Caft him not letterlefs on Neptune's care: For whofo fails a Cub, returns a Bear. Education now gives a sketch of the feveral characters juft enumerated; we shall quote only a few lines from the first and the laft. Of the ARTIST it is faid, He refts not in effect, but scans each cause; Th' ingenious court him, and the great carefs, Of the DIVINE, Where'er he prays, an angel intercedes: Madam Pedia having ended her instructions, her fon replies, without delay Whate'er thou bidd'ft, unargu'd I obey. Bold is the enterprize thou dost indite: We are then told, Six fultry feafons he pursued his toil, This nobler place is the prefent refidence of our Bard; which is here very elaborately defcribed, and concerning which Pedia tells him, Little did Predeceffor-lords foresee, That they built, planted, liv'd, and dy'd for thee. The manfion model'd for the British Mufe. Whether, by the British Mufe, is meant that of our Author, we cannot take upon us pofitively to fay; our Readers, however, will probably be able to judge, from the ample specimens we have given of his tranfcendent merit in' poetical compofition. Telemachus, Telemachus, a Mask. TH By the Rev. George Graham, M. A. HERE is not in the province of the Drama any species of compofition fo favourable to genius, and fo capable of pure poetry, as the Mask. Unreftrained by time or place, and inattentive to the rules of order and probability, the Poet is at full liberty to indulge all the powers of imagination, in defcription, paffion, and machinery. He may animate his scenes with the language, and diverfify them with the prefence, of superior Beings. He may explore thofe fairy regions that owe their exiftence to poetic fancy, and borrow all the ornaments of ancient Mythology. When the genius of Milton was permitted to rove at large in this ample field, it gathered the most exquifite flowers of poetry that ever sprung at the command of human imagination; and he fcattered them over every page of his immortal Comus. His language is the language of the Gods; and his imagery, like the appearance of our first Mother, gives a new and more delightful afpect to the creation. Mr. Graham follows his great Archetype in this work of imagination, Longo fed proximus Intervallo. His Mufe is correct and decent; but he wants that great enthufiafm, and that ethereal fire, which, while we read, make our hearts burn within us. We have read his performance without being delighted or displeased. His images bear no marks of original genius; his moral sentiments are not uncommon, and his argumentative converfations are often flat, and always too long. He has not prepoffeffed his Reader fufficiently in favour of his characters, to make him interested in their diftress: Mentor does not always fpeak like the disguised Goddefs of Wisdom, and his royal Pupil treats the venerable Sage in a manner more becoming a modern Buck upon his travels, than the polished Prince of Ithaca. The Chorufes prove, that Mr. Graham is no extraordinary favourite of the lyric Mufe: they are mere modern fongs, upon a level with our Vaux-hall and Ranelagh compofitions. Specimen : When Cupid lately hither ftrayed, I caught him as he played, The pretty Wanton to my breaft: And His Dialogues are fomething better than his Songs; there. fore to do him all the juftice, and fhew him all the favour we can, we shall quote one of the best of them. TELEMACHUS, MENTOR. TEL. Mentor, the lot is caft. My choice is fixed. And thou art wife-thy wifdom be thy guide. I know thy thoughts-but waste not time in words; [Going. MENT. My Prince, I've often borne you in thefe arms, A pleafing weight; oft have you called me father, O let me not for fake my prince, my fon, TEL. O think not, Mentor, I forget thy cares, But all is altered elfe-my foul itself The fates-perhaps I wifh 'twere otherwife But we must part. Come then, embrace thy Prince : My faddened foul with unavailing grief. MENT. Muft I then tell, amid the heroic band, The youthful rivals of your glorious toils, That I forfook my Prince, my royal charge, Their triumphs ill concealed, their foul contempt? TEL. And who fhall dare defpife Ulyffes fon ?- Contempt! and have I lived to hear the word MENT. MENT. Let me embrace my Prince. I'll not offend TEL. No: dare not for thy life. Retract thy flanderous charge that wounds my foul MENT. TEL. Glory! I reck not of it. 'Tis a light What thou calleft wisdom; the froward envious zeal MENT. Then, bafe degenerate boy, The fcorn of earth, the avenging wrath of heaven TEL. Stay, I conjure thee, Mentor; leave me not. To leave my beauteous Love-To live defpifed- 3 Harrow my foul. Now then, old man, rejoice, As would even touch thy rigorous favage virtue, In confequence of this converfation, which is too long to be quoted here entirely, Telemachus is prevailed upon to leave the ifland of Calypfo. Minerva, who had all this while been concealed under the difguife of Mentor, conducts the young Hero to the fummit of a rock, from whence he had a view of the sea, and of the vessel that was to convey him. From this rock the throws him into the fea, and he fwims to the fhip. Explebit Numerum, et reddetur Tenebris. The Magdalens, an Elegy. By the Author of the Nunnery. 4to. 6d. DodЛley. W E have once before had occafion to obferve, that there is an imitative as well as an original Genius for the fine Arts. But this is more particularly true in Poetry and Painting. A mind not fufficiently daring or creative, may yet be fo capable of fenfible impreffions, as to catch and reflect the features of an object it has contemplated, with great, exactness. The Author of the poem before us appears to be of this class. The Nunnery (fee Review, vol. XXVI. p. 358.) was a parody on Mr. Gray's Elegy written in a Country Church-yard, and the marks of imitation (as Ariftotle terms them) were very ftriking. This we took notice of, and at the fame time obferved, that the poem was, in fome places, fufficiently poetical and harmonious; and in others, feeble, quaint, and inelegant. The fame character, totidem verbis, will do for the Magdalens. The spirit and manner of Gray, the ftructure of his verfification, and the fober melancholy of his imagery and fentiment, are closely imitated. The Copyift fails chiefly in expreffion. He is not deficient in the Pathos; for in this little Elegy he has exhibited almost every circumftance of affecting Distress, that his fubject was capable of; but (what, indeed, is a principle article in poetry) he is unable to gain a paffage through the car to the heart, being unhappily defective in melody and ease. He deferves, however, to be treated with all poffible tenderness, being modeft enough to acknowlege that |