Those spots that charm'd me when a simple child. To which I wander'd when the sun had set, Where woodbine hedge-rows spread their fragrance mild; And all the ling'ring hues of heaven had met In the far west; and o'er the meadow-field Thetrees their lengthen'd shadows faintly strew, As gaz'd my young eyes on the distant view. But now those "dear delusions" far are fled, Chas'd by the world, and all its piercing wo; Yet Sensibility its tear shall shed; Nor will it e'er the pleasing task forego, Of painting childhood to those aching eyes, Till pain shall end in bliss beyond the skies! Thirsk, July 12th, 1824. G. Y. H. recess, First met the gazing of my eager eye, Array'd by Nature in its verdant dress, With lofty pinnacle, and arches high,Sweet were the flowers that there a fragrance shed, Sweet as the faces of the smiling train,* And beauteous in the narrow river's bed, The colour'd pavement of the ruin'd fane. The laurel-walks, where modern statues stood, In virgin whiteness, on the verdury lawn, The gothic temples, rising o'er the wood, Whose sumptuous shadows in the water shone; The little bridge, where mossy trees unite To hide its arch, which o'er the water strides; The pendent woods upon the rocky height, Shook by the breeze, that gently cross'd its sides; Compos'd the outline of the sainted pile, Its cloister'd darkness, and extensive nave, With all the splendour of the Gothic style,The broken column, and its architrave. "Tis bliss to wander in that holy spot, Where glossy ivy round the arches twine; In which humility of soul was taught, And adoration to the prelate's shrine. When magic moonlight clothes the monkish scene, And speaks it sacred to the poet's lyre; When all is silver'd with her cloudless sheen, Each ruin'd pillar and decaying spire,→→ Then, then to pore upon the sculptor's toil, Is joy ecstatic to the mourner's mind: The midnight bush,-the monastery's spoil, Engross the soul, and leave the world behind. Not less enchanting in the noontide-beam, When forms of beauty throng'd the shady bow'rs, Inhaling renovation from that stream Which down the vale its tide of silver pours. Blest be the day! and ballow'd in my heart; Belov'd as HIM who shar'd with me the scene; Though fleet the bliss, and fated to depart, 'Tis joy to think such moments once have been. And should he rest beneath the parching ray, Slain by its rigours in a ruthless clime, Peace to the spot!-where'er his ashes lay, Beneath the plantain's shade, or lofty lime. But far more placid would his slumber be, Repos'd in quiet at bis village-home; Where not the plantain, but the beechen-tree, Casts on the rural sepulchres its gloom; The monastery, and its adjacent pleasureground, is a fashionable resort during the summer. Lady Lawrence is the present proprietor. 86.-VOL. VIII. And where around the mount and woody dell, Alternate smile beneath a summer's sky: Where virtue is, and peace delights to dwell; Who would not wish in such a spot to die? Lambeth-Road, Oct. 1st, 1825. G. Y. H.. ADIEU TO ROMANCE. FAREWELL to wild Romance, So bright, it could not last; I wish not to recall, Even were it in my power; Which maddened every hour!~~~ Which, glittering high o'erhead, Through scenes of dreariest--blackest night, Of happiness in search, With nought to shew the way! Till Truth uprear'd her flashing torch, In accents soft and mild, She thus besought mine ear:-"Oh, cease these efforts wild, To seek enjoyment here! "Tis searching after gold, And grasping useless ore ;An apple, ruddy to behold, With ashes at the core! "Ay-tis a brilliant bubble, Men covet to possess; And, when attain'd with toil and trouble, Then why thus struggle on, Q. Q. Q. Errata. In col. 80, fine 21, for "Or o'er each, &c." read Or see each, &c." In lines 31 and 32, for That lightnings glittering in a mystic form, Stretch'd from the clouds, and beckon'd in the storm," read,That lightnings glitter'd on a mystic REVIEW-A Manual of_the_Elements while contemplating the Divine mercy 66 of Natural History, by J. F. Blumenbach, Professor of the University of Gottingen, Aulic Counsellor, Fellow of the Royal Society of London, of the Royal Academy of Sciences at Paris, &c. &c. Translated from the Tenth German Edition by R. F. Gore, Member of the Royal College of Surgeons in London. 8vo. pp. 415. London. Simpkin and Marshall, Stationers' Court. 1825, THE study of natural history is one of the most interesting to which mankind can devote their talents. The field for inquiry is vastly extensive, while the objects of investigation, being of the most wonderful character, are eminently calculated to display to the human mind those glorious attributes which constitute the divine perfection, and at once command our admiration, our reverence, and our gratitude. It has been asserted, that an undevout astronomer is mad:" and certainly they who study the mechanism of the universe, the laws observed by the heavenly bodies, which regulate their motions, and restrict them to their orbits, and which so conspicuously exhibit the beautiful harmony and order thus insured, cannot but perceive the incontrovertible evidences of perfection-a perfection infinitely beyond the utmost limits of human conception, far beyond the range of the most fanciful and unbounded imagination. and benevolence so conspicuously then! In these thy lowest works; yet these declare Thy goodness beyond thought, and power divine." The Professor begins his "Manual" by the consideration of natural bodies in general, and their divisions into three kingdoms. "All bodies," says our author, "which we meet with upon the surface, or in the interior of our planet, present themselves either with the form and structure which they receive from the hands of the Creator, and from the undisturbed action of the powers of nature, or else with changes and alterations resulting from the designed actions of men and beasts, or from the effects of mere accident." "On this difference is founded the familiar division of them into natural and artificial. The first form the object of Natural History, and comprise all those bodies in which man has not effected any essential alteration. On the contrary, artificial bodies are those in which changes have been designedly produced by the hand of man." p. 1. Natural bodies differ among themselves with respect to, 1st, their origin; 2nd, their growth; 3rd, their structure. This is by no means an exaggerated picture: we can see, in the glorious works of benevolence, the exercise of the most unbounded power, the wisdom which controls and regulates this exercise, the mercy and charity displayed, and the providence which has anticipated every essential, every requisite to constitute the sum of perfection-in fact, the Deity, all-wise, all-powerful, all-merciful, and good. But as we fail in conception, so we cannot hope to succeed in conveying those conceptions by any mode of expression. We can form but faint ideas of the divine attributes, and conse--by intus susceptio. quently, we still less perfectly express them. None seem to have had a clearer or more perfect conception of the Supreme Being, than the immortal Milton, and no one has been more happy in his descriptions than the same great genius, in his poem of “Paradise Lost." It must have been Some of them are inevitably produced by others of the same form and kind; so that their existence in an unbroken series, up to the first creation, presupposes other similar bodies, to which they owe their being. In the second place, they introduce various extraneous substances into their bodies, as nutriment, assimilate them to their own composition, separate the superfluous parts, and by this constant change and renewal grow from within The existence of these two properties necessarily infers a peculiar structure in this class of natural bodies. For to introduce and assimilate nutriment, and, subsequently, others of their own kind,it is necessary that they should be provided with vessels and organs suitably connected and endowed with what are called vital powers, and that they should be adapted to the reception of certain fluids, the assimilation of aliments, and the procreation of progeny. Now, all this is wanting in natural bodies of the other class, which are called minerals. In these, both origin and growth (if indeed the increase in their bulk can be so called) are the effects, not of nutrition, but of physical, chemical, and mechanical laws, -of aggregation, the addition of ho mogeneous particles from without; and consequently neither organization nor vital forces can be expected-hence the division into organic and inorga nic matter. But organized bodies still differ with respect to the manner in which their nutriment is introduced. Some of them absorb a very simple nutritious fluid, principally by means of numerous fibres placed at the lower part of their bodies, without any evident spontaneous motion. The others, on the contrary, have a simple opening at their upper or anterior extremity, leading to a capacious bag, into which, when impelled by hunger, they introduce their food (which is of several kinds) by means of voluntary motion. The former are plants, the latter ani mals. "This easily intelligible division of natural bodies," says our author, "into organized and inorganic, and that of organic bodies, is the basis of the three kingdoms, in which they have been very conveniently classed, and of which the first includes animals, the second plants, and the third minerals. "Animals, therefore, are organized bodies, living and animated, seeking their food, which may be of various kinds, by voluntary motions, and introducing it by a mouth into a stomach. "Plants are also organized bodies, living, but not animated, absorbing their very simple nutritive fluids by roots, and without the aid of voluntary motion. “Minerals, lastly, are inorganic bodies, not living, consequently without vital powers; and governed merely by the physical, mechanical, and chemical principles of attraction, affinity, plastic force, &c." p. 3. | doms. Upon these objections our author observes : As to the first, what often happens with respect to objects of experience, should not be forgotten, namely, that it is easier to know things as they really exist, than to discover and to indicate their distinctive characters." "Now, I believe, that in this very work I have established such characters, by means of which man can be unerringly distinguished from the most anthroPomorphous ape, as well as frown all other mammiferæ. But even without them, it is to be hoped that no natuof confounding a man with an ape. ralist would incur any risk, in praxi, Still more, creatures, from very different classes, have frequently remarkable and unexpected resemblances to each other, without, on that account, doing away with the indisputable differences between the classes to which they belong. For example, animals are very correctly divided into warmblooded and cold-blooded; with equal propriety, mammiferæ are reckoned among the former, and insects among the latter; yet it is not on that account less true that bees, in their hive, are, beyond comparison, warmer than a hedgehog during its hybernation. So also, there are genera in the class Vermes, such as that of sepia, (cuttle fish,) which differ from other animals of that class, and are very similar to fishes. But no one will conclude, that therefore the separation of the class Pisces from the class Vermes, should be rejected. With as little propriety can the animal and vegetable kingdoms be confounded together, merely because a certain similarity of certain plants to certain animals has been remarked. Of this kind are the singular motions of several mimosa of the hedysarum gyrens, &c. which, remarkable as they may be, do not, in any respect, assume the character of animality which has been already laid down. As little of the character of vegetability have the resemblances of the arm-polypi with plants. These polypi are animals, which, alike with man and the oyster, impelled by hunger, introduce food into their mouths by voluntary motions; a thing which does not take place in any plant in the known creation. This division of natural objects has been objected to on several grounds. Two, however, have in modern times attracted more attention. Thus many have admitted the distinction between organized and unorganized bodies, but have denied the existence of any welldefined limits between animals and plants. Others again have carried the favourite metaphor of gradation in the creation to such an extent, as to exclude the division of nature into king-scale of beings. "It is equally easy to give an answer to the other objection to the three kingdoms of nature, founded on the common metaphor of a All these ideas of chain, scale, progression, &c. in nature, are so far useful in the methodical part of the study of natural history, as they form the basis of a (so called) natural system, in which beings are classed according to their most striking resemblances, their general habits, and the mutual affinities derived from those sources. "But to do as some well-meaning physicotheologians have done to make this a part of the plan of the creation, and to look there for the unity and perfection of that creation, on the principle that there are not any abrupt transitions in nature, (such is the expression,) because beings form a series as regards their external forms, appears to me to be at least presumptuous, even if it were not, as it actually is, in contradiction with itself when closely examined. In truth, it is only necessary to inspect this ingenious, but artificial scheme of a regular gradation of beings, to discover that on the one hand, immense numbers of creatures of similar form are collected into genera, composed of almost innumerable species, (particularly among worms and insects, and also in the vegetable kingdom,) whilst others, on the contrary, stand as it were isolated; because, on account of their very distinct and peculiar forms, they cannot, without violence, be introduced into any part of such a gradation of natural objects. Such, for example, is the whole class of birds, tortoises, the sepia, already mentioned, and others. More than this, there are animals (among insects the genus coccus) in which the forms of the male and female are so different, that in such a scale it would be absolutely necessary to separate the two sexes, and to as sign them very distant situations in the series. Besides all this, there are positive interruptions in the scale, which it is impossible to pass over without abrupt transitions; as, in one instance out of many, that between organized bodies and minerals. detail the mere names of animals, plants, and minerals. The reader who feels an interest in these inquiries we must refer to the work, assuring him that he will find a sufficient fund to remunerate him for his trouble. The author prefaces the summary of the objects of each of these three grand divisions of nature by some very appropriate and comprehensive observations. These remarks are expressed in concise, but at the same time plain and perspicuous language. To say that we recommend this volume as excellent in its department, would be quite superfluous, as the numerous editions (ten) through which it has passed at home in a very short period, are quite sufficient to stamp its character. So much for the original: With respect to the translation, we profess ourselves perfectly satisfied; and this from a comparison of the original with the translated copy. We acknowledge that some few alterations have been made; but these the translator felt himself justified in making, in order to correct some errors arising from the Professor's imperfect acquaintance with the English language. In fine, we cannot express our opinion of its merit more appropriately than in the words of the motto taken from the celebrated "Lectures on Physiology and the Natural History of Man." "It is, indeed, remarkable for its clear ar"If this suppositious gradation in nature is to be considered as defective, equally interesting and valuable information it coarangement, and for the immense quantity of groundless is the idea advanced by some phy-tains, condensed into a small compass. It is, sico-theologians, that, if one link of their altogether, the best Elementary Book on hypothetical chain should be lost, the whole Natural History, in any language."-Lawrence's course of the universe would be interrupted, Lectures. &c. But as whole species of animals have been exterminated in large islands, (wolves for instance, in England,) without any interruption of the completeness or connexion of the remaining creation in those spots; so also, others may disappear from the entire surface of the globe, (as seems to have happened in many cases already, the dodo, didus, ineptus, for instance,) without any disturbance in the regular and eternal unity of the creation, succeeding to this evident hiatus in the physicotheological chain."-pp. 4, 5, 6. Our author next proceeds to the consideration of organized bodies, including two of the kingdoms of nature; namely, the animal and vegetable. Of course, as a "Manual" of Natural History, this work, excepting the definitions, comprises little more than a summary of the objects which constitute the science. It is not for us to REVIEW.--Sonnets and other Poems. By D. L. Richardson, pp. 151. London. Thomas & George Underwood. 1825. WE beg to apologize to Mr. Richardson, for having suffered so long a time of poems named at the head of this arto elapse, before noticing the volume ticle, with whose transmission he favoured us so long since as May. We have been so overwhelmed with the multiplicity of our literary engagements in this department of our magazine, that to this circumstance is entirely owing, what we fear Mr. R. may have construed into a slight. We have perused his volume of poems with considerable attention; |