6

That ye amang yow chefs me ane,
That be honeft, wyfe, and wycht,
And off hys hand a nobill knycht,
On Godds fayis my hart to ber,
Quhen faule and corfs diffeueryt wer.
For I wald it war worthily

Broucht thar; fen God will noucht that I
Haue power thiddyrwart to ga.”—'

After having informed us that the Lord Douglas undertook to execute the dying king's request, the poet thus defcribes the monarch's death, and the forrow of thofe about him:

6

1

Quhen the Lord DowGLAS, on this wyfs,

Had undretane fa hey empryfs,

As the gud KING's hart to ber,
On Godds fayis apon wer,
Priflyt for hys emprifs wes he.
And the KINGS infirmyté

Woux mar and mar, quhill at the last
The dulfull dede approchit faft.
And quhen he had gert till hym do
All, that gud Crystyn man fell to,
With werray repentance he gaf
The gaft, that God till hewyn haiff,
Amang hys choffyn folk to be
In joy, folace, and Angell gle!

And fra hys folk wyft he wes ded,3
The forow raifs fra fteid to steid. +

4

Thar mycht men fe men ryve thair har:
And comounly knychts gret full far, s
And thair newffys oft famyn dryve,"
And as woud men thair claithys ryve.'
Regretand hys worthy bounté,
Hys wyt, hys ftrenth, hys honefté;
And our all the gret cumpany
That he thaim maid oft curtafly.

"All our defens," thai faid, "allace!
And he that all our comford was,
Our wyt, and all our gouernyng,
Allace is broucht her till ending!
Hys worfchip, and hys mekill mycht,
Maid all that war with hym fa wycht,
That thai mycht neuir abay fit be,
Quhill forouth thaim thai mycht hym fe,
Allace! quhat fall we do or fay?
For on lyff quhill he leftyt, ay

wycht; Arong.

gert till hym do; caufed him to 3 fra; from the time that, after. whence comes our verb, to regret. together.

do. werray; very, i. e. true. fteid; house. 5 gret, lament, newffys; ffts or hands.-famyn;

7 woud men; mad men. forouth; before. 9 on lyff quhill he leftyt; while he lafted or remained alive.

With all our nychtbours dreid war we:
And intill mony fer cuntré

Off our worschip sprang the renoun:
And that wes all for hys perfoun."

< With fwilk wordys thai maid thair mayn.
And fekyrly wondre wes nane;
For better gouernour than he
Mycht in na countré fundyn be.
I hop that nane that is on lyve
The lamentatioun fuld difcryve
That that folk for thair Lord maid.
And quhen thai lang thus forowyt had,
Thai haiff had hym to Dunferlyne:
And hym folemply erdyt fyne "
In a fayr tumb, intill the quer.
Byfchaps and Prelats, that thar war,
Affolyeit hym, quhen the feruice *3
Wes done as thai couth best dewifs.
And fyne, on the tothyr day, 4
Sary and wa ar went thair way.'

14

12

ART. XIV. Ethic Epiftles to the Earl of Carnarvon, on the Mind and its Operations, as bearing generally on the Events of the World, particularly on thofe of France. With an Apology to the Public. Crown 8vo. pp. 224. 55. Boards. Cadell. 1794.

IN

didactic poetry, the principal object is the communication of knowlege or fentiment: the graces of language are only introduced to embellish inftruction, and the mufe acts as a handmaid to truth. Where the poet gratifies his reader with original conceptions, or prefents to his mind, in advantageous arrangement, just reflections and useful precepts, he may therefore well claim indulgence, if his verfe be fparingly enriched with the elegance of poetical diction, or even if fometimes defective in its numbers. Good fenfe, energetically expreffed in terfe rhymes, will always be pleafing.-We fhould be glad, were it in our power, to offer thefe remarks as an apology for the poetical defects of thefe epiftles: but fidelity to the public obliges us to say that we have in vain fearched through this volume for thofe excellencies of thought and fentiment, which might compensate for literary imperfections. The arguments, which speak of the human mind under various characters and relations, promife the reader metaphyfical and moral difquifi12 intill

10 fekyrly; Surely. erdyt fyne; buried afterwards. the quer; in the choir. 13 affolyeit hym; gave him abjolution. 14 on the tothyr day; on the day after. It is ftill a common expreffion in Kent and other parts of England to fay: "I will do it to morrow, or tother day," i. e. to-morrow, or the day after. 15 fary and wa; farry and useful.

tions but the promife is very incompletely fulfilled. The general reflections are flight and fuperficial; and the writer foon paffes to what appears to be his main object, the exhibiting the mind and its operations as bearing generally on the events of the world, particularly on thofe of France.' Political, metaphyfical, and theological heretics are each reprobated in their turn; and every general topic gives the author fome occafion of levelling a stroke of fatire against modern philofophers and reformers. As a fair fpecimen of the writer's manner, we quote a fhort paffage on plagiarifm:

• With Greek and Hebrew few now plague their pate,
Compofing now is almoft out of date.
Compiling from compilers all the art

That conftitutes a modern author's part.

No more are patriarchs, prophets, fathers heard,
E'en Gibbon takes a French tranflator's word.

Old Jeromes and Jofephufes give way,

To Priestleys, Horleys, Paleys, of the day;
Inftead of going to th' Auguftan age,
We pirate from their Plagiary's page.

One picks a pocket, one from him receives,
And hands it forward through a croud of thieves;
'Till the purse, torn to pieces as it's toft,
Lets loofe the gold, or is in Grub-ftreet loft:
So chang'd by all the filth where it has lain,
The owner fcarce could know his own again:
Thus many a thief alike of wealth, or wit,
Efcapes the lath of law by marring it.

Oft by poetic as by common law,
The culprit gets off merely by a flaw;
See-Martial judge-reports of his own time—
"He makes it his, who ill repeats my rhyme."

Of the rich harvest of old times bereft,

We glean the gleanings other pilf'rers left.
Few now on Homer, or on Horace dine,

But drink diftill'd their lees without their wine.

Few now with Val.* on Ariftotle fup,

But take his orts at fecond-hand dished up.
Still low'r the fpurious fons of learning stoop
To hirelings critics of a Grub-treet group;
Devour the scourings of thofe learned stews,
Registers, papers, magazines, reviews.

(Not fuch as Ruffhead's, Johnfon's, Burke's, but those
Of critics no one cares for, no one knows-

If they are willing to obtain my praife,

Firft let them fhew their tafte, and like my lays.')

Hard condition! with which, alas! we find it impoffible to comply!

* Val. Ariftotle is a feast for an emperor.-CONG.'

ART.

ART. XV. A Treatise on the Fevers of Jamaica, with fome Obfervations on the Intermitting Fever of America, and an Appendix, containing fome Hints on the Means of preferving the Health of Soldiers in hot Climates. By Robert Jackson, M. D. pp. 440. 7s. Boards. Murray.

THE

8vo.

HE first chapter of this work gives the general character of the remitting fever of Jamaica, particularly at Savannahla-mar; by which it appears to be, on the whole, mild, with perfect remiffions, difpofed to terminate early, and on certain critical days; confiderably refembling the fever defcribed in the epidemics of Hippocrates. Chap. 2d relates to the types of periodical fevers; and chap. 3d to critical days in fevers.. In both these we find much obfervation of fact, together with an acquaintance with the doctrine of the antients: but we cannot fay that any great degree of precife or useful information arifes out of the whole difcuffion, which is rather obfcured by a multiplicity of matter, ftated in a loose and immethodical manner.

With respect to the general remote caufes of remitting and intermitting fevers, Dr. J. agrees with those who attribute thefe fevers to march effluvia: but he cenfures Sir J. Pringle for fome of his rules refpecting the choice of fituations; which were founded chiefly on the neceffity of free air, in order to avoid the fuppofed tendency of feptic caufes. On the contrary, Dr. Jackson produces inftances to prove that a high fituation, exposed to winds blowing over fwamps, is often more unhealthy than a lower and more fheltered one; and he concurs with some other authors in obferving that merely clearing the ground from woods, without draining, has made feveral parts of America more fubject to fevers than formerly. He concludes this 4th chapter with affirming the reality of the power attributed to changes of the moon in promoting the invafion of fevers. As the5th chapter, concerning the proximate caufe of fevers, confifts only of an historical sketch of the opinions of others, without any immediate reference to the peculiar fubject of the work, it does not demand particular notice.

Ch. 6. contains the general hiftory of the Jamaica fever. It is divided into the fections, Of Fever diftinguished by symptoms of inflammatory diathefis; Of Fever with fymptoms of nervous affection; Of Fever in which are difcovered figns of malignity; Of Fevers in which are obferved fymptoms of a putrefcent tendency; and Of Fevers accompanied with an increafed fecretion of bile. By malignity, nothing very determinate is meant, but, generally, a dangerous ftate of difeafe. A specific putrefcent tendency in this fever is rare; though, at a late period, fymptoms of putrefaction fometimes appear.

The

The chapter on the prognoftic of this fever enumerates various claffes of figns, which, belonging to fever in general, and affording little new, we fhall not particularize. It is fucceeded by one defcribing the different fymptoms of a crifis and a fimple remiffion.

In the 9th chapter, the author proceeds to the general cure of fever; and, in the first fection, he difcuffes the doctrine of the vis medicatrix nature, to which, from various cogent arguments, he refufes any direct and certain efforts in the cure of difeafes; and, in confequence, he denies that indications can properly be taken from that tumult of the fyftem which often fucceeds the impreffion of a morbid caufe. In the 2d fection he confiders the general indications of cure; and here he afferts that there has hitherto been difcovered no one particular remedy in the Jamaica fever to which we can trust; the bark, though much ufed, appearing to him incapable of fubduing it, and antimonials being often dangerous, and generally ineffectual.

The chapter on the particular cure of the fever of Jamaica begins with the observation, that the first step was to remove thofe circumftances which mafked or concealed its real character of a remitting difeafe, and to make it affume its proper form. The mode of effecting this was different, as the inflammatory or the nervous diathefis prevailed. In the former, bleeding and copious evacuation were moft ufeful; in the latter, blifters, ftimulants, the warm bath, and more especially cold falt water dafhed over the head and fhoulders, were the best remedies. With refpect to the duration of the fevers, he seems to think that this is originally determined by its nature, and is not to be altered by bark and other remedies; yet he deems the bark excellent for fupporting the powers of nature till a favourable crifis takes place. Many valuable practical remarks occur in this chapter, but none fo peculiar to the writer as the very strong recommendation of cold bathing in the fevers of the West Indies; which, by his account, appears to be the most powerful of all means of rouling nature to a falutary action.

Chap. 11, on the yellow fever, begins with establishing three forms under which it appears, though fpecifically the dif eafe is one and the fame : thefe are, 1. That in which figns of putrefaction appear early, and in which yellownefs and black vomiting are general: 2. That in which figns of nervous affection are more obvious, and yellownefs and black vomiting are rare 3. That in which there are marks of violent irritation, and inflammatory diathefis in the earlier ftages, which foon give way to figns of debility and putrefcence, with the yellow colour and black vomiting. No one of thefe forms has evi

dent