77 Like a lorn mother, she mov❜d on in tears Sat beaming out illustrious-fit to lead New-Year's-Day, 1825. VICISSITUDE; J. M. G. OR, WINTER ANTICIPATED. THE glories of summer, alas, they have flown! And Flora's fair offspring have sunk to decay: The sun, his intention to leave us has shown; The swallows have taken their flight o'er the sea. Munificent Autumn, with liberal hand, Her manifold blessings around having shed, Will soon her mild presence withdraw from our land, Her sceptre resign to the monarch of dread. Yes, Winter, stern king, soon again will appear, The rivers assail with his ice-forming breath; The Earth will acknowledge his rigid career, And Nature appear in the vesture of death. Vicissitude's impress each earthly thing bears, How oft is the sunshine succeeded by rain! The bright eye of joy oft is darken'd by tears; We all have our seasons of pleasure and pain. Time's e'er-ebbing tide to eternity's sea Runs down, bearing life's feeble bark on its ... The moon shines softly from the star-gemm'd sky, And brightly gilds the billows curling by, Rolling unconscious o'er the scene of gloom, Where ship and inmates found one common doom: Where sank, and perish'd, riches, hopes, and life Nor left a floating vestige of that billowy strife! 1 From India's climes the noble vessel came, For Britain bound, -the Rosalband her name: Each nook with gold and fragrant spice was fill'd, And costly raiment in the hold was pil'd ; And noble blood and beauty's pride were there While waves propitious roll'd, and every wind was fair. Ah,-little thought that gay licentious crew, While their bark bounded o'er the swelling blue While rich wines sparkled, and the jest ran high And songs and laughter told their revelry; Oh!--it was hard, when glist'ning in moonlight, Ay; 'twas a night of wild,-of dark alarm, Oft hadst thou roll'd along the foaming seas, Oh, thou didst move in majesty sedateQueen of th' unfathom'd deep, in all thy pomp and state! But, now the gusty breeze sighs ominously, And inky clouds o'erspread the dark'ning sky; Now patters through the shrouds the slow, large drop, While the damp flag hangs moveless at the top; Then distant thunders mutter threateningly, And lightnings glide, like fiery snakes, along the sea. Lo, while yon mighty billows onward boom,See, how the lightning gilds their snowy foam! With livid lustre lights their vast abyss, While farious winds around their summits biss! Then bursts the rattling thunder-clap on highAnd, thron'd on brazen chariots, rolls along the sky! Where beats about the gallant Rosalband, Dread is the struggle thon must pass to-day! See!-see her reel along on mountains steep, Then plunge, like thunder, down the roaring deep! How the tense cordage strains!-how creaks the mast, Which rocks compulsive to the bowling blast! Hark!-hark!-"A leak!"-Great God, what wild despair Hath froze the heart of each devoted victim there! Mark how the captain, pacing yon high deck,-Sunk is his fiery eye, and blanch'd his cheek' His tight lip quivers,-but his step is firm; His bold heart quails-yet nervous is his arm! But look:-he stamps-vehement clasps his band And swears-"I'll perish with thee, gallant Down crash the masts upon the boiling deep; Another peal!-the blustering sea derides in turo! What sound was that?—It was a knell of death! Of writhing-choking,-agony beneath! there! Then shudder to behold that dreadful bandJamm'd in the rocks, or smother'd in the sand! And sable, slimy monsters squatting on 'Tis said-unearthly creatures flitted by, storm! Yet, why ideal horrors seek to know? Our wearied verse is down, with those who sleep below! Oh thou who readst their melancholy tale, Are toss'd on waves, or bruis'd 'mong rocks and stones. Whose dust, unburied,-save 'neath billowy foam, Heard ye the wail of yon poor maid's despair? Yet rests unseen-secure-amid their watery Wild o'er her brow streams her dishevell'd home! They did but die-a doom thyself must share Yet cease: thy grief in manly silence bear: But how!-devout, we ask thee, God on high! Nor roaring tumults agitate the scene: REVIEW.-"Friendship's Offering," a Several attempts appear in the volume before us, but the authors have in general been unsuccessful. Some articles will indeed be admitted with but little inquiry, but others border so THIS volume is of the same class much on the romantic, that improbawith the "Amulet," which we review- bility, awakening suspicion, puts the ed in our number for December, and reader on the alert. Yet, perhaps, with "Forget me Not," which appears this circumstance, among a certain in the present month. All are deco-class may increase the number of its rated with external splendour, having admirers, and even enhance its value fine paper, gilt edges, beautiful plates, in their estimation. and miscellaneous variety, and appearing as rivals in the market of taste and elegant display. The contents, however, vary considerably. The Amulet contains articles exclusively of a moral and a religious nature. "Forget me Not," abounds in tales, incidents, and poetical effusions; and "Friendship's Offering," is amusing and entertaining, without exacting from intellect any severe contribu-lence of its typography, and the neat tions. In this volume there are thirteen highly finished copper-plate engravings, connected with subjects that occupy some of its pages. The articles are ninety-six in number, the greater part of which bear the names of their respective authors, many of whom are well known in the literary world. As compositions, they are such as might be expected from their pens,-full of vivaicty, and furnishing strong evidence of genius; and amidst the amusement which they cannot fail to afford, we have found nothing at which virtue can take alarm, or that will tinge the cheek of modesty with a blush. Some of the tales are highly interesting, and by youthful readers, they will be perused with those conflicting emotions, which incidents of rare occurrence are calculated to excite. It cannot be denied, that "The Wife," "The Dream," and a few others, are evidently written with an eye to dramatic effect. They contain the vicissitude, without the catastrophe which the reader was prepared to expect; and by well contrived transitions, anticipations of horror and sadness are turned either into an unforeseen channel, or into a burst of sudden joy. REVIEW.-"Forget me Not," a Christmas and New-year's Present for 1826, 12mo. pp. 394. Ackermann, London. THIS is the fourth annual volume which has appeared under the above title, each of which has been distinguished for the beauty of its plates, the excel ness of its execution in every department. The volume before us contains fourteen graphic embellishments, finished in a superior style of elegance, and displays as much taste in the design, as beauty in the engraving. In both of these respects, the plates cannot fail to give universal satisfaction. The exterior of this book has a very attractive appearance. The cover is decorated with delicate emblems, and the case in which it is enclosed, keeps it from being soiled, and preserves the uniformity. The paper is fine and good, the edges of the leaves are gilt, and no expense has been spared to give it a most inviting aspect. The articles which it contains are forty-eight in number, of which the greater part is prose; but, in several poetical compositions, the muse has been consulted with considerable advantage. To most of these articles, the names of their respective authors are annexed, and among them we find some of the more celebrated writers of the day. As literary productions, the style of each is worthy of the publication, nor have we found anything that can ofThe writer who takes his stand in fend either the eye or the ear of the nicest delicacy. The subjects, as it is the suburbs of fiction, has a difficult natural to suppose, furnished by so task to perform. To blend the marvellous with the probable, without be- many authors, are highly diversified: traying any symptoms of the unna- but although completely miscellaneous tural association, requires a delicacy they all partake of one common chaof touch to which few are competent.|racter, including description, incident, 85.-VOL. VIII. F narrative, historical and biographical | from the narrative, that, fired with hesketches, and entertaining stories. Taken in the aggregate, they are, however, better calculated to afford amusement than real instruction; nor can it be said that they furnish a fair delineation of real life. For this, several pieces border too much on the romantic; but to such readers as delight to expatiate in artificial existence, this will prove an additional recommendation. In a work of this description, we should not expect to find any thing profound, but we cannot avoid thinking, that it might have mounted a few degrees higher in the regions of intellect, without suffering any disadvantage. There can be no doubt, that when its degree of elevation was taken, it was calculated on a meridian to please the youth of both sexes, and in this there can be no danger that it will amply succeed. But, in addition to these, the elegance and respectability of the volume point it out as a handsome present for friendship, when both the givers and the receivers have passed their teens. It is on these distinct grounds that the situation of the authors appear peculiarly delicate. To cater in the same work for tastes so diversified as the readers of" Forget me Not" can hardly fail to possess, is a task of almost insuperable difficulty. It is a soil in which axioms and definitions will not flourish, and in a publication of this kind, nothing could atone for the absence of sprightliness and vivacity. It would be easy to give extracts from many pages of this elegant memento, but they would furnish no fair criterion of the work. On perusing the whole, the reader will find much innocent entertainment, and we envy not the morbid sensibility of any one, who, having examined its prose and verse, will close the book with a gloomy countenance. REVIEW.-Memoirs of a Deist, being a In this very singular performance, we roic ardour, he repaired in early life to India, where he attained an exalted military rank; that, on retiring from the army, he returned to his native land, 'in which he still resides; that the mental conflicts which this volume records, took place chiefly while he was abroad; and that, from a profane and blasphemous infidel, he is become a humble follower of Jesus Christ. That this memorial contains a genuine picture of the author's mind, during its various and diversified stages of conflict, cannot for a moment be doubted. In every paragraph we perceive decisive marks of authenticity; the operations of the heart are ingenuously unfolded; and truth beams upon us without embellishment, and without disguise. A work like this, is beyond the reach of fabrication. It is also obvious, that the author is a man of powerful feelings, of a warm and lively imagination, inflexible in his decisions, prompt in all his actions, and incapable of doing any thing by halves. The same mental vigour which rendered him enterprising when a soldier, is visible in his spiritual speculations. Having acquired an intimate acquaintance with Euclid, and perceived the beauty of mathematical principles and reasoning, he formed the romantic idea, of making moral truth, and even revelation itself, subservient to a similar process. To him analogy lends her light in almost every thing; and so acute is the author's power of discernment, that he can discover coincidences, where, to all besides, the resemblance would perhaps be invisible. The following paragraph will confirm this statement. "I then concluded from innumerable analo gies, that the law of right reason, being fixed, and immutably proportionate, was shadowed forth by the elements of geometry, as in Euclid's elements; and that the unsearchable laws of the imagination and the heart, being altogether variable, and fluctuating between good and evil, were represented truly and accurately by the doctrine of fluxions and attractions; and that the comprehensive and universal expressions of algebra, were nothing more or less than the emblems of the respective natures and relative operations of good and evil, virtue and vice, truth and falsehood, which in like manner were eternally plus and minus to each other. That man was placed as it were in the centre, between the negative and positive scales, which might be expressed by two triangles, formed by the intersection of two straight lines, their equidistant bases being the extreme of good and evil, and of course, at the greatest distance from each other; while man, at the point of intersection, bad both before him, and was free to choose either the one or the other, being in equilibrio.” p. 103, 4. Such theories may furnish amusement, but we fear it will be at the expense of real instruction. If the author had confined himself to the memoirs of his life, and delineated the change wrought in his heart, without giving to us geometrical Christianity, and algebraic morals, we have no doubt that his book would be rendered more extensively beneficial, than it is likely to prove in its present form. threatens the infliction on the public of two more volumes: "Duty and Love," and "Trials and Triumphs." If the author be as unsuccessful in these embryo poems as in the one under review, we would advise him to cease attempting the flowery hill of Parnassus, and confine his pen to the legitimate objects of his engrossing profession.-Verbum sapienti! REVIEW.-The Evangelical Rambler, Vol. III. 8vo. London. Westley. 1825. THIS volume, like the two that have preceded it, is composed of tracts that first appeared in a detached form; and it is only lately that they have been combined together in the shape which they now assume. The articles REVIEW.-The Fruits of Faith, or Musing Sinner, with Elegies, and other moral Poems. By Hugh Camp-which fill its pages correspond both in bell, of the Middle Temple; Illus- excellence and variety with those that trator of Ossian's Poems. pp. 165. we have already reviewed, and no London. Longman & Co. 1825. doubt they will be perused with an REALLY we expected something wor- equal degree of interest. We have thier of the unquestionable talents of found nothing that either militates Mr. H. Campbell, than the balderdash against true religion, or saps the foundation of sound morals, but much that contained in the volume before us. What are these moral poems? We promotes the welfare of both. The will copy a few of the titles from the little narratives, sketches, and disserindex, for the reader's great edifica-tations, are replete with sterling sense tion. "Stanzas to a Young Lady""Ditto, on a Young Lady who Drowns herself for Love"" Ditto, to a young American Lady"-" To Miss G. at Church"-" To a Young Lady with a Cedar Box"-" To Mary" being taken with a foulWind"-"With a Rose to Mary"-"To Cupid"—"The Married Coquette!”- "To a Young Lady kissed by the King of France !”"To Miss on leaving Covent Garden"-"To an Antique Coquette," and so forth. "On If these are the fruits of faith, we fear Mr. C.'s stock of piety is very unproductive, or at least is fruitful only in garbage. The preface is a diatribe on the Religious Tract Society, who refused the offer of printing, for general distribution, the "Fruits of Faith;"-and they were in the right of it. To us, the perusal of the whole volume has been work " weary, stale, flat, and unprofitable;" and we doubt not it will be so to all those of our readers who are foolish enough to expend their money on this foolish volume. We are startled, moreover, by an advertisement on the last page, which and wholesome instruction, written in a lively and spirited manner, calculated to arrest the attention, and to leave lasting impressions on the mind. On the subject of Negro emancipation, in four parts, a strong and powerful appeal is made to the British public, on behalf of this much injured race; but against unfeeling villany, justice and humanity seem to plead in vain. A moment, however, may arrive when the slaves will liberate themselves, and we then expect to see their wrongs retaliated with tenfold vengeance on their white oppressors. REVIEW.-The Lost Spirit, a Poem, WE frankly confess that we took up |