very fuddenly, by an extraordinary transportation of people from feveral parts of Europe, who have been greatly encouraged to fettle there, not only by perfonal application and invitation, but by the fuperior advantages of the climate, which is much more moderate than ours. Thefe I take to be the causes of the quick fettlement of Penfilvania, rather than the reafon affigned by the above quoted Author. And thus much. I thought it neceflary to obferve, in order to clear my country from the difadvantageous view in which it has been placed. A. N., P. S. I take it for granted, that the encreafing of the people must be implied and underflood, when the above Author fays, that Penfil. vania excels New-England fo much in commerce, and the improvement of the lands, &c. because it is hard to conceive how religious laws could have any tendency to prevent the increase of commerce, or the improvement of lands after people had got well fettled; unless those religious laws prevented contraband trade, or obliged the people to attend their devotions fo much, that they had not time to till their lands. But it is eafy to conceive how far very rigid laws, of any kind, may have a tendency to discourage fettlers from reforting to any place where fuch laws are established; and even to drive the inhabitants away from their native Country: of which last mentioned confequence New-England will afford a ftriking inftance. IN To the PROPRIETOR of the MONTHLY REVIEW. IN the Review for January laft, one of the learned Reviewers withes to know, whether the fame form [as in Ridley's] be retained in the patents of our bishops in these times; for it is fo excellent, that, he hopes, it is not difufed. Notwithstanding his hopes, I greatly fufpect that he means to infinuate, that the fame form is not made ufe of at prefent. And, indeed, it is true, that it is not now made ufe of: but why? For the strongest reafon in the world;-becaufe the bishops don't now hold their fees, as they did in the time of Edward VI. by the king's patent, but in a more conftitutional manner, in virtue of the tatute 1. Eliz. cap. i. which revived the ftat. 25. Hen. VIII. zo. which had been repealed by the influence of Edw. Vlth's miniftry, who wanted to make the church entirely dependent on the state. I am, Sir, your humble fervant, March 7. 1764 EBORACENSIS. P. S. In your last Appendix is an anecdote concerning Dr. St and that wicked wight Matt. Bradford; which may be very true: but I think the Reviewer a little mistaken, in ftiling the faid Matt, of the county of Lincolnia. I knew the man about 25 years ago. He was then rector of Elton in Nottinghamshire. He afterwards became rector of Waltham on the Woulds, in Leicestershire, and prebendary of Southwell; but I never heard his having any relation to Lincolnshire: though, indeed, Elton, the place of his refidence, was not above three or four miles distance from the borders of that county.In the fame article, P. 542+ p. 542. mention is made of the Pleiades being called in the north of England, St. Peter's Yardward. Here, I fuppofe, is an error of the prefs:-for Yardward, read Yardwand. I have fometimes heard Qrien's Welt, called the Taylor's Yardwand. HE letter from Berkshire, figned Peregrinus, is thankfully received. The book therein mentioned (Nouvelles dmufemens de Spa) has not been yet feen by the Reviewers ;—who were misled by a character of that work from abroad. They are now possessed of furer means of information concerning foreign literature, than they were able to obtain during the late war, viz. a perufal of the books themselves. The character of the Nouvelles Amusemens de Spa, as given by our correfpondent, is that of a work contemptible in the highest degree, and only tolerable where it borrows from the old amusements, from which it pilfers without mercy, (but not without owning it) fometimes for thirty pages together." As I spent fome time," adds he," at Spa, and was there at the very juncture when this ridiculous hotch-potch was published; I was a witnefs to the great contempt with which it was treated by every one, native and foreigner, indifcriminately. "The real history," continues our correfpondent, "of this uncouth production, is as follows:Custom has made it a rule, that every foreigner, as foon as he reaches Spa, immediately enquires for the Amulements. Now the old Amusements being wrote by a refugee Frenchman, one La Riviere, breathe fuch a spirit of liberty, both in matters of religion and government, that they are no way calculated for the latitude of fo very defpotic and fo very bigotted a fyftem of government as that of the bishoprick of Liege. The Capuchins too, a very powerful body at Spa, have been feverely, and indeed virulently fatyrized by La Riviere ;-and all thefe circumftances confidered, it cannot be much wondered at, that no bookfeller is fond of keeping many copies of fo dangerous a work in his magazine, though fure of a speedy fale. "From thefe circumftances, Dr. Limburg, a physician at Spa, determined to publifh a new edition of the Amusements, by way of dialogue; but fo mangled, fo unconnected, that, if any new argument was wanted against the appearance of departed fouls, the peaceable demeanour of the fpirit of La Riviere is proof enough against King James and Glanville. Yet wretched as the work is, it has fold well, partly from the old one being out of print, and partly from the engravings, which, though ill done, give a competent idea of the fountains and gardens about Spa.-I need fay no more on this fubject, being very certain that the principles of civil and religious liberty, which have hitherto fo Atrongly diftinguished the criticisms of the Monthly Review, will ins duce its Authors to honour the writer of a book fo highly tinctured with the fpirit of freedom, as is the old Amusements, and to contemn fo ill-digefted, fo crude a performance as the new.” The Reviewers are obliged to Peregrinus, for the candour with which he speaks of them, and of their labours; and will be glad of his correfpondence on any literary fubject. (The SERMONS in our next.). THE MONTHLY REVIEW, For APRIL, 1764. The Æneid of Virgil tranflated into English Blank Verfe. By William Hawkins, M. A. Rector of Little Cafterton in Rutlandfhire, late Poetry Profeflor in the University of Oxford, and Fellow of Pembroke College. 8vo. 3s. bound. Fletcher. HAT Virgil has never yet been tranflated, is a truth, Twhich, we fuppofe, will be allowed by all but fuch of his -Tranflators as may be now living. Hitherto Dryden is the only Poet that hath undertaken it with powers equal to the attempt; but, unhappily! the cruel neceffity of precipitating his work, rendered it unequal and unfinished. His tranflation of Virgil is, indeed, a copy wherein the outlines of the original are preferved; but the nice proportion of the features, the finer tints, and difcriminating graces, were loft in the rapidity of execution. Yet, with all its imperfections, Dryden's is the best tranflation that hath as yet been offered to the public: the true Poet is ftill vifible, both in the fpirit and harmony of the numbers, which cannot be faid of the labours either of cotemporary or fucceeding Tranflators. Lauderdale crept along the ground, and gave no other figns of poetical life, than fhaking the chains of rhyme. The tranflation of Trap was profe, cut into lines of ten fyllables. There is frequently an uniformity, and a feebleness of numbers, in Pitt's verfion of the Æneid; and Mr. Warton has fhewn how difficult it is to preferve the strength and dignity of the verfification, or to make approaches to the polifhed elegance of Virgil, in the didactic fubject of the Georgics. With these competitors for tranfplanting the Mantuan Bays, Mr. Hawkins, who was once, it feems, a Profeffor of poetry, and of whofe poetical abilities the Reader may find an account in the twenty-first volume of our Review, has boldly entered Vol. XXX. S the the lift, induced, we are willing to hope, rather by the tempting view of a principal Claffic yet ftanding without any adequate tranflation, than by confidering himself as fuperior to those difficulties that had fo often defeated the attempts of others. For, alas! Mr. Hawkins's poetical powers, fo far from being able to transfufe the elegance and harmony of Virgil's poetry, might be ftrained to keep pace with a modern Cantata, or to finish a feeble lay for the trill of Tenducci. Blank verfe has its peculiar mode of harmony, and when well executed, is, on account of the variety and continuation of its melody, much fuperior to the couplet meafure: but to arrive at the perfection of which this fpecies of verse is capable, requires greater mufical powers than is commonly imagined. The art of varying the ftrain of melody, of adapting the ftrength of the expreffion to the fentiment, and of modulating into proportion the afcending, the defcending, and fufpended numbers, depends principally on a natural capacity of car, without which, no Profeflor of poetry can attain it. That Mr. Hawkins has not attained it, will, we fuppofe, be obvious to our Readers from the following quotation of the laft fpeech of Dido; in which, however broken and impaffioned, however nervous and mutable the numbers ought to have been, the dull monotony of the couplet-measure prevails almost throughout. Ye dear, dear relicts of the man I lov'd; Had Trojan barks ne'er touch'd the Lybian shore! Thofe who can be fatisfied with fuch tame numbers as thefe, on a fubject thus circumftanced, may affure themselves that they have no knowlege of the power or propriety of poetical harmony. What a miferable tranflation of at moriamur is • die I ́muft and will? Is this the fhort, ftriking expreffion of of defpair? Or is it not rather the language of an obftinate girl to the remonftrances of her mother, wed I must and will?* An imperfect and inadequate verfification is not, however, the only defect of this performance: the Tranflator has injudiciously made use of many obfolete words, and has even affected what neceffity alone might occafionally excufe, an omiffion of the prepofitive article, the. This frequently renders his expreffrons aukward and bald; for it is in doggrel, familiar and burlefque poetry only, that this omiffion is tolerated, because there the quaintnefs it occafions, has a good effect: in a translation of Virgil it is infufferable. Notus three ships fierce threw on lurking rocks In' middle flood. It is difficult to fay, whether the firft quoted line is more difagreeably harsh, or the beginning of the fecond more affectedly quaint.If the Tranflator, by that harfhnefs, aimed at any thing like imitative harmony, we must afk his pardon; for, in truth, we cannot find out the marks of imitation : But Thin fcatter'd Trojans float i'th' floods, is ftill a worse translation of Apparent rari nantes in gurgite vafto. It is aftonishing, that Interpreters and Tranflators should fhut their eyes against the obvious fenfe of placidum in the following line, Placidum caput extulit unda. Caput they will, by all means, have to fignify Neptune's countenance, and confequently placidum must be tranquil, or calm, or mild, or ferene; whereas nothing can be more inconfiftent with the preceding verfe, where Virgil fays, that Neptune was graviter commotus-Placidum applied to caput here, has the fame fignification as when applied to aquor, finooth, in the literal fenfe of the word, unruffled, the idea being peculiarly borrowed from the appearance of Neptune's hair when rifing out of the ocean moreover it is that part of the head which is generally expreffed by caput, as the countenance is by vultus and os. Mr. Hawkins has fallen in with the common mistake, and rendered placidum caput his front ferene.' Maturase fugam, Regique hæc dicite veftro; is thus poorly tranflated: Away, begone, and tell your Prince, to me, Not |