families of the first distinction in the Political world, both of the Ministry and Opposition. From these circumstances he has been enabled (he says) to obtain correct information upon the various subjects discussed in his work; the first volume only of which is as yet published, and it being but little known in this country, a few extracts may be amusing to our Readers.

DISTANT VIEW OF THE METROPOLIS. "Lorsque l'on est parvenu au haut de Shooters-hill, colline assez élevée, on jouit d'une vue magnifique; la Tamise paroit couverte d'une multitude d'embarcations de toute espèce; la blancheur de leurs voiles contrasté avec l'azur des eaux, & les beaux arbres qui ombragent ces rives verdoyantes, deploient un luxe de végétation inconnu dans les climats moins humides: un grand nombre de maisons de plaisance auxquelles les Anglois ont donné le nom Italien de Villa, et qui, sans être d'une architecture aussi riche et aussi pure que leurs modêles, ne manquent point d'élégance, ont été bâties dans les situations les plus favorables pour jouir de ee beau paysage, et contribuent à l'orner." (Chap. 3. p. 27.)

Speaking of the immense number of Carriages of all descriptions constantly met with in all the avenues of London, he says,

"Les Anglois aiment beaucoup l'air, et ne craignent ni le vent ni le froid; ee goût est commun aux deux sexes, et l'on voit les femmes les plus delicates s'exposer sans crainte aux intempéries d'une atmosphère humide. Il est certain que chez un peuple aussi sujet aux vapeurs et aux maux de nerfs (soit

que cette incommodité tienne au climat ou au mauvaise régime) l'exercice en plein air est nécessaire à la santé. En conséquence, dans les classes aisées, tout le monde sort et va prendre ce que l'on appelle un airing, lors même qu'il fait un ouragan." (Chap. 3. p. 29.)

ROYAL HOSPITAL, CHELSEA. "Il est située à Chelsea le plus oceidental des faux bourgs de Londres, dans une belle position sur les bords de la Tamise, mais qui déja ne porte plus de vaisseaux. L'edifice est vaste et regulier sans être d'une architecture remarquable. Il est cependant l'ouvrage du Chev. Wren; mais en comparant cet établissement avec celui de Greenwich, on reconnoit aisément que les Anglois attachent plus d'importance à leur flotte GENT. MAG. January, 1815.

"Le Voyageur éprouvera une impression très différente en visitant le Ranelagh. Celui-ci est bien le plus insipide lieu d'amusement que l'on ait pu imaginer. Il consiste dans une immense rotonde, dont le plafond est soutenu par un gros pilier, autour duquel est placé un orchestre. Les musiciens, mauvais ménétriers, jouent continuellement le même air, tandis que la foule circule dans la salle. Comme la vitesse de la marche est nécessairement uni

forme, il en resulte que l'on tourne souvent dans ce manège pendant une heure sans pouvoir joindre des personnes de sa connoissance qui ne sont qu'à quelques pas de soi. Ce prétendu amusement seroit pour une nation vive et gaie, une espèce de tourment: et je me persuade que si le Dante l'avoit connu, il l'auroit placé dans son purgatoire. Les Anglois en jugent autrement; le Ranelagh leur plait beaucoup; il reçoit même l'épithète de fashionable, expression emphatique dont on se sert pour designer tout ce qui est à la mode dans le grande monde." (Chap. 9. p. 195.)

THE PANTHEON.

"Le Pantheon est situé dans l'intérieur de la ville: c'est également une rotonde très richement décorée, dans laquelle on donne des bals masqués. Ce genre de divertissement plait beaucoup à la bonne compagnie de Londres, et le haut prix des billets en exclut presque entièrement la classe inférieure. On ne s'y montre point, comme à Paris, sous des dominos simples, dont l'uniformité peut servir à couvrir des intrigues galantes. Les Anglois y portent communément des habits de caractère, et s'efforcent de prendre le langage et les maniéres des personnages qu'ils réprésentent. Ce qu'il y a de singulier, c'est que les journalistes rendent compte de ces réunions comme d'une pièce nouvelle. Dès le lendemain, les papiers publics apprennent à toute l'Angleterre que Lord un tel a très bien joué le rôle d'un Matelot ou d'un Arlequin, et que Lady

N

honourable to the gallantry and heroism of our countrymen. It is mentioned at p. 299, and it is this: "The number of the Enemy expelled by our Army from Egypt, after all the losses he had sustained, was greater than the aggregate of the English combined forces when they were first landed at Aboukir."

The description of the management of a Turkish frigate, crowded with passengers of every nation under Heaven, would not fail to excite emotions of mirth, were it possible to lose sight of the extreme perils, occasioned by ignorance, negligence, and superstitious attachment to custom. It really seems a miracle that the Traveller and his companions should have escaped. The particular circumstances are related with much spirit at p. 314, &c.; and doubtless with the greater from the old impression of actorum laborum memi

nisse dulce est.

A pleasing account of Marmorice and its Bay occurs at p. 320, of which also a very neat view is inserted. The following note is extracted from Col. Squire's MS correspondence: unfortunately the writer is since dead.

"On the ninth my brother-officers and myself were landed and encamped with a party of 200 artificers, for the purpose of making fascines, and preparing our particular branch of the service for the ensuing campaign.-Would you believe, that most of our fascines are of the most beautiful Myrtle; and that probably in a few weeks we shall be planting our cannon in myrtle batteries before Alexandria."

In his visits to the different Islands of Cos, Rhodes, Lindus, Patmos, Paros, &c. &c., the learned and ingenious Traveller had full scope for the exercise of his sagacity in the examination of almost innumerable fragments of antiquity. Nothing escaped his vigilance; and many obscure facts are elucidated by his knowledge. For these matters, and the very curious incidents which they involve, we must be satisfied with referring the Reader generally to p. 330 et seq. to 424. Among those things which impressed ourselves as particularly deserving of attention, are, the Greek inscription at Naxos, p. 392; the account of the very rare mineral Arragonite, p. 412; &c. &c. The Author's dislike of Russia and

its people seems not to diminish by years, or change of scene and circumstances. It peeps out at p. 438, 9.

At p. 440, we are informed, that the famous Oxford marbles, generally believed to have been found at Paros, were in reality discovered among the ruins of Ioulis in the island of Zia, the birth-place of many celebrated characters, and of Simonides in particular. This place is but imperfectly. known, and seems worthy of more careful investigation.

The arrival of our Traveller at Athens seems to have inspired him with no ordinary degree of animation; and his descriptions of what he did and saw, partake of his enthusiasm. But, as before observed, Athens and its curiosities have been so repeatedly and so recently described, and the volumes detailing its recommendations to curiosity, are so numerous and so satisfactory, that it does not seem necessary to expatiate much on this portion of the work. Every Reader at all anxious upon the subject, will unquestionably add Dr. Clarke's labours to the collection, of which he may be already in posses sion. He will be sure to find indubit able testimonies of extensive reading, acute observation, and successful investigation.

The question of Lord Elgin's marbles has much exercised the public opinion, as well of this country as of Europe. The act of removing them from their original and proper station has been sanctioned by the approbation of many, and reprobated by others in terms of the bitterest severity and reproach.

Lord Byron's vigorous and keen anathema against the deed is fresh in the recollection of all: it seems to deserve repetition:

"Cold is the heart, fair Greece, that looks [lov'd;

on thee,

There is one respect in which we also must join in the disapprobation of this Nobleman's conduct. It was his public character and influence as Ambassador from this powerful country which afforded him the means of accomplishing his wishes with respect to these valuable antiquities. They might, therefore, in some measure, be considered as public property. It was reasonable and just that Lord Elgin should be indemnified for the expenditure of any part of his personal property; but it surely did not become him, on their safe arrival here, to make hard terms with the publick, as it were in the character of a mercantile speculation. A very large sum was offered by the late excellent Mr. Perceval, that these marbles might constitute a Public School of Art; but these terms were rejected, and they still continue in Lord Elgin's private possession.

At p. 532, is a neat Biographical Sketch, and a very handsome tribute of respect to the memory of Mr. Tweddell, a most ingenious and accomplished young man, who, after visiting Switzerland, Germany, many parts of Russia, and the Crimea in particular, died at Athens in 1799. A pleasing expectation is held out by Dr. Clarke, that some portions of Mr. Tweddell's interesting correspondence inay hereafter be made public.

At p. 539, the Traveller talks of a sparry carbonate of lime of a honey colour. Now as the hues of honey vary exceedingly from its age, from the climate under which it was formed, as well as from other particulars, it is not quite apparent what colour is intended. A remarkably curious Terra Cotta lamp is described at p. 572, which Dr. Clarke very reasonably supposes to have been one of the Imagines, or Grata Munera, which the friends of a person deceased used to carry after the corpse in the funeral procession. Unfortunately it was stolen from the party, and has not arrived in England. We would willingly insert, if we could afford the space, a most singular but most dangerous adventure which befel the Author at Athens; see p.588. In his accidental wanderings he stumbled upon a building, which he was induced to enter, from the sound of voices which he heard from withfn. A general shriek soon informed him that it was a woman's bath:

he fortunately made his escape unobserved; for, had he been seen by any of the Turkish guard, he would unquestionably have been put to death.

A very interesting account of Theodore, a Calmuck artist, is inserted at p. 599. It exhibits, perhaps, the only example of a Russian slave making his way by force of genius alone, to an extraordinary degree of excellence in the Fine Arts. We are much inclined to accede to Dr. Clarke's opinion on the situation of the Tomb of Themistocles, p. 602.

The account of Argos is well written, and will afford every reader considerable information and entertainment; and will not be the less acceptable, if Mr. Gell's book should at the same time be at hand. It is evident from the Tell-tale, as Dr. Clarke calls the Oracular Shrine described at p. 677, that industry, perseverance, and sagacity, may still discover and explain a great many more valuable antiquities in this part of Greece. The whole of the description is given with great vivacity and effect.

The last thing we have to notice is the description of the supposed cave of the Nemæan lion, p. 711, 12.

In conclusion, we have only to thank the Author for great abundance both of instruction and amusement. We think him occasionally a little too sanguine, and at intervals somewhat fanciful; but his conjectures, if not always satisfactory, are generally ingenious; and his reasoning and arguments, if not always substantial, very specious and plausible.

The plates, we think, are better executed in this than in either of the volumes which preceded; with the exception perhaps of the general outline of the Author's Route, subjoined at the end. On this the line of communication between the different places visited by Dr. Clarke is not designated with sufficient dis tinctness.

A few Errata, which had not escaped us, we find corrected by the Author himself at the end.

tracts" from all the poetical remains of Antiquity. Against the plan of this multifarious performance an objection immediately offers itself. If the diversities of style and thought which form the peculiar character of each Poet were abstracted, a great portion of the interest which their works inspire, would be lost. It matters not whether we read Theocritus or Lucretius, Bion or Ovid, if they be all dressed out in a similar garb, and can only be distinguished by a reference to the top of the page: and this must be the case where the effusions of so many dif ferent bards are all filtered through the brain of one and the same Translator.

But this objection will, on a second view, be found rather specious than solid. If twenty English versifiers undertook to render into our language twenty Greek and Roman poets, the style of each would probably be found peculiar: but that the peculiarity would be in great measure that of the Translator, must appear evident, if we suppose the case of the same twenty writers producing separate versions of a single author when we should perceive differences of style, certainly not referable to the common original. When we remember the eminent success with which Dryden has adapted his style to the pastoral and heroic of Virgil, the satiric bitterness of Juvenal, and the lyrical gaiety of Horace, the attempt itself must be allowed to be justifiable: but it must ultimately be judged by the degree of

success.

It may serve to connect in one general view the rise and declension of antient poetry, as well as its comparative state at different æras, if we consider the literature of the Greeks and Romans as forming a continuous stream, having its source in the fabulous ages of Greece, and flowing through Latium with undivided current till it is lost in the obscurity of the Middle Ages. For enabling the Reader thus to connect and compare the successive periods of classical poetry, the plan of the present series of writers is extremely well conceived: and the work possesses a value quite independent of its merely literary merit.

It would be easy to find the paral

lel of these successive periods in modern times, and particularly_among our own indigenous poets. The sud den splendour of the age of Pericles brings to our view the literary glory of the age of Elizabeth: Shakspeare, comprehending within himself the excellences as well as the defects of the three tragic poets of Greece; and Ben Jonson forming the counterpart of Aristophanes. The external polish, the chastened correctness of taste, and the symmetry in the structure of verse, which mark the Augustan epoch, offer sufficient traits of coincidence with the age of Queen Anne : and, as we descend, the meretricious decoration and voluptuous effeminacy of Claudian will meet a par allel in Darwin: though not a few among the antients, like our own Cowper, preserve, even in deteriorated times, a vein of purer ord, and the names of Oppian, Musæus, and some others, induce us to agree with Mr. Elton, in thinking that the poets of the latter ages have been too much undervalued.

We dare affirm that many of the names comprised in these volumes will be new to a large number of readers. It is therefore not without reason, that Mr. Elton has prefixed to the specimen of each author a biographical and critical notice. These critiques will be found interesting. We were particularly pleased with the remarks on Claudian; they coincide exactly with the judgment which we have always maintained, although contradicted by the notions in vogue. The tawdry bombast of this poet has been compared by the fulsome Author of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire with the majesty of Virgil. It is difficult to conceive any motive that could induce this most uncandid of all Historians to pay so unmerited a compliment, unless it be a kindred feeling with all that is verbose in diction or monotonous in style.

We cannot, however, in every instance, concur with Mr. Elton's opinions. On the contrary, he seems to us sometimes actuated by a love of paradox, and a disposition to literary scepticism. An example of this forces itself on our notice almost at the very threshold of the first volume; where the ill-starred father epic verse is treated with the