fet fail for the intended new feat of learning; but the vessel carried him to New England'; where he had time and opportunity for better information; and he returned to Old England fomewhat wifer than he went out.

But though the curious traveller may look in vain for the numberless beauties that Waller defcribes in his panegyric on the Summer Inlands, as they have been vulgarly styled, it must, in juftice to that poet, be obferved, that their charms are greatly impaired fince Waller's time. Bermudas then abounded with noble cedars, moft of which have been fince cut down for fhiptimber; and under the shelter of those delightful trees flourished a variety of pleafing but tender plants, which, now, wanting thofe comfortable fcreens from the feverity of the ungenial north, have deferted the foil. The climate is, however, fo mild, the air fo temperate, and the land fo prolific, that the inhabitants enjoy plenty of almost all kinds of vegetables for food, with variety of trees, and fhrubs, both for use and ornament.....!

The Author of the poem now before us, is, we learn, a very young candidate for literary fame. His performance, indeed, bears the marks of juvenility; but it likewife evinces the promifing genius of the Writer; who, if he continues to cultivate, with ardour, his poetical powers, will probably foon grow into confiderable favour with the Mufes.

Our youthful Bard, with filial and fraternal affection, lae ments his abfence from his parent country; and thus describes the tender and pi&urefque ideas which arife in his mind, in his hours of recollection, when all the fcenery of his native foil appears before him:

Oft, when in fhades envelop'd, Night defcends,
And Darknefs o'er the hemifphere extends,
When gloomy Silence hushes ev'ry found,
And dead Tranquillity prevails around,

And the diftrefs'd, unmindful of their woes,
In balmy feep their heavy eye-lids clofe,
While no repofe my weary foul can find,
Thy lov'd idea rifes in my mind.

Swift at the thought, and for enjoyment keen,
Regardless of the feas that roll between,
Where o'er furrounding depths thy cliffs arife,
With rapid wing my bufy fancy flies;
And, reprefenting fcenes of paft delights,
A painful pleasure in my breaft excites.

E'en now, tranfported to my native land,
Upon the fummit of fome hill I ftand,
The cedars view, uncultur'd as they grow,
And all the varied scenery below.
Far at a distance as the eye can reach,
Extend the mazes of the winding beach: avion
Loud on the coaft the bellowing ocean roars,
While foaming furges lath the whiten'd shores;

Stupendous

Stupendous rocks in wild confufion ftand,
Lift their tall cliffs, and fadden all the ftrand.
"Before Aurora gilds the eastern skies
The fun-burnt tenants of the cottage rife;
With many a yawn their drowsy comrades hail,
Rub their dim eyes, and tafte the morning-gale,
Some bear the basket, plenteously supply'd
With hooks and lines, the able fisher's pride;
Others with dextrous hands the toils display,
Well skill'd to circumvent the scaly prey;
With wide-extended nets the fhores they fweep,
Or man the bark, and plough the finny deep.
The happy islander, return'd at night,
Recounts the day's adventures with delight;
Aftonishes the lift'ning croud with tales
Of rocks avoided, and of dang'rous gales;
Of groupers who, deluded by the bait,

Shar'd many a former grouper's wretched fate;
And rock-fith, who had tugg'd the well-stretch'd line,
Oblig'd their pond'rous carcafe to refign.
The little urchin, playing on the ftrand,
At diftance kens the bark return'd to land,
He hies impatient, views the scaly ftore,
And bids his parent welcome to the shore.

• Meanwhile the housewife decks the cleanly board
With all her homely cottage can afford;
Her little brood are feated to their with,
And tafte the bleffings of the fmoking dish;
Of childish stories prattle all the while,
Regarding either parent with a fmile;
The finny monster's grateful taste admire,
And for it blefs their providential fire.
He with delight the youthful tribe surveys,
His gladden'd eyes ftill brighten as they gaze;
Of earthly joys he knows no higher pitch,
And bids the prince be great, the miser rich.

Where rifing Phoebus darts the morning ray,
The verdant hills a diff'rent scene display;
Promiscuous houses in the vale aré seen,
Whofe decent white adorns the lively green.
The weary peafant here, reclin'd at ease,
Beneath his fig tree courts the fouthern breeze;
Or, while the great, at fruitless cares, repine,
He fits the monarch of his little vine.

'There scatter'd ifles, whofe banks the waters lave, Grace with their herbage the pellucid wave,

The lordly bullock there, unus'd to toil,

Securely ftalks the tyrant of the foil;

While tender lambkins on the margin play,
And fport and gambol 'midit the funny day.

From early infancy inur'd to toil,
Rough as the rocks that bound his native foil,
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The

The sturdy craftsman, with laborious hand,
Fells the tall tree, and drags it to the strand:
Refounding fhores return the hammer's blows,
Beneath the ftroke the gaudy pinnace grows,
Launch'd, and completely mann'd, in queft of gain,
Spreads her light fails, and tempts the wat'ry main,'

It is, we doubt not, with unfeigned rapture, that he dwells
on the beauties of the particular spot which gave him birth :
• Beneath my bending eye, ferenely neat,
Appears my ever bleft paternal feat.
Far in the front the level lawn extends,
The zephyrs play, the nodding cypress bends;
A little hillock stands on either fide,
O'erfpread with evergreens, the garden's pride.
Promifcuous here appears the blushing rofe,
The guava flourishes, the myrtle grows,
Upon the furface earth-born woodbines creep,
O'er the green beds the painted 'fturtians peep,
Their arms aloft triumphant lilacs bear,
And jeffamines perfume the ambient air.
The whole is from an eminence display'd,
When the brown olive lends his penfive fhade.
When zephyrs there the noon-tide heat afswage,
Oft have I turn'd the meditative page,
And calmly read the ling'ring hours away,
Securely fhelter'd from the blaze of day.
At eve refresh'd, I trode the mazy walk,
And bade the minutes pafs in chearful talk,
With many a joke my brothers wou'd affail,
Or chear my fifters with the comic tale;
While both fond parents pleas'd, the group survey'd,
Attentive heard, and smil'd at all they said.

་་

Thrice happy feat! here once were centred all

That bind my heart to this terreftrial ball

The fight of these each gloomy thought destroys,
And ties my foul to fublunary joys!

Ye pow'rs fupreme, who rule the spangled sky,

On whole protection firmly they rely,

Grant them each blifs the fertile mind can form,
And lift them high above Misfortune's storm!'

There are some touches of pleafantry in the following portrait of his fchoolmafter:

Near yonder hill, above the ftagnant pool,
My ftern preceptor taught his little school:
Dextrous t'apply the fcientific rod,
The little truants fhudder'd at his nod;
When-e'er he came, they all fubmiffive bow'd,
All fcann'd their tasks industriously loud;
And, fearful to excite the mafter's rage,
With trembling hands produc'd the blotted

page:

Skilful

Skilful he was, and dabbled in the law,

Bonds, notes, petitions any thing could draw:
'Twas even whifper'd, and 'tis ftrictly true,
He claim'd acquaintance with the Muses too,
And, by the goddeffes infpir'd, at times,
His lofty genius mounted into rhymes.

Great bard! what numbers can thy praise rehearse,
Who turn'd Qui mibi into English verfe;
Taught the mug epigram with art to glide,
And e'en at lines of heav'nly Maro try'd?
Though many an epitaph of thine was known.
To grace the cold commemorating stone,
Thy own remains, in fome neglected fpot,
Now lie unfung, unheeded, and forgot!"

A refpectable Correfpondent mentioning this poem, observes, that "if it does not rife to that fublimity, nor flame with that. enthusiasm, which the Cataract of Niagara, or the hurricanes which sweep thofe torrid climes might infpire, it is because the object's where Nature appears oftentatious of the grand and terrible, did not fall immediately within the Author's plan." But we think it could have been no way foreign from his defign, to have introduced a defcription of thofe fublimely dreadful thun, der-ftorms, and lightnings, which are common in the WeltIndies, and by which, it is faid, the very rocks of Bermudas have been frequently rent afunder. Mr. Tucker's attention, however, feems to have been confined to fofter fcenes, and more pleafing ideas; and perhaps his genius may more naturally lead him into fuch flowery paths as thofe which he has here fo fondly and harmoniously delineated.

ART. VIII. Mifcellanies of the late ingenious and on historical, theological, and critical Subjects. French, by E. Harwood, D. D. 8vo. 6 s.

celebrated M. Abauxit, Tranflated from the Becket. 1774.

MOTTO. No! this age of philofophy will not flow without having produced one true philofopher. I know one, and I freely own, but one; but what is much more, and which I regard as the highest point of happiness, it is in my own coun-. try that he refides: Shall I prefume to name him, to name him whofe true glory it is to have studied to remain almost in obfcurity? The wife and modeft Abausit. NOUVELLE HELOISE.

MR

R. Rouffeau's eulogy on the late M. Abauzit, above quoted, feems to be the firft circumftance that drew on this Writer the notice of the world. On perufing his works we confefs that we do not wonder at it. His time and abilities feem to have been devoted to religious subjects; and religion is, by the wits of the present times, ranked with aftrology, alchymy, and other exploded fciences.

In the laft age, Abauzit would probably have been among the firft literati of Europe. In the prefent, we fear his admirers muft

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muft endure to fee his works difregarded. Dr. Harwood has. generally employed himself in a fimilar manner; and is one of the most induftrious champions of what the church would call the heretical faith. He found in the works of Abauzit things after his own heart; and he imagined it would promote what he thought the intereft of religion, but what the orthodox confider as the intereft of Satan, by tranflating the tracts of Abauzit. He has prefixed a preface, and fome memoirs of the Author,-who died in the year 1767, at the age of 88.

The following tracts are learned and ingenious; but will not greatly inform or entertain an English reader who has been converfant in the writings of a Locke, a Clarke, a Fofter, or an Abernethy. This is the order in which they occur; viz.

Reflections on Idolatry.-Of Myfteries in Religion.-Letter to a Lady of Dijon, in regard to the Doctrines of the Church of Rome. Of the Confequences of the firft Tranfgreffion.An Enquiry, whether the Doctrine of the Trinity be found in a Paflage of Genefis ?-A Reply to a Profeffor, who had attempted to prove the Deity of Chrift from a Paffage in the Epiftle to the Romans, chap. ix. ver. 5.-A Paraphrafe on fome Verfes in the first Chapter of St. John.

M. Abauzit has here given rather a critical commentary, which he has concluded with the following paraphrafe :

The TEX T.

"In the beginning was the word, and the word was with God, and the word was God. 2. The fame was in the beginning with God. 3. All things were made by him, and withpum was not any thing made that was made. 4. In him was life, and the life was the light of men. 5. The light fhineth in darkness, and the darkness comprehended it not, &c," PARAPHRASE.

1. There is an eternal reafon, a fovereign wifdom, which hath exifted from all ages: this wisdom hath ever been infeparable from God, or to fpeak properly, it is God himself. 2. In the beginning of the world, it was then with God, who never does any thing without confulting it. 3. And he employed it in the creation of the univerie. In effect, there is no creature, in which one doth not fee fome trace of this wif dom fhine, fo that without it things would never have attained that point of beauty which we admire. 4. Wifdom is the fource of life and of true happiness, and not merely this; it ferves moreover as a light to conduct us to them. 5. This light efpecially bath fhone forth in our days; but how capable foever it were of difpelling the fhades of ignorance, blind mortals chose rather to wander in error, than follow the counfels of pure and unclouded reafon. 14. And if the Divine Wisdom hath appeared in the works of the creation, one may fay that it

hath