ART. 26. Blank Verft. By Charles Lloyd and Charles Lamb. 12mo. 2s. 6d. Arch. 1798. Verfes by the former of these writers, addreffed to his Grandmother, have been favourably mentioned in the British Critic. The prefent fpecimens of Blank Verfe are indicative of talents progreffively inproving. We were much pleafed with the poem called London The compofitions of Charles Lamb, are inferior to thofe of his friend, but not without merit. It is a fault of the prefent period, that young writers are too apt to imagine that what is pleafing to themselves and the circle of their friends, muft neceffarily be acceptable to the public, But this is far from being the cafe, and though to young writers we would not affume the feverity of Ariftarchus, we muft, nevertheless, advise them to read mose and publish less. DRAMATIC. ART. 27. Blue Beard; or Female Curiofity! a Dramatic Romance; firft reprefented at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane, on Tuesday, Jan. 6, 1798. Written by George Colman the Younger, 8vo. 54 PP Is. 6d. Cadell and Davies. 1798, If the most complete fuccefs, and a run for near fix months can gratify an author, Mr. Colman has every reafon to feel the highest fatisfaction from the lot of Blue Beard: and however a writer, from his own critical feelings, may be inclined to estimate an effufion which probably coft him no great time or trouble, it is impoffible that he fhould be infenfible to fo much applaufe. To form a pleafing trife requires fome power, fome judgment, and fome experience of the public talte, which requifites are undoubtedly united in the author of this little drama. The fame which must be divided with the mufician, the painter, and the machinist, Mr. C, very fairly yields to them in his preface; confequently, on a performance fo univerfally known, both in the original ftory and in its dramatic form, it is quite unneceffary for us to expatiate further. ART. 28. The Stranger; or, Mifanthropy and Repentance: a Drama, in Five Acts. Faithfully tranflated, entire, from the German of Kotzebue, Director of the Imperial Theatre at Vienna; by George Papen dick, Sub-Librarian to his Royal Highness the Prince of Wales. 8vo. 96 pp. 25. 6s. Wingrave. 1798. This is not the play as reprefented on the stage of Drury Lane Theatre, but is announced as an accurate and complete tranflation from the original, which in the English Drama is retrenched both in point of length, and in the duration of the fuppofed action. A modeft advertisement prefixed feems to imply fome cenfure on the managers of the theatre for rejecting this tranflation, and yet producing another piece fo very fimilar to it, There There is fomething abrupt and flat in the dialogue of this play not very pleafing to our tastes; and some of the trivial circumstances introduced are certainly very ridiculous. The first act opens with a boy catching butterflies; the third in the following manner. "SCENE I. The Stranger fitting on a Bench before his Cottage, reading. John enters from the Haufe. John. Dinner is ready, Sic. Stranger. fhall eat nothing. John. Nice young peas, and a roast duck, Stranger. You may eat them yourself, if you pleafe. John. You are not hungry, Sir? Stranger, No. John. The heat of the weather does take away one's appetite, I think. Stranger. Yes. John. I will put the duck by. Perhaps at fupper Stranger. Perhaps. John. [After a paufe.] Gracious Sir, may I speak? John. You have done a noble action. Stranger. What? John. You have faved a man's life. Stranger. Peace. John. Do you know who it was, Sir? Stranger. No. John. The Count of Wintersee. Stranger. 'Tis all one to me who he was. John. Really, Sir, fuch deeds draw tears into old eyes. Stranger. Old women's. John. You are a brave and noble master. Stranger. What! do you fatter me? Begone! John. Upon my foul it comes from my heart. When I fee the good that you do, and how readily you make the danger and mifery of others your own, and yet enjoy not peace of mind yourself, my heart bleeds for you. Stranger. Thank you, John. [Softened John. Dear Sir, don't take' amifs what I fay. Perhaps too thick blood is the caufe of your melancholy-I once heard a great physician fay, that the difpofition to hate mankind was often to be traced to the ftate of the blood, the nerves, or the bowels. Stranger. That is not my cafe, good John. John. Unfortunate, perhaps. And yet fo good! What pity! John. My poor master! Stranger. Have you forgot what the old man faid this morning? There is still another and a better world!" Let us hope, and fuffer with fortitude! John. Amen." P. 41. We We are clearly of opinion that British tafte cannot be improved by imitation of German authors; though hints may undoubtedly be taken from them, which, properly used, will have a very different effect. NOVELS. ART. 29. The Life and Opinions of Sebaldus Nothanker. Translated from the German original of Friederich Nicolai. By Thomas Dutton, A. M. Two Vols. 12mo. 13s. 6d. Lowndes. 1798. Nicolai, a bookfeller of Berlin, is celebrated by Profeffor Robifon as one of the most active of the illuminés, diftinguished among Weifhaupt's affociates by the name of Lucian. He conducted a work called Algemeine Deutsche Bibliotek" or general German Library, confifting of original pieces and reviews, in which he took every poffible occafion of favouring the Enlighteners. He published alfo his own journey through Germany; and, laftly, "not content with open difcuffions, he produced this romance, in which the German divines who retain any attachment to found Christianity, are introduced under feigned names, and rendered as ridiculous as poffible." Such is the account of the learned Profeffor (p. 82, &c.) and these merits would unhappily fecure a tranflator for Nicolai, at the prefent moment. The book, however, is little calculated to make its way in this country; it is fo much occupied with the opinions of German divines, and references to their works, that to very few readers here it can be even intelligible. The two volumes do not comprise the whole; but should the reft never appear, few will regret it. The author feems to have no idea of immutable truth, but thinks that religious opinions fhould be fquared, like other things, to the fashions of the times. "If our theologifts perfift in making the fymbolical books of the fixteenth century our immutable creed of faith, they act juft as wifely as our taylors would have done, had they conftituted the ftiff bands, fhort cloaks, and loose coats trimmed with fur, worn by our ancestors of the fame date, the unalterable mode of drefs. Experience teaches us that opinions are not lefs liable to change than our habits." Vol. ii, p. 140. Ergo, becaufe human opinions alter, divine truth is to fluctuate alfo, and Revelation itself can fupply no permanent standard. Such is the logic of the Berlin bookfeller!" ART. 30. The Cafle of Inchvally. By Stephen Cullen, Author of the Haunted Priory, Sc. In Three Volumes. 1os. 6d. Bell. 1796. Very good talents for novel-writing are here employed, in feveral inftances, for purposes far from good. The drift of the work is, to render all inftitutions in Ireland, civil as well as religious, odious or contemptible to the people. Papifts and Proteftants are equally maligned. Every engine which artifice could employ, and rebellious induftry bring into effect (the prefs in particular) feems to have been long at work, for the production of thofe calamities, by which that kingdom is now afflicted. ART. ART. 31. Parental Duplicity; or the Power of Artife. A Novel. In Three Volumes. By P. S. M. 8vo. 10s. 6d. Kearney. 1797. The duplicity, or rather the profligate treachery, of the heroine's father, and her own merits and fufferings, are very great, but not very probable; and the fentiments and ftyle of this novel are fo much tinctured by vulgarity, that we can, with justice, award to it only the frigid commendation of being harmless. ART. 32. The Hiftory of my Father; or how it happened that I was. born. A Romance. In Twelve Chapters. Tranflated from the German of Kotzebue. Published by W. Treppafs, No. 31, St. Martin's-le-Grand. 8vo. 231 pp. 35. 1798. Humourous, after the manner of Triftam Shandy; not quite fo obfcenely allufive; but more undifguifedly profane. MEDICINE. ART. 33. An Efay on the Gout, in which is introduced a candid Examination, and a Refutation attempted, of Dr. Latham's Principles, lately published on this Subject, and others advanced, deduced from Facts occurring in the Author's own Cafe, and from his practical Experience of many Years. By George Wallis, M. D. 8vo. 203 pp. 45.. Robinfons. 1798. Dr. Wallis begins by reciting the different opinions held by various writers, of the laft and prefent century, on the nature and feat of the gout, concluding with thofe of Dr. Latham. They are all of them. he obferves, liable to very ferious objections, and the last not lefs fo than the other. He then gives a particular account of a fit of gout he fuffered in the year 1789. After attentively confidering," he fays, p. 43," the whole of the fymptoms of this fit, tracing their progreffions from the onfet to the termination, and then taking them collectively, I was by no means fatisfied by any former opinions I had read concerning the gout, much lefs with the general mode of cure recommended in the difeafe, particularly in cafes conftitutionally fimilar to my own. The fymptoms which preceded the painful paroxyfm, or the pain itself, appeared not to be of the inflammatory kind, though external inflammation was the common confequence, but much more forcibly to be affections of the nervous fyftem.' This opinion, that gout is a nervous affection, he afterwards attempts to establish, by fhowing its refemblance to low nervous fever and other complaints acknowledged to be nervous. That there is an affinity between fome of the fymptoms of gout and certain affections efteemed nervous, is too obvious to efcape the attention of the most indifferent obferver; but the inflammation on the furface of the skin attendant on gout, fufficiently difcriminates it from diseases of that clafs, or at least fhows it to be of a mixed nature. Neither do diseases strictly nervous bear the powerful evacuants, which are frequently employed with advantage in extinguishing a gouty paroxyfm. Leaving this this queftion, which will perhaps never be perfectly determined, we fhall notice the author's methods of cure, or, more properly, as he candidly calls it, the means by which the fit of the gout may be rendered lefs painful, its duration shortened, and its recurrence made less frequent. In this we fee nothing new, nor obferve any thing to cenfure. A medium is to be observed between a regimen too hot and ftimulating, and one that is too cool and ennervating. It is to be varied according to the conftitution and habits of living of the patient. The author ufually gives a purge on the first day of the attack, on the fecond an emetic. Thefe are repeated in two or three days, if they have not produced their full effect; fudorifics are next ufed; and, on the declenfion of the fit, bitters and tonics. The author next confiders the different fpecies of gout, and adapts a particular mode of treatment to each of them. He inclines to believe gout to be hereditary; at any rate he thinks it the intereft of the world to believe fo; as perfons born of gouty parents may, under the influence of that opinion, be induced to pay attention to their diet, in order to avert fo painful and diftreffing a complaint. Through the whole, the author appears to have well confidered the subject; and if he has not added much to our stock of knowledge, he has advanced no tenets, the adoption of which might be productive of much mischief. ART. 34. Oratio in Theatro Collegii Regalio Medicorum Londinenfis. Ex Harveii inflituto, habita Die Oct. 18, An. 1797, a Roberto Bourne, M. D. focio. 4to. 35 PP. 2s. 6d. Oxonii. In this elegant oration the author takes a more comprehenfive view, than is ufual in effufions of this kind, of the degraded ftate of fcience, particularly of medical knowledge in this country, prior to the inftitution of the College of Phyficians; and fhows by what fteps, under the aufpices of the College, medicine revived, and at length attained the fplendid and elevated rank it at prefent holds in Europe. In doing this, he ftates the advantages that have refulted from the intimate connection that has always fubfifted between the College and our two Universities of Oxford and Cambridge. The founder, as well as the moft fplendid ornaments and benefactors to the College, who were dif tinguished no lefs for the elegance of their tafte, and ardent love of fcience in general, than for their profound knowledge of medicine, having nearly all of them laid the foundation of their acquirements in one or other of those feminaries. He refutes the calumny fo often urged by the enemies to the College, of the inadequateness of the Universities, occupied in ftudies, as it is pretended, alien to medicine, to educate a phyfician; and fhows, from the authority of Hippocrates, that a knowledge of mathematics, which is cultivated with fo much care and fuccefs at thofe feminaries, is effentially neceffary in laying a firm bafis for medical knowledge. At the opening of the oration, the author notices the oppofition the inftitution has at various times encountered, but particularly, and in a fprited manner, adverts to a late attempt of a party of Licentiates of the College, few indeed in number, but making up that deficiency by acrimony and perfeverance, to overturn their privileges, ** Ora |