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rably illustrates, as a first guide to composition, the practical value of assuming this principle in all our schemes of education, for by it alone can those obstacles to a proper rate of improvement in the cultivation of the young mind be removed. These exercises are intended to facilitate the first attempt at original composition by young persons. Every one who has had experience of the juvenile mind will remember that, when asked to write a sentence, even an advanced child will often reply that he has got nothing to say, and when he does make the attempt, it is generally found that he mistakes the meaning of some particular words employed by him. Now the remedy for these almost universal obstacles and errors seems to us to be supplied with great ingenuity by Mr. Parker, whose plan we shall now proceed to describe. He recommends the teacher to set down a word which it is likely that the scholar had heard and used before-he is not to tax the latter to inform him what he understands by the word, but Mr. Parker says he should make the youth write it in a sentence of his own composition, which would at once form the most certain method whereby the scholar would comprehend its use. The simplicity of this plan, and the certainty of it, are recommendations that must eventually bring it into general use. From the simple exercise, the student gradually advances to lessons of more difficulty, and these he has, by the previous steps, the best possible chance of overcoming. After the principle of each lesson has been stated, the scholar has a model to consult, which exhibits to him the right way of accomplishing his task. The succeeding portions of this work carry up the directions for composition to the most elevated

branches of the art, including not only the elements but the very refinements of rhetoric, with such precepts and illustrations added as are calculated to generate in the youthful pupil, a taste for the true principles of style and expression.

ART. XV.-The Ocean Bride; a Tale of the Sea; in Six Cantos. By M. S. MILTON, author of the "Broken Heart," and other poems. 12mo. Edinburgh: Tait. London: Simpkin and Marshall. 1834.

This is a poem of considerable dimensions, occupying nearly four hundred pages of the size mentioned in the title. The promise which Mr. Milton gave in the "Broken Heart" is fully realized in the volume before us, in addition to which is to be reckoned the merit of the sustained efforts which is implied in the length of the poem. The metre of the "Ocean Bride" is founded on that adopted by Sir Walter Scott in his "Marmion," and it appears to suit the free and varied fancy of the present author. Great power of expression, and a faculty of concentration, enable Mr. Milton to infuse into his verses a degree of energy which finds its power in every heart; and those who look for the mere pleasure which poetry affords, abstracted from all collateral adjuncts, such as a good story, a plot connected with some historical event, or founded on the biography of some interesting character; those, we repeat, who seek to be gratified with pure and original poetry for its own sake, will secure this volume for at least one perusal. As we have just hinted, the plot of the "Ocean Bride" is connected with no history of either a documentary or traditional character. The time

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to which it adverts is that of the early part of the last century, when the pretensions of the Stuart family still kept Scotland in agitation, and gave rise to or tended to continue a system of piratical war on the bigh seas. At that period the English navy was too busily employed to have leisure for minor objects, and the impunity which this state of things afforded to the lawless, the bold buccaneer took the full advantage, and did not hesitate to touch the very shores of England. One of these adventurers is selected as his hero by Mr. Milton, and in the adventures, difficulties and perils into which the pirate is led, the poet, being at perfect liberty to select his materials, succeeds in surrounding him with an extraordinary degree of interest. In the present dearth of good poetry, we are happy to have an opportunity of recommending the "Ocean Bride" to public

attention.

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to the diffusion of which we must eventually look for the overthrow of all rash and untenable theories. He has in view, in an especial manner, the correction of the false notions which are so generally entertained, and, unfortunately,so perseveringly acted upon by the legislature, respecting those laws which are framed with a view to determine the supply of a people with the necessaries, comforts, and luxuries of life. The subjects of the principal chapters may be stated with the object of designating the nature of the contents of the work: they are the elementary principles of political economy, such as rights, wealth, labour, &c.; wages, land, capital, value-the distribution of wealth- the important relations of population and agriculture to subsistence-causes of poverty-restraints on agriculture-commerce, manufactures, the instrument of exchange-and on the circulation of labour, &c. We are sorry to find that Mr. Scrope is amongst the number of the weak and irrational enemies of Mr. Malthus, to the extent of very unfairly misrepresenting his motives and his doctrines. It is quite inconsistent with truth and

ART. XVI.-Principles of Politi tical Economy, deduced from the Natural Laws of Social Welfare, and applied to the present State of Great Britain. By G. Pou-justice to affirm that Mr. Malthus LETT SCROPE, M. P., F. R. S., &c. 1 Vol. 12mo. London: Longman, Rees, & Co., 1833.

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has avowed or implied in any manner that human suffering, particularly famine, is the result of the law of God; nor is it in the power of Mr. Scrope to disturb the real position of Mr. Malthus, when he says that food can never be multiplied in any thing like the ratio of human beings. The distinct propositions which Mr. Scrope has laboured to establish in this work is, that the industry of the country, the increase of its wealth, and the natural distribution of that wealth, have been fatally obstructed by the impediments created by the officiousness of the legislature, or its ignorance of the changes made in the circum

stances of the country. Hence is it that the most ingenious, enterprizing, and industrious lous, enterprizing, and industrious people on earth are put into a situation perfectly paradoxical. He looks forward to the complete relief of agriculture by the establishment of a permanent scale of tithe on an equitable basis; by the abolition of church rate; by the reduction and an improvement of levying poor's rates, and other local taxes. In short, the redress which Mr. Scrope is of opinion would render this country foremost in

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the race of nations would be a just and cheap government, which would secure protection to the persons and to the property of those who acquired it by honest industry and exertion, or by regular succession-freedom of that industry as well as of exchange-an increase of territory capable of cultivation in proportion to the increase of the population-and lastly, the counteraction of pauperism, by such a system as will uniformly transmit the surplus pauper labourers of one place to another where they may be wanted."

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mind; and, therefore, the story which Mr. Southey has to relate is which Mr. nothing more than a plain matter of fact statement, incapable of those modifications and decorations, which no artist is better able to supply in season than himself.

In speaking of the reign of Hen. VII., in respect to the state of the navy, Mr. Southey remarks, that though fewer naval incidents occurred in that reign, than in any of those of Henry's predecessors; yet it is to the era of this monarch's sway that we are to refer the most important maritime portion of our history. We learn from our author, that, in consequence of the preparations made by the Portuguese, it is perfectly certain that America would have been discovered about the time when it really was, had there been no Columbus in existence; and in fact, the reason why the proposals of the latter were declined by the Portuguese government was, that she knew that her ships were pursuing the right course to India, and she would not be induced to make an experiment by an uncertain one. Another curious trait is mentioned by Mr. Southey; it is to this effect, that Henry VII. having assented to the terms of Columbus, there is no question that, had not the latter been captured on his way to England by pirates, and had he not for a long time been detained by them as a slave at the oar, the ships that discovered the new world would have sailed under the British flag, Again, the introduction of cannon into the navy service caused a considerable alteration in the ships, The exact date when cannon was first employed at sea, is not by any means ascertained. The first portholes, however, appear to have been contrived by a ship-builder at Brest, named Descharges, and the date of their first use is 1499. The holes were circular, and cut through the

sides of the vessel. Another tier in the vessel was rendered essential by the introduction of the cannon, and this enlargement of the ship's dimensions, necessarily led to a change in the composition of the navy itself. Up to the period of this change, there existed no distinction between the king's ships and the ordinary merchants' vessels; but after the use of cannon had produced its effects, the vessels immediately in the service of his majesty began to form an entirely separate class; nevertheless, when an emergency occurred in the service, the navy was usually reinforced by hiring the largest merchantmen belonging, not only to Englishmen but to Genoese, Venetian, and Hansetown merchants. But then, it should be mentioned, as an amiable example of the extent to which a reciprocity of accommodations existed in those times, that the king's ships, in time of peace were employed in trade, or freighted to the merchant. The biographical section of this volume consists of the complete biography of Charles, second Lord Howard of Effingham, and first Earl of Nottingham. In the course of the life of this illustrious character, an account of the abortive invasion by the Armada is given, and this is the chief or rather only attraction of the volume.

ART.XVIII. A Tableau of French Literature during the Eighteenth Century. By M. de Barante,

Peer of France. Translated from the Fourth Edition, and augmented by a Table of Contents, with a nomenclature of the Authors, chronologically arranged. 1 Vol. 12mo. London: Smith, Elder & Co. 1833.

The original of this very equi. vocal version is a work of great

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value, which, in the country where it was written, maintained a very exalted reputation; but which was known in this part of the world only by the learned, who certainly were guilty of a very great omission, by neglecting to incorporate it much sooner with our literature. It was composed as an essay, for the prize proposed by the French Institute for the best dissertation on the French Literature of the Eighteenth century. This essay is not valued so much for its just estimate of the literary merits of French writers, as it is for the analysis of those publications which were directed to the great object of enlightening the country, and which, in consequence of the events that subsequently occurred, are charged with having been instrumental in bringing about the first revolution. The circum stances which led to that freedom of thought, that distinguished the era previous to the revolution, had their origin at a much earlier date than is supposed. Boldness of sentiment, independence, and liberality of ideas, were avowed by Corneille, Mezeray, St. Real, and others even in the days of Richelieu. During the troubles of La Fronde, a host of authors rose, who created a familiar and jocose style of their own; and Pascal and Molière are specimens of that school, when its votaries were nearly extinct. The literary men, who had illustrated the court of Louis XIV., as well as his ministers and generals, were the offspring of a school of instruction which existed before that king's government took its own peculiar form. The writer proceeds to dwell on the successive literary men of France, and devotes a consideaable space to Voltaire, and the other accomplished men who took a part in the great work of influencing the public mind.

A great deal of the force and elegance of this work is lost in the translation, which is by no means executed in a style worthy of the original production. It is much It is much too literal, and gives the exact English equivalent for every word in the French. This system of turning one language into another, is doubtless open to the praise of fidelity, at least in the strict meaning of that word; but we shall soon change our opinion of this servile plan of proceeding, when we recollect that not only the spirit always, but very often the meaning of the author is lost or entirely perverted. There are multitudes of passages in this version, which clearly prove that it is the work of a novice.

In the following few lines, we quote a specimen of a vast multitude of those faults, which tend so completely to mar all the spirit and lucid power which characterize the original :

"Nourished by theories, they knew not how to adapt their opinions, or to adopt them without noise, and as it were insensibly; they

could not essay the amelioration, without interruption to the habits, and without alarm to the self-love."

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We select this specimen at random; but it is easy to perceive in it that the translator was totally unacquainted with the genius of the French language, otherwise he would never have given the English definite article the, as an equivalent for le or la in the French, inasmuch as he ought to know, that substantives in French are always accompanied by these articles when they are indefinite in their import. Certainly there is room for a proper version of this excellent work; the present one is really a misrepresentation, which must produce amongst those who read it an impression respecting the author, that, to say the least of it, is exceedingly unjust. The text, as it stands, amounts to a sort of equivocal dialect, which is neither French nor English, and cannot with fairness be recommended for that fidelity, to which all translators are bound by the laws of their existence.

MISCELLANEOUS INTELLIGENCE.

Nature and Art.-The following anecdote is stated by Mr. Phillips, the late professor of painting at the Royal Academy, to have been related to him by Sir A. Hume. The latter gentleman, and Sir Joshua Reynolds, were travelling on the road to Hertford, when the attention of Sir Joshua was suddenly attracted to a board over a farrier's-shop, on which was written "Horses shod here, agreeable to nature and art." "Who is the sensible man that

keeps that shop?" exclaimed he, "or who has supplied him with so wise an inscription? It expresses in a few words the summit of perfection, the grand desideratum in every art and science."

A Prairie. One of the most novel as well as enchanting scenes in nature is the prairie, or delta, extending to a distance of many miles between the two great rivers. It is for a considerable portion of the year one sea of flowers, one wide

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