Vigerus de Idiotismis Graca Dictionis, ed. HERMANN. 8vo. 20s. bds. In one or in two Vols.

The Germany and Agricola of Tacitus, from Passow's and Brotier's Text, with English Notes and Critical Remarks. Third Edition. By E. H. Barker, Trin. Coll. Camb. 5s. 6d. bds.

IN THE PRESS.

Analecta Latina Majora; containing selections from the best Latin Prose Authors, with English Notes, &c. exactly on the plan of Dalzell's Analecta Græca. 1 vol. 8vo. For Schools.

M. JULIEN is preparing for publication the works of Mencius, the celebrated follower of Confucius, who florished about 300 years after him. He will give the Chinese text lithographised, with a literal translation into Latin of the text as well as of the most necessary commentaries for understanding it. It is the first attempt of the kind that has been made in Europe, and will probably attract considerable attention, which in England ought to be more than elsewhere. The only complete Chinese text of any work printed before, was the Tchoung Young of Confucius by M. Remusat, with the translation and a few notes: but the work is short, and there is no literal translation from any commentators, and it was printed by government, but scarcely published. There have been many ideas of Confucius, from translations of his works, known in Europe for some time; but scarcely any thing has been known of Mencius, though his works form one of what the Chinese call the four books, a place next in order to the king, which are of the first rate in their estimation. The work will soon be ready for publication, and is to be dedicated to Sir William Drummond.

Present State of Dutch Literature. While our magazines and reviews are filled with dissertations on French, German, Italian, and Spanish literature, that of our industrious neighbours, the Dutch, seems neglected and forgotten; and yet their literary labors, within a recent period, have been numerous, and in many instances, to say the least of them, very respectable. We hope, therefore, that a short sketch of their most celebrated living authors may not be unacceptable. Beginning with the poets, we may observe en passant, that the Dutch language is highly poetical, or at least not less so than the German. It allows of the boldest combinations, adapts itself to every kind of metre and

verse, and in the mouth of a well-bred Dutchman, and especially of a Dutchwoman, its sounds are far from being harsh or grating.

Their first poet is unquestionably Bilderdyk, a man of a most comprehensive mind. His earliest work appeared in 1776, and his productions have since increased to fifty volumes. But although his greatest merit is that of a poet, yet many of his works are on philology, jurisprudence, physic, geology, and general literature. He is an enemy to German literature; and occasionally very severe against those of his countrymen who condescend to imitate it nevertheless, a mental affinity with the great poets of that nation may be traced in his writings. Goethe is the only author who is sometimes honored with his praise. One of his most recent productions is the beginning of a great epic poem, entitled the Destruction of the World (De Ondergang der eerste Waereld). Bilderdyk's best pupil in poetry is Dacosta, a youth of the Jewish religion, full of fire and energy. He was not eighteen when he published a metrical translation of the Persa of Eschylus; and two years after, the Prometheus of the same author; and latterly a volume of miscellaneous poems. It is remarkable that Dacosta, though such a warm admirer of the Dutch language and poetry, is a Portuguese.

Feith, of Zwolle, in Overyssel, a contemporary and formerly an intimate friend of Bilderdyk, is the third in rank. He, together with the latter, enjoys the honor of having, in the latter part of the last century, revived Dutch poetry from its lethargy. Though he is greatly inferior to Bilderdyk in learning, he is superior to him in the gentler feelings of humanity, in a sweet religious melancholy, and perhaps even in the harmony of his numbers. He has written some excellent hymns, odes, romances, and didactic poems. Of the latter, The Grave, and Old Age, and Solitude, and The World, are the best. His poem on De Ruyte is considered as a masterpiece. Reithberg, the poet of the Happiness of Love, may be considered as his pupil; and De Kruyff (lately deceased), the author of the Hope of Return, most resembles him in genius.

Tollens, of Rotterdam, is the favorite of the nation. He is a merchant, without a regular literary education, but well read in modern languages, and the history of his country; of which he takes frequent opportunities of reprinting traits of Dutch heroism, little known by the generality of readers. He handles every subject with the happiest facility. With equal energy and warmth of feeling he describes a battle, or the individual deed of an ancient Dutch hero; the humiliation and exaltation of his country, the sorsows and the happiness of love, domestic felicity, and the greatness and destination of the poet. Tollens' writings are universally read; which may appear from the fact of 10,000 subscriptions

having been obtained to a recent cheap edition of his works: a circumstance unparalleled in a nation not exceeding two millions of people. His latest, and at the same time one of his best works, is the Wintering of the Dutch on Nova-Zembla in 1596-97. He, as well as Frith, is an admirer of German literature; and the former has published a very pretty volume of imitations from the German and French. His school is the most numerous in Holland. Some of his best pupils are Mierstrass, who has sung the Redeemer, and latterly the merits of Rubens; Messchert, who selected the new colony of paupers at Frederiksoord as a subject for an excellent poem; who, with several others, are all natives of Rotterdam. Tollens has declined the honor of a bust, which his admiring fellow citizens offered to raise to him.

Kilmers, of Amsterdam, is another poet of renown. In 1806, when the republic was threatened with a French invasion, he published a fragment of a MS. tragedy, in which he makes a Greek weep over the ruins of Corinth for the fate of his country under the Roman yoke. This poem made a very vivid impression on bis countrymen, and stimulated them to a powerful resistance; and the allusions to France were so striking, that the paper in which the poem was published was prohibited there. The muse of this poet is bold, fiery, and sublime. God, virtue, the arts, and his country, are his themes. One of his larger poems, the Dutch Nation (De Hollandsche Natio), has already gone through five editions. The only fault attributed to him is his selection of images, which are taken from a great distance, whilst the objects near him are neglected. He died in 1813, and by his death escaped the imprisonment which was already decreed against him in Paris. His spirit has passed, in a great measure, to his friend and relation, Cornelius Lootsen, a poet of talent, but of less literary knowledge than Kilmers. He is distinguished by a high flight of imagination, strong ardent language, and an abundance of poetical images. His theme is, for the most part, his "father-land." His best poems are The Batavians at the period of Cæsar, and The Victory of the Netherlanders at Chatham. Van Hell, one of the most learned lawyers of Amsterdam, is also considered as a distinguished poet. He has furnished very good translations of some classics.

Henry Hermann, and Barnhard Klyn, also natives of Amsterdam, may be mentioned as young men of great promise.

Lulof, and Spandau, of Groeningen, are two other respectable poets. The productions of the former are few in number; he translates with facility from foreign languages, and even has composed some verses in German and French. Spandau has written more: domestic happiness, love, and patriotism are the favorite topics of his muse. He is inferior to Kilmers, Lootsen, or Tollens in energy, ardor, and imagery; and he wants the power of language

so eminently possessed by the latter; nevertheless his writings are distinguished by an unassuming warmth, a beautiful, dignified simplicity, loveliness, and clearness of diction; and above all, a purity of taste, in which he surpasses many of his contemporaries. In one of his poems, entitled The Netherlands, he first ventured to strip off the fetters of rhyme, and sing the heroic and literary greatness of his small country with a truly Ossianic enthusiasm. Simons is particularly known for his bold poem, Vergäet un afkomft, ô Bataven, which he wrote during the French usurpation, and which was translated for his present Majesty while Prince Regent, as a proof of the spirit which then animated the Dutch nation.

Borger, who died in 1820, in his 36th year, left but few poems: but they prove that he might have become the first poet of his country. His works, De Historia Pragmatica, De Historia Providentiæ Divinæ, &c., deserve to be more universally known.

The scarcity of theatrical productions at the present time seems to be felt in Holland as much as elsewhere. There are some good pieces of Bilderdyk and his wife, such as Cormac, William of Holland, Floris V., and a translation of Cinna, by the former; and Elfride, by the latter: but they all present great difficulties in the performance. A Prize offered by the National Institution in 1818 produced some original tragedies: among which Dacosta's Alphons of Portugal, and Mrs. Bilderdyk's Dargo, were mentioned as the best; yet the prize was adjudged to no one. A second competition was not more successful, although it called forth two other productions of the same author and authoress, of which Montigny and Diatrice, by Dacosta, is now frequently performed at Amsterdam and the Hague, with considerable applause.

Among the prose writers J. H. van der Palm (Prof. of the Orient. Lang. and Preacher at the University of Leyden) holds the first rank. His numerous sermons are graced by a simple, yet inimitable eloquence, grounded on the most extensive biblical study. His memoir on the Liberation of the Netherlands is well worthy of being translated, although it would be difficult to transfer to a translation the various beauties of style, and the harmony of the periods which grace the original. The other pulpit orators of renown are Clarisse, at Leyden; Broes, Roll, and Stuart, at Amsterdam; Dermont, at the Hague; Van der Hoeven, at Rotterdam; and Schrant (a Roman Catholic) at Ghent. Their best historians

are Stuart and Scheltema. The style of the former is harmonious, and full of the finest illustrations: but it is not sufficiently com pressed. That of the latter is too close an imitation of the diction of old Hoost. In fact, the Dutch prose (with the exception of that of Van der Palm) has not yet risen to that height to which their poetry has raised itself. (Literary Gazette.)

222

TO CORRESPONDENTS.

In our next we shall give

Coincidences between Tasso and Homer.-In Sophoclis Edip. Colon. Emend.-Notice of the Odes of Anacreon of Teos.-Biblical Criticism on the first and second Chapters of St. Matthew.

E. R. G.'s verses are correct in metre, but deficient in style and expression.

Arithmetic of the Holy Scriptures came too late for our present No.

We shall continue S.'s Comments on Demosthenes in our next.

Notices of Worledge, Tancoigne, &c. in our next.

Y.'s Remarks on the English Translation of the Bible will also appear in the next No.

J. B.'s Biblical Criticisms came too late.

W. T. P. S.'s short articles will appear in our next.

We have received J. J.-N. O.-G. P. C.

The notice which we promised to give of Professor Boissonade's Aristanetus, has been deferred from a wish to make it as interesting as possible, by subjoining to it a rapid view of the other Works of the Professor-all of which are now before us with the exception of Holstenii Epistola.

ERRATA.

No. LV. Page 120. line 13. Lege uti, pro usurpare.

DIRECTION TO THE BINDER.

Insert the Four Plates opposite page 192.

END OF NO. LVII.