With Guile and Envy, Avarice and Pride, : I Lade him raise his view and prune his wings I prisoner held the more to make him free. “ Puis nous teusmes tous deux attendant la sentence That said, she laugh'd, and suddenly withdrew. There are a few lines on his mistress Hippolyte, which are a pitch above the usual strain of love-verses. “Les traits d'une jeune guerriere, Un porte celeste, une lumiere, Sont les sorciers qui m'ont charmées.”—Chanson, p. 174. Such as live in antique story; A spirit warm with love of glory; A thousand virtues met in one; These are the sorceries have won This prison'd heart of mine. “J'espere avec le tans que sa belle ramée Diverses Amours, Sonnet xi. p. 516. If Petrarch were in any danger of being eclipsed by Desportes, it would be from the veil which he has cast over his lustre in those passages of which he has attempted a translation into French. The reader will see an instance of this inferiority, by comparing the wellknown sonnet, “Solo e pensoso i più deserti campi,” with Desportes, S. xlv. p. 201. “A pas lens et tardifs tout seul je me promaine." a He did not wish to conceal the numerous obligations he lay under to the Italian poets; and when a book was written with the design of showing how much the French had taken from them, good-humouredly observed, that if he had been apprized of the author's intention to expose him, he could have contributed largely to swell the size of the volume. If he has made thus free with the property of others, there are those who in their turn have not scrupled to borrow from him. Some stanzas in an admired ode by Chaulieu, on his native place Fontenai, must have been suggested by the pathetic complaint which Desportes supposes to be uttered by Henry III. at Fontainbleau, where that monarch first saw the light. Chaulieu, T. 2, p. 145. Paris, 1757. Desportes. Ne m'abandonnez pas Nymphs of the forest, in whose arms I lay Now that my weary way is past, Oh weep, and weave my bier at last. The song at the beginning of the Bergeries and Masquerades is exceedingly sprightly and gracious. I will add another, which, though scarce less animated, is in a graver style. “Las que nous sommes miserables, D'estre serves dessous les loix Plus que fueillage des bois. A l'air, aux vents, et aux saisons; Inconstamment sur les maisons. Comme la mer grosse de flots, Diverses Amours, Chanson, p. 570. That live the slaves of men's decrees, a The thoughts of men they still resemble The air, the winds, the changeful year, No more than billows of the sea, Torment themselves continually. His verses on Marriage, and his Adieu to Poland, prove that he could be at times sarcastic. At p. 596, we find a sonnet on the Bergerie of Remy Belleau; and at P: 631, another on the death of the same poet. There are commendatory verses on Desportes himself, by the Cardinal du Perron at p. 243, and by Bertaut at p. 306; and in one of the elegies to his memory, at the end of this volume, with the signature, J. de Montereul, (of whom I find no mention elsewhere,) he is thus described : “Il estoit franc, ouvert, bon, liberal, et doux; Open he was, frank, liberal, and kind; Those throughout Europe famousest for wit. Philippe Desportes was born at Chartres, in 1546; and died at his Abbey of Bonport, in Normandy, on the 5th of October, 1606. Charle IX. presented him with eight thousand crowns for his poem of Rodomont; and for one of his sonnets, he was remunerated with the Abbey of Tiron. It was a piping time for the Muses. Of the wealth, which thus flowed in upon him, he was as generous as his eulogist has described him. Almost all the contemporary poets were his friends; and those amongst them, who stood in need of his assistance, did not seek it in vain. Danish Artists at Rome.-Freund, a pupil of Thorvaldson, has modelled a figure of Mercury, full of energy and spirit, and every way worthy of the noble school to which it belongs. Thorvaldson has nearly completed his colossal figure of Christ, for the new Fro-kirke (Notre Dame), at Copenhagen. This statue possesses indescribable majesty: nothing can be conceived more affectingly sublime than the attitude, and the dignified manner in which the Saviour of mankind stretches forth his arms towards the whole human race, An Artificial Triton-At Scheveningen, on the 15th. ult. Mr. Andrew Scheerboom made the experiment of riding on his horse, which he had provided with his newly invented apparatus, into the breakers of the sea, which rose to the height of 12 feet; and having advanced 400 yarıls directly into the water, he returned to the shore, waving his handkerchief, amidst the acclamations of thousands of spectators. MUSEUM. FROM THE BRITISH CRITIC. A Description of the Shetland Islands, comprising an Account of their Geology, Scenery, Antiquities, and Superstitions. By Samuel Hibbert, M.D. F.R.S. E., &c. With a Geological Map, Plates, &c. 4to. pp. 636. 31. 3s. Boards. Edinburgh, Constable & Co.; London, Hurst & Co. 1822. AMONG the benefits which accrue to society from the impulse that has been lately communicated to geological pursuits in this country, we may reckon the deliberate survey of the more insulated and remote portions of the empire, by men of education and discernment. We have seen, for example, that Dr. Macculloch, stimulated by the excitements of his favourite study, and waiving considerations of personal comfort and safety, has been enabled to present to the public, as the result of his labours, an interesting analysis of the structure and statistics of the Hebrides; and had the learned author of the volume before us never directed his attention to the contemplation of the mineral kingdom, he might, perhaps, never have set foot on the islands which he has described. We learn, indeed, from himself, that his original object was merely to publish the substance of his geological researches in Shetland, accompanied by an illustrative Essay on Stratification; and that the more popular notices of scenery, manners, and antiquities, were subsequently suggested and adopted. These collateral details, however, are kept distinct from those of a scientific complexion, and are printed on a larger type. We cannot impute blame to Dr. Hibbert for endeavouring to give to his observations the most attractive form but he would not, in our apprehension, have been more remote from the accomplishment of his aim, had he extended them to the meteorology, botany, and zoology of the region which he undertook to delineate; and had he moulded his disjointed materials into a more regular and consecutive series. Among the other difficulties attendant on his survey, was the total want of any thing like an accurate chart of the islands; a deficiency which compelled him to climb almost every high land in the country, and, with the aid only of a pocket-compass, to obtain a new draft, suited to his purpose. Accorddingly, his map differs from those of his predecessors; and, though not free, as he conceives, from many imperfections, it is sufficiently accurate in a geological point of view. He mentions in respectful terms the encouragement and assistance which he derived from Professor Jameson and Dr. Brewster; and, after some general references to authorities, he concludes his preliminary notice with this very unnecessary apology: 6 "I may also be permitted to observe, that while this work was in the press, a new novel by the Great Unknown' was announced, with the notice that the scene was laid in Shetland. Among the many reasons that I have had for regretting the present publication, in its enlarged plan, it is assuredly not the least of them, that 3 P VOL. I. No. 6.-Museum. this volume must appear contemporaneous with The Pirate ; for, in adverting to the scenery and manners of this country, I am sensible that I cannot fail to provoke a comparison which must be highly to my disadvantage. Still, we owe so many obligations to the author of Waverley, for the pleasure he has afforded us in pe. rusing his works, that an author ought not to complain if he has incautiously brought himself into such a dilemma as to stand as a mere foil to the greatest of all modern masters of description.” We must really beg leave to demur to the relevancy of this modest plea, inasmuch as the cool recorder of existing facts and usages is no fair object of comparison with the novelist; who, even when he adopts history as the basis of his narrative, is accustomed to draw freely on his resources of taste and imagination. Prefixed to the journal, (or, to use the Doctor's technical phraseology, to the Iters,) is a somewhai voluminous Essay on Stratification; the object of which is to convey, at least as far as it regards the geology of Shetland, more precise and accurate notions of the term than are commonly entertained. With this view, he treats first of the molecules of the compact structure of rocks; secondly, of granular particles ; thirdly, of concretions; fourthly, of massive portions; fifthly, of veins; and, sixthly, of mountain-masses. His proposed limitation of the expression granular particles, to such minute portions of mineral matter as do not exceed the average magnitude of grains of sea-sand, may probably conduce to greater exactness than has been hitherto attempted, but will in most instances imply a restriction of the original import of the epithet granular, and still leave the line of demarcation between grains and concretions somewhat vague and ambiguous. The granular structure is here farther distinguished into the crystalline, semi-crystalline, and arenaceous; as the concretionary is into the crystalline, semi-crystalline, concentrically laminar, amygdaloidal, irregular, fragmentary, and organic: examples of which will readily occur to the geological reader. It is observed that the speculative reasonings, which may be applied to the history of these respective modes of structure, are now freed from the trammels of either the Huttonian or the Wernerian theory; Laplace's more comprehensive doctrine of a condensation of gaseous matter equally embracing the agency of fire and water; or the principles of chemical affinity accounting for the production of crystalline and spheroidal concretions, during the fluidity of the base in which they are contained. The internal arrangement of the particles, however, does not necessarily imply a reciprocal and equal degree of attraction for one another, subsisting at all their points of mutual contact; the state of cohesion seeming, on the contrary, to vary at different points. The author proposes that the simple term Structure should be limited to the expression of the mere circumstance of cohesion subsisting among the component particles of a rock. When, however, an order or arrangement under which such particles coalesce is implied, such, for instance, as is generally denoted by the terms Tabular, Foliated, Laminated, or Schistose, the expression of INTERNAL ARRANGEMENT of STRUCTURE is in every respect distinctive and precise.” The leading views of stratification, with which we are here presented, do not materially differ from those of De Saussure and D’Aubuisson: but an important circumstance is superadded, namely, that of “a linear direction of particles in each laminated or foliated plane." Considerable perplexity and obscurity may, it is surmised, be avoided |
