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years in the country; and they have displayed a singular degree of forbearance, in abstaining from all those speculations to which the scenes before them were so well calculated to lead,—from all retrospect and anticipation,—and, what was less to be expected perhaps—from any thing like discussion, either religious or political.—For those general readers who have not access to the book itself, this article cannot fail to be a convenient substitute.
5. The Veils, or the Triumph of Constancy. A Poem, in Six Books. By Miss Porden.—The Reviewers speak very highly of the author's powers of versification, but express their disapprobation of the manner in which she has chosen to exercise them. The poem is intended to display the "different energies of nature, exerted in producing the various changes which take place in the physical world, but personified and changed into the spirits of the Rosicrucian doctrine. A system which, as she observes, was introduced into poetry by Pope, and since used by Darwin in the Botanic Garden." The greater part of the critique is occupied with just animadversions on Darwin's personifications, so different from the tiny playful beings with whom we are so delighted in the "Rape of the Lock."
6. Laou-sing-urh, or "An Heir in his Old Age," a Chinese Drama. Translated from the Original Chinese by J. F. Davis, Esq. of Canton.—This drama was written nearly 800 years ago, yet it is considered to be a true picture of Chinese manners and Chinese feelings at the present time. The Reviewers, though very moderate in their estimate of Chinese literature, are well pleased with this performance, of which, and of the theatrical exhibitions of China, this article contains a curious and amusing account. A poem called "London," written by a common Chinese, has been also translated by Mr Davis; and the specimen of it which the Reviewers furnish might have made a very respectable appearance among the least extravagant effusions of Gulliver. Nearly half the article is occupied, somewhat incongruously we conceive, with particulars regarding Lord Amherst's embassy, in which, hovever, we do not find any thing of importance that has not already appeared in the newspapers. It has failed indeed,—and yet in one sense it has not failed; for the refusal of our ambassador to submit to the degrading ceremonies of Chinese etiquette must give the celestial emperor a very high opinion of the English nation: a most comfortable illustration of the well-known fable of the fox and the grapes.
7. Fragment on the Theory and Practice of Landscape Gardening, &c. By H. Repton, Esq.—The writer of this article must be deeply skilled in gardens—Italian, French, Spanish, Dutch, German, and Chinese and other Asiatic gardens, as well as with the ancient and modern style of landscape gardening in England; and also with all the writers on parterres and vistas, woods and lawns, and grottos, from the times of Virgil and Juvenal downwards. The book is said to be both interesting and entertaining.
8. Tales of my Landlord.—This and the elder branches of the same family, in spite of the uncouthness of the language of a great portion of them, even to Scotsmen, and the utter inability of the mere English reader to enter into the spirit of many of the most humorous and characteristic representations, immediately upon their appearance acquired, and continue to maintain, a degree of popularity to which probably no other works of the same class, and of the same dimensions, have ever attained. Yet in all these novels there are faults or defects, which every one perceives upon a general survey of their texture, and every one forgets in their perusal. It is one main object of the present article to explain the causes of this popularity, which many of their admirers are at some loss to account for; to shew that the imperfection of the stories, and the want of interest in the principal characters, are more than compensated by the extraordinary attraction which their mysterious author has been able to give to the narrative, by his accurate and animated descriptions, and the truth and fidelity of his portraits. It was never doubted, in this part of the Island, that human beings had actually sat for these portraits, though there has certainly been much difference of opinion about their originals; but it is truly mortifying to find a London Reviewer, even with the acknowledged assistance of his Scottish correspondents, coming forward to correct our